Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-09-09


Judge Mills repeated the question.
81 will, your Honor" said a voice
from the thickest Of the crowd situated
behind the bar.
At the tones of the voice many start
ed half from their seats; and perhaps
there was not heart in that immense
throng which did not beat something
quicker-it was so unearthly, sweet,
clear, ringing and mournful.
The first sensation: however, was
changed into general laughter when
a tall, gaunt, spectral figure, that no.
body present remembered to have seen
before, elbowed his way through the
crowd and placed himself within the
bar His appearance was problem
to puzzle the sphinx himself His high,
pale brow and small nervously twitch-
ing face seemed alive with the concen-
trated essence and cream of genius, but
then his infantile blue eyes looked
dim, dreary. almost unconscious, and
his clothing was so shabby that the
court hesitated to let the case proceed
under his management.
HAS your name been entered on
the rolls of the State?" demanded the
judge, suspiciously.
ut is immaterial about my name
appearing on the rolls, answered the
stranger, his thin lip curling up in a
fendish sneer. 81 may be allowed to
appear once by the courtesy of the
court and bar. Here is my license
from the highest court in America.
And he handed Judge Mills broad
parchment. The trial Immediately
went on.
In the examination Of the witnesses
the stranger exhibited but little in
genuity, as we thought. He suffered
each one to tell his own story without
interruption, though he contrived to
make each one tell it over two or three
times. He put few cross questions,
which, with keen witnesses, only served
to correct mistakes, and made no notes,
which in mighty memories serve to
embarrass.
The examination being ended, as
counsel for the plaintiff he had right
to the opening speech, but to the as
tonishment Of every one, he declined
the former and allowed the defense
to lead off. Then shadow might
have been observed to fit across the
features of Pike, and darken the bright
eyes Of Prentiss. They saw they had
caught Tartar; but who it was, or
how it happened, was impossible to
guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt
the jury dash of that dry logic which
years afterwards made him famous in
the Senate of the Union.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed
with rich vein Of wit and a torrent
of ridicule, in which you may be sure
neither the plaintiff nor the plaintiffs
counsel were either forgotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for
the defendant, with glow Of gorgeous
words, brilliant as a shower of falling
stars, and with burst Of oratory that
brought down the house in cheers, in
which the sworn jury themselves
Joined, Notwithstanding the stern or
der of the bench. Thus wonderfully
susceptible are the southwestern peo-
pie to the charms of impassioned elo-
quence.
1t was then the strangers turn. He
had remained apparently abstracted
during the previous speeches. Still
and straight and motionless he sat in
his seat, his pale smooth forehead shoot
ing up like mountain cone of snow
but for the eternal twitch that came
and went perpetually on his sallow
cheeks, you would have taken him for
a mere man of marble or human
form carved in ice. Even his dim,
dreary eyes were invisible beneath
those gray and shaggy eyebrows.
But now, at last, he has risen before
the bar railing, not behind-and so
near the astonished jury that he might
touch the foreman with his long, bony
finger. With his eyes half shut, and
standing rigid as pillar of iron, his
lips curled, as if in measureless scorn.
slightly apart, and the voice comes
forth.
At first it is low, sweet, insinuating
itself through the brain, as an artless
tune winding its way into the heart;
Ike the melody of a magic incarnation;
while the speaker proceeds, without a
gesture or least sign of excitement. to
tear to pieces the argument of Ashley
which melts away before his touch ike