Plymouth Banner, Volume 2, Number 44, Plymouth, Marshall County, 5 January 1854 — Page 1

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't A Family Newspaper Devoted to Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Markets, General Intelligence, Foreign and Domestic News. 43

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VOL. 2. NO. 44.

;-v -TV 'rt r Tri ... e 2 ur 3 eUBLISUCD EVERY THURSDAY HORN ISO. if pnil in aAvance, ST, no At the end of six months. 200 r delays I until the end of the year, XTTaa above terras will be strictly ad

fCTj 'piper will be discontinued until all '. At the tones of that voice miny startrreira?3 are paid, unlessatthe option of the ' ed half from their sets; and perhaps there Publisher. j was not a heart in that immense throng ADVERTISING. which did not beat something quirlter " I it was sn unearthly, sweet, clear, ringing AWerti'evneaiswillbe conspicuously lnser-, mournful. "poM iviSlnO SeTnuionsSlOoj The first sensation, however, was Eiih aliitional insertion, . ?5c changed into general laughter, when a ir aythinless than a square, w:llbeconj tall, gaunt, spectral figure, that nobody idered a s juare. . , J present remembered to hvc teen before, tTAlverti.ers mast be pATtiCiilnrtd mar i lfa , h;s through the crowd, and the n'tnero! insertions on the face of tneaJ-- , Tenements, or thy be publish until fced himself within the bar His apordere I out, and cäargeA accordingly. I pearanc was a problem tO the sphinx O-A liberal discount w.U be made where j herself. Ilia high, pale broW, and tm:!1advertisinzis done by the -year. nm.u!r fu-iirhm. f 1iv

irU Convnunicahons Irom s, distance j thould be addressed, Post-Paip, to the Editor. THE VOLUNTEER COUNSEL. A TALC OF JOHN TaTLOS. Juhn Taylor was licensed when a youth of twenty one, to practice at the bar. He was poor, but well educated, and possessed extraordinary genius. The graces of his person, combined with the superi. ority of his intellect, enabled him to win the hand of a fashionable bauty. Twelve months afterwards, the husband was employed by a wealthy firm of ihe city to go ou a mission as laud agnt to the west. As a heavy salary w3 offered, Taylor bade farewell to hi3 wife and infant son. He wrote back tvery week, but received not a line in nnawer. SIi months elapsed when the husband received a letter from his employers that explained all. Shortly after his departure for the west, the wife and her father removed to Mississippi. There she immtdiately obtained a divorce by an act of the Legislature, married forthwith, and to complete the climax of cruelty and wrong, had the name of Taylor's son changed t Marks that of her second matrimonial partner. This perfidy nearly drove Taylor insane. His career from that period became eccentric in the first degree sometimes he pleal at the bar until at last a fever carried him off at a comparatively early age. At an early hour on the 5th of April, 1840, the court house in Clarksvill, Texas, was crowded to overSowing. Save in the war time past, there had never been witnessed such a gathering in Red Itiver county, while the strong feeling apparent on every (lushed face will sufficiently expiaiu the matter. About the close 1S39, Geo. Hopkins, one of the wealthiest planters and most influential men of northern Texas, offered a gross insult to Mry Eliistcn. the young and beautiful wife, of his chief overseer. The husbaad 'threatened to chastise him for the outrsge; whereupon Hopkins loaded his gun. went to Eiliston's house, and shot him in his own door. The murderer waa arrested und bailed to answer the charge. This occurrence produced intense excitement, and Hopkins, in order to turn the ti le of popular opinion, or at least to mitigate the general wrath which at first was violent agaiust him. circulated reports infamously prejudicial to the character of the woman who had suffered such cruel wrong at his hands. She brought her suit for slander. And thus two cases one criminal and the other civil and both out of the same tragedy, were landing in the April Circuit Court for 1S40, The interest naturally felt by the community, as to the issue, became far deeper when it was known that Ashley and Pike of Arkansas. aid the celebrated Prentiss of New Orleans, each whh enormous fees, had been obtained by Hopkins for his defence. The trial for the indictment of murder ended on the 8th of April, with th acquittal of Hopkins. Such a result might have been forseen by comparing the talents of the counsel employed on either ide. The Trias lawyers were utterly overwhelmed by the arguments and eloquence of their opponents. It was a fight of a dwarf against giants. The slander suit was set for the ninth. nd the throng of spectators grew in number as well as excitement; and what may seem strange, the current of public sentiment now ran decidedly for Hopkins. money had procured pointed witness. who served most efficiently his powerful advocates. Indeed, so triumphant had been the suecess of the previous day, J that when the slander case was called, Mary Elliston was left without an attorneythey had all withdrawn. The pigmy pettifoggers dared not brare against the sharp wit of Pike or the scathiug thunder of Prontis3. 'Have you no counsel?" inquired judge Mills looking kindly at the plaintiff. "No sir, they have all deserted me, and I am too poor to employ any more," replied the beautiful Mary, bursting into tiart.

"In such a rasp, will nol some chivalTOU3 member of the profession volunteer?" '. asked the judge, glancing; around the bar. j The thirty lawyers were as silent as I death. Judge Mills repeated the question. "I will, your honor," said a voice from the thickest part of the crowd situated ! behind the bar.

-y f. . - - the concentrated essence and cream oi genius; but then his infantile blue eyes, hardly visible beneath their massive arches, looked dim, dreary, almost unconscious; and his clothes were so shabby that the court hesitate-; to let the cause proceed under his minagemenl. "Has your name been entered on the rolls of the State?" demanded the Judge, suspiciously. It is immaterial about my name be ing on your rolls!"answtred the stranger, i his thin, bloodless lips curling into a

fiendish sneer. "I may be allowed tojsacre

appear once by the courtesy of the court and bar. Here is my license from the highest tribunal in America!" and he handed judge "Mills a broad parchment. The trial went immediately on. In the examination of witnesses, the stranger evinced but little ingenuity, as was commonly thought. He. suffered each one to tell hi own story without interruption, though he contrived to make each one tell it over two or three times. He put a few cross questians, which with keen witnesses only served to correct mistakes and he '.oade no notea, which, in mighty memories, only tend to embarrass. The examination

being ended, as counsel for the plaintiffNer in such apalling colors, that in com- j

he had a right to the opening speech, as wrll as the close; but to the astonishment of every one, he declined the former, and I alio wed the defence to lead off. Thjn a shidow might have been observed to flit across the fine.features of Pike, and to darken even the bright eye of Prentiss. They saw that they had caught a Tartar; but who it was, or how it happened, was j impossible to guess. Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt thejury a dish of close dry logic, which years afterwards rendered him famous in the Senate of the Union. The poet, Albert Pike, followed with i a rich vein of wit, and a hail torrent of ridicule, in which you may b sure neither the plaintiff nor the plaintifTs ragged attorney wers either forgotten or spared. The great Prentiss co lduded for the defendant with a glow of gorgeous word?, brilliant as a shower of falling stars, end with a final burst of oratory, that brought the house down in cheers, in which the sworn jury themselves joined, notwithstanding the stern "order of the bench. Thus wonderfully susceptible are all the South western people to tha charm of impassioned eloquence. It was then the stranger's turn. lie had remained epparently abstracted during all lh previous speeches. Still, and straight and motionless in his seat, his pale, smooth forehead shooting up like a mountain cone of snow, but for th.it etrnal twitch that came and went perpetually on his tallow cheeks you would have taken him for a mere man of marble, or human form carved in ice. Even his dim dreamy eyes were invisible beneath those gray shaggy eyebrows. But now. he ries before the bar-railing, not behind it and so near the wondering jury that he might touch the foreman with his long bony finger. With his eyes still half phut, and standing rigid as a pillar of iron, his thin lips curled as if in measureless scorn, slightly aport. and the voice comes forth. At first it is slow and sweet, insinuating itself through the brain as an artless tune, winding its way through the deepest heart, like the melody of a magic incantation while the speaker proceeded, without a gesture or the least sign of excitement, to tear in pieces the argument of Ashley, which melts away at his touch like frost before the sunbeam. Every one looked surprised. His logic was at once so brief, and so luminously clear, that the rudest peasant could comprehend it without effort. Anon, he came to the dazzling wit of the poet lawyer, Pike. Then the cuil of his lip grew sharper; his sallow face kindled np, and his eyes began to open, dim and dreamy no longer, but vivid as light ning, red as fire globes, nd glaring like twin meteors. The whole soul was in the eye the full heart streamed out on the face. In five minutes Pike's wit seemed the foam of folly, and his finest satire horrible profanity, when contrasted with the inimitable sallies and cxtermin-

PLYMOUTH, INDIANA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 1854.

WTTnmmii n ating sarcasams of the stranger, interspersed with jest and anecdote that filled the forum with roars of laughter. Then, without so much as bestowing an allusion on Frentiss, he turned short' on the witnesses of Hopkins, tore their testimony into atoms, and hurled in their faces such terrible invectives that all trembled as with the egue, and two of them actually fled dismayed from the court house. The excitement of the crowd was becoming tremenduous. Their united life and soul appeared to hang on the burning tongue of the stranRer. He inspired thorn with the poison of his own malicious feelings. He seemed to have stolen Nature's long forbidden secret of attraction. He was the sun of the sea, of, all thought and emotion, wbich rose and j fell, and boiled in billows as he chose. j But his greatest was to come. His eye began to glare furtively at the ass-:.-"". Hopkins, c: Ms lean taper fingor slowly assumeci t!;e same direj!on. He hemmed the wretch with a strong circu."'1 vallation of strong evidence and impicc- i nable argument, cutting off all hope of ! escape, lie pueu up nuge ossuons u; insurmountable facts. He dug beneath the murderer and slanderer' feet ditches of dilemmas, such as no sophistry could overleap, and no stretch of ingenuity evade; and having thus, as one might eay, impounded his victim, and girt him like a scorpion in a' circle of fire, he stripped him to the mas Oh! then it was a vision both glorious and dreadful to behold the orator. His actions before graceful as the wave of golden willow in the breeze, grew impetuous as the motion of an oak in a hurricane. His voice became a trumpet, filled with wild whirlpools, deafening the ear with crashes of power, and yet intermingled all the while with a sweet undersong of the softest cadence. His face was as red as a drunkard's his forehead glowing like a heated furnace his countenance looked laggard like that of a maniac and ever and anon flung his long bony arms on high, as if grasüing after thunderbolts. He drew a picture of murparison, ueu useii migni De consiaeieu j beautiful. He painted the slanderer so ) black that the sun seemed black at noon day when shining upon such 8n accursed monster; and then he fixed both portraits upon the shining brow of Hopkins, and be nailed them there forever. The agitation of the audience nearly amounted to madness. All at once the speaker descended from his perilous height his voice wailed cut for the murdered dead and living the beautiful Mary more beautiful every moment, as her tears flowed faster till men wept, and women sobbed like children. Hr closed by a strange exhortation to , the jury, and through them to the bystanjders. He entreated the panel, after they should bring in their verdict for the plaintiff, not to offer violence to the defendant, however richly he might deserve it in other words, 'not to Lynch the villain Hopkins, but leave his punishment to God." This was the mcst artful trickof all, and best calculated to insure, vengeance. The jury rendered a verdict for fifty thousaud dollars and the night after ward, Hopkins was taken off his bed by j lynchers, and beaten almost to death. As the court anjourned. the stranger made known his name, and called the attention of the people with the announcement '-John Taylor will preach here this evening at early caudle light," The crowd, of course, all turned out. ' and Taylor's sermon equalled, if it did not surpass the splendor of his foren?ic effort. This is no exaggeration. I have listened to Clay, Webster and Cilhoun to Dewy Tyng and Eascom but have never heard any thing in the form of sublime words even remotely approximating the eloquence of John Taylor massive as a mountain, and wildly rushing as a cataract of fire. And this is the opinion of all who have heard the marvellous man. The editor of the New Orleans Picayune, speaking of a "model subscriber" to that paper, says: We have on our subscription list the name of one gentleman who has taken the weekly Picayune ever since 1S39, and has not once during that whole period, that we remembsr, found fault with the appearance or contents of the paper, or rom plained of being irregularly served by the mails. He paid his first year's subscription in advance, and has not paid any thing since. There are three kinds f business that a person can engage in wholesale, retail, and curtail. The former is the more fashionable. The latter, however, pays the best. The people about "coming out" with four bays and a tiger, will please take notice. "Mr. Smith, you said you boarded at the Columbian Hotel six months; did you foot your bill?" ' No. sir, but what amounted to the same thing the landlord footed me." Verdict for defendant. Call next ras.

"I hain't been stsalin nothin." A rich incident occurred, u short time since, in one of the county courts of Ver

mont. which we consider too good to be lost Mny of the jury, together with the judge and lawyers, were intending to par tici pate in a celebration of a society of which they were members, and were con ! sequently in their anxiety to close the term rushing cases through with all the dispatch that honor and justice would permit. At half past twelre o'clock one day, an intermission for half an heur. for dinner, was grantf J, with a strict injunction from t!u judge that "all hands" must be back punctually at one, tö ccrr.rr.2nce a new case of larceny. The dinners that day were swallowed with greater rapidity than usual, and as the clock struck one. the ofneers of the law rushed into court, like chickens into a meal trough. While they were eating their dinneri. however, a young mn from the 'country' u:'..,J5 Somewhat ai.xious to see the manner in w hich justice was meted out, walk ed into the coi;rt rCm. and. as he afterwards expressed himself, "took a squint at all the Sr'ats, and seein' the:- waa'ni noboddy in the nicest r.e, with & rai.'n all around it, thought he'd make sure on j it, fors the fellers got back from dinner."' Iu five minutes after the crowd entered tlfe room the judge rapped the desk with the butt end of his jack knife, and. with a dignified frown, cried .Silence in court!' Silence'n the Court!' repeated the broad shouldered constable, leaning on the railing in front of his honor, and immediately resumed the occupation of picking his teeth with a pin. Silence in court!' echoed the squeaking tones of a small red headed constable near the door; tnd the Utter speaker immediately commenced elbowing the crowd, right and left, to let them know that he was around! All ready?' says the Judge. All readyl' replied th attorney. 'Command the prisoner to stand up!' says judge, 'while the indictment it being read!' ine oroaa saouiuerea consiauie now walked up to the prisoner's box, during the apparent momentary absence of the sheriff, placed his hands on the shoulder of the young man, and exclaimed; Stand up!' What fur' said th astonished young farmer. , To hear the charge read! exclaimed the constable. Wall, I guess I kin hear what's goin' on. without standin', as well as the rest of 'em,' was tha reply. Stand cp!' roared the judge, in a burst of passion he had just bitten his tongue while picking his teeth. 'Young man, stand up. or the consequences be on your own head.' The victim came up on his feet as if under the ifluence of a galvanic battery, and looking around tha court room and noticing that all eyes were upon him, with an expression abou. as affectionate as that of a rabid man towards a bowl of water, he hung his head in confusion and mortification, and was nearly deaf to the words of the indictment; but he heard enough of the long, complicated tangled sentences to learn that he. was charged with stealing or embezzeling or cheating or pilfering some house or some body, and he could'nt tell exactly which. What does he say to the charge? Guilty or not guilty?" inquired the Judge, peeping over his spectacles tvith a look cold enough to freeze a man's blond. 'Guilty, or nol guilty?" The young nan ventured to look up, in hopes to find a sympathising eye, but all were cold and unfriendly, and he again gazed on the saw-dusted floor, and trembled with confusion. "Guilty or not guilty?" again vociferated the Judge, in a tone that plainly de noted impatience to proceed with ihe case. The broad-shouldered coj stable. being rather a humane man, ow stepped up to the prisoner, and exclaimed "You had better say 'not guilty, of course. If you say 'guilty you don't stand no chance this term, that's sure! and if you say 'not guilty,' and wish at any future state nf the case, to change your plea to 'guilty.' you can do it without any injury to yourself! Therefore. I advise you to say 'not guilty.' and click to it, as long as there's any chance!" Jonathan's feelings had been simmering sometime, but now they fairly boiled over; and with a look of innocent, but determined resolution, he swung his arms about his head, and exclaimed What in all nxtur' are yeou fellers atry in' to dev? I hain't been atealin' nothin'! hain't tur'cV Just at this moment, the front door opened, and the Sheriff, with thegenuine prisoner walked into the room and proceeded at once to the box. The court saw in a moment its mistake, and tried to choke down its effect with a frown but 'twas no go! The crowd burst forth into a horse laugh that fairly'

made the windows rattle, and the young

m n loft tVSA rmn OTcUi m i r f rVA or-r f ' ed out at the door I knowed all the time, I hadn't stole nothin'!" Literary 3Iuasum. Highly important on the Eastern QuestionTreaty of Aliianre between Francs and England The Sews Confirmed. From special information upon which W place entire reliance, we learn that on the elevnth day of November, in the city of London, a most important treaty of alliance was agreed to and signed by Count Welewski on the part of France, and Lord Clartnden on the part of England, in refrence to the Turkish question. The treaty thus concluded between the high contracting parties of England and Fiance wa3 dispatched immediately for couriers to Berlin and Vienna, with an Intimation that from the day of its arri val at each of these cr-pilols a period of seven days would be allowed to the cabinets of Prussia and of ustria to determine upon their assent or refusal to enter into the arrangement. If agreed to. well and good; if rejected, it was lobe understood that France and England would lake the settlement and the responsibilities of this Eastern controversy into their own hands. We further learn, that from the terms of this treaFi Russia will be required forthwith to evJf-uate the Danubian Principalities, r that, in refusing, she hazards the momentuoua consequenses of an immediate joint declaration of war from England and France. And as the shortest road to peace, when once this declaration is mads, we may safely assume that the active operations of the allies against Russia will be the most effective and formidable discretion, by land and cea. We may count upon the movement of two hundred thousand Frenchmen, in the highest state of equipment and discipline, across the Rhine and the Alps to compel Austria aud Prussia to show their hands. We may also expect a simultaneous movement of the French and English fleets near Constantinople into the Black Sea, and that the extermination of the Russians in these waters will spedily follow; while, unless prevented by the freezing of the Baltic, another squadron of the allies will no doubt at the same time, set sail for the latitude of St. Petersburg. The positive and werlike -alliance between France and England is due, first, to the unmistakeable wishes of the French army, the French people, and the natural inclinations of the Napoleon dynasty, resting, as it does, upon the glories and unavenged disasters of the empire. Secondly, this alliance against the timid and trifling expedients of Lord Aberdeen, is due to the force of the public opinion of England, which is beginning to have a voice even in the foreign policy of the government upon questions of such import as this Eastern struggle. Thus a programme of prospective military operations is opened before us of the most startling and imposing grandeur. Once begun, upon the plan of this treaty of November, the war will probably go on, until Napoleon the Third, on the Rhine, the Po, the Danube, the Elb, and the Vistula, ehall avenge the treacheries which prostrated Napoleon the First. It is the beginning of a new7 order of things, and God speed the right. New York Herald. Pop Goes the -Bettle. In one of the most sober towns of Hampshire County, .where the Maine Law is strictly observed, the keeper of one of the hotels has for several months past kept a bottle or two of wine in the bed where he sleeps, taking care to remove them every night when he went to bed, and replace them when he got up in the morning. A few da)s since, after replenishing his bottles, and not having a good opportunity to carry them to hi old quarters, he slipped them under the bolsters of one of the beds reeerved for travellers, and being called out of town to spend the following day, forgot to remove them. It unfortunately happened that a young lady traveller stopped at the hotel for the night and was conducted by an unsuspecting servant g'ul to the room where the liquors had been deposited. Ai the evening grew late, the young lady went to bed, and was soon fast asleep, little dreaming of the mischievous spirits which were working under her pillow. About midnight. whn all had become still, the secreted liquor owing to heat of the weather, or the warmth imparted to it by the sleeper expanded to such a degree as to defy 'onger confinement. Pop! pop! went the corks of both botile6 almost as loud as the. report of as many pistols, and awakening the fair sleeper, who sprang from the bed, uttering such wild and terrific screams, that every person in the honse was immediately aroused. The moon shone bright enough for the lady to discover the liquor on her night dress, and w ith the conviction that she had been shot, she fainted and fell to the floor. A dozen servants iinmediatelv burst into the ladv's room, and were horrified to! find her lying on the floor and weltering in blood! All believed that some horri-1

WHOLE NO. 9G.

ble tragedy had been enacted that she had either committed suicide or had been cruelly murdered. A light, however, convinced them that she still breathed. No time was lost in sending for a surgeon, whilst the half dressed inmates of the house commenced a search for the assessin or the instrument which had been employed to perpetrate the horrid deed. On examining the bed it was found to be drenched with what WhS suppese: to bo the blood of the young liy; but the strong smell oi isine cans, d ti! toinveg. tigate further, wlie n the two be tiles were discovered under the piliou! How the doctor came, how the lady recovered, and how the landlord tried to hush up the affair the next day, can be better imsgiucd than we can describe' Eloquence. During an address delivered by a young orator, in a debating society, the speaker attempting to describe the beauties of nature, and touching upon the scenes of a thunder sloim he had witnessed once upon a time, his fountain of eloquence could no longer withl old itself, and he burst forth in U.h following strain: "Why, I tell you. Mr. President, the roaring of the thunder wts heard :cr and wide, and reminded thoe who heard it of the clattering of the hoofs of to mtny wild horses crossing a bridge over a tree k where the little fishes were seen ski pping from puddle to puddle the lightnings Gashed and flashed, every now ami then the whole heavens looked as though it was lighted up with tallow candlts, and them all snu-fcd!'' The Nova Scotians are about to hold ft Provincial Industrial exhibition. Some years ago a lady noticing a neighbor who was not in her seat at church one Sabbath, called on her return home to enquire what should detain so punctual anattendant. On entering the house she found the family busy at work. She was surprised when her friend addressed her "Why, la! where have you been to-day, dressed up in your Sunday clothes?" "To meeting." "Why, what day is it?" "Sabbath day." "Sal, stop washing in a minute! Sabbath day! Well I did not know, for my husband has got so p!guy stingy lie won't take the pupers now, end we know nothing. Well who preached?" Mr. "What did he preach about?" "It was on the death of our Savior' "Why. is he dead? Well, all Boston might be dead, and we know nothing about! It won't do, we must have the newspaper again, for everything goes wrong without the paper! Bill lias almost lost his reading and Polly has got quite mopish again, bemuse she has co poetry stcries to read. Well, if we have to take a cart load of potatoes and onions to market, I am resolved to have a newspaper. " Erie-What is Said of Ker. The Courier & Enquirer has an nTticle touching the Erieians which should make thern tingle, if any shame is left them. It says. There are cakes to sell between here and sundown take your map end we'd tell you where. Tut your finger down upon the Atlantic coa6t just where all the trade from the Eastern world strikes it push boldly Westward a'ong that broad thoroughfare, swarming with travel and freight until you have reached the lake follow it on as it sweeps around the shore till it crosses the Pennsylvania linethen look a' the speck there, and spell out its name. That is the place where cakes are to be had nay, where they must be had, under durance vile. It is ihe Elsinore of the Western world the key of the Keystone and the only pass lies in the purchase cf a hilf-f nny worth of "cakes and ale." "Tis a perspective right, standing priviUge. The commerce of the continent, dush strong elsewhere as it please, on the wings of the wind, must her- hall and pay its farthing tribute. Justice must be done to ihe cakes of Ebie though the heavens fall. But why will not this Erie be con'ent with the character of a sturdy beggar? WThy need it turn rowdy and scoundrel? It fears that its occupation is if not gone going; but this is no ex use. Charity has not died out of the world yet, aud would Erie place a town hat by her town pump, our word for it, the passers by would put many coppers in. Use of "Confidential" Letteb6 -in a ruling upon this subject, in the U. S. Circuit Court, Judge SpRAOCE decided that a person exhibiting to another a letter marked "confidential." tr otherwise using its contents thus publicly to the injury of the writer or a third party, wet guilty of a gross violation of privilege, and might be held pecuniarily liable tor damages resulting from such breach of confidence. This legal construction of the term "confidential" is in perfect aecor dance with the definition of th wcrd giw by Wmstw, 7 V

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