Georgetown Enquirer : volume 01, number 49 - 09-14-1881

              WJU/TKR H.MS.-UID, ) Kdltor aad Proprietor.)'
GEORGETOWN, S. C, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,1881;
VOL. l.~-NO;49
The Unattainable.
"Tlic sweetest songs aro those Thut fow men ever hear And no meu ever sing; The clearest skies are those That furthest off appear To hlids of strongest wing;
Tlio dearest Iovcb «re those That no man can come near Willi hia hot following."
—Literary Neics:
m
TfeeWutMr ConseL
A Talc op John Taylor. [Wo copy the following from tho •Now York SHritfay'Timet.   Tho sub¬ ject ul it, John Taylor, was licensed when a youth ot twenty-one, to prac¬ tice at the bat of Philadelphia.   He was poor, but well educated, and pos¬ sessed extraordinary genius.   The gra¬ ces of bis penon, combined with thc superiority of hid  intellect,   enabled liim to win the hand of a fashionable beauty.    Twelve months afterwards, the husband was employed by a weal¬ thy firm of the city to go on a mission aa land agent to the Went. ' As a hea vy salary wat offered, Taylor bade fare¬ well to his wife aud infant eon.   He wrote back every week, but received not a line  in answer.   Six.months elapsed, when the husband received a letter tnrn hie employers that explain¬ ed all.   Shortly after his   departure for the Went, the wife and her father removed to  Mississippi.   There   ahe (¦mediately obtained a divorce by an act of the  Legislature, married again forthwith, and, to complete the climax of eraelty aad wrong, had the name of Taylor'* eon changed to Mark—that of her second matrimonial  partner. The perfidy nearly drove Taylor in- - noe.   Hit career,  from' that p»riod, became eccentric ia the laat   degree; •ometimeahe plead atthe l*ar;, uutil, at laat a fever earned him off at a Comparatively  early age.—Yorkville A'xpui-er.]       *
, At an early honr, the 9th of April, 1840, tho court, house? iu'Clai-ksville, Texas, was crowded to overflowing. Save ia the war-times past, tliero liad never been witnessed such a gathering in lied Iliver county, while ths strong feeling, apparent in every flushed face throughout the assembly, betokened aorne gieat occasion. A concise nar¬ rative of facts will snfficcntly explain the matter.
About the elose of 1839,   George Hopkins, one of the wealthiest plan- ten and most influential men of North¬ ern Texas, offered a gross insult to Mary Elliaton, the youug and beauti¬ ful wife ofhis overseer,   The husband threatened to chastise him for the out¬ rage, whereupon Hopkins loaded his gun, went to Ellieton's house, and shot liim in his own door.   The murderer was arrested, and bailed to answer the charge.   This occurrence produced in¬ tense excitement; and Hopkins, in* or¬ der to turn the tide of popular opin¬ ion, or at least to mitigate the general wrath, which at first was violent against liim, circulated reports infamously pro- judicial to the character of the woman who had already suffered such cruel wrongs at his hands.    She   brought her suit for slander.    And thus two causes, one criminal, and   the other civil, and loth out of the same trage¬ dy, were' pending   in April   Circuit Conrt tat 1840.
The interest naturally felt by the community as to the issues became far deeper when it was known tbat Ashley and Pike of Arkansas, and the . celebrated S. S. Prentiss of New Or¬ leans, each with enormous fees, had been retained by Hopkins for his de¬ fence.
The trial, on the indictment for mur* der, ended on the 8th of April with the acquittal of Hopkins. Sncb a result . might well have been foreseen.by com¬ paring the counsel engaged on either ¦ aide, Tbe Texan lawyers were utter¬ ly overwhelmed by the argument and eloquence of their opponents. It was # fight of dwarfs against giants.
The slander suit was set for the 9th pf April, andthe throng of spectators * grew in numbers as well as excitement, and what may seem strange, the cur¬ rent of public sentiment now ran de¬ cidedly for Hopkins. His money had '; ' . procured pointed witnesses, who serv- i: ed most efficiently Ws powerful advo¬ cate*, Indood, so triumphant had been  he succoss of tbo previous day, that
when thc slander case was called, Mary Elliaton was left without an attorney —thoy had all withdrawn. Tho pig¬ my-pettifoggers daro not brave again the sharp wit of Pike and the scathing thunder of Prentiss.
Havo yon no counsel?" inquired Judge Mills, looking kindly at the plaintiff.
No, sir; they havo all deserted me, and I ain too poor to employ any more," replied the beautiful Mary, bursting into tears.
In such a case, will not some chiv¬ alrous member of tho profession volun¬ teer?" asked the Judge.glancing around the bar.
The thirty lawyers wore silent as death. Judge Mills repeated tho question. "I will, your honor," said a voico from the thickest part of the crowd sit¬ uated behind tho bar.: At the tones of that voice many started half way from their seats; and perhapB there was in the immense throng no heart whicli 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 nobody present remembered ever to have seen before, elbowed his way through tho crowd, and placed himself within the bar. His appearance was a problem to puzzle the sphinx herself. His high, pale brow, and small.nervously-twitch- ing faoe seemed alive with the concen¬ trated essence and cream of-genius; but then hit infinite blue eyes, hardly, visi¬ ble beneath their massive arches, look¬ ed dim, dreamy, almost unconscious: and his clothing was so ..exceedingly shabby that the court hesitated to let the causo proceed under his manage ment.
Haa your name been entered on the rolls   of   tho   state ?" demanded the
you would have taken him fora mere man of marble, ora hnman form carv¬ ed in ice. Even his dim, dreamy eyes were invisible boneath those gray .shag¬ gy eye brows.
But now at last he rises—before the bar railing, not behind it—and so near to the wondering jury that he might touch the foreman with liis long, bony finger. With his eyes still half shut, and standing rigid as a pillow of iron, his thin lips curl as if iu measureless scorn, (-lightly part, and the voico comes forth. At first, it is low and sweet, insinuating itself through the brain as an artless tunc, win ling its way into the deepest* heart like tlic melody of a magic incantation, while the speaker proceeds without a gesture or the least sign of excitement to tear in pieces the , arguments of Ashley, which melt away at his touch as frost before the sunbeam. Every one looks surprised. His logic was at once so brief and so luminously clear, that the rudest peasant couhl comprehend it withont effort.
Anon he came to tho dazzling wit of the poet lawyer, Piko. Thou the curl of his lip grew sharper, his sallow face kindled up; bis eyes began to open dim aad dreamy no longer, hut vivid as lightniug, red as fiie, and 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 seomed the foam of folly, and his finest satire horrible profanity, when contrasted with the inimitable sallies and exterminating sarcasm of the stranger, interspersed with jest and anecdote that filled the forum with roars of laughter.
Then, without so much as bestow¬ ing an allusion on Prentiss, he turned short on the perjured witnesses of Hop¬ kins, tore their testimony into atoms, and hurlod in tlieir faceB such terrible invective tbat all trembled as with an
described the sorrows of the widowed living—tlio beautiful Mary, more bean- i til'ul every moment, as her tears flowed faster—till men wept, and lovoly wo¬ men sobbed like children.
He closed by a strange exhortation to the jury and through them to the by-standera. He entreated thc panel aftor they should bring in their ver¬ dict for the plaintiff, not to offer vio¬ lence to the defendant, however richly he might deservo it; in othor words, "not to lynch the villian Hopkins, but leave the punishment to God." This was the most artful trick of all, and the best calculated to insure venge ance.
The jnry rendered a verdict for fifty thousaud dollars; and the next night afterward Hopkins was taken out of his bed by lynchers and beaten al¬ most to death.
As tbe court adjourned, the stran¬ ger made known his name, and called the attention of the people, with tiie announcement—"John Taylor will preach here this evening at early can¬ dle light!"
The crowd, of courso, all turned out, and' Taylor's sermon equalled, if it did not surpass, the splendor of his forensic effort. ThiB is no exaggeration. I have listened to Clay, Webster and Calhoun—to Dewey, Tyng and Bas¬ com; but I havo never heard anything in the form of sublime words even remotely approximating the eloquence of John Taylor—massive as a moun¬ tain, and wildly rushing as a cataract of firo. And this is the opinion of all who ever heard that marvelous man.
Judgo^Kuspiciously. ^ ,"•-.,• _+-.. .___*__.i4Jagi?m,---a»d-.two^ ¦^1tbom--»o.tuall**.a->aj
It is-immaterial-about-my name's dismayed, from the/court house, being on your rolls,"   answered the      The oxcitcment of the crowd was be- stranger, his thin, bloodless lips curl- coming tremendous.   Their united life
ing up into a sort-of fiendish sneer. "I may be allowed to appear once by the courtesy of the court and bar. Here is my license from the highest tribunal in America!" imd he handed Judge Mills a broad parchment. The trial imme¬ diately went o'n.
In the examination  of the witnesses the'stranger evinced but little ingeuuf- ty, as was commonly  thought.   He suffered each one to tell his own story without interruption, though he con¬ trived to make each one tell it over two or three times.   He put few cross-ques¬ tions, which, with keen witnesses, only serve to correct mistakes; and he made no notes,  which, in mighty memories, always tend to embarrass.   The exam¬ ination being ended, as counsel for the plaintiff, hn had a right to the opening speech, as well as close; bnt, to the as¬ tonishment of every one, he declined the former, and allowed the defence to lead off.   Then a shadow might have been observed to flit across the fine features   of  Pike,   and   to   darken even the bright eyes of Prentiss.  They saw that thoy had caught a Tartar; but who it was, or how it happened, it was impossible to guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt the jury a dish of that close, dry logic which, years afterwards, rendered him famous in the Senate of the Union, ¦ The poet, Albert Pike, folio wcd.witli a rich rain of wit, and a half-torrent of caustic ridicule, in which you may be sure neither the plaintiff nor the plain¬ tiffs ragged attorney was cither for¬ gotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded forthe defendant, with a glow of gorgeous words brilliant as showers of falling stars, and with a final burst of oratory that brought the house down in cheers, in which the sworn jury themselves joined, notwithstanding the stern "or¬ der!" "order!" of the bench. Thus wonderfully susceptible are' the south¬ western people to the charms of impas¬ sioned eloquence!
It was then the stranger's tnrn. He had remained , apparently abstracted during all the previous speeches. Still, and straight.and motionless in his seat, his pale smooth forehead shooting up high like a mountain-cono of snow; but for that eternal twitch that came aud wont perpetually in Hs sallow cheeks,
life and soul appeared to hang on the burning tongue of the stranger. He inspired them with tho powers of his own passion. He saturated them with the poison ol bis own malicious feelings. He seemed to have stolen nature's long hidden secret of attraction. He was tho sun to the 6ca of thought and emo¬ tion, which rose and fell and boiled in billows, as he chose. But his greatest triumph was to come.
His eyes began to glare furtively at tbe assassin, Hopkins, as bis lean, ta* per finger slowly assumed the same direction. He hen-mod the wretch around with a circumvallation of strong evidence and impregnable ar¬ gument, cutting off all hope of escape. He piled up huge bastions of insur¬ mountable facts. Ho dug beneath the murderer and slanderer's feet ditches of dilemmas, such as no sophistry could overleap aud no stretch of in¬ genuity cvado: and having thus, as one ¦night say, impounded the victim, and girt him about like a scorpion in a cir¬ cle of fire, he stripped himself to the work of massacre!
Ohl then, but it wns a vision hoth glorious and dreadful to behold the orator.   His action, before graceful as the wave of a golden willow in the breeze, grew impetuous as the motion of an oak in thc hurricane.   His voice became a trumpet filled   with   wild whirlwinds, deafening to the ear with crashes of power, and yet intermingled all the while with a sweet under-song of the softest cadence.   His face  was red as a drunkard's—his forehead glow¬ ed like a heated furnace—his counten¬ ance looked haggard like that   of a maniac, and ever and anon he flung bis long bony arms on high, aB if grasp¬ ing  after thunderbolts!   He drew a picture of murder in such appalling colore that in comparison hell itself might he  considered   beautiful.   He painted the slanderer so black, that the snn seemed dark at noonday when shining on such an accursed monster; and tben he fixed both portraits on the skrinking brow of Hopkins, and he nail¬ ed them there forever.   The agitation of the audience nearly  amounted to madneSB.
All at once the speaker descended from his perilous height. His .voice [wailed oat for tho' uiurdtfrod- deakly and
Carlgle's French Revolution
A correspondent sends to the London World the following conversation with Carlyle ahout the manuscript of "The French Revolution," to correct the statement that Mr. Carlyle had said the second draft of the book was better than the first:   "Sitting one evening
in the d^*;'_?S"-'(??Sl °^"**¦¦? bouse in Great *~ CEoyhe-Kow, "Chelsea1, selt*ana* Carlyle were in conversation upon gen¬ eral subjects, when I remarked, 'I have heard that the manuscript of "The French Bevolution" was destroyed be¬ foro going to the printers. Was that so?' Carlyle replied: 'Ay, ay, it was so.'. Myself: 'What did you do under the circumstances? Carlyle: "For three days and nights I could neither cat nor sleep, but was like a daft man.' My¬ self: "But what did you do at last?' Carlyle: 'Well, I jnst went away into the country;' and hero he burst ont in¬ to a fit of loud laughter, and said, 'I did nothing for three months but read Marry at's novels;' and after a serious pause he remarked, 'I set to and wrote it all over again;' but in a melancholy tone concluded, 'I dinna think'it's the same; no,I dinna think it's tha same.'"
Profits of Authorship,
Tho $60,000 received by Lord Bea- consfield for his last novel is believed to represent the largest amount given in England for any work of fiction. Scott received $40,000 for "Wood¬ stock," and George Eliot the same amount fori "Middlcmarch." Bulwer Lytton's earlier novels, even when lie was the rage, did not bring him in more than from $3,000 to $5,000; but he subsequently received handsome amounts for the copyright of a collec¬ tive edition. Lord Beaconsficld's earlier novels, notwithstanding the success of the first—"Vivian Grey"—had very limited sale, and could bo bought for next to nothing within a few months of publication. They nover became in general request as components of a library, and, in England, were only read with interest by persons familiar with political and social life. "Conin- gsby" excited by far the most interest, and the key, wbich soon afterward ap¬ peared wat eagerly scrntinized.Probably "Endymion" and "Lothair" have, to¬ gether, produced more than double as much as all the previous works of tho author, albeit very inferior to some of them. Tho "Curiosities of Literature," by tho elder Disraeli, must have pro¬ duced a large sum of money; it forms a part of every good collection of En¬ glish books, and has passed through many editions. Dickens left $400,- 000, and a considerable slice of this came from books; but it was his "read¬ ings" that made him affluent, and so too with'Thackoray. For receipts from actual writing no one has yet approached Scott, whose income for soveral years ranged from $50,000 to $75,000, main¬ ly drawn from this source. Richardson was the first Enlighman who made a really good thing out of writing, and mainly because he was publisher of his own novels. In tho past thirty years French novelists have received very large sums, but Balzac's rewards for his genius and tremendous toil were miserably small. Probably Miss Brad- don's receipts from writing rank among the first half-dozen highest among writers oi fiction; she has thc advantage of a publisher for a husband. Reynolds, who wrote "Tho Mysteries of London" and otber works of a low sensational type, was, from a pecuniary point of-.viow^one of-the most -success-, ful of British authors. Many of those books which pay so well are the last that would occur to persons as being lucrative; thuB, "Thornton'B Family Prayers" has been a little mine of money to an English family.
Provisions High,
It is to bo regretted in a year of such gen eral scarcity of crops in the South, that corn, flour and bacon, the staff of .life forman and beast, should command higher prices than ever before known in theWest.with an advancing tendency It is bo, nevertheless, and we can find only contentment in the   belief that I adding
through the   resulting suffering   our people may learn wisdom.   It is an ill wind that blows good to no one, and truly would it he so now if our people fail to see. in their present strait the pressing importance of striving here¬ after to depend more on home fanning for these indispensable articles.   Corn in quantities is soiling at one dollar per bnshel cash here, flour seven to ten dol¬ lars pei barrel and   bacon from twelvo to fifteen cents pcr pound.    We doubt if it would not be a godsend to our people should these articleshold at these figures for several years. The high prico of cotton Some years back and the low price of corn, flour and meat turned the attention of onr people to planting cotton to the exclusion of tbe grains. Many actually believe now and openly contend that we cannot profitably grow these articles of prime necessity except on lowlands.   Even theso are badly prepared and worse cultivated by many, holding the profit poor compensation for the labor.   ThiB is all an error. The seasons have not changed on thc average year, and when necessity so requires, coru and wheat, with rough¬ ness and stock will again abound. Ne¬ cessity can only drive people to try di¬ versified farming, and if the present stringency in breadstuff's effect this, it will, in the end, work us more good than harm.—Keowee Courier
Sunshine and Shadow in Journal-
ism.
Tho mail every day brings letters of antipodal sentiments. One writer from Pea Ridge has no interest in articles about evolution theories. Presently a distinguished minister of another Con ference forwards a note: "Perhaps you aro not wholly, indifferent to an opin¬ ion of your editorial work. Then, I say, I think during the past six months yon have been doing some of yonr best writing. The editorials on ovolntion wero capital." We were jnst smarting under the scratching of a dear sister in the Lord who seems to bo going to heaven like a cat comes down a tree— backward, and with all the claws in action at every step, wben a gentle note was received from the daughter of an eminent divine of another denomi¬ nation, renewing a suhscription, and Tho Advocate has become
a necessity to ns. We cannot dispense with it now. My dear father often speaks of Bro. Lafferty and his excel lent paper. Ho desires to bo kindly remembered to you." So swings the life of an editor—a "pendulum betwixt a smilo and tear."—Richmond Chris¬ tian Advocate.
Can You See Vie Catch in Tliis t
The following is a barefaced story of how a Dublin chambermaid is said to havo got twelve commercial travelers into eleven bed rooms:
Bric-a-Brac.
"Do yon dance the quadrille?" "No, bnt I have a brother Bill, from Biazil, who dances tho quadrille—on tho window-sill." "Then do ypu dance the lances?" "No, but my sister Frances dances the lances and all the fancy dances." "Do you glide?" No, but—we—will let that slide."
A favorite game at tho seaside is trying to distinguish between city belles and their -maids when both are in the water together.—Philadelphia News. Should think the difference would be qnickly discernible. The former "won't wash"—or rather the color in thoir cheeks will wash—off.—Norristovm Herald.   •
A Raleigh girl at Morehead was tho innocont causo ofa sensation tho other day. The fair damsel appeard on the piazza ofthe Atlantic Hotel in a breezy muslin dress. Her tootsie wbntsies were encased in low slippers. Follow¬ ing an absurd fashion, she wore on ono leg a black silk stocking, and on the other a fiery red. A Raleigh man, also at the same resort, sat a fow feet away. Looking at the lady and her ¦ pretty hose, he remarked in a voioe audible all over the piazza: "Bot five dollars on the red."
The late Dean Stanley is said to havo rarely mado a gesture when preaching. One day after morning service he asked his wife if she bad noticed the intensity with which the congregation bad gazed npon him during the sermon. "How could they help it„my dear," said Lady Augusta, "when ono of youi gloves was on the top of your head the wholo timo?" The Dean having taken his hat off be¬ fore entering tho pulpit, the glove ly¬ ing therein had fallen on his head, and as ho stood quite still when preaching, there it remained.
Cham, the French caricaturist, who died in 1879, had very long legs. Ono day he went into a tailor's shop, choao some cloth, and agreed to the price of forty-five francs for a pair of panta¬ loons. The tailor took his measure and went lower and lower, while his astonishment went higher and higher. At last be stopped a little below the knee and threw.his measure over his shoulder.- •
"Well," said Cham, "do yon stop there ?"
'Monsionr, for forty-fivo francs I cannot go lower," answered the tai¬ lor.
When Duhufe's celcbrebated paint; ings of "Adam and Eve" were on ex¬ hibition at Edinburgh, Mr. MoNab, the curator of the Botanical gardens iri that city, was taken to seo them, and was asked for his opinion. "I think no great things ofthe painter," remark¬ ed tho authority on gardening. "Why, man, Eve tempting Adam wi'a pip¬ pin' o' a variety that wasn't known until about twonty years ago !" This was as suggestive a bit of criti¬ cism as that of the farmer who told George Moreland that he had never seen three littlo pigs feeding without one of them having its feet in tho trough.   Moreland altered the picture.
There wero half a dozen ladies and gentlemen in a street car, when the driver stopped the car and said;     ,
"There is somebody in this car try¬ ing to beat me out of a fare."
The passengers looked at each other and all said they band put in tlieir fare.   .
"It don't make any difference. Thore are only six faiei in the box, and seven people in the car."
Then a gentleman got np, and with a sigh put in tho missing fare, remark¬ ing:
"I put in one before; but, as I was once in the legislature, everybody will say it can't -be anybody else but mo. So I'll have to stand it." '
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 [5 [_g_j_7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 11
"I am a self-made man," said a native of Stonington, the other day, to a New York gentleman, with whom, he had been driving a sharp bargain. "Glad to hear you say so," responded the New Yorker, who had been worsted in the {raidej "for it.reli.ves the Lord of il great resjbnstbiKty."
"Now,"said she, "If two of yon gen¬ tlemen will go into No. 1 bed room and wait there a few minntes, I'll find a spare room for one of you as Boon as I have shown the others to their rooms." Well, now, having bestowed two gentlemen in No. 1 she put the third in No. 2, the fourth in No. 3, the fifth in No. 4, the sixth in No. 5, the sev¬ enth in No. 6, the eighth in No. 7, the ninth in No. 8, the tenth in No. 9, the eleventh in No. 10. She then came back to No. 1, where yon remember Bhe had left the twelfth gentleman along with the first, and said:
"I've now accommodated all tho rest and have still a room to spare; so if one of you will please step into No. 11/ yon will find it empty." . Thus the twelfth man got 'his bed room. Of course, there iB a hole in the saucepan somewhere; but we leave tlio reader to determine exactly where tho fallacy is, with just a warning to think | twice b'eford deciding a'S' tt> which, if
When the gates of the State fair were thrown open a man who was built, on the plumb-line principle, and whose, hat would have attracted tlio curiosity of a crowd a mile, and a half away, was stopped because he had no ticket.   He indulged in some rather loud talk, and was taken in hand by a policeman and led to ono side.   "Let us now come to an understanding," he said, as he cool*- ed off.   "Is this a State fair?"   "Yes, sir."   "Is there a circus attached?". "No, sir."   "Is there a freo lunch es¬ tablishment  in blast?"   "No,'   sir.". Will the President be here to-day?" "Not that I know of."   "Is the man with the prize packages on hand iri there?"   "He is not."   Is thera any chance for me • to secure. a position as special     detective?"     "No,     sir." "This, then is an ordinary State fair,' composed of machinery, live stook, bed- quilts-, roosters, windmills, yeast cakes, new cheeses and the man who has had his pocket pickod?" "Yes, aboutthat." "Then, sir, I beg your pardon for my rash andungentlemanly conduct, and Ibid yon goodday. Ifl had understood matters in the first place I shonld havd spared the ¦ public this scene.   Ta-ta, sir, and it we should ever meet again
twice before deciding — ..    —,  _
any, of the traveler, *$as the "odd man you'll know me by my hat;"—Detroit out." \ Free Press.
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