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Legare.

"Legare was a gentleman who surpassed nearly all the public men of his time in the depth, accuracy and extent of his classical attainments."-Memoirs, by his brother, p. 255.

Everything We Enjoy Is Mortgaged.

“In truth, every good thing we have is mortgaged-earth, sea and sky; ay, the very air we breathe, as diseases and sickness can bear witness. We inherit no blessing, no right or advantage which is not ours in trust, and which is not linked to some duty."-From his argument in Cowden v. Dobyns, on the Constitutionality of State bonds: Shields' Life, p. 325.

Art and Literature Immortal.

"The most splendid cities, mausoleums, and pyramids must crumble to dust, but the genius embodied in the picture, and the statue, and the literary page, is like the mind of man, endued with immortality. The physical forms of Greece and Rome flitted across the horizon like the shadows of a cloud, passing over a verdant field in a summer's afternoon, but the productions of her heaven-born artists still live and hold a pre-eminent place in the admiration of the civilized world. They will go down on the accumulating tide of glory to succeeding generations, even to the last recorded syllable of time."-From a speech in New

Orleans, in 1844, before a body of people trying to raise funds to build a statue to Benjamin Franklin: Shields' Life of Prentiss, p. 337.

No Jail in the County.

A gentleman wishing to commend the character of the people of his neighborhood, told Prentiss that there was no jail in the county. "Ah," said Prentiss, archly, "possibly the rascals are in the majority, and they won't build one."

Braying Jackass.

He was once engaged in a political discussion with a wordy opponent, who talked "against time," so that it was nearly dark before Prentiss rose to speak. It so happened that a neighboring jackass in a pound began braying. Prentiss' friends were greatly annoyed. Prentiss waited patiently till the braying had ceased, and then casting a comical look at the previous speaker, turned to the audience and said, "I did not come here to-day to reply to two equally eloquent speeches," and sat down. The effect upon a Southern audience cannot be described. was carried from the stand by his admirers.

Women's Eyes.

Prentiss

"Who could withstand the battery of the ladies' bright eyes? They were double-barreled cannon that could always sweep the field and come off conquerors." From a Natchez political speech in 1844.

James K. Polk.

"The old war horse (Jackson) had dashed through the crowd of common men, and when he emerged James K. Polk was found, like a cockle-burr, sticking to his mane." (Prentiss disliked Polk because he cast the tie vote against him in his first contest for a seat in Congress in 1837).-Shields' Life and Times of Prentiss, p. 345.

Extravagant.

Prentiss was prodigal of nature. At one time he rolled half-dollars down the halls of a Louisville hotel to see the waiters gather them up.-Shields' Life, etc., p. 373.

His Oratory.

"His figures and metaphors were drawn from the grand and beautiful in nature. The mountains, the ocean, the thunder-riven crag, the rainbow, the stars, the flowers, the birds, or the glorious sunset, became a thousand times more grand, or a thousand times more lovely, when called into service by his matchless eloquence."-Judge Morris in his “State Cases of Mississippi."

Shooting Bed-Bugs at a Hotel.

At one time Prentiss and a friend stopped at a hotel infested with bed-bugs. Finding their efforts to sleep unavailing, and being generally disgusted with the hostelry, they got up and went to shooting their small bedfellows, much to the surprise and disgust of the enraged landlord,

ROGER ATKINSON PRYOR, NEW YORK.

(1828-)

Born July 19, 1828, near Petersburg, Virginia. Is the son of a minister. Graduated at HamptonSidney at seventeen, and two years later at the University of Virginia. Admitted to the bar and married before twenty-one. Entered journalism, joining the staff of the Washington "Union", and later was editor of the Richmond "Enquirer." Was sent at twenty-seven by President Pierce on a diplomatic mission to Greece. Refused the Ministership to Persia upon his return. Was elected to Congress, 1859, and re-elected in 1860, but did not take his seat. Became frequently involved in passionate discussions in that body with his Northern opponents, one of whom, John F. Potter, of Wisconsin, replied with similar acrimony, and was challenged. Mr. Potter named bowie knives as the weapons, but Mr. Pryor's seconds forbade the fight with what they termed barbarous arms. Mr. Pryor in 1861 was eager for war, and made when thirty-two, at Charleston, South Carolina, a fiery speech

urging the South "to strike a blow which would put Virginia in the Confederacy in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock." He became brigadier general in the Confederacy, and was taken prisoner, 1864. Settled in New York city, 1865, to practice law. When asked what impelled him "to this superhuman task in a hostile camp," he replied, "Despair!" Before his election to the Common Pleas Bench, a $17,000 position, his practice amounted to about $12,000 annually. Among his more important cases are the Beecher-Tilton, the Morey letter, the Holland murder and the Sprague cases (the latter in Rhode Island), the Ames Impeachment in Mississippi, the first damage suit against the Elevated Railway, the defense of O'Donnell in London, the Hoyt will, the Jaehene Boodle, the Chicago Anarchist, and the Sugar Trust

cases.

Mr. Pryor is more renowned as an advocate than as a counselor. He is an orator of high order; an indomitable worker, a ripe scholar, and a cultivated, original thinker. As he sits patient, dignified, impartial, long-haired, occasionally overlapping his nose with his underlip, he looks every inch an English Chancellor.

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