Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/48

 48 Southern Historical Society Papers.

he worked himself into a high state of excitement, and remarked that "Jesus Christ was convicted upon just such rulings of the court that tried him." " Clerk, said the judge, " enter a fine of ten dollars against Mr. Marshall."

" Well, this is the first time I ever heard of anybody being fined for abusing Pontius Pilate," was the quick response.

Here the judge became very indignant, and ordered the clerk to enter another fine of twenty dollars. Marshall arose with that pecu- liar mirth-provoking expression that no one can imitate, and addressed the court with as much gravity as circumstances would permit, as follows:

" If your Honor pleases, as a good citizen, I feel bound to obey the order of this court, and intend to do so in this instance; but as I don't happen to have thirty dollars about me, I shall be compelled to borrow it from some friend, and, as I see no one present whose confi- dence and friendship I have so long enjoyed as your Honor's, I make no hesitation in asking the small favor of a loan for a few days, to square up the amount of the fines that you have caused the clerk to enter against me." This was what Dick Swiviller used to call an "inscrutable staggerer." The judge looked at Marshall, and then at the clerk, and finally said, " Clerk, remit Mr. Marshall's fines; the State is better able to lose thirty dollars than I am."

He was once a candidate against General James S. Pilcher, at one time mayor of the city of Louisville. The general made a long and telling speech, for it was full of good stories if not good language and deep learning, and had closed by telling his audience that he was raised a plain country lad, and had never been to school more than about three months in his life. Marshall arose, and in that humorous way peculiar to himself, remarked: " My friend has told you that his school education was confined to the short period of three months' time; for myself, I was much surprised to hear that the gentlemen had been to school at all."

In an important suit before the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Mar- shall was pitted against Henry Clay, with whom, at the time, he was not on the best of terms. Marshall spoke first, and attacked with all hir energy the positions he supposed Clay would assume. " You can barely imagine," said he, subsequently, alluding to the case, "my immense mortification when Clay concluded a splendid speech with- out even alluding to anything I had said."

On another occasion Marshall was engaged in a trial before a jus- tice of the peace, whom he tried to convince that he had made an