Gorgias in California [pp. 534-540]

GORGI4AS IN CALIFORNIA.
wisdom and wit, in which the honest miners put up with no aristocratic
and sturdy Socrates is made to confront pretensions in those days, and Georgius
and put down the pretensions of Gor- had the tact to humor them. He lived
gias and his fellow-sophists. like the rest, told coarse stories, and
The old Leontine is not dead. Like sang rough songs. He was always
the wandering Jew, he bears a charmed ready to toss off a drink of whisky, and
life. The Greek legend hints at this himself treated often enough to win apimmortality, in the account it gives of probation. He certainly did little for
his extraordinary age. Some said he the mental or moral improvement of the
was born as early as 496, B.C.; and as Lyontonians, but encouraged them to
he was ambassador in 427, he must have lower their old standard of self-culture,
been an old man eloquent when he first self-respect, and morality.
gained glory at Athens. His varied life It happened that one of his friends
afterward, in Sicily, in Attica, in Thes- had an altercation with a newly arrived
saly, would carry him up to an almost miner, and the new-comer was fatally
fabulous age. The intimation of the stabbed. Lyonton public opinion was in
narrative is clear. There are men who favor of the deed; but in other parts of
do not die. Lost sight of at times, they the county the slain man had friends
reappear with the old character, to play who insisted on bringing the slayer to
the old part among men. We should justice. Georgius volunteered to defend
like to trace our Gorgias down through his friend; and then, for the first time,
the centuries since the fifth before he announced that he was, by profession
Christ. It is more to our present pur- and long practice, a lawyer. The counpose to say that he is still alive, and has ty seat was far away-down among the
been seen and heard in California. foothills-and thither the Lyonton men
We presume he is proud of his first went. The testimony was brief; the
name and fame; proud of the city in prosecuting attorney's address to the
which he was raised to distinction. For jury was short, and not at all able. But
he bears nowa similarname, and hailed it seemed adequate to the purpose.
a few years ago, from a town reminding There was little sympathy for the prisus instantly of Leontini. Whether he oner. No one knew the attorney for the
sought the town for its name, or helped defence; no one expected him to make
to name it, we will not undertake to say. any impression on the jury. He rose, in
But we hasten to give the modern, Cali- his miner's dress, and the eyes of all
fornian name of Gorgias of Leontini. were turned curiously, rather impatientIt is, ADAM GEORGIUS, of Lyonton. ly, upon him. In three minutes the
The reader will see that Adam has been crowded court-room had totally changed
assumed as a mere generic prefix, that its aspect. There was no more impaname meaning a man. Surname proper, tience, no more aversion, on the faces of
he has none; and he likes to write him- Judge, jury, and spectators. Georgius
self Georgius of Lyonton, as we once was carrying them by storm. How he
noticed it on the register of the Ori- did it, nobody could tell: It was partly
ental. Lyonton is far up in the mount- the surprise of.the thing-such a speech
ains. It is one of the earliest settled from an unknown man. But he had unmining towns, and Adam Georgius was deniable power. He took neither Ersone of the first settlers. He wore a gray kine nor Webster for a model. The
shirt, and worked on his claim, like his body of his speech was skillful wordfellow-miners. It was surmised that he play; slang and coarse anecdote were
was of good antecedents, and his con- its ornaments. He did not soar above
versatjon showed culture. But the his audience, nor thrill them with noble
I868.]
535