Scientific research, or light literature; the ordinary
occurrences of the day, recorded in the newspapers, or detailed by an
occasional visitor--all were remembered, and with truthful exactness.
Dates, days, names, and events fastened upon his memory tenaciously,
and remained there without an effort. Hence, the fund of information
possessed by him astonished the best informed, who were gray with years
and reading. The exuberance of his imagination continually supplied new
and beautiful imagery to his conversation; and in private intercourse,
such was the rich purity of his language, and his ideas so bold and
original, that all were willing listeners: no one desired to talk if
Prentiss was present and would talk.
The disasters which followed the commercial crisis of 1837 crushed
almost every interest in Mississippi: especially was this true of the
planting, the great interest of the State. On the healthy condition of
him who tills the soil depends that of every other interest. The rapid
rise in cotton, commencing in 1832, from the increased demand all over
the world for cotton fabrics, caused a heavy immigration to the fertile
cotton-lands of the West, and particularly to the extensive and newly
acquired lands of Mississippi.
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