William Campbell Preston. Episcopal Church, and had been a seeker after the truth. He had always been liberal in his religious views and he felt kindly to all religious denominations. Although he was formally connected with the Episcopal Church, yet he had a hereditary partiality for the Methodist, this being largely the re sult of his association with his grandmother and his love for her memory. He had, him self, however, felt the lack of the witness of the spirit, which was now vouchsafed unto him. We have in his last days beautiful evidences of his faith. The words of scrip ture already lodged in his heart, came freely and spontaneously forth from his lips. Dur ing his last illness, every night, a good Methodist preacher "was under promise to him to pray by his bedside. 'Yes,' he would say, as he entered his room, 'pray, M., pray; that is your mission;' and ere for him prayer was turned to praise and faith to sight, that ministering friend was privileged to hear, ' I know now for myself that all is true that you have told me.'" As a conversationalist, Mr. Preston pos sessed rare gifts. It was a delightful pleas ure to hear him talk, and his society, on that account, was eagerly sought. Says Dr. Laborde : " In eonversational power I have never met his equal. Who that has heard him can forget his point, his anecdote, his fullness, his variety, his ease, his grace, his vivacity, his elegance, his imitative talent, and that curious felicity of expression, which, in South Carolina, has been charac terized as Prestonian. The reader will par don me for saying, that I have been asked frequently by my friends to accompany them on a call upon him, for no other reas on than that they wished to avail themselves of the charms of his conversation. It fol lows from what has been said, by necessary consequence, that such a man must be conspicuous in all the relations of social inter course. I am sure I am not guilty of extrav agance when I say, that no one in our State ever attracted larger admiration in
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this particular. In every circle ' he was the observed of all observers,' and shone with surpassing brilliancy." His delightful talk and his genial sympathy made him especi ally popular with young men. He was extremely popular in society and his presence graced many an elegant dining and evening party. In reading Mrs. Pres ton's journal, we are struck with the fact that Mr. Preston was so popular a member of the most elegant society of Washington. He was constantly receiving invitations to accept the hospitality of distinguished peo ple there. Mr. Preston also excelled as a post-pran dial talker. He was just the kind of man people liked to have about on festive occa sion. When the cloth was removed and the champagne began to flow, then his eyes commenced to sparkle, his tongue to loosen, and his wit to effervesce. I am sure the reader will pardon me for relating one of these experiences of Mr. Preston as found in Perley's " Reminiscences." " Senator Wil liam C. Preston, of South Carolina, was not only one of the foremost orators in the Sen ate, but a delightful conversationalist, with an inexhaustible fund of reminiscence and anecdote. One of his colleagues in the House of Representatives, Mr. Warren R. Davis, of the Pendleton district, was equally famed as a story-teller, and when they met at a social board, they monopolized the conversation, to the delight of the other guests, who listened with attention and ad miration. One evening, as the story is told, over the Madeira and the walnuts, which formed the invariable last course in those days, Mr. Preston launched forth in a eulogium on the extraordinary power of condensation, in both thought and expres sion, which characterized the ancient Greek and Latin languages, beyond anything of the kind in modern tongues. On it he liter ally ' discoursed eloquent music,' adorning it with frequent and apt illustration, and among other examples citing the celebrated
