Roger Atkinson Pryor. : We may have our doubts whether the life of Roger Atkinson Pryor which came to a close in his New York home at the age of 91 was really saved by Abraham Lincoln. Stanton may have said "We wont free him, we're going to hang him" without too serious a purpose. There was an element of "frightfulness" in the great Secretary's utterance Certain it ia that Lincoln Intervened with an order for the Virginian's release or exchange. At the time of his capture near Petersburg. Pryor had been a private trooper skirmishing The spy charge had no real basis But here was the man who had made at Charleston the great speech which stirred hla bearers to fire on Fort Sumter the man who had grimly relinquished to Ruffin the firing of the first shot the man who stronger than any other Virginian of prominence bad stood for accession Stanton's feeling was Justified Aa editor of two smaller dailies and then of the Richmond Enquirer. Pryor had fought for what he regarded ae the only way of saving the rights of the 8orith After a clash with Jefferson Davis he had given up hla commission ae a brigadier general and enlisted. In the ranks Always hot-blooded he was nevertheless humane toward Union prisoner. In the hands of the Confederacy while be held the commission. Penniless at the end of the war he came to New York wrote for the News then controlled by Ben Wood brother of Fernando Wood the wartime Mayor of the city. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar, was made a Judge of the old Court of Common Pleas by Governor Hill at the request of that Union veteran General Daniel E. Sickles and later was elected to the Supreme Court Ills career on the Bench was honorable and useful Mrs. Pryor died seven years ago The couple bad Lad sixty three yean of happy married life having been married when very young Not one of the Southern era who iude their mark or made their for tunes. In the Metropolis was so striking a figure in ’be dty ae General Pryor was tall, almost gaunt with long hair and typical features of a North American Indian. he la raid to baye had Indian blood In hla veins— he waa alTaye Impressive Hla passing removes almost the last of the mer who made the Great Rebellion and ail of them had a chance to prove their loyalty to a reunited country conclusively

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