Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-02-07

with signal ability, giving great satisfac-
ton to the members of the bar and the
entire community.
bis talents and varied attachments pre-
eminently lifted him for high official posi-
ton, but never having been affected with
the mania for Office, he shrank instinct
lively from the turmoil and strife of po-
litical life ans kept severely sloof from
the angry partizan controversies OF the
day.
This morning Judge Porter adjourned
his court In respect to the memory OF the
deceased, and at 8 o'clock this evenin g
his remains, followed by large con-
course of citizens, were conveyed 10 she
cemetery in this place and received the
last sad tribute which surviving relations
and friends can pay to the departed.
RequiescGt in pace.
But little of public interest has trans
pired in our Circuit Court since my last
report. Ed Custer, the last of the inter
esting Young gentlemen indicted under the
Ku-Klux law, had his trial, which result
ed in his conviction and the assessment
of a fine of one hundred dollars, which
he doubtless considered cheap enough for
the amount:.sand character of amusement
he had enjoyed among bis colored friends.
He, too, was intensely loyal during the
war, and volunteered to aid in preserving
ethe best government the world ever
saw"
The man Sexton, who was so seriously
wounded in the head several weeks ago,
by shot from pistol in the hand of his
little SON, still lives and moves has his be-
ing. He has thus far respectfully and
persistently declined to ''shuff1e off this
mortal COLI at the bidding of the news.
per men, who have variously reported
him as having been Christianity killed, !"
"mortally wounded" and ''fatally shot
through the head" and the probabilities
sire that he will now recover, and will
have brains enough left to enable him
to guard against a repetition of the folly
of giving little children loaded pistols to
play with. -.r. .
Aprops of wounded heads and brails.
The idea prevails extensively that any
serious wounding of the brain is nece.sa-
rily and inevitably fatal, but surgical an
mails afford many instances illustrating
that such is by no means the fact. Some
very extraordinary recoveries from ex-
tensive wounds of the brain are recorded
by medical men, in many instances, not
only without any loss or impairment of
intellectual power, but sometimes, curl
ously enough, with apparently improved
and invigored mental capacity. Probably
the most remarkable instance of this kind
is the case of the man who, while
engaged in blasting rock in one
of the Eastern States some years ago, was
blown up by the premature discharge of
the blast, the tsmping iron, measuring up
ward of three feet in length, an inch in
diameter and weighing thirteen pounds,
being driven quite through his skull, hav-
ing entered just below the jawbone,
plunging upward through the brain and
emerging st the top of his head. Strange
to say, he recovered without any percepti-
bic diminution of mental vigor. But
these, of course, are exceptional cases and
cannot be taken as conclusive proof that
brains are not a desirable thing to have
and somewhat necessary too, in order to
the successful management of the ordi-
nary concerns of life as well as the more
weighty and complex affairs of State.
The people of the United States, are now
trying on large scale, the experiment of
running government machinery with a
very limited supply of brain power, but
the result, 80 far, cannot be said to be
very encouraging. HENRY.