Worcester daily spy., 1872-07-12
ssKroI.eu Hearfso

'My son, they have broken my heart bur il
is not bad heart, after all, are reported TO be
the last words of Judge McCunn. Ii is literally
true, we have no doubt that such was the fact;
Judge McCunn really died of "broken hearr,''
as the phase is generally understood. His nery-
GUS system had received blow from which it
could not rally. The case is by no means I'M
usual of men succumbing to blows of this sort,
sometimes IN few minutes, sometimes in few
hours or days, sometimes in few months #
was not so much Stokess bullet that killed
Fisk, according to the medical testimony, as
"shock, the blow to the nervous system; from
the pistol shot, recovery, though unlikely, was
possible, but 'shOck" was deadly. In his
case undoubtedly it was mortal fear, TO
which, it may be believed from his con-
duct on the day of the rio. last summer, Fisk
was particularly Nable to be the victim, that
was fatal. When this shock is not so altogether
ignohle as cowardice, but involves some of the
higher sentiments, as remOrSe, or diSdppoint-
ment in some high purpose, or despair, then it
is dignifed with the name of f"broken heart"
In all cases. however, 1t is the loss of vital force
the impOssibility of raying sufficient nervous
energy to resist blow. McCunn unuuestion-
ably died of it, as he said. So did Ananlas, so
do many men all about us every week Ii was
one of the remarkable results of the Chicago fire
that the ''shOck" of loss of property, of the in
tense fear at the moment, of anxiety for the
future, caused an unusual number of deaths
there through the winter Men died of
'DTOken heaft ; tnat IS broken courage broken
hope, broken spirits, broken energies, broken
elasticity, from time TO time, for months,
10 die of a broken heart" has a pathetic and
sentimental sound, and appeals TO our pity or
our sympahies. Yet is sometimes Il very ia
noble thing to die Of and is usually indicative
OF radical weakness of character In Judge
McCunn it was an altogether natural cause or
death. INSCRIPTIONS, ambitious, uncultivated
his tine library was a vanity and a show only
without resources within himself to fall back
upon, and at the same time living upon the
breath OF others, having in excess what the
phreholOgists call "approbatiyeness," it was en-
tlrey in accordance with his nature when blow
should come that cast him down from the false
eminence to which, by crooked paths and
devious wavs, he had raised himself, that
the "shoclS' should kill him. There was
no base thing, inside the law, that McCum
was not capable of, SO long as it won him
applause or contributed to his success. With
negroes hanging in his very sight, murdered by
the mob, in the riots of 1863, he could stand
and address the savage wretcheS, not only with
out compunctOn, but with great inward salts
faction But convict him of outraging the
public sense OF right, of any infringement of
morality within the reach OF law, or with the
laws hand upon him, and he sinks stricken,
unnerved, helpless, to a cowardly death. So
dying, death comes to him as Just retribution
for a life msspent, n career pursued without
scrupes, unmarked by one worthy act, marked
by many that were disgracfu to him as a man
and a magistrate. That others of his compan-
IONS in judicial crime have not come TO Il similar
end is only because they are made of sterner
stun and coarser hbre-N. !. Post.