The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-22
THE LATE JUDGE BLACK
A Brief but Fatal Illness, and How
Courageously He Net Death.
Personal Appearance. characteristics and
Habits of the Dead Man-His Wide
Reading and Remarkable Memory,
Collated from Philadelphia Papers.

Mr.. Blacks illness only dates from Mon.
day last and from the first appearance of the
fatal and painful disease he was perfectly
resigned, feeling that it would terminate
fatally. After his case became crit
ical, and it was found necessary to resort
to a surgical operation, he observed that the
doctors were in council and asked its import.
They told him of the intended operation, and
that they had asked the consent of the fam
lily. Good-humoredly, and with his accus.
toned wit, he remarked, You have reck-
oned without your host. I am the victim,
and the only one who is to be consulted. I
will not submit. 1 can hold out until Drs.
Atlee and Garrett can be summoned in con-
sultation."
Agreeably to the Judges desire the doc
tors were brought and he consented to the
operation. 1t was successfully performed,
but blood poisoning followed, which was the
immediate cause of his death. All through
his sickness, although suffering intense agony,
he was cheerful, and his great mind gave
vent in frequent scintillations of witty utter
ances, and at times he repeated selections
from his favorite authors, Bryant's ''Thana-
atopsis" and the words of Lady Macbeth. In
his dying moments the great jurist lost none
of his force of character, his geuiality and
brightness of disposition or his flow of Lam
guage when not under the influence of OPT
ates.
During his illness he frequently spoke of
business and private matters to his son
Chauncey, and in the midst of the converse
ton stopped several times to refer to his
faith in Christ. Upon one occasion he said:
Il would not have you think for a moment
that I fear death. I have taken care to ar
range for my future, and, therefore, death
has no terrors for me-
When about fourteen years old he was at
tending school at Somerset during the win
ter. He boarded at the country hotel kept
by Captain Webster, a revolutionary soldier,
and then, consequently, a man of great i'm
poriance, His wife took a great fancy to,
and, consequently, a solid motherly interest
in the boy. Sitting together one winters
evening, she was knitting industriously, and
Black was studying his lessons upon the OPP
posite side of the spacious fireplace. He
finally looked up from his book to find that
she had stopped knitting and was gazing at
him intently, with an earnestlook of inquiry
upon her countenance. Both looked each
other square in the face for a moment, when
she drew the needle from her work. and
thrusting it back again with a sort OF dis
satisfied air, said, rather regretfully: Jerry,
you may some day be a very good and a very
smart man. | hope you will. But, bless
my soul, boy, you will never be handsome"
The good, honest housewives predictions
were verified, for good looks were never
counted as one of Judge Blacks attractions.
TlNn ro or ~ hAx- - -Io-a faaA A., Id
lady tried to find one handsome line, grew to
be a man of powerful frame, but neither
form nor feature gave a relenting sign of at
tractiveness. His personal appearance adver-
tised his intellectual and physical force only.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Personally Judge Black was a familiar
figure in the leading courts of the country
and well known to visitors at the national
capital. He was about five feet eleven inch
es in height, with shaggy gray eyebrows that
in repose gave his features a sternness of
expression which quickly melted away in
the humorous twinkle of MS eyes or as the
animation of expression would steal over his
face, which had never worn n beard. He
was of ruddy, healthy complexion, strong
bodily frame and erect carriage. In 1868,
while going to Galveston, Texas, in company
with some other lawyers and Justice Swayne,
to argue a railroad case, q wood car that had
slipped from its place on the siding of a Ken
lucky railroad bumped against the side of
the passing car in which his right hand was
lying on an open window. 1t was very Sc
verely injured and after careful nursing at
Louisville, during which he was the object
of much solicitude and attention from the
citizens, the arm was saved from amputation
at the expense OF its future usefulness.
When he was told that he would new
use that arm his characteristic reply was:
Then I'll never enter the prize-ring." For
a time, owing to this disability, he travelled
with a colored body-servant, but he grew inn
patient of such dependence; he wouldn't
be dependent on any fellow to shave and
write" so in a few weeks, by persistent efforts
and will-power, he learned to shave himself
with his left hand, and to write a clear, beau
tiful back-hand, his autographs now being
out in two entirely distinct chirographies.
In conversation or in argument he twirled
his silver tobacco-box in his left hand with
great dexterity, and many amusing and
apocryphal tales are told of this tobacco box
and other personal characteristics such as
mark only men OF genius.
Among the public men of the country
there was probably none who was so great a
social favorite as Judge Black, and, in the
face of his radical political principles, some
of his warmest personal friends were his
partisan antipodes. Garfield, Matt. Carpen-
ter, Blame and Bob I~ngersoll invariably
sought his company in Washington. On one
occasion, when attacked on the Democratic
side of the House, Thad. Stevens highly eulo-
gized him as a lawyer and a man, but ex-
pressly withheld any Endorsement of his
politics, which were as bad, he said, as
possible. In their originality, their
courage and their infexibility there
were points of resemblance between
Stevens and Black, though in other respects
the widest dissimilarity prevailed. There
were no social relations between them; they
scarcely ever spoke; but up to the time OF
his daath Ctavanc cbarished the hiuhast r.