Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-04-07
BURIED BY BROWN.
ECcENTRfciTIEs OF NEW WORKS.
MOST NOTED SEXTON.

For Many Years He Ministered to
the Aristocracy of the City ut
Grace Church., and Has Name
Adorns a Tablet ON It's Walls.
1t used to be said that a stranger who
was visiting New York for the first
time and asked his hotel clerk for adj
vice as to what he should 90 on Sun
day morning would find his doubts
quickly reduced to the alternative, GO
over to Brooklyn and hear Beecher'' or
$50 to Grace church and see Brown"
No prelate OF the Episcopal church was
so widely known either in OIL, beyond his
New York diocese as this valiant
guardian of old Grace, whose income,
it was estimated, vas greater than
that of any man in the cloth and whose
power in society was even more feared
than that of any bishop.
He received, his appointment as sex
ton from the Rev. DR.. Thomas House
Taylor, and, while Dir. Taylor has been
long forgotten, Sexton Brown is still
almost as much remembered in the
great city as Jim Fisk, A. T. Stewart or
Charles Delmonico.
Brown would cultivate the acquaint.
ance of head walters and cooks, secur-
ing the latest information as to the
social plans Of their masters and mis-.
t~resses, and whenever he learned that
a party or a ball was under considera-
tion he would offer his services to de-
liver the invitations or look after the
comfort of the guests or superintend
their arrival and departure in their
carriages. Beginning in this humble
way, it was not long before he gained
the good will of distinguished patrons.
His authoritative manner, too, was
admirable for such occasions. Indeed
the host himself could hardly issue a
command to his menials with the
suavely peremptory emphasis which
Brown employed. Such was his de.
pertinent and such his trustworthy
zeal that it was said that no one in
Grace church could be properly Toasted
or buried or could e say his prayers
without the assistance Of Brown, and
eventually it became something like q
dictum in a large portion of society
that nobody could be married in New
York in truly first class style unless
Browns presence blessed the bridal
party.
Nor did any detail that might be
wanting for the personal comfort OF
the congregation escape his vigilant
eye. 1t was a habit of old Peter Stuy,
vesant, for example, to keep In his pew
a thermometer. AS soon as he had tax
en- his seat he would consult it. One
winter morning when the temperature
was extremely low the furnaces of the
church got out of order, and Brown.
assistants were able to force through
them only enough heat to lessen tht
chill q little. It occurred to Brown tina
the condition of the atmosphere wouIt
not be conducive to either the piety OF
the comfort of the aged Stuyvesant
When the old gentleman arrived with
in the porch of the church, he wa
shivering withst the cold, but withou'
attracting his attention Brown, VIII
knew that the first thing he would de-
would be to step into his pew and ex
anime the thermometer, slipped il
ahead, pressed n of his fat fingers tt
the little glass bulb and chuckled as hi
saw the mercury ascend to e. Wher
Stuyvesant reached the pew, he con
suited the thermometer as usual, look
ed around wonderingly, but evidentl.
concluded that the church must b.
warm enough and that therefore i
must be himself who was cold.
Browns funeral was marked b,
much of the pomp and circumstanc'
which he himself had SO often provided
for the rich and the great. The wit
said that it was the first in forty year
that had been a perfectly correct per
Torrance without his individual guild
ance. He had died in the little town O
Bradford n August night in 1880
There he had been in the habit of tax
ing his summer rest. He had beeI
overcome by the heat while attending
a wedding at Brandford. and that sum
mer he complained. probably for tn
first time in his life, Of ILL., health. On
of his orders was that his body shoul
be placed in a. casket of polished Span
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