Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-07-03
BURIED BY BROWN.
ECCENTRIClTIES OF NEW YORK'S
MOST NOTED SEXTON.

1t used to be said that a stranger who
was visiting New York for the first
time and asked his hotel clerk for ad-
vice as to what he should do on Sun
day morning would find his doubts
quickly reduced to the alternative, "Go
over to Brooklyn and hear Beecher" or
"GO to Grace church and see Brown"
No prelate of the Episcopal church was
so widely known either in or beyond his
New York diocese as this valiant
guardian of old Grace, whose income,
it was estimated, was 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-
tresseS, and whenever he learned that
q 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
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 feasted
or buried or could even say his prayers
without the assistance of Brown, and
eventually 1t became something like
dictum in a large portion of society
that nobody could be married in New
York In truly first class style unless
party.
Nor did any detail that might be
wanting for the personal comfort of
the congregation escape his vigilant
eye. 1t was q habit of old Peter Stuy
vesant, for example, to keep in his pew
q 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 Browns
assistants were able to force through
them only enough heat to lessen the
chill little. 1t occurred to Brown that
the condition Of the atmosphere would
not be conducive to either the piety or
the comfort of the aged StuyveSant.
When the old gentleman arrived with
In the porch of the church, he was
shivering with the cold, but without
attracting his attention Brown, who
knew that the first thing he would do
would be to step into his pew and eX-
anime the thermometer, slipped in
ahead, pressed one Of his fat fingers to
the little glass bulb and chuckled as he
saw the mercury ascend to ~. When
| Stuyvesant reached the pew, he con-
suited the thermometer as usual, look
ed around wonderingly, but evidently
concluded that the church must be
warm enough and that therefore it
must be himself who was cold.
Browns funeral was marked by
much Of the pomp and circumstance
| which he himself had so often provided
| for the rich and the great. The wits
said that 1t was the first in forty years
that had been n perfectly correct per-
| formance without his individual guild
Brandford one August night in 1880.
| There he had been in the habit of TAX
| ing his summer rest. He had been
overcome by the heat while attending
q wedding at Brandford, and that sum-
mer he complained, probably for the
first time in his life, of i'll health. One
of his orders was that his body should
| be placed III a casket of polished Span
ish cedar.
A more ponderous casket had never
been carried up the aisle Of Grace
church. 1t was rich with silver and
velvet 1t was so heavy-its interior
being large enough for two ordinary
corpses-that the eight knights Tenn
plars who bore 1t into the church al
most staggered with their burden.
Upon 1t lay their cooked hats with way
ing ostrich plumes. Within the chancel
stood four of the clergy, in the pews
were the representatives of some of the
proudest families of the city, and
long line of men and women filed into
the church showing all the signs of sor-
row for an old friend and neighbOr.
On the left hand side of Grace church
as one turns after entering the porch
under the bell tower and near where
Brown was wont for more than gen
GRAFTON to take his station every Sun
day is a shining brass tablet. 1t was
there placed by members of the Congre-
cation In token of him who Is described
upon 1t as "The Faithful Sexton" and
whom they GLADLY recall for his ffdeli-
ty, his generosity and his stainless In
tegrity" 1t is next to the bas-relief
which commentaries the virtues of the
illustrious Cadwallader d. Golden, once
mayor of New York-what greater
posthumous glory would Brown have
craved ?-and is not less conspicuous
than the old tablet on the opposite side
which was erected to the memory Of
Henry Brevoort, whose family was de-
rived In "unbroken descent from the
colonists of New Netherlands. Ladies'
Home Journal.