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

For Many Years He Ministcred to
the Aristocracy of the City mt
Grace Church, and HIS Name
Adorn 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 add
vice as to what he should Go 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-
ition 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 ever say his prayers
without the assistance of Brown, and
eventually it became something like a
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
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 a 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 S~tuyvesant.
When the old gentleman arrived with.
In the porch of the church. he was
%shiyering 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
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 u. 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 it was the first in forty years
that had been a perfectly correct per.
Torrance without his individual guild
ance. He had died in the little town OF
Bradford n 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
a wedding at Brandford. and that sum-
mer he complained. probably for the
first time in his life, Of ILL health. One
OF his orders was that his body should
be placed in a. casket Of polished Span
fsh cedar:
A more ponderous casket had v
been carried up the aisle of Grace
church. 1t was rich with silver and.
velvet. It was SO heavy-its interior
being large enough for two ordinary
corpses-that the eight knights TEN
plars who bore 1t into the church al.
most staggered with their burden.
Upon 1t lay their cooked hats with wav-
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 a