Fifth Avenue (New York, N.Y.); Streets -- New York (State) -- New York
"On arriving at the house I explained to the reverend gentleman the
nature of my visit, and arrangements were made for the time and place at
which the funeral was to be held. Something, I can hardly say what, gave
me the impression that I had best mention that Mr. Holland was an actor.
I did so in a few words, and concluded by presuming that this would make
no difference. I saw, however, by the restrained manner of the minister
and an unmistakable change in the expression of his face, that it would
make, at least to him, a great deal of difference. After some hesitation
he said he would be compelled, if Mr. Holland had been an actor, to
decline holding the service at his church.
"While his refusal to perform the funeral rites for my old friend would
have shocked, under ordinary circumstances, the fact that it was made in
the presence of the dead man's son was more painful than I can describe.
I turned to look at the youth and saw that his eyes were filled with
tears. He stood as one dazed with a blow just realized; as if he felt
the terrible injustice of a reproach upon the kind and loving father who
had often kissed him in his sleep and had taken him upon his lap when a
boy old enough to know the meaning of the words and told him to grow up
to be an honest lad. I was hurt for my young friend and indignant with
the man--too much so to reply, and as I rose to leave the room with a
mortification that I cannot remember to have felt before or since, I
paused at the door and said: 'Well, sir, in this dilemma, is there no
other church to which you can direct me from which my friend can be
buried?' He replied that 'There was a little church around the corner'
where I might get it done--to which I answered, 'Then if this be so, God
bless the Little Church Around the Corner,' and so I left the house."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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