The Making of an AmericanRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
General
The Making of an American
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August), 1849-1914
[Illustration: A Cobblestone paved Alley]
Narrow streams are apt to run deep. An incident which I set down in
justice to the uncompromising orthodoxy of that day, made a strong
impression on me. The two concerned in it were my uncle, a generous,
bright, even a brilliant man, but with no great bump of reverence,
and the deacon in the village church where they lived. He was the
exact opposite of my uncle: hard, unlovely, but deeply religious.
The two were neighbors and quarrelled about their fence-line. For
months they did not speak. On Sunday the deacon strode by on his way
to church, and my uncle, who stayed home, improved the opportunity
to point out of what stuff those Pharisees were made, much to his
own edification. Easter week came. In Denmark it is, or was, custom
to go to communion once a year, on Holy Thursday, if at no other
season, and, I might add, rarely at any other. On Wednesday night,
the deacon appeared, unbidden, at my uncle's door, craving an
interview. If a spectre had suddenly walked in, I do not suppose
he could have lost his wits more completely. He recovered them with
an effort, and bidding his guest welcome, led him courteously to
his office.
From that interview he came forth a changed man. Long years after
I heard the full story of it from my uncle's own lips. It was simple
enough. The deacon said that duty called him to the communion
table on the morrow, and that he could not reconcile it with his
conscience to go with hate toward his neighbor in his heart. Hence
he had come to tell him that he might have the line as he claimed
it. The spark struck fire. Then and there they made up and were warm
friends, though agreeing in nothing, till they died. "The faith,"
said my uncle in telling of it, "that could work in that way upon
such a nature, is not to be made light of." And he never did after
that. He died a believing man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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