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| 628 THE UNDEBQSOUND SAIL ROAD. though it was conducted with the plainness of form -which characterizes the society of which he was a member. There was no display, no organization, nothing whatever to distinguish this from ordinary funerals, except the outpouring of people of every creed, condition, and color, to follow the remains to their last resting-place. There was for an hour or two before the procession started, a constant living stream of humanity passing into the house, around the coffin, and out at another door, to take a last look at the face of the deceased, the features of which displayed a sweetness and serenity which occasioned general remark. A smile seemed to play upon the dead lips. Shortly after three o'clock the funeral procession started, the plain coffin, containing the remains, being carried by the stalwart arms of a delegatioa of colored men, and the family and friends of the deceased following in carriages with a large procession on foot, while the sidewalks along the line, from the house to the meeting-house, more than six squares, were densely crowded with spectators. The Friends' Meeting House was already crowded, except the place reserved for the relatives of the deceased, and, though probably fifteen hundred people crowded into the capacious building, a greater number still were unable to gain admission. The crowd inside was composed of all kinds and conditions of men, white and black, all uniting to do honor to the character and works of the deceased. The coffin was laid in the open space in front of the gallorj of ministers and elders, and the lid removed from it, after which there was a period of silence. Presently the venerable Lucretia Mott "arose and said that, seeing the gathering of the multitude there and thronging along the streets, as she had passed on her way to the meeting-hoiise, she had thought of the multitude which gathered after the death of Jesus, and of the remark of the Centurion, •who, seeing the people, said: " Certainly this was a righteous man." Looking at this multitude she would say surely this also was a righteous man. She was not one of those who thought it best always on occasions like this, to speak in eulogy of the dead, but this was not an ordinary case, and seeing the crowd that had gathered, and amongst it the large numbers of a once despised and persecuted race, for which the decease! had done so much, she felt that it was fit and proper that the good deeds of this man's life should be remembered, for the encouragement of others. She spoke of her long acquaintance with him, of his cheerful and sunny disposition, and his firm devotion to the truth as Lc saw it. Aaron M. Powell, of New York, was the next speaker, and he spoke at length with great earnestness of the life-long labor of his departed friend in the abolition cause, of his cheerfulness, his courage, and his perfect consecration to his work. |