Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 221
instant that gave a fleeting glance at the face
of the dead. Some would have stood and shed
their tears upon the casket, but the procession
was kept moving, and no time was given for the
demonstration of grief. It was a wonderfully
impressive throng of people. There were whitehaired
old men, who had known Mr. Douglass
from the times when the struggle for race liberty
began in this country. Fathers and mothers
lifted little children to see the face of their
champion. Men and women wept, and upon all
there was the sober look of genuine sorrow for
the death of a benefactor. Here and there in
the long, persistent stream of humanity came
one bearing a flower, a fern leaf, or a bouquet,
which was silently laid upon the casket. Thousands
upon thousands thus looked for the last
time on the face of Frederick Douglass, greatest
of their race in this age."
At two o'clock the pastor, Rev. J. T. Jenifer,
D.D.,, reading the ritual, entered the church at
the head of the funeral procession. Then came
Mrs. Douglass on the arm of Lewis H. Douglass,
eldest son of the deceased, the other children,
with their families and immediate friends; the
honorary pall-bearers, Hon. B. K. Bruce, W. H. A.
Wormley, Hon. John R. Lynch, Hon. John F
Cook, E. C. Messer, Hon. P B. S. Pinchback, Dr.
C. B. Purvis, L. C. Bailey, John H. Brooks, J. H.