Impoliteness In Church

A gentleman with rather a seedy overcoat on, some time ago attended a funeral in the fashionable Grace Church, New York city. He took rather a prominent seat, but the ceremonious sexton sent him off to a free pew near the door. A pompous little Lieutenant, wearing an elegant new uniform, was graciously shown to the eligible seat. On the congregation rising at the singing of a hymn, the seedy overcoat was partially removed, displaying the starred shoulder straps of a Major Gen. Urgent civilities were pressed on the distinguished officer – prayer books, offers of a better seat, &c.; but Gen. Banks quietly declined these flunkey attentions, and concluded his devotions in the free pew near the door, having egregiously mistaken Grace Church for a Christian institution, in the character of some of its frequenters.

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, January 18, 1863