Honored

There is a little county seat in New Jersey called Mays Landing. It was 26 years ago that a Negro working his way through a western university had a nervous breakdown. So he gave up his education and went to Mays Landing where he opened a barber shop. Business was good. After a time he abandoned the barber shop to continue as a tradesman in tobacco, candy and other small goods. Nobody paid much attention to him. He was practically the only Negro in town. He did not go to Church, in fact he said he was not a Christian. He read a good deal privately, he had no friends, he "tended up to business." He invested in real estate.

Last week he died. His will was opened. He had left a small bequest to each of his two sisters in Nebraska. The bulk of his estate (about $100,000) he left to the county for the erection of a school gymnasium and playground. The town was shocked. The Negro's body was carried to the Court House and a public funeral was held. Three clergymen—Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic —spoke over his body.

Said the Presbyterian before he began to weep: "He was the best educated man, the most progressive business man and the ideal Christian of our community."

Said the Methodist: "We did not understand or fully appreciate him until now, and now we learn that the man who went humbly amongst us had been thinking all the time of our welfare."

Said the Catholic: "He has taught us tolerance. He must have wanted to leave behind not merely the legacy of money, but of this lesson of tolerance."

So they buried him and took the money. His name was John W. Underhill.