On a cold day just before Christmas in 1870, two actors went to Rev. William Tufnell Sabine, rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Atonement at Madison Avenue & 28th Street in Manhattan. One of them (though Mr. Sabine did not recognize him) was the great Joseph Jefferson, who had been playing Rip Van Winkle since 1859 in various versions. He explained that his old friend George Holland had died; this was Mr. Holland's son Edward; they wished to arrange for the funeral. Then he added that Mr. Holland had been a well-known...
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