Hedden denied
them admission--saying with a good deal of piety, and with
even more common-sense: 'If God does not change his mind,
I'm sure no man can!'"
Apropos of the two houses occupied by Paine in our city Mr. van der
Weyde has pointed out most interestingly the striking and almost
miraculous way in which they have just escaped destruction. Paine's
"Providence" has seemed to stand guard over the places sacred to him,
just as it stood guard over his invaluable life. A dozen times 309
Bleecker Street and 59 Grove Street have almost gone in the relentless
constructive demolition of metropolitan growth and progress. But--they
have not gone yet!
I have said that the Grove Street house stood in an open lot, the
centre of a block at that time. Just after Paine's death a street was
cut through, called Cozine Street. Names were fleeting affairs in
early and fast-growing New York, and the one street from Cozine became
Columbia, then Burrows, and last of all Grove, which it remains today.
Here let us make a note of one more indignity which the officially
wise and virtuous ones were able to bestow upon their unassumingly
wise and virtuous victim.
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