22847	----	[Transcribers notes: A few images have been repaired where damage was obvious, such as specks on the original plate or voids in the printing process. A gamma correction of 0.8 has been applied to compensate for aging of the ink. The index has been moved from the back of the book to the front and linked to the named pages. The images shown are compressed to 600X400 to load quickly and fit on any computer screen. Click on the 1200 below the picture to see the 1200X800 image. Click on 4800 or the image itself to see the original 4800X3200 image and marvel at the detail of these 1893 photographs. Signs and flags are easily read. The only technical flaw is the long exposure to produce the crisp detail and depth of field. Occasionally the moving leg of a pedestrian is blurred. Find the man mowing the grass in plate 63. Click "Back" on your browser to return to this list. To see the full detail of the 4800X3200 image in your browser, turn off "Resize large images to fit" or "Enable automatic image resizing". Files names XXX.jpg are the original 600 DPI, XXX_25.jpg are 25% of the original (150 DPI), and XXX_12 are 12% (75 DPI). Chapter V, "The World's Columbian Exposition" from Volume V of "History of the United States" by E. Benjamin Andrews (1905) is included to provide a contemporary description of the Exposition. ] OFFICIAL VIEWS OF THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHY C. D. ARNOLD H. D. HIGINBOTHAM Official Photographers 1893 PRESS CHICAGO PHOTO-GRAVURE CO. INDEX. Scene Plate Administration Building 23, 25, 33 Agricultural Building 18 Arabian Village 112, 113, 114 Austrian Exhibit 9 Band Stand 26 Battle Ship "Illinois" 69 Belgian Exhibit. 10 Bell Telephone Exhibit 32 Blarney Castle 93 Brazilian Building 74 Cafe de la Marine 52 Cairo Street 103 Ceylon Building 79 Chocolate Pavilion 14 Choral Hall 42 Cliff Dwellers 90 Colonnade 20 Columbian Fountain 24, 28 Columbus' Caravels 85, 86 Court of Honor 15, 115 Dahomey Village 110 Donegal Castle. 95 Electricity Building 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 Ferris Wheel 91, 105 Fine Arts Palace 59, 60, 61 Fisheries Building 46, 53 French Exhibit 10 French Government Building 73 General Views 4, 16, 17, 19, 21. 27, 28, 33, 38, 44, 46, 48, 62, 66, 68, 97, 98 German Government Building 72 German Exhibits 8, 40, 87 German Village 99, 100 Government Buildings 54, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79 Guatemala Building 78 Hagenbeck's Arena 94 Hayti Building 75 Horticultural Building 43, 57 Illinois Building 47 Indian Pavilion 81 Indians' Wigwams, etc. 88, 89 Japanese Exhibits 49, 50, 51, 54, 55 Johore Bungalow 101 Krupp Building 87 Lapland Village 111 Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 21, 24, 56 Machinery Hall 22, 24, 25 Merchant Tailors Building 58 Midway Views 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 Mines Building 34, 35 Movable Sidewalk 83 New South Wales Building 75 New York Building 64 Norwegian Exhibit 11 Old Vienna 106, 107, 108, 109 Pennsylvania Building 65 Peristyle 12 Peristyle and Quadriga 13 Rabida Convent 84 Russian Exhibit 7 Samoan Village 96 Spanish Building 72 State Buildings 47, 63, 64, 65 Swedish Building 75 Terminal Station 36 Tiffany and Gorham Exhibits 6 Train of 1831 37 Transportation Building 39, 40, 41 Turkish Building 77 Turkish Village 102, 104 U. S. Government Building 54 U. S. Life Saving Station 67 Venezuela Building 76 Venetian Boat 35 Victoria House 71 Viking Ship 72 Whaleback at Pier 88 West Point Cadets Encampment 67 Woman's Building 45, 40 Wooded Island 52 World's Congress of Beauty 98 PLATE 1--MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING. PLATE 2--NORTHERN FACADE OF LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING. PLATE 3--LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING--WEST ENTRANCE. PLATE 4--BIRDS EYE VIEW LOOKING NORTHWEST FROM LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING. PLATE 5--SOUTHWEST PAVILION OF LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING. PLATE 6--TIFFANY AND GORHAM EXHIBITS--MANUFACTURES BUILDING. PLATE 7--RUSSIAN EXHIBIT--MANUFACTURES BUILDING. PLATE 8--ENTRANCE TO GERMAN EXHIBIT--LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING. PLATE 9--AUSTRIAN EXHIBIT--MANUFACTURES BUILDING. PLATE 10--FRENCH AND BELGIAN SECTIONS--MANUFACTURES BUILDING. PLATE 11--NORWEGIAN EXHIBIT--MANUFACTURES BUILDING. PLATE 12--THE PERISTYLE. PLATE 13--PERISTYLE AND QUADRIGA. PLATE 14--A CHOCOLATE PAVILION. PLATE 15--THE COURT OF HONOR. PLATE 16--A VIEW NEAR THE PERISTYLE. PLATE 17--LOOKING WEST FROM PERISTYLE. PLATE 18--AGRICULTURAL BUILDING. PLATE 19--GENERAL VIEW--LOOKING TOWARDS COLONNADE. PLATE 20--THE COLONNADE. PLATE 21--THE LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING FROM COLONNADE. PLATE 22--PALACE OF MECHANIC ARTS. PLATE 23--ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. PLATE 24--THE COLUMBIAN FOUNTAIN. PLATE 25--SECTION OF PALACE OF MECHANIC ARTS AND ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. PLATE 26--BAND STAND AT ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. PLATE 27--VIEW FROM ELECTRICITY BUILDING--LOOKING SOUTHEAST. PLATE 28--ELECTRICITY BUILDING AND COLUMBIAN FOUNTAIN. PLATE 29--ELECTRICITY BUILDING. PLATE 30--INTERIOR OF ELECTRICITY BUILDING. PLATE 31--BASE OF ELECTRIC TOWER.--ELECTRICITY BUILDING. PLATE 32--BELL TELEPHONE EXHIBIT--ELECTRICITY BUILDING. PLATE 33--ADMINISTRATION BUILDING FROM WOODED ISLAND. PLATE 34--MINES BUILDING--FROM THE NORTH. PLATE 35--VENETIAN BOAT ON THE LAGOON AT NORTH ENTRANCE OF MINES BUILDING. PLATE 36--THE TERMINAL STATION. PLATE 37--FIRST TRAIN IN STATE OF NEW YORK, RUN ON THE MOHAWK & HUDSON R. R., 1831. PLATE 38--LOOKING NORTH FROM TERMINAL STATION. PLATE 39--TRANSPORTATION BUILDING. PLATE 40--A GERMAN GATEWAY IN WROUGHT IRON--TRANSPORTATION BUILDING. PLATE 41--THE GOLDEN DOOR, TRANSPORTATION BUILDING. PLATE 42--CHORAL HALL. PLATE 43--HORTICULTURAL BUILDING FROM WOODED ISLAND. PLATE 44--LOOKING SOUTH FROM LOGGIA OF WOMAN'S BUILDING. PLATE 45--WOMAN'S BUILDING. PLATE 46--BRAZIL SWEDEN CAFE DE LA MARINE FISHERIES LOOKING EAST FROM WOMAN'S BUILDING. PLATE 47--THE ILLINOIS BUILDING. PLATE 48--LOOKING WEST FROM CAFE DE LA MARINE. PLATE 49--VIEW OF JAPANESE TEA GARDEN--FROM LAGOON. PLATE 50--THE JAPANESE TEA GARDEN. PLATE 51--JAPANESE BOAT ON THE LAGOON. PLATE 52--CAFE DE LA MARINE. PLATE 53--FISHERIES BUILDING FROM WOODED ISLAND. PLATE 54--UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING AND JAPANESE HO-O-DEN. PLATE 55--THE JAPANESE HO-O-DEN. PLATE 56--LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING FROM WOODED ISLAND. PLATE 57--WOODED ISLAND NEAR HORTICULTURAL BUILDING. PLATE 58--MERCHANT TAILORS BUILDING. PLATE 59--PALACE OF FINE ARTS. PLATE 60--PALACE OF FINE ARTS--SECTION OF SOUTH FRONT. PLATE 61--INTERIOR OF PALACE OF FINE ARTS. PLATE 62--FEEDING THE DUCKS. PLATE 63--AVENUE OF STATE BUILDINGS. PLATE 64--NEW YORK STATE BUILDING. PLATE 65--PENNSYLVANIA BUILDING. PLATE 66--LOOKING WEST FROM LIFE SAVING STATION. PLATE 67--UNITED STATES LIFE SAVING STATION. PLATE 68--ENCAMPMENT OF WEST POINT CADETS, GOVERNMENT PLAZA. PLATE 69--BATTLE SHIP "ILLINOIS." PLATE 70--THE VIKING SHIP. PLATE 71--GREAT BRITAIN, VICTORIA HOUSE. PLATE 72--BUILDINGS OF SPANISH AND GERMAN GOVERNMENTS. PLATE 73--GOVERNMENT BUILDING, FRANCE. PLATE 74--THE BRAZILIAN BUILDING. PLATE 75--GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, SWEDEN, HAYTI AND NEW SOUTH WALES. PLATE 76--GOVERNMENT BUILDING, VENEZUELA. PLATE 77--TURKISH BUILDING. PLATE 78--GUATEMALA BUILDING. PLATE 79--THE CEYLON BUILDING. PLATE 80--ON THE BEACH--EAST OF MANUFACTURES BUILDING. PLATE 81--THE INDIAN PAVILION. PLATE 82--WHALEBACK AT EXPOSITION PIER. PLATE 83--THE MOVING SIDEWALK ON PIER. PLATE 84--CONVENT OF LA RABIDA. PLATE 85--THE SANTA MARIA. PLATE 86--THE NINA AND PINTA. PLATE 87--THE KRUPP BUILDING. PLATE 88--BIRCHBARK WIGWAMS OF PENOBSCOT INDIANS. PLATE 89--HOUSES AND TOTEM POLES OF ALASKAN INDIANS. PLATE 90--THE CLIFF DWELLERS. PLATE 91--THE FERRIS WHEEL. PLATE 92--WORLD'S CONGRESS OF BEAUTY, ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 93--BLARNEY CASTLE, ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 94--HAGENBECK'S ARENA--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 95--DONEGAL CASTLE, ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 96--THE SAMOAN VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 97--THE MIDWAY, LOOKING WEST. PLATE 98--THE MIDWAY, FROM FERRIS WHEEL, LOOKING EAST. PLATE 99--ENTRANCE TO THE GERMAN VILLAGE, ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 100--GERMAN VILLAGE--MIDWAY. PLATE 101--THE JOHORE BUNGALOW--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 102--IN THE TURKISH BAZAAR. PLATE 103--A MINARET IN THE CAIRO STREET--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 104--TURKISH LADIES IN TURKISH VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 105--FERRIS WHEEL--FROM THE WEST. PLATE 106--ENTRANCE TO OLD VIENNA--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 107--SAUSAGE VENDER--OLD VIENNA. PLATE 108--OLD VIENNA--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 109--EAST COURT IN OLD VIENNA. PLATE 110--DAHOMEY VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 111--THE LAPLAND VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 112--TYPES OF THE ARABIAN VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 113--SCENE AT ARABIAN VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 114--IN THE ARABIAN VILLAGE--ON THE MIDWAY. PLATE 115--COURT OF HONOR FROM ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. End of OFFICIAL VIEWS OF THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION Excerpt from "History of the United States". CHAPTER V. THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION [Illustration: Parade.] Columbian Celebration, New York, April 28, 1893. Parade passing Fifth Avenue Hotel. The thought of celebrating by a world's fair the third centennial of Columbus's immortal deed anticipated the anniversary by several years. Congress organized the exposition so early as 1890, fixing Chicago as its seat. That city was commodious, central, typically American. A National Commission was appointed; also an Executive Committee, a Board of Reference and Control, a Chicago Local Board, and a Board of Lady Managers. The task of preparation was herculean. Jackson Park had to be changed from a dreary lakeside swamp into a lovely city, with roads, lawns, groves and flowers, canals, lagoons and bridges, a dozen palaces, and ten score other edifices. An army of workmen, also fire, police, ambulance, hospital, and miscellaneous service was organized. Wednesday, October 21 (Old Style, October 12), 1892, was observed as Columbus Day, marking the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery. A reception was held in the Chicago Auditorium, followed by dedication of the buildings and grounds at Jackson Park and an award of medals to artists and architects. Many cities held corresponding observances. New York chose October 12th for the anniversary. On April 26-28, 1893, again, the eastern metropolis was enlivened by grand parades honoring Columbus. In the naval display, April 22d, thirty-five war ships and more than 10,000 men of divers flags, took part. [Illustration: Three small ships.] Pinta, Santa Maria, Nina, lying in the North River, New York. The caravels which crossed from Spain to be present at the World's Fair at Chicago. Between Columbus Day and the opening of the Exposition came the presidential election of 1892. Ex-President Cleveland had been nominated on the first ballot, in spite of the Hill delegation sent from his home State to oppose. Harrison, too, had overcome Platt, Hill's Republican counterpart in New York, and in Pennsylvania had preferred John Wanamaker to Quay. But Harrison was not "magnetic" like Blaine. With what politicians call the "boy" element of a party, he was especially weak. Stalwarts complained that he was ready to profit by their services, but abandoned them under fire. The circumstances connected with the civil service that so told against Cleveland four years before, now hurt Harrison equally. Though no doubt sincerely favoring reform, he had, like his predecessor, succumbed to the machine in more than one instance. The campaign was conducted in good humor and without personalities. Owing to Australian voting and to a more sensitive public opinion, the election was much purer than that of 1888. The Republicans defended McKinley protection, boasting of it as sure, among other things, to transfer the tin industry from Wales to America. Free sugar was also made prominent. Some cleavage was now manifest between East and West upon the tariff issue. In the West "reciprocity" was the Republican slogan; in the East, "protection." Near the Atlantic, Democrats contented themselves with advocacy of "freer raw materials "; those by the Mississippi denounced "Republican protection" as fraud and robbery. If the platform gave color to the charge that Democrats wished "British free trade," Mr. Cleveland's letter of acceptance was certainly conservative. Populism, emphasizing State aid to industry, particularly in behalf of the agricultural class, made great gains in the election. General Weaver was its presidential nominee. In Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and Wyoming most Democrats voted for him. Partial fusion of the sort prevailed also in North Dakota, Nevada, Minnesota, and Oregon. Weaver carried all these States save the two last named. In Louisiana and Alabama Republicans fused with Populists. The Tillman movement in South Carolina, nominally Democratic, was akin to Populism, but was complicated with the color question, and later with novel liquor legislation. It was a revolt of the ordinary whites from the traditional dominance of the aristocracy. In Alabama a similar movement, led by Reuben F. Kolb, was defeated, as he thought, by vicious manipulation of votes in the Black Belt. [Illustration: Large building in the background, foot bridge in the foreground.] The Manufactures and liberal Arts Building, seen from the southwest. Of the total four hundred and forty-four electoral votes Cleveland received two hundred and seventy-seven, a plurality of one hundred and thirty-two. The Senate now held forty-four Democrats, thirty-seven Republicans, and four Populists; the House two hundred and sixteen Democrats, one hundred and twenty-five Republicans, and eleven Populists. Early on the opening day of the Exposition, May 1, 1893, the Chief Magistrate of the nation sat beside Columbus's descendant, the Duke of Veragua. Patient multitudes were waiting for the gates of Jackson Park to swing. "It only remains for you, Mr. President," said the Director-General, concluding his address, "if in your opinion the Exposition here presented is commensurate in dignity with what the world should expect of our great country, to direct that it shall be opened to the public. When you touch this magic key the ponderous machinery will start in its revolutions and the activity of the Exposition will begin." After a brief response Mr. Cleveland laid his finger on the key. A tumult of applause mingled with the jubilant melody of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." Myriad wheels revolved, waters gushed and sparkled, bells pealed and artillery thundered, while flags and gonfalons fluttered forth. The Exposition formed a huge quadrilateral upon the westerly shore of Lake Michigan, from whose waters one passed by the North Inlet into the North Pond, or by the South Inlet into the South Pond. These united with the central Grand Basin in the peerless Court of Honor. The grounds and buildings were of surpassing magnitude and splendor. Interesting but simple features were the village of States, the Nations' tabernacles, lying almost under the guns of the facsimile battleship Illinois, and the pigmy caravels, Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, named and modelled after those that bore Columbus to the New World. These, like their originals, had fared from Spain across the Atlantic, and then had come by the St, Lawrence and the Lakes, without portage, to their moorings at Chicago. [Illustration: Large domed building.] Horticultural Building, with Illinois Building in the background. Near the centre of the ground stood the Government Building, with a ready-made look out of keeping with the other architecture. Critics declared it the only discordant note in the symphony, Looking from the Illinois Building across the North pond, one saw the Art Palace, of pure Ionic style, perfectly proportioned, restful to view, contesting with the Administration Building for the architectural laurels of the Fair. South of the Illinois Building rose the Woman's Building, and next Horticultural Hall, with dome high enough to shelter the tallest palms. The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, of magnificent proportions, did not tyrannize over its neighbors, though thrice the size of St. Peter's at Rome, and able easily to have sheltered the Vendome Column. It was severely classical, with a long perspective of arches, broken only at the corners and in the centre by portals fit to immortalize Alexander's triumphs. The artistic jewel of the Exposition was the "Court of Honor." Down the Grand Basin you saw the noble statue of the Republic, in dazzling gold, with the peristyle beyond, a forest of columns surmounted by the Columbus quadriga. On the right hand stood the Agricultural Building, upon whose summit the "Diana" of Augustus St. Gaudens had alighted. To the left To the left stood the enormous Hall of Manufactures. Looking from the peristyle the eye met the Administration Building, a rare exemplification of the French school, the dome resembling that of the Hotel des lnvalides in Paris. [Illustration: Many pedestrians surrounded by large classical building.] A view toward the Peristyle from Machinery Hall. A most unique conception was the Cold Storage Building, where a hundred tons at ice were made daily. Save for the entrance, flanked by windows, and the fifth floor, designed for an ice skating rink, its walls were blank. Four corner towers set off the fifth, which rose from the centre sheer to a height of 225 feet. The cheering coolness of this building was destined not to last. Early in the afternoon of July 10th flames burst out from the top of the central tower. Delaying his departure until he had provided against explosion, the brave engineer barely saved his life. Firemen were soon on hand. Sixteen of them forthwith made their way to the balcony near the blazing summit. Suddenly their retreat was cut off by a burst of fire from the base of the tower. The rope and hose parted and precipitated a number who were sliding back to the roof. Others leaped from the colossal torch. In an instant, it seemed, the whole pyre was swathed in flames. As it toppled, the last wretched form was seen to poise and plunge with it into the glowing abyss. The Fisheries Building received much attention. Its pillars were twined with processions of aquatic creatures and surmounted by capitals quaintly resembling lobster-pots. Its balustrades were supported by small fishy caryatids. If wonder fatigued the visitor, he reached sequestered shade and quiet upon the Wooded Island, where nearly every variety of American tree and shrub might be seen. The Government's displays were of extreme interest. The War Department exhibits showed our superiority in heavy ordnance, likewise that of Europe in small arms. A first-class post-office was operated on the grounds. A combination postal car, manned by the most expert sorters and operators, interested vast crowds. Close by was an ancient mail coach once actually captured by the Indians, with effigies of the pony express formerly so familiar on the Western plains, of a mail sledge drawn by dogs, and of a mail carrier mounted on a bicycle. Models of a quaint little Mississippi mail steamer and of the ocean steamer Paris stood side by side. [Illustration: Two large domed buildings.] The Administration Building, seen from the Agricultural Building. Swarms visited the Midway Plaisance, a long avenue out from the fair grounds proper, lined with shows. Here were villages transported from the ends of the earth, animal shows, theatres, and bazaars. Cairo Street boasted 2,250,000 visitors, and the Hagenbeck Circus over 2,000,000. The chief feature was the Ferris Wheel, described in engineering terms as a cantilever bridge wrought around two enormous bicycle wheels. The axle, supported upon steel pyramids, alone weighed more than a locomotive. In cars strung upon its periphery passengers were swung from the ground far above the highest buildings. [Illustration: Several hundred guests.] Midway Plaisance, World's Fair, Chicago. Facilitating passenger transportation to and from the Fair remarkable railway achievements were made. One train from New York to Chicago covered over 48 miles an hour, including stops. In preparation for the event the Illinois Central raised its tracks for two and a half miles over thirteen city streets, built 300 special cars, and erected many new stations. These improvements cost over $2,000,000. The Fair increased Illinois Central traffic over 200 per cent. Save the Art Building, the structures at the Fair were designed to be temporary, and they were superfluous when the occasion which called them into being had passed. The question of disposing of them was summarily solved. One day some boys playing near the Terminal Station saw a sinister leer of flame inside. A high wind soon blew a conflagration, which enveloped the structures, leaving next day naught but ashes, tortured iron work, and here and there an arch, to tell of the regal White City that had been. [Illustration: Smoke pouring from a large building.] Electricity Building. Mines and Mining Building. The Burning of the White City. The financial backers of the Fair showed no mercenary temper. The architects, too, worked with public spirit and zeal which money never could have elicited. Notwithstanding the World's Fair was not financially a "success," this was rather to the credit of its unstinted magnificence than to the want of public appreciation. The paid admissions were over 21,000,000, a daily average of 120,000. The gross attendance exceeded by nearly a million the number at the Paris Exposition of 1889 for the corresponding period, though rather more than half a million below the total at the French capital. The monthly average at Chicago increased from 1,000,000 at first to 7,000,000 in October. The crowd was typical of the best side of American life; orderly, good-natured, intelligent, sober. The grounds were clean, and there was no ruffianism. Of the $32,988 worth of property reported stolen, $31,875 was recovered and restored. 
39639	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 39639-h.htm or 39639-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39639/39639-h/39639-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39639/39639-h.zip) PICTURESQUE WORLD'S FAIR An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views Published with the Endorsement and Approval of George R. Davis, Director-General of the World's Columbian Exposition. Comprising Illustrations of the Greatest Features of The World's Columbian Exposition and Midway Plaisance Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scenic and Ethnological. The Magnificent Water and Landscape Effects and Charming Vistas Made Realistic by Authentic Reproduction in All of the Colors of Nature and Art. Under the direction of the celebrated Landscape Artist, John R. Key. From Photographs made by authority of the Director-General, for the United States Government, and by Special Artists Employed Expressly for this work. Each View Accompanied by a Graphic and Accurate Description. Published by W. B. Conkey Company, Official Publishers of the World's Columbian Exposition Catalogue, etc. Chicago Copyright, 1894. W. B. Conkey Company. All Rights Reserved. This work being fully protected by copyright, any infringement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. INTRODUCTION. The publishers of "Picturesque World's Fair," in presenting these exquisite views, feel justified in congratulating themselves upon the success that has attended their efforts to place within the reach of all classes of people an artistic realistic reproduction of the great Exposition. Not only do the publishers feel gratulation in their own behalf, but they believe that through the perfection of the printers' art, by means of the application of labor-saving machinery, and through the enterprise of the progressive press of the United States, a work so rare, so interesting, so accurate and so invaluable, at so insignificant an expense, will be a benefaction to all classes of people. That the handsomely colored views contained in this volume, true in every respect to the design of the decorator and the unrivaled charm of nature, have received the most enthusiastic indorsement of the Director-General, the Executive Officer of the Exposition, who from the beginning to the close was its center figure and its controlling and guiding force, affords the publishers little opportunity for comment upon the pictorial features of this work. No production of a similar character has received the sanction of the Director-General; no enterprise of a contemporaneous period has received a higher compliment. Accompanying the views will be found a brief but vivid description of the buildings; their contents and the environments, together with much condensed valuable sympathetic information. In fact, it has been the intention of the publishers to present to the public a review and pictorial presentation of the great Fair that will rejoice and refresh those who had the good fortune to be among its visitors, and impart satisfactory reproduction in line and letter, that will in a great measure compensate those whose unavoidable absence would perhaps without this work have debarred them from an intimate and intelligent appreciation of the Exposition's manifold wonders. Standing upon the little Spanish Caravel, the Santa Maria, so small a craft as to seem a vessel in miniature, and looking above, about and beyond the mooring, it was impossible to realize that the grandeur, the brilliancy and the sweeping proportions of the Columbian Exposition were inspired and produced by the commemoration of the great event this little ship, by the guiding hand of the great Navigator, was the instrumentality in achieving. As the success of the voyage of a Genoese sailor marked the era of endless and boundless advance of civilization, so the commemorative Exposition will for all time stand as an epochful event, glorious in its effect upon this generation, and momentous in its influence upon those to follow. As these beautiful and expressive illustrations set forth the greatness of the Exposition in the full blast of achievement, they must call into grateful remembrance the thousands who in humble, but no half-hearted way have done their share in the mighty task of its preparation; the tiller of the soil who sent from every clime the yellow grain; the nurserymen who from every sunny slope have given the richest product of the tree and vine; the miner in every mountain who has wrested tribute from the treasure vaults of nature to delight the wondering visitor. The worker in the forest; the worker in the mill who have sent the product of the axe and the loom; the fisherman who seined and hooked in the depths of the sea; the inventor, the mechanic, the artisan and artist, all with incomparable energy and skill gave their full measure to this colossal testimonial of the prodigality of nature and the genius of mankind. Let us be ever mindful, too, of the great influences of and for good that have found their source and inspiration in this great Exposition. The fellowship and sympathy established within these grounds among all people, of all classes, from all lands, are indeed significant of the day not far distant when peace and good-will throughout all the world shall be as common a portion of every man's heritage as the air he breathes. In how far the great truths to be drawn from this Fair may influence the future of other people, either in an individual or political sense, it would be difficult to hazard an opinion. Doubtless, too, within the life of the present generation, the uplifting influence of this Exposition will become manifest among many, and the broadening civilization growing from it be emphatically felt in every land. To our own homogeneous people, the good has already begun. They have caught the inspiration from this monument of art and industry, and as they extend it over the face of this progressive and ambitious country enlightenment will be spread broadcast and a yet higher standard of knowledge and beauty be established among our people. [Illustration: THE COURT OF HONOR BY MOONLIGHT.] THE COURT OF HONOR BY MOONLIGHT.--Of all the magnificent spectacles the Columbian Exposition afforded the view of the Court of Honor by moonlight seems, by common consent, to be accorded the first place. The effect of wonderful lights upon the glorious white buildings and on the waters, the electric flashes through the air, the sky scene made more beautiful, if possible, by the addition of the beauties below, the passage of gondolas and launches with their merry parties slipping through light and shade, the gleaming and shifting splendor of the fountains, the sensuous music filling the air, all combined to make such a scene one unsurpassable and likely to be unforgotten. The view given above is from the east end of the Grand Basin with the statue of The Republic in the immediate foreground and the Administration Building in the distance. Above a full moon with a few fleecy clouds which neither obscure her nor the myriads of stars add to the charms of the particular night. From the Manufactures Building on the right a blaze of electric glory makes wonderful lights and shades upon the Agricultural Building to the south and brings out statuary and architectural features in white relief. At the west end of the basin the fountains are in full play and their bright colors are but varied by the band of white light between. The water lies like a silken carpet. It is a dream picture--no other term will fit it--and it is true to the scene as it appeared. A wonderful thing was the Court of Honor at night, something hardly even imagined before, unless as a picture in a fairy tale or in some oriental story. But it was a reality. [Illustration: THE MINING BUILDING.] THE MINING BUILDING.--This imposing facade illustrates the massive and graceful proportions of the Mining Building. The grand central arch, one hundred feet high, and the domed pavilions at either corner are supported by heavy pilasters of granitoid blocks, suggestive of great solidity. The lofty bays, the recessed balcony with pillared support, the elaborate frieze, the architectural reliefs, the bannered flagstaffs, give the finishing touch of beauty to simple strength. The great floor space is seven hundred by three hundred and fifty feet m area including a space of five and one-half acres. The dome of Administration, in the rear, and the towers of Electricity to the left, give an exalted sky relief and indicate the relation of this to the other edifices of the Central court. At the left appears the verdure of the water-bound and wooded islands--the centerpiece of the Exposition landscape. The continuous fringe of green at the water's edge is broken by the pedestals of the statuary in the immediate foreground. The projecting cornice above the horse is all that is visible of the Golden Door to the Transportation Building. The equestrian groups are fitting accessories of the scene. Their spirited energy and the expressive, life-like attitudes of horses and riders won the praise of eminent sculptors. The frontier and mountain life they represent is intimately associated with the development of the industry to which the great edifice in front, with its abundant wealth of mineral, ore and metal is dedicated. [Illustration: THE GOLDEN DOOR.] THE GOLDEN DOOR.--The main portal of the Transportation Building, because of its strikingly attractive features both of design and coloring, became known as "The Golden Door," and certainly deserved the admiring title given it by the public. The Transportation Building, as a whole, was a complete departure in style and hue from the great mass of structures which gave the White City its name, and its greatest entrance was its most novel and beautiful part. It was, beyond question, the chief illustration at the World's Fair of what can be done in architecture by combining exquisite reliefs with oriental richness of painting, though in the decoration of entrances architects and artists had lavished all their genius and invention. The doorway is an arch, or, more properly speaking, a quintuple arch, the five blending into a whole elaborately ornamented and embellished with delicate bas-reliefs. The combined arches form a semi-circular environment for a symbolical mural painting in the background and just above the entrance proper. The impression is thus produced of a picture gorgeously framed, and this effect is further enhanced by a square, treated in a similar manner to the arches, and joining the peripheries of the exterior one. This remarkable portal was painted a pea-green and the bas-relief was overlaid with silver leaf, the result being something dazzling in the extreme. Not merely because of its richness and originality, but because of the lesson it taught by comparison with less florid though grander styles the Golden Doorway was certainly among the most notable architectural features shown. [Illustration: CHICAGO DAY AT THE EXPOSITION, OCTOBER 9, 1893.] On the night of October 9, 1871, the City of Chicago was destroyed by fire, the devastation being so great as to excite the sympathy of the whole civilized world. Where had been a flourishing city was but a great expanse of smoking ruins. So complete was the destruction that the task of rebuilding seemed an impossible one. It was the greatest fire in history. October 9, 1893, was "Chicago Day" at the World's Columbian Exposition, the day selected to do honor to the city in which the great Fair was held. The view above given, showing a part of the throng in the Court of Honor, tells a portion of the story. More than seven hundred and fifty-one thousand people assembled on the grounds! It was the greatest gathering in history. [Illustration: ON THE WOODED ISLAND.] ON THE WOODED ISLAND.--Without the Wooded Island, with its touch of the country, its wonderful flowers and shrubbery and winding walks, and cosy nooks and quaint Japanese houses of the past, the Fair would have lacked one of its most refreshing and interesting features. Charming alike to the naturalist, the couples who liked to wander by themselves, the student or the mere lover of the beautiful, was the island which added such variety to the scenery of the vast inclosure. The flora, transplanted from a thousand different and distant places, seemed to thrive here as at home, and nature seemed assisting man to make the whole as nearly a perfect thing as possible. And man certainly did his own part exceedingly well. He utilized what nature gave to the greatest advantage and added numerous improvements of his own which were in admirable taste. The view which appears above is but a bit, just the extreme southern end of the island where it is connected with the mainland by a tasteful bridge. There appears the broad way leading up to the Administration Building directly in front, with the Electricity Building showing partly on the left and a corner of the Mining Building on the right. The very spirit of the island's atmosphere is caught in the illustration, the flowers, the shrubbery, the sturdy trees and the fairy lamps which gave such brilliancy to the night scene, are all depicted just as they were. The spot was one of the most charming on the Island. [Illustration: THE ART PALACE.] THE ART PALACE.--No structure among the many which made up the White City commanded more universal admiration than did the Art Palace, wherein were displayed the triumphs of artists from all over the world. It was a fitting receptacle for its marvelous displays. The style of architecture adapted in the building was of the Grecian-Ionic order and the blending and adaptation of what was most perfect in the past was such as to secure an effect, if not in the exact sense original, at least of great harmony and grandeur. The area of the main structure is three hundred and twenty by five hundred feet. It is intersected by a nave with a transept one hundred feet wide and seventy feet high, and a central dome sixty feet wide and one hundred feet high surmounted by a winged figure of Victory. The main structure is surrounded by a gallery forty feet in width. It has two annexes one hundred and twenty by two hundred feet in dimensions, each with exterior colonnades. Because of the enormous value of the statues and paintings exhibited--the buildings' contents were estimated to be worth five million dollars--it was necessary to make the Art Palace fire-proof and it was so built, at a cost of six hundred thousand dollars. It so remains a permanent structure and is now occupied by the Field Columbian Museum, one of the great Fair's heritages to the public. The view of the building from the lagoon on the south, from the broad highway on the north and the areas of lawn in other directions are such as to afford a just idea of its excelling beauty. It stands today without peer a triumph of architecture. [Illustration: THE MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING.] THE MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING.--Ranking in popular estimation as one of the greatest wonders of the Fair, the Manufactures Building compelled the astonishment and admiration of the artists and architects of the world as well. The largest building in area ever erected under one roof it has yet been recognized as a triumph artistically not less than as a marvel of daring in construction. In describing the mammoth structure, which rises in the illustration above and beyond the Wooded Island, figures become almost poetry, so striking are they in character. The building covers an area of nearly thirty-two acres, and the interior, with the galleries, had an exhibiting space of nearly forty-four acres The height of the roof truss over the central line was two hundred and twelve feet nine inches, and its span three hundred and fifty-four feet in the clear. The building was four times as large as the old Roman Colosseum, which seated eighty thousand people, and its great central hall, a single room without a supporting pillar, could seat three hundred thousand persons. The height of the exterior walls was sixty-six feet and the grand entrances in each facade are eighty feet in height by forty in width. The structure was of the Corinthian order of architecture, was rectangular in form, and the classic severity of its style was relieved by the corner pavilions and elaborate and appropriate ornamentation. Its cost was $1,700,000 and 17,000,000 feet of lumber, 12,000,000 pounds of steel and 2,000,000 pounds of iron were used in its construction. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF MANUFACTURES BUILDING.] INTERIOR OF MANUFACTURES BUILDING.--Very like a great city by itself was the interior of the Manufactures Building, with its forty-four acres of exhibiting space--space which was not enough, great as it was for what the world demanded, with its broad avenues, its scores and scores of galleries, its wonderful exhibits and its teeming population. Never under one roof before was collected such an enormous display of what human industry and ingenuity can produce; never was made such an exhibition of what has been accomplished in productive art. The mammoth proportions of the building on the outside impressed all beholders but hardly prepared them for the effect upon them when within. It was many things in one; a magnificent showing of the beautiful and useful, a city doing business, a promenade for hundreds of thousands, a great entity which seemed almost as if separate from the remainder of the Exposition. The view given is from the height of the gallery and down Columbia avenue, the great thoroughfare, fifty feet in width, extending through the building north and south being so designated. An avenue of equal width crossed the center of the structure from east to west. In the foreground may be seen displays from Switzerland, Norway, Denmark Canada, Great Britain, France and Belgium. In the distance just in the center of the building may be seen the great clock, so that the view is really one of half the extent of Columbia avenue, and the general effect of the great central arch of the building the throngs are lacking, this admirable view being taken in the early morning. [Illustration: GRAND ARCH OF THE PERISTYLE.] GRAND ARCH OF THE PERISTYLE.--In the memory of millions of people the grand colonnade or Peristyle, which reared itself between the great eastern basin and Lake Michigan, will remain as the most beautiful inanimate object upon which their eyes ever rested. The Peristyle was in the purest Phidian style, was five hundred feet in length and fifty feet in height, connecting the Casino and Music Hall. The Corinthian columns represented the different States and Territories. Along the top of the Peristyle appeared eighty-five allegorical figures all in heroic proportions. At the center the colonnade was broken by a vast triumphal arch supporting the famous group known as the Columbus Quadriga. Here the Discoverer was represented in a chariot drawn by four horses led by women, with heralds riding beside them. Columbus leaned on a jeweled sword, his head was thrown back, and the expression on his face was that of a man who had conquered all obstacles at last. The figure was fourteen feet in height. The whole group was full of life and vigor. Well executed groups on the pedestals of the arch represented the genius of Navigation. The feature was but one of many of the glorious Peristyle, one of the artistic triumphs of the Fair. Its cost was two hundred thousand dollars. On the evening of January 8, 1894, the Casino, Music Hall and the entire Peristyle were totally destroyed by fire. Of the host who witnessed the scene hundreds were in tears at the destruction of a thing so majestic and beautiful. [Illustration: THE ELECTRIC FOUNTAINS. THE ELECTRIC FOUNTAINS.--The Electric Fountains, one on each side of the famous Macmonnies Fountain, at the west end of the Court of Honor, added greatly to the beauty of the night scene, and always when playing attracted thousands to their vicinity. When quiescent, all that could be seen of the fountains was the multitude of pipes arranged within the rocky basin. At night, however, there came a sudden activity, and from the pipes leaped high in the air great streams of water glittering with the hues of the rainbow and falling back in a cataract to the basin where the turbulent mass of color bubbled and tossed and overflowed with dazzling effect. The fountains exceeded in magnitude and beauty anything of the sort ever constructed, the basins being sixty feet in diameter and pierced for three hundred and four jets, the water from which ascended to a height of one hundred and fifty feet. The brilliant effects were produced by concealed lights, the charm of mystery being thus added to the illusion. The entire apparatus was controlled by electric signals from the dome of Machinery Hall, where the different lights were applied and the transmission from one to another controlled at will. The illumination was by thirty-eight arc lights of one hundred amperes, each requiring nearly one thousand horse-power in operation. The jets were arranged in circles and the effect was the climax of success for this beautiful modern device. [Illustration: THE GERMAN BUILDING.] THE GERMAN BUILDING.--Making a fine showing in nearly all departments of the Columbian Exposition the German Empire excelled in its official building. Facing the lake, where its character could be fully appreciated, the structure compelled the unstinted admiration of the visiting world. The ground area occupied was one hundred and fifty by one hundred and seventy-five feet and the cupola rose to the height of one hundred and fifty feet, the total cost of the building being a quarter of a million dollars; but it was not its dimensions nor cost, but the novelty and charm of its form and coloring which attracted attention. It was a poetical edifice, one telling, in a way, the story of the Fatherland, with a richness of coloring and ornament which was as historically and artistically correct as it was picturesque. In the belfry was a chime of bells, with the sweet sounds of which visitors to the Fair became familiar, and which, after the Exposition's close, were returned to the Church of Mercy, in Berlin. The main portion of the interior was in simulation of a chapel, its furnishings corresponding with the idea, while apart from this a host of historical and charming objects increased the merit of the interior. There were valuable displays of books, and the visitor could gain in this building information of the greatest interest. The structure was solidly built and may remain a permanent feature of the park. [Illustration: A VIEW IN MIDWAY PLAISANCE.] A VIEW IN MIDWAY PLAISANCE.--A city in itself was the Midway, picturesque certainly, and educational as well, however meretricious some of its droll features. It was the playground of the multitude and they learned much while they ate, drank, stared and were merry. The view above presented is from a point about the center of the west half of the Plaisance and a little west of the Ferris Wheel. On the right appear the fronts of Old Vienna and on the left the entrance to the Chinese Village and Theatre, the difference in styles of architecture affording a striking contrast. Still further on the left rises the front of the panorama of the volcano of Kilaueau, and in the remote distance may be dimly perceived the domes of the great buildings of the Exposition proper. The particular locality represented in this illustration was one exceedingly popular with visitors, and the number of people appearing in the broad thoroughfare at the time the photograph was taken is by no means up to the standard of crowded days at the Fair. The three or four attractions here grouped together always commanded their laughing great constituency. From Pekin to Vienna is a far cry, and from thence into space on the wings of an American inventor is another remarkable bit of travel, but hundreds of thousands of people made the journey within the limit of an hour or so. The view, it need not be said to the observer, is an admirable one, the familiar fronts being reproduced with a fidelity which speaks for itself. [Illustration: STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC.] STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC.--The one figure intended to be symbolical and representative of the Fair, as a whole, was the gigantic statue of The Republic, at the eastern end of the waterway in the Court of Honor. A figure, the total height of which from the water was one hundred feet, it stood grand, majestic and kindly, a fitting idealization of the nation, the world's hostess for the time. The statue proper was sixty-five feet in height above the massive pedestal and was the largest ever made in America. It was modeled after the Phidian style, with simple, flowing garments, the bust covered with an armored shield and arms upraised, one hand upholding a globe upon which was perched an eagle, indicative of America's invitation to the world; the other sustaining a staff surmounted by a liberty cap. The arms were bare, the hair was arranged after the Grecian fashion and the head was crowned with laurel. The distance from the chin to the top of the head was fifteen feet, and the arms were thirty feet long. The interior of the statue was ascended by a stairway, and the man who attended to the electric light, by which the crown was illuminated, climbed up a ladder through the neck. The magnificent figure was gilded and was a striking object in its commanding position. It became popularly known as "The Golden Statue." 
14910	----	ELSIE AT THE WORLD'S FAIR by MARTHA FINLEY Author of "The Elsie Books," "The Mildred Books," _Wanted, A Pedigree_, etc., etc. New York Dodd, Mead & Company Publishers 1894 NOTE--The author desires to acknowledge her indebtedness to the "_Chicago Record's_ History of the World's Fair," "The Historical Fine Art Series," published by H.S. Smith and C.R. Graham, for Historical Publishing Company, Philadelphia, and the "_World's_ Fine Art Series," published by N.D. Thompson Publishing Company, St. Louis, Mo., for descriptions and statistics in regard to the White City and its exhibits. CHAPTER I. Hugh Lilburn was very urgent with his betrothed for a speedy marriage, pleading that as her brother had robbed him and his father of their expected housekeeper--his cousin Marian--he could not long do without the wife who was to supply her place. Her sisters, Isadore and Virginia, who had come up from the far South to be present at the ceremony, joined with him in his plea for haste. They wanted to see her in her own home, they said, and that without remaining too long away from theirs. Ella finally yielded to their wishes so far as to complete her preparations within a month after the home-coming from the North. The wedding was a really brilliant affair, and followed up by parties given by the different members of the family connection; but no bridal trip was taken, neither bride nor groom caring for it, and Hugh's business requiring his presence at home. A few weeks later Calhoun Conly went North for his bride. Some festivities followed his return; then all settled down for the winter, Harold and Herbert Travilla taking up their medical studies with Dr. Conly, and Captain Raymond's pupils resuming such of their lessons as had been dropped for the time, though the wedding festivities had been allowed to interfere but little with them, as--with the exception of Marian, now Mrs. Conly--they were considered too young to attend the parties. A matter of regret to none of them except Rosie Travilla and Lucilla Raymond, and even they, though they would have been glad to be permitted to go, made no remonstrance or complaint, but submitted cheerfully to the decision of their elders. A busy, happy winter and spring followed, bringing no unusual event to any branch of the family. Max was frequently heard from, his father continuing to send him daily letters, several of which would be replied to together by one from the lad--always frank, candid, and affectionate, sometimes expressing a great longing for a sight of home and the dear ones there. After receiving such a letter the captain was very apt to pay a flying visit to the Academy, in case there were no special reasons for remaining closely at home, sometimes going alone, at others taking one or more members of the family with him; his wife, if she could make it convenient to go, or one or more of his daughters, by whom the little trip and the sight of their brother were esteemed a great reward for good conduct and perfect recitations. Both they and the lad himself looked forward with ardent desire and joyous anticipation to the June commencement, after which would begin the one long holiday Max would have during the six years of his course at the Academy. The holidays for the home pupils began a day or two earlier, and a merry party, including, besides the captain and his immediate family, the rest of his pupils, with Grandma Elsie, her father and his wife, boarded the _Dolphin_ and set sail for Annapolis to attend the commencement at the Naval Academy. The weather was delightful, and all greatly enjoyed the little trip. On their arrival they found Max well and in fine spirits. The reports of both his studies and conduct were all that could be desired, and the home friends--his father in especial--regarded him with both pride and affection, and expressed much pleasure in the fact that he was to accompany them on the return trip. Max dearly loved his home, and during the nearly two years of his absence from it had had occasional fits of excessive homesickness; more, however, for the dear ones dwelling there than for the place. So that he was full of joy on learning that every one of the family was on board the _Dolphin_. No one cared to tarry long at Annapolis, and they set out on the return trip as soon as Max was free to go with them. The lovely weather continued, there was nothing to mar the pleasure of the short voyage, the drive and ride that succeeded it--for the carriages and Max's pony, Rex, which he hailed with almost a shout of delight and hastened to mount, were found awaiting them at the wharf--or the arrival at their homes, Ion and Woodburn, which seemed to the young cadet to be looking even more beautiful than ever before. "Oh, was there ever a lovelier place!" was his delighted exclamation as the carriage, closely followed by Rex, turned in at the great gates giving admission to the Woodburn driveway. "I thought that of it before I left, but it is vastly improved; almost an earthly paradise." "So I think," said Violet. "It does credit to your father's taste." "And yours," added her husband, with a pleased smile; "for have I not always consulted with my wife before making any alteration or adding what I thought would be an improvement? And has not the first suggestion come from her more than once?" "Quite true," she returned, giving him a look of loving appreciation; "in fact, my dear, you are so ready to humor and indulge me in every possible way that I am half afraid to make a suggestion." "Lest I should have too much pleasure in carrying it out?" he queried, with playful look and tone. "Oh, certainly!" she replied with a musical laugh; "it would be a sad pity to spoil so good a husband." "Father, may I ride over the grounds before alighting?" asked Max's voice in eager tones, just at that moment. "If you wish, my son," the captain answered pleasantly. "But suppose you delay a little and let some of us accompany you?" "Yes, sir; that will be better," was the prompt, cheerful rejoinder, and in another minute Max had dismounted at the door of the mansion, and stood ready to assist the occupants of the carriage to alight. "Ah, I see you have been making some changes and improvements here, father," he said, glancing about as he entered the hall door. "Yes, and in other parts of the house," said Violet. "Perhaps you might as well go over it before visiting the grounds." "I am at liberty to go everywhere, as of old?" he returned, half in assertion, half enquiringly and turning from her to his father. "Certainly, my son; it is as truly your father's house, therefore open in every part to you, as it was before you left its shelter for Uncle Sam's Naval Academy," replied the captain, regarding the lad with mingled fatherly affection, pride, and amusement. "Thank you, sir," returned Max heartily. "Ah, Christine!" as the housekeeper, whom something had detained in another part of the house at the moment of their arrival, now appeared among them, "I'm pleased to see you again; looking so well, too. I really don't think you have changed in the least in all the time I have been away," shaking her hand warmly as he spoke. "Ah, Master Max, sir, I can't say the same of you," she returned with a pleasant smile into the bright young face. "You are growing up fast and looking more than ever like your father." "Thank you," laughed Max, his eyes shining, "you couldn't possibly give me a higher compliment than that, Christine." "Ah, who shall say that I am not the complimented one, Max?" laughed the captain. "I, papa," cried Lulu. "O Maxie, come upstairs and see the improvements there. You can look at the downstairs rooms and grounds afterward." "Yes, run along, children," said their father, "and make yourselves ready for the tea table before you come down again." "Yes, sir," they answered in cheerful tones, Max catching up little Ned as he spoke, and setting him on his shoulder. "Hold on tight, laddie, and your big brother will carry you up," he said, and one chubby arm instantly went round his neck, a gleeful laugh accompanying it as Max began the ascent, his sisters following, Violet and the captain presently bringing up the rear. "Into our rooms first, Max," said Violet. "You, too, Lulu and Gracie, that you may hear what he has to say about things there." "Thank you, Mamma Vi," returned Max. "I want to visit every room in the house and have all the family go with me if they like." "You will find a few additions here and there to the furnishings, but no great changes anywhere, Max," said his father. "I should hope not, sir, as things seemed to me pretty nearly perfect before I went away," returned Max in a lively tone, "I only wish every one of my mates had as sweet a home to spend his long vacation in, and as kind a father and friends to help him enjoy it." "Ah, we may well pity the lad who lacks the blessings of a good home and affectionate parents," said the captain. "I can never forget how much they were to me in my boyhood." "I think you must have forgotten how long I have been away, papa," laughed Max as they finished the circuit of the rooms on that floor, "for I have come upon a good many new things." "Ah! well, they have been added so gradually that I did not realize how numerous they were," returned his father, adding, "Now you may as well go on to the upper rooms and tarry long enough in your own to make yourself neat for the tea table." "Yes, sir;" and the lad hurried up the stairs, the captain, Lulu, and Grace following. "Hurrah!" he cried joyously as he reached the open door of his own room, "why, this is lovely! prettier than ever, and it was like a room in a palace before compared to the one I share with Hunt at the Academy." "Suppose you walk in and take a nearer view," said his father, and Max obeyed with alacrity, the others following. "Mamma and papa said there was nothing too good for you, and so we all thought, Maxie," said Grace, Lulu adding, "Indeed we do all think so." "Indeed, I'm afraid it is," returned Max, gazing admiringly at the beautiful carpet, the lace curtains looped back with wreaths of flowers, the fine engravings on the walls, the easy chairs, tasteful mantel ornaments, and the many other articles of adornment and convenience. "Your mamma and I have made some changes, improvements, as we thought," the captain said in gratified and affectionate tones, "hoping you would be pleased with then; and I rather think you are." "Pleased, papa? I'm delighted!" cried Max. "The only drawback to my pleasure is the thought of the very short time I can stay to enjoy all this beauty and luxury." "Yet I am sure my boy does not want to settle down here to a life of inglorious ease," remarked the captain in a tone of mingled assertion and enquiry. "I rejoice in the firm conviction that his great desire is to serve God and his country to the best of his ability." "Yes, father, it is," said Max earnestly. "But," he added with a smile, "if you don't want me to love to be with you in this sweet home you should not make it so attractive and be so very kind and affectionate to me." "My boy," the captain said with emotion and laying a hand affectionately on his son's shoulder, "there is never a day when I do not thank my heavenly Father for his gift to me of so good and dutiful a son." "I don't know how any fellow could help being dutiful and affectionate to such a father as mine, sir," returned Max, his eyes shining. By his own desire Max's vacation was spent at home and in its vicinity, with the occasional variety of a short voyage in his father's yacht, the _Dolphin_, which gave the lad opportunities for the display of the seafaring knowledge gained in the past two years, and adding to it from his father's store of the same, under that father's instruction. They were generally accompanied by the whole Woodburn family, always by Lulu and Grace, Grandma Elsie, Rose, Walter, and Evelyn Leland. Thus the weeks flew by very enjoyably and on swift wings, and the time came for Max's return to Annapolis. So the _Dolphin_ was headed for that port and presently steamed away again, leaving the lad behind with a rather sad heart at the thought that years must pass before he could again spend even a brief season under his father's roof. CHAPTER II. It is summer again, the summer of 1893, for two years have passed away since the occurrence of the events related in our former chapter. There have been few changes among our friends at Ion, Woodburn, and the other plantations belonging to the family connection, except such as time brings to all. The elder ones seem scarcely any older, but the younger ones are growing up. Elsie's sons, Harold and Herbert, are now practising physicians, still making their home at Ion, but having an office in a neighboring village; Rosie has attained her twentieth year and entered society; but Walter is still one of Captain Raymond's pupils, as are Lulu and Grace, now blooming girls of fifteen and seventeen, their father's joy and pride and as devotedly attached to him as ever. Max is still a cadet in the Naval Academy, pursuing his course there in a manner altogether satisfactory to his father and friends. The captain thinks no man ever had a brighter, better son than his first-born, or one more likely to do good service to his country in his chosen profession. It seems hard at times, a sad thing to have to do without his boy, yet he never really regrets that Max has made choice of the naval service as his life work. He did, however, regret that Max would not be able to go to Chicago to visit the World's Fair, in which they were all much interested. Some of the connection had attended the dedication ceremonies of the previous autumn, and nearly all talked of going to the formal opening, appointed for the first of May; among them Grandma Elsie, her father and his wife, Captain Raymond and his wife and family. The captain's plan was to go by water--in his yacht--up along the coast to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, through that up the river of the same name, through the Welland Canal and round Michigan by the great lakes to Chicago, and he invited as many as his vessel could well accommodate--including, of course, his wife's mother and grandparents--to be his guests for the trip. The younger gentlemen and their wives all preferred going by rail as the speedier way, but Mr. Dinsmore, having no longer any business to attend to, and both he and his wife being fond of the sea and desirous of keeping with his eldest daughter, accepted the invitation promptly and with pleasure. Mr. Ronald Lilburn, too, having a like taste as to his mode of travel, and no business engagements to hurry him, availed himself of the opportunity to make the journey by water. The other passengers were Evelyn Leland and Rosie and Walter Travilla. Something, however, occurred to change their plans, and it was the latter part of June when they left home for their trip to the North. They had a pleasant voyage, making few pauses by the way, and reached their destination on Monday, the second day of July. It was early in the evening when the _Dolphin_ neared the White City; the little ones were already in bed and sweetly sleeping, but all the others had gathered on deck to catch the first glimpse of the fairy-like scene. They had passed the mouth of the Chicago River and were steaming on down the lake. "Oh, papa, what is that?" asked Grace, pointing to a bright light in the water. "A lighted buoy," he replied; "a spar buoy with an incandescent lamp of one hundred candle power. It is a wrought-iron cage at the end of a spar which is held in place by a heavy cast-iron anchor. You will see another presently, for there are thirteen between the river and the White City." "To warn vessels to keep off shoals?" she asked. "Yes," he said, and went on to explain how the electrical current was supplied, winding up with a promise to take her, and anyone else who wished to go, to the Electrical Building to gaze upon its wonders, and also for a ride in the electric launches. "But," he added, "I think there is nothing you will enjoy more than the sight of the electric lights which you will get presently in the Peristyle and the Court of Honor." "Oh, I am very eager to see it all, papa!" she exclaimed. "As we all are," said Lulu. "Well, my dears, I think we can all go there at once and spend an hour or two; all but the little ones, who can be left in the care of their nurse." He turned enquiringly toward his wife and her mother as he spoke. "Oh, yes," said Violet; "they will not be likely to wake, and Agnes will take good care of them." "I think we are all probably ready to accept your invitation with pleasure, captain," Elsie said. "Surely none of us are fatigued--unless with lack of exercise." "No, surely not," remarked Mr. Dinsmore, "and I, as well as Grace, am eager to see the beauties of that much talked of Court of Honor." "I think we will find some other objects worthy of our attention before we reach even the Peristyle," remarked Captain Raymond. "Oh, yes!" exclaimed Lulu, "there is another of those lights." "I am so glad you brought us in the yacht, captain," said Evelyn; "for we can start out at once to see the sights--not being in the least fatigued with our long journey." "And we have already a beautiful view of water and sky," remarked Grandma Elsie; "those sunset clouds are certainly lovelier than any work of man's hands." "Yes, mamma; and they are beautifully reflected in the water," said Violet. "But such things can be seen at home," Rosie remarked in a sprightly tone, "and I propose to give my particular attention to such as are to be found only in this part of the world and at the present time." "What will there be worth looking at before we reach the Peristyle?" asked Walter, apparently addressing his query to no one in particular. It was Captain Raymond who replied, "I hope to be able to point out to you presently some exhibits worthy of your attention," he said. "Oh, yes; the battleship _Illinois_ for one, I suppose." "Yes; she will come into sight presently and we will have an outside view of her. Some day I hope to take all of you who may desire to go on board to have a look at her internal arrangements." "You may put my name into that list, captain," said Mr. Lilburn. "I'm a bit too auld to take part in a fight, even in a righteous cause, but not for taking an interest in the means provided for ither folk." "And I want to see it, too, though I hardly expect to ever make one of the crew of such a vessel," said Walter. "And we girls will want to visit her also," laughed Rosie, "though I am very sure no one of us will ever form part of such a crew." "Well, as my father has and my brother expects to, I shall be very much interested," said Grace. "Especially as we shall have a retired officer to explain everything to us," added Lulu with a smiling look up into her father's face. He returned the smile, then pointing southward, "Yonder it is," he said, "still too distant for a critical survey, but a better view will be afforded us presently, as we pass it." As he spoke all eyes turned in that direction. "Oh, what a big vessel she is!" exclaimed Grace, as they drew near enough to obtain a good idea of her size. "Yes," returned the captain, "she is a full sized model, above water line, of our coast line battleships _Oregon_, _Massachusetts_, _Indiana_." "Not a real ship, papa?" "No; only a model: she is built of brick, on the bottom of the lake, and merely simulates a man-of-war." "Only a model!" repeated Walter. "And how about her guns, sir? are they real?" "Some of them are wood; but there are enough genuine machines on board to destroy almost anything of ordinary resisting power within three miles range. But I expect to go more into particulars when we pay our contemplated visit." "I suppose she must have cost a good deal?" "One hundred thousand dollars." "How much this Fair is costing!" remarked Evelyn. "Do you think it will pay, captain?" "I hope so," he returned cheerfully. "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." But they were drawing near their port, and there was much on both land and water to attract their attention. Presently they were in front of the beautiful Peristyle, gazing in awed admiration upon its grand Arch of Triumph, its noble colonnade and statuary, and catching glimpses here and there between its pillars of the beauties beyond. It was impetuous Lulu who broke the silence with an exclamation of delighted admiration and an eager request that they might land at once and get a nearer view of the fairy scenes that lay before them on the farther side. The other members of their party, old and young, seemed scarcely less eager, and in a very few moments they were all pacing that grand colonnade to and fro, and gazing out delightedly now upon the blue waters of the lake and anon upon the fairy scene--the Court of Honor--on the inner side. And soon they hurried their steps thitherward. "Oh, there," cried Lulu, "is the statue of our great republic! Is she not magnificent?" "She is, indeed!" replied Grandma Elsie. "See in one hand she holds a pole bearing a liberty cap, in the other a globe, an eagle with outstretched wings resting upon it; that symbolizes protection, which she has ever been ready to extend to the oppressed of all the earth." "She is a large woman," remarked Walter; "as she should be to adequately represent our great country. Grandpa, do you know her size?" "I saw it stated the other day," replied Mr. Dinsmore. "Her face is fifteen feet long, her arms thirty feet, forefingers forty-five inches, and ten inches in diameter. Her cost was twenty-five thousand dollars; the gilding alone amounting to fourteen hundred dollars; quite an expensive dress for my lady." "But we don't grudge it to her, papa," remarked Grandma Elsie pleasantly. "No," he said; "nor anything else the liberty she represents has cost--in money or in life and limb." "But what is her height, grandpa?" asked Rosie; "it should be very considerable to go with a face fifteen feet long." "Sixty-five feet, and the pedestal on which she stands is thirty feet above water. There is a stairway inside which you can climb one of these days if you wish." All were gazing with great admiration and interest upon the beautiful statue, though seeing it somewhat dimly through the gathering shades of evening, when suddenly the electric lights blazed out from all sides, causing an exclamation of surprise and delight from almost everyone in our party and from others who witnessed the wonderful and inspiring sight; words failed them to express their sense of the loveliness of the scene; that mighty statue of the Republic dominating the eastern end of the lagoon, that grandly beautiful Macmonie's Fountain at the other, its Goddess of Liberty seated aloft in her chair on the deck of her bark, erect and beautiful, with her eight maiden gondoliers plying the oars at the sides, while old Father Time steered the vessel, his scythe fastened to the tiller, Fame as a trumpet-herald stood on the prow with her trumpet in her hand, while in the gushing waters below sported the tritons with their plunging horses, the terraced fountain still lower with its clouds of spray showing all the colors of the rainbow, as did that of the smaller ones to the right and left. And what a ravishing sight was that of the Administration Building with its corona of light, its dome, arches, and angles outlined with those brilliant lights, as were those of the Peristyle also, and of the grand structures between--Manufactures, Electricity, and Arts on the north side, Machinery and Agriculture on the south--and the beautiful fountains throwing spray of all the colors of the rainbow. "What a magnificent sight!" "How lovely!" "How beautiful!" exclaimed one and another as they moved slowly onward, gazing from side to side. "Let us go into the Administration Building," said Mr. Dinsmore. All were willing, and they sauntered on toward it, still gazing delightedly as they went. Reaching its doorway they paused for a few moments to look at the statue of Columbus, represented as landing with the Spanish flag in his hand, and to listen to the inspiring music of the bands; then passed on into the interior which they found as artistic and wondrously beautiful as the outside. After feasting their eyes upon the lower part they took an elevator--of which there were six--and went up to the upper promenade, which they found also very beautiful, giving lovely views of the surrounding grounds. The vault of the dome was ornamented with allegorical paintings, some of them commemorating Columbus' discovery of America. Looking out from the promenade under the dome they saw the Ferris Wheel, upon which they gazed with a good deal of interest. "I must have a ride in that," said Walter emphatically, "and mamma, you will go with me, will you not?" "Is it quite safe?" she asked, looking from her father to the captain. "Oh, yes," they both replied, Mr. Dinsmore adding, "and I think we will all want to go once if not oftener." "Go where, grandpa?" asked a familiar voice, and turning quickly about they found Harold and Herbert close at hand. Then there was an exchange of joyous greetings, and enquiries were made concerning some others of the family connection who had come by rail. The answer was that some of the little ones were in bed at the hotel where boarding had been taken by the party, and in charge of the faithful attendants brought from home, while the older ones were scattered about the Court of Honor and other portions of the Fair. "We have been on the lookout for you," continued Harold, "and only a few minutes ago discovered the _Dolphin_ lying at anchor down yonder on the lake. We had hoped you would be here sooner." "Yes, we thought we should have been here weeks ago," replied his mother, "but as the delays were providential we did not fret over them." "If you had fretted, mother, it would have been truly surprising, as I never knew you to do so about anything," Herbert said, smiling affectionately into her eyes. "No, that was never one of her faults," remarked Mr. Dinsmore. "No, indeed!" exclaimed Rosie. "But Harold, can you take us to the others? I am sure it would be pleasanter for us all to be together." "I cannot promise certainly," he replied, "but if we walk about the Court of Honor we will come across each other finally, no doubt, as they will presently discover the _Dolphin_ and look about here for you." "Yes," returned his mother, "they will surely know that we could not persuade ourselves to go farther to-night than this bewitchingly beautiful Court of Honor." Even as she spoke all were moving toward the elevator nearest them, and in a few moments they were again strolling along the shores of the lagoon, gazing with delighted eyes upon the fairylike scene--imposing buildings, playing fountains, the waters of the lagoon dancing in the moonbeams, and the pretty crafts gliding over them filled with excursionists whose merry voices and laughter mingled pleasantly with the music of the bands. "Oh, this is just delightful, delightful!" exclaimed Lulu. "Father, dear, I hope you will let us stay a long, long while." "I have not thought of fixing the time for departure yet," returned the captain, "and if our friends intend to go home in the _Dolphin_, as they came, there will be a number of voices entitled to a vote on the question. My wife for one," glancing down fondly upon the beautiful, graceful lady on his arm. "Thank you, my dear," returned Violet. "I certainly feel no desire to start for home yet, dear and lovely as I esteem it." "Oh, here they are!" cried a familiar voice at that instant, and the two sets of relatives had found each other. Glad greetings and kind enquiries were exchanged. Then they broke up into little groups and sauntered on through the beautiful scene till it was time to seek their resting places for the night, when, after making some arrangements for the sight-seeing of the next day, they bade good-night and hied them to their several places of temporary abode. CHAPTER III. "On, we have a lovely view from here!" remarked Lulu as they reached the _Dolphin's_ deck. "I'm not at all sleepy, papa; can't I sit here for a while?" Grace was saying, "Good-night, papa." He returned it with a fatherly caress, then answered Lulu's query. "No, daughter; it is long past your usual hour for retiring, and as I want you to feel fresh and bright for to-morrow's pleasure, you, too, may bid me good-night and go at once to your berth." "Oh, yes, sir, that will be the best, I know," she said, rising promptly from the seat she had taken, and with a loving look up into his face--for he was close at her side now. "What a happy thing it is for me that I have such a kind, wise father to take care of me!" "A father whose strong desire it certainly is to make you and all his children as happy as possible," he said, laying a hand on her head and looking fondly down into her eyes. "Good-night, daughter, and don't hesitate to call me if anything should go wrong with you or Grace." "Am I also under orders to retire, sir?" asked Violet with a mischievous smile up into his face, as Lulu bade good-night to the rest of the company and disappeared down the companion-way. "Not from me," he said, pleasantly taking a seat at her side as he spoke. "Have I not told you many times that my wife does what she pleases? At least, if she fails to do so it is in consequence of no order from me." "No; you have never given me one yet, and I believe I should like you to do so for once that I may see how it feels," she added with a low, musical laugh, slipping her hand confidingly into his. "Perhaps you might not find it particularly agreeable," he returned, pressing the little hand tenderly in his. "But just to satisfy you I may try it one of these days. You are not disappointed in the Fair so far?" "No, no, not in the least! Oh, how lovely it is! and what a beautiful view we have from here! How delighted our little Elsie and Ned will be with it all to-morrow. I hardly know how to wait for the time to come when I can see and share their pleasure." But now the others were saying good-night and going down to their state-rooms, and the captain remarked laughingly that he thought the longed-for time would seem to come sooner if he and she should follow their good example. "So it will," returned Violet, promptly rising and slipping her hand into his arm. She went first to her mother's state-room, and the door being opened in answer to her gentle rap, "Are you quite comfortable, mamma, dear?" she asked. "Is there anything I can do or furnish to make you more so?" "I am perfectly comfortable and I need nothing but a good night's rest, Vi, dear," was the smiling response. "Something which I want you to be taking as soon as possible. We find ourselves here surrounded by so much that is wondrously enticing to look at, that I fear we will be tempted to neglect needed rest, and so make ourselves ill." "Ah, mamma, you and my husband are of one mind, as usual," laughed Violet, and then with a tenderly affectionate good-night they parted. Both the captain and Lulu retained their old habit of early rising, and she joined him upon the deck the next morning just as the sun came peeping above the horizon. "Good-morning, papa," she cried, running to him to put her arms about his neck and give and receive the usual morning caress. "Isn't this a lovely day? How we shall enjoy it at the Fair--that beautiful Court of Honor is just like the loveliest of fairylands." "With which my eldest daughter is quite familiar, of course," he returned with amused look and tone, and smoothing her hair caressingly as he spoke. "Well, I think I can begin to imagine now what fairyland may be like," was her smiling rejoinder. "Papa, mayn't I keep close at your side, going wherever you go?" "That is exactly what I want you to do," he said. "I should be troubled indeed by losing sight of any one of my children, unless after putting him or her in the care of someone whom I could implicitly trust." "I don't want to be in the care of anyone else, papa," she hastened to say. "But it will be quite impossible to see everything here that is well worth looking at," he said, "and our tastes may differ greatly in regard to the things we care to examine." "Still I care most of all to be with you, papa. I'm not afraid of getting lost, because I could easily find my way back to the Peristyle and wait and watch there for you and the rest, but I want to share in your enjoyment, and have you share in mine," laying her rosy cheek against his shoulder and lifting to his, eyes full of ardent affection. "That is right," he said, smiling, and patting her cheek. "Ah, here come your mamma, Gracie, and the little ones. You are early, my dear," to Violet as he handed her to a seat, took one at her side, drawing Grace to his knee for a moment's petting and fondling, then letting her give place to the younger two, both eagerly waiting for their turn. "Yes," Violet replied, "we are all ready for an early start for the Fair." "As I expected," he said pleasantly. "I have ordered breakfast to be on the table an hour earlier than usual, and if our guests appear in season we will have prayers before eating; so that we may be able to start soon after leaving the table." "Judging by some slight sounds I have heard, I think they are all up and will join us presently," said Violet. "Yes, mamma, I do believe we are all in a great hurry to get to the Fair," remarked her little Elsie. "Oh, papa, is that it over there where that arch is with all those pillars on each side of it?" "And, oh, papa, what big ship is that?" cried Ned, catching sight of the _Illinois_. "I like ships, and I want to go there. Can't I?" "I intend to take you there one of these days," his father answered. Just then the rest of the party came trooping up from the cabin. Morning salutations were exchanged, family worship followed, and then breakfast, during which plans for the day were again discussed and further arrangements made. They had scarcely left the table when Harold and Herbert appeared, bringing further plans and suggestions in regard to the sight-seeing, for they were anxious to help the newer arrivals--particularly their mother--to the greatest possible enjoyment of the day. After a little discussion it was finally decided that they would go first to the Ferris Wheel, from which they would have a fine view of the whole extent of the White City. "Then to the Wooded Island, where we will probably find enough to keep us busy until dinner time," said Harold; "perhaps even longer." "No matter if it should," said his grandfather; "since we are not hurried for time, we may as well let all get their fill of everything; and if some want to tarry longer than others we can break up into smaller parties." "Yes, sir, I rather think we will find that the better plan, as our party is so uncommonly large." It was large, but they were congenial and greatly enjoyed being together, sharing the same pleasures of sight and sound. In another half hour they were all on shore enjoying a second view of the lovely Peristyle and Court of Honor, through which they passed on their way to the Ferris Wheel, the ride in which they found so delightful that at the earnest solicitation of little Ned they retained their seats during a second revolution. Then they left it and walked on to the Wooded Island. "I want to take you to the Hunter's Cabin," said Harold. "See, yonder it is." "What! that old log building?" exclaimed his sister Rose, catching sight of it among the trees. "Who cares to look at such a thing as that?" "I do," he returned lightly, "since it is a museum and memorial of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett,--two historical characters who were very interesting to me in my youth,--and also gives one a very good idea of the manner of life of our Western pioneers forty or more years ago." He led the way as he spoke, the others following. They found that the building consisted of one large room divided by a rope into two apartments, a public and a private one. There was a broad fireplace such as belonged to the dwellings of the pioneers of fifty or more years ago; there were beds and settees made of stretched skins, and skins of wild animals covered the floor; there were also tin dishes, candles, a stool made of a section of a log, and such cooking apparatus as was used in the kind of dwelling represented. The cabin was occupied by a hunter who wore long hair and a wide-brimmed felt hat. He was ready to answer questions, many of which were asked by the younger members of our party, who, as well as their elders, seemed much interested in this representation of pioneer life in the olden times. "Where now?" asked Mr. Dinsmore as they left the Hunter's Cabin. "I think Master Neddie here would enjoy a look at the ostriches," remarked Herbert, with a smiling glance at the rosy, happy face of his little nephew, who was trudging along with his hand in that of his father. "Oh, yes!" cried the child in a tone of eager delight. "I should like to see them ever so much!" "Then if no one objects, that is where we will go," said Harold, and as the only rejoinders from the other members of the party were those of assent, he led the way. "Is it a very expensive entertainment?" asked Walter soberly. "Costs all of ten cents apiece," replied Herbert. "An enormous sum, but one cannot expect to see Old Abe, General Grant, Jim Blaine, and Grover Cleveland for just nothing at all." "Oh, uncle!" cried little Elsie, "are all those great men there? Oh, no, of course they can't be--'cause some of them are dead. I know it was dear, good Mr. Lincoln they called Old Abe, and that a wicked man shot him long, long ago; and that General Grant was sick and died." "That is all true," returned her uncle, "but these fellows still wear their feathers, and are very much alive." "Oh, I know now," laughed the little girl. "You mean the ostrich man has named some of his birds after those famous men." They were now on the northern side of Midway Plaisance, and presently reached the enclosure where the ostriches were. There were twenty-three, full-grown, all from California. The sight was an interesting one to both the grown people and the children, and all listened attentively to the remarks of the exhibitor, delivered in solemn tones, in regard to the habits of the birds. He spoke of the male bird as most kind and self-forgetful in his treatment of his mate, or mates, saying it was he who built the nest and obtained the food; also that he would sit on the eggs in the nest for sixteen hours at a stretch, while the mother did the same for only eight hours. He had other things also to tell of the domineering of the female over the male, which caused some merriment among the ladies and girls of our party; to the gentlemen also, though they pretended to highly disapprove. But all laughed together over the ridiculous movements of the flock in passing from one side of the grounds to another. "What do they eat, papa?" asked Ned. "Corn, grasses, seeds of various kinds," replied his father. "They swallow large stones too, as smaller birds swallow sand to help grind up the food in the gizzard, and, indeed, ostriches have been known to swallow bits of iron, shoes, copper coins, glass, bricks, and other things such as you would think no living creature would want to eat." "They look very big and strong, papa," remarked the little boy, gazing at them with great interest. "Yes; they are so strong that one can easily carry two men on his back." "Is that what they are good for, papa?" "That is one thing; and their feathers are very valuable. For that reason ostrich farms have been established for the raising of the birds, and have proved very profitable." "Don't folks eat ostriches, papa?" asked Elsie. "Sometimes a young one; and their eggs are eaten too. They are so large that each one is about equal to two dozen ordinary hen's eggs; to cook one they usually set it up on end over a fire, and having first broken a hole in the top, they stir it with a forked stick while it is cooking. The shells are very thick and strong and the Africans use them for water vessels." "Do they have nests to lay their eggs in, like our chickens?" asked Ned. "They do not take the pains in building a nest that most other birds do," replied his father, "but merely scoop a hole in the sand. One male usually appropriates to himself from two to seven females and each hen lays ten eggs--so it is supposed--all in the same nest, and each egg is stood up on end." "It must take a big, big nest to hold them; such great big eggs as you say they are, papa!" "Yes, and generally there are some to be found lying on the sand outside of the nest; perhaps laid there by hens who came to lay in it but found another in possession; one who had got there before them." "I have often heard or read that the ostrich leaves her eggs lying in the sand to be hatched by the heat of the sun," remarked Evelyn. "Perhaps she does in those very hot countries," said the exhibitor, "but not in California; though, as I've been telling you, she makes the male bird do the most of the setting." "Maybe that's because the eggs are all his, but don't all belong to any of the females," laughed Walter. "Perhaps that is it, sir," returned the man. "Can they run very fast?" asked Neddie. "I should think they could with such great long legs." "Yes," said his father, "the ostrich is supposed to be able to run at the rate of sixty miles an hour when it first sets out, but is not able to keep up that rate of speed very long. And it has a habit of running in a curve instead of a straight line. It is thus possible for men on horseback to meet it and get a shot at it." "I think it's a great pity to shoot them when they are not even good to eat," remarked the little fellow in indignant tones. "Besides, they might save them to grow feathers." "Yes," returned the exhibitor, "that's what we're raising them for in California." "Papa, I'd like to have some," said Neddie as they walked away. "Some what, son?" "Ostriches, papa." "About how many?" "Couldn't we have an ostrich farm?" asked the little fellow after a moment's consideration of the question. "Well, not to-day, my son," returned his father with an amused look. "There will be plenty of time to talk it over before we are ready to go into the business." CHAPTER IV. "I think the little folks are getting tired," said Harold. "and yonder on the lagoon is a gondola waiting for passengers. Shall we take it?" Everybody seemed pleased with the suggestion, and presently they were in the gondola gliding over the water. They found it both restful and enjoyable. It was past noon when they stepped ashore again, and Ned announced that he was hungry and wanted something to eat. "You shall have it, my son," said his father. "And suppose we go to the New England Cabin for it," suggested Grandma Elsie. They did so and were served with an excellent repast, handsome young Puritan ladies in colonial costumes acting as waitresses. After satisfying their appetites they visited the other room of the cabin, which was fitted up as the living room of a family of the olden time. It had log walls, bare rafters overhead, a tall old-fashioned clock in a corner, a canoe cradle, a great spinning-wheel on which the ladies, dressed like the women of the olden times, spun yarn, and gourds used for drinking vessels. Some of the ladies were knitting socks, some carding wool, while they talked together, after the fashion of the good, industrious dames of the olden time they represented. Our friends, especially the young girls, were greatly interested and amused. "Suppose we visit some of the State buildings now," said Mrs. Dinsmore, as they left the cabin. "Pennsylvania's in particular, my dear?" returned her husband. "Well, it is a grand old State; we could hardly do better than to show to these little great-grandchildren the famous old bell that proclaimed liberty to this land and all its inhabitants." "So I think," she said. "Do not you agree with us, captain?" "I do, indeed," he replied; "my older ones have seen the bell, but I want to show it to Elsie and Ned." "It won't hurt any of us to look again at that old relic of the Revolution," remarked Walter, "and of course we want to see the building." So the whole party at once turned their steps in that direction. Arrived in front of the building they paused there and scanned the outside. All pronounced it very handsome. "Its front seems to be a reproduction of Independence Hall," remarked Mr. Dinsmore; "it has its entrances and tower." "Yes," said his wife, "I like that and the quarter-circling in of those front corners; those balconies, too." "Is that the State coat-of-arms above the pediment over the front doors, papa?" asked Grace. "Yes," was the reply; "and the statues on the sides are those of Penn and Franklin." Just at that moment two women, evidently from the country, came sauntering along and halted near our party. "What building 's that?" asked one of the other. "It's right nice-lookin', isn't it?" "Yes; and don't you see the name there up over the door?" "Oh, yes, to be sure! Pennsylvany! Goin' in, Elmiry?" "Of course; that's the thing to do. Do you see? There's the old bell, at the door there, that they talk so much about. What they make such a fuss over it fur I don't know; it's ugly as can be and has a great crack in it; but it's quite the thing to talk about it and say you've seen it; so we must do like the rest." "Yes, I suppose we must, though I don't see why anybody should, any more than you do," returned her companion. "It's ugly enough and certainly wouldn't bring first price if 'twas put up for sale. But just see what handsome fellows those policemen are that's got charge of it! Enough sight better-lookin' than it is." With that the two went nearer, looked the old bell carefully over, then walked on into the building. While they talked merry, mischievous glances had been exchanged among the young people of our party. "I wonder where they have lived all their days," laughed Walter, looking after them as they disappeared through the doorway. "I hope they are not Americans! I'm ashamed of them if they are!" exclaimed Lulu. "The very idea of such ignorance!" "Descendants of Tories, perhaps," said Rosie, laughing. "Do you know its story, Elsie? that of the old bell, I mean." "Yes, indeed, Aunt Rosie! We've got a picture of it at home, and papa and mamma, and Lu and Gracie have all told me the story about it--how when those brave men had signed their names to that paper, it proclaimed liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; for it rang out to let the people know they had done it. Oh, papa, please show me those words on it." "Yes," the captain said, "come nearer and you can see and read them for yourself." The little girl obeyed with alacrity, and when she had read the inscription, "Wasn't it very strange, papa," she said, "that those words were put on it when nobody knew that it was going to proclaim liberty?" "Yes, very strange indeed; and that proclamation has made it a very famous old bell." "Is that the reason why they brought it here, papa?" "Yes, for many people will see it here who will never get to Philadelphia to look at it." "I'm glad for them that they can see it," she said with satisfaction. "Do they ring it when it's at its home in Philadelphia, papa?" "No, my child; that great crack you see there has spoiled it for ringing, but it is highly valued and cherished for what it did in those days when our fathers had to risk everything to secure freedom for themselves and their children." "They were good and brave men to do it; weren't they, papa?" "They were, indeed, and deserve to be kept in loving remembrance because of their brave deed." The rest of the party were standing near listening to the talk between the captain and his little girl; also regarding the old bell with interest, though nearly all of them had seen it before. But it was time for them to move on, for others were coming to view the old relic of Revolutionary days, and Mr. Dinsmore led the way into the interior of the building, the rest closely following. They went all over it, finding much to admire, and Mrs. Dinsmore expressed herself as entirely satisfied with the building of her native State. From there they went to the Woman's Building, hoping to find in it some, if not all the relatives who had come with Harold and Herbert to the Fair. And they were not disappointed, for Zoe and Edward hastened to meet them immediately on their entrance and led them into the nursery, saying they had their little ones there with their nurse, and intended leaving them in that pleasant place for a time while they themselves should be going about from one building to another. "Uncle Horace is here with his wife and children; the Lelands also with theirs," added Zoe, as she led the way to where were gathered the group of little folks from Ion and its vicinity. Pleasant greetings were quickly exchanged; the children were full of delight at sight of their relatives, whom they had not seen on the previous day--Grandma Elsie in especial, for they all loved her dearly. But time pressed--there was so much to see--and after viewing with approval and admiration the arrangements for the comfort of its young occupants the older people left that apartment for others in the building; reconciling the little ones to a temporary separation by the promise that on their return all should go aboard the _Dolphin_ and have their supper there; for the captain and Violet had given them all a cordial invitation to do so. Taking with them those who were old enough to appreciate and enjoy the sight, they went into the Gymnasium, which they found furnished with every kind of machine and mechanical means for developing the muscles and increasing the strength of both boys and girls. There were many children of both sexes engaged in the various exercises, and with evident enjoyment. Our friends, both older and younger, watched them for some time with interest. Leaving there they visited in turn the court of the Woman's Building, the main hall, the east vestibule, the library, the Cincinnati parlor, the invention room, the nursing section, the scientific department, and the ethnological room. All this took a good while, there was so much to see, examine, and admire. The ladies showed a deep interest in the various exhibits of needlework, the embroideries from Siam, table covers and rugs from Norway, and the dolls dressed as brides; the fine lace-work and wood-carving from Sweden. There was needlework from France too, and there were large and very pretty vases from the same country. Zoe was much interested in the dainty needlework for infant's clothes, the beautiful laces and ribbon flowers; and famous paintings reproduced in silk. They found the Italian exhibits also, especially the laces of the queen,--valued at one hundred thousand dollars,--worthy of particular attention. Yet perhaps not more so than some from Mexico, including a lace-edged handkerchief crocheted out of pineapple fibre; and the very delicately beautiful wood-carving, so delicate as to be called etching. There were embroideries and laces from other countries also--Austria, Spain, Belgium, Ceylon. As they came near the exhibit from Germany Lulu exclaimed in an undertone. "Oh, papa, what is that woman doing?" "We will go nearer and see if we can find out," replied the captain. The woman sat at a table and they found that she was making bent iron-work into candle-holders, inkstands, hanging lamps, etc., and it was very interesting to watch her as she did so. There was a good deal of leather work also in Germany's exhibit, shown in screens and tables. But when they had all looked their fill they found it was nearly tea time, so they hurried back to the nursery, where they had left their little ones, and soon they were all on the _Dolphin_, where an excellent supper was awaiting them. They were hungry enough to enjoy it greatly. Everyone was weary with the day's excitement and exertion, poor Grace--still far from strong, though perfectly healthy--so much so that by her father's advice she went directly from the table to her bed. The others sat for an hour or more upon the deck enjoying a friendly chat and a view of some of the beauties of both the lake and the Fair; then were about to bid good-night and return with their little folks and nurses to their hotel. "Wait a little," said the captain. "I am sorry I cannot furnish comfortable lodgings for the night for so many, but I can take you to the city, and so shorten your journey by land to your hotel. I have ordered steam gotten up and we can start in another half hour." His offer was received with hearty thanks and the plan carried out to the great contentment of all concerned. The _Dolphin_ then returned to her old anchorage. Violet had gone down into the cabin to put her little ones in bed and Lulu promptly seized the opportunity to take possession of the vacated seat by her father's side. He smiled and stroked her hair with caressing hand. "I fear my little girl must be very tired with all the standing, walking, and sight-seeing of the day," he said. "Pretty tired, papa, yet I should like to go back to that lovely Peristyle for an hour or two if you would let me." "Not to-night, daughter; as soon as we have had prayers you must go immediately to bed." "Your father is wise, Lulu; I think we are all weary enough to obey such an order as that," remarked Mrs. Dinsmore. "And I found out years ago that papa always knows what is best for me," returned Lulu cheerfully. "Besides he's so dear and kind that it is just a pleasure to be controlled by him," she added, laying her head against his shoulder and lifting to his, eyes full of ardent affection. "I agree with you, Lu," said Evelyn, "for in all the years that he has been my teacher I have always found that he knew what was best for me." "Take care, girls, that you don't make my biggest and oldest brother conceited," laughed Rosie. "There's not the least bit of danger. Nothing could make papa that!" exclaimed Lulu rather indignantly. "Hush, hush!" her father said, laying a finger on her lips. "Rosie does but jest, and your father is by no means sure to be proof against the evil effects of flattery." "I think he is," said Rosie, "and I was only jesting, Lu; so don't take my nonsense to heart." "No, I will not, Rosie; I ought to have known you were but jesting, and I beg your pardon," Lulu said, and her father smiled approvingly upon her. "Cousin Ronald," said Walter, "can't you make some fun for us to-morrow with your ventriloquism?" "Oh, do, Cousin Ronald, do!" cried the girls in eager chorus. "Well, well, bairns," returned the old gentleman good-humoredly, "I'll be on the lookout for an opportunity for so doing without harming or frightening anyone--unless there might be some rascal deserving of a fright," he added with a low chuckle, as if enjoying the thought of discomfiting such an one. "Which I don't believe there will be," said Walter, "for everybody I saw to-day looked the picture of good nature." "Yes," said his mother, "and no wonder; the thought has come to me again and again, when gazing upon the beauties of that wonderful Court of Honor, especially at night when we have the added charm of the electric lights and the fountains in full play, if earthly scenes can be made so lovely what must the glories of heaven be! Ah, it makes one long for the sight of them." "Oh, mamma, don't, don't say that," murmured Rosie in low, tremulous tones; taking her mother's hand in a tender clasp, for they were sitting side by side, "we can't spare you yet." "The longing is not likely to hasten my departure, dear," replied the sweet voice of her mother, "and I am well content to stay a while longer with my dear ones here if the will of God be so." "Oh!" exclaimed Lulu, suddenly breaking the momentary silence, "to-morrow is the Fourth, the glorious Fourth! I wonder what is going to be done here to celebrate it?" "I presume it will be celebrated in much the usual way," replied Mr. Dinsmore. "To-day's papers say there have been great preparations on the part of Exposition officials and exhibitors, and that there are to be a number of patriotic addresses delivered in different parts of the grounds. Also there will be, without doubt, a great display of bunting, abundance of fire crackers, the thunder of cannon and so forth." "And we, I suppose, will pass the day on shore doing our part in the business of celebrating our nation's birthday," remarked Rosie. "Why, of course," said Walter. "Such patriotic Americans as we are would never think of neglecting our duty in that line." "No, certainly not," replied his mother, with a smile; "we are all too patriotic not to do our full share to show our many foreign guests how we love this free land of ours, and how highly we value her liberties." "I propose," said the captain, "that we spend the day on shore, first consulting the morning papers as to where we will be likely to find the smallest crowd or the best speaker, and after hearing the oration we will doubtless find abundance of amusement in the Court of Honor and Midway Plaisance." "And perhaps Cousin Ronald can and will make some fun for us," remarked Walter, giving the old gentleman a laughing, persuasive look. "Ah, laddie, you must not expect or ask too much of your auld kinsman," returned Mr. Lilburn with a slight smile and a dubious shake of the head. At that moment Violet rejoined them, the short evening service was held, and then all retired to rest, leaving further discussion of the morrow's doings to be carried on in the morning. CHAPTER V. Everybody was ready for an early start the next morning and Harold and Herbert were waiting for them in the Peristyle. Some time was spent there and in the Court of Honor, then in the Midway Plaisance. Watching the crowds was very amusing--the wild people from Dahomey wearing American flags around their dusky thighs, the Turks, the Arabs, and men, women, and children of many other nations all in their peculiar costumes, so different from the dress of our own people. Then the hundred thousand flags, very many of our own with their stripes and stars, and those of perhaps every other nation that has one to display--were flung to the breeze, while bands from Cincinnati and Iowa, from Vienna, Suabia, and Arabia had all got together and were playing Yankee Doodle. There were besides many curious bands of Oriental musicians--some of them making great but futile efforts to play our national airs--producing sounds that were by no means delightsome to the American ear; not half so pleasing as the sight of the multi-colored flags decorating the huts and castles of foreign architecture. It turned out to be a day of pleasant surprises. As they neared the end of the Plaisance they came suddenly and unexpectedly upon Chester and Frank Dinsmore and Will Croley, the old college mate of Harold and Herbert, whom none of them had seen since the summer spent together on the New England coast several years before. All were delighted; cordial greetings on both sides were exchanged, and scarcely were these over when in a lady passing by Grandma Elsie recognized, with a little cry of joyous surprise, her old time friend and cousin, Annis Keith. "Annis! oh, how glad I am to see you!" she exclaimed. "Elsie! my dear, dearest cousin!" cried Annis in return, as they grasped each other's hands and looked with ardent affection each into the other's eyes. "Oh, how delightful to have come upon you so quickly! I was wondering if I could ever find you in all this crowd, and to have fairly stumbled upon you almost the first thing after leaving the cars is most fortunate." "Yes; for us as well as you, Annis," Mr. Dinsmore said with a smile, offering his hand as he spoke. "Are you just from Pleasant Plains?" "Yes, sir; we left there this morning, and but a moment since stepped off the train that brought us--nearly all the family of brothers and sisters with their children." "Why, yes, to be sure, here are Mildred and the doctor and--well, really Charley,"--shaking hands with Mildred and her husband--"I will have to be introduced to all these younger folks." There was quite a crowd of them--young, middle-aged, and elderly, for the families had been increasing in numbers, the younger ones growing in size, and all in years. All wanted to be together for a time, the older ones to be able to talk freely of absent dear ones and other family matters, the younger to make acquaintance with each other. "Suppose we take a car in the Ferris Wheel," suggested Harold Travilla; "we can then have a ride, a grand view of the Fair grounds, and a chat, all at one and the same time." Everyone seemed to favor the proposition and without further discussion they all started in that direction. Arriving at the place they climbed a broad stairway very much like the approach to an Elevated station. "This way, ladies and gentleman," said a man in a blue coat, pointing to a doorway between two knotted beams, and they passed into a sunshiny room with two rows of chairs at each side. There were windows all about it barred with iron. "This is one of the cars," remarked Captain Raymond, in answer to an enquiring look from Annis, and he and the other gentlemen of the party busied themselves in seeing the ladies comfortably seated, then took possession of chairs as near them as might be. Other people were coming in, and in a very few moments the car was in motion, the click of a latch having told that they were locked in. Some of our party who were trying the wheel for the first time looked a trifle pale and alarmed as the movement began, and one or two of the girls asked low and tremulously if it were certainly quite safe. "Yes, I am entirely sure of that," replied Harold with his pleasant smile; "but don't look out of the windows just yet." "You are not at all frightened, I see," said Chester Dinsmore in a low tone to Lulu, having contrived to secure a seat close at her side. "Oh, no, indeed!" she returned. "This is my second trip and I hardly felt at all timid even the first time, because my father had assured us it was perfectly safe, and I have entire confidence in his opinion and his word." "I don't know any man whose word or opinion I would be more ready to take," returned Chester, giving her a look that seemed to say he would be no less willing to take the captain's daughter, were the opportunity afforded him. But Lucilla did not notice the look, for she was already gazing out of the window and thinking of nothing but the prospect from it. "Oh, look, Chester!" she said eagerly, "This gives us such a grand view of the Plaisance. It is the second time our party have made this trip--no, not that--the second time we have been in these cars; we went round twice that day, and I hope will go at least as often to-day. Presently, when we get to the highest part the people down below will look like the merest black dots and the houses like toy ones." "Yes," he returned, "it is a trip worth taking. I should not have liked to miss it." "Nor should I," said Lucilla. "I think of asking papa to bring us here several times more." "In that case I hope I may be permitted to be one of the party every time, for it is a fine sight indeed." "Are you and Frank new arrivals?" she asked. "Yes, we got into the city last evening. We would have hunted up your party at once, but did not know just where to look for you." "We are making the yacht our home," she returned, "and it is anchored for the greater part of the time at no great distance from the Peristyle. We spend our nights on it, but so far our days have been passed in visiting different parts of the Fair." "And you haven't seen everything in it yet?" he queried laughingly. "No, indeed! I heard someone estimate the other day that it would take more than forty years to do that." "And in a few months the vast majority of the sights will be withdrawn," he said with a half sigh; "so we will have to content ourselves with seeing a few of such things as interest us most. How long will you stay?" "I don't know; that depends upon the decisions of the higher powers; in other words of the older people. How long do you?" "Perhaps two or three weeks. It will depend probably upon how we enjoy ourselves." "Then you will be likely to stay a good while, I think," she returned. "There! we are at the top of the wheel, and is not the view magnificent?" They made the circuit a second time, then seeing that very many people were awaiting an opportunity to fill their places in the car, they vacated them and wandered elsewhere about the Fair grounds for a little. Then Grandma Elsie expressed a desire to visit the building of her native State--Louisiana--and invited all in the party to go with her and dine there as her guests. All accepted the invitation with apparent pleasure and immediately turned their steps thitherward. "Where is it?" someone asked, and Harold answered: "At the northern curve of the horseshoe formed by the State sites around the Fine Art Galleries and just west of the Missouri building. It is not a long walk." "Ah," exclaimed Grandma Elsie when they caught sight of their destination, "see those trees in front laden with moss from our Southern bayous! The sight almost carries one back to the old days at Viamede." "Yes; that and the foliage generally, which is of the tropical order," remarked her father in reply; "see, the cacti are conspicuous. And I like the simple style of the building with its galleries and verandas." "And the site is a fine one," remarked the captain, "not far from the cable car entrance and fronting the Art Palace." "Shall we dine first and then look at the exhibits?" asked Grandma Elsie. "I want to give you all a real Southern dinner, hoping it may prove agreeable to your palates." "I presume we can stand it for once, mother dear," returned Herbert, and the rest of the party seemed equally willing. They passed in and were presently regaling themselves with gumbo soup, opossum, and various other dishes peculiar to the part of the country represented by the building and its appurtenances, being served by cooks and waiters directly from the plantations of the river country. Then, having satisfied their appetites, they spent some time in examining the relics on exhibit in the building. One of these was a picture of the Madonna by Raphael. There was also an exhibition of carvings done by women, which excited both admiration and surprise, and in one of the rooms was some richly carved furniture from the State museum at Baton Rouge, which had once belonged to Governor Galvez. They went next to the Florida building, which was a reproduction of old Fort Marion, whose foundations were laid in 1620, the year of the landing of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. The captain mentioned that fact, then asked: "Do you know, Grace, how long that fort was in building?" "No, papa," she replied, "can you tell us?" "It took one hundred and fifty years of toil by exiles, convicts, and slaves to construct the heavy walls, curtains, bastions, and towers of defence. Its bloodiest days were more than a century before our Civil War, in which it did not take a very prominent part." "Where are the curtains, papa?" asked little Elsie. "I don't see any." "It is the name given to that part of the rampart which connects the flanks of two bastions," replied her father. "And it was here that the Apaches were imprisoned," remarked Walter. "Yes," returned his mother, "and a most gloomy prison it must have proved to them, used as they were to the free life of the mountains, prairies, and forests." Some little time longer was spent in viewing the tropical plants and trees that adorned the exterior of the fort, then they passed inside and examined the many beautiful things to be seen there. Their next visit was to the headquarters of the State of Washington, where they were much interested in the display of her native woods and the rockery built of native ores, showing pure streaks of gold and silver, so illustrating the mineral wealth of the State. "Where next?" asked Mr. Dinsmore as they passed out. "Papa, I'm so tired," little Elsie was saying at the same moment, in a low aside to her father. "I, too," added Ned, overhearing her. "Please can't we take a ride now?" "Surely," said Grandpa Dinsmore, overhearing the request. "I invite you all to try an electric boat on the lagoon." No one seemed disposed to decline the invitation; some time was spent on the water, then on the Intramural Railway. After that the whole party, at the invitation of Violet and the captain, went aboard the yacht, still lying in the lake at no great distance from the Peristyle, and partook of a supper which was no unpleasant contrast to the enjoyable dinner with which Grandma Elsie had provided them. The little folks were ready for bed, on leaving the table; the older ones rested for a time on the _Dolphin's_ deck, chatting together while enjoying the sunset, then they returned to the Court of Honor, to revel in its beauties as seen by the witchery of the electric light. CHAPTER VI. Morning found them all rested, refreshed, and eager to spend another day amid the beauties of the Fair. They started early, as on the previous day, found Harold and Herbert with the other young gentlemen friends waiting for them in the Peristyle, spent a little time enjoying its beauties and the never wearying view it afforded of the lake on the one side, and the Court of Honor on the other, then at the earnest solicitation of the little ones they again entered an electric launch and glided swiftly along the quiet waters of the lagoon. "Let us go to the Transportation Building," proposed Rosie as they landed again. "I want to see that golden doorway, and have not the least objection to passing through it and examining things inside." "As no one else has, I presume," said her grandfather. "No doubt we shall find a great deal there worthy of examination." "Yes, sir; much more than we can attend to in one visit," replied Harold, leading the way, as everyone seemed well pleased to carry out Rosie's suggestion. They had heard and read of the beautiful golden doorway and viewed it with interest and satisfaction. "It is very, very beautiful," said Grandma Elsie, "a nest of arches covered with silver and gold." "And that border is lovely, lovely!" exclaimed Rosie; "such delicate tracery!" "Papa, is it solid gold?" asked little Elsie, who was clinging to her father's hand on one side, while Ned had fast hold of the other. "No, daughter," the captain replied, "not solid, though there is a good deal of both gold and silver covering the other and cheaper materials." Then he called her attention to a relief on the left side of the arch, showing an ox-cart with its clumsy wheels dragging slowly along through heavy sand, the travellers in it looking most uncomfortable. "That, children," he said, "is the way people used to travel years ago when I was a little fellow, such as you are now, Neddie boy; and this"--going to the other side of the arch and pointing to the contrasting relief--"shows how we travel now. See, it is a section of a palace-car; some of the people reading, others gazing from its plate-glass windows, and a porter serving them with luncheon." "Yes, papa; that's the way we travel when we don't go in the _Dolphin_ or in our carriage, and it's a great deal nicer than that ox-cart," said Elsie. "Oh, papa, there are some words up there!" exclaimed Ned, pointing up to a higher part of the arch. "Please read them." "I will, son," replied the captain, "though I think you are hardly old enough to fully understand them. This"--pointing it out--"was written by Macaulay, of whom you will learn more when you are older: 'Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing-press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done the most for civilization.' This other is by Lord Bacon: 'There are three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.' Those words are put upon this building because in it are shown the different modes of travel in different countries--on the sea also--at different times." They stood for some little time longer examining into the details of that wondrously beautiful doorway, noticing the splendor of the arches and pylon, the stairway on each side, the roof of the pavilion and all the other beauties. "It is very beautiful, and a great satisfaction to have seen it," remarked Mr. Dinsmore at length, "but perhaps it would be as well for us to go on into the inside of the building now, reserving further examination of this golden doorway for some future time." With that he passed in, the others following. Many of the exhibits there were more interesting to the older members of the party, especially the gentlemen, than to the ladies and younger people; locomotives and trains of cars such as were in use at different periods of time, showing the vast improvement in their construction since steam was first put to that use, models of vessels teaching the same lesson in regard to increased convenience and comfort of travel upon the water. "Oh, there is the _Victoria_--that grandest of battleships, sunk only the other day in collision with her sister ship, the _Camperdown_!" exclaimed Herbert. "See what a crowd of men and women are gazing upon it!" "Oh, yes," said Rosie, "I remember reading a description of it in the papers. One of England's finest battleships, was she not?" "Yes," said Captain Raymond, drawing near and examining the model with interest; "she was a grand vessel, the pride of the British navy. I should like to have seen her and am glad to have the opportunity to examine even a model. Ah, what a sad accident it was! especially considering that it sent to the bottom of the sea her entire crew of nearly four hundred men and officers." "Oh, it was dreadful, dreadful!" said Grace in tearful tones. "Especially because they had no time to think and prepare for death." "Yes, that is the saddest part of all," sighed Grandma Elsie. Our friends presently moved on, and all, from Grandpa Dinsmore down to little Ned, found many objects that interested them greatly. But the most attractive thing of all to the young folks--because of the story connected with it--was Grace Darling's boat. It was the captain who pointed it out to his children. "Who was she, papa? and what did they put her boat here for?" asked little Elsie. "She was the daughter of William Darling, the lighthouse keeper on Longstone, one of the Fame Islands." "Where are they, papa?" "In the North Sea, on the coast of Northumberland, the most northern county of England. They form, a group of seventeen islets and rocks, some of them so small and low-lying as to be covered with water and not visible except when the tide is low; and the passage between them is very dangerous in rough weather. "Two of the islands have each a lighthouse, and it was in one of those that Grace Darling and her father lived. "In 1838 a vessel called the _Forfarshire_ was wrecked among those islands. William Darling, from his lighthouse, saw it lying broken on the rocks, and sixty-three persons on it in danger of drowning. His daughter Grace, a girl of twenty-two, begged him to go and try to rescue them. It was a very dangerous thing to attempt, but he did it, she going with him. "Both father and daughter were very strong and skilful, and by exerting themselves to the utmost they succeeded in saving nine of the poor wrecked creatures who were crouching there on the rocks in momentary expectation of being washed off by the raging waves and drowned. They bore them safely to Longstone." "And that made Grace Darling famous," remarked Lulu. "Yes," said her father. "Many people, many of the great and wealthy, went to see the brave girl who had thus risked her own life to save others, and they heaped upon her money and valuable presents; so that she was no longer poor. But she did not live long to enjoy the good things bestowed upon her. She died of consumption about four years after her famous adventure." "What a pity, papa! wasn't it?" "For those who loved her, yes; but not for her, if she was ready for heaven. Do you think it was?" "No, sir, 'cause it is the happy land where Jesus is, and nobody is ever sick or sorry or in pain. But I don't want to go there yet; I'd rather stay a good while longer here with you and mamma." "I want you to, darling, if such be God's will," he returned low and tenderly, bending down to press a fatherly kiss on her round, rosy cheek. "Your father would hardly know how to do without his little Elsie." She looked up into his face with shining eyes. "We love each other, don't we, papa?" she said with satisfaction. "Mamma too, and brothers and sisters, and grandma, and--oh, all the folks." "Where now?" asked Grandma Elsie as they left the Transportation Building. "I want to show you the German castle," answered Harold. "It is here on the Midway Plaisance, and is a reproduction of a castle of the middle centuries. It is viewed by most people who have read of moat-surrounded castles with great curiosity and interest." "There is a German village connected with it, is there not?" she asked. "There is, mamma, and I think you will all enjoy looking at both it and the castle." "Oh, I am sure we shall if it is a faithful reproduction of the old castles of feudal times that we have read of!" exclaimed Rosie. "It is said to be," returned Harold, "and is considered very curious and interesting." "Is there a moat about it, Uncle Harold?" asked Grace. "Yes; and a drawbridge and portcullis." "Oh, what is that?" asked little Elsie. "A framework of timbers crossing each other, pointed on the lower edge with iron and hung by chains in grooves in the chief gateway of the castle, so that on the sudden appearance of an enemy it could be let down to keep him out more quickly than the drawbridge could be raised to prevent his crossing the moat, or the gates shut." "And what is a moat?" "A ditch or canal. But you shall see one presently, and a portcullis also." "Oh, I'm so glad we came here to the White City!" cried Elsie, skipping along by her father's side; "it's so lovely and there are so many curious things to see." "Yes, it is a pleasant way of gaining knowledge; pleasanter than learning lessons and reciting them to papa; is it not, daughter?" asked the captain, smiling down into the bright little face. "Yes, sir; but that's not a hard way, either, 'cause my papa is so kind, and loves me and makes the lessons easy." They soon reached the castle, crossed the moat by the drawbridge, passed through the arched gateway, under the portcullis, the young folks, and indeed the older ones also, gazing at it with much curiosity, and entered a spacious hall, the walls of which were hung with bows and ancient weapons, and armor such as was worn by warriors of feudal times. From the hall was an entrance to a museum, where were shown many articles interesting as having belonged to those old times when the homes of knights and barons were such castles as this. When they had looked their fill at all these they left the castle for the village surrounding it, which consisted of reproductions of very old German houses with small porticos and sharp gables. These covered three or four acres of ground and were built around a court, in the centre of which was a music stand where a band of twenty musicians, in white uniforms and military caps, were almost constantly playing upon their instruments, making such delightful music that crowds of people flocked to hear them. Our friends enjoyed it greatly, and for a time did nothing but stay there and listen while watching the players and the crowd. But the children began to show signs of weariness and the captain, Violet, Grandma Elsie, and several of the others rose and moved on with them into a cottage which stood in the back part of the grounds. It was a picturesque-looking building and there were a number of Germans in and about it, many of them evidently sight-seers like our friends. It was furnished in truly German style, with quaint old-fashioned mantels, holding old pieces of bric-a-brac, and quaint dishes and cabinets hanging on the walls. One room on the left as they entered seemed to be attracting particular attention, and they presently turned to it, paused an instant at the open door, then walked in, the captain and Violet with their two little ones leading the way. The principal objects in the apartment were two wax figures, life size, representing a man and woman seated at a table apparently dining together. Our party stood for a moment silently gazing, then Mr. Lilburn and Walter Travilla followed them into the room, though hardly seeming to belong to their party. Catching sight of the figures at the table, Walter nudged the old gentleman, gave him a significant, laughing glance, then stepping forward addressed the waxen man in a serious tone as though he thought him a living person. "Excuse me, sir, but I am a stranger here and would like to ask a little information in regard to what may be seen that is really worth looking at." At that there was a general laugh among the other spectators, and an exchange of glances that seemed to say he must be either very blind or extremely simple. Walter did not seem to notice, however, but went on: "Are the upper floors open to visitors, sir? and are there refreshments served there, or in any other part of the building?" At that the laugh among the people in the room and about the doorway grew louder,--it seemed so good a joke that anyone should take those wax figures for living people--and a burly German, taking pity on Walter's stupidity, said; "Mine frient, dose vos vax beobles, ha, ha, ha! dey don't can't say nodings." With that the laughter grew louder, and another German, evidently good-naturedly desirous to relieve Walter's embarrassment, spoke, turning as he did so to the first speaker: "Dat vasn't no sign de young shentlemans vas dumb; he don't can't help it; he t'ot dey vas life beoples." "Nefer you mine dose silly fellows, young shentleman, dey doan' know noddings." The words seemed to come from the lips of the waxen man, and struck the crowd with astonishment. "I would tell you vat you vants to know," he added, "but I pees von stranger in dose barts mineself." Then the woman seemed to speak: "Come to de dable, mine frient, and eat somedings mit us." "Thank you, very much," returned Walter, "you are most kind and hospitable, but I cannot think of intruding upon your hospitality." And with a bow directed toward her and her spouse, he turned and left the room, the rest of his party following and leaving the little crowd of Germans gazing at each other and the waxen figures in wide-eyed, open-mouthed astonishment. "Papa," complained little Ned as they left the German quarter, "I'm so tired and sleepy." "Hungry, too, papa's boy, aren't you?" was the kindly enquiring rejoinder. "Well, papa will take you back to our floating home, and leave you there with your nurse to be fed and have a good, long nap. I think Elsie would like to go too. Wouldn't you, daughter?" The little girl gave a glad assent, and arranging with his wife and older daughters where to meet them on his return, the captain set off with the two little ones for the _Dolphin_. CHAPTER VII. Captain Raymond was not gone very long, and on his return found the others sitting quietly listening to the music of the German band. But they were ready to go at his invitation and test the excellence of the fare to be obtained at the Woman's Building. "There are _cafés_ at each end of the roof covered with Oriental awnings," he said, "and surely we may expect as good fare at a woman's establishment as anywhere else." "I think we certainly should," said Rosie in a sprightly tone; "and there must be a lovely view or views from that roof and the loggias." "Doubtless," returned the captain, "and though we visited all the lower apartments of the building the other day, we did not go up to the roof; so that a visit to it will have for us the charm of novelty." "Yes," said Grandma Elsie; "let us go by boat up the lagoon. Gracie looks as if she needed a rest from walking, and I confess I should not object to it myself." The words had scarcely left her lips before Harold had signalled a boat, and the whole party was presently seated in it. A short but delightful row brought them to the landing in front of the Woman's Building, and climbing the stone stairway that led up to the terrace, they passed through the triple-arched colonnade that led into the interior of the building, nor paused till they had reached one of the _cafés_, where they might rest and also satisfy their appetites with the good things abundantly provided. Those important matters duly attended to, some minutes were given to the enjoyment of the fine views to be obtained from the loggias, and looking at the statues of Miss Rideout, representing Sacrifice, Charity, Virtue, and Wisdom. They then spent a short time over the exhibit in the lower part of the building; and there Captain Raymond and Lucilla met with a pleasant surprise in coming suddenly and unexpectedly upon Mr. Austin and his son Albert, the English gentleman whose acquaintance they had made in their visit to Minersville some years before. The pleasure was evidently mutual; very hearty greetings were exchanged, then Captain Raymond introduced his accompanying friends, and Mr. Austin a daughter who was with him. A few moments were spent in conversation, in the course of which an invitation was extended to the Austins to take supper upon the yacht that evening, and they parted for a time; the Austins having an engagement to meet some friends in the meanwhile in another part of the Fair. "Shall we go now to the Electrical Building?" asked Captain Raymond, addressing his party, and receiving a hearty assent from all, he led the way. They found much in the building to greatly interest them; great electric lenses used in lighthouses, the Edison electric column--covered with five thousand electric globes--and many other wonderful things; a beautiful scene in the daytime, but far more gorgeous at night, as they readily perceived that it would be; so they decided to pay a second visit after the lighting up that evening. Still their present visit was so prolonged that on leaving they found it time to return to the yacht. They met the Austins again at the Peristyle, and took them on board in the first boat load. The guests were numerous, including all the cousins from Pleasant Plains, and the three young gentlemen friends--Chester and Frank Dinsmore and Will Croly. The meal to which they presently sat down, though Captain Raymond had called it supper, was an excellent dinner of several courses, and enlivened by pleasant chat, proved most enjoyable to the entire company. At its conclusion they adjourned to the deck. A pleasant air was stirring, the sun drawing near his setting, the western sky glowing with brilliant hues, while the sounds of life on water and land came softly to the ear. The young people formed one group, the older ones another, conversing among themselves, mostly in rather subdued tones. "You have hardly been in America ever since I saw you last?" Lucilla said enquiringly, addressing Albert Austin. "Oh, no; we went home shortly upon bidding you good-by after our brief acquaintance in Minersville," he replied; adding, "And I presume you had very nearly forgotten us?" "No," she said; "we have spoken of you occasionally,--papa, Max, and I,--and I recognized your father the moment I saw him to-day; you also, though I am not sure that I should have done so had you been alone; for of course you have changed much more than he has." "Not more than you have, Miss Raymond," he returned with a look of undisguised admiration; "yet I knew you instantly, though I saw you before I perceived that the captain made one of the company you were in." "Indeed!" she said with a merry little laugh. "I am afraid I hoped I had grown and improved more than that would seem to imply." "But you are still as proud as ever of being an American, and as proud of your Stripes and Stars?" he remarked enquiringly and with an amused smile. "Yes, most emphatically, yes," she replied, lifting her eyes to the flag floating overhead, "I still think it the most beautiful banner ever flung to the breeze." "And I suppose--from its constant display here, there, and everywhere--that that must be the idea of Americans in general," remarked Miss Austin in a slightly sneering tone. "I must say I have--naturally, I suppose,--a far greater admiration for England's flag, yet I should not want to see it so ostentatiously displayed on all occasions as yours is." Lucilla colored, but was silent, fearing she might speak too warmly in defence of her favorite banner should she attempt a reply; but Chester took it up. "Miss Austin must remember," he said, speaking in calm, polite tones, "that ours is a very large country, to which immigrants from other lands are constantly flocking; and they, as well as the ignorant among ourselves, need to have constantly kept before them the fact that we, though spread over so many States, form but one nation; for otherwise our Union could not be maintained; we must continually impress upon all our people that this one glorious nation is never to be separated into parts; and the flag is the emblem of our Union; a symbol that is unmistakable; and so it is displayed as the chief glory of our nation; and therefore we love it and cannot see too much of it." Even as he spoke the sun neared the horizon, all on the _Dolphin's_ deck rose to their feet, and as he sank out of sight, the firing of a gun from the _Illinois_ announcing the fact, saluted the flag as, at the same moment, it came fluttering down from its lofty perch. "Thank you, for your explanation, Mr. Dinsmore," Miss Austin said pleasantly, as they resumed their seats; "it has given me an entirely new view of the matter, so that I now think you Americans are quite right in your devotion to your flag, and your constant display of it. And this Fair," she went on, "is wonderful--the White City a perfect fairyland; especially at night, with its blaze of electrical lights and its many colored electric fountains." "So we all think," said Harold Travilla. "Have you been in the Electric Building yet?" "Not yet," she replied, and her brother added: "But we intend going. The evening is the best time for a sight of its wonders, I presume?" "Yes; we have planned to go to-night, and would be glad to have you accompany us." The invitation, overheard by the older people and cordially endorsed by the captain, was promptly accepted by the three Austins, and as the shades of evening began to fall, all but the little ones, already in their nests, returned to the shore and were presently in the Electrical Building, enjoying to the full its magical splendor. Croly was devoting himself to Rosie Travilla, Frank Dinsmore endeavoring to make himself useful and entertaining to Grace Raymond and Evelyn Leland, while his brother and Percy Landreth, Jr., vied with each other and Albert Austin in attentions to Lucilla, leaving Miss Austin to the charge of Harold and Herbert, who were careful to make sure that she should have no cause to feel herself neglected. They spent some time in viewing the marvels of the Electric Building, finding the lights giving it a truly magical splendor not perceptible by day. It seemed full of enchantment, a veritable hall of marvels; they were delighted and fascinated with the glories of the displays, and lingered there longer than they had intended. On passing out, the party broke up, the Austins bidding good-by and going in one direction, Croly carrying off Rosie in another, the Pleasant Plains people vanishing in still another. "Will you take a boat ride with me, Lucilla?" asked Chester in a rather low aside. "If the rest are going," she returned laughingly. "I'm such a baby that I cling to my father and don't want to go anywhere without him." "You mean the captain does not allow it?" Chester said enquiringly, and with a look of slight vexation. "Oh," she laughed, "I'm not apt to ask for what I don't want, and I never want to be without papa's companionship." "Humph! I had really labored under the delusion that you were grown up." "Does that mean, ready to dispense with my father's society? In that case I don't mean ever to be grown up," she returned with spirit. "Well, really!" laughed Chester, "if I am not mistaken, my sisters considered themselves about grown up, and altogether their own mistresses when they were no older than you are now; though, to be sure, I don't profess to know your age exactly." "You may look at the record in the family Bible the next time you visit Woodburn, if you care to," Lucilla said, with a careless little toss of her head. "Yon will find the date of my birth there in papa's handwriting, from which your knowledge of arithmetic will enable you to compute my present age." "Thank you," he said, laughing, but with a look of slight embarrassment, "I am entirely satisfied with the amount of knowledge I already possess on that subject." "Ah, what subject is that upon which you are so well informed, Chester?" queried Captain Raymond pleasantly, overhearing the last remark, and turning toward the young couple. "Your daughter's age, sir. I invited her to take a ride with me upon the lagoon, in one of those electrical launches; but find she is but a young thing and cannot leave her father." "Ah?" laughed the captain, "then suppose we all go together." "Willingly, sir, if that will suit her better," answered Chester, turning enquiringly to Lucilla. "I think nothing could be pleasanter," she said, and the others being of like opinion, they were presently gliding over the waters of the lagoon intensely enjoying the swift easy movement and the fairylike scenes through which they were passing. CHAPTER VIII. It was late when at last all the _Dolphin's_ passengers were gathered in. The party to which the Raymonds belonged were the first, the young men who had accompanied them in the electric launch bidding good-night at the Peristyle, and all had retired to their respective state-rooms before the coming of the others; all except the captain, who was pacing the deck while awaiting their arrival. His thoughts seemed not altogether agreeable, for he walked with drooping head and downcast eyes and sighed rather heavily once or twice. "Papa dear, what is the matter? Oh, have I done anything to vex or trouble you?" asked Lucilla's voice close at his side. "Why, daughter, are you there?" he exclaimed, turning toward her with a fatherly smile, then taking her hand and drawing her into his arms, stroking her hair, patting her cheeks, and pressing a fond kiss upon her lips. "No, I have no fault to find with my eldest daughter, and yet----" He paused, gazing searchingly and somewhat sadly into the bright young face. "Oh, papa, what is it?" she asked, putting her arms about his neck and gazing with ardent affection and questioning anxiety up into his eyes. "You looked at me so strangely two or three times to-night, and I so feared you were displeased with me that I could not go to my bed without first coming to ask you about it, and get a kiss of forgiveness if I have displeased you in any way." "No, daughter, you have not displeased me, but--your father is so selfish," he sighed, "that he can scarce brook the thought that someone else may some day oust him from the first place in his dear child's heart." "Oh, papa!" she exclaimed in half reproachful tones, "how can you be troubled with any such idea as that? don't you know that I love _you_ ten thousand times better than anybody else in the whole wide world? I just _love_ to belong to you, and I always shall," she added, laying her head on his breast and gazing with ardent affection up into his eyes. "Besides, I am only a little girl yet, as you've told me over and over again, and must not think about beaux and lovers for at least five or six years to come; and I'm sure I don't want to think of them at all so long as I have my own dear father to love and care for me." "That is right," he said, holding her close; "I think I can say with truth that I love my dear daughter much too well ever to intentionally stand in the way of her happiness, but I feel sure that the best place for her, for the next six or eight years at least, will be in her father's house, trusting in his love and care." "I haven't a doubt of it, father," she said, lifting loving, laughing eyes to his, "and really I don't believe Chester or anybody else cares half so much about me as you do, or wants to get me away from you. I like right well to laugh and talk with him and the others just as I do with the girls, but I'm, oh, so glad I belong to you, and will for years to come, if not always. Yes, I do hope it will be always, while we both live. And Gracie feels just the same. We had a little talk about it not very long ago, and agreed that we could not bear to think the time would ever come when we would have to leave our dear father, and the sweet home he has made for us, to live with anybody else in the loveliest that could be imagined." "That pleases me well," he said, his eyes shining; "Gracie is no less dear to me than you are, and so frail that I should be far from willing to resign the care of her to another. But now, dear child, it is high time you were resting in your bed; so give me another good-night kiss and go at once." "I will, papa, and are not you going too? for I am sure you must be needing rest as well as I." "Presently," he replied, glancing toward the pier. "I have been waiting to see the last of our party on board, and here they come." Lucilla went to her bed a very happy girl, her heart full of love to her father and singing for joy in the thought of his love for her. She had a long dreamless sleep, but woke at her usual early hour and, when morning duties had been attended to, went noiselessly up to the deck where, as she had expected, the captain had preceded her by a moment or more. She ran to him to claim the usual morning caress. "You look bright and well, dear child," he said, holding her close for a moment, then a little further off to gaze searchingly into the smiling, happy face. "As I feel, father," she said, laying her head against his breast. "I went to sleep last night thinking of all you had been saying to me and feeling so glad of your dear love and that you want to keep me all your own for ever so long." Then she added, with an arch look up into his face, "Don't you think, papa, it will be best for you to have me under eye all the time wherever we go?" "I am not afraid to trust you, my darling," he answered with a smile, "but of course I want you near me that I may take the very best care of you always and all the time." "Well, then, I'll get and keep just as close to you as I can," she answered with a merry look and smile. "But, papa----" "Well, daughter, what is it?" he asked, as she paused and hesitated, as if fearful that he might be displeased with what she was about to say. "I was just thinking,--please don't be vexed with me,--but wasn't Mamma Vi only nineteen when you married her?" "Yes," he said, with a slight smile, "but circumstances alter cases, and I have changed my views somewhat since then." "Yes," she said, reflectively; "she had no father, and it was you she married, you who know so well how to take care of both her and your daughters." At that her father merely smiled again and patted her cheek, saying. "I am glad you are so well content with my guardianship." He did not think it necessary to tell her of a talk with Violet the night before, in which he had expressed his determination to keep his daughters single for some years to come,--certainly not less than five or six,--and his fear that Chester and one or two others had already begun to perceive their charms, and might succeed all too soon in winning their affections; in reply to which Violet had, with a very mirthful look, reminded him how young she herself was at the time of their marriage, and that he did not seem to think it at all necessary to wait for her to grow older. In answer to that he had laughingly insisted that she was far more mature than his daughters bid fair to be at the same age; adding that besides he certainly ought to have gained something in wisdom in the years which had passed since their marriage. "Ah," said Violet giving him a look of ardent affection, "after all I am glad you had not attained to all that wisdom some years earlier, my dear husband, for my life with you has been such a happy, happy one. Your dear love is my greatest earthly treasure, our little son and daughter scarcely less a joy of heart to me." "To me also," he said, drawing her into his arms and giving her tenderest caresses, "yet not quite so dear as their mother; for you, my love, have the very first place in my heart." "And you in mine," she returned, her eyes dewy with happy tears; "and I love your daughters dearly, dearly; I could hardly bear to part with them, and I am glad to perceive that they, as yet, care nothing for beaux, but are devoted to their father and happy in his love." "Yes, I think they are, and fondly hope they will continue to be, for a number of years to come," was his pleased response. "I have no doubt they will," said Violet, and there the conversation ended. * * * * * "More than content, papa; for as I have often said, I just delight in belonging to you," was Lucilla's glad response to his last remark in that morning talk. "Yes, I know you do, and so we are a very happy father and daughter," he said. "I often think no man was ever more blest in his children than I am in mine." The talk about the breakfast table that morning was of the places it might be most desirable to visit that day, and the final conclusion that they would go first to the battleship _Illinois_, then to the lighthouse and life-saving station, both near at hand. "I am glad we are going aboard a battleship--or rather the model of one, I presume I should say, and especially in company with a naval officer who can explain everything to us," remarked Rosie in a lively tone. "Yes, we are very fortunate in that," said Mrs. Dinsmore, giving Captain Raymond an appreciative look and smile. "Papa, didn't you say she wasn't a real ship?" asked little Elsie, looking up enquiringly into her father's face. "Yes, my child, but in all you could perceive in going aboard of her she is exactly like one--a fac-simile of the coast-line battleship _Illinois_, which is a very powerful vessel." "And are her guns real, papa? Mightn't they go off and shoot us?" "No, daughter, there is no danger of that. The largest ones are wooden models, and though quite a number are real and capable of doing terrible execution, there is not the slightest danger of their being used on us." "I'm not one bit afraid of them!" cried little Ned, straightening himself up with a very brave, defiant air. "Not with papa along, anyhow." "No, you needn't be, Ned," laughed Walter, "for most assuredly nobody would dare to shoot Captain Raymond or anybody under his care." "No, indeed, I should think not," chuckled the little fellow, with a proudly affectionate look up into his father's face. "No, nor any other visitor to the ship," said the captain. "We may go there without feeling the least apprehension of such a reception." "So we will start for the _Illinois_ as soon as we are ready for the day's pleasures," said Violet, smiling into the bright little face of her boy. Harold and Herbert joined them at the usual early hour, bringing Chester and Frank Dinsmore with them, and in a few minutes they were all upon the deck of the model battleship. They were treated very politely and shown every department from sleeping quarters to gun-deck. They were told that she was steel armor-plated below the berth-deck, and were shown that above the decks were steel turrets, through portholes of which deep-mouthed wooden guns projected. Also that she was fully manned and officered with a crew of two hundred men, who gave daily drills and performed all the duties required of them when in actual service on the high seas. From the battleship they went to the lighthouse and life-saving station. On the plaza in front of the Government Building was the camp of the life-saving corps. It was neat and pretty, and close beside it was the model of a government lighthouse. Some of our party went to the top of that, and all of them viewed the paraphernalia used in the saving of life when a vessel is wrecked within sight of the shore. Some of them had already seen it on the Eastern shore, but were sufficiently interested to care to look at it again, while to the others it was altogether new, as was the drill through which the company of life guards were presently put, for both the benefit to themselves of the practice, and the edification of visitors. That over Grandma Elsie asked, "Shall we not, now we are here, go into the Government Building and look at the military exhibit?" "I should like to do so," said Mr. Dinsmore. "In what part of the building is it, Harold?" "The southeastern, sir. I have been in once, and found many things well worth looking at more than once." Harold led the way as he spoke, the others following. The first department they entered contained exhibits of metal work, gun and cartridge-making machines, campaign materials, and battleflags. All were interesting to the gentlemen, and to some of the ladies also, but to the others and the children the battleflags were far more so than anything else. It was the greatest collection ever seen outside of a government museum; for they were mementoes of all the wars our country has passed through since the settlement of Jamestown, Va. There were also mountain howitzers mounted on mules, forage wagons, propeller torpedoes, and every kind of camp appliance, garrison equipage, pack saddles, etc. Famous relics, too, such as a beautifully carved bronze cannon captured from the British at Yorktown in 1781, and a great gun called "Long Tom," with which the privateer _General Armstrong_ repelled a British squadron off the shores of the Azores in 1814, and many other souvenirs of American history. "'Long Tom,'" repeated little Elsie, gazing curiously at the great gun, about which some remark had been made a moment before, "I s'pose there's a story to it. I wish somebody would tell it to Neddie and me." "You shall hear it one of these times," said her father, "but not here and now;" and with that she was content, for papa's promises were sure to be kept. "Don't refrain on my account from telling it here and now, captain," said Cousin Ronald with a humorous look and smile. "I'm not so patriotic as to endorse wrong-doing even on the part of Britons." "We are all sure of that, sir," returned the captain, "but this time and place are not the most favorable for the telling of a story of that length." "And grandma will sit down somewhere with the children presently for a rest, in some quiet place, and tell them the story of the gun should they wish to hear it," said Mrs. Travilla; and with that promise the children seemed well content. CHAPTER IX. By the middle of the afternoon Grandma Elsie, Grace, and the little ones were all weary enough to be glad to return to the _Dolphin_ for a rest. After a refreshing nap Grace and the children gathered about Mrs. Travilla and begged for the fulfilment of her promise to tell the story of "Long Tom," and she kindly complied. "The _General Armstrong_ was a privateer, and the fight I am now going to tell about was one of the most famous of the war of 1812-14," she said. "The vessel was commanded by Captain Samuel C. Reid, a native of Connecticut. He went to sea when only eleven years old and was a midshipman with Commodore Truxton. He was still a young man--only thirty--when the event of which we are talking occurred. That was on the 26th of September, 1814, in the harbor of Fayal, one of the Azores islands belonging to Portugal. "While lying there at anchor the _Armstrong_ was attacked by a large British squadron. That was in flagrant violation of the laws of neutrality. Commodore Lloyd was the commander of the squadron. At eight o'clock in the evening he sent four large well-armed launches, each manned by about forty men, to attack the American vessel. "The moon shone brightly, and Captain Reid, who had noticed the movements of the British and suspecting that their design was to attack him, was getting his vessel under the guns of the castle. Those guns and his own opened fire at almost the same instant and drove off the launches with heavy loss." "That means a great many men killed, grandma?" queried little Elsie. "Yes, dear, a great many of the British; on our side there was one man killed, and a lieutenant was wounded. But that was not the end of the affair. At midnight another attack was made with fourteen launches and about five hundred men. "A terrible fight ensued, but at length the British were driven off with a hundred and twenty killed and one hundred and eighty wounded." "That was a great many," commented the little girl. "Did they give it up then, grandma?" "No; at daybreak one of the British vessels, the _Carnation_, made another attempt. She began with a heavy fire, but the gunners of the _Armstrong_ fired shots at her so rapidly and so well directed that she was soon so badly cut up that she hastened to get out of their range. "In all this fighting the British had lost over three hundred in killed and wounded, while only two Americans were killed and seven wounded. But the _Armstrong_ was a good deal damaged and Captain Reid saw that he could not stand another fight such as she had just gone through, so he directed her to be scuttled to prevent her from falling into the hands of the enemy." "Scuttled? What's that, grandma?" asked little Ned. "Making holes in the bottom or sides of a vessel, so that the water can get in and sink her, is called scuttling. It was done to prevent the British from taking possession of her. After our men had left her, however, they boarded, and set her on fire." "Grandma Elsie," said Grace, "I think I remember reading that that victory of Reid's--or perhaps I should say successful resistance--had much to do with the saving of New Orleans." "Yes; that British squadron was on its way to Jamaica, where the British vessels were gathering for the expedition to move against and take New Orleans, and their object in attacking the _Armstrong_ was to secure her for themselves and make her useful in that work. Had they succeeded in taking her they would have reached New Orleans while it was utterly defenceless, General Jackson having not yet arrived there. But Reid, in his splendid defence of his vessel, so crippled those of the enemy that they did not reach Jamaica until fully ten days later than the time when the expedition was expected to sail from there; Lloyd was waited for and the expedition thus delayed until Jackson had reached the city and was making haste with arrangements for its defence." "Yes, grandma, I've heard the story about that," said little Elsie; "how the British tried to take that city and General Jackson and his soldiers killed so very many of them, and drove the rest away." Neddie was looking very grave and thoughtful. "Isn't it wicked to kill folks, grandma?" he asked. "Yes, dear, unless it is necessary to prevent them from killing or badly injuring us or someone else. The British were terribly abusing our poor sailors and it was right for our government to fight them, because they would not stop it until they were forced to do so." "But you haven't told about 'Long Tom' yet, grandma," said Elsie; "that big gun, you know, that we saw to-day." "Yes; it was one of those on the _Armstrong_ with which Captain Reid defended his ship." "Weren't the Americans glad when they heard about it, grandma? and didn't they praise Captain Reid?" "Indeed they did! and also made him many handsome presents. The State of New York thanked him and gave him a sword." "Hadn't he afterward something to do with a change in our flag, Grandma Elsie?" asked Grace. "Yes; our flag at first bore thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, and as new States were admitted another star and stripe were added for each one. But it was soon found that that was making the flag very large unless the stripes became narrower and narrower, while there was nothing to show what had been the original number of States. Captain Reid suggested the plan of retaining the thirteen stripes to indicate that, and the adding of a new star every time a new State was admitted, and Congress adopted that plan. He was certainly a talented man. He invented and erected the signal telegraphs at the Battery and the Narrows." "I'm proud of him, Grandma Elsie!" said Grace, her face lighting up with enthusiasm. "His defence at Fayal against such overwhelming numbers was wonderful. And so was Jackson's at New Orleans. England was a great and powerful nation while ours was but small and weak, but we were in the right--fighting against dreadful wrongs done to our sailors--and God helped us to drive away our haughty, powerful foe, and deliver our brave tars from her unendurable oppression." "Yes, dear; and to Him let us ever give all the glory and the praise. Oh, may our nation always serve God and trust in him! then no foe shall ever prevail against her." "I hope we do, grandma," said little Elsie, "for on a quarter papa gave me the other day, I saw the words, 'In God we trust.'" "Oh!" cried Ned at that moment, "the folks are coming! I see them there on the Peristyle--papa and mamma, Grandpa and Grandma Dinsmore, Lu and the others." "Yes, and the boat is waiting for them," added Elsie "and see, they are getting in." "Oh, I am so glad," said Grace, "though they are earlier than usual." "Yes," said Grandma Elsie, "I suppose because it is Saturday evening and we are all so tired with going and sight-seeing that we need to get early to bed and rest that we may not be too weary to enjoy the coming Sabbath day." "I 'spect so," said Ned, and running forward as his father and the others stepped upon the deck, "Papa," he asked, "did you come home soon to get ready to keep Sunday?" "Yes," was the reply; "we all need a good rest that we may be able to enjoy God's holy day and spend it in his service." "Where have you been since we left you, Lu?" asked Grace, as her sister took a seat by her side. "Papa took us to look at the Krupp gun," was the reply. "It is a wonderful one; weighs two hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds; just think! one hundred and twenty-four tons! It was certainly a great undertaking to bring it all the way from Essen, Germany, to Chicago. They told us that at Hamburg and at Baltimore great cranes were used, one of which could lift a sixty-five ton locomotive, to lift the gun to the trucks that were to carry it on the railroad; they had to put eight trucks under it, fastening two together, then the two pair together, and so on till they had the eight all well fastened to each other, when they laid the gun on them and started it off. "And only think, Gracie, it takes half a ton of powder and costs one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to fire that great gun once. We saw the steel plate, sixteen inches thick, through which a twelve-inch shot had been fired. It had cracked the plate and thrown the upper corner half a yard away. I forgot to say the projectile fired from that gun weighs a ton, and goes sixteen miles." "Oh," cried Grace, "that's just dreadful! I hope there will never be a war where such terrible guns will be used--never any more at all; but that very soon, as the Bible says, the people 'shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'" "Yes," said Grandma Elsie, overhearing her, "that will be a blessed time." "Yes, indeed!" said Lucilla. "Where else did you go?" asked Grace. "Oh, we have been promenading along the lake shore, sitting down now and then on the seats to watch the many boats of various sorts and sizes, our own among the rest; and now, here we are to stay for the night, I suppose. I must, at least, for papa has said so." She looked smilingly up into his face as she spoke, for he was now standing by her side. "I think that will be best for each of my children, and hope that my dear eldest daughter does not feel at all rebellious in regard to the matter," he said in his pleasant, fatherly way. "No, indeed, papa!" she responded heartily, "though the beautiful Court of Honor is so fascinating--especially at night--that if you had given me permission to go back there after tea I should have been very glad to do so." "And I should take pleasure in allowing you that gratification if I thought it best and right." "I don't doubt that in the least, papa, and I am very glad to have you to decide all such questions for me," she replied. "Will we go over there, to the Court of Honor, to-morrow, papa?" asked little Elsie. "No, daughter, we must keep the Sabbath day holy, and if we go anywhere it will be to church." "And if we don't, we'll have a meeting here on our own deck as we have on some other Sundays; won't we, papa?" "Yes; and the Lord Jesus will be with us; for he has said, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.'" "Oh, papa, I shall like to think of that--that the dear Lord Jesus is here with us--but I do wish I could see him." "I too," said little Ned. "Please, papa, sit down now and let your baby boy sit on your knee a little while. You have been gone so long away from me." "So long, papa's dear boy!" the captain repeated with a smile of fatherly affection into the bright, coaxing little face, then seating himself, he took the little fellow in his arms, and petted and caressed him to his heart's content. "Papa missed his dear little boy," he said, "but hoped he was having a good time here with dear grandma." "Yes, papa, so I was. Grandma's ever so nice, but I want my papa and mamma, too." "That's right, darling! mamma and papa would never know how to do without their dear baby boy," Violet said, adding her caresses to those of his father, the captain having taken a seat close at her side. "Nor me either, mamma?" asked Elsie, drawing near, putting one hand into that of her mother and laying the other on her father's knee, her look and tones a trifle wistful, as if she were half fearful that she was less highly appreciated than her brother. "No, indeed, dear child!" they replied, speaking together, "we love you just the same." "Gracie also," the captain added, turning toward her with a tenderly appreciative smile. "You were looking very weary, daughter, when you left us some hours ago. Are you feeling better now? "Yes, thank you, papa," she replied with a sweet, glad smile. "How kindly careful of me you always are!" "Yes," he returned, "one is apt to be careful of his choicest treasures." "It is so delightful to be one of your treasures, you dear papa," she said, going to his side in response to an inviting gesture, as Neddie got down from his knee to run to the side of the vessel to look at a passing boat. "And so delightful to have you for one," he said, drawing her to the seat Neddie had vacated. "Papa feels that he must be very careful to see that the strength and endurance of his feeble little girl are not overtaxed." "Mamma too," said Violet. "Dear child, I hope the rest of to-night, to-morrow, and the following night may entirely relieve your fatigue." "Thank you, mamma, I hope and believe that it will," responded Grace in cheerful tones. "We will go to church to-morrow, I suppose, papa?" turning enquiringly to him. "Those of us who feel able and wish to," he replied. "I intend moving on up the lake to Chicago when you have all retired to your state-rooms, and to lie at anchor there until the Sabbath is past. We will have our Bible lesson as usual in the afternoon, and service on board in the evening." "I am glad of that, papa," said Grace, "for I always greatly enjoy a Bible lesson with you for my teacher." CHAPTER X. Most of the _Dolphin's_ passengers went into the city to attend church the next morning, but Grandma Elsie and Grace, not yet entirely recovered from their fatigue, remained behind with the little ones. They watched the departure of the others, then Elsie, taking a seat close at her grandma's side, asked for a Bible story. "I like so much better to hear you or papa or mamma read or tell it than to have to read it for myself," she said. "Yes, dear, and I always enjoy reading or telling those sweet stories to you," replied Mrs. Travilla, turning over the leaves of her Bible. "Please read 'bout Jesus walking on the water, grandma," pleaded Neddie. "Yes," she said. "Here in this chapter Mark tells about Jesus feeding the multitude--five thousand men--with five loaves and two fishes; making so much of that small quantity of food that they all ate and were filled, and there were twelve baskets full of fragments left. Then he constrained his disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. Now, do you remember what he did after the disciples and the people were gone?" "Went up into a mountain to pray," answered Elsie. "Grandma, why did he pray when he was God and could do everything?" "We cannot fully understand it, dear, but he was both God and man and loved to talk with his Father, God." "Yes, grandma, I love to talk to my father," said Ned. "So do I," said Elsie; "he is such a dear, kind papa, and we all love him so much." "That is right," grandma said with her sweet smile; "and I hope you sometimes thank God, our heavenly Father, for giving you such a good, kind papa." "Yes, grandma, yes indeed!" "Now listen while I read," she said, and began: "'And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and they cried out: (For they all saw him, and were troubled.) And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.'" "Oh, grandma, I don't want my heart to be hardened like that--so that I won't believe in Jesus and love and trust him," Elsie said earnestly. "No, dear child; ask God very often not to let it ever be so hardened; but to give you strong and abiding faith; faith that will never for an instant doubt his power or love. Remember he says, 'I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.'" "Early in the morning, grandma?" asked. Ned. "Yes, dear; and early in life--while you are a little child." "How, grandma? What's the way to do it?" "Perhaps you may sometimes want papa when you do riot know exactly where he is, and you go about the house and grounds looking for him; that is seeking him; and when you have found papa you say to him what you wish to say. But Jesus, being God, is every where; he sees you and hears all you say, knows all your thoughts; so if you speak to him only in your heart he will know it--know all you want and listen to your prayer; for he is so good, so kind, so condescending that he will not turn away from anyone who really prays--asks with all his heart to be cleansed from his sins and made truly good--such an one as will be pleasing in the sight of God." "Yes, grandma," said Elsie, "that's what papa and mamma, too, have told Neddie and me many times; and I do ask God earnestly very, very often to give me a new heart and make me his own dear child. Grandma, papa often tells me he loves me very dearly, but that Jesus loves me still more." "Yes, dear child, the Bible tells us so and it is very sweet and comforting to think of. Jesus loves to have us carry our troubles to him and he feels for us in them all. He says, 'As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted.'" "And mamma is such a dear comforter when we are in any trouble or suffering pain," remarked Elsie. "Yes, your mamma loves you very dearly, but Jesus' love is still stronger. Now I will read of another time when Jesus stilled the waves with a word. "'Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind, and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.'" "Nobody but God could do that," Neddie remarked, half in assertion, half enquiringly. "No, dear child, it is only the voice of God the winds and waters will obey, or the dead when summoned to come forth from their graves. Jesus is God; and he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God, by him. The Bible tells us so; the Bible which from beginning to end is God's own holy word. Listen to its closing words;" and again she read aloud from the Bible in her hands. "'I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.'" "Is it Jesus who says, 'Surely I come quickly, grandma?" asked Elsie. "Yes, dear; and he says to each one of us: 'Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.'" "Watch," repeated Neddie. "What for, grandma?" "That we may be ready to meet him with joy; our hearts full of love to him and his cause, caring little for the things of earth, but very much for things heavenly and divine; setting our affections on things above." "Oh, there they come!" cried Neddie the next moment; "papa and mamma and all the rest," and he ran to the side of the vessel to give them a joyous greeting as they presently stepped upon the deck. In the afternoon the captain gathered his young people together for a Bible lesson, which all liked as he was sure to make it both interesting and instructive. The subject was the miracle of Christ wrought in the healing of the paralytic as related in Mark II. 1-12. "'Seeing their faith?' How did they show their faith, Lucilla?" asked the captain. "By their works, papa. I think that if they had not believed that Jesus could and would heal their friend they would hardly have taken the trouble to break up the roof that they might let him down before the Lord. And the paralytic too must have had faith in the power and willingness of Jesus to heal him or surely he would have objected to being moved so much--carried from this house along the street to the place where Jesus was, then up to the roof, and let down from there in his bed." "Yes, he, too, surely must have had faith in the power and willingness of Christ to heal him, and is included in the number of those spoken of as having faith. Let it never be forgotten that faith in Christ is necessary to salvation; for without faith it is impossible to please him'; but, 'all things are possible to him that believeth.' 'Ye believe in God, believe also in me,' Jesus said to his disciples in his farewell talk with them the night before his crucifixion. If we would be saved we must have 'the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.' None can be justified by works, 'for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,' and if we are justified it must be 'freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' Ah, let us all pray as did the disciples, 'Lord, increase our faith.'" "Why did Jesus say to the man 'Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,' papa?" asked little Elsie. "I thought it was to be cured of his sickness the man came." "Yes, daughter, but sin is the cause of all sickness and disease; if man had not sinned there would never have been any sickness or pain, and there will be none in heaven where all are holy. "And in pronouncing the man's sins forgiven Jesus asserted himself to be God. The Scribes sitting there understood it to be so, and said in their hearts, 'Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?' And Jesus knew their thoughts, for he asked, 'Why reason ye these things in your hearts?'" "That he could see their thoughts I should think was another proof that he was God," remarked Walter, "and when that was followed by the instantaneous healing of the man, it seems to me wondrous strange that they were not convinced beyond the possibility of a doubt." "The trouble with them was the same with that of many in these days," returned the captain; "their hearts were more in the wrong than their heads; they did not want to be convinced." CHAPTER XI. Monday morning found all on board the _Dolphin_ feeling well, bright, and ready to enjoy a further examination of the wonders and beauties of the White City beside the lake. As usual the question which of them all should claim attention first, came up for discussion at the breakfast table. "I for one would like extremely to pay a visit to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show," said Walter. "I think my little nephew and niece would enjoy it too, and possibly older folks might find some amusement there also." "Oh, what is it, Uncle Walter?" asked Ned eagerly. "I'd like to see some buffaloes." "Well, so you will if we go," replied Walter, "for there's a herd of them to be seen there. It is outside the Exposition grounds, but worth going to see, I should think. There are rifle experts, bucking ponies, dancing dervishes, athletes, female riders, besides American, German, French, English, Cossack, Mexican, and Arabian cavalry, to say nothing of cowboys, and other attractions too many to mention." "Oh!" cried Ned, "I want to go. Can't I, papa?" "All alone?" asked his father laughingly. "No, my son, I fear you are rather young for that." "Oh, no, papa; I didn't mean all alone. But won't you take mamma and Elsie and all the rest, and me too?" "Yes, if mamma and all the rest want to go." "There are two hundred Indians there, Ned. Won't you be afraid of them?" asked Lucilla. "No, Lu; not with our papa along to take care of us. If you're afraid, I s'pose you can stay on the _Dolphin_ here till we come back." "Thank you, Ned," she said laughing; "but I believe I feel quite as safe where papa is as you do. And I think I should like to see that show myself, though I'm neither a baby boy like you, nor a sixteen year old laddie like Walter." "No, not a boy at all; only a girl. I'm glad I was made a boy so I can grow up into a man like papa." "I'd rather be a woman like mamma and Grandma Elsie," said his little sister. "But I'd like to see the buffaloes and all the rest of it. Can't we go, papa?" "I will go and take my little girl and boy," replied her father, "and will be glad of the company of anyone else who feels inclined to go with us." No one seemed disinclined, and finally all decided to go. They were well entertained, and, when the exhibition was over, passed out upon the elevated platform at the entrance. The crowd moved slowly, and as they stood awaiting an opportunity to descend to the street below, there arose a sudden cry of "Fire!" and at the same instant they perceived a flame creeping up within the centre tower of the Cold Storage Building near at hand. Scarcely was the cry raised before twenty-five brave and experienced firemen were on the scene, and ascending to the platform of observation that had been built near the summit. The tower was built of pine wood and plaster, which had been dried by the sun without and hot sheet-iron chimneys within, so that it burned fiercely. The firemen saw that it was a very dangerous place for anyone to venture into, therefore they hesitated and drew back; but their leader swore at them, calling them cowards, and at once they climbed to the perilous place; but scarcely had they reached it when there was an explosion of gases; the roof heaved and fell in, carrying with it sixteen men down into a pit of gaseous flame, and a shriek of horror went up from the fifty thousand people who stood looking on, unable to give the least assistance to the poor perishing men. The party from the _Dolphin_ saw it all and were sick with horror. Grace fainted, and but for the support of her father's arm, quickly thrown about her, would have fallen to the floor of the platform where they stood. He held her up, and with the help of Harold and Herbert, hastily pushed his way through the crowd. "Lay her down as quickly as you can, captain!" exclaimed Harold; "it is important." "Yes, I know," returned Captain Raymond, glancing down at the white, unconscious face of his precious burden. But at that instant Grace's eyes opened, and looking up in a bewildered way into her father's eyes, "Papa, I'm too heavy for you to carry," she said faintly. "No, my darling, not at all," he replied. "There, Uncle Harold has summoned a boat and we will take you back at once to our floating home." "Am I sick? did I faint, papa?" she asked. "Oh,"--with a burst of tears and sobs--"I remember now! Oh, those poor, poor men! Papa, were they all killed?" "Don't be so distressed, dear child," he said with emotion. "I think they must have been almost instantly suffocated by the gas, and did not feel anything that followed." "Your father is right," said Harold, close at her side; "and though it was a very dreadful thing for them to be sacrificed in that way, and hurried into eternity without a moment's warning, they are not suffering pain of body now, and we can only hope that with their last breath they cried to the God of all grace for pardon and salvation." As he concluded his sentence the boat he had signalled was close at hands the rest of their party came up at that moment, all embarked, and they were soon on board the _Dolphin_, where they remained for the rest of that day, feeling too much shocked over the dreadful catastrophe at the Storage Building to care to go anywhere else. Poor, feeble Grace was almost overwhelmed with pity and horror, weeping bitterly much of the time. The others, especially her father, did all in their power to comfort her with the hope that at least some of the killed were prepared for heaven, and with plans for giving aid and consolation to their bereaved wives, children, and other relatives who had been dependent upon their exertions for support. The next day brought a very pleasant surprise in the arrival among them of their cousin, Dr. Conly, with his wife and her brother, Sandy McAlpin. The sight of her old physician, and Marian, of whom she was very fond, did much to restore Grace to her usual spirits, and all went together to view various interesting exhibits. The first to which they gave their attention was that of the relics of the Cliff Dwellers. It was in the southeastern part of the grounds, and was a reproduction of Battle Rock Mountain, Colorado. As you neared it you seemed to see before you a cliff, for though built of timbers, iron, stone, staff, and boards, it wore the appearance of rock and earth. There was a cavernous opening which had the effect of a canyon, and in niches high up were the dwellings, in miniature, of the ancient people who once lived among the tablelands of our southwestern territories; but portions of the real houses were shown in order to give a perfectly truthful impression to visitors; also there were relics of the old cliff dwellers shown, such as weapons wrought from bones, stone, and wood; pottery, and cloths and mattings woven from blades of the alfalfa plant. There were to be seen also ledges of fallen rock with houses crushed beneath and other houses built over them. Also winding paths led up the cliffs and through to the outer air, and up these our friends climbed to the summit, where they stood for a little enjoying the prospect now on this side, now on that. "Papa," asked little Elsie, "how long ago did people live in those houses so high up among the rocks?" "Nobody knows just how long ago, my child," he replied, "but probably hundreds of years before Columbus discovered America." The rest of the day was spent in the Midway Plaisance, a street three hundred feet wide, beginning at the rear of the Woman's Building, extending about a mile in length, and so full of interesting sights that one might tarry there many hours, and go again day after day, without wearying of them, but always finding something by which to be greatly entertained. "A good and most entertaining place for the study of mankind," as Mr. Dinsmore remarked. As they entered it the sound of the sweetly piercing music of a bagpipe smote upon their ears. "Ah," exclaimed Mr. Lilburn, "that sound is sweetly homelike to my ear. Let us see, my friends, to what sight it summons us." "The Beauty Show, sir," said Herbert. "Probably you have all heard of it--some thirty or forty belles collected from different parts of the world and dressed in their national costumes." They went in, passing the handsome Highlander playing the bagpipes at the door. They found the women who were on exhibition ranged in pens around a large room. "Beauties!" sniffed Rosie as she glanced about upon them, "there is scarcely one who I should have selected as such." "Hush, hush, Rosie!" said her mother warningly; "we do not know but some of them may understand English, and surely you would be sorry to hurt their feelings." "Yes, I should indeed, mamma," she returned in a regretful tone, and they passed out. "That countryman of yours has much the handsomest face about that establishment. Cousin Ronald," remarked Lucilla, with a smile, as they proceeded on their way. "I agree with you in that opinion, lassie," laughed the old gentleman, "and I have no doubt that he would also, had he heard you express it." "How very much there is to see here!" remarked Dr. Conly--"men, women, and children from all parts of the world, clad in their own odd, native attire; Chinese, Japanese, Dahomeyans, Nubians, wild Arabs, Persians, Soudanese, Algerians, Javanese, and Cingalese." "And some of the buildings are as singular in appearance as the people who occupy them," added his wife. "Let us visit the village and castle of Blarney," said Rosie. "You want to kiss the Blarney Stone, do you?" asked Herbert laughingly. "No need of that," said Walter; "she can blarney fast enough if she wants to, and that without ever having seen the stone." "What is blarney, papa?" asked little Elsie. "Coaxing, wheedling, and flattering," he replied. "The village we are going to see is said to be a fair representation of one of that name in Ireland, about four miles from the city of Cork, in which there is a castle called Blarney Castle, which has stood there for more than four hundred years. The castle has a tower, as you will see, and on the top of it is a stone the kissing of which is said to confer the gift of ability to wheedle and flatter. But the true stone is said to be another in a wall where it can be kissed only by a person held over the parapet." "Oh, I shouldn't like that at all, papa!" Elsie exclaimed. "I'd be afraid of falling, and I shouldn't like to kiss a dirty stone." "Well, daughter, I shall never ask you to do so," he answered, with a kindly smile down into the bright, rosy little face. They were entering the village as he spoke. Some little time was spent there very agreeably, after which they returned to the _Dolphin_ for the night. CHAPTER XII. There was a gathering of friends and relatives on the _Dolphin_ that evening: all from Pleasant Plains were there; Chester and Frank Dinsmore also and the Ion family. The brother and sister of Grandma Elsie, and her eldest daughter with her husband and children, had paid their visit to the Fair at an earlier date and returned home. Expecting to do a good deal of entertaining Captain Raymond had taken care to have his boat well provisioned, and all were cordially invited to stay and take dinner on board. No one declined, and they were a pleasant, lively party, each having something interesting to tell of the experiences of the day, and all agreeing that the Fair was well worth the trouble and expense of the journey to reach it, and the hundred and one demands upon the purse while there. Grace alone was very quiet, seeming to have little or nothing to say, and looking at times both sad and distressed. Her father noticed it and seizing the first opportunity to speak with her in private, asked in tenderly solicitous tones if she were feeling perfectly well, adding: "I fear I have allowed you to exert yourself too much in the past few days, my darling." "I don't know whether or not I have gone about too much, papa, but it was very kind in you to let me," she replied, laying her head on his shoulder, for they were sitting side by side on a sofa in the cabin, while the others had all gone up to the deck, "but oh, I can't forget those poor men who perished in the flames yesterday, or their wives and children, perhaps left very poor and helpless. Papa, if you are willing, I'd like to give all my pocket money to help them. My own dear father pays my way all the time and I don't need to buy any of the fine things I see for sale here and there." "My dear child," he said, with emotion, "you may do just as you please about that. I am very glad that my little girl is so willing to deny herself to help others, and I must tell you for your comfort that a good deal of money has already been raised for the benefit of those sadly bereaved ones." "You gave some, papa? Oh, I know you did!" "Yes, daughter, I gave out of the abundance of means which God has put into my hands, certainly not that it may all be spent upon myself and dearest ones, but entrusted to me that some of it may be used for the relief of suffering humanity; and it is a very great pleasure--an inestimable privilege--to be permitted thus to ally to some extent the woes of poverty and bereavement." "Yes, papa; I feel it so, and am thankful that you approve of my doing what I can to help those poor, bereaved ones." "I am very glad my little girl is unselfish enough to desire to do so," he responded. He passed a hand tenderly over her golden curls as he spoke, and kissed her again and again with warmth of affection. "Do you want to join the others on the deck?" he asked presently, "or would you rather go at once to your bed and rest? You are looking very weary." "I am tired, papa," she replied, "but I think that to lie in one of the steamer chairs on deck, and listen to the talk, will rest me nicely." "You may do so for an hour or two," he said. "I will help you up there; but when the others scatter--as they probably will by that time--I want you to go to your bed and try to get a good, long night's sleep. I must take good care of my feeble, delicate little girl that she may gain, and not lose, by this trip to the North and visit to the World's Fair." He took her in his arms as he spoke, carried her to the deck and deposited her in a vacant lounging chair, then seated himself by her side and took Neddie on his knee. Violet was on her husband's other side, and Dr. Conly and his Marian near at hand on the farther side of Grace. "You are looking weary, little cousin," he remarked, giving her a searching look; "so weary that were I asked for a prescription it should be an early retirement to your berth, to be followed by a long night's rest. However, I suppose you are Harold's patient now." "Yours too, Cousin Arthur," she said with a smile; "also papa's, and he has already given me the very same prescription." "As I do, if I am consulted," said Harold, "and when three such physicians agree, you surely will not venture to disregard their advice." "No, indeed!" she returned, with her own sweet smile again, "nor would I, if any of the three had given it. I do really feel the need of rest for to-night, but hope you will all agree to let me go at least as far as the Court of Honor to-morrow." "That will depend upon how you are feeling in the morning," returned her father, Violet adding: "And if you should have to stay here and rest for a day or two you need not feel so very badly about it, Gracie, because our time for remaining in and about the White City is not limited like that of some less fortunate people." "No, mamma, and that is something to be thankful for. Oh, I do think myself a most fortunate girl," Grace said in reply, directing a look of ardent affection toward her father as she spoke. The other young folks were chatting together near by, principally of the beauties of the Fair, and indulging in many a merry jest and much light laughter. "The Court of Honor is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in the world," remarked Rosie; "at least the most beautiful I have ever seen or can imagine; especially at night, when the magnificent MacMonnie's fountain, and the electric fountains are all at play. What beautiful rainbow-colored showers they send up! I never dreamed of anything so lovely and can never weary of looking at them." "Nor have I," said Croly. "I move that we all go over there presently; in time to witness the lighting up." There was a general assent, and young Percy Landreth, who had managed to secure a seat close at Lucilla's side, said to her in an undertone: "You will go surely, and may I have the pleasure of acting as your escort?" "I don't know," she returned with a slight laugh and an arch look at Chester Dinsmore, who, sitting near on her other side, had overheard the request, and was looking slightly vexed and disappointed; "papa hasn't told me yet whether I may go to-night or not; and I'm 'a young thing who cannot leave her father' or go anywhere without his knowledge and consent. I'll ask him, however," she concluded, jumping up and hastening to the captain's side. "Papa," she asked, "can I go presently to the Court of Honor with the others--and you? for I suppose you are going?" "I think it likely that your mamma and I will be going after a little," he said in reply; "but Grace is too weary to return there to-night, and you too would be the better able to enjoy yourself at the Fair to-morrow should you go early to bed to-night; so that is what I wish you to do." "Indeed, papa, I am not so very tired," she said half imploringly, half in vexation. "Mayn't I go?" "You have my answer to that question, daughter," he replied in a tone so low that the words scarce reached any ear but hers. "I think it best for both you and Grace that you should stay here with her, and surely you love your sister well enough to do so willingly, even if you had your father's consent to your going ashore for the evening?" "Papa," said Grace, overhearing the last sentence, "I would not have Lu miss the pleasant evening on shore on my account. I will go directly to bed and probably fall asleep at once." "As I hope and believe Lucilla will also," he returned, with a glance of grieved displeasure bestowed upon his eldest daughter, which sent a remorseful pang to her heart. "Oh, father, don't be vexed with me," she entreated low and tremulously, putting a hand into his as she spoke; "I am glad that I am under your orders; I am, indeed, and would not for anything leave dear Gracie alone." "I am sure of it, daughter," he returned, pressing the hand affectionately as he spoke. "Also I think that to-morrow you will be thankful to me that you have had a rest from exertion and excitement." "Yes, papa, I always find that your way is best, and I am very glad and thankful that I have such a kind, wise father." "Well, Lu, did you get leave to go?" asked Rosie as Lucilla rejoined the circle of young people. "No; papa wishes me to stay here and get to bed early that I may be well rested for to-morrow's exertion in seeing the sights of the White City," Lucilla answered in a lively, cheerful tone, that seemed to indicate entire satisfaction with her father's decision. She was in fact so remorseful over her momentary exhibition of wilfulness that she felt as if she no longer cared for anything but to convince her dearly loved father of her penitence on account of it, and her desire to do exactly as he directed. "A wise and kind decision, Lu," remarked Herbert Travilla, overhearing what she said. "A rest now may save you from a serious break-down some days or weeks hence." "Yes, Uncle Herbert, I am well aware that such a father as mine is a very great blessing," she returned with a smile. "I only wish I were as good a daughter." Just at that moment the guns announced the setting of the sun, and the flags on the _Dolphin_ and other vessels came down with the usual ceremonies. That over, those who intended going ashore for the evening or the night began their preparations, which were such as to occupy but a few minutes. Violet put her little ones to bed, and the captain, who had carried sleepy little Ned down to the state-room, on coming out into the saloon found Lucilla there waiting to speak to him. "Papa," she said humbly, "have you quite forgiven my crossness to-night when you refused to let me go ashore? I am very, very sorry for it, but I am perfectly satisfied now with your decision; I was, the next minute, and oh, I do love you dearly, dearly, though I can hardly expect you to believe it when--when I'm so ready to be rebellious," she added, hiding her face on his breast, for he had taken her into his arms the moment she began to speak. "Yet I do believe it, my own darling," he replied in tender tones, smoothing her hair caressingly as he spoke. "I fully believe that you love me devotedly, though for a moment you indulged in the old rebellious spirit that used to cause so much pain to both you and me. However, this is almost the first time I have seen any show of it for two or three years. In all that time you have been as willingly and cheerfully obedient as anyone could ask or expect a daughter to be." "Oh, thank you, my dear father, for saying that!" she responded, lifting to his, eyes beaming with happiness, "and I do intend that it shall be my very last failure to be as promptly and cheerfully obedient as possible, for I know you never deny me anything, unless you see that it is for my good, and I have never known you to make a mistake about that. Do you want Grace and me to go to bed as soon as you and the others are gone?" "I think it would be well for you to do so, but if you both prefer it you may stay on deck for another half hour." "Then I will get ready for bed at once, papa, for I want to do exactly as you think best, and I know Gracie does also." "Yes, I know she does; and, by the way, I must carry her down before I go; she is so weary, poor child," he said, hurrying up to the deck. Lucilla waited only to see the others off, then joined her sister in their state-room. "You poor dear, you are so tired!" she exclaimed, noticing Grace's weary expression and heavy eyes. "You must let me help you with your preparations for bed." "Thank you, Lu," returned Grace; "you are such a dear sister--always so kind and helpful to me; but I am sorry that for my sake you should lose the pleasure of going to the Court of Honor with the others to-night." "O Gracie, you know we always find out in the end that papa's way is the best for us both, and he refused my request for my own sake as well as yours." "Yes; he is the very kindest and best of fathers," said Grace; "he never refuses any one of his children anything he can give them when he thinks it good for them." "But now I must stop talking and go to sleep as quickly as possible, as he bade me when he brought me down here." Both she and Lucilla were asleep in a few minutes and awoke the next morning feeling greatly refreshed and rested. "Shall we visit the Turkish village to-day?" asked Violet at the breakfast table. "I say aye to that," said Walter. "I want to see it and make some purchases there. I've heard that there is a street there with booths along on the side and a bazaar where one can buy various kinds of Turkish goods. I want to get some if only for curiosities." "And for a quarter you can go up in the restaurant and see the girls dance," said his sister Rosie; "or into the theatre to look at a representation of Mohammedan home life and adventure. So Mr. Will Croly told me." "Well, I don't know about going to the theatre," returned Walter, "but I'd like to see their mosque with its minaret, at noon or sunset, when a real muezzin comes out and calls upon the faithful to remember Allah and give him glory." "He does it at sunrise too, doesn't he?" asked Evelyn Leland. "Yes; but we'll never get over there in time for that. Some of our American folks don't know what he is about,--not understanding his language--and imagine that he's selling popcorn or advertising the dance-house, or maybe calling for somebody to come and help him down." "How, Uncle Wal?" asked Neddie. "With a ladder, I suppose." "Do they bring it to him?" "I don't think they have yet, Neddie; at least I haven't heard of it. But wouldn't you like to go and see it all?" "Yes; if papa will take me; and mamma will go too." "How many would like to go?" asked the captain, and everyone responding in favor of so doing the question was considered settled. They set out at their usual early hour, met Harold and Herbert in the Peristyle, lingered a little in the Court of Honor, then made their way to the Turkish village, went through the booths and bazaar, making a number of purchases, looked at the mosque and heard the noon cry of the muezzin. Then they visited an Arabian tent and the fac-simile of a house in Damascus. In the tent there were male and female Arabs sitting cross-legged; some of them boiling coffee, or making thin wafer cakes, while others played on odd looking instruments and chanted in monotonous tones. The party went into the house, found that it contained but one room, oblong in shape, with high ceiling, and windows just beneath the cornice. "That would hardly do for Americans," remarked Walter, gazing up at them, "for we could not see into the street." "We could go to the door, Uncle Walter," said Elsie. "Or have a step-ladder to carry about from one window to another," laughed Rosie. "I like the festooned walls, the fountain in the centre, and the thick rugs on the floors," remarked Violet; "the hanging lamps too, and ornaments of rich woods inlaid with ivory; also the divans that look like such comfortable resting-places." "Yes, madame would find them pleasant to rest upon," responded a young Turk in excellent, but quaintly intoned, English; then he went on to explain everything in the same tongue. Their next visit was to Cairo Street, at the gate of which ten cents was asked for the admission of each one of the party; a small sum they thought, to give in payment for a sight of all that was on exhibition inside. Having passed through the gate they found themselves in a street square, with a cafe opening into it on one side. Entering it they sat down and looked about them. Captain Raymond, who had been more than once in Cairo itself, pronounced the scene an exact copy of what was to be found there, and they presently learned that the doors and wooden-grated windows had been brought bodily from that city. They could see projecting balconies, mysterious archways, airy loggias, and tiny shops filled to overflowing with such things as many a one would want to buy, and being in easy circumstances they bought a number of articles such as were not too heavy or cumbersome to be easily carried. Soon, however, their attention was turned to the crowds in the streets. Near by was a donkey and camel stand--donkeys standing and camels lying down in their own peculiar fashion. "Oh, what funny fellows!" laughed little Ned. "Yes," said his father, "those are camels. Would you like to take a ride on one?" "No, sir; I might fall off." "Yes, Ned, and hurt yourself; maybe break your leg; and it would take even Cousin Arthur a good while to mend it; so that you would miss the pleasure of going about with the rest of us," said Walter. "I don't want to ride just now," said Ned, "but if I did I'd rather try one of those little horses." "Donkeys, Ned," corrected his sister Lucilla, "and what little fellows they are! no bigger than Max's dog Prince!" "Oh, see!" cried Rosie with a merry laugh, "that one going down the street knocked against that big fat man and almost upset him." "Notice the drivers," said Evelyn, "all so swarthy and with such black eyes, naked feet, long caftans, fez, and turbans. And what a keen watch they keep for customers. Evidently they do not despise American dollars, dimes, or cents." "No, indeed! not they," said Walter. "Oh, there are a couple who evidently contemplate taking a ride on a camel; see, the young fellow seems to be bargaining with one of the drivers; and how the people are crowding round to look and listen!" "What's the price?" they heard the young man ask. They did not catch the reply, but he went on with his questions: "Will he bite? Is he quite tame? Is there any danger at all?" "No-a bite," returned the driver; "good camel," and as he spoke he reached for the girl, who shrank back a little. But he quickly lifted her to the saddle and showed her how to hold on. Then the young man climbed up behind her, reached around her waist and seized the hand-hold as if determined that nothing should tear it from his grasp. The girl noticed it and grew more frightened, turning a trifle paler and asking: "Is there any danger?" But the driver was already tugging at the halter and striking the camel over the neck with his stick, and slowly it spread out its hind legs, rising on them first, and throwing its riders forward till it seemed as if they must slide down his sloping neck and fall to the ground. The girl screamed, as her hat fell over her eyes, but both she and her escort held on with a deathlike grip. The camel paused for a moment, then swayed back and forth sideways; the girl screamed again, but the camel was only untangling his legs, and the next instant settled himself on them in a way that threw his riders backward so that they would have fallen off behind but for their firm grasp of the ropes. But now the camel was fairly upon his four feet, and slowly turning round with a wobbling motion like a boat caught in a trough of waves; the riders had recovered from their fright, and were both laughing. All this time the crowd had been standing round watching the two, and laughing and tittering, for, risky as the whole proceeding looked, there was really very little, if any, danger. CHAPTER XIII. "Let us go now to the Guatemala Building," said Harold as they left Cairo Street. "I should like you all to see the grotto with its specimens of the fauna of the country, among which is a remarkable bird called the gavila, which sings the half-hours with unvarying regularity, showing itself as correct as a sundial, and almost as useful as a government observatory." "Is it sure to wake and sing every half-hour in the night, uncle?" asked little Elsie. "Oh, no! It is only a day clock; stops attending to the business at sundown and begins again in the morning." They were interested in the strange bird; the older people in a map also, showing the locations of the principal towns and railways, and in the exhibit, in an open court and about a fountain, of the flora of the country; also some pictures hung about the balcony, showing the principal places in the city of Guatemala and other large towns. "I feel a particular interest in Korea just at present," remarked Grandma Elsie as they left the Guatemalan Building, "and if entirely agreeable to the rest of you, I should like, now, to look at their exhibit in the Manufacturers' Building." "Yes, mother; it is in the southwestern part," returned Harold, leading the way. "The booth is small, but crowded with exhibits. The Korean Royal Commissioner--with the singular name of Jeung Kiung Wow--has charge of it. "That is a funny name, uncle," laughed Ned. "And yet our names may have just as funny a sound to him," Violet said, smiling down at her little son. When they reached the Korean booth the first thing that attracted their attention was the flag hanging from it. The captain was able to explain its design, and did so, the others listening with interest. "It represents the male and female elements of nature," he said. "You see it is blue and yellow: the blue represents the heavenly, or male element, the yellow the earthly, or female. You see the heavens across the eastern sea and they seem to lap over and embrace the earth, while the earth to landward rises in lofty mountains and folds the heavens in its embrace, so making a harmonious whole. The four characters around the central figure represent the four points of the compass." They passed in and found a good many sights which interested them--banners and lanterns, and bronze table and dinner set for one person, a cupboard with dishes, a fire pot and tools, boots and shoes of leather, wood, and straw; a kite and reel, a board on which is played a game resembling chess, white and blue vases, and a very old brass cannon used in the American attack on Korean forts in the seventies. Also there were banners hanging on the walls of the booth, and here and there stood screens, one of which was hand-embroidered by the ladies of the palace. On dummies in the centre of the room were shown ancient warriors' costumes, the court dress of both a military and a civil official, and a lady's dress for the dance. And in an upright glass case were shown an embroidered silk cushion, various dress fabrics, a lady's dress and a lady's court dress and various articles of footgear. There was a map showing Korea and adjacent countries, and attached to it was a paper headed, "Questions Answered." Mr. Dinsmore stood before it and read of them aloud: "Korea and Corea are both correct, but the former is preferred. "Korea is not a part of China, but is independent. "The Koreans do not speak the Chinese language, and their language resembles neither the Chinese nor the Japanese. "Korea made treaties in 1882. "All the articles are owned by the government. "Korea has electric lights, steamships, telegraph, but no railroads. "Koreans live in comfortable houses, heated by flues under the floor. "Korean civilization is ancient and high; area one hundred thousand square miles; population sixteen million; climate like that of Chicago, country mountainous, mineral wealth undeveloped, agricultural products chiefly rice, beans, wheat, and corn." "I am glad we came," remarked Rosie as they passed out of the booth, "for I know a good deal more about Korea than I did before, and find it a far more interesting country than I had any idea that it was." The next visit was to the rotunda of the Government Building, where they found many mural paintings of famous incidents in American history and scenes in our largest cities, so that it was a good representation of our whole country. In the rotunda was a hollow section of one of the largest trees that grow in the Maraposa grove of red woods in California. The interior was brilliantly lighted by means of incandescent lights, and a platform at the top of the trunk was reached by an inside, winding stairway. The chamber walls were covered with photographs showing the grove from which the tree trunk was cut, and how it was conveyed to the Fair and set up. There were besides eight alcoves in the rotunda, in which were many articles, Colonial relics--such as the pipe which Miles Standish smoked, the first Bible brought to this country, in 1620, the year of the landing of the Pilgrims--a piece of the torch Putnam used when he entered the wolf's cave, the fife of Benedict Arnold, and many another scarcely less interesting. "I think my two elder daughters have borne well the exertions of the day," the captain remarked, with a smiling glance at them, as again they stood upon the deck of the _Dolphin_. "Yes, father; thanks to your kind thoughtfulness in sending us so early to bed last night," returned Lucilla, with a grateful, loving look up into his face. "The longer I live the more thoroughly convinced I am that you always know what is best for me." "That is just my experience, Lu," laughed Violet, standing near, "and I'll venture to assert that Grace can say the same." "Indeed I can!" responded Grace heartily, "and it is a great satisfaction to have one so wise, kind, and good almost always at hand to decide doubtful questions for you." "Tut! tut! I wonder if any other man was ever tried with so much gross flattery," exclaimed the captain in feigned displeasure. But at that moment others stepped upon the deck and their presence put an end to the bit of familiar family chat, Violet and her husband hastening to welcome their guests; for among the arrivals were Annis and several others from Pleasant Plains, whom they had not seen for some days--it being an easy matter for friends to miss each other among the crowds and the various buildings at the Fair; also Chester and Frank Dinsmore and Mr. Hugh Milburn, who had not been seen there before. "Why, how do you do, cousin? I did not know you had arrived in the city," said Violet, offering her hand. "Very well, thank you. I arrived only last night," he said, "and was not able to hunt you up till now. Ah, father, Cousin Elsie, captain,"--shaking hands with each in turn--"it does one good to see all your kind, pleasant faces." "And us to see yours," returned Violet. "But where are Ella and the boy?" "At home," he answered; "at least that's where I left them." "But why didn't you bring them along?" asked his father; "the bit laddie is not likely to have another chance to look at such sights as one may see here to-day." "His mother thought him rather young for that, seeing he is not very far along in his second year," replied Hugh, "nor could she be persuaded to leave him behind. He is a person of consequence in his mother's eyes, is my little Ronald, if in no other." "Ah, I can understand that," laughed Violet. "But now, Cousin Hugh, you must let me have the pleasure of introducing you to the cousins from Pleasant Plains." It was quite a gathering of relatives and friends, all weary enough with the day's exertions in sight-seeing to enjoy resting in comfortable chairs on the vessel's deck, while comparing notes as to their experiences since coming to the Fair; what each had seen and heard, what they were planning yet to see, some caring more especially for one class of curiosities, some for another. But hardly a half hour had passed when they were summoned to an excellent repast, after which they again repaired to the deck, where they gathered in groups and indulged in further chat. Grace was a little apart from the others, reclining in a steamer chair. "Are you very, very tired, Gracie?" asked Walter, coming to her side. "Pretty tired," she answered, smiling up into his face. "Why? did you want me to do anything?" "Oh, no! no, indeed! but I was just thinking that now that we have two ventriloquists here, we might have some fun--for so far as I know the folks from Pleasant Plains don't know anything about the extraordinary powers of Cousins Ronald and Hugh--and I hoped you weren't too tired to enjoy it." "I don't believe I am," she laughed; "and I think I shall enjoy it if papa doesn't send me to bed too soon. It was very good in you to think of me, Walter." "Was it, when you are the girl that always thinks of everybody else?" "Not always, Walter. I am afraid I very often think of myself first." "Do you? I never knew it before," he laughed; then hurrying to old Mr. Lilburn's side, whispered something in his ear. The old gentleman smiled, and gave a nod of assent. "I like to please you, laddie," he said in an undertone. "So does Hugh, and mayhap atween us we can accomplish something worth while." "Oh, thank you," returned Walter. "I do think, cousin, that a little fun would do us all good. We've been dining heartily--at least I have--and I think a good laugh assists digestion." Hugh sat near, chatting with Captain Raymond. Walter now turned to him with a whispered request which he seemed to grant as readily as his father had the one made of him. At that Rosie and Lucilla, who were watching Walter with apparent interest in his proceedings, exchanged a glance of mingled amusement and satisfaction, while Grace, whose eyes were following his movements, laughed softly to herself; for she was in the mood for a bit of fun, and saw in all this the promise of some. "Dear me, what a lot o' folks! and all lookin' so comfortable-like. They've had a good dinner,--or supper, whichever they call it--you bet, Joe, while we're as hungry as bears," said a rough, masculine voice which seemed to come from a spot close in Captain Raymond's rear. Before the sentence was half finished every other voice was hushed and all eyes were turned in the direction from which the sound seemed to come. Everyone was startled for an instant, but by the time the sentence was finished the captain looked perfectly calm and cool. "Who are you? and how did you come aboard the vessel?" he asked. "In the boat, sir; same as the rest o'e company," was the reply in the same voice. "Without waiting for an invitation, eh?" "Humph! might 'a' missed it if we'd waited. Say, capting, are you mean enough to let us fellows go hungry when you have a vessel full o' good things for eatin'? To say nothing of a pocket full o' tin?" "If any would not work, neither should he eat," quoted the captain. "What work have you two been about to-day?" "Same as yerself, sir; lookin' at the exhibits in this here big World's Fair." "Very well; you may go and ask the steward for some supper." A sound of retreating footsteps followed, and those of the guests who were not in the secret looked about here and there in blank astonishment. "Well, really! am I going blind?" ejaculated young Percy Landreth, passing his hand over his eyes in a bewildered way. "I couldn't see those fellows at all." "Oh, no!" said Lucilla, "one can sometimes hear what one cannot see." But at that instant there was a "cluck, cluck," as of a hen which seemed to come from Annis' lap, and at which she sprang to her feet with a slight cry of astonishment and dismay, but seeing nothing, "Why, where is it?" she asked half breathlessly, and the "cluck, cluck," was repeated apparently from behind the chair of her next neighbor, and immediately followed by a loud barking as if a dog were in chase of the chicken. "Oh!" exclaimed Annis, turning her eyes upon the elder Mr. Lilburn, "I think I know--I've heard----" But a warning gesture from Violet, whose face was full of amusement, stopped her, and she dropped into her chair again with a slight, mirthful laugh and a look of relief and diversion. Percy saw it and suddenly comprehended pretty accurately what was going on. Yet at the same moment he was startled and annoyed by a loud buzzing about his ears as though a bee were flying round and round his head. He put up his hand and tried to knock it away. Then it seemed to fly to Chester and though he was not wholly unacquainted with the powers of Cousin Ronald and Hugh, he too involuntarily made an effort to dodge and drive it away. Then the squeak of a mouse came from a reticule on Lucilla's lap, and that so unexpectedly that she gave a little scream, at the same time springing to her feet, and throwing the reticule from her. At that her father laughed, and she picked it up again and reseated herself with a slightly mortified air. "Let me get that mouse out for you, Lu," said Herbert, holding out his hand for the reticule; but scarcely were the words out of his mouth when the meow of a kitten, coming from his coat pocket, caused him to suddenly and almost involuntarily clap his hand upon it. "Yes, Uncle Herbert, take the mouse out and give it to the cat," returned Lulu quickly, handing the reticule to him as she spoke. "Thank you," he returned laughingly, "but I really don't believe the creature is hungry." "Oh, uncle, let me see that pussy!" cried Ned, running to him. "Put your hand into my pocket and try if you can find it," was the good-humored reply, and Neddie at once availed himself of the permission. "Why, it isn't there!" he exclaimed. "How do you s'pose it got out?" "I'm inclined to think it never got in, Ned," said his uncle. "Oh, it's in mine!" cried the little fellow excitedly, and clapping his hand upon his pocket, as a pitiful meow seemed to come from it. "Why, I can't feel it. Papa,"--running to him,--"please take it out, I can't." The captain took hold of the pocket. "You made a mistake, son; it isn't there. I feel nothing but your handkerchief and a few other little soft articles." "Why--why, how queer!" exclaimed the little fellow, "I was sure I heard it in there, papa. Oh, what is that?" as the squeal of a young pig seemed to come from his father's pocket; but at that instant the loud and furious bark of a big dog seemed to come from some place in his rear very near at hand, and with a little cry of affright he made haste to climb upon his father's knee for protection, putting his arms about his neck and clinging tightly to him. But just then a loud cry came from below: "Help! help! these rascally fellows are stealing the silver! Captain Raymond, sir, help, or they'll throttle me!" At that the captain sprang to his feet, set Ned in his mother's lap, and hurried below, while the young men rose hastily to go to his assistance, even those of them who were well acquainted with Cousin Ronald's powers, thinking for an instant that the alarm was real. But a laugh of amusement from him and his son let them into the secret that it was but a false alarm, the trick of a ventriloquist, and they resumed their seats as hastily as they had arisen from them. "Oh, oh," cried Ned, "I'm so afraid my dear papa will get hurt! Uncle Harold and Uncle Herbert, won't you go and help papa fight those bad men? Please go quick! Oh, please do!" "Oh, no, Neddie, papa is so big and strong that he doesn't need any help to make such fellows behave themselves," said Lucilla. "And here he comes all safe and sound," as the captain stepped upon the deck again. "Well, captain," said Grandma Elsie, looking up smilingly into his face as he drew near, "did you catch the rogues?" "No, mother, I could not find the least trace of them," he answered gravely. Then, turning to the elder Mr. Lilburn: "Cousin Ronald," he asked, "do you think you would know them if you were to see them?" "I know them, cousin captain!" exclaimed the old gentleman in well-feigned astonishment. "Can it be possible you mean to insinuate that I am the associate of beggars and thieves?" "I mean no offence, sir," returned the captain with a twinkle of fun in his eye, "but it sometimes happens that a very honest and honorable man may be well acquainted with the appearance of some dastardly villain." "I'm no sich a character as that," snarled a rough voice that seemingly came from a part of the deck in Mr. Lilburn's rear, and sounded very much like the one which had demanded some supper a short time before, "an' I hope it isn't me you're ameanin', fer I'm as honest an' decent a man as any in this crowd, ef I do say it, that shouldn't." "Who is that man? I couldn't see him the other time, and I can't see him now," exclaimed little Elsie, gazing round in wide-eyed wonder; for she had never quite understood Cousin Ronald's performances, and was much puzzled to comprehend all that was now being done and said. "I say, capting," cried another strange voice, it also coming apparently from an invisible speaker, "why upon airth don't you put that impident critter off the boat? I'd do it in a jiffy if 'twas me." "You have my permission to do so, sir," returned the captain, "but perhaps he will go presently of his own accord." "Hollo!" shouted a strange voice that seemed to come from the water near at hand, and was followed immediately by the dip of an oar, "I say, what's the matter up there on that deck? If I was capting o' that yacht, there shouldn't be no such goings on aboard it." "The impudence of the fellow!" exclaimed Lucilla, forgetting for the moment the presence of two ventriloquists, and, springing up, she was about to rush to the side of the vessel to get a sight of the boatman; but her father, turning toward her with a smile, laid a detaining hand on her arm, while at the same time he called out in good-humored tones: "Suppose you board us then, sir, and show what you can do." "Humph!" snarled the voice that seemed so near at hand, "you'd better try it, old feller, whomsoever you be, but I bet you'll find me an' Joe here more'n a match fer you." "Oh, Bill, I say, let's git out o' this!" exclaimed a third voice, apparently close at hand; "we've had our fill o' grub and might as well make ourselves scarce now." "All right, Joe," returned the voice of the first speaker; "we'll git inter that feller's boat, and no doubt he'll take us ashore to git rid of us." A sound as of retreating footsteps followed, then all was quiet. "Very well done, Cousin Ronald; one could almost see those fellows," laughed the captain. "I couldn't see them, papa," said little Elsie. "I could only hear them. What was the reason?" "Suppose you ask Cousin Ronald," was her father's reply. "So you are a ventriloquist, sir?" remarked Percy Landreth, in a tone between assertion and enquiry, and giving the old gentleman a look of mingled curiosity and amusement. "You think so, do you, sir? But why should I be suspected more than anyone else in this company of friends and relatives?" asked Cousin Ronald in a quiet tone. "Well, sir, it seems to me evident from all I have seen and heard. All appear to look to you as one who is probably at the bottom of all these mysterious doings." "No, not quite all, Percy," Violet said with a smile. "So there are two, are there?" queried Percy. "Then the other, I presume, is Mr. Hugh Lilburn." "O Percy!" cried Lucilla in half reproachful tones, "I wish you hadn't found out quite so soon; because it spoils the fun." "Oh, no, not quite, I think," he returned, "for I noticed that even those who must have been in the secret were occasionally taken by surprise." "Yes," she admitted with a laugh, "I did think for a moment that there was a man calling to us from a boat down there on the lake, and that there was a mouse in my reticule." CHAPTER XIV. Sight-seeing was resumed again the next day, much time being spent in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, the marvel of the Exposition, covering more than forty acres of ground, and filled with curious and beautiful things from almost every quarter of the globe. Hours were spent there, then a ride in an electric boat on the lagoon was taken as a restful form of recreation. The greater part of the afternoon was spent in the ever-fascinating Midway Plaisance, then they returned to the yacht for their evening meal and an hour or two of restful chat in the easy-chairs on its deck, and with the setting of the sun the older ones returned to the Court of Honor, leaving the children in bed and under the ever-watchful care of their nurse. Much the same sort of life continued for a week or more; then many of the friends found it necessary to return to their homes. The cousins from Pleasant Plains were among that number, and the day before leaving young Percy seized a rare opportunity for a word in private with Captain Raymond. "I have been coveting such a chance as this, sir," he said, coloring with embarrassment, "but--but couldn't find it till now. I--I--want----" "Speak out, my young friend," said the captain kindly, "I am ready to listen to whatever you may have to say, and if in my power to assist you in any way, shall feel it a pleasure to do so; particularly as you are a relative of my wife." Percy had had but little opportunity for showing his penchant for Lucilla, and the young girl's father was not thinking of her, but imagined there might be some business venture in which the young man desired his assistance. "You have perhaps something to tell me of your plans and prospects for the future," he said enquiringly, "and if so, possibly I may be able to exert influence, or render assistance, in some way; it will give me pleasure, I assure you, to do anything in my power; so do not be afraid to speak out." "You are very kind, captain, very kind indeed," stammered Percy, flushing more hotly than before, "but that--that is not it exactly. I hope you won't be angry, but I have been trying to screw up my courage to ask for--something far more valuable than money, influence, or anything else that could be thought of. I--I love your daughter, sir,--Miss Lucilla--and--and I hope you won't forbid me to tell her so." He drew a sigh of relief that at last the Rubicon was crossed--his desire and purpose made known; but a glance at the captain's grave and troubled face dashed his hopes to the ground. A moment of silence followed, then Captain Raymond spoke in gentle, sympathetic tones. "I am sorry, very sorry to disappoint you, my young friend; but I cannot grant your request. Lucilla is but a child yet--a mere school-girl; and such I intend to keep her for some six years or more to come. I have no objection to you more than to any other man, but cannot consent to allowing her to be approached on that subject until she reaches much more mature years." "And in the meantime somebody else will in all probability get ahead of me," sighed Percy. "Oh, sir, can I not persuade you to revoke that decision and let me at least learn from her own lips whether or not she cares for me?" "I think I can furnish all the information you wish in that line," returned the captain, laying a kindly hand on the young man's shoulder, "for hardly an hour ago she told me--as she has many times before--that she loved no one else in the wide world half so dearly as her father." "Well, sir, I am glad of it, since you won't let me speak yet," said Percy with a rueful sort of smile. "But--please don't blame me for it--but I can't feel satisfied to be forbidden to speak a word, considering how very far apart our homes are, and that we may not meet again for years--if ever--and that--Chester Dinsmore, who is, I can see plainly enough, over head and ears in love with her--will be near her all the time and have every chance to cut me out." "No," said the captain, "I shall give him no chance either. I fully intend keeping my little girl to myself--as I have already told you--for at least six or eight years to come." "And you have no objection to me personally, sir?" "None whatever; in fact, from all I have seen and heard I am inclined to think you a fine fellow; almost equal to my own boy, Max," Captain Raymond said with a smile: "and if my daughter were of the right age, and quite ready and willing to leave her father, I should have but one objection to your suit--that you would take her so far away from me." "Possibly I might not, sir, should there be an opening for me near where you reside. I think the Bible says it is the man who is to leave father and mother and cleave to his wife." "True, my young friend," returned the captain; "but the time I have set is too far away to make it worth our while to consider that question at present." With that the interview closed, and the two parted, the captain to be confronted a few minutes later by Chester Dinsmore, with a like request to that just denied to Percy. "No, no, Chester," he said, "it is not to be thought of; Lucilla is entirely too young to leave her father's fostering care and take up the duties and trials of married life. I cannot consent to your saying a word to her on the subject for years to come." "You have no objection to me personally, I trust, sir?" returned the young man, looking chagrined and mortified. "None whatever," Captain Raymond hastened to say. "I have just given the same answer to another suitor, and there is one consideration which inclines me to prefer you to him; namely, that you are a near neighbor to us at Woodburn; so that in giving up my daughter to you I should feel the parting much less than if she were about to make her home so far North as this." "Well, sir, that's a crumb of comfort, though to be often in her company--seeing her lovely face and watching her pretty ways--will make it all the more difficult to refrain from showing my esteem, admiration, love. In fact, I don't know how to stand it. Excuse me, captain, but what harm could there be in telling her my story and trying to win my way to her heart, provided--I spoke of marriage only as something to be looked for in the far-off future?" "No, I cannot consent to that," returned the captain with decision. "It would only put mischief into her head and rob her of her child-like simplicity. She is still too young to know her own mind on that subject and might fancy that she had given her heart to one who would, a few years later, be entirely distasteful to her. But I trust you, Chester, not to breathe a word to her of your--what shall I call it?--admiration until you have my consent." "It is more than admiration, sir!" exclaimed Chester. "I love her as I never loved anything before in my life, and it would just about kill me to see her in the possession of another." "Then comfort yourself that for years to come no one's suit will be listened to any more favorably than yours," returned the father of the girl he so coveted, and with that the interview came to an end. Their conversation had been held at one end of the deck while the rest of the party sat chatting together at the other. The captain and Chester joined them now and entered into the talk, which ran principally upon the fact that all the relatives from Pleasant Plains must leave for home the next day. "How would you all like to go by water?" asked Captain Raymond, as if the thought of such a possibility had just struck him. "I do not believe the idea has occurred to any of us," replied Annis, "and since the building of the railroad so few make the journey by water that the boats running on our river are few, small, and I presume not remarkably comfortable." "How would this one answer?" he asked. "It is but thirty-eight miles across the lake; I think we would find your river navigable nearly or quite up to your town, and to reach it from here would not take more than six or eight hours." "Then they could all go, as they need not all spend the night, or any part of it, on board," exclaimed Violet in tones of delight. "Oh, Cousin Annis, and all of you, do agree to it, and we will have a charming little trip!" "Indeed, so far as I am concerned nothing could be pleasanter, I am sure," said Annis, looking highly pleased; "but--I fear it would be giving you a great deal of trouble, captain." "Not at all," he returned, "but on the contrary it will, I think, be a very enjoyable little trip to me and my wife and children." "Oh, I should like it very much!" exclaimed Lucilla; "there would be such a nice large party of us all the way to Pleasant Plains--supposing your river is navigable so far for a vessel of this size--and then the trip up the lake, a little visit to Mackinaw, and the sail back again, would be a restful and enjoyable break in the visit here to the Fair." "What do you say to the plan, Grandpa and Grandma Dinsmore, and mother?" asked the captain, turning toward them. "And you, Cousin Ronald?" All expressed themselves as well pleased with the idea, and it was decided to carry it out. "We will be happy to have you accompany us also, Chester and Frank, should you care to do so," said the captain cordially, "though I fear it will rob you of some of the time you had planned to spend at the Fair." "Thank you, captain," said Frank, "I, for one, accept your very kind invitation with great pleasure. It will give me a glimpse of a part of our big country that I have never seen--in the pleasantest of company, too; and as to our visit to the Fair, we can prolong it by another week, if we choose." "So we can," said his brother, "and I, too, accept your kind invitation, captain, with cordial thanks." "Then let me advise you of Pleasant Plains to be on board here, bag and baggage, by eight, or at the latest nine, o'clock to-morrow morning," said Captain Raymond. "We will be happy to have you take breakfast here with us, and we may as well be on our way across the lake while eating. Then I hope to have you at your destination by seven or eight in the evening, and, leaving you there, steam on down the river and up the lake, the rest of my passengers resting in their berths as usual." "Then it will take about all of the next day to get to Mackinaw, won't it, papa?" asked Grace. "Probably." "And how long will we stay there?" "I suppose that will depend upon how we enjoy ourselves. I think it likely you will all be satisfied with a day or two, as there is so much that will interest you here which you have not yet seen." "Cousin Annis," said Violet, "would you not be willing to make one of our party? I am sure that with a little crowding we could accommodate you very easily." "Thank you very much, cousin," replied Annis, "but I fear my company would not repay you for the necessary crowding." At that several voices exclaimed that it certainly would; the young girls adding that they could crowd a little closer together without feeling it any inconvenience, and the captain saying laughingly that impromptu beds would have to be provided in the saloon for Chester and Frank, and he would join them there, so leaving a vacant place for her with his wife; and with a little more persuasion Annis accepted the invitation, knowing that she could be well spared for a time from the large circle of brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces: the dear old father and mother having been taken, some years before, to their heavenly home. "I wish we could take Cousin Arthur, Marian, and Hugh with us," said Violet; "though they are not here to-night, they must still be in the city, I think." "Yes," said her husband, "and I think we might manage to accommodate them also, should they care to go; but probably they will prefer having that much more time to spend at the Fair." It was a beautiful moonlight evening, and after a little more chat in regard to the arrangements to be made for the morrow's journey, all except the children, who were already in bed, went together to the Court of Honor: from there to the Midway Plaisance, then to the Ferris Wheel, in which everyone was desirous to take a ride by moonlight; nor were they by any means disappointed in it. On leaving the Wheel they bade each other good-night and scattered to their several resting places--the cousins to their boarding-house, the others to the yacht. A little before eight o'clock the next morning there was a cheerful bustle on board the _Dolphin_. The extra passengers arrived safely and in good season, with their luggage, and found everything on the boat in good trim, and an excellent breakfast awaiting them and the others. The weather was all that could be desired; they were congenial spirits, and the day passed most delightfully. But though the young people were very sociable, no one seeming to be under any restraint, neither Chester nor Percy found an opportunity for any private chat with Lucilla. The fact was that the captain had had a bit of private talk with his wife and her mother, in which he gave them an inkling into the state of affairs as concerned the two young men and his eldest daughter, and requested their assistance in preventing either one from so far monopolizing the young girl as to be tempted into letting her into the secret of his feelings toward her. They reached Pleasant Plains early in the evening, landed the cousins belonging there, with the single exception of Miss Annis Keith, then turned immediately and went down the river again, reaching the lake about the usual time for retiring to their berths. The rest of their voyage was as delightful as that of the first day had been, and spent in a similar manner. As they sat together on the deck, toward evening, Grace asked her father if Mackinaw had not been the scene of something interesting in history. "There was a dreadful massacre there many years ago," he replied; "it was in 1763, by the Indians under Pontiac, an Indian chief. It was at the time of his attack on Detroit. There is a cave shown on the island in which the whites took refuge, but the Indians kindled a fire at its mouth and smoked them--men, women, and children--to death." "Oh, how dreadful, papa! how very dreadful!" she exclaimed. "Yes," he said, "those were dreadful times; but often the poor Indians were really less to blame than the whites, who urged them on--the French against the English and the English against the Americans. "Pontiac was the son of an Ojibway woman, and chief of that tribe, also of the Ottawas and the Pottawattamies, who were in alliance with the Ojibways. In 1746 he and his warriors defended the French at Detroit against an attack by some of the northern tribes, and in 1755 he took part in their fight with Braddock, acting as the leader of the Ottawas." "I wonder," said Grace, as her father paused for a moment in his narrative, "if he was the Indian who, in that fight, aimed so many times at Washington, yet failed to hit him, and at last gave up the attempt to kill him, concluding that he must be under the special protection of the Great Spirit." "That I cannot tell," her father said. "But whoever that Indian may have been I think he was right in his conclusion--that God protected and preserved our Washington that he might play the important part he did in securing his country's freedom. "But to return to my story. Pontiac hated the English, though after the surrender of Quebec, some years after Braddock's defeat--finding that the French had been driven from Canada, he acquiesced in the surrender of Detroit to the English, and persuaded four hundred Detroit Indians, who were lying in ambush, intending to cut off the English there, to relinquish their design. "But he hated the English, and in 1762 he sent messengers to every tribe between the Ottawa and the Mississippi to engage them all in a war of extermination against the English." "Americans too, papa?" asked little Elsie, who, sitting upon his knee, was listening very attentively to his narrative. "Yes," he replied, "our States were English colonies then, for the War of the Revolution did not begin until about thirteen years later. The messengers of Pontiac carried with them the red-stained tomahawk and a wampum war-belt, the Indian fashion of indicating that war was purposed, and those to whom the articles were sent were invited to take part in the conflict. "All the tribes to whom they were sent joined in the conspiracy, and the end of May was decided upon as the time when their bloody purpose should be carried out, each tribe disposing of the garrison of the nearest fort; then all were to act together in an attack upon the settlements. "On the 27th of April, 1763, a great council was held near Detroit, at which Pontiac made an oration detailing the wrongs and indignities the Indians had suffered at the hands of the English, and prophesying their extermination. "He told also of a tradition that a Delaware Indian had been admitted into the presence of the Great Spirit, who told him that his race must return to the customs and weapons of their ancestors, throw away those they had gotten from the white men, abjure whiskey, and take up the hatchet against the English. 'These dogs dressed in red,' he called them, 'who have come to rob you of your hunting-grounds and drive away the game.' "Pontiac's own particular task was the taking of Detroit. The attack was to be made on the 7th of May. But the commander of the fort was warned of their intentions by an Indian girl, and in consequence when Pontiac and his warriors arrived on the scene they found the garrison prepared to receive them. Yet on the 12th he surrounded the fort with his Indians, but was not able to keep a close siege, and the garrison was provided with food by the Canadian settlers." "They supplied the Indians also, did they not, my dear?" asked Violet. "Yes," replied the captain, "receiving in return promissory notes drawn on birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter, and it is said that all of them were afterward redeemed by Pontiac, who had issued them." "That speaks well for the honesty of the Indians if they were savage and cruel," remarked Walter; "and in fact they were hardly more cruel than some of the whites have been to them, and to other whites with whom they were at war." "Quite true," said the captain. "But didn't the rest of the English try to help those folks in that fort at Detroit, papa?" asked Elsie. "Yes; supplies and reinforcements were sent in schooners, by way of Lake Erie, but they were captured by the Indians, who then compelled their prisoners to row them to Detroit, concealed in the bottom of the boat, hoping in that way to take the fort by stratagem; but, fortunately for the besieged, they were discovered before they could land. "Afterward another schooner, filled with supplies and ammunition, succeeded in reaching the fort, though the Indians repeatedly tried to destroy it by fire-rafts. "Now the English thought themselves strong enough to attack the Indians, and in the night of July 31 two hundred and fifty men set out for that purpose. "But the Canadians had learned their intention and told the Indians; so Pontiac was ready and waiting to make an attack, which he did as soon as the English were far enough from their fort for him to do so with advantage, firing upon them from all sides and killing and wounding fifty-nine of them. That fight is known as the fight of 'Bloody Bridge.' "On the 12th of the next October the siege was raised, and the chiefs of the hostile tribes, with the exception of Pontiac, sued for pardon and peace. Pontiac was not conquered and retired to the country of the Illinois. In 1769 he was murdered in Cahokia, a village on the Mississippi, near St. Louis. The deed was done by an Indian, who had been bribed to do it by an English trader." "Papa, you have not told us yet what happened at Mackinaw," said Lucilla. "It, as well as many other forts, was taken by Pontiac's Indians and all the inhabitants of the island were massacred," replied the captain. "There is a cave shown in a hill-side some little distance out from the village in which the French sought refuge, and where they were smoked to death, the Indians kindling fires at its mouth." "Oh," exclaimed Grace, "I am glad I didn't live in those dreadful days!" "Yes," said her father, "we have great reason for gratitude that the lines have fallen to us in such pleasant places, and times of peace." CHAPTER XV. The _Dolphin_ lay at anchor in Mackinaw Bay only a day or two, in which time her passengers visited the fort, the village, and the cave of which Captain Raymond had spoken as the scene of that dreadful slaughter of the French by the Indians; then started on the return voyage to Chicago. They were still favored with pleasant weather, and passed most of the time on deck. Mr. Lilburn seemed to appreciate the society of Miss Annis Keith, generally contriving to get a seat in her immediate vicinity, and to engage her in conversation; that did not strike anyone as strange, however, for Annis was a general favorite with both old and young, she showing a cousinly regard for all her relatives; especially for Mrs. Travilla; for the two had been almost lifelong friends. In these few days that they had been together they had had many private chats in which they recalled their early experiences at Pleasant Plains and the Oaks, and Elsie had urged Annis to return with her to Ion and spend the coming winter there. This invitation Annis was considering, and the more she thought upon it the stronger grew her inclination to accept it. But she must go home first to make some arrangements and preparations, she said. The two were conversing together thus, as they drew near the end of their little trip, not caring that their talk might be audible to those about them. "Surely it is not necessary that you should take much time for preparation, Annis," remarked Mr. Dinsmore. "We of Ion and its vicinity have abundance of stores and dress-makers near at hand. And you would better see all that you can of the Fair now, for it will soon be a thing of the past." "That is true, Cousin Annis," said the captain; "you would better stay with us and see as much as possible." "You are all very kind, cousins," she answered. "But I fear I am crowding you." "Not at all," he and Violet replied, speaking together; the latter adding, "We have all slept comfortably, and in the daytime there is certainly abundance of room." "If you don't stay, Cousin Annis," Rosie said, with a merry look, "we will have to conclude that you have not had room enough to make you quite comfortable." "Then I certainly must stay," returned Annis, with a smile, "if my going would give so entirely false an impression; since I have had abundance of room and a most delightful time." "Then you will stay on?" "Yes, for a while; but I must go home for a day or two at least before leaving for the South." "We will let you know our plans in season for that," the captain promised, and the thing was considered settled. When her passengers awoke the next morning the _Dolphin_ was lying at her old anchorage near the beautiful Peristyle. All had returned rested and refreshed, and were eager to go on shore in search of further entertainment and instruction. The greater part of the day was spent in the Midway Plaisance. They visited the Lapland family of King Bull, the most prominent character in that village, and found them all seated beside their odd-looking hut, which, like the others in the village, was made of skin, tent-like in shape, and banked up with moss. The entrance was very small, the door made of a piece of wood. A fire was kept burning in the centre of the house, in the ground. There was no chimney; some of the smoke escaped through a little hole in the roof, if the wind was right. But if the wind comes from the wrong direction the smoke stays in the house, and the people enjoy it. It does not, however, improve their complexions, which are said to be, in their native state, not unlike the color of a well-cured ham. King Bull they found had the largest house, and a very large family. The Laplanders marry young, and it is not unusual for a grandfather to be under twenty-five years of age. King Bull was one hundred and twelve years old and had great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren, and every day he played for a little while with the youngest of those. Our friends learned that he had with him a son, Bals Bull, ninety years old, that he had a son aged seventy-three, he had a daughter aged fifty-nine, she a son aged forty-one, who had a son aged twenty-nine, who had a daughter aged fourteen, and she a daughter two years old. "Dear me!" exclaimed Rosie, on hearing this, "how old it makes a body feel! Why, just think! the mother of that two-year-old child is a year younger than you, Grace Raymond; and you don't consider yourself much more than a child yet, do you?" "No, indeed! and don't want to be anything but my father's own little girl," returned Grace, giving him a loving look that said more than her words. "Can you tell us if this looks like the real Lapland village, Harold!" asked Walter. "I am told it does," replied his brother; "that it is as nearly as possible a reproduction of one, though of course it is not very large, there being but twenty-four Laplanders here." "What do they eat, papa?" asked little Elsie. "Fish and reindeer meat, and cheese made of the milk. The reindeer is their most valuable possession: its skin is used for clothing, the fur is woven into cloth, they drink the milk, and use the bones in the making of their sledges. They live entirely on such food during their winters, which are nine months long." "And their summer only three months," said Evelyn, "I shouldn't like that." "No, nor should I," said Herbert. "I think it must be by far the most enjoyable part of the year, for it is usually spent at the seashore." "Are they heathen folks, papa?" asked Elsie. "Most of them are Lutherans," he answered. "Now let us go to the reindeer park." They did so, found nine of the gentle creatures there, saw them get a bath of Lake Michigan water from a hose-pipe, which they were told was given them three times daily. Then they were harnessed to their sledges and driven around the park, just as they are driven in their own country. After that they ran races, then they were fed and milked. The children had been deeply interested in the gentle reindeer and seemed almost loath to leave them when the performance was over. But those with which they were most delighted were three baby ones, two born on the way over to this country, and one shortly after they reached Chicago, and which was named Columbia. "Now where shall we go next?" asked Rosie. "Suppose we try the diving exhibit," said Walter. "It is something I should like to see." They found it on the south side of Midway Plaisance in a small building surrounding a huge tank of water. On the balcony of its second story stood a man turning a force-pump, which seemed to attract a good deal of attention from the passers-by. Each visitor paid ten cents at the door, then passed up a rude stairway by which he reached the surface of the water. There a lecturer was seated, who explained how the air was made to enter the diver's armor, and how to leave it. Then people were invited to throw small coins into the water. Captain Raymond put a bright dime into the hand of each of his younger children and they gleefully tossed them in. The diver was in the bubbling water, they could not see him, but presently, through a telephone, he gave the dates on the coins. Then he came up to the surface of the water carrying a dummy that looked like a drowned man and let the visitors see him in his armor. "He looks just like that picture of him that we saw outside," remarked little Elsie. "Ugh! I don't think I should ever be willing to wear such clothes." "Armor!" corrected her mother in a mirthful tone. "No, dear, I should not want to see you dressed in that style, unless to save you from drowning." But just then Mr. Dinsmore rose and led the way down another rough pine staircase, the others following. Reaching the lower story they found a great many peep-holes through which they could look in upon the water of the tank. To each of these holes the diver came in turn, holding up a card on which was printed a farewell compliment. His hands looked shrivelled and soaked, and Grace and the other young girls afterward expressed sincere pity for him, saying they thought his life must be a hard one. On leaving the diving exhibit they went to the Fisheries Building, which they found very beautiful. In its east pavilion was a double row of grottoed and illuminated aquaria containing the strangest inhabitants of the deep. Here they saw bluefish, sharks, catfish, bill-fish, goldfish, rays, trout, eels, sturgeon, anemones, the king-crab, burr-fish, flounders, toad-fish, and many other beautiful or remarkable inhabitants of the great deep; and the illuminated and decorated aquaria showed them to great advantage. It was said that nothing so beautiful had hitherto been seen west of London. The surface of the water in the aquaria was many feet above the heads of even the gentlemen of the party, but there were nearly six hundred feet of glass front, so that everybody could have a good view of the strange and beautiful creatures within. They all watched them for some time with curiosity and interest, the little folks questioning their papa about one and another variety, new to them, but old acquaintances to one who had spent many years upon the sea. "Papa," said Elsie, "there is one that looks a good deal like a flower. Is it a live thing? What is its name?" "That is what is called the sea anemone," he replied. "It is not a flower though, but an animal. It is said to have been called by the name of that flower about a hundred years ago, by a celebrated investigator in the department of natural history, named Ellis. He thought it a suitable name because their tentacles are in regular circles and tinged with bright, lively colors, nearly representing some of our elegantly fringed flowers, such as the carnation, marigold, and anemone. And so they do while in the water, and undisturbed. But when a receding tide leaves them on the shore they contract into a jelly-like mass with a puckered hole in the top. There"--pointing it out--"is the most common of the British species of sea anemone. It attaches itself to rocks and stones from low-water almost to high-water mark. The tentacula--these feelers that look like the fringe of a flower--you see are nearly as long as the body is high, and nearly of the same color. See, there is an azure line around the base, and on the base are dark green lines converging toward the centre; and around the edge of the mouth is a circle of azure tubercles, like turquoise beads of the greatest beauty. I wish I could show them to you, but the mouth must be expanded in order to make them visible. Ah, that is just the thing!" as someone standing near threw in a bit of meat which had the desired effect, the mouth of the anemone opening wide to receive it. "Oh, they are very beautiful!" exclaimed Rosie, watching the appearance of the beadlike tubercles of which the captain had just spoken. "Don't they eat anything but meat, papa?" asked Neddie. "Yes; crabs, sea-worms, and fish; the tentacula are furnished with minute spears with which they wound their prey and probably convey poison into the wounds." "I suppose this is salt water they are all in?" Walter said enquiringly, and was told that he was correct in his conjecture. On leaving the building they spent some time in examining its outside, finding its columns and arches wrought with calamus, fishes, frogs, serpents, and tortoises, making them very appropriate and beautiful. CHAPTER XVI. "Papa, I wish we might go back to the Fair directly after supper and spend the evening there," Lucilla said, as again they stood on the _Dolphin's_ deck. "I want so much to see the lighting up of the Court of Honor, then go to the wooded island to see it with the lamps lighted; after that to the Ferris Wheel again, to have the view from it by moonlight." "Anything more, my child?" returned the captain, with his pleasant smile. "I think it likely that may do for one evening, sir," she replied; "unless my father wants to take me somewhere else." "I think we will then come back through the Court of Honor and go to our beds," he said; "that is, should we make the visits proposed, which will depend at least somewhat upon the wishes of others. Violet, my dear, how does that programme suit you?" "I really do not know of any way of spending the evening that I should enjoy more," answered Violet. "Indeed Lu and I were talking together of our desire to see those sights, not longer ago than yesterday. And you, mother, would like it, would you not?" she asked, turning to Grandma Elsie. "Very much!" was the reply. "The tired little ones will be left in their bed of course?" "Yes, indeed! they will be ready for that as soon as they have had their supper," Violet replied, with a loving look into each weary little face. "Come, dears, we will go to our state-room, wash hands and faces, and smooth your hair, and by that time supper will be on the table." Every one of the company approved of Lucilla's plan for the spending of the evening, and before the sun had quite set they were again in the Court of Honor. They were in season to secure seats from which they could get a good view of the lighting up. They found there were thousands of people who seemed as anxious as themselves to witness the sudden change from deepening twilight to the grand illumination that made fairyland of the Court of Honor. But they were there for some minutes, sitting silently in the growing darkness, finding the buildings taking on a new beauty by the dim, uncertain light, and feeling it pleasant just to rest, listen to the subdued hum of the thousands of voices of the multitude thronging about the white railing guarding the fountains, the doorways, the stone steps leading down to the water, and every place where a human creature could find room to sit down and rest while waiting for a sight of the expected lighting up. There seemed no ill-humor among the great throng, no loud, angry talk, but a subdued buzz like many telephone messages coming over the wire at the same time. Our friends sat where they could see both the Administration Dome and the Golden Statue at the other end of the lagoon. They had sat in silence there for some minutes, the darkness deepening, when suddenly there was a blare of music, the fountains threw up a few thin columns of spray, the front of a dark building was instantly illumined with a thousand jewel-like lights, then another and another blazed out in the same manner till all were alight with tiny jets of flame; three rows, the first or highest following the cornices all round the court: these were of a golden hue; while some distance lower down was a second silver-colored row, then the last, ranged just under the parapet of the lagoon, were golden like the first. The mingled light of all three shone on the dark waters of the lagoon, the gondolas skimming silently to and fro, and the electric launches gliding swiftly onward. And the great dome of the Administration Building looked grandly beautiful with its line of flaming torches about its base, its triumphal arches of glittering fire above, and the golden crown sparkling on its summit. Great search-lights were flaming out from the ends of the Main Building, making visible the lovely seated Liberty in the MacMonnie's fountain which was foaming and rustling; and suddenly the two electric fountains sent up tall columns of water which changed from white to yellow, from that to purple, then to crimson, and from that to emerald green. "Oh, it is just too beautiful!" exclaimed Rosie, "too lovely for anything. I feel as if I could never weary of gazing upon it." "No, nor I," murmured Evelyn in low, moved tones. "I never imagined anything so grandly beautiful!" "No, nor did I; and yet it cannot be anything to compare to heaven," said Grandma Elsie; "'for eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him!'" They sat for some time gazing upon the enchanting scene, then rose, and still keeping together, wandered on till they reached the wooded island. The scene there was lovelier than in the daylight. Little glass cups of various colors held tiny lights of wick in oil, giving a charming appearance to the scene, and there were thousands of visitors moving here and there among them. So did our party from the _Dolphin_, for a half hour or more; then they returned to Midway Plaisance, and finding that the moon had risen, sought the Ferris Wheel, and ascending in it had a beautiful view of the White City, the lake beyond, and the surrounding country. They made the circuit several times, then leaving the wheel, wandered slowly through the fairylike scene that lay between them and the Peristyle, where the young men who lodged on shore bade good-night and the others entered their waiting boat and returned for the night to their floating home. All were weary with the day's sight-seeing and soon retired to their state-rooms; but Lucilla, noticing that her father had remained on deck, hastened back again for the bit of private chat with him of which she was so fond, yet in these days could so seldom get. He welcomed her with a smile, and drawing her into his arms added a tender caress. "And what has my little girl, my dear eldest daughter, to say to her father to-night?" he asked. "Oh, not very much of anything, papa," she replied, "but I'm hungry for a little petting and a chance to hug and kiss my dear father; without anybody by to criticise," she concluded, with a low, happy laugh. "Very well, my darling, you have my full permission to do all you care to in that line," he said, patting her cheek and pressing his lips to it again and again. "I haven't lost the first place in my little girl's heart yet?" "No, indeed, papa; and you need not have the least bit of fear that you ever will." "That is good news; if something I have heard so many times can be properly called news." "Are you tired hearing it, father, dear?" she asked half entreatingly, half incredulously. "Indeed no, my darling," he returned, holding her close. "I can hardly bear to think there will ever be a time when I shall have to relinquish the very first place in your heart; though I do not believe the time will ever come when your love for me will fail entirely or even be very small." "I can't believe there is the very least danger of that, my own dear, dear father," she returned earnestly, "and oh, it would break my heart to think that you would ever love me any less than you do now." "It would take a great deal to lessen my love for you, dear one," he replied, repeating his caresses. "Has this been a happy and enjoyable day to you, daughter?" "Oh, very, papa! what a delightful time we are having!" "You will be almost sorry when the time comes for returning home?" "Oh, no, indeed, sir! we have such a sweet home that I am always glad to be back to it when we have been away for a few weeks." "But then playtime will be over and studies must be renewed." "And that, with such a cross, cross teacher whom nobody loves," she returned sportively, and laying her head on his shoulder, for he had sat down, drawing her to his side and putting an arm about her waist. "Ah, indeed! I had thought it was your father who was to teach you." "And you didn't know how cross and tyrannical he was?" she laughed. "So cross and tyrannical that he says now that it is time his eldest daughter was in her bed." "Oh, please don't say I must go just yet, papa!" she begged. "There are so many of us here that I can hardly ever get a word with you in private, and it is so--so pleasant to get you all to myself for a few minutes." "Well," he said, taking out his watch, "you may have five----" "Oh, papa," she interrupted eagerly, "say ten, please do! and I'll try to be ever so good to-morrow," she concluded, with a merry look and smile. "Ten then, but not another one unless you want me to say you must stay here and rest all day to-morrow." "Oh, no, sir, please don't! That would be worse than being sent to bed immediately. I'll go without a word of objection, whenever you tell me to. But oh, papa, wasn't it lovely to see the Court of Honor light up to-night? and what could have been more beautiful than the view from the Ferris Wheel?" "They were fine sights, and I am glad you enjoyed them," he returned. "To-morrow we will, I think, go into the Manufactures Building, and perhaps make some purchases. Would you like to do so?" "Oh, yes, sir! yes, indeed! I want to get some gifts for Christine and Alma, and the servants at home." "I highly approve of that," he said, "and have no doubt we will be able to find something for each which will be acceptable. Now the ten minutes are up, daughter; so bid me good-night and go to your room and get to bed as quickly as you can." "Good-night and pleasant dreams to you, my own dear, dear father," she returned, hugging him tightly for an instant, then hastened to do his bidding. "I presume you will all be ready to start out early, as usual?" the captain said at the breakfast table the next morning, adding with a quick glance about from one to another, "I am happy to see that everyone is looking well and bright." "As we are feeling," said Mr. Dinsmore, "and it is certainly a cause for gratitude to the Giver of all good. What have you to propose in regard to our movements for the day, captain?" "It makes but little difference to me where we go, so that all are content," replied Captain Raymond; "but if no one else cares to decide the question, I propose that our first visit be to the Manufactures Building. We have been there before, but there are thousands of things well worth our attention which we have not yet looked at." "Oh, yes; let us go there first," responded several voices, and so it was decided. They set out, as usual, shortly after leaving the table; found their young gentlemen friends waiting for them in the Peristyle, and all proceeded at once to the Manufactures Building. It was easy to spend a long time there, and they did; visiting one section after another, admiring all that was worthy of admiration in the architecture and exhibits--the German pavilion with its towers, domes, and arches, its Ionic pillars upholding golden eagles, the fountains at the base, the Germania group in hammered copper surmounting the highest pedestal, and, most beautiful and impressive of all, the great wrought-iron gates that form its main entrance, and were considered the finest and most remarkable specimens of that kind of work ever yet seen in our country. The pavilion of France next challenged their attention, being close at hand. In front of its arched entrance stood two blue and green vases which they learned were from the national porcelain factories of Sèvres, both very handsome. That factory had sent about two thousand pieces of its beautiful and costly china. Most of them had been already sold, but the captain and his party secured a few. Germany, France, and Great Britain occupied three great squares grouped around the central circle of the immense building. On the fourth square were the exhibits of the United States. Three New York firms had accepted the task of making for their country's section such a pavilion as should maintain her dignity and reputation, and had succeeded in so doing. It was of the Doric order of architecture and enriched with a pale color and a profusion of gold, while from the centre of the façade rose a column to a height of one hundred feet, having a ball and eagle on the top. "Oh, let us go in and look at the exhibits here! those of our own country," exclaimed Lucilla, after some moments had been spent by their party in an admiring examination of the outside. Such seemed to be the inclination of the others also, and they passed quietly in and about. The exhibit of jewelry there was the one which seemed to have the greatest attraction for the young girls of the party, Lucilla especially; and her father presented her with a pin and ring which gave her great delight; nor was he less liberal to his wife or Grace. "Ah, ha! um, hum! ah, ha! I see, captain, that you believe in encouraging home industries," laughed Mr. Lilburn. "Yes, sir; especially when they are the best," returned the captain good-humoredly. "I have been examining jewelry in the various foreign exhibits and find none to excel, few to compare with, those of these United States." "Yes," said Harold; "some of our country-men excel in those things, as they do in the art of the silversmith. Look at those translucent enamels worked on silver fret-work--there in the Gorham exhibit; and those fine pitchers and vases made of silver worked into open engraved designs, having pieces of colored glass blown into it; and those of Rockwood pottery and silver." "And yonder is Tiffany's exhibit," said Evelyn. "He is one of our finest jewelers, so let us go and look at it." There was no objection raised, but all followed her as she led the way to the pavilion of which she had spoken. They found it well worth examination, for none of them had ever seen a finer display, or greater variety of precious stones in costly and beautiful settings. Our friends lingered some time longer in what the young people called "our section." There were other fine collections from other cities and countries, too numerous to mention, and far too many to be seen and examined in one day, or even in several. After a time, however the little ones grew very weary and indeed all were ready to enjoy a rest. So an electric boat on the lagoon was entered, and quite a while spent upon the water. After that they had luncheon at a restaurant, then went to see the Spanish caravels. "What are caravels, papa?" asked Elsie, as they went on their way. "You'll see presently," he replied. "You have heard the story of the discovery of America. These little vessels which we are going to see are made as nearly as possible like those he came over in; the men who built them looking up old pictures and descriptions and making these vessels as exact copies of the old ones as they could." "Was it in Spain they made them, papa?" "Yes; they sailed from Palos in Spain, about a year ago, and exactly four hundred years from the time when Columbus sailed from there to look for the land he felt sure was here, on this side of the ocean. They took, as nearly as they could, just the course he did, and finally came on to New York, where they had a part in the international review of April, 1893." "That's the name of this year isn't it, papa?" "Yes; that review took place last April; and after it they sailed for the St. Lawrence River, came round the lakes as we did, and here into this harbor." "How many are there, papa?" "Three: the _Santa Maria_--in which Columbus himself sailed--the _Nina_, and the _Pinta_. There they are, daughter," as at that moment they came in sight of the three small vessels. "Why, how little they are!" she exclaimed; "not nearly so big as the _Illinois_ that we see all the time from our deck." "You are quite right about that," her father said, with a smile. "But what does anybody want with such little bits of ships?" she asked. "Only to show people with what little vessels Columbus accomplished his great work of discovering America." "I'm glad he discovered it," Elsie said, with satisfaction; "because, if he hadn't, we couldn't have been here living in it." "Unless somebody else had discovered it between that time and this, Elsie," laughed her uncle Walter, overhearing her last remark. All were interested in looking at the little vessels, but their curiosity was soon satisfied and they returned to the Court of Honor for a time, then to the _Dolphin_. CHAPTER XVII. It was Sunday afternoon. Most of the _Dolphin's_ passengers were in their own state-rooms enjoying the Sabbath rest, after the fatigue of the sight-seeing of the past week, but Captain Raymond sat on the deck with Neddie on his knee and the three girls grouped about him. The father and daughters had each a Bible, for even little Elsie could read fluently and had been given one of her own, which she valued highly. "Papa," she said, "you know you bade each of us to have a verse to recite to you to-day. May I say mine now?" "Yes; we will begin with the youngest to-day," he replied. "But that's I, papa; your Neddie boy!" exclaimed the little fellow on his knee. "Why, yes, to be sure! But I hardly expected him to have one," the captain returned, with a fatherly smile down into the dear little face upturned to his. "Let me hear it, son?" "It's only a very little one, papa: 'The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.'" "A very sweet verse. Does my little son know who said these words?" "Grandma said they were Jesus' words. She taught me the verse." "Yes, it was Jesus our Saviour who said it; and do you know whom he meant by the Son of man?" "Grandma said it was himself, and that he can forgive all our sins and take away the love of sinning and make us truly good, really holy." "That is true, a blessed truth; and to him alone, to Jesus who was God and man both, we must go to get our sins forgiven, and be taught to love holiness; that holiness without which no man can see the Lord." "Now mine, papa," said Elsie: "'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.' Doesn't that mean that to believe on Jesus will take us to heaven at last--when we die?" "Yes; and as soon as we really and truly believe on him--trust and love him, giving ourselves to him and taking him for our Saviour--he gives us a life that will last forever, so that we will always be his in this world and in the next, and dying will be but going home to our Father's house on high, to be forever there with the Lord, and free from sin and suffering and death." "Never any more naughtiness, and never any more pain or sickness," said Elsie thoughtfully. "Oh, how delightful that will be!" "Yes, and to be with Jesus and like him," said Grace softly. "This is my verse: 'We love him because he first loved us.'" "Oh, what love it was!" exclaimed her father. "'Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.'" "I have the next three verses, papa," said Lucilla: "'In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.'" "Yes," said her father; "if we would be followers of Christ, he must be our example; he who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." "What does that mean?" asked little Ned. "That the dear Lord Jesus suffered in our stead; taking the punishment due to us for our sins, the punishment we deserved, and letting us have the life bought with his righteousness and his blood." "What is righteousness, papa?" asked the little fellow. "Holiness, goodness. Jesus was perfectly holy, and those who truly love him will be ever trying to be like him; will go from strength to strength till everyone of them in Zion appears before God. That is, till they get to heaven; and there they will be so like Jesus that they will never sin any more." "And what does that other part, 'by whose stripes ye are healed,' mean, papa?" asked Elsie. "That Jesus suffered for the sins of his people (there was no sin of his own for him to suffer for), and that because he bore the punishment in their stead they will not have to bear it, and will be delivered from the love of it; that is the healing--the being made well of that disease--the love of sinning, the vile nature that we are all born with, because our first parents disobeyed God there in the garden of Eden." "God teaches his people to hate sin and try bard--asking help of him--to forsake it and be always good, doing just what is right; doesn't he, papa? That's what grandma says." "Yes, dear child, it is what God teaches us in his Word--the Holy Bible." "And he will send his Holy Spirit to help us--if we ask him to?" "Yes." "But how can we know it, papa? we can't see him." "No, daughter, but we may know it by the help he gives us, and others will recognize the fact by the fruit of the Spirit seen in our lives. Lucilla, can you tell me what is the fruit of the Spirit?" "Yes, sir; the Bible says 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." "Yes; and 'against such there is no law.' Jesus has kept the law perfectly in their stead, and his righteousness being imputed to them, they are treated as if they had never broken the law--never sinned--but had been always holy and obedient to all the commands of God, as he was." Elsie was looking very thoughtful. "I think I understand it now, papa," she said. "Jesus has kept God's law in our stead, and borne the punishment for our breaking it, and gives his goodness to us, so that we are treated just as if we had been really good when we haven't at all, and that is what it means where it says, 'by whose stripes ye were healed.'" "Yes, dear child, that is just it; and oh, how can we help loving him, who died and suffered so much for us! Oh, how we ought to love him!" "I do love him, papa. I ask him every day to help me to love him more and serve him better. I ask earnestly for a new heart; for he is the hearer and answerer of prayer. The Bible tells us so." "And it is so sweet to know it," said Grace, speaking low and softly, "for he is always near and able to help us, no matter what our trouble may be." "Yes," said her father. "'Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.' 'Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.' God looks at the heart, my children, and will not hear and answer us if we approach him with lip service only, not really wanting what we are asking for." "Yes, papa," said Elsie; "but I do really want the new heart I ask him for. So he will give it to me; won't he?" "Yes, daughter, for he has said so, and his promises never fail." "I want to go to mamma now," said Neddie, getting down from his father's knee. "Yes, run along," said the captain. "Our lesson has been long enough for to-day, I think, daughters, and you are all at liberty to go. You, Grace, are looking weary, and it would be well for both you and Elsie to take a nap: Lucilla also, if she wishes," he added, with a kindly glance at her. "Thank you, papa, but I do not care to," she answered, as the others hastened away; "the breeze makes it very pleasant here on deck." "Yes, and you can rest nicely in one of these steamer chairs." Then, taking a keener look into her face, "But something seems to be troubling you, dear child. Tell your father what it is, that he may help and comfort you," he added, in very tender tones, taking her hands and drawing her to a seat close at his side. "Oh, papa, it is that I am--I am afraid I have been deceiving myself and am not really a Christian," she said, with a half sob and hiding her face on his shoulders. "There is so little, if any, of the fruit of the Spirit in me--no gentleness, goodness, meekness--though I do love Jesus and long to be like him." "In that case, dear child, I am sure you are one of his," he answered low and tenderly. "Love is put first in the list and I have seen, to my great joy, a steady growth in you of longsuffering, gentleness, and meekness. Jesus said, 'By their fruits ye shall know them,' and I think that, though far from perfect, yet my dear eldest daughter does show by her life that she is earnestly striving to bring forth in it the fruit of the Spirit. 'The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.' We are not made perfect in a moment, but are to grow in grace, becoming more and more like the Master, and when the work of grace is completed--so that we are made perfect in holiness--we do immediately pass into glory, to be forever with the Lord." "Yes, papa; and oh, I want you to pray for me that I may grow in grace every day and hour of my life." "I will, I do, daughter; and you must pray for your father too, for he is by no means perfect yet." "Papa, you do seem perfect to me," she said, with a look of reverent love up into his face. "I never forget you in my prayers; never forget to thank God for giving me such a dear, kind father. Papa, are you never troubled with fears that you might be mistaken in thinking yourself a Christian? Oh, no! I am sure not; for how could you be when you are such a good Christian that no one who sees you every day, and knows you as your daughter does, could have the least doubt about it?" "My daughter looks at me with the partial eyes of filial love," he replied, tenderly smoothing her hair, "but I too, in view of my sins and shortcomings, am sometimes sorely troubled by doubts and fears. But then I find peace and happiness in just giving myself anew to Jesus, and asking him to take me for his very own and deliver me from all my sins and fears; then, knowing that he is a hearer and answerer of prayers, I can go on my way rejoicing. Can you not do the same?" "Oh, yes, papa, I will. I remember now that you told me once to do so--to come then to Him and he would receive me, and I need not trouble about the question whether I had really come before. And I did and found, oh, such rest and peace!" "Yes; 'the peace of God which passeth all understanding! May it ever keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.'" CHAPTER XVIII. "Where are we going to-day, papa?" asked little Elsie the next morning at the breakfast table. "I do not know yet, my child," he replied. "I have been thinking," he continued, addressing the company in general, "that it would probably be better for us to break up into quite small parties, each going its own way, now that the Fair has become so crowded." "Yes," Mr. Dinsmore said, "I will take my wife and daughter with me, if they do not object; you, I presume, will do likewise with your wife and children, and the others--Rosie, Walter, and Evelyn--can make up a third party, and dispose of their time and efforts at sight-seeing as they please." At that Mr. Lilburn turned toward Miss Annis Keith and said, with a humorous look and smile, "You and I seem to be left entirely out of the calculation, Miss Keith. Shall we compose a fourth party, and see what we can find to amuse and interest us?" "Thank you, sir," she replied; "but are you sure I might not prove a hindrance and burden?" "Quite sure; and your companionship, if I can secure it, will be all-sufficient for me." "Then we will consider the arrangement made, for I should be sorry indeed to intrude my companionship upon those who do not desire it," she said, with a sportive look at the captain. "Cousin Ronald," said the latter gravely, "I think you owe me a vote of thanks for leaving Cousin Annis to you. I am sure it should be accounted a very generous thing for me to do." "Certainly, captain, when you have only Cousin Vi, those two half-grown daughters, and two sweet children for your share," laughed Annis. "As many as he can keep together," remarked Walter. "Well, I'm going off by myself, as I happen to know that my sister Rosie and Evelyn have been already engaged by other escorts." "Walter, you deserve to be left at home," said Rosie severely. "At home?" laughed Walter, "you would have to get me there first." "You know what I mean; this yacht is home to us while we are living on it." "And a very pleasant one it is; a delightful place to rest in when one is tired; as I realize every evening, coming back to it from the Fair." "Then we won't try to punish you by condemning you to imprisonment in it," said the captain. "Papa, I should like to go to the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building again to-day, unless the rest of our party prefer some other place," said Grace. "That would suit me as well as any," said Violet. "Me also," added Lucilla. "Then that shall be our destination," returned the captain. The young men--Harold and Herbert Travilla, Chester and Frank Dinsmore, and Will Croly--joined the party from the _Dolphin_, as usual, in the Peristyle; good-mornings were exchanged, then they broke up into smaller parties and scattered in different directions; Captain Raymond with his wife and children going first into the great Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, where they spent some hours in looking at such of the beautiful and interesting exhibits as they had not examined in former visits; making a good many purchases of gifts for each other for friends and relatives and the servants and caretakers left at home. Chester was disappointed and chagrined that he was not invited to accompany them, particularly as it was his and Frank's last day at the Fair--but he joined Walter and Herbert, while Harold took charge of their mother, and the other young folks went off in couples. "Where shall we betake ourselves, Miss Annis?" asked Mr. Lilburn. "I think I should like to look at some of the paintings in the Fine Arts Building, if you care to do so," replied Annis. "I should like nothing better," he returned; "so we will go there first." They spent all the morning there--there were so many pictures worthy of long study that it was difficult to tear themselves away from any one of them. "'The return of the _Mayflower_,'" read Mr. Lilburn as they paused before a picture of a young girl standing upon the seashore, looking out eagerly over the water toward a sail which she sees in the distance; such an impatience and tender longing in her face that one knew it seemed almost impossible for her to wait the coming of some dear one she believes to be on board; one whose love and care are to shelter her from cold and storm and savage foes who might at any moment come upon and assail her. "Ah, the dear lass is evidently hoping, expecting, waiting for the coming of her lover," he said. "Happy man! What a joyous meeting it will be when the good ship comes to anchor and he steps ashore to meet her loving welcome." "Yes, I can imagine it," Annis said. "They have doubtless been separated for months or years, and a glad reunion awaits them if he is really on the vessel." For a moment they gazed in silence, then with a sigh he said, "She's a bonny lass and doubtless he a brave, well-favored young fellow; both on the sunny side of life, while I--ah, Miss Annis, if I were but twenty years younger----" "What then, Mr. Lilburn?" she asked sportively. "You would be looking about for such a sweet young creature and trying to win her heart?" "Not if I might hope to win that of the dear lady by my side," he returned in low, loverlike tones. "She is full young enough and fair enough for me. Miss Annis, do you think I--I could ever make myself a place in your heart? I am no longer young, but there's an auld saying that 'it is better to be 'an auld man's darling than a young man's slave.'" "I have not intended to be either," she answered, blushing deeply and drawing a little away from him. "Single life has its charms, and I am by no means sure that--that I care to--to give it up." "I hope to be able some day to convince you that you do," he returned entreatingly, as she turned hastily away and moved on toward another picture. She had liked the old gentleman very much indeed; he was so genuinely kind and polite, so intelligent and well informed; and he had evidently enjoyed her society too, but she had never dreamed of this--that he would want her as a wife; she would sooner have thought of looking up to him in a daughterly way--but as he had said he wanted a wifely affection from her, could she--could she give it? For a brief space her brain seemed in a whirl; she saw nothing, heard nothing that was going on about her--could think of nothing but this surprising, astonishing offer, and could not decide whether she could ever accept it or not. She could not, at that moment she rather thought she never could. She kept her face turned away from him as he stood patiently waiting by her side. Both had lost interest in the paintings. He was watching her and saw that she was much disturbed, yet he could not decide whether that disturbance was likely to be favorable to his suit or not. Presently he drew out his watch. "It is past noon, Miss Keith," he said; "suppose we take a gondola and cross the pond to the Japanese Tea House, where we can get a lunch." "I am willing if you wish it," returned Annis in low, steady tones, but without giving him so much as a glimpse of her face. He caught sight of it, however, as they entered the boat; then their eyes met, and he was satisfied that she was not altogether indifferent to his suit. But he did not think it wise to renew it at that moment. They sat in silence for a little, then he spoke of the scenes about them; and while they took their lunch, the talking they did ran upon matters of indifference. As they left the building they came unexpectedly upon the captain and his party. "Ah! where now, friends?" he asked. "That is a question that has not yet been decided," replied Mr. Lilburn. "Where are you going?" "I am about to take Grace, Elsie, and Ned back to our floating home," returned the captain, "for I fear they have already become more fatigued than is good for them." "And if you will allow it, I will go with you, captain," said Annis. "Certainly," he returned; "your company is always acceptable, Cousin Annis, and I see that you look as though a few hours of rest would not come amiss to you. Let us take this steam launch, which is just approaching, and we will be at our destination in a few minutes." "Let us all get on board and go as far as the Peristyle, where Lu and I will wait for you, Levis," said Violet. "A good idea," he replied. "Why, there is Walter on the boat, and I can leave you in his care, if Cousin Ronald does not wish to make one of the party." "Ah! then I will wander along by my ain sel,'" returned the old gentleman laughingly as he lifted his hat to Annis and the others, then went on his way, musing as to the best course to pursue to bring about an acceptance of his suit. "I want you and your little brother and sister to retire promptly to your berths, Grace, and try to get a good nap," the captain said when they had reached the deck of the _Dolphin_. "And, Cousin Annis, I hope you'll not think me impertinent if I advise you to do the same." "Not at all," she returned, with a smile, "it is just what I was intending to do. I have a slight headache, but hope to sleep it off." "I hope you may, indeed," he said in a kindly, sympathetic tone. "I presume it is the result of fatigue and that a few hours of rest and sleep will make all right again." She went at once to her state-room, and changing her dress for a loose wrapper lay down with the determination to forget everything in sleep. But thought was too busy in her brain; she was too much excited over the surprising offer made her that morning. She knew instinctively that Mr. Lilburn had not given up the hope of securing what he had asked for--that his suit would be renewed at the first opportunity--and what should she--what could she say? It was not the first offer she had had, but--no other suitor was ever so good, so noble, so--oh, he was everything one could ask or desire (what difference that he was old enough to be her father), but would his sons welcome her advent into the family? And her own dear ones--sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews--be willing to part with her. Perhaps not; but surely they could do very well without her and he--the dear old gentleman--ought surely to be considered; if she could make his last days happier and more comfortable--it could not be wrong for her to do so, for the others could be happy without her. Ah, perhaps they would soon almost forget her. And there with Elsie Travilla her dear, dearest friend and cousin; how pleasant to live near enough for almost daily intercourse with her! "I will ask for guidance," she finally said half aloud, and, rising, knelt beside her couch, earnestly beseeching her best friend to make her way plain before her face, to lead and guide her all her journey through. Then, calmed and quieted by casting her burden on the Lord, she lay down again and presently fell into a deep, sweet sleep. She was awakened by a gentle tap on the door, then Violet's voice asking: "Can I come in for one moment, Cousin Annis?" At that she rose and opened the door, saying. "Indeed you can, Vi. But what--who----?" as Violet handed her a bunch of Scotch heather, her eyes dancing with mirth and pleasure as she did so, for at the sight of the flowers a crimson flush had suddenly suffused Annis' cheek. "You see what," she said, "and the who is Cousin Ronald. Oh, Cousin Annis, I am so glad if only you won't reject him! and he's a dear old man; almost too old for you, I acknowledge, but don't say no on that account. Be 'an old man's darling,' there's a dear! for then we'll have you close beside us in that lovely Beechwood." A silent caress was Annis' only reply, and Violet slipped away, leaving her once more alone. For a brief space Annis stood gazing down at the flowers in her hand with a tender smile on her lips, the roses coming and going on her cheek. They seemed to be whispering to her of priceless love and tenderness; for Mr. Lilburn was a hale, hearty man, looking much younger than his years: he might outlive her, but years of genial companionship might well be hoped for in this world, to be eventually followed by a blissful eternity in another and better land, for they were followers of the same Master, travelling the same road--toward the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Yes, she did indeed love the dear old man; she knew it now, and her heart sang for joy as she hastened to array herself in the most becoming dress she had at hand and pinned his flowers in the bosom of her gown. He was alone in the saloon as she entered it, and turning at the sound of her light step, came forward to greet her with outstretched hand, his eyes shining with pleasure at the sight of his flowers and the sweet, blushing face above them. "Ah, my darling! you do not despise my little gift," he said low and tenderly, taking quiet possession of her hand. "May I hope you will show equal favor to the giver?" "If--if you think--if you are sure, quite sure, you will never repent and grow weary of your choice," she stammered, speaking scarcely above her breath. "Perfectly sure!" he returned. "My only fear is that I may fail to make this dear lady as happy as she might be with a younger and more attractive companion." "I have never seen such an one yet," she said, with a half smile, "and I do not fear to risk it. I shall be only too glad to do so," with a low half laugh, "if you have no fear of being disappointed in me." "Not a ghost of a fear!" he responded. As he spoke the door of Mrs. Travilla's state-room opened and she stepped out upon them. Catching sight of them standing there hand in hand, she was about to retreat into her room again, but Mr. Lilburn spoke: "Congratulate me, Cousin Elsie, upon having won the heart of the sweetest lady in the land; or if that be too strong, one of the sweetest." "I do, I do," Elsie said, coming forward and bestowing a warm embrace upon Annis, "and I could not have asked anything better, seeing it will bring one whom I so dearly love into our immediate neighborhood." Even as she spoke they were joined by other members of the party, the news of the state of affairs was instantly conjectured by them, and joyful congratulations were showered upon Cousin Ronald, tender embraces and words of love upon Annis. Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore were there, but the young couples who had left the older people that morning and gone off to explore other parts of the Fair had not returned; but presently a slight commotion on deck, followed by the sound of their voices, told of their arrival; in another minute they were in the saloon, and Croly, leading Rosie to her mother, said: "Will you give this dear girl to me, Mrs. Travilla? She doesn't deny that she loves me, and she is dearer to me than words can tell." "Then I cannot refuse," returned the mother, with emotion, "knowing as I do that you are all a mother could ask in a suitor for her dear daughter's hand. But do not ask me to part from her yet; she is--you are both--young enough to wait at least a year or two longer." "So I think," said Rosie's grandfather, coming up and laying a hand on her shoulder. "It would be hard to rob my dear eldest daughter of the last of her daughters; to say nothing about grandparents and brothers." "Well, sir, I thank both her mother and yourself for your willingness to let her engage herself to me, but I at least shall find it a little hard to wait," said Croly. "I am well able to support a wife now, and--don't you think we know each other well enough, and that early marriages are more likely to prove happy than later ones?" "No, I don't agree to any such sentiment as that; old folks may as reasonably look for happiness--perhaps a trifle more reasonably--than young ones." The words seemed to be spoken by someone coming down the cabin stairway, and everybody turned to look at the speaker; but he was not to be seen. "Oh, that was Cousin Ronald!" exclaimed Violet, with a merry look at him, "and no wonder, since he has gone courting again in his latter days." "What! is that possible!" exclaimed Mr. Hugh Lilburn, in evident astonishment. "And who? Ah, I see and am well content," catching sight of Annis' sweet, blushing face. "Father, I offer my hearty congratulations." A merry, lively scene followed, mutual congratulations were exchanged, jests and badinage and spirited retorts were indulged in, and in the midst of it all there were other arrivals; Walter returned bringing with him the two Dinsmores and the Conly brothers and their wives; they were told the news, and the captain noticed that Chester cast a longing glance at Lulu, then turned with an entreating, appealing one to him. But the captain shook his head in silent refusal, and Chester seemed to give it up, and with another furtive glance at Lucilla, which she did not see, her attention being fully occupied with the others, he too joined in the mirthful congratulations and good wishes. CHAPTER XIX. Upon leaving the supper table the whole company resorted to the deck, where most of them spent the evening, being very weary with the sight-seeing of the day and finding restful seats there and a view of much that was interesting and enjoyable. Chester and his brother left early to take an evening train for the South. "I am sorry for you that you must leave without having seen everything at the Fair, Chester," Lucilla said in bidding him good-by, "but we can't any of us stay the necessary forty-two years. I'll see all I can, though, and give you a full account of it after I get home; that is, if you care to come over to Woodburn and hear it." "You may be sure I will and thank you, too," he returned, giving the pretty white hand she had put into his an affectionate squeeze. "Good-by. I'm glad you have your father to take good care of you." "So am I," she said, with a happy laugh; "I'm sure there's no better caretaker in the world." It was somewhat later before the others went and Lucilia, sitting a little apart from them, watched furtively the behavior toward each other of the newly engaged couples. "A penny for your thoughts, Lu," said Violet, coming up from seeing her little ones in bed, and taking a seat by Lucilla's side. "Really, they are not worth it, Mamma Vi," laughed the young girl. "I was watching Rosie, and wondering how she could ever think of leaving such a dear mother as hers to--marry and live with even so good and agreeable a young man as Mr. Croly." "And what do you think of my leaving that very mother (the very best and dearest of mothers she is, too) for a husband when I was a full year younger than Rosie is now?" returned Violet, with a mischievous twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "Oh, that was to live with papa--the dearest and best of men! I can see how one might well forsake father and mother and everybody else to live with him." "I agree with you," said Violet. "I love my mother dearly; it would break my heart to lose her; and yet I love my husband still more." "I don't believe I shall ever be able to say that," said Lulu emphatically. "I feel perfectly sure that I shall never love anybody else half so well as I do my own dear father." "I know it would trouble him sorely to think you did," said Violet; "so I hope you will not think of such a thing for at least five or six years to come." "Five or six years! Indeed, Mamma Vi, you may be sure I will never leave him while he lives. I know I could not be happy away from him. I have always looked to him for loving care and protection, and I hope that if ever he should grow old and feeble, I may be able to give the same to him." "I can scarcely bear to think that that time will ever come," said Violet, gazing at her husband with loving, admiring eyes. "But I hope it is far off, for he really seems to have grown younger of late--since coming here to the Fair." "I think so too, Mamma Vi," said Lucilla; "and indeed it seems as though everybody was younger--they all look so happy and interested; at least until they get worn out; as one does with all the walking and the thousands of things to look at, and feeling all the time in fear that you may miss the very things you would care most to see." "Yes, that is the fatiguing part of it. But we had a nice time to-day, Lu. Aren't you pleased with our purchases?" "Yes, indeed, Mamma Vi! I am sure Christine, Alma, and the servants cannot fail to be delighted with the gifts we have for them. And papa has been so very generous in supplying Grace and me with money. I hope Max will be pleased with all we bought for him. Poor, dear fellow! It is just a shame he couldn't have been allowed to come here with us." "Yes, I regret it very much," said Violet. "It has been one great drawback upon our pleasure. O Lu, do look at Cousin Annis! She seems to have grown ten years younger with happiness. I am so glad for her, and that we are to have her for a near neighbor." "I too; but judging from Mr. Lilburn's looks I should say he is gladder than anybody else. Oh, I wish they would get married at once! Wouldn't it be fun, Mamma Vi, to have a wedding here on the yacht?" "Yes, indeed! Here comes your father," as the captain rose and came toward them; "we will suggest it to him and see what he thinks of the idea," she added, making room for him at her side. "Thank you, my dear," he said, taking the offered seat. "You two seem to have found some very interesting topic of conversation. May I ask what it is?" "We are ready to let you into the secret without waiting to be questioned," returned Violet. "We have been planning to have a wedding on board, should you and the parties more particularly interested give consent." "And who may they be?" he asked lightly. "Not that couple, I hope," glancing in the direction of Croly and his lady-love. "Rosie is, in my opinion, rather young to assume the cares and duties of married life." "As you said before, quite forgetting how you coaxed and persuaded a still younger girl to undertake them--under your supervision," laughed Violet. "Ah, Captain Raymond, have you forgotten that consistency is a jewel?" "Ah, my dear, have you forgotten that circumstances alter cases?" he returned in sportive tone. "But allow me to remind you that you have not yet answered my question." "But I do now; it is the older couple of lovers Lu and I are benevolently inclined to assist into the bonds of matrimony." "Ah! Well, I am pleased with the idea, and have no doubt that it will be an easy matter to secure the gentleman's consent; as regards that of the lady I am somewhat doubtful." "I presume," said Violet, "she will veto it at first; that is only natural; but we may succeed in coaxing her into it." "I should think that if they are going to get married the sooner the better," observed Lucilla gravely. "Why so, daughter?" asked the captain. "Because neither is very young, you know, papa, so that they can hardly expect to have many years to live together, and the longer they wait the shorter the time will be." "Of their life together on earth, yes; but being Christians, they may hope to spend a blessed eternity in each other's society." "Shall we make any move in the matter to-night, my dear?" asked Violet. "I think not, except to talk it over with your mother and grandparents." "Yes, that will be the better plan," said Violet. "And mother will be the one to make the suggestion to Cousin Annis and persuade her to adopt it." "Yes; there will be no need of persuasion as regards the gentleman's share in the matter." "There, the Conlys are making a move as if about to go," said Lucilla. "And I hope they will, for I do want to know what Grandma Elsie and the others will think of the plan." "Always in a hurry, daughter mine," the captain said, giving her an amused smile as they rose and went forward to speed the parting guests and assure them of a hearty welcome whenever they should see fit to return. Not long after their departure the others retired to their state-rooms, Violet, however, going first into that of her mother to tell of her own and husband's plans concerning the nuptials of their cousins, Mr. Lilburn and Annis. "That would be quite romantic for the youthful pair," Mrs. Travilla said with her low, sweet laugh, "I doubt very much, however, if you can persuade Annis to give her consent to so sudden a relinquishment of all the rights and privileges of maidenhood. Besides she will hardly like to deprive her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, of the pleasure of witnessing the ceremony." "They might be invited to come and be present at the marriage," Violet suggested a little doubtfully. "I fear there are too many of them," her mother said in reply; "so that they will think it would be far easier for Aunt Annis to go to them; and more suitable for her to be married in her own old home." "Do you really think so, mamma? Well, please don't suggest it to her. I am sure that if our plan can be carried out it will be a great saving to them of both expense and trouble; for of course my husband will provide the wedding feast." "Well, dear, I should like to see your plan carried out, and I must insist upon sharing the expense. But we will talk it over again in the morning. We are both weary now and ought to go at once to our beds." "Then good-night, mamma, dear. May you sleep sweetly and peacefully and wake again fully rested," Violet said, giving her mother a fond embrace. "And you also, daughter. May He who neither slumbers nor sleeps have you and yours in his safe keeping through the silent watches of the night," responded her mother, returning the embrace. The captain had lingered on the deck as usual, to give his orders for the night, and Lucilla waited about for the bit of petting as she termed it, of which she was so fond. "Ah, so you are still here, daughter!" he said in his usual kind, fatherly tones as he turned and found her at his side. "Have you something to say to your father?" putting his arm about her and holding her close as something precious. "Only the usual story--that I love my father dearly, dearly, and don't like to go to bed without telling him so and getting a caress that nobody else will know anything about." "A great secret that doubtless the whole world would be glad to discover!" he laughed, bestowing them without stint. "Is my little girl unhappy, about--anything? and wanting her father to comfort her?" he asked, looking keenly into her face. "Unhappy, father? here in your arms and perfectly certain of your dear love?" she exclaimed, lifting to his eyes full of joy and love. "No, indeed! I don't believe there is a happier girl in the land or in the whole world for that matter. Oh, you are so good to me and all your children! How very generous you were to-day to Grace and me in letting us buy so many lovely presents to carry home with us! I am often afraid, papa, that you do without things yourself to give the more to us. Oh, I hope you don't!" "You need not be at all troubled on that score" he said, patting her cheek and smiling down into her eyes. "I have abundance of means and can well allow my daughters such pleasures. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive,' and when I give to you, and you use my gift in procuring something for another, it gives us both a taste of that blessedness." "So it does, papa, and oh, what a good place this is for making purchases! there are so many, many lovely things to be found in the various buildings." "And we meet so many relatives and friends from various quarters. But that gives us the pain of a good many partings," and again he looked keenly at her as he spoke. "Yes, sir," she said, "but one can always hope to meet again with those one cares particularly about; so I don't feel that I need to mourn while I have you, my dear father, and Mamma Vi and the little brother and sisters left; and I'm content and more than content, except that I miss dear Max and can't help wishing he were here to see and enjoy all that we do." "Yes; dear boy! I wish he could be," sighed the captain. Then, with another caress, "Go now to your bed, daughter; it is high time you were there," he said. "Just one minute more, please, papa, dear," she entreated, with her arm about his neck. "Oh, I can't understand how Rosie can think of leaving her mother for Mr. Croly or any other man. I could never, never want to leave you for anybody else in the wide world." "I am glad and thankful to hear it, dear child," he said, with another tender caress and good-night. CHAPTER XX. Circumstances seemed to favor the scheme of the captain, Violet, and Lucilla, for the family and their guests had scarcely left the breakfast table when there was a new arrival, a boat hailing the yacht and discharging several passengers, who proved to be Annis' sisters, Mildred and Zillah, and her brother, the Rev. Cyril Keith. It was an unexpected arrival, but they were most cordially welcomed and urgently invited to spend as much of their time on the yacht as could be spared from sight-seeing on shore. They were of course soon introduced to Mr. Lilburn--already known to them by reputation--and presently informed of the state of affairs between him and their sister. They were decidedly pleased with the old gentleman, yet grieved at the thought of so wide a separation between their dear youngest sister and themselves. Violet afterward, seizing a momentary opportunity when neither Mr. Lilburn nor Annis was near, told of her plans in regard to the wedding, adding that the subject had not yet been mentioned to Annis, but that she herself hoped no objection would be raised; and it seemed to her that Cyril's arrival, thus providing a minister to perform the ceremony, the very one Annis would have chosen of course, seemed providential. At first both brother and sisters were decidedly opposed to it--they wanted Annis to be married at home where all the family could be gathered to witness the ceremony; it was bad enough to lose her without being deprived of that privilege; besides time and thought must be given to the preparation of a suitable trousseau. But in the course of a day or two they were won over to the plan. Then the consent of those most particularly interested had to be gained. There was no difficulty so far as concerned Mr. Lilburn; he was really delighted with the idea, but Annis at first positively refused. She wished to be married at home and she must have a trousseau: not that she cared so much about it for herself, but Mr. Lilburn must not be disgraced by a bride not suitably adorned. "Well, Annis dear," said Mildred, who was the one selected for the task of obtaining her consent to the proposed plan, "you shall have all that you desire in the way of dress. I would not have you do without a single thing you want or think would be suitable and becoming. You shall have abundance of money to make such purchases without applying to your husband for any one of them. You have some money of your own, you know, and it will be a great pleasure to your brothers and sisters to give to the dear girl who was such a help and comfort to our loved father and mother, anything and everything she wants, and will accept at our hands." "Yes, I know I have the best and kindest of brothers and sisters, and oh, I can hardly keep the tears back when I think of the separation that awaits us," said Annis with a sob, putting her arms round Mildred's neck and clinging to her. "Yes, dear, I know. I feel just the same, though I believe you will be very happy with the kind, genial old gentleman who is stealing you away from us; but I can see that he is in great haste to get full possession of his dear little lady-love--at which I do not wonder at all--and I really think it would be better to take the plunge into matrimony suddenly and have it over," she added, with a smile. "Have what over?" asked Annis, smiling faintly. "Not the matrimony," laughed her sister, "but the plunge into it." "Oh, Milly dear, you wouldn't have liked to be hurried so!" "Ah, but wasn't I?" laughed Mildred; "and that by this very brother of ours who expects to perform the ceremony for you." "Ah, I don't remember about that," returned Annis, in a tone of enquiry. "No, you were such a little girl then that I don't wonder it has slipped your memory. But Cyril was about starting for college and so determined to see me married, so fearful that he would miss the sight if he went off before-hand, that he coaxed, planned, and insisted till he actually gained his point--hurrying me into wedlock before I had even one wedding dress made up." "Oh, yes! and you were married in mother's wedding dress, I remember now. But, Milly, I haven't a single handsome dress with me! I did not think they would be at all suitable to wear in tramping about the White City and its buildings, or needed in the hotel, where I spent but little time except at night. And so far, what I brought with me have answered every purpose." "Never mind," said Mildred; "handsome ready-made dresses can be bought in Chicago, and it will not take long to procure one. You will of course want to select one that is well fitting and becoming in color; gray would, I think, be very becoming and altogether suitable for a--not very young bride." "No, I do not want to be too youthfully dressed, or to look too bridelike on my wedding tour; so I think I will have a dark navy blue." "So she has about consented to the desired arrangement," said Mildred, a little triumphantly to herself; then aloud: "Yes, that will be quite as becoming and a trifle more suitable; but let us go and talk it over with our cousins, Rose, Elsie, and Vi." "There is no hurry," said Annis, blushing. "If I should give up to you enough to consent to have the ceremony performed here on the yacht, I shall put it off till the very last day of your stay, for I don't intend to miss seeing all that I possibly can of you, Cyril, and Zillah, and of the Fair." "Very well," Mildred answered. "I incline to think myself that that would be the best plan; for really I want to see all I can of the dear sister who is going to leave us. O Annis, dear, whatever shall I do without you!" she exclaimed, putting an arm about her and kissing her with tears in her eyes. "Ah, it seems that in this world we cannot have any unalloyed good!" "No, Milly, dear sister; but when we get home to the Father's house on high, there will be no more partings, no sorrow, no sin--nothing but everlasting joy and peace and love. "'Tis there we'll meet At Jesus' feet, When we meet to part no more. "Oh, doesn't it sometimes seem as if you could hardly wait for the time when you will be there with all the dear ones gone before? There at the Master's feet, seeing him and bearing his image--like him; for we shall see him as he is?" "Yes, there are times when I do; and yet I am glad to stay a little longer in this world for the sake of husband and children; and to work for the Master too, doing what I can to bring others to him. I want some jewels in the crown I cast at his dear feet." "Yes; and so do I." A moment of silence followed;--then Mildred said: "Let us go now and have our talk with the cousins, for it will not be very long before we will be summoned to the supper table." Annis made no objection, and they went up to the deck, where they found the three ladies they sought--Zillah with them too--sitting in a little group apart from the young girls and gentlemen. They joined the group and Mildred quickly and briefly reported Annis' decision. All approved, saying they would be very glad to keep her to the last minute, and there was a good deal more well worth looking at in the Fair than she had already seen; also the delay would give plenty of time for the selection of a wedding dress and other needed articles of apparel. "Now I am going to relieve the anxiety of the gentlemen, particularly the one belonging especially to me," said Violet, in a lively tone, rising with the last word and hurrying away in their direction. The others sat silently watching her and her auditors. "Ah," laughed Mildred presently, "they are all well satisfied with the arrangement except Mr. Lilburn. He wears a dubious, disappointed look. Ah, Annis, how can you have the heart to disappoint him so?" "Never mind, Annis, he will prize you all the more for not being able to get possession of you too quickly and easily," said Mrs. Dinsmore. "So I think," returned Annis demurely; "also that it will be quite as well for him to have a little more time to learn about all my faults and failings." "I do not believe he will be able to find them," said Mrs. Dinsmore, with an admiring look into the sweet face of the speaker, "since I have not succeeded in so doing." Lucilla and Grace, seated a little apart from the others, had been watching with keen interest all that passed among both ladies and gentlemen. "There, just look at Cousin Ronald!" exclaimed Lucilla. "He isn't smiling--looks rather disappointed I think; so I suppose we are not to be allowed to carry out our plan. And I think it would be just splendid to have a wedding here on board our yacht." "Yes; so did I," returned Grace; "but I suppose she doesn't like the idea of being married in a hurry. I'm sure I shouldn't. I don't believe Rosie would mind that though; and Mr. Croly seems to say by his looks that he would like to take possession of her as soon as possible." "Yes, no doubt he would. He ought to wait till he can have his father and mother present, however; and besides Grandpa Dinsmore and Grandma Elsie won't consent to let her marry for at least a year. I shouldn't think she would feel willing to leave her mother even then; unless as Mamma Vi did, for such a man as our father." "But there isn't any other," asserted Grace more positively than she often spoke. "Papa is just one by himself for lovableness, goodness, kindness--oh, everything that is admirable!" "Indeed he is all that!" responded Lucilla heartily. "Oh, I could never bear to leave him and cannot help wondering at Rosie--how she can think of leaving her mother! Her father being dead, she wouldn't be leaving him, but Grandma Elsie is so sweet and lovable. To be sure, just as I said, Mamma Vi did leave her, but then it seems all right since it was for love of papa. But what are you looking so searchingly at me for, Gracie?" "Oh, something that Rosie said last night quite astonished me, and I was wondering if it were possible she could be right." "Right about what?" "Why, that Chester Dinsmore is deeply in love with you, and that you care something for him too." "Oh, what nonsense!" exclaimed Lucilla with a half vexed, yet mirthful look. "I am only half grown up, as papa always says, and really I don't care a continental for that young man. I like him quite well as a friend--he has always been very polite and kind to me since that time when he came so near cutting my fingers off with his skates--but it is absurd to think he wants to be anything more than a friend; besides papa doesn't want me to think about beaux for years to come, and I don't want to either." "I believe you, Lu," said Grace, "for you are as perfectly truthful a person as anybody could be. Besides I know I love our father too dearly ever to want to leave him for the best man that ever lived; there couldn't be a better one than he is, or one who could have a more unselfish love for you and me." "Exactly what I think," returned Lucilla. "But there's the call to supper." CHAPTER XXI. "Annis, dear, my ain love, my bonny lass," Mr. Lilburn said, when at last he could get a moment's private chat with her, "why condemn me to wait longer for my sweet young wife? Is it that you fear to trust your happiness to my keeping?" "Oh, no, not that," she replied, casting down her eyes, and half turning away her face to hide the vivid blush that mantled her cheek; "but you hardly know yet, hardly understand, what a risk you run in asking me to share your life." "Ah," he said, "my only fear is that you may be disappointed in me; and yet if so, it shall not be for lack of love and tenderest care, for to me it seems that no dearer, sweeter lass ever trod this earth." "Ah, you don't know me!" she repeated, with a slight smile. "I am not afraid to trust you, and yet I think it would be better for us to wait a little and enjoy the days of courtship. One reason why I would defer matters is that we will never again have an opportunity to see this wonderful Fair, and I have seen but little of it yet; also I would not willingly miss spending as much time as possible with my dear brother and sisters whom I am about to leave for a home with you, and I must make some preparation in the matter of dress too." "Ah, well, my bonny lass, 'if a woman will, she will you may depend on't, and if she won't, she won't and there's an end on't.' So I'll even give up to you, comforting mysel' that ye'll be mine at last; and that in the mean time I shall have your dear companionship while together we explore the streets and buildings of this wonderful White City." At that moment others came upon the scene and put an end to the private talk. The next two weeks were those of delightful experience to all our friends, to Annis in particular, spent in visits to that beautiful Court of Honor, and to various interesting exhibits to be found in other parts of the Fair, with an occasional change of scene and occupation by a shopping excursion to Chicago in search of wedding finery. She would not allow herself to anticipate the pain of the partings from the dear brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, that lay before her, but gave herself up to the enjoyment of the present; in especial of the intercourse with him who was the chosen companion of her future life on earth. The yacht could not furnish night accommodations for all, but usually all the relatives and friends gathered about its supper table and afterward spent an hour or more upon its deck in rest that was particularly enjoyable after the day's exertion, and in cheerful chat over their varied experiences since separating in the morning; for they were now much too large a company to keep together in their wanderings in and about the White City. But the time approached when they must separate. The trousseau--with the exception of such articles as it was considered more desirable to purchase in New York or Philadelphia--was ready, all the arrangements for the wedding feast had been made, and but a day or two intervened between that and the one which was to see Annis become a bride and set out upon her wedding tour. The evening meal was over, and leaving the table they assembled upon the deck. "Has anyone seen the evening paper or the morning one either?" asked Mr. Dinsmore, addressing his query to the company in general. "Yes, sir; I have," answered Harold. "There has been an awful railroad collision, one section of the train running into another; a good many killed; one lady meeting with a most terrible fate," he added with emotion, "but she was an earnest, active Christian worker, and no doubt is now rejoicing before the throne of God." "But oh, couldn't they have saved her?" asked his mother, in tones tremulous with feeling. "How was it? what was the difficulty?" "The car was crushed and broken, her limbs caught between broken timbers in such a way that it was impossible to free her in season to prevent the flames--for the car was on fire--from burning her to death. The upper part of her body was free, and she close to a window, so that she could speak to the gathered crowd who, though greatly distressed by the sight of her agony, were powerless to help her. She sent messages to her dear ones and her Sunday-school class and died like a martyr." "Poor dear woman!" said Violet, in low, tender tones. "Oh, how well that her peace was made with God before the accident, for she could do little thinking in such an agony of pain." "Yes; and such sudden calls should make us all careful to be ready at any moment for the coming of the Master," said Mr. Dinsmore. "Yes," assented the captain, "and we do not know that he may not come at any moment, for any of us; either by death or in the clouds of heaven. 'Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh,' is his own warning to us all." "Dear Christian woman, how happy she is now!" said Grandma Elsie; "that agony of pain all over, and an eternity of bliss at God's right hand--an eternity of the Master's love and presence already hers." A moment of deep and solemn silence followed, then from the lake they seemed to hear two voices sweetly singing: "I would not live alway: I ask not to stay Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way; The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here, Are enough for life's woes, full enough for its cheer. "I would not live alway, thus fetter'd by sin, Temptation without and corruption within: E'en the rapture of pardon is mingled with fears, And the cup of thanksgiving with penitent tears. "I would not live alway; no, welcome the tomb: Since Jesus hath lain there, I dread not its gloom; There, sweet be my rest, till he bid me arise To hail him in triumph descending the skies. "Who, who would live alway, away from his God; Away from yon heaven, that blissful abode, Where the rivers of pleasure flow o'er the bright plains, And the noontide of glory eternally reigns; "Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, Their Saviour and brethren, transported, to greet; While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul." Hugh Lilburn was present among the guests of the evening, and before the finishing of the first verse, the voices seemingly coming from the water had been recognized by more than one of the company as those of his father and himself. As the last notes died upon the air, a solemn silence again fell upon them all. It was broken by Mrs. Travilla saying softly, and in tones tremulous with emotion: "I have always loved that hymn of Muhlenberg's. Ah, who would wish to live alway in this world of sin and sorrow, never entering, never seeing, the many mansions Jesus has gone to prepare for those that love him?" As the last word left her lips, the seemingly distant voices again rose in song, the words coming distinctly to every ear: "Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blest, Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice opprest. I know not, O I know not What joys await us there, What radiancy of glory, What bliss beyond compare. "They stand, those halls of Zion, All jubilant with song, And bright with many an angel, And all the martyr throng. The Prince is ever in them, The daylight is serene; The pastures of the blessèd Are decked in glorious sheen, "There is the throne of David; And there, from care released, The shout of them that triumph, The song of them that feast. And they, who with their Leader, Have conquered in the fight, For ever and for ever Are clad in robes of white. "O sweet and blessèd country, The home of God's elect! O sweet and blessèd country, That eager hearts expect! Jesus, in mercy bring us To that dear land of rest; Who art, with God the Father, And Spirit, ever blest," "Thank you very much, gentlemen," said Mildred as the last notes died away. "What lovely words those are! Ah, they make one almost envious of that dear woman who has already reached that happy land where sin and sorrow are unknown." "And death never enters," added Grandma Elsie low and feelingly. "Oh, 'blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.'" CHAPTER XXII. The wedding morning dawned bright and clear. All the invited guests who had passed the night on shore were early arrivals upon the yacht, which then immediately started across the lake, heading for Michigan City. The crew had outdone themselves in making everything about the vessel even more than ordinarily clean and bright, and everyone was arrayed in holiday attire. The young men of the party had taken care to provide abundance of flowers, especially for the saloon where the ceremony was to take place. There they all assembled, drawn by the familiar strains of the Bridal Chorus from "Lohengrin," played by Violet on the small pipe organ which the captain's thoughtfulness had provided for his wife's amusement and his own pleasure, as well as that of his daughters. A hush fell upon them as Cyril entered and took his appointed place, followed closely by the bridal party, which consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore and the bride and groom; Annis preferring to be without bridesmaids, and Mr. Dinsmore having expressed a desire to take a father's part and give her away. The short and simple ceremony was soon over, and after the customary congratulations and good wishes, all repaired to the dining saloon where they partook of a delicious breakfast. All this time the vessel was speeding on her way, and the lake being calm, and such breeze as there was favorable, she made excellent headway, carrying them into their port in good season for catching their trains without being unpleasantly hurried. Then the _Dolphin_ turned and retraced her course, arriving at her old station near the Peristyle before nightfall; so that the returned passengers were able to spend their evening, as usual, in the beautiful Court of Honor. Captain Raymond and his wife and daughters returned to the yacht rather earlier than was their wont, and sat on its deck awaiting the coming of the others. "Papa," said Lucilla, breaking a momentary silence, "I have been wondering why you took the cousins to Michigan City rather than to Pleasant Plains as you did before." "Because it would have taken a good deal longer to go to Pleasant Plains; for which reason they preferred Michigan City, not wishing to take the cars here because of the great crowds about the stations, causing much inconvenience and some peril to those who must push their way through them." "I wondered that the bride and groom were willing to go on the cars at all after hearing of the many accidents on the trains of late, papa," said Grace. "I trust they will not meet with any," said her father. "The crowds are coming in this direction, and I think it is on those trains that most of the accidents occur. But we will all pray for them, asking the Lord to have them in his kind care and keeping." "Yes, indeed, papa!" she replied, in earnest tones. "I am so glad that we may, and that we know--because he has told us so--that he is the hearer and answerer of prayer. Still I am glad we are not going home by rail." "So am I," he said; "yet yachts are sometimes wrecked; and in fact there is no place where we could be certain of safety except as our heavenly Father cares for and protects us; and in his kind care and keeping we are safe wherever we may be." 
20184	----	+----------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document | | has been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected; | | please see the end of the text for details. | +----------------------------------------------------+ The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family At The Great Fair 60 Illustrations The Pastime Series--Issued monthly. By subscription, $8.00 per annum. No. 108. June, 1893, Entered at Chicago P. O. as second-class matter. Chicago LAIRD & LEE, Publishers 1893 [Illustration: "Apples, pears, bananas, sweet oranges."] The Adventures OF UNCLE JEREMIAH AND FAMILY AT THE Great Fair _Their Observations and Triumphs_ By "Quondam" With Sixty Illustrations Chicago LAIRD & LEE. Publishers 1898 COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY LAIRD & LEE (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) _To UNCLE JEREMIAH AND FAMILY And to All those Interested in the WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION This Book Is Respectfully Dedicated_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. On the Way 7 II. Now for the Fair 20 III. Around the World for Twenty Cents 33 IV. Escort and Body Guard 38 V. Columbia Avenue 51 VI. Dancers of the Great City 63 VII. On Board the "Illinois" 76 VIII. La Rabida 87 IX. The Plaisance Prophecy 102 X. Plaisance Society 113 XI. A Startling Mystery 128 XII. Beauty Show 137 XIII. Sunday and Conscience 148 XIV. Sight-seeing Galore 163 XV. A Terrible Experience 174 XVI. To Buy a Dog 183 XVII. Cairo Street 194 XVIII. Uncle in the Lock-up 205 XIX. The Lost Found 220 UNCLE JEREMIAH AND FAMILY AT THE GREAT FAIR _CHAPTER I_ ON THE WAY "Apples, pears, bananas, sweet oranges, five cents apiece." "Last call for dinner in the dining car." "Ah! this is comfortable," soliloquised Uncle Jeremiah. "All the nations of the earth contribute to our appetites, and millions are spent to transport us comfortably. Going to the World's Fair with Mary's two children, me and Sarah. Say, stranger, what time do you think we'll arrive?" "In about two hours if we are on time, but so many people are crowding on, that I doubt if we can get there before six o'clock." Uncle Jeremiah had addressed his question to a good-natured appearing young man just behind him who had been ostensibly reading a newspaper but really covertly watching with admiring glances Uncle Jeremiah's grand-daughter Fanny as she replaced the fragments of a lunch back into the basket. Uncle was in a communicative mood for he had just disposed of his share of one of Aunt Sarah's admirable lunches and squared himself round, as he called it, to talk with some one. Johnny was busy investigating a hole in the seat cushion and Aunt Sarah had laid her head against the window frame and was calmly viewing the flying scenery outside. The two seats turned together were occupied by Uncle Jeremiah and his family and a number of bundles and valises. "Yes, this is a great country; and, as I have lived in it nigh onto sixty year and fit for it without seeing much of it but what I tramped over with Sherman to the sea, I concluded to take the whole world in at once by spending a month or so at the Exposition. I told Sarah we'd take Mary's two children along, for I didn't like to leave them so long with our hired help. Then they'd be company for us. Mary was our girl, but she's dead now, and so Johnny and Fanny must take her place. Me and Sarah has worked hard for many a year, and we're going to enjoy this trip ef it takes more 'n a dozen of my best Jerseys to foot the bill. We've got the best farm and Jersey herd in Park County, and I've made up my mind that we can afford it." The stranger laid down his paper and seemed much interested in the talking farmer and his family. Fanny had stowed the lunch basket away under the seat and wearily laid her head against the back of the seat, unconscious of the respectful admiration bestowed upon her from the gentleman in conversation with her grandfather. Fanny was a very pretty miss, just reaching womanhood, and unsullied in thought or conduct by the usual desire for masculine attention. Her face was warm and full, and her light wavy hair reached her shoulders and turned up at the ends around her neck. Johnny was too industrious in his varied investigations to notice much that was occurring about him. His keen eyes just a little turned inward gave him the appearance of shrewdness that well befitted him. He always investigated what he did not understand and the World's Fair opened a field directly in his line. "As I was saying. I've brought along enough money to get everything we want and to enjoy life for once. I guess we can go back home then contented and have enough to talk about for the rest of our natural lives." Uncle's new-found friend was evidently a well-to-do commercial traveler and there was something about him that won Uncle's heart at once. It was not long till Uncle had relieved his mind of all that bore on it about himself or his neighbors or his church. Uncle was a deacon and he had many original ideas about the social and religious economics of the world. The only pride he had was in his Jerseys and in Fanny, and his only ambition was to be considered a kind of Socrates by his neighbors. The commercial traveler did not have much of a chance to talk, if he had been so inclined, but he listened with very respectful attention to the odd observations of Uncle Jeremiah. Uncle had not talked loud, but across the aisle were two young men who seemed to be listening more intently than befitted their opportunity to hear. They were faultlessly attired, and frequently exchanged observations with each other in low tones, covertly watching Uncle and his family as if they had become very interesting personages. Presently one moved to a seat a little nearer, and both apparently became absorbed in their own affairs. "But maybe I should beg pardon, Mister. I've been talking to you all this time without introducing myself. I know it isn't just the thing, but I'm not used to sassiety. I'm Jeremiah Jones, and what is your name?" "My name is Hezekiah Moses," said the traveling man, solemnly. "Ah," remarked Uncle, warmly, "that sounds a right smart like a Jew name, but you don't look like a Jew. I Judge your parents were very good people." "They were very pious people, and, of course, brought me up in the way I should go. You have quite a charming family." "There now, I knew you had good judgments and I am glad for you to say so. Of course me and Sarah are too old to be charming and Johnny is too bad, but I take no exceptions to Fanny." Mr. Moses thoroughly agreed with Uncle on the latter observation. "Johnny is all right but only last week he was training one of my Jersey calves to walk a plank like he saw the lions In the circus and it fell off and broke its neck and that was not a month after it had took the prize at our county fair. And, after I had took him atween my knees and talked to him about his responsibility to his Creator, he didn't wait two days till he cut off the colt's tail so as to make it bobbed like the British and it kicked and broke its leg on the cross bar. But I do believe he's got the making of a man in him after all. I think he must be like his father, though I never seed him. You see Mary she run off to marry some man she fell in with when she went off to school, and I forbid her letting him come to see her, for you see he might be some city fortune hunter; but Mary said she knowed, and so one day when we went to town somebody drove up to our house in a buggy and I never seed her any more. I didn't think she ought to take that way to somebody I didn't know. I must have been hard hearted them days, but somehow I couldn't help it. Sarah she went to see them lots of times over in the big town across in Ohio but I couldn't leave Indiana and when Johnny was born Mary she died a senden good words to me but I couldn't help it." The old man drew his sleeve across his eyes and continued, "You see Mary's man was all broke down, and he told Sarah to take the children and he'd go wandering around the world for a year or two. Mary was the only child we had living, and when she died I wanted to move away from where she used to play when she was a little girl, so in two years I got a good offer, and I sold out. All four of us went to see my sister in the city, and somehow didn't tell nobody where we were going, but I said I thought we would go on to California. Well, I found a stock farm in Illinois, and after a while we went back to our old home visiting, and the old neighbors told us a nice looking man had come soon after we left, and was nearly distracted to find us gone. He advertised and spent lots of money trying to find us, but at last went away broken-hearted. Then I sent Sarah right to Ohio, but Mary's man had sold his big clothing store, and some said he had gone to California, and others said one place and another, but he couldn't be found. He never came back to our old home place, nor to his old home place, for I've kept a writing ever since. Somehow he had to give us up. It broke me all down, and I've been doing all I could for the children. Fanny is getting a good education, for our town has got to be a big one now, and has a fine college in it; but I can't educate Johnny. He's always experimenting and doing damage. Howsumever, he's a great trader, and I'm going to give him a start some time. Why, I gave him a shote a month ago, and I don't believe there is a sled or a jack-knife in the hull neighborhood any more, for Johnny's got them in our garret, but the pig is gone. "But say, Mr. Moses, you haven't said a word about your business yet, and I've been a bragging about my farm and stock for half an hour." "Don't worry about that, Mr. Jones. I haven't got much to tell. I'm a traveling salesman for a Chicago house; and, like you, I intend to rest up for a couple of weeks and see the Fair. I am happy to say that I stand well with my firm, and I am to be taken in as the junior member soon. The head of the firm has been the friend to whom I owe all my advancement and advantage. I hope sometime to settle down into a quiet business life and enjoy a home once more. Your talk takes me back to my old Indiana home and its comforts." "Ah, that's it, Mr. Moses, it is plain your parents have given your mind a good mold. Here, newsboy, just bring over to me and Mr. Moses two of your best five cent cigars and we'll go into the smoker and have a smoke. I don't never smoke cigars, but these are extra days, and we can afford the luxuries." The idea seemed to amuse Mr. Moses, but he complied with the request of the friendly farmer, and, with a good-natured wink at the newsboy, took out a cigar and deftly stuck it into his pocket as he pulled out one of his own. Uncle could find no change and without more ado took out a roll of bills from his breast pocket. The smallest bill was ten dollars but neither Mr. Moses nor the boy could change it. One of the young men across the aisle volunteered to help them out of the difficulty and counted the change into Uncle's hand. Just then the newsboy's heel struck Mr. Moses' foot sharply and there was a quick response. The change went into one of Uncle's trouser's pockets and the roll of bills into the other, when he and Mr. Moses went into the smoking car and were soon behind a cloud of smoke. The newsboy came in presently and there were a few whispered words between him and Mr. Moses. "Apples, pears, bananas, sweet oranges, here, five cents apiece." There was no sale for anything eatable in the smoker just then and the boy returned to the rear cars. "You didn't notice when the gentleman across the aisle made change for you that you got flim-flamed did you?" "That I got what?" said Uncle. "That you got flim-flamed. Did you count your change when that young gent gave it to you? This is a money making occasion you know and the gentry are on the make." "Of course I counted the money. Nobody gets me that way." "I'll bet a cigar that you haven't got over seven dollars of that ten dollar bill." "It's a go," said Uncle as he thrust his hand into his pocket and drew out a handfull of coins. He laid his hat between his knees and counted the money into it. "Six dollars, six fifty, six seventy-five, seven, seven ten, seven fifteen." [Illustration: "UNCLE AND MR. MOSES WERE SOON BEHIND A CLOUD OF SMOKE."] "Ah, I've not got it all out of my pocket," and Uncle's hand dived hastily into his trousers but came out empty. A look of consternation came into his face as he looked at the laughing salesman. "Well, by Jove! I don't often lose my bets, but here, Uncle, is the cigar, for I've lost the bet. You have fifteen cents more than seven dollars. I didn't watch that gent's counting as well as I thought," and Uncle mechanically took the cigar he had so generously given to Mr. Moses a few minutes before. "It's worth it, Mr. Moses, it's worth it. I don't begrudge the fellow for his two dollars and six bits. I feel like I ought to go in and thank him for the lesson." "Cigars, gentlemen, best Havanas. Here, old man, is the rest uv yer change. The chappie back there wanted to kick, but he couldn't stand me look. I don't 'low no working uv me customers dat way. You see I wur next to him in a minute." "Ah, my boy, nobody can talk to me any more about dishonorable newsboys. You keep that money. I won't have a cent of it. I'm willin' to pay fer my teaching. And here's a dollar more for you to go right back there and supply my folks with whatever eating things you've got that they want. "You see, Mr. Moses, I know before I get through with them Arabs and Esquimaux, and Indians and African savages at Chicago I'm going to know a good deal more than I do now, and I never in my life got something for nothing, and it's too late for me to begin now." The first suburban station of the great World's Fair city was now passed and Mr. Moses said he must return to his seat and get his grip ready for leaving the train at the next station. He gave Uncle a card on which was printed: |------------------------------| | _William Warner_ | | | | _With The Clarendon Company | | Wholesale Clothiers_ | |------------------------------| As he did so, he said, "Now Uncle, remember never to give a chance to pickpockets or confidence men, watch your change and take directions only from those you know to be responsible officers; and if at any time you need a friend, don't fail to call at the office of the firm and present that card." They returned to their seats and a frown came over Mr. Moses' face when he saw the companion of the disreputable money changer glibly talking to Aunt Sarah and Fanny. The young man bowed himself away very gracefully and went to his seat as Uncle and Mr. Moses came up. Uncle gave Mr. Moses a hearty hand shake and God bless you as he started for the car door; but, to the astonishment of Mr. Moses Aunt Sarah and Fanny looked scornfully at him and did not in any way acknowledge his parting salute. "Baggage, have your baggage checked?" "Well, what a town Chicago is, anyhow. Here they've sent a man to take care of our baggage. Now, I call that all-fired hospital. Get the checks quick, Sarah." "What hotel?" Inquired the agent. "We're not overly pertiklar. I was talkin' some with a young fellow back here who said he was a hotel agent; but I don't mind if I go where you say. How high are your rates?" "The Auditorium--as high as you want to go; the Northern, fourteen stories, and the Palmer, out of sight." "Well, Mister, we don't want to go out of sight, and we don't know how high we do want to go so I guess you'd better make it fourteen stories." The agent took the checks, gave him some tickets and passed on. In a few minutes a uniformed young man came along and said: "Mr. Jones, I'd like very much to book you for one of our down-town hotels. Every convenience, gas, baths, heat, and all the modern appliances; near car lines that land you right at the Exposition gates. Best place in the city. Take you right there free of cost." "But how high is it?" "Only one dollar a day apiece and up as high as you want to go." "Ah, that's it, young man. I see your mother taught you United States. You see the baggage man said fourteen stories and I didn't understand the city way of charging." "Shall I book you?" "Yes." "For how long?" "O we may stay a month. May be less." "Say two weeks." "All right." "Here's your ticket with coupons. Fifty-six dollars please." "But I haven't seen the place nor got the money's worth. I'm Deacon Jones and I always pay my debts." "No difference, it's the rules." "Mr. Moses said not to deal only with responsible officers. How may I be sure you are a responsible officer?" "I'll prove it by the conductor." The conductor was called and Uncle Jeremiah paid over his money and received his printed directions. "Where are your baggage checks?" "O, I've already attended to that. I'll see to that myself." The hotel agent left and the two young men across the aisle watched with satisfaction as Uncle folded his big roll of bills and deposited them in his left trouser's pocket. "There it is--there is the White City," some one yelled, and the people rose from their seats and looked at the most favored spot of the earth as long as it could be seen. Houses flew by, stations were passed; the placid lake, flecked with many boats, lapped the shore as with some friendly greeting. The great buildings of Chicago's business center appeared in view, and the end of their journey was near at hand. "Chicago, all out!" "Listen at 'em," said Uncle, "they've got our money and now they're goin' to put us off. But I guess we must be there." [Illustration: "UNCLE WAS BEING ROUGHLY HANDLED BY THE TWO MEN."] All the people were standing as the magic words were yelled in at the front door by the brakeman. Uncle Jeremiah had not been as excited since he heard of the fall of Richmond. With a valise, packed almost to bursting, in each hand, Uncle was preparing to do whatever he saw others do. The two young men from across the aisle had also arisen and pressed into the crowd. One was directly in front of Uncle, and the one who had made the false change had crowded himself between Uncle and Aunt Sarah. The train slowed up as the depot was reached, and all crowded toward the door. There was a low chirrup, and Uncle was being roughly jostled about by the two men, when there was a cry of "pickpockets," and the train-boy was seen swinging on to the wrist of one of the men behind Uncle and yelling "let 'er go; let 'er go." [Illustration: "UNCLE GAVE HIS CHECKS TO THE NEAREST CAB DRIVER."] The man held a wallet in his hand, but with a curse he dropped it, tore loose from the boy and rushed through the door, disappearing in the crowd. "Here, Mister, is yer wad. Yer wants ter keep yer eye skinned fur them fellers." Uncle warmly thanked the boy but he received this second lesson with a little less complacency than the first. Following the crowd to the outside he presented his tickets to the first hack driver he came to. "You are pretty well supplied, aren't you dad. You have the right of way to two hotels. Which do you want?" "Take us to the one I've paid fer." "Which is that?" "Well, I guess it must be the down town hotel." "They are both down hotels. I see your baggage is booked for the Northern and I suppose you want to follow your baggage." Without more ado all four were placed into the uncomfortably crowded hack and shortly unloaded at the Northern. An obsequious porter ushered them into the office and Uncle was astounded with a demand for twenty dollars down. "But I've paid," Uncle protested. The clerk looked at his card and assured him he was at the wrong hotel. It was now dark and Uncle concluded to pay the money and start out anew the next day. They were shown to their rooms by way of the elevator and more dead than alive, to use Aunt Sarah's expression, they flung themselves into chairs and Johnny yelled, "This is Chicago, what I've heard them talk about." They went to the windows and could not repress a shudder as they saw the street lights so far below. Aunt Sarah did not see how she could sleep so high up, but when their evening meal was done and the events of the day discussed they became as sleepy and they felt as safe as they did with the whippoorwill singing in the orchard and the hogs grunting lazily in the lane. _CHAPTER II_ NOW FOR THE FAIR The next morning Uncle Jeremiah was up as usual at four o'clock, chafing like a caged stable horse that could not get out to fresh air and the tempting pastures. [Illustration: "I THINK OF EARTHQUAKES EVERY TIME I LOOK OUT."] "These confounded people won't let a fellow have his meals only at their own convenience, and the feelin' of earthquakes keeps a growing on me every time I look down out of that window. I've got to quit it." Aunt Sarah shared the same feeling, but John and Fanny decided that it was not half as high as they wanted to go before they left Chicago. [Illustration: "Say, Mister, I've paid fare once on this tarnal machine."] In due time the city awoke, with a rush and a roar, to the business of the day. Uncle found the office of the boarding house syndicate a few doors away, and the family were soon safely housed in more congenial quarters. "The Fair, Father, the Fair! When will we ever get to see the Fair? I just heard a man say that it's ten o'clock, and here we are a-fussing about in the rooms and missin' the sights." Johnny was impatient, but not long after, the family hailed a passing street car and were on their way at last. "Twenty cents is the fare for four of you." The conductor rang the fares and passed on. The new scenes of the city absorbed their attention, but Uncle soon began shifting in his seat, and at last whispered to Aunt Sarah: "Say, I noticed that we went clear 'round a hull lot of blocks, and it 'pears ter me that we air goin' right backards to where we ought to go, or else this 'ere town has got two parts a blamed sight alike." "Fare, please!" "Say, Mister, I've paid fare once on this tarnal machine. How often do you have to pay--every once in a while?" "Are you riding around for your health, or do you want to go somewhere?" "That's it, Mister, exactly. I wish you'd drive this riding machine at once to the World's Fair. You've got it pasted on the front of your engine, and yet you're takin' us right back past where we got on." "Sure, old man, you're all right, only you got on a car going the wrong way, and so went on around the loop. But you're all right now. I'll land you at the grounds; but twenty cents, please." Twenty cents were forthcoming, and shortly the family found themselves in a maze of booths, people, streets and vehicles. It was not difficult to follow the crowd, and in a few minutes the amazed family were walking the streets of the great White City. "Guides, World's Fair Guides!" Uncle stopped a moment as a boy planted himself in front of him, thus calling him from the amazement of the wonderful city down to the realities of the earth. [Illustration] "Guides, Mister, only twenty-five cents. This little book contains all you want to know about yonder lovely city--for the price of one small quarter you have a key to all the doors of the Fair--with this book no Columbian guard can call you down--you are free and independent of everybody with this book in your hands--it's only a quarter, remember, only twenty-five cents! Illustrated, tells you everything." "That's it Sarah, let's buy one of these books and go home. It tells us every thing and it is illustrated. What's the use of wearing our eyes out and our feet off when we can learn it all out of this feller's book. I feel all done up on the first sight. It's too big a job fer me to undertake. I didn't calculate on such a big show." "No, my boy. I wish I could accommodate ye but you see I ain't got no time on the grounds for reading or I'd a brought the Scriptures along. I judge it prophesied this when it spoke of signs and wonders appearing." "Only a quarter, sir." Uncle shook his head, but Fanny produced a quarter and took one of the books. Near by was a booth where camp stools were to be leased. "That is what Sarah and I will need. These young ones can walk all day." Directly Johnny had a folded camp chair in each hand and they went on following the crowd toward the Administration building. They did not go inside as most of the people did but continued on around till the basin between the Peristyle and the Administration building appeared in view. Through the columns of the Peristyle at the far end of the basin they could see the blue lake meeting the summer clouds; above them rose the dome of the Administration building till it seemed almost to pierce the clouds. They were looking upon a scene never before excelled in grandeur by the art of man. The basin was filled with gondolas gracefully plied by Venetians, launches moving both by steam and by electricity and gay sailboats of every description. In the far end of the basin was to be seen the Statue of the Republic sixty-five feet tall and standing forty feet above the water on its great stone foundation. The MacMonnies fountain was roaring with the fall of water and the heroic figures of Columbia enthroned in her triumphal barge guided by Time and heralded by Fame was outlined against the Agricultural building. From the dome of that massive structure, exhibiting the produce of our land, Diana with her drawn bow seemed to be aiming directly at them. "Let us sit down," said Aunt, as the first wave of the wonderful vision passed over them. "I feel more like saying, let us kneel down," said Uncle. Fanny read from the front of the Administration building the inscriptions there about Columbus and his work. High over the north entrance were the words: "Columbus received from Ferdinand and Isabel, Sovereigns of Spain, a commission as Admiral of an exploring fleet, April 30, 1492." Over the east entrance she read: "Columbus sailed from Palos with three small vessels, Aug. 3, and landed on one of the Bahama Islands." What common-place facts so simply stated! But they brought forth thoughts and emotions greater and greater of the wonderful consequences to mankind. "Grandpa, you see how we have come here to learn of the world and its progress to this greatness." "Do not speak to me now, child; I want to think," and Uncle bowed his head in his hands. No one said anything for a few minutes, when Johnny startled them by yelling "Gorgeous! gorgeous!" "Of course it's gorgeous," said Fanny; "but you needn't yell that way. You must not forget that you are not in our barnyard now." Johnny subsided. He had expressed his opinion, and he was ready to move on. Uncle arose and said: "I guess we are able to go to the next scene now, and I warn you all that the word gorgeous is as high as we will be allowed to go in expressing ourselves, no matter what we see. There has got to be a limit somewhere, and I judge that gorgeous is far enough." "Is that the statyure of Mrs. Columbus?" asked Johnny. "No, it's the Statue of the Republic." "I declare I've been watching them things on that Statue of the Republic, and I really believe they're men instead of being pigeons." "They are men," said Fanny. "No wonder that they look so little, for the book here says her forefinger is four feet long. Look at that figure on the top of the big building yonder. That Is Diana, the huntress. How tall do you think she is?" "Nine feet," said Johnny, promptly. "Life-size," said Uncle. "Both wrong. The book says she is eighteen feet tall." "Well, well, my girl, this looks like a dream, but it ain't, is it?" There was a band-stand in front of them, and beyond that was a massive building, which Fanny found was Machinery hall. As they went on to it, Fanny read to them that it covered over twenty acres of ground and cost nearly a million and a half dollars. As they entered the door they saw one awful mass of moving machinery. Uncle said he thought they had better sit down again and think awhile before venturing further, but Johnny urged them to come on so they could see something and do their thinking afterward. They came to one of the doors of the power house, and Uncle sat down. "I can't stand this pressure," he said, "I tell you I've got to sit down and look at this thing." At his left he could see into the power house nearly five hundred feet long and full from one end to the other of great boilers with the red fires glowing underneath. On the right he looked across the hall where the great power wheel was flying and saw five hundred feet of whirling wheels, while before him there was an unobstructed view of machines but little short of a thousand feet. They went over to the middle aisle and on past the larger machinery. "Why Grandma, you are walking by me with your eyes shut. What's the matter?" "Well you see, Fanny, it's too much to look at so many millions of things so I just shut my eyes and think. What's the difference if I do miss a few thousand sights." "That's so, Fanny, we aint got used to looking yet. It looks like they had everything a working here but my old shaving horse. I wouldn't be surprised any minute to see that it had walked away from the woodshed and come over to show itself off in this here exposition. I believe I'll go over and offer them my old barlow knife. It's a score of years old but it'll bore a hole for a hame string all right yet." They came to the place where they were making watches with the complex, automatic machinery that defies the eye to detect its movements, then there was the sewing machine with a man riding it like a bicycle and sewing carpet in strips a hundred feet long. There were knitting machines and clothing machines, and carving and molding machines, and type-setting machines, till the day was spent and they had seen only how much there was to see. "It takes taste to paint pictures, and art to make sculpture, and mind to write books, and genius to carry on war, but I tell you, my girl," said Uncle, "that it takes brains to make machinery." Passing through a south door they went on around Machinery hall. Some working men were passing by singly or in twos and threes. One had a wrench in one hand and a queer looking bottle in the other. The ludicrous side of the exposition now began to appear. Nothing can become so great that amusing things will not occur. They are the relaxations of mental life. One of the guards saw the man and his bottle. "Hi, there," he shouted. The workman came to a stop, the bottle being ostensibly concealed behind his apron. "What are you bringing beer into machinery hall for?" "I ain't got any beer," replied the workman. "Don't tell me any such stuff. You've got a bottle under your apron." [Illustration: "The Guard was determined to do his duty."] "No I haven't," and the culprit as if by accident let a portion of the bottle drop into sight. The guard made a grab for it and held it up before the seemingly confused workman. "I'll just take you to the station-house," declared the officer. "What did you mean by telling me you had no beer?" "It ain't beer. It's--it's--ginger ale." The prisoner was lying. That was evident to the guard. At the same time he did not want to be placed in the position of disobeying orders against making trivial arrests. He knew by the color of the liquid it was not ginger ale. A brilliant thought came to him. He would test the beer and thus have the evidence. But here a difficulty was encountered. While the rule prohibiting employees from bringing intoxicants into the grounds is a strict one, there is a much severer regulation against guards tasting the stuff while on duty. What if his sergeant should see him with a bottle of beer to his lips! To meet this obstacle the guard led his prisoner to a secluded place behind a big packing case, and after looking fearfully around hastily uncorked the bottle and sent a huge swallow of the contents down his throat. The result was unexpected so far as the blue coat was concerned. With a howl of anguish he dropped the bottle. Both eyes started from his head and his face turned to ashen paleness as he danced about the floor shrieking "I am poisoned." Finally he sank down with a moan and the men attracted by his cries carried him to a bench and laid him down. On the edge of the human circle about him the guard beheld the face of his prisoner. Beckoning him to his side the guard feebly said, "What was that stuff in the bottle?" "Lard oil and naphtha," replied the workman. The guard was removed to the hospital, while the workmen were laughing their heartiest. In an hour the stricken officer was back at his post. That afternoon, as the family climbed the stairs to the station on their way back to the hotel, Uncle Jeremiah was a study to the student of human nature. The size of the Exposition had dazed and awed him. He wore a neat paper collar with an old-fashioned ready-made necktie pushed under the points. The slouch hat was down over his ears, as a heavy wind was tearing across the high landing. His manner was that of one oppressed by a great sorrow. He looked at the turrets and domes and the hundreds of dancing flags and shook his head solemnly. When the people around him gabbled and pointed their fingers and piled up the same old adjectives he glanced around at them timidly and then stepped softly away where he could gaze without being interrupted. After boarding the car he stood up between the seats and held on to the railing. At each curve of the track, as new visions swung into view, he shook his head again and again, but said nothing. He had been for a good many years taking in a daily landscape of stubble-field, orchard and straight country roads. His experience had taught him that a red two-story hay press was a big building. To him the huddle of huckster stands at the county fair made a pretty lively spectacle. Then he was rushed into Chicago. With the roar of wheels still in his ears and the points of the compass hopelessly mixed, he found himself being fed into the Exposition gate with a lot of strange people. The magnitude of the great enterprise was more than any intellect could fully grasp. His mind perceived so much that was strange and new that he became as that one who saw men as trees walking. His eyes were opened to a new world. He was now a living part of the intellectual vision and prophecy of the "Dream City." _CHAPTER III_ AROUND THE WORLD FOR TWENTY CENTS The next day, when the "Alley L" road let them off at the station next to the electric road, they decided to ride around and view the "White City" from that elevated position. The intramural road is about three miles around, and makes the trip in seventeen minutes. It was like going around the world in that time, so much was to be seen on either side. The four made a fine picture of age and youth gathering mental breadth from this great exhibition of human wisdom and achievement. They passed around the west end of Machinery hall and along the south side of it, then between the Agricultural annex and the stock pavilion. Here they emerged into what seemed to be the waste yard of the Exposition, debris of all kinds, beer houses, lunch rooms, hundreds of windmills flying in the breeze and heavily loaded cars, back of which could be seen bonfires of waste materials, these making a striking contrast to the white beauty and massive art on the opposite side of the car. The queer looking Forestry building flew by, the leather exhibit was passed, and the train ran around a station not far from the Krupp gun works. They had not yet made the grand tour of the grounds, but another investment in tickets sent them back again, the way they had come, on the parallel track. When they reached the west side they looked away from the massive buildings across Stony Island avenue at the amusing medley of hotels, booths for lunches, and tents for blue snakes, sea monsters, and fat women strung along the front. Little merry-go-rounds buzzed like tops in cramped corners between pine lemonade stands and cheap shooting-galleries. Looking eastward, the eye rests with satisfaction upon the gilded satin of the Administration dome, and then it may take an observation to the westward of a flaunting placard: |-------------------------| | _Four Tintypes | | for Twenty-five Cents_ | |-------------------------| Back of the sandwich counters and fortune-telling booths are stored the World's Fair hotels, looking like overgrown store boxes, with holes punched in them. The train flew on, and uncle saw little of the outside because of his interest in the strange machinery that was propelling them forward. The engineer pulled a lever and then there was a buzz and a whirr; another lever was turned, and the car would come to a standstill at some station. It was amazing to see such simple movements by one man control such unseen energy. From the farm to the Exposition grounds was as marvelous a change as from one world to another, and to the simple genius of rural work it was like going from the peaceful valley to the mysteries beyond the clouds. Past the Esquimau village, the richly varied city of state and foreign buildings came into view. All the varieties of architectural genius from the different countries of the world appeared one after another and it was easy to imagine a flight of incredible speed all over the earth. The terminal station at the northeast was reached and uncle wanted to ride back again. In this way the panorama of the great Fair was quite well fixed in their minds when they descended from the southeast station at the entrance of Agricultural hall. For once Uncle felt at home when he walked into that paradise of grass and grain. [Illustration: "HE STOOD CHEWING A WISP OF HAY."] "Every body but me and Sarah can scatter and we'll all meet at the far end of this house, or if not there at the south side of the Sixty-third street gate at six o'clock." Fanny and Johnny took Uncle at his word and were soon strolling among the booths, but they were more intent upon watching the maneuvers of the various types of people than of observing what the earth is able to produce out of its soil. They heard a band playing somewhere in the distance and they moved on that way. As a curious observer of this moving world, Fanny made note of the many interesting exhibitions about her of country ignorance and enthusiasm. At one place she stopped near a tall, lank farmer, whose cowhide boots had left their massive imprint on every roadway on the grounds. He stood chewing a wisp of hay plucked from an exhibit, while he gazed in delight at the harvesters, plows and sheaves of wheat which stretched away before him in an endless vista. "Wall, I swan," he at length confided to the dignified guard, who stood like a sign-post near the door, "this 'ere's the only thing I've seed 'minded me of hum. Bin tramping raound these 'ere grounds, scence 7 o'clock, b'gosh, an' ain't seen a blamed thing did my ole heart so much good as this show right here. By George! wish I'd a struck this buildin' fust thing I come in. Would a saved me a power of walkin'. Say, had a great show out our way a spell ago. Had a corn palace--Sioux City, you know. Be they goin' to have a corn palace at this 'ere fair?" The guard unbent enough to guess not. "Sho! y' don't say so. Wall, that's curious. Corn palace out to hum was the biggest show ever give out that way. And crowd! Say, I'll bet a nickel I've seed as many as hundreds of people thar in one day. In one day, reclect, all just looking at that there corn palace. Wonder these fellows didn't think of that. Would a drawd all the folks from out in our section, shore. Tell you what I don't like about this show," he went on, waxing confidential, "Too much furrin stuff here. Don't see nothing from Keokuk, Sioux City, Independence or even old Davenport. But all London and Berlin and Paris, and all them other places where they's kings and things. Ought to a give the folks here more of a show, b'gosh, same as we did out to hum. Why, they wasn't none of this statoo stuff thar, I tell you. Wasn't no picters and the like of that. What good is them picters over there, I'd like to know? Why, some on 'em, the folks ain't got a stitch of clothes on 'em, and you couldn't hang them air picters in a barn. Ought to have more of these things here--oats and wheat and seedin' machines. Them's what people want to see. And say, I was daown here below this mornin', and by gum, I seed the damdest lookin' fellows I ever seen in all my born days. They was heathen Turks, I reckon, with rags round their heads and wimmin's clo'es on all o' 'em. I was a-scared to stay there, b'gosh, and I jest lit out, I tell ye. Well, I'm goin' through here and see what you've got, but I jest tell you this is the part of this show that'll do. Yes, sir." And the rural visitor stalked away. In less than two hours the brother and sister had reached the west doorway, but uncle and aunt were nowhere to be seen. Then they went up into the gallery to hear the musicians again. It was very evident that Agricultural hall had swallowed their grandparents for that day and the grandchildren were left to shift for themselves. It was now past noon and they were both hungry enough to welcome the first lunch counter they could find. One o'clock found them again wandering listlessly about the gallery absorbed in the sights about them. _CHAPTER IV_ ESCORT AND BODY GUARD "Hist, me boys," said one of a group of young men near the band-stand, who were watching the people moving about them, "Me eye has caught sight of something forbidden to all the rest of the world. You can look but you must mustn't touch. Give me your prayers boys." He sauntered away from them and came near to Fanny and Johnny as if intensely interested in all that was about him. Fanny was standing near the balustrade that was around the gallery, when the opportunity the young man was watching for soon came. Some rude man hurrying by struck her arm in such a way as to knock her hand-satchel out of her hand and it fell to the main floor far below. In an instant the young man lifted his hat, and bowing to her ran down the near flight of stairs; taking the satchel from some one near whom it had fallen, he hurried back and gave it to her with a profound bow. Seeming to recognize her all at once he made another bow and said, "Ah, pardon me but I see I have just had the honor of serving Miss Jones, whom I met on the train a few days ago." Hardly knowing just what to do, she thanked him and hesitated, but he was not slow to turn the tide in his favor and was soon chatting in such a very agreeable way about the many scenes that she soon forgot all doubts as to propriety. It was now three o'clock in the afternoon and she thought of her grandparents and what they would think; but the three hours till meeting time at 60th street gate flew by under the interesting guidance of the young man on whose card Fanny read |-----------------------| | _Arthur Blair | | Attorney | |Masonic Temple_ [S.S.] | |-----------------------| He explained that (S. S.) was a sign that meant "Secret Service" as he had told her before how he had been sent out to shadow Mr. Moses. They rested for awhile on one of the seats in the gallery and Mr. Blair took great interest in showing Fanny his official papers and commissions. Surely he was a very honorable and talented man. [Illustration: "He bowed to her, and then ran down the near flight of stairs."] While he was pointing out his name on one of these papers, a gentleman came by who started on seeing them, as if in the most pained surprise. "That man means her some harm," he said to himself, "and I feel as if I have no manhood if I do not undertake somehow to prevent it. But he has told her something terrible against me and I have no way to approach her." The two arose to go and the gentleman walked not far behind. "You do not know how it pains me, Mr. Blair, to know that such a noble looking young man as Mr. Moses, is a man under police surveilance. He has such an agreeable and gentlemanly appearance." "That is true Miss Jones, but you have no idea how perfectly these criminals can assume an appearance of culture and high social standing." Six o'clock had come swiftly and as they approached the gate Uncle and Aunt were seen sitting on their camp stools at the appointed place. The young man excused himself before reaching them and bowed himself away, but not before he had learned her address and that they came every day through the 60th street gates at nine o'clock in the morning. "Where is Johnny?" anxiously inquired Aunt as Fanny came up alone. For the first time Fanny seemed to realize that Johnny had not been with her for some time. She told Aunt that she had been for two or three hours with the young gentleman who had warned them on the train of Mr. Moses. They waited and waited, growing more and more anxious about Johnny. "Yer, yer, yer, all of you, come on out!" They knew Johnny's voice, and turned about just in time to see one of the guards holding Johnny fast by the ear as they disappeared around the corner of the wall and through the gates. "There, you young scamp," as he gave Johnny an extra box on the ear, "let me see you trying to sneak through the gates again and you won't get off so easy." "Well, ain't I been tellin' you fer an hour that the folks was a waitin' fer me inside and you wouldn't tell 'em fur me," and Johnny, with a disgusted shake of the head, joined the family as they came out. "Where on earth have you been?" said Uncle, in a chiding tone of voice. "Why, I came up to the gate about two hours ago and I seed Louis Burjois here a-peekin' through, an' I come out and we've been a-takin' in the circuses along Stony Island avenue. Say, Gran'pa, I've engaged Louis fer bodyguard fer next week when he comes back from his next run on the train. I gives him a salary of goin' wheresomever I go." Uncle looked at the boy standing by Johnny and recognized him as the train-boy who had twice saved him from the loss of money. "All right, Johnny," said Uncle, as he shook the train-boy's hand, "how much extra allowance will that take?" [Illustration: "LOUIS STUCK A PIN IN HER WHILE SHE WAS ASLEEP."] "Just double and a half for a regular time of it. You ought to a seen us a doin' the side-shows. You see Louis knows 'em. The fat woman is there, but not an ounce bigger than Sal Johnson at Villaville, and she's part stuffed, for Louis stuck a pin in her while she was asleep, and she never flinched. The sea monster and the man with two bootblacks at each shoe, and just as tall as the shoetops, is not much bigger than Bill Mason to hum. And the four-legged woman is no good, fer Louis he pinched one of them and it didn't kick, and the show that's got a man with his body cut off just below his head is busted. You see Louis said ef I'd pay the way in of half a dozen kids whut he picked out and instructed, he'd bust the show and prove thet the man's hed had a body. I agreed, and we all got pea-shooters at my expense, and in we went. When they drawed the curtin up my blood run cold fer there was a hed humping itself about on a table and I could see clear under the table and there was no body around there. I forgot to shoot, but Louis give the sign, and all the rest just fired the peas at his head and he howled and the head it shook awful ghastly, and then they all fired again, and the head it jest raised right up and turned the table over and shook, and the whole thing raised up and shook his fists at us and then Louis said "jiggers," and you ought to have seen us a gittin' out from under the bottom of the tent and over behind Buffalo Bill's show. They was after us, but couldn't catch us." [Illustration: "LOUIS SAID 'JIGGERS.'"] "Johnny, Johnny," said Uncle sternly, "don't you know what I've told you about letting other people's business alone?" "But you see, grandpa, that was a fake and you know it's everybody's duty to uproot the fakes." "That's all right, Johnny," said Aunt, "You can uproot the things needing uprooting on the farm but you must let Chicago people uproot their own foolishness." The sage advice was unheeded for Johnny was too full of the day's adventures with his body guard and guide. So far they had seen little of the city of Chicago, and it was a great rest and pleasure for them to sit at the windows of their rooms or in the balcony and look out over the busy street before them or talk of the events of the day. Uncle had gone ahead of the rest and taken his seat in a rocker at their room window. "O grandpa, there you are," called out Fanny's clear voice as she entered the door and came quickly up to his side. "I ran ahead, and grandma and Johnny are coming." In her face was the sweet look of guileless girlhood, and her dark hair waving back in the breeze coming through the window crowned her sweet face with the tenderest beauty. Her eyes were bright and sparkling with the interest and enthusiasm of young life. They told of a woman's soul that would one day shine out and help to make this bright world more bright and holy. When the grandmother and Johnny joined them these four stood there with no petty jealousies or bad feeling of any description to mar their happiness as a family. The sinking sun came out from the western clouds and lit up their faces as if they all rested under God's smile of peace. [Illustration: "SHE SMOOTHED BACK THE HAIR ON HIS FOREHEAD."] "Well, Fanny, I am closing my days on earth mighty satisfactory to me. I have been mighty alarmed about what the "Zion's Herald" said about the world's meanness, but I tell you what I have seed wasn't made by mean men. I believe I have felt more of the Lord in my soul in the last few days than I ever did before in so many years. I've seen ribbons, and threshing machines and wheat and corn for a long time but I never had any idea how much brains people had before this. I went to some of the farmer's meetings fer I felt oppressed myself and thought I was just about doing it all myself but when I come here I see I haint nowhere. I used to be afraid that the government was all a going to pieces and that my fighting for the union and that the blood of your Uncle Sam at Gettysburg was of no use but I ain't any more now afraid of the world a bustin' up. People that made the machinery that I've seen and all that have too much sense. My mind is at rest now about all such things. When I seed the big engine I didn't say nothing for I never had any use before to learn words that suited such things, so I just said nothing." Fanny understood her grandfather's mood, and she smoothed back the hair on his forehead and gently stroked his cheeks with her hands. "Papers, papers! 'Daily Columbian'!" A childish voice at the door broke their reverie. "Grandpa, you must be like city folks and read the papers." "Here, little boy, is five cents for the morning 'Columbian' and one cent for your evening paper." "Now, Grandpa, I want you to read. Let's see the headlines." "_ENTHUSIASTIC THOUSANDS_" "I was one of that crowd," said Uncle, "but it was too big to be enthusiastic over." "_Many of the World's Distinguished People Present_" "That may be right, Fanny, but I don't believe they are very distinguished after they get inside. I know I felt like I had just got extinguished or something." "_The Colossal Manufacturers' Exhibit Amazes the Great Crowd of Visitors. The United States and the Foreign Nations join in Creating the Greatest Display in the World's History. Shown like a Jewel in a Frame of Light_" "Ah, my little girl, that's my Fanny when she comes between me and the window, a jewel in a frame of light." Fanny put her hand over his mouth and said, "Grandpa, I don't want you to scold me so unless when I deserve it." Uncle Jeremiah having read all that interested him, turned the paper over, when his eye fell on the columns of advertisements. He had never read any of them before, and it attracted his interest at once. "Look hyar, Johnny! Here is a position you might git if you had only done as I have teached and learnt your lesson at school." And Uncle read, slowly: Wanted.--A BRIGHT, HONEST, IN- telligent boy: good Christian; A No. 1 writer; quick at figures, not fond of play; never reads novels or smokes, or sets a bad example in any way before children. Address, * * * * * "Grandpa, that is a sad reminder," said Fanny, as she came up and looked over his shoulder at the paper. "Why?" "Because God loves a shining mark, and all those boys are dead. On their tombs should be written: 'Here lies one who lived not wisely, but too well.'" "Tut! tut! child, how you do talk!" "Here, father, here is the one. You know I've always wanted a parrot." Exchange.--WILL EXCHANGE FINE Parrot, good talker, for a pet monkey. Address, * * * * * * "But, Fanny, where's the monkey to exchange?" "Why, Johnny, of course. I know it would be a trade," she said, rapturously. Johnny had come up in the meantime, and was leaning on Uncle's right shoulder. At Fanny's words he eyed her suspiciously for a moment, and then, pointing his finger at another advertisement, said: "Father, send Fanny to that place at once. Her first meal will take the people a month to digest, and that will be a big saving, for she won't have to make but one meal a month, and she will never be bothered about doing so much fixing up." The advertisement read: Cook WANTED.--NEED NOT WASH. Address, * * * * * * Uncle crumpled the paper up in his hand and said emphatically, "O you children git out." But they felt more like talking as they were accustomed to do of evenings at the farm. Johnny had told his adventures and Uncle and Aunt had seen wonderful things which they knew were only interesting to them. What they had seen was to them an awful revelation of what the world was doing in the various lines of work while the farmers were busy with the cares of the farm and isolated from the great industries of life where genius subdues and achieves. "Somebody brought a heap of wool all the way from New South Wales in Australia, and I felt ashamed of myself when I seed farm products that was brought all the way from the Cape of Good Hope and I hadn't brought nothing from Villaville. We seen farmers from Japan, and China, and Ceylon. I was shocked to see how them Japanese like to have snakes and hobgoblins a crawling round their pavilions but when I seed the Americans jammed all around when there was nicer products in the other places, I just concluded that maybe after all it was our people that liked 'em too, and so made 'em set the fashion here. "The Canadians tried to beat everything with their twenty-two thousand pound cheese. There is lots of fool extravagance in that place but I guess it was necessary to show what we farmers can do when we make up our minds." Fanny told about meeting Mr. Blair and how interestingly he explained everything. As she looked up at her Grandma, she saw a troubled look on her face. "It's nothing," said Grandma, "but I didn't meet young folks that way when I was a girl, and I am afeard now for you; but I've always tried to teach you right, and I know no body can make you believe I haven't teached you just right. I will trust ye. I trusted your mamma when nobody else did, and she didn't do no wrong." Fanny went over and laid her cheek against her grandma's face and whispered: "Grandma, any body can kill me, but nobody can make me wilfully do wrong." _CHAPTER V_ COLUMBIA AVENUE Several unnoteworthy days were spent by Uncle and his family in which they saw through the official buildings of the states and nations; through the Forestry building, showing the forestry wealth of the world; through the leather exhibits, showing the wonders done to the skins of beasts; all over Wooded Island, with its curiosities of Davy Crockett's cabin and the Javanese Hooden; through the clam bakes and the Casino, with the miscellaneous objects of interest about them. Uncle thought he was entering the Liberal Arts building when he walked past the guard at the southeast entrance of the Casino. He wandered into a labyrinth of side-rooms, where he heard an amazing medley of excited voices in as many different languages. They were evidently quarreling over something that displeased them very much. Presently a guard caught him by the arm. [Illustration: "THERE WAS A MEDLEY OF EXCITED VOICES."] "Are you a musician, sir?" "Well, I used ter play a Jew's harp a leetle." "The Casino will open again at three o'clock. You are not allowed in here." The rest of the family had remained on the outside, suspicious of Uncle's venture. As he returned, led out in rather an undignified way by the guard, Uncle did not relish the amused looks of his family and the casual observers. "Ah, ha," yelled Johnny in glee, "Grandpa's the first of us to get took by the cop. I'll tell everybody at Villaville about you getting led out." From here they went on around to the north end of the greatest building on the grounds where were stored the miscellaneous educational achievements of the world. As they entered the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts building through one of the small entrances on the north, the greatness of that more than forty-four acres of exhibits did not impress itself upon them. The first objects that met their gaze were the graphophones or phonographs. Some nickles were soon in the slots and the family for the first time listening to music coming from some where by singers unseen. Johnny had a face covered with smiles as he listened to some loud-mouthed artist singing "Throw him down McClosky." Between each verse Johnny told the boy who stood in open-mouthed wonder near him that the "feller is a singer from way back." He could not realize that he was not in a concert hall and that all standing about were not hearing what he heard. When the music ceased and he withdrew the tubes from his ears he said to the boy, "Wasn't that out of sight?" [Illustration: "They listened to melodies by musicians unseen, and from somewhere unknown."] "Sure, and out of my hearing too, but I guess I got a nickle to try it on," and his nickle disappeared in the slot and the unwearied singer hid away in the machine told again his story of the great fight. When Uncle took the tubes from his ears his eyes were full of tears. "Why, Grandpa, what's the matter?" asked Fanny who had just listened to some selection by the Marine band. "Well, you see, I heard something that I used to hear long time ago, and I couldn't tell just who was a singin' it to me. It was some woman, though, and I let myself think it was somebody else, and I was a thankin' God for lettin' me hear her once more. I thought it was Mary singin' "Old Folks at Home" for me, jest like she used to, and I thought for a while that she had come back to me. I wanted to talk to her, and it hurt me when I seed that I couldn't." There was a stairway near by, and Fanny suggested that they should first go above. They came to the place where they could look out into the main floor. They were near the great clock tower just as the chimes began to peal forth their weird melodies. "What's that?" cried Aunt, in awe-struck tones. "It's the chime of the bells," cried Fanny, in delight, "listen! listen!" Clear and plain through the vast building and to the streets on the outside came the slow measured notes of that nation-thrilling air, "My Country, 'tis of Thee." All stood entranced before a scene never before reached by human means. When the chimes were done, Uncle said: "Let us go down to the main floor. I want to walk from end to tother of that aisle." Johnny held in each hand a camp-stool for Uncle and Aunt, and he arranged the stools for them to sit awhile before that wonderful scene. Not long after, they were marching down that aisle called Columbia avenue. They felt themselves every inch as citizens of a great republic. It is not a very long thoroughfare--only a third of a mile--but they were two hours on the way. Uncle was a common, everyday American citizen when he started. At each step it seemed to him he swelled in his own estimation. At the clock tower he was proud enough to ascend that structure and make a Fourth of July speech. At the end of his walk he wanted to wear an eagle on his hat and shout till his throat should be stiff. It was not solely as an American that he was filled with exultation but as a member of the human race. He was lifted up with pride in the achievements of his fellow-man and in satisfaction that his own country was the host of such a splendid company. Columbia avenue is the broad thoroughfare which traverses the center of the greatest building that ever was. It runs through the Manufactures and Liberal Arts building from the grand court to the plaza at the northern end. A walk down this thoroughfare is like a tour of the world in sixty minutes. Though, if you are to do it in sixty minutes, you must fifty times repress an impulse to linger beside some new marvel in the handiwork of man and go marching on. You cannot beat the record in a trip around the world and stop and see all the grand cathedrals and picturesque ruins and beautiful women and inviting galleries of art. Columbia avenue is a picture never to be surpassed. It is a cleanly and an attractive thoroughfare for the world of tourists who throng the way. The path is no longer littered with lumber and boxes and kegs of paints. The horizon--for this vast enclosure has its horizon--is no more filled with a fine, white mist rising from the efforts of workmen to push and chisel blocks of staff into their appropriate places. It is a colossal field of process and a panorama of result. The world can not produce a more noble and inspiring place. It is the avenue down which the man on whom fate has fallen and whose steps in this world are few should choose to expend the last remaining atoms of his strength. Uncle, as an American citizen, came in pride and exultation into the avenue from the central court. He had not been there before. The first thing he did was to stand fully five minutes gazing at the immensity of the enclosure trying to comprehend it, instinctively but vainly seeking adjectives with which to characterize it, and finally giving it all up, as a man gives up trying to measure the ocean or count the stars, conceding it to be too vast and wonderful for the range alike of his vision and his mind. No one told him which way to go, but away over his head, he couldn't guess how many hundred feet, was a line of pendent stars and stripes extending so far in a perspective of red and white that he could not see the fartherest. For aught he knew to the contrary the line led away to the sunny South. But knowing that where the stars and stripes led the way, he could go as he had done in the years of war, he passed on through a maze of wonders greater than even a Solomon could dream. Not a word had been spoken for some time. Fanny had stopped at a millinery booth. "Well, now come on Fanny, you wouldn't let me look at them harrows to my heart's content so come on, for you might get ideas into your head that would cost me lots of money and you know these times are expensive enough anyhow." At the south end of the hall they ascended to the galleries again and soon, came past the educational exhibits that cover every department of human training. There was a booth of educational temperance. Here they read: |---------------------------| | _The Star of Hope | | of the Temperance Reform | | stands over the | | School House_ | |---------------------------| These letters were on a banner of beautifully wrought silk, and near by was a map of the United States, with seven states distinguished from the rest by being in the darkest black. "Those states," explained the ladies in charge, "have no school legislation for teaching temperance." "Yes," soliloquized Uncle, "the school house, the pulpit and the press, are the three forces of freedom and progress in our welfare, but our lives and our natures are not alone molded by these. The fathers and mothers in the home holds greater destinies for the world than all the rest of the forces of the earth together." Then they went through a modeling department. Uncle could not see any use of these things. "Now, Fanny, I'm tired of these mixing wax and realities together. Here's a man's head four feet across in this glass case. What does it mean?" "O, that's just an enlarged figure to show the anatomy." "Well, I didn't come here to see 'natomy, so let's pass on and leave it to other folks that like sich." Just then some good country people came up and they were almost wild for knowledge as to where the Exposition people dug up that awful giant, and as to how long he lived before the flood, and if it might not be Goilah. Fanny could not stand such an error, and she pointed out to the little girl the card below explaining what the figure intended to show. They went on past states and foreign countries, and booth after booth of books and papers of the great publishing companies. "Come here, come this way, all of ye!" Johnny was wildly motioning to his folks, who had stopped to examine some books in a booth near the north end of the Liberal Arts hall. As they came up to him, he said: "Say, you remember the Century plant, don't you, down in the Horticultural hall, wot's jest bloomed? Well, I've found a Century company, an' I want Fanny to go in thar an' ask the gurl wot hes charge if we kin see it bloomin'." "They are the people who publish so much about the war and about Lincoln. Let us go in and I'll take some notes about what they have." Fanny took out her pencil and notebook as they approached the entrance of the booth. All went in together, and the lady in charge, seeing Fanny with a notebook in her hand, came over to her from the opposite side of the room with a rush that almost took the young observer's breath away. "Are you a reporter, Miss?" "No, no," said Fanny. "Oh! Just taking notes for your own amusement." "Well, not exactly that. I may use them some time." Fanny had in mind the things she would have to tell to her less fortunate friends at home. "O I see, going to weave them into a book or a lecture. Just come this way;" and, followed by Johnny, Uncle and Aunt, Fanny went the rounds of the place listening attentively to the interesting talk of the lady in charge as she explained the processes in detail of making a great magazine, the evolution of the English dictionary and of dictionary making in all its phases. She showed them many interesting relics and among them the original letters and documents of the company's great war articles and their life of the martyred president. The lady never had more interested listeners or people more grateful for the trouble she had taken to instruct them. [Illustration: "UNCLE DID NOT RECOGNIZE HIM."] "No, don't go till you have registered." Fanny went over and registered for all of them and Uncle went away feeling as if he now had a literary education and could write anything from a war article to a dictionary. They passed on down and out of the building more impressed than ever concerning the greatness of the world. Aunt rarely said much but now she remarked that she loved their farm and their Jerseys more than ever but she could see that God's mercies and blessings did not rest alone on them and their neighbors. There was indeed a world beyond what she had ever seen or been able to dream. As they passed on to the gate a family evidently from off the farm passed them. The eyes of Uncle and the farmer happened to meet and the farmer nodded to him. "Now look at that," exclaimed Uncle. "How cityfied I'm getting. I didn't nod to that feller. The fust few days I was here I nodded to everybody who looked at me but when they stared back at me like I was an idiot, I quit." As they came by the Administration building a gentleman passed near them and politely lifted his hat. Without response Aunt and Fanny went on but Uncle grasped the gentleman by the hand and said, "Mr. Moses, I am so glad to see you. I ain't been tuck up yet by the perlice nor lost any money but I guess I would if you hadn't give me such good advice." "Uncle, I must tell you that my name is Warner, as you have it on my card and not Moses. I told you that name just for a joke because I didn't expect to see you again and you know we don't often tell our names and business to people we meet on the trains." Uncle was very much troubled. He could not see any joke in a false name being given. He remembered then that Fanny said a young man on the train was shadowing Mr. Moses, and this false name made it look bad for Mr. Warner. "Well Mr. Warner I am sorry you deceived me for I liked you very much and I aimed to call on you, but maybe I hadn't orter not." Without another ward Uncle went on to join his waiting family, sadly shaking his head as he thought of the misplaced confidence he had bestowed. "There," said Mr. Warner, "I have estranged the good opinion of the old man and in his mind made the words of the confidence man seem true. But somehow I feel sure that I shall meet her in a different way." As he looked after her he said, "There goes the dearest girl on earth to me." [Illustration: "HE LOOKED AROUND AFTER HER."] It was arranged that the next day the old people should rest at their hotel all day and at two o'clock Fanny would go to one of the big retail stores to do some needful shopping with Johnny as an escort. _CHAPTER VI_ DANGERS OF THE GREAT CITY Johnny was listlessly walking along in front of Dearborn Station, on Polk street, when he saw some fine looking apples on one of the fruit stands. Instantly the old orchard at home came into his mind, and with it a hunger for apples that could not be downed. Fishing up a dime from his pocket, it was not long till two apples were his, one of them undergoing a carving that only a country boy hungry for apples could perform. As he turned the corner he passed a number of bootblacks tossing pennies to the edge of the curbing, the one lodging his penny nearest the edge winning all the other pennies. Johnny watched them long enough to understand their gambling game and then moved on. "Hi ther, kids," said one, "watch me git a free lunch." He came quickly up behind the unsuspecting boy and struck one of the apples out of his hand. But before he could pick it up, Johnny gave him a shove that sent him sprawling in the mud. Johnny stooped to regain his apple, but half a dozen of the other boys ran up and began striking him from all sides. His knife was open in his hand, and some one struck him a blow on the hand that knocked the knife into the gutter. Warding off the uncomfortable blows as fast as he could, he ran to get his knife. In an instant he was tripped down upon his face with half a dozen boys cuffing him about the head and shoulders. "What you skates a-doin' there. Come off now; let a feller have a show!" The boys were thrust back, and Johnny scrambled to his feet. "Hello! If it ain't de kid wot's got de purty sister an' helped me to pepper de fake on Stony Island avenoo. Bin a-crapin', have ye, an' them fellers wuz a-doing ye up." It was the train-boy who had been of such service to Johnny's grandfather as they came into the city. [Illustration: "BEEN A CRAPIN', HAVE YE!"] Johnny explained how it all happened, and they went away from the crowd. Johnny's clothes were soiled and his knife and apples were gone, but he was glad to get out of such a rough crowd. "Where wuz ye goin'?" "I've got an hour yet, when I am to meet Fanny at the north entrance to the store she's tradin' at. I couldn't stand taggin' after her, so she let me go." Johnny had wandered from the store into the neighborhood of one of the most disreputable places in the city. He and his friend were coming up the street when the train-boy exclaimed: "Hi, thar, wot's yer sis doin' on dis devilish street wid dat thief yonder?" Johnny looked where the boy was pointing, and, sure enough, Johnny saw his sister being escorted along the street by Mr. Blair, who had spoken to them of Mr. Moses on the train, and who had been with Fanny one day at the Fair. "Why, ain't he all right," said John. "Nary all right. Wusn't he helping to rob your grandad as he was a coming out of the train, and did'nt I nab his pal with the wad of stuff in his hand? He works with the feller what give yer old dad the short change." Johnny would have started on a run after his sister but Louis said, "Hold on pard, I'm a running this. Ef your sis is all right, that feller is liable to git to travel over the road fer it. I've got it in fer that feller and you see if I don't git him pulled. I tell you if he gits your sis into one of them houses, she'll never come out alive fer she'll kill herself." Johnny was white with fright but Louis laid his hand on Johnny's shoulder and said: "Now you watch the show." A policeman was at the next corner and Louis walked up to him with the air of one who had a most important communication to make. "Me name is Louis Burjois, and dis is de brudder of dat gal wot you see walkin' over dere. She is an innercent gal, which dat feller is a-tollin' of her off. He's a pickpocket, and I'm one wot kin swear to it. We want him arrested an' jugged. We'll see to all de responsibility." "Ah, you Arabs don't take me in that way. Git out. The gal knows her biz." By this time Louis saw that the confidence man had stopped at one of the most prepossessing houses on the street. It was also one of the vilest and most dangerous places in the city. The door-bell had been rung, and there was not a moment to lose. [Illustration: "SHE'S AN INNERCENT GIRL WHAT'S A GITTIN' TOLLED OFF."] "For God's sake run and yell!" and he gave Johnny a push in their direction, which was all he needed to send him flying up the street yelling and waving his hat and calling "Fanny! Fanny! Fanny!" like a boy gone mad. The door had opened and Fanny was about to step inside, when she heard her name called. She turned around, but the young man crowded up behind her. "Who is calling me?" she said. "It must be Johnny. Yes, it's his voice." "No, it's only a bootblack," her companion said, harshly and excitedly. "I know its Johnny," and she dodged by him out of the door. He tried to catch her by the arm, but, missing that, seized her dress, nearly tearing it off of her waist. At this moment Johnny dashed up, and, throwing his arms around her, cried: "O Fanny! Fanny! come quick! come away! don't wait a minute!" and he fairly dragged her to the sidewalk. The young man disappeared through the door but not before he saw Louis come running up and shaking his fist at him yelling at the top of his voice, "O you horrible old cheese, I'll get your mug behind the bars some of these days in spite of yourself." The policeman was placidly watching the scene, but concluding at last that something unusual was happening he came up and went into the house. A few minutes after he came out alone and walked measuredly on toward the end of his beat. Fanny in the meantime had pinned her dress and was walking away with the two boys. She was not less excited than they were. "What is the matter? I can't think. What has happened; there must be something awfully wrong." "Well, you see, miss, that feller is the pall of the man what tried to rob your grandad and he was a taking of you to one of the worstestes places in Chicago." "Why he showed me his detective star and also papers and business cards the other day at the Fair. I met him this time in the store. While we were talking there he showed me a blue book which he said was a list of the best society of Chicago, and he showed me his name and his sisters'. I didn't know anything how to trade at the big stores and he said it would please him so much to take me and introduce me to his mother and sisters, who lived only three or four blocks away, and one of his sisters would come back with me and I could do my trading in half the time and to so much better advantage. He talked so nicely that I didn't see how I could refuse to go." "That's the chap exactly. He's a bad man, and I'm a going to run him in yet." Louis gave a self satisfied toss of the head, clinched his fists and said, "Its lucky, awful lucky that I seed ye." Fanny shuddered and she whispered a fervent prayer of thankfulness. They had now arrived at the store and Louis acted as ready escort to the various booths where Fanny desired to trade. "Don't you forgit that you have to meet me at the Sixtieth street gate at nine o'clock next Monday morning for to be my body guard the whole week and I think I can get our grandpa to throw in about two dollars a day for ye for general services. Anyhow, I don't see how any of us can feel safe any more without you being around. I expect if you come out to our farm, I'd save your life about a dozen times a day for the first week, you'd need me around pretty bad for the first month." "It's very glad I am that I struck you," said Louis, "for my dad got killed cause he stuck by his engine and I have to help the folks so much that I couldn't get into the Fair only by scheming somehow, and I might not hit the combination." Fanny and Johnny, still bewildered over their adventures, now took a cable car and in a little while were telling their astonished grandparents about their day's experiences and Fanny's wonderful escape from the confidence man. Uncle could not remember Mr. Blair, but it was a good occasion for one of his impressive lectures on the providence of God. It was an evening for the electric display at the grounds and at eight o'clock they were seated near the statue of the Republic on the south side of the basin waiting to see the crowning achievement of modern intellect. No wonder that the papers of the next morning spoke of the "White City in a blaze of glory," and that "thousands viewed the sight, entranced with the marvelous exhibition." It was a sight to inspire the writers of the day, and of all the descriptions that Fanny culled none were more appropriate for recalling the memories of what she saw, and to record what she had experienced, than the reportorial sketches of this night. The hour approached for the most wonderful illumination since God said: "Let there be light." Slowly night came on, and slowly night was turned back into day. A few stars came out and shone for a little while, and then disappeared from man because of the blaze of light he was in. To the north and west a heavy pall of smoke brooded over the city. Above it a broad band of gorgeous crimson, shot with purple and yellow, marked the dying glories of the day. Overhead scattered clouds floated against a gray sky, and through them yellow stars were shining. Looking down into the grand basin the white walls of the palaces which bound it loomed gray and ghostly. On the southern horizon the chimneys of a blast furnace belched their red flames high into the darkness. One by one white globes of light glittered about the graceful sweep of the basin. They cast deep black shadows on the walls behind them, and threw burnished, rippling ribbons over the dark water below. The broad avenue leading to the north between the Mines and Mining and the Electricity buildings grew brilliant on either side. At its far northern end a clump of tangled shrubbery lay in heavy shadow, and still beyond, stretching away for miles, a hundred thousand scattered yellow sparks told that the great city was awake. Far off on the dark lagoon, men were singing, and the echo of their voices rose faintly through the silence. Suddenly a single beam of yellow light, like a falling star, flickered and grew bright on the high dome of the Administration building. Then lines of fire ran down its splendid sweep, and outlined in flame it stood out in splendor against the night. About its base circled a wheel of light, while above a hundred torches flared into the darkness. Within the great buildings about the basin electric coronas were ablaze and the giant pillars of the colonnades loomed white against the shadows. From their caps huge figures of the arts of peace leaned out over the black abyss beneath. Along the top of the peristyle flickered a yellow ribbon of flame, and above, dim and gray against the sky, senators and heathen gods look down upon the glory. Between these lay the dark waters of the basin, seamed with faint, waving bars of light. Over them, like long black shadows, graceful gondolas slipped in silence, and electric launches with their fiery eyes crept across the vista. From the roof of Music hall a wide pyramid of fierce white light was thrown upon the Administration dome. Its blazonry of yellow died away, and under the new glare the delicate, lace-like tracery of gold and white was brought into strong relief. From the roofs of the buildings of Manufactures and Agriculture twin search-lights beat down upon the MacMonnies fountain. Behind it the plaza was black with men, and its pure white figures shone as if carved from Parian marble. Then the light was changed, and in a glory of crimson the ship Columbia, with its white-armed rowers, sailed on before the people. From his high pillar on either side, Neptune, leaning on his trident, looked down serenely. The search-lights swept the horizon, and for a moment graceful Diana loomed against the sky like a figure suspended in midair. At the east end of the basin the Golden Republic glittered against the night, lifting her golden eagle high above the crowd. Smoke from a passing engine rose about the dome of the Administration building, and its fiery outlines flickered and grew faint. The triumphant goddess seated high on the galley in the central fountain was bathed in a glory of green fire, and then yellow, changing again to its spotless white. Under the great central entrance to Electricity building stood all the while the figure of an old-time Quaker. His eyes looked upward, and he held in his hand the feeble instrument which made possible the glories of this night. Franklin, with his kite, looked out upon the consummation of what he dreamt of when he drew lightning from the summer cloud. For two hours the "White City" blossomed in new beauty. The great basin was bathed in a flood of fairy moonlight. Outside the peristyle the lake beat its monotone against the walls. On the plaza the great orchestra of more than 100 men played patriotic music, and the people were filled and lifted with the spirit of the night. The search light was a great surprise. It went dancing along the fronts of opposite buildings, climbed up the towers and brought out golden Diana. It flashed against the statue of the Republic, and kept it for a full minute resplendent as though carved from a block of flame and then flickered away, leaving the great figure in twilight uncertainty. After a time three irregular splashes of light were playing hide-and-seek along the basin and up the fronts of the big building. The lights changed their colors. Sometimes they were green and again they were blue or red. While several thousand people were admiring this picture, a rocket of light shone out from one of the high corners of the agriculture building and flooded the MacMonnies fountain in a whiteness which made all the other light seem dim and lifeless. Under its focus the golden caravels and the draped figures showed strange contrasts of chalky pallor and deep shade. Only a moment later a second bar of light leaped out from a sky-high nook of the Manufactures building and swept the surface of the basin. It struck a moving gondola, and in a flash showed the gay Venetians bending to their long oars, the bright colors of the boat and the muffled forms of the passengers. Johnny had left the others absorbed in their trance of delight. He sought other sights. Directly he came to the Electricity building, with its marvels of light. It burst on his childish mind, seeking for novelties, as greater than the scenes outside. It was something that Fanny and Uncle and Aunt must see. He ran in the greatest haste to bring them. When they came in, Johnny showed them where to sit to see the great illumination in the center of the building. It was then quite dark about them, but Johnny knew the marvelous sight he had said was there would soon appear. Four rows of colored bulbs containing incandescent lights and placed on zig-zag frame works forty feet long in different directions are about a pillar around which are twined strings of two thousand electric bulbs of red, white and blue. The pillar is covered with bits of reflecting colored glass, thus making a magic intermingling of lights that almost rival the lightning in startling brilliancy and produce a pillar of fire scarcely surpassed even by that one which led the Israelites across the sea. When the illumination came the weird ingenuity of the electric magicians struck Aunt Sarah with a sublimity almost more than she could endure. As the flashes of light struck out about the pillar and the ball of fire fell as if dropped from some creating hand she screamed, "O my God, what blasphemy is this that men have achieved. Can they snatch the fire from heaven and make the lightening a plaything?" She sank upon a chair and gazed stupefied for some minutes at the awful scene. Then as they passed on she said, "I have seen the wonderful machinery great and small. I have seen the old relics which they say are the remains of men's hopes long gone by, but when man can take the light that comes out from the storms and put it up for show, it seems to me that I am seeing forbidden things and that the skill of men has gone too far." [Illustration: "The light shot across the sky."] At the next flash from the tower there was a shriek and a crowd began to gather about a man just across the hall. The cry came from a man who could receive the terrible grandeur but he did not have the strength of mind to sustain it. He was gazing upon the incandescent globe-studded column, as in a trance, and again one of the electricians turned on the current and the shaft changed to living fire. The man seemed horrified by the unearthly beauty of the spectacle. It continued but a minute, when the current was turned off and the blinding light disappeared almost as suddenly as it had come. A bystander whose attention happened to be directed toward him says that he stood gazing at the column for fully three minutes after the light had been turned off and that his countenance betrayed overwhelming bewilderment. Once or twice he raised a hand and drew it across his forehead. Then he was seen to press his temples with both palms, all the while gazing in an awe-stricken way at the great pillar. The attention of several visitors was attracted to the farmer, and one of them stepped to his side to inquire if anything was wrong with him. As the gentleman reached his side the latter threw his arms upward and, with a shriek that started the echoes, fell forward upon his face. Two or three guards rushed to the prostrate man's assistance, but before they reached his side he leaped to his feet and, screaming at the top of his voice, ran through the aisle toward the entrance facing the lagoon. In a moment all was excitement, and the great crowd of visitors, becoming panic-stricken, ran in a dozen different directions or hid behind exhibits. The madman, pursued by a half-dozen guards, dashed down a side aisle and, leaping over boxes and machines, made a complete circuit of the General Electric company's exhibit and then paused again before the central column. Two guards seized him, but he threw them off as though they had been infants and again he started on a wild hurdle race through the building. He had not gone far when he tripped and fell, and in a moment three bluecoats were upon him. Struggling and shrieking, the poor man was half led, half carried, to the north entrance of the building, where was waiting a patrol wagon. It required the combined strength of five guards to get the unfortunate man into the patrol wagon. Throughout the short drive to the patrol barn the prisoner fought like a wild animal and the officers had their hands full in keeping him aboard. When brought before the sergeant the prisoner became exceedingly quiet and spoke rationally while giving his name and address. One of the guards then began to detail the offense of the prisoner. The recital had but just begun when the man became greatly excited and began screaming once more. The sergeant placed his hand in a kindly way upon his shoulder and gently forced him into a chair. The man grew quiet again and listened to the guard relate the story of the arrest without interruption. When the officer had finished the man arose and, walking up to the sergeant, said: "Don't harm me, I didn't put all those bottles there. I'll tell you how it was. Somebody has stuck those bottles on that post and covered them up with a white cloth. When they raised the cloth the bottles turned to fire. I am not to blame. I don't know how those bottles came there. There are millions of them. They were all right at first, but the devils poured red fire into them. Don't hurt me. I had nothing to do with it." The sergeant talked kindly to the man, and when he was quieted led him to the hospital, where a doctor attended to him. Here he entered into a long description of the pillar of "bottles," by which he evidently meant the incandescent globes. The doctor gave his patient a quieting potion, and in a short time he fell into a sleep. When he awoke from his sleep he was quiet, but his mind still dwelt on the pillar of "bottles," and he insisted on repeating his version of the affair to all the doctors. In the evening a carriage took the patient away, supposedly to the detention hospital. _CHAPTER VII_ ON BOARD THE "ILLINOIS" "Now for the battleship," said Johnny, "that's what I want to see." As they came on board the brick ship, the first words they heard were quite nautical. "It's eight bells." "Aye, aye, sir!" The bos'un, or whoever it was that received the order from the Lieutenant, climbed up and tapped out eight strokes on the big brass bell. About twenty people, with lunch baskets and camp-chairs, ran after him and watched the performance. "What's that for?" asked a young woman. "That tells the time of day," answered her escort. "But it's after 12 o'clock by my watch and he struck it only eight times." "Well, they--ah--they have a system of their own. It's very complicated." "Look at that crooked thing there," said one of the visitors, pointing to the air-tube leading to the stoker. "Is that their foghorn I've heerd about?" "They don't need no foghorns on warships. I jedge it's a shootin'-iron of some kind or other, maybe a gattlin' gun what jest blows the shot out. You see it's pointin' out like at an enemy." An elderly woman stepped up to the Lieutenant and said: "I'd like mighty well to see some of the Gatling guns." "Yes, ma'am, you will find them at the foretop." "How's that?" "At the turret in the fore-top." [Illustration: "MAYBE ITS A FOG HORN, OR A GATLING GUN."] "Do you mean up in the little round cupola?" "Cupola, great heavens," murmured the officer under his breath. Then he called a marine and had him show the woman to the fore-top. It is the experience of a lifetime for a naval officer who has cruised in the Mediterranean and rocked over the high waves of the south Atlantic to be placed in command of a brick battleship, which rests peacefully alongside a little pier and is boarded by hundreds of reckless sight-seers every day. The conning towers are of sheet-iron and some of the formidable guns are simply painted wood. It is said that if anything larger than a six-inch gun should be fired from the deck of the mimic battleship the recoil would upset the masonry and jolt the whole structure into a shapeless mass. Below the water line the Illinois is a hollow mockery, but the two decks, the turrets and the heavy battery are made so realistic that any one who had not seen the brick laid and the plating put on might suppose it was a real war vessel that had stranded well in toward the beach. As a matter of fact, about one-third of the visitors are deceived, which fact may be vouched for by any one of the marines parading the deck. A man who looked as though he read the newspapers, called a sergeant of marines "Cap," and remarked that it was a very fine vessel. "Yes, indeed, sir," replied the sergeant. "She'll be here all summer, will she?" "Oh, yes." "Did this boat take part in the review at New York?" "No, sir; this battleship is stuck fast here. It is a shell of brick, built up from a stone foundation, and is intended to represent a model battleship." "You don't tell me. Made of brick, eh?" Uncle, listening to the talk, shared the countryman's disgust. "There, Fanny, how do you excuse them for that piece of mockery? Everybody getting fooled as if they were in a cheap dime show. It's too bad the government should be a partner to sich deceptions. And then just hear them fellows making fun o' the likes o' us. It's a shame. Of course we hev to ask questions when they use all the art in the world to make deceiving things and then make fun if they do such good work as to fool us. We don't know any more about their work than they do about our farm. I guess they couldn't tell a Jersey from a short-horn, nor a header from a clover-huller." One of the sailors was telling of the questions asked by the public. Some person asked him if the gulls flying around the ship were sea-gulls, and whether they had been brought on especially for the Fair. Another asked why the guns were plugged up at the end with pieces of wood. A marine said the plugs of wood made them air-tight, so that they wouldn't sink if they fell overboard. Maybe the man believed it. He didn't say anything. From sight-seeing at the ship they came over to the Fisheries building. The throng of visitors here at first detracted their sight from the wall of fish and wonders of the sea around them. "Oh," said Aunt when she looked about, "I nearly have to gasp to make sure I'm not at the bottom of the sea. Just look at them fish swimming around on both sides of you." "Well I feel sorry for these poor fish, they look so tired," said Fanny, "but it's very evident they can't keep lively all the time." One of the big scaly-backed tarpons in the fountain was fanning his tail and moving slowly through the water. On the railing at the edge of the pool sat a tired man with a baby hanging over his arm. If the tarpon had stuck his nose out of the water he could have grabbed the man by the coat-tail and pulled him backward. The mother was standing a few feet away. She turned around and saw two beady eyes shining up through the water. "Hold tight to that child," she said. "If you ever drop him that big pike would gobble him right up." "He don't eat babies," replied the husband, calmly. "Besides, it ain't a pike; it's a sturgeon." "Well, he looks awful mean, anyway." The husband, merely to reassure her, moved a few feet further along and let the baby lie over his shoulder and watch the little fish chase one another. The aisles were crowded full of people, who had found that a visit to the east end of the Fisheries building was almost as good as a dive to the bottom of the ocean. It is in this place where you may stand with coral reefs and ring-tailed shells on either side and watch strange fish with spikes on their backs open their mouths and gape until each one looks like the letter O. The sea turtles stand on their heads and wave yellow flippers at the wide-eyed crowd, and a devil crab makes all the women shiver and pull the children away from the glass. In one aquarium there are so many catfish that they make the water cloudy. In front of one of the cases there was a learned discussion. The label simply said "Anemone." On the rocks and shells were some things shaped like stars and mushrooms, except that they were moss-colored and had whiskers floating out in the water. "Annymone, what the dickens are they?" asked a man with a linen duster. "Some kind of sea-weed, I believe," said an elderly gentleman in a patronizing manner. "No, they ain't they're animals, broke in a third. "But, sir, they are stuck fast there and can't move," said the elderly gentleman. "I know that but they reach out with those whiskers and grab stuff and feed themselves that way." "Well, that's the first time I ever heard of anything feedin' itself with its whiskers." One of the young women looked at the sheepshead aquarium and murmured: "What long bills they have." Her escort smiled in a knowing way and said: "That is not a bill; that is a proboscis, I believe. I wish I had a hook and line." A Columbian guard said he was tired of hearing the same old jokes, for nearly every young man who came in with a girl said: "When I come back here I'll bring a hook and line." They finished the day here, and wearied with the noise and tumult of the streets were glad to find rest in their rooms when evening came. [Illustration: "NEXT TIME I'LL BRING A HOOK AND LINE."] The sweetness of this rural family was nowhere better to be seen than when they were resting at home in the evening after the fatiguing experiences of the day. "Grandpa," said Fanny, when they were comfortably at rest, "I can't help but get angry at the women as I walk about, for I do see them do so much foolishness. Why, to-day I saw one crazy for souvenirs, and I believe she thought everything was a souvenir. I saw her pick up a nail and put it into her handbag, and when she came up to the Pennsylvania coal monument in the Mining building, she commenced putting pieces of the coal in her pocket. Then one of the working men played really a mean joke on her. He came up with a lump as big as a water bucket. Then he asked her if she wouldn't like to have that to remember the Fair by. And what do you think, she just said she thought he was very kind, but she didn't believe she could take it, for it was so big. But she would like awfully to have it. I saw the man shut one eye and say to the other man that the woman was crazy, because it was just the same kind of coal that she put into the stove every day at home." "Now the only thing I've got to grumble about," said Uncle, "is what's models and what's facts. There is no use of scaring people to death with things that ain't so. Now over in the Government building I saw some hop plant lice that was not less than a foot long; there was a potato bug nine inches long, and there was a chinch bug two feet long, for I out with my rule and measured it. When I seen them I said, the Lord help the people who live where them things do, and then some city folks laughed at me, when at last Fanny came along and said they was models. Then we went into another room and there was soldiers from everywhere and army things that made me believe I was back again with Sherman, but there again they were wax, excepting the wagons and guns. I went up to one of the officers when I fust come in and I says, says I, "Are you regular army folks or Illinois militia?" and he didn't answer, and I turned to one of the privates and I asked why there was so many of them bunched together, then I seed some folks a laughing at me and I slunk away. I say the government is in poor business when it makes sport of its own defenders." [Illustration: "A souvenir for her."] "Over there in the Transportation building I seen what it said was the boat Columbus sailed in; but after all, Fanny said it was a model. Right close to it was the boat what Grace Darling rowed out into the storming sea and saved so many lives. I thought it was a model, but Fanny said it was the very boat she used. I jest thought ef that was really the boat, we could all be sure that Grace Darling didn't stand o' Sunday mornins afore the glass a paintin' and a powderin'." He was getting himself worked up to the belief that he was a very much abused old soldier, when Fanny said: "Grandpa, I have just cut a splendid piece of poetry out of the paper about the Fair. The man who wrote it don't live far from us, for his address says at the bottom, 'Mr. Matthews, from Effingham County,' and I'm going to keep it in my scrap-book. Let me read it to you: _The City of the Workers of the World_ THE BUILDING OF IT In a wilderness of wonders they are piling up the stores Gathered by the hands of labor on a hundred happy shores; In a palpitating plexus of white palaces they heap The marvels of the earth and air--the treasures of the deep; They have reached their restless fingers in the pockets of the past, And robbed the sleeping miser of the wealth he had amassed-- To the festival of nations--to the tournament of toil, They have garnered in the offerings of every sun and soil; They have levied on the genius of the age, and it replies Full handed, with the blessed light of heaven in its eyes; In honor of old Spain they have taxed the brawn and brain Of a planet, for the glory of that Master of the Main, Whose fortitude is written on each flag that is unfurled Above the great white city of the world. THE MEETING OF THE NATIONS They are climbing over mountains, they are sailing over seas, From the artics, from the tropics, from the dim antipodes; In the steamship, in the warship, under banners loved the best, They are laughing up the waters from the east and from the west: From the courts of Andalusia, from the castles of the Rhone, To the meeting of the brotherhood of nations they are blown; From the kraals beside the Congo, from the harems of the Nile, They are thronging to the occident in never-ending file; From the farthest crags of Asia, from the continents of snow, The long-converging rivers of mankind begin to flow; In the twilight of the century, its wars forever past, The nations of the universe are clasping hands at last By Columbia's inland waters, where in beauty lies impearled The imperial white city of the workers of the world. THE PASSING OF THE PAGEANT When the roses of the summer burn to ashes in the sun, When the feast of love is finished, and the heart is overrun; When the hungry soul is sated and the tongue at last denies Expression to the wonders that are wearing out the eyes, Then the splendor it will wane like a dream that haunts the brain, Or the swift dissolving beauty of the bow above the rain; And the summer domes of pleasure that bubble up the sky Will tumble into legends in the twinkling of an eye; But the art of man endureth, and the heart of man will glow With reanimated ardor as the ages come and go. The pageants of the present are but pledges of a time When strifes shall be forgotten in a cycle more sublime When the fancies of the future into golden wreaths are curled O'er the dim, remembered city of the workers of the world. _CHAPTER VIII_ LA RABIDA It was a warm summer day, and rolling chairs, launches and gondolas were in great demand. At Fanny's suggestion they decided to take an electric launch and go around to La Rabida, where the relics of Columbus were kept. She accosted one of the guards who attends to the moorings by asking how near the launch would take them to La Rabida. "La-Ra-La what? I don't think I know what that is," said the guide. "La Rabida is the convent--the Columbus relics are there. Columbus was the man who discovered America," Aunt volunteered to tell him. "Oh, yes; I have heard of Columbus, of course, but I haven't been here very long." "Well, the convent is over at the lake end of the Agricultural building. Do the launches go there?" "The Agricultural building? Let me see; that is over----" "Do you know where the colonnade is?" "No. I don't." "Ever hear of the grand basin, the gold statue, the lagoon?" "Oh, yes; this is the lagoon." "Well, how long will it be before a launch will come along?" [Illustration: "BEFORE THEM WAS THE STRANGE OLD CONVENT."] He went out to the edge of the landing and looked up the lagoon. Then he jerked out, "in three-quarters of a minute." He was provoked about something. It may have been because she wanted to know so much; it may have been for a latent discovery of a lack of knowledge on his part, or it may have been because Fanny had been laughing at something; Fanny laughs easily. She is just as likely to laugh where she ought to cry; the electric guard didn't see anything to laugh at. They sat down on a pile of lumber to wait the three-quarters of a minute. It was three-quarters, and several more. The guard said the warm weather had come unexpectedly. They would have the whole fifty-two launches running soon. But only about half the number had been necessary until now, and they were very busy and could not keep up the time. One came soon after that. As they were stepping in Fanny asked how much the round trips were. Some one said "25 cents in the Director General's schedule, but in the launches they are 50 cents." The captain, or the man who takes the money, heard him. He smiled, and charged them 25 cents apiece to La Rabida. Just afterward a man handed him $1 and said "Administration building--for two." The Administration building is considerably this side of La Rabida. The captain slipped the dollar into his pocket and passed on to the next. The woman said: "Did he keep the whole of it?" "Keep it? I should think he did. You don't get much back on these side experiences. I ought to have asked him how much it costs to go all the way." But the man made no reply. He was meditating. He evidently had not read the morning papers. They gave all the prices--admissions and extra convenience. It was with feelings of considerable curiosity, mingled with awe, that they approached La Rabida. Before them was the strange old building which they knew was the convent where Columbus had received such rest, comfort and inspiration in his great enterprise that opened the door to modern civilization. A number of tents were on the south of the house, and soldiers were to be seen standing about, with their heavy muskets, which mean nothing but that their lives are pledged to protect this collection, belonging to the Vatican and the descendants of Columbus. All the royal letters patent from the sovereigns of Spain to Columbus and many letters written by Columbus himself, are in the cases. His will is also there. The signature of Columbus is written in this way: _S._ _S. A. S._ _X. N. Y._ _Xpo Ferens._ At one end of this room is the collection of pictures loaned from the Vatican by Pope Leo. No one is allowed to go up the steps. One of the Columbian guards standing there said, in answer to one of Uncle's questions: "This is the altar. It is sacred and no one is allowed up there, because these pictures are very valuable and very small." The mention of the size in that connection meant that they could be carried off easily. But nothing could be carried off easily with those watchful "regulars" about. A contract was made by Spain with the United States before the collection left there that it should be guarded by a detachment of United States soldiers. That contract is fulfilled to the letter. No one is allowed even to touch the glasses of the case. There are some wonderful pictures on the wall of Musaico Filato, which belong to Pope Leo. They are wonderfully beautiful as pictures, without thought of the thousands of tiny mosaics used in making the pictures, and that each one was placed in by hand. Some of the other pictures are wonderful, too--wonderful in their hideousness. No two artists seem to have the same idea of the features of Columbus. There seemed to be but one thing that they agreed upon fully, and that was that Columbus wore his hair chopped off on his neck. There is a great likeness there. Ferdinand and Isabella looked painfully disturbed on being trotted out at this World's Fair, and just exactly as if they never could have agreed on allowing Columbus or any one else to discover us. Some of the pictures were not numbered, and some of them had two numbers. The young lady who sold catalogues said they would be all right after a while. "Say, can you tell me--is these 'ere things all Columbus' works--did 'e do 'em all?" asked Uncle. "No, it is the history of his life." "Didn't he do any of 'em?" When the young lady shook her head, Uncle walked away, disappointed. He knew just what it was to dig and toll down on his farm, and he could gauge greatness only by labor. And if Columbus did not do any of it, paint any of the pictures, or build the convent, he could not understand what had made them go to so much expense to build the old convent when a good picture for a few dollars would serve just as well. After going through the narrow entrance of La Rabida they found little dark rooms with pictures and maps and charts of Columbus and Isabel in many different forms. In the southwest room they found a table and doors and bricks and the key from the house of Columbus. In the case among the many sacred relics was a locket said to contain some of the dust of that great man. They saw the Lotto portrait which was used on the souvenir half dollars. There were the Indian idols which Columbus brought to Isabel, one of the canoes in which the Indians came out to meet him, and even one of the bolts to which Columbus was chained. Each one of the party were continually discovering the most wonderful things. Fanny found an autograph letter of the great Cortez and she wrote in her note book from the book of Waltzeemuller where he said, "Americus has discovered a fourth part more of the world and Europe and Asia are named for women this country ought to be called America or land of Americus because he has an acute intellect." While she was writing this an old gentleman came up to her and said, "Say, Miss, I want to see the remains of Columbus, I heard they are here with a soldier on each side of his body." Fanny pointed to the place where the locket was but he was disappointed and did not care to go "just to see a pinch of dust in a locket." Aunt was sitting on her camp stool in the room where the table of Columbus was, but to get a nearer view of something she left it for a moment. Just then a family of man and wife with five children came in and found that they were standing at the table and by the door of Columbus. The woman saw the chair and supposing it to be a part of the Columbus furniture sat down in it. Then she arose and called her husband. "Henry come here and set in this chair. Thank God I've set where Columbus set." The husband sat in it awhile and then each one of the children time about, while Aunt Sarah waited patiently for them to get through, not wanting to break the pleasure of their great achievement. [Illustration: "THANK GOD I'VE SET WHERE COLUMBUS SET."] Tired of further sight seeing, our family decided to leave the grounds, and started on their homeward journey with over two hours ahead of them. There was no use walking through streets when they could pass nearly the whole distance through buildings. This was one of the ways to economize on travel and time. Across the bridge from La Rabida was the great archway entrance of the Agricultural hall. Around the old convent with its low-browed walls ran a width of fresh dirt at intervals over which were stuck the ancient signs, "Keep off the grass," but no grass was yet visible. "That's what I don't like about this White City. So much of it is so, and so much of it ain't so that I never can tell what is so," said Uncle. In the Agricultural hall there were never ending wonders for the farmer. All the agricultural ingenuity of the earth was centered here. "Now, come on, father, we can see plows and lawn mowers when we get home." But Uncle lingered longingly over a new device for lacerating the soil and destroying its noxious productions. Uncle and Aunt had ceased their usual exclamations after the first two or three days. In the first place exclamations, such as the good deacon would use, were entirely inadequate, and in the second place the cords of utterance had become exhausted. "Well, ef they haint gone and got some dog fennel here. I wonder where the cuckle-burrs are, and the tick-seed, and the jimson weeds and the puff-balls. It's a mean discrimination to bring one of the nuisances without bringing them all." They went through and out over the bridge of the south canal, on past the bandstand to the Administration building. "What inspiring music," said Fanny. "It is hard to tell whether our eyes or our ears can bring us the most joy. Surely I can live to be a better woman now every day of my life." As they entered the Administration building they saw a man in the center of the court looking up through the building at the great dome which seemed to pierce the sky. He leaned farther and farther back until he fell backwards and lay there on his back still gazing intently upward. A number of people rushed up to him horror stricken, as if he had just fallen from the top of the dome and they expected to see him a crushed mass. As they began to close up around him he yelled out: "O you get away you fool people, you don't know what a fine view I'm a getting of the top." [Illustration: "HIS HALF-DOLLAR ENTRANCE FEE GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO SEE THE DOME FROM THE MOST ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION."] But one of the Columbian guards seemed to think that was not the legal way to view the dizzy heights of the building and forthwith jerked him to his feet and ushered him to the outside. The last seen of the man he was muttering, "Them fool builders put them picters clear up at the top and then the fool guards wont let a fellow enjoy them." He evidently believed he had been treated outrageously in a free country by an autocratic guard, and that his fifty cents entrance fee entitled him to view any object in any position of vantage. They went on into the Mines building where the sparkling ores of a thousand mines were in piles and pyramids or wrought into colonnades, facades and burnished domes. There were dazzling diamonds and beautiful opals, emeralds and gems from all parts of the earth; Michigan's copper globe, North Carolina's pavilion of mica designs, Montana's famous Rehan statue of solid silver resting on a plinth of gold, Arizona's old Spanish arastra and New Mexico's mining cabin. From a northwest doorway they passed on out of this world of subterranean wonders across the street into the Transportation building. "I don't believe these things are used anywhere," said Johnny. "They're like the four-legged woman--just made for show. Father, you can't expect me to ride in no common farm wagon after bringin' me to see this." "These cars do represent awful improvement in three generations," said Uncle. "Now, it is supposed that when I was a boy I rode in that 'Flyer' there, or on the one they call 'Rocket;' but I didn't, 'cause I never seed a train till I was past twenty. Fanny would be supposed to ride up there in that gay three-story palace on wheels, and Johnny will get to ride a hundred and fifty miles an hour on that 'lectric railroad; but a common cattle car is fast enough for me. I don't know what the world's a comin' to when people rides a hundred and fifty miles an hour and choose to sleep fourteen stories high." They had wandered around the locomotive section, and on their way curiously viewed the famous "John Bull," the oldest locomotive in America. Near by some workingmen throwing a pile of dirt into a cart, caught Uncle's eye. "Well, look at them fellers. Ef my farm hands was to work that way I'd not get enough corn to feed my Jerseys a month." [Illustration: "A FIGHT, A FIGHT!"] He was quite disgusted with their slow and listless movements. They returned down another aisle and came out in front of the magnificent doorway of the building. They were just behind two elegantly dressed ladies, who were looking up at the decorations. "Well, upon me wohd, do obswerve that dohway. How intwesting. I am shuah it seems to me to be pewfectly supub. It is so lovie, so sreet." "O Grandpa," said Johnny, "do tell me what language they are talking." "I don't know, Johnny; ask Fanny." John's attention was here caught by the loud arguments of some gondoliers at the landing near by, and he ran down to see the fight he was sanguine enough to believe was about to take place. They made noise enough to be sure but perhaps this was their way of attracting attention. There were at least a dozen excited foreigners gesticulating over some exciting topic. Evidently some foreigner had been riding and he thought the fare was too high. Noise and genteel swearing were the chief argument. They swore in German, French and Russian; In Greek, Italian, Spanish, Prussian; In Turkish, Swedish, Japanese-- You never heard such oaths as these. They scolded, railed and imprecated, Abased, defied and execrated; With malediction, ban and curse They simply went from bad to worse; Carramba! O, bismillah! Sacre! (And ones than which these aren't a marker.) The very air with curses quivered As each his favorite oath delivered; A moment's pause for breath, and then Each buckled up and cursed again. But the storm ceased as quickly as it had begun and in a minute they were all as complacent and jolly as children. Fanny read aloud to her grandfather the words over the archway: "There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place." "Grandpa, Bacon wrote that and he lived in the time of Shakespeare, when Elizabeth was Queen of England." "Yes, yes, child, it's a great prophesy of our greatness. I thought before I came here that the soil done about all of it and what little was not done by the soil was done by the workshop but I see that there is just as much necessity and greatness outside of these things." "Grandpa, let me read what is on the right side of the doorway: "Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for civilization." That was Macaulay, the great essayist and historian of England. I wish I had known he said that, for last month we debated in our literary society the question: "Resolved. That bullets have done more for the spread of civilization than books."" It is rather an amusing thing to note how the exposition affects different people. Some of the visitors are of a type which nothing moves. They have lived all their lives in the pursuit of a placid routine of simple duties, and, while they have come to the fair from a sense of duty and fully intend to see all that may be seen, still they are prone to retire on occasion to some quiet corner where they can rest unobserved, and then their talk invariably drops into some simple, natural channel that is in accord with the tenor of their dally lives. Of course this is tinctured more or less with the unaccustomed sights and sounds about them, but not greatly so; for the most part they simply ignore their surroundings. In strong contrast are the ones who have obviously got themselves up expressly for the fair regardless of expense; their clothes are new, and are chiefly noticeable for the quality which Stevenson refers to as "a kind of mercantile brilliancy." They are nearly as much occupied in allowing others the inestimable pleasure of gazing at them as they are in improving their own minds. They are visitors, pure and simple, and they are characterized by such an air of newness that even the flies avoid them for fear of sticking to the varnish. There is the girl with the notebook, a schoolmarm presumably, though heaven only knows, she may be a lecturer. She usually numbers glasses and a dark velvet bag among her accoutrements. She is possessed of all of the catalogues and guide books sold on the grounds, and in the bag is a further supply of heavier literature for the improvement of her idle moments. It would puzzle anybody to find out when these idle moments occur, for when visible she is engaged in a frantic rush from place to place, pausing only for a moment to ask a question or jot down an impression, sometimes doing both at once without even looking at the dispenser of information. [Illustration] She must have a miscellaneous mind, this girl, for anything seems to go with her from pig iron to poetry. One of her stopped for an instant in the Electricity building to inquire the name of a queer, compact, powerful looking machine. The impression which she received from the laconic attendant in charge went into her notebook in this form: Multiple intensifier is round and black; looks powerful; attendant says 360 horse power. Mem., look up multiple intensifiers in Century dictionary on return, and find how they are applied to horses. The machine in question was a dynamo, but perhaps she will never know. In the Japanese section of the Manufactures building two dear little old women sat down to rest their tired feet in the midst of a bewildering display of pottery, whose brilliant tints contrasted strongly with the rusty crape and bombazine in which they were dressed. "I don't see," said one of them, "the use of sending missionaries to Japan. I suppose they do worship all them things, but, even if they do, I think that if they had as much pretty china to home as they've got here, I'd be inclined to worship it myself. I just don't see how they can help doing it. Do you?" "No, I don't," said the other. "It seems almost what you could expect. I don't believe they are so very bad after all. I can't believe that anyone who could make such lovely things could be a very wicked heathen. I should think the Japanese would almost feel like sending missionaries over here." But Fanny was of a different type, she realized the sublime display of mind and she grew months in the excellence of womanhood every hour of her enthronement in the soul of this great panorama of intellect and labor. Aunt was silently seeing everything like the great dream that it was but Uncle was storing his mind with facts whereby he could confound his neighbors. "It really seems strange to me," said Fanny, "to see how some of these people take the Fair for a circus. If the band played all the time they would never get a chance to look inside the buildings. The moment they get within earshot of the tuba horns they anchor themselves to benches or camp-stools and watch the leader swish the air with his baton. After the music stops they will begin hunting for more excitement, and may finally wander in among the pictures and admire some battle scene covering a whole wall. To-day I saw a young man and his girl standing before that wonderful statuary from the Trocadero palace looking the goddess in the eye while both were eating peanuts. They are after nothing but a good time, as at a country fair. I believe it is all because they don't understand what they are looking at. Grandpa, I can finish my education now and know how to bless you for your goodness to me. I am just beginning to see what a great privilege it is to live." _CHAPTER IX_ THE PLAISANCE PROPHECY Fanny had made the acquaintance of one of the ladies in charge of the educational exhibit of one of the states, and who occupied rooms on the grounds. This lady made arrangements for Fanny to remain over night with her and view a sunrise on the lake and over the "White City." It was to be an experience well in keeping with her emotional nature. The morning came, and the two placed themselves where they could see through the columns of the peristyle across the lake in the direction of the sun. They were sitting on their camp stools on the bridge east of the statue in the basin with their cloaks drawn tightly around them, waiting in awe as they saw the suffusions of color spread upward into the grey sky. Suddenly there is a flash of fire far out on the lake. The last pink curtain of mist rolled slowly away light and fleecy as cotton wool, and the sun, behind this lazy apparel of his rising, spreads a crimson glow over the sky and lake. Miles it comes across the rippling waves, stealing through each arch and pillared opening of the peristyle, creeping over the motionless waters of the basin and bringing brightness everywhere. Slowly the great ball of fire rises higher. Now it flashes upon the statue of liberty, now on Diana, aiming her arrow down into the laughing waters. Under its rays the winged angels on the spires of the palace of mechanic arts seem to start into life, as if they had but paused for an instant in their flight toward the land of dawning. Now the statues of the seasons, flanking the four corners of the Agricultural building, greet the day. Columbus, his face ever toward the west, rides onward with the sun in his triumphal car. He looks down on the work wrought out to his glory and honor, but his journey is westward still, out of the sunlight into the gloom. Against the dark western sky hangs the majestic dome of the Administration building, now a blaze of ivory and gold. The sun lifts slowly out of the water. Its rays shine white and clear. The tired guards lean wearily over the parapets of the canals, throwing bread to hungry swans. Flocks of seabirds sweep up and down the canals like the first flurries of autumn snow. The water fowl greet the day with joyous clamor, adding a quaint, rural touch, almost startling in this city of silent palaces. They splash about the wooded island, screaming lustily when boys come in skiffs to steal their eggs. Swallows and frowsy little sparrows flit from their nests, built in the very hands of the golden goddess of Liberty. From the roofs of every building there is a sudden flash of color. A thousand flags float in the morning breeze. Ten thousand workmen hurry through the sunny park. The mystical city of dreamland is again the workshop of the world. Three hours later our family were together in the art gallery glancing at the famous paintings and statues which the nations had given to show what subtle art can achieve on canvas and stone. Aunt said she always knew those French people were the most shocking people in the world. How different their section of paintings from those of the United States. Fanny had no time for any thought outside of the overwhelming beauty of all she saw. She had begun to paint a little and to do some molding, and she knew how to appreciate the marvelous skill before her. She saw very few people who saw anything in them but a show. Uncle was positively disgusted, and went through only as if it was his duty to see everything. But among the statuary he found some things of more interest. "Why, Grandpa, how solemn you look. Now, I can't feel solemn at this piece of statuary. Let's see what is its name. Here it is--'The Struggle for Bread.' That makes it more interesting. The people are starving and the factories can give work only to a few. Every day they throw out tickets from the windows, and whoever brings a ticket to the office window is employed. Look at that strong young man. He has secured one and the old man is pleading for it, and the woman with her little child has been knocked down in the struggle of the people for the ticket." "Yes, yes, child, you can appreciate only the romance and sentiment of it. You have never struggled in despair for bread, and may God keep you! but Sarah and me have seen many sad, weary days of struggles to live." Johnny had little care for the sentiment or the romance. He was much amused, but it was a dull place for him. At last a thought struck him. He struggled with it several minutes in a very deep study before he ventured to reveal his perplexity. At last it became too great to be borne longer. "Say, Grandpa, I kin see why the sculpture can't sculpture clothes on their folks; but I don't see why the painters can't paint their folks up some more decent." That same thing puzzled Uncle, and he could not answer. He thought a great deal, but he only muttered something about pictures not fit to be stuck on his horse-lot gate posts. It was nearly eleven o'clock when Fanny and Aunt found Uncle and Johnny sitting disconsolately on the steps of the south entrance awaiting their appearance. John was patriotic and he wanted to see the liberty bell over in the Pennsylvania building. A great crowd was gathering as they came up and Johnny found out that the interest came from the fact that the Duke of Varagua, the representative of Spain at the Fair and the descended of Columbus, was visiting the bell. It was a sight to awaken memory for the representative of the fifteenth century discovery to be paying respects to the representative of nineteenth century liberty. [Illustration: "NOT FIT TO STICK ON OUR HORSE-LOT GATE POST."] City folks were not there alone. Many country people were enjoying the pulses of freedom, liberty and patriotism. An honest looking plow boy standing near Fanny asked his father what he thought of the "Dook," a real live "Dook." "I think the dook ort to be proud of hevin' been kin to Columbus, but I'll be blamed ef I don't think Columbus would be proud too, if he wuz yer, and could tech hands 'ith his forty-eleventh grandson. It takes a purty good man to stand all the honors levished 'pon him that the dook's a-gittin' 'ithout his head a-bein' turned, an' I jes' say good fur the dook." "It's all right to hev smart kin folks afore you, but it takes lots o' hustlin' in these days an' lots o' hard work in order to stand fust; an I vote the dook is a fine represen'tive o' his Columbus grandfather. Now lets git closer to the old lib'ty bell." As the rural philosopher looked upon the bell hanging there in the Pennsylvania State building he said, unconscious of the crowd around him: "When thet bell kep' a ringin' out lib'ty, the folks thet wuz they didn't know thet in a little mor'n a hundred years the hull world would be a bowin' to thet bell; an' they never hed no idee it would be carried away out yere in a place called Chicago, covered over 'ith flowers an' gyarded by perlice to keep folks from a techin' it, a fearin' harm might cume to it--an' it a standin' as a symbol o' great faith an' courage. I'm powerful glad I kin stand yere to-day with my fam'ly and look at thet bell. I jes' wisht they'd let it ring onct." But there were others too ignorant or stupid to be patriotic before such a scene. John became indignant, almost to the fighting point, at the amazing stupidity of some of the remarks concerning the bell. To him it was more than an emblem, it was a hero. He heard comments which are past belief. Of course, there are patriots who approach with reverence and understanding and who are only restrained by the police from chipping off pieces of the bell, but many enter and gaze and depart in bland ignorance. "By jinks! but that's an old feller," exclaimed one inspired ignoramus. "Wonder where it came from." Another, a stout, prosperous, business-looking party, observed that it was cracked. "Reckon that was done bringing it here," he said. "The railroads are fearful careless about handling freight." Still another intelligent communicator, and it seemed as if nothing short of positive inspiration could justify his views, spoke of the bell slightingly as a poor exhibit, and wondered what the Pittsburg foundries meant by sending such stuff to an international exhibition. It was now noon lunch time, and our happy family went over to a table in one of the cafes. At one o'clock Uncle and Aunt were to occupy rolling chairs in spending the afternoon sight-seeing around Midway Plaisance. They had heard a great deal about the sights there, and concluded it best to see the outside first and prepare a campaign of sight-seeing based on information received from the chair pushers. Across the table from them sat a man eating his meal in a fatigued sort of way that caught their attention. "Good evening, Colonel," said a gentleman, coming up to him. The colonel was not himself, that was plain. His eyes looked dreamy, and he had the appearance of a man who was under the influence of some strong and very pleasurable excitement. When the friend saluted him he did not reply with marked courtesy. He did not even look at him. He continued to gaze unmeaningly at his plate, and to murmur "Irene-te-raddle, fol de-rol. I'll niver go there anny more." "What's the matter with you?" asked the gentleman, testily. "Well, sir, it do beat the dickens," said the colonel, irreverently, "I've lived a long toime an' seen manny a queer soight in circuses an' dime musooms an' hanky-panky shows, but niver till to-day--oh! Naha-a, it's a bright eyes an'--a bonny locks--" here the colonel began to thrum the table. The friend came over impatiently and shook his fist under the colonel's nose. "You weak-minded old gazabo, is it to hear ye singin' topical songs thot Oi came down from Archery road? What ails ye?" The colonel remarked easily: "Don't git gay, George; don't git gay. Because Oi chuse to sing a little is no reason why ye should take liberties." Then he went on, half-musing: "Oi don't give annything for the Fair itsilf. O'Connor tuk me in there first, but what do Oi ca-are for show cases full uv dhried prunes, ould r-rocks an' silk handkerchers? I was f'r goin' over to see Buffalo Willie shootin' Injuns an' rescuin' Annie Oakley frum the red divvels, but O'Connor sez: 'No,' he sez, 'come on an' see the Midway,' he sez. 'So over we goes to the Midway, an', George, Oi haven't been well since. There'll be a trolley in me hed to me dhyin' dhay, there will, there will. We had no more than got in the strate when a nigger in a mother Hubbard comes up an' sez: 'Little mon.' "'Yis,' sez I, 'an' dom ye little mon till ye do go home an' put on ye're pants, ye bould thing.' "'Hugh-h!' sez O'Connor; 'that's a Turk.' "'Thin there's a pair of us,' I sez; 'let's go.' "'Well,' he sez, 'come into the Turkish village.' "'An' see more niggers? I'll not,' I sez. "'Will you go to the Irish village, thin?' "'No,' I sez, 'aint I seen you?' "'Well, where will you go?' "'If you know a place where they keep beer,' I sez, 'I'm convenient.' [Illustration: "Dom ye, little mon," says I, "Till ye do go home an' put on yer pants."] "He shoots me into a hole in the ground. George, ye should a seen it! At one table sat a lot of black fellows with red towels around their heads an' knives stickin' out of their yellow cloaks. At another table was half-a-dozen gurrls with earrings as big as barrelhoops in their ears. "'Come on back,' sez O'Connor. "'No,' I sez, 'this is good enough for a poor man,' an' we sat down at the next table to th' gurrls. Well, sir, from that time my mind's a blank. I was like the feller in the story-books. I knew no more. I dunno what happened at all, at all, with dancin' gurrls an' snake cha-armers an' Boolgarian club swingers an' foreign men goin' around with their legs in mattesses. All I know is this, that I was carried to a ca-ar in a seedin' chair by two men with room enough in the seat of their pants to dhrive a street sweeper. Did y'r never ride in a seedin' chair, George? Then, faith, ye're not in my class. Fol-der-rol, de-rol de raddle, fol----" "An' what did ye do with O'Connor?" "How do I know? The last time I remimber him he was askin' a girl in the Turkish theayter whether she liked vanilla or rawsburry in her soda wather, the droolin jackanapes. Ah, na-ha, the girls of Limerick city----." The colonel resumed his thrumming. "And is that all you see of the fair." "Yis," said the colonel, "an' faith! if you had me hed you'd think it was enough. An', George, to be in earnest wid ye, that I've known since you was a little dirty boy, go to the fair, ride around in the boats, luk at the canned tomatties an' the table-clothes, ride in the electric cars, but beware of that Midway. It'll no do for young men at all, at all. You'd lose your head. You would, you would. Oh, fol-de-rol, de raddle rol." After this amusing experience just related before them, Uncle thought it very advisable to give Johnny "a good talkin' to about doin' nothin' wrong in that heathen exhibition of furriners." But Johnny could afford to finish that Saturday walking demurely around with the rest, for the next Monday morning Louis, the train-boy, was to be guard and guide through the mysteries of Midway Plaisance. _CHAPTER X_ PLAISANCE SOCIETY When Monday morning came the family were promptly at the 60th street gate at nine o'clock. Johnny espied Louis with his eye over a knot hole that seemed designed by providence to let the hungry outsiders have a morsel of the Midway Plaisance scenery. Inside of the grounds Johnny determinedly led the way at once to the great Ferris go-round. They stood before it measuring their chances of living through such a revolution. It did not take much to persuade Fanny to accompany the venturesome boys; Uncle positively refused to discuss such a piece of folly, but Aunt decided at last that if Fanny went she must go also. Like a forbidden specter the skeleton of the Ferris Wheel stands out gaunt and fleshless. All around is full of light and gayety. A devout Moslem may be pardoned if, as he passes, he touches his forehead with three fingers of his right hand and murmurs: "Allah il Allah!" Some such exorcism seems to be needed to ward off the evil spirits that one would think must cluster around the ponderous structure, perching, perhaps, like the broomstick riders of Salem, on its spare metal ribs. They entered the car of the great wheel, and when the signal to start was given they found that another old lady with her dudish son were to be their companions in the aerial flight. The earth was dropping away. Higher and higher they went. Johnny was holding with a death-like grip on to the car. Fanny's whole life was passing before her like a procession of spectres. In a few minutes they had gone more than one hundred and fifty feet, and the sky seemed to be falling upon them. "Stop her!" shouted the dude, accompanying his words with a frantic waving of his hands. Higher yet they ascended and his face assumed the look depicted in the features of Dante's characters when about to enter the infernal regions. [Illustration: "HIS PLANS IN LIFE WERE INTERFERED WITH."] "Now, if the good Lord ever permits me to get back to the earth safely," said the old woman, "I promise never to leave it again till I am called to die." They had reached the top and passed the crisis of going up. Now they began to fall. The sky was leaving them, and the earth was coming after them. They had no time to think. The coming down was worse than the going up. When they stepped out on the earth at the bottom of their descent it was with a sensation of thankfulness never experienced before. The wheel is 275 feet high, and requires over 500 horse power to turn it. The axle is the largest piece of steel ever forged, and it was a great triumph of engineering skill to put it in place 150 feet from the ground. Hagenbeck's animal show was naturally the next attraction. Some distance ahead of them there was quite a commotion. Johnny and his companion were, as usual, ahead. In another minute Johnny came running back to Fanny and caught her by the hand. Without a word he started forward with her at a rapid pace. Quite a crowd was following some strange object, and Johnny hurried Fanny around to the front, where she saw Mr. Hagenbeck coming leisurely toward them with a lion walking by his side. This was the object which was attracting such a large crowd of people, and it indeed took some courage to stand there as he came by. So completely did they all acknowledge the superiority of the animal that there was no jostling about him. The Columbian guards did not have to form a line--in fact, even they gave way to the distinguished walker who held his head high in the air and enjoyed the bright sunshine without deigning to look at the crowd of different races around him. He was a native of India, and was born to be a king, but his plans in life were interfered with, and the forest in which he was to have ruled was invaded and he was captured. For some time he had not been feeling well, and the proprietor determined to let the captive see the sunshine. So they started out together, the lion walking along as quietly as a spaniel. When the six lions in the cage saw their comrade out for a stroll they gave a chorus of roars which made the windows rattle. It was answered from the roadway, and six guards who stood by thought discretion the better part of valor, and started on a run for the viaduct. Mr. Hagenbeck called them back and told them it was all right, but they still kept a safe distance. The lion seemed to enjoy the outing, yet when his trainer started to come back the monarch of the jungle followed him. The crowd parted as the pair came toward it with more haste than grace, and the lion licked his companion's hand and went back to his cage. Mr. Hagenbeck explained that the lion is one of the largest in the world, and is not yet full grown. It is perfectly gentle, and at his home in Hamburg it is not kept in a cage, but plays in the yard with his children like a cat. In front of Hagenbeck's building there were assembled a motley crowd of people gazing into a small room over the entrance way. There were a number of lions jumping about at the crack of the master's whip and giving the people a sample show of what could be seen inside. It caught the crowd, for there was a rush to the ticket office when the keeper disappeared from among the lions. In the center of the building was a circular cage that looked like an old fashioned wire rat trap greatly enlarged. Into this cage the animals were introduced to go through with their performance. "Well for that bear to walk on that globe and roll it along beats anything I ever seed," said Uncle. "He's got more agility in him than I ever had even at my best. Johnny, you couldn't walk a log across the creek as well as that bear walks that pole, and just look at him walking backwards. If you will notice, Johnny, you will see that the trainer gives all that acts bad a lump of sugar and the ones that act good don't get nothing. That's the way of lots of things, but if you will notice it the good ones will live the longest." Aunt admired the dogs very much and observed that they didn't have to be told what to do as the others did and they were more willing and more grateful for attention. It was really pathetic and comical to see how they seemed to appreciate applause. The dwarf elephant, thirty-five inches high, was brought into the arena in an ordinary trunk. It complacently ate some sugar and returned to its quarters. When the show was over they walked up the street toward the Turkish village. Here a number of people were gathering around a Turkish fakir who was at the side of the street loudly proclaiming the merits of his wares and shouting out some tirade that his employer had taught him as a means of attracting a crowd. Johnny had seen the fellow before and he drew his friends up close to him so they could hear his peculiar harangue. "By the beard of the prophet, my heart swells to spill the souls of those christian dogs. I am the mighty man of the desert and they shall repent or die." "He, he, he," yelled Louis, "that's the feller what the kids told me yanked the mummy of Rameses from the holy temple and knocks out all the Chinamen and Arabs along the Plaisance. Look at him howl." "Oh, Jeremiah, let's get away quick. I'm 'fraid he's dangerous," said Aunt Sarah. "No he ain't," said Louis. "Jest watch me," and he walked up and tossed a copper at the orator's head and Abdul, the mighty man of the desert, caught it with a grin and in broken English said "tank ye." "Disturb me not, O reckless heathens," and he flipped a pebble with his fingers at a passing German who had just come out of the mediaeval castle with a tray of beer mugs on his head. The stone struck him on the ear. He set his tray down on a table and came over to the warlike Arab. "Wot ver you trow dot stein." "Move on I contend only with the strong and mighty." "Wot ver you trow dot stein," and the little waiter edged up close. [Illustration: "IT STRUCK HIM ON THE EAR."] "O mamma, I know the poor waiter will be killed, let's run away quick," said Fanny. "O yer don't know nothin'," said Johnny, disgusted. "The Dutchman kin lick him in a minnit." [Illustration: "She sketched their heads----"] "Wut ver you trow dot stein. You tink I am a house side. Donnervetter! I gif you some brains alretty;" and before Abdul, son of Cairo, could think, the little German tripped him to the ground, and as he fell caught him by the hair and dragged him into the boundary lines of the Turkish village, slammed him on the ground, and in a few minutes was back among the beer tables of the castle with his tray, calling "peer, peer, shents! ah trei peer, two cigar, kevarter tollar!" The day had been a very fatiguing one, and Uncle and Aunt decided to spend the next day quietly at home in the hotel. Johnny and Louis had stayed manfully by the old folks all day, and their promised adventures had not yet occurred. The next day they were to be the guardians of Fanny, and they were quite proud of the duty. Fanny's note book and sketch book were now pretty well filled. Midway Plaisance heads and feet offered the most tempting work for her pencil. It is tempting enough for anyone to ask: "Where did you get that hat?" or "Where did you hit that shoe?" Evidently not in Chicago. Nothing of their kind ever graced a western city in such versatile varieties until the bands began to play and the world's cake-walk moved down the Plaisance. In former years, when they had band concerts and Sunday school picnics at Jackson Park the visitor saw about four kinds of masculine headwear. One was the gray helmet of the park policeman resting under the tree. Another was the tall and shining silk hat of the elderly parent. In addition to these were some straw hats with rims not so wide as those of 1893, and derbys which were a trifle higher in the crown than the new ones. In the general description at the park the old styles of headwear have been crowded to the background by foreign novelties. The dicer, the fez, the turban, the hood, the helmet and the sun-shade are becoming very common. Only the stranger who comes into the gates is startled by the sight of a gaunt black man wrapped in a sheet and wearing coiled around his head enough clothing to make a good wash. But of all the incomprehensible varieties of headwear about the grounds from foreign lands, it remained for our own American Indian to outdo them all. When the great No Neck, of the Sioux nation, walks through the grounds with his war bonnet of eagle feathers trailing on the ground, the East Indians concede their defeat. No Neck's bonnet is worth about $400. The footwear is worse in variety, if such a thing is possible. Perhaps, after all, it is a matter of education rather than appearance or convenience. The most elaborate is the high-topped boots of the German cavalryman, and the least the Dahomey Amazon, who sometimes has a red string tied around her great toe. They come from a torrid country, and have been freezing nearly every day, but scorn the apparel of the weak white man. The Amazons refuse to wear shoes. When it is too chilly for them to gallop around inside the bark fence they crawl into their tents, roll themselves up in the black blankets and criticise the policy of the Exposition. On a moist day, when a Chinaman walks down the Plaisance he leaves a trail of oval-shaped tracks. It would take a keen judge of human nature to decide by looking at the tracks whether he has left home or was going back. [Illustration: "----And then their feet."] The Soudanese slipper is the most shiftless thing that a man ever put on his foot. It is simply a leather sole and toe. These represent the triumph of laziness. The Soudan citizen simply walks into his slipper in the morning and then in the evening he backs out. Every time he takes a step he lifts his heel away from the sole and it seems morally certain that he will lose the slipper, but in some way he manages to hold it. It is said this trick is accomplished by elevating the big toe at each step, thus preventing any slip. Any uncultured American who started for a promenade, wearing such things, would be in his stocking feet before he proceeded ten steps, but the men in the Cairo street tramp around all day and apparently do not realize that they are running any risk. That evening at home Fanny gave a review of her note book, wherein she had recorded her observations on the politeness of the different nations as she had witnessed them. She thought the Javanese were the politest people of all. They always lay their hands upon their hearts and say, "I am honored," when spoken to. When they failed in their ability to answer a question, they just smile to show their good will. The Fort Rupert Indians politely tell their visitor to go when they have told what is asked for. There is of course more kinds of etiquette in the Plaisance than in any other spot of its size on earth. If the visitor desired to be just right it would require an etiquette reference book in at least sixteen languages. Among the Turks there are strange habits. In greeting a stranger they bow very low and remain perfectly silent until spoken to. They will then shake hands in a genuine English fashion. One Turk calling on another will never sit down until the host arrives, even if he has to wait an hour. When the host comes in the two sit down after having exchanged greetings and not another word is spoken until coffee is served. The Syrians, on the other hand, will not turn their faces to a host before being spoken to. It is the proper thing when visiting one of them to take a seat with the back to the door and wait until the host enters and make no move until spoken to, when the visitor is expected to rise and bow. To fully understand all an Egyptian says and does is a harder task than deciphering the hieroglyphics on an obelisk. The language of the Egyptian gentleman is the most fulsome possible. If he should be in need of a little temporary loan he will pound the man (whom he hopes to confidence successfully) on the back until he can hardly breathe. Experts in Egyptian etiquette can tell by the pounding process what is coming, and when the ceremony reaches the piledriver degree it is the proper thing to say: "What can I do for you?" On hearing this the Egyptian will talk something like this: "Do for me? Why, my dear and most honored sir, your humble dog of a servant would not presume to ask a favor of one so great as you. I thought of calling on you yesterday, but it rained, and I feared that you would not be in a good humor and might refuse me, but then I want nothing. Who am I that a humble follower of Mohammed should dare to ask of you, my great lord and master, the very slightest favor? And yet if it had not rained yesterday I should have been fully inclined to ask you for temporary aid, but to-day I would not think of causing your highness any trouble. Why should I, who am so lowly, ask one for $5 for a few days. It would be an insult to you; one you could never forget. What, you insist on it? I am to take this, am I? Now really, as I was saying that one so low--but if you positively insist, if you are sure you will be deeply and terribly insulted if I do not take it--but your dog of a servant----" That settles it. Having obtained the money he marches out without a thank you or goodbye. The Dahomey people are the strangest of all. The first greeting of one amazon to the other is to slap her face. The visitor always slaps the hostess first, and if the visit is welcome the visitor gets a cuff on each cheek, and if it is not convenient to receive the visitor no slap is given in return. But the palm is left to the American for a whole-souled disregard of the feelings of others. The show was brought here for the special benefit of the visitor; he has paid his money, and he has the right to do as he pleases. If the sedan chair bearers happen to pass with some fat man for a passenger, the whole street is in an uproar of English comment meant to be humorous. Then the ordinary American visitor seems to think it his prerogative to point at the foreign contingent and say things aloud about them that would secure physical retaliation if the object of the remark were a citizen of the United States instead of a guest of the nation. _CHAPTER XI_ A STARTLING MYSTERY The next day was what the boys called African day; that is, they intended to see all that was to be seen from Dahomey to Nubia and Soudan. Fanny was to spend the morning in the panoramas of the Burnese Alps and the volcano Kilaueau. At noon she would meet them at one of the inns. The boys wandered about for some time in search of adventure. Over in the street of Cairo there were two peculiar structures that looked like inverted soup-bowls. There was a three cornered aperture In the front of each where men and women could be seen crawling in and out. Over one of these doors was a placard on which was painted, "See the 18 months old Soudanese baby dance. The only dance of the kind on earth." Over the door of the other one was a placard on which was printed "Only 25c to see the great Nubian terpsichorean evolutions." Two or three men would come up, stand awhile and listen at the curious sounds from within, resembling very much the noise made by a pack of curs after a rabbit they did not hope to catch; or, perhaps, more like a plantation jamboree when all the strings of the banjo were broken but one and it had been mended twice. The people came to see the sights, and here was a mysterious something they might regret a lifetime in the missing. Our two boys required no mental balancing of any nice points of propriety. It was there to see, and they had the money to see it with. What more was wanting? Nothing but to exchange the fee for the yellow ticket and present it to the saffron-hued keeper of the door. The little half space alloted to visitors inside was crowded, but the two boys were soon at the front. This was the Nubian's place. There were two men, two women and two little girls. All had what seemed very much like bed-sheets wrapped closely around them. The older girl, according to Johnny's estimate, was six inches through and about five feet tall. One of the men had a belt made of goat hoofs. He danced around awhile and then held out his hat for voluntary contributions. A number of nickels and dimes went in, and then a vigorous dancing commenced. The dance consisted in all jumping straight up and down as stiff-legged and as high as possible. The hat went round again, and the pennies and nickels came in by handfuls. This made them wild in their desire to give value received, and they jumped higher and higher, faster and faster. Sometimes they forgot that they were in Chicago and neglected to attend to the sheet with dexterity. But when people are in Nubia they are supposed to do as the Nubians do and not regard these little negligences. Some of the women went out, but Johnny and Louis stayed in; and they kept staying like a small boy at a free phonograph. They were studying Nubians. After being satiated with knowledge, they remembered that there was a Soudanese baby dance, the only one of its kind on earth. They might be missing something. Then they wanted out. In the next place they saw the same kind of people and the same dance. True, there was a baby eating some candy in the back of the hut, but its jaws did all the dancing for it. This was a swindle which the boys would not further encourage by their presence, and they withdrew. From this they went over to the Dahomey village. Like all Gaul, Dahomey is divided into three parts, whereof Monsieur and his staff inhabit one, his warriors a second, and his amazons a third. The amazons are twenty in number and for the most part are occupied in the pursuit of keeping their pickaninnies from making mud pies with the drinking water. They live in a row of long, low huts thatched with palm leaves. [Illustration: "THE TINT OF A NEWLY BLACKED PAIR OF OXFORDS."] A rail runs in front of the huts and a board sidewalk, on which the amazons squat to perform their toilets, mainly consisting of the application of greasy combs to the half inch of wool accorded them by their Creator to serve the purpose of hair. Day and night they oil themselves. Other times they oil one another. Their shining bodies reflect the glory of the noonday sun. Their complexions when their toilets are fully complete approach patent leather. Other times they stop short at the tint of a newly blacked pair of Oxfords. Inside the huts the amazons betake themselves to arts of peace. A tall woman, clad in a striped loin cloth, was rubbing corn between two big stones in a firm faith that eventually it would become meal. The miller is the curiosity of the realm, for she only has two husbands, both of whom, however, she saw fit to leave behind her in Africa to mind the babies. In Dahomey the hand that rocks the cradle does not bother about ruling the world. Woman has her rights with a vengeance among those people and man has fully recognized her fighting qualities. [Illustration: "HE GAVE A YELL THAT COULD BE HEARD TO THE BEAUTY SHOW."] They found the village tightly enclosed in a high board fence. Then began a vigorous search for knot-holes. But every opening they found had the walls of a hut before it. At last they were partially rewarded by discovering a fault in one of the boards where they could see past one of the huts into the enclosure. Half a dozen of the backs of men and women could be seen about ten steps from the fence. The people would bend over out of sight and then back again. All kinds of conjectures came to the boys. Louis suggested that they were "shootin' craps." Johnny thought they were doing some kind of a religious ceremony. The pressure of curiosity became too great to be endured. They went around the corner and discovered that there was not a single guard in sight. Johnny was standing the expenses, and Louis was generous enough to propose that some means be secured to elevate Johnny to the top of the fence. No more intense brain work was expended on the Ferris wheel than these two boys gave to the proposed elevation. It took mechanical skill of the highest order, for the management had provided for these emergencies, and there was nothing in sight to help them. But necessity kindly became again the mother of invention. There was a small tool chest a short distance down the back fence waiting for the wagon to take it away. It evidently contained no tools, for it was quite light, and the boys soon had it set on end against the fence. Louis got on top of this and was able by tip-toeing to get an occasional glimpse over. But not long enough to reach any conclusions as to the mysterious ceremonies transpiring within. Louis caught hold of the top of the fence firmly and told Johnny to climb up over his back. The natives were too intent at their work to see him, and he got astride of the fence without any difficulty, but in such a position that he could not see what was going on. The eaves of the conical shaped hut were almost in reach. He moved back a little and put his hand on the roof to steady himself. But, alas, the roof was dried palm leaves, and instead of supporting him his hand plunged through and before he could recover himself he fell crashing over against the house, held there for a moment as in despair and then with an armful of the hut held tight to his breast he fell headlong to the ground. The excited natives in all styles of dress, from the voluptuous mother hubbard, much abbreviated above and below to the heavy slouch hat and military overcoat, all crowded around him in the belief that somehow he was intending to destroy their domestic happiness. Johnny did not know in what form the attack was coming and as he could not turn over to get up without touching one of the natives he concluded it wisest to lie still on his back with the portion of the hut which he had brought down with him, remaining over him for protection. Louis gave a mighty jump upward and got his elbows over the top of the fence. He drew himself up enough to see Johnny lying on his back so still and the natives gathered around him gesticulating wildly and talking in a very excited manner. The sight was enough. Certainly, his friend was dead. He gave a yell that could be heard to the beauty show, and jumped down to the ground, calling for the police at the top of his voice. The natives hearing the noise, supposed there was a plot to murder them all, and one got a long-handled rake some workman had left and began to pull the grass off of the prostrate Johnny. Meantime, the frantic explanations of Louis that the Dahomeys were murdering his friend brought a greater and greater crowd to the corner of the enclosure. A number of guards came up, but they had no key and no authority to break into the village. Some policemen came up, but they were either powerless or could not comprehend. No one had seen the accident, and Louis was fast becoming incoherent in his oft repeated explanations. Meanwhile the crowd grew larger and larger, till hundreds were gathered together. All the Plaisance was coming to see what extraordinary affair was taking place. When all the debris was pulled off of Johnny he concluded to get up. He tried to make them understand that he wanted out, but they could not get his meaning, for he was so bewildered that he was pointing in another direction from the gate. At last one seemed to comprehend, and he ran as fast as he could go to one of the huts toward which Johnny seemed to point, and returned leading one of the damsels of the place who, from gorgeousness of native modesty, seemed to be the belle of the village. The native evidently thought that Johnny was in love with the girl, and that he had taken this unceremonious method as the last desperate chance of his life to obtain her. The native was presenting her to him with all his natural suaveness, and was apparently offering him the freedom of the town, when the gate opened and two officers rushed in. One of them took Johnny by the ear and led him outside. People were packed about the place in enormous masses, and every available fence or elevation was utilized by the crowd struggling to see. A dozen or more policemen were outside endeavoring to handle the mass of people. It took half an hour for them to make a way to get John to the outside. When they saw Johnny, a great shout was set up, but it only added to the fright that already possessed Johnny's whole mind. All sorts of stories were afloat among the people. Some said the Dahomeys had captured a boy the night before and were just on the eve of sacrificing him to their idols when a policeman got track of what was going on. As some policemen passed this part of the crowd they were cheered, cheer on cheer, for their keenness and bravery in rescuing an American from such a fate. Others, who claimed to know, said it was worse even than that, for one of the policemen had confided to him that the Dahomey people were about to practice canabalism and had secured the boy in order to eat him. A number were sure that this would cause our government to have these people sent back to Dahomey and as they were under the French government and were brought here by French people it would probably lead to an open rupture between the two republics and perhaps involve all Europe in a struggle for national existence. The reporters ran the rumors down to the very last prophecy and sent post-haste their scoops to their respective papers and a wave of indignation swept the entire country that canabalism came so near being enacted in the very midst of the greatest enterprise of modern civilization. The name of the boy could not be learned, nor anybody found who knew anything about him, but there were thousands of people who were witnesses of the rescue and bore testimony of how near our nation came of being disgraced forever. The policemen knew nothing about it. All they could say was that they found the boy surrounded by the natives, and they since remembered that he seemed too terrified to speak, and the natives were greatly excited at the presence of the officers. They had taken the boy to the outside of the crowd and let him go. The natives themselves could give only a confused account of how they had heard a noise and had seen the boy lying near one of the huts on his back and covered with material torn from the roof of one of the huts. Their story was evidently absurd. Meantime the delivery wagon had taken the tool chest away and thus destroyed the only evidence that might have cleared up the case. The fence was too high for the boy to climb over, and the Columbian guards detailed to that section swore they always kept the whole village in view, and it was impossible for the boy to have got over the fence without being seen by them. Like the great wave of the sea that breaks into a million pieces as it strikes the shore, so this great question resolved itself into a thousand theories, and at last lived in the memory of the people only as the great mystery of Midway Plaisance. _CHAPTER XII_ BEAUTY SHOW Fanny was at the inn when noon came but the boys were nowhere to be seen. She saw great crowds of people massed a little way up the street but crowds were a common sight. She heard broken narrations of some exciting event that had transpired but there was nothing to cause her to think that her brother might be the central figure of all the excitement. Johnny rarely missed his appointments with her and she felt that something unusual had occurred or he would have met her at the designated place. She decided to spend the afternoon at the Libby Glass Works and at the Beauty show. Once in the works, where glass is wrought into the most curious and costly designs, a few hours seems only too short for a good appreciation of the work done. The art, as illustrated there, is as fascinating as a romance. Three hundred people are employed there daily in showing what can be done with glass. Entrance is to be had to the blowing-room, in the center of which is the huge cruciform. In this there are placed the crucibles, as the working-holes are called. The heat in the furnace is 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The batch from which glass is made is composed of sand, lead, saltpetre, potash and soda. It has to be cooked in the terrible heat for twenty-four hours before it is fit for use. In front of the working holes are the workmen. A long steel tube is thrust into the batch and a quantity of the mixture accumulated on the end. From the moment it is taken out of the crucible until the form is completed the operator never allows the hot glass to be still for a moment. It is always moving. The second floor of the building is a lively place. It is here that the cutting is done. The process is most interesting and shows the highest skill of the glass-worker's art. Opposite the cutting department is the glass spinning and weaving department. The spinning of glass into fine threads is done by means of a wheel nine feet in diameter which revolves twenty times a minute. A glass rod is exposed at one end to a blowpipe flame. When the glass is melted it is attached to the periphery of the wheel and the operator sits with watch in front of him. Every minute the position of the melting glass is shifted until the broad wheel is filled, when it is stopped and the glass is cut and taken off, made into the desired lengths and taken to the loom. The weaving is done by girls on hand looms. Two hundred threads of glass are woven alternately with one thread of silk. The thread is made up into napkins, neckties, lamp shades, bonnets and hats. [Illustration: "SHE THOUGHT VERY DIFFERENTLY OF HIM NOW."] Fanny sat down on a bench to rest for a while when, chancing to glance to the far side of the exhibit she saw Mr. Warner, whom she had formerly known as Mr. Moses, intently watching the work in the looms. She thought very differently of him now. Louis had hotly defended him against everything the confidence man had said, and, of course, she now saw that the man who had spoken against Mr. Warner was of the most abandoned type of men. Somehow she felt that she owed him some palliation for the rudeness she had exercised. It would, perhaps, not be altogether according to the rules of etiquette; but if the opportunity offered she intended to say something in explanation. As he came on around her way she felt her pulses beat faster and her face flushing under some strange excitement. As he approached to where she sat, he saw her and stopped for a moment. When he came by she looked, up and he bowed and was about to pass on, but she arose from her seat and he stopped. He held in his hand some samples of woven goods, and he remarked that he was making a study of these fabrics to see if they were worth handling by his firm. The conversation led on so easily and naturally that she forgot that she had something she wanted to say in extenuation of past rudeness. She could not help observing how totally different was this man's bearing and conversation from the evil-minded man who had presumed upon her acquaintance before. There were no questions asked; no lead in conversation that caused her to speak in any way whatever of herself or her people. In a few minutes he had passed on, and she felt from instinct and reason that this man was a gentleman. [Illustration: "THE LADIES WANTED TO SEE HER DRESS."] From this place she went over to the international dress exhibit, more commonly known as the "Beauty Show." Here were fifty young ladies chosen from as many different nationalities in order to exhibit the fashions of the world in the highest art of dress. At the front was Fatima, the queen of beauty. Her booth represented a room in the Sultan's harem. On either side, reclining on an ottoman, were her waiting maids, and at her feet her special servant. All the magnificence of oriental splendor surrounded her. A group of at least a hundred people were continually crowding the railing in front. They plied her with questions, and the ladies were much offended because she would not walk around so they could get a better view of her dress. She could answer questions in nearly any language but Turkish, and she finally admitted to some French gentlemen who were quizzing her that she came from Austria, her foot servant from the south of France, and her waiting maids from Paris. That international beauty show is a wonderful and fearful affair. The beautiful representative of Ireland is dressed in green, and wears glasses. "Arrah," said an Irishman to the proprietor, "raley now, is it in grane all the Oirish girruls do be drissed? By the bones av St. Patrig, 'tis the first toime Oi iver saw wan in glasses." "The fact of the matter is that our Irish young lady is ill, and we have engaged this young lady to fill her place," said the proprietor, and he moved away only to hear the following conversation with the typical Greek lady from the Ionian isles: "Do you speak English?" from a visitor. The lady shook her head. "Do you speak French?" This In French by the same. Another shake of the classic head. "Do you speak Greek?" This actually in Greek, but it only brought another shake. "Sprechen sie Deitsch?" cried the visitor, with some impatience. "Oh, ja! ja!" exclaimed the Greek young lady, eagerly, and a general laugh went around the little group which had listened to the conversation. "Say, Bess," said a young fellow, nudging his girl and pointing to the Queen of Beauty, "ain't she a corker?" "Naw," replied Bess. "I don't see anything pretty about her. She's all drug store. Anybody can see that." "How d'ye like that, Mariar?" remarked an old Hoosier, stroking his yellow whiskers and squinting at his better half, a hawk-faced woman of determined countenance. "I tell yer what. Mariar, with all your good qualities yer never could hold a candle to that 'ere girl, could yer, now? Honest?" "Benjamin! Come right along out o' here. Yer head's bein' turned by these brazen-faced females. Why, yer'll be cavorting around here like a young colt in a minnit or two. The idee o' comparin' me with that painted young woman--me, your loving wife--come along now," and Benjamin went. [Illustration: "THERE WAS A PERT YOUNG MISS WALKING THE FLOOR."] At the United States booth there was a pert Miss walking the floor, monarch of all she surveyed, a typical Uncle Sam's daughter. It was a sorry mistake when a dude presumed too much on her patience or a smart young man made too free with his remarks. She was always ready for them, to the delight of the patriotic young Americans about. Here Fanny found five young girls studying the United States beauty with more than ordinary interest. Each of the girls wore a badge, on which was printed C. C. of C. C., and just above these letters were five more, M. K. S. L. N. A note book containing a pencil was attached by a neat little chain with the badge. There was scarcely a minute that one or the other of them was not writing something in her book. Dressed exactly alike and being so intent on their work, they were evidently not ordinary sight-seers. Finally some remark was made between Fanny and one of the girls and Fanny showed her own note and sketch book and asked how they were keeping theirs. It soon appeared that these five girls were in a contest of more than ordinary interest. An enterprising newspaper of a Southern Illinois town had sent these five girls to see the Fair. They were to be supplied with all needful money, to be independent of all escorts, to take notes and write up their adventures and their version of the scenes of the great exposition entirely unknown to one another, and the paper would publish their reports on their return. Competent judges were to decide on the merits of their work and a handsome reward would be given to the successful writer. In an adjoining town another editor had sent out five boys on the same errand. The writers must all be between twelve and fifteen. The one out of the ten who did the best work was to receive a splendid souvenir medal. They were given ten days of sight-seeing and their whole souls were in the work. "But what can be the meaning of these letters C. C. of C. C." "At home they say these letters mean Crazy Cranks of Cumberland County but the fact is they have a meaning which is a secret that shall die with us. We are sworn with each other never to reveal it and to prove that girls can keep secrets. Of course the letters form our club name, and it has the word Columbian in it, but that is all we are ever to tell. We have a constitution and by-laws and regular meetings for mutual protection and advice in our trials and troubles." This was all quite interesting as a proof of what the girls in the latter part of the 19th century could do. Fanny and these girls at once became fast friends, for she found that they did not live a score of miles from her home, and that there were a number of people and home places that they all knew. "But what can these letters "M. K. S. L. N." here at the top of the badge mean?" "Oh, that is no secret. They are the initials of our names--Mary, Kate, Stella, Leila and Nannie." They said they were not the only ones on a like errand, for they had met a little girl all the way from Boston, and only fourteen years old, who had been sent on the same errand by her class in the high school, and they had heard of girls from the south and west who were coming for the same purpose. "We can't lecture," said Mary, "but we are going to help the Women's Congress prove that girls have just as much brains and courage as boys." It was now nearly six o'clock, and Fanny was so interested in the five girls that she persuaded them to go home with her to enjoy the evening together. It promised a pleasant diversion, for the five girls had been hard at work several days and had not met a single acquaintance or congenial friend. When Fanny arrived at her hotel that evening with the five girls, it was to discover Uncle and Aunt in consternation over an extraordinary story told by Johnny, who had arrived home an hour or two before. According to his story, he and Louis had tried to see into the Dahomey village. He did not know that it was wrong. He missed his balance and fell over the fence. He was scared and stunned by his fall. After a while he heard Louis yelling as if in great pain. Then two policemen came in and protected Johnny till he got safely away. When they reached the outside of the crowd which was all the time yelling at them, the policeman told him to git if he didn't want to get mobbed. He ran as hard as he could run in order to escape. Then he remembered Louis was caught, for he had heard him calling for help. Johnny came back around the buildings, but, alas! the bloodthirsty mob had done its work and Louis was no more. Johnny, now safely at home, lay moaning on his bed and would not be comforted. Fanny remembered having seen the great crowd over by the Dahomey village, but she had not dreamed of such a terrible scene taking place. Altogether it seemed incredible. "Extry papurs, all about de cannibal feast!" A thought suddenly struck Fanny that if there had been such a horrible tragedy as Johnny had told of, the papers would tell all about it. She ran down to the street and came back with a copy. She looked rapidly over the paper, but she saw nothing about a lynching at the Fair grounds. Then the front page leader, with its half a column of head-lines caught her eye: "_EXTRA, SEVEN O'CLOCK_" "_The Mystery of the Dahomey Village deepens as the Investigation Progresses"_ _"The French proprietor avers that there was no attempt at Cannibalism, but he cannot make a coherent statement of the case"_ _"The supposedly bloodthirsty Dahomey men and amazons, said to be the most peaceful and mild in Africa. The natives contradict themselves and tell a dozen different stories. The Exposition management greatly alarmed, and the investigation being pushed with vigor. Horrifying disclosures supposed soon to be reached"_ She read it over, then she read it aloud to sorrowing Uncle Jeremiah and Aunt Sarah. The truth of the great unintended hoax and misunderstanding began to dawn upon them. Then she explained the situation, and Johnny was brought out to hear it fully discussed. It was now clear to all of them, but what should they do was the next question. They could not think of the newspaper notoriety that the avowal of the truth would give them. Anyway, it had gone too far for them to interfere. Surely it was wisest and best for them to say nothing. It was so decided. As ludicrous as it was, it had become too grave a matter for amusement. "Of course you will help us keep this secret, you girls?" Not a word was returned but Mary picked up her chair and sat down in front of the four girls. "The noble and progressive association, C. C. of C. C. will now come to order." Instantly each girl sat prim and upright in her seat. "Is there any question before this deliberative body of girls?" Nannie arose and said, "Madam President, I believe it is proposed that we add another secret to our list." Leila had her note book out and was taking down the minutes of the meeting. "Believing that this should be done," Nannie continued, "I move that what we have heard and now know concerning this newspaper sensation we forever keep secret." Stella seconded the motion. Here Kate got the floor and said she did not think it advisable to add another secret to their list for she now had so many that it was making her life a burden in trying to remember them every time she had occasion to open her mouth. Besides the case would certainly be a scoop for them against the boys and would make them famous and cause the "Weekly Express" to be circulated all over the globe if it published the first true version of the case. [Illustration: "THE NOBLE AND PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION, C. C. OF C. C."] There was a sharp discussion for a few minutes, in which parliamentary usage was dethroned and confusion seemed to rule but they were young women and therefore had not lost a word. The vote was taken and there was but one voice in the negative. There was a motion to make it unanimous and it was unanimous. Thus the wish of their hostess prevailed and another great secret was forever closed In their hearts from the common herds of mankind. _CHAPTER XIII_ SUNDAY AND CONSCIENCE Johnny could scarcely wait for nine o'clock of the next morning to come around. He wanted to see if his friend Louis was really alive and if he would be at 60th street gate. Louis was there dancing about in a fever of anxiety. At John's appearance the two boys went off to talk about their mishaps. They had achieved more adventure than they had bargained for. "Have you seen the papers?" said Louis. "Yes." "Have you told anybody yet?" "No, and my folks thinks it's best never to say anything about it." "Then we never will." "Say, Louis," said John confidently, "there was five of the alfiredest best looking girls around at our house last night you ever saw. Fanny found them at the Beauty show a looking at the sights. They live in a town not very far from our farm and they are coming over to visit Fanny before they have to go into school. You have to come down and visit me while they are there or I will have to live in the barn." The agreement was closed and the boys passed through the gates in quest of new adventures, as if nothing unusual had ever occurred to them. However, they instinctively avoided Midway Plaisance, and decided to see what was on Wooded Island. They ranged through the hunter's camp, through the Japanese Hooden, and all over the island in the vain attempt to find something equal to their educated fancies of fun. Somehow Louis learned that there was to be a religious dance in the Quackahl cabin. Nothing else could have a place in the boys' minds until they had tickets for the show. Inside the hut was a strange sight. Wanug had arranged four of his warriors on the east side of the hut, and these formed a quartet that produced the music for the fearful dance to follow. In the center of the hut a log fire burned briskly. The warriors had their faces smeared with Indian ink, and some of the beauty spots looked like demi-semiquavers on a sheet of music. The squaws, and even the papooses, were painted for the occasion, and everyone of the Quackahls were dressed in blue robes, ornamented with striking pearl buttons. At a signal Hammasoloe suddenly sprang on the boards and began the mythical movement known as the cannibal dance. It was symbolic of a curious legend current among the Indians of Vancouver island, of a strange spirit that dwells among the mountains and spends most of his time eating the fat members of the Quackahl tribe. Hammasoloe took the part of the spirit and crouched down as if ready to spring on his prey. The sticks beat hard on the plank, and the music for the dance began. A squaw pounded on a square box, which represented the Quackahl drum. Two warriors were deputed to watch Hammasoloe while he circled around the fire, for the usual ending to the dance is startlingly realistic. Usually the dancer becomes so excited that he bites the arms of those present in imitation of the actions of the great spirit on the mountains. Whenever his eyes glared and his looks became ferocious the warriors grasped his arms and quieted him. He disappeared behind a white curtain, and a few minutes afterward out sprang another warrior wearing a huge mask, representing a raven's head. The raven is a slave of the spirit and is supposed to be represented by one man. But Awalaskaius played the part of the raven. His body proved as supple as a professional contortionist. He twisted his legs and whirled his head around and snapped his jaws in a remarkable manner. Cries that made the ears ring accompanied the dance. When Awalaskaius had finished, Hammasoloe sprang out from behind the white curtain wearing a blue gown on which the figure of the Quackahl sun was worked. The rays of the sun were blazing red, and the man in the orb was depicted winking in a gracious manner. Louder grew the noise, and the quartet taunted the spirit so much that he again disappeared. Then came forth Awalaskaius with a duck's head mask, which is the sign of the great spirit. Again he went through his curious contortions and scared some of the ladies, as he snapped his beak dangerously near them. When the dance was done and the boys were once more outside they were quite satisfied with sight-seeing among savages and were quite contented to spend the remaining days of the week among the more prosaic and poetical scenes of the great Fair. Uncle and Aunt had about walked themselves down in their sight-seeing, and were now enjoying the comforts of the rolling chairs and listening to the voluble information which the chair pushers thought it their duty to impart. Fanny was walking near them in a never ceasing enjoyment of people and scenery. As they passed the Woman's building a large number of women were seen coming out together. On going over the viaduct two well dressed men from the Emerald Isle could be heard in critical conversation. One of them said: "Look, Pat! It's women again! Do ye mind that now. Look at um coom out ov that new building. It's the Fair that's bein' run by thim faymales. Soon they'll want to run the wurrld, and they'll be votin'. The divil will be to pay in a man's home. They should be taught their places at once. If my wife should git that strong minded sure I'd be packin' her off. Dacent homes are bein' ruined, Pat, and soon there'll be no homes. They meet in clubs to worship the rich, and who will do our mending and cook our meals? It's all wrong, all wrong. The women must be taught their places." [Illustration: "VOLUBLE AND PERHAPS VALUABLE INFORMATION."] And the poor man looked worried. He is probably teaching Bridget her place today. Aunt was looking wistfully over toward Wooded Island as if it reminded her of home. "I tell ye, I haven't saw anything as nice as them flowers. They tell ye of the country, and its quiet over here. Ye get too much of a good thing sometimes out among the white buildings. It's sort o' dreamlike over here, ye know." She was right, it is dreamlike and it is restful. Din and noise are far away and nothing breaks the stillness but the faint music as it floats down from the plaza. The azalias are in full bloom, and orchids and pansies and nearly every other blossom meet you at every turn. They stopped at a place where a number of people were looking up at the roof of the Liberal Arts building. Countless small black specks could be seen moving along the roof. Then it was perceived that those specks were really men and women. It is only by such a comparison that they could realize the vastness of these buildings. "What a jumble of bigness all this is!" Aunt exclaimed, "them people look just like flies on the ceiling or swallows on the peak of our new barn." The chair pushers took them slowly through Wooded Island. "What was that, Fanny, that you used to tell me about Alladin and his wonderful lamp?" said Uncle. "I keep a thinking' of that story every time I try to picture all these things at once. Here is fifteen acres of fairy land just like in the fairy books I used to buy for Mary." They then went on with the crowd past the Government building and the Liberal Arts hall to the basin. On the viaduct, over behind the Statue of the Republic, they stopped to look over that never-fading picture there presented to view. Over the peristyle were written some of the sayings of great men. Fanny read one that heightened the scene into a thrill of thankfulness and patriotism: "We here highly resolve that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." "Now," said Aunt. "I believe I know the meaning of this vast expenditure of money and energy. It is not only to show us and others that we have not all the brains; that we are not doing all that is done, but to teach us mutual gratitude for the great privileges of our republic, and fix firm the resolve in the breast of every man that our government of freedom and conscience shall live forever." They went on out to the pier and dismissed their chairs for seats in the cool lake breeze, where they could see the people coming off of the steamers and approaching them down the long pier on the moving sidewalk. Wearied with the constant commotion in which they had never been before, it was decided to return home and to spend the remainder of the week in rest and recuperation for another struggle with the world of culture in Jackson Park. When Sunday came. Uncle was told that the Fair would be opened for visitors. He had been so busy sight-seeing that he had not read the papers or he would have known better. He did not know just what to do on that day, whether to go to church, or the parks, or the Fair, but he was anxious to see what the Fair looked like with most of the people promenading the streets all in their Sunday best. He came to Chicago to see the sights and seeing sights never appeared to him to be wrong. Every Sunday it was his custom to go out into the pasture and look at his jerseys, congratulate himself on how fast his herd was increasing, and contemplate the prospects for the future. Grass grew, the birds sang, the cattle bellowed, and nature was as bright on Sunday as any other day. Besides he had some neighbors who believed that Saturday was the holy Sabbath and he had never been able to disprove their arguments. He believed on general principles that the Fair should be closed on Sundays and that the grass ought not to grow, but since the grass did grow, he would profit by the increase and if the Fair was opened on Sundays, he would not miss its magnificent object lessons. "Ah, Jeremiah," said Aunt, "every one of them big buildings comes over my spirit like a prayer and when I go inside I see the answer and the benevolence of God. To shut people out is like padlocking the orchards on Sunday, and stopping the machinery that makes the apples grow. Six days are the rich men's days and God made the Sabbath for the poor. Because our neighbor raises hogs and eats pork it is none of our business because we raise Jerseys and drink milk. The Good Book says: "Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of any holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days."" They concluded to go back home and then stroll out, and in their walk to go into the first church they found. They did so, and came into a great church just in time to hear the minister read the text: "And God said unto Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night; and should I not spare Nineveh?" Uncle Jeremiah listened for the story of Jonah and the gourd to be applied in some way for a lesson to the hearers, but only once, when the minister told what he had seen in Palestine, did he become intelligible to Uncle. It was all so transcendently ethical. Uncle got a remote idea that Chicago was to be likened to Nineveh, and the gourd to the World's Fair, but when the sermon was done, and all said, he felt that he would have enjoyed the hour so much better in some of the quiet shades of one of the parks, where he would have heard so reverently the still small voice of nature's teachings. After noon they went to Lincoln Park, and as they stood before Lincoln's statue, Aunt said: "This is greater than any sermon I ever heard." They read the words and sat on the bench encircling the statue, while Fanny read the sayings of Lincoln chiseled on the stone. Then they visited Grant's monument. They sat down on the stone steps and looked at the noble figure. Uncle was carried away with a religious patriotism that held all the emotions of divine presence. [Illustration: "THIS IS GREATER THAN ANY SERMON I EVER HEARD."] "There," said Aunt, "we are listening to another sermon that can not be surpassed by the tongues of men. A whole life of great deeds for our country is here speaking to us. No man can be a bad man if he were to come every Sunday and give his emotions up to the lessons of the lives of Grant and Lincoln. Divine emotion is not aroused alone by words from the pulpit or the silent walls of a house. Seeing is as great a means of God as hearing, but seeing receives its sermons from the infallible; hearing listens to that which may come only from the brain." [Illustration: "THE POLICEMAN CAME OUT OF THE BOX AND WALKED RAPIDLY DOWN THE STREET."] It was late in the afternoon when the four of them got off the cable car at Monroe and Dearborn streets and walked leisurely toward their hotel. At one of the street corners they saw a policeman come out of the patrol box and walk rapidly down thestreet. In a moment more he was joined by three other policemen from another street. Uncle turned to watch them, when suddenly they began to run, then faster, almost as in a race. "Sure they're going to arrest somebody," said John, and he started after them at break-neck speed with visions of a murder probably being done just around the corner. Uncle became excited also and started after them followed by Aunt and Fanny, not knowing what else to do. Uncle and John reached the corner breathless and looked each way to see where the robbery or murder was being done, but what was their disgust to see the three policemen climbing into a cable car and calmly taking a seat. It was an outrageous sell on all of them, but it could not be helped, and there was no law by which they could sue the policemen for a false alarm. They had the right to run to catch a car if they wanted to. The family went on more deliberately now for they had no breath to spare and there was but little to be said. Uncle felt that Chicago was very much of a mockery anyhow. But he had seen enough to make him desire to see more. The tremendous puffing and blowing of a tug was heard somewhere in the river and they concluded to go over to the bridge and see what it was. There was a mystery anyway about how those big boats got past the bridges. Uncle and Aunt walked on over the bridge but John and Fanny stopped to hear the music made by a cornet band of girls on one of the excursion steamers. The tall masts of a lumber boat could be seen coming rapidly toward them in tow with an insignificant little steamer. There was a jing-aling two or three times of a bell hid somewhere in the framework of the bridge, teamsters and people were hurrying across, and all at once the bridge began to move. Johnny saw some people remaining on the bridge and catching Fanny by the hand he cried, "Here let's take a ride" and in a moment they were swayed past the street and out over the stream. Over at the other end they saw Uncle and Aunt holding desperately on to the railing. They had not been able to get over when the bridge moved away. Presently the boats were past and the bridge rapidly swung into place. Down the street half a block Johnny saw some steam issuing from the middle of the street. Instantly the idea of a volcanic eruption in the middle of Chicago possessed his mind. He called Fanny's attention to it and their curiosity was greatly excited. They had heard that Chicago was a very wicked place and their preacher had once remarked that he would not be surprised at any time to hear of an upheaval by the Lord sending the city over into the lake. In considerable dread lest the overthrow was about to take place, they walked towards the place along the sidewalk, as the famous Harry walked up to the guidepost at the country crossroads on that cloudy night so long ago. But they were greatly reassured when they found the people about them were so indifferent and they were chagrined to learn that they were again deceived. It was no volcano, there would be no terrible cataclysm, it was only an inoffensive man-hole to the sewers, into which the waste steam of one of the factories near by was escaping. Meanwhile, Uncle and Aunt had stepped off of the bridge and were intensely bewildered all at once to find that the excursion steamer and the houses next to it had all apparently jumped across the river to their side. "Did we come acrost that bridge?" Uncle asked. "I know we never." "How did we git acrost without coming acrost?" "I can't see how anybody could come across without comin' across, and I know we never," said Aunt. "Well, ef we hain't acrost, then the houses are acrost, and it is more natural fer us ter be crazy than for the houses to get acrost." "Ask the policeman." Uncle went up to the policeman and said: "Say, Mister, we want to know if you will be so kind as to tell us ef we are acrost or not acrost." "Do you mean on the north side or the south side?" "No; I mean on this side or the other side." "Well, which side did you come from?" "I thought I came from the other side," said Uncle, "but it seems now as if I came from this side and didn't go over to the other side at all." "Where have you been?" asked the policeman, making a mighty effort to untangle himself. Uncle was becoming impatient. "I tell you I've been acrost that river 'cause I walked acrost, and then I never walked acrost again, and here I am not acrost, and I want to know how I got back acrost again." "Say, old lady!" said the policeman, "ain't he crazy?" "This is the first time I really ever thought so. We've been seeing too much, and I guess we're both crazy." "In that case," replied the officer, "I am compelled to take charge of you." "O Grandma!" cried Fanny, just then running up, "ain't this great. Johnny and I have been nearly half an hour trying to figure out how we got across the river, and I found out first. You see the bridge just went straight half around, and so when we got on this end here it carried us around to the other side and carried you back around to this side." "Bless the Lord!" said Uncle, fervently; "Sarah and me ain't crazy yet, and the policeman needn't worry himself." But the policeman was gone. "You see, Fanny, we couldn't make it out, and Sarah and me and the policeman all agreed that we was stark gone daft." Uncle and Aunt now had enough for one day, and they heartily wished they were back on the farm. But they swallowed their discomfiture: and, after a good night's test at home, determined to visit the Board of Trade, where Bob Simmons had lost the fortune his father left him. [Illustration: "IS THEM THE FELLERS THAT THE FARMERS IS AFRAID OF?"] Uncle and family did not get around to the Board of Trade till nearly eleven o'clock the next morning. There was a wide entrance with a stairway on either side. Uncle saw the people in front of him, and he was accustomed to pass right in among the congregation and take his seat in the amen corner. He did not notice that the others had stopped at the door, but he plunged right ahead. The door-keeper evidently had his attention engaged at something else, for he let Uncle walk on in. Some one at the door spoke to the ladies and told them to take the left stairway to the gallery. They reached there just in time to see Uncle in a difficulty below. A young man had him by the arm and was pointing very vigorously toward the door. "Who do you want to see, sir?" "I want to see the Board of Trade. Where is it?" "Go outside and up the stairs into the galleries and you can see it all you want to, but not here." Uncle did as he was bid, but found that he was quite widely separated from his family, because he had been sent up the opposite stairway from them. "I came up to see the Board of Trade," he said, confidently, to a well-dressed stranger next to him. "Well, there it is in all its glory," said the stranger. "Oh, I see! The board is that table where them fellers is a tickin' them machines. You see I thought they would be a setting and a trading across a long, wide board like they used to do at the country stores for counters. But them fellers down there acts like a lot of lunatics. I don't see how they can ever come to a bargain, yelling and spewing around that way. And then I don't see the bulls and bears that change the market." The stranger thought it a useless job to try to enlighten him. When Uncle and his family came down, he went up to the doorkeeper and asked, "Say, do you belong here?" The keeper nodded. "Did you know Bill Simmons what lost five thousand dollars here last year?" The door keeper shook his head. "Well, say, I just want to ask one more question. Are them people down there the bulls and bears themselves, and are they the Board of Trade and are they the people that the farmers are so afraid of?" The keeper nodded. "Well," continued Uncle, "I've got this to say; any set of farmers as is fools enough to be afraid of them yelling idiots, aint got no backbone at all." Chicago was unsettling many of Uncle's ideas, and he began to decide that the only real, bonafide thing he could swear by was his own farm, and that the great outside world was only a great circus of art and extravagant genius. _CHAPTER XIV_ SIGHT-SEEING GALORE Under promises of gorgeous sights and full protection, Fanny had concluded to visit the chief Midway Plaisance theaters with Johnny and Louis as escorts. The "Midway," as it is familiarly called, is undoubtedly the most unique and interesting pleasure-walk in the world. It is a thoroughfare of ever-shifting scenes and ever-recurring incidents. Fanny was not sure she ought to go, and Johnny could not comprehend why she did not go with him as readily wherever he proposed as she did on the wild free life of the big Jersey farm. But this was to her a supremely different existence, and she tried hard to recall all she had seen and heard and read of etiquette and the proprieties. Uncle and Aunt were not the only ones who were bewildered at every step by the amazing mixture of reality and art, of fact and fancy, of nature and imitation. They felt as if their souls were living apart, and that they were mere automatons in a panoramic world. Johnny had seen the Soudanese and Nubian play actors just before his disastrous attempt to be informed concerning the Dahomey village. But some scoffers from the South had spoiled part of the novelty of it by alleging that the men of northern Africa were really natives of Mississippi or Louisiana, and were dancing only plantation hoe-downs in slow time and increased perpendicular action. But without question the high histrionic art of the Chinese, Javanese, Turkish and Algerian actors ought to be seen. Maybe it was strangeness rather than excellence and novelty rather than entertainment that drew the people but strangeness and novelty are the greater excellence when people come to see wonders. The Chinese theater is by far the most pretentious. It was pretty well advertised to the world at the advent of the actors in Vancouver and their encounter with the custom officers. They came to Chicago several hundred strong and are housed in the big blue-and-gilt structure with trim pagodas near the Cottage Grove end of the Midway. Entrance to the theater is through a big tea house, where decent-looking Chinamen who do not look like rats and whose fluent English proclaims their long sojourn in "Flisco," serve the cheering cup at from 10 to 60 cents, according to the pliability of the victim. They are doing a business worthy of a better cause. The tea house is but the ante-chamber to a joss house overhead, mendaciously advertised to be "the biggest outside of China," and to the theater proper. The latter is not so big as the Chinese theaters in San Francisco, but it smells sweeter, being over ground and not surrounded with the cooking-rooms and opium bunks of the actors. This is a concession to occidental taste which all but oriental enthusiasts will appreciate. Nor are visitors allowed, as in San Francisco, to inspect the green-room or sit on the stage. [Illustration: "She visited the play and sincerely regretted it."] In other respects the theater is pure San Francisco Chinese. There is the orchestra, led by the man with the yard-wide cymbals, playing the leading part. There is the property man, always in evidence, who places a chair and says "This is a horse," or turns the chair around and calls it a mountain. And there is the female impersonator with deeply roughed cheeks, who is the pride and flower of histrionic art. Women are not allowed to walk the boards of the Chinese theater, but the male actor who best can mimic woman's tones and mincing airs is the Henry Irving. There is a whole chorus of these men-women in the Jackson Park theater--an all-star combination. As for the piece itself, they first play a little curtain-raiser of about two-months' duration and then the real play occupies the rest of the year. It will be all one to the American visitors, however, who enjoy the novelty, so that they are allowed to quit when they like. And there is no objection to that from the polite Chinamen in charge of the Jackson Park theater. The Turkish theater is across the way and farther east than the Chinese. It is back from the beaten path and you might miss it--if you were deaf. Having ears to hear you will be apprised of its whereabouts at forty rods distance by the orchestra, which sits on the front steps and discourses horrors on a sort of flageolet and a bass drum. The orchestra plays only one tune and it plays that hard. When a respectable house has been gathered by these out-of-door allurements the curtain rises on a Turkish play. It is a sweet pastoral of a youth who is lovesick and cannot be cured by the doctor, by the soothsayer--by any one except his love, who comes in time, and there is a wedding. When this play was ended, Fanny decided that she had seen enough of foreign theaters and declined to go further. A Boston girl in spectacles sat near her through the Turkish play. She told Fanny that she and her mother had been venturesome enough to visit the other plays, and they sincerely regretted it. She found a mongrel horde of Turks, Arabs, Europeans, blacks, Greeks--everything applauding an interminable song, whose filthy motif it needs no knowledge of Arabic to discover. The singer was an Algerian woman, good enough looking, after the pasty style of oriental beauties, young, agile and mistress of the curious, droning guttural melody which constitutes oriental music. She plays her part with complete abandon, probably because she knows no better, and her audience applauds her wildly for the same reasons. The Boston girl said she had seen these same girls, or their professional sisters, in the Algerian theater. But their performance had been modified to suit the western taste. They sing and dance, but their songs and dances are nothing more dangerous than a languorous drone. But there are also some funny parts, according to the Algerian idea. They are played by a jet black Somauli woman who joins in the dance and a jet black Somauli boy in the orchestra who has a face of India rubber and a gift for "facial contortion" that would make the fortune of an American minstrel. [Illustration: "FACIAL CONTORTION THAT WOULD MAKE THE FORTUNE OF AN AMERICAN MINSTREL."] A look at the outside of the Soudanese theater is enough for the ordinary curiosity-seeker. It is a little round hut of bark in a dark corner of the Egyptian enclosure. Mahomet Ali sits at the receipt of custom exchanging pleasantries with dusky flower girls whose home is by the orange market beyond the Kase el Nil, who know more French than English, and more deviltry than either; who sing "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay," and know how to solicit backsheesh to perfection. The theatricals here are simplicity brought to perfection. It is said their language consists of only a hundred words. If you were to paint your face black, look wild-eyed, stiffen your hair in many strands, array yourself in a cotton garment that revealed more than it concealed, and then were to jump straight up and down to the music of a dolorous chant you would not be far astray. Add to this a whining and interminable appeal for backsheesh and you might be very near the mark indeed. But there is one Soudanese performance you could scarcely hope to equal, unless you were to learn some sort of devil's chant, gird your loins with a loose belt of shells and by rapid contortions of your body make these primitive cymbals accompany your chant. This is the star of the troupe. Romantic people, who like to think of dancing as the poetry of motion, can get a liberal education in muscular poesy by making the rounds of the Midway Plaisance. They may see sonnets in double-shuffle metre, doggerels in hop-skip iambics, and ordinary newspaper "ponies" with the rhythm of the St. Vitus dance. Slices of pandemonium will be thrown in by the orchestras for the one price of admission, and if the visitor objects to taking his pandemonium on the installment plan, he may get it in job lots down at the Dahomeyan village. In their "dance," as it is termed, they take a step forward with the right foot, and drag the left after it. This is repeated until they stub their toes on the orchestra, when they swarm back and go through the difficult feat of advancing by a series of hops on one foot. All of this is to the discordant pounding of drums and scrap-iron, where tune could not be discovered with a search warrant. That evening Fanny visited the C. C. of C. C. and arranged for a family picnic at Washington Park the next day. She was to be hostess, and they were to have an outing with her in the city's artificial fields and forests that would recall the merry life of the country, and yet they would be surrounded by all the artistic embellishments that money and genius could secure. Johnny went post haste for Louis, and the two boys were made bearers of the lunches, guides of the expedition, the vanguard of the march and the responsible protection of the company. They were eight merry young folks who took possession of the grip-car on the Cottage Grove Avenue cable line that morning. They stopped at the park hot-house and spent two delightful hours in the wilderness of flowers and of palm forests. On the outside were rustic seats about a pond where, in waters made tepid by steam heat through iron pipes, all kinds of tropical plants flourished in a profusion perhaps not excelled anywhere on the equator or along the banks of the Amazon. The great flower clock and the immense flower globe showing the geography of the earth, the old English castle gate and the carpeted lawns showed them the skill of the gardener's art. A quiet nook was found near the water's edge of one of the ponds. With a newspaper for a table-spread they enjoyed a lunch where hunger was a sauce better than Worcestershire, and the sod a better resting place than a throne. After their lunch and a good rest they returned to the business part of the city and spent the remainder of the day in the Mystic Maze, the Labyrinth and the Panoptican. These were places where electricity and mirrors were arranged with the object of reversing every conception the eye had ever given to the mind. In one place the visitors entered a triangular room in one corner of which there was a large vase of flowers. The walls were solid mirrors and the six girls found themselves as if in a host of people and a wilderness of flowers. From this they passed on into a room which the attendant said was forty feet square and contained thirty-eight mirrors six feet by eight set at different angles between posts evenly distributed about the room. As they stepped forward they found themselves among countless hordes of people, again they were alone, all at once they found themselves in a line of girls that stretched on either side apparently for miles. One time they would be brushing around among people about two feet high and two feet thick; again they would be surrounded by thousands of girls eight or ten feet high and correspondingly thin. It was exasperating to say the least. When they became weary of this novelty they looked about them for the attendant but he had mysteriously disappeared. Leila said she knew the way out and she started with all the confidence that a usually level headed girl can have, but alas! she nearly broke her head by running into one of the big mirrors. Nannie happened to look in a certain direction when she saw the door and the curtains about it as plainly as she ever saw anything in her life. "There I see the door," she cried, "come this way," and she started with her hands out before her like some one feeling his way in the dark, though it was as bright about them as the electric lights could make it. All at once the door she had in view disappeared like magic and she stood before herself in a mirror ducking her head backwards and forwards like two young chickens with their beaks just touching in the preliminaries of a fight. The situation was becoming too serious to be amusing any longer. "What shall we do?" said Fanny, who had read of death in the mysterious labyrinths in ancient times. The roof was low, and even if the sky had been their roof they had no wings, like Daedalus, whereby they might escape. The girls began to get nervous, and several million of them seemed to huddle together as they discussed the situation. "I say, let's yell!" said Mary. "But what is the use to yell," one said, "if they have determined that we are to die here?" [Illustration: "THEY HELD TO ONE ANOTHER, AS IF FOR LIFE OR DEATH."] Now they were becoming really frightened. The picture of their lingering death in that frightful crowd of specters was most horrifying. Their voices were becoming tremulous and hollow, and the terra-cotta figures of wild Bedouins that sat in a niche of the far wall and was multiplied a thousand times, seemed to grin at them maliciously, as if in anticipation of seeing their agonizing struggles against death by hunger. The suspense was becoming something terrible. "I say somebody must yell." "Let Kate yell, she's got a strong voice that might reach the street." Kate tried to do her duty, and she said, "Oh, Say!" in a voice that would not have wakened a rabbit from its slumber. She tried again, "Oh, say, we want to get out!" in a voice so hollow that none of the girls recognized it as hers. "Is ze ladies seen eet all they want?" said the polite attendant, as he seemed to come before them at one step. "Where were you?" they all cried. "Why, I vas by ze glass about tree feet away." "And you were listening to all we said?" "Oh, I do not leesen. Eet ese my beesness to go out weeth you ven you ask eet." And then they followed him out. "What a horrid place that was and we thought at first it was so nice," said one. "In all our lives we can never have a dream half so frightful as that was," said a third. "One thing sure," said Mary, "this terrible experience has bound us forever and forever together; and because of our common experience in this awful adventure we must initiate Fanny into the mysteries of the noble order of progressive girls, C. C. of C. C." _CHAPTER XV_ A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE Foreign theaters, mazes, labyrinths, panopticons, spectatoriums and their ilk had no more charms for the girls, but with Uncle and Aunt they spent the next day in the museums, casinos and panoramas of the city. But wax figures and brain-muddling deceptions were still the value they received for their money. "I will be contented," said Aunt, "never to leave the farm again. I can be happy there the rest of my born days in knowing that when I look at a cow it is not a stuffed cow, that the calf by her side can move; that the man on the barn floor with his pitchfork in the hay can really lift it over into the manger for the cattle. This mornin' I see a lady standin' on one of the stairs tryin' to tie her shoes. She was having a time of it, I knew, so I says, says I, 'leddy, let me help you.' She didn't say nothing, so I jest stooped down to help her. I pulled the tongue of the shoe up and tapped the sides together over it, when a perfect chill came over me, for I pressed the lady's ankle, and it felt just like sawdust. Poor woman! I thought some terrible accident had cut off her leg and she had a false one. I looked up into her face, and she looked so pale like and deathly that I was awful scared, then I looked more and more and I see she was dead, died maybe of heart disease while she was a stooping over. O what a shock! I can not get over it to my dying day. I nearly screamed but I knew I must not, so I just called to the feller sitting at the table writing visiting cards to come there quick; but he just set there stock still and never moved. I didn't want to attract attention from the folks around so I just picked up a nail a lying there and hit him square on the cheek but he never flinched. I spoke then to the woman leaning over the railing laughing at the little girl down below but she never changed her smile at all. I couldn't tell what to make of it when a feller came up to me an' says, 'Do you want anything, old lady?' I stared at him and says 'Hist, sir, don't you see this poor woman is dead. Died a stooping over too sudden.'" [Illustration: "SO I SAYS, SAYS I, 'LEDDY, LET ME HELP YOU.'"] "Then he just laughed at me a little, and pulled her dress to one side and showed me that she was only a wax head and a stuffed body. That made me mad, for it is a sin and a shame for to deceive people that way, and defraud 'em of their hard earned money. I told him to show me the way out, and I would report how he was defrauding the public to the humane society or somebody. He just laughed at me again and invited me to take a chair in the office if I wanted to wait for my folks. I went in there and an awful nice woman talked to me and explained things till I wasn't so mad as I was; but I still think it is a shame that a Christian city should allow such awful frauds on peoples' eyes and nerves. Anyhow, when I get home I want to go around and touch everything and make sure that there is no more foolin', so I can live in peace and facts." Aunt was very indignant. She could stand the deceptions that Uncle had been so opposed to at the Fair, but when she was deceived in her acts of kindness, it was carrying things entirely too far. The places of interest, as the guide books said, had now all been visited, and they were walking down the street fully satisfied that they had seen all the sights of the city from the skyscrapers to the organ grinders. The police courts and the stock yards were not considered as places of interest by them. John and Fanny were in the lead, with the five girls just behind them, and Uncle and Aunt bringing up the rear. As they reached the corner there was a clamor and a scattering of people crossing the street, and a rumbling that jarred the earth as two great fire engines dashed by rolling smoke upward and clanging a bell in a way that was frightful. "Fire, fire!" shouted Johnny. "Oh that's what we want to see, a fire, a big fire," echoed the girls. In a moment they were all running pell mell after the engines, jostling against the people and exciting the merriment and wonder of every body. The engines were running in the direction of their hotel and very likely it was on fire and they would lose all their clothing. "Come on girls," shouted John as he led the way like a foxhound. "Come on, I know it's only just around the corner. I see the smoke rolling up from the house." The engines had turned another corner and Johnny felt a great pride in being the guide and encyclopedia of ready information for six girls. Out of breath they reached the corner where they supposed they would see a terrible fire with people jumping out of the windows twelve or fourteen stories high, perhaps safely into blankets, possibly to their death. Or, brave firemen scaling ladders and bearing lovely girls out of the horrible flames. But they discovered that the smoke they had seen was coming out of a tall chimney, and that far down the street almost a mile away they could get glimpses of the fire engines still forging straight ahead. But they were not to be daunted thus. There must be a great fire somewhere down there that it would take many hours for the engines to get under control. On and on they ran, out of breath, to be sure, but determined to see the great Chicago fire that required two such great engines to bring under control. They had run several blocks, when they became so tired they could only walk. Another block or two was traversed, when they met the engines coming leisurely back. It was a bitter deception, there was no fire. They turned back; and, when they met Uncle and Aunt, also entirely out of breath with the chase, Aunt declared that this was only another case of Chicago's base deceptions. It could joke with dead people and jest with fires and make a playhouse exhibition costing many millions of dollars, and fool old people and the young alike and with equal conscience. Uncle observed that it proved to him that Barnum was right when he said that a fool was born every minute, and that the Americans were a people who delighted in being deceived. The girls decided to remain that night with Fanny, and to visit the Fair together the next day. A pleasant evening was spent, but the subject of fire and fire escapes were the chief topic of conversation. Each of the windows of their room had a fire-escape fastened to the facing, and the instructions printed underneath were carefully studied and mastered by all before retiring. The next morning they were gathered in the main room awaiting the time for breakfast. Johnny raised a window to get a look outside, when the well known clang! clang! clang! of the Chicago fire engine was heard. Instantly all was excitement. Clang! clang! clang! and another came by. Then there were two or three more, and they seemed to stop right under the window. People across the street, even up to the top stories, were complacently sitting in the windows and looking into the street as if such a thing as great flames lapping upward and smothering them to death, were unknown. Johnny, who was looking out of the window, yelled: "O Lord! it's our house on fire, and we are five stories high!" The streets began to fill with people. Uncle, panic-stricken, looked out and saw the engines puffing below. The cool audacity of the people at the windows across the street was appalling. They did not care for death. All at once Uncle recovered himself and yelled: "Everybody to the life preservers! Git into the fire escapes and save yourselves!" But the room was empty. "Oh Lord," Uncle groaned, "they have gone insane and run down into the flames below." Wringing his hands he ran to the door and cried, "Oh Sarah, Sarah, come back and let us die together." But neither Sarah nor the rest were anywhere to be seen. He was alone. Remembering the instructions regarding the fire escape, he ran to the window, fastened the straps about his waist and climbed out of the window. He pulled the string that was to unreel the rope and let him down. Down, down, he went expecting every moment to feel the fierce heat about him. He seemed to be half way down when the reel ceased to work and he hung there suspended in mid air awaiting an awful death. He gave a despairing jerk when down he went within three feet of the pavement with a sudden stop that took his breath away. A crowd of people began to gather about him. [Illustration: "HE HUNG SUSPENDED IN MID AIR, AWAITING AN AWFUL DEATH."] "What's the matter old man," said a man who had seen all the performance. "Where's the fire," said Uncle wildly. "It is two blocks further up," he answered. "And ain't my folks all burnt up?" he said pathetically. The answer was at once before him for he had let himself down directly over the entrance of the hotel and his family just then arriving at the bottom of the stairway came out to him. There never was a more happy meeting for Uncle than that one. His ridiculous adventure was not clear to him till he had time to study it over. But there really was a fire further on and they were not to lose such a sight. [Illustration: "THE FIRE WAS TWO BLOCKS AWAY."] A large dry goods house was on fire, and eighteen or twenty monster engines were puffing and roaring, each one like a threshing machine on Uncle's wheat field. They pressed themselves forward to the very front of the spectators, and so close that the heat of the flames could be distinctly felt. A heavy wind was blowing, and all the force of the fire department was out to stop the flames. It was truly the grandest and most fearful spectacle the family had ever seen. There came a puff of wind toward them and the flames came down, almost scorching their clothing. Then the policemen commenced to drive the crowd back. [Illustration: "SOMETHING HAPPENED."] There was almost a panic, and the girls nearly had their lives crushed out of them. It was an adventure they cared never to repeat. Johnny did not fare so badly, for he was more intent on the workings of the engines. He was free from mishaps till he chanced to take a position over the great hose-pipe through which the water was sent with such tremendous force on its mission. Something happened. He is not able to relate just how it was. But the hose burst directly under him, and he was tossed over into the streaming gutter with a precision he can forgive but never forget. After this happened it was time to go home to be more agreeably clothed. Johnny was a sadder though a wiser boy. _CHAPTER XVI_ TO BUY A DOG Jackson Park was a paradise of peace and rest compared with the nerve destroying difficulties of sight-seeing in the city. Uncle had experienced all the adventures he wanted, and his great desire now was to escape all further mishaps until he could get back safe among his Jerseys on the farm. Tired from much walking among the scenes of the Exhibition, the family sat down upon one of the rustic seats in Wooded Island. It was a most picturesque place, a most inspiring spot from which to contemplate the great sweep of history that had culminated on those grounds. "The longer I stay about this Fair," said Uncle, "and the more I see, the more I wish I knew. I can see folks discussing things with such great delight when I can't understand anything but the ifs and ands and buts. I heard a man say to-day that Columbus never discovered America, that he was a pirate. He said that all these doings should have been for a Viking or some such name. I knew it wasn't so, for so many people couldn't be fooled. How may that all be, Fanny?" "There are a great many theories and stories set afloat about the discovery of America by people who desire more to show off their ability to construct plausible heresies against accepted things than to give real historic truth. But there is much that at least seems to be evidence of the Norsemen having been in America 500 years before Columbus touched the outlying islands of the West Indies. The Sagas of Leif the Lucky and Eric the Red told some marvelous stories of discoveries to the southwest of Iceland. Some of these stories seem to be verified in many ways, by digging up the logs of the Norse huts, by the written characters on Dighton rock, by the old tower at Newport, by the Benheim map of 1492, and a number of other important things. "Then there has been found what seems to be beyond doubt a figure of Buddha in Yucatan, and also a Buddhist monument in Central America. Therefore a number of people have been trying to prove that Hwul Shan of China, discovered America ages ago. There are likewise well established the claims of the Phenicians and Greeks and even the Welsh and the Irish. But all of these were fruitless till Columbus in his high aspirations to become a great prince over unknown countries and to spread the Christian religion of his day, opened the way for the course of Western empire." "But Fanny," said Uncle. "I heard the man say that Columbus didn't know anything and had no chance to learn." "Yes, Father, this glorious year has taught to the students all over this country the beginning history of our great republic even as this Fair is teaching the progress of the world. Though Columbus was the greatest man of his age, yet we know only that he was the son of a wool comber and that he attended the school at Pavia, where he showed a marvellous aptitude for astronomy and cosmography. He became a sailor on the Mediterranean, some say a pirate, but the ships of one nation then preyed on the ships of another and considered it legitimate because there was then no International law. He married the daughter of an Italian named Palestrello, who had been a celebrated Portuguese sailor. With her he received many valuable charts, journals and memoranda. He soon moved to Lisbon, which was then the center of everything speculative and adventurous in geographical discovery. Columbus made a living here by making maps. Here he studied out his theory that he could reach Asia by going west, and he made several voyages to the Azores and Canary islands, which were then the limit of sea navigation. Then began his travels for help to carry out his wonderful plans. He took with him his motherless boy, Diego. From place to place he went with a heroism of patience never surpassed. The story of the rebuffs and privations through which he passed will be the wonder and praise of men forever. Weary and footsore and hungry, he stopped one day before the Franciscan Convent La Rabida, in Andalusia, to beg some bread and water for his child. Then came the mysterious turning of the scales in the forces of human greatness. The Superior of the convent happened to pass by, and, struck by the appearance of the poor traveler, began to talk to him. The Superior at once saw that no ordinary man was before him. Grander views were never presented and greater plans of conquest were never known. Christianity was to invade Asia on its eastern shores and meet the irresistible forces from the West. Columbus believed himself divinely inspired for this and therefore demanded that he be made high-admiral, governor-general and viceroy over all the land he reached and that for his revenue there should be given one-tenth of the entire produce of the countries. Such a far reaching demand as this could not have been acceded to only by a doubting sovereign, and he would probably have been beheaded with his puny crew of one hundred and twenty men if he had reached Asia and attempted to carry out such a wholesale scheme of subjugation. "The months of this voyage were scarcely less full of treason, burdens, and peril than the years that had been given to make the voyage possible. A pension was promised to the man who first sighted land but Columbus saw a light rising and falling on the evening of Oct. 11, and on that account claimed and received the pension. It is said that the sailor who really saw land first foreswore his country and fled to Africa because of having lost the pension and the honor of being the first to see land. This is told by the enemies of Columbus to prove a sordid and avaricious nature. It is also told that he took such exasperating and outrageous measures to uphold his visionary schemes of conquest and government as high-admiral, governor-general and viceroy, that it became more than his home government could endure. "His last voyage was disastrous, but whether from his own desire for gold hunting, or because from the demands of his crew, it can not be told. A man was sent to supersede him and chains were placed upon the man who had worn the robe of royalty. His last years before the public were even more bitter than his first. Until his death he seemed to spend all his time in trying to recover from the king his lost prestige, titles and possessions, but they never came. He besought Ferdinand pitifully to bestow them as a perpetual heritage upon his son, even if not to him. In a letter to his sovereigns, he said: 'Such is my fate that twenty years of service, through which I passed with so much toil and danger, have profited me nothing; and at this day I do not possess a roof in Spain that I can call my own. If I wish to eat or sleep, I have no where to go but to the inn or the tavern, and I seldom have wherewith to pay the bill. I have not a hair upon my head that is not grey; my body is infirm, and all that was left me, as well as to my brothers, has been taken away and sold, even to the frock that I wore, to my great dishonor. I implore your highness to forgive my complaints. I am indeed in as ruined a condition as I have related. Hitherto I have wept for others: may Heaven now have mercy upon me, and may the earth weep for me!' "He died in bitterest poverty at Valladolid at about the age of seventy years. He was buried at Valladolid for a short while to satisfy the Franciscans, and then removed to Seville by request of his relatives. It was said that Columbus wished to be buried in San Domingo, and Charles V. gave authority for this to be done to the grandson of Columbus, and the family of Colon was to occupy the chapel of the cathedral. But there is no record whatever of the events of his burial at San Domingo. This is accounted for only on the theory that Drake, the English pirate, destroyed them when he sacked San Domingo. "In 1795 Spain ceded San Domingo to France and it seemed to the Spanish people to be a national disgrace for the bones of Columbus to remain on foreign soil. There were no explicit directions as to the exact spot where his bones were and it was not known then that five of the family were buried together there. What was supposed to be his ashes were taken to Havana but in 1877 while making some repairs in the vaults another tomb was discovered in which was a strip of lead from a box which proved that the place contained the ashes of the grandson of Columbus. Then a further search was made; only a few inches from the vault first opened another vault was found and in it a lead box containing pieces of bone and human dust and on the lid was written _"D. de la A. per Ate"_ which is supposed to mean "Discoverer of America, First Admiral." A silver plate inside had inscribed on it the names and titles of Columbus. This much decomposed leaden case was placed, with its contents, in another case of satin wood and glass, and all deposited in a vault so that the contents could be seen through the glass. Spain could not think of giving up the honor of having the bones of Columbus on her own soil, and the Royal Academy of Madrid made an exhaustive study of the subject and at last published a book in which they closed the argument with the following words: "The remains of Christoval Colon are in the cathedral of Habana, in the shadow of the glorious banner of Castile. It is most fit that over his sepulchre waves the same flag that sailed with him from Palos in the Santa Maria."" After reviewing this history, which her interest in the great Fair, and the great events it commemorated, had caused her to learn, and after consulting her note book to be sure of her correctness, there was a general discussion among them, which showed that sight-seeing was not all they were doing at the Fair. [Illustration: "Some bodies for the heads and feet."] It was now past noon. Aunt decided to go home; Fanny would walk up and down the "Plaisance," and with her sketch book see what she could do toward putting bodies between some of those heads and feet she had drawn. Uncle and Johnny decided to go up to the business portion of the city to spend the rest of the day. It was a pleasant afternoon, and when they reached the viaduct from the train a great mass of people were passing and repassing. The great Auditorium building loomed up before them, with the Art Gallery on their right and the Columbus statue on their left. Under them trains were gliding by like long serpents, and out in the lake fleet steamers and sail-boats loaded with people were moving about like white spots on the blue waters. Uncle and Johnny passed along the sidewalk in front of the hotel when something at the corner caught their attention, and they came up for a moment to look at it. Two or three men also turned, stopping by him when he stopped. Then a few more came up, and a ring of men began to form. Uncle and Johnny now noticed that they were surrounded by people, and they attempted to move out, but in vain. In a short time the crowd had become so large that the sidewalk was blocked, and none except those who were close to the center knew what the original attraction was. The people coming over the viaduct and from far down the street noticed the crowd too, and bent their steps also in its direction. Some, fearful that they would miss something, began to run. The contagion for speed spread, and soon the whole mass were speeding up the boulevard with open mouths and wide-staring eyes. Each was asking the other as he ran, "What is it?" As they came in contact with the central surging crowd where each man and woman was trying to see over the heads of those in front, despite the fact that the object, whatever it was, was on the ground, the question was repeated. But no one seemed to know what had happened. People in the center of the crush began to demand room and air. In vain they struggled to get out. The people still coming over the viaduct would start into a run as soon as they were on the street, and thus continually adding pressure on the outside made the positions of those inside almost unbearable. The crowd was now a pushing, clamoring one, extending some distance up and down the sidewalk and out into the street. The apparently insolvable mystery as to the nature of the accident or cause of the excitement only made the crowd more persistent and harder to manage. There were some who shouted, "give the poor fellow more air." "It's a shame to crowd around him like that." Then they would push harder than ever to see what it was. Two men pushing each other got into an altercation. One struck the other, almost knocking him down. The crowd quickly took hold of the injured man and shoved him out into the "outer darkness," as if he had been a criminal, while the other was let alone. Some shouted for a doctor, others for the patrol and ambulance and the police. At last two officers came. After ringing up the patrol they forced their way through the crowd, which quickly fell in behind them and pressed on again with the renewed hope of seeing something. The presence of the officers only added to the general excitement, and people who had been laggards or had left in disgust came back at a double quick. When the police got to the wall of the building they found a man who had two Newfoundland pups tied to a string. The patrol wagon was sent back empty, and the crowd, which had been sold instead of the pups, dispersed. When Uncle got out he took his bandana out of his hat and mopped his forehead, as if he had just finished tossing up a load of hay to Johnny on a hot day in the hayfield. [Illustration: "ONLY A COUPLE OF NEWFOUNDLAND PUPPIES."] "Consarn them critters!" he said, "I was thinkin' of buyin' one of them Newfoundland purps for Fanny, but the crowd was so anxious to see the trade that I've got entirely out o' the notion. I never see such curiosity people in all my life. The other day I stopped at a winder, and before I got half through seeing there were about fifteen people standin' around and lookin' over my shoulder. I guess I can't see anything any more without tollin' so many folks on that I'm liable to get crushed. If country folks was half as curious 'bout things as these city folks, they might be laffed at with some sense." _CHAPTER XVII_ CAIRO STREET "And so you call this the Anthropological building?" said Uncle. "What kind of things has it got inside to have such a name?" "Well, Grandpa, if you desire to be enlightened scientifically, I may say that it is a subject beginning with Adam and including the whole human race. It is divided into five parts: zoological anthropology, showing the differences and similarities between men and brutes; descriptive anthropology, showing the differences and similarities between the races; general anthropology, which is the descriptive biology of the human race; theological anthropology, which concerns the divine origin and the destiny of man; and ethical anthropology, which discusses the duties of man to the world and his creator." "Do tell! it's a pretty big subject, and no wonder it has a house to itself." Inside they found skulls, skeletons, bones, savage relics consisting of dress, utensils, ornaments and weapons with amulets, charms, idols and everything pertaining to early religions the world over. On the eastern border of south pond was to be found the outdoor ethnographical exhibit. Indian groups, Indian schools and everything illustrating their primitive life and material progress. There were objects, shell heaps, village sites, burial places, mounds, cliff houses and the ruins of Mexico, Central and South America. To see the same thing, and to only very little better advantage, would require thousands of dollars and years of perilous travel. "The more I go through these places," said Uncle "the more I feel ashamed that I did not do my share in bringing of relics. Now I could have brought the old nightcap that sister Susan's dead husband's grandfather brought over from England; and I have a gridiron that my great aunt gave me to remember her by. And there's the snuffers and the old wood-yard rake that my grandfather made himself way back in New England, and the dress in which my aunt Harriet was married, and the horseshoe from the foot of the horse that killed cousin John's boy Tom, and sister Hanner's gold fillin' of her tooth, which was the first gold fillin' in our parts, and it came out just afore she died, and I don't know how much more. Ain't they anthropological, ethnographic biology or something like that?" "I think, Grandpa, they would have been more useful in some kind of a cabinet in the old settler's cabin, but we needn't to fret about it any." From here they went over to the Midway Plaisance. The "Street in Cairo" was to be opened with a great parade of some kind and they wanted to see it. The natives call it _Mars-al-Kabia_. In fact the Street in Cairo was all the curiosities of Egyptian Cairo's streets crowded into one Chicago Cairo Street. It was a splendid sight with its gardens and squares, its temples, its towers and minaret made in the most Arabesque architecture and ornamented with the most fantastic draperies. The inhabitants had been directly transported from old Cairo across the sea to Midway Plaisance. There were the importunate street venders, the donkey boys begging and pulling at the clothing of the visitors, the pompous drivers of camels beseeching the visitors to try their "ship of the desert;" tom-tom pounders, reed blowers, fakirs, child acrobat beggars, Mohammedans, Copts, Jews, Franks, Greeks, Armenians, Nubians, Soudanese, Arabs, Turks, and men and women from all over the Levant, all in the gorgeous apparel of the East, filling the booths or strolling about the street. They were the happiest lot of Orientals that ever got so far away from home. Drums were beating, camel drivers singing merry songs, and a curious medley of voices which the earth beneath them never heard before. At eleven o'clock somebody blew a strange kind of horn, which made the small boy almost kill himself in his frenzy to get near to see what it meant. Musicians mounted the camels and began grinding out music that was enough to frighten even a North American Indian to death. At the first glimpse of the camels a team of steady old horses, that probably were never frightened before, ran away with the gravel wagon which they had been patiently dragging along. Little Arabs and Soudanese ran ahead of the procession turning somersets and clapping their hands in hilarious glee. There were warriors hopping about and clashing shields and swords together in mimic battle. In front of Hagenbeck's show the lions were aroused from their slumber in the den above the entrance, and they stood before the bars and roared at the procession. Then the dancing girls came skipping along, followed by a bride and her maids, for at last it was seen to be a bridal procession that was celebrating the opening of "Cairo street" in Chicago. Here is the circus of the "Plaisance," where the visitors are the actors and the clowns. Every hour can be seen a bevy of pretty girls escorted by a brother or some dapper young man. The camel drivers hail them. What a chance for a lark! "Let's have a ride on the back of the queer creature," says one maiden. "Oh! you wouldn't dare," replies brother. "Wouldn't I, though? Just watch me," is the modern maiden's response. She approaches the dromedary, which opens one eye by way of recognition. [Illustration: "Hurrah! It humps in front, jumps behind, and paces in the middle."] She passes silver to the hand of the dark-skinned menial. The other girls giggle. A great crowd gathers round to see the fun which experience has taught is coming. Now the bold young woman is in the saddle, and holding tightly, as advised, to the strap which hangs near by. The dromedary opens the other eye, shuffles his rear and longest legs in the dust with a sound that resembles the hum of an approaching cyclone, gathers himself for an effort, and suddenly presents to the gaze of all beholders a rear elevation notable for its suddeness and its altitude, if not for its architectural beauty. Though catapulted about ten feet higher than she had had any idea of going, the American young woman does not scream. That would be unbecoming woman in this woman's era. She merely presses her lips tighter together, lets her smile fade away at the corners of her pretty mouth and grasps the strap as if her life depended upon it. The crowd, of course, laughs. By this time the dromedary has shuffled himself some more along the brick pavement and opened the ugliest mouth ever seen this side the Nile. Now he shows his front elevation, and the smile which had returned to the lips of his fair rider fades again as the other end of the animated catapult is put into operation. But only for a moment. The bystanders have only begun their second laugh when the American young woman is seen to be herself again. She is out for a good time, and she is having it. The dromedary winks three times and puts a sinuous, swaying sort of motion into his body. His fat feet and angular legs begin to describe semi-circles. The saddle and its rider twist and gyrate and revolve and stop short, only to start quickly off again in some other direction, and the triumphant journey through the "Street in Cairo" has begun. It is a very narrow thoroughfare, this oriental street, and it has no sidewalks. The crowd falls to either side. As the courier of the desert humps through the lane made open for him, his rider is seen smiling and happy. She knows she has a pretty foot, and that it is neatly clad in red shoes with tapering points and the most becoming of hosiery. She knows her figure is trim, and that her cheeks are bright and her eyes flashing. Applause follows her from the mosque to the temple of Luxor, and rolls back again as her beast turns for the homeward march. She has had a ride on a real dromedary, caused palpitations in a hundred masculine hearts, and made 500 of her sex envy her the possession of such feet, figure and nerve. But these are not her sweetest triumphs. The consciousness to her most grateful and satisfying is that the courage and the independence of the modern young woman of America have been exemplified and vindicated. They must get their fortunes told. There were no gypsies in this Cairo such as camp along the country roads or in the edges of the villages and tell sighing swains about their loves. Here was a seer imported direct from the banks of the Nile. His father studied the stars and read lives from the palms of men's hands. His grandfather did the same. He came from a race of wise men. The first seers of his family sat in the shade of the early sphinxes and told Egyptian maidens to beware of young men who came up from the Red sea with false promises. But his fortune-telling was of the same kind as one finds everywhere. A young man paid the price and held out his hand. The wise man took hold of the fingers, bent them back from the hand and pushed the cuff half way back to the elbow. He traced the course of the veins, ran his coal-black finger along each wrinkle of the palm, and all the time muttered to himself. Sometimes he nodded his head and gurgled approvingly. Again he hesitated and groaned feebly, as if the signs were sad. The young man had a scared look in his eyes. Then the interpreter began to tell what the aged seer had to say: "He says that you had sickness. It was not long ago. You were afraid. But it's all right. You won't be sick any more. Have health, good health. Feel good all time. Don't be afraid." "I'm glad to hear it," said the young man. "Before you worked where you do now you had another kind of work. You did something else. You will change. Not the same kind of work next time. No, no. You will have good time. A man will give you work. It is different from what you do now. He is short, fat, very rich man. Go with him. You will do well, make money--lots of money. Fat man will make you have better clothes." "Well, what's the matter with these I've----," began the young man, but the interpreter hushed him. "He says you must stay in Chicago, good place. If you travel you will not have as much money as you will have when you get with the fat man. You must stay here if you want to be rich and have good clothes. Aha! this is very good. Put your head near. He says you are very warm-hearted, like all of the women. Yes, yes, that's it, you love one in particular, your wife or some one. He wants to know who it is you love." "I am not married," said the young man. "He says," resumed the interpreter, "that it's all right." "All right, eh?" "Yes, you will marry her, but not this year." "How long do you think you will live?" "Give it up." "You will live to be 87. He says so." That was all, and the puzzled young man arose to go away. "How was it? How was it?" asked all the women who had been looking on and marveling. "I'll tell you," said the young man. "The past and present are both a little cloudy, but the future is all that any one could ask." Then he started away, keeping a sharp lookout for a fat man who seemed to be rich. At the end of the street is the Temple of Luxor, where the curious pass under the deity-covered portal, and gaze upon the reproduced wonders of ancient Egypt. They bend over withered mummies of kings dead 5,000 years ago, and listen to music that has not been played for ages. Near here is the passage way outside, and, as Fanny came out with her ears ringing with the strange jargon that everywhere met her, she was at once relaxed from the tension of sights and sounds she had just been in by seeing two country people rush together just before her. One said: "Well, what in the world are you doin' here?" "I swan, is that you? What are you doin' here?" "Oh-h-h, we had to see the Fair, couldn't miss it, you know, not if it took a leg." "That's right, that's right. Bring your folks?" "Oh, yes, they're around here somewhere. Mother's about fagged. Says she'd rather cook for harvest hands than walk all day. Going to stay long?" "Calculate on being here all next week if body and soul stick together. 'Spose you'll be here sometime." "Can't tell yet. Just about give up seeing it all. Half the time don't know whether I'm on my head or my heels. Blamedest place I ever struck." "That's right, that's right." It was enough to cause her to smile at their homely enthusiasm, and the striking contrast of language. It was a relief to hear intelligible language once more, and in the rural dialect so familiar to her ears. The soft, balmy days of June were now in their glory, and Uncle and Aunt sometimes spent nearly the whole day sitting around on Wooded Island imagining they could hear their cattle lowing in the pasture across the creek, and dreaming their lives over again from their early happy days. It was so peaceful there. Then they loved to go over by the lake and look upon it as a painted ocean, as calm and quiet as a pond of Raphael. It was something to see the stretch of blue go on till it touched the low-hung clouds at the edge of the world. Beyond the mists and the smoke of the white steamers were dimly outlined streaks of yellow and light, which turned the whole heavens into a softened sky of good promise. In the foreground of the vista the giant figures of victory, with charging horses and chariot, and all the Apollos and Neptunes, stood out like silhouettes. There was no noise save the ripple of the water down the cascade at Columbia's feet. Gentle winds lapped the waves along the beach, the furious breakers of other days were toned into a delicate murmur, which sounded very like some sweet symphony or the hymn of a winged choir. Waves which had for weeks been tangled masses of white caps and had thrashed with frantic anger the bases of the towering pillars dropped to the dainty ripples of a summer breeze. There was no crash, no roar, no splashing spray, driven on by a gale that snorted and snapped. So delicately and silently did the waters kiss the shore that sparrows and wrens and a flock of wandering doves walked to the very edge and filled their crops with the pure white sand. Then this, the best great work of any race of any age, comes over the spirits of worshipful men like heavenly benedictions of good-will and peace. Sometimes as they sat in some quiet place alone saying nothing but thinking joy, the music of holy melodies came floating across the waters of the basin and re-echoed from the heaving lake to the Administration dome. They were sitting at the feet of that human genius which God had hallowed for the sake of those who revere His holy name. They were everywhere thrilled with the supremely gifted achievements of their fellow men, inspired by the living canvass from every clime, and amazed to know that the lumps of Parian stone could be made to speak the heroism of the world. _CHAPTER XVIII_ UNCLE IN THE LOCK-UP Our family felt that they could remain in the grounds forever and never be done seeing; but the time was drawing near when they must return home. Uncle decided that this Saturday must be their last day at the Fair. Surely they had seen enough, even if there was so much more not yet seen. They had seen notable people all the way from the Infanta of Spain to Faraway Moses, of Egypt. But they were all the same to Uncle. He had heard all kinds of music, from the Spanish band to the Samoan tom-tom. "Some of the music," he said, "was so peaceful like, but the rest was not half so nice as the growin' pigs rubbin' against splinters in the sty back of the barnyard." He had surely been all over, and there was nothing more of a startling nature to see. He had watched them check babies at the children's building as if they were poodles or handbags, and he had been over to the Irish village and seen the people kissing the "Blarney Stone." On a card tacked near by he read: This is the stone that whoever kisses He never misses to Grow eloquent. A clever spouter He'll turn out an orator In Parliament. Uncle had no ambition that way, and so he let the rest do all the kissing. He had completed his sight-seeing in the city by taking a Turkish bath, and he considered himself now ready to "pull up stakes" and return to the farm. "I've made hay in July, and punched it back into the loft," said Uncle; "I've harvested in August, and drunk out of the branch; I've cut hoop-poles in the swamp, and done lots of other hot things, but fer real sultuy weather nothing is ekal to the Turkey bath. Some feller told me it was the healthiest bath a feller could take when there was no creek around. You see, I looked at the Chicago river and decided it wasn't altogether a proper place fer a swim; then I went over to the lake whar they were a paddling around, but somehow the water didn't warm up even a little bit in the afternoons, and then I thought I might just as well pay a dollar and take a Turkey bath. "Well, it do beat anything in the wash line I ever see. I went into the barber shop where the sign was and paid a woman a dollar, and she took my silver ticker and chain and all my spare change, and my pocket book, and put 'em all into a box and locked it and then fastened the key around my wrist. Well, I wondered if I was a going down there whar they had to protect me that way from getting robbed. "I went down stairs where I stopped to see a feller a doing some thing to a feller's feet. I seed he was a cutting the nails, and then I thought how awful lazy these city people do get, that they can't even cut their own toe nails. "A feller came up and put me in a little room and told me to strip off and foller him. Well, sir, that feller he just stuck me into a room that was hot enough to fry eggs and bake Johnny cakes. I dassent breathe hard for fear of burning my nose off. He set me into a lean back chair and decently covered me over with a sheet. I've biled sap, an' I've rolled logs; I've scraped hogs over the kettle and made soap, but this beat anything I ever see fer hot weather. If I hadn't seen other respectable folks goin' in there I'd a knowed I was a gittin' basted for my sins in the bad world. I couldn't set there, so I tried to walk around, but I seen my feet was liable to get roasted, and the air was hotter at the top, so I set down again. "Well, sir, I sot there till I got hotter'n biled corn, and then I hollered worse nor the Johnnies at Kenesaw mountain. "Then a feller stuck his head in at the door and told me to come out there, and when I did a colored feller shoved me on to a bench and began to slap the daylights out o' me with both hands, and then another feller he turned the hose on me, and then I cut loose. "Well, sir, you ought to a seed me. I'm gittin' old, but 'nough is 'nough, and I kin be painters an' wild cats when I want to. I was in a pecooliar place without a stitch on me, but I jest run the slapper into the bake oven, and I made the buggy washer jump into the fish pond or swimmin' hole what they aimed to chuck me into next; and then a feller came out and took me into another room, where he rubbed me down kind a horse like, and I got my clothes on and went up to the woman and got my things give back; and I told her I was awful glad to see daylight again. She laffed, an' I didn't say no more, but I done lots of thinkin'." They were sitting on a rustic bench, just across the southwest bridge on Wooded Island, when Uncle's talking was brought to a stop by a great noise in the direction of the "Plaisance." Just then two Turks came trotting by with a sedan chair in which was seated a nervous-looking woman who seemed anxious to reach the place from which the medley of noises seem to be issuing. She nervously grasped the sides of the chair and looked at the bent form of the toiling Ottoman in front. Over the bridge they went, the carriers executing a double shuffle diagonally down the steep descent. The passenger opened her mouth and gave a scream that made the Turk in front stumble as he bent his head to see what was wrong. Then she screamed harder, frightening a flock of sea-gulls off the island and bringing a Columbian guard on a run from the north entrance of the Horticultural building to see what was the matter. Then she insisted on getting out, and she was so glad, that she gave the Turk a dollar, and left before he could give her any change. [Illustration: "SHE GAVE A SCREAM THAT SCARED SOME GULLS OFF OF THE ISLAND."] The noise over towards the "Plaisance" continued, and Johnny cried out, "The parade, the Midway Plaisance parade! Come on, the whole earth is parading!" The front of the procession just then appeared in view, and the family went to the top of the bridge where they could review the strangest procession that ever walked on the western world. Processions may come, and processions may go, but there never was one like that which was then winding through the broad streets of Jackson Park. The column was over a mile long, and made up of men and women afoot; camels, gaily decked horsemen, wild Bedouins from Arabia's desert's; carriages, rolling chairs, reindeer and dog sledges. From the fur garments of the Laplanders leading the column, to the sea-grass, thoroughly ventilated costumes of the Samoans, was presented a contrast that marked the display all along the line. It seemed as if there had been a revival of the Babel scene from the Pentateuch. It seemed that the confusion of tongues had just come to pass and people had not yet become accustomed to talk anything but Sanscrit or Chinese. There was a gathering of assorted freaks not surpassed since Noah came out of the ark, and an assortment of people never seen before. When Mr. Moody preaches to the Midway Plaisance, surely the scripture will be fulfilled as to preaching the gospel to all the nations of the earth. Then the bedlam of strange cries were heard again. These peculiar sounds came from the Dahomey warriors and amazons, black as night and stupid as pigs. In thin cloth and hair garments that concealed just a little of their bodies, the blacks romped as they sang and beat upon long cartridge shaped drums. The noisiest part of the parade began with the Algerian village. Drums resounded, clarinets screeched, castanets clattered, and the shrill cries of the dancing girls rose above all the tumult. The girls rode in rolling chairs, and while they were not busy rivaling the banshee of Ireland, they laughed and flirted to their hearts' content. The Chinese was the most gorgeous contingent in the column. Costumed in rare and brilliant silks, ablaze with gold and silver, the Chinese actors and actresses made a brilliant appearance. But it was the dragon that wriggled behind them that caught the crowd. It was 125 feet long, and its mouth was big enough to swallow a man without tearing his clothes on its fangs. When it passed the beer tunnel in the "Plaisance," its glaring eyes turned toward a man whose best friends have been to Dwight. The man shuddered and drew a long and nervous breath. "Take me away from here, Bill," the man said to his companion. "I never thought I could get in this kind of a fix. I'm a quitter right now." From a distance it looked like a monster sea serpent on a spree. It was really a dragon, at least that's what the Chinese call it; but it was in fact the finest exhibit ever beheld of what a diseased imagination can do for a victim of strong drink. It could easily claim the prize as being the most terrifying object on earth. The people from the "Street of Cairo," afoot and mounted on camels and donkeys, headed their part of the procession with the Turkish flag, and swift-footed runners guarded the banner, while men in rusty, antique chain-armor were near to defend. A horde of fakirs and jugglers of all colors, from jet-black Soudanese to fair-faced Greeks, pressed close at their heels, stripped to the waists, with bare feet, and cutting up all sorts of tricks. Swordsmen, garbed in long robes, twirling naked blades and shields as they hopped about one another in imitation of combat; more donkey boys; Nubians bearing carved Egyptian images, one of which was of the sacred bull done in gold; bayaderes and nautch dancers, not very good looking, but with fine white arms and well-turned ankles and gorgeous in oriental robes and colors--all flocked after the fakirs. Then came the Persians, the women playing upon hurdy-gurdies and singing a plaintive air more suggestive of melody than any other native music in the line. The lion banner of the Shah was carried proudly, and this detachment closed with a score of Persian gladiators, naked to the waist. They seemed to be superbly executed pieces of bronze set in motion. The "Beauty Show" was in the parade. Blarney Castle had several lads and lasses present, led by the pipes and a jig-dancer as agile as an antelope and as tireless as an electric fan, for he jigged all the way the procession marched. Then the Samoans came along. Stalwart men are they, yellow-skinned and muscular, and in their airy sea-grass garments, knee short and chest high, they presented a splendid physical appearance, while the women were pleasant-faced and fairly pretty. The men danced a war dance while marching along, and their fierce wielding of their clubs had greater influence in putting back the fast encroaching crowds than did the oft repeated command of the Columbian guard to stand back. The South Sea Islanders, with nothing much more than feathers and grasses about their bodies and on their heads, sang a wild but tuneful melody as they brandished war clubs and danced about, their well-greased bodies gleaming in the sun. Three pretty Hula-Hula girls in the party sang all the time. Their dress was very fantastic; short, full skirts of brilliant-colored grasses fell to their bare brown knees. Flowers and grasses were twined in their hair. A short, tight-fitting robe of grasses and feathers fell over their shoulders and ended at their waists. The young women who illustrate all the various types of beauty to be seen anywhere on earth, from Hong Kong to State street, made up the line. They were in carriages, and attracted much attention. The odd procession traversed the Fair grounds to the east end of the Electricity building, and then returned to their respective shows. It was now getting late in the afternoon and Uncle said, "Now, let us be taking our last looks." "Papers, Mister? All about the Sunday Fair." Uncle bought a paper and read the headlines: _"GATES REMAIN OPEN"_ _"Courts' Final Decision in Favor of Sunday Fair Judges are Unanimous--Overrule Judgment of United States Circuit Court"_ _"Court Room and Halls Crowded with People Eager to Hear the Decision"_ _"The Chief Justice brushes away the Cobwebs of sophistry and religious paternalism by which the Sabbatarian sects sought to close the Gates against the Millions"_ "I didn't see no millions when I was here Sunday, did you, Sarah? And the grounds looked lots like a big grave yard, with some people sad like, a wandering through." The sweat began to come on Uncle's face. His big bandanna was brought into play. "So they've opened it. Well, I don't know, I don't know. It kind of worries me somehow, as if they oughtn't a done it. But I don't understand all the law and the gospel. I surely didn't do no wrong when I thought seeing the Fair on Sunday was right, if it do disturb me like, just now. I thought our Savior meant seeing the Fair on Sunday when he said 'It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day.' But when I see the beer tunnel full of people, and the furrin theayters a runnin', it didn't look lawful, and I wisht I was back to our old church a sittin' in the corner. Anyhow, I hope I didn't do any of it." Uncle walked on slowly in a very sad and meditative mood. Aunt looked as if there was something that had overthrown all her high sentiment on her first Sunday of seeing the entrancing visions of the great Exposition. There were religious realities touching her soul now, and she walked on rapidly with Fanny, leaving Uncle behind. Johnny was flipping pebbles at some ducks in the lagoon and Uncle had stopped to look in at one of the doors of Liberal Arts hall. While he was standing there two dapper young men came walking hastily by. One caught sight of Uncle and quickly uttered a low whistle. His companion stopped short as the first one said: "Der's de old duffer; let's work him." "Naw, we can't do it. He'll remember me mistake in change an' de blasted trainboy biz." "'I'll bet you a fiver he don't! You're trigged out altogether new, an' your gran'mother wouldn't know ye." "Nothin' like tryin', so here goes," and the speaker walked on a few steps and half concealed himself behind a column, close enough to hear all that was said. "Well, how do you do, Deacon Jones? I am awfully surprised. It's like two needles meeting in a haystack for us to meet here. Isn't it now! It's a long time since I saw you back in old Barnville, Sage county, Indiana; but I remembered you the minute I clapped my eyes on you. I suspect you'd like to hear from some of your old neighbors." The speaker was still holding Uncle's hand, and Uncle was looking at him in a bewildered manner, as if searching intensely in the picture gallery of memory's old time faces. "I see you can't place me, but I guess it's 'cause I was only a chunk of a lad, but I see you often in the 'amen corner' of the Barnville Baptist church. You see my father was killed in one of the battles before Atlanta, and mother and me, when I was a boy, didn't have much to live on, only our pension. So I had to work hard, and didn't git around much for to be seen by anybody. I was converted and joined the church just about the time you moved away. Then I went into Mr. Monroe's store and got to be chief clerk, and then when the bank was opened at Barnville I was made cashier, and in three or four years I was called to be cashier in the First National here, so you see I have been more successful than most of the poor boys about Barnville whose fathers never came back from defending their country." [Illustration: "I SEE YOU CAN'T PLACE ME."] "Ah, my boy," said Uncle, "my heart always warms up for my comrades' children. I believe I recollect you now. Wasn't you the boy what swum out into the crick at high water, when the bridge went down while preacher Barker's wife was crossing with her baby to bring him back from Bethel, and towed 'em safe to shore?" "Yes, sir. I'm the lad." "Widow Brown's son George?" "Yes, sir, George Brown, from Barnville, is what I am." "Well, well, my boy, I knowed I recollected you. My memory's bad enough, but I haint forgot ye and yer brave deed. Well, I'm glad your succeeding so well, and I hope you haint forgot your redemption before the Cross." "No, Deacon, I haven't, and I trust I am doing the Lord's will, as I ought, though I know sometimes I fall short. I take part more than most of the young people in our church, but I trust I will still be moved to do more and more for our holy cause." "There, there! It's proud I am to see in this great wicked city one of Barnville's boys so true to the teachings of our Lord and Master that he learnt in our old home church." Here the young man coughed lightly, as if the emotion of religious memories was swelling up in his throat and almost choking his utterance. "But I guess everybody has forgot me at Barnville. It's mor'n twelve years now." "Not at all, Deacon. Every time I go back there to the old church I hear somebody speak of Deacon Jones." "Do tell----!" At this moment a young man came up hurriedly and tapped "George" on the shoulder. "George" turned at once, and said: "How do you do, Henry? Henry, this is my old friend, Deacon Jones, from the home of my boyhood. Mr. Jones, Mr. Wilson. I am proud, Deacon, to have you meet my friend here, who is one of the Exposition directors and manager of one of the most important departments on the grounds." "I would be very glad to talk longer with you and your friend Mr. Brown, but I was just hunting for Johnson, the paymaster. Iv'e got to have two hundred dollars inside of ten minutes or there will be the biggest howl among employees you ever saw." "Oh, you needn't hunt any longer for Johnson, Mr. Wilson, here's my check for the sum and you can cash it at once at the World's Fair bank," and Mr. Brown, who was none other than Arthur Blair, the confidence man and bogus detective, drew out a First National bank check book. "But that's exactly the trouble. It is now past banking hours, and for some reason Johnson has not come around." A troubled look came over Mr. Blair's face in his anxiety to help out his friend. Turning to Uncle he said: "Perhaps the Deacon can help my friend out and then cash my check here on the grounds in the morning." Uncle looked uneasy for a moment, and then said: "Of course I can accommodate you," and he pulled out a roll of bills and laid aside $200, which left him with only thirty dollars. Mr. Blair had the check made out and was just extending it to Uncle when Johnny came up, a curious spectator of the scene before him. A second glance at the gentleman talking to his grandfather and he began to jump up and down and whirl around yelling at the top of his voice: "Perlice! fire! murder! robbers! pickpockets! confidence men! thieves! thugs! highwaymen! bandits! outlaws! catch 'em! hang 'em! crucify 'em! here, here, everybody! surround 'em! close in on 'em! let no guilty man escape!" The two confidence men were for once too astonished to act quickly, but one recovered himself soon enough to make a snatch for the roll of bills in Uncle's hand. Two or three corners of bills were torn away, but Uncle held the money. In an instant a dozen men were crowding around, and among them two or three officers. "Catch that old thief!" yelled Blair, "he's got my money." "Catch him!" cried Wilson, appearing to try to get at him, "he's got our money." Uncle was standing in blank stupefaction holding the bills in his hands and staring at the gathering crowd. An officer caught him by the arm and said: "Old man, where did you get that money?" Uncle found his tongue at last, and said: "Mister, I got that from Bill Shaw for some of the finest Jerseys you ever seed." "Here, officer, are our cards and the charge. We'll appear in the morning at the station." Johnny had been overwhelmed by the crowd, but by this time he had edged his way in, and when he saw his grandfather in the tolls of the law he yelled shrill enough to startle the whole crowd. "Grandfather's done nothing, let him alone. Here's the thieving hypocrits." But the two young men had disappeared among the people, and Uncle was being taken away in such a crowd that John could get no view whatever of the situation, so he ran howling and sputtering round and round the fast increasing crowd like a child gone insane. Presently the uselessness of his action made him think of Mother and Fanny. At once he darted off to the spot where he had seen them last, and in his wildness to find them ran past them two or three times, till Fanny saw him and in amazement cried, "Johnny! John! What on earth is the matter with you, Johnny?" Johnny darted over to them and yelled out: "He's tuk up! The cops has got him! grandfather's tuck up, and he's done nothing, and them bloody bandits got away again. Oh! Oh! Oh!" and Johnny danced around, incapable of telling Fanny or his grandma anything further. But they learned enough to know that for some reason Uncle had been arrested and was no doubt now in the guard house. Aunt was overwhelmed with consternation, but Fanny ran over to a guard standing near by and inquired: "If anyone is arrested on the grounds where do they take them?" "Over there to the guard house, Miss. There they go with some old chap now." [Illustration: "HE'S TUCK UP, HE'S TUCK UP! THE COPS GOT HIM!"] Fanny looked and could scarcely repress a scream as she saw Uncle seated in the patrol wagon between two policemen. She ran back to Aunt and Johnny and told him to run as fast as he could to see where the wagon went, and they would follow in the same direction. Johnny was off like a shot as he saw the wagon rapidly disappearing over the way. Out of breath they were coming up to the station door when they met Johnny, hat off, and almost speechless with excitement. "They've took Grandpa's money and everything, and locked him up. They asked him if he had any friends, and he said he had no friends here but us. Nobody listens to me, come quick," and he started them off on a run for the station. Arriving there, the officers in charge told them he could do nothing for them unless they could find some responsible persons to secure his appearance for the preliminary hearing of the next day. They were taken around where Uncle was, and a more woe-begone appearing farmer never was seen. "Ah, children, this is Chicago!" "Grandpa, I'm going to find Mr. Warner. I believe he is a good man, and will help us, as he told you he would. Johnny and I will start at once to find him. I don't know what else to do." "But, child," said Aunt, "it's already five o'clock, and the people will all be gone home from the store." "No difference, Grandma; you stay right here, for we're going." She took the card from Uncle that Mr. Warner had given him and left the building with Johnny walking resolutely by her side. _CHAPTER XIX_ THE LOST FOUND They took a car, and in half an hour were at the doors of the Clarendon Company. It was past business hours and the doors were locked. Fanny was greatly distressed as to what she should do; but there was no time to lose. Some young men were standing near eyeing her with the usual sensual greediness of their kind. Her mission was too urgent for her to notice their insinuating remarks. "Can any of you tell me where or how I may find the gentleman named on this card?" Her demeanor, so unaffected and true, brought all their latent manhood out, and each one was anxious for the honor of helping her. Some one standing in the rear made an unbecoming remark, and instantly the eyes of those about her turned on him so meaningly that he slunk away. One of them took her into a restaurant near by and made known to the proprietor what she wanted. He said Mr. Warner lived with the head of the firm, a Mr. Sterling. The street and number of the residence was given to a cabman, and soon they were driving rapidly away. Mr. Sterling was sitting alone in his library reading the evening papers, when he heard a determined ring at the door. His door was open into the hall, and he went himself at once to answer the call. It was growing quite dark, and he could distinguish only that there were two young people standing before him. "Is this where Mr. Sterling lives?" said one, in a very pleasing tone of voice. "It is." [Illustration: "HE HEARD A DETERMINED RING AT THE DOOR."] "We are very sorry to disturb you, but we are in some trouble, and a gentleman by the name of Warner told us if, for any reason, we needed any assistance while in the city, to call on him. We went to the store, but it was closed, and then we were directed to come to you in the hope that through you we could find Mr. Warner." John and Fanny saw a kindly appearing business man before them, and they spoke with the utmost confidence in his good-will. "So, so! that is good. I have heard him speak several times recently of a young lady he met on the train, and somewhere else once or twice since. Are you the young lady I have been teasing him about? Now, that is good. Of course you can see him. He lives with me and is up-stairs now. May I ask what is the nature of your trouble?" Johnny could hold his tongue no longer. "Why, sir, they've tuck Grandpa up and got him in jail 'cause I stopped some crooks a gettin' his money." "I don't see, my boy, just how that could be," and the gentleman seemed somewhat suspicious of their grandfather. "I don't, nuther," blurted Johnny. "Come in. I will send for Mr. Warner and see what he can do for you." They followed him into the room, and he motioned them to take seats. Then he went out and sent some one up-stairs for Mr. Warner. [Illustration: "Fanny, my little girl--my lost children!"] The room was richly furnished, but had an air of negligence about it that betokened the want of an interested woman's taste and care. They could hear voices now and then coming from some distant part of the house, but they sounded more like the hilarious gaiety of servants than of persons having such a cultured place for a home. From the tapestries on the walls to the piano and the great case full of books, everything was arranged for the convenience of the one rather than for the taste of the many. It was the most pleasing home, where money was lavishly spent, that she had ever been in, and perhaps she is not to be blamed that for a moment she was carried away by her surroundings, and the longing came over her to be so happily situated as this. Seeing a life-size painting of a woman placed on a high frame near a desk, she went over to look at it. There was something so lifelike and natural, and even familiar, about the picture that she still further forgot how she came to be there. She did not hear Mr. Sterling as he re-entered the room, but he came up to her, and as she stepped aside the light fell full upon her face almost on a level with the picture in the frame. A startled expression came over the face of Mr. Sterling, which deepened into an amazement. His face grew white, and he looked at her and then at the picture, and then from the picture to her. The light of some quick intuition spread over her face, and she thrust her hand into her cape pocket and drew out a small gold locket, which she opened and looked at intently, and then from the face of the man to the face of the woman. Mr. Sterling saw the locket. "What are you looking at, child?" he almost shrieked. "My mother and father," she said. He caught the locket out of her hand. "There, there," he cried, pointing to the painting; "there is the same picture, it is the picture of the only one I ever loved, the one now in heaven, and you are her living image. In God's name, tell me, child, what is your name." "My name is Fanny," she said, "Fanny Jones; sometimes they call me 'Fanny Sterling.' Mary Sterling was my----" She never finished the sentence. With a cry of joy he caught her in his arms, sobbing and laughing; "My child, my child, my own little girl; found, found at last!" Johnny at this amazing outburst had come up as if to protect his sister, and as Mr. Sterling saw him he cried, "And is this your brother, the baby I left never to see again till now?" Mr. Sterling sat down and drew Johnny up to him. "A rough, hearty, honest farmer boy," he said; "I can not realize that after an endless search, you have been sent to me in such a strange manner." Mr. Sterling overcome with his emotion, buried his face in his hands, and Fanny kneeling by his side, looked wistfully at him, not knowing what to think or do. Mr. Warner, in answer to the call, had come to the door and witnessed the whole scene. He could not understand it, and his astonishment rendered him speechless. At last without moving from his place at the door, he said: "What can this mean, may I ask? It is a mystery to me." "My children," was all Mr. Sterling could say. Her mission there suddenly came back to Fanny. She sprang to her feet and cried: "Oh! Mr. Warner, my grandpa is in trouble. You told us to call on you if we needed assistance in anything. He is in the police station as a result of our acquaintance with that man on the train. I came for you to go with us and see what you could do to help us out." Everything was soon explained to them all; the cab that brought John and Fanny there was dismissed, and Mr. Sterling's carriage was soon speeding them all to the fastest train for the Fair grounds. At the police station half an hour later there was sorrow turned to joy, and a meeting that was too happy to be told. Uncle was released on bail to appear the next afternoon to answer to the charges, and there was a reunion at the hotel in another hour, when every past ill was forever buried in the pleasure of the present and the promise of the future. The next morning Mr. Sterling's house was made their abiding place, and Fanny became queen of his home. That afternoon Uncle was in the police court awaiting his accusers. The judge called the case, but the witnesses were not there. Their names were called, but no one answered. Just then two boys came rushing into the room. "Hold up, yer honnur," said one, "de persecution will soon arrive. I've been after 'em, an' I got 'em. I see 'em doin' de robbin', and' I found a policeman whut had sense enuf to take 'em in. See!" [Illustration: "LOUIS CAME IN DANCING WITH EXCITEMENT BEFORE THE BURLY POLICEMAN WITH HIS TWO WARDS."] The irrepressible Louis had hardly ceased speaking when a burly policeman entered with the two confidence men who had attempted so perseveringly to get Uncle's money. Behind them came the man they had just been trying to rob. Johnny and Louis had seen them talking to a countryman, and, divining what was intended, followed them as they tolled him away to a place where they could accomplish the robbery. They found a policeman on the way, who took in the situation and assisted the boys to catch the fellows in the act. Uncle's case was dismissed, and Louis succeeded in seeing the crooks given a chance to learn an honest trade at Joliet. Sight-seeing as a business now gave over to a new order of things. The change was almost beyond what a dream could be. Before the C. C. of C. C. returned home there was a social gathering at Fanny's new home. Johnny had one young friend present and Fanny had five. Mr. Warner had often noticed that Louis was a very reliable boy, and Mr. Sterling gave him a good position in his store. Uncle and Aunt could not part with their children, and Johnny was so thoroughly a farmer that there could be no thought of him doing anything else; therefore, it was decided that Uncle's Jerseys should be removed to Mr. Sterling's farm, half an hour's ride from the city, and that Johnny should have charge of them there. Soon after, Uncle and Aunt sold their farm and henceforth lived as they pleased with Johnny and the Jerseys, or with Fanny in her happy city home. Mr. Warner is trying to win the approval of Fanny to some of his plans of happy life, and John and Louis believe they are more than kindly remembered by two of those bright girls known as the C. C. of C. C. * * * * * Here we may leave Uncle Jeremiah and family to the good of domestic contentment and to the well-earned peace of having lived life well. If the Exposition has awakened the sentiments of patriotism and reverence in the minds of all its visitors, and has broadened their views concerning mankind, and made more charitable their hearts toward the rest of the world, as it has done with this one true rural family, then it has been a mighty success, though millions of dollars were lost in its construction. This need be none the less true to all, though no two people have seen the same World's Columbian Exposition. In all the vast throngs that have walked its streets and crowded its palaces for half a year there can be no two individuals who have the same story to tell, or who have the same thought to pay out to the world from that mint of human intelligence. There is so much within the great "White City" that single pieces are lost like flowers in a landscape or like ferns on a mountain side. But its beauties inspire every soul; its refinements chasten every heart; its achievements exalt every mind, and its lessons give strength to every life. _THE END_ We are always here when wanted! Vest Pocket Webster Dictionary 25,000 WORDS. [Illustration] An entirely new and original compilation from the famous Webster's Great Work. Its size and general make-up are such as to render this beautiful little book a "companion for the learned as well as for the unlearned." 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9408	----	and PG Distributed Proofreaders [Transcriber's note: The non-standard spellings of the original text have been retained in this etext.] BY WATER TO THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION BY JOHANNA S. WISTHALER. 1894 "Travel is the great source of true wisdom." --_Bearensfield_ To my amiable traveling companions, Mr. S.R. James and family, and Miss Sarah E. Campbell, this volume is affectionately inscribed PREFACE It has been the aim of the author: to combine a detailed narrative of her trip by water to the White City with a faithful description of the ever memorable Columbian Exposition as far as possible consistent with the scope of this work. Every opportunity has been embraced by the writer to incorporate the historical events, scientific facts, and natural phenomena most appropriate to the subject. The author also acknowledges her indebtedness to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. as well as her obligations to the Winters Art Litho Co. in Chicago. She wishes to express her gratitude to the first-mentioned corporation for having presented her with a map illustrative of the route; thus enabling the reader to trace the numerous towns and cities--on the Erie Canal and three Great Lakes--whose history and attractions have been depicted in this book. The Lake Shore Route--selected by the Government to run the famous Fast Mail Trains--is the only double track line between Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and Boston.--During the existence of the White City, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Co. placed in service special trains for the purpose of facilitating railway transportation between the eastern cities and the "Queen of the West." The "Exposition Flyer," which accomplished nearly 1,000 miles in twenty hours from Chicago to New York, an average of about fifty miles per hour, was certainly one of the fastest trains in the World. To the aid of the Winters Art Litho Co. the author owes her capability of furnishing this volume with a novel illustration of the World's Fair.--A gold medal was awarded to this firm for the excellence in their water color fac-simile reproductions and advancement in legitimate lithography. The credit of improvements in materially reducing the number of printings, and still maintaining excellence in results, was conceded to them by the Judges.--This company kindly permitted the author to use their copyright of the revised and most correct Bird's Eye View of the Exposition Grounds extant, which gives the readers a very adequate conception of that marvelous creation that--while existing only for such a brief period--has accomplished its mission in the highest degree, and has opened a new era in the annals of modern progress. SCHENECTADY, N.Y., December, 1893. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I _Voyage on the Erie Canal_ Departure from Schenectady, N Y Amsterdam, Canajoharie, Little Falls Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Lyons Palmyra, Rochester, Lockport CHAPTER II _Sojourn in Buffalo and Visit to Niagara falls_. Buffalo Harbor City of Buffalo Mill's Dry Dock Niagara Falls, American Horseshoe and Central Falls CHAPTER III _Voyage on Three Great Lakes_ _Lake Erie_ Dunkirk, Erie, Conneaut Cleveland Amherstburg Detroit River City of Detroit Lake St Clair River St Clair Port Huron, Sarnia _Lake Huron_ Sand Beach Beacon Saginaw Bay, Tawas City, Alpena Rock-bound on Gull Island Ledge False Presqu'ile, Cheboygan Straits of Mackinaw, Mackinaw Island _Lake Michigan_ Beaver Island, Northport Frankfort, Manistee, Muskegon South Haven, Life Saving Service Michigan City, White City CHAPTER IV _Stay in Chicago and Visit to the World's Fair_ _A Round Trip on the Exposition Grounds_ _Visit to the Midway Plaisance_ Diamond Match Co, Workingmen's Home Congress of Beauty, California Nursery and Citrus Tree Exhibit Electric Scenic Theater, Libbey Glass Works Irish Village and Donegal Castle, Japanese Bazaar Javanese Village, German Village Pompeii Panorama. Persian Theater Model of the Eiffel Tower, Street in Cairo Algerian and Tunisian Village, Kilauea Panorama American Indian Village, Chinese Village Wild East Show, Lapland Village Dahomey Village, Austrian Village Ferris Wheel, Ice Railway Cathedral of St. Peter in miniature, Moorish Palace Turkish Village, Panorama of the Bernese Alps South Sea Islanders' Village. Hagenbeck's Zoological Arena Irish Village and Blarney Castle, etc. _Visit to the Exposition Structures_. Manufactures Building and on Manufactures U.S. Government Building and on the Development of the Republic Fisheries Building and on Fisheries Agricultural Building and on Agriculture Live Stock Exhibit, Dairy and Forestry Buildings Palace of Mechanical Arts and on Machinery Administration Building Electricity Building and on Electricity, the "Golden or Happy Age" Mines and Mining Building and on Minerals Transportation Building and on Railroad, Marine, and Ordinary Road Vehicle Conveyances Palace of Horticulture and on Horticulture Liberal Arts Building. Educational Exhibits _Chicago, its Growth and Importance_ Woman's Building and on Women Art Palace and on Art Anthropological Building Foreign and State Buildings Financial Account of the World's Fair Statistical Table of International Expositions CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION Experience, this greatest of all teachers, will undoubtedly have convinced many of my readers that the most delightful voyage is only capable of maintaining its charms when made amidst congenial fellow-travelers. The grandest scenes can be fully enjoyed and duly appreciated when viewed through an atmosphere of physical comfort. Thus, in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the assertion: Voyaging with Mr. James and his family was attractive and enjoyable to me in every respect, I must make the reader acquainted with my amiable traveling companions, as well as with their floating home, the beautiful steam yacht "Marguerite." Her owner, _Captain S. R. James_, is a stately, fine-looking, accomplished gentleman, and quite a linguist. To me it was a source of unusual pleasure to discuss French and German literature occasionally during our voyage with one who has given so much attention to these languages. Mr. James was styled by the Buffalo Courier "a typical New Yorker;" but he impresses me more as a typified English gentleman of the thorough school, and this impression is confirmed as I reflect upon his conduct to those fortunate enough to be associated with him in any capacity. I trust the reader will pardon me if I warmly eulogize MR. JAMES, his lovely WIFE and their FOUR sweet CHILDREN, together with Miss SARAH E. CAMPBELL, the very amiable sister of Mrs. James--who were my traveling companions on this eventful trip; for, certainly, I was extremely fortunate in my _compagnons de voyage_, whom I have thus introduced to the reader. They abandoned their lovely home for the purpose of undertaking the gigantic enterprise of making a canal and lake voyage to the White City. The reader may well judge that sailing on a yacht presents innumerable novelties and advantages not attainable by any other conveyance. Since the parties on board a pleasure-boat concentrate all their thoughts to the expected enjoyments they cast aside all irksome forms and strait-laced habitudes, delivering themselves up to the free air to live less conventionally than at home. The preferableness of such an existence, freed from all unnecessary ceremonies, is still more perceptible when the trip is of long duration and having, moreover, for its terminus the World's Columbian Exposition, a place where the wonders, beauties, and evidences of nature's power and man's skill are gathered from all lands. The great anticipations we had of our unique voyage were justified in every respect. For it offered us the opportunity to store our memories with that which will never die, and to adorn them with pictures whose colors will never fade. All this will be revealed subsequently to my courteous reader, who is cordially invited to follow me now on board the steam yacht, which formed our home for six eventful weeks. What first strikes the observer on approaching the "Marguerite," are the graceful lines which run from the sharp, slightly bent stem to the well-rounded stern. So beautiful is her form, and so majestically does she rest upon the water, that you will have no difficulty to recognize her, even at a great distance. You observe that she is painted with taste, and all the mouldings are gilded; you also perceive that the railings are of oak wood, surmounted by finely polished brass, and the deck of narrow deal planks is as white as snow. There is nothing wanting to make her equipment harmonize with the requirements of the present era. She has a length of a hundred feet, a width of about fifteen, with a draught of five feet eight inches; being fitted out for both steam and sail navigation. Now, dear reader, let us go below. If you consent, we will first visit the engine-room, since it contains the most essential part of the working machinery. A force of from eighty-five to ninety horse-power is developed to propel the boat. The engine is of the triple expansion type; the diameters of the cylinders being 6-1/2, 10 and 16 inches respectively. Are you not pleased with this piece of machinery, so elegantly finished and neatly polished? From it you can conclude that the yacht is capable of running with considerable speed, amounting to thirteen miles an hour, if desired. Let us descend to the cabin next; can anything be more tasteful and convenient? Is it not luxurious? And, although small, does not its very limited space astonish you when you view so many comforts? This is the dining-room. What can be more complete! Just look at this side-board, with its sumptuous outfit in silver and crystal. _A multum in parvo._ The kitchen is admirably arranged; the spacious refrigerator making it possible that a considerable amount of all sorts of provisions and delicacies can be kept on board for some time. Let us peep into the cozy staterooms. Are they not nicely furnished? Glance at the large and comfortable berths, which can be extended so as to form double berths, as in a Pullman car. All the rooms receive light, either through side-windows or from the upper deck. Every facility for enjoying open air exercise is offered by the main deck running the whole length of the ship. The portion pertaining to the stern is especially commodious, and constituted our dining-room on pleasant days. Even when the weather was unfavorable, the awnings which inclosed this delightful place formed an excellent shelter, giving the impression we were living in a large tent. Thus, you observe, that nothing is omitted to secure comfort. Do you see this electric bell? Well, all the staterooms are provided with such bells, which are connected with the steward's pantry. Now, let us go forward. These two doors form the entrance to the pilot-house; please, step in. Here is the steering wheel, and by means of these brass tubes the steersman communicates with the engineer. Look up to the ceiling. It is decorated with multitudinous charts and maps. Before we leave this room do not forget to glance at the mariner's compass in its elegant brass case. Close by is the entrance to the fore-castle, which contains the men's berths. The crew occupying them consists of the captain, the engineer, the cook, the steward, and the seamen. There not being accommodation for more female servants, Mrs. James was attended by only one maid. She, however, could easily spare larger retinue, because this excellent girl has assisted her mistress in performing the manifold domestic duties for more than fourteen years, and during this long period Mrs. James has learned to value her for her dexterity in all female occupations. She is also a faithful guardian of the children for whom she tenderly cares. Flattering myself that I have given my kind readers a satisfactory, introductory description, I shall now advance with the narrative, and proceed on our journey, traversing the longest artificial waterway ever constructed by human hands; and sailing on the unsteady billows of the great lakes, which contain the largest amount of sweet water on the globe, in order to visit the World's Fair, the grandest and most complete exposition that human eyes ever beheld. CHAPTER I. VOYAGE ON THE ERIE CANAL FROM JULY 22ND, 10.40 A.M., TILL JULY 29TH, 1.30 P.M. Finally, the 22nd of July, the day appointed for our departure, had arrived. Great was my satisfaction to find the auspices predicting fine weather; and, indeed, it was as beautiful as if Heaven smiled on our enterprise. When taking leave of my neighbors, it was not at all with a sad sentiment, for I had been well aware that I was going to undertake a trip which but few mortals are so fortunate as to participate. Accompanied by my dear parents I went to Dock street, where the "Marguerite" lay all ready for leaving the flourishing city of Schenectady. My mother, whose domestic duties recalled her to the hearth at home, was compelled to leave me, while my father remained on board the yacht, anxious to enjoy my company as long as circumstances would permit. Therefore, he gladly accepted Mr. James's kind invitation to accompany us on our journey for a short distance. Three intimate friends of Mr. James and his family were also invited guests on the boat. These temporary traveling companions were Dr. A. Veeder, Lawyer Charles Hastings and Congressman S.J. Schermerhorn, three well known and highly estimated gentlemen from Schenectady. At 11.40 A.M., Mr. James gave orders to haul in the lines attaching the boat to the shore; and a gun-shot at departing announced to the numerous spectators that the "Marguerite" was on the point to set out for her unusual, but most interesting trip. We had been sailing only a very short distance, and were just facing the buildings of the General Electric Company, when our attention was attracted by a photographer who seemed to be very desirous of taking a photo of the yacht and her passengers; for he aspired to gain the most favorable posture, apparently quite a task under the circumstances. How well he succeeded in his endeavors, the readers can judge for themselves by glancing at the frontispiece of this book. Resuming our journey, we soon had opportunity to admire the beautiful and fertile Mohawk Valley, once the home of one of the tribes composing the Five Nations. Arendt Van Curler, the noble founder of the "Place Beyond the Pines," pronounced this picturesque region the most beautiful the eye of man had ever beheld, at a time when the country was yet in its infancy. Though great changes have taken place since that remote date (1642), the grandeur of the scenes spread before us evidently showed that the country has lost little of its beauty, even at the present day, nothwithstanding the white man has established in many places his smoking factories and noisy looms. At the second lock Mr. Schermerhorn, who owns a beautiful residence near this place, in the Township of Rotterdam, joined our party, whereupon we continued sailing on the smooth surface of the canal with accelerated speed. At 2.40 P.M., after having passed five locks, we approached _Amsterdam_, an enterprising and prosperous city of over 20,000 inhabitants, located in the midst of romantic scenery. We halted at Port Jackson for a few minutes, since this was the terminus of the voyage of Mr. Hastings and my father. When parting with me, my father said: "This short tour has sufficed me to perceive how delightful your voyage promises to be in company with this amiable family. Thus I leave you, feeling very happy that so many pleasures and enjoyments are awaiting you." I answered his kind words with a hearty parting kiss, as a token of my filial love. The two gentlemen, after having abandoned the yacht, ascended the bridge that spans the canal at that point; and bidding us farewell once more, they pursued us with their eyes until the graceful lines of the "Marguerite" had become invisible in the distance. Continuing our voyage, I was in perfect rapture with the ever varying magnificence of the luxuriant Mohawk Valley. In the afternoon the sky became overcast and the quietude that had been prevailing was interrupted by a thunder-clap, which gave us the signal to prepare for a shower. After the expiration of a few minutes the full-charged clouds poured their deluge upon mother earth. This natural phenomenon, however, was only of short duration; but sufficient to render the atmosphere most delightfully pure and refreshing. It was now a redoubled pleasure to view the many hills and dales, adorned in every shade of verdure, varying with romantic forest scenes; all mingling into one inexpressibly rich garniture in which Nature had royally clad herself in order to give us greeting on our way. As we reached Fultonville, a suburban village of Fonda, about twenty-six miles from Schenectady, Dr. Veeder and Congressman Schermerhorn parted with us, wishing us a pleasurable voyage. The "Marguerite," gliding along, neared the vicinity of Sprakers when suddenly the "heaven grew black again with the storm-cloud's frown," and a flash of lightning illuminated the sky with crimson radiance. It is for a moment as if the horizon was in flames, a spectacle glorious to behold. Another minute and a peal of thunder reaches our ears. Then the dark, heavy clouds discharge their contents in copious abundance. "In grateful silence earth receives The general blessing: fresh and fair Each flower expands its little leaves As glad the common joy to share." While it is still raining, "The sun breaks forth, from off the scene Its floating veil of mist is flung. And all the wilderness of green With trembling drops of light is hung." A magnificent rainbow, spanning the boundless arch on high, embellishes this superb panorama. As the sunset was bathing all summits in soft, crimson light, and the pale lustre of the orbed moon appeared in the east, we arrived at _Canajoharie_. This small town, noted for its fine stone quarries, was chosen for our abode over Sunday, and busy hands carried out the order to safely moor our craft near the bridge pertaining to the main street. When taking a long walk about the town, I found that, although inferior in size, it is a very desirable place for summer residences; being beautifully situated on romantic slopes crowned with elegant and tasty villas. Canajoharie is regularly and appropriately laid out with wide, well kept and adequately lighted thoroughfares, and many citizens reside in spacious and architecturally ornamented houses. It is a recognized center of trade, from which agricultural products of all kinds are shipped. In the first historic record, dated 1757, the place was styled "Fort Cannatchocary," and mentioned as a prospering settlement. Incorporated as a town in 1788, its population has been rapidly increasing since then, and now is estimated to amount to more than 3,000. It was a glorious morning, the 24th of July, as we left Canajoharie. The sun rose up into a cloudless heaven and poured a flood of gorgeous splendor over the landscape, as if proud of the realm he shone upon. When I entered the pilot-house I found Mr. James, in the absence of the captain, busy steering the yacht, and in the course of our long voyage I often had opportunity to admire his abilities as a navigator. On many occasions I observed that he was very cautious in all his proceedings; that he took nothing for granted, and was only convinced of a fact when properly certified by ocular demonstration. Engaged in a French conversation with the dexterous commodore, the time, as well as the vessel, was rapidly gliding along; the latter being assisted by a little breeze that rippled the surface of the water. So, after a three miles' ride, we approached _Fort Plain_, which boasts of numerous factories, and also the largest spring and axle works of the world. The Clinton Liberal Institute, one of the leading military schools of the State, occupies a commanding position, overlooking the valley. The site of old Fort Plain, of revolutionary memory, is within the village limits. Having passed Cox and Mindenville, a route of nine miles brought us into the proximity of the busy town of _Little Falls_, which has a population of about 10,000. It is romantically situated, and many elegant dwellings stand upon steep acclivities, commanding views of grand and attractive sceneries. The chief products of the numerous manufactories are knit goods. Little Falls is also one of the principal cheese markets of the Empire State. The Mohawk river supplies the place with abundant water-power, having at this point a fall of forty-five feet in half a mile. Still proceeding on our voyage, the town was soon out of sight. The sun shone with the clearest splendor from the zenith, beautifully illumining the smiling valleys, wooded hills, sparkling brooks and dimpled lakes, which makes this landscape scene so attractive. We were unable to leave our seats on the stern-deck; for everything around us seemed to have assumed the character of enchantment, and--had I been educated in the Grecian mythology--I should scarcely have been surprised to find an assemblage of Dryads, Naiads and Oreads sporting on the plain beside us. After having viewed Mohawk, eight miles from Little Falls; Herkimer, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants; Ilion, with a population of nearly the same number, and Frankfort, four miles from Utica, we reached the latter city as "The sunset gorgeous dyes, Paled slowly from the skies," having achieved forty-two miles that day. _Utica_ contains approximately 47,000 residents. At the time of the revolution it was a frontier trading-post and the site of Fort Schuyler, built to guard the settlements against the French and Indians. We made arrangements to remain in this city over night. A long walk through Utica made us acquainted with a regular and handsomely built city, which rises from the south bank of the Mohawk River to an elevation of 150 feet. Among the stately buildings are six large hotels, the handsome city hall, the postoffice and the bank edifice. There is also a State Lunatic Asylum. Utica, being in the center of a great dairy region, has become the most important cheese market in the United States. Genesee Street is the principal thoroughfare lined with large blocks of commercial houses. The city has not yet attained its centennial; but during its history of less than a century it has experienced a wonderful growth, especially during the last fifty years. At 7 o'clock the next morning we resumed our voyage, sailing on the so-called sixty mile level; having thus the delightful prospect not to be detained by going through numerous locks. We were also _in limine_ of the far-famed lake region, and soon traversed one of the finest portions of New York State. Passing the hamlets of York Mills, Whitesboro and Oriskany, the "Marguerite" advanced near to the city of _Rome_ towards 10 o'clock A.M. In its vicinity the famous battle of Oriskany was fought; and Fort Stanwix, which was besieged by the British in 1777, occupies a site now in the center of the city of Rome. The latter is laid out with wide streets well shaded with maples and elms. In the resident portion, a very high artistic taste has been displayed in the erection of dwelling houses. Although this thriving city of almost 16,000 inhabitants has not so many points of interest as its namesake, the ancient metropolis of the glorious Roman empire, whose wealth of antiquities is perfectly marvelous and whose relics of classical and papal times are alike almost innumerable; still it possesses one interesting feature that ought not to be left unmentioned: It was here that cheese was first made in factories. Other important manufactures are merchantable iron, brass and copper, locomotives and agricultural implements. Greatly favored by the clemency of the weather, we sped through this beautiful region, which is a never ending source of interest to the tourist, sailing past New London, Grove Springs, Higginsville, Dunbarton, State Bridge, Durhamville, Lenox Basin, Canastota, New Boston, Chittenango, Bolivar, Pool's Brook, Kirkville, Manlius and Lodi. At the latter place the bed of the canal suddenly widens considerably, being about twice its average width. Entering that portion of the grand artificial waterway, we found its waters so shallow that we could plainly discern its rocky bed. We entered the city of _Syracuse_ when the last streak of daylight had faded from the west and the blush on the waters was followed by the reflection of the far blue arch and its starry host. Opposite the city hall, a magnificent structure, the "Marguerite" was made fast to repose after a fifty-five miles' course that day. Syracuse, situated in the heart of New York State, has been appropriately named the "Central City." Its wonderful growth for the past twenty years entitles it to rank amongst the foremost cities of the East. It has a population of nearly 100,000, and is one of the leading manufacturing towns of the country. For a long period Syracuse practically controlled the salt product of the United States; in fact, it was that which first gave the place its importance. The existence of the vast salt springs of Onondaga was known to the Indians at an early date, and the secret was by them imparted to the Jesuits in 1654. The State took possession of the springs in 1794; and laws were passed for the conduct of the manufacture. Although numerous companies are now engaged in this industry, it constitutes a comparatively small factor in the commercial interests of the city, inasmuch as it possesses at the present time over five hundred industrial establishments; giving employment to not less than twenty thousand people. The city is handsomely laid out, containing many fine public buildings and private residences. When I came on deck the following morning the rain fell in heavy showers. A cloud appeared to open directly over our heads, and let down the water almost in one body, but at 7.15, as the violence of the rainfall had somewhat abated, we departed from Syracuse, sailing past Geddes, Bell'isle and Canton, where we struck another shallow place in the canal. As we approached Peru the mists were rolling away, which gradually, as they became thinner, received and transmitted the rays of the sun; illuminating them with a golden radiance, increasing every minute in splendor, until they vanished. Therefore, it was a redoubled pleasure to glance at the green plains studded with yet greener woodlands; the little mountains raising their crests, and the lovely lakes gleaming like floods of molten silver. Thus we journeyed along past Weedsport, Centerport, Port Byron, Montezuma, Pitt Lock, Clyde and Lock Berlin. Nearly midway between Syracuse and Rochester, forty-nine miles from the former city, we halted, choosing _Lyons_ for our night's lodging. The town, having a population of almost 6,000, is the seat of Wayne County, which produces more dried fruit than any other county in the State. The oil of peppermint forms an important product of manufacture, there being a score of peppermint distilleries yielding annually more than 100,000 pounds of this costly oil. Thursday, the 27th of July, as the tints of a bright morning reddened the eastern sky, we pursued our journey, greatly delighted with the cool and refreshing atmosphere. Speeding along we passed Arcadia; Newark, a thriving town, numbering about 4,000 inhabitants; and Palmyra, seven miles beyond, with broad and well shaded streets. Two miles south of _Palmyra_ Joe Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed to have dug from a hill, which now bears the name of Mormon Hill, the golden plates constituting the first Mormon Bible. Sailing by the villages of Lower and Upper Macedon, Pittsford was reached; a beautiful town of more than 3,000 inhabitants and one of the oldest settlements in that part of the State. Here is located the famous "Pittsford Farm," which is one of the finest stock farms in the East. It is at this place that Shetland ponies, Jersey cattle and Angora cats are raised in great numbers. Uncountable varieties of water-fowl can always be seen at this point. Having passed Brighton, we arrived at _Rochester_ long ere the first gold dye of sunset was stealing into the vast blue arch on high, having traveled forty-two miles that day. Near the center of the city destined for our nightly abode, a multitude of curious spectators had assembled in order to view the handsome yacht. I made the observation that during our entire voyage the "Marguerite," wherever she made her appearance, was universally admired. The important city of Rochester is situated on the Genesee River, seven miles south of its entrance into Lake Ontario. It is one of the leading manufacturing cities of the country, having more than 150,000 inhabitants. In 1802 it was founded by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, a representative pioneer of the Genesee River Valley. In 1834 it received its charter as a city, and has since increased in population and importance with marvelous rapidity. The fertility of the surrounding country and the splendid water-power furnished by the Genesee River, together with unexcelled transportation facilities, have contributed largely to its growth. Both in the latter part of the afternoon and evening, we deserted the yacht for the purpose of admiring the various beauties and points of interest, which give this town such a far spread reputation. We received the conviction that Rochester, in fact, deserves its fame. Covering an area of about seventeen square miles, it is laid out chiefly in squares, with streets from sixty to one hundred feet wide, shaded by beautiful trees. It abounds in handsome and tasteful residences, which are for the most part surrounded by carefully tended lawns and gardens. Its fire-proof office buildings and warehouses, are a credit to the city; only few, even in the metropolis, are equal to them in magnificence. In the center of the city are the upper Falls of the Genesee, a perpendicular cataract of ninety-six feet, over which Sam Patch made his last and fatal leap. To the prominent public institutions of Rochester belong the State Industrial School, two large hospitals, an Institution for Deaf-Mutes, and charitable organizations of every description. The principal business thoroughfare, Main Street, is in the heart of the city, and crosses the river over a handsome iron bridge. The manufactures of Rochester are extensive and varied. In early years flour was the chief product, giving it the title "Flour City;" there being no less than eighteen mills within its limits. Rochester might be also appropriately styled the "Flower City," for its nursery trade is hardly surpassed by that of any other place in the world. The suburbs are highly cultivated, having 4,000 acres of fruit trees, and nurseries containing from 250 to 500 acres. Other important industries are cotton and paper mills; oil refineries; boot and shoe, clothing, furniture, perfumery and tobacco manufactories. A feature that attracts thousands of visitors daily, is the great Powers Art Gallery, the private property of Mr. D.W. Powers, occupying the greater part of the two upper floors pertaining to the Powers Building. In fact, a plentitude of resources makes the city interesting to the tourist. The next day, when "morn was blushing in the sky," we bade farewell to Rochester; and, sailing on the other sixty-mile level, we continued our journey through a charming region past Greece, Spencerport, King & Adams, Cooley's Basin, and arrived at the attractive village of Brockport. Beautifully situated in the midst of a country teeming with abundance and inhabited by a prosperous and contented population, it contains many features of interest. Here is located a State Normal School, and also several extensive manufactories of agricultural implements. Passing Holley, Hulberton and Hindsburg, we came to Albion, the capital of Orleans County. The latter village is nicely laid out with wide streets and shaded by large trees. It contains many handsome residences and public buildings. Having proceeded more westward, beyond Eagle Harbor and Knowlesville, we caught sight of the pleasant town of Medina, about midway between Rochester and Buffalo, noted for its quarries of dark-red sandstone. Located in the midst of a fine fruit country, it has the reputation of being one of the best fruit markets in the State. Speeding through the thriving villages of Middleport, Reynall's Basin and Cataract Springs, we neared a deep ravine, through which the Erie Canal passes, following a natural waterway. Here we met the most remarkable drop of the canal, in its chain of five continuous double locks, resembling a flight of stairs. Entering these, the "Marguerite" gradually rose higher and higher; and when quitting the last of them, she had been lifted up to an elevation of sixty feet by these five locks, and if we had not observed the busy hands working for our ascent, we might have been inclined to imagine that an invisible cloud was slowly carrying us to unknown regions on high. We made _Lockport_ our resting-place for the night; since the sun had wheeled his broad disk already down into the west and the heavens were brightened only by the parting smiles of the day. Going on shore, we visited Lockport, a prosperous city with about 20,000 inhabitants, which is the center of a large paper and pulp industry. A five hours' journey on Saturday morning, July 29th, past Pendleton, Picardsville, Martinsville, Tonawanda and Lower Black Rock, completed our charming trip on the Erie Canal, which has from Schenectady to Buffalo a length of 323 miles. The construction of this great artificial waterway, in all nearly 350 miles long, having an elevation of about 500 feet above tide water, made by seventy-two locks, was commenced in 1817, and its completion took place in 1825. Although this immense undertaking has caused an expense of $50,000,000, the State of New York has made an excellent investment with that sum of money; since by means of the Erie Canal the domestic trade between the large western inland towns and the eastern seaports, especially the metropolis, is considerably facilitated. This traffic will receive a still greater importance, and can be more advantageously carried on, when the plan of utilizing the electric current for the driving power of canal-boats--a project recently tested by experiments--has been successfully executed. Prior to 1857, this waterway was used for both trade and passenger transportation. Since the introduction of railroad communication, however, the canal has been the medium of conveying merchandise only; wherefore, our interesting trip on the steam-yacht "Marguerite" is one of a few exceptions to the ordinary routine of the Erie Canal. CHAPTER II. SOJOURN IN BUFFALO AND VISIT TO NIAGARA FALLS, FROM JULY 29TH, 1.30 P.M., TO AUGUST 2ND, 7 A.M. It was a bright and sunny day; the atmosphere being purified by a strong but refreshing breeze. As the noonday sun poured his brilliant rays on the towering hills which adorn the luxuriant banks of the canal, it was announced that in the distance there could be discerned the dark line which indicated our approach to the verdant tract encompassing the thriving city of _Buffalo_, the terminus of our voyage on the Erie Canal. While the boat was speeding along, this point upon which our attention was chiefly fixed, became more cognizable with every minute. Rising upwards to our left we could perceive domes of the most graceful proportions, towering structures, for number and form beyond my power to describe. On the other side, there lay spread before us, in vast expanse, the unrivaled water front which skirts the city of Buffalo, extending two and one-half miles along the shore of Lake Erie and two and one-half miles along Niagara River. As we entered the harbor of Buffalo, which is considered the largest and finest on the lake, we were soon made acquainted with scenes and incidents that have no common fascination; in fact, one must be surprised at the tremendous amount of activity displayed here. The scores of huge grain elevators, having a total capacity of 8,000,000 bushels, and the mammoth warehouses lining the water fronts reminded one of New York and Brooklyn. Large steamers and sailing vessels, of every description, are being loaded and discharged; powerful steam-hoists in operation on the docks; immense quantities of freight and merchandise in process of transfer to and from the railroad cars; and bustle everywhere; while hundreds of pleasure-boats and small crafts, of every conceivable variety, may be seen as far as the eye can reach. There we saw the trim and dainty shell, with its arrow-like prow, darting through the quiet coves; the saucy catamaran shooting, half submerged, out before the wind; the cozy little steam-launches, all ready to take their passengers to some suburban pleasure-ground; excursion steamers, with flying banners and bands of music going and coming, and mammoth propellers destined to carry thousands of tourists to the El Dorado on Lake Michigan's blue waters. It will not be difficult to understand why Buffalo has attained commercial supremacy in Western New York, if you add to this never ceasing activity, betokening business, the enormous canal traffic; for it is here where innumerable canal-boats are weighted with the rich products of the west, carrying a large floating population of boatmen's families. Before selecting our mooring place in Buffalo Creek, which can be navigated for about one mile, we sailed to the breakwater, a solid wall several feet high, having a length of 4,000 feet, which was erected at the expense of some millions of dollars for the protection of the city from being flooded by the unruly waters of Lake Erie. While the tanks of the yacht were being filled with the limpid water of the lake, we ascended the stairs leading to the top of the protecting wall; for we all were anxious to become acquainted with the nature of the billows that were to carry us many miles westward and nearer to our far destination. It was a glorious sight unfolded before our eyes. We glanced at a huge sheet of water, about 268 miles long, varying from thirty to nearly sixty miles in width, with an area of 9600 square miles, whose elevation from tide water is judged to be 564 feet. This majestic spectacle, as animated as it was, imparted to us an adequate conception of a boisterous inland sea. The surface of the lake was in wild uproar; the advancing and retreating waves were beating themselves into angry foam, and dashed their spray pearls almost to our feet; their opulent azure hue being dimmed by the violent agitation. The inexperienced eye has no idea of the imposing impression caused by the extremely subitaneous changes to which these waters are subjected. The wide bosom of the lake that sometimes lies motionless and glassy, without a breath of air to cause the slightest undulation, in a very short time may be scourged by a sudden gale. The wild gambols of the waves, accompanied by the roar of the disturbed elements, may well cause the timid to fear; for, as the swell lifts, you would think the bases of the earth are rising beneath it; and, again, when it falls, you would imagine the foundation of the deep had given away. Though the billows before us now were beaten by a powerful breeze, breaking with angry roar upon the barrier upon which we stood, yet not the slightest feeling of fear found place within our hearts. On the contrary, as we left the breakwater in order to return to Buffalo, I felt my heart palpitating with joy as I thought of the pleasing prospect to be tossed by those grand waves. Having chosen a place at the foot of Main Street for our stay, the orders to secure the "Marguerite" were instantly carried out; and immediately a multitude of curious beholders had gathered around the yacht, viewing her with evident expression of admiration. Since it was yet early in the afternoon we decided to go on shore, in order to view the points of interest in this important city. A ride in the electric railway, traversing it in every direction, made us acquainted with a good portion of Buffalo, which contains a population of nearly 300,000, being the third city in size in the Empire State. It is handsomely laid out with broad and well shaded streets. One hundred and three miles are paved with asphalt, and 133 miles with stone. We saw many fine residences with attractive grounds, and numerous public squares. Delaware Avenue, the leading street for elegant mansions, is about three miles long, and is lined with a double row of trees. The city possesses a superb system of parks and pleasure grounds, designed and laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, the architect of Central Park in New York City. It comprises three sections, situated respectively in the northern, western, and eastern parts of Buffalo, which, with the connecting boulevard, afford a drive of nearly ten miles. Main Street, the principal trading thoroughfare, has many substantial business blocks. Of the prominent public buildings, the city and county hall deserves being mentioned in the first place. It is an imposing structure, of Maine granite, in the form of a double Roman cross, with a tower 245 feet high, surmounted by four statues. This magnificent edifice is fronting on Franklin Street, and was completed in 1880 at a cost of nearly $1,500,000. Other handsome buildings are the U.S. custom house and postoffice, at the corner of Washington and Seneca Streets; the Buffalo library, on Lafayette Square; the State arsenal, in Broadway; the Erie County penitentiary, one of the six penal establishments of New York; the general hospital, in High Street; and the State asylum for the insane, an edifice which cost about $3,000,000, located in Forest Avenue, adjoining the Buffalo Park. The city is also adorned with several handsome churches and theaters. Buffalo was first settled by the Dutch in 1801, and became an important military post during the war of 1812. It was burned by a combined force of British and Indians in 1814. Its city charter was granted in 1832, and since then its growth has been very rapid. As regards its live-stock trade, Buffalo ranks third among the cities in the Union, and its iron and steel works are next in importance to those of Pittsburg. The shipment of Pennsylvania coal, which finds a depot here, has been greatly increased in recent years; about 1,500,000 tons being distributed annually. The lumber trade is also large, but has been partly diverted to Tonawanda, ten miles below Buffalo. The industrial works comprise four blast furnaces, large rolling mills, machine shops, car shops, iron ship-yards, stove foundries, tanneries, flour mills, and manufacturing of agricultural implements. Early on Monday morning, I abandoned the land of dreams in order to appear on deck in good season; since arrangements had been made for going into dry-dock that very morning. Reader, have you ever been there? I hear you answer negatively. Well, that is just what I expected; for it is a rather unusual and rare experience for ladies, even in the eyes of a shipwright, a man who is constantly employed in that place, that a boat enters the dry-dock with her passengers on board. It was partly a matter of necessity, and partly of circumspection, that caused us to abide in the dry-dock for a few hours. In consequence of the numerous low bridges that span the canal, the spars, rigging, and smoke-stack belonging to the complete equipment of the "Marguerite" would have made her journey on that artificial waterway absolutely impossible; therefore it was necessary to replace these parts in their appropriate positions. The picture in the frontispiece gives evidence of that fact; as the "Marguerite" presented a very different picture completely rigged. Now, on the point of sailing on the Great Lakes, it was requisite to dress the yacht in her proper array, with her high tapering masts; the cords of her rigging stretching from spar to spar with the beautiful accuracy of a picture; and so equipped, as to give her the appearance of a majestic, white winged sea-bird resting gracefully on the water. For the purpose of bestowing upon her such an outfit, as well as for having her bottom examined, she was docked in Mill's dry-dock. The latter motive, I must add, was effected by a mere act of precaution; since no components of the propelling machinery had been injured or damaged. But Mr. James, our ever thoughtful commodore, wished to be assured that he could direct the "Marguerite" on her westward course with everything pertaining to her in complete order. These docks may be in communication either with a wet dock or a tidal harbor. I observed that the dry-dock we entered had a pontoon gate, floated in or out of place as desired. There being no tides in the lakes, this style of gate--less liable to leak under continuous pressure--is invariably used; for the only method of emptying the docks here is by pumping, for which purpose a steam-engine and pumps, with a well and water channel leading to it, were employed. We scarcely had made our entry into it, ere many busy hands worked to give the keel of the yacht a secure rest on wooden blocks which were fastened down to prevent them floating. They were of such a height as to permit the shipwright getting under the vessel's bottom. Then side shores were put in to keep the boat in an upright position. This being accomplished, I could notice that the pumping machinery was brought into full operation. Soon I found that the level of the water became lower and lower, and after the expiration of about one-half hour the dock was almost dry. The sides of the dock generally consist of stone steps--called altars--for the purpose of fixing the lower ends of the shores, and also for the convenience of supporting the workmen's scaffold. Mr. James and family, including myself, left the yacht to the crew and workmen, while we further explored the city of Buffalo in carriages, thoughtfully provided for us. The day after our entering dry-dock, August 1st, was eventful, as it was arranged we should make an excursion to view one of Nature's greatest wonders--_Niagara Falls_--a sight unlike any other on the surface of the globe. The indescribable grandeur of the whole overwhelms the soul--to contemplate that tremendous torrent which never stops! No rest in the ages of the past--no promise of a moment's stay in all the years to come--but on, on, with resistless force! Our thoughts become like the mists that rise above this awful scene, and we are mute--Pigmies of an hour! To feel that after what we are becomes a little dust, that solemn roar will echo in the ears of millions now unborn! Though I had read diverse descriptions portraying the grandeur and magnificence of Niagara Falls, still I was aware that they had failed in conveying a clear and succinct outline of their wonderful proportions and great sublimity. My conclusions that, in older to be properly appreciated these gigantic cataracts must be visited, were confirmed, and, _re vera_, when once viewed the recollection of that glorious sight will linger long in memory. An hour's ride in the cars brought us to the village of Niagara Falls, a splendid manufacturing point, having all modern improvements and unsurpassed railway facilities of various kinds. The village was incorporated in 1848, and has about 4,000 inhabitants. The average annual number of visitors to this beautiful place is estimated to be 400,000. At the station of Niagara Falls, Mr. James engaged vehicles which afforded accommodations for all of us--a party of ten--including the steward, who accompanied us, carrying a bountiful repast. The drivers of Niagara Falls are excellent _ciceroni_. We drove through the handsome village to Prospect Park, a property owned by the State of New York, and included in the Niagara Reservation, which the State acquired by purchase in 1885. All the unsightly buildings, heretofore obstructing the view, have been removed, and a terrace was erected for a distance of half a mile, affording uncountable attractions to the visitor with its venerable trees, comfortable seats, and delightful views. The main entrance is a tasty structure at the foot of Cascade Street. The point of land at the brink of the falls is called _Prospect Point_. Since it commands a fine view, which is the feature of the park, our drivers advised us to abandon the carriages and to step nearer to the long stone wall running for some distance along the edge of the gorge. Standing on the platform, I glanced at the mighty volume of water; here precipitated over a huge rock 163 feet high with a thunderlike roar that can be heard, under favorable circumstances, a distance of fifteen miles. For a long time we remained there, spell-bound by the wonderful panorama, plunged into a reverie of rapture. Mrs. James, reminding me the carriages were waiting for us, brought me back to consciousness. The spectacle is so sublime and overwhelming that the mind, unable to grasp it, cannot adjust itself at once to a scale so stupendous, and the impression fails. But, gradually, as you remain longer, the unvarying, ponderous, unspeakably solemn voice of the great flood finds its way to the soul, and holds it with a fascination which is all pervasive and cannot be shaken off. In a car, moving on an inclined plane, we descended to the water's edge. These cars are raised and lowered by water-power, by means of a three-inch cable 300 feet long, running over steel wheels. At the foot of the stairway, tickets may be obtained for the trip on the "Maid of the Mist," that steams up to the Horseshoe Fall; then back to the Canadian side, and finally returns to her starting point. The view from below presented to us new charms which we could not obtain before. In the first place the enormous height of the cataract may be better realized from beneath; then the emerald and opal translucence of the waters, as they pass in their swift career, was here especially effective; since the sun, shining through the mists of spray from a station in the heavens most advantageous for our prospect, crowned the entire scene with iridescent diadems. This fall is known as the American, separated from the "Horseshoe" or "Canadian Fall" by a large island, standing on the verge of the cliff over which the cataract pours, and dividing the river in such a manner as to form from its waters the two above named falls. After a lovely ride through the beautiful woodland we viewed Goat Island, having an area of 61-1/2 acres and a circumference of about one mile. A strip about ten rods wide and eighty rods long, has been washed away on the south side since the first road was made in 1818. This island was, in ancient times, one of the favorite burying-grounds of the Indians, and yet preserves traces of their funeral rites. Crossing the first bridge, from which we had one of the grandest views of the rapids, we reached Bath Island, some two acres in extent. A second bridge conveyed us to Goat Island, where we witnessed a most charming panorama. Descending the stairs, we stood next to the Little Fall, beneath which is the famous Cave of the Winds. From the farther point of Luna Island, attainable by a little bridge, we saw the most desirable near view of the American Fall and Rapids; here, too, we enjoyed a fine spectacle in the perspective of the gorge below. It has often been remarked by strangers that this island trembles, which is undoubtedly true, but the impression is heightened by imagination. Not far from Luna Island are the famous Biddle Stairs. Shortly after their erection, in 1829, the well known Sam Patch, whose diving propensities made his name illustrious, performed his noted, bold feat in 1830. Midway between the foot of these stairs and the Canadian Fall he built a scaffold, ninety-six feet high, from which he made his successful leap into the river. Proceeding a little further, we stood in full view of the Horseshoe Fall--so-called because of its crescent shape--which contains by far the greater body of water; the fall being more than 2,000 feet wide and 154 feet high. The site of the old Terrapin Tower is the best point from which to perceive the shape of the fall. From the south side of the island the Three Sister Islands are accessible, affording the finest views of the rapids. These islands offer, from their location, a delightfully cool retreat in the warmest summer days, with attractive and enchanting scenery. In order to have a comprehensive glance of Nature's grandest wonder known to man, in its climax of sublimity, we took a ride back through Prospect Park, across the New Suspension Bridge, below the American Fall, to the Canadian shore. This splendid drive was continued through the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, opened to the public in 1889. Following the example of New York State, the Ontario Parliament had passed an act to reserve the western side of the Falls vicinity--the Canadian Reservation--covering an area of about 154 acres, and beautifully laid out. Here we had the most imposing view; a finer panorama cannot well be imagined. The concussion of the descending waters with those in the depths below occasion a spray that veils the cataract two-thirds up its height. Above this everlasting and impenetrable foam, there rises fifty feet above the fall a cloud of lighter spray, which, when the rays of the sun are directed upon it, displays solar rainbows, grand in their magnificence. It was here on Table Rock, formerly one of the most celebrated points about Niagara, that Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney wrote her spirited eulogy on Niagara, which commences with the musical rhymes: "Flow on forever, in thy glorious robe Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on, Unfathomed and resistless. God hath set His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud Mantled around thy feet. And he doth give Thy voice of thunder power to speak of him Eternally,--bidding the lip of man Keep silence,--and upon thine altar pour Incense of awe-struck praise." Three miles below the falls is the Whirlpool, a vast basin formed by the projection of a rocky promontory on the Canadian side, against which the waters rush with such violence as to cause a severe reaction and rotary motion; and in it logs and trees are frequently whirled around for weeks in succession. Geology has accepted as a matter of certitude that within the memory of men now living, the Falls have receded 100 feet, and authorities in that science have stated the fact, that the retrocession--estimated from one inch to one foot per year--began near Lewiston. The whole waters of the lakes there foamed over this dam several miles in width. The name "Niagara" is supposed to belong to the vocabulary of the Iroquois language, meaning "Thunderer of Waters." The first white visitor to Niagara Falls was Father Hennepin, a priest and historian, accompanying Chevalier Robert de la Salle on his discoveries. He published the first description of "this wonderful Downfall" in 1678. There exist now three distinct cataracts, which are known as _Horseshoe_, _American_, and _Central Falls_. The weight of water descending over the cadences in a single hour, is computed to be 100,000,000 tons. The magnitude of the great waterfalls, and their fame as a natural wonder, had, heretofore, to a certain degree, excluded from thought the idea of their marvelous utilarian properties; but the recent development of electrical science, and the far-reaching enterprise of to-day, have now combined to subject to the uses of mankind a portion of the power of the falls, developed at such a distance from the great cataract as not to interfere in any way with the natural beauty of the scenery. As the western sky was dyed with the tints of sunset, we hastened to reach our floating home; since we expected two friends of Miss Campbell on board the yacht--a gentleman who holds a prominent position in Buffalo, Mr. J.B. Seitz, and his charming wife. We returned with the exhalting sentiment of having visited a temple of nature, to whose shrine thousands from all over the world annually pay their tribute of praise. Arriving on board the "Marguerite" that--though still in dry-dock--was not laid dry any more, we perceived a striking contrast between the close and saturated atmosphere prevailing here, and the pure, balmy air at Niagara Falls. Our thoughtful commodore, desirous of giving us the opportunity to inhale the refreshing sea-breeze, ordered our departure for the breakwater as soon as circumstances permitted; intending early on the following morning to commence our lake journey. The obscurity was fast increasing as we neared the high stone wall, and the scenery around me made the verses of Whittier resound in my ears in which he described the "Evening by the Lake Side" so beautifully with the words: "Yon mountain's side is black with night, While broad-orbed, o'er its gleaming crown The moon, slow rounding into sight, On the hushed inland-sea looks down." CHAPTER III. VOYAGE ON THREE GREAT LAKES, FROM AUGUST 2ND, 7 A.M., TO AUGUST 22ND, 9 A.M. As the warm rays of the morning sun were lighting up the scene with a radiance, glorious to behold, we bade farewell to Buffalo which, being already in some distance, soon became entirely invisible. Indescribable was our amazement when we viewed once more the waters of _Lake Erie_, whose raging billows had betrayed to us, only a few days ago, the unruly nature of a boisterous inland-sea. Now, as we were gliding on its surface, the lake presented an appearance quite novel to us; being almost motionless, a true emblem of tranquillity and peacefulness. Only now and then a gentle zephyr rippled its level which, reflected in the sunbeams, appeared like an undulating mass of silver. The cloudless heavens, clad in their brightest hue of azure blue, and illumined by the golden sun, painted a great variety of fine images of light and shade on the limpid waters beneath. The sky seemed to reflect the water and the water the sky, both gleaming in the sunshine. On our right, the lake made the impression of stretching into endless, unlimited space; on our left, however, we could distinguish romantic hills, decorated by massive groves, with crossing and intersecting promontories, and fair valleys tenanted by numerous flocks and herds, that seemed to wander unrestrained through the rich pastures. The luxuriant landscape was intercepted here and there by undulating slopes, covered with sand, whose light color contrasted with the verdure of vales and hillocks. Speeding along, we came abreast of _Dunkirk_, a lake-port town in Chautauqua County, N.Y., situated on a small bay in Lake Erie, forty miles southwest of Buffalo. The town, which has a population of over 5,000, occupies an elevated and favorable position on the lake. Its industries comprise oil refineries, and the manufacture of flour and iron-work. After proceeding on our voyage for some hours, we viewed--located in a natural bay--the harbor of _Erie_, the capital of Erie County, Penn. The port is protected by a breakwater three and one-half miles long. The principal shipments that leave this harbor, are coal, iron, and petroleum; an important trade being carried on with the Canadian lake-ports. The streets of the city are spacious and laid out with great regularity. To its prominent buildings belong the postoffice, the opera house, the city hospital, the court house, and the orphan asylum. Erie contains nearly 20,000 inhabitants, many of whom are engaged in iron manufacture. The large supply of water required for the factories is obtained from the lake by powerful engines, which force it to a tower 200 feet high, whence it is distributed through the mains. The chief industries developed here, are petroleum refineries and leather factories. It was at Erie, that Commodore Perry equipped the vessels which in 1813 defeated the British fleet on Lake Erie. In the year 1795 the town was laid out, and in 1851 it received a city charter. Still fascinated by the attractions of the everchanging landscape along the southern coast, we had forgotten that _fugit hora_; for we were greatly surprised to perceive the approaching twilight, indicating the parting day, and the white beams of the young crescent just beginning to steal over the lately flushed and empurpled scene. Therefore, the "Marguerite" was cabled to the dock, about two miles from the village of _Conneaut_. A fresh and palpitating evening air invited us to a walk along the coast of the beautiful inland-sea. Adopting an unfrequented path through a vast plain of sand, we found the charming scenery enhanced by a solemn stillness. All nature slumbered. Here, witnessing a magnificent prospect in this lovely solitude, we experienced one of those seasons when the atmosphere is so surcharged with luxury, that every pore of the body becomes an ample gate for sensation to flow in; and one has simply to sit still and to be filled. Seated near the shore, we delivered ourselves up to the exquisite loveliness around us; and when returning on board the yacht, the impression of the superb panorama tarried with me, even into the realm of Morpheus; so that I rose on the following morning with the remembrance of delicious dreams. When I came on deck, the air seemed to be sweet with perfumes; the water sparkled brightly, and the blue sky hung cloudless over the placid mirror of Lake Erie. Thus, favored by the weather, the majestic steam-yacht resumed her voyage. After the lapse of two hours the harbor of Ashtabula came in sight, and at about 10 o'clock we approached Fair Point. The noon-tide of the summer day was past, as we were made acquainted with the fact, that the rising towers and pinnacles, to be discerned in the distance on our left, pertained to the beautiful "Forest City," next to Cincinnati the largest and most important city in the State of Ohio. _Cleveland_ is built on both sides of the Cuyahoga River, which is here crossed by several bridges. It is located chiefly on a plain from fifty to 100 feet above the lake, of which a magnificent view is thus obtained. Leaving East River Street, where our floating home was destined to remain, I undertook an excursion through the greater portion of the city; not solely for the purpose of viewing the regular streets, generally from eighty to 100 feet wide, and lined with maple trees, but with the design to see a friend--Miss Lina Uhl--a teacher in one of the thirty public schools; holding a prominent position as the president of a teachers' association in Cleveland. She is the niece of Mr. C.F. Hild, from Schenectady, N.Y. Having previously informed her of my intention to visit her native city, I was already expected, and very cordially received at her hospitable home. After I had spent some very pleasant hours there, my friend accompanied me on my return to the dock. _En route_ she made me acquainted with many points of interest, which are so numerous in the "Forest City." Thus, she called my attention to the charming Euclid Avenue, a street several miles long, considered to be one of the most extensive and picturesque within the limits of the United States. Here Cleveland's aristocracy built their substantial mansions and luxurious villas, encircled by tasty, park-like gardens. Of special interest to the visitor is the monument erected in memory of James Abram Garfield, the twentieth president of the Republic, born in Orange, Ohio, in 1831. Being in office but a short time, he was shot by a disappointed office-seeker, Charles J. Guiteau, in 1881. This sad event, which forms a thrilling incidence in the history of the Union, is comparable with the recent death of Carter Harrison, mayor of Chicago, whose assassination by Prendergast, under similar circumstances, on Saturday, 8.30 P.M., October 28, 1893, created a profound sensation and great excitement. Monumental Park, near the center of the city, contains ten acres, divided into four squares by the extension of Ontario and Superior Streets. Besides a fountain, and other attractive objects, the park is adorned by a statue of Commodore Perry, erected in 1860 in commemoration of his victory on Lake Erie in 1813. It is of Italian marble, eight feet high, and stands upon a granite pedestal twelve feet in altitude. The most noteworthy buildings are the postoffice, the city hall, the county court house, and the Cleveland medical college. The Union Railway depot, an immense structure of stone near the lake shore, is one of the largest of the kind in the United States. Cleveland was founded in 1796, and named in honor of General Moses Cleveland of Connecticut, who then had charge of the surveying of this region. It was an important point in the war of 1812, incorporated as a village in 1814, and as a city in 1836. The number of its inhabitants is estimated to be more than 200,000. The "Forest City" has an extensive trade in copper and iron ore, shipped from the Lake Superior mining regions, as well as in coal, petroleum, wool, and lumber, received by railroad, canal, and lake transportation. A sojourn of at least one week is requisite in order to acquaint one's self with all the attractions of Cleveland, with its unrivaled position and manifold beauties of scenery. In fact, our honorable President can be proud to share his name with this delightful place; and, in return, the "Forest City" may consider it an honor to be the namesake of Grover Cleveland, the present leader of the powerful Republic. On Friday morning, as soon as the dawning day dispatched its first rays over Cleveland, we resumed our voyage on Lake Erie. The flakes of light were falling every moment faster and broader among the spires and towers of the city of which we gradually lost sight. They were only discernible as long, gray shadows on the elevated lake shore. The mists were couched in quiet masses, iridescent with the morning light, upon the breasts of the remote hills, over whose leagues of massy undulations, they melted into the robe of material light, fading, lost in the increasing lustre, again to reappear in the higher heavens, while their bases vanished into the unsubstantial and mocking blue of the lake below. The dispersing wreaths of white clouds gradually gave place to the pale azure of the horizon. The level of the beautiful inland-sea was bathed in the glorious sunlight and the whole heaven--one scarlet canopy--colored the limpid waters with an exquisite, roseate tint; thus giving a redoubled splendor to this fine panorama. While the midday sun was sending forth his warm rays, we came abreast of Marblehead, and speeding along we reached Green Island at 1 o'clock. Having passed Barr Point Lighthouse we chose our halting place on the Canadian shore near _Amherstburg_, a small village pleasantly situated on the Detroit River. As the yacht was fastened to the dock, the heavens were yet illumined by the parting day; which gave us opportunity to admire the superb spectacle on the opposite shore. Its southwestern extremity was adorned with numerous verdant islands of various size and form; some stretching for miles in length--the largest containing a circumference of fourteen miles; several so small that they seemed destined for a race of fairies; others in clusters; and some like beautiful vestals, in single loveliness, whose holy vows ordained them forever to live alone. The last streak of light had faded from the west, and a pale lustre kindling in the eastern portions of the sky, became brighter and brighter till the white falcated moon was lifted up above the horizon; while uncountable stars appeared to reflect their brilliancy in the waters below. This delightful scene around us, so perfectly filled and satisfied our sense of beauty that we reluctantly gave up our comfortable seats on the stern-deck, notwithstanding an advanced time of night. On the following morning the sun rose in his clearest splendor. As soon as that flood of luminous rays which constitutes day, was flowing on the crystalline sea, we departed from this romantic country scene in Canada. Sailing along, we approached the terminus of our voyage on Lake Erie, which is considered the most dangerous of all the Great Lakes as to navigation, owing to its comparative shallowness--its mean depth, being about ninety feet--and the consequent liability to a heavy ground swell. The peculiar features of this body of water are its inferior depth and the clayey nature of its shores, which are generally low; on the south, however, bordered by an elevated plateau, through which the rivers have cut deep channels. Though the lake possesses but a small number of good harbors, the amount of traffic on its waters, and on the connecting railways is enormous. This inland-sea, presenting us only sights of utmost quietude and peace, has been the scene of a naval engagement between the British and Americans, September 10, 1813, in which the latter were victorious. The view we enjoyed was not in the least adequate to remind us of warfare; on the contrary "The sun in heaven shone so gay: All things were joyful on that day." It was yet early in the morning when we neared the city of Detroit, having almost reached the head of _Detroit River_ which separates the United States from Canada. Being about one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide, and five and one-half fathoms deep, the river flows with a pretty swift current. _Detroit_ is the most important city of Michigan, opposite the Canadian town Windsor. Eighteen miles north of Lake Erie, it stretches with its suburbs about five miles along the river, and the central part extends for about two miles back from the shore. Approaching the city, we were more and more delighted with its attractive appearance. The streets, from fifty to 100 feet wide, are for the most part ornamented with rows of trees. A number of avenues, having an unusual width, diverge from the Grand Circus, a spacious park semi-circular in form, which is divided into two quadrants by Woodward Avenue. Connected with the former is the Campus Martius, a public place about 600 feet long and 250 feet wide. Detroit comprises many magnificent structures. One of the chief public buildings is the city hall, facing the Campus Martius, with fronts on four streets. It counts among the finest edifices of the kind in the west. Built of sandstone, it is designed after the Italian style of architecture, surmounted by a tower 180 feet high. Its cost amounted to $600,000. Other prominent structures are the opera house, the office of the Board of Trade, the custom house, and the Roman Catholic cathedral. The commercial facilities of the city are very extensive. The Detroit River is a connecting link in the great chain of lake navigation, and affords the best harbor on the inland-seas. Detroit is not only the center of a great railroad system; more than 350 vessels are owned here, and numerous daily lines of steamers run to various points of the lakes. Its manufacturing industries are very important and consist of iron, flour, tobacco, cigars, lumber, and bricks. The extensive Pullman Car Works are situated here; also one of the seven pin factories in the United States. Settled by the French, early in the eighteenth century, Detroit passed into the hands of the English in 1763. It was then besieged for eleven months by the Indian chief Pontiac; ceded to the Americans in 1783, but not occupied by them till 1796. As a city, it was incorporated in 1824; and its present population is estimated to be 235,000. It was the capital of Michigan from 1837 till 1847, when that honor was transferred to Lansing. Having traversed Detroit River, we entered _Lake St. Clair_, a sheet of water eighteen miles long and twenty-two miles wide. This small lake has many extensive sand-banks covered with a depth of water varying from six to ten feet. Previous to 1858, much inconvenience was experienced in navigating it, owing to the insufficient depth, but the governments of the United States and Canada have dredged a canal through the bed of the lake, comprising a width of 300 feet. Since then, this channel has been deepened so as to enable vessels drawing fifteen feet to pass with safety from lake to lake in stormy weather. After the expiration of a few hours we reached _River St. Clair_, whose luxuriant border exhibited a magnificent panorama. Afar off westward, the uplands wore a tinge of tenderest blue; and in the nearer distance, on the low shores of the river, superb summer residences, tasty villas, and elegant hotels, built in every style of architecture, lay interspersed between romantic hills and tufted groves. The horizon was of a fine, golden tint, changing gradually into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. None of us ventured to leave the deck fearing to miss some of those unrivaled sights constantly offering new attractions. This trip on River St. Clair--though having an extent of thirty-three miles--seemed but short to us; and the fine spectacle displayed on the charming western bank may be reckoned among the most delightful scenes we beheld on our long, enjoyable voyage. As we approached the terminus of the river, a sudden rush of the awakened wind was heard; and out of the blue horizon a troop of narrow, dark, and pointed clouds were advancing, covering the sky, inch by inch, with their gray masses gradually blotting the light out of the landscape. Horizontal bars of black shadow were forming under them, and lurid wreaths wrapped themselves about the crests of the hills. The wind had grown more violent as _Port Huron_ came in view. Waving curtains of opaque rain, swinging from the overburdened clouds, dropped down upon the surface of the river. The black swaying fringes, sweeping irresistibly along the water, churned the surface into foam. The sudden and unfavorable change of the weather determined our commodore to abide at _Port Huron_, a prosperous city in Michigan. It commands a very advantageous situation, located on the west bank of River St. Clair, and at the southern extremity of Lake Huron. Being the county seat of St. Clair County, it is also a point of great importance in the railway system, and the terminus of several lines of lake steamers. The city, with a population of nearly 14,000, has a large lumber trade, ship-yards, dry-docks, saw and flour mills. Founded in 1819, Port Huron was incorporated as a village in 1835, and as a city in 1857. Since the yacht lingered here until Monday, August 7th, we were enabled to become familiar with its broad streets, regularly laid out and well shaded; some adorned by beautiful private residences. The heavy, black clouds that had shrouded the whole sky ever since we made our entry in Port Huron, were yet concealing the golden disk of the summer sun. The atmosphere, however, which had previously a disagreeable, wet chilliness in it, gradually grew clearer and warmer so that we left the dock with the intention to undertake our voyage on Lake Huron, but when nearing the place where this sheet of water, covering an area of 23,000 square miles, communicates with River St. Clair, we discovered that the swell on the lake level was yet quite considerable, whereas the wind which had blown a gale all the preceding day, was gradually dying away. Still, we found it advisable to wait until the foaming waves of the enraged element had been appeased. In consequence of this decision we concluded to moor the yacht as near the entrance of Lake Huron, as we conveniently could, ready for an early departure; for which we considered the town of _Sarnia_, opposite Port Huron, the most favorable locality. Romantically situated on the Canadian shore, Sarnia affords a splendid north and west view. Its handsome streets and neat structures are quite attractive to the stranger; and not these alone but also the residents who are generous and hospitable. We observed this fact, even during our short stay, when receiving the visit of Mr. Clark and his amiable lady, who presented us with a bouquet of fragrant flowers, a kind gift that we highly appreciated. Long ere the east became purple with the morning light and the pinnacles of Sarnia were bathed, one by one, in the glory of its burning, we departed from the pleasant city, and the white sea-bird "Marguerite" spread her light wings over the surface of Lake Huron, whose waves--although the wind was quite fresh--did not run as high as I anticipated; for I had been informed that on the previous day the tide from the lake into Detroit River amounted to eight miles an hour. As I was pacing up and down the deck, I viewed an inland-sea 270 miles long, and 105 miles broad, with a picturesque coast line on our left. The purity of its waters was discernible by its limpid appearance and savory taste. The fine deposits of sand and clay extending at different places along the shore to a distance of twenty miles inland, by their contrasts added to the scenic beauty, exhibiting a variety of magnificent views. The luxuriant coast bordering on the southern extremity of the lake and skirting the peninsula of Michigan and southwestern Ontario--though comparatively flat--is not void of charming features; being lined with numerous pretty villages imbosomed among gentle slopes that were covered with the richest verdure. These hamlets, situated in the quiet valleys and shaded glens, alternated with extensive fields and orchards exuberant with fertility. Speeding along on the wavy surface of the lake, we gained sight of the breakwater of _Sand Beach_ when the noon-tide of the day had not yet arrived. We first visited the village of Sand Beach, and returned at nightfall to the breakwater, which is five miles distant from the former; here the yacht was cabled to the dock. Near our halting place there stood a lofty tower, whose illuminating apparatus threw a radiant, vari-colored light on the dark surface of Lake Huron. Upon expressing a desire to visit the Light Tower, Mr. James, who never left any of our wishes unfulfilled, immediately made arrangements with the keeper; and, accordingly, we were invited to intrust ourselves to his guidance. He informed us that the structure rested on a foundation consisting of a concrete mass, nine feet below the water line. Having ascended four flights of iron-wrought winding stairs, we reached the top of the circular structure; it having a diameter of twenty-four feet at its base, and rising to an elevation of fifty-seven feet. With great interest we inspected the revolving lights, exhibiting an ingenious piece of machinery, the invention of Finisterre and Barren in Paris, and representing a value of $1,800. This apparatus for rotating lamps is far superior to that for a fixed light. The characteristic of the latter is to constantly illuminate the whole horizon, requiring all the rays to fall simultaneously on the navigable track, whereas the demands made of a revolving light, are not nearly so great; only each point of the horizon being lighted at successive periods. When the dark intervals occur, the rays from the flame which are then pointing toward the obscure spaces, have their direction so altered laterally as to pass into the adjoining bright places; and so increase the power of the luminous flashes. A revolving light, though supplied by a flame of the same strength as a fixed, will thus necessarily be raised to a higher degree; for it does not lose its power by diffusing the rays constantly over the whole horizon, but gathers them up into a number of separate beams of greater intensity. The lights made to revolve by means of clockwork, were fed with mineral oil, a refined kerosine; and the refraction was caused by highly polished metallic reflectors. This visit to the Sand Beach Beacon was quite instructive; since we viewed there a practical application of an important principle in optics, based on the reflection of light. On Wednesday morning, the first beams of the new-born day had just appeared, when the yacht continued her voyage on Lake Huron. After a course of nearly twenty-two miles, we approached _Saginaw Bay_--the largest indentation on the western lake shore--comprising a width of thirty miles and a length of sixty miles. The passage across this bay, feared by many experienced navigators on account of the heavy ground swell, did not give us any cause for anxiety at first. Gradually, however, the sea became quite rough, and the enraged waves dashed their spray pearls even upon the deck of our sailing home. "The soft, wild waves, that rush and leap, Sing one song from the hoary deep: The south wind knows its own refrain, As it speeds the cloud o'er heaven's blue main." The strong breeze springing up in the forenoon, increased at midday. A line of low waves, first creeping sinuously into the bay, and tossing their snowy crests like troops of wild steeds, rolled higher and higher with the noise of many waters; and to escape the wrath of the angry sea, we stopped at the harbor of _Tawas City_, located near the northern extremity of Saginaw Bay. It is a thriving country town, with about 1,000 inhabitants, largely engaged in lumber trade. The wind continued to lash the fierce billows during the day until evening; so we decided to remain in Tawas City until the dawn of the next morning. Guided by the pale light of another aurora, we resumed our voyage, finding the surface of Lake Huron still in uproar. During this forenoon, we had occasion to witness a prospect quite novel to us. Glancing to our left, on Michigan's sylvan shore, we saw the bickering flames of a ravaging forest fire; dyeing all the surrounding air and landscape crimson, while dense clouds of smoke hung over the burning land like a pall upon which the sun-rays were reflected with weird effect. It was, indeed, an unusual sight, exhibiting strange beauty and splendor. In a short time we experienced the disagreeable consequences of this conflagration in the woodlands, caused by the extreme dryness prevailing in these regions for several weeks. For, as we reached _Alpena_ in Michigan, at about noonday, we found the atmosphere completely saturated with smoke, and intermixed with particles of burnt material. The reader can easily imagine that this impure air had a very unpleasant effect upon our eyes, irritating them so as to materially interfere with our comfort. This was the reason why we did not duly appreciate the attractions of Alpena, a town with about 12,500 inhabitants, regularly laid out with nice, broad streets, containing many handsome buildings and large stores. We had an ardent desire to bid farewell to the city as quick as possible; wherefore our captain received the order from Mr. James to guide the yacht forward on her course, even before the dawning of the next day, if such an early departure could be effected with safety. In compliance with these commands, we were on our way long ere the blush of day tinged the eastern sky. At first, disregarding the smoke and mist which became denser every minute, our navigator was soon aware that "So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky, He cannot see the sun on high: On deck the captain takes his stand, So dull it is, he sees no land. 'Dear me,' he says, 'I know no more How far away we are from shore.'" The fact is--that on account of the dense pall of smoke and mist, overshadowing everything--our pilot lost his reckoning, and only kept the yacht slowly moving through the water until we could find our way, when suddenly--we ran aground upon a rocky ledge, causing us all great consternation. "No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, The ship was as still as she might be. Her shaft and screw received no shock. Her keel was steady on a rock." Having lost all presence of mind, our pilot, without any meditation, abandoned the yacht in one of the small boats, for the purpose of obtaining assistance from the unknown shore. Before we were conscious of his proceedings, he had disappeared through fume and haze. Almost instantaneously we detected that the mariner's compass had vanished with him. Thus, we were destitute of the most important instrument for navigation. Wishing to give our deserter opportunity to find his way back to us, we caused the whistle to resound at short intervals. This interesting adventure was, of course, thoroughly discussed. We were all convinced that the unforeseen event might turn into a perilous one, should a wind arise to roughen the surface of the water. Our conversation was interrupted by an involuntary cry of pleasure which burst from the lips of Miss Campbell, whose keen eyes had revealed to her quite an uncommon spectacle in the hazy distance. Following her direction, we spied, through the fluctuating light of the foggy morning, the outlines of a steadfast boat speeding along on the calm sea. Eight oars, managed with the accuracy of clockwork by eight strong and skillful hands, were hurrying toward our rock-bound craft. As the shape and dimensions of the capable boat became discernible, it was evident she belonged to the United States Life-Saving Service, coming to our rescue. This conjecture was correct, for the robust crew soon lay alongside of us; which was a matter of intense relief to the whole party. With their assistance, the yacht was soon afloat again; and, guided by the Thunder Bay crew, we sailed to a favorable place of anchorage between Sugar and Gull Islands. Here the yacht remained to await our fugitive pilot, who was restored to us by the kind services of the life-saving crew, a few hours afterwards. We were informed that we had been aground two miles from the shore, in the vicinity of Thunder Bay Lights on _Gull Island Ledge_. During a heavy shower in the afternoon, we received a visit from several very pleasant ladies, relatives to the captain of the Thunder Bay life-saving service. When expressing our regret that their excursion was not favored by pleasanter weather, they assured us they were only too glad to view the tremulous skeins of rain refresh the languishing earth. In fact, this rainfall was a duplicated blessing, as it not only cleared the atmosphere from its smoky shroud but helped to check the ravages of the extensive forest conflagration, then threatening the city of Alpena with destruction. An awakened breeze, which had freshened since the violent shower, caused our floating home to roll considerably. Not desirous of being rudely tossed by the wanton billows, we weighed anchor and returned to Alpena, the only safe harbor within reach before sunset. Early the next day we continued our voyage on Lake Huron, entering its northern portion, which differs greatly from the nature of its southern shore. The northern and northeastern coasts are mostly composed of sand- and limestones. Where metamorphic rocks are found, the surface is broken and hilly, rising to elevations of 600 feet or more above the lake; in this respect unlike the southern shore, which is low and flat. Of the many islands--whose number amounts to about 3,000--we could admire the beauties of but few; for most of them dot the Canadian coast line. As the wind increased rapidly, it was deemed advisable to take harbor at _False Presqu'ile_, where we arrived at 9 A.M. Although this small body of land appeared very insignificant, inhabited by only twelve families, we decided to remain there, until wind and waves would prove more favorable. We had no motive to regret that resolution; for we experienced that this solitary tract not only afforded us enchanting views of lovely scenery; it was also the abode of noble-hearted mortals. Immediately after our arrival a very amiable gentleman, introducing himself as Mr. W.A. French, a wealthy lumber merchant of this place, visited us on board; giving us a cordial welcome. Not satisfied with a kind reception, he and his pretty wife presented us with all sorts of provisions, indigenous to this locality; thus evincing the abundant supply of delicacies at their disposal, notwithstanding their residing in such solitude. The time passed with marvelous rapidity in the pleasant company of our new friends. When the gloom of the growing twilight reminded us of the fading day, we could hardly realize this fact. We wished to stay there another day; but when the following morning rose fair and beautiful in the clear heavens, the wind had changed to the southeast, which was disadvantageous for our mooring place; and it might have been dangerous for us to remain in that harbor, should the breeze become violent. Leaving False Presqu'ile, we pursued our voyage under the most favorable auspices. After a course of several hours, we reached _Cheboygan_, a town situated on the northern shore of the Michigan Peninsula, thirteen miles from the Straits of Mackinaw. Lumber trade is carried on especially in this place, which contains about 7,500 inhabitants. Resuming our trip the next forenoon, a short course brought us to the terminus of our voyage on Lake Huron; when reaching the _Straits of Mackinaw_, whose blue green waves divide the State of Michigan. Extending nearly nine miles in circumference, and rising at its highest point over 300 feet above the waves, we beheld the famous _Mackinaw Island_, which has filled an important place in the history of exploration. Here was the meeting place of the daring French _voyageurs_ and _aventuriers_, before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Many wild and thrilling incidents in the lives of Marquette, Hennepin, and La Salle occurred on this island; and over at Point St. Ignace, in plain view, Marquette was escorted to his burial place by a hundred canoes of plumed and painted Ottawa and Huron warriors in 1677. Just across, on the most northern point of the Lower Peninsula, stood old Fort Mackinaw, the scene of the terrible massacre of the whites by the Indians under Pontiac in 1763. On this island were fought two battles in the war of 1812. It was here that Schoolcraft wrote his celebrated History of the North American Indians, and the Legend of Hiawatha, which Longfellow, visiting him here, afterward expanded into a poem. The island's varied scenery, and its history and traditions, have been portrayed in vivid word pictures by Marion Harland in a book, bearing the title "With the Best Intentions," by which she has recently added to her wide fame. Having crossed the strait at its narrowest part four miles in width, we caught sight of the beautiful waters of _Lake Michigan_, the only one in the group of the North American great lakes which extends entirely within the territory of the United States, having a maximum breadth of eighty four miles, and a depth varying from 700 to 1,000 feet. Its length amounts to 345 miles from the northwestern corner of Indiana and the northern part of Illinois to the Straits of Mackinaw. We followed the same route which more than two centuries ago was taken by Jacques Marquette who, in the spring of 1673, with Joliet for his chieftain, and five other Frenchmen, embarked at Mackinaw in two frail bark canoes. The disposition to pause for an instant, and to reflect upon the character and circumstance of our luxurious voyage as contrasted with that of these few adventurers in their fragile birch canoes--a little over 220 years ago--is almost irresistible. On that occasion it was a journey of extreme peril--with no friendly populous havens at which the necessary commodities could be obtained. Those densely wooded shores afforded no hospitable refuge to these hardy men, and their destination or return was a question of great uncertainty. We pushed along with the marvelous propeller and, surrounded with every comfort, had the assurance of each evening anchoring in some safe harbor--encountering cheerful voices, and seeing glad faces--with the possibility of daily finding everything we wanted, in profusion. There was the postoffice, with its rapid service at our disposal, or the electric telegraph, by means of which we could communicate with every part of civilization, ever within our reach--and the climax of modern genius in the magnificent structures of the Columbian Exposition awaiting us--the marvel of the nineteenth century, with its unparalleled aggregation. The thought is overwhelming! And could these explorers have seen in a dream--what we witnessed in reality--it would have seemed to them an impossibility that so short a time could have brought about such great events. The eastern lake shore was richly garlanded with forests displaying a vast multitude of verdant hues, varying through all the shades of green. Over the whole the azure of the sky cast a deep, misty blue; blending toward the rocks of lime- and sandstone, seemingly embracing every possible tint and shade of color. Having achieved a course of sixty miles, the yacht cast anchor in the excellent harbor of St. James on _Beaver Island_, a large tract of land covering an area of 3,700 acres. Vessels of various kinds and shapes lay moored in this spacious inlet. Being wind-bound, we tarried for two days, which gave us opportunity to become acquainted with the features of the island. We were informed that it is identified with the history of Mormonism; since it was first settled by adherents of that sect, who robbed the ships entering this port, and who led the lives of pirates. After their leader was killed in one of the numerous combats which ensued with the attacked sailors, they abandoned the place; but the habitation of the Mormon chief is still existing, probably the only vestige left here of the followers of Joseph Smith. At 1 o'clock A.M., on Wednesday, August 16th, we departed from Beaver Island. The pilot had guided the "Marguerite" on a course of about forty-five miles southward, when we approached _Northport_, Michigan, a place noteworthy for having not a single of those maleficient institutions, commonly styled beer-saloons. We lingered two hours at the dock of this town. The white fields of blinding mist floated along the winding valleys of the low lake shore; and from the dark clouds curtaining the sun, the rain fell continuously. Thus the landscape on our left bore a gray and dim tincture. Before the darkness of evening had gathered about us, the yacht was made fast to the dock of _Frankfort_, on the Michigan coast, a small place with a population of about 1,000, romantically situated. Taking our departure from the town on the following morning, we observed that the fog, covering the surrounding landscape with a thick, impenetrable veil, increased in density until it seemed as if from moment to moment additional tints of sombre gray were united to the haze. In fact, after a while we were unable to discern the outline of the coast, having to pursue our way with great caution. After the lapse of four anxious hours, we had the great satisfaction to hear the welcome sound of the fog-horn of _Manistee_, the county seat of Manistee County, in Michigan. It is situated at the mouth of the same-named river, which is navigable for vessels, drawing ten to twelve feet of water, for the distance of one and one-half miles to Manistee Lake. Largely engaged in lumber trade, the city has a score of saw-mills and about as many shingle-mills, the latter of which produce annually 450,000,000 shingles, the largest number made at any one place in the world. In consequence of the discovery in 1881 of a bed of solid salt, thirty feet thick, extensive salt factories are being built. The population of the city has rapidly increased in later years, comprising about 14,000 residents at present. The surrounding district is especially adapted for fruit-growing; and sportsmen are attracted to the Manistee River and its tributaries by the abundance of the otherwise rarely found grayling. Since we expected company on board the "Marguerite" in the evening--Mr. Wilkinson, a citizen of Milwaukee, who intended to make us acquainted with his wife, we went on shore immediately after dinner to view the city, so as to return in time to meet our visitors. Manistee made the impression of a flourishing business town. The comparatively long trading thoroughfare is a broad street nicely laid out, and adorned with numerous stately buildings and spacious stores. Not long after our departure from Manistee, which occurred early on the following morning, a sudden squall threatened us; and a few minutes later, a terrific flash and peal broke almost simultaneously upon us, followed by a violent shower. Fortunately, it lasted but a short time. The tempest gradually ceased; the irregular and blinding flashes became fewer and the thunder rolled less loudly. Gradually the scene changed to one of peaceful beauty so that the rose light of the radiant sun-ball appeared in the heavens; casting a new glory on the picturesque scenery of water and shore. The surface of the lake had become calm; and speeding along, we enjoyed the lovely weather which was not destined to continue. For, toward midday a fresh breeze rippled the waters that by degrees were transformed into towering waves, shaking their foamy crests, and tossing us angrily from side to side; and we were not sorry when we reached the harbor of _Muskegon_, about six miles from Muskegon City, situated on the same-named river which here, four miles from its mouth, widens into Muskegon Lake. It is the best harbor on the east side of the great lake. The city has daily steamboat navigation with Chicago; and saws and ships enormous quantities of lumber. Its principal manufactories are a number of foundries, machine shops, and boiler works. The present population is estimated to comprise about 24,000. While admiring the lovely scenery enhanced by an enchanting sunset, from the deck of the yacht, our attention was distracted by approaching footsteps. In the uncertain, fading daylight, we perceived a gentleman accompanied by a lady--curiously regarding us--whom we invited on board the "Marguerite." Mrs. and Mr. Wickham were the names by which this fair couple was introduced. That they spent the evening in our company, was very acceptable to us--as we but rarely had visitors on our pilgrimage. They greatly admired our floating home, and as the moon arose to bathe us with his silvery light, they took their departure. The young archer--morn--broke his arrows on the remote hills, walking golden-sandaled down the lake, when we continued our voyage. The still waters were soon lashed into fury again by an unfavorable wind, increasing toward midday to such a degree that we were glad to take refuge in the harbor of _South Haven_, where we lingered until the dawn of another day. Opposite the mooring-place of the "Marguerite" stood an edifice whose interior we all longed to view. Having so unexpectedly become acquainted with the Life-Saving Service on the occasion of our adventure near Thunder Bay, we were anxious to learn more about that noble institution. In the afternoon we set out for the South Haven Life-Saving Station whose captain, an obliging gentleman, gave us very satisfactory explanations. He first called our attention to the splendid qualities of the life-boat: such as its power to right itself if upset; the capability of immediate self-discharge when filled with water; its strength; resistance to overturning; speed against a heavy sea; buoyancy; and facility in launching and taking the shore. We then inspected the diverse apparatuses utilized for rescuing the shipwrecked. A very clever contrivance, especially appropriate for saving invalids, children, and aged persons is the metallic car, a small covered boat, which can hold three or four persons who, entering by a comparatively small aperture, are shut in and drawn ashore, safely protected from injury even though overturned by the surf. For projecting a line over a stranded vessel a howitzer is used; and in this way a communication is secured to the shore. The cork life-belts worn by the men, are of the plan first designed by Admiral Ward. It is safe to say that the United States Life-Saving Service is chief among the life-boat societies of other nations, both as regards the extent of coast embraced, and the amount of work done. The whole support of this service is provided for by annual grants from Congress. Besides its vast coast line, it guards the shores of its great lakes. Since the sea-bordering portions of America in many places are destitute of human habitations, the constant employment of surfmen is required for the express purpose of looking out for vessels in distress and manning the surf-boats. It also necessitates the erection of houses of refuge provisioned so as to afford shelter and food to shipwrecked sailors for a considerable time at places, where without such provisions those who escape the sea, would probably perish from hunger and exposure. The shores of the United States lakes and sea comprise over 10,000 miles, embracing almost every variety of climate and formation of land. This great extent of sea-board is divided into twelve districts with in all 244 stations. Of these 182 are on the Atlantic, forty-nine on the lakes, and twelve on the Pacific. Many of the stations are closed during the fine months of the year; their crews being disbanded till the winter gales again summon them to their heroic and dangerous work. That they render noble service in this way, may be gathered from the annual reports. The official statement of 1893 shows that the disasters to shipping in that year amounted to 427 cases; that on board of vessels thus endangered there were 3,565 persons of whom 3,542 were saved. After we had thus enriched our knowledge referring to this humane institution with its present effective system, we proceeded to the neighboring shore of Lake Michigan, here forming a beautiful beach. The polished and print-less sand studded with small, shining pepples spread before us in vast expanse; and the magnificent waters of the lake glittered in the sun-beams as though they were sown with diamonds. When the surf came in, and the white fringe of the sliding wave shot up the beach, the light color of the sand was deepened to a silvery gray. As much as we marred and defaced its fine-grained, bright surface, it was ever beaten down anew by the advancing and retreating waves. We had hardly deserted this lovely spot, when our foot prints were washed away by the ever returning sea. On Monday at an advanced hour in the evening we departed from South Haven. Since the glories of the sunset, with its witchery of rose and gold, promised a fine night, we decided to continue our voyage as far as Michigan City. The panorama we witnessed during that nocturnal trip was as magnificent as can be imagined. The full-orbed moon on the wave was beautiful; and so was the landscape bathed in its light. Toward 10 o'clock we arrived at our destination, a town in La Porte Co., Indiana. _Michigan City_ is the largest lumber-market in the State, and has numerous manufacturing establishments. As a lake-port, it is a place of considerable prosperity comprising a population of about 11,000. It was in the early morning, Tuesday, August 22nd, that we left Michigan City. Having sailed along the coast of the lake for about three hours, we discerned in the misty distance the site of the "Queen of the West." At twenty minutes to 9 o'clock, it became plainly cognizable. In transports of delight we glanced at a vast, verdant tract of land adorned with magnificent structures appearing to be of the purest marble; in their matchless beauty imparting to the mind some grand allegorical _tableau_, intending to convey the poet's idea of the New Jerusalem. It was the famous _White City_, the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, that charmed our eyes and gratified our taste so much. No one can adequately describe that sight as seen from the clear waters of the lake.--I imagine that our illustrious Columbus must have been equally affected as he beheld Guanahani, that fruitful island in its wild luxuriance, on his first landing in the New World. CHAPTER IV. STAY IN CHICAGO AND VISIT TO THE WORLD'S FAIR. Our arrival in Chicago put an end to our pleasurable voyage comprising the considerable length of 1,243 miles, during which "The waves were our pillow, Our cradle the sea: When rough was the billow Not timid were we." This westward trip afforded us every hour a revelation of the surprising growth of the nation that lives under the Stars and Stripes. My traveling companions were equally delighted with this course, notwithstanding their being preacquainted with that portion of the west, whose rapid development makes it practically a new and another west every ten years. In fact, America astonishes the world; and it is no common pleasure to study and note the progress of this great republic of which Chicago is the second city in commercial importance, as well as in population. We were anxious to obtain an adequate conception of the site of a city that is the synonym of push and prosperity, and to which Congress had awarded the World's Columbian Exposition. Therefore, the yacht was moored inside the breakwater, near the mouth of the inlet, called the Chicago River, which runs from the lake nearly one mile westward; then separates into two branches, one flowing northwest, the other southwest; thus dividing Chicago into three divisions, connected by more than thirty-five bridges, and two tunnels laid under the bed of the river. This streamlet used to empty into Lake Michigan; but a remarkable piece of engineering caused it to change its course and so to speak, run "uphill." The Illinois and Michigan Canal, with which the main branch of the river is connected, was so deepened as to draw the water out from the lake, so that--through this channel emptying into the Illinois River--the water of Lake Michigan flows into the Gulf of Mexico by means of the Mississippi River. Had it been later in the season, we might have decided to follow this watercourse in order to view the fertile Mississippi River Valley, and to enjoy the beauties of the sunny south. The largest vessels may be towed into the Chicago River, being supplied with docks and water-slips and affording a dockage capacity of nearly forty miles.--Originally named Chacaqua River, (the Indian word for thunder, after the Indian Thor or Thunder God), it is supposed to have given the city its name. At midday we left our anchorage--on which the eye of heaven shone almost too hot--and undertook our first trip to the Fair Grounds. Seated on deck, we inhaled the invigorating, fresh breeze sweeping over the lake and modified by the burning rays of the sun that kissed the brilliant, blue waters beneath, with his golden face, gilding them with heavenly alchemy. High ran our anticipations as we were approaching the renowned White City, to which representatives of all nations have made a pilgrimage. At the expiration of about one-half hour, we reached the pier, destined for the halting-place of yachts; and welcomed by the supervisor of the harbor, we went on shore. The first impression was bewildering. Americans have reason to be proud of what was to be viewed in Jackson Park; as such buildings no previous generations of men have seen, congregated in this manner; and the display of the achievements of science, art, and industries, exhibited in them, has undoubtedly eclipsed all other expositions in the world's annals of progress. It seems impossible to give so adequate a pen-picture of the World's Fair as to impart to the reader an accurate idea of its true grandeur. Many minds have essayed already to reproduce what they have witnessed there; many pens have attempted to record exactly the incomparable impression the exposition effected upon its visitors, but, it is safe to say, without even faintly describing it; for, can language convey to a blind man what "color" means, or to a deaf person the meaning of music?--No more can the pen of the most gifted author adequately portray the World's Columbian Exposition. If one would give to each building a volume; a shelf to the Midway Plaisance; and to the exhibitions a whole library in way of description, yet half of its beauties and wonders would not be told.-- Leaving the "Marguerite" at the North Pier, our attention was called to a unique exhibit made by the U.S. Navy Department, a structure representing a faithful model of a modern coast-line battle-ship. This full-sized imitation _man-of-war_ _"Illinois"_ was completely equipped erected on piling on the lake front, and surrounded by water, so as to give the appearance of being moored to a wharf. Here the Government showed also a war baloon, a light-house, a life-saving station complete with apparatus, and a gun battery. Proceeding a little westward, we viewed a building, delightfully located, bearing a strong resemblance to the National Museum at Washington. This imposing edifice classic in style, and adorned by a central octagonal dome was the _United States Government Building_; to the southward of which rose the largest of the Exposition structures, the _Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building_, notable for its gigantic but symmetrical proportions, covering an area of more than thirty-one acres. Looking in a southern direction, we caught sight of the pier extending 1,000 feet into the lake, and affording a landing-place for steamers. It was bounded on the east by the beautiful facade of the _Casino_, which presented a decidedly Venetian aspect; its nine pavilions being in communication both by gondolas and bridges. At the west end of the pier stood thirteen stately columns emblematic of the Thirteen Original States of the Union. Rising out of the lagoon, the colossal _Statue of the Republic,_ the largest ever built in America, predominated over this charming scene. Beyond it extended a broad basin from which grassy terraces and broad walks led on the southward to one of the most magnificent edifices raised for the exposition, the _Agricultural Building_. In style of architecture it pertained to the classic renaissance and was erected at a cost of about $1,000,000. From the pier westward across the park, we walked through an avenue, several feet long; affording a view of almost unparalleled splendor. Encompassing a beautiful sheet of water, the majestic facades of imposing buildings attracted our eyes; above all, a superb guilded dome shimmering in the sun-light, and pertaining to the _Administration Building,_ which was pronounced the gem and crown of the Exposition structures. In general design in the style of the French renaissance, it was built at an expense of about $550,000. Located at the extreme south of the park rose the stately _Machinery Hall_, following classical models throughout, and being especially rich in architectural lines and details. Its construction required a sum of $1,000,000. Facing the Grand Avenue, our eyes rested with delight upon two immense edifices on either side of the Administration Building, one for the _Electrical_ and the other for the _Mining Exhibit_. Turning to the northward, we viewed the _Transportation Building,_ exquisitely refined and simple in architectural treatment, although very rich and costly in detail. On our right we beheld one of the most notable spots in Jackson Park, (viz) _Wooded Island_, a gem of primitive nature, agreeably contrasting with the grand productions of human skill surrounding it. Close by was the _Palace of Horticulture,_ the largest structure ever erected for such purpose, costing about $400,000. Proceeding more northward, we reached the entrance to the _Midway Plaisance_, directly east of which stood, encompassed by luxuriant shrubs and beds of fragrant flowers, like a white silhouette against the background of old and stately oaks, the daintily designed _Woman's Building_. On a well paved boulevard we entered the great "Highway through the Nations." Formerly a promenade belonging to the South Park System and connecting Jackson Park on the east and Washington Park on the west, it was styled by the seekers of _plaisir_ "Midway Plaisance" signifying "Pleasure-Way." This name has been retained by the Administration of the World's Fair, whereas the country-lane of former times had undergone a complete metamorphosis. We were unable to realize the radical character of the transformation as we contemplated the enormous variety of attractions here presented, more numerous and unlike any others ever brought together. Therefore, it is a very difficult task to give the reader an exact idea of the impression the Midway Plaisance effected upon its visitors, because we generally derive our conception of a scene from the comparison it will bear with similar spectacles. The "Highway through the Nations" constituted an attractive, novel, and instructive addition to the Exposition. For, besides enlightening ourselves in regard to the styles of structures--inhabited by the diverse nations on the earth,--forming a fine array of villages, castles, towers, pavilions, pagodas, mosques, and other displays of oriental and occidental architecture, we viewed the natives of the various countries. There were representatives of nearly all the races and tribes, constituting the human population on our planet which is estimated to amount to 1,500,000,000 men. We had a chance to study their features, manners, and customs; their way of dressing, as well as their language and special occupations. Such opportunities are only otherwise given to travelers around the globe. The rays of the descending sun--casting rosy reflections on the beautiful panorama and the mammoth _Ferris Wheel_, with its gigantic form overtowering the structures of the Midway Plaisance--gave us the signal for abandoning this charming realm. Thus, directing our steps toward the Exposition Grounds, we arrived at the northwestern portion of Jackson Park where we ascended the entrance to a station of the _Columbian Intramural Railway_, the first and only electric elevated railroad, operated by the Third Rail Trolley System.--Conveyed by the driving power of electricity, we had a delightful ride affording a fine view upon the northern part of the grounds. Scores of graceful structures constituting a veritable town of palaces, embodied the best conceptions of America's greatest architectural display. A picturesque group of buildings erected by the States and Territories of the American Union, rose in a semicircle around the _Fine Arts Galleries_, a palace costing half a million. Grecian-ionic in style, this edifice represented a pure type of the most refined classic architecture. In the western portion of this group--facing the North Pond--stood the _Illinois Building_, adorned by a dome in the center, and a great porch looking southward. Surrounded by lawns, walks, beds of flowers, and shrubs, the charming structures of Foreign Nations were ranged on wide, curved avenues-- affording an interesting aspect. Just south of the _Foreign_ and _State Buildings_ we observed a considerable expanse of the lagoon, with inlet to the lake, encompassing three islands. On the largest one stood--contrasting agreeably in appearance with the other edifices--the _U.S. Fisheries Building_, Spanish-Romanesque in style and flanked at each end by a curved arcade connecting it with two polygonal pavilions. Leaving the Intramural Train at the North Loop, we arrived at the Government Building; thus having completed our round-trip on the Fair Grounds and Midway Plaisance. When we returned to our floating home, we had the satisfaction of having obtained the best possible results of our first visit by properly utilizing every minute. It will be obvious to the reader that the excursion just described, was equivalent to a trip around the world; wherefore I am entitled to the assertion that it even surpassed Nellie Bly's remarkable feat who needed seventy-two days, six hours, and eleven minutes for accomplishing her circumterraneous voyage. This success was due to the management of Mr. James, who made his intelligence effectual, in unison with great experience, gained by having attended the grand international expositions held in the course of several decades in the different sections of the globe. Since there did not exist accommodations for a safe anchorage for yachts along the piers of the White City, we were obliged to sail back to the Chicago Harbor. The ride on the billows of Lake Michigan, however, was very enjoyable after the heat of the day. Fanned by the cooling sea-breezes, which we inhaled in the fullness of delight, our eyes rested in perfect rapture on the glorious panorama of the grounds extending toward the lake shore. The superb structures rising vaguely and obscurely in a shadowy expanse under the gloom of the growing twilight, were later beautifully illuminated by uncountable electric lights; from the powerful arc-light of 8,000 candles to the delicate incandescent lamp of one-sixteenth candle power gleaming like tiny fire-flies in the distance. It filled us with amazement to cogitate, that human mind and manual skill could create a spot on earth looking so much like a conception of paradise. The next morning when corroborating our nerves by a hearty breakfast, Mr. James announced to us the programme of the day which set forth that we should witness in detail the attractions of the Midway Plaisance--a proposal that pleased us very much. Having again disembarked at the pier of the Exposition Grounds, the Intramural Railway conveyed us rapidly--running with a velocity of twelve miles an hour--to the entrance of the International Highway. We commenced with the attractions at the right hand side--and having passed the displays of the _Diamond Match Company_ and the _Workingmen's Home_--the international Dress and Costume Exhibit, known as the _Congress of Beauty,_ attracted our attention. Between forty and fifty pretty living representatives pertaining to the fair sex of different nationalities, races, and types were dressed in distinctive national or racial costumes. The _California Nursery_ and _Citrus Tree Exhibit_ separated this Beauty Show from the _Electric Scenic Theater_, which may be regarded as a triumph of the modern progress in the electrical science. It depicted the changes of a beautiful Swiss Alpine scenery as such are gradually occurring from dawn till night--representing the magical and most wonderfully realistic effects ever produced by electric lamps. Visiting the _Libbey Glass Works_, we obtained a very clear idea of the art of manufacturing glass--by following up the different processes of melting, blowing, cutting, spinning, weaving etc. all of which were in full operation in this exhibit. In fact, the endeavor of this company to instruct the spectator in every detail of the work--was a complete success and exceedingly satisfactory. The ingenious construction of their magnificent building was especially adapted to enable the daily throngs--resorting to it--to have every opportunity for observation; and judging from what we saw, and the various comments we heard, we should be inclined to feel that the management had every reason to be satisfied with their splendid effort. The artistic products manufactured solely by this company, and shown in the diverse departments--as well as those, decorating the Crystal Art Display Rooms--equal anything in the past and present, not excepting the celebrated Bohemian and Venetian manufactures of world-wide fame; and certainly the exhibition of cut glass made by the Libbey Company at this Exposition, has established the fact, that foreign manufactures can no longer claim to turn out the best artistic work; for truly, in that rich and unrivaled display, the summit of clear glass making and magical effects in cutting and polishing have been achieved. Especially attractive were the tapestries and fabrics woven from spun glass. This was decidedly notable in the marvelous dress woven from one loom for the Spanish Princess Eulalia at a cost of $2,500. That these goods also serve as a canvas does for artistic work--was evidently proved by the sundry beautiful effects of this kind in the Crystal Art Room.--It would be impossible to enumerate the various articles produced in this wonderful and interesting display; but it is safe to say--the working exhibit of the Libbey Glass Company--in their palatial and costly structure was one of the chief features of the Midway Plaisance and the ever memorable Columbian Exposition. A gateway--reminding us of mediaeval times--ushered the visitor into the _Irish Village_ and _Donegal Castle_, a representative exhibit of Irish industry, art, and antiquity. The scenes there--were picturesque and uniquely Hibernian. In one of the cottages Irish lace-making could be noted; in another was shown by Hibernians the whole process of dyeing, carding, spinning and weaving home-spuns as well as various other branches of industrial developments in Ireland. A few steps sufficed to transfer us from here--a representation of the extreme western portion of Europe to the most eastern country on the Eastern Hemisphere--Japan; which fact demonstrated the verity: _Les extrêmes se touchent_. Entering the Japanese bazaar, we observed Japanese ladies and gentlemen selling articles manufactured in--and imported from Nipon. A highly interesting study of the natives of West Java (Dutch East Indies)--their occupations--and their bamboo huts--could be had in the _Javanese Village_ exhibiting more than a hundred little men with bright and cheerful Malay faces, and thirty-six short women whose graceful movements were a source of attraction to thousands of visitors. This scene of the tropical regions stood in striking contrast with a feature in immediate nearness--pertaining to a temperate clime--the _German Village_. Here, in the spacious concert-garden shaded by the dense foliage of numerous oak-trees, two German military bands, one of the infantry and one of the cavalry--seventy-four men in all--gave grand _echt deutsche Militaerconcerte_. The group of typical German peasant homes, the Black Forest House, the Westphalian Inn, the Upper Bavarian Home, and the Spreewald House, together with the Hessian Rural Town-hall, and the Castle were exact reproductions of mediaeval times. A portion of this stronghold from a remote date, was given up to the ethnographic museum; a collection chiefly of implements of war and of chase, illustrative of all periods beginning with the pre-historic and ending with the renaissance. An attractive group in wax constituted the figure of Germania, surrounded by German heroes from Arminius down to William I. The _Pompeii Panorama_--near by--showed a very realistic representation of this city destroyed by the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79. This display was succeeded by the _Persian Theater_ and the _Model of the Eiffel Tower_. We left the crowded roadway, and entered the narrow _Street in Cairo_ which made an imposing impression with its strange, oriental facades--the picturesque shops--and the quaint overhanging upper stories of the ancient Egyptian city. Natives of this African country--which is fertilized by the waters of the Nile--manufactured and had for sale Egyptian, Arabian, and Soudanese articles. Donkeys and camels were engaged in carrying visitors who chose to admire the busy thoroughfare seated on the backs of these animals. The native camel-drivers in their national costumes moved around and mingled with the strangers--which gave the populated street a peculiar charm to the eye, whereas the "Bum-Bum Candy" sold by Egyptian confectioners, afforded a strange sensation to the palate of the visitor. Here, where the architecture, the surroundings, and the people were as far removed from anything American as could well be imagined, we really--for some minutes--were lost to all consciousness of being in that extremely modern city, called Chicago. After having viewed the side attractions to which belonged the Egyptian temple--resembling the temple of Luxor--the tombs of the ancient kings, and fac-similes of mummies, we entered the _Algerian and Tunisian Village_. Besides a theater, it contained a great number of booths or bazaars in which a choice selection of goods of all kinds--peculiar to Algiers--was for sale. Proceeding southward through the frequented avenue, we saw--in succession--the _Kilauea Panorama_, a vivid picture of the great volcano of _Hawaii_, with all the surrounding scenery--an _American Indian Village_, showing the remnants of some of the greatest North American Indian tribes, and their manner of living--and a _Chinese Village_ including a theater, a joss house, and a bazaar. The most southwestern portion of the Midway Plaisance was occupied by the "Wild East Show" where performances were given by Bedouin Arabs. With their short Turkish swords--the cimeters--they accomplished feats of such intrepidity and daring as to cause the spectators' blood to coagulate in their veins. Bending our steps westward again, our attention was fixed upon the attractions on the north; _id est_ on our right hand side. Very striking to our eyes were two exhibits the comparison of which established the fact that they were as unlike each other as could be fancied. Not only that the two villages contrasted greatly by their external appearance; but the scenes and inhabitants that they encompassed, were in direct opposition. Reader, can you realize that here from the North Pole to the Equator there was but one step? _Laplanders_, from the Arctic region in Europe, the next-door neighbors of barbarians from the Torrid Zone in Africa? Although both low in the scale of humanity, the fierce and savage _Natives of Dahomey_ with their repulsive habits exhibited the characteristics of the very undermost order of mankind. But the mind was at once relieved from this sad picture of human debasement by the refined and attractive scenes in the _Austrian Village_, inclosing realistic reproductions of thirty-six buildings as they existed, more than a century ago, in old Vienna, deservedly eulogized in the song: Es gibt nur a Kaiserstadt Es gibt nur a Wien; Da muss es praechtig sein, Da moecht' ich hin! Having arrived at the center of the spacious promenade, we ascended one of the six northern platforms, communicating by turns with thirty-six aerial coaches, suspended by an iron axle to the periphery of the mammoth _Ferris Wheel_. A conductor invited us to step into a coach, as the appropriate moment had arrived, whereupon we entered a car having the seating capacity of forty persons, and almost the size of an ordinary Pullman Palace Car. Ere we were conscious of any movement, the monster wheel was slowly revolving in response to the powerful machinery by which it was operated--a trophy of the modern era of eminent progress. The total weight of the moving mass was 1,200 tons; and its construction involved the expenditure of $400,000. Reader, if you have not experienced the charm of this circular ride through a circumference of about 785 feet, you hardly can convey to your mind the conception of the fascination it afforded. Since the motion of the coaches was almost imperceptible, we could enjoy the trip--(viz)--two complete revolutions of the wheel--without the least excitement naturally aroused by rapid movement. Imagine the sensation of being carried up 250 feet on one side--and of being slowly lowered on the other; fancy the enjoyment and delight when gradually gaining a complete view of the Fair Grounds and the Midway Plaisance--a bird's eye-view of the whole of Chicago--and also a good portion of Lake Michigan. Dear reader, you will certainly acknowledge the fact that such a ride surpassed any similar brief journey ever taken. For, what other device for transportation can maintain the claim of enabling its passengers to look upon the whole world during twenty-five minutes!-- "When you get used to the motion Only delight you will feel: Gone is each terrified notion Once in the circle of steel. And you enjoy the commotion Clap and applaud with much zeal: For it surpasses old ocean To ride in the great 'Ferris Wheel.'" The sun--being almost too liberal in the expenditure of heat--made us long for a refreshing breeze. Therefore we decided to ride in the _Ice-Railway._ Here we had opportunity to feel the excitement caused by velocity of motion. For a seventy mile-an-hour locomotive would have been monotonous and tiresome in comparison with a dash around the ice-railway track, containing 850 feet, and covering an elliptic space whose surface had a coat of ice nearly an inch thick. Over this smooth and glistening substance the bobsleigh was gliding with the speed of a toboggan and the ease of a coaster to the merry jingle of sleigh bells. This exhibit--whose cost amounted to $100,000--gave an example of inventive genius, and also of the successful application--in a novel manner--of the principles of refrigeration. The beautiful building next to the Ice Railway environed an excellent imitation _en miniature_ of the magnificent _Cathedral of St. Peter_ in Rome, its size being one-sixteenth of the original. When viewing this model, the elaborate papal throne, and the Vatican Guards in the exact uniform of the pope's attendants, one might imagine to have been conveyed into _la bella Italia_ by the agency of a magic wand. Promenading more eastward, we found ourselves _vis-a-vis_ the _Moorish Palace_, a fine reproduction of Saracenic architecture, the famous Alhambra in Granada, Spain. The attractions exhibited in the interior of this structure could, indeed, bear a comparison with those offered in a realm of enchantment. The optical illusions, produced by ingeniously arranged mirrors, were a pleasing surprise to the visitor. Luxuriant palms decorating the labyrinthian garden appeared to be endless in number--casting their shade over hundreds of life-like figures in gaudy costumes. Each of these groups in wax, was multiplied again and again in the perspective of mirrors. Entering the palace, the visitor was unable to shake off the feeling of perplexity caused by the extraordinary spectacles to be witnessed within its walls. The most startling surprises were the bottomless well, the cave, the monster kaleidoscope, and the panopticon. A touching scene, produced in wax, represented the execution of the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette. So realistic was its effect that many tender-hearted mortals could not refrain from shedding tears of sympathy for the ill-fated consort of Louis XVI of France. A personage of special interest in the _Turkish Village_ was "Far-a-way Moses"--the celebrated guide and counselor of Americans, visiting the shores of the Bosporus--who has been immortalized by Mark Twain. With a pleasant smile his popular face, he gave a cordial greeting to every visitor. The various scenes constituted a true reproduction of Ottoman life. The decorations in the Turkish theater were in purely oriental style; and the representations on the stage showed the manners and customs of the countries embracing the Turkish Empire. The Bedouin Camp, north of the grand bazaar, displayed the peculiarities of a nomadic life of those Arabian tribes. Adjacent to a Turkish cafe, the _Panorama of the Bernese Alps_ was on exhibition. A beautiful painting showed the grand scenery of Grindelwald, the Wetterhorn, the Jungfrau, Schreckhorn, Jura, the village of Lauterbrunnen, and the little town of Thun. Ushered by a gate into the _Johore Village_, we viewed the habitations, weapons, apparels, and curiosities of that Malay tribe. The performance given by one of the natives stood in striking contrast with what we understand by the art of dancing. In fact, it was more a series of graceful poses with slow rythmic movements of hands and feet. This peculiar dance effected a strange impression upon us; but seemed to amuse our Baby Virginia beyond measure, who, on the arms of her faithful nurse, attempted to produce movements similar to those she had just witnessed. The _South Sea Islanders' Village_ exhibited Malays from Sumatra, Borneo, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, and other islands belonging to Oceanica. The huts and their occupants had a strong resemblance with those of the Javanese village whose inhabitants, however, were more agreeable-looking people. Paying a visit to _Hagenbeck's Zoological Arena_, we first admired his famous menagerie, which comprised rare varieties of quadrupeds, and a fine collection of birds. In a circus modeled on the plan of the Coliseum of Rome, we witnessed performances that evinced the wonderful docility Mr. Hagenbeck's animals possess, and manifested the complete control their trainers have over them. We had already seen innumerable circus feats; but those performed on this occasion, surpassed them all. For, such a perfection in training ferocious animals is extremely rare. _Vraiment_, the five Nubian giant lions afforded an imposing aspect; and their performances were simply marvelous, indicating that--while human ingenuity and skill subdued the great forces of nature to the use of mankind--also the fierce, majestic king of beasts is made submissive to man's will by his master power over all. _Industrial_, _Mining_, _Diving_, and _Horticultural Exhibits_ occupied the remaining space of this eastern portion, whose extremity was taken up by _Lady Aberdeen's Irish Village_. Here the displays were similar to those inclosed in Mrs. Hart's Irish Village, already described; but the novel feature of _Blarney Castle_ was the renowned Magic Stone, supposed to possess extraordinary virtues. Thus, the unique Highway through the Nations afforded a prolific source for sight-seeing, and furthermore, was a sore trial to our organs of hearing. Musical and unmusical instruments of every description were in operation--from the Javanese salendon and pelog to the tuneful instruments, masterly handled by the excellent German bands. This visit to the Midway Plaisance established the fact, that the theories--admitted by the study of geography--could not be brought into consideration. How should space and time be in existence when a few steps sufficed to convey us from the land of perpetual snow to the zone of exotic plants and tropical fruit! "Who can all the tribes and nations name That to Plaisance from every climate came?" The Chinese and Turk, German and Cingalese, Esquimaux and Javanese, Irishman and Polynesian, Bedouin and Laplander, Austrian and Soudanese, Syrian, Nubian, and Japanese--all had a temporary home within the limits of a tract of land covering eighty acres. The sinking sun which crimsoned the structures of the Midway Plaisance, exhorted us to abandon this place of international _rendez-vous_--and to return on board the "Marguerite;" since she was to convey us back to the Chicago Harbor. Gliding along on the crystalline lake, "We breathed the airs, not ruffling its face. Until we came to a quiet place." The latter we chose for our nightly abode; again casting anchor in the so-called Basin near the Chicago Breakwater. The approaching night fully deserved its title--the season of silence and repose. The atmosphere was unusually mild. In the eastern portion of the sky the light of _Luna_ grew brighter and brighter. Her large, white circle silvered the tranquil waters and the environing scenes. In front of us at the airy distance, we viewed the beautiful White City rising from out the wave as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand; being brilliantly illumined. Around us lights of many colors flashed from vessels of every description that lay moored in our vicinity. The scenic beauty of the surroundings, the balmy air, the charming quietude on the lake--all this fascinated us in such a manner as to make us reluctant to seek the repose, to which we were entitled by the long day's extraordinary experiences. On arriving at the Exposition Grounds the following morning, we observed that--in spite of the early hour--the promenades were unusually frequented. This fact was due to the celebration of the Illinois Day which had attracted a multitude of citizens from Chicago and environs. In accordance with our unanimous desire--to first view the interior of the largest edifice, we entered one of its four great entrances designed in the manner of triumphal arches. The MANUFACTURES BUILDING was erected for the purpose of accommodating all classes of leading industries--the products of modern machinery and man's skillful handiwork--which, in this epoch of constant progress, have attained a high stage of perfection. And comparing the achievements of the present age with those recorded in the annals of history, proves that opinion. Having stepped into the central aisle at the northern end of the mammoth structure, we found ourselves in a broad street, called Columbia Avenue. Glancing around, we were dazzled by the resplendent glory of an aspect almost overpowering. The fine display included those exhibits which exemplified most advantageously the modern industrial progress made by the various nations on the globe. Artistic pavilions, oriental pagodas, and quaint kiosks had been provided for most of the exhibits. The United States section--covering the entire range of manufactures, and extending from the extreme northwestern corner to the avenue east and west--evinced the high rank of the Union in the industrial world in consequence of its uncommon wealth, and the inventive genius of Americans in the production of labor-saving devices and improved machinery. All the great firms were represented, commending the abnormal variety of domestic industries. It was, indeed, a matter of difficulty to decide which of them was paramount. Tiffany's costly exhibits in jewels, especially diamonds, housed in a beautiful pavilion, attracted the visitor's eyes. Opposite this structure, Germany had a stately building. Gobelin tapestries and handsome furniture adorned its interior. The elegant rooms were modeled after the reception _salon_ of the Imperial Palace in Berlin, and that of King Louis of Bavaria. All the various products of industrial pursuits--inclosed in this pavilion--manifested the intelligence and dexterity of the German nation. Austria had a rich display, principally in jewelry and ornamental decorations, in an adjoining edifice. A splendid collection, including everything in the line of manufactures, was shown in the English Pavilion, which rose south of the German exhibits. Facing the former, France occupied a structure whose walls were adorned with costly tapestries, and whose ceramic, furniture, and household decorations were worthy of the highest admiration. Next to the Belgian section a sumptuous pavilion housed an enormous outlay of diverse Russian manufactures. At the southern end of Columbia Avenue a magnificent building formed the gateway to a rich collection of Italian art ware and industries. The handsome Spanish Pavilion was succeeded by typically Persian exhibits consisting prominently of carpets, curtains, silk needlework, and tapestries. Mexico, the land of _mañana_ and _poco tiempo_ was represented by costly decorations and art feather-work. The facade of the Siamese structure--close by--covered with gold leaf, was imposing and attractive. Displays of manufactured goods had been made by scores of other countries, all of which to enumerate would be an impossibility. As we reached the northwestern portion of the gigantic building, we were delighted with the sight of the Japanese Pavilion, one of the most valuable structures. Upon its construction the Japanese government had expended a great amount of money. The superb exhibits in works of art, bric-a-brac, and other exquisite manufactures brought to view by this nation, evinced an eminent talent and great ingenuity. The Mikado--to whom is due the rapid progress civilization has made in his country within the last ten years--was the first of the foreign monarchs to demonstrate an active interest in the exposition. The melodious chimes resounding from the belfry of a clock-tower in the center of Columbia Avenue, caused us to take notice of the rapidly elapsing time. To our surprise, the immense time-piece indicated an advanced hour in the afternoon. We could not abandon the superb temple, so amply filled with the products of human industry, embracing that which was regally magnificent, as well as that most applicable to our daily needs--without an enthusiastic thrill. If man is weak in many things, he is also grand in much; and every thoughtful observer must have paused upon this threshold to pay a tribute to that untiring energy which must make the world better for its existence and progress. We entered the next great structure to the northwest. Here, the GOVERNMENT of the UNITED STATES from its Executive Departments, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Fish Commission, and the National Museum, exhibited such articles and materials as illustrate the function and administrative faculty of the government in time of piece, as well as its resources as a war power. Taking the south-entrance, our attention was first turned to the collection of the Smithsonian exhibits. They showed the results of scientific investigations during the forty-seven years of its existence, and the scope of its work. The contributions from the National Museum represented the natural resources of the United States: Rare specimens of the American fauna; illustrations showing the geological variations within the limits of the United States and the utilization of nature's rich gifts bestowed upon this country. This department gave us occasion to obtain an entire idea of the enormous melioration, arts and industries have experienced in modern times--by means of exhibits demonstrating the history and development of ceramics, graphic arts, musical instruments; as well as many important trades from the most primitive stages to the present day. Here also were interesting studies in ethnology, prehistoric anthropology, archeology, religious ceremonials, zoology, mineralogy, and geology. The Treasury Department--more westward--contained models, pictures, charts, and diagrams elucidating the Marine Hospital Service, Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Mint of the United States, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Register's Office, and the Bureau of Statistics. In the adjoining division assigned to the Postoffice, we could trace the subject of transportation which plays so prominent a part in the history of civilization--by means of models, drawings, and pictures from the most incipient stages to the modern uses of steam and electricity. The northwestern portion of this interesting building was given up to the Department of the Interior; embracing the Patent Office, the Bureau of Education, the Census Office, and the U.S. Geological Survey. In the rotunda we viewed the "_Big Tree_," a section thirty feet in length, cut from Sequoia Gigantea, a tree 300 feet high whose diameter at the base covered a space of twenty-six feet. It grew in the Sequoia National Park in the charming clime of California. Under the central dome were also shown 138 colonial exhibits--relics of historic value from days long gone by. The War Department was well represented in all its branches; regarding uniforms and equipage, means of transportation, military engineering, shooting apparatuses, ammunition, etc. Having visited the State and Justice Departments, we repaired to the division in which the government displayed (in the Department of Agriculture) a very complete and comprehensively arranged collection of grains obtained in this and other countries. Very interesting were the adjacent exhibits, presenting to view the topics of food adulteration, entomology, pomology, botany, ornithology, and mammalogy; together with experiments in fibre investigation. Betaking ourselves to the northern division, we were instructed--by various illustrations--of the methods employed by the scientific branch of the Fish Commission in determining the habits, peculiar to denizens of water. Models and apparatuses showed the results of Fish Culture. The displays in this unique building covering almost all the branches of modern science and arts, bore testimony to the fact that the United States now rank with the most powerful nations on the globe; and to this attainment only a little more than one century of development was requisite. This says everything for American enterprise and genius--and a country so young in a very old world. The circumstance of its being a calm evening--with the prospect of a pyrotechnic display later--permitted us to remain on the Fair Grounds longer than we usually did; hence we determined to visit still another structure. By crossing a bridge over the lagoon, we arrived at the _Fisheries Building_. In the main edifice we first saw fishing-tackles, nets, and other apparatuses used by fishermen, and shown by the American Net and Twine Co. The contiguous space to the right was given up to the exhibits of several States in the Union, especially noted for fisheries, and of various foreign countries as Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Norway. Walking through a curved arcade, we beheld on either side aquaria of an enormous capacity, inclosing both denizens of fresh and salt water. It is safe to say the display of aquatic life made here, could rival the greatest permanent aquaria in existence; not only as to their voluminousness, but the immense variety of their specimens. Especially striking to the eye was a magnificent group of gold fishes. The huge bull-cat fish and the gigantic turtle were conspicuous by their monstrousness. We removed to the eastern extremity of the Fisheries Building, forming a spacious circular pavilion. In the rotunda a basin, twenty-six feet wide, presented a beautiful scenic effect. Over rocks picturesquely arranged, the silver meshes of a brook wound their way, forming here and there white gushes of waterfall which contrasted agreeably with the moss covered stones, and the semi-aquatic plants. The latter adorned the pool below, in which golden-hued fishes moved lightly to and fro. The inspection of the angling pavilion at the extreme western side of the Fisheries Building completed our visit in this fine structure, whose exhibits demonstrated largely the fishery wealth of the United States. Taking advantage of the extraordinary calmness of the atmosphere, our mindful commodore resolved to moor the yacht in vicinity of the Exposition Grounds. For, he wished to give us opportunity to witness the display of pyrotechnics announced for the latter part of the evening, in solemnization of the Illinois Day. Therefore, the "Marguerite" conveyed us to a place which proved exceedingly favorable for our design. Here, our floating home was anchored. Enjoying a full vista of the White City, we found a prolific source of admiration in the grand electric spectacles. The illumination of the _Columbia fountain_ in front of the Administration Building, and the display of two electric fountains in the western extremity of the South Pond, were magical in effectiveness. Wonderful flash-lights blazed from the tops of the tallest towers, surmounting the larger structures. Whenever the operator threw the search-light investigably over the yacht, we shut our eyes spontaneously at its dazzling brilliancy. As the gathering shadows of night wrapped land and water in darkness, the hour arrived in which the visitors on the Fair Grounds--who seemed to be almost as numerous as the sands on the shore--expected to view the scenic effects produced by means of fire. We sat on the deck of the yacht as comfortably as in our _boudoirs_ at home. Nevertheless, we were able to enjoy _ad libitum_ the same sight that so many others in the White City could only see with difficulty, on account of the unusual throngs. When we reflected on this circumstance--so much in our favor--our hearts were filled with gratitude toward our commodore, who had selected this excellent locality. From here we admired the exceedingly fine pyrotechnic displays. Girandoles pierced the sky in all directions, with rushing lines of fire. Sky-rockets exhibiting rich hues of purple, red, and green ascended through the air; and when reaching the highest point of their blazing paths, they discharged beautiful garnitures of floating stars, sparks, crackers, serpents, gold and silver rain. Tourbillions mounting and rotating through the atmosphere, formed brilliant spiral curves of fire. Splendid effects of changing color were brought to view by revolving fire-wheels. An appropriate _finale_ constituted the burning of the American flag, which bore a sublime character in the brightness of fire. "Flag of the free heart's hope and home, By angel hands to valor given: Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven" As the first faint smile of the morning peeped over the eastern wave, I rose--greatly refreshed by a sound sleep. Coming on deck, I found that the sun's unclouded orb already poured its rays of light upon the earth. Our eyes rested with delight on the White City throned on its numerous isles, looking like a sea Cybele--ascending from the lake with her tiara of proud towers. At our arrival on the Fair Grounds, Mr. James thoughtfully provided us with guides and rolling-chairs--vehicles which reminded us of the Japanese Jin-riki-sha. The main entrance of the AGRICULTURAL BUILDING--adorned on either side by mammoth Corinthian pillars--ushered us into a vestibule, richly ornamented with appropriate statuary. From here, we reached a rotunda surmounted by a gigantic glass dome. When looking about on the main floor, we fancied ourselves to be in a city of pavilions. For, the States of the Union as well as the foreign nations had environed their displays with magnificent little temples and pagodas. To a great extent, they formed exhibits themselves, because in most cases the chief products of the respective country had been utilized for their construction. Nebraska, for example, had employed sweet corn for the erection of its pavilion. Every state and territory was represented by its productions; the Northern States with Indian corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, and other cereals; the South with cotton, rice, sugar, etc. Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee evinced their noted superiority in the culture of the nicotian plant, which is in such great favor with the consumers of tobacco. Agricultural and other food displays were shown in great varieties by the foreign countries. In the German section the gigantic Chocolate Tower (built of several hundred tons of chocolate by the famous firm "Gebrueder Stollwerck" in Cologne) compelled admiration. The Liebig exhibit of canned and preserved meat was a prominent feature of this division. Great Britain showed specimens of grain from the English experimental grounds, representing the effects of artificial fertilization on the various seeds. The contributions made by Canada embraced grain, seeds, and roots; and its eleven ton cheese constituted one of the unique exhibits in this edifice. As in all great departmental structures, Japan was well represented. It had a fine display of its chief exports--tea, rice, and raw silk. Russia's showing covered a space of 32,000 feet. New South Wales, France, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and numerous other foreign countries demonstrated, likewise, the variety and wealth of their natural resources. Besides the farm products of the world in all their diversity and perfection, agricultural machinery was exhibited: Devices of every description from the most primitive implements to the highly improved machines as they are in use at the present day. The ingenious arrangement of this display enabled the visitor to perceive at a glance the enormous progress made in that branch of industry. Thus, we viewed in the annex of the main floor one of the most perfected plows--the "Queen"--a trophy of modern inventiveness. And beside it stood an implement, which reminded us by its simplicity and unwieldiness of an apparatus, described in mythology as used by _Ceres dea agriculturae_--when teaching to mankind this important occupation. The south-western portion of the first floor was covered with instructive contributions of American agricultural colleges and experiment stations. They embraced the entire field of scientific research in all branches of husbandry; illustrating the most improved methods of cultivation, and explaining how the best results may be secured. The great galleries contained a fine wool exhibit, an interesting apiary display, dairy implements, and a vast collection of manufactured food products. The multitudinous objects brought to view in this building, proved beyond doubt, that the standard of excellence in that ancient occupation has been achieved mainly with the assistance of scientific researches. A colonnade formed the connecting link between the Palace of Agriculture and the Machinery Hall. In its center, from an archway--leading to the _live-stock exhibit_--we enjoyed a fine view down the lagoon--extending nearly a mile in length. As adjuncts to the agricultural department, may be regarded the displays in the _Dairy_ and _Forestry Buildings_. On entering the PALACE OF MECHANICAL ARTS, three elevated traveling cranes running from end to end of the structure, attracted our attention. They had been utilized in the work of construction, as well as in moving the machines presented to view. The platforms erected upon them, gave us occasion to look upon the entire machinery exhibition. The driving power used in the main building and annex was steam; excepting two small sections driven by electric motors. Adjoining the south side of the edifice extended the enormous power plant. It supplied the Machinery Hall with a total steam power of about 3,000 horses generated by twelve engines. The entire plant, comprising over sixty steam-engines, and operating 127 dynamos, represented a most stupendous display of mechanical energy hitherto unequaled. Its total capacity was equivalent to 20,000 H.P. The domestic exhibits located in the western portion of the main building--but mostly in the annex, revealed the marvelous progress made during the last decades in this wonderfully prospering country. Shown by great firms from almost every state and territory were devices of various forms: Motors and apparatuses for the generation and transmission of power--fire-engines and other appliances for extinguishing a conflagration--machine tools and devices for working metals--machinery for the manufacture of textile fabrics and clothing, for cutting wood, for typesetting, printing, embossing, book making and paper working, lithography, and photo-mechanical process, for working-stone, clay, and other minerals. In short, there were machines of every description employed in all industrial pursuits imaginable; yea, even appliances for facilitating the housekeepers' daily duties as laundry- and dish-washing machines. In fact, it must require a considerable effort to excogitate novel labor-saving devices. Nevertheless, man's ever active ingenuity constantly increases the number of meliorated contrivances. The pump exhibit was grouped around a tank of water, comprising an area of 7,500 feet. Here at the junction of the main hall and annex, scores of modern pumps were in active operation. Of the foreign countries we found Germany best represented, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. The other prominent displays were made by France, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Russia, Spain, Italy, Mexico, New South Wales, Austria, and Switzerland. Here, the mechanical engineer was enabled to make studies of incalculable profit for his professional career; and even the lay mind received a vast amount of information. We abandoned the Machinery Hall at its northern extremity, and repaired to the most magnificent structure on the Exposition Grounds. The exterior of the ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, so rich in architectural treatment, had compelled our admiration, to be sure; but the interior features even exceeded it in splendor. The four mammoth entrances were beautifully adorned by statuaries of emblematic character. There exist but few edifices of similar character, whose ornamentations rival those of its interior dome, which rose 200 feet from the floor. The four corner pavilions, four stories high, contained offices for the various departments of the Administration; Board and Committee rooms; the Postoffice; a Bank, etc. An exhibit, manifesting the unrivaled wealth of the republic, and placed in the center of the rotunda on the first floor was an excellent reproduction of the Capitol in Washington in miniature, erected of silver coins: indeed a master-piece. I shall leave it to the reader to find out how many of the half dollar-pieces were needed for the construction of this unique building, contributed by the U.S. Government. To our regret Mr. George R. Davis, Director-General of the Columbian exposition, whom we intended to call upon, was absent. So we determined to have the ELECTRICITY BUILDING next in our programme. The sundry appliances of electricity dispersed in all parts of the grounds, gave us already a conception of the incomparable rapidity with which it has developed--both as an industry and science. The intramural railway demonstrated the latest application of electric motor power to elevated railroads. The illumination of the grounds and buildings showed the marvelous progress achieved in electric lighting, and the expertness in obtaining brilliant spectacular effects. The electric launches on the lagoons manifested the usage of electricity for water-transportation. All these practical exhibits represented purely commercial features, whereas the displays in the building--we just had entered--offered a field of relevations as regards the extraordinary accomplishments in the electrical science. They embraced all the improvements from the earlier inventions to the latest marvels. In the southern portion of the main floor, the United States showed various devices for creating the three economic commodities--light, heat, and power. With great interest we inspected the numerous apparatuses illustrating the phenomena and laws of electricity--the instruments for electrical measurements--the electric batteries--and the machines for producing electrical currents by mechanical power. How transmission and regulation of these currents are effected, could be studied by a vast number of devices. A very interesting group constituted the electric motors and their manifold applications as to street and other railways; to mining, to elevators, pumps, printing presses, and domestic appliances. The creation of light by electricity was beautifully elucidated by the weird illumination of the Edison Light Tower in the center of the building, and the Egyptian Temple in its south-eastern portion. Countless incandescent lamps were glowing in all the colors of the rainbow. The luminary effect gave us the impression as if a fiery serpent was meandering along these iridescent glass-tubes with inimitable velocity. Among the inventions of later date may be reckoned the use of electricity in heating; especially for industrial operations as electric forging, welding, brazing, tempering, etc. The lay mind is almost incapable of estimating the utilarian capacity of this great property. Even many branches of modern sciences have received eminent advancement by its utilization; such as surgery, dentistry, therapeutics, metallurgy, chemistry, etc. Germany and France made the most commendable foreign display. Great Britain, Brazil, Austria, Italy, Japan, and Canada had contributed in accordance with the development of this novel industry within their territory. The gallery was devoted to the wire exhibit and lighter scientific apparatuses. Here were placed all the recent improvements applied to telephony and telegraphy. Professor Elisha Gray's sensational invention--the telautograph--in active operation, attracted many spectators. It is a very ingenious contrivance, of which I have given a detailed description in my pamphlet on electricity--recently published in Cincinnati, O., by the Burgheim Publishing Co. The great number of exhibits demonstrated the achievements in the economic usage of electricity during an amazingly short period. In fact, the electrician has obtained unequaled results in his profession. To him is due--to a great extent--the high stage of perfection in sciences, arts, and industries at the present day. Nevertheless, the field of electrical scientific researches is by no means exhausted. However, an entirely new era will have dawned, when the ever-increasing knowledge reveals to an ingenious inventor a method to apply the electric current to every-day-usage as easily and inexpensively as we utilize water at present. Then the epoch has appeared which may be properly styled the "_Happy_" or "_Golden Age_." For, many cares and sorrows will be removed at once. The conscientious housekeeper, for instance, whose domestic duties often exhaust her bodily strength, will find her burdens greatly lightened. She has no more to suffer from the intolerable heat of her cooking-stove, while furnishing repasts on oppressive summer days. The electric current will cause the water to boil--the meat to broil--and the potatoes to fry. Yea, her dinner will be cooked ere she is conscious of that fact. In like manner the electric flat-iron will smoothen her linen without fatiguing her. But not only the lady of the house will rejoice; also the poor, hen-pecked husband will be in transports of delight, as it will make his path easier in many ways. The constant complaints he was hitherto obliged to endure, will grow mute for ever, and the curtain lecture will be no more. Furthermore, should circumstances compel the active business man to part with his wife for a long time, the marvelous inventions enable their mutual intercourse during the separation as if time and space were unknown factors. The lady need not suffer long from inquietude concerning her husband's safe arrival; for the receiving instrument of her telautograph reproduces instantaneously his own handwriting. A parcel, sent to her by express, contains a cylinder to the improved phonograph. When bringing it in proper contact with this wonderful instrument, she hears her consort's voice, just as if he was by her side, and a thousand leagues were but a few inches. Moreover, Edison's kimetograph portrays the beloved features of her absent spouse. She is now perfectly consoled; for the radiant expression of his countenance manifests health and happiness. Having left the imposing Electricity Building, we repaired to a structure in close proximity dedicated to exhibits of the mineral kingdom. Never before, the records of international expositions gave account of a similar fact; namely, that the display made of MINES AND MINING was so capacious as to require the erection of a special edifice. Its size and architectural beauties rivaled those of the great structures in Jackson Park. The magnificent arched entrance of the north front was richly embellished with sculptural decorations emblematic of mining and its allied industries. This spacious gateway led us to the main floor, which presented a spectacle so weird that its impression cannot be easily effaced. In temples and pavilions of ineffable gorgeousness were exhibits of gems and precious metals of dazzling beauty. Useful ores and their products, building stones, soils, salt, petroleum--indeed, everything that man furthers from the dark entrails of the earth, was offered to inspection. Besides the mineral resources of the world in their original state, the displays embraced many devices of mining machinery; such as pumps and engines used in mining, moving, and delivering ores; apparatuses for breaking out ore and coal; for crushing and pulverizing; for reducing metals, for instance the extraction of gold and silver by milling, lixiviation, and fire; furthermore, boring and drilling tools; grinding and polishing substances, etc. The galleries containing especially the metallurgical collection, had the appearance of the scientific department of a museum combined with the laboratory and library of a university. Moreover, there were offered to view many interesting and instructive working models, various unique exhibits, and thousands of geological specimens. Germany, France, and New South Wales were the leading foreign countries in this building. Great Britain and her numerous colonies occupied the largest collective space. The brilliant outlay of the Cape Colony included 40,000 rough diamonds, and illustrated the method of polishing them. Canada's mineral showing was so ponderous as to exceed the weight of 125 tons. It comprised every known species of mineral, marble, and granite in that country. In this enormous collection we discovered a block of pure nickel weighing 4,600 pounds as well as very large nuggets of native gold and silver. Mexico made its most extensive contributions to this departmental structure. Brazil, the Argentine Republic, Russia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Austria, Ecuador, and other foreign nations were likewise well represented. The most prominent exhibits were grouped in the eastern section of the ground floor. They proved the unexcelled mineral wealth of the United States, particularly in iron, the annual production exceeding 10,000,000 tons. Pennsylvania took the leading place being pre-eminent in her iron and steel industries. Her supremacy in the production of "black diamonds" was manifested by a rich display; one trophy from her immense coal-mines was a shaft of coal sixty-two feet high, and ten feet square. Colorado's fine exhibit of precious metals had, as an appropriate frame, a beautiful pavilion erected entirely from her local products. The abundance of gold in this important mining state is evinced by the fact that twenty-one of her thirty-three counties are producing that most desirable and malleable of all metals. California--nicknamed the "Golden State"--showed among her vast resources gold, silver, platinum, quicksilver, copper, lead, zinc, iron, tin, graphite, crystal, alabaster, corundum, chrysolites, tourmalines, garnets, diamonds, and other gems. Montana had most largely contributed to this departmental structure, and inclosed her display of precious metals in a temple adorned by the famous statue of Justice. Cast from pure silver valuing $315,000, and modeled after the celebrated actress--Mademoiselle Rehan--it was set upon a pedestal of gold, forming altogether a work of art of rare magnificence. Michigan illustrated attractively her great copper industry; the deposits of this metal among the primary rocks of her northern section being the richest in the world. Of special interest were the mining products of New Jersey. This state furnished minerals not found anywhere else; for instance the franklinite--a compound of iron, zinc, and manganese--named from Dr. Franklin. Missouri, the first state in the Union to place exhibits in the Mines Building, environed the same with a beautiful pavilion built from local products. The curiosities included in the various State and Territorial displays, were too numerous to give an account of them all. Special features were--a miniature coal-mine shown by Iowa; a section of the world-renowned Mammoth Cave in Kentucky; a statue of rock salt representing Lot's wife, a contribution from Louisiana; a tunnel containing a double tramway for the carrying of ore displayed by Pennsylvania; a model of the largest lead-reducing works in the world from Missouri; and a miner's cabin built of mineral specimens from the different counties in the territory of New Mexico. All the mining exhibits--in their selectness and profusion--gave evidence of the inexhaustible wealth yet stored up for man's future uses notwithstanding the geological fact, that the earth's crust has no great profundity compared with its diameter. The "_Golden Door_" an immense archway enriched to an extraordinary degree with carvings, paintings, and overlaid with gold leaf, ushered us into the TRANSPORTATION BUILDING. It was dedicated to present the origin, growth, and development of the various methods of abridging distance used in all parts of the inhabited globe--from remote antiquity up to the present day. We were charmed with a striking vista of richly ornamented colonnades which added considerably to the impressive effect of the exhibits. The latter comprised three general divisions: the railway--marine--and ordinary road vehicle transportation. To the first mentioned--as most important--a space of over eight acres had been devoted. About one-eighth of this area was covered with the "Railways of the World," an exhibit of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Co., showing the development of locomotives and cars from the earliest days to the modern time. One of the unique features in the American Railroad Section was the operation of air brakes on a train of a hundred cars, the longest ever witnessed in a single series. In the center aisle of the annex, we inspected the chief display of the Pullman Company, a complete train sumptuously equipped. It embraced specially built Pullman Cars of the most luxurious character. The representation of the New York & Chicago Limited Express was, without doubt, the finest railway train ever constructed. We received a very adequate idea of the wonderful achievements--evincing the genius of the age in which we live--in railway conveyance, by the out-of-door exhibit of the N.Y. Central & Hudson R.R. Co., at the southern extremity of the annex. Here, the contrast between past and present was most sharply drawn: The first train, ever used for traffic in this country, and running between Schenectady and Albany, N.Y.--the opening of this road was celebrated on the 24th of September, 1831--with its simple De Witt Clinton engine, was beside a locomotive of gigantic proportions, the fastest in the world. This stupendous piece of machinery constituted a portion of the Vanderbilt enterprise. In the German Section, two locomotives and seven kinds of _Eisenbahnwagen_, enabled us to decide upon the relative advantages of this foreign system and the American method of railway transportation. Great Britain contributed a complete train and locomotive, also a model of one of the original Stephenson locomotives--the "Rocket." The Railway Division of France comprised exceedingly interesting French locomotives, a car, and many models. In the Canadian exhibit, a complete transcontinental train compelled admiration. Its cars built of solid mahogany, and lighted by electricity, were constructed and equipped by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company. Other foreign nations made their contributions to the railway division by models or illustrations of different kinds; prominently Austria, Belgium, Mexico, New South Wales, Sweden, and Norway. The means of water transportation were so diversified that their multiplicity can distinctly be conceived by those only who have viewed them _in persona_. There were represented: the birch-bark canoe from Alaska--a Norwegian steamship in miniature--the bimba or log canoe from Africa--the Bohemian propeller--corials from British Guiana--the Japanese pleasure-boat "Hoomaru"--the padda boats from Ceylon--the caique from Turkey; furthermore, models of Spanish war-vessels--Malay boats--Swedish ice-yachts--folding boats from Canada--Chinese war-ships--barges from Burmah--French torpedo boats--characteristic coast-vessels from India-- Venetian gondolas--Dutch coast sailing boats--the caravels, Santa Maria, Nina and Pinta, exhibited by Genoa--Siamese boats--life-boats--naptha launches--and a great number of small craft shown by the United States. Of historic interest was the old _bateau_ employed by early French traders from Quebec, and a model of a boat showing the style used on the Sea of Galilee in the time of Christ. The artistic reproductions in miniature of various American, British, and German ocean steamers played an attractive part in this division. Among the models of war vessels was the representation of the ill-fated English cruiser "Victoria," considered to be the finest marine model ever constructed. A section from the center of a modern Transatlantic liner reached to the top line of the gallery; exhibiting a complete interior of an American steamer. The development of wheeled vehicles from the first inceptive idea of the wheel to the present appreciable methods of its use was comprehensively illustrated. The exhibits were so arranged that the different stages of improvement could be readily noticed. The methods employed for conveyance on common roads were shown by hand-barrows--carts--trucks--drays--farm wagons--sprinkling carts--freight wagons--breaks, barges, wagonettes for pleasure parties--omnibuses--cabs-- hansoms--pleasure carriages, coaches for four or six horses, Victorias, broughams, dog-carts, buggies, phaetons, etc.; besides sleighs--snow shoes--steam and electric carriages--ambulances for the sick and injured--hearses; furthermore, bicycles and tricycles--rolling chairs for invalids--baby carriages; in short, vehicles of every possible description. Almost all the nations on the globe had made their contributions to the department of vehicle transportation. This rare collection embraced the palanquin of Africa--the mandarin chair of China--the bullock cart of Ceylon--the sedan chair of Colombia (South America)--the Sicilian cart of Palermo--the heavy lumbering cart of India--the queer traveling kroba of Turkey--the volante of Spain--the tarantass of Russia--the hackney coach of France--and the dog-cart of England. Among the relics of special interest to Americans because of their association with historical personages, we beheld the well preserved carriages of Daniel Webster and James Knox Polk. A conspicuous feature in the central court was a model of the largest steam hammer in the world, utilized in the manufacture of armor plate for vessels. On entering the PALACE OF HORTICULTURE north of the Transportation Building, our organs of sight and olfactory nerves were equally affected by the dazzling and odoriferous display of exuberant flowers and fruitage. Had it been admissible, we would have been glad to put our organs of tasting in active operation, likewise. For, we longed to try the relish of some of the exquisite pomological exhibits, whose multiformity was too immense to be portrayed in a pen-picture. Fruits of every form and description, sent from all zones, climes, and countries were represented here. Many of the exhibits were maintained at a high standard by being constantly replenished with fresh fruits at great expense, particularly the Californian citrus pyramid, comprising 31,150 oranges. The richly decorated court planted with ornamental shrubs and flowers, led to the center pavilion which was roofed by a huge crystal dome. This translucent cover transmitted the light and sunshine necessary for the floricultural display beneath. Stately palms, tall tree ferns in great variety, and gorgeous specimens from the flora of almost every section, formed an immense pyramid of shrubbery. The luxuriously growing vines entwined their tendrils around the iron-work of the building, adding greatly to the beauty of the panorama. This superb spectacle recalled to memory Horace Smith's "Hymn to the Flowers." In one of its fifteen stanzas, the poet exclaims: "Not useless are ye, flowers, though made for pleasure, Blooming over field and wave, by day and night: From every source your sanction bids me treasure Harmless Delight." We descended a cavern, extending underneath this magnificent flower exhibit. Our scrutinizing eyes met with quite novel features. We observed that the grotto was lined with glistening crystals from the mammoth cave of South Dakota. Emerging again to broad daylight, we bent our steps southward to that portion of the building, where the silver model of the Horticultural Hall and the miniature Capitol of the Country compelled the admiration of the beholder. The south pavilion encompassed the displays of viticulture. Representations of actual scenes in the vicinity of California vine-yards-- wine cellars--cool grottos--and a highly ornamental fountain throwing sprays of wine, constituted the most attractive domestic scenes. A picturesque panorama of the vine-clad banks of the Rhine with its romantically situated castles--reminiscences of feudal times--formed a portion of the German wine cellar exhibit; also comprising an excellent display of _Rhein- und Moselweine_. Of the foreign wine-growing countries, the most attractive contributions were made by Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Chili, New South Wales, and Canada. We abandoned the building in order to view the floricultural out-of-door exhibits, which covered the large spaces on the lawns adjoining it and the Wooded Island. Glancing at the beautiful orchids, roses, carnations, sweet peas, dianthus, asters, phlox, gladiolus, zinnias, and many other fragrant flowers, we experienced infinitely more subtle modulations of delight than can be easily described. The features of the horticultural displays were so striking that their memory is immortalized:-- "For this picture in my brain Only fades to come again." In fact, we had witnessed multifarious sublime spectacles during that day's sojourn in the White City. Returning to the pier where the "Marguerite" lay moored, we were greatly amazed as we caught sight of Lake Michigan--to find its waters lashed into fury by a northeast gale, of which we had felt nothing while in the pleasantly tempered Horticultural Building. Since it was impossible to stay where we were, on account of the exposed situation, there was no help for it--but to put out for our usual anchorage, inside the breakwater at Chicago. For my own part, I decided to remain on deck. Perhaps, had I realized more fully what we had to encounter, I should have sought my stateroom, with the rest. But I can truly say: for three-quarters of an hour, my whole energies were employed to keep my place. During our entire journey from Schenectady, N.Y., to the White City, we had not experienced anything like it. Everything of a movable character had to be secured; and it was an intense relief to all, when after an extraordinary upheaval--the last effort of the uncontrolled waves upon our stanch craft--she passed into the peaceful waters behind the breakwater; completely sheltered from the raging elements, which broke with ceaseless roar upon the concrete mass. The following morning as the rest of the party decided to remain in Chicago for the purpose of viewing the renowned play "America" in the Auditorium, I visited Jackson Park alone, spending many hours in the Liberal Arts Building, which inclosed (besides multitudinous magnificent displays illustrating the department of Liberal Arts) the object of my special interest, viz. the educational exhibits. They comprised not only contributions from every State in the Union but also from Germany, Great Britain, France, Mexico, Canada, Russia, New South Wales, Spain, Belgium, and Japan. The general character of them was represented by models and appliances for teaching, text-books, diagrams, examples, specimens of the school work on the various scientific subjects, and illustrations of the methods employed in instruction by the teachers of the different States and Nations. By means of the ingenious arrangement of these displays, manifesting the great achievements made in the development of pedagogy, I augmented my professional learning during the hours of that day to such an extent as would otherwise require months of careful study. The means of obtaining these results of so great interest and profit to me as a teacher, were much facilitated by my knowledge of several of the languages spoken by the nations represented there. For, I readily understood the reports, statistics, and text-books sent from the educational institutions of the leading countries. Furthermore, the commissioners of the respective sections, whom I addressed in their native tongue, complaisantly gave me all the additional information I desired. As I inspected, among the manifold exhibits contributed by the State of New York, the specimen work from the best pupils of the Art Students' League, some sketches from life and drawings from the antique attracted my special attention. They bore the signature of a young gentleman from Schenectady--Walter M. Clute--a name which, I am certain, will be widely known in future years as that of a prominent artist of this country. We spent the following day--Sunday--in Chicago which is perhaps the most remarkable city in the world for its rapid growth. Its history dates back to the year 1803, when Fort Dearborn was erected. Abandoned at the beginning of the war with Great Britain in 1812, it was destroyed by the Indians; but rebuilt in 1816. The town was organized in 1833, and the first charter of a city passed by the Legislature, March 4, 1837. A number of outlying suburbs of Chicago were annexed by popular vote so that the present area of the city covers 181 square miles; its population being about 1,400,000. When we consider the fact that in 1871 a great fire, sweeping over the business center of Chicago, laid more than 2,000 acres in ruins, and then reflect on the city of to-day, rebuilt in a style of great solidity and magnificence, with its innumerable handsome buildings of stupendous proportions--its six hundred beautiful churches--and its vast number of educational institutions, we cannot but admire the spirit of enterprise which evolved such wondrous prosperity in little more than two decades. The destructive fire constituted the largest conflagration of modern times. Commencing by the overturning of a lamp in a district built up almost exclusively of wood, about nine o'clock in the evening of October 8, 1871, it continued through that night and the greater part of the next day. Finally, it was checked by the explosion of gunpowder, whereupon it exhausted itself by burning all there was to ignite within the confined space. Although 18,000 houses had been reduced to ashes, ten years thereafter all traces of the calamity had disappeared. It would be impossible to give a description of all the fine buildings which have made Chicago famous. The principal hotel--probably the largest in the world--is the "Auditorium," having its dining halls on the tenth floor. All the conveniences that modern ingenuity has excogitated--in accordance with the requirements of the present era--have been introduced into this huge structure. It includes a theater having a seating capacity for 6,000 spectators. The park system of Chicago is one of the most extensive in the world. Jackson and Washington Parks belong to the south division, whereas the western section inside the city limits comprises three; known as Humboldt, Garfield, and Douglas Parks. Their ornamentation is varied by superb flower-beds, fountains, statues, and monuments. Lincoln Park--including a zoological garden, and being romantically situated upon the lake shore in the northern portion of the city--constitutes a delightful place of amusement for pleasure-seekers. The parks are all connected by boulevards--some of them 200 feet wide--encircling the city, and affording a continuous drive of thirty-five miles. The trade of Chicago is enormous. Its chief items are grain, live-stock, meat products, and lumber. It principally manufactures iron and steel, wood, brick, leather, chemicals, boots and shoes, cigars and tobacco. The next day after our return to the Chicago Harbor in the evening, Mrs. Dr. McDonald of Chicago accompanied by her brother, Mr. Bernard, paid us a visit on board the "Marguerite." Miss Campbell made the acquaintance of this amiable lady during her last trip to Europe; and they were traveling-companions, spending many pleasant days journeying together in the old world. The WOMAN'S BUILDING was the first structure to be inspected after our next arrival on the Exposition Grounds, according to the programme for that day. It represented a great museum filled with countless contributions made by women. The superb displays of paintings, ceramics, art work, manufactures, liberal arts, embroideries, fancy work, laces; moreover, dentistry, surgery, authorship, pedagogy, etc., and works of female artisans--evinced that womankind is able to compete with man, not only in the arts and sciences and in the more delicate achievements of handiwork, but in almost every department of human activity. Even the exterior of this handsome building, erected in the style of the Italian renaissance after the design of Miss Sophia G. Hayden of Boston--with its exquisite sculptural decorations--executed by Miss Alice Rideout of St. Francisco--bore testimony to the fact, that women are entitled to enter into competition with their male colleagues. Here, we beheld exhibits forwarded to this unique structure by women of every clime and section of the globe. Even ladies of European monarchal families were represented--the Queen of England and her daughters by works of art--the Empresses of Germany, Russia, and Austria as well as the Queen of Italy by costly laces--often the work of their own hands--and invaluable jewels--with romantic histories. The decorative needle-work exhibit constituted a very selected and complete collection; there being offered to view pieces of embroidery to the value of $8,000. All that was to be seen in this edifice proved the opinion that women are justified in demanding a position equal to men. Nevertheless, many refuse to acknowledge this claim of equalization by pronouncing woman inferior to man concerning intellectual abilities. Daily experience and the records of the past, however, demonstrate sufficiently that many modern industrial pursuits have successfully been carried on by female activity. Not only the occupations, which require manual dexterity and good taste, also the higher branches of various sciences and arts have been excellently mastered by educated ladies, performing professional duties, whose execution demands a vast amount of intelligence and learning. Thus the official U.S. census of 1890 contained the enumeration of 2,438 doctresses; 110 female lawyers; 2,136 architectresses; and 155,000 lady teachers in public schools. Among the students, attending the diverse colleges in the Republic, more than 18,000 are young ladies. Even as inventors, women have distinguished themselves, as we may judge from the fact that during the last three decades, about 2,500 patents have been granted to female claimants, and scientific papers published--in 1884--a list of contrivances deriving their existence from the inventiveness of females. Of the uncountable evidences of woman's inventive genius, the enumeration of the following devices and improvements may suffice: a chain elevator; an appliance for lessening the noise of elevated cars; a lubricating felt for diminishing friction (very useful for railroad cars); a portable water-reservoir for extinguishing small fires; an apparatus for weighing wool (one of the most sensitive machines ever invented, and of incalculable advantage for the wool industry); a rotary loom (performing thrice the work of an ordinary one); furthermore, manifold improvements to the sewing-machine, such as a device for threading the needle while the machine is in full operation; an appliance for sewing leather--contrived by a woman in New York who runs a saddlery business there--; and many others. To the sensational inventions, originated in female brains, belong--the sea-telescope devised by Mrs. Mather, an instrument for the purpose of examining the keel of a ship without requiring her being put into the dry-dock--and a complicated machine for manufacturing paper bags, a very intricate affair which many eminent mechanicians have made but unsuccessful efforts to contrive. Since then, Miss Maggie Knight, the inventress of the machine above mentioned, has found out another; namely for folding paper-bags. The latter performs the work of thirty men, and has been put up under that lady's personal supervision in Amherst, Mass. The wonderful achievements made by women in America, have not been attained by females of any other country on the globe. This circumstance is mainly due to the fact that the public school as well as the college system in the United States--contrary to that of other nations--makes a finished education accessible to both men and women. According to a report given by President White of the University of Michigan--an institution that admits students of both sexes--out of 1,300 attendants of the Greek class, the best scholar was a young lady. In mathematics and other scientific studies, girls had the highest standing. Furthermore, the profession of teaching in this country is principally in the hands of women; which proves that the possibility of cultivating the female mind to a high stage of perfection is absolutely unquestionable. Moreover, philosophers of modern times have demonstrated that it is wrong to assign to woman a position inferior to man by basing it on the theory--that her brains have smaller dimensions. For, it is not the quantity of the _viscus_ alone that settles this scientific question; but the weight of the brains in direct proportion to that of the person's body. Recent scientific researches, accomplished by the noted Parisian physiologist Broca, yielded the result that the ratio of woman's brains compared with man's, contains even a surplus of one to four per cent. Now, that science acknowledges that the female intellect is educable to the same degree as that of man; would it not appear to be a perversion of judgment to undervalue ingenuity, because it accidentally had its seat in female brains? Would it not be unjust to leave talents undeveloped and without cultivation, simply because a woman possesses them? The active part woman took in the promotion of the Columbian Exposition is additional proof of her ability; and on this occasion she comes to the front rank more than ever before in her history. Repairing to the northern portion of the park, we entered the "ART PALACE" through the southern of its four main entrances. We found ourselves in a gallery where the magnificent sculpture exhibit captivated our eyes. In the court running east and west, we beheld a fine display of architecture showing models of many famous edifices in the world, and their exquisite portals and architectural ornaments. The American section located in the northeastern part of the building, comprised a collection _par excellence_ of elegant paintings, masterpieces from the best artists of this country. Very interesting was the retrospective art exhibit in this department; illustrating the various stages in the development of American art, from its incipiency to the present perfection. The remaining space in the eastern pavilion was taken up by the French _division_, which--we acknowledged unanimously--contained the most laudable contribution made by a foreign nation. Great Britain's select display, representing some of its great artists, constituted the most extensive foreign section next to France. German art was represented by 580 fine paintings, including all the German schools that have gained celebrity; as the Bavarian in Munich--the Saxon in Dresden--and many others.--Holland, Belgium, Russia, Spain, Austria, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Canada had their share in the splendid effect, likewise. The Japanese showing, elucidating the style of art, peculiar to that skillful nation, was very attractive and novel. If we trace back the records of the previous international expositions, we cannot find any report giving account of a similar collection representing modern works of art. In consequence of political causes, France had seldom made contributions to any but her own _expositions_. But the United States, not fostering hostility with any nation, was universally assisted in her gigantic enterprise. In fact, it would require volumes to describe in detail this elaborate display, whose prominent part--the home exhibits--verified Irving's words: "In America literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity." The Art Palace environed groups and figures in marble and bronze, and other sculptural master-pieces--paintings in oil and water colors, on ivory, enamel, metal, and porcelain--fresco paintings on walls-- engravings--etchings--pastel and many studies in chalk and charcoal; in short, every description of modern progress in this direction, even to excellent effects produced on wood with hot irons. Art is but the human effort to seize some of Nature's notable transitory features to perpetuate them. The unusual scenes of grandeur and of beauty our divine mother reveals to us in some of her moods, we adore, while they are inspirations to the poet and painter; and in this untiring course of art, many geniuses have become apotheosized. To take a lovely landscape at sunset: when from the side of some enchanting stream, you look toward the mountains in the west, and see the crimson and light blue curtains of the evening slowly shaken out; their fringes of burnished gold glowing with indescribable magnificence--who can portray it and do it justice? This evening robing of those variegated crests! That mingling of color, until it fades into deep violet dyes! They in their turn passing away to give place to the jewels of the night, whose unchanging song of eternal praise goes on---- Before such scenes, a Corot, or an Aubert dips the pencil in the glowing sky, and transfers its hues to the canvas; so that, in after time, our souls are gladdened by some retrospect, which makes life dearer to us amidst its cares. We must not consider art as the rival of nature, but her child that pays to her the most graceful tribute of homage by making her impressions permanent. Highly interesting exhibits were presented to view in the _Anthropological Building_, including instructive ethnological and archaeological collections. In connection with the latter section were the relics shown in the Convent de la Rabida--where Columbus, almost discouraged, found a cordial reception and kind assistance from Father de la Marchena--; the Yucatan Ruins--an illustration of ancient architecture and sculpture--; the homes of the Cliff Dwellers--vestiges of probably the earliest civilization of the American continent--; the Spanish Caravels--built in Spain for the Exposition--; the Viking Ship--reproduced from a Norwegian vessel a thousand years old--; and the Esquimaux Village--exhibiting natives (their habitations, and sports), reindeers, and Esquimaux dogs. The handsome structures erected by the Foreign Nations as well as those built by the States and Territories of the Union, were designed particularly for the entertainment of those visitors who constituted their respective representatives. Nevertheless, many of them were beautifully and expensively fitted up; inclosing magnificent native products. Their unique features were so manifold that it would be an impossibility to describe them deservingly without dedicating a volume to that purpose. The nineteen foreign buildings, each of which illustrated some classic style of architecture--peculiar to the nation represented--constituted an additional great feature of the Columbian Exposition. They gave the visitor an adequate conception of the construction and luxurious equipment of edifices abroad. In fact, on entering the buildings of Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, New South Wales, Ceylon, Canada, Sweden, Costa Rica, Hayti, Guatemala, Japan, etc., we fancied ourselves to be suddenly conveyed to these foreign countries. With a few exceptions, all the forty-four States and five Territories of the Union, had their share in the beautiful effect produced by their structures, erected--at a considerable expense--of such material as elucidated the prominent natural resources of the respective states. Many of the edifices were modeled after buildings noted for some historical event. Thus, the New York Building was a reproduction, slightly modified, of the old Van Rensselaer residence, whose quaint architecture recalled a most interesting period in our national history, when the great metropolis of to-day was but a small sea-port town. This World's Fair, which has recently been brought to a close, evinced to the millions of visitors, who were drawn by its multitudinous attractions to the White City from every section of this country, and from almost every quarter of the globe that it eclipsed in grandeur and excellence all of the previous universal expositions; for everything that good taste and modern genius could suggest and accomplish, was brought into play. The financial account given by the auditor of the Columbian Fair stands thus: The entire cost of the Exposition to its close and the winding up of its affairs amounted to $26,288,685.67. Its total receipts were $28,151,168.75; thus exceeding the expenditure by $1,862,483.08. The wonderful and rapid development of the international expositions may be recognized by the following statistics, compiled from the annals of their short history: Ordinal Year. Location. Area Duration Exhibitors Visitors Number in Acres in Days 1 1851 London 20.06 144 17,000 6,039,000 2 1855 Paris 24.71 200 21,779 5,162,000 3 1862 London 22.24 171 28,653 6,211,000 4 1867 Paris 29.44 217 50,236 10,200,000 5 1873 Vienna 39.54 186 42,000 7,254,000 6 1876 Philadelphia 59.31 184 60,000 9,900,000 7 1878 Paris 59.31 194 32,000 13,000,000 8 1889 Paris 74.14 183 60,000 32,000,000 9 1893 Chicago..Exp 533.00 183 50,000 27,412,728 ...MP 80.00 Unable to obtain the exact figures denoting the number of exhibitors of the Columbian Exposition from any authentical source of information, I introduced into the above table the number of 50,000, mentioned in a newspaper, and therefore not absolutely reliable. CONCLUSION. The universal verdict is--that the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago was a great success; and although disappearing like a dream, it will be a lasting and useful one. The mention of a few features, at once creditable to the age, and pointing hopefully to the future, may suffice to prove this opinion: Notwithstanding the great rivalry between nations, there has not been a particle of jealousy, or unkind criticism exhibited at these great congresses. Intelligent and representative people have been brought together from all parts of the earth, who--on returning to their homes--carried with them the germs of better feeling, which will have a tendency to break up the barriers of bitter prejudices and bigotry hitherto existing. The less favored and darker parts of our earth come more into the light. Our children have had lessons, which no history or geography could convey; our women have taken a stand from which they never will recede. In the presence of the wonders shown us, and all the grand efforts of human genius, we become less selfish and more humane; a greater respect for each other is evoked. Yes, it has been a good thing! All honor to the nations of the earth, who so generously have come forward with their best treasures, not sparing trouble or expense in this promoting, grand feature of human progress! The millions spent here, have been well employed; and we can safely say that--but for the unfortunate fact that during the time of the exposition, we were passing through a season of unusual financial depression--the attendance at the World's Fair would have been much larger. Nevertheless, it was a great success. All honor to the Hon. George R. Davis, the General Director! All honor to his co-laborers! All honor to every one who did anything to push it along! For, it is gone--giving the pulse of the world the holiest thrill it ever had since its creation. FINIS. 
42879	----	THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION, CHICAGO, 1893 ++ PLEASE NOTE MAP. THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION, CHICAGO, 1893. GEOGRAPHY, RURAL INDUSTRIES, COMMERCE, GENERAL STATISTICS. BY CARLOS MARIA DE PENA AND HONORE ROUSTAN, Director of the General Statistics Office TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY J. J. RETHORE. MONTEVIDEO. 1893 NOTICE. MONTEVIDEO, December 31st, 1892. _To the Hon. President of "Chicago Exhibition" Executive Committee:_ On delivering the Spanish text of these notes and statistical inquiries, the compiling of which we have taken under our care as a patriotic duty, it is convenient to observe that, if the present work principally contains facts and particulars only relative to the year 1891, it is because complete general statistics covering the year 1892 are not yet to be had, as the "Board of Statistics" do not publish the "Annual" till the second quarter of the year 1893, and also because it has been considered better to conserve a certain general unity in the compiling of facts and particulars. If, in a few special cases, any particulars of the year 1892 have been quoted, it was merely with the purpose of supplying to some deficiency. The time which the Commission has had to dispose has been very short for a work of this kind; the particulars that existed at the "Board of Statistics" had to be used, and it was impossible to get any new ones, at least as completely and as quickly as it was required; and that if, notwithstanding so many difficulties, it has been possible to deliver the present work in due time, it is because the Director of the "Board of General Statistics" had already compiled nearly all of it, so that the only thing to be done has been to introduce a few short amplifications, sometimes to change the order, and some others to make a few important corrections. The only thing we are sorry for, is not to have received all the particulars and information we had asked for, so as to give to the present work a greater novelty and a more seducing form--that, with a greater number of facts and particulars, might reveal what is, what can be, and what is to be, one day or other the Oriental Republic, with all its economical and social elements, and with all the new elements that will be created, owing to the benefits of peace and owing to the work and energy of the inhabitants, under the protecting shield of a severe and provident Administration. Having concluded this work which was committed to our care, and thinking that the translator, Mr. J. J. RETHORE, will finish his in the first fortnight of the next year, we have the honor of saluting the Honorable President with all our greatest consideration and esteem. HONORE ROUSTAN. CARLOS M. DE PENA. MINISTER OF FOREIGN RELATIONS, MONTEVIDEO, Jan. 27, 1893. _To the Consul-General:_ The Government has this day issued the following decree: Ministry of Foreign Relations. Decree. Montevideo, January 27, 1893. In view of the representation made by the Ministry of Public Works (Fomento) in a note of present date, the President of the Republic decrees: ARTICLE 1. The following are appointed as members of the Commission representing the Republic of Uruguay in the Universal Exposition at Chicago: President, Senor Don Prudencio de Murguiondo, Consul-General in the United States of North America; Special Commissioner, Don Lucio Rodriguez Diez; and Regular Commissioner, Don Alberto Gomez Ruano, Dr. Don Eduardo Chucarro, and Don Ricardo Hughes. ART. 2. The said Commissioners will arrange directly with the Central Commission at Montevideo in everything relating to their duties. ART. 3. Let this decree be published and recorded. Signed: HERRERA Y OBES, MANUEL HERRERO Y ESPINOSA. Any information regarding Uruguay will be cheerfully given by the Commissioners at Chicago till the Exposition closes, and after that by the Consul-General of Uruguay, at Washington, D. C., or the following Consuls and Vice-Consuls. _CONSULS._ THOMAS A. EDDY, NEW YORK. KAFAEL S. SALAS, SAVANNAH, GA. JOSE COSTA, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. LEONCE RABILLON, BALTIMORE, MD. JAMES E. MARRETT, PORTLAND, MAINE. EDUARDO FORNIAS, PHILADELPHIA. C. C. TURNER, CHICAGO, ILL. _VICE-CONSULS._ ARTHUR CARROLL, BOSTON, MASS. THOMAS C. WATSON, PENSACOLA, FLA. HENRY T. DUNN, BRUNSWICK, GA. W. A. MURCHIE, CALAIS, MAINE. N. B. BORDEN, FERNANDINA, FLA. JAMES HAUGHTON, {NORFOLK, NEWPORT NEWS { AND YORKTOWN. GEORGE A. BARKSDALE, RICHMOND, VA. WILLIAM N. HARRIS, WILMINGTON, N. C. G. H. GREEN, NEW ORLEANS. F. B. GENOVAE, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. CHARLES F. HUCHET, CHARLESTON, S. C. R. W. STEWART, BANGOR, MAINE. ALFRED THOMAS SHAW, MOBILE, ALA. ARTHUR HOMER, GALVESTON, TEXAS. H. F. KREBS, PASCAGOULA, MISS. THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY. (SOUTH AMERICA.) Discovery--Situation--Limits--Configuration--Perimeter--Superficies. The territory of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, situated within the temperate zone of South America, was discovered in the beginning of the sixteenth century by the famous Spanish cosmographer, Juan Diaz de Solis. Its geographical situation is comprised between the 30°, 5' and 35° degrees of latitude S. and the 56th 15' and 60th 45' of longitude W., according to the Paris meridian. North and eastward it confines with the United States of Brazil, and westward with the Argentine Republic. Its limits are: On the north, the river Cuareim, the _cuchilla_ or ridge of hills of Santa Ana, and the right bank of the river Yaguaron Grande; on the east, the occidental coast of Lake Merin and the river Chuy, which empties into the Atlantic ocean; on the west, the river Uruguay, which separates it from the Argentine Republic; on the south, the river Plate. Its configuration is somewhat that of a many-sided polygon, surrounded in its greatest part by water, except its northern part, where it is bounded by the terrestrial frontier, which separates it from the Brazilian Republic. Its perimeter is of 1846 kilom. 850 m., out of which 1073 kilom. 750 m. are sea and river coasts, remaining 773 kilom. 100 m. of terrestrial line. Its superficies is 186,920 square kilom. Aspect--Climate--Meteorology. The prevailing aspect of the country presents itself with continuous undulations, formed by the numerous _cuchillas_ or ridges of hills, which shoot in all directions. The hills are covered with rich pasture grounds. Trees of all kinds stand along the banks of the principal rivers and rivulets which flow, winding about, over great extensions of land, and water the fertile meadows, forming, under a quiet and generally clear sky, a charming landscape all over, which invites to employ usefully such manifold natural riches that have just begun, being cultivated and worked in a vast scale and with fruitful results. Although it is not a mountainous country, its highlands are numerous. The principal heights are the hills of Santa Ana, 490 m.; the hills of Hædo, 400 m.; the Cuchilla Grande (high hills), 458 m. To all these hills join a great many others less high, the declivity of which form the lakes, ponds and rivers that give a great variety to the hydrography of the country. The climate all over the Republic is mild and notably healthy; there exist no malignous, endemical disease whatever. Neither the cold nor the heat is excessive. The middle temperature may be calculated to be, in winter-time of 11 degrees, in spring-time of 17 degrees, in summer of 21 degrees, and in autumn of 16 degrees. The maximum of heat in the month of January is 36°, and that of cold in the month of July is 3° above naught. The climate is a little dryer in the interior than on the coast. Along the coasts watered by the salt waters of the great mouth of the river Plate, the climate is thoroughly a sea climate, and the seasons never get to any extreme. Meteorological observations, made in Montevideo in the year 1843 and down to the year 1852 have given a middle term of 244 serene days, 85 cloudy days and 36 rainy days per annum. The last observations made by the "Uruguay Meteorological Society" during the year 1891 have given the following results; Atmospherical pressure, calculated in mm., reduced to 0, middle term, 760,572. Temperature of the air, in the shade, centigrade degrees, middle term, 16,23; minimum, m. t. 12.77; maximum, m. t. 19.36. Tension of the vapor, in mm., middle term, 10.98. Relative humidity (saturation = 100), middle term, 77.29. Inferior wind, prevailing direction N. N. E.; rapidity in meters by second, middle term, 3.81. Rain, mm., total: 711.8. Winter is so mild in this country that, in fact, the year may be divided into two seasons--the hot season, from November till April, and the cool season, from May till October. Whatever may be the geographical situation of his own country the foreigner does not need any previous acclimation; when he comes to live in this Republic he does not feel any disorder in his health, owing to the mildness of the temperature. The most ordinary winds are the N., N. E., E, and S. W. winds. This last one, called _Pampero_, is pure and vivifying and is rightly considered as the purifier of the Plate, and one of the principal causes of the wholesomeness which the country enjoys. Rivers--Rivulets--Ports--Docks--Dry Docks. With only looking over the map of the Republic, one gets an idea of its rich hydrography. Sixteen rivers flow through the territory, all being joined by more than 500 rivulets that increase their size and current. The principal rivers are the Plate and Uruguay, which bathe the coasts of the Republic, and the Rio Negro (the black river), which flows all through the center of the territory. The River plate, at its mouth, between cape Santa Maria and cape San Antonio, is more than 206 kilometers wide; its superficies are calculated to be over 39,846 kilom.; its length 361 kilom.; its breadth, between Colonia and Buenos Ayres, a little more than 51 kilom. The River Uruguay flows from N. to S., its length through the Republic is 530 kilom., its breadth from the Guazu down to the point of Fray Bentos varies from 10 to 15 kilom. After passing Fray Bentos it becomes narrow, owing to the multitude of islands which form deep channels. In its normal state it runs three or four miles an hour. It is navigable up to Paysandu for ships of great tonnage, and up to Salto for coast trading boats. The Rio Negro runs through the territory from N. W. to W., with an extension of 463 kilom. It is navigable for ships of small tonnage for 94 kilom., more or less. The other thirteen rivers are: the Cuareim, the Arapey, the Dayman, the Queguay, the Tacuarembo, the Yi, the Yaguaron, the Tacuari, the Olimar Grande, the San Jose, the San Salvador and the Santa Lucia. These powerful arteries, the waters of which are increased by numberless rivulets that empty into them, flow down to the remotest parts of the Republic and fertilize them. The waters of the River Plate, till a little further up than Santa Lucia are salt; beyond this they always remain fresh. The waters of the Uruguay, Rio Negro and other rivers of the interior have the property of petrifying animal and vegetable substances. Along the 1,073 kilom. of maritime and fluvial coasts, which are counted from the mouth of the Cuareim River down to the River Chuy, are the principal ports of the Republic. The most important ones are Maldonado, Montevideo and Colonia, on the coasts watered by the River Plate. There exist others of less importance, like those of Paloma, Coronilla, Castillos Grande, Buceo and also the bay, called the Englishman's Bay, (Ensenada del Ingles). Along the River Uruguay we find the ports Nueva Palmira, Carmelo, Independencia, Paysandu, Salto, Constitucion and Santa Rosa. Along the Rio Negro, those of Soriano and Mercedes; and along the San Salvador the port of San Salvador. The principal port in the Republic is that of Montevideo. It is estimated as the best port on the River Plate, owing to its natural conditions. It has the shape of a horse-shoe, being the two extreme points, which form its entrance, some seven kilom. distant from one another. The perimeter of the bay is ten kilom., and six hundred m. It offers ships a safe shelter, its entrance being towards the N. W. and its channel between 15 and 17 feet deep. The general depth of the bay is between 14 and 15 feet. The steamers cast anchor near the entrance of the port in the exterior bay where the depth gets to 25 feet. The port of Montevideo is not only the anchoring ground of the ships that have to load and unload, but it is also the port where all of the ships stop on their way to the Pacific Ocean, and also all the men-of-war of the nations which have a naval station in the River Plate. All the steamers of the rivers have their anchoring ground in front of the docks, where they all have their moorings at a distance of 125 m. from the wharf. Being the principal port where the commercial and naval movement is most important, Montevideo counts with two beautiful dry docks, belonging to private persons, one of them is the Maua Dry Dock and the other one belongs to Jackson and Cibils. They have both been opened in the quick rock, and have for their service all the most modern machines, admitting ships of all tonnage. Besides those two, there are a great many docks, dry docks and harbors, all over the bay and also in the ports of Salto and Colonia. Minerals. The territory of the Republic contains numberless riches not worked out yet, in precious metals, in copper, iron, lead, etc., in agate stone, rock, crystal, slate, calcareous stone, marble of all colors, which could advantageously rival with the marbles of Italy and Pyrenean mountains. Rich marble quarries exist in the department of Minas, which could not have been worked before on account of the difficulties for the transport, made easier and cheaper now days when the railway reaches to Minas 123 kilom. distant from the capital. The Cunapiru gold region is now worked by the following societies: Zapucay gold mines, with 20 crushing machines. Uruguay gold fields, with 60 crushing machines. Hermanos gold minings, with 20 crushing machines. The French Uruguay gold mine company, the working of which is stopped for the present, has spent in the region mentioned more than three millions of dollars, and has established milldams in the rivers Cunapiru and Corrales so as to employ, for the grinding, a powerful hydraulic strength. The working of the mines on a great scale is just beginning now without interruption. During the last two years over 72,000 tons of quartz have been extracted and crushed, giving a result of over 420 kilog. of fine gold. Mines of lead and copper and marble quarries are now worked in the departments of Minas and Maldonado. The agate stone is exported as it is found in the Catalan hills, department of Salto, and there exists in Montevideo an agent of the house established in that department, where are sold the stones worked out into art objects. In La Paz, near Montevideo, there exist quarries of red and blue granite, some beautiful pieces of which are employed as columns in some important buildings. Stone is abundant in the Republic. Everywhere in Cerro, La Paz, Sauce, Colonia and other places they continually open new quarries which permit a considerable exportation for the works undertaken in Buenos Ayres and La Plata. The Colonia quarries alone employ over two thousand workmen. Vegetation. The territory does not only count with its native trees the wood of which is employed in the industries and the rural economy; but all over its fertile soil do grow, reproducing themselves, and perfectly accustomed to the climate, nearly all the trees of the other regions. Among the native trees there are the _nandubay_, that has the property of petrifying itself under the ground, the _urunday_, the lapacho, the viraro, the coronilla, the espinillo, quebracho, tala, araza, the carob-tree, the black laurel, the timbo, guaviyu, copal, the white, red, brown and yellow willow, the mataojo, paraiso, the wild acacia, the ceibo and many others, the wood of which may be employed for making all kinds of casks and buildings, and also for burning. "The riches of the forests in this country," says Dr. Ordonana, perpetual secretary to the Rural Association, "belong to two distinct categories. The first one extends itself along the banks of the rivers and rivulets of the interior of the Republic, and the other is a consequence of the sediments, ground and sands brought down by the rivers that form the Plate, which, stopped by the banks of low Uruguay, give birth to plants like those described by clever botanists as Azara and Bomplan, as belonging to the regions of the Pilcomayo, Parana and Paraguay. "The trees are generally represented by a great many out of which no wood can be made, and small shrubs that give fruits, used in other times by the natives, gums and resins, stuffs used for weaving and dyeing, and a great many twining plants, among which there are the hisipo, of yellow flowers, and also the ilex-mate. "None of the plants we mention here have been considered, until now, worth being scientifically cultivated, although our Society has claimed for it many times, because, neither private persons nor private congregations, without the help of the government, can afford the establishment and maintenance of experimental farms, which are the true guides for studies and observations. "We have preferred here cultivating foreign trees, whilst we had here a great many much better than they, as for their wood, shade and elegance. "The private efforts of men we cannot forget have changed the aspect of our forests and also of the cattle of the country, by enriching it with new seeds and new plants and employing the combined means of nature and of work." In many departments the palm tree is found, also many kinds of fruit and ornamental trees. There are trees, shrubs and herbs with medicinal properties and good for dyeing and weaving, and also resinous, aromatic and alkaline ones. The series of the plants with healing properties is long; there may be found the sarsaparilla, the marshmallow, the liquorice, the rhubarb, the camomile, the wild celery and many other plants, which it would be too long to enumerate here. Among the fruit trees accustomed to this climate there are: the orange tree, the apple tree, the pear tree, the apricot tree, the pomegranate tree, the peach tree, the cherry tree, the lemon tree, the plum tree, the nut tree, the quince tree, the olive tree, the medlar tree, the almond tree, the chestnut tree, the fig tree, the date palm, etc., etc. Among the other classes we find the poplar, the cypress, the elm, the oak, the plantain, the acacia, the eucalyptus, the cedar, the magnolia, the white mulberry tree, etc. As for the cereals and vegetables, all kinds of them grow here perfectly and abundantly. Wheat, maize, barley, lucerne, are the principal rural products. The chick-pea, the French bean, the gray pea, the bean, the sugar-pea, the hastings, the lentils, the potatoes, the Spanish potatoes, the carrot, the radishes, the turnips, the pumpkins, the beet root, etc., and all kinds of pot herbs, the watermelons, the melon and the strawberry grow also abundantly. The grape vine, the flax, the tobacco, the canary seed, the cotton, the anise-seed, the hemp, the currin seed, the peanuts and many other classes give good results. During these last years the nursing of the vine, the olive, the lucerne, and the tobacco has spread itself a great deal. As for the flowers, there is such an immense variety of them and such a plenty that the Republic has deserved the name of "The country of sun and flowers." The industry of nosegays and crowns has reached an unheard-of development. Beside the garden plants that belong to the country, they nurse here all the varieties known in Europe. The environs of Montevideo count a great many important establishments dedicated to the commerce of plants, ornamental and fruit trees, all of the most valuable kinds. Animals. The native animal reign counts thirty-nine families; among them we find the deer, the buck, the otter, the _carpincho_ and many others, the skins of which are exported. There are more than 500 species of birds, among them the ostrich, the white stork, the wood turkey, the swan, the water duck, the heath cock, the moor cock, the partridge, the wood pigeon, etc. Among the singing birds the varieties are innumerable. Among the fowl, they bring up all kinds of hens, the duck, the goose, the pigeon, the turkey, etc. There are fourteen species of shells, and seven among the crustaceous. As for fishes, there are to be found numerous and rich varieties of salt and fresh water ones. Large quantities of the first class are taken over to Buenos Ayres every day by the steamers. Pisiculture is destined to have a great development here. An important fishery is already established on the coasts of Maldonado. The bringing up of salmon has already been tried. The only things wanting still are money and technical directions for the reproduction of the richest kinds of fishes, so as to supply with great advantage the Montevideo and Buenos Ayres markets. The principal industry in the country is the cattle and horse-breeding, which, as will further on be seen, produces in a prodigious way. This industry was introduced into the country in the time of the conquest by the Spaniards. Actually they improve and refine the cattle and horses by the crossing with the pure blood animals which continually come from Europe and the Argentine Republic. Already there exist important establishments with thoroughly pure blood animals born in the country, having already begun the wholesale of oxen and cows for consumption, and of horses for races and coach. The sheep are now a great deal finer. The improvement began in the year 1832, with two Negretti and Rambouillet rams, and this is the reason why the wool, for its good quality, is so much valued in European markets. Besides the merino sheep, a great many other races have been introduced, and among them some of very good flesh, like the Southdowns, of which there are already numerous herds. Division of the Territory--Situation of the Departments--Centre of Population. The territory is divided into nineteen departments. The superficial area of each of them is as follows: ===============+========+==========+=========== | Square | Square | Square Departments. | Miles. | Leagues. | Kilometer. ---------------+--------+----------+----------- Salto | 4.270 | 474 4/9 | 12.601 61 Artigas | 3.855 | 428 3/9 | 11.379 52 Paysandu | 4.490 | 498 8/9 | 18.252 34 Rio Negro | 2.870 | 318 8/9 | 8.470 88 Soriano | 3.125 | 347 2/9 | 9.223 51 La Colonia | 1.925 | 213 8/9 | 5.681 68 San Jose | 2.359 | 262 1/9 | 6.962 07 Flores | 1.531 | 170 1/9 | 4.519 36 Montevideo | .225 | 25 | 664 09 Canelones | 1.610 | 178 8/9 | 4.751 95 Maldonado | 1.391 | 154 5/9 | 4.105 57 Rocha | 3.757 | 417 4/9 | 11.088 88 Cerro Largo | 5.058 | 562 | 14.904 41 Treinta y Tres | 3.232 | 359 1/9 | 9.550 35 Minas | 4.230 | 470 | 12.498 32 Tacuarembo | 7.120 | 791 1/9 | 21.022 49 Rivera | 3.330 | 370 | 9.820 94 Florida | 4.102 | 455 7/9 | 12.107 15 Durazno | 4.850 | 538 8/9 | 14.314 89 |--------+----------+----------- |63.830 |7.036 6/9 |186.920 01 ===============+========+==========+=========== In the centre of the territory are the departments of Durazno, Flores, Minas, Tacuarembo, Treinta y Tres, and Florida, surrounded by those of Artigas, Rivera and Cerro Largo, situated on the very frontier of Brazil; the Department of Rocha on the Atlantic Ocean; those of Maldonado, Canelones, Montevideo, San Jose and Colonia on the River Plate; and those of Soriano, Rio Negro, Paysandu and Salto on the River Uruguay. All those departments count over a hundred centres of population, that is to say, seven towns, forty-eight villages, and thirty-nine colonies or smaller centres. Political Organization. _Government._--The constitution of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay establishes the representative republican system. _Sovereignty._--The sovereignty in all its fullness exists radically in the Nation, which has the exclusive right of establishing its own laws in the way determined by the Constitution. _Religion._--The Religion of the state is the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church. However, all dissident churches are tolerated and their religion can be freely practiced; the inhabitants enjoy the full liberty of thought. _High Powers._--The three high powers of the state are the legislative power, the executive power and the judicial power. _Legislative Powers._--This power is formed by two chambers, the Senate and Deputies' Chamber. The Senate is compounded with as many members as departments, these forming the political and administrative division of the Republic. The election is indirect. The President of the Senate is the Vice-President of the Republic, and performs the functions of the first magistrate in case of absence, illness, resignation or death. The _Deputies' Chamber_ is composed of 69 members, directly elected by the people in the way determined by the law on elections. _Executive Power._--The executive power is represented by the President of the Republic, who is elected in a general assembly of the two chambers by nominal voting, being required the absolute majority of suffrages expressed on ballots which are publicly read out by the secretary. His functions last four years, and he cannot be re-elected unless four other years have passed. The President appoints the Secretaries of State, or Ministers, who are five--one of Government, one of _Fomento_ (Public Education, Commerce, Industry and Railways), one of Finance, one of War and Navy, and one of Foreign Affairs. _Delegates of the Executive Power._--In every town, the capital of a department, there is a delegate of the Executive Power called Political and Police Chief (_Jefe politico y de policia_), and entrusted to make his dispositions obeyed. _Judicial Power._--This power is composed of the High Court of Justice. But as this court has not yet been regularly established, the United Tribunals of Appeal, composed each of them of three members, perform the functions of the High Court. It is entrusted with the superintendence of all the other judges. There exist in the Republic three Superior Judges (_Jueces Letrados_), for the civil, two for the commerce, one for the treasure, one for the criminal, and one for the correctional, and also nineteen ordinary judges for the departments. _Justice of the Peace._--There exist a justice of the peace and an attorney in every one of the sections into which are divided the departments. The members of the Justice of the Peace are elected by the people. They give sentence in all the affairs of small importance. The law of the 11th of February, 1879, has created the Civil State Register in all the Republic, and the inscription in this Register has been made obligatory the 1st of July of the same year. This Register is entrusted to the care of the Justice of the Peace, who performs the functions of Civil State Register Officer, and in it are inscribed all the births, marriages, deaths, recognizance and legitimation of the sons. The law of the 22d of May, 1885, declared Civil Matrimony obligatory throughout all the Republic, no other one being acknowledged as legitimate besides the one celebrated according to the law and according to the dispositions established in the Civil State Registers of the 11th of February, 1879, and their regulation and laws of the 1st of June, 1880, and 1st of July, 1884. _Municipality_ (Junta Economico-Administrativa.)--There exists a _Junta_ or Municipality in each department. The members of the municipality are elected by the people, and they are entrusted with the care of the municipal interests. The Montevideo municipality has a very great importance, being entrusted with the care of all the municipal services except that of the police. _Citizenship._--The citizens of the state are either natural or legal. Natural are all those born in the territory; legal, all the foreigners who ask for citizenship, after having proved their residence in the country for a determined time. All the citizens, whether natural or legal, enjoy the right of voting and _may be elected_ in certain conditions. The constitution of the Republic sworn on the 18th of July, 1830, among other articles, contains the following ones: Art. the 130th. The inhabitants of the state have a right to be protected in their life, honor, liberty, security and property. Nobody can be deprived of these rights, but according to the laws. Art. the 131st. In the territory of the state nobody can be a slave by birth; the slave trade and introduction of slaves are forever forbidden in the Republic. Art. the 132d. All men are equal before the law, be it preceptive, penal or defensive; the only distinction acknowledged is that of talent and virtue. Art. the 134th. The private actions of men, that do not by any way attack the public order nor harm any third person, belong only to God, and, therefore, remain beyond the authority of the magistrates. No inhabitant of the state will be obliged to do what the law does not bid, neither prevented from doing what the law does not forbid. Art. the 141st. Thoroughly free is the communication of thought, by words, private writings, or publications in the public papers, whatever be the subjects, without requiring any previous censure; the only responsible person is the author, or, in his stead, the printer, whenever the writing be abusive, according to the law. Art. the 146th. All the inhabitants of the state may undertake any work, industry or commerce they like, provided they do not harm the public order or the other citizens' rights. Art. the 147th. The entrance into the territory of the Republic is free to any one, as also his staying in it or going away with his goods, provided he respect the police laws and do not harm any third person. Language and Customs. The national language is the Spanish tongue. However, nearly all the languages are known in the Republic, on account of the great number of foreigners established here, and the great number of them who have continuous relations with the country. Nearly every native who has received a fairly good instruction speaks some foreign language. In Montevideo, where continually stop boats of all nations, the practice of French, Italian, English and German is quite general. In nearly every department in the Republic, and above all in Montevideo, exist a great many good schools belonging to the above mentioned nations. The foreigner who treads the Uruguay soil does not miss the customs of his own country, since the ones he meets here are nearly the same as in the principal European cities. A great many years of continuous communication with all the nations of the world has made, that the customs of all the civilized nations are quite familiar to the natives. Population--Its Density. In the Statistical Annuary corresponding to the year 1891 the population of the Republic has been calculated thus: Departments. Population in 1891. Montevideo 234,688 Canelones 64,772 Colonia 39,309 Soriano 32,617 San Jose 26,528 Flores 13,737 Florida 29,078 Rocha 22,237 Maldonado 15,757 Cerro-Largo 25,741 Minas 23,466 Treinta y Tres 17,297 Salto 32,827 Artigas 17,367 Durazno 25,020 Paysandu 29,962 Rio Negro 15,970 Tacuarembo 25,166 Rivera 16,629 ------- Total 708,168 In the year 1829 the population of the Republic was 74,000 souls, and in the year 1879, 438,245. The increase of the population has produced itself according to the following proportions: In 1882 505,207 inhabitants. 1883 520,536 " 1884 559,668 " 1885 582,858 " 1886 596,463 " 1887 614,257 " 1888 648,297 " 1889 683,943 " 1890 706,524 " 1891 708,168 " The increase of the population during the year 1891, if compared with the population in 1879, is of 269,923 souls, that is to say, 61.59 per cent. If we add to the total of inhabitants during the year 1891 a 6 per cent. on account of the omissions which probably took place in the calculations (omission of inscriptions of births, of declarations in the lists of passengers, etc.), we have a population for the whole Republic of, more or less, 750,658 inhabitants. Dividing the population into nationalities we see that out of a hundred inhabitants there are 70 natives and 30 foreigners. In Montevideo, however, the proportion varies, being of 53 natives and 47 foreigners. The density of the population throughout the Republic is of 3.78 inhabitants for each square kilometre. The Department of Montevideo, which has the smallest superficial area, is the most peopled of all the Republic, (353.44 inhabitants for each square kilometre); in it resides nearly the third part of the population of the country. Next to Montevideo, the Department of Canelones is the most peopled, (13.63 inhabitants for each square kilometre.) The above mentioned results are an evident proof that the territory of the Republic is still very little peopled, and that there is very easily room enough in it for many millions of inhabitants. Although the density of the population be but of 3.78 inhabitants for each square kilometre, it is, however, superior to the density of the population in the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay and Nicaragua, none of which get to that figure. Movement of the Population. From the year 1887 till the year 1891 have taken place in the Republic: Years. Births. Deaths. Marriages. 1887 25,132 12,573 3,428 1888 25,832 12,077 3,976 1889 26,981 12,882 4,175 1890 27,899 15,174 4,082 1891 28,696 13,146 3,524 ------- ------ ------ 134,540 65,852 19,185 Middle yearly term: 26,908 13,170 3,837 Proportion out of 1000 inhabitants: 37.9 18.5 5.4 So as to appreciate better the rank occupied by the Republic among the other countries as regards the movement of the population, the following figures may be considered as points of comparison: Births per Deaths per Marriages Countries. 1000 1000 per 1000 Inh'bit'nts. Inh'bit'nts. Inhabitants. France 25.8 23.8 7.7 Italy 37 29.1 7.8 Scotland 35 21.4 7.1 Ireland 26.9 17.8 4.8 Austria 38.6 31 8.5 Swiss 30.1 23.2 7.4 Belgian 32 22.4 7.2 Sweden 27.1 18.9 6.5 Norway 31.3 17.2 6.9 Denmark 31.1 19.7 7.8 Oriental Repub. of Uruguay 37.9 18.5 5.4 Therefore the births in the Republic prove to be in a greater proportion than in any of the mentioned countries, Austria being excepted, while the deaths, with the exception of Sweden and Norway, is in a smaller proportion, as also the marriages, Ireland being excepted. This great number of births and the corresponding diminution in the figures of death prove how easy is the purchase of the elements necessary to life; and how very excellent are the climate and the salubrity in the Republic. Movement of Passengers. Though the Republic has many ports Montevideo is, nevertheless, where takes place the greatest concourse of passengers. The movement from abroad and from the Argentine and Uruguay coasts has given the following results: Years. Passengers. Per Month. Per Day. 1883 60,388 5,033 167 1884 91,872 7,656 255 1885 99,059 8,255 275 1886 89,567 7,464 248 1887 102,396 8,533 284 1888 133,033 11,086 366 1889 153,811 12,817 427 1890 150,447 12,537 417 1891 104,945 8,745 291 The diminution which begins in the year 1890 is due to the economical crisis that began in that year, and the consequences of which are still to be felt. Immigration. The territory of the Republic being abundant in all natural resources and elements necessary to make easy any kind of work or industry one chooses to undertake, and the immigrant getting very soon accustomed to a climate and customs very little different from those of his own country, the Oriental Republic of Uruguay offers therefore all kinds of advantages to the honest and laborious immigrant who comes here in search of a remuneration greater than that he can earn in his own country. Thus is explained the large number of foreigners of all nationalities who have chosen this country as their second countryland, settling themselves here definitely and partaking with their families a wealth which allows them a good living, and is the base of their future modest or great fortune. In spite of the political disorders, the time of which, it may be said, has passed, and in spite of the economical crisis that, with more or less intensity, are common to all the countries that rapidly advance and progress, the Oriental Republic has always seen a great and constant affluence of arms and capital, that have contributed in a few years to display powerfully its productive energy, to create establishments and manufactures which, with their products, have increased the relations of exchange with all the markets of the world. Although the present times be not very favorable to the immigratory movement, the country is bound to recover soon, very soon, from the disorders suffered during the last crisis. Our own history, and also that of the other American nations, teach us that in a period of restrictions in business and settling accounts, the immigration always diminishes, but increases again as soon as it begins to feel the first symptoms of reaction towards a period of prosperity. The following figures demonstrate the oscillations in the immigratory movement, coinciding with critical or prosperous periods: Immigratory Movement in the Port of Montevideo from 1867 to 1891. ------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------- | |Present'd | | | | |themselves |Have lived |Employed | | |to the |at the |in the | | |Emigrant |Emigrant |Capital or |Placed by Years.|Entries.|Board. |Board. |Departments.|the Board. ------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------- 1867 | 17.356 | 1.913 | 187 | 2.586 | 1.802 1868 | 16.892 | 2.479 | 261 | 4.179 | 2.335 1869 | 20.435 | 1.861 | 87 | 2.261 | 1.661 1870 | 21.148 | 1.305 | 110 | 2.136 | 1.210 1871 | 17.912 | 743 | 22 | 2.555 | 714 1872 | 11.516 | 916 | 41 | 6.133 | 877 1873 | 24.339 | 1.480 | 51 | 6.651 | 1.444 1874 | 13.759 | 2.708 | 149 | 4.768 | 2.649 1875 | 5.298 | 1.493 | 113 | 5.699 | 1.401 1876 | 5.570 | 1.469 | 91 | 4.246 | 1.432 1877 | 6.160 | 1.913 | 120 | 2.810 | 1.884 1878 | 9.464 | 1.594 | 103 | 2.605 | 1.518 1879 | 10.829 | 1.587 | 13 | 2.206 | 1.515 1880 | 9.203 | 1.933 | 1.255 | 2.493 | 1.845 1881 | 8.336 | 1.416 | 1.251 | 1.700 | 1.322 1882 | 10.116 | 1.124 | 1.562 | 2.846 | 1.493 1883 | 11.086 | 1.067 | 1.274 | 1.402 | 1.022 1884 | 11.954 | 1.272 | 1.019 | 1.531 | 1.163 1885 | 15.679 | 1.857 | 1.320 | 1.236 | 1.266 1886 | 12.291 | 1.383 | 833 | 1.068 | 1.072 1887 | 12.867 | 1.406 | 1.144 | 1.619 | 1.047 1888 | 16.581 | 1.622 | 1.304 | 1.650 | 1.243 1889 | 27.349 | 10.446 | 10.446 | 10.930 | 8.867 1890 | 24.117 | 8.816 | 8.816 | 11.195 | 8.738 1891 | 11.916 | ...... | ...... | ...... | ..... ------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------- The different nations to which belonged the immigrants that presented themselves to the General Emigration and Immigration Office in search of work, during the above-mentioned years are as follows: ======+=====+=====+=======+=====+====+======+======+======+========+====== |Span-|Ital-| |Eng- |Ger-| |Argen-|Portu-| Other | Years.|ish. |ians.|French.|lish.|man.|Swiss.|tine. |guese.|nations.|Total. ------+-----+-----+-------+-----+----+------+------+------+--------+------ 1867 | 360 | 743| 256 | 161 | 104| 33 | 31 | 54 | 171 | 1.913 1868 | 508 |1.093| 358 | 241 | 100| 38 | 24 | 49 | 68 | 2.479 1869 | 620 | 592| 244 | 146 | 119| 30 | 22 | 44 | 44 | 1.861 1870 | 514 | 376| 205 | 61 | 37| 17 | 15 | 18 | 62 | 1.305 1871 | 308 | 214| 106 | 16 | 32| 9 | 12 | 13 | 33 | 743 1872 | 423 | 202| 181 | 44 | 26| 10 | 1 | 12 | 17 | 916 1873 | 606 | 346| 359 | 26 | 27| 35 | 20 | 22 | 39 | 1.480 1874 |1.086| 961| 437 | 16 | 54| 74 | 21 | 22 | 37 | 2.708 1875 | 609 | 402| 279 | 8 | 55| 53 | 51 | 12 | 24 | 1.493 1876 | 453 | 500| 271 | 11 | 37| 47 | 43 | 4 | 103 | 1.469 1877 | 571 | 569| 358 | 35 | 54| 121 | 85 | 34 | 86 | 1.913 1878 | 529 | 492| 208 | 10 | 72| 48 | 46 | 19 | 170 | 1.594 1879 | 387 | 721| 230 | 31 | 43| 52 | 63 | 14 | 46 | 1.587 1880 | 405 | 939| 258 | 42 | 74| 74 | 73 | 9 | 59 | 1.933 1881 | 435 | 646| 128 | 12 | 38| 25 | 62 | 11 | 59 | 1.416 1882 | 370 | 518| 76 | 25 | 41| 14 | 22 | 14 | 44 | 1.124 1883 | 428 | 380| .... | 7 | 75| 18 | 31 | 15 | 113 | 1.067 1884 | 428 | 537| 103 | 12 | 62| 13 | 41 | 8 | 68 | 1.272 1885 | 607 | 916| 98 | 19 | 41| 11 | 40 | 14 | 111 | 1.857 1886 | 653 | 553| 61 | 8 | 29| 7 | 24 | 16 | 32 | 1.383 1887 | 618 | 423| 104 | 26 | 46| 14 | 18 | 34 | 123 | 1.406 1888 | 738 | 513| 176 | 27 | 45| 14 | 12 | 43 | 54 | 1.622 1889 |1.399|6.932| 670 | 78 | 126| 22 | 14 | 41 | 1.164 |10.446 1890 |1.073|7.341| 170 | 14 | 16| 13 | 3 | 19 | 167 | 8.816 ------+-----+-----+-------+-----+----+------+------+------+--------+------ Immigration has come here of its own accord, during times of prosperity; but the government has also tried to call it here by making easier the coming of immigrants from Europe, and their being led into the interior of the country, and also by giving land to colonists or by exhonerating others from all duties and taxes, either direct or indirect. During the years hereafter mentioned the government has given the following number of passages to immigrants who required them: In the year 1887 255 passages. " " 1888 124 " " " 1889 2727 " " " 1890 1133 " The immigrant enjoys here a complete and perfect liberty. Being a foreigner he owes no service whatever to the state. Dedicated to work, he is always respected, and wherever he may go in the Republic, he is always sure to find some of his countrymen who, knowing well the country and talking his own language, will give him all the information and references he may require. Besides this, on landing, he always finds interpreters who give him all the explanations he may need. Wages. The wages which are generally earned are according to the professions, more or less, as follows: _Apprentices_--Boarding and clothes, generally, per month. _Nurses_--From $6 to $12 per month, with lodging and board. _Bakers_--From $18 to $36 per month, without board. _Brewers_--From $40 to $50 per month, without board. _Wheelrights_--From $1.50 to $2.50; workmen 80c. to $1.00 per day, without board. _Chairmakers_--From $1.60 to $2 per day, without board. _Brickmakers_--From $1.00 to $1.20 per day, with board. _Hatmakers_--From $18 to $22 per month, without board. _Carpenters_--From $1.40 to $2.30 per day, without board. _Carters_--From $16 to $24 per month, without board. _Braziers_--From $50 to $80 to $100 per month, without board. _Colliers and Firemen_--From $20 to $27 per month, without board. _Cigarettemakers_--$1.20 per day, without board. _Cigarmakers_--From $1.50 to $1.80 per day, without board. _Coachmen_--From $20 to $25 per month, without board. _Hairdressers_--From $14 to $20 per month, with board. _Stagecoachmen_--From $35 to $40 per month, without board. _Confectioners_--From $20 to $40 to $60 per month, without board. _Foremen_--From $30 to $35 per month, without board. _Boltmakers_--From $1.20 to $1.50 per day, without board. _Shoemakers_--From $15 to $20 per month, with board. _Seamstresses_--From 60c. to 80c. per day, with board. _Cooks_ (_women_)--From $12 to $16 per month, with lodging and board. _Cooks_ (_men_)--From $15 to $35 per month, with lodging and board. _Servants, in general_--From $10 to $18 per month, with board and lodging. _Cabinetmakers_--From $1.50 to $2.00 per day, without board. _Gilders_--$2.00 per day, without board. _Brush and Broommakers_--From $1.00 to $1.20 per day, without board. _Reapers_--From $10 to $15 per month, with board. _Tinmen_--From $1.20 to $1.50 per day, without board. _Blacksmiths_--From $1.50 to $1.60; help, $1.10 per day, without board. _Waiters_ (_coffee houses, hotels._)--From $15 to $20 per month, with lodging and board. _Lackeys, Footmen_--From $15 to $20 per month, with lodging and board. _Watchmakers_--From $40 to $60 per month, without board. _Gardeners_--From $18 to $30 per month, without board. _Day Laborers, in general_--From 80c. to $1.00 per day, without board. _Machinists_--In printing houses, $80; on board steamers, 1st machinist, $180; 2nd machinist, $115; 3rd machinist, $90 per month. _Masons_--From $1.80 to $2.20; workmen, from $1.00 to $1.20 per day, without board. _Marblecutters and Polishers_--From $1.20 to $1,50 per day, without board. _Mattressmakers_--From $12 to $15 per month, with board. _Sailors, Mariners_--From $15 to $20 per month, with board. _Mechanics_--From $60 to $100 to $150 per month, without board. _Milliners_--From $20 to $30 per month, without board. _Wet-nurses_--From $20 to $30 per month, without board. _Pastry Cooks_--From $35 to $40 per month, without board. _Fishermen_--From $20 to $25 per month, without board. _Painters_--From $1.20 to $2.50 per day, without board. _Photographers_--From $35 to $55 per month, without board. _Potters_--From $1.50 to $2.00 per day, with board. _Schoolmasters_--From $30 to $60 per month, with board. _Firework-makers_--From $16 to $17 per month, without board. _Bookbinders_--From $30 to $35 per month, without board. _Sawyers_--From $1.80 to $2.00 per day, without board. _Saddlers_--From $1.20 to $1.50 per day, without board. _Locksmiths_--From $1.50 to $1.80 per day, without board. _Tailors_--From $20 to $30 per month, without board. _Stonecutters_--From $1.20 to $1.60 per day, without board. _Turners_--From $1.80 to $2.50 per day, without board. _Dyers_--From $15 to $35 per month, without board. _Bookkeepers_--From $50 to $200 per month, without board. _Coopers_--From $1.20 to $1.50 per day, without board. _Typographers_--From $40 to $45 per month, without board. _Basketmakers_--From $1.00 to $1.20 per day, without board. _Glaziers_--From $1.20 to $1.50 per day, without board. The working day consists of eleven hours, an hour being discounted for dinner and resting. The rent of the lodgings for workpeople in the town is five or seven dollars per month. Territorial Property. According to the declarations made in the year 1882 for the payment of the contribution tax, called the Immovable Contribution, the value of the property in the Republic rose to $211,991,679.00. In the year 1890, eight years later, although the cattle and some other products were declared free from contribution tax the value of property was $265,871,559, an increase of $53,879,880. The number of proprietors in 1882 were 39,590, and in the year 1890 50,189, an increase of 10,599. By nationalities, the proprietors in 1890 were in the following proportion: Natives, 24,946, or 49.70 per cent. Foreigners 25,243, or 50.30 per cent. The declared value according to nationalities was as follows: 24,946 Natives representing $129,130,344.00 785 Argentine, " 6,343,074.00 4,620 Brazilians " 31,766,571.00 8,886 Italians " 34,620,749.00 6,828 Spaniards " 30,845,671.00 2,582 French " 16,470,055.00 451 English " 10,386,895.00 330 Germans " 1,879,265.00 344 Swiss " 1,073,996.00 204 Portuguese " 1,540,471.00 7 Belgians " 31,238.00 7 Swedish " 12,438.00 32 Austrians " 391,746.00 4 Danes " 50,524.00 24 North Americans " 242,941.00 3 Peruvians " 2,748 00 6 Chilians " 40,143.00 1 Dutch " 2,700.00 8 Paraguayans " 33,496.00 121 Other nations " 1,006,494.00 ______ _________________ 50,189 $265,871,559.00 ====== ================= The capital by nationalities gives the following proportion: Native $129,130,344, or 48.57 per cent. Foreign $136,741,315, or 51.43 per cent. Out of the declared values Montevideo represents 13,812 proprietors and $128,280,000.00; to the other departments, 36,377 proprietors and $137,591,559.00. Transfer of Property. The operations, which during the following years, have been declared in the Registers for the purchase and sale of immovable properties, give the following totals: 1885 $14,276,454 1886 9,859,703 1887 18,683,365 1888 35,108,468 1889 63,546,624 1890 29,273,198 1891 22,267,381 Mortgages. From the year 1888 to the year 1891 the yearly capital put out at interest with securities on land has been: In 1888 $12,788,660 " 1889 27,821,672 " 1890 22,569,360 " 1891 13,545,853 How Easily One Becomes a Land Owner. There exist in Montevideo great agencies, like the one called the "Industrial" created in the year 1874, by Mr. Francis Piria, the sole object of which is to make easy the division of the property in the capital and the neighborhood, by purchasing large zones of land and by dividing them into square _cuadras_, or fractions of over four English acres, when they belong to the town district, and into the best possible form outside. This agency has created many villages out of the Department of Montevideo, as "Recreo de las Piedras," "Joaquin Suarez," "Buenos Ayres," "Bella Italia" and many others. The centres of population created by the "Industrial" are over a hundred; some of them have been aggregated to the town district, everyone of them becoming important centres, on account of the number of the inhabitants, and of the increasing value of the land, sold formerly very cheap, and payable at the rate of $2.00 per month. All the fractions of land have generally been bought by work-people who have built their own houses. According to the general balance and informations collected down to the year 1891, the "Industrial" agency had made 52,317 proprietors, and the fractions of land sold up to that time were 183,000, the result of the sale being $79,411. The number of houses was 8000. Those who bought some of those fractions of land a few years ago, payable in the above mentioned conditions, at the rate of 20 or 25 cents per metre, are now-a-days owners of properties which are worth two, three, four and five times more. The very same thing happens in the colonies or agricultural centres established in many departments of the Republic, the founders of which have given to the settlers all kinds of easy means for establishing themselves. Families of work-people that had arrived here with nothing but the means of facing the very first necessities have become, after a few years, owners of the land they had bought, payable monthly, and having increased their possessions by buying new land, they have enlarged the sphere of their operations and are now able to work over their own properties in a fully independent and easy situation. The advantages of such a system will be easily understood. With what a workman or settler pays monthly for the rent of the land, he makes himself, after a short time, the owner of the land and of the house he lives in, as the monthly rent redeems with a small interest the value of the property. In such conditions great many people are known who enjoy all these advantages, and many more, who being the proprietors of the land purchased in such a way have made small fortunes. There cannot be a better way imagined of fixing the immigrants or giving to the peasant all the means of becoming a proprietor and of consecrating himself to highly profitable agricultural industries. Value of the Land. The population has not yet reached a great density. The best part of the territory is destined to cattle, sheep, and horse breeding, in establishments called _estancias_. _A suerte or estancia_ is equivalent to 1992 hectares 2787 metres, or one league and a half in length by a half league in width, or three quarters of a square league or 4,923 square acres 333 square yards. The price of a _suerte_ varies according to the department and also to its situation. The lowest price of a _suerte_ is generally no less than $7,000 and rises above $50,000 in the departments quite close to the capital, that are still devoted to pastoral land. In the north, next to the frontier, land may be purchased at the rate of $3 to $10 an hectare. In the centre, from $6 to $15. In the south, the land rises to higher prices, which vary from $10 to $100 per hectare. The agricultural land in the environs of towns and villages, and in the departments of Canelones, Colonia, Soriano, San Jose, Paysandu, Salto costs $10, $20, $40, $50 and $100 an hectare. In the department of Montevideo it rises to $100, $200 and $300, according to the situation. There are no restrictions or difficulties in purchasing or transfer. Great companies established abroad, above all in England, and others in the Republic have purchased great tracts of land in order to improve cattle breeding, agriculture, sand and stone extraction along the banks of the River Plate and Uruguay, and other important rural industries. During these last two years the agricultural industry has notably spread itself, above all that of cereals, forage, firewood trees, vine, olive trees, tobacco and oleoginous and textile plants. The lowest rate at which a _suerte_ of land for cattle feeding can be hired is $400 a year. There are fields, however, that can produce two, three and four times more. The hectare of agricultural land may be hired at a yearly price of $1.20. In some departments, like that of Canelones, where the agricultural industry has improved a great deal, the yearly renting is $4.00 and more. The land pays the property tax or _Contribucion Inmobiliaria_, at the uniform rate of 6-1/2 per thousand in relation with the value that the law has fixed to the land according to the departments. Agriculture. The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is an essentially pastoral country. Its fields, covered with good and nutritive grass, are nearly all of them divided into _estancias_ for cattle breeding, that, to the present time, is the principal source of riches of the country. Agriculture, however, has already reached a high degree of importance in the departments of Montevideo, Canelones, Colonia, San Jose, Soriano, Paysandu, Salto, Florida, Durazno, Maldonado. It is not quite so important in the other departments as in the three first ones. However, in the environs of the villages and centres of population, there are great many farms and agricultural centres that produce cereals and vegetables for local consumption. The exceeding crop, in the prosperous years, is immediately sent to the principal commercia centres of the Republic, which allows the export of corn, flour, wheat, canary-seed, flax, trefoil, barley, etc. Although the Republic counts with a fertile soil, and finds itself in the very best conditions for any kind of agricultural industry, agriculture, however, remains still in a secondary degree, in spite of its late improvements, and in spite of the large extension of land which began last year to be cultivated. However, after all the necessities of the country have been satisfied there generally remains an important surplus of agricultural and rural products, when the crop is good, that may be calculated over $1,200,000.00. The wheat grown in Uruguay is reputed to be the best in all South America, and effectively got the gold medal in the Universal Paris Exhibition in the year 1878. In this country one _fanega_ of wheat (the fanega is equivalent to 105 or 113 kilogs more or less) produces sometimes from 20 to 30 fanegas; one of maize produces from 150 to 200, one of barley from 18 to 30. Besides wheat and maize, the sowing of which is most important, the grape vine, the olive, tobacco, flax, canary-seed, hemp, chick-pea, beans of all kinds, potatoes, (two crops a year,) peas, lentils, Spanish potatoes, beet-roots, etc., etc., are also cultivated with very good results. As we have said, the vegetables are produced in a great variety and abundance. The tobacco culture is also a new source of wealth opened to the economical movement of the country. Although this industry still goes rather slowly, there are already many establishments in the interior where it has been undertaken with very good results. Agricultural Centres. Many are the agricultural centres, generally known by the name of _colonies_, established all over the Republic, that, owing to the special conditions of the land which is fit for all cultures, have notably improved. Among the principal colonies, or agricultural settlements, there are: 1st. The _Valdense Colony_, founded in 1858. It has an area of 19,432 square cuadras (14,338 hectares 5,035 metres). Its population in 1884 was 306 families, forming a total of 1,681 inhabitants. To-day, there are more than 2,200 inhabitants. It possesses the best agricultural machinery, steam-mills, and steam and water mills, good carpenters, blacksmiths, and in a word all the establishments necessary to the unceasing progress of such agricultural centres. It has two Evangelical churches, a public library with over a thousand books, eight schools, a postoffice, a municipal commission and a police office. 2d. _Swiss_, _Quevedo_ and _Spanish Colonies_. The _Swiss Colony_ was founded in 1863. It has an area of 8,782 square cuadras, or 6,480 hectares, 709 metres. The _Quevedo Colony_ has an area of 5,091 square cuadras, or 3,756 hectares and 5,521 metres, and the _Spanish Colony_ 9,600 square cuadras, or 7,083 hectares, 6,576 metres. These three agricultural centres form a total of 17,320 hectares, over which live more than 420 families. They possess steam-mills, schools, many commercial establishments. In the Swiss Colony there are two churches--a Catholic and Protestant. The public administration of these settlements consist of a municipal commission, a justice of peace and an attorney. They also have a postoffice. 3d. _Sauce Colony._ The first settlers who cultivated the soil in this agricultural centre were some Swiss people who, in the year 1879, hired the land where it now exists, In the years 1880 and 1881 other families came and settled themselves close to the first ones. In 1883, thirty families more came from the Valdense Colony; so that in 1884 the Sauce Colony counted 59 families. 4th. _Riachuelo Colony._ It is 10 kilometres distant, eastward, from Colonia del Sacramento. The first settlers have paid for all the land they had bought, being now the sole owners of it. The formation and improvements of this colony are owed to the mere intelligence and work of the settlers. The land is of a very good quality and especially fit for wheat. The other plants like maize, barley, beans, potatoes, etc., give also a very good result. The settlers are mostly foreigners; and most of them are Italians. The colony possesses a large public building, which is destined to be the school and the church; besides this, it has also a national school of the first degree. The steam-mill that exists works only for the colony. The above-mentioned colonies are situated in the Department of Colonia, and besides those, there are also the _Arrue_ and _Belgrano Colonies_. 5th. _Nuevo Berlin Colony._ In the Department of Rio Negro there exists, since a few years, the Nuevo Berlin Colony. It has over 1,033 hectares in full culture, and possesses steam ploughs and all kind of agricultural machinery. 6th. _Porvenir Colony._ The colonies in the Department of Paysandu are the _Villa Rosalia_ and _Esperanza_ colonies, of recent foundation, and the so-called _Porvenir_ colony. This last one is the most important one, counting already over 1,690 inhabitants. The languages spoken in the colony are Spanish and Italian. The soil cannot be better, and is fit for all kinds of culture. It possesses steam and water mills, a threshing Rausanes machine and a Hornsby. It has three schools--a public one and two private ones--and many societies, every one of them working for the improvement of the colony, and also other societies, the object of which is the purchase of all the necessary agricultural machinery. The public administration consists of a justice of peace, two attorneys, a police officer and a postoffice. 7th. _General Rivera Colony._ It is situated in the Department of Artigas, and has an extension of 4,987 hectares, over which they cultivate tobacco, maize, _mani_ and _mandioca_; it counts now over a hundred families. 8th. _Francisco Aguilar_ and _Francisco Dastre Colonies_. They are situated in the Department of Maldonado. The executive power, in the year 1883, ordered the necessary studies to be made for the demarcation of the land where the Francisco Aguilar Colony was to be established. Out of the 2,114 hectares which formed it, 1,359 were destined to general cattle feeding ground, and 755 to ploughing. The administration of the colony is intrusted to a directive commission. In the year 1884 was established the Francisco Dastre Colony, in which 368 hectares are destined to ploughing and 59 to cattle feeding. 9th. _Santa Teresa Colony._ Situated in the Department of Rocha and founded on June 24th, 1885; it has 5,534 hectares, more or less. 10th. _Igualdad Colony._ It was founded in 1875, in the Department of Minas. It has a church and a school. 11th. _Harriague_, _San Antonia_ and _Lavalleja Colonies_. In the Department of Salto exist the colonies called, "Harriague," "San Antonio," "Lavalleja," "Cosmopolita" and "Estrella" that have all been founded a short time ago. The Harriague colony has an area of 1860 square cuadras, or 1372 hectares. The principal culture is wheat and maize. The San Antonio colony was founded by the government. The land was divided into small _estancias_ or _chacras_, or farms of 20 cuadras, more or less, each, that were given to some old servants of the state and settlers and are now consecrated to the sowing of cereals. The Lavalleja colony was founded in a field of government land, and occupied by many native families. The government ordered the land to be divided into _chacras_, every one of them being given to the first settlers and some old servants as a reward for their services. 12th. _Paullier Colony._ In the department of San Jose is situated the colony of Paullier Brothers, founded in the year 1883. Its extension is 6,298 square cuadras or 4,647 hectares. In 1884 its population was 400 inhabitants; now it may be calculated to be more than 500. The quality of the soil cannot be better. The cheeses of this colony are the best made in the country, and constitute an important industry. The cows are all of good breed, and besides them the colony possesses a large number of valuable animals imported directly from Europe and bred and fed under shed. 13th. _Rio Negro Colony._ This colony is situated in the tenth district of the department of Tacuarembo, between the Rio Negro and the rivulets Cardozo and Cacique grande. It has a superficies of 38,216 square cuadras, (28,198 hectares, 8,602 metres), out of which 1,249 square cuadras, (921 hectares, 6,133 metres) form the district of the village called "Teniente General M. Tajes"; the remaining part is divided into 361 _chacras_ or farms. The area of each _chacra_ varies from 29-1/2 to 88-1/2 hectares. A third part of the _chacras_ are already occupied, and although the colony is of a quite recent foundation the results obtained by the settlers cannot be hoped to be better. The colony possesses already six dairies. It is sure to become, very soon, one of the most important agricultural settlements, on account of its good situation, which permits the easy exporting of its products by the railway, not only to the interior of the Republic but also to the very frontier of Brazil. The land is very good for plowing, on account, also, of its situation and of the many rivers that run through it, and is quite fit for the sowing of wheat and maize, and also for the culture of tobacco and the grape vine. The village "Maximo Tajes" that belongs to the same colony has a railway station, a fruit market, a public square, a postoffice, a police-office, and very soon they are going to build a church and a school. 14th. _Antonio Crespo Colony._ It was founded in 1891 in the sixth district of the department of Tacuarembo, in the place called "Aldea," a league and a half distant from San Fructuoso. 15th. _Stajano Colony._ In the department of Durazno and at a short distance of the so-called town, the capital of the department, was recently founded a new colony, called "Stajano Colony." It has an area of 7,378 hectares and between 300 and 400 inhabitants; all along the river Yi it possesses many thick woods. The railway station is only one kilometre distant from the town. During these last two years, in all the rural districts devoted to cattle feeding, they have everywhere begun preserving part of the land for the culture of cereals, potatoes, etc. ... forages and trees fit for cutting and burning. Thus the production of the land has been increased still, and also the rural activity, preparing a total transformation in the cattle feeding and general rural industry of the country. 16th. _Piriapolis._ So as to give an idea of what the collective capital can do and what results all undertakings may obtain, the object of which is to foment agricultural industry and colonization, something is to be said here of what has already been done by that intelligent and indefatigable business man, Mr. Francisco Piria. At a distance of some 140 kilometres from Montevideo, by land, and 50 miles by river, over a superficies of 1,992 hectares, among very picturesque hills, watered by the River Plate and bounded northward by the ridge of hills of Pan de Azucar, lies the new establishment called _Piriapolis_, divided into two large fractions, one of which is devoted to general culture and various industries, and the other intended to be a bathing town, with its own port, a beautiful bay, and a large, neat and secure harbor. _Piriapolis_ was founded, at the most, two years ago, still it already possesses a large building for the direction of the colony, houses for two hundred workmen, 400 kilometres of land all surrounded by iron wire fencing, many natural wells, and brick ovens. They have also begun the drilling of many artesian wells. The plantations are 80 hectares, planted with vines (the plants are 2 and 3 years old); three millions of vine-shoot of the best varieties; a nursery with 200,000 olive trees; another nursery with a million of plants, ash trees, maple trees, acacias, etc., ... 300,000 trees to be planted next autumn in the streets and avenues of the bathing town. Groves of eucalyptuses, acacias and other quick-growing trees have already been planted all around the town, covering an extension of 400 hectares. Two hundred and sixty hectares have been sowed with wheat, beans, French beans, Spanish beans, potatoes and other vegetables. Great plantations of fruit trees have also been made, and the culture of tobacco has been tried over 80 hectares. Next year 50 houses more are going to be built, and also a church, a school, a municipal house and a police office. When all these works are concluded then will take place the solemn inauguration of _Piriapolis_. The soil in _Piriapolis_ is very good. The bed of _humus_ or arable ground is 30 centim., and sometimes 1 met., 20 centim. deep. In some parts there are beneath that bed of humus other large beds of carbonate of lime, from one to two metres thick. There are various springs of mineral waters, the properties of which have been officially recognized. Among the natural extractive riches of the colony, there are some 300 hectares of forests, the trees of which are between five and six metres high. The cutting of trees has already begun, and a result may be hoped of 6,000 carts of wood, that will give a liquid product of $1.20 each cart. There are also beautiful granite quarries, with pieces of stone some metres high. The granite of _Piriapolis_ can be extracted and cut very easily. Its price is hardly 20 per cent. of what it generally costs in the other quarries. A contract has been recently made for the purchase of 20,000 posts, 1^m 80 high, by 0^m 25 thick, at the rate of 15c. each. The Directive Commission intends to work the quarries on a great scale, and to establish the working of the stone. Actually, in _Piriapolis port_, they have begun to build a quay, a 100 m. long. The depths of the bay varies between 4 and 7 fathoms, at a distance of some 250 m. from the coast. A road is already opened to public service. It is 30 m. broad and on each side of it a double row of trees has been planted. This road puts _Piriapolis_ in communication with the rest of the Department of Maldonado, and will be useful for the trade and commerce of the Department of Minas. _Piriapolis_ is actually a reunion of farms and a territorial speculation, which is called to foment the density of the population and also the improvement of all kind of production; it divides the land and gives it every day more value, making it every day more productive by its agricultural industries, and also by the foundation of that bathing town, which secures a great consumption of the products, whilst at the same time the River Plate and the ocean permit the easy exporting of the same. The Grape-Vine in the Republic. The culture of the vine is improving a great deal in the Republic owing to the good results obtained by those, who some years ago, tried the establishing of vine plots, which is now one of the most important industries of the country and will soon be an inexhaustible source of riches for the Republic. Since a few years, great many people have consecrated important areas of their lands to the establishing of vine-plots, and to-day the extension of land covered with them is more than 2,000 hectares, the greatest part of which are already producing. Many societies have been created for fomenting that new industry, among which we may mention the _Viticola Uruguaya_ with a capital of $120,000 and the _Viticola Saltena_ with a capital $200,000. The _Viticola Uruguaya_ counts with: _Vine-Plots._ 17 hectares, with plants 5 years old, $3,500 $59,500.00 51 " " 3 " 1,500 76,500.00 24 " " 1 " 200 4,800.00 _Land._ 1,283 hectares, which have cost $28,279.65 Fencing 2,000.00 _Other Plantations._ 150,000 forest trees, 2, 3 and 4 years old at 10 cents each $15,000.00 8,000 olive trees, in nurseries, 10 cents each 800.00 2,000 fruit trees, 20 cents each 400.00 Various Plants 1,000.00 _Materials for Construction._ Existing materials $800.00 _Buildings and Cellars._ Existing buildings and cellars $8,000.00 ___________ $197,079.65 Although the culture of the vine was introduced into the country a great many years ago by Mr. F. Vidiella in the South, and Mr. Harriague in the North, it may be said that it is only six years ago since this culture has been really improved and spread with great intensity all over the Republic. The actual products of the best vine-plots may be calculated for each vintage over 6,000 barrels, that is to say over 1,400,000 litres, without counting the small vine-plots that, however, gives a fair contingent for domestic consumption. Owing to this production and also to the diminution in the consumption on account of the crisis of 1890, an important diminution is noted in the year 1891 in the importation of ordinary wines. Red and White Wines. Litres. Value. Imported in 1889 33,549,815 $4,173,917 " 1890 29,327,420 3,632,490 " 1891 21,483,614 2,634,547 After a few years more the importation of ordinary wines from France, Spain and Italy will be reduced to nearly nothing. A vine-plot, 30 hectares large and 14 years old, has given a liquid product, free from all duties, of $20,000. Therefore, owing to the advantages that the country presents for the culture of the vine, and owing also to the vigorous impulse given to that culture during the last few years, it may be said that the day is not far remote in which the Uruguay fields will be covered with vine-plots, producing all sorts of wines, not only for local consumption, but also for exportation to Brazil and the Argentine Republic. Uruguay Rural Association. Under this name there exists since the year 1871, in Montevideo, an important institution dedicated to protecting the rural rights and interests, and propagating all the sciences that may be useful to agriculture, cattle-breeding and all other rural industries. The Association is the editor of an interesting publication which, with the same name as that of the society, is issued twice a month. The members of the Association continually study all that may be of interest for the progress and improvement of agriculture, cattle-feeding and all rural industries; and their studies have been extremely useful to the country. Among the services rendered by the _Uruguay Rural Association_ may be mentioned the compiling of the _Rural Code_, which is considered now as one of the laws of the nation. This "Rural Code" entrusts to the Association the rural administration of the country, and the Government consults its members over all that concerns the rural interests. The Association possesses a large library with all the papers, reviews and books concerning rural industries. Frequently some of the members deliver lectures, which are afterwards published in the _Review_. Cattle. The war which ended in the year 1851, and, on account of its duration, was called the "Guerra Grande" (the great war), and the siege of Montevideo during nine years, contributed in a notable way to produce a diminution in the quantity of cattle and flocks which existed before in the Republic. The census one year after that war (1852) only gave as the number of live stock 3,858,176, thus distributed: 1,888,622 cattle, 1,127,069 horses, 19,490 asses and mules, 796,289 sheep, 25,300 pigs, and 1,406 goats. Eight years after (1860) when the second census was made, according to the declarations made for the payment of the Direct Contribution, there were 6,159,909 animals--that is to say: 3,632,203 cattle, 518,208 horses, 8,301 asses and mules, 1,939,929 sheep, 5,831 pigs, and 5,437 goats. In 1886, when the farmers had still to pay the tax, according to the declarations, there were 23,967,263 animals--6,254,490 cattle, 17,245,977 sheep, 442,525 horses, 7,032 mules, 5,405 goats and 11,833 pigs. These last figures, if compared with the former ones, prove an increase of 2,301,733 animals, or 59.65 per cent. over 1852, in favor of 1860; and of 20,109,087 animals, or 21.20 per cent. over 1852, in favor of 1886. This increase could produce itself, notwithstanding the great quantity of animals killed every year for consumption, slaughter of the _Saladeros_ and exportation of live stock, which represent considerable quantities. If we bear in mind the increase that corresponds to every kind of live stock in these last years, and the quantities of animals possessed by many thousands of inhabitants who do not pay any tax for them, it may be said that the number of live stock and the value it represents in the Republic is more or less, as follows: Cattle alone for breeding, and young bulls ($6.00 each) 8,000,000 $48,000,000 Oxen ($15.00 each) 690,000 10,350,000 Horses ($6.00 each) 599,000 3,594,000 Asses and mules ($12.00 each) 11,000 132,000 Sheep ($0.60 each) 23,000,000 13,800,000 Goats ($1.00 each) 24,000 24,000 Pigs ($6.00 each) 23,000 138,000 ---------- ----------- Animals 32,347,000 $73,038,000 If we distribute the 32,347,000 of live stock of all kinds over the 186,920 kilometres which is the total superficies of the Republic, we find for each square kilometre 173.05 animals; if we distribute them among the 708,168 inhabitants, we find that 45.67 animals of all kinds correspond to each inhabitant. As regards the value represented by live stock and corresponding to each inhabitant, we find $103.13 for each. The following table shows what place the Republic occupies among other nations: ======================+============================= | Heads of Cattle for every | 1,000 inhabitants. |---------+----------+-------- | Cattle. | Sheep. | Horses. ----------------------+---------+----------+-------- Uruguay Republic | 11,299 | 32,485 | 846 Argentine Republic | 5,464 | 27,955 | 1,868 Germany | 375 | 595 | 80 Spain | 185 | 1,404 | 43 France | 307 | 646 | 77 Italy | 130 | 324 | 37 Great Britain | 292 | 946 | 86 ======================+=========+==========+======== The rather cruel experience acquired during the crisis of the year 1890, the effects of which are still to be felt, has opened new ways to the economical activity of the country, and has given a new impulse to all agricultural pursuits. Notwithstanding the scarcity of capital and the difficulties of the ways of communication, the cattle feeding has improved a great deal, with the sowing of hay and pasture of all kinds, and with the crossing of the best varieties cattle imported from Europa or bred in many important national farms. The improvement of the varieties, in order to obtain better flesh, fat, milk, butter, wool and hides, and the taming of all the native animals, is absolutely necessary, and therefore is a powerful attraction for those who would come over to this country and dedicate themselves to cattle feeding and breeding, being sure, beforehand, of getting good profits by exporting live animals and also dead animals, by the frigorific system, to the Brazilian and European markets. The last two years have not been very favorable to cattle industry; but the present year shows itself as if going to be very propitious to that industry, which is in such a perfect harmony with the excellent qualities of our natural fields and meadows. Here, no pest, no contagious disease is to be feared for the cattle. The forage and water are wholesome, nutritive and pure; the climate cannot be better. With such conditions as these, it will be easily understood why cattle industry gives a profit of more than 20 per cent. and why it is generally a sufficient compensation to the scarce production of the bad years produced by an excessive dryness or a transitory diminution in the consumption of Brazil and Europe. Slaughter in the Saladeros. KILLING SEASON IN THE KILLING GROUNDS. There exist various _saladeros_ or killing grounds in the Department of Montevideo and along the coasts of the Uruguay. Some of them are very important. There they dry the flesh, prepare the _tasajo_ or dried meat, salt the hides, burn the bones and elaborate extracts of meat. To prove the importance of the _faena_ or killing season in those establishments in the Republic of Uruguay, we give the following comparative table: ========================================== | ANIMALS KILLED IN THE SALADEROS. | ----- Years. | Argentine Repub. | Uruguay Repub. -------+------------------+--------------- 1876 | 551,443 | 625,457 1877 | 662,500 | 527,600 1878 | 572,500 | 677,026 1879 | 539,000 | 556,500 1880 | 491,500 | 665,500 1881 | 399,000 | 576,170 1882 | 434,500 | 738,500 1883 | 365,100 | 704,400 1884 | 316,800 | 853,600 1885 | 610,700 | 647,029 1886 | 480,900 | 751,067 1887 | 327,208 | 499,554 1888 | 467,450 | 773,449 1889 | 701,400 | 708,923 1890 | 764,000 | 642,100 1891 | 844,600 | 613,500 =======+==================+=============== A description of every one of the saladeros that exist in the Republic cannot be given here, being so limited in the space to be disposed of; however, it is necessary to make known the importance of the great establishment for elaborating the extract of meat by the Liebig system. The establishment is situated on the coast of the River Uruguay, and is known to be the first establishment of its kind, not only in the River Plate, but also in all South America. The following lines will give an idea of it. Two kilometres southward from Villa Independencia, in Fray-Bentos, Department of Rio Negro, is the great establishment of "_Liebig's Extract of Meat Co._" which forms by itself an important center of population. It was founded in the year 1864 by M. Gibert. The first exportation of 230 kilogs of extract of meat got to Antwerp in November of the same year, and Baron Liebig declared that it surpassed all his hopes. Soon over 918 kilogs were exported monthly. In the year 1866 the Company was founded in London, and M. Gibert had all the machinery made in Scotland for the establishment, which began working in May, 1868. All the world knows now the extract, and its use is everywhere adopted, in the hospitals as well as in the barracks. At the Paris Exhibition in 1867 the highest prizes were given to M. Gibert for his _Extractum Carnis_, this extract being the only product out of 75,000 sent to the Exhibition rewarded with two gold medals. In Vienna also in 1873 it won the great gold medal over all the other systems employed in Australia and other countries. M. Gibert died in 1874. The establishment has gone on as prosperous as ever. It possesses great and valuable buildings with powerful steam engines to put in motion the great machines destined to all the different preparations. The _galpon_ or shed where the animals are skinned and cut up is a first-class one and permits the killing of 1,000 animals per diem. During the killing season of 1891 208,800 animals were killed, and in 1892 156,200. The extract exported during the year 1890, represents, according to the customhouse statistics, 820,670 kilogs, and during 1891, 711,564, giving a value the first year of $1,677,408, and the second year of $2,134,692.00 The establishment is provided with great platforms for the drying of all the materials necessary to prepare the guano or artificial manure, with spacious sheds and machinery for reducing the materials to powder, and also another shed for the grinding of bones. Over 7,500 tons of coal and 3,500 of salt are employed yearly. The different works in the establishment employ more than 600 persons: and the population all around the establishment is of 2,500 souls. It has good quays where ships of all draughts can come and be quickly loaded by powerful steam-cranes. It has a school where a good education is given to more than a hundred children, the sons of the workingmen; it has also a social club and a band, composed of the workmen. It possesses also all the workhouses necessary for the good preparation and packing of its products. Many _suertes_ of land belong to this important association in the place called "Rincon de las Gallinas," where more than 35,000 heads of cattle feed. The capital of the society is £500,000, divided into 25,000 shares, out of which only 24,300 were issued, the putting out of the other being quite unnecessary. The shares, the primitive price of which was £20 in London are now quoted more than double. (£42 or £44.) The dividend received by the shareholders varies between 10 and 12 per cent. This establishment gives life and activity to the important commercial centre of "Villa Independencia" and is a great stimulus for the cattle industry in the country. Trade and Commerce. The Republic has important commercial relations with all the principal European and American markets. Its commerce is represented by the variety of goods imported into the country and the agricultural products and cattle exported to other countries. The imported goods are, according to the statistics, all sorts of drinks, food and provisions, cereals and spices, stuffs of all kinds, clothes, materials for industry, machines and many other goods that cannot be classed here. The principal exports of the country are salted meat, _tasajo_, preserved meat, extracts of meat, tallow, horns, bones, hides, wools, preserved and dried tongues, ostrich feathers, live stock, corn, flour, wheat, canary seed, hay, oats, bran, barley, flax, vermicelli, potatoes, stone, lime, granite, pavements, agate stone, etc., etc. The following table gives an idea of the exports and imports of the Republic from the year 1862 to the year 1891. ------+------------+------------+------------- | | | Years.| Imports. | Exports. | Total. ------+------------+------------+------------- 1862 |$ 8,151,802 |$ 8,804,442 | $16,956,244 1864 | 8,384,167 | 6,334,706 | 14,718,873 1866 | 14,608,091 | 10,665,040 | 25,273,131 1867 | 17,657,918 | 12,077,795 | 29,735,713 1868 | 16,102,475 | 12,139,720 | 28,242,195 1869 | 16,830,678 | 13,930,027 | 30,760,705 1870 | 15,003,342 | 12,779,051 | 27,782,393 1871 | 14,864,247 | 13,334,224 | 28,198,471 1872 | 18,859,724 | 15,489,532 | 34,349,256 1873 | 21,075,446 | 16,301,772 | 37,377,218 1874 | 17,181,672 | 15,244,783 | 32,426,455 1875 | 12,431,408 | 12,695,610 | 25,125,018 1876 | 12,800,000 | 13,727,000 | 26,527,000 1877 | 15,045,846 | 15,899,405 | 30,945,251 1878 | 15,927,974 | 17,492,159 | 33,420,133 1879 | 15,949,903 | 16,645,961 | 32,595,864 1880 | 19,478,868 | 19,752,201 | 39,231,069 1881 | 17,918,884 | 20,229,512 | 38,148,396 1882 | 18,174,800 | 22,062,934 | 40,237,734 1883 | 20,322,311 | 25,221,664 | 45,543,975 1884 | 24,550,074 | 24,759,485 | 49,309,559 1885 | 25,275,476 | 25,253,036 | 50,528,512 1886 | 20,194,655 | 23,811,986 | 44,006,641 1887 | 24,615,944 | 18,671,996 | 43,287,940 1888 | 29,477,448 | 28,008,254 | 57,485,702 1889 | 36,823,863 | 25,954,107 | 62,777,970 1890 | 32,364 627 | 29,085,519 | 61,450,146 1891 | 18,978,420 | 26,998,270 | 45,976,690 ------+------------+------------+------------ The participation every country had in the imports and exports of the country during the last five years is represented by the following figures: IMPORTS. ====================+========================================== | PER CENT. |-------+--------+--------+-------+-------- | | | | | FROM. | 1887 | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 --------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+-------- | | | | | England | 27.26 | 32.32 | 28.44 | 27.17 | 28.85 France | 16.71 | 15.37 | 14.98 | 15.74 | 13.05 Brazil | 7.42 | 8.96 | 6.80 | 7.64 | 8.88 Spain | 8.73 | 7.49 | 7.10 | 6.71 | 2.63 Italy | 6.89 | 8.14 | 8.86 | 8.12 | 10.31 United States | 6.91 | 5.37 | 9.26 | 7.55 | 4.89 Germany | 11.53 | 10.32 | 9.32 | 8.67 | 9.72 Belgium | 4.86 | 5.41 | 4.42 | 4.59 | 3.85 Isle of Cuba | 0.88 | 0.61 | 0.51 | 0.60 | 1.10 Argentine Republic | 1.80 | 2.58 | 3.93 | 8.16 | 8.31 Chile | 0.39 | 0.40 | 2.38 | 0.86 | 0.67 Holland | 0.26 | 0.09 | 0.29 | 0.29 | 0.09 Paraguay | 0.61 | 0.44 | 0.23 | 0.40 | 0.51 Sweden | .... | .... | .... | 0.03 | .... Portugal | 0.10 | 0.08 | 0.09 | 0.13 | 0.13 India } | | | | | China } | 0.03 | 0.07 | 0.01 | 0.03 | .... Japan } | | | | | Peru and Ecuador | 0.03 | .... | .... | ..... | .... Switzerland | 0.10 | 0.04 | 0.02 | ..... | .... Mauritius | 0.05 | .... | .... | ..... | .... Austria | 0.01 | .... | .... | ..... | .... Canary Island | 0.01 | .... | 0.03 | 0.10 | 0.01 Russia | .... | .... | 0.56 | 0.04 | .... Various ports | 5.42 | 2.28 | 2.77 | 3.17 | .... --------------------+-------+--------+--------+-------+-------- Total |100 | 100 | 100 |100 | 100 ====================+=======+========+========+=======+======== EXPORTS. ====================+=========================================== | PER CENT. |--------+--------+--------+--------+------- | | | | | FOREIGN. | 1887 | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 --------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------- England | 20.09 | 18.17 | 13.69 | 13.56 | 18.37 France | 13.29 | 16.27 | 20.13 | 21.04 | 23.27 Brazil | 13.67 | 19.39 | 12.69 | 11.27 | 17.55 Belgium | 17.96 | 12.25 | 15.84 | 10.80 | 13.25 United States | 8.16 | 8.31 | 5.55 | 6.89 | 6.85 Cuba | 5.12 | 2.22 | 0.96 | 0.81 | 1.29 Spain | 0.82 | 0.82 | 1.41 | 0.83 | 0.84 Italy | 1.69 | 1.32 | 1.47 | 1.23 | 2.08 Germany | 1.72 | 4.44 | 5.01 | 3.51 | 5.45 Argentine Republic | 6.00 | 7.34 | 8.82 | 8.77 | 9.16 Chile | 0.76 | 1.39 | 1.66 | 1.22 | 0.62 Paraguay | 0.03 | .... | 0.03 | 0.11 | .... Reunion Island | 0.08 | 0.11 | 0.02 | .... | .... Peru | 0.03 | 0.04 | .... | .... | .... Portugal | 0.79 | 1.04 | 0.77 | 1.15 | 0.68 Maloina Island | .... | 0.06 | 0.01 | .... | .... Canary Island | .... | .... | .... | .... | 0.01 Mauritius | .... | .... | .... | 0.20 | 0.04 Carribee Island | .... | .... | .... | 0.02 | 0.08 Barbado Island | 0.03 | .... | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 Various ports | 7.67 | 6.83 | 11.93 | 18.58 | 0.45 --------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------- Total |100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 ====================+========+========+========+========+======== The trade and exterior commerce of the Republic in relation with its population has always been superior to that of the Argentine Republic and Chile. The following table shows that out of the imported goods during the year 1891, there correspond to each inhabitant $13.50 more than to each inhabitant of the Argentine Republic, and $3.61 more than to each inhabitant of Chile. It shows also that each inhabitant has exported $10.19 more than each inhabitant of the first country, and $14 more than each one of the second country. Argentine Republic (1891.) What corresponds ------- to each 4,000,000 Inhabitants. inhabitant. Imports $ 67,207,780 $11.80 Exports 103,219,000 25.80 ------------ ------ Total $170,426,790 $37.60 Chile (1891.) ----- 3,000,000 Inhabitants. Imports $ 65,090,013 $21.69 Exports 65,963,100 21.99 ------------ ------ Total $131,053,113 $43.68 Uruguay Republic (1891.) ------- 760,000 Inhabitants. Imports $ 18,978,420 $25.30 Exports 26,998,270 35.99 ------------ ------ Total $ 45,976,690 $61.29 The annual middle term of the commerce between this country and the United States of America from the year 1887 to the year 1891 is, for imports $2,014,267, and for exports $1,828,947; which proves a very important commerce between both countries, representing an annual value of $3,843,214 or $320,267, more or less, per month. So as to prove the importance of our commerce with North America, as well in imports as in exports, we give here the statistics of this commerce during ten years, from 1882 to 1891: Commerce Between the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and the United States of America. IMPORTS. _I.--Drinks, in General._ 1882 $ 66,733 1883 57,614 1884 20,826 1885 8,107 1886 11,849 1887 12,207 1888 7,432 1889 3,896 1890 5,796 1891 115 _II.--Eatables, Cereals, Spices._ 1882 $ 80,036 1883 57,923 1884 81,075 1885 93,125 1886 73,097 1887 60,538 1888 48,980 1889 1,008,650 1890 188,581 1891 21,239 _III.--Tobacco, Cigars._ 1882 $ 36,300 1883 28,235 1884 21,692 1885 31,510 1886 25,136 1887 24,386 1888 19,122 1889 26,234 1890 25,018 1891 17,074 _IV.--Stuffs, Cloth, Etc._ 1882 $ 39,874 1883 47,849 1884 74,862 1885 86,230 1886 87,942 1887 118,346 1888 72,011 1889 99,590 1890 61,471 1891 38,320 _V.--Linen, Clothes._ 1882 $ 593 1883 3,562 1884 1,809 1885 1,622 1886 3,011 1887 3,155 1888 1,316 1889 2,562 1890 1,675 1891 2,844 _VI.--Materials for the Industries, Machinery._ 1882 $ 843,069 1883 623,170 1884 959,800 1885 1,349,687 1886 626,703 1887 985,165 1888 1,013,824 1889 1,660,774 1890 1,730,105 1891 404,659 _VII.--Various Goods._ 1882 $ 370,106 1883 355,280 1884 412,862 1885 474,826 1886 419,081 1887 498,167 1888 422,223 1889 609,895 1890 432,390 1891 443,675 EXPORTS. _I.--Live-stock._ From the year 1882 to the year 1891, there was no export of live-stock. _II.--Cattle Industry, Saladeros._ 1882 $ 2,344,794 1883 2,185,125 1884 1,781,766 1885 4,365,929 1886 2,714,172 1887 1,519,267 1888 2,322,854 1889 1,436,348 1890 2,003,739 1891 1,839,922 _III.--Rural Products._ From 1882 to 1885 there was no export. 1886 $ 6 1887 30 1888 17 1889 25 1890 ... 1891 24 _IV.--Various Goods._ 1882 $ 2,260 1883 2,036 1884 3,387 1885 4,661 1886 4,906 1887 3,558 1888 4,128 1889 4,939 1890 477 1891 9,412 Money. The coined money, imported and exported, has been during the last five years: Years. Import. Export. 1887 $3,500,440 $ 7,127,147 1888 7,497,586 7,614,147 1889 5,696,111 10,148,668 1890 7,733,806 7,515,048 1891 6,417,405 5,618,582 Navigation. The general navigation movement in the various ports of the Republic has become of great importance, owing to the commercial improvements and to the exemption from taxes granted by national legislation. The following table gives an idea of it: Years. Ships. Tonnage. 1875 20,394 3,116,161 1876 21,448 3,845,056 1877 22,102 4,370,721 1878 20,915 4,327,504 1879 22,272 4,595,040 1880 21,811 4,369,759 1881 23,053 4,435,860 1882 23,136 5,007,708 1883 22,837 5,422,538 1884 26,764 7,205,653 1885 29,731 8,590,543 1886 28,542 8,277,662 1887 29,994 9,423,337 1888 35,203 10,551,624 1889 35,582 12,444,462 1890 32,213 11,442,894 1891 27,207 9,482,644 During the last two years a diminution is observed, owed to the crisis and to the competition made by the Argentine ports--competition which will disappear when the work undertaken to improve Montevideo's port is complete, the project of which is already studied. During the year 1891 have entered the ports of the Republic: Tons. From abroad 1,092 ships, with 1,429,661 From the Rivers: Gen. coasting trade. 2,941 " " 1,302,648 Receptories 9,637 " " 2,009,951 --------- 4,742,260 The ships were: Tons. 7,099 steamers, with 4,157,905 6,571 sailing vessels, with 584,295 --------- 13,670 vessels, with 4,742,200 That is to say, 1,139 vessels with 395,183 tons per month, or 37 vessels with 13,006 tons per day. As regards the nationality of the 13,670 vessels entered, there were 5,229 national vessels, with 460,467 tons, and 8,441 foreign vessels, with 4,281,793 tons. Of all the ports in the Republic Montevideo is the most important one. During the year 1891 there entered: _From Abroad._ Tons. 434 sailing vessels, with 275,184 658 steamers, with 1,154,477 ----- --------- 1,092 vessels, with 1,429,661 _From the Rivers--Coasting Trade._ Tons. 1,680 sailing vessels, with 85,542 1,261 steamers, with 1,217,106 ----- --------- 2,941 vessels, with 1,302,648 Which gives a total of 4,033 vessels, with 2,732,309 tons, for the year 1891. The nationality of the vessels which entered the port of Montevideo was: ==============+=========+=========+=========+========== Flags | Sailors | Tons | Steamers| Tons. --------------+---------+---------+---------+---------- Germany | 21 | 14.136 | 112 | 183.450 Argentine Rep | 1 | 192 | 5 | 515 Austria | 7 | 4.673 | .. | ..... Brazil | 4 | 1.041 | 42 | 30.721 Belgium | .. | ..... | 20 | 33.668 Denmark | 10 | 1.842 | .. | ..... Spain | 73 | 21.463 | 15 | 30.577 Chile | .. | ..... | 1 | 22 France | 1 | 565 | 97 | 236.963 Holland | 9 | 5.490 | 1 | 2.267 England | 103 | 85.818 | 258 | 456.690 Italy | 58 | 35.129 | 97 | 174.812 North America | 19 | 10.720 | 2 | 3.081 Uruguay Rep. | 1 | 247 | 8 | 1.711 Russia | 4 | 3.921 | .. | ..... Sweden | 123 | 89.947 | .. | ..... |---------+---------+---------+---------- Total | 434 | 275.184 | 658 |1.154.477 ==============+=========+=========+=========+========== The vessels coasting were: Ships. Tons. With the national flag 1,551 99,538 With foreign flag 1,390 1,203,110 ----- --------- 2,941 1,302,648 Goods. According to the statistics the goods moved in the harbor of Montevideo during the last five years are calculated thus: 1887 1,187,557 1888 1,411,686 1889 1,773,610 1890 1,316,296 1891 1,089,992 --------- 6,779,141 That is to say, a middle term of 1,355,828 tons moved per year, or 112,985 per month. Lighthouses. Along the coasts of the Republic, watered by the Atlantic Ocean and the River Plate, there are eleven lighthouses, established in the most convenient points, to guide and advise the sailors. To them must be attributed the notable diminution in the number of shipwrecks. =================+=========+=======+==============+=========== | | | | Situation | Light | Class | Luminous | Tax to | | | power | be paid -----------------+---------+-------+--------------+----------- Cape Santa Maria | flash | 1st | 18 miles | 2 cts. Polonio | steady | 3d | 15 & 16 " | 1-3/4 " Jose Ignacio | " | 3d | 15 " | 1 " Punta Brava | " | 4th | 8 " | 1 " Farallon | " | 3d | 15 " | 1 " Panela | " | 4th | 9 " | 1 " Colonia | turni'g | 3d | 12 " | 1 " Cerro | " | 1st | 25 " | 1 " Isle of Flores | " | 2d | 15 " | 1 " Banco Ingles | steady | 3d | 9 " | 1 " Punta del Este | flash | 2d | 16 & 18 " | 1 " =================+=========+=======+==============+========== Lazaretto. The Republic possesses one Lazaretto, established in the Isle of Flores, at a distance of 17 miles southeast from Montevideo. It is quite comfortable and provided with everything that may be required for disinfecting and fumigating luggage and correspondence. There is a telegraph and telephone line established between Montevideo and the Lazaretto. Interior Commerce. It has not yet been possible to calculate exactly and completely the interior commerce of the Republic, between Montevideo and all the other Departments. Statistics only give the figures representing the cattle and rural products imported to Montevideo by the Departments and that come by railway for local consumption and export. This commerce gave, during the last five years, a total of 143,446 carts, that is to say a yearly middle term of 28,689. There arrive daily to the Montevideo markets, by railroad and by the rivers, great quantities of skins, (oxen, horses, sheep) wool, horns, bones, tallow, ostrich feathers and other products of cattle industry, and among rural products great quantities of corn, wheat, flour, canary-seed, barley, mustard-seed, potatoes, garlick, French beans, onions, pumpkins, eggs, butter, fowl, cheeses, paving and lime stone, spirits and many other goods it would be too long to mention here. There is an important increase every year in the quantity of cattle destined to local consumption, to the Montevideo saladeros and export. Trade-Houses, Industries, Professions. During the year 1891, 20,328 licenses were paid for by trade-houses, industries, professions and work-houses. The nationality of those who asked for their trade patent was: Natives 4,134 Argentines 370 Brazilians 166 Italians 7,995 Spaniards 5,336 French 1,324 English 130 Germans 173 Swiss 186 Portuguese 116 Belgians 7 Swedish 7 Danes 5 Norwegians 6 Dutch 1 Austrians 52 North-Americans 28 Russians 6 Peruvians 1 Chilians 12 Paraguayan 11 Other Nations 262 Among the most important industries, must be mentioned: the Liebig Extract of Meat Company, the _saladeros_ or killing grounds, the spirits, wine and beer manufactures, flour mills, the starch and vermicelli manufactures, the soap, suet and oil manufactures, the gas, electric light and water companies, the match, brick, shoe and wooden shoe manufactures, the tan-yards, saw-mills, etc., etc. There are in Montevideo a great many important spirit, wine, brandy, beer and match manufacturers; and there are sixteen of them in the departments. The Montevideo manufacturers give an annual product of: Alcohol, 2,000,000 litres. Beer, 1,700,000 " Matches, 55,000 grosses. Wine and Spirits, 400,000 litres. According to the declarations made for the payment of the license tax, the capital represented by the trade houses, industries, etc, is $89,329,539. The clerks employed by all these houses, manufactures and industries, were 11,639, and the workmen of various nationalities 16,621. As a demonstration of the industrial importance and progress of the country, among many other establishments, the description of which cannot be made here for want of space, one may mention the great brewery _Germania_, established under the direction of Engineer J. A. Capurro. It occupies a magnificent building situated in the "Playa Honda" in front of the Montevideo Bay. Its construction and interior distribution completely corresponds to all the technical necessities required for beer manufacturing. It is provided for night working, with electric light produced by a eight-horse dynamo and 68 lamps. The establishment was built and is worked by a stock company. It receives the waters of the River Santa Lucia, the very purest, the same that is drank in the town. It possesses, nevertheless, two immense filters, so as to make the water still purer. The machinery comes from the renowned German manufacture of Chemnitz; it is 25 horse-power, and can give from 18,000 to 20,000 litres per day. The receiving depositories are two, the first one of a capacity of 12,000 litres, and the second of 8,000 litres; the cooling depositories can receive 9,000 litres every hour and a-half, with a temperature that can go to 14° under naught. The clarifying is made by three filters of the most modern system, without any paper application. The fermentation cellar contains three large tubs of a capacity of 3,000 and 3,500 litres. There are also 6 great cellars, for depositories, with 34 tubs each; 18 of them can contain 5,000 litres each and the other 16, 3,500 litres. With a compressed air machine they cork 10,000 bottles a day. The ice depositories are beautiful; they always remain at a temperature of 12 or 20° under nought. The "_Germania_" also has many other depositories for the raw materials, empty bottles and casks, another for 5,000 litre tubs, brought on purpose from Germany; a forge, a workshop for cask-making, ten carts and stables for 30 horses, and many offices. It possesses a quay on the bay for loading and unloading and, during the season of most activity, employs over a hundred workmen and clerks. This establishment represents a capital of over half a million dollars. During the season it sells over 200,000 litres per month to nearly 1,500 or 2,000 establishments. The same society possesses also a starch and an alcohol manufactory. They are very important establishments, provided with the very latest inventions of European and North American manufacture. In the same conditions are also the Richling and Niding Beer Manufactories. Banks, Anonymous Societies. The Republic counts with a great many banks and anonymous societies, that make easier all commercial transactions. The emission banks are: The _London and River Plate Bank_, that on December 31, 1891, had an active capital of $8,911,000; the _Italian Uruguay Bank_, with an active capital of $7,714,521; the _Spain and River Plate Bank_, with $4,614,752; the _Italo-Oriental_, with $10,432,276, and the other banks called _National Bank_, _English and River Plate Bank_, which actually are in liquidation, being the active of the first bank, 31st December, 1890, $61,630,320, and that of the second, $15,298,406. Among the discounting banks, there are the _Commercial Bank_, the _French Bank_, the _South America British Bank_, the _Anglo-Argentine Bank_. The principal anonymous societies are; The "Credito Real Uruguayo," the "Industrial," the "Cobranzas, locacion y Anticipos," the "Agencia de Tierras," the "Colonization y Fomento del Uruguay," the "Caja de Credito Uruguayo," the "Auxiliar de Credito y Alquileres," the "Co-operativa de Consumo," the "Caja Nacional Uruguaya," the "Edificadora de Montevideo," the "Mercantil del Plata," the "Vegas Uruguayas," the "Viticola Uruguaya," the "Viticola Saltena" and many others that represent important capitals. Commerce Halls. In Montevideo there is the important commercial centre called "Bolsa Montevideana," or Montevideo Exchange Hall. There are also the French, the Italian and the Spanish Commercial Boards, that make easier and easier the exchange of goods between the Republic and France, Italy and Spain. Means of Communication and Conveyance. All the towns and villages of Uruguay littoral communicate with the capital by the regular service of beautiful steamers between Montevideo and Salto, stopping in all the ports of the Uruguay and Argentine Republic littoral. Other steamers start from Montevideo for Paraguay and Matto-Grosso (Brazil.) The lines of transatlantic steamers establish constant communications between the Republic and European and American ports. By land, a great many places in the Republic are put in communication by the railways and by the telegraph, established also between Montevideo and Europe, Brazil, the Pacific and Argentine Republic. Where the railways are not yet established, there is a good and regular service of stage-coaches. Railways. There are already seven railway lines in the Republic, the service of which is quite regular and comprehends an extension of 1,567 kilometres. Some other lines are in way of formation, and for some others the necessary preliminary studies have begun, comprising a new extension of 1,231 kilometres. The railways already established are: 1st. _The Central Uruguay Railway._ It starts from Montevideo, runs through the whole territory of the Republic, till it reaches the capital of the Department of Rivera, on the very frontier of Brazil, in front of "Santa Ana do Livramento," that is to say, with an extension of 575 kilometres. Besides this, it has also another line of 32 kilometres from "25 de Agosto" to "San Jose." 2d. _The Northeast Uruguay Railway_, between Montevideo and Minas, with an extension of 122 kilometres. 3d. _The "East Extension" Railway_, between Toledo Station, which belongs to the Northeast Uruguay Railway and Nico Perez, with an extension of 206 kilometres. 4th. _The North Railway_, between Montevideo and Santa Lucia, where are established the municipal slaughter houses. This railway furnishes with meat all the Montevideo markets and has an extension of 23 kilometres. 5th. _The Northwest Uruguay Railway_, from Salto to the River Cuareim, through the Department of Artigas, with an extension of 178 kilometres. In "Paso del Correo," where this line stops, begins the Brazilian Uruguayana Line. 6th. _The Midland Uruguay Railway_ joins with the Central Railway in "Paso de los Toros" and with the Northwest Railway in the town of Salto and has its principal station in Paysandu, with an extension of 317 kilometres. 7th. _The North Uruguay Railway_ between Isla Cabellos, which belongs to the Northwest Line and San Eugenio in front of San Juan Bautista (Brazil). It runs through the Department of Artigas and has an extension of 114 kilometres. River Steamers. There exist many important navigation companies with beautiful and comfortable steamers for the service of the River Plate, Uruguay and Parana. Among these companies the English company _Platense_ must be mentioned. With its twenty steamers it represents an important capital. It possesses its own docks and wharfs in this republic and in the Argentine Republic. The principal steamers of the _Platense_ are called: _Venus_, _Eolo_, _Apolo_, _Minerva_, _Olimpo_, _Saturno_, _Cosmos_ and _Helios_, the finest of all, recently constructed. All these steamers have electric light on board. They all go to Buenos Ayres and stop in Martin Garcia, Nueva Palmira, Mercedes, Fray Bentos, Gualeguaychu, Concepcion del Uruguay, Paysandu, Villa Colon, Guaviyu, Concordin, Salto and vice versa. The steamers of the other companies have more or less the same itinerary. The movement of goods and passengers is important and has always given good benefits to all the companies. The journey between Montevideo and Buenos Ayres is of a few hours. The steamers start from Montevideo at 6 p.m. and get to Buenos Ayres, generally, at 4 next morning. The very same day, at 10 a.m. they start again for the ports of the Uruguay; getting to Salto the next day. Stage Coaches. In all the departments where railways are not yet established there is a regular service of stage coaches putting the various railway lines in communication and making easier the conveyance of goods and passengers. Tramways. In Montevideo there are nine tramway lines: 1st Union and Maronas Tramway; 2nd Paso del Molino and Cerro Tramway; 3rd Eastern Tramway; 4th Buceo and Union Tramway; 5th North Tramway; 6th Oriental Tramway; 7th Reducto Tramway; 8th Montevideo Tramway; 9th Central Tramway. In nearly all the streets of Montevideo there is a tramway line and with such a shortening of the distances life and activity are a great deal increased. In the centre of the town the tramway ticket costs 4 cents, and from one extremity of the line to the other it costs 10 cents. During the year 1891 all these tramways made 916,798 journeys, which represent 9,285,940 kilometres, they conveyed 18,000,000 passengers. They possess 507 coaches and 3,622 horses. The number of men employed by the tramway companies is 1029. They have 14 stations. In the town of Paysandu there is also a tramway line. Telegraph. The telegraph, as it may be seen on the map, is established all over the Republic and in communication with all the towns of Europe and America. The different telegraph companies are: Telegraph Cable. The National Telegraph Co kilom. 951 15 The Platino Brasilero " 829 ... Rio de la Plata " 233 160 The Western and Brazilian Co., Oriental Line " ... 694 Telefonica del Plata " 180 45 The Oriental " 1,362 ... The Platense, Brasilero, United States direct " 250 ... ----- --- 3,805 914 Telegraph of the railway lines " 1,568 ----- --- " 5,373 914 There are two telegraph companies more between Salto and Concordia and between Paysandu and Concepcion del Uruguay (Argentine Republic). But they are of little importance. The number of telegrams sent by the various companies was, in 1891, 256,467. Navigation Companies. Many European and American Companies have their agencies in Montevideo. The principal ones are: Italian Company _La Veloce._ French Company _Chargeurs Reunis._ English Company _Royal Mail Steam Packet Company._ Spanish Company _La Trasatlantica._ French Company _Messageries Maritimes._ French Company _Nouvelle Compagnie Marseillaise._ English Company _Pacific Steam Navigation Company._ N. American Company _United States and Brazil Mail._ English Company _Shaw, Savill & Albion Co., limited._ English Company _New Zealand Shipping Co., limited._ Italian Company _Navigazione Generale Italiana. Societa Riunite_ (_Florio e Rubattino_). Italian Company _Fratelli Lavarello Fu Gio Batta._ Italian Company _La Genovesse._ French Company _Transports Maritimes a vapeur._ English Company _Lamport Holt Line._ Brazilian Company _Companhia Nacional de Navegacao a vapor._ All these steamers put Montevideo in direct communication with Barcelona, Genoa, Naples, Dakar, Lisbon, Bourdeaux, Rio Janeiro, Saint Vincent, Vigo, Bahia, Pernambuco, Marseilles, Havre, Santa Cruz of Tenerif, Dunkirk, Plymouth, Liverpool, London, New Zealand and also the ports of the Pacific Ocean and those of North America. Telephone. In many points of the Republic telephone lines are established. The principal lines in Montevideo are: The Co-operative Co., the Telefonica Nacional Co., the Telefonica de Montevideo Co. During the year 1891 these lines have had 21,000 daily communications. They have 3,600 subscribers and the wires they employ represent 5,500 miles. They have 10 offices and employ 174 persons, 74 men and 100 women. The capital of each company is: The Telefonica de Montevideo $220,000, the Telefonica Nacional $105,000, the Telegrafica Telefonica del Plata Company has established a telephone line between Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. Postage. The movement in the Postoffices of the Republic is greater every day, owing to the continual improvement of the ways of communication. The following table gives an idea of the movement in the Montevideo Postoffice: Letters, Years. Papers, etc. 1885, 12,203,381 1886, 11,407,596 1887, 17,157,345 1888, 20,171,929 1889, 21,366,472 1890, 21,534,209 1891, 20,105,295 The movement during 1891 may be divided thus: Letters, in general 6,152,654 Business papers, samples 543,127 Official correspondence 423,178 Post-cards 55,955 Papers, etc. 12,930,381 ---------- 20,105,295 Carriages, Coaches, Etc. The number of coaches is very considerable in the Republic. Montevideo alone counts over 4,000 carts and more than 700 carriages. Public Education. Primary education is gratuitous and obligatory in all the Republic. The public schools are at the expense of the State, that gives the books and all the necessary materials. Since the year 1877, in which was issued the law on public education, the primary education has improved a great deal. The reform of the primary schools was initiated in the year 1868 by a private society, founded by the great reformer, Jose Pedro Varela, the Horace Mann of Uruguay, under the name of "Friends of Popular Education Society," which created an application school, called "Elbio Fernandez," in honor of one of the founders of the society. Various North American books and manuals were then translated for the use of the schools and masters. Varela's ideas soon were diffused among the people, and the reformer was appointed to a high situation in the Public Instruction Board, in the year 1876. Immediately he reformed all the official schools, and organized the scholar administration, being himself appointed principal director of it, with the title of "National Primary Instruction Inspector." University. The number of the students in the University of Montevideo during the year 1891 was 668, distributed thus: For law, 377 For social sciences, 176 For medicine, 85 For mathematics, 30 --- 668 Out of those 668 students, 631 were natives and 37 foreigners. The professors were 75: 14 for law and social sciences, 23 for medicine, 19 for mathematics and 19 for the preparatory studies; being 58 of them natives, 12 Spaniards, 3 Italians, 1 German and 1 Frenchman. Public Schools. In the year 1891 there were in the Republic 483 public schools; that is to say, 143 more than in the year 1886. The number of pupils was then for the whole Republic 43,676 (24,541 boys, 19,135 girls)--14,763 boys and girls in the capital, and 28,913 in the departments. All the schools cost $690,574, the education of each pupil representing a value of $13.27. The professors were 863--272 men and 591 women. Ninety-four schools were established in buildings belonging to the National Educational Board and representing a value of $448,541, and 11 of them in buildings belonging to the State, with a value of $45,942. Private Schools. In 1891 there existed in the Republic 375 private schools, with 21,945 pupils and 930 professors (381 men and 549 women). We obtain, therefore, the following result: No. Pupils. Public schools 483, with 43,676 Private " 375, " 21,945 --- ------ Schools: 868, 65,621 Normal Girl School. In this national school 114 girls received the title of professor for the first degree, and 29 for the second degree, from the year 1887 to the year 1891. In the same building is established the "_Museo Pedagogico_, or Pedagogic" Museum, one of the most important institutions of this kind in South America, under the direction of Mr. A. Gomez Ruano. Art and Professional School. This important establishment is actually under the care of the "National Charity and Public Beneficence Commission." It is established in a large building of its own, fit for 600 pupils. In 1891 there were 227 of them who received there, besides professional instruction, a very serious general instruction up to the third degree. In that establishment they study for carpenter, cabinet-maker, ironsmith, shoemaker, bookbinder, typographer, lithographer, mechanican, turner, silversmith, tinsmith, sculptor, painter, etc. There are also classes of telegraphing, drawing, gymnastics, singing, and music. The professors are 46. _Montevideo Atheneum._--A beautiful establishment is being built for this literary, scientific and artistic institution, the object of which is, delivering gratuitous lectures and publishing reviews, to foment in the Republic the general literary, scientific and artistic instruction. _Professional League._--Very good results are attained by this institution. In its halls the best professors give every night gratuitous lessons on painting, drawing, architecture and mathematics. Military School. This establishment is under the care of the Ministry of War and Navy, and works according to the latest improvements of military science. It counts with the best professors of French and German tactics, physics and natural philosophy, mathematics, geography and history, lineal drawing and photography, fencing and gymnastics. It possesses also all the necessary apparatus for physics, chemistry, physiology and mineralogy, and has a complete library with the newest and best scientific works. Religious Schools. In the Republic there are a great many schools and colleges under the care of religious communities, in which more than 4,200 children are taught. Educational Patriotic League. Under this name there exists in Montevideo an important establishment, the object of which is to improve and foment the primary, secondary, superior, artistical and professional instruction, not only in Montevideo but also throughout the whole country. It has also founded an important college. National Library. During the 185 days in which that important establishment remained opened, in the year 1891, the number of the readers have been 2,849. The number of the books asked for was 2,698 and 64 manuscripts. The library possesses over 21,000 volumes and 2,500 manuscripts, a great many engravings, photographs and maps. There are also the "Archives" where all records are kept, ancient writings and documents that have a relation with the National History. In nearly every department there is a public library. _International Book Exchange._--Uruguay is one of the nations that signed the Brussels treaty and in Montevideo there is a very useful office for International Book Exchange. National Museum. In the National Museum there are 24,226 objects, that is to say: Orchæology 814 Numismatics 4,201 History 140 Paleontology 107 Zoology 13,741 Botany 1,812 Mineralogy 3,253 Fine Arts, Industries 158 Newspapers. Great many newspapers and reviews are published in the Republic. They are agricultural, industrial, scientific, political, commercial, literary, religious, judicial, satirical or philosophical. In 1891 there were 74 papers and reviews issued in Montevideo and 31 in the Departments: total, 105. Out of them, 96 were written in Spanish, 4 in French, 1 in English, 3 in Italian and 1 in Portuguese. 26 were daily papers and the other monthly. 93 were morning papers and 12 evening papers. Societies. In the capital town of each department there are various societies, the object of which is charity and mutual help. Among the societies that exist in Montevideo, we must mention the societies called: Amigos de la Educacion, Ateneo de la Mujer, Agricola Italiana, Ateneo Militar, Confederacion Cientifica Literaria, Associacion Rural del Uruguay, Cosmo Italiano, Centro Catalan, Centro Gallego, Ciencias y Artes, Circulo Catolico de Obreros, Idem Napolitano, Clubs Aleman, Espanol, Frances, Ingles, Uruguay, Catolico, Colon, Dramatico Italiano, Societies Garibaldina, Hannemaniana Uruguaya, Homeopatica, La Lira, La Patrie, Laurak Bat, Liga Lombarda, Liga Industrial, Liga Masaniello, Nova Stella di Italia, La Romea, Tiro y Gymnasio Nacional, Union de Obreros, and also the French, Italian and Spanish commercial boards. The Uruguay Masonry is represented by a Great Orient on which depend many other lodges. There exist also many foreign lodges. Worship and Churches. Although the State Religion is the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion, all the other religions are tolerated in the Republic owing to the liberality of the laws and to the independent spirit of the inhabitants. There exist Protestant Temples, not only in Montevideo but also in Salto, Swiss Colony, etc. The budget of the Republic assigns $19,712 for all the expenses of the Roman Catholic Church. The Republic has 43 churches and 36 chapels. The number of the priests is 161. Actually they are building 7 more churches. Public Revenue. The public revenue is derived from the custom duties, direct taxes on property, licenses to trade houses, stamped paper, stamps, import and export duties, port dues, municipal duties in the capital and in the departments, duties on indirect inheritance, trade patents, cattle marks, etc. Its amount has been during the three following periods: 1882, $ 9,095,409 1883, 10,928,639 1884-1885 (economical year), 12,373,688 ----------- Total, $32,397,736 1885-1886 (economical year), $11,719,692 1886-1887 " " 12,704,832 1887-1888 " " 13,668,096 ----------- Total, $38,092,620 1888-1889 (economical year), $15,690,293 1889-1890 " " 17,415,154 1890-1891 " " 14,925,363 ----------- Total, $48,030,810 The increase during the second period, if compared with the first one is: $5,694,884, and the increase of the third period compared with the second one is: $9,938,190. Custom Duties. They are the principal revenue of the Republic. From the year 1882 to the year 1891, the product of the custom duties, calculated by periods of five years each, has been: 1882, $5,501,360 1883, 6,968,321 1884, 7,749,438 1885, 7,731,264 1886, 6,803,761 ----------- Total, $34,754,144 1887, $ 8,671,243 1888, 8,845,776 1889, 10,786,602 1890, 9,848,735 1891, 8,648,509 ----------- Total $46,800,865 The increase of the second period, if compared with the first one, has been: $12,046,721. Licenses, Stamped Paper, Stamps. The licenses for trade houses, shops, etc., stamped paper and stamps have produced during the period 1887-1891: Stamped Licenses. Paper. Stamps. 1887, $ 783,179 $203,143 $336,688 1888, 888,543 253,610 379,063 1889, 1,180,118 283,009 452,167 1890, 1,219,943 301,058 485,850 1891, 1,001,405 220,882 414,160 ---------- ---------- ---------- Totals, $5,073,188 $1,261,702 $2,067,928 Annual} Middle} 1,014,637 252,340 413,585 Term. } Public Debt. On the 1st of January, 1891, the public debt was $ 89,848,850 Augmentation of the public debt during the year 86,182 ------------ $ 89,935,032 Redemption in 1891 2,145,059 ------------ Public debt on the 31st of December, 1891 $ 87,789,973 All the external public debt has been unified, including in it what was owed for the guarantee to railways, and also what remained due of the external debt service. The interest to be paid has been lessened and definitely established at the rate of 3-1/2 per cent., and the redemption by the outbidding system has been restored. The internal consolidated debt has also been unified with an interest of 4 per cent., and redeemable at the rate of 1 per per cent., accumulatively and by outbiddings. The external consolidated debt (3-1/2 per cent.) is $90,710,000. The internal unified debt (4 per cent.) is $7,500,000. The international debts, according to treaties with Italy, France and Spain, are $1,987,125. All these debts that will be issued when these lines are published will form, more or less, a total of $104,000,000, mortgage bank warranty debt included. Budget of Expenditure.[1] [1] Whilst the present monography is being printed the Deputy Chamber is studying a new project for the budget, the base of which is the project proposed for the financial year 1891-92, with a diminution of 10 per cent., which would allow the complete payment of the expenditure. The financial year begins on the 1st of July and concludes on the 30th of June of the next year. From the financial year of 1889-90 it has been the anterior budget which has gone on ruling, with a general deduction of 10 per cent., and with some augments and changes in other parts of the budget. A new budget for the financial year 1892-93 is going to be voted, which will consist of the following amounts: _I.--Administration:_ After a discount of 20 per cent. on the wages $ 5,840,306.41 _II.--House of Legislation_ 582,558.00 _III.--Passive Classes:_ That is to say, annual allowances paid to pensioners, civil and military, soldiers disabled by wounds or age, widows and sons of the 33 Orientals who assegurated the national independence in 1825, citizens who took part in the Independence wars, etc. After a discount between 4 and 15 per cent 1,324,503.32 _IV.--Public Debt and Guarantee to Railways_ 5,724,620.24 Various credits 144,394.52 So as to attend to this budget the Republic counts with the following incomes: Customs duties $ 8,577,622.84 Duties on property 1,750,549.54 Licenses 925,535.87 Stamped paper 337,141.31 Stamps 219,548.57 Taxes on manufactures 256,751.59 Postage 203,585.73 Public education 219,251,13 Ports 56,414.46 Duties on Inheritances 127,363.80 Duties on the signature of public acts, being excepted the value of the stamped paper 15,162.02 Police Duties 36,473.40 Revenue of the municipalities in the departments 100,320.92 Duties on amphibious fisheries 7,000.00 Cattle-marks 3,000.00 Duties of 1 per cent. on payments 78,049.51 Civil and military house for pawning 56,534.74 Eventual incomes, and revenue of the renting of lands belonging to the State 15,570.41 -------------- Total $12,985,875.84 NEW DUTIES. Augmentation of the duty on slaughterhouses 80,000.00 Augmentation of the duty on inheritances 140,000.00 Augmentation of the import duties 127,500.00 Augmentation of the municipal duties 100,000.00 A discount of 20 per cent. on the wages of the clerks of the Montevideo municipality 65,350.00 ---------- 512,850.00 RECAPITULATION. Resources $12,985,875.84 New resources 512,850.00 ------------- $13,498,725.84 Weights and Measures. The law of the year 1862 established the metrical system throughout the Republic. Metres. 1 lineal league, = 5,154 1 lineal cuadra, = 85-900 c. 1 lineal vara, = 859 c. 1 lineal foot, = 286 c. Litres. 1 pipa, or 192 frascos, = 455-424 1 frasco, = 2-370 1 English gallon, = 3-805 Kilogs. 1 fanega, maize, ears, = 274-544 1 " " grains, = 137-272 1 ton, = 918-800 1 quintal (100 lbs.), = 45-940 1 arrobe (25 lbs.), = 11-485 1 livre (pound, libra), = 0-459 1 Pesada (dry hides, 40 lbs.), = 18-376 1 " (salted hides, 75 lbs.), = 34-455 Official Value of Gold Coins. Argentine Republic, 1 argentino ($5 gold), $ 4 66 Austria, 8 florins, 3 73 Belgium, (the same value as French coins). { 20,000 reis, 10 56 Brazil, { 10,000 reis, 5 28 { 5,000 reis, 2 64 { 1 condor ($10), 8 82 Chile, { 1/2 " ($5), 4 41 Columbia, $20, 18 66 { £1 (20 sh.), 4 70 England, { £1/2 (10 sh.), 2 35 { 100 frcs., 18 66 { 50 frcs., 9 33 France, { 20 frcs., and also the { Italian, Belgian and { Swiss 20 frcs. or lire { coins, 3 73 Germany, { 20 marks, 4 60 { 10 " 2 30 Peru, 20 soles (suns), 18 66 Portugal, 1 crown (10,000 reis), 10 45 { 1 doblon (100 reals Spain, { and 10 escudos), 4 82 { 25 pesetas, 4 66 Switzerland, Like French coins. { 1 double eagle, $20, 19 32 United States, { 1 eagle, $10, 9 66 { 1/2 eagle, $5, 4 83 Venezuela, 20 pesos, 18 66 The standard currency in Uruguay is gold. The nominal unit, $1, 1 peso ($1), has a weight of 1 gramme, 697 mgrm. of gold and 917 mills standard. The official value of the national silver coin, 1 peso, has a weight of 25 grammes and 900 milles standard. The other minor silver coins are: $0.50, $0.20, $0.10. In all accounts, the limited quantity that can be paid in silver, is determined by the law, according to the total amount. Police. The police under the care of the Political and Police Chief (jefe politico y de policia) of each department and depending on the Executive power employs a great many persons, the wages of which are relatively very small. However, the police service goes on with a perfect regularity in the capital and in the departments. The whole police administration costs half a million to the state. Army. The organization of the Uruguayan army is perfect, as well in regard to the discipline as in regard to the military tactics. They are dressed as well as the best European soldier. They use the Remington gun; but they are going to be provided with the reformed Mauser gun. The artillery regiments have 67 Krup, Armstrong and Nordenfeld cannons. The army is composed of 23 chiefs, 202 officers and 3,425 soldiers, forming 10 battalions, that is to say: 4 Hunters battalions, 1 artillery battalion, 4 cavalry battalions and 1 light artillery battalion, besides which must be counted the general Artigas fort garrison and the "Prague Nacional" or Arsenal detachment. One Hunters Battalion and the four Cavalry ones serve as garrisons in the departments. The other battalions remain in the capital. Navy. The national fleet is employed for coast and fort guarding. It is composed of three large gun-boats and 6 small steamers. They all use Remington guns; as for the cannons, they belong to various systems. Montevideo, the Capital of the Republic. The great maritime town of Montevideo, the capital of the Republic and the so-called department, was founded in the year 1726 by the Spanish marshal Don Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, with some Spanish families, who came from Buenos Ayres and Canary Islands. The town is built over a rocky peninsula, in the middle of the salt waters of the River Plate, with a height of over 100 feet above the sea. It is actually divided into three large sections called the Antigua (old) town, the Nueva (new) town and the Novisima (newest) town. All around the town will run the great boulevard General Artigas. The whole town consists in 1,600 _manzanas_ or square cuadras, more than 600 of which are already edificed; it must be added that every day new buildings are begun everywhere about the town. In all directions new streets are opened and new houses are built and new suburbs created, making Montevideo larger and larger every day. The streets are all straight and nearly all of them well paved with granite stone. In the old town they are 10 and 11 metres wide and in the new town 17 metres, with broad pavements and trees planted on both sides. The principal roads that lead to the town are broad, part of them covered with a bed of macadam and the others with a bed of stones. There are six public squares, called, Zabala, Constitucion, Independencia, Libertad, Treinta y Tres, General Flores, and the smaller ones called Solis and Muelle Viejo. In all these squares there are trees and banks; they are lit with electric light and the paths that surround them are made of the finest granite. Most of them are one manzana large, that is to say 7,378 square metres. The square called Independencia is a parallelogram 221 metres long by 232 metres broad with an area of 29,260 metres. In it is situated the government palace. The boulevard called 18 de Julio is the continuation of the Independencia Square, from W. to E., being 26 metres broad. The common sewer has an extension of 93,000 metres and more than 7,500 are directly its conduits. The drinkable water comes from Santa Lucia (61 kilometres from Montevideo); the various conduits have an extension of over 180 kilometres. All the streets and even the suburbs have the electric light; some others have still the gas light. Three gasometres, two of them 100,000 cubic feet and one 70,000, are employed for the preparation of the gas. The gas pipes represent an extension of 128 kilometres. The power of each light is equivalent to that of 18 candles. There are two important establishments for the preparation of the electric light, which is now used by a great many trade houses and shops. The town is composed of over 19,000 houses--20 per cent. of them being houses with two stories; a good many of them have three and four stories. The architecture of the houses is most elegant, especially of those which were built during the last fifteen years. Among the public buildings remarkable for their importance are: the Cathedral, the Charity Hospital, the Insane Asylum, the Central Cemetery, Solis Theater, Normal School, Government Palace, Parliament House, Custom House, Professional School, National Bank, San Felipe and Cibils Theatres, London Bank, South America British Bank, Uruguay Club, Gas Works, Prison, San Francisco, Capuchin Friars, Concepcion and Carmen Churches, Orphan Asylum, Seminary, English Church, Music Academy, Oriental Hotel, Gounouilhou Baths, etc. The suburbs and environs are most picturesque, with a great quantity of the most elegant country houses, built all along the avenues called Agraciada, Paso del Molino, Duranas, Miguelete, Sierra, Goes, Suarez, Larranaga and many others. Being the capital of the Republic, Montevideo is the residence of the three high powers of the state, of the aggregate of foreign ministers and consuls and also of the bishop. It is the centre of all the most important business of the Republic and reputed one of the best markets in the River Plate. In Montevideo reside all the principal Societies and Associations in the Republic. The aspect of the town is agreeable and quite that of a European city, and its population is quite a cosmopolitan one. The census of the year 1891, Dec. 31, gave a result of 234,688 souls for the department of Montevideo, 190,000 more or less belonging exclusively to Montevideo, and 53 per cent. of them being natives and 47 per cent. foreigners. All the most important trade-houses are in Montevideo, the largest and finest hotels; there are three theatres, fifteen churches and nine chapels, three cemeteries and three markets, etc. During the bathing season a great many foreigners come to Montevideo, owing to its fine shore and beautiful bathing establishments, like the one called Los Pocitos, where exists a beautiful and elegant building for the foreigners, and those called Romirez and Capurro. * * * * * The following table gives an idea of the immense yearly consumption of meat in Montevideo: ======+=============+============+=============+ | OXEN, COWS. | SHEEP. | TOTAL. | YEARS.| ---- | ---- | ---- | | Kilogs. | Kilogs. | Kilogs. | ------+-------------+------------+------------ + 1874 | 15,918,875 | 1,373,721 | 17,292,596 | 1875 | 15,379,042 | 1,166,721 | 16,545,763 | 1876 | 14,801,696 | 1,088,199 | 15,889,895 | 1877 | 14,578,711 | 1,009,309 | 15,588,020 | 1878 | 15,208,543 | 1,378,114 | 16,586,657 | 1879 | 13,468,455 | 1,394,751 | 14,863,206 | 1880 | 14,019,236 | 1,420,641 | 15,439,377 | 1881 | 14,228,375 | 1,472,598 | 15,700,973 | 1882 | 15,297,093 | 1,408,497 | 16,705,590 | 1883 | 16,100,322 | 1,448,126 | 17,548,448 | 1884 | 16,380,623 | 1,450,679 | 17,831,302 | 1885 | 19,293,435 | 1,426,345 | 20,719,780 | 1886 | 17,911,894 | 1,738,305 | 19,650,199 | 1887 | 18,027,814 | 1,272,314 | 19,300,128 | 1888 | 20,499,325 | 1,555,743 | 22,055,068 | 1889 | 24,681,622 | 1,733,487 | 26,415,109 | 1890 | 24,724,287 | 1,021,568 | 25,745,855 | 1891 | 25,087,020 | 847,435 | 25,934,455 | ======+=============+============+=============+ Public Beneficence. There are in the Republic many beneficent establishments, hospitals, charity and mutual assistance societies, that do important services to all who need them without any distinction of nationality. In the capital there are, under the care of the State and of the National Charity and Beneficence Commission, the Charity Hospital, the Alms House, the Insane Asylum, the Orphan Hospital, the Maternal Asylum and also a small-pox Lazaretto. There exist also, under the care of private beneficence, the English Hospital, the Italian Hospital, and soon there will be a Spanish Hospital. For a long time there have been many Ladies' Beneficence Societies, and many Mutual Assistance Societies: La Junta Central Espanola de Beneficencia, La Fraternidad, Societa Italiana, Circolo Napolitano, Societe Francaise de Seccours Mutuels. The number of the members of all the societies is more or less 25,000. _Charity Hospital._--In the beginning of the year 1891, there were 489 ill people in the hospital; from January to December of the same year, there entered 5,361; therefore, during the year 1891, 5,850 persons were attended at the hospital. Out of them 5,022 were cured, 4 ran away and 451 died, remaining 373 persons for the year 1892. Out of the 5,361 persons who went to the hospital, 1,529 only were natives and 3,832 foreigners. _Insane Asylum._--In 1891 the number of people attended to was 987. During the year, 58 went out and there remained for 1892, 768 persons. The 258 people who came to the hospital in 1891, were 107 natives and 151 foreigners. _Alms House._--Out of 473 beggars living in the asylum, the greatest number, in the year 1891, were foreigners. _Orphan and Foundling Asylum._--In the beginning of 1891 there were 397 children. During the year there entered 574; thence there were 971 children in the hospital during the year 1891. Out of them 56 foundlings were claimed for by their parents and 22 orphans by their relations; 63 orphans were adopted by various families. _Maternal Asylum._--The three Maternal Asylums received during the year 1891, 1,937 children of both sexes, who were attended to by the Charity Sisters. * * * * * In all the departments there exist Beneficence and Mutual Assistance Societies that do great services to the poor people. Powers of the State. EXECUTIVE POWER. _President of the Republic_--Doctor Don Julio Herrera y Obes. _Government Minister_--Don Francisco Bauza. _Minister of Commerce, Industry, Railways and Public Education_--Engineer Don Juan Alberto Capurro. _Minister of Finance_--(Interium) Don Eugenio Madalena. _Minister of War and Navy_--General Don Luis E. Perez. _Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship_--Doctor Don Manuel Herrero y Espinosa. LEGISLATIVE POWER. _President of the Senator Chamber and General Assembly_--Don Tomas Gomensoro. _President of the Deputy Chamber_--Doctor Don Miguel Herrera y Obes. JUDICIAL POWER--TRIBUNALS OF APPEAL. _President of the Tribunals_--(1st) Doctor Don J. M. Vilaza. (2d) Doctor Don Trofilo Diaz. Ministers of the Republic Abroad. In France --_Minister_, Mr. Alejandro Herosa. In Italy --_Minister_, Dr. Don Jose Vazquez Sagastune. _Secretary_, Eurique Rovira. In Germany --_Minister_, Dr. Don Federico Susviela Guarch. _Secretary_, Dr. Luis Garabelli. In Great Britain --_Minister_, Dr. Don Alberto Nin. _Secretary_, Alfonso S. Zumaran. In Spain and Portugal --_Minister_, Dr. Don Juan Zorrilla de San Martin. _Secretary_, Eduardo Herrera y Obes. In Chile --_Minister_, Mr. Jose C. Arrieta. In Argentine Republic --_Minister_, Dr. Don Ernesto Frias. _Secretary_, Dr. Don Pablo Perez Gomar. In Brazil --_Minister_, Mr. Blas Vidal. _Secretary_, Julian Alvarez Conde. In Paraguay --_Minister_, Mr. Ricardo Garcia. _Secretary_, Dionisio Ramos Montero. Consuls of the Republic. _Consul_ _Vice_ _Countries._ _General._ _Consuls._ _Consuls._ Argentine Republic, 1 9 14 Brazil, 1 14 21 Paraguay, 1 1 6 Chile, 1 2 .. United States of America, 1 6 14 Switzerland, 1 3 1 Great Britain, 1 16 32 Germany, 1 7 .. Belgium, 1 4 4 Italy, 1 17 17 Portugal, 1 4 15 France, 1 13 7 Spain, 1 26 24 Holland, 1 2 .. Sweden, Norway, 1 2 .. Bolivy, 1 1 .. Austria, 1 .. .. Venezuela, .. 1 .. Peru, 1 1 .. Russia, .. .. .. Greece, .. 1 .. Haite, .. 1 .. Denmark, .. 1 .. Turkey, .. 1 .. Foreign Ministers in the Republic. Italian --_Minister_, Commander Jose Anfora, Duke of Lucignano. 1st _Secretary_, E. Ferrara Dentrice. 2d _Secretary_, Emanuel Berti. Portuguese --_Minister_, Viscount de Favia. German --_Minister_, Dr. R. Kranel. _Secretary_, G. von Pilgrim Ballazzi. Brazilian --_Minister_, Don Pedro C. Alfonso Carvalto. Argentine --_Minister_, Don Enrique B. Moreno. _Secretary_, Solano Torres Cabura. British --_Minister_, Hon. Ernest M. Latou. Austrian --_Minister_, Baron of Salzberg. Spain --_Minister_, Don Jose de la Rica y Calvo. _Secretary_, A. Alava y Amoros. Belgian --_Minister_, Mr. Ernest Van Bruyssel. French --_Minister_, Mr. A. Bourcier Saint Chaffray. _Secretary_, J. A. Larret. Saint Marinan --_Minister_, Don Francisco Brin. _Secretary_, Arthero Brin. Equatorian --_Minister_, Don. Francisco A. Gomez. Swiss --_Minister_, Coronel E. Rode. _Secretary_, J. Choffar. _Chancellor_, F. Chury. Paraguayan --_Minister_, Don Jose Segundo Decond. Foreign Consuls in the Republic. _Consul_ _Vice_ _Consular_ _Countries._ _General._ _Consuls._ _Consuls._ _Agents._ Argentine Republic, 1 12 5 .. Brazil, 2 .. 6 3 Chile, 1 .. 1 .. Bolivy, .. 1 .. .. Peru, .. 1 .. .. Equator, 1 .. .. .. Nicaragua, .. 1 .. .. Salvador, .. 1 .. .. United States of America, .. 2 1 1 France, 1 .. .. 8 Italy, 1 .. 1 8 Portugal, .. 1 2 .. Great Britain, 1 .. 6 .. Spain, 1 .. 20 .. Belgium, 1 1 1 .. Sweden, .. 1 1 .. Denmark, .. 1 1 .. Hawai, .. 1 1 .. Switzerland, .. 1 2 .. Holland, 1 1 .. .. Paraguay, 1 .. .. .. Germany, .. 1 .. .. Columbia, .. 1 .. .. Russia, .. 1 .. .. Austria, .. 1 .. .. Saint Marinan, .. 1 .. .. Mexico, .. 1 .. .. Venezuela, .. 1 .. .. Custom-House. The Montevideo custom-house produces the principal revenue the public treasury counts with. The other custom-houses all over the littoral and in the Brazilian frontiers are comparatively a great deal less important. Imports have to pay general duties _ad valorem_, which vary between 8 and 51 per cent., and also specific duties, such as for wine, brandy, tobacco, rice, sugar, petroleum, olive oil, beer, matches, etc. There is a law regulating these specific duties. According to the law of the year 1888 all national products were free from duty; but in the year 1890 a new law restored the specific duty. Corn, wheat, flour and lucerne pay also the specific duty. Since the year 1888 many modifications have been introduced in the custom duties laws, in order to increase the revenue and also to protect national industry. Besides the duties _ad valorem_ there is also an additional duty of 5 per cent. Laws. IMPORTS. Article 1. All goods imported from foreign countries for consumption will pay a duty of 31 per cent. of its value, excepting the following goods, which will pay: 1, 51 per cent.--arms, powder, ammunitions, snuff, tobacco, perfumery, cheese, butter, ham, preserved meats and all eatables preserved in tin boxes or in bottles, rockets and mine, quarry and gun powder. 2, 48 per cent.--brushes in general, painting brushes, shoes of all sorts, ready-made linen, hats, furniture, coaches, harnesses, medicaments, formularies and business papers either lithographed or printed. 3, 44 per cent.--cakes and pastry of all sorts, chocolate, candles in general, vermicelli, jams, soles and tanned skins. 4, 20 per cent.--lumber in general, iron, either plate, crow, joist or ingot, steel plate, copper and brass ingots, tin plate, lead bar or plate, zinc plate or ingot, fresh fruits, roof tiles, slates, Roman cement, vegetal coal, quicksilver, tin, talc, plaster, tar, pitch, sack-cloth, forage in general and empty match-boxes. 5, 12 per cent.--potatoes of all sorts, even those imported for sowing. 6, 8 per cent.--printed and bound books, typography or lithography machines or presses, printing types, white paper for newspapers, lithography paper, 87 centim. long by 54 broad, printing ink, flower and vegetable seeds, sulphuric, nitric and chlorhydric acids, gums, phosphorus, gold jewels and gold and silver watches. 7, 6 per cent.--printed books without binding, maps and geographical globes and all things necessary for natural, physical and mathematical studies, mineral coal in general, sea or rock salt and precious stones. Art. 2. All things necessary to divine worship, the introduction of which may be asked by the ecclesiastical authority, shall be free from all duty. 2. All things introduced for the personal use of the foreign ministers and consuls residing in the Republic, provided there be reciprocation for our ministers and consuls. 3. All the machinery for steamers that are going to be built in the country, stamped gold and silver, gold and silver paste or powder, sheep-curing specific, live plants except vines, live-stock and blooded animals, luggage, linen, clothes and instruments and tools for personal use, all special materials to be employed in building ships in the country, ploughs, machinery for ships and industries, common and double sodium, hop, saffron, agricultural machines, hemp, indian cane, rabbit hair, otter and hare skin for hat-making, sewing machines, glass or clay bottles, potash and chlorate of potash for industry, capsules for bottles, dynamite, wires for fencing, lucerne seeds, and sulphur flower. Art 3. The introducing of all coloring substances employed in the falsification of wine is forbidden, as well as all substances the Public Health Board will consider as hurtful, etc., etc. Law on Specific Duties. Article 1. The goods hereafter mentioned, imported from foreign nations since the 1st of January, 1889, shall pay the following specific duties: Kilogs. Red Indian dwarf pepper $ 09 " " in powder 14 Almonds 06 " without the shell 11 Canary seed 05 Filberts 04 Prussian blue, for laundresses 01 Car riggings and cordages, indian cane 06 Cocoa 12 " in powder 16 Coffee, grain 08 " powder 24 Chicory 06 Chocolate 30 Indian rockets 40 Preserved vegetables 16 Preserved eatables of all sorts 25 Kerseymere 28 Baize 31 Dry fruits, dainties 40 Fruit syrups 25 Pickled fruits 10 "Farina" 01 Vermicelli, in general 08 Flannel and wool cloth 75 Wool and cotton flannel 62 Cotton flannel 28 Brandy fruits 10 Cotton sail-cloth 25 Iron, bars, plates, joists and rails 01 Galvanized iron, _idem_ 15 Cakes, pastry 16 Lard 14 Soap, in general 08 Hams 24 Cotton white cloth 15-1/2 Butter 35 Nuts 03 Preserved peaches 05 Oysters, lobsters 16 Brown waste paper 05 Raisins. 05 Pickled fish 07 " in bottles or tin boxes. 10 Pickled dry fish, in casks 05 " in bottles or tin boxes 08 Red cayenne pepper 08 Pepper 10 " in powder 16 Cheeses 25 Sausage 40 Tea 25 Candles 14 Vinegar 03 Yerba mate, from Paraguay 5-1/2 Glazed cotton 28 Dry vegetables, beans, French beans, lentils, etc. 05 Art. 2. The specific duties on common wines, in casks, will be 6 per cent. the litre. Etc., etc. New Laws on Specific Duties. ARTICLE 1. Per kilog. Havana cigars. $6.00 Cigars of all sorts 3.00 Cigarettes 6.00 Tobacco, black or chewing tobacco 50 Tobacco, in general 1.00 Bitters, brandy, whiskey, etc., that are not over 20 degrees, per litre 37 The same, in bottles, from 51 centilitres to 1 litre, per bottle 37 Spirits, in casks, per litre 37 The same, in bottles, from 51 centilitres to 1 litre, per bottle 37 The same, in larger or smaller bottles, in proportion with the capacity Vermouth, fernet, in casks, per litre 37 The same, in bottles, etc., per bottle 37 The same, in larger or smaller bottles, etc., etc. Beer, in casks, per litre 16 The same, in bottles, etc., per bottle 16 The same, in larger or smaller bottles, etc. Per kilog. Matches $1.30 Preserved vegetables, fish and meat 30 Refined sugar 6 Sugar, without refining 5 Cheese, in general 38 ARTICLE 2. Per litre. Artificial wines, besides the duty already existing on common wines in casks 3 According to another law, January 19, 1891, the following goods pay specific duties: Per 100 kilogs. Wheat $ .80 Corn 1.35 Corn flour 2.70 Lucerne, forage 1.00 According to the same law (Article 3) the sulphate of copper, destined to agriculture, is free from all duty. * * * * * The law of August 27, 1891, says: Article 1. The specific duty charged on all foreign brandy, when its alcoholic strength is not over 20 degrees, shall be $13.60 per litre. If the alcoholic strength be over 20 degrees, each additional degree shall pay 68.1000. The duty on the brandy manufactured in the country is raised to $13.20 per litre, whatever may be its strength. Article 2. The duty on vermouth, brandy, bitters, artificial wines (3 and 12 cents per litre) is abolished. Bitters, whiskey, vermouth (not being over 20 degree), shall be 31 cents per litre. The same, in bottles from 51 centilitres to 1 litre, also 31 cents per litre. The same, in larger or smaller bottles, in proportion. Spirits, in casks, per litre 31 The same, in bottles, per bottle 31 The same, in larger or smaller bottles, in proportion. Vermouth, fernet, in casks, per litre 31 The same, in bottles, etc., per bottle 31 The same, in larger or smaller bottles, in proportion. * * * * * Article 3. The Executive Power may oblige the brandy manufacturers to employ the Tiermen-Halske counters, or others. Article 4. Are free from duty the liquors the grocers make themselves with peaches or cherries. Exports. The law of January 30, 1888, says: Article 1. All natural products, fruits and goods manufactured in the country are free of all export duty. Article 2. Are excepted undressed stone, sand and live-stock. * * * * * Another law of October 4, 1890, has created the following export duties: ARTICLE 2. Per 100 kilogs. Wool, in general $1.80 Woolly skins 80 Hair 1.79 Fat, tallow, oils 50 Corned meat 40 Preserved meat and tongues 1.00 Clutches 25 Ashes and bones, per 1,000 kilogs 60 Artificial manure, per 1,000 kilogs. 60 Salted hides (oxen and cows), each 25 Dry " " " " 12 Salted hides (horses), each 12 Dry " " " 6 " " (calves), per 100 kilogs. 1.00 Hides (seals), each 16 Horns, per 1,000 2.50 Extract of meat, per kilog. 10 Law on Immigration. Among other articles the law on immigration of June 12th, 1890, says: Article 2. The consular agents must give all the information, notices and references, the immigrants, agents of navigation companies, or other persons whoever, may ask them about legislation, statistics and general situation of the Republic. Art. 3. The agents shall not receive, on pain of being destituted, any particular retribution for the services the present law imposes on them, or those that any future law may impose on them. Art. 7. Is considered as an immigrant every honest workman who comes to the Republic on board any steamer or vessel, with a second or third class passage, with the intention of fixing here his residence. Art. 8. Every immigrant on his landing will enjoy the following favors: 1. Introduction, free from all duty, of his luggage, linen, furniture, tools or agricultural machines. 2. Disembarking of all his luggage without anything to pay. 3. All the necessary information is gratuitously taken for him, so as to provide him with the kind of work he has chosen. The immigrants with their passage paid by the Government have a right: 1. To be lodged and fed during the first eight days. 2. To be taken over gratuitously with his luggage to the place in the national territory he has chosen for his residence. These last benefits may also be granted by the executive power to the spontaneous immigration. Art. 10. The immigrant will prove his good conduct and aptness to work by a certificate gratuitously given to him by the consular agent of the port from which he sailed, and duly legalized by the consular authority of his own country. Art. 24. All ships coming here with immigrants will enjoy all the possible exemptions of taxes. Art. 25. As a compensation to the anterior article, the immigrants bound for the Oriental Republic will enjoy on board the ships the very same treatment, as regards the food, lodging and comfort, as the immigrants going to other ports in the River Plate. Art 33. A special inspector shall look carefully over the gratuitous disembarking of the immigrants and their luggage. Art. 34. He will accompany them until they be put into possession of their luggage, taking good care lest any one should ask them any retribution in the "Immigrants' Hotel." Art. 36. In case of serious illness, contracted during the journey, their lodging, maintenance and medical assistance shall be at the expenses of the State, even if the eight days granted by the law have passed. Articles 37, 38 and 40, inclusive, stipulate that the Immigration and Agricultural Board shall attend to all the necessities of the national industry by placing all the immigrants who will submit themselves to this law: That it will note down in a special register the names of all workmen, ploughmen, etc., in search of work; that it will by all means try to place them advantageously; that it will mediate, if it be required, in all contracts, and take good care lest the patrons should not observe them faithfully. In no case at all shall the Immigration and Agricultural Board receive any commission or retribution whatever. In case it be necessary to send the immigrant over to some other department the travel would be at the expense of the State. Historical Sketch. (A COMPILATION.) Four years after the River Plate was discovered by Juan Diaz de Solis, Hernando de Magallanes, following the same route as the former, went up the River Plate and discovered part of the rivers Uruguay, Guazu and Parana. But as he could not find the channel, which, he thought, ought to lead him to the East Indies, he soon came back and sailed southward, discovering afterwards the strait. In the year 1527, Sebastian Gaboto who had travelled over the Rivers Uruguay, Parana and Paraguay, built the first fort on the coast of the River San Salvador at a short distance from the Uruguay, so as to defend himself against the Indians who peopled the territory that now belongs to the Republic. Then began the first essays of colonization made by the Spaniards, notwithstanding all kinds of difficulties and fights against the Indians who, with great constance and heroism, went on defending the land that was theirs. In the year 1550, Irala sends from the Asuncion a few people over to the Oriental territory; and the first settlement is there founded, on the banks of the river San Juan, with the name of San Juan Bautista. Two years after the settlers gave up the place and went away, on account of the increasing attacks of the Indians which they could not resist. In the year 1574, Zarate had a new fort built in the very same place where Gaboto in 1527 had already built one and gave it the name of San Salvador. Two years later, the settlers had to go away for want of resources and on account of the continuous wars with the natives. In the year 1624, Fray Bernardo de Guzman began founding a new settlement, the most ancient one in the Republic, called Santo Domingo de Soriano, two leagues distant from the mouth of the Black River, Rio Negro. In 1680 was founded Colonia del Sacramento, by Don Manuel de Lobo, the governor of Janeiro. In 1724 the field-marshal, Don Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, founded the town of Montevideo. From that time many more towns and important settlements went on being founded. In 1762, Villa de San Carlos, in 1763, the town of Maldonado, in 1778, Villa de San Juan Bautista, now Santa Lucia, 1782, the settlement of Paysandu, in 1783, Minas and in 1793, Rocha. Early in the nineteenth century, the question of dominion was finally settled in favor of the Spaniards; and in the mean time, in spite of wars, the Banda Oriental was being peopled and civilization continued to advance. In the central districts, as well as on the coasts of the Atlantic and of the large rivers, the Spaniards had founded many small towns and ports, the most important of which was Montevideo. In the early days of the Spanish settlements in these regions, the whole of the River Plate district was included in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Subsequently a separate viceroyalty was created in Buenos Ayres and the Banda Oriental, which had been subject to the Colonial Government of Paraguay, was transferred to that of Buenos Ayres. At the beginning of the century, Montevideo was ruled by a military and political governor appointed by the Crown of Spain. Since the year 1730, Montevideo had a _Cabildo_ or Municipality. Soriano, Maldonado, Colonia and other places were subject to military commands and also had their own cabildos. The population of Montevideo was then about 15,000 inhabitants; the same number of people existed in the interior of the province. At the beginning of the century Montevideo already possessed a gratuitous school, paid by private persons, and also primary schools, under the care of friars of the Order of St. Francis; it had a comedy hall, had finished giving names to all its streets, and established the light service in the principal ones; and its cabildo or municipality, listening to the proposals made by the Governor Bustamante y Guerra, was already thinking of providing the town with a good hygiene service, with pavement, with causeways, with a regular drinkable water service, with a public washing place, with a complete service for the cleaning and conservation of the port, with the building of bridges over the Miguelete, Paso del Molino and Arroyo Seco, designing for the public municipal service the amount of $47,600, which would be taken from the product of the cattle outbidding sales for the slaughterhouses during the years 5th and 6th. Undoubtedly the administration of the Governors Bustamante y Guerra and Ruiz Huidobio was an era of prosperity for Montevideo (1797 to 1807). Uruguay had lived under despotism until those governors came and raised it to the very rank it deserved by its topographical position and natural riches. Such was the situation of Montevideo when took place the English invasions in the River Plate. On the 27th of June, 1806, Buenos Ayres fell to the power of the expedition commanded by Berresford and Popham. Montevideo, with all its war elements and all the popular elements enrolled in the very moment, succeeded in reconquering Buenos Ayres. The first English invasion was repelled. A new attack of the English gave as a result the taking of Montevideo after a furious fight on the 3d of February, 1807. Seven months later the English had to withdraw from Montevideo after the defeat suffered in Buenos Ayres by General Whitelock, who, on capitulating, had to surrender Montevideo and all other places occupied by his troops. On the 25th of May, 1810, the people in Buenos Ayres gave the first decisive step for the conquering of the independence of this continent. The Governor and Municipality of Montevideo did not join then the movement. The Junta or Revolutionary Committee, established in Buenos Ayres, sends regular troops to the Banda Oriental. General Don Jose G. Artigas commands the Oriental troops. After various encounters and fights that were all favorable to the Revolution, the Spanish power was forever destroyed in the River Plate, on the 23d of June, 1814. General Artigas does all he can that the Banda Oriental be one of the confederate provinces among the united ones of the River Plate. There occur some difficulties and the general government is obliged to surrender Montevideo, and the troops retire on the 23d of February, 1815. The Portuguese, who greedily sought after possessing this territory, invades it then with a powerful army. Fortune is first favorable to them; and, on the 20th of January, 1817, General Lecor takes possession of Montevideo and other places, giving to the Banda Oriental the name of Cisplatine State (Estado Cisplatino). The Brazilians part from the crown of Portugal, and after they have declared themselves independent the new Cisplatine state becomes a dependence of the Brazilian empire, the troops of which enter into Montevideo on the 28th of February, 1824, and take possession of the whole land. Some emigrated Orientals, residing in Buenos Ayres, do all that they possibly can so as to conquer again their independence and native country. They join the few elements they can dispose of and on the 19th of April, 1825, thirty-three fearless patriots, under the command of the Oriental General D. Juan Antonio Lavalleja, tread the shore of the Agraciada, near Nueva Palmira, and with the device, "_Libertad o Muerte_" (Liberty or Death), written on the national flag, begin the heroic campaign--the liberating expedition to which the whole country joins. The first encounters were favorable to the Oriental arms. General Lavalleja convokes the people for the electing of Deputies, and in the Villa de la Florida establishes itself the Deputy Chamber, which, on the 25th of August, 1825, sanctions--giving the strength of a law--the Declaration of the Independence of the River Plate Oriental Province. The Brazilians complain to the Argentine government on account of the decided protection it had given to the Oriental Revolution, and a war ensues between both nations that obliges the Argentines to send an auxiliary army to this territory. The struggle went on, being a series of victories for the united republican arms: the Imperial power was defeated, the last encounter, that put that memorable campaign to an end, taking place in Bacacay. Negotiations of peace were undertaken, and on the 27th of August, 1828, the preliminary treaty was signed, by which the Oriental Province of Uruguay was declared sovereign and independent. A provisional government was appointed and, after the country had recovered peace and quiet, a constituent and legislative Assembly was elected which compiled and published the Constitution that nowadays is still ruling, and that was solemnly sworn amid the greatest popular joy on the 18th of July, 1830. It was at this period that a man rose into note in the Argentine Confederation who was destined to exercise an overshadowing and pernicious influence on both sides of the River Plate. In 1829 Don Juan Manuel Rosas became Governor of Buenos Ayres. Possessed of great capacity he maintained tranquility in his native province and extended his sway over the neighboring states of the Confederation; but his system of government was despotic, and his rule was for some years one of sanguinary terror. His intervention in the intestine quarrels of the Republic of Uruguay, and his attempt to close the River Parana to foreign vessels, led him into hostilities with England and France, whose joint naval squadrons protected Montevideo from his attacks by sea, whilst his troops and their Oriental allies, under General Oribe, besieged the city. The siege of Montevideo by the _Blancos_ or _Whites_, as the Oriental partizans of Oribe were called, continued for nine years, and for that period, from 1843 to 1851, the history of the Republic of Uruguay is the history of the defence of Montevideo. The defence concluded with a treaty of peace on the 8th of October, 1851, in which it was declared that there were neither conquered or conquerors. On the 3rd of February in the following year, Rosas himself was completely overthrown at Monte Caseros, near Buenos Ayres, by the combined forces of Brazil, Oriental Republic and the Argentines in revolt under the governor of Entre Rios General Justo Jose Urquiza, the commander-in-chief of the allied army. From that date, when the normal intercourse of Montevideo with Buenos Ayres and the riverain ports of the Uruguay and Parana, as well as with the interior of the Republic itself and with Brazil, was resumed, the Oriental Republic may be said to have recommenced its national existence. Whilst her material progress has continued with little intermission, her political history during the last thirty or forty years has been again chequered by many internal troubles and domestic events, one too recent, the others too insignificant to be included in the present historical sketch. But the old parties, _Blanco_ and _Colorado_, have long since been transformed; and at the same time that new rivalries and new parties were coming out, the hatreds and exclusive passions of the ancient times have all disappeared; the constant communication with Europe, and the general influence of a newer education and of different ideas is permeating all classes in the capital, and gradually extending to the rural districts, where foreigners are introducing the habits and industrial methods of European countries: all which, owing to the national culture and civilization permits to count for the future with a complete stability in the institutions and government of the country, this stability being the strongest wish of all the parties, whilst it is also the best and most solid warranty of the progress and increase of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. [Illustration: CARTA GEOGRAFICA] * * * * * Transcriber's note: "++ PLEASE NOTE MAP." The ++indicates the hand symbol with finger pointing right. Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained except in obvious cases of typographical error. The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. Page 16: "1891 104,945 8,74 291". There is a missing digit - the transcriber has added "5" to make 8,745. Page 25: The transcriber has supplied the closing round bracket in the following: The plantations are 80 hectares, planted with vines (the plants are 2 and 3 years old); three millions of vine-shoot ... Page 25: The ^ followed by a number indicates a superscripted number. Example: 1^m 80 high, by 0^m thick. 
18091	----	[Illustration: The minute we passed the gate we wuz overwhelmed with the onspeakable aspect of the buildin's.--_See page_ 226.] SAMANTHA AT THE WORLD'S FAIR BY JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE (MARIETTA HOLLEY) _ILLUSTRATED_ BY BARON C. DE GRIMM _PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES_ =New-York= FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY London and Toronto 1893 Copyright, 1893, by the FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY. [Registered at Stationer's Hall, London, England.] TO =Columbia--= WHO HAS JEST SAILED OUT AND DISCOVERED WOMAN. AND TO THE SECT DISCOVERED-- _THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED_. PREFACE. It wuz a beautiful evenin' in Jonesville, and the World. The Earth wuz a-settin' peaceful and serene under the glowin' light of a full moon and some stars, and I sot jest as peaceful and calm under the meller light of our hangin' lamp and the blue radiance of my companion's two orbs. Two arm-chairs covered with handsome buff copper-plate wuz drawed up on each side of the round table, that had a cheerful spread on't, and a basket of meller apples and pears. Dick Swiveller, our big striped pussy-cat (Thomas J. named him), lay stretched out in luxurious ease on his cushion, a-watchin' with dignified indulgence the gambollin' of our little pup dog. He is young yet, and Dick looked lenient on the innocent caperin's of youth. Dick is very wise. The firelight sparkled on the clean hearth, the lamplight gleamed down onto my needles as I sot peaceful a-seamin' two and two, and the same radiance rested lovin'ly on the shinin' bald head of my pardner as he sot a-readin' his favorite production, the _World_. All wuz relapsted into silence, all wuz peace, till all to once my pardner dropped his paper, and sez he-- "Samantha, why not write a book on't?" It started me, comin' so onexpected onto me, and specially sence he wuz always so sot aginst my swingin' out in Literatoor. I dropped two or three stitches in my inward agitation, but instinctively I catched holt of my dignity, and kep calm on the outside. And sez I, "Write a book on what, Josiah Allen?" "Oh, about the World's Fair!" sez he. "Wall," sez I, with a deep sithe, "I had thought on't, but I'd kinder dreaded the job." And he went on: "You know," sez he, "that We wrote one about the other big Fair, and if We don't do as well by this one it'll make trouble," sez he. "We!" sez I in my own mind, and in witherin' axents, but I kep calm on the outside, and he went on-- "Our book," sez he, "that We wrote on the other big Fair in Filadelfy, I spoze wuz thought as much on and wuz as popular for family readin' as ever a President's message wuz; and after payin' attention to that as We did, We hadn't ort to slight this one. We can't afford to," sez he. "Can't afford to?" sez I dreamily. "No; We can't afford to," sez he, "and keep Our present popularity. Now, there's every chance, so fur as I can see, for me to be elected Path-Master, and the high position of Salesman of the Jonesville Cheese Factory has been as good as offered to me agin this year. It is because We are popular," sez he, "that I have these positions of trust and honor held out to me. We have wrote books that have _took_, Samantha. Now, what would be the result if We should slight Columbus and turn Our backs onto America in this crisis of her history? It would be simply ruinous to Our reputation and my official aspirations. Everybody would be mad, and kick, from the President down. More'n as likely as not I should never hold another office in Jonesville. Cheese would be sold right over my head by I know not who. I should be ordered out to work on the road like a dog by Ury jest as like as not. I've been a-settin' here and turnin' it over in my mind; and though, as you say, I hain't always favored the idee of writin', still at the present time I believe We'd better write the book. There's ink in the house, hain't there?" sez he anxiously. "Yes," sez I. "And paper?" sez he. Agin I sez, "Yes." "Wall, then, when there's ink and paper, what's to hender Our writin' it?" "Our!" "We!" Agin them words entered my soul like lead arrows and gaulded me, but agin I looked up, and the clear light of affection that shone from my pardner's eyes melted them arrows, and I suffered and wuz calm. But anon I sez-- "Don't great emotions rise up in your soul, Josiah Allen, when you think of Columbus and the World's work? Don't the mighty waves of the past and the future dash up aginst your heart when you think of Christopher, and what he found, and what is behind this nation, and what is in front of it, a-bagonin' it onwards?" "No," sez he calmly; "I look at it with the eye of a business man, and with that eye," sez he, "I say less write the book." He ceased his remarks, and agin silence rained in the room. But to me the silence wuz filled with voices that he couldn't hear--deep, prophetic voices that shook my soul. Eyes whose light the dust fell on four hundred years ago shone agin on me in that quiet room in Jonesville, and hanted me. Heroic hands that wuz clay centuries ago bagoned to me to foller 'em where they led me. And so on down through the centuries the viewless hosts passed before me and gin me the silent countersign to let me pass into their ranks and jine the army. And then, away out into the future, the Shadow Host defiled--fur off, fur off--into the age of Freedom, and Justice, and Perfect rights for man and woman, Love, Joy, Peace. Josiah didn't see none of these performances. No; two pardners may set side by side, and yet worlds lay between 'em. He wuz agin immersed in his ambitious reveries. I didn't tell him the heft or the size of my emotions as I mentally tackled the job he proposed to me--there wuzn't no use on't. I only sez, as I looked up at him over my specs-- "Josiah, We will write the book." SAMANTHA AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. CHAPTER I. [Illustration: Drop Capital] Christopher Columbus has always been a object of extreme interest and admiration to me ever sence I first read about him in my old Olney's Gography, up to the time when I hearn he wuz a-goin' to be celebrated in Chicago. I always looked up to Christopher, I always admired him, and in a modest and meetin'-house sense, I will say boldly and with no fear of Josiah before my eyes that I loved him. Havin' such feelin's for Christopher Columbus, as I had, and havin' such feelin's for New Discoverers, do you spoze I wuz a-goin' to have a celebration gin for him, and also for us as bein' discovered by him, without attendin' to it? No, indeed! I made calculations ahead from the very first minute it wuz spoke on, to attend to it. And feelin' as I did--all wrought up on the subject of Christopher Columbus--it wuz a coincerdence singular enough to skair anybody almost to death--to think that right on the very day Christopher discovered America, and us (only 400 years later), and on the very day that I commenced the fine shirt that Josiah wuz a-goin' to wear to Chicago to celebrate him in-- That very Friday, if you'll believe me, Christopher Columbus walked right into our kitchen at Jonesville--and discovered me. [Illustration: If you'll believe me, Christopher Columbus Allen walked right into our kitchen--and discovered me.] Yes, Christopher Columbus Allen, a relative I never had seen, come to Jonesville and our house on his way to the World's Fair. Jest to think on't--Christopher Columbus Allen, who had passed his hull life up in Maine, and then descended down onto us at such a time as this, when all the relations in Jonesville wuz jest riz up about the doin's of that great namesake of hisen--And the gussets wuz even then a-bein' cut out and sewed on to the shirt that wuz a-goin' to encompass Josiah Allen about as he went to Chicago to celebrate him-- That then, on that Friday, P.M., about the time of day that the Injuns wuz a-kneelin' to the first Christopher, to think that Josiah Allen should walk in the new Columbus into our kitchen--why, I don't spoze a more singular and coincidin' circumstance ever happened before durin' the hull course of time. The only incident that mellered it down any and made it a little less miracalous wuz the fact that he never had been called by his full name. He always has been, is now, and I spoze always will be called Krit--Krit Allen. But still it wuz--in spite of this mellerin' and amelioratin' circumstance--strikin' and skairful enough to fill me with or. He wuz a double and twisted relation, as you may say, bein' related to us on both our own sides, Josiah's and mine. But I had never sot eyes on him till that day, though I well remember visitin' his parents, who lived then in the outskirts of Loontown--good respectable Methodist Epospical people--and runners of a cheese factory at that time. Tryphenia Smith, relation on my side, married to Ezra Allen, relation on Josiah's side. I remember that I went there on a visit with my mother at a very early period of my existence. I hadn't existed at that time more'n nine years, if I had that. We staid there on a stiddy stretch for a week; that wuz jest before they moved up to Maine. Uncle Ezra had a splendid chance offered him there, and he fell in with it. She wuz a dretful good creeter, Aunt Tryphenia wuz, and greatly beloved by the relations on his side, as well as hern. Though, as is nateral with relations, she had to be run by 'em more or less, and found fault with. Some thought her nose wuz too long. Some on 'em thought she wuz too religious, and some on 'em thought she wuzn't religious enough. Some on 'em thought she wuzn't sot enough on the creeds, and some thought she wuz too rigid. But, howsumever, pretty nigh all the Allens and Smiths jest doted on her. There wuz one incident that jest impressed itself on my memory in connection with that visit, and I don't spoze I shall ever forgit it; it stands to reason that I should before now, if I ever wuz a-goin' to. It took place at family prayers, which they held regular at Uncle Ezra's. It wuz right in the hite of sugarin'. They had more'n two hundred maple trees, and they had tapped 'em all, and they had run free, and they had to sugar off every day, and sometimes twice a day. That mornin' they had a big kettle of maple syrup over the stove, and Uncle Ezra and Aunt Tryphenia and mother wuz all a-kneelin' down pretty nigh to the stove. It wuz a cold mornin', and I wuz a-settin' with my little legs a-hangin' off the chair a-watchin' things, not at that age bein' particular interested in religion. Uncle Ezra made a long prayer, a tegus one, it seemed to me; it wuz so long that the kettle of sugar had het up fearful, and I see with deep anxiety that it wuz a-mountin' up most to the top of the kettle. Of course I dassent move to open the stove door, or stir it down, or anything--no, I dassent make a move of any kind or a mite of noise in prayer time. So I sot demute, but in deep anxiety, a-watchin' it sizzle up higher and higher and then down agin, as is the way of syrup, but each time a sizzlin' up a little higher. Wall, finally Uncle Ezra got through with his prayer, and dear good Aunt Tryphenia begun hern. She spoke dretful kinder moderate, but religious and good as anything could be. I well remember what it wuz she wuz sayin'-- "O Lord, let us be tried as by fire and not be movéd"--I remember she said movéd instead of moved, which wuz impressive to me, never havin' hearn it pronounced that way before. And jest as she said this over went the sugar onto the stove, and Aunt Tryphenia and Uncle Ezra jest jumped right up and went and lifted the kettle offen the stove. I remember well how kinder bewildered and curious mother looked when she opened her eyes and see that the prayer wuz broke right short off. Aunt Tryphenia looked meachin', and Uncle Ezra put his hat right on and went out to the barn. It wuz dretful embarrissin' to him and Aunt Tryphenia. But then I don't know as they could have helped it. I remember hearin' Father and Mother arguin' about it. Father thought she done right, but Mother wuz kinder of the opinion that she ort to have run the prayer right on and let the sugar spile if necessary. But I remember Father's arguin' that he didn't believe her prayer would have been very lucid or fervent, with all that batch of sugar a-sizzlin' and a-burnin' right by the side of her. I remember that he said that a prayer wouldn't be apt to ascend much higher than where one's hopes and thoughts wuz, and he didn't believe it would go up much higher than that kettle. (The stove wuz the common height, not over four feet.) But Mother held to her own opinion, and so did a good many of the relations, mostly females. It wuz talked over quite a good deal amongst the Smiths. The wimmen all blamed Tryphenia more or less. The men mostly approved of savin' the sugar. But good land! how I am eppisodin', and to resoom and go on. As I say, it wuz jest after this that Uncle Ezra's folks moved up to Maine, Christopher Columbus bein' still onborn for years and years. But bein' born in due time, or ruther as I may say out of due time, for Uncle Ezra and Aunt Tryphenia had been married over twenty years before they had a child, and then they branched out and had two, and then stopped-- But bein' born at last and growin' up to be a good-lookin' young man and well-to-do in the world, he come out to Jonesville on business and also to foller up the ties of relationship that wuz stretched out acrost hill and dale clear from Maine to Jonesville. Strange ties, hain't they? that are so little that they are invisible to the naked eye, or spectacles, or the keenest microscope, and yet are so strong and lastin' that the strongest sledge-hammer can't break 'em or even make a dent into 'em. And old Time himself, that crumbles stun work and mountains, can't seem to make any impression on 'em. Curious, hain't it? But to leave moralizin' and to resoom, it was on Friday, P.M., that he arrove at our home. I see a good-lookin' young chap a-comin' up the path from the front gate with my Josiah, and I hastily but firmly turned my apron the other side out--I had been windin' some blue yarn that day for some socks for my Josiah, and had colored it a little--it wuz a white apron--and then I waited middlin' serene till he come in with him. And lo! and behold! Josiah introduced him as Christopher Columbus Allen, my own cousin on my own side, and also on hisen. He wuz a very good-lookin' chap, some older than Thomas Jefferson, and I do declare if he didn't look some like him, which wouldn't be nothin' aginst the law, or aginst reason, bein' that they wuz related to each other. I wuz glad enough to see him, and I inquired after the relations with considerable interest, and some affection (not such an awful sight, never havin' seen 'em much, but a little, jest about enough). And then I learnt with some sadness that his father and mother had passed away not long before that, and that his sister Isabelle wuz not over well. And there wuz another coincerdence that struck aginst me almost hard enough to knock me down. Isabelle! jest think on't, when my mind wuz on a perfect strain about Isabelle Casteel. Columbus and Isabelle!--the idee! Why, my reason almost tottered on its throne under my recent best head-dress, when I hearn him speak the name. Christopher Columbus a tellin' me about Isabelle-- I declare I wuz that wrought up that I expected every minute to hear him tell me somethin' about Ferdinand; but I do believe that I should have broke down under that. But it wuz all explained out to me afterwards by another relation that come onto us onexpected shortly afterwards. It seemed that Uncle Ezra and Aunt Tryphenia, after they went to Maine, moved into a sort of a new place, where it wuz dretful lonesome. They lost every book they had, owin' to a axident on their journey, and the only book their nighest neighbor had wuz the life of Queen Isabelle. [Illustration: They lost every book they had, owin' to a axident on their journey.] And so Aunt Tryphenia for years wuz, as you may say, jest saturated with that book. And she named her two children, born durin' that time of saturation, Christopher Columbus and Isabelle. And I presoom if she had had another, she would have named it King Ferdinand. Though I hain't sure of this--you can't be postive certain of any such thing as this. Besides it might have been born a girl onbeknown to her. But I know that she never washed them children with anything but Casteel soap, and she talked sights and sights about Spain and things. So I hearn from Uncle Jered Smith, who visited them while he wuz up on a tower through Maine, a-sellin' balsam of pine for the lungs. Wall, Isabelle had a sort of a runnin' down, so Krit said. He begged us to call him that--said that all his mates at school called him so. He had been educated quite high. Had been to deestrick school sights, and then to a 'Cademy and College. He had kinder worked his way up, so I found out, and so had Isabelle. She had graduated from a Young Woman's College, taught school to earn her money, and then went to school as long as that would last, and then would set out and teach agin, and then go agin and then taught, and then went. She wuz younger than Christopher, but he owned up to me that it wuz her example that had rousted him up to exert himself. She wuz awful ambitious, Isabelle wuz. She wuz smart as she could be, and had a feelin' that she wanted to be sunthin' in the World. But then the old folks wuz took down sick and helpless, and one of the children had to stay to home. And Isabelle staid, and sent Krit out into the World. She sold her jewels of Ambition and Happiness, and gin him the avails of them. She staid to home with the old folks--kinder peevish and fretful, Krit said they wuz, too--and let him go a-sailin' out on the broad ocean of life; she had trimmed her own sails in such hope, but had to curb 'em in now and lower the topmast. You have to reef your sails considerable when you are a-sailin' round in a small bedroom between two beds of sickness (asthma and inflammatory rheumatiz). You have to haul 'em in, and take down the flyin' pennen of Hope and Asperation, and mount up the lamp of Duty and Meekness for a figger-head, instead of the glowin' face of Proud Endeavor. [Illustration: Isabelle staid, and sent Krit out into the World.] But them lamps give a dretful meller, soft light, when they are well mounted up, and firm sot. The light on 'em hain't to be compared to any other light on sea or on shore. It wrops 'em round so serene and glowin' that walks in it. It rests on their mild forwards in a sort of a halo that shines off on the hard things of this life and makes 'em endurable, takes the edge kinder off of the hardest, keenest sufferin's, and goes before 'em throwin' a light over the deep waters that must be passed, and sort o' melts in and loses itself in the ineffible radiance that streams out from acrost the other side. It is a curious light and a beautiful one. Isabelle jest journeyed in its full radiance. Wall, Isabelle would do what she sot out to do, you could see that by her face. Krit had brought her photograph with him--he thought his eyes of her--and I liked her looks first rate. It wuz a beautiful face, with more than beauty in it too. It wuz inteligent and serene, with the serenity of the sweet soul within. And it had a look deep down in the eyes, a sort of a shadow that is got by passin' through the Valley of Sorrow. I hearn afterwards what that look meant. Isabelle had been engaged to a smart, well-meanin' chap, Tom Freeman by name, not over and above rich, and one that had his own duties to attend to. Two helpless aged ones, and two little nieces to took care on, and nobody but himself to earn the money to do it with. The little nieces' Pa had gone to California after his wife's death--and hadn't been hearn from sence. The little children had been left with their grandparents and Uncle Tom to stay till their Pa got back. And as he didn't git back, of course they kept on a-stayin', and had to be took care on. They wuz bright little creeters, and the very apples of their eyes. But they cost money, and they cost love, and Tom had to give it, for they lost what little property they had about this time--and the feeble Grandma couldn't do much, and the Grandpa died not long after the eppisode I am about to relate. So it all devolved onto Tom. And Tom riz up to his duties nobly, though it wuz with a sad heart, as wuz spozed, for Isabelle, when she see what had come onto him to do, wouldn't hold him to his engagement--she insisted on his bein' free. I spoze she thought she wouldn't burden him with two more helpless ones, and then mebby she thought the two spans wouldn't mate very well. And most probable they would have been a pretty cross match. (I mean, that is, a sort of a melancholy, down-sperited yoke, and if anybody laughs at it, I would wish 'em to laugh in a sort of a mournful way.) Wall, Tom Freeman, after Isabelle sot him free, bein' partly mad and partly heart-broken, as is the way of men who are deep in love, and want their way, but anyway wantin' to keep out of the sight of the one who, if he couldn't have her for his own, he wanted to forgit--he packed up bag and baggage and went West. Isabelle wouldn't correspond with him, so she told him in that last hour--still and calm on the outside, and her heart a-bleedin' on the inside, I dare presoom to say; no, she wanted him to feel free. What creeters, what creeters wimmen be for makin' martyrs of themselves, and burnt sacrifices--sometimes I most think they enjoy it, and then agin I don't know! But Isabelle acted from a sense of duty, for she jest worshipped the ground Tom Freeman walked on, so everybody knew, and so she bid adieu to Tom and Happiness, and lived on. Wall, one of 'em must stay at home with the old folks, either she or Christopher Columbus. And when a man and a woman love each other as Isabelle and Krit did, when wuz it ever the case but what if there wuz any sacrificin' to do the woman wuz the one to do it. It is her nater, and I don't know but a real true woman takes as much comfort in bein' sort o' onhappy for the sake of some one she loves, as she would in swingin' right out and a-enjoyin' herself first rate. A woman who really loves anything has the makin' of a first-class martyr in her. And though she may not be ever tied to a stake, and gridirons be fur removed from her, still she has a sort of a silent hankerin' or aptitude for martrydom. That is, she would fur ruther be onhappy herself than to have the beloved object wretched. And if either of 'em has got to face trouble and privation, why she is the one that stands ready to face 'em. So Isabelle sent Krit off into the great world to conquer it if possible. And Krit, as the nater of man is, felt that he would ruther branch and work his way along through the World, and work hard and venter and dare and try to conquer fortune, than to set round and endure and suffer and be calm. Men are not, although they are likely creeters and I wish 'em well, yet truth compels me to say that they are not very much gin to follerin' this text, "To suffer and be calm." No, they had ruther rampage round and kill the lions in the way than to camp down in front of 'em and try to subdue 'em with kindness and long sufferin'. Krit, as the nateral nater of man is, felt that he could and would earn a good place in the World, win it with hard work, and then lift Isabelle up onto the high platform by the side of him. Though whether he had made any plans as how he wuz a-goin' to hist up the two feeble old invalids, that I can't state, not knowin'. But Isabelle, he did lay out to do well by her, thinkin' as he did such a amazin' lot of her, and knowin' how she gin up her own ambitious hopes for his sake, and knowin' well, though he didn't really feel free to interfere, how she had signed the death-warrant to her own happiness when she parted with Tom Freeman. But so it wuz. Wall, Krit wouldn't have to lift up the old folks onto any worldly hite, for the Lord took 'em up into His own habitation, higher I spoze than any earthly mount. About six months before Krit come to Jonesville, they both passed away most at the same time, and wuz buried in one grave. Wall, we all on us in Jonesville thought a sight of Krit before he had been with us a week. He had come partly to see a man in Jonesville on particular business, and partly to see us. He wuz a civil engineer, jest as civil and polite a one as I ever laid eyes on, and wuz a-doin' well, but Thomas Jefferson thought he could help him to a still better place and position. Thomas J. is very popular in Jonesville. He is doin' a big business all over the county, and is very influential. Wall, Krit's business bid fair to keep him for some time in Jonesville and the vicinity, and as he see that Josiah Allen and I wuz a-makin' preperations to go to the World's Fair--and bein' warmly pursuaded by us to that effect, he concluded to stay and accompany us thither. The idee wuz very agreeable to us. He said his sister Isabelle, after she wuz a little recooperated from her grief for the old folks, and recovered a little from the sickness that she had after they left her, she too laid out to come on to Chicago, and spend a few weeks. He wuz a-layin' out to reconoiter round and find a good place for her to board and take good care on her. He thought enough on her--yes, indeed. But, as he said, she wuz jest struck right down seemin'ly with her grief at the loss of them two old folks. You see, if your head has been a-restin' for some time on a piller, even if it is a piller of stun, when it is drawed out sudden from under you, your head jars down on the ground dretful heavy and hard. And when you've been carryin' a burden for a long time, when it is took sudden from you you have a giddy feelin', you feel light and faint and wobblin'. And then she loved 'em--she loved her poor old charges with a daughter's love and with all the love a mother gives to a helpless baby, with the pity added that gray hairs and toothless gums must amount to added up over the sum of dimples and ivory and coral that makes up a baby's beautiful helplessness. And they wuz took from her dretful sudden. There wuz a sort of a influenza prevailin' up round their way, and lots of strong healthy folks suckumbed to it, and it struck onto these poor old feeble ones some like simiters, and mowed 'em right down. The old lady wuz took down first, and her great anxiety wuz--"That Pa shouldn't know that she wuz so sick." But before she died, "Pa" in another room wuz took with it, and passed away a day before she did. She worried all that mornin' about "Pa," and--"How bad he would feel if he knew she wuz so sick!" But along late in the afternoon, when the Winter sun wuz makin' a pale reflection on the wall through the south winder, she looked up, and sez she-- "Why, there stands Pa right by my bed, and he wants me to git up and go with him. And, Isabelle, I must go." And she did. [Illustration: "Why, there stands Pa, and he wants me to git up and go with him."] And Isabelle wuz left alone. They wuz buried in one grave. And the funeral sermon, they say, wuz enough to melt a stun, if there had been any stuns round where they could hear it. Isabelle didn't hear it (don't git the idee that I am a-wantin' to compare her to a stun; no, fur from it). She wuz a-layin' to home on a bed, with her sad eyes bent on nothin'ess and emptiness and utter desolation, so it seemed to her. But after a time she begun to pick up a little, judgin' from her letters to her brother Krit. He had to leave her jest after the funeral on account of his business; for, civil as it wuz, it had to be tended to. CHAPTER II. Wall, we all enjoyed havin' Christopher there the best that ever wuz. For he wuz very agreeable, as well as oncommon smart, which two qualities don't always go together, as has often been observed by others, and I have seen for myself. Wall, it wuzn't more than a week or so after Krit arrived and got there, that another relation made his appearance in Jonesville. It wuz of 'em on his side this time--not like Krit, half hisen and half mine, but clear hisen. Clear Allen, with no Smith at all in the admixture. Proud enough wuz my pardner of him, and of himself too for bein' born his cousin. (Though that wuz onbeknown to him at the time, and he ort not to have gloried in it.) But tickled wuz he when word come that Elnathan Allen, Esquire, of Menlo Park, California, wuz a-comin' to Jonesville to visit his old friends. [Illustration: Tickled wuz he when word come.] That man had begun life poor--poor as a snipe; sometimes I used to handle that very word "Snipe" a-describin' Elnathan Allen's former circumstances to Josiah, when he got too overbearin' about him. For he had boasted to me about him for years, and years, and a woman can't stand only jest about so much aggravatin' and treadin' on before she will turn like a worm. That is Bible about "The Worm," and must be believed. What used to mad me the worst wuz when he would git to comparin' Elnathan with one of 'em on my side who wuz shiftless. Good land! 'Zekiel Smith hain't the only man on earth who is ornary and no account. Every pardner has 'em, more or less, on his side and on hern; let not one pardner boast themselves over the other one; both have their drawbacks. But Elnathan had done well; I admitted it only when I wuz too much put upon. He had gone fur West, got rich, invested his capital first rate, some on it in a big Eastern city, and had got to be a millionare. He wuz a widower with one child, The Little Maid, as he called her; he jest idolized her, and thought she wuz perfect. And I spoze she wuz oncommon, not from what her Pa said--no, I didn't take all his talk about her for Gospel; I know too much. But Barzelia Ann Allen (a old maid up to date) had seen her, had been out to California on a excursion train, and had staid some time with 'em. And she said that she wuz the smartest child this side of Heaven. With eyes of violet blue, big luminous eyes, that draw the hearts and souls of folks right out of their bodies when they looked into 'em, so full of radiant joy and heavenly sweetness wuz they. And hair of waving gold, and lips and cheeks as pink as the hearts of the roses that climbed all Winter round her winder--and the sweetest, daintiest ways--and so good to everybody, them that wuz poor and sufferin' most of all. Barzeel wuz always most too enthusiastick to suit me, but I got the idee from what she said that she wuz a oncommon lovely child. Good land! Elnathan couldn't talk about anything else--like little babblin' brooks runnin' towards the sea, all his talk, every anecdote he told, and every idee he sot forth, jest led up to and ended with that child. Jest like creeks. He worshipped her. And he himself told me so many stories about her bein' so good to the poor, and sacrificin' her little comforts for 'em--at her age, too--that I thought to myself, I wonder why you don't take some of them object lessons to heart--why you don't set down at her feet, and learn of her--and I wonder too where she took her sweet charity from, but spoze it wuz from her mother. Her mother had been a beautiful woman, so I had been told. She wuz a Devereaux--nobody that I ever knew, or Josiah. Celeste Devereaux. The little girl wuz named for her mother. But they always called her The Little Maid. Wall, to resoom, and to hitch my horse in front of the wagon agin. (Allegory.) Elnathan had left The Little Maid and her nurse in that Eastern city where he owned so much property, and had come on to pay a flyin' visit to Jonesville, not forgittin' Loontown, you may be sure, where a deceased Aunt had jest died and left her property to him. He wuz close. He had left The Little Maid in the finest hotel in the city, so he said. He had looked over more'n a dozen, so I hearn, before he could git one he thought wuz healthy enough and splendid enough for her. At last he selected one, standin' on a considerable rise of ground, with big, high, gorgeous rooms, and prices higher than the very topmost cupalo, and loftiest chimbly pot. Here he got two big rooms for The Little Maid, and one for the nurse. He got the two rooms for the child so's the air could circulate through 'em. [Illustration: Here he got two big rooms.] He wuz very particular about her havin' air of the very purest and best kind there wuz made, and the same with vittles and clothes, etc., etc., etc. Wall, while he wuz a-goin' on so about pure air and the values and necessities of it, I couldn't help thinkin' of what Barzelia had told me about that big property of hisen in the Eastern city where he had left The Little Maid. Here, in the very lowest part of the city, he owned hull streets of tenement housen, miserable old rotten affairs, down in stiflin' alleys, and courts, breeders of disease, and crime, and death. At first some on 'em fell into his hands by a exchange of property, and he found they paid so well, that he directed his agent to buy up a lot of 'em. Barzelia had told me all about 'em, she was jest as enthusiastick about what she didn't like as what she did; she said the money got in that way, by housin' the poor in such horrible pestilental places, seemed jest like makin' a bargain with Death. Rentin' housen to him to make carnival in. And while he wuz talkin' to such great length, and with such a satisfied and comfortable look onto his face, about the vital necessities of pure air and beautiful surroundin's, in order to make children well and happy, my thoughts kept a-roamin', and I couldn't help it. Down from the lovely spot where The Little Maid wuz, down, down, into the dretful places that Barzelia had told me about. Where squalor, and crime, and disease, and death walked hand in hand, gatherin' new victims at every step, and where the children wuz a-droppin' down in the poisinous air like dead leaves in a swamp. I kep a-thinkin' of this, and finally I tackled Elnathan about it, and he laughed, Elnathan did, and begun to talk about the swarms and herds of useless and criminal humanity a-cumberin' the ground, and he threw a lot of statisticks at me. But they didn't hit me. Good land! I wuzn't afraid on 'em, nor I didn't care anything about 'em, and I gin him to understand that I didn't. And in the cause of duty I kep on a-tacklin' him about them housen of hisen, and advisin' him to tear 'em down, and build wholesome ones, and in the place of the worst ones, to help make some little open breathin' places for the poor creeters down there, with a green tree now and then. And then agin he brung up the utter worthlessness, and shiftlessness, and viciousness of the class I wuz a-talkin' about. And then I sez--"How is anybody a-goin' to live pattern lives, when they are a-starvin' to death? And how is anybody a-goin' to enjoy religion when they are a-chokin'?" And then he threw some more statisticks at me, dry and hard ones too; and agin he see they didn't hit me, and then he kinder laughed agin, and assumed something of a jokelar air--such as men will when they are a-talkin' to wimmen--dretful exasperatin', too--and sez he-- "You are a Philosopher, Cousin Samantha, and you must know such housen as you are a-talkin' about are advantageous in one way, if in no other--they help to reduce the surplus population. If it wuzn't for such places, and for the electric wires, and bomb cranks, and accidents, etc., the world would git too full to stand up in." "Help to reduce the surplus population!" sez I, and my voice shook with indignation as I said it. Sez I-- "Elnathan Allen, you had better stop a-pilin' up your statisticks, for a spell, and come down onto the level of humanity and human brotherhood." Sez I, "Spozen you should take it to yourself for a spell, imagine how it would be with you if you had been born there onbeknown to yourself." Sez I, "If you wuz a-livin' down there in them horrible pits of disease and death--if you wuz a-standin' over the dyin' bed of wife or mother, or other dear one, and felt that if you could bring one fresh, sweet breath of air to the dear one, dyin' for the want of it, you would almost barter your hopes of eternity-- "If you stood there in that black, chokin' atmosphere, reekin' with all pestilental and moral death, and see the one you loved best a-slippin' away from you--borne out of your sight, borne away into the onknown, on them dead waves of poisinous, deathly air--I guess you wouldn't talk about reducin' the Surplus Population." I had been real eloquent, and I knew it, for I felt deeply what I said. But Elnathan looked cheerful under all my talk. It didn't impress him a mite, I could see. He felt safe. He wuz sure the squalor and sufferin' never would or could touch him. He thought, in the words of the Him slightly changed, that: "He could read his title clear to Mansions with all the modern improvements." He and The Little Maid wuz safe. The world looked further off to him, the woes, and wants, and crimes of our poor humanity seemed quite a considerable distance away from him. Onclouded prosperity had hardened Elnathan's heart--it will sometimes--hard as Pharo's. But he wuz a visitor and one of the relations on his side, and I done well by him, killed a duck and made quite a fuss. The business of settlin' the estate took quite a spell, but he didn't hurry any. He said "the nurse wuz good as gold, she would take good care of The Little Maid. She wrote to him every day;" and so she did, the hussy, all through that dretful time to come. Oh dear me! oh dear suz! The nurse, Jean, had a sister who had come over from England with a cargo of trouble and children--after Jean had come on to California. And Elnathan, good-natured when he wuz a mind to be, had listened to Jean's story of her sister's woes, with poverty, hungery children, and a drunken husband, and had given this sister two small rooms in one of his tenement housen, and asked so little for them, that they wuz livin' quite comfortable, if anybody could live comfortable, in such a stiflin', nasty spot. Their rooms wuz on top of the house, and wuz kept clean, and so high up that they could get a breath of air now and then. But the way up to 'em led over a crazy pair of stairs, so broken and rotten that even the Agent wuz disgusted with 'em and had wrote a letter to Elnathan asking for new stairs, and new sanitary arrangements, as the deaths wuz so frequent in that particular tenement, that the Agent wuz frightened, for fear they would be complained of by the City Fathers--though them old fathers can stand a good deal without complainin'. Wall, the Agent wrote, but Elnathan wuz at that time buildin' a new orchid house (he had more'n a dozen of 'em before) for The Little Maid; she loved these half-human blossoms. And he wuz buildin' a high palm house, and a new fountain, and a veranda covered with carved lattice-work around The Little Maid's apartments. And a stained-glass gallery, leading from the conservatory to the greenhouses, and these other houses I have mentioned, so that The Little Maid could walk out to 'em on too sunny days, or when it misted some. And so he wrote back to his Agent, that "he couldn't possibly spend any money on stairs or plumbin' in a tenement house, for the repairs he wuz making on his own place at Menlo Park would cost more than a hundred thousand dollars--and he felt that he couldn't fix them stairs, and he thought anyway it wuzn't best to listen to the complaints of complaining tenants." And he ended in that jokelar way of hisen-- "That if you listened to 'em, and done one thing for 'em, the next thing they would want would be velvet-lined carriages to ride out in." And the Agent, havin' jest seen the tenth funeral a-wendin' out of that very house that week, and bein' a man of some sense, though hampered, wrote back and said--"Carriages wouldn't be the next thing that they would all want, but coffins." He said sence he had wrote to Elnathan more than a dozen had been wanted there in that very house, and the tenants had been borne out in 'em. (And laid in fur cleaner dirt than they wuz accustomed to there;) he didn't write this last--that is my own eppisodin'. And agin the Agent mentioned the stairs, and agin he mentioned the plumbin'. But Elnathan wuz so interested then and took up in tryin' to decide whether he would have a stained-glass angel or some stained-glass cherubs a-hoverin' over the gallery in front of The Little Maid's room, that he hadn't a mite of time to argue any further on the subject--so he telegrafted-- "No repairs allowed. Elnathan Allen." [Illustration: "No repairs allowed."] Wall, Elnathan had got the repairs all made, and the place looked magnificent. Good land! it ort to; the hull place cost more than a million dollars, so I have hearn; I don't say that I am postive knowin' to it. But Barzelia gits things pretty straight; it come to me through her. The Little Maid enjoyed it all, and Elnathan enjoyed it twice over, once and first in her, and then of course in his own self. But The Little Maid looked sort o' pimpin, and her little appetite didn't seem to be very good, and the doctor said that a journey East would do her good. And jest at this time the dowery in Loontown fell onto Elnathan, so that they all come East. Elnathan had forgot all about Jean havin' any relation in the big Eastern city where they stopped first--good land! their little idees and images had got all overlaid and covered up with glass angels, orchids, bank stock, some mines, palm-houses, political yearnin's, social distinction, carved lattice-work, some religious idees, and yots, and club-houses, etc., etc., etc. But when he decided to leave The Little Maid in the city and not bring her to Jonesville--(and I believe in my soul, and I always shall believe it, that he wuz in doubt whether we had things good enough for her. The idee! He said he thought it would be too much for her to go round to all the relatives--wall, mebby it wuz that! But I shall always have my thoughts.) But anyway, when he made up his mind to leave her, he gin the nurse strict orders to not go down into the city below a certain street, which wuz a good high one, and not let The Little Maid out of her sight night or day. [Illustration: He gin the nurse strict orders.] Wall, the nurse knew it wuz wrong--she knew it, but she did it. Jest as Cain did, and jest as David did, when he killed Ury, and Joseph's brother and Pharo, and you and I, and the relations on his side and on yourn. She knew she hadn't ort to. But bein' out a-walkin' with The Little Maid one day, a home-sick feelin' come over her all of a sudden. She wanted to see her sister--wanted to, like a dog. So, as the day wuz very fair, she thought mebby it wouldn't do any hurt. The sky was so blue between the green boughs of the Park! There had been a rain, and the glistenin' green made her think of the hedgerows of old England, where she and Katy used to find birds' nests, and the blue wuz jest the shade of the sweet old English violets. How she and Katy used to love them! And the blue too wuz jest the color of Katy's eyes when she last see them, full of tears at partin' from her. She thought of Elnathan's sharp orders not to go down into the city, and not to let The Little Maid out of her sight. Wall, she thought it over, and thought that mebby if she kep one of her promises good, she would be forgive the other. Jest as the Israelites did about the manny, and jest as You did when you told your wife you would bring her home a present, and come home early--and you bore her home a bracelet, at four o'clock in the mornin'. And jest as I did when I said, under the influence of a stirring sermon, that I wouldn't forgit it, and I would live up to it--wall, I hain't forgot it. But tenny rate, the upshot of the matter wuz that the nurse thought she would keep half of the Master's orders--she wouldn't let The Little Maid out of her sight. So she hired a cab--she had plenty of money, Elnathan didn't stent her on wages. He had his good qualities, Elnathan did. And she and The Little Maid rolled away, down through the broad, beautiful streets, lined with stately housen and filled with a throng of gay, handsome, elegantly clothed men, wimmen, and children. Down into narrower business streets, with lofty warehouses on each side, and full of a well-dressed, hurrying crowd of business men--down, down, down into the dretful street she had sot out to find. With crazy, slantin' old housen on either side--forms of misery filling the narrow, filthy street, wearing the semblance of manhood and womanhood. And worst of all, embruted, and haggard, and aged childhood. Filth of all sorts cumbering the broken old walks, and hoverin' over all a dretful sicknin' odor, full of disease and death. Wall, when they got there, The Little Maid (she had a tender heart), she wuz pale as death, and the big tears wuz a-rollin' down her cheeks, at the horrible sights and sounds she see all about her. Wall, Jean hurried her up the rickety old staircase into her sister's room, where Jean and Kate fell into each other's arms, and forgot the world while they mingled their tears and their laughter, and half crazy words of love and bewildered joy. The Little Maid sot silently lookin' out into the dirty, dretful court-yard, swarmin' with ragged children in every form of dirt and discomfort, squalor and vice. She had never seen anything of the kind before in her guarded, love-watched life. She didn't know that there wuz such things in the world. Her lips wuz quiverin'--her big, earnest eyes full of tears, as she started to go down the broken old stairs. And her heart full of desires to help 'em, so we spoze. But her tears blinded her. Half way down she stumbled and fell. The nurse jumped down to help her. She wuz hefty--two hundred wuz her weight; the stairs, jest hangin' together by links of planked rotteness, fell under 'em--down, down they went, down into the depths below. The nurse was stunted--not hurt, only stunted. But The Little Maid, they thought she wuz dead, as they lifted her out. Ivory white wuz the perfect little face, with the long golden hair hangin' back from it, ivory white the little hand and arm hangin' limp at her side. She wuz carried into Katy's room, a doctor wuz soon called. Her arm wuz broken, but he said, after she roused from her faintin' fit, and her arm wuz set--he said she would git well, but she mustn't be moved for several days. Jean, wild with fright and remorse, thought she would conceal her sin, and git her back to the hotel before she telegrafted to her father. Jest as you thought when you eat cloves the other night, and jest as I thought when I laid the Bible over the hole in the table-cover, when I see the minister a-comin'. Wall, the little arm got along all right, or would, if that had been all, but the poisonous air wuz what killed the little creeter. For five days she lay, not sufferin' so much in body, but stifled, choked with the putrid air, and each day the red in her cheeks deepened, and the little pulse beat faster and faster. And on the fifth day she got delerious, and she talked wild. She talked about cool, beautiful parks bein' made down in the stiflin', crowded, horrible courts and byways of the cities-- With great trees under which the children could play, and look up into the blue sky, and breathe the sweet air--she talked about fresh dewey grass on which they might lay their little hollow cheeks, and which would cool the fever in them. She talked about a fountain of pure water down where now wuz filth too horrible to mention. She talked _very_ wild--for she talked about them terrible slantin' old housen bein' torn down to make room for this Paradise of the future. Had she been older, words might have fallen from her feverish lips of how the woes, and evils, and crimes of the lower classes always react upon the upper. She might have pictured in her dreams the drama that is ever bein' enacted on the pages of history--of the sorely oppressed masses turnin' on the oppressors, and drivin' them, with themselves, out to ruin. Pages smeared with blood might have passed before her, and she might have dreamed--for she wuz _very_ delerious--she might have dreamed of the time when our statesmen and lawgivers would pause awhile from their hard task of punishin' crime, and bend their energies upon avertin' it-- Helpin' the poor to better lives, helpin' them to justice. Takin' the small hands of the children, and leadin' them away from the overcrowded prisons and penitentaries toward better lives-- When Charity (a good creeter, too, Charity is) but when she would step aside and let Justice and True Wisdom go ahead for a spell-- When co-operative business would equalize wealth to a greater degree--when the government would control the great enterprises, needed by all, but addin' riches to but few--when comfort would nourish self-respect, and starved vice retreat before the dawnin' light of happiness. Had she been older she might have babbled of all this as she lay there, a victim of wrong inflicted on the low--a martyr to the folly of the rich, and their injustice toward the poor. But as it wuz, she talked only with her little fever-parched lips of the lovely, cool garden. Oh, they wuz wild dreams, flittin', flittin', in little vague, tangled idees through the childish brain! But the talk wuz always about the green, beautiful garden, and the crowds of little children walkin' there. And on the seventh day (that wuz after Elnathan got there, and me and Josiah, bein' telegrafted to)-- On the seventh day she begun to talk about a Form she saw a-walkin' in the garden--a Presence beautiful and divine, we thought from her words. He smiled as he saw the happiness of the children. He smiled upon her, he wuz reachin' out his arms to her. And about evenin' she looked up into her father's face and knew him--and she said somethin' about lovin' him so--and somethin' about the beautiful garden, and the happy children there, and then she looked away from us all with a smile, and I spozed, and I always shall spoze, that the Divine One a-walkin' in the cool of the evenin' in the garden, the benign Presence she saw there, happy in the children's happiness, drew nearer to her, and took her in his arms--for it says-- "He shall carry the lambs in His bosom." That wuz two years ago. Elnathan Allen is a changed man, a changed man. I hain't mentioned the word surplus population to him. No, I hadn't the heart to. Poor creeter, I wuz good to him as I could be all through it, and so wuz Josiah. His hair got white as a old man's in less than two months. But with the same energy he brought to bear in makin' money he brought to bear on makin' The Little Maid's dream come true. He said it wuz a vision. And, poor creeter, a-doin' it all under a mournin' weed; and if ever a weed wuz deep, and if ever a man mourned deep, it is that man. Yes, Elnathan has done well; I have writ to him to that effect. He tore down them crazy, slantin', rotten old housen, and made a park of that filthy hole, a lovely little park, with fresh green grass, a fountain of pure water, where the birds come to slake their little thirsts. He sot out big trees (money will move a four-foot ellum). There is green, rustlin' boughs for the birds to build their nests in. Cool green leaves to wave over the heads of the children. They lay their pale faces on the grass, they throw their happy little hearts onto the kind, patient heart of their first mother, Nature, and she soothes the fever in their little breasts, and gives 'em new and saner idees. They hold their little hands under the crystal water droppin' forever from the outspread wings of a dove. They find insensibly the grime washed away by these pure drops, their hands are less inclined to clasp round murderous weepons and turn them towards the lofty abodes of the rich. They do not hate the rich so badly, for it is a rich man who has done all this for them. The high walls of the prison that used to loom up so hugely and threatingly in front of the bare old tenement housen--the harsh glare of them walls seem further away, hidden from them by the gracious green of the blossoming trees. The sunshine lays between them and its rough walls--they follow the glint of the sunbeams up into the Heavens. CHAPTER III. My beloved pardner is very easy lifted up or cast down by his emotions, and his excitement wuz intense durin' the hull of the long time that the warfare lasted as to where the World's Fair wuz to be held, where Columbus wuz goin' to be celebrated. I thought at the time, Josiah wuz so fearful riz up in his mind, that it wuz doubtful if he ever would be settled down agin, and act in a way becomin' to a grandfather and a Deacon in the M.E. meetin'-house. And it wuz a excitin' time, very, and the fightin' and quarrelin' between the rival cities wuz perilous in the extreme. It would have skairt Christopher, I'll bet, if he could have seen it, and he would have said that he would most ruther not be celebrated than to seen it go on. Why, New York and Chicago most come to hands and blows about it, and St. Louis wuz jest a-follerin' them other cities up tight, a-worryin' 'em, and a-naggin', and a sort o' barkin' at their heels, as it wuz, bound she would have it. They couldn't all on 'em have it. Christopher couldn't be in three places at one time and simultanous, no matter how much calculation he had about him. No, that wuz impossible. He had to be in one place. And they fit, and they fit, and they fit, till I got tired of the very name of the World's Fair, and Josiah got almost ravin' destracted. It seemed to me, and so I told Josiah, that New York wuz a more proper place for it, bein' as it wuz clost to the ocean, so many foreigners would float over here, them and their things that they wanted to show to the Fair. It would almost seem as if they would be tired enough when they got here, to not want to disemmark themselves and their truck, and then imegiatly embark agin on a periongor or wagon, or car, or sunthin, and go a-trailin' off thousands of milds further. And then go through it all agin disembarkin' and unloadin' their truck, and themselves. Howsumever, I spozed if they sot out for the Fair from Africa, or Hindoostan, or Asia, I spozed they would keep on till they got there, if they had to go the hull length of the Misisippi River, and travelled in more'n forty different conveniences, etc., etc. But it didn't seem so handy nor nigh. But Chicago is dretful worrysome and active, jest like all children who have growed fast, and kinder outgrowed their clothes and family goverment. She is dretful forward for one of her years, and she knows it. She knows she is smart, and she is bound to have her own way if there is any possible way of gittin' it. And she had jest put her foot right down, that have that Fair she would. And like as not if she hadn't got it she would have throwed herself and kicked. I shouldn't wonder a mite if she had. But she jest clawed right in, and tore round and acted, and jawed, and coaxed, and kinder cried, and carried the day, jest as spilte children will, more'n half the time. Not but what New York wuz a-cuttin' up and a-actin' jest as bad, accordin' to its age. But Chicago wuz younger and spryer, and could kick stronger and cut up higher. New York wuz older and lamer, as you may say, its jints wuz stiffer, and it had lost some of its faculties, which made it dretful bad for her. It wuz forgetful; it had spells of kinder losin' its memory, and had had for years. Now, when the Great General died, why New York cut up fearful a-fightin' for the honor of havin' him laid to rest in its borders. Why, New York fairly riz up and kicked higher than you could have spozed it wuz possible for her to kick at her age, and hollered louder than you could have spozed it wuz possible with her lungs. When Washington, the Capital of this Great Republic, expressed a desire to have the Saviour of his Country sleep by the side of the Founder of it--why, New York acted fairly crazy, and I believe she wuz for a spell. Anyway, I believe she had a spazzum. Her wild demeanor wuz such, her snorts, her oritorys, resounded on every side, and wuz heard all over the land. She acted crazy as a loon till she got her way. She promised if she could have the Hero sleep there, she would build a monument that would tower up to the skies. [Illustration: If she could have the Hero sleep there, she would build a monument that would tower up to the skies.] The most stupendious, the most impressive work of art that wuz ever wrought by man. Wall, she got her way. Why, she cut up so, that she had to have it, seemin'ly. Wall, did she do as she agreed? No, indeed. She had one of her forgetful spells come right on her, a sort of a stupor, I guess, a-follerin' on after a bein' too wild and crazy about gittin' her way. And anyway, year after year passed, and no monument wuz raised, not a sign of one. She lied, and she didn't seem to care if she had lied. There the grave of the Great One wuz onmarked by even a decent memorial, let alone the great one they said they would raise. And when the Great Ones of the Old World--the renowned in Song and Story and History--when they ariv in New York, most their first thoughts wuz to visit the Grand Tomb of our Hero-- The one who their rulers had delighted to honor--the one who had been welcomed in the dazzlin' halls of their Kings. And them halls had felt honored to have his shadow rest on 'em as he passed through 'em to audiences with royalty. They journeyed to that tomb. Some on 'em had been used to stand by the tombs of their own great dead under the magestic aisles of Westminster Abbey, whose lofty glories dwarfs the human form almost to a pigmy. Some had stood by the white marble poem of the Tag Megal in India, wherein a royal soul has carved his love for a woman. If that race, to whom we send missionaries to civilize them, could raise such a tomb over its dead, and a woman too, who had done no great things, only loved the man who raised this incomparable monument over her--what could they expect to find raised by this great and dominant race over the dead form of the man who had saved the hull country from ruin? So with feelin's of awe and wonder in their hearts, expectin' to see they knew not what, the awestruck, admirin' foreigner paused before the tomb of the Great Leader--and he see nothin'. Not even a respectable grave-stun, such as you see in any New England graveyard. (Or that has been the case till very lately. But now things look a little brighter in the monument line.) But it has been a shame, and a burnin' one, so burnin' that it has seemed to me that it would take all the cool blue waters that glide along below, a-complainin' of the slight and insult to our Hero--it would take more than all these waters to wash it out and make the country clean agin. But she had one of her spells, and whether she wuz well or whether she wuz sick, New York lied jest like a dog about it. Whether she wuz crazy or not, the fact remained that she had bragged, and then gin out; had promised, and not performed. I believe she wuz out of her head. Then there wuz the same kind of a performance she went through with the Goddess of Liberty. When France had gin that beautiful and most wondeful creeter to us as a present, it looked sort o' shabby in New York to not provide a platform for that female to stand up on. Now, didn't it? She a-offerin' to light up the world if she only had a place to stand up on--and the great continent of America not bein' willin' to gin it to her. [Illustration: She a-offerin' to light up the world, if she only had a place to stand up on.] New York talked--oh, yes, it wuz a-goin' to do great things! Oh, what a big, noble door-step it wuz a-layin' out to rize up for that goddess to stand on! But there it wuz, New York had one of her spells agin, lost her faculties, forgot all about what she said she wuz a-goin' to do--and left that noble female, left that princely present to lay round in a heap, a perfect imposition to France and to human nater. The idee of a goddess with no place to stand up on! The Great Republic a-stretchin' out on each side, and no place for her feet to rest on. And no knowin' but she would have been a-layin' round to-day, all broke up and onjinted, if it hadn't been for a public-sperited newspaper man, who took the matter up, and worked at it, and called public attention to it, till at last it got a place for the goddess to be histed up on her feet, and rest her legs a spell, all crumpled up under her. The idee of a goddess, and such a goddess, a layin' round with her legs all doubled up under her, and all broke up--the idee! Then it got the Centenial Exhibition there. And it wuzn't no more than right, what it promised and bound itself to do, to make some triumphal arches for the processions to walk under, a-triumphin'. Why, she vowed and declared solemn that she would make 'em if she could have it there. They wuz goin' to be, accordin' to her tell, accordin' to what New York said about it, about the most gorgus and impressive arches that ever wuz arched over anybody, fur or near, anywhere. Now, after it got the exhibition there, did it make 'em? No, indeed. It had another spell come on, clean forgot all about it. And there the Columbian Exposition come and no arch for it to walk under, not a arch, only some old boards nailed up, some like a barn door, only higher. [Illustration : Wooden arch] Wall, you see these kind o' crazy spells, losin' its faculties every once in a while, made it dretful hard for New York. I believe she would got the World's Fair if it hadn't been for that. But the question would keep a-comin' up, and the country had to pay attention to it--what if she got the World's Fair, and then had another fit! What if she had another spell come on, and forgot all about it! And lo! and behold! have the World's Fair sail up and halt in front of her and she not have any place for it, and mebby be out of her head so she couldn't remember nothin', wouldn't remember who Christopher wuz, or anythin'. No; the hull country felt that it wuz resky, and that, I have always spozed, wuz one reason why New York lost it. And then, as I have said heretofore, Chicago wuz jest bound to have it, and she did. But then, if you'll believe it, jest like any spilte young child that cries for another big apple when both its hands are full of 'em--it hadn't no place for it. It had got the World's Fair, but hadn't got any place to put it. The idee! Jest crazy to have it, cried and yelled, and acted, (metafor) till it got it. And then, lo! and behold! where wuz she goin' to put it? Hadn't a place big enough, or ready for it. Of course she had the lake. But she didn't want to drownd it, after makin' such a fuss over it; it wouldn't have seemed very horsepitable. And she didn't really want to put it out onto a prairie. And she couldn't put it right round under her feet, where it would git trampled on, and git bruised, and knocked round; that wouldn't be a-usin' Christopher Columbus as he ort to be used. And, as I say, she wuz honorable enough to not want to put it in the lake. And so, after worryin' and takin' on, and talkin' month after month about it, she concluded to split the Christopher Columbus World's Fair into some like this--put the Christopher part on a stagin' built out into the lake, and the Columbus part back a ways into the park. Wall, I didn't make no objections to it; I thought I wouldn't say a word or make a move to break it up, or make their burdens any heavier. No; I jest stood still and see it go on. Only I did talk some out to one side to my Josiah about it, about the curiosity of their behavior. Sez I, "It seems as if, after what Columbus done for the country, he ort to be kep hull, and not be broke into, and split apart. But howsumever," sez I, "I sha'n't make any move to stop it." And Josiah sez "he guessed it wouldn't make much difference whether I made a move or not. He guessed Chicago could take care of its own business, and would do it." I wuz a-pinnin' the outside onto a comforter, and I had a lot of pins in my mouth, but before I put 'em in I sez-- "Wall, it looks kind o' shiftless to me, to think they hadn't no place to put it, after all their actions." And as I resoomed my work, he went on: "Now, you imagine how you would feel, Samantha Allen, if you had bought a big elephant, bigger than Jumbo, and you knew it wuz on its way here, approachin' nearer and nearer--had got as fur as Old Bobbet's, and we hadn't a place to put it in that wuz suitable and strong enough--we couldn't git her head hardly in the stable, we couldn't leave her out doors to rampage round and step over barns and knock down housen, and we couldn't git it offen our hands any way, kill it, or give it away--how would you feel?" [Illustration: We couldn't git her head hardly in the stable.] Then I took my pins out of my mouth, and sez-- "I wouldn't have bought the elephant till I had measured my barn." Then I put my pins in my mouth agin, for I thought like as not that I wouldn't have to use my tongue agin. I didn't lay out to, for my mouth wuz full, and I wuz in a hurry for my comforter. But Josiah sez, "O shaw! lots of folks buy things they hadn't no idee of buyin' till they see somebody else wants 'em bad. "I remember that is the way I come to buy that two-year colt; I hadn't a idee of wantin' it till I see Old Bobbet and Deacon Sypher jest sot on havin' it, and that whetted me right up, and I wuz jest bound to have that colt, and did. I didn't expect to find it profitable any of the time. I knew it would kick like the old Harry and smash things, and it did. "And that is jest the way with Chicago; she knew the World's Fair wuzn't over and above profitable to have round, besides bein' dretful bothersome, but she see New York and St. Louis a-dickerin' for it, and then she wanted it." "Wall," sez I, considerable dry and sharp, for I had three pins in my mouth at the time-- "She has got it!" "Yes," sez Josiah, "and you'll see that she will put in and work lively, now she's got it; she'll show what she can do." "Yes," sez I, dryer than ever, and more sharper; "before she got a stun laid for a foundation to rest the World's Fair on, before she got a stick laid for Christopher to plant one of his feet on, she begun to buy up hull streets of housen to rig up for saloons, to make men drunk as fools, to make murderers and assassins of 'em. "I wonder what Columbus would say if he could stand there and see it go on." "He'd probable step in and take a drink," sez Josiah. "Never," sez I. "The eye that could discover without actual sight, the soul that could apprehend without comprehension--that could look fur off into the mist of the onknown, and see a New World risin' up before his rapt vision--such a eye and such a soul didn't depend on bad whiskey for its stimulent. No, indeed! "He didn't lay round in bar-rooms with a red nose, and a stagger onto him. He wuz up and about, with his senses all straight, and the star he follered wuzn't the light of a corner saloon. "No, indeed! He see the invisible. He wuz beloved of God, and hearn secrets that coarser minds round him never dremp of. He didn't try to cloy up them Heavenly senses with whiskey. No, indeed! "And Isabella now, if that likely creeter could be sot down in front of that long street of grog-shops, she would almost be sorry she ever sold her jewelry, she would be so sot back by seein' that awful sight." "O shaw!" sez Josiah, "she didn't sell her jewelry." "Wall, she wuz willin' to," sez I. "Id'no as she wuz. She jest talked about it; wimmen must talk or bust anyway, they are made so." "How are men made?" sez I dryly, as dry as ever a corncob wuz, after many years. "Oh, men are made so's they try to answer wimmen some--they have to; they have to keep their hand in so's to not lose their speech on that very account. I presume Columbus knew all about such things. He had two wives; he knew what trouble wuz." I see that man wuz a-tryin' every way to draw my attention away offen them long streets of saloons built up in Chicago, and I wouldn't suckumb to it. So I branched right out, and back agin, and sez I-- "The idee of a civilized city, after eighteen hundred years of Christianaty--the idee of their doin' sunthin' that if savage Africans or Inguns wuz a-doin' the World would ring with it, and missionaries would start for 'em on the run, or by the carload. "There is a awful fuss made about a cannibal eatin' a man now and then, makin' a good plain stew of him, or a roast, and that is the end of it; they eat up his flesh, but they don't make no pretensions to fry up his soul; they leave that free and pure, and it goes right up to Heaven. "But here in our Christian land, in city and country, this great man-eatin' trade costs the country over a billion dollars a year, and devours one hundred and twenty thousand men each year, and destroys the soul and mind first, before it tackles the body. "They go as fur ahead of cannibals in this wickedness as eternity is longer than time. "And the Goverment, this great beneficent Goverment, that looks down with pity on oncivilized races--the Goverment of the United States sells and rents this man-eater and soul-destroyer at so much a year. "If I had my way," sez I, a-gittin' madder and madder the more I thought on't-- "If I had my way I'd bring over a hull drove of cannibals and Hottentots, etc., and let 'em camp round Uncle Sam a spell, and try to reform him. "And the first thing I would have 'em make that old man do would be to empty out his pockets, turn 'em right inside out and empty out all the accursed gains he had got from this shameful traffic. And then I'd have them cannibals jest trot that old man right round to every saloon and rum-hole he had rented and wuz a partner in the proceeds, and make him lay to and empty out every barrel and hogset of whiskey and beer and cider, and make him do the luggin' and liftin' his own self. "And then I'd let them Hottentots drive him round a spell to all the houses of infamy in which he wuz in partnership, and I'd make him haul some matches out of his pockets and set fire to 'em, and burn 'em all down, every one of 'em. "And then I'd let the old man set down and rest a spell, and let them heathens instruct him and teach him a spell their way of man-eatin'. And I'll bet after a while they could git the old man up to their level, so if he sot out to kill a man, he would jest kill him, and not destroy his soul first. For he hain't upon a level with 'em now," sez I, a-lookin' firm and decided at my pardner. And he sez, "I shouldn't think you would dast to talk so about Uncle Sam; you have always pretended to like him--you would never bear to hear a word agin him." "Wall," sez I, "it is because I like him that I want him to do right. Do you spoze a mother don't like a child when she spanks him for temper, or blisters him for croup, or gives him worm-wood for worms? "I love that old man, and wish him awful well, and when I see him so noble and sot up in lots of things, it jest makes me mad as a hen to see him so awful mean and little in others. [Illustration: "I love that old man, and wish him awful well."] "I wouldn't think I liked him half so well if I sot down and see him stalk right on to his own ruin, and not try to stop him. "Do you spoze a ma would set and let the child she loved throw himself into the fire because he got mad? No; she would haul him back, and the more he kicked and struggled the more she would hang on, and like as not spank him. "I want this country to be the Light of the World, the favored of Heaven, and the admiration of all the different nations that will camp round it at the Christopher Columbus Exhibition. But they can't be expected to uphold no such doin's as these, let alone admirin' of 'em." Sez Josiah, "It beats all how wimmen will run on if a man gits drunk. Why don't you pitch into him, instead of blamin' the Goverment?" And I sez, "If you go to work to move a tree you don't pull on the top branches. Of course they are more showy and easy to git holt of. But you have to dig the roots out if you want to move the tree." Josiah looked real indifferent. He hain't like me in lots of things; he is more for dabblin' on the surface than divin' down under the water for first causes, and he spoke up the minute I had finished my last words, and sez he-- "Krit and Thomas Jefferson are a-comin' here to dinner; they are goin' up to Zoar on business, and are a-goin' to stop as they come back. And I should think it wuz about time you got sunthin' started." And I sez, "The boys a-comin' here to dinner! Why'e--why didn't you tell me so?" And I got right up and went to makin' a lemon puddin'. CHAPTER IV. I knew Thomas J. wuz a-layin' out to go up to Zoar some day that week to see about a young chap to stay in his office while he wuz at the World's Fair, and it seemed that Krit had gone along for company and for the ride. Them two young fellers love to be together. They are both as smart as whips--the very keenest, snappiest kind of whips. Wall, I laid out to git a good dinner, that wuz my calm intention; and I sent out Josiah Allen to ketch two plump pullets, I a-layin' out to stuff 'em with the particular kind of dressin' that Thomas J. is partial to. It is a good dressin'. And then I wuz a-layin' out to have some nice mashed-up potatoes, some early sweet peas, some lemon puddin', besides some coffee, jest as Thomas J. likes it--rich, golden coffee, with plenty of cream in it; and then besides I wuz goin' to have one or two vegetables that Josiah liked, and some jellys, etc., that Krit wuz particular fond of. Oh, I wuz goin' to have a good dinner, there hain't a doubt of that! Oh, and I wuz goin' to have some delicious soup too, to start off the dinner with! I got the receipt of Job Pressley's wife and improved on it, (though I wouldn't want her to know I said it, she is jealous dispositioned.) But I did. Wall, if you'll believe it, jest as I wuz a-finishin' my dressin', addin' the last ingregient to it, and my mind wuz all on a strain to have it jest right-- All of a sudden Josiah Allen rushed in all out of breath, and hollered to me for a rope. "A rope?" sez I, bein' took aback. "Yes, a long, stout rope," sez he, a-standin' still and a-breathin' hard. Why, he looked that wild and agitated and wrought up, that the idee passed through my mind: Is that man a-contemplatin' suicide? Does he want to hang himself? But, as I sez, the idee only jest passed through my fore-top; it didn't find any encouragement to stay--it went through on the trot, as you may say. No, my noble-minded pardner never would commit suicide, I knew. But his looks wuz fearful, and I sez, almost tremblin'-- "What do you want the rope for? I don't know of any rope, only the bed-cord up in the old chamber." At these words, that agitated, skairt man rushed right upstairs, I a-follerin' him, summer-savory still in my hands, and fear and tremblin' in my mean. And I see him dash up to the old bedstead in the attick, dash off the bedclothes and the feather-bed, and beginnin' oncordin' of it. I then laid hands on him, and commanded him to desist. "I won't desist," sez he, "I won't desist." There wuz I, still a-holdin' him by the back of his frock--he had on his barn clothes. "Then do you tell your pardner the meanin' of your actions imegetly and to once." "I hain't got time," sez he, and oh! how he wuz onriddlin' that old bedstead of the rope; the fuzz fairly flew offen the rope as he yanked it through them holes, and twice I wuz hit by it voyalently in my face, as I strove to hold him, and elicit some information out of him. But I could git nothin' but hard breathin' and muttered oathes till the bed-cord wuz all onloosened, and then he gathered it over his arm and started on the run for the door, I a-follerin'. And then I see that there stood Old Bobbet, Sime Yerden, Deacon Sypher, and, in fact, most all the men in the neighborhood and some beyend it, some from the Loontown road, and some from over towards Shackville. There wuz more'n twenty of 'em. And I sez, and I almost fainted as I sez it-- "Has another war broke loose, or is it a wild animal from a circus? Tell me, oh, tell me what it is!" And one on 'em hollered, "It is a wild beast in human shape, but he won't be a wild beast much longer!" And he pinted to the rope he had on his arm. And I see then the fearful meanin' hangin' round that bed-cord. I see that others had 'em, and I see that hangin' wuz about to take place and ensue. And I besought Josiah Allen "to pause, to stay a little, to tell me what it all meant, to not take the law into his own hands." I poured out words like a flood, I wuz inkoherent in the extreme, and my words wuz vain. But Josiah Allen--oh, how that man loves me! He darted back, throwed a paper at my feet, and hollered-- "That will explain, Samantha!" And then he wuz gone; I see 'em divide into four parties, and go towards the woods, and towards the hills, and towards the creek, and towards the beaver medder, each party havin' a rope, and I sez solemn like, before I thought-- "May God have mercy on your poor soul!" I spoze I meant the one they wuz after, and mebby I meant them that wuz after him, I don't know; I wuz too inkoherent and wrought up to know what I did mean. But I know I sot down and read that paper as quick as I could find my specks. And I well remember that after huntin' high and low for 'em and all over the house with tremblin' knees and shaky hands cold as a frog's, I found 'em on my own fore-top, and I sot right down in my tracts and read. Well, it wuz enough to melt the heart of a stun, a granit stun, and as I sot there and read, the tears jest run down my face in a stream; why, they fell so that they wet the front of my gingham dress wet as sop, and ontirely onbeknown to me. But I kep a-thinkin' to myself, "Oh, that poor little creeter! Oh, them poor, poor creeters that loved her! Oh, that poor mother!" And then anon I would say to myself, "Oh, what if it wuz my Tirzah Ann! What if it wuz the Babe! Oh, that villian; may the Lord punish him!" And that is jest the way I sot, and wept, and cried, and cried and wept. You see, the way it wuz, there wuz a sweet little girl, only ten years old, decoyed by a lyin' excuse from her warm, cosey home at midnight by a villian, and took through the snowy, icy streets to her doom. Her little cold body wuz found in an empty old barn, and her destroyer, her murderer, had fled. But men wuz on his tracts, the hull country wuz roused, and they wuz huntin' him down, as if he wuz a wild animal, as indeed he wuz. But anon, as I read the paper over again, I see these words--"The man was intoxicated." And then I begun to weep on the other end of my handkerchief (metafor). And then, when other accounts come out, and the man wuz ketched, he swore, and swore solemn, too, that he did not remember one single solitary thing after he left that saloon where he got his drink till he sobered up and found himself by the side of that little dead body. And other witnesses swore that they see him drunk as a fool before he sot out on his murderous and worse than murderous assault. But from the time of the first tidings that come of the deed that had been done--though the excitement wuz more rampant that I ever knew it to be, and every single man in the community wuz out bloodthirsty for his death, and every party a-carry-in' a rope to hang him, and every woman a-lookin' out eager to see him hung, and all on 'em a-cursin' him, and a-weepin' over what he had done-- Durin' all this time, not one word did I hear uttered agin the cause of his crime, agin the man who sold him what made him a murderer, and worse, or the man that supplied the saloon with this damnable liquid. No, not a single word did I hear from a Jonesvillian, male or female. And not one word from my pardner, though his excitement wuz so extreme that that night, jest about dusk, he rushed out thinkin' that he had got the murderer, and throwed the rope round Deacon Sypher, who had come over to borrow an auger. And once in a similer way he ketched Old Bobbet, his excitement and zeal wuz so rampant and intense. [Illustration: He rushed out and throwed the rope around Deacon Sypher.] Them old men wuz mad as hens, and cause enough they had, though they forgive him when they see what a state he wuz in, and they jest about as bad themselves. But not a word from them, nor from any one did I hear durin' the hull time the excitement rained--and oh! how it did rain--about the cause of the crime. Not one man waded in and dived down into the deep undercurrent of causes, that strange deep that underlays all human actions. And once durin' the last day's hunt for the murderer, who wuz hidin' round somewhere--it wuz spozed in the woods--I see as I looked out of my kitchen winder, at a party headed for our swamp, one man fur more ferocious actin' than any I had seen; he wuz a-hollerin' wilder, and he carried a fur longer rope. And I asked my companion who that man wuz that acted madder and fur more fiercer than any of the rest and more anxious to git holt of the escapin' man, so he could be hung up to once to the highest tree that could be found. I hearn him say that right out of my own kitchen winder--I hearn him say-- "We won't wait for no law; if we only ketch him we will hang him up so high that the buzzards can't git him." And then he yelled out savage and fierce and started off on a run for the swamp, the rest of the men applaudin' him up high, and follerin' on after him. And Josiah told me that wuz the saloon-keeper up to Zoar. Sez I, "The very man that sold that poor sinner the licker on that night?" "Yes," sez Josiah. "Wall," sez I, "the rope ort to be used on his own neck." And Josiah Allen acted awfully horrified at my idee, and asked me "if I wuz as crazy as a loon?" And sez he, "He has been one of the fiercest ones to head him off that has been out." And I sez dryly--dry as a chip, "He wuzn't so fierce to head him off the night he sold him the whiskey and hard cider." Sez I, "That headin' off would have amounted to sunthin'." And agin I sez, "The rope ort to be used on his own neck, if it is on anybody's, his and Uncle Sam's." And agin Josiah Allen asked me, "If I wuz as crazy as a dumb loon and a losin' my faculties--what few of 'em you ever had," sez he. And I sez, "The two wuz in partnership together, and they got the man to do the murder." Sez I, "Most all the murders that are done in this country are done by that firm--the Goverment and the Saloon-keeper. And when their poor tools, that they have whetted up for bloodshed, swing out through their open doors and cut and slash and mow down their ghastly furrows of crime and horrer, who is to blame?" And Josiah turned over the almanac to the yeller cover and perused it, so's to show his perfect and utter indifference and contempt for my words. Wall, they ketched the man a day or two after, about sundown. He had been a little ahead of his pursuers, a-dodgin' 'em this way and that way, jest like a fox a-dodgin' a pack of hounds. His old rubber boots wuz all wore offen him, his clothes hangin' in rags and tatters where he had rushed through the woods and swamps, his feet and hands all froze. Half starved, and almost idiotic with fear and remorse and the effects of the poisoned licker and doctored cider he had drinked, he wuz the most pitiful and wretched-lookin' object I ever see in my hull life. And it happened he wux took a little over a mile from us, and he wuz brung right by our door. There wuz some officers in the party, so they interfered and kep the mob from hangin' him right up by the neck. They said they had to hold that saloon-keeper to keep his hands offen him, and they said that in spite of all he did git the rope round him. But the officers interfered, and after that they had to hold the saloon-keeper to keep him from the prisoner. And I sez, when Josiah was a-praisin' up the saloon-keeper's zeal, and how the officers had to hold him-- I sez, "It is a pity the officers didn't hold him in the first place, and then all the horrer and tragedy might have been saved." But my pardner wouldn't even notice a thing I said. He felt, I could see, that my remarks wuz indeed beneath his notice. Wall, I stood and see this poor, weak, despairin' victim of rum dragged off to a felon's doom, dragged off to the scaffold, and one of his chief draggers wuz the one that caused his crime--caused it accordin' to law. And the rest of his draggers wuz the ones who had voted to have the trade of murderer makin' and child killin' and villian breedin' perpetuated and kep up. And the Goverment of the United States hung him, the same Goverment that wuz in partnership with that saloon up in Zoar, and took part of the pay for makin' this man murder that innocent little girl. Wall, Josiah and me, we went to that funeral. I felt that I must go, and so did he; it wuz only about five milds from here, in the Methodist Episcopal Meetin'-House up to Zoar. Her father and mother wuz members in good standin'. Lots of Jonesvillians went to the funeral; there hadn't been such a excitement in Zoar and Jonesville sence Seth Widrik murdered his wife's mother with a broad axe (and that wuz done through whiskey, so they say; it wuz done before my time). The Meetin'-House in Zoar wuz crowded to its utmost capacity and the ceilin'. And seats wuz sot in all the aisles, and the pulpit stairs wuz full of folks, and the door-steps, and the front yard wuz packed full. We went early, and got a seat. [Illustration: Wall, Josiah and me, we went to that funeral.] All the ministers of Zoar, and Jonesville, and Loontown, and Shackville wuz there, and of all the sermons that wuz preached--wall, it wuz a sight. The tears jest run down most everybody's face, and when the mourners wuz addressed, why, big, hefty men all round me jest boohooed right out. Why, it wuz enough to melt a stun. Then the preacher depictered that little golden head that had made sunshine in her home through the darkest days, as bein' brung low by an asassin. Then he spoke of that sweet little silvery voice a-ringin' through the home and the hearts of her father and mother, of how it wuz lifted up in vain appeal to her slayer that dretful night. Then he spoke of the tender white arms that clung so lovingly round her parent's neck, how they wuz lifted up in frantic appeal and vain to her destroyer that bleak night, and wuz now folded up to be lifted no more till she met that man at the bar of God. And then the little arm would be raised and point him out "murderer." The sweet eyes, full of God's avenging wrath, would smite him as accursed from God's presence forever. And then he depictered it all how she would be taken to His own heart by Him "who said that He would carry the lambs in His bosom." And this poor wounded lamb, He would hold more tenderly than any other, while the murderer! the villian! the asassin! would be hurled downward into everlasting burning, where he would dwell forever and forever in the midst of unquenchable flames, in partial payment of that deed of hisen. Why, when he said them last words about the prisoner, folks looked so relieved and pleased that their tears almost dried. And the saloon-keeper, who sot right in front of me, hollered out--"Amen, amen, so mote it be!" He wuz a Methodist, he had a right to holler. And folks looked approvin' at him for it. But I didn't--no, fur from it. I kep up a-thinkin' what I read-- "That the prisoner wuz a good-hearted man, only drink made a fiend and a fool of him." And that he said solemn "that he did not remember one thing that had taken place after he had taken his three first drinks up in that saloon, till he sobered up and found himself in that deserted old barn, with the little dead body by his side, little delicate creeter, dead and frozen, with all of the black future of desperate remorse and agony for him a-lookin' at him in the stare of her open blue eyes." Sweet little forget-me-not eyes, like two spring violets frozen in a drift of snow. What strange things I read in 'em, with my tears a-fallin' fast onto 'em! They seemed full of mute questionin'. They seemed to be lookin' up through the blue sky clear up to God's throne. They seemed to almost compel a answer from divine justice as to what wuz the cause of her murder. To appeal dumbly to the God of Justice and Mercy to wipe out this curse from our land--the curse that wuz causin' jest such murders, and jest such agonies, all over our land--sendin' out to the gallows and down to perdition jest such criminals. The little coffin had to be put out in the yard, as I say, so the crowd could walk past it. And there the little golden head and white face lay for 'em all to see. But nobody seemed to see in 'em what I see. For amongst the many curses of the murderer that I heard, not one word did I hear about the man that caused the murder, about the voters and upholders of that man, about the Goverment that wuz in partnership with that man and went shares with him, and for the sake of a few cents had dealt out that agony, that shame, and that criminality. [Illustration: Not one word did I hear about the Goverment that wuz in partnership with that man.] Wall, the little coffin wuz closed at last, the mother wuz carried faintin', and lookin' like a dead woman, back to her empty, darkened home. The father, with a face like white marble, curbin' down his own agonized grief so's to take care of her, and try to bring her back to the world agin, so they could together face its blackness and emptiness. And the crowd dispersed, lookin' forward to the excitement of the hangin'. And the saloon-keeper went home and mebby counted over the few cents that accrued to him out of the hull enterprise. And the wise male voters returned, a-calculatin' (mebby) on votin' for license so's to improve the condition of their towns. And Uncle Sam, poor, childish old creeter, mebby wrote down aginst this hull job--"three cents revenue." And mebby he rattled them cents round in his old pockets. I don't know what he did; I hain't no idee what he won't take it into his old head to do. And the prisoner sot in his dark, cold cell, and didn't appreciate, mebby, the wisdom of the wise law-makers increasin' our revenues by such means. No; he had all he could do to set and look at the bare stun walls, and figger out this sum--on one side the three cents profit; and substract from it--a bright young life ended, lifelong agony to the hearts that loved her. His own old mother's and sister's heads and hearts bowed down in shame and sorrow. His own hopeful life cut short at the edge of the scaffold, and for the future--what? He couldn't quite work that out, for this text kep comin' into his sum--"No drunkard shall inherit eternal life." And then another text kep a-comin' up-- "Cursed is he that putteth the cup to his neighbor's lips." No, he didn't feel the triumphant wisdom of the licker traffic. He wouldn't feel like rattlin' the three cents round in his pockets if he had 'em, but he didn't have 'em. His sum, no matter how many times he figgered it out, stood nothin' but orts, nothin' but clear loss to him, here and hereafter. Wall, I have rode off considerable of a ways with my wagon hitched on in front of my horse, and to go back to the horse's head agin. I had a good dinner by the time the boys got back from Zoar--a excellent one. And in order to go on with my story, and keep right by that horse's head I spoke of, I will pass over Josiah's excitement when he come in jest before dinner, and throwed his rope down in the corner of the kitchen; but suffice it to say, his excitement wuz nearly rampant. I will pass over the two boys' indignant anger, which wuz jest the same as mine, only stronger, as much stronger as man's strength is stronger than a woman's. Thomas J. had been successful in gittin' the young chap; he wuz a-comin' when he wuz wanted. Thomas J. wuzn't goin' to wait till the last minute before he engaged him; our son is a wonderful good business man--wonderful. And everything seemed to bid fair that we should git off with no hendrances to the World's Fair, to pay our honor and our respects to Christopher Columbus. And oh, how I did honor that man! I sot there in my peaceful kitchen that afternoon, after the boys had gone away, perfectly satisfied with the dinner I had gin 'em. And when I had got my mind a little offen that poor little girl and her poor drunken destroyer, I begun to think agin of Christopher Columbus, and what he had done, and what he hadn't done, till I declare for't I got fairly lost in thoughts. I thought of how he had been scorfed at and jerred at for not thinkin' as other folks did. And how he kep workin', and hopin', and believin', and persistin' in thinkin' that he wuz in the right on't, and kep on a lookin' over the wide waste of waters for the New Land. And I thought to myself how I would enjoy a good visit with Christopher, and how he would sympathize with us, who, though we may be scorfed at by our pardners, and the world. Yet can't help a-lookin' off over the troubled waves of unjust laws, and cruel old customs, a-tryin' to catch a glimpse of the New and Freer Land, that our hopes and our divine intuitions tell us is there beyend the shadows, a-waitin' for free men and free wimmen. Yes, I did feel at that time how conjenial Christopher Columbus would have been to me. As I have said more formally, Christopher wuz sot up in my mind to a almost tottlin' hite, on account of several things he did, and several things he didn't do. Yes; Christopher wuz sot up in my mind to a almost tottlin' hite, on account of several things he did, and several things he didn't do. Now, if anybody to-day branches out into any new and beautiful belief and practice--anything that is beyend the vision of more carnal-minded people-- Why they raise the cry to once, "Let us cling to common sense. Let us be guided by what we see and know. Don't let us float out on any new theory. Don't less go out of sight of the Shore of old Practice, and Custom." And lots of times them rare souls to whom the secrets of God are revealed--them who see the High White Ideal lightnin' the Darkness--the glowin' form of a New Truth shinin' out amidst the thick clouds overhead--lots of times they git bewildered and skairt by the mockin' voices about them. They drop their eyes before the insultin', oncomprehendin' sneers of the multitude, and fall into commonplace ways, and walks, to please the commonplace people about them. Jest dragged down by them Mockers and Scoffers. Some of 'em mebby united to 'em by links of earth-made metal, Sons of God married to the Daughters of men, mebby, and castin' their kingly crowns at the feet of a Human Love. Did Columbus do so? No, indeed. I dare presume to say that the more Miss Columbus nagged at him the more sotter he grew in his own views. (I have used this simely on this occasion on the side of males, but it is jest as true on the side of females. For Inspiration and Genius when it falls from Heaven is jest as apt to descend and settle down onto a female's fore-top as a male's, and the blind and naggin' pardner is jest as apt to be a male--jest exactly.) But as I wuz a-sayin', the more Columbus wuz mocked at--the more they jeered and sneered at him, the more stiddy and constant he pursued after the Land that appeared only to his prophetic eyes. Day after day, when he wuz tired out, beat completely out by the incomprehension, and weary doubts, and empty denials of the multitude--then, like a breath of balm, came to his weary forward the soft gale from the land he sought; he saw in his own mind the tall pines reach up into the blue skies, the rich bloom and greenness of its Savannas; he inhaled the odor of rare blossoms that the Old World never saw, and then he riz up agin, refreshed, as it were, and ready to press forwards. [Illustration: He saw in his own mind the tall pines reach up into the blue skies.] Yes, in every country, through all time, there has always been some Columbus, walkin' with his feet on the ground amongst mortals, and his head in the Heavens amongst Gods. He has oftenest been poor, and always misunderstood, and undervalued, by the grosser souls about him. The discoverers, the inventors, whom God loves best, it must be, sence He confides in 'em, and tells 'em things He keeps hid from the World. Them who apprehend while yet they cannot comprehend. And that is what we have got to do lots of times if we git along any in this World, if we calculate to git out of its Swamps and Morasses onto any considerable rise of ground. You can't foller a ground-mice or a snail, if you lay out to elevate yourself; no, you must foller a Star. You have got to keep your eyes up above the ground, or your feet will never take you up any mountain side. And how them mariners tried to make Columbus turn back after he had at last, through all his tribulations, sot sail on the broad, treacherous Ocean--jest think of his tribulations before he started! Troubles with poverty, and ignorance, and unbelief, and perils by foes, and perils by false friends, and perils by long delay. How for years and years he carried round them strong beliefs of hisen, ofttimes in a hungry and faint body, and couldn't git nobody to believe in 'em--couldn't git nobody to even hear about 'em. Year after year did he toil and endeavor to git somebody to listen to his plans, and glowin' hopes. Year after year, while the lines deepened on his patient face, and the hopes that wuz glowin' and eager became deep and fervent, and a part of him. How strange, how strange and sort o' pitiful, this one man out of a world full of men and wimmen, this one man with his tired feet on the dust and worn sand of the Old World, and his head and heart in the New World. No one else of the world full of men and wimmen to believe as he did--no one else to be even willin' to hear him talk about his dreams, his hopes, and impassioned beliefs. No; and I don't know but Columbus would have dropped right down in his tracts, and we wouldn't have been discovered to this day, if a woman hadn't stepped in, and gin the seal of her earnest trust to the ideal of the ambitious man. He a-willin' to plough the new path into the ontried fields, she a-bein' willin' to hold the plough, as you may say, or, at all events, to help him in every way in her power--with all her womanly faith, and all her ear-rings, and breast-pins, etc., etc. [Illustration: With all her womanly faith, and all her ear-rings and breast-pins, etc., etc.] She, a female woman, out of all that world full of folks, she it wuz alone that stood out boldly the friend of Columbus and Discovery. "Male and female created He them." Another deep instance of that great truth in life and in nature, and in all matters relatin' to the good of the world. "Male and female created He them." The world will find it out after awhile, and so will Dr. Buckley. Ferdinand wuz a good creeter--or that is, middlin' good; but his eye-sight wuzn't such as would see down clear through the truth of Columbuses theory. And if folks set out to blame Ferdinand too much, let 'em pause and think what the World would say and do if a man should appear in our streets to-day, and say that he believed that he had proof that there wuz a vast, beautiful country a-layin' in the skies to the west of us beyend the clouds of the sunset, and he wanted to git money to build a air-ship to sail out to it. How much money would he git? How much stock would he sell in that enterprise? How many men would he git to sail out with him on that voyage of Discovery? What would Vanderbilt and Russell Sage say to it? [Illustration: What would Russell Sage say?] Why, they would say that the man wuz a fool, and that the only way to travel wuz on iron rails or steamships. They would say that there wuzn't any such land as he depictered. That it existed only in his crazy brain. Wall, it wuz jest about as wild a idee that Ferdinand had to listen to; I d'no that he wuz any more to blame than they would be for not hearin' to it. But Isabelle, she wuz built different. There wuz some divine atmosphere of Truth and Reality about this idee that reached her heart and mind. Her soul and mind bein' made in jest the right way to be touched by it. She, too, wuz built on jest the right plan so she could apprehend what she could not yet comprehend. So she gin him her cordial sympathy, and also, as I said, her ear-rings, etc. But after the years and years that he toiled and labored for the means to carry out his idees--after these long years of effort and hardship, and disappointments and delays--after his first vain efforts--after he did at last git launched out on the Ocean a-sailin' out on the broad, empty waste in search of sunthin' that he see only in his mind's eye-- How the storms beat on him--how the winds and waves buffeted him, and tried to drive him back--but--"No, no, he wuz bound for the New Land! he wuz bound for the West!" How the sailors riz up and plead with him and begged him to turn back--but "No," sez he, "I go to the New Land!" Then they would tell him that there wuzn't any such Land, and stick to it right up and down, and jeer at him. Did it turn him round--"No! I sail onward," sez he, "I go to the West!" Then the principalities and powers of the onseen World seemed to take it in hand and tried to drive him back. There wuz signs and omens seen that wuz reckoned disastrous, and threatened destruction. Mebby the souls of them who had passed over from the New Land, mebby them disembodied faithful shades wuz a-tryin' to save their free sunny huntin' grounds from the hands of the invader, and their race from the fate that threatened 'em--mebby they hurled onseen tommyhawks, and shrieked down at 'em, tryin' to turn 'em back-- Mebby they did, and then agin mebby they didn't. But anyway, there wuz lurid lightin' flashes that looked like flights of fiery arrows aimed at the heads of the Spanish seamen, and shriekin's of the tempest amidst the sails overhead that sounded like cries of anger, and distress, and warnin'. Did Columbus heed them fearful warnin's and turn back? No; dauntless and brave, a-facin' dangers onseen, as well as seen, he sez-- "I sail onward!" And so he did, and he sailed, and he sailed--and mebby his own brave heart grew sick and faint with lookin' on the trackless waste of waters round him, and no shore in sight for days, and for days, and for days. But if it did, he give no signs of it--"I sail onward!" he sez. And finally the lookout way up on the dizzy mast see a light way off on the horizon, and then the night came down dark, and when the sun wuz riz up--lo! right before 'em lay the shores of the New World. And the Man's and the Woman's belief wuz proved true--and the gainsayin' World wuz proved wrong. Success had come to 'em. And after the doubt, and the danger, and the despair, and the discouragement had all been endured--after the ideal had been made real, why then it wuz considered quite easy to discover a New World. It wuzn't considered very hard. Why, all you had to do wuz to sail on till you come to it. After a thing is done it is easy enough. Nowadays we are sot down before as great conundrums as Columbus wuz. The Old World groans under old abuses, and wrongs, and injustices. The old paths are dusty and worn with the feet of them who have marked its rocks and chokin' sands with their bleedin' feet, as they toiled on over 'em bearin' their crosses. Dark clouds hang heavy over their paths--the atmosphere is chokin' and stiflin'. Fur off, fresh and fair, lays the New Land of our ideal. The realm of peace, and justice to all, of temperance, and sanity, and love and joy. Fur off, fur off, we hear the melodious swash of its waves on its green banks--we see fur off the gleam of its white, glory-lit mountain-tops. Men have gin their strength and their lives for this ideal, this vision of glory and freedom. Wimmen have took their jewels from their bosom, and gin 'em to this cause of Human Right. Gin 'em with breakin' hearts, and white lips that tried to smile, as the last kiss of lover and son, husband and brother, rested on 'em. Yes, men and wimmen both have seen that Ideal Land, that New Land of Liberty and Love. They have apprehended it with finer senses than comprehension--have seen it with the clearer light of the soul's eyes. Some green boughs from its high palms have been washed out on the swellin' waves that lay between us and that Land, and floated to our feet. Sometimes, when the air wuz very still and hushed, and a Presence seemed broodin' on the rapt listnin' earth, we have looked fur, fur up into the clear depths of blue above us, and we have ketched the distant glimpse of birds of strange plumage onknown to this Old World. Fur off, fur off their silvery wings have floated, a-comin' from the West, from the land that lays beyend the sunset's golden glory. Some of the light of that New Country has shone on us in inspired eyes, some of its strange language has been hearn by us from inspired lips. But oh! the wide, pathless sea that lays between us and that land of full Fruition and Glory and Freedom. Shall we set down on the shores of our Old World, and give up the hope and glory of the New? Shall we listen to the jeers and sneers of them that tell us that there hain't any such country as that we look for--that it is impossible, that it is aginst all the laws of Nater--that it don't exist, and never can, only in our crazed brains? No, we will man the boat, though the waves dash high, and the skies are dark--we will man and woman the life-boat--side by side will the two great forces stand, the Motherhood and the Fatherhood, Love and Justice, the hope and strength of Humanity shall stand at the hellum. The wind is a-comin' up; it is only a light breeze now, but it shall rise to a strong power that shall waft us on to the New Land of Justice and Purity and Liberty--for all that our souls long for. But we have got to shet our eyes to the outward world that presses round us closter than the streets of Genoa did round Columbus. We have got to see things invisible, trust in things to come--sail onwards through the doubts, and the darkness, and the dangers round us, not heeding the jeers and sneers of a gainsayin' world. Will we be discouraged and drove back by the powers of darkness? by the things seen and the things onseen? No, the man and the woman side by side will sail on through them rough waves. The wind is a-comin' up fresh and free that shall spread the sails and waft the life-boat into the Land of Promise. For the word is sure, and He says-- "I will bring you out into a great place." But I am a-eppisodin', and a-eppisodin' to a length and depth almost onpresidented and onheard on--and to resoom, and go on. CHAPTER V. Hain't it curious how tellin' over a thing will bring back all of the circumstances a-surroundin' of it round--bring 'em all up fresh to you. I wuz a-tellin' Krit about that Equinomical Counsel that wuz held to Washington, D.C. And though I hain't no hand and never wuz to find one word of fault with my dear companion to outsiders, still, as he wuz all in the family, I did say that his Uncle wuz at one time very anxious to go to it. And after Krit went away--he had come over from Tirzah Ann's that day, and staid to supper with us--I sot there alone, for Josiah had took him back in the democrat, and all the circumstances of that time come back onto me agin. It wuz on a Monday that I had my worst trial with him about that Equinomical Counsel, as I remember well. And though I didn't tell Krit any of my worst tribulations with him, still, oh, how vivid they did come back to me, as I sot there alone, and a-seamin' two and two! As I say, it wuz on a Monday morning. The two children had invited their Pa and me to visit a good deal durin' the week before, and I had got kind a behindhand with my work. And then I had felt so kinder mauger for a few days, that Josiah insisted that I should git a young girl in the neighborhood to help me for a few days, Philury and Ury bein' away on a visit to some relations. Wall, that day I had washin', bakin', churnin', and some fruit cake to make. It fairly made me ache to think on't, the numbers and amounts of the work that pressed onto me, and nobody but that young girl to help me. And she that took up with her bo, Almanzo Hagidone, that she wuz in a forgitful state more'n half the time, and liable to carry a armful of wood meant for the kitchen stove into the parlor, and put it end first onto the what-not, or pump water into Josiah's hat instead of the water-pail. I tried to instil some common sense into her head, but her hair wuz bound up that tight with curl papers that nothin' could git past that ambuscade, so it would seem, but jest the image and the idee of Almanzo Hagidone. Wall, I kep her pretty much in the wood-shed, when she wuz in her worst stages, where there wuzn't much besides the old cook-stove and wash-tubs that she could graze aginst and fall over. I dast as well die as to trust her with vittles, for I felt that them wuz vital pints, and must not be meddled with by loonaticks or idiots, and with them two ranks I had to stand Mary Ann Spink in her most love-sick spazzums. So I sot her to rubbin' onto Josiah's shirts, and I took my bowl of raisins and English currants and things into the kitchen and sot down calmly to pickin' 'em over and choppin' 'em. My fruit cake is good, though I say it that ort not to; it is widely known and admired. Wall, I sot there middlin' calm, and a-hummin' over a sam tune loud enough so's Mary Ann could hear it; and I hummed it, too, in a strictly moral way, and for a pattern; it was this: "Put not your trust in mortal man, Set not your hopes on him," etc., etc., etc. [Illustration] And I see I wuz impressin' of her, for I could hear after a while from the wood-shed that she too had broke forth in song, and she was a-jinin' in, low and dretful impressive, with-- "Hark from the tombs a mournful sound." I don't think she meant my singin'--Josiah did when we talked it over afterwards. He believed it firm. I believe I wuz a-moralizin' of her, and should have done good if I hadn't been broke in on. But all of a sudden Josiah Allen fairly bust into the house, all wrought up, and fearful excited. He had been a-talkin' with Deacon Henzy out by the gate, and I spoze Deacon Henzy had disseminated some new news to him. But anyway he wuz crazy with a wild and startlin' idee. [Illustration: A-talkin' with Deacon Henzy.] He wanted to set off to once to the Equinomical Counsel, which he said wuz a-goin' to be held by the male Methodists in Washington, D.C. And, sez he-- "Samantha, git my fine shirt and my best necktie to once, for I want to start on the noon train." "What for?" sez I coldly; for I discourage his wild projects all I can. I have to act like a heavy weight in a clock movin' half the time, or he would be jest swept to and frow like a pendulum. It makes me feel queer. Sez I, "What are you a-layin' out to set off for Washington, D.C., for?" My tone kinder hung on to him, and stiddied him down some. And he lost some of his wild and excited mean. And he stopped onbuttonin' his vest--he had onbuttoned his shirt-collar and took his old necktie off on his way from the gate--so ardent and impulsive is my dear pardner, and so anxious to start. "Why," sez he, "I told you, didn't I? I am goin' to Washington to tend to that Equinomical Counsel. Five hundred male men are a-goin' to git together to counsel together on the best ways of bein' equinomical. And here at last"--sez he proudly--"here at last is the chance I have always been a-lookin' out for. Here is the opportunity for me to show off, and be somebody." And here he begun agin to onbutton his shirt-sleeves and loosen his collar. But I sez slowly and firmly, and as much like a heavy weight as I could-- "It is three hours to train time. Set down and act like a human bein' and a Methodist, and tell me what it is you want to do." He glanced up at the clock onto the mantlery-piece, and he see I wuz right about the time. And he sot down, and sez he-- "That is jest how I want to act, like a Methodist, and a equinomical counsellor." "What for?" sez I. "What do you want to do?" "Why, to teach 'em," sez he. "To show myself off. To counsel 'em." "To counsel 'em about what?" sez I heavily, bein' bound to come to the bottom of the matter, and the sense on't, if sense there wuz in it. "Why," sez he, "they are havin' a counsel there to see if there are any new ways for men and Methodists to be equinomical. And I'll be dumned if there is a man or a Methodist from Maine to Florida that can counsel 'em better about bein' equinomical than I can. "Why, you have always said so," sez he. "You have called it tightness, but I have always known that it wuz pure economy; and now," sez he, "has come the chance of a lifetime, for me to rise up and show myself off before the nation. To git the high, lofty name that I ort to have, and do good." I dropped my choppin' knife out of my hand, and rested my elbow on the table, and leaned my head on my hand in deep thought. I see he had more sense on his side than I thought he had. I recollected the different and various ways in which he had showed his equinomical tightness sence our married life begun, and I trembled for the result. I ruminated over our early married life, and how, in spite of his words of almost impassioned tenderness and onwillingness for me to harm and strain myself by approachin' the political pole--still how he had let me wrestle with weighty hop-poles and draw water out of a deep well with a cistern pole for more'n fourteen years. I remembered how he had nearly flooded out his own precious and valuable insides at Saratoga by his wild efforts to git the full worth of the five cents he had advanced to the Spring-tender. I remembered the widder's mite, how he had interpreted that scriptural incident about that noble female--as interpreters will, to suit their own idees as males--and how I had argued with him in vain on the mite, and his onscriptural and equinomical views. I felt that he had a strong and powerful case; and though I could not brook the idee of his goin', still I thought that I must be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a turkle-dove, to git the victory over him. He see by the fluckuations of color on my usially calm cheek, and by the pensive and thoughtful look in my two gray orbs, that I felt the strength and powerfulness of his cause. And as he mused, he begun in joyous and triumphant axents to bring up before me some of his latest and most striking instances of equinomical tightness. Sez he, "Do you remember the case of Sy Biddlecomb, and them green pumpkins of mine, how I--" But I interrupted his almost fervid eloquence, and sez I, with my right hand extended in a real eloquent wave, "Pause, Josiah Allen, and less consider and weigh things in the balances. Go not too fast, less disapintment attend your efforts, and mortification wrops you in its mantilly. "Your equinomical ways, Josiah Allen," sez I, "it seems to me ort to rize you up above every other man on the face of the globe, and make a lion of you of the first magnitude, even a roarin' African lion, as it were." He looked proud and happy, and I proceeded. "But pause for one moment," sez I, in tender, cautious axents, "and think of the power, the tremendious econimy of the males you are a-tryin' to emulate and outdo. Think of how they have dealt with the cause of wimmen's liberty for the past few years, and tremble. How dast you, one weak man, though highly versed in the ways of equinomical tightness--how dast you to try and set up and be anybody amid that host?" He looked skairt. He see what he wuz a-doin' plainer than he had seen it, and I went on: "Think of that big Methodist Conference in New York a few years ago that Casper Keeler told us about--think how equinomical they wuz with their dealin's with wimmen on that occasion, and ever sence. "The wimmen full of good doin's and alms deeds, who make up two thirds of the church, who raise the minister's salary, run the missionary and temperance societies, teach the Sabbath schools, etc., etc., etc.-- "Who give the best of their lives and thoughts to the meetin'-house from the time they sell button-hole bokays at church fairs in pantalettes, till they hand in their widder's mite with tremblin' fingers wrinkled with age--think of this econimy in not givin' in, not givin' a mite of justice and right to the hull caboodle of such wimmen throughout the length and breadth of the country, and then think where would your very closest and tightest counsel of econimy stand by the side of this econimy of right, and manliness, and honor, and common sense." He quailed. His head sunk on his breast. He knew, tight as he had always been, there wuz a height of tightness he had never scaled. He knew he couldn't show off at that Equinomical Counsel by the side of them instances I had brung up, and to deepen the impression I had made, which is always the effort of the great oriter, I resoomed: "Think of how they keep up their econimy of justice, and right, and common sense, so afraid to use a speck of 'em, especially the common sense. Think of how they refused to let wimmen set down meekly in a humble pew, and say 'Yea' in a still small voice as a delegate, so 'fraid that it wuz outstrippin' wimmen's proper spear--when these very ministers have been proud to open their very biggest meetin'-housen to wimmen, and let 'em teach 'em to be eloquent--let wimmen speak words of help and wisdom from their highest pulpits. "Think of this instance of their equinomical doin's," sez I, "and tremble. And," sez I, still more impressively and eloquently, "what is pumpkins by the side of that?" His head sunk down lower, and lower. He wuz dumbfoundered to think he had been outdone in his most vital parts, his most tightest ways. He felt truly that even if they would listen to his equinomical counsels, they didn't need 'em. He looked pitiful and meek, and sot demute for a couple of minutes. I see that I had convinced him about the Equinomical Counsel; he see that it wouldn't do, and he wouldn't make no more show than a underlin'. But anon, or about that time, he spoke out in pitiful axents-- "Samantha, if I can't show off any at the Equinomical Counsel, I'd love to see them male law-makers a-settin' in the Capitol at Washington, D.C. I'd love to mingle with 'em, Samantha. You know, and I know, too, that I am one of 'em. Wuzn't I chose arbitrator in Seth Meezik's quarrel with his father-in-law? Hain't I sot on juries in the past, and hain't I liable to set? "I want to see them male law-makers, Samantha. I want to be intimate with 'em." I almost trembled. I can withstand my pardner's angry or excited moods, but here I see pleadin' and longin'; I see I had a hard job in front of me. I hate to dissapint him. I hate to, like a dog. But duty nerved me, and I sez-- "Josiah, less talk it over before you decide to go. Less bring up some of the laws them males have made, or allow to go on. "I want to talk to you about 'em, Josiah," sez I, "before I let you depart to be intimate with 'em." Sez I, "Do you remember the old adage, a dog is known by the company he keeps? Before you go to be one of them dogs, Josiah Allen, and be known as one of 'em, less recall some of the lawful incidents of a few months back." Sez I, "We won't raise our skirts and wade back into history to any great depth, and hove out a large quantity of 'em, but will keep in the shaller water of a few short fleetin' months, and pick up one or two of the innumerable number of 'em; and then, if you want to go, why--" sez I, in the tremblin' axents of fond affection--"why, I will pack your saddle-bags." Then I went on calmly and brung up a few laws and laid 'em down before him. I brung up the Indians doin's, the Mormons, the Chinese, all on 'em flagrant. But still he had that longin' look on his face. Then I brung up the rotten political doin's, the unjust laws prevailin' in regard to female wimmen, and also the onrighteousness of the liquor laws and the abomination of the license question; I talked powerful and eloquent on them awful themes, but as I paused a minute for needed breath, he murmured-- "I want to be intimate with 'em, Samantha." And then, bein' almost at my wits' end, I dropped the general miscellaneous way I had used, and begun to bring up little separate instances of the injustices of the Law. And I see he begun to be impressed. How true it is that, from the Bible down to Josiah Allen's Wife, you have to talk in stories in order to impress the masses! You have to hold up the hammer of a personal incident to drive home the nail of Truth and have it clench and hold fast. But mine wuz some different--mine wuz facts, every one of 'em. I could have brung them to that man and laid 'em down in front of him from that time, almost half past ten a.m., and kep stiddy at it till ten p.m., and then not know that I had took any from the heap, so high and lofty is the stack of injustices and wrongs committed in the name of the Law and shielded by its mantilly. But I had only brung up two, jest two of 'em; not the most flagrant ones either, but the first ones that come into my mind, jest as it is when you go to a pile of potatoes to git some for dinner, you take the first ones you come to, knowin' there is fur bigger ones in the pile. But them potatoes smashed up with cream and butter are jest as satisfyin' as if they wuz bigger. So these little truthful incidents laid down in front of my pardner convinced him; so they wuz jest as good for me to use as if I had picked out bigger and more flagranter ones. I first brung up before him the case of the good little Christian school-teacher who had toiled for years at her hard work and laid up a little money, and finally married a sick young feller more'n half out of pity, for he hadn't a cent of money, and had the consumption, and took good care of him till he died. And wantin' to humor him, she let him make his will, though he didn't so much as own the sheet of paper he wrote on, or the ink or the pen. And after his death she found he had willed away their onborn child, and when it wuz a few months old, and her love had sent out its strong shoots, and wropped the little life completely round, his brother she had never seen come on from his distant home and took that baby right out of its mother's arms, and bore it off, accordin' to law. I looked curiously at him as I concluded this true tale, but he murmured almost mechanically-- "I want to mingle with 'em, Samantha; I feel that I want to be intimate with 'em." But his axent wuz weak, weak as a cat, and I felt that my efforts wuz not bein' throwed away. So I hurriedly laid holt of another true incident that I thought on, and hauled it up in front of him. "Think of the case of the pretty Chinese girl of twelve years--jest the age of our Tirzah Ann, when you used to be a-holdin' her on your knee, and learnin' her the Sunday-school lesson, and both on us a-kissin' her, and a-brushin' back her hair from her sweet May-day face, and a-pettin' her, and a-holdin' her safe in our heart of hearts. "Jest think of that little girl bein' sold for a slave by her rich male father, and brought to San Francisco, the home of the brave and the free, and there put into a place which she thought wuz fur worse than the bottomless pit--for that she considered wuz jest clean brimstone, and despair, and vapory demons. "But this child, with five or six other wimmen, wuz put into a sickenin' den polluted with every crime, and subject to the brutal passions of a crowd of live, dirty human devils. "And when, half dead from her dreadful life, she ran away at the peril of her life, and wuz taken in by a charitable woman, and nursed back to life and sanity agin. "The law took that baby out of that safe refuge, and give her back into the hands of her brutal master--took her back, knowin' the life she would be compelled to lead. "Think if it wuz our Tirzah Ann, Josiah Allen!" "Dum the dum fools!" sez he, a chokin' some, and then he pulled out his bandanna handkerchief and busted right out a-cryin' onto it. [Illustration: "Dum 'em, I say!"] "Dum 'em, I say!" sez he, out of its red and yeller depths. "I'd love to skin the hull on 'em, Judge and Jury." And I sez meanin'ly, "Now, do you want to go and be intimate with them law-makers, Josiah Allen?" "No," sez he, a-wipin' his eyes and a-lookin' mad, "no, I don't! I want sunthin' to eat!" And I riz up imegatly, and got a good dinner--a extra good one. And he never said another word about goin' to Washington, D.C. CHAPTER VI. There wuz sights and sights of talk in Jonesville and the adjacent and surroundin' world about the World's Fair bein' open on Sundays. There wuz sights and sights of fightin' back and forth about the rights and the wrongs of it. And there wuz some talk about the saloons bein' open too, bein' open week days and Sundays. But, of course, there wuzn't so much talk about that; it seemed to be all settled from the very first on't that the saloons wuz a-goin' to be open the hull of the time--that they must be. Why, it seemed to be understood that drunkards had to be made and kep up; murderers, and asassins, and thieves, and robbers, and law-breakers of every kind, and fighters, and wife-beaters, and arsons, and rapiners, and child-killers had to be made. That wuz neccessary, and considered so from the first. For if this trade wuz to stop for even one day out of the seven, why, where would be the crimes and casualities, the cuttin's up and actin's, the murders and the suicides, to fill up the Sunday papers with? And to keep the police courts full and a-runnin' over with business, and the prisons, and jails, and reformatorys full of victims, and the morgues full of dead bodies. No; the saloons had to be open Sundays; that wuz considered as almost a settled thing from the very first on't. Why, the nation must have considered it one of the neccessarys, or it wouldn't have gone into partnership with 'em, and took part of the pay. But there wuz a great and almost impassioned fight a-goin' on about havin' the World's Fair, the broad gallerys of art and beauty, bein' open to the public Sunday. Lots of Christian men and wimmen come right out and said, swore right up and down that if Christopher Columbus let folks come to his doin's on Sunday they wouldn't go to it at all. I spoze mebby they thought that this would skare Christopher and make him gin up his doin's, or ruther the ones that wuz a-representin' him to Chicago. They did talk fearfully skareful, and calculated to skare any man that hadn't went through with what Christopher had. They said that ruther than have the young people who would be gathered there from the four ends of the earth--ruther than have these innocent young creeters contaminated by walkin' through them rooms and lookin' at them wonders of nature and art, why, they had ruther not have any Fair at all. Why, I read sights and sights about it, and hearn powerful talk, and immense quantities of it. And one night I hearn the most masterly and convincin' arguments brung up on both sides--arguments calculated to make a bystander wobble first one way and then the other, with the strength and power of 'em. It wuz at a church social held to Miss Lums, and a number of us had got there early, and this subject wuz debated on before the minister got there. Deacon Henzy wuz the one who give utterance to the views I have promulgated. He said right out plain, "That no matter how keen the slight would be felt, he shouldn't attend to it if it wuz open Sunday." He said "that the country would be ruined if it took place." "Yes," sez Miss Cornelius Cork, "you are right, Deacon Henzy. I wouldn't have Cornelius Jr. go to Chicago if the Fair is open Sundays, not for a world full of gold. For," sez she, "I feel as if it would be the ruin of him." And then sister Arvilly Lanfear (she is always on the contrary side), sez she--"Why?" "Why?" sez Miss Cork. "You ask why? You a woman and a perfessor?" "Yes," sez Arvilly--"why?" Sez Miss Cork, "It would take away all his reverence for the Sabbath, and the God who appointed that holy day of rest. His morals would be all broke up, and he would be a ruined boy. I expect that he will be there two months--that would make eight days of worldliness and wickedness; and I feel that long enough before the eighth day had come his principles would be underminded, and his morals all tottered and broke down." "Why?" sez Arvilly. "There hain't any wickedness a-goin' on to the Fair as I know of; it is a goin' to be full and overflowin' of object lessons a teachin' of the greatness and the glory of the Lord of Heaven, and the might and power of the human intellect. Wonders of Heaven, and wonders of earth, and I don't see how they would be apt to ruin and break down anybody's morals a-contemplatin' 'em--not if they wuz sound when they begun. "It seems to me it would make 'em have ten times the reverence they had before--reverence and awe and worshipful love for the One, the great and loving mind that had thought out all these marvels of beauty and grandeur and spread 'em out for His children's happiness and instruction." "Oh, yes," sez Miss Cork. "On week days it is a exaltin' and upliftin' and dreadful religious sight; but on Sundays it is a crime to even think on it. Sundays should be kep pure and holy and riz up, and I wouldn't have Cornelius desecrate himself and the Sabbath by goin' to the Fair not for a world full of gold." "Where would he go Sundays while he wuz in Chicago if he didn't go there?" sez Arville. She is real cuttin' sometimes, Arville is, but then Miss Cork loves to put on Arville, and twit her of her single state, and kinder act high-headed and throw Cornelius in her face, and act. Sez Arville--"Where would Cornelius Jr. go if he didn't go to the Fair?" Cornelius Jr. drinks awful and is onstiddy, and Miss Cork hemmed and hawed, and finally said, in kind of a meachin' way-- "Why, to meetin', of course." He hadn't been in a meetin'-house for two years, and we all knew it, and Miss Cork knew that we knew it--hence the meach. "He don't go to meetin' here to Jonesville," sez Arville. [Illustration: "He don't go to meetin' here."] It wuz real mean in her, but I spoze it wuz to pay Miss Cork off for her aggravatin'. And she went on, "I live right acrost the road from Fasset's saloon, and I see him and more'n a dozen other Jonesvillians there most every Sunday. "Goin' to Chicago hain't a-goin' to born a man agin, and change all their habits and ways to once, and I believe if Cornelius Jr. didn't go to the Fair he would go to worse places." "Well," sez Miss Cornelius Cork, "if he did, I wouldn't have to bear the sin. I feel that it is my duty to lift my voice and my strength aginst the Sunday openin' of the Fair, and even if the boys did go to worse places, my conscience would be clear; the sin wouldn't rest on my head." Sez Arville, "That is the very way I have heard wimmen talk who burned up their boys' cards, and checker-boards, and story-books, and drove their children away from home to find amusement. "They wanted the boys to set down and read the Bible and sam books year in and year out, but they wouldn't do it, for there wuz times when the young blood in 'em riz up and clamered for recreation and amusement, and seein' that they couldn't git it at home, under the fosterin' care of their father and mother, why, they looked for it elsewhere, and found it in low saloons and bar-rooms, amongst wicked and depraved companions. And then, when their boys turned out gamblers and drunkards, they would say that their consciences wuz clear. "But," says Arville, "that hain't the way the Lord done. He used Sundays and week days to tell stories to the multitude, to amuse 'em, draw 'em by the silken cord of fancy towards the true and the right, draw 'em away from the bad towards the good. And if I had ten boys--" "Which you hain't no ways likely to have," says Miss Cork; "no, indeed, you hain't." "No, thank Heaven! there hain't no chance on't. But if I had ten boys I would ruther have 'em wanderin' through them beautiful halls, full of the wonders of the world which the Lord made and give to His children for their amusement and comfort--I would ruther have 'em there than to have 'em help swell a congregation of country loafers in a city saloon--learnin' in one day more lessons in the height and depth of depravity than years of country livin' would teach 'em. "These places, and worse ones, legalized places of devils' pastime, will lure and beckon the raw youth of the country. They will flaunt their gaudy attractions on every side, and appeal to every sense but the sense of decency. "And I would feel fur safer about the hull ten of 'em, if I knew they wuz safe in the art galleries, full of beauty and sublimity, drawin' their minds and hearts insensibly and in spite of themselves upward and onward, or lookin' at the glory and wonders of practical and mechanical beauty--the beauty of use and invention. "After walkin' through a buildin' forty-five acres big, and some more of 'em about as roomy, I should be pretty sure that they wouldn't git out of it in time to go any great lengths in sin that day; and they would be apt to be too fagged out and dead tired to foller on after Satan any great distance." "Well," says Miss Snyder, "I d'no but I should feel safer about my Jim and John to have 'em there in the Fair buildin's than runnin' loose in the streets of Chicago. They won't go to meetin' every Sunday, and I can't make 'em; and if they do go, they will go in the mornin' late, and git out as soon as the Amen is said. "My boys are as good as the average--full as good; but I know when they hain't got anything to do, and git with other boys, they will cut up and act." "Well," says Miss Cornelius Cork, "I know that my Cornelius will never disgrace himself or me by any low acts." She wuz tellin' a big story, for Cornelius Jr. had been carried home more'n once too drunk to walk, besides other mean acts that wuz worse; so we didn't say anything, but we all looked queer; and Arville kinder sniffed, and turned up her nose, and nudged Miss Snyder. But Miss Cork kep right on--she is real high-headed and conceited, Miss Cork is. And, sez she, "Much as I want to see the Fair, and much as I want Cornelius and Cornelius Jr. to go to it, and the rest of the country, I would ruther not have it take place at all than to have it open Sundays." "And I feel jest so," sez Miss Henzy. Then young Lihu Widrig spoke up. He is old Elihu Widrig's only son, and he has been off to college, and is home on a vacation. He is dretful deep learnt, has studied Greek and lots of other languages that are dead, and some that are most dead. He spoke up, and sez he: "What is this Sabbath, anyway?" We didn't any of us like that, and we showed we didn't by our means. We didn't want any of his new-fangled idees, and we looked high-headed at him and riz up. But he kep right on, bein' determined to have his say. "You can foller the Sabbath we keep right back, straight as a string, to planet worship. Before old Babylon ever riz up at all, to say nothin' of fallin', the dwellers in the Euphrates Valley kep a Sabbath. They spozed there wuz seven planets, and one day wuz give to each of them. And Saturday, the old Jewish Sabbath, wuz given to Saturn, cruel as ever he could be if the ur in his name wuz changed to e. In those days it wuz not forbidden to work in that day, but supposed to be unlucky. "Some as Ma regards Friday." It wuz known that Miss Widrig wouldn't begin a mite of work Fridays, not even hemin' a towel or settin' up a sock or mitten. And, sez he, "When we come down through history to the Hebrews, we find it a part of the Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments. "In the second book of the Bible we find the reason given for keeping the Sabbath is, the Lord rested on that day. In the fifth book we find the reason given is the keeping of a memorial for the deliverance out of Egypt. "Now this commandment only forbids working on that day; no matter what else you do, you are obeying the fourth commandment. According to that command, you could go to the World's Fair, or wherever you had a mind to, if you did not work. "The Puritan Sabbath wuz a very different one from that observed by Moses and the Prophets, which wuz mainly a day of rest." "Wall, I know," sez Miss Yerden, "that the only right way to keep the Sabbath is jest as we do, go to meetin' and Sunday-school, and do jest as we do." Sez Lihu, "Maybe the people to whom the law wuz delivered didn't understand its meaning so well as we do to-day, after the lapse of so many centuries, so well as you do, Miss Yerden." We all looked coldly at Lihu; we didn't approve of his talk. But Miss Yerden looked tickled, she is so blind in her own conceit, and Lihu spoke so polite to her, she thought he considered her word as goin' beyend the Bible. Then Lophemia Pegrum spoke up, and sez she-- "Don't you believe in keeping the Sabbath, Lihu?" "Yes, indeed, I do," sez he, firm and decided. "I do believe in it with all my heart. It is a blessed break in the hard creakin' roll of the wheel of Labor, a needed rest--needed in every way for tired and worn-out brain and muscle, soul and body; but I believe in telling the truth," sez he. He always wuz a very truthful boy--born so, we spoze. Almost too truthful at times, his ma used to think. She used to have to whip him time and agin for bringin' out secret things before company, such as borrowed dishes, and runnin's of other females, and such. So we wuz obliged to listen to his remarks with a certain amount of respect, for we knew that he meant every word that he said, and we knew that he had studied deep into ancient history, no matter how much mistook we felt that he wuz. But Miss Yerden spoke up, and sez she-- "I don't care whether it is true or not. I have always said, and always will say, that if any belief goes aginst the Bible, I had ruther believe in the Bible than in the truth any time." And more than half of us wimmen agreed with her. You see, so many reverent, and holy, and divine thoughts and memories clustered round that book, that we didn't love to have 'em disturbed. It wuz like havin' somebody take a spade and dig up the voyalets and lilies on the grave of the nearest and dearest, to try to prove sunthin' or ruther. We feel in such circumstances that we had ruther be mistook than to have them sweet posies disturbed and desecrated. Holy words of counsel, and reproof, and consolation delivered from the Most High to His saints and prophets--words that are whispered over our cradles, and whose truth enters our lives with our mother's milk; that sustains us and helps us to bear the hard toils and burdens of the day of life, and that go with us through the Valley and the Shadow--the only revelation we have of God's will to man, the written testimony of His love and compassion, and the only map in which we trace our titles clear to a heavenly inheritance. If errors and mistakes have crept in through the weaknesses of men, or if the pages have become blotted by the dust of time, we hated to have 'em brung out and looked too clost into--we hated to, like a dog. So we, most all of us, had a fellow feelin' for Miss Yerden, and looked approvin' at her. And Lihu, seein' we looked cold at him, and bein' sensitive, and havin' a hard cold, he said "he guessed he would go over to the drug-store and git some hoarhoun candy for his cough." So he went out. And then Miss Cork spoke up, and sez she-- "How it would look in the eyes of the other nations to have us a breakin' Sundays after keepin' 'em pure and holy for all these years." "Pure and holy!" sez Arvilly. "Why, jest look right here in the country, and see the way the Sabbath is desecrated. Saturday nights and Sundays is the very time for the devil's high jinks. More whiskey and beer and hard cider is consumed Saturday nights and Sundays than durin' all the rest of the week. "Why, right in my neighborhood a man who makes cider brandy carrys off hull barrels of it most every Saturday, so's to have it ready for Sunday consumption. "The saloons are crowded that day, and black eyes, and bruised bodies, and sodden intellects, and achin' hearts are more frequent Sundays than any other day of the week, and you know it. "And after standin' all this desecration calmly for year after year, and votin' to uphold it, it don't look consistent to flare up and be so dretful afraid of desecratin' the Sabbath by havin' a place of education, greater than the world has ever seen or ever will see agin, open on the Sabbath for the youth of the land." "But the nation," sez Miss Henzy, in a skareful voice. "This nation must keep up its glorious reputation before the other countries of the world. How will it look to 'em to have our Goverment permit such Sunday desecration? This is a national affair, and we should not be willin' to have our glorious nation do anything to lower itself in the eyes of the assembled and envious world." Sez Arville, "If our nation can countenance such doin's as I have spoke of, the man-killin' and brute-makin', all day Sundays, and not only permit it, but go into pardnership with it, and take part of the pay--if it can do this Sundays, year after year, without bein' ashamed before the other nations, I guess it will stand it to have the Fair open." "But," says Miss Bobbet, "even if it is better for the youth of the country, and I d'no but it will be, it will have a bad look to the other nations, as Sister Henzy sez--it will look bad." Says Arville, "That is what Miss Balcomb said about her Ned when she wouldn't let him play games to home; she said she didn't care so much about it herself, but thought the neighbors would blame her; and Ned got to goin' away from home for amusement, and is now a low gambler and loafer. I wonder whether she would ruther have kep her boy safe, or made the neighbors easy in their minds. [Illustration: "She wouldn't let her Ned play games at home."] "And now the neighbors talk as bad agin when they see him a-reelin' by. She might have known folks would talk anyway--if they can't run folks for doin' things they will run 'em for not doin' 'em--they'll talk every time." "Yes, and don't you forgit it," sez Bub Lum. But nobody minded Bub, and Miss Cork begun agin on another tact. "See the Sabbath labor it will cause, the great expenditure of strength and labor, to have all them stupendious buildin's open on the Sabbath. The onseemly and deafnin' noise and clatter of the machinery, and the toil of the men that it will take to run and take care of all the departments, and the labor of the poor men who will have to carry guests back and forth all day." "I d'no," sez Arville, "whether it will take so much more work or not; it is most of it run by water-power and electricity, and water keeps on a-runnin' all day Sunday as well as week days. "Your mill-dam don't stop, Miss Cork, because it is Sunday." Miss Cork's house stands right by the dam, and you can't hear yourself speak there hardly, so it wuz what you might expect, to have her object specially to noise. Miss Cork kinder tosted her head and drawed down her upper lip in a real contemptious way, and Arvilly went on and resoomed: "And electricity keeps on somewhere a-actin' and behavin'; it don't stop Sundays. I have seen worse thunder-storms Sundays, it does seem to me, than I ever see week days. And when old Mom Nater sets such a show a-goin' Sundays, you have got to tend it, whether you think it is wicked or not. "And as for the work of carryin' folks back and forth to it, meetin'-housen have to run by work--hard work, too. Preachin', and singin', and ringin' bells, and openin' doors, and lightin' gas, and usherin' folks in, and etc., etc., etc. "And horse-cars and steam-cars have to run to and frow; conductors, and brakemen, and firemen, and engineers, and etc., etc. "And horses have to be harnessed and worked hard, and coachmen, and drivers, and men and wimmen have to work hard Sundays. Yes, indeed. "Now, my sister-in-law, Jane Lanfear, works harder Sundays than any day out of the seven. They take a place with thirty cows on it, and she and Jim, bein' ambitious, do almost all the work themselves. "Every Sunday mornin' Jane gets up, and she and Jim goes out and milks fifteen cows apiece, and then Jim drives them off to pasture and comes back and harnesses up and carries the milk three miles to a cheese factory, and comes back and does the other out-door chores. "And Jane gets breakfast, and gets up the three little children, and washes 'em and dresses 'em, and feeds the little ones to the table. And after breakfast she does up all her work, washes her dishes and the immense milk-cans, sweeps, cleans lamps and stoves, makes beds, etcetry, and feeds the chickens, and ducks, and turkeys. And by that time it is nine o'clock. Then she hurries round and washes and combs the three children, curls the hair of the twin girls, and then gets herself into her best clothes, and by that time she is so beat out that she is ready to drop down. "But she don't; she lifts the children into the democrat, climbs her own weary form in after 'em, and takes the youngest one in her lap. And Jim, havin' by this time got through with his work and toiled into his best suit, they drive off, a colt follerin' 'em, and Jim havin' to get out more'n a dozen times to head it right, and makin' Jane wild with anxiety, for it is a likely colt. "Wall, they go four milds and a half to the meetin'-house--there hain't no Free-well Baptist nearer to 'em, and they are strong in the belief, and awful sot on that's bein' the only right way. So they go to class-meetin' first, and both talk for quite a length of time; they are quite gifted, and are called so. And then they set up straight through the sermon, and that Free-well Baptist preaches more'n a hour, hot or cold weather, and then they both teach a large class of children, and what with takin' care of the three restless children, and their own weariness on the start, they are both beat out before they start for home. And Jane has a blindin' headache. "But she must keep up, for she has got to git the three babies home safe, and then there is dinner to get, and the dishes to wash, and the housework, and the out-door work to tend to, and what with her headache, and her tired-out nerves and body, and the work and care of the babies, Jane is cross as a bear--snaps everybody up, sets a bad pattern before her children and Jim--and, in fact, don't get over it and hain't good for anything before the middle of the week. "The day of rest is the hardest day of the week for her. "But she told me last night--she come in to get my bask pattern, she is anxious to get her parmetty dress done for the World's Fair--but she said that she shouldn't go if it wuz open Sunday, for her mind wuz so sot on havin' the Sabbath kep strict as a day of rest. "Now I believe in goin' to meetin' as much as anybody, and always have been regular. But I say Jane hain't consistent." (They don't agree.) Arvilly stopped here a minute for needed breath. Good land! I should have thought she would; and Lophemia Pegrum spoke up--she is a dretful pretty girl, but very sentimental and romantic, and talks out of poetry books. Sez she: "Another thought: Nature works all the Sabbath day. Flowers bloom, their sweet perfume wafts abroad, bees gather the honey from their fragrant blossoms, the dews fall, the clouds sail on, the sun lights and warms the World, the grass grows, the grain ripens, the fruit gathers the sunshine in its golden and rosy globes, the birds sing, the trees rustle, the wind blows, the stars rise and set, the tide comes in and goes out, the waves wash the beach, and carries the great ships to their havens--in fact, Nature keeps her World's Fair open every day of the week just alike." "Yes," sez Miss Eben Sanders--she is always on the side of the last speaker--she hain't to be depended on, in argument. But she speaks quite well, and is a middlin' good woman, and kind-hearted. Sez she-- "Look at the poor people who work hard all the week and who can't spend the time week days to go to this immense educational school. "Them who have to work hard and steady every working day to keep bread in the hands of their families, to keep starvation away from themselves and children--clerks, seamstresses, mechanics, milliners, typewriters, workers in factories, and shops, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. "Children of toil, who bend their weary frames over their toilsome, oncongenial labor all the week, with the wolves of Cold and Hunger a-prowlin' round 'em, ready to devour them and their children if they stop their labor for one day out of the six-- "Think what it would be for these tired-out, beauty-starved white slaves to have one day out of the seven to feast their eyes and their hungry souls on the _best_ of the World. "What an outlook it would give their work-blinded eyes! What a blessed change it would make in all their dull, narrow, cramped lives! While their hands wuz full of work, their quickened fancy would live over again the too brief hours they spent in communion with the World's best--the gathered beauty and greatness and glory of the earth. Whatever their toil and weariness, they _had_ lived for a few hours, their eyes _had_ beheld the glory of God in His works." Miss Cork yawned very deep here, and Miss Sanders blushed and stopped. They hain't on speakin' terms. Caused by hens. And then Miss Cork sez severely--a not noticin' Miss Sanders speech at all, but a-goin' back to Arvilly's--she loves to dispute with her, she loves to dearly-- "You forgot to mention when you wuz talkin' about Sabbath work connected with church-goin' that it wuz to worship God, and it wuz therefore right--no matter how wearisome it wuz, it wuz perfectly right." "Wall, I d'no," sez Arvilly--"I d'no but what some of the beautiful pictures and wonderful works of Art and Nature that will be exhibited at the World's Fair would be as upliftin' and inspirin' to me as some of the sermons I hear Sundays. Specially when Brother Ridley gits to talkin' on the Jews, and the old Egyptians. "It stands to reason that if I could see Pharo's mummy it would bring me nearer to him, and them plagues and that wickedness of hisen, than Brother Ridley's sermon could. "And when I looked at a piece of the olive tree under which our Saviour sot while He wuz a-weepin' over Jeruesalem or see a wonderful picture of the crucifixion or the ascension, wrought by hands that the Lord Himself held while they wuz painted--I believe it would bring Him plainer before me than Brother Ridley could, specially when he is tizickey, and can't speak loud. "Why, our Lord Himself wuz took to do more than once by the Pharisees, and told He wuz breakin' the Sabbath. And He said that the Sabbath wuz made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. "And He said, 'Consider the Lilies'--that is, consider the Lord, and behold Him in the works of His hands. "Brother Ridley is good, no doubt, and it is right to go and hear him--I hain't disputed that--but when he tries to bring our thoughts to the Lord, he has to do it through his own work, his writin', which he did himself with a steel pen. And I d'no as it is takin' the idees of the Lord so much at first hand as it is to study the lesson of the Lilies He made, and which He loved and admired and told us to consider. "The World's Fair is full of all the beauty He made, more wonderful and more beautiful than the lilies, and I d'no as it is wrong to consider 'em Sundays or week days." "But," sez Miss Yerden, "don't you know what the Bible sez--'Forget not the assemblin' of yourselves together'?" [Illustration: Bub Lum.] "Well," piped up Bub Lum, aged fourteen, and a perfect imp-- "I guess that if the Fair is open Sundays, folks that are there won't complain about there not bein' folks enough assembled together. I guess they won't complain on't--no, indeed!" But nobody paid any attention to Bub, and Arvilly continued-- "I believe in usin' some common sense right along, week days and Sundays too. It stands to reason that the Lord wouldn't gin us common sense if He didn't want us to use it. "We don't need dyin' grace while we are a livin', and so with other things. There will be meetin'-housen left and ministers in 1894, most likely, and we can attend to 'em right along as long as we live. "But this great new open Book of Revelations, full of God's power and grace, and the wonderful story of what He has done for us sence He wakened the soul of His servant, Columbus, and sent him over the troubled ocean to carry His name into the wilderness, and the strength and the might He has given to us sence as a nation-- "This great object lesson, full of the sperit of prophecy and accomplishment, won't be here but a few short months. "And I believe if there could be another chapter added to the Bible this week, and we could have the Lord's will writ out concernin' it, I believe it would read-- "'Go to that Fair. Study its wonderful lessons with awe and reverence. Go week days if you can, and if you can't, go Sundays. And you rich people, who have art galleries of your own to wander through Sundays, and gardens and greenhouses full of beauty and sweetness, and the means to seek out loveliness through the world, and who don't need the soul refreshment these things give--don't you by any Pharisaical law deprive my poor of their part in the feast I have spread for both rich and poor.'" Sez Miss Cork, "I wouldn't dast to talk in that way, Arville. To add or diminish one word of skripter is to bring an awful penalty." "I hain't a-goin' to add or diminish," says Arville. "I hain't thought on't. I am merely statin' what, in my opinion, would be the Lord's will on the subject." But right here the schoolmaster struck in. He is a very likely young man--smart as a whip, and does well by the school, and makes a stiddy practice of mindin' his own business and behavin'. He is a great favorite and quite good-lookin', and some say that he and Lophemia Pegrum are engaged; but it hain't known for certain. He spoke up, and sez he, "There is one great thing to think of when we talk on this matter. There is so much to be said on both sides of this subject that it is almost impossible to shut your eyes to the advantages and the disadvantages on both sides. "But," sez he, "if this nation closes the Fair Sundays, it will be a great object lesson to the youth of this nation and the world at large of the sanctity and regard we have for our Puritan Sabbath-- "Of our determination to not have it turned into a day of amusement, as it is in some European countries. "It would be something like painting up the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in gold letters on the blue sky above, so that all who run may read, of the regard we have for the day of rest that God appointed. The regard we have for things spiritual, onseen--our conflicts and victories for conscience' sake--the priceless heritage for which our Pilgrim Fathers braved the onknown sea and wilderness, and our forefathers fought and bled for." "They fit for Liberty!" sez Arville. She would have the last word. "And this country, in the name of Religion, has whipped Quakers, and Baptists, and hung witches--and no knowin' what it will do agin. And I think," sez she, "that it would look better now both from the under and upper side--both on earth and in Heaven--to close them murderous and damnable saloons, that are drawin' men to visible and open ruin all round us on every side, than to take such great pains to impress onseen things onto strangers." She would have the last word--she wuz bound to. And the schoolmaster, bein' real polite, though he had a look as if he wuzn't convinced, yet he bowed kinder genteel to Arvilly, as much as to say, "I will not dispute any further with you." And then he got up and went over and sot down by Lophemia Pegrum. And I see there wuz no prospect of their different minds a-comin' any nearer together. And I'll be hanged if I could wonder at it. Why, I myself see things so plain on both sides that I would convince myself time and agin both ways. I would be jest as firm as a rock for hours at a time that it would be the only right thing to do, to shet up the Fair Sundays--shet it up jest as tight as it could be shet. And then agin, I would argue in my own mind, back and forth, and convince myself (ontirely onbeknown to me) that it would be the means of doin' more good to the young folks and the poor to have it open. Why, I had a fearful time, time and agin, a-arguin' and a-disputin' with myself, and a-carryin' metafors back and forth, and a-eppisodin', when nobody wuz round. And as I couldn't seem to come to any clear decision myself, a-disputin' with jest my own self, I didn't spoze so many different minds would become simultanous and agreed. So I jest branched right off and asked Miss Cork "If she had heard that the minister's wife had got the neuralligy." I felt that neuralligy wuz a safe subject, and one that could be agreed on--everybody despised it. [Illustration: Neuralligy wuz a safe subject.] And gradual the talk sort o' quieted down, and I led it gradual into ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. CHAPTER VII. Christopher Columbus Allen got along splendid with his railroad business, and by the time the rest of us wuz ready for the World's Fair, he wuz. We didn't have so many preparations to make as we would in other circumstances, for Ury and Philury wuz goin' to move right into our house, and do for it jest as well as we would do for ourselves. They had done this durin' other towers that we had gone off on, and never had we found our confidence misplaced, or so much as a towel or a dish-cloth missin'. We have always done well by them while they wuz workin' for us by the week or on shares, and they have always jest turned right round and done well by us. Thomas Jefferson and Maggie went with us. Tirzah Ann and Whitfield wuzn't quite ready to go when we did, but they wuz a-comin' later, when Tirzah Ann had got all her preperations made--her own dresses done, and Whitfield's night-shirts embroidered, and her stockin's knit. I love Tirzah Ann. But I can't help seein' that she duz lots of things that hain't neccessary. Now it wuzn't neccessary for her to have eleven new dresses made a purpose to go to the World's Fair, and three white aprons all worked off round the bibs and pockets. Good land! what would she want of aprons there in that crowd? And she no need to had six new complete suits of under-clothes made, all trimmed off elaborate with tattin' and home-made edgin' before she went. And it wuzn't neccessary for her to knit two pairs of open-work stockin's with fine spool thread. I sez to her, "Tirzah Ann, why don't you buy your stockin's? You can git good ones for twenty cents. And," sez I, "these will take you weeks and weeks to knit, besides bein' expensive in thread." But she said "she couldn't find such nice ones to the store--she couldn't find shell-work." "Then," sez I, "I shall go without shell-work." But she said, "They wuz dretful ornamental to the foot, specially to the instep, and she shouldn't want to go without 'em." "But," sez I, "who is a-goin' to see your instep? You hain't a-goin' round in that crowd with slips on, be you?" "No," she said, "she didn't spoze she should, but she should feel better to know that she had on nice stockin's, if there didn't anybody see 'em." And I thought to myself that I should ruther be upheld by my principles than the consciousness of shell-work stockin's. But I didn't say so right out. I see that she wouldn't give up the idee. And besides the stockin's, which wuz goin' to devour a fearful amount of time, she had got to embroider three night-shirts for Whitfield with fine linen floss. Then I argued with her agin. Sez I, "Good land! I don't believe that Christopher Columbus ever had any embroidered night-shirts." Sez I, "If he had waited to have them embroidered, and shell-work stockin's knit, we might have not been discovered to this day. But," sez I, "good, sensible creeter, he knew better than to do it when he had everything else on his hands. And," sez I, "with all your housework to do--and hot weather a-comin' on--I don't see how you are a-goin' to git 'em all done and git to the Fair." And she said, "She had ruther come late, prepared, than to go early with everything at loose ends." "But," sez I, "good plain sensible night-shirts and Lyle-thread stockin's hain't loose--they hain't so loose as them you are knittin'." But I see that I couldn't break it up, so I desisted in my efforts. Maggie, though she is only my daughter-in-law, takes after me more in a good many things than Tirzah Ann duz, who is my own step-daughter. Curious, but so it is. Now, she and I felt jest alike in this. Who--who wuz a-goin' to notice what you had on to the World's Fair; and providin' we wuz clean and hull, and respectable-lookin', who wuz a-goin' to know or care whether our stockin's wuz open work or plain knittin'? There, with all the wonder and glory of the hull world spread out before our eyes, and the hull world there a-lookin' at it, a-gazin' at strange people, strange customs, strange treasures and curiosities from every land under the sun--wonders of the earth and wonders of the sea, marvels of genius and invention, and marvels of grandeur and glory, of Art and Nature, and the hull world a-lookin' on, and a-marvellin' at 'em. And then to suppose that anybody would be a-lookin' out for shell-work stockin's, a-carin' whether they wuz clam-shell pattern, or oyster shell. The idee! That is the way Maggie and I felt; why, if you'll believe it, that sweet little creeter never took but one dress with her, besides a old wrapper to put on mornin's. She took a good plain black silk dress, with two waists to it--a thick one for cool days and a thin one for hot days--and some under-clothes, and some old shoes that didn't hurt her feet, and looked decent. And there she wuz all ready. She never bought a thing, I don't believe, not one. You wouldn't ketch her waitin' to embroider night-shirts for Thomas Jefferson--no, indeed! She felt jest as I did. What would the Christopher Columbus World's Fair care for the particular make of Thomas J's night-shirts? That had bigger things on its old mind than to stop and admire a particular posey or runnin' vine worked on a man's nightly bosom. Yes, indeed! But Tirzah Ann felt jest that way, and I couldn't make her over at that late day, even if I had time to tackle the job. She took it honest--it come onto her from her Pa. The preperations that man would have made if he had had his head would have outdone Tirzah Ann's, and that is sayin' enough, and more'n enough. And the size of the shoes that man would have sot out with if he had been left alone would have been a shame and a disgrace to the name of decency as long as the world stands. Why, his feet would have been two smokin' sacrifices laid on the altar of corns and bunions. Yes, indeed! But I broke it up. I sez, "Do you lay out and calculate to hobble round in that pair of leather vises and toe-screws," sez I, "when you have got to be on foot from mornin' till night, day after day? Why under the sun don't you wear your good old leather shoes, and feel comfortable?" And he said (true father of Tirzah Ann), "He wuz afraid it would make talk." [Illustration: "Leather vises and toe-screws."] Sez I, "The idee of the World's Fair, with all it has got on its mind, a noticin' or carin' whether you had on shoes or went barefoot! But if you are afraid of talk," sez I, "I guess that it would make full as much talk to see you a-goin' round a-groanin' and a-cryin' out loud. And that is what them shoes would bring you to," sez I. "Now," sez I, "you jest do them shoes right up and carry 'em back to the store, and if you have got to have a new pair, git some that will be more becomin' to a human creeter, let alone a class-leader, and a perfessor, and a grandfather." So at last I prevailed--he a-forebodin' to the very last that it would make talk to see him in such shoes. But he got a pair that wuzn't more'n one size too small for him, and I presumed to think they would stretch some. And, anyway, I laid out to put his good, roomy old gaiters in my own trunk, so he could have a paneky to fall back on, and to soothe. As for myself, I took my old slips, that had been my faithful companions for over two years, and a pair of good big roomy bootees. I never bought nothin' new for any of my feet, not even a shoe-string. And the only new thing that I bought, anyway, wuz a new muslin night-cap with a lace ruffle. I bought that, and I spoze vanity and pride wuz to the bottom of it. I feel my own shortcomin's, I feel 'em deep, and try to repent, every now and then, I do. But I did think in my own mind that in case of fire, and I knew that Chicago wuz a great case for burnin' itself up--I thought in case of fire in the night I wouldn't want to be ketched with a plain sheep's-head night-cap on, which, though comfortable, and my choice for stiddy wear, hain't beautiful. And I thought if there wuz a fire, and I wuz to be depictered in the newspapers as a-bein' rescued, I did feel a little pride in havin' a becomin' night-cap on, and not bein' engraved with a sheep's head on. Thinks'es I, the pictures in the newspapers are enough to bring on the cold chills onto anybody, even if took bareheaded, and what--what would be the horror of 'em took in a sheep's head! There it wuz, there is my own weakness sot right down in black and white. But, anyway, it only cost thirty-five cents, and there wuzn't nothin' painful about it, like Josiah's shoes, nor protracted, like Tirzah Ann's stockin's. Wall, Ury and Philury moved in the day before, and Josiah and I left in the very best of sperits and on the ten o'clock train, Maggie and Thomas Jefferson and Krit a-meetin' us to the depot. Maggie looked as pretty as a pink, if she didn't make no preperations. She had on her plain waist, black silk, and a little black velvet turban, and she had pinned a bunch of fresh rosies to her waist, and the rosies wuzn't any pinker than her pretty cheeks and lips, and the dew that had fell into them roses' hearts that night wuzn't any brighter than her sweet gray eyes. She makes a beautiful woman, Maggie Allen duz; and she ort to, to correspond with her husband, for my boy, Thomas Jefferson, is a young man of a thousand, and it is admitted that he is by all the Jonesvillians--nearly every villian of 'em admits it. Tirzah Ann and the babe wuz to the depot to see us off, and she said that she should come on jest as soon as she got through with her preperations. But I felt dubersome about her comin' very soon, for she took out her knittin' work (we had to wait quite a good while for the cars), and I see that she hadn't got the first one only to the instep. It is slow knittin'--shells are dretful slow anyway--and she wuz too proud sperited to have 'em plain clam-shell pattern, which are bigger and coarser; she had to have 'em oyster-shell pattern, in ridges. Wall, as I say, I felt dubersome, but I spoke up cheerful on the outside-- "If you git your stockin's done, Tirzah Ann, you must be sure and come." And she said she would. The way she said it wuz: "One, two, three, four, yes, mother; five, six, seven, I will." She had to count every shell from top to toe of 'em, which made it hard and wearin' both for her and them she wuz conversin' with. Why, they do say--it come to me straight, too--that Whitfield got that wore out with them oyster-shell stockin's that he won't look at a oyster sence--he used to be devoted to 'em, raw or cooked; but they say that you can't git him to look at one sence the stockin' episode, specially scolloped ones. No, he sez "that he has had enough oysters for a lifetime." Poor fellow! I pity him. I know what them actions of hern is; hain't I suffered from the one she took 'em from? But to resoom, and continue on. Miss Gowdey come to the depot to see me off, and so did Miss Bobbet and the Widder Pooler. Miss Gowdey wuz a-comin' to the World's Fair as soon as she made her rag-carpet for her summer kitchen; she said "she wouldn't go off and leave her work ondone, and she hadn't got more'n half of the rags cut, and she hadn't colored butnut yet, nor copperas; she would not leave her house a-sufferin' and her rags oncut." I thought she looked sort o' reprovin' at me, for she knew that I had a carpet begun. But I spoke up, and sez, "Truly rags will be always here with us, and most likely butnut and copperas; but the World's Fair comes but once in a lifetime, and I believe in embracin' it now, and makin' the most of it." Sez I, "We can embrace rags at any time." "Wall," she said, "she couldn't take no comfort with the memory of things ondone a-weighin' down on her." She said "some folks wuz different," and she looked clost at me as she said it. "Some folks could go off on towers and be happy with the thought of rags oncut and warp oncolored, or spooled, or anything. But she wuzn't one of 'em; she could not, and would not, take comfort with things ondone on her mind." And I sez, "If folks don't take any comfort with the memories of things ondone on 'em, I guess that there wouldn't be much comfort took, for, do the best we can in this world, we have to leave some things ondone. We can't do everything." "Wall," she said, "she should, never should, go off on towers till everything wuz done." And agin I sez, "It is hard to git everything done, and if folks waited for them circumstances, I guess there wouldn't be many towers gone off on." But she didn't give in, nor I nuther. But jest then Miss Bobbet spoke up, and said, "She laid out to go to the World's Fair--she wouldn't miss it for anything; it wuz the oppurtunity of a lifetime for education and pleasure; but she wuz a-goin' to finish that borrow-and-lend bedquilt of hern before she started a step. And then the woodwork had got to be painted all over the house, and _he_ was so busy with his spring's work that she had got to do it herself." And I sez, "Couldn't you let those things be till you come back?" And she said, "She couldn't, for she mistrusted she would be all beat out, and wouldn't feel like it when she got back; paintin' wuz hard work, and so wuz piecin' up." And I sez, "Then you had ruther go there all tired out, had you?" sez I. "Seems to me I had ruther go to the World's Fair fresh and strong, and ready to learn and enjoy, even if I let my borrow-and-lend bedquilt go till another year. For," sez I, "bedquilts will be protracted fur beyend the time of seein' the World's Fair--and I believe in livin' up to my priveleges." And she said, "That she wouldn't want to put it off, for it had been a-layin' round for several years, and she felt that she wouldn't go away so fur from home, and leave it onfinished." And I see that it wouldn't do any good to argy with her. Her mind wuz made up. Miss Pooler said, "That she wuz a-goin' to the Fair, and a-goin' in good season, too. She wouldn't miss it for anything in the livin' world. But she had got to make a visit all round to his relations and hern before she went. And," sez she, a-lookin' sort o' reproachful at me, "I should have thought you would have felt like goin' round and payin' 'em all a visit, on both of your sides, before you went," sez she. "They would have felt better; and I feel like doin' everything I can to please the relations." And I told Miss Pooler--"That I never expected to see the day that I hadn't plenty of relations on my side and on hisen, but I never expected to see another Christopher Columbus World's Fair, and I had ruther spend my time now with Christopher than with them on either side, spozin' they would keep." But Miss Pooler said, "She had always felt like doin' all in her power to show respect to the relations on both sides, and make 'em happy. And she felt that, in case of anything happenin', she would feel better to know she had made 'em all a last visit before it happened." "What I am afraid will happen, Miss Pooler," sez I, "is that you won't git to the World's Fair at all, for they are numerous on both sides, and widespread," sez I. "It will take sights and sights of time for you to go clear round." But I see that she wuz determined to have her way, and I didn't labor no more with her. And I might as well tell it right here, as any time--she never got to the World's Fair at all. For while she wuz a-payin' a last visit previous to her departure, she wuz took down bed-sick for three weeks. And the Fair bein' at that time on its last leglets, as you may say, it had took her so long to go the rounds--the Fair broke up before she got up agin. Miss Pooler felt awful about it, so they say; it wuz such a dretful disapintment to her that they had to watch her for some time, she wuz that melancholy about it, and depressted, that they didn't know what she would be led to do to herself. And besides her own affliction about the Fair, and the trouble she gin her own folks a-watchin' her for months afterwards, she got 'em mad at her on both sides. Seven different wimmen she kep to home, jest as they wuz a-startin' for the Fair, and belated 'em. Eleven of the relations on her side and on hisen hain't spoke to her sence. And the family where she wuz took sick on their hands talked hard of suin' her for damage. For they wuz real smart folks, and had been makin' their calculations for over three years to go to the Fair, and had lotted on it day and night, and through her sickness they wuz kep to home, and didn't go to it at all. But to resoom. Jest as I turned round from Miss Pooler, I see Miss Solomon Stebbins and Arvilly Lanfear come in the depot. Arvilly come to bid me good-bye, and Miss Stebbins wuz with her, and so she come in too. Arvilly said, "That she should be in Chicago to that World's Fair, if her life wuz spared." She said, "That she wouldn't miss bein' in the place where wimmen wuz made sunthin' of, and had sunthin' to say for themselves, not for ontold wealth." She said, "That she jest hankered after seein' one woman made out of pure silver--and then that other woman sixty-five feet tall; she said it would do her soul good to see men look up to her, and they have got to look up to her if they see her at all, for she said that it stood to reason that there wuzn't goin' to be men there sixty-five feet high. "And then that temple there in Chicago, dreamed out and built by a woman--the nicest office buildin' in the world! jest think of that--_in the World_. And a woman to the bottom of it, and to the top too. Why," sez Arville, "I wouldn't miss the chance of seein' wimmen swing right out, and act as if their souls wuz their own, not for the mines of Golconda." Sez she, "More than a dozen wimmen have told me this week they wanted to go; but they wuzn't able. But I sez to 'em, I'm able to go, and I'm a-goin'--I am goin' afoot." "Why, Arvilly," sez I, "you hain't a-goin' to Chicago a-walkin' afoot!" [Illustration: "Why, Arvilly!"] "Yes, I be a-goin' to Chicago a-walkin' afoot, and I am goin' to start next Monday mornin'." "Why'ee!" sez I, "you mustn't do it; you must let me lend you some money." "No, mom; much obliged jest the same, but I am a-goin' to canvass my way there. I am goin' to sell the 'Wild, Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man.' I calculate to make money enough to get me there and ride some of the way, and take care of me while I am there; I may tackle some other book or article to sell. But I am goin' to branch out on that, and I am goin' to have a good time, too." [Illustration: "No, mom; much obliged jest the same."] Miss Stebbins said, "She wanted to go, and calculated to, but she wanted to finish that croshay lap-robe before snow fell." "Wall," sez I, "snow hain't a-goin' to fall very soon now, early in the Spring so." "Wall," she said, "that it wuz such tryin' work for the eyes, she wouldn't leave it for nothin' till she got back, for she mistrusted that she should feel kind o' mauger and wore out. And then," she said, "she had got to make a dozen fine shirts for Solomon, so's to leave him comfortable while she wuz gone, and the children three suits apiece all round." Sez I, "How long do you lay out to be gone?" "About two weeks," she said. And I told her, "That it didn't seem as if he would need so many shirts for so short a time." But she said, "She should feel more relieved to have 'em done." So I wouldn't say no more to break it up. For it is fur from me to want to diminish any female's relief. And the cars tooted jest then, so I didn't have no more time to multiply words with her anyway. CHAPTER VIII. We were travellin' in a car they call a parlor, though it didn't look no more like our parlor than ours does like a steeple on a wind-mill. But it wuz dretful nice and comogeous. We five occupied seats all together, and right next to us, acrost the aisle, wuz two men a-arguin' on the Injun question. I didn't know 'em, but I see that Thomas J. and Krit wuz some acquainted with 'em; they wuz business men. When I first begun to hear 'em talk (they talked loud--we couldn't help hearin' 'em), they seemed to be kinder laughin', and one of 'em said: "Yes, they denied the right of suffrage to wimmen and give it to the Injuns, and the next week the Injuns started off on the war-path. Whether they did it through independence or through triumph nobody knows, but it is known that they went." And I thought to myself, "Mebby they wuz mad to think that the Goverment denied to intelligent Christian wimmen the rights gin to savages." Thinks'es I, "It is enough to make a Injun mad, or anything else." [Illustration: "They denied the right of suffrage to wimmen and give it to the Injuns."] But I didn't speak my mind out loud, and they begun to talk earnest and excited about 'em, and I could see as they went on that they felt jest alike towards the Injuns, and wanted 'em wiped off'en the face of the earth; but they disagreed some as to the ways they wanted 'em wiped. One of 'em wanted 'em shot right down to once, and exterminated jest as you kill potato-bugs. The other wanted 'em drove further off and shet up tighter till they died out of themselves; but they wuz both agreed in bein' horrified and disgusted at the Injuns darin' to fight the whites. And first I knew Krit jest waded right into the talk. He waded polite, but he waded deep right off the first thing. And, sez he, "Before they all die I hope they will sharpen up their tommyhawks and march on to Washington, and have a war-dance before the Capitol, and take a few scalps there amongst the law-makers and the Injun bureau." He got kinder lost and excited by his feelin's, Krit did, or he wouldn't have said anything about scalpin' a bureau. Good land! he might talk about smashin' its draws up, but nobody ever hearn of scalpin' a bureau or a table. But he went on dretful smart, and, sez he, "Gentlemen, I have lived right out there amongst the Injuns and the rascally agents, and I know what I am talkin' about when I say that, instead of wonderin' about the Injuns risin' up aginst the whites, as they do sometimes, the wonder is that they don't try to kill every white man they see. "When I think of the brutality, the cheatin', the cruelty, the devilishness of the agents, it is a wonder to me that they let one stick remain on another at the agencies--that they don't burn 'em up, root and branch, and destroy all the lazy, cheatin', lyin' white scamps they can get sight of." The two men acted fairly browbeat and smut to hear Krit go on, and they sez-- "You must be mistaken in your views; the Goverment, I am sure, tries to protect the Injuns and take care of 'em." "What is the Goverment doin'," sez Krit, "but goin' into partnership with lyin' and stealin,' when it knows just what their agents are doin', and still protects them in their shameful acts, and sends out troops to build up their strength? Maybe you have a home you love?" sez Krit, turnin' to the best lookin' of the men. "Yes, indeed," sez he; "my country home down on the Hudson is the same one we have had in the family for over two hundred years. My babies are to-day runnin' over the same turf that I rolled on in my boyhood, and their great-great-grandmothers played on in their childhood. "My babies' voices raise the same echoes from the high rock back of the orchard, the same blue river runs along at their feet, the sun sets right over the same high palisade. Why, that very golden light acrost the water between the two high rocks--that golden line of light seems to me now, almost as it did then in my childhood, the only path to Heaven. "Heaven and Earth would be all changed to me if I had to give up my old home. Why, every tree, and shrub, and rock seems like a part of my own beloved family, such sacred associations cluster around them of my childhood and manhood. And the memories of the dear ones gone seem to be woven into the very warp and woof of the stately old elm-trees that shade its velvet lawns, and the voice of the river seems full of old words and music, vanished tones and laughter. "No one can know, or dream, how inexpressibly dear the old home is to my heart. If I had to give it up," sez he, "it would be like tearin' out my very heart-strings, and partin' with what seems like a part of my own life." The man looked very earnest and sincere when he said this, and even agitated. He meant what he said, no doubt on't. And then Krit sez, "How would you like it if you were ordered to leave it at a day's notice--leave it forever--leave it so some one else, some one you hated, some one who had always injured you, could enjoy it-- "Leave it so that you knew you could never live there again, never see a sun rise or a sun set over the dear old fields, and mountains, and river, you loved so well-- "Never have the chance to stand by the graves of your fathers, and your children, that were a-sleepin' under the beautiful old trees that your grandfathers had set out-- "Never see the dear old grounds they walked through, the old rooms full of the memories of their love, their joys, and their sorrows, and your loves, and hopes, and joys, and sadness? "What should you do if some one strong enough, but without a shadow of justice or reason, should order you out of it at once--force you to go?" "I should try to kill him," sez the man promptly, before he had time to think what to say. "Well," sez Krit, "that is what the Injuns try to do, and the world is horrified at it. Their homes are jest as dear to them as ours are to us; their love for their own living and dead is jest as strong. Their grief and sense of wrong and outrage is even stronger than the white man's would be, for they don't have the distractions of civilized life to take up their attention. They brood over their wrongs through long days and nights, unsolaced by daily papers and latest telegraphic news, and their famished, freezin' bodies addin' their terrible pangs to their soul's distress. "Is it any wonder that after broodin' over their wrongs through long days and nights, half starved, half naked, their dear old homes gone--shut up here in the rocky, hateful waste, that they must call home, and probably their wives and daughters stolen from them by these agents that are fat and warm, and gettin' rich on the food and clothing that should be theirs, and receivin' nothing but insults and threats if they ask for justice, and finally a bullet, if their demands for justice are too loud-- "What wonder is it that they lift their empty hands for vengeance--that they leave their bare, icy huts, and warm their frozen veins with ghost-dances, haply practisin' them before they go to be ghosts in reality? What wonder that they sharpen up their ancestral tomahawk, and lift it against their oppressors? What wonder that the smothered fires do break out into sudden fiery tempests of destruction that appall the world? "You say you would do the same, after your generations of culture and Christian teaching, and so would I, and every other man. We would if we could destroy the destroyers who ravage and plunder our homes, deprive us of the earnings of a lifetime, turn us out of our inheritance, and make of our wives and daughters worse than slaves. "We meet every year to honor the memory of the old heroes who rebelled and fought for liberty--shed rivers of blood to escape from far less intolerable oppression and wrongs than the Injuns have endured for years. "And then we expect them, with no culture and no Christianity, to practise Christian virtues, and endure buffetings that no Christian would endure. "The whole Injun question is a satire on true Goverment, a lie in the name of liberty and equality, a shame on our civilization." "What would you do about it?" said the kinder good-lookin' man. Sez Krit, "If I called the Injuns wards, adopted children of the Goverment, I would try not to use them in a way that would disgrace any drunken old stepmother. "I would have dignity enough, if I did not stand for decency, to not half starve and freeze them, and lie to them, and cheat them till the very word 'Goverment' means to them all they can picture of meanness and brutality. I would either grant them independence, or a few of the comforts I had stolen from them. "If I drove them out of their rich lands and well-stocked hunting-grounds they had so long considered their own--if I drove them out in my cupidity and love of conquest, I would in return grant them enough of the fruits of their old homes to keep up life in their unhappy bodies. "If I made them suffer the pains of exile, I would not let them endure also the gnawings of starvation. "And I would not send out to 'em the Bible and whiskey packed in one wagon, appeals to Christian living and the sure means to overthrow it. [Illustration: "I would not send 'em Bibles and whiskey packed in one wagon."] "I would not send 'em religious tracts, implorin' 'em to come to Christ's kingdom, packed in the same hamper with kegs of brandy, which the Bible and the tracts teach that those that use it are cursed, and that no drunkard can inherit the kingdom." But, sez Krit, "The Bible they _should_ have. And after they had mastered its simplest teachings, they should don their war-paint and feathers, and go out with it in their hands as missionaries to the white race, to try to teach them its plainest and simplest doctrines, of justice, and mercy, and love." But at this very minute the cars tooted, and the two men seized their satchels, and after a sort of a short bow to Krit and the rest of us, they rushed offen the train. I believe they wuz conscience-smut, but I don't know. [Illustration: I believe they wuz conscience-smut, but I don't know.] When we arrove at the big depot at Chicago, the sun wuz jest a-drawin' up his curtains of gorgeous red, and yeller, and crimson, and wuz a-retirin' behind 'em to git a little needed rest. The glorious counterpane wuz kinder heaped up in billowy richness on his western couch, but what I took to be the undersheet--a clear long fold of shinin' gold color--lay straight and smooth on the bottom of the gorgeous bed. And the sun's face wuz just a-lookin' out above it, as if to say good-bye to Chicago, and trouble, and the World's Fair, and Josiah and me, as we sot our feet on _terry firmy_. (That is Latin that I have hearn Thomas J. use. Nobody need to be afraid of it; it is harmless. My boy wouldn't use a dangerous word.) But to resoom and go on. As I ketched the last glimpse of the old familier face of the sun, that I had seen so many times a-lookin' friendly at me through the maple trees at Jonesville, and that truly had seemed to be a neighbor, a-neighborin' with me, time and agin--when I see him so peaceful and good-natured a-goin' to his nightly rest, I thought to myself-- Oh! how I wish I could foller his example, for it duz seem to me that nowhere else, unless it wuz at the tower of Babel, wuz there ever so much noise, and of such various and conflictin' kinds. Instinctively I ketched holt of my pardner's arm, and sez I, "Stay by me, Josiah Allen; if madness and ruin result from this Pandemonium, be with me to the last." He couldn't hear a word I said, the noise wuz that deafnin' and tremendious. But he read the silent, tender language of the brown cotton glove on his arm, and he cast a look of deep affection on me, and sez he in soulfull axents-- "Hurry up, can't you? Wimmen are always so slow!" I responded in the same earnest, heartfelt way. And anon, or perhaps a little before, Thomas J. and Krit hurried us and our satchel bags into a big roomy carriage, and we soon found ourselves a-wendin' our way through the streets of the great Western city, the metropolis of the Settin' Sun. Street after street, mild after mild of high, towerin' buildin's did we pass. Some on 'em I know wuz high enough for the tower of Babel--and old Babel himself would have admitted it, I bet, if he had been there. And as the immense size and magnitude of the city come over me like a wave, I thought to myself some in Skripter and some in common readin'. When I thought that fifty years ago the grassy prairie lay stretched out in green repose where now wuz the hard pavements worn with the world's commerce; when I thought that little prairie-dogs, and mush-rats, and squirells wuz a-runnin' along ondisturbed where now stood high blocks full of a busy city's enterprise; when I thought that little pretty, timid birds wuz a-flyin' about where now wuz steeples and high chimblys--why, when I thought of all this in common readin', then the Skripter come in, and I sez to myself in deep, solemn axents-- "Who hath brought this thing to pass?" And then anon I went to thinkin' in common readin' agin, and thinks'es I-- A little feeble woman died a few days ago--not so very old either--who wuz the first child born in Chicago--and I thought-- What a big, big day's work wuz done under her eye-sight! What a immense house-warmin' she would had to had in order to warm up all the housen built under her eye! Millions of folks did she see move into her neighborhood. And what a party would she had to gin to have took all her neighbors in! What a immense amount of nut-cakes would she have had to fry, and cookies! Why, countin' two nut-cakes to a person--and that is a small estimate for a healthy man to eat, judgin' by my own pardner--she would have had to fry millions of nut-cakes. And millions of cookies, if they wuz made after Mother's receipt handed down to me; that wouldn't have been one too many. And where could she spread out her dough for her cookies--why, a prairie wouldn't have been too big for her mouldin' board. And the biggest Geyser in the West, old Faithful himself, wouldn't have been too big to fry the cakes in, if you could fry 'em in water, which you can't. But mebby if she had gin the party, she could have used that old spoutin' Geyser for a teapot or a soda fountain--if she laid out to treat 'em to anything to drink. But good land! there is no use in talkin', if she had used a volcano to steep her tea over, she couldn't made enough to go round. CHAPTER IX. Wall, after a numerous number of emotions we at last reached our destination and stoppin'-place. And I gin a deep sithe of relief as the wheel of the carriage grated on the curb-stun, in front of the boardin' house where my Josiah and me laid out to git our two boards. Thomas J. and Krit wanted to go to one of the big hotels. I spozed, from their talk, it wuz reasonable, and wuz better for their business, that they should be out amongst business men. But Josiah and I didn't want to go to any such place. We had our place all picked out, and had had for some time, ever sence we had commenced to git ready for the World's Fair. We had laid out to git our two boards at a good quiet place recommended by our own Methodist Episcopal Pasture, and a distant relation of his own. It wuz to Miss Ebenezer Plank'ses, who took in a few boarders, bein' middlin' well off, and havin' a very nice house to start with, but wanted to add a little to her income, so she took in a few and done well by 'em, so our pasture said, and so we found out. It wuz a splendid-lookin' house a-standin' a-frontin' a park, where anybody could git a glimpse of green trees and a breath of fresh air, and as much quiet and rest as could be found in Chicago durin' the summer of 1893, so I believed. Thomas J. and Maggie wuz perfectly suited with the place for us--and Thomas J. parleyed with Miss Plank about our room, etc.--and we wuz all satisfied with the result. And after Josiah and me got settled down in our room, a good-lookin' one, though small, the children sot off for their hotel, which wuzn't so very fur from ourn, nigh enough so that they could be sent for easy, if we wuz took down sudden, and visey versey. I found Miss Plank wuz a good-appearin' woman, and a Christian, I believe, with good principles, and a hair mole on her face, though she kep 'em curbed down, and cut off (the hairs). [Illustration: A good-appearin' woman.] Her husband had been a man of wealth, as you could see plain by the house that he left her a-livin' in. But some of her property she had lost through poor investments--and don't it beat all how wimmen do git cheated, and every single man she deals with a-tellin' her to confide in him freely, for he hain't but one idee, and that is to look out for her interests, to the utter neglect of his own, and a-warnin' her aginst every other man on earth but himself. But, to resoom. She had lost some of her property, and bein' without children, and kind o' lonesome, and a born housekeeper and cook, her idee of takin' in a few respectable and agreeable boarders wuz a good one. She wuz a good calculator, and the best maker of pancakes I ever see, fur or near. She oversees her own kitchen, and puts on her own hand and cooks, jest when she is a mind too. She hain't afraid of the face of man or woman, though she told me, and I believe it, that "her cook wuz that cross and fiery of temper, that she would skair any common person almost into coniption fits." "But," sez she, "the first teacup that she throwed at me, because I wanted to make some pancakes, wuz the last." I don't know what she done to her, but presoom that she held her with her eye. It is a firm and glitterin' one as I ever see. Anyway, she put a damper onto that cook, and turns it jest when she is a mind to--to the benefit of her boarders; for better vittles wuz never cooked than Miss Plank furnishes her boarders at moderate rates and the comforts of a home, as advertisements say. Her house wuz kep clean and sweet too, which wuz indeed a boon. She talked a sight about her husband, which I don't know as she could help--anyway, I guess she didn't try to. She told me the first oppurtunity what a good Christian he wuz, how devoted to her, and how much property he laid up, and that he wuz "in salt." I thought for quite a spell she meant brine, and dassent hardly enquire into the particulars, not knowin' what she had done by the departed, widders are so queer. But after she had mentioned to me more'n a dozen times her love for the departed, and his industrious and prosperous ways, and tellin' me every single time, "he wuz in salt," I found out that she meant that he wuz in the salt trade--bought and sold, I spozed. I felt better. But oh, how she did love to talk about that man; truly she used his sirname to connect us to the vast past, and to the mysterious future. We trod that Plank every day and all day, if we would listen to her. And sometimes when I would try to get her offen that Plank for a minute, and would bring up the World's Fair to her, and how big the housen wuz, I would find my efforts futile; for all she would say about 'em wuz to tell what Mr. Plank would have done if he had been a-livin', and if he had been onhampered, and out of salt, how much better he would have done than the directors did, and what bigger housen he would have built. And I would say, "A house that covers over most forty acres is a pretty big house." But she seemed to think that Mr. Plank would have built housen that covered a few more acres, and towered up higher, and had loftier cupalos. And finally I got tired of tryin' to quell her down, and I got so that I could let her talk and keep up a-thinkin' on other subjects all the time. Why, I got so I could have writ poetry, if that had been my aim, right under a constant loadin' and onloadin' of that Plank. Curious, hain't it? As I said, there wuz only a few boarders, most of 'em quiet folks, who had been there some time. Some on 'em had been there long enough to have children born under the ruff, who had growed up almost as big as their pa's and ma's. There wuz several of 'em half children there, and among 'em wuz one of the same age who wuz old--older than I shall ever be, I hope and pray. He wuz gloomy and morbid, and looked on life, and us, with kinder mad and distrustful eyes. Above all others, he wuz mean to his twin sister; he looked down on her and browbeat her the worst kind, and felt older than she did, and acted as if she wuz a mere child compared to him, though he wuzn't more'n five minutes older than she wuz, if he wuz that. Their names wuz Algernon and Guenivere Piddock, but they called 'em Nony and Neny--which wuz, indeed, a comfort to bystanders. Folks ort to be careful what names they put onto their children; yes, indeed. Neny wuz a very beautiful, good-appearin' young girl, and acted as if she would have had good sense, and considerable of it, if she hadn't been afraid to say her soul wuz her own. But Nony wuz cold and haughty. He sot right by me on the north side, Josiah Allen sot on my south. And I fairly felt chilly on that side sometimes, almost goose pimples, that young man child felt so cold and bitter towards the world and us, and so sort o' patronizin'. [Illustration: He sot by me.] He didn't believe in religion, nor nothin'. He didn't believe in Christopher Columbus--right there to the doin's held for him, he didn't believe in him. "Why," sez I, "he discovered the land we live in." He said, "He was very doubtful whether that wuz so or not--histories made so many mistakes, he presoomed there never was such a man at all." "Why," sez I, "he walked the streets of Genoa." And he sez, "I never see him there." And, of course, I couldn't dispute that. And he added, "That anyway there wuz too much a-bein' done for him. He wuz made too much of." He didn't believe in wimmen, made a specialty of that, from Neny back to Rachael and Ruth. He powed at wimmen's work, at their efforts, their learnin', their advancement. Neny, good little bashful thing, wuz a member of the WCTU and the Christian Endeavor, and wanted to do jest right by them noble societies and the world. But, oh, how light he would speak of them noble bands of workers in the World's warfare with wrong! To how small a space he wanted to reduce 'em down! And I sez to him once, "You can't do very much towards belittlin' a noble army of workers as that is--millions strong." "Millions weak, you mean," sez he. "I dare presoom to say there hain't a woman amongst 'em but what is afraid of a mouse, and would run from a striped snake." Sez I, "They don't run from the serpent Evil, that is wreathin' round their homes and loved ones, and a-tryin' to destroy 'em--they run towards that serpent, and hain't afraid to grapple with it, and overthrow it--by the help of the Mighty," sez I. Sez he, "There is too much made of their work." Sez he, "There hain't near so much done as folks think; the most of it is talk, and a-praisin' each other up." "Wall," sez I, "men won't never be killed for that in their political rivalin's, they won't be condemned for praisin' each other up." "No," sez he, "men know too much." And then I spoke of that silver woman--how beautiful and noble an appearance she made, in the spear she ort to be in, a-representin' Justice. And Nony said, "She wuz too soft." Sez he, "It is with her as it is with all other wimmen--men have to stand in front of her with guns to keep her together, to keep her solid." That kinder gaulded me, for there wuz some truth in it, for I had seen the men and the rifles. But I sprunted up, and sez I-- "They are a-guardin' her to keep men from stealin' her, that is what they are for. And," sez I, "it would be a good thing for lots of wimmen, who have got lots of silver, if it hain't in their bodies, if they had a guard a-walkin' round 'em with rifles to keep off maurauders." Why, there wuzn't nothin' brung up that he believed in, or that he didn't act morbid over. Why, I believe his Ma--good, decent-lookin' widder with false hair and a swelled neck, but well-to-do--wuz ashamed of him. Right acrost from me to the table sot a fur different creeter. It wuz a man in the prime of life, and wisdom, and culture, who _did_ believe in things. You could tell that by the first look in his face--handsome--sincere--ardent. With light brown hair, tossed kinder careless back from a broad white forward--deep blue, impetuous-lookin' eyes, but restrained by sense from goin' too fur. A silky mustache the same color of his hair, and both with a considerable number of white threads a-shinin' in 'em, jest enough so's you could tell that old Time hadn't forgot him as he went up and down the earth with his hour-glass under his arm, and his scythe over his shoulder. He had a tall, noble figger, always dressed jest right, so's you would never think of his clothes, but always remember him simply as bein' a gentleman, helpful, courteous, full of good-nature and good-natured wit and fun. But yet with a sort of a sad look underlyin' the fun, some as deep waters look under the frothy sparkle on top, as if they had secrets they might tell if they wuz a mind to--secrets of dark places down, fur down, where the sun doesn't shine; secrets of joy and happiness, and hope that had gone down, and wuz carried under the depths--under the depths that we hadn't no lines to fathom. No, if there wuz any secrets of sadness underlyin' the frank openness and pleasantness of them clear blue eyes, we hadn't none of us no way of tellin'. We hadn't no ways of peerin' down under the clear blue depths, any further than he wuz willin' to let us. All we knew wuz, that though he looked happy and looked good-natured, back of it all, a-peerin' out sometimes when you didn't look for it, wuz a sunthin' that looked like the shadder cast from a hoverin' lonesomeness, and sorrow, and regret. But he wuz a good-lookin' feller, there hain't a doubt of that, and good actin' and smart. He wuz a bacheldor, and we could all see plain that Miss Plank held his price almost above rubies. If there wuz any good bits among vittles that wuz always good, it wuz Miss Plank's desire that he should have them bits; if there wuz drafts a-comin' from any pint of the compass, it wuz Miss Plank's desire to not have him blowed on. If any soft zephyr's breath wuz wafted to any one of us from a open winder on a hot evenin' or sunny noon, he wuz the one she wanted wafted to, and breathed on. If her smiles fell warm on any, or all on us, he wuz the one they fell warmest on. But we all liked him the best that ever wuz. Even Nony Piddock seemed to sort of onbend a little, and moisten up with the dew of charity his arid desert of idees a little mite, when he wuz around. And occasionally, when the bacheldor, whose name wuz Mr. Freeman, when he would, half in fun and half in earnest, answer Nony's weary and bitter remarks, once in a while even that aged youth would seem to be ashamed of himself, and his own idees. There wuz another widder there--Miss Boomer; or I shouldn't call her a clear widder--I guess she wuz a sort of a semi-detached one--I guess she had parted with him. Wall, she cast warm smiles on Mr. Freeman--awful warm, almost meltin'. Miss Plank didn't like Miss Boomer. Miss Piddock didn't want to cast no looks onto nobody, nor make no impressions. She wuz a mourner for Old Piddock, that anybody could see with one eye, or hear with one ear--that is, if they could understand the secrets of sithes; they wuz deep ones as I ever hearn, and I have hearn deep ones in my time, if anybody ever did, and breathed 'em out myself--the land knows I have! Miss Plank loved Miss Piddock like a sister; she said that she felt drawed to her from the first, and the drawin's had gone on ever sence--growin' more stronger all the time. Wall, there wuz two elderly men, very respectable, with two wives, one apiece, lawful and right, and their children, and Miss Schack and her three children, and a Mr. Bolster, and that wuz all there wuz of us, includin' and takin' in my pardner and myself. Mr. Freeman wuz very rich, so Miss Plank said, and had three or four splendid rooms, the best--"sweet"--in the house, she said. I spoze she spoke in that way to let us know they wuz furnished _sweet_--that is, I spoze so. His mother had died there, and he couldn't bear to know that anybody else had her rooms; so he kep 'em all, and paid high for 'em, so she said, and wuz as much to be depended on for punctuality, and honesty, as the Bank of England, or the mines of Golcondy. Yes, Miss Plank said that, with all his sociable, pleasant ways with everybody, he wuz a millionare--made it in sugar, I believe she said--I know it wuz sunthin' good to eat, and sort o' sweet--it might have been molasses--I won't be sure. But anyway he got so awful rich by it that he could live anywhere he wuz a mind to--in a palace, if he took it into his head to want one. But instead of branchin' out and makin' a great show, he jest kep right on a-livin' in the rooms he had took so long ago for his family. But they had all gone and left him, his mother dead, and his two nieces gone with their father to California, where they wuz in a convent school. And he kep right on a-livin' in the old rooms. Miss Plank told me in confidence, and on the hair-cloth sofa in the upper hall, that it would be a big wrench if he ever left there. [Illustration: Miss Plank told me in confidence that it would be a big wrench if he left.] She said, "She didn't say it because he wuz a bacheldor and she a widder, she said it out of pure-respect." And I believed it, a good deal of the time I did; for good land! she wuz old enough to be his ma, and more too. But he acted dretful pretty to her, I could see that. Not findin' no fault, eatin' hash jest as calm as if he wuzn't engaged in a strange and mysterious business. For great, _great_ is the mystery of boardin'-house hash. Not a-mindin' the children's noise--indeed, a-courtin' it, as you may say, for he would coax the youngest and most troublesome one away from its tired mother sometimes, and keep it by him at the table, and wait on it. He thought his eyes of children, so Miss Plank said. I might have thought that he took care of the child on its mother's account, out of sentiment instead of pity, if Miss Schack hadn't been as humbly as humbly could be, and a big wart on the end of her nose, and a cowlick. She had three children, and they wuz awful, awful to git along with. Her husband "wuz on the road," she said. And we couldn't any of us really make out from what she said what he wuz a-doin' there, whether he wuz a-movin' along on it to his work, or jest a-settin' there. But anyway she talked a good deal about his "bein' on the road," and how much better the children behaved "before he went on it." They jest rid over her, and over us too, if we would let 'em. They wuz the awfullest children I ever laid eyes on, for them that had such pious and well-meanin' names. There wuz John Wesley, and Martin Luther, and little Peter Cooper Schack. Miss Schack wuz a well-principled woman, no doubt, and I dare say had high idees before they wuz jarred, and hauled down, and stomped and trampled on, by noise and confusion. And I dare presoom to say that she had named them children a-hopin' and a-expectin' some of the high and religious qualities of their namesakes would strike in. But to set and hear Martin Luther swear at John Wesley wuz a sight. And to see John Wesley clench his fists in Martin Luther's hair and kick him wuz enough to horrify any beholder. But Peter Cooper wuz the worst; to see him take everything away from his brothers he possibly could, and devour it himself, and want everything himself, and be mad if they had anything, and steal from 'em in the most cold-blooded way, and act--why, it wuz enough to make that blessed old philanthropist, Peter Cooper, turn over in his grave. They wuz dretful troublesome and worrisome to the rest of the boarders, but Mr. Freeman could quell 'em down any time--sometimes by lookin' at 'em and smilin', and sometimes by lookin' stern, and sometimes by candy and oranges. I declare for't, as I told Miss Plank sometimes, I didn't know what we would have done durin' some hot meal times if it hadn't been for that blessed bacheldor. I said that right out openly to Miss Plank, and to everybody else. Bein' married happy, I felt free to speak my mind about bacheldors, or anything. Of course, bein' a widder, Miss Plank felt more hampered. And he wuz good to me in other ways, besides easin' my cares and nerves at the table. His rooms wuz jest acrost the hall from ourn, and my Josiah's and my room wuz very small; it wuz the best that Miss Plank could do, so I didn't complain. But it wuz very compressed and confined, and extremely hot. When we wuz both in there sometimes on sultry days, I felt like compressed meat, or as I mistrusted that would feel, sort o' canned up, as it were. And one warm afternoon, 'most sundown, jest as I opened my door into the hall, to see if I could git a breath of fresh air to recooperate me, Josiah a-pantin' in the rockin'-chair behind me, Mr. Freeman opened his door, and so there we wuz a-facin' each other. [Illustration: And so there we wuz a-facin' each other.] And bein' sort o' took by surprise, I made the observation that "I wuz jest about melted, and so wuz my Josiah, and my room wuz like a dry oven and a tin can." I wouldn't have said it if I hadn't been so sort o' flustrated, and by the side of myself. And he jest swung open his door into a big cool parlor, and I could see beyend the doors open into two or three other handsome rooms. And, sez he, "I wish, Mrs. Allen, that you and your husband would come in here and see if it isn't cooler." Sez he, "I feel rather lonesome, and would be glad to have you come in and visit for a spell." He told me afterwards that it wuz the anniversary of his mother's death. He looked sort o' sad, and as if he really wanted company. So we thanked him, or I did, and we walked in and sot down in some big, cool cane-seat easy-chairs. And we sot there and visited back and forth for quite a spell, and took comfort. Yes, indeed, we did. This room wuz on the cool side of the house, and the still side. And it wuz big and furnished beautiful. It wuzn't Miss Plank's taste, I could see that. No, her taste is fervent and gorgeous. Gildin' is her favorite embellishment, and chromos, high-colored, and red. This room wuz covered with pure white mattin', and such rugs on it scattered over the floor as I never see, and don't know as I ever shall see agin. Some on 'em was pure white silky fur, and some on 'em as rich in colorin' as the most wonderful sunset colors you ever see in the red and golden west, or in the trees of a maple forest in October. And such pictures as hung on the walls I never see. Why, on one side of the room hung a picture that looked as if you wuz a-gazin' right out into a green field at sunset. There wuz a deep, cool rivulet a-gurglin' along over the pebbles, and the green, moist rushes--why, you could almost hear it. And the blue sky above--why, you could almost see right up through it, it looked so clear and transparent. And the cattle a-comin'up through the bars to be milked. Why, you could almost hear the girl call, "Co, boss! co, boss!" as she stood by the side of the bars with her sun-bunnet a-hangin' back from her pretty face, and her milk-pail on her arm. [Illustration: "Co, boss! co, boss!"] Why, you could fairly hear the swash, swash of the water, as the old brindle cow plashed through its cool waves. It beat all I ever see, and Josiah felt jest as I did. The beautiful face of the girl looked dretful familiar to me, though I couldn't tell for my life who it wuz that she looked so much like. And there on every side of us wuz jest as pretty pictures as that, and some white marble figures, that stood up almost as big as life on their marble pedestals, and aginst the dark red draperies. Why, take it all in all, it was the prettiest room I had ever looked at in my life, and so I told Mr. Freeman. And, if you'll believe it, that man up and said right there that we wuz perfectly free to use that room jest as much as we wanted to. He said he had another room as large as this that he staid in most of his time when he was at home--his writin'-desk wuz in that room. But he was not here much of the time, only to sleep and to his meals. And as he said this, what should that almost angel man do but to put a key in my hand, so Josiah and I could come in any time, whether he wuz here or not. Why, I wuz fairly dumbfoundered, and so wuz Josiah. But we thanked him warm, very warm, warmer than the weather, and that stood more'n ninety in the shade. And I told him--for I see that he really meant what he said--I told him that the chance of comin' in there and settin' down in that cool, big room, once in a while, as a change from our dry oven, would be a boon. And I didn't know but it would be the means of savin' our two lives, for meltin' did seem to be our doom and our state ahead on us, time and time agin. And he spoke right up in his pleasant, sincere way, and said, "The more we used it the more it would please him." And then he opened the doors of a big bookcase--all carved off the doors wuz, and the top, and the beautiful head of a white marble female a-standin' up above it. And he sez-- "Here are a good many books that are fairly lonesome waiting to be read, and you are more than welcome to read them." Wall, I thanked him agin, and I told him that he wuz too good to us. And I couldn't settle it in my own mind what made him act so. Of course, not knowin' at that time that I favored his mother in my looks--his mother he had worshipped so that he kep her room jest as she left it, and wouldn't have a thing changed. But I didn't know that, as I say, and I said to my Josiah, after we went back into our room-- Sez I, "It must be that we do have a good look to us, Josiah Allen, or else that perfect stranger wouldn't treat us as he has." "Perfect stranger!" sez Josiah. "Why, we have neighbored with him 'most a week. But," sez he, "you are right about our looks--we are dum good-lookin', both on us. I am pretty lookin'," says he, firmly, "though you hain't willin' to own up to it." Sez he, "I dare presoom to say, he thought I would be a sort of a ornament to his rooms--kinder set 'em off. And you look respectable," sez he, sort o' lookin' down on me-- "Only you are too fat!" Sez he, "You'd be quite good-lookin' if it wuzn't for that." And then we had some words. And I sez, "It hain't none of our merits that angel looks at; it is his own goodness." "Wall, there hain't no use in your callin' him an angel. You never called me so." "No, indeed!" sez I; "I never had no occasion, not at all." And then we had some more words--not many, but jest a few. We worship each other, and it is known to be so, all over Jonesville, and Loontown, and Zoar. And I spozed by that time that Chicago wuz a-beginnin' to wake up to the truth of how much store we sot by each other. But the fairest spring day is liable to have its little spirts of rain, and they only make the air sweeter and more refreshin'. Wall, from that time, every now and then--not enough to abuse his horsepitality, but enough to let him know that we appreciated his goodness--when our dry oven become heated up beyend what we could seem to bear, we went into that cool, delightful room agin, and agin I feasted my eyes on the lovely pictures on the wall; most of all on that beautiful sunset scene down by the laughin' stream. And as hot and beat out as I might be, I would always find that pretty girl a-standin', cool and fresh, and dretful pretty, by the old bar post, with her orburn hair pushed back from her flushed cheeks, and a look in her deep brown eyes, and on her exquisite lips, that always put me dretfully in mind of somebody, and who it wuz I could not for my life tell. Josiah used to take a book out of the bookcase, and read. Not one glance did I ever give, or did I ever let Josiah Allen give to them other rooms that opened out of this, nor into anything or anywhere, only jest that bookcase. We didn't abuse our priveleges; no, indeed! And Josiah would lean back dretful well-feelin', and thinkin' in his heart that it wuz his good looks that wuz wanted to embellish the room, and I kep on a wonderin' inside of myself what made Mr. Freeman so oncommon good to us, till one day he told us sunthin' that made it plainer to us, and Josiah Allen's pride had a fall (which, if his pride hadn't been composed of materials more indestructible than iron or gutty perchy, it would have been broke to pieces long before, so many times and so fur had it fell). But Mr. Freeman one day showed us a picture of his mother in a little velvet case. And, sez he to me-- "You look like her; I saw it the first time I met you." And I do declare the picture did look like me, only mebby--_mebby_ I say, she wuzn't quite so good-lookin'. Yes, I did look like his mother. And then I see the secret of his interest in, and his kindness to me and mine. And Mr. Freeman wuz raised up in my mind as many as 2 notches, and I don't know but 3 or 4. To think that he loved his mother's memory so well as to be so kind for her sake, for the sake of a fleetin' likeness, to be so good to another female. But Josiah Allen looked meachin'. I gin him a dretful meanin' look. I didn't say nothin', only jest that look, but it spoke volumes and volumes, and my pardner silently devoured the volumes, and, as I say, looked meachin' for pretty near a quarter of a hour. And that is a long time for a man to look smut, and conscience-struck. It hain't in 'em to be mortified for any length of time, as is well known by female pardners. But we kep on a-goin'. And every single time I went into that beautiful room, whether it wuz broad daylight or lit up by gas, every single time the face of that tall slender girl, a-standin' there so calm by the crystal brook, would look so natural to me, and so sort o' familiar, that I almost ketched myself sayin'-- "Good-evenin', my dear," to it, which would have been perfectly ridiculous in me, and the very next thing to worshippin' a graven image. And what made it more mysterious to me, and more like a circus (a solemn, high-toned circus), wuz, to ketch ever and anon, and I guess oftener than that, Mr. Freeman's eyes bent on that pretty young face with a look as if he too recognized her, and wanted to talk to her. And some, too, he looked as if she wuz dead and buried, and he wuz a-mournin' deep for her, _very_ deep. As curious a look as I ever see; and if I hain't seen curious looks in my time, then I will say nobody has. Yes, indeed! I have seen curious looks in my journey through life, curious as a dog, and curiouser. But there she stood, no matter what looks wuz cast on her from friend or foe--and I guess it would sound better to say from friend or lover, for nobody could be a foe to that radiant-faced, beautiful creeter. There she stood, in sun or shade, knee-deep in them fresh green grasses, a-lookin' off onto them sunset clouds always rosy and golden, by the side of that streamlet that always had the sparkle on its tiny waves. I might be tired and weak as a cat, and Mr. Freeman might have the headache, and Josiah Allen be cross, and all fagged out-- But her face wuz always serene, and lit up with the glow of joy and health, and her sweet, deep eyes always held the secret that she couldn't be made to tell. Mr. Bolster was a stout, middle-aged man, with bald head, side whiskers, and a double chin. And his big blue eyes kinder stood out from his face some. He was a real estate agent, so Miss Plank said. But his principal business seemed to be a-praisin' up Chicago, and a-puffin' up the World's Fair. Good land! Columbus didn't need none of his patronizin' and puffin' up, and Chicago didn't, not by his tell. Josiah wuz dretful impressed by him. We didn't lead off to the Fair ground the next day after our arrival. No; at my request, we took life easy--onpacked our trunks and got good and rested, and the mornin' follerin' we got up middlin' early, bein' used to keepin' good hours in Jonesville, and on goin' down to the breakfast-table we found that there wuzn't nobody there but Mr. Bolster. He always had a early breakfast, and drove his own horse into the city to his place of business. He looked that wide awake and active as if he never had been asleep, and never meant to. And my companion bein' willin', and Mr. Bolster bein' more than willin', they plunged to once into a conversation concernin' Chicago, Miss Plank and I a-listenin' to 'em some of the time, and some of the time a-talkin' on our own hook, as is the ways of wimmen. Mr. Bolster--and I believe he knew that we wuz from York State, and did it partly in a boastin' way--he begun most to once to prove that Chicago wuz the only place in America at all suitable to hold the World's Fair in. And I gin him to understand that I thought that New York would have been a good place for it, and it wuz a disapintment to me and to several other men and wimmen in the State to not have it there. But Mr. Bolster says, "Why, Chicago is the only place at all proper for it. Why," sez he, "in a way of politeness, Chicago is the only place for it. In what other city could the foreigners be welcomed by their own people as they can here?" Sez he-- "In Chicago over 75 per cent of the population is foreign." "Yes," sez Josiah, with a air as if he had made population a study from his youth. But he didn't know nothin' about it, no more than I did. Sez Mr. Bolster, "Out of a population of a little over a million 200,000, we have nine hundred and 14,000 foreigners. That shows in itself that Chicago is the only city calculated to make our foreign friends feel perfectly at home." "Yes," sez Josiah, "that is very true." But I sez to Miss Plank, "There is other folks I like jest as well as I do my relations, and if they had thought so much on 'em, why didn't they stay with 'em in the first place?" And Miss Plank kinder looked knowin' and nodded her head; she couldn't swing right out free, as I could, bein' hampered by not wantin' to offend any of her boarders. Sez Mr. Bolster, "Chicago has the most energetic and progressive people in the world. It hain't made up, like a Eastern village, of folks that stay to home and set round on butter-tubs in grocery stores, talkin' about hens. No, it is made up of people who dared--who wuz too energetic, progressive, and ambitious, to settle down and be content with what their fathers had. And they struck out new paths for themselves, as the Pilgrim Fathers did. "And it is of these people, who represent the advancin' and progressive thought of the day, that Chicago is made up. It embodies the best energy and ambition of the Eastern States and of Europe." "Yes," sez Josiah, "that is jest so." And then, sez Mr. Bolster, "Chicago is, as is well known, in the very centre of the earth." [Illustration: "Chicago is the very centre of the earth."] "Yes," sez Josiah. But I struck in here, and couldn't help it, and, sez I, "That is what Boston has always thought;" and, sez I, candidly, "That is what has always been thought about Jonesville." He looked pityin'ly at me, and, sez he, "Where is Jonesville?" And I sez, "Jest where I told you, in the very centre of the earth, as nigh as we can make out." "How old is the place?" sez Mr. Bolster. Sez I proudly, "It is more than a hundred and fifty years old, for Uncle Nate Bently's grandfather built the first store there, and helped build the first Meetin'-House; and," sez I, "Uncle Nate is over ninety." "How many inhabitants has it?" sez he briskly. And then my own feathers had to droop; and as I paused to collect my thoughts, Josiah spoke up--he is always so forward--and, sez he, "About 200 and 10 or 11." But I sez, with dignity, "Perhaps I know more about some things than you do, Josiah. There may be, by this time, one or two more inhabitants." Sez Mr. Bolster, "A growth of about 200 in one hundred years! Chicago is about half as old, and has one million eight hundred thousand population. In ten years the population has increased 108 per cent, and property has increased in the same time 656 per cent, the greatest growth in the world." He regarded Jonesville as he would a fly in dog days. He went right by it. "As I was saying, we say nothing about Chicago but what we can prove. Look on the map and you will see for yourself that Chicago is right in the centre of the habitable portion of North America. Put your thumb down on Chicago, and then sweep round it in an even circle with your middle finger, and you will see that it takes in with that sweep all the settled portion of North America." "Yes," sez Josiah, with a air as if he had proved it with his thumb and finger, time and agin, but he hadn't no such thing. Sez Mr. Bolster, "We say nothing about our City that we can't prove. As Chicago is in the very centre of productive North America, so it is the centre of population of the United States. "It is the centre of the raw materials for manufactures, cotton, wool, metals, coal, gas, oil fields, all sorts of food. And as it is the centre of supply, so it is of distribution--60 railroads and branches bring freight and carry out manufactured products to every part of the country--to say nothing of the great number of lines of water transportations--connecting with all parts of the world. Why, last year Chicago had 50 per cent more arrivals and clearances than New York. It is the greatest shipping place in America. And," sez Mr. Bolster, "not only can we prove that Chicago is the centre of the world for manufactures, but it is the healthiest place to live in." And then agin I spoke out, and, sez I, "I always hearn that it was built on low, swampy ground." "Yes," sez Mr. Bolster cheerfully, "that is the reason why it is healthy. The ground was originally low and wet, and so it was elevated, filled in. Why, just before the great fire we lifted up all the houses, in the best part of the city, on jack-screws for eight feet, and filled the ground under them. The idea of lifting up a whole city eight feet and making new ground under it! There never was such an undertaking before since the world began. "And then the fire come, and the city was rebuilt just as we wanted it. Why, the death-rate of Chicago is lower than almost any city of the world except London--it is just about the same as that. Then," sez he, "our climate is perfect; it is so temperate and even that folks don't have to spend all their energies in keeping warm, as they do in colder climates, nor is it so warm that they have to spend their vital energies in fanning themselves." Sez Josiah, "I had ruther mow a beaver medder in dog days than to fan myself--it wouldn't tire me so much." Sez Mr. Bolster, "The climate is _just_ right to call forth the prudent saving qualities to provide for the winter; and warm enough to keep them happy and cheerful looking forward to bounteous harvests." "Wall," sez I, "it got burnt up, anyway." It fairly provoked me to see him look down so on all the rest of the world. "Yes," sez he, "that is another evidence of the city's marvellous power and resources. Find me another city, if you can, where in a few hours 200 millions of dollars were burnt up, two thousand 100 acres burnt over, right in the heart of a big city, with a loss of two hundred and ninety million dollars, and then to have it spring up in a marvellously short time--not only as good as new, but infinitely better; so much better that the disaster proved to be an untold blessing to the city." Truly, as I see, swamps couldn't dround out his self-conceit, nor fire burn it up. And I knew myself that Chicago had great reason to be proud of her doin's, and I felt it in my heart, only I couldn't bear to see Mr. Bolster act so haughty. And I sez to my pardner, with quite a lot of dignity, "I guess it is time we are goin', if we get to the Fair in any season." And Mr. Bolster to once told us what way would be best for us to go. A good-natured creeter he is, without any doubt. But jest as we wuz startin' I happened to think of a errent that had been sent me by Jim Meesick, he that wuz Philura Meesick's brother. He wanted to get a place to work somewhere in Chicago, through the Fair, so's to pay his way, and gin him a chance to go to the Fair. I had already asked Miss Plank about it, but she didn't know of no openin' for him, and I happened to think, mebby Mr. Bolster, seein' he knew everything else, might know of a place where Jim could get work. And, sez I, "He is handy at anything, and I spoze there are lots of folks here in Chicago that hire help. I spoze some of 'em have as many as four or five hired men apiece." Sez I, "There are them in Jonesville, durin' the summer time, who employ as high as two men by the day, besides the regular hired man, and I spoze it is so here." "Yes," sez he; "Mr. Pullmen has five thousand four hundred and fifty hired men, and Philip Armoor has seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-five." Wall, there wuz no more to be said. Bolster had done what he sot out to do--he had lowered my pride down lower than the Queen of Sheba's ever wuz, by fur. I had no sperit left in me. He might have gone on to me by the hour, and I not sensed it. But I didn't let on how I felt. I only sez weakly, "Wall, they hain't a-sufferin' for help, I guess, and I'll write to Philura so." But Bolster, good-natured agin, sez, "I will look round, and see what I can do for him." And he snatched out a note-book, and writ his name down. And I thanked him, and weakly follered my companion from the room. And I felt that if the door had been much smaller I could have got out of it. I felt very diminutive--very--almost tiny. But I got over it pretty soon. I felt about my usial size as we descended the stairs and stood on the steps, ready to sally out and take the street cars that wuz to transport our bodys to the Christopher Columbus World's Fair. But while we wuz a-standin' there a-lookin' round to see jest which wuz the best way to go to get to the corner Miss Plank had directed us to, Mr. Bolster come down the steps spry and active as a young cat, and, sez he-- "My carriage is waiting to take me to my orfice, and I will be glad to take you both in, and take you past some of our city sights, and I will leave you at a station where the train will take you right to the grounds." So we accepted his offer, Josiah with joy and I with a becomin' dignity, and the carriage sot off down the street. And what follers truly seems like a dream to me, and so duz the talk accompanyin' it. The tall buildin's we looked at, one of 'em 260 feet high, 20 storys--elevators that carry 40,000 passengers--and a garden on the roof, a garden 260 feet in the air, where you can set and talk and eat nut-cakes, and fried oysters--the idee! And then the block that Mr. Bolster said wuz the largest business block in the world, it accomidated 6000 people. And then we went by big meetin'-housen, and other big housen, whose ruffs seemed so high that it seemed as if you could stand up on the chimblys and shake hands with the man in the moon, and neighbor with him. And then the talk I hearn--22 miles of river frontage sweepin' up from the lake into the heart of the city, where the giant elevators unload their huge traffic. He told us what the revenue of the city wuz yearly, $25,000,000, 25 millions--the idee! And Jonesville, fifty years older than Chicago, thinks she has done well if she has 3 dollars and 25 cents in her treasury. Why, that man used so many immense sums in his talk, that I got all muddled up, and a ort seemed to me almost like a million--I felt queer. And then the system of Parks and Boulevards, the finest in the world--100 miles of them beautiful pleasure drives. I believe, from what I see afterwards, that he told the truth, for no city, it seems to me, could improve on that long, broad, beautiful way, smooth and tree-bordered, edged with stately homes, leadin' into the matchless beauty of the Parks. But anon, when I felt that I wuz bein' crushed down beneath a gigantic weight of figgers, and estimates, elevators, population, hite, depth, underground tunnels, and systems of drainage--though every one of 'em wuz a grand and likely subject and awful big--but I felt that I wuz a-bein' crushed by 'em--I felt that the Practical, the Real wuz a crushin' me down--the weight, and noise, and size of the mighty iron wheel of Progress, that duz roll faster in Chicago than in any other place on earth, it seems to me. But I felt so trodden down by it, and flattened out, that I thought I would love to see sunthin' or other different, sunthin' kinder spiritual, and meditate a spell on some of the onseen forces that underlays all human endeavor. So, at my request, we went out of our way a little, so I could set my eyes on that Temple dreamed out by a woman and wrought a good deal by faith, some like the walls of Jericho, only different, for whereas they fell by faith, this wuz riz up by it. And my feelin's as I looked at that Temple wuz large and noble-sized as you will find anywhere. A Temple consecrated not so much to the Almighty in Heaven, who don't need it, as to God in Humanity--to the help of the Divine as it shows itself half buried and lost in the clay of the human--a help to relieve the God powers from the trammels of the fiend-- A Temple--not so much to set, and pray, and sing in, about the beauties of our Heavenly home, as to build up God's kingdom on earth, show forth His praise in helpin' His poor, and weak, and sinful. My feelin's wuz a sight--a sight to behold, as I sot and looked at it--that tall, noble, majestic pile, and thought of the way it wuz built, and what it wuz built for. But as we drove on agin, my mind got swamped once more in a sea of immense figgers that swashed up agin me--elevators that carry grain up to the top of towerin' buildin's, 10,000 bushels a hour, and then come down its own self and weigh itself, and I guess put itself into bags and tie 'em up--though he didn't speak in particuler about the tyin' up. And then he praised their stores--one of 'em which employed 2,000,400 men. And then he praised up their teliphone system, so perfect that nothin' could happen in any part of the city without its bein' known to once at police headquarters. And then he praised up agin and agin the business qualities and go-ahead-it-ivness of the people, and how property had riz. "Why," sez he, "Chicago and three hundred miles around it wuz bought for five shillings not so long ago as your little town was founded, and now look at the uncounted millions it represents." And then he boasted about the Board of Trade, and said its tower wuz 300 feet high. And, sez he, "While folks all over the world are prayin' for their daily bread, the men inside that building was deciding whether they could get it or not." And after he talked about everything else connected with Chicago, and hauled up figgers and heaped 'em up in front of me till my brain reeled, and my mind tottered back, and tried to lean onto old Rugers' Rithmatick--and couldn't, he wuz so totally inadequate to the circumstances--he mentioned "that they had 6000 saloons in Chicago, and made twenty-one million barrels of beer in a year." "Wall," sez I, a-turnin' round in the buggy, "my brain has been made a wreck by the figgers you have brung up and throwed at me about the noble, progressive doin's of Chicago, and," sez I firmly, "I wuz willin' to have it, for I respect and honor the people who could do such wonders, and keepon a-doin' 'em, to the admiration of the world. But," sez I, "my brain _shall not_ totter under none of your beer and whiskey statisticks." And as I spoke I put my hand to my fore-top, and I looked quite bad, and truly I felt so. He glanced at me, and see that I wuz not in a situation to be trifled with. And as we wuz jest approachin' the station where we wuz to be left, he ceased his remarks, and held his horse in. He helped me to alight, and I thanked him for his kindness, and acted as polite as a person could whose brain lay a wreck in the upper part of her head. The last word Mr. Bolster said to us wuz, as he gathered up the reins, sez he: "Thirty-six lines of cars come to and leave Chicago, which, with its immense shipping facilities, makes it the--" But the cars tooted jest then, and I didn't hear his last words, and I wuz glad on't, as I say, I had thanked him before. But good land! he would have carried two giraffes or camels willin'ly if he could have got 'em into his buggy, and sot 'em up by him on the seat, and could have boasted to 'em understandin'ly about Chicago. But I guess he is well-meanin'. CHAPTER X. Wall, after he left us we boarded some cars, and found ourselves, with the inhabitants of several States, I should judge, borne onwards towards the White City. And anon, or about that time, we found ourselves at a depot, where wuz the entire census of several other States, and Territories. There we wuz right in front of the Gole, and I don't believe there wuz a better-lookin' Gole sence the world begun. The minute we left the cars we found ourselves between two lines of wild-lookin' and actin' men, a-tryin' to sell us things we hadn't no need on. What did I want with a cane? or Josiah with a little creepin' beetle? And what did I want with galluses? They didn't use no judgment, and their yellin's wuz fearful; whatever else they had, they didn't have consumption, I don't believe. After payin' our two fares, a little gate sort o' turned round and let us in to the Columbian World's Fair--that marvellous city of magic; and anon, if not a little before, the Adminstration Buildin' hove up in front of us. All the descriptions in the World can't give no idee of the wonderful proportions of the buildin's and the charm of the surroundin's. The minute you pass the gate you are overwhelmed with the greatness, charm, and nobility, the impressive, onspeakable aspect of the buildin's. The stucco, of which most of the buildin's are composed, made it possible for the artist and the architect to carry out their idees to a magnitude never before attempted. It is a material easy to be moulded into all rare and artistic shapes and groupin's, and still cheap enough to be used as free as their fancy dictated, and is as beautiful as marble. Colossial buildin's, beautiful enough for any Monarch, and which no goverment on earth wuz ever rich enough to carry out in permanent form. Wall, as I said, the Adminstration Buildin' wuz the one that hove up directly in front of us. [Illustration: The Adminstration Buildin' hove up directly in front of us.] It towers up in the circumambient air with its great gilded dome, and seems to begen to us all to come and pass through it into the marvels beyend. This buildin' is like a main spring to a watch, or the pendulum to a gigantick clock--it regulates the hull of the rest of the works. Here is the headquarters of the managers of the World's Fair--the fire and police departments--the press, and them that have charge of the foreign nations. Here is a bank, post-office, and the department of general information about the Fair. And never, never sence the creation of the world has old General Information had a better-lookin' place to stay in. Why, some folks call this high, magnificent buildin', with its great shinin' dome, the handsomest buildin' amongst that city of matchless palaces. It covers four acres, every acre bein' more magnificent than the other acres. Why, the Widder Albert herself gin Mr. Hunt, the architect, a ticket, she was so tickled with his work. The dome on top of it is the biggest dome in the world, with the exception of St. Peter's in Rome. And it seemed to me, as I looked up at the dome, that Peter might have got along with one no bigger than this. Howsumever, it hain't for me to scrimp anybody in domes. But this wuz truly enormious. But none too big, mebby, for the nub on top of the gate of the World's Fair. That needs to be mighty in size, and of pure gold, to correspond with what is on the inside of the gate. But never wuz there such a gorgeous gate-way before, unless it wuz the gate-way of Paradise. Why, as you stood inside of that dome and looked way up, up, up towards the top, your feelin's soared to that extent that it almost took you offen your feet. Noble pictures and statutes you see here, too. Some on 'em struck tremendious hard blows onto my appreciation, and onto my head also. And a-lookin' on 'em made me feel well, dretful well, to see how much my sect wuz thought on in stun, and canvas, and such. There wuz Diligence, a good-lookin' woman, workin' jest as she always has, and is willin' to; there she sot a-spinnin' and a-bringin' up her children as good as she knew how. Mebby she wuz a-teachin' a Sunday-school lesson to the boy that stood by her. He had his arms full of ripe fruit and grapes. I am most afraid for his future, but she wuz a-teachin' him the best she could; you could see that by her looks. Then there wuz Truth, another beautiful woman, a-holdin' a lookin'-glass in her hand, and a-teachin' another little boy. Mebby it wuz the young Future she wuz a-learnin' to tell the truth, anyway, no matter how much it hurt him, how hard it hit aginst old custom and prejudices. He wuz a-leanin' affectionate on her, but his eyes wuz a-lookin' away--fur off. Mebby he'll hear to her, mebby he will--he's young; but I feel kinder dubersome about it. She held her glass dretful high. Mebby she laid out that Uncle Sam should see his old features in it, and mebby she wuz a-remindin' him that he ortn't to carve woman as a statute of Truth, and then not be willin' to hear her complaints when she tries to tell him about 'em, in his own place, where he makes his laws, year in and year out. If he believes she is truthful--and he must, or he wouldn't name her Truth and set her up so high for the nations to look at--what makes him, year after year, act towards wimmen as if he believed she wuz a-lyin'? It is onreasonable in him. And then there wuz Abundance, a woman and a man. I guess they had an abundance of everything for their comfort, and it looked real good to see they wuz both a-sharin' it. She wuz a-settin' in a chair, and he wuz on the floor. That might do for a Monument, or Statute, but I don't believe they would foller it up so for day after day in real life, and they hadn't ort to. Men and wimmen ort to have the same settin' accommodations, and standin' too, and ort to be treated one of 'em jest as well as the other. They are both likely creeters, a good deal of the time. Then there wuz Tradition. Them wuz two old men, as wuz nateral--wimmen wuzn't in that--woman is in the future and the present. Them two men, a-lookin' considerable war-like, wuz a-talkin' over the past--the deeds of Might. They didn't need wimmen so much there, and I didn't feel as if I cared a cent to have her there. When they git to talkin' over the deeds of _Right_, I'd want wimmen to be present. _And she will be there._ And then there wuz Liberty, agin a woman, beautiful and serene, a-depicterin' Liberty, and agin a-holdin' her arms round a young male child, and a-teachin' him. That, too, filled me with high hope, that Uncle Sam had at last discovered the mean actions that wuz a-goin' on about wimmen; that he had seen the chains that wuz a-bindin' her, and a-gaulin' her. He wouldn't be likely to depicter her as Liberty, and set her up so high in the gate-way to the World's Fair, if he calculated to keep her on in the slavery she is now, a-bindin' her with her own heart-strings--takin' away her power to help her own heart's dearest, in their fights aginst the evils and temptations of the World. No, I believe Uncle Sam is a-goin' to turn over a new leaf--anyway, Liberty sot up there, a-lookin' off with a calm mean, and there wuz a smile on her face, as if she see a light in the future that begened to her. And then, there wuz Charity; of course she wuz a woman--she always is. She had two little boys by her; one had his hand on her heart, and that faithful heart wuz filled with love and pity for him, jest as it always has been, and always will be. Another wuz a-kneelin' at her feet, with her fosterin' hand on his head. A good-lookin' creeter Charity wuz, and well behaved. Joy seemed to be enjoyin' herself first rate. Her pretty face seemed to answer back the music that the youth at her feet wuz a-rousin' from his magic flute. Theology wuz a wise, reverend-lookin' old man, a-thinkin' up a sermon, or a-thinkin' out some new system of religion, I dare presoom to say, for his book seemed to be half closed, and he wuz lost in deep thought. He looked first rate--a good and well-behaved old man, I hain't a doubt on't. Then, there wuz Patriotism--a man and a woman. He, a-standin' up ready to face danger, or die for his country; she, with her arms round him, a-lookin' up into his face, as if to say-- "If you must go, I will stay to home with a breakin' heart, and take care of the children, and do the barn chores." They both looked real good and noble. Mr. Bitters done first rate--Josiah couldn't have begun to done so well, nor I nuther. Then there wuz a dretful impressive statute there, a grand-lookin' old man, with his hand uplifted, a-tellin' sunthin' to a young child, who wuz a-listenin' eagerly. I d'no who the old man wuz; there wuz broad white wings a-risin' up all round him, and it might be he wuz meant to depicter the Recordin' Angel; if he wuz, he could have got quills enough out of them wings to do all his writin' with. And it might be that it wuz Wisdom instructin' youth. And it might be some enterprisin' old goose-raiser a-tellin' his oldest boy the best way to save the white wings of ganders. But I don't believe this wuz so. There wuz a riz up, noble look on the old man's face that wuz never ketched, I don't believe, with wrestlin' with geese on a farm, and neighbors all round him. No, I guess it wuz the gray and wise old World a-instructin' the young Republic what to do and what not to do. The child looked dretful impetuous and eager, and ready to start off any minute, a good deal as our country does, and I presoom wherever the child wuz a-startin' for it will git there. A noble statute. Mr. Bitters did first rate. But when I git started on pictures and statutes--I don't know where or when to stop. But time hastens, and to resoom. As I reluctantly tore myself away from the glory and grandeur inside, and passed through the buildin' to the outside, and a full view of the Court of Honor busted on to our bewildered vision, I did--I actually did feel weak as a cat. Never agin--never agin will such a seen glow and grow before mine eyes, till the streets of the New Jerusalem open before my vision. Beyend that wide Plaza, that long basin of clear sparklin' water, dotted all over its glowin' bosom with fairy-like gondolas, and gondolers, dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, or picturesque launches, with their gay freight of happy sightseers. And here and there, jest where they wuz needed, to look the best, wuz statutes and banners and the most gorgeous fountain that ever dripped water. Then the broad flights of snowy marble steps risin' from the water to the green flowery terraces, and then above them the magnificent white wonders of the different buildin's. And standin' up aginst the sky, and the blue waters of the lake, the tall ivory columns of the Perestyle stood, like a immense beautiful screen, to guard this White City of magic splendor. And risin' from the blue waters of the Basin stands the grand figure of the Republic, towerin' up a hundred feet high, lookin' jest as she ort to look. Calm, stately, but knowin' in her heart jest what she had done, and jest what she hadn't done, knowin' jest what she had to be proud on, if she only let her mind run on't. But there wuz no high-headedness, no tostin' of her neck. No, fair and stately and serene as a dream Queen, she stood a fittin' centre for the onspeakable beauty of her surroundin's. It wuz all perfect, everything--no flaw in the perfect harmony of the seen. No limit to its onapproachable beauty. Yes, the glory of that seen as it bust onto my raptured vision will go with me through life, and won't never be outdone and replaced by anything more perfect, till that rapt hour when the mortal puts on immortality, and the glory that no eye hath seen busts on my glorified vision. And as we wended onwards and got still further views of the matchless wonders of the Columbus World's Fair--wall, I gin in, and felt and said, that I spozed I had had emotions all my life, and sights of 'em; why, I have had 'em as high as from 70 to 80 a minute right along for a hour on a stretch--sometimes when I have been rousted up about sunthin'. But when I stood stun still in my tracts, and the full glory and beauty of that seen of wonder and enchantment broke onto my almost enraptured vision, I gin up that I never had had a emotion in my hull life, not one, nothin' but plain, common breathin's and sithes. When I see these snowy palaces, vast and beautiful and dreamlike, risin' up from the blue waters, and their pure white columns and statuary reflected into the mirrow below, and the green beauty of the Wooded Island, and the tall trees a-dottin' them here and there-- And when I see the lagoon a-windin' along, and arched over with bridges, like the best of the beauty of Venice born agin, perfect and fresh in the heart of the New World-- When I beheld the immense quantity of shrubs and flowers of every kind known to the world-- And all along the blue waters of the Grand Basin, surrounded by the magnificence and glory of these beautiful palaces--the fountains a-sprayin' up, and waters a-flashin', and banners a-flyin', and the tall white statutes a-standin' on every side of us a-watchin' us with their still eyes, to see how we took in the transcendent seen, and how we appeared under the display--wall, I stood, as I say, stun still in my tracts, and sez to myself-- "It would be jest as easy to comprehend the wonder of this Exposition by readin' about it, as it would be for any one to try to judge Niagara by lookin' at a pan of dishwater." They are both water, but different, fur different. And you have got to take in the wonder and majesty of the sight, through the pores as it wuz, through all your soul, not at first, but it has got to grow and soak in, and make it a part of yourself. And then, when you have, you hain't a-goin' to describe it--words can't do it; you can walk through it and talk about the size of the buildin's, and the wonders of the display, but that hain't a-goin' to describe it, no more than the pan of dishwater can explain Niagara. You can converse about Niagara, the depth, the eddies, the swirl of the waters, the horseshoe falls, the rainbow that rises over it, the grotto, the slate-stun on the banks below, and so forth, and so forth, and so on. And how to show off the might and rush of the volume of water that shakes the earth, the mountain of shinin' mist that floats up to the wonderin' and admirin' heavens--how to paint this wonderful and inexpressible glory by tongue, how to put in words that which is mightier than any words that wuz ever said or sung! Wonder and awe, overwhelmin' sensation that makes the pulse stop and then beat agin in bounds. When you paint a picture showin' the full power and depth of a mother's love; when you can paint the ardor and extacy that inspires the hero's soul as he leads the forlorn hope, and dies with his face to the foe-- Then you may try to describe Niagara; no pen, no tongue can describe this ever rushin', ever old and ever new Wonder of the new world. And no more can any pen describe the World's Fair, the tall, towerin' fruit of the four-century tree of civilization, and liberty, and equal rights. You can talk about the buildin's--how they are made, how long and wide they are. You can talk about the lagoons, the Grand Basin, the Bridges, the Statutes, the Fountains, the wonders of the flowers and foliage, the grandeur of the display, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. But how to describe this as a hull, its immensity, its concentrated might of material, practical beauty and use, that moves the world with its volume and power-- Or the more wonderful forces and influences that arise from it, like a gold mist seekin' the Heavens, to fall in showers of blessin's to the uttermost ends of the earth--knowledge, wisdom, and beauty, of Freedom, and Individual Liberty, Educational, Moral, and Beneficent influences--who is a-goin' to describe all this? I can't, nor Josiah, nor Miss Plank, nor nobody. No, Mr. Bolster couldn't. Why, jest a-lookin' at it cracked the Old Liberty Bell, and I don't wonder. I spoze she tried to swing out and describe it, and bust her old sides in the attempt; anyway, that is what some think. The new crack is there, anyway. Who'd a thought on't--a bell that has stood so many different sights, and kep herself together? But I wuzn't surprised a mite to think it wuz too much for her--no, nobody could describe it. [Illustration: She bust her old sides in the attempt.] I know Miss Plank couldn't, for we met her there, or ruther she come onto us, as I stood stun still and nearly lost, and by the side of myself, and I felt so queer that I couldn't hardly speak to her. I don't know but she thought I felt big and haughty, but good land! how mistook she wuz if she thought so! I felt as small as I stood there that very minute, as one drop of milk in the hull milky way. But when my senses got kinder collected together, and my emotions got quelled down a little, I passed the usual compliments with Miss Plank--"How de do?" and so forth. And she proposed that we should go round a little together--she said that she had been here so many times, that she felt she could offer herself as our "Sissy Roney." She looked at Josiah as she spoke kinder kokettish, and I thought to myself, You are a-actin' pretty kittenish for a woman of your age. "Sissy!" Sez I to myself, the time for you to be called "sissy" rightfully lays fur back in the past--as much as fifty years back, anyway. As for the "Roney," I didn't know what she _did_ mean, but spozed it wuz some sort of a pet name that had been gin her fur away in that distant past. And I spozed she had brung it up to kinder attract Josiah Allen; but, good land! if his morals hadn't been like iron for solidity, I knew that for her to try to flirt wuz like a old hen to try to bite; they don't have no teeth, hens don't, even when they are young, and they won't be likely to have any when they are fifty or sixty years old. So I looked on with composure, and didn't take no notice of her flirtacious ways, and I consented to her propisition, and Josiah did too. That man hadn't been riz up by his emotions as I had, by the majesty and glory of the scene--no, he felt pretty chipper; and Miss Plank, after she quieted down a little, and ceased talkin' about her girlish days, she could think, even in that rapt hour, of pancakes; for she mentioned, when I spoke of how high the waters of the fountain riz up, "Yes," sez she-- "Speakin' of risin', I left some pancakes a-risin' before I left home;" and she wondered if the cook would tend to 'em. Pancakes! in such a time as this. And then Josiah proposed to go and see the live stock, and Miss Plank said dreamily that she would like to go to a certain restaurant at the fur end of the grounds to see the cookin' of a certain chef; she had heard it went ahead of anything in America. "Chef"--I didn't want to act green, but I did wonder what "chef" wuz. I thought mebby it wuz chaff she meant, and I spozed they had got up some new way to cook chaff. I would liked to seen it and tasted of it, but Duty begened to me, and I followed her blindly, and I sez, as I planted my umbrell firm down on the ground, sez I-- "Here I take my stand; I don't often stand out and try to have my way--" Here Josiah gin a deep groan out to one side, but he no need to--I spoke truth, or pretty near the truth, anyway. Sez I, "Here I take my stand!" and I brung down my good cotton umbrell agin firmly, as if to punctuate my remarks, and add weight to it, and I wuz so earnest that before I knew it I fell into a fervid eloquence--catched from my old revolutionary 4 fathers, I spoze--and, sez I-- "I care not what course others may take--" "But," sez Miss Plank, "we will hang together in such a crowd as this." "Yes," sez Josiah; "you mustn't go wanderin' off by yourself, Samantha; it hain't safe." I wuz brung down some, but I kep on with considerable eloquence, though it wuz kinder drizzlin' away onbeknown to me, such is the power of environment. Sez I, "I care not what course others may take, I will go first to the place my proud heart has dwelt on ever sence the Fair wuz opened-- "I will go first to the Woman's Buildin', home of my sect, and my proud ambition and love." Miss Plank demurred, and said "that it wuz some distance off;" but I held firm--Josiah see that I wuz firm--and he finally gin in quite graciously, and, sez he-- "I don't spoze it will take long, anyway, to see all that wimmen has brung here--and I spoze the buildin' will be a sight--all trimmed off with ornaments, and flowers, and tattin'; mebby they will have lace all festooned on the outside." Sez he, "I always did want to see a house trimmed with bobinet lace on the outside, and tattin' and ribbin streamers." I wouldn't dain a reply; he did it to lower my emotions about wimmen. But it wuz impossible. So we turned our bodies round and set off north by northwest. Agin Miss Plank mentioned the distance, and agin my Josiah spoke longin'ly of the live stock. And I sez with a calm dignity, "Josiah, you are not a woman." "No," sez he, "dum it all, I know I hain't, and so there hain't much chance of my gettin' my way." I kep on calmly, and with the same lofty mean, "You are not a woman, and therefore you can't tell a woman's desires that go with me, to see the glorification of her own sect, in their great and lofty work, and the high thrones on which they have sot themselves in the year of our Lord, 1893; I am sot," sez I, "I am sot as ever the statute of America is on her marble pedestal, jest so solid am I riz up on the firm and solid foundation of my love, and admiration, and appreciation for my own sect." And so, as I say, we turned round in our tracts and went back round that noble Adminstration Buildin'-- Josiah a-talkin' anon or oftener about what he expected to see in the Woman's Buildin', every one on 'em light and triflin' things, such as gauzes, and artificial flowers, and cossets, and high-heel shoes, and placks, and tattin', and etc. And I anon a-answerin' his sneerin' words, and the onspoken but fatigued appeals in Miss Plank's eyes, by sayin'-- "Do you suppose I would hurt the feelin's of my sect, do you suppose I would mortify 'em before the assembled nations of the earth, by slightin' 'em, by not payin' attention to 'em, and makin' 'em the first and prime object of my distinguished and honorable consideration? "No, indeed; no, indeed!" So we went on at a pretty good jog, and a-meetin' every single person in the hull earth, every man, woman, and child, black and white, bond and free, lame and lazy, or it did seem so to my wearied and bewildered apprehenshion. And I sez to myself mekanicly, what if conflagrations should break out in Asia, or the chimbly get afire in Australia, or a earthquake take place in Africa, or a calf get into the waterin' trough at Jonesville, who would git it out or put 'em out? Everybody in the hull livin' world is here; the earth has dreaned off all its livin' inhabitants down into this place; some of the time I thought mebby one or two would be left in Jonesville, and Loontown, and the hind side of Asia, and Hindoostan; but as I wended on and see the immense crowd, a-passin' out of one buildin' and a-passin' in to another, and a-swarmin' over the road and a-coverin' the face of the water, I sez to myself-- "No, there hain't a soul left in Hindoostan, or Jonesville, not one; nor Loontown, nor Shackville, nor Africa, nor Zoar." It wuz a curious time, very, but anon, after we had wended on for some distance, and Miss Plank looked some wilted, and Josiah's steps dragged, and my own frame felt the twinges of rheumatiz-- Miss Plank spoke up, and sez she, "If you are bound on going to the Woman's Building first, why not take a boat and go around there, and that will give you a good view of the buildings." I assented to her propisition with alacrity, and wondered that I hadn't thought of it before, and Josiah acted almost too tickled. That man loves to save his steps; and then, as I soon see, he had another idee in his head. Sez he, "I always wanted to be a mariner--I will hire a boat and be your boatman." "Not with me for a passenger, Josiah Allen," sez I. "I want to live through the day, anyway; I want to live to see the full glory of my sect; I don't want to be drownded jest in front of the gole." He looked mad--mad as a hen; but he see firmness in my mean, so we went back, and down a flight of steps to the water's edge, and he signalled a craft that drew up and laid off aginst us--a kinder queer-shaped one, with a canopy top, and gorgeous dressed boatmen--and we embarked and floated off on the clear waters of the Grand Basin. Oh! what a seen that would have been for a historical painter, if Mr. Michael Angelo had been present with a brush and some paint! Josiah Allen's Wife a-settin' off for the express purpose of seein' and admirin' the work of her own sect, and right in front of her the grand figger of Woman a-standin' up a hundred feet high; but no higher above the ordinary size of her sect wuz she a-standin' than the works of the wimmen I wuz a-settin' out to see towered up above the past level of womankind. Oh, what a hour that wuz for the world! and what a seen that wuz for Josiah Allen's Wife to be a-passin' through, watched by the majestic figger of Woman. The green, tree-dotted terraces bloomin' with flowers a-risin' up from the blue water, and above the verdent terraces the tall white walls of them gorgeous palaces, a-risin' up with colonades, and statutes, and arabesques, and domes, and pinnacles, and on the smooth white path that lay in front of 'em, and on every side of 'em, the hull world a-walkin' and a-admirin' the seen jest as much as we did. And if there wuzn't everything else to look at and admire, the looks of that crowd wuz enough--full enough--for one pair of eyes; for they wuz from every country of the globe, and dressed in every fashion from Eve, and her men folks, down to the fashions of to-day. And anon we would come to a bridge gracefully arched over the water, and float under it, and then sail on, and on, and on, past the vast palace 45 acres big, and every single acre of 'em majestic and beautiful more than tongue can tell or give any idee on, and then by some more of them matchless marvels of housen crowned with pinnacles, and domes, and wavin' banners, and then by the electrical buildin', with white towers, and battlements, and sculptured loveliness, on one side of us, and, on the other, that beautiful Wooded Island, that is a hantin' dream of beauty inside of a dream of matchless loveliness. Acres and acres of flowers of every kind and color; the perfume floated out and wrapped us round like a sweet onseen mantilly, as we floated past fur dim isles of green trees, with domes and minarets a-risin' up above the billows of emerald richness, and then anon, under another bridge, and more of them enchantin' wonders of Art, and on, under another one, and another. And my emotions all of the time wuz what no man might number, and as for the size of 'em, there hain't no use of talkin' about sortin' 'em out, or weighin' 'em--no steel yards on earth could weigh the little end on 'em, let alone weighin' the hull caboodle of 'em. No Rasfodist that ever rasfodized could do justice to the transcendent grandeur that shone out on every side of us. No, the rasfodist would have to set down and hold up his hands before him, as I have done sometimes before a big pile of work, when I have seen a wagon load of visitors a-stoppin' at the gate to stay all day. I have just clasped my hands and sez, "Oh dear me!" Or in aggravated cases I would say, mebby, "Oh dear me suz!" And that wuz about all I could say here. Yes, my feelin's, I do believe, if they could have been gazed on, would have been jest about as a impressive a sight to witness as the Columbian Fair. But anon my rapt musin's wuz broke into sudden; I heard as through a dream a voice say-- "If she forgets to take the dough off from the dry oven, the pancakes will run over." "_Pancakes!_" It wuz like Peri in Paradise callin' for root-beer; it brung me down to the world agin, and anon I heard my pardner say-- "Wall, I wish I had a few of 'em this minute, Miss Plank." Eatin' at such a time as this--the idee! But I wuz brung clear down, and I don't know but it wuz jest as well, for it wuz time for us to alight from our bark. And with the feelin's I had ever sence I started, I wuz that riz up that I could almost expect to step over the lagoon at one stride and swing my foot clear over the hull noble flight of marble steps, and the wide terrace, and land in front of the Woman's Buildin'. With my head even with its highest cupalo, I wuz fearfully riz up, and by the side of myself. But these allusions to pancakes had brung me down, so I stepped meekly out on to the broad, noble flight of steps, and the full beauty of the Woman's Buildin' riz up in front of us. Even Josiah wuz impressed with the simple, noble perfection of that buildin'. I heard him say-- "By Crackey! not a bit of lace or tattin'; not a streamer of ribbin. Well done for wimmen; they have riz up for once above gauzes, and flummeries, and ornaments." "No," sez I; "if you want to look at ornament, you might look at the Adminstration Buildin', designed by a man. Men love ornament, Josiah Allen." He quailed; he hadn't forgot the pink necktie he wanted to adorn himself with, and the breastpin he wanted to put on that mornin'. The waters of the lagoon in front of the buildin' is as wide as a bay; from the centre of this rises the grand landin' and staircase, leadin' to a terrace six feet above the water. The first terrace is laid out in glowin' flower-beds, and anon, green flowerin' shrubs, above which the ivory white balustrade shines out, separatin' it from the upper terrace. And along the upper terrace, about one hundred feet back, the beautiful Woman's Buildin' rises, with a background of stately old oak trees. This most artistic and beautiful buildin' consists of a centre pavilion, flanked at each end by corner pavilions, connected by open corridors forming a sheltered and beautiful walk the hull length of the structure. On goin' through a wide lobby you come into a vast open rotunda reachin' clear up to the top of the buildin', where the sunlight falls down most graciously through a richly ornamented skylight. This rotunda is surmounted by a two-story open arcade, as delicate and refined in its beauty as the outside of the buildin', givin' light and air in abundance to all of the rooms openin' into the interior space. On the first floor, on the right hand, is located a model kindergarten; on the left, a model horsepital. You see, these two things are attended to the first thing by wimmen. Wimmen have always had to take time by the forelock and do the most important things first, or she never would be done with her work. Before she tackled the ironin', or dishwashin', or piecin' up bedquilts, or knittin', she has always had to dress, and nurse, and take care of the children, make them comfortable, and take care of the sick; had to, or it wouldn't be done. And she wuzn't goin' to stop her good, tender, motherly doin's here--not at all. No; the children, the future hope of our country, the Lord's work laid onto mothers, is on the _right_ side. Here are shown the very latest and best helps in takin' care and trainin' up these little immortals, teachin' them to be good first, and then wise, and healthy all the time--the most important work in the hull world, in my estimation; for the children we spank to-day will hold the destinies of the human race in their hands to-morrow. Yes, on the right hand the children; on the left hand is a model horsepital, not merely a exhibit, but a real horsepital, at full work in its blessed and sanctified labor, a-takin' care of the sick and smoothin' the brows racked with agony, alleviatin' the distresses of the frame racked with pain. What another good work! Can a man show anything at their hull Columbus World's Fair--anything that will equal these two blessed labors? No; he can show lots of knowledge and wisdom, and he can show guns, and cannons, and pistols, boey-knives, to cut and slash; but it is woman's work (blessed angel that she is, a good deal of the time), it is them that shows this broad, efficient system of relieving the hurts and distresses of the world. Besides the most skilled of our own country, foreign nations send their best-trained nurses from their trainin' schools, showin' the latest and most perfect methods of relievin' pain and agony. And not contented with showin' off here what they could do, and how they do it--not content with makin' this one big room a perfect nest for female good Samaritans--a carin' for the sick and dyin'-- They have soared out of this room--60 by 80 feet couldn't confine 'em--they have located all over the grounds horsepitals to care for them who are took sick here at Columbuses doin's, and, good creeters, I suppose they will have their hands full, specially in dog days. Yes, woman begun her work jest as she ort to, right on the ground floor--on the right, the children; on the left, the sick and helpless. Right opposite the main front is the library, furnished by the wimmen of New York. It is one of the largest and finest rooms in the house, and every book in it writ by a woman. And right here I see my own books; there they wuz a-standin' up jest as noble and pert as if they wuz to home in the what-not behind the parlor door, not a-feelin' the least mite put out before princes, or zars. A-standin' jest as straight in front of a king as a cow-boy, not a-humpin' themselves up in the latter instance, or a-meachin' in the more former one. I felt proud on 'em to see their onbroken dignity and simplicity of mean. And, thinkses I, the demeanor of them books is a lesson to Republics--how to act before Royalties; not a-backin' up and a-actin', not put out a mite, not forward, and not too backward--jest about megum. A-keepin' right on in their own spear, jest as usial, not intrudin' themselves and a-pushin', but ready to greet 'em and give 'em the best there wuz in 'em, if occasion called for it, and then ready to bid 'em a calm, well-meanin' farewell when the time come to part. It wuz a great surprise to me, and how they got there wuz a mystery. But I spoze the nation collected 'em together and sot 'em up there because it sets such a store by me. It is dretful fond of me, the nation is, and well it may be. I have stood up for it time and agin, and then I've done a sight for it in the way of advisin' and bracin' it up. As I stood and looked at them books I got carried a good ways off a-ridin' on Wonder--a-wonderin' whether them books had done any good in the world. I'd wanted 'em to, I'd wanted 'em to like a dog. Sometimes I'd felt real riz up a-thinkin' they had, and then agin I've felt dubersome. But I knew they had gin great enjoyment, I'd hearn on't. Why, the minister up to Zoar had told me of as many as seven relations of hisen, who, when they wuz run down and weak, and had kinder lost their minds, had jest clung to them books. In softenin' of the brain now, or bein' kicked on the head, or nateral brain weakness--why, them books are invaluable, so I spoze. But to resoom. The corner pavilion, like all the rest of the buildin', have each a open colonade above the main cornice. Here are the hangin' gardens, and also the committee rooms of the lady managers. This palace of beauty wuz designed by a woman--woman has got to have the credit for everything about it. A woman designed the hull buildin'; a woman modelled the figgers that support the ruff; a woman won fairly in competition the right to decorate the cornice. The interior decoration, much of it carved work, is done by wimmen; panels wuz carved by wimmen all over the country and brought here to decorate the walls. And not only decorated, but in a good many rooms the woodwork wuz finished by wimmen. California has a room walled and ceiled with redwood by wimmen. And wimmen of all the States, from Maine and Florida, have joined to make the place beautiful. Even the Indian wimmen made richly embroidered hangin's for the doors and windows. The wimmen managers wuz the first wimmen that wuz ever officially commissioned by Congress, and never have wimmen swung out so, or, to be poetical, never have they cut so wide and broad a swath on the seedy old fields of Time, as they do to this Fair. They can exhibit with the best of the contestants, men or wimmen, and by act of Congress represent their own sect on the Jury of Award. Congress did the fair thing by wimmen in this matter. Let him step up one step higher on the hill of justice, and gin 'em the right to set on the jury of award or punishment when their own honor is at the stake. It has let wimmen tell which is the best piece of woosted work, or tattin'; now let her be judged by her peers when life or death is the award meted out to 'em. But to resoom. The Gallery of Honor is the centre hall of the buildin', and runs almost the entire length, and openin' out of it is the display that shows that wimmen wuz really the first inventors and producers of what wuz useful as well as beautiful, and that men took up the work when money could be made from it. Here is the work of the first and rudest people, but all made by female wimmen--the rough, hard buds of beauty and labor; and in the Central hall, like these buds open in full bloom and beauty, is the fruit of the most advanced thought and genius. The interior glows with soft and harmonious colors, and chaste ornamentation. Mrs. Candace Wheeler, of New York, had charge of the decoration, which is sayin' enough for its beauty, if you didn't say anything else, and Illinois and the rest of the world wuz grand helpers in the work of beauty. The Gallery of Honor, the central hall of the buildin', runs almost the entire length. The noble, harmonious beauty of this room strikes you as you first enter, some as it would if you come up sudden out of the woods, a-facin' a gorgeous sunset--or sunrisin', I guess, would be a suitabler metafor. The colorin' of this room is ivory and gold, in delicate and beautiful designs. But the pictures that cover the walls adds the bright tints neccessary to make the hull picture perfect. The beautiful panels on the side walls are the work of American artists. One, on the west side, by Amanda Brewster Sewall, represents an Algerian pastural seen, showing country maids tendin' their flocks; which proves that Algerian girls are first-rate lookin', and that dumb brutes in Algeria, though it is so fur from Jonesville, have got to be tended to, and that wimmen have got to tend to 'em a good deal of the time. The other paintin', on the same side, is the work of Miss Fairchild, of Boston, and it shows our old Puritan 4 Mothers hard to work, a-takin' care of their housen and doin' up the work. Likely old creeters they wuz, and industrius. Opposite, on the east side, is a panel by Mrs. Lydia Emmet Sherwood--another group of wimmen; good-lookin' wimmen they be, all on 'em. And the other panel, by Miss Lydia Emmet, shows the interior of a studio, with young females a-studyin' different arts that are useful and ornamental, and calculated to help themselves and the world along. At the north end of this great gallery is a large panel by Mrs. MacMonnies, wife of the sculptor, representin' Primitive Wimmen. A-showin', plain as nobody less gifted than she could, jest how primitive wimmen used to be. Opposite, on the south side, is a companion piece by Miss Cassette, of Paris, called Modern Wimmen, and a-showin' up first rate how fur wimmen have emerged from the shadders of the past. The centre panel depicters a orchard covered with bright green grass, and graceful female wimmen a-gatherin' apples offen the tree. Apples of knowledge, I spoze, but different from Eve's--fur different; these wuz peaceful Knowledge, Literature, Art, and all beautiful and useful industries. A smaller panel describes Music and Dancin' in a charmin' way. On the other side of the central panel are several maidens pursuin' a flyin' figger. Mebby it wuz the Ideal. If it wuz, I wuz glad to see them young females a-follerin' it up so clost. But girls will be more apt to catch her, when they leave off cossets, and long trains, and high-heeled shoes (metafor). But these seemed to be a-doin' the best they could, anyway. A border in rich colors went all round the picture, and in the corners wuz medallions all full of sweet babies--perfect cherubs of loveliness. In some things the picture mebby could have been bettered a little--mebby the ladder wuzn't quite stiddy enough--mebby I should ruther have not clumb up it. But the colorin' of the picture is superb. So rich and gorgus that it put me in mind of our own Jonesville woods in September, when you look off into the maple forests, and your eyes would fairly be dazzled with the blaze of the colors, if they wuzn't so soft and rich, and blended into each other so perfect. Yes, Miss Cassette done real well, and so did Mrs. MacMonnies, too. And all round this room hung pictures that filled me with delight, and the proudest kind of pride, to think my own sect had done 'em all--had branched out into such noble and beautiful branchin's, for the statutes wuz jest as impressive as the pictures. There wuz one statute in the centre of the main corridor that I liked especially. It wuz Maud Muller. As I looked on Maud, I thought I could say with the Judge, when he first had a idee of payin' attention to her-- "A sweeter face I ne'er have seen." And I thought, too, I could read in Maud's face a sort of a sad look, as if the shadder Pride, and Fate, held above her, wuz sort o' shadin' her now. Miss Blanche Nevins done first rate, and I'd loved to told her so. And then there wuz a statute of Elaine that rousted up about every emotion I had by me. There she wuz, "Elaine the fair," the lovable, the lily maid of Astolot. I always thought a sight of her, and I've shed many a tear over her ontimely lot. I knew she thought more of Mr. Lancelot than she'd ort to, specially he bein' in love with a married woman at the same time. Her face looked noble, and yet sweet, riz up jest as it must have been when she argued with her pa about the man she loved. "Never yet was noble man, but made ignoble talk; He makes no friends who never made a foe." And down under the majesty of her mean wuz the tenderness and pathos of her own little song; for, as Alfred Tennyson said, and said well, "Sweetly could she make, and sing." "Sweet is true love, though given in vain, in vain; And sweet is Death, who puts an end to pain. I know not which is sweeter--no, not I." There wuzn't hardly a dry eye in my head as I stood a-lookin' at Elaine. And jest at this wropped moment I heard some voices nigh me that I recognized a-sayin' in glad and joyous axents, "How do you do, Josiah Allen's Wife?" I turned and met seven glad extended hands, and thirteen eyes lookin' at mine, in joyous welcome, besides one glass eye (and you couldn't tell the difference, it wuz so nateral--Oren bought the best one money could git when his nigh eye wuz put out by a steer gorin' it). Yes, it wuz Oren Rumble and Lateza, his wife, and the hull of the family--the five girls, Barthena, Calfurna, Dalphina, Albiny, and Lateza. But what a change had swep' over the family sence I had last looked on 'em! I could hardly believe my two eyes when I looked at their costooms, for the hull family had dressed in black for upwards of 'leven years, and Jonesvillians had got jest as ust to seein' 'em as they wuz a-seein' a flock of crows in the spring. And I do declare it wuz jest as surprisin' to me to see the way they wuz rigged out as it would be to see a lot of crows a-settlin' down on our cornfield with red and yeller tail feathers. To home they didn't go nowhere, only to meetin'--the mother bein' very genteel, comin' down as she did from a very old and genteel family. Dretful blue blood I spoze her folks had--blue as indigo, I spoze. And she didn't think it wuz proper to go into society in mournin' clothes--she thought it would make talk for mourners to git out and enjoy themselves any in crape. Oren wuz naterally of a lively disposition, and loved to visit round, and it made it bad for him. But he felt quite proud of marryin' such a aristocratic woman, and so he had to take the bitter with the sweet. Besides their bein' so old, she had come from a mournin' family--her folks always mourned for everybody and everything they could. (You know some families are so, and I spoze they git some comfort out of it. And black duz look real respectable, but considerable gloomy.) Their house wuz always shet up, and Oren walked round (rebellin' inside) under a mournin' weed. And the six wimmen was all swathed in crape, and the hull house smelt of crape and logwood. As I sez more formally, Lateza was brung up to it. She wuz ready to mourn on the slightest pretext, and mourn jest as long and stiddy as possible. Wall, black _wuz_ becomin' to her. Bein' tall and spindlin', black sot her off, and crape draperies sort o' rounded off her figger and made her look some impressive. And she loved to stay at home--she wuz made that way. But I always felt that if she wanted to make a raven of herself for life, she no need to dye the feathers of the hull family in logwood, and tie 'em all up clost to the nest. Oren had chafed aginst it bitterly, but he bore the sable yoke until the youngest girl, Lateza (and mebby she inherited some of the aristocratic sotness of her mother with the name)-- Anyway, when she come home from school she come dressed in gay colors. She had on a yeller woosted dress with sky-blue trimmin's, a pink hat, a lilock veil, and a bunch of flowers in her bosom--too many colors to look well, but she did it to break her yoke. This kinder stunted the mother, so she wuz easier to handle, bein' kinder dazed. So they took her off to a Christian Science meetin', and got her converted the first thing. This broke her chain, for they don't believe in mournin' as one without hope, and they believe in wanderin' round and seein' the beautiful world all you can, and takin' some comfort while you are in it. So while the zeal of the convert wuz on her, and she didn't feel like disputin', the girls made her some red dresses, and some yeller ones, and had some white streamers put onto a white bunnet she had. And they bought themselves the most gorgeous and gay clothin' Jonesville and Loontown afforded. Oren is well off, and he wouldn't stent 'em in such a cause as this--no, indeed! And Oren bought some bright, gay-lookin' suits, and some brilliant neckties--pale blue silk, with red polka dots on 'em, and some otter-colored ones. He had on the day we met him a bright plaid suit and a red necktie spangled with yeller, hangin' out kinder loose in front. And Oren bought a three-seated carriage, and they jest scoured the hull country--went to all the parties they could hear on, and the fairs, and camp-meetin's, and such. They wuz on the go the hull time; and Lateza Alzina got to likin' it as much as Oren did. I don't spoze they wuz to home hardly enough to eat their meals whilst they wuz in Jonesville; they had a good hired girl, so they wuz free to wander all they wuz a mind to. This summer Lateza Alzina told me that they had been up to the upper end of Canada and British America on a tower, and come home round by Lake Champlain, and Lake George, and Saratoga; they'd stayed there three weeks, and then they went home and hurried and got ready for the Fair. They come the first day it wuz opened in the mornin', and laid out to go home the last day of the Fair along in the night, so Oren said. They all looked real happy, but some fagged out from seein' so much. I'm dretful afraid that the pendulum, havin' swung too fur on one side, is a-goin' too fur on the other; it is nater. But mebby they'll settle down and be more megum when the pendulum gits kinder settled down some, and its vibration ceases to be so vibratin'. Anyway, I'm glad to see 'em a-steppin' out of their weeds, and I told 'em so. Sez I, "You wuz in mournin' a awful while, wuzn't you?" Oren fairly gritted his teeth, and before Lateza Alzina could speak, he busted out-- "By Vum! I've mourned all I'm a-goin' to! I've staid penned up in the house all I'm a-goin' to! "I've quit it, by Vum! First my stepfather passed away. I never liked him--he always imposed on me; but we all went into deep mournin', staid out of society--jest shet ourselves up in a black jail for years. "Then my mother-in-law left me--then three years more of solid black and solid stayin' to home. "Then, at the end of the third year, we kinder quit off and begun to creep out a little and kinder lighten ourselves up a little; but then my wife's brother that she never see died way out to California and left a big property, but not a cent to us. "But the rest of the family wanted to mourn, so my wife had to foller on and mourn too. "And there it wuz agin, another time of gloom--another time of stayin' to home. "Time after time, jest as we got out a little, we had to plunge back into gloom agin. "But now we're out of it, and by Heavens and earth we're a-goin' to stay out! There hain't a-goin' to be any more mournin' done in this family--not if I know myself, there hain't." But I sez, "Oren, don't talk so; folks _have_ to mourn; this is a World of trials, and grief is nateral to it." "Wall, I'll mourn in pepper and salt, and I'll mourn out-doors. I hain't a-goin' to wind myself up in crape, and shet myself up in a black hole no more, mourn or not mourn. "And I'm a-goin' to laugh when I want to." And he jest laid his head back and bust out into a horse-laugh at nothin'. But they didn't seem to mind it; I guess they wuz ust to it, and the girls kinder put in and laughed too. Lateza Alzina didn't laugh out loud, but she kinder snickered some. It made me feel queer. I see--I see the truth; the bow had been drawed too tight back, and now it wuz a-goin' to shoot too fur--way over the mark. But still I felt that Oren had some truth on his side. And I sez, "I always felt that you shet yourselves up too much and mourned too deep." "Wall," sez Lateza Alzina, "my folks always brung me up to think that it would be apt to make talk if folks went out any while they wuz in black." "Wall," sez I, "I always felt that folks had better set down and calculate which would be the most agreeable to 'em, to shet themselves up and lose their health, and die, or to let folks talk. "And then act on them thoughts, and do as they want to with fear and tremblin'. "And," sez I, "folks would talk whilst you wuz dyin', anyway; you can't keep folks from talkin'." Sez I, "Like as not they'd say it wuz a guilty conscience that made you droop round and stay to home so." "Wall," sez Lateza Alzina, "I wuz brought up to think that it showed so much respect to them that wuz gone to stay to home in black." "Wall," sez I, "if the ones that wuz gone loved you, they would want you to git all the consolation you could whilst you wuz parted. Jest as a mother lets her child have some picture-books to comfort it while she leaves it a spell. "And if you loved them," sez I, "their memory would go out-doors with you, and go back into the house with you. You would see the beloved face lookin' down at you from every mountain you would climb, and the shadder of their form would seem to appear in the mist of every valley. Every sunset would gleam with the smilin' light of their eyes, and every sunrise would begen to you, tellin' you that one more night had gone, and you wuz so much nearer to the Eternal Reunion. "Folks don't have to stay indoors to remember, Lateza. I have remembered folks out-doors, it seems to me, more than I ever did in the house. "And the voice you loved would seem to be a-tellin' you, 'Keep well, beloved, so you can do some of my day's work I had to lay down, as well as your own, and the meetin' will be all the gladder and more joyous.' "And as for puttin' on black, the dear remembered voice seems to be a-sayin' to me, 'Don't put on the symbol of sorrow for one who has found the very secret of happiness, who has left the dark shadders and has gone into the great brightness. Don't carry the idee to the world that you have lost me, for I am nearer to you than I ever could have been on earth, for the clay has only fell off from my soul, leavin' the barrier but thin indeed between us now. "'Don't act as if you wuz mournin' for me, dear heart. Let the world see your thought, see the truth we both know, by its reflection in your face.' "These are my idees, Lateza Alzina," sez I; "but howsumever, in this, as in every other matter that don't have any moral wickedness in it, let everybody be fully persuaded in their own mind, if they have got a mind, and do as they want to, if they know what they want to do." Oren had looked real tickled all the while I had been speakin'. And he stood there on his bright plaid legs, and smoothed out the ends of his gorgeous necktie with his yeller gloved hand, a happy and triumphant mean onto him. And the girls and their ma stood round him like a flock of gay-plumaged birds, or a bokay of brilliant blossoms, and seemed real happified and contented. Wall, they wuz a-boardin' way out to the other end of the city, almost 'leven milds from there, so they had to leave middlin' early. And they all come back in the evenin', they said. "They boarded a good ways out--they enjoyed the ride so much a-goin' and comin'." Sometimes I'm afraid the pendulum will break down, it swings so fur, and then agin I don't know. But anyway, they bid me a glad adoo, and the proud and gay Oren led his brood off. And to resoom. The English Vestibule is decorated with panels painted by the wimmen of that country. There wuz one by Mrs. Swimerton, of London, that appealed strong to my heart; it was a seen from the temporary hospital at Scutori. Florence Nightingale stood in the foreground--good, pityin' female angel that she wuz--and all round her lay sick and dyin' soldiers, and she a-doin' all she could to help 'em. This picture, showin' woman as a Healer and Consoler, is in the centre, as it ort to be. On one side of it is a panel called Motherhood, an Italian mother a-holdin' a baby in her arms, and on the other side is Old Age and Youth, an old female bein' tenderly took care on by the beautiful young girl who kneels before her. On the other side of the vestibule is the paintin's of Mrs. Merritt, of London. The centre piece shows a number of likely lookin' young females a-studyin' art, and the panels on either side shows young girls and older ones all a-studyin' and workin', and doin' the best they could with what they had to do with. Dretful upliftin' to my sect it wuz to look on them pictures, all on 'em. Wall, if I'd spent a month I couldn't begin to tell all the contents of them rooms--the paintin's and statuary, laces, embroidery, tapestry, and etc., and etc., and everything under the sun, moon, and stars, and so forth, and so on. All the works of wimmen from the present age of the world back to that wonderful book writ by the Abbess Herrard in the twelfth century, which contains about all the knowledge of that date. And tapestries wrought by hands that have been dust for hundreds and hundreds of years. But the work them hands wrought still remains, giving the best descriptions of them times we have now, of the manners and customs of that fur back time. They show off the part wimmin have took in philanthropy in all ages. They show that all through time that wimmen have been a help-meet. And you can see the tender, strong faces of them that have helped the world. One of the most interestin' things in the hull buildin' wuz the exhibit of the Beneficent Societies formed by wimmen all over the world--what they have done in war, pestilence, and famine, what they have done in wrestlin' with that deadly serpent, whose folds encompass the earth--the foulest serpent of Intemperance. What my sect have done banded together to promote liberty, to establish religion, and all good works. The decoration of the big room set apart for the association and organizations are strikin'. Fifty-four organizations of Christian wimmen and workers for righteousness in different ways have their headquarters here. The Wimmen's Christian Temperance Union makes a big display; from post to post is extended long links of pledge cards signed by boys and girls of forty-four countries--France, Africa, Japan, China, etc., etc., etc. What links them wuz that bound them children to a future of temperance and usefulness! Strong cords a-spreadin' out to the very ends of the earth, and a-bringin' them all together and tyin' 'em up to the ramparts of Heaven. Denmark has a display of seven little wimmen a-wearin' the white ribbon. In the Japanese department hangs a large bell all made of pipes, and Josiah sez-- "It's curious that wimmen, who run smokin' so, should have such a lot of pipes to sell." Sez he, "I'm most a-mind to buy one, smokin' is gittin' so fashionable, and lady-like. Mebby you'd better have one, Samantha." I looked at him witherin'ly, but he didn't seem to wither any. But a bystander spoke up and sez, "These are the pipes of opium-smokers, who have given up the vile habit. They wuz collected in Japan and presented to that noble worker, Mary Allen West." And the bell rung for the first time at her funeral in way-off Japan, where she laid down her sickle on her ripe sheaves, and rested from her labors. (These last lines are my own eppisodin; he simply related the facts.) There wuz associations on exhibition from all the different countries of the globe, of Christian workers of all kinds, in organizations, horsepitals, missionary fields, etc. from Loontown clear to Turkey. The Turkish Compassionate Fund rousted up sights of emotions in me. When you looked at the marvellous Oriental embroideries of the Mahommeden wimmen, you didn't dispute that their work has devoloped a new art. You see, them female Turkeys wuz drove from their homes by the Tigers, War, and Starvation, and the Baroness Burdette Coutts and Lady Layard bought the materials and organized this work. There are two thousand engaged in it now. Madame Zarcoff, who is in charge of it now, has a medal gin her by the Sultan, with "Charity" engraved on it in the language of the Turkeys. I couldn't read it, or Josiah. But she told us what it wuz. Wall, as I say, there wuz displays of every other kind of Christian work, and a-lookin' over them records, and seein' the benign faces of them wimmen who had led on the fight aginst the banded powers of Hell--why, the tears jest run down my face some like rain water, and Josiah asked me anxiously, "If I wuz took with a cramp." And I sez, "No, fur from it. I am took with the sperit of rejoicin', and wonder, and thanksgivin', and everything else." And he sez, "Wall, I wouldn't stand up and cry; if I wuz a-goin' to cry, I would set down to it." And agin I sez, as I had said before, "Josiah, you're not a woman." And he sez, "No, indeed; you wouldn't catch a man a-cryin' because he wuz tickled about sunthin'; he would more likely snap his fingers, and whistle." But I heeded not his remarks, and we wended onwards. And I see, with everything else under the sun, moon, and stars, a collection of all the kinds of flowers in the country, clear from Maine to California; and lots of the flowers preserved in their nateral colors. And if you think this is a easy job, I can tell you that you are very much mistaken. Why, jest a-walkin' over to Miss Alexander Bobbet'ses, acrost lots, I have come acrost more than forty different kinds of wild flowers, and then, when I got there, I can't begin to tell how many flowers she had in her dooryard. More than a hundred, anyway; and then if I come home by she that wuz Submit Tewksbury--why, my 'rithmetic would fairly gin out a-countin' before I got home; and then to think of all the broad acres of land, hills and valleys, mountains and forests between Oregon, and New Jersey, and Maine, and Florida, and California! Wuz it a easy job that wimmen took on to themselves, then? No, indeed; no, indeed! But wimmen are ust to hard jobs, and if she begins 'em she will carry 'em out and finish 'em; as wuz proved by the cloak we see there, made of feathers, that took five years to make. But when I go to talk about the paintin's, and statutes, and the embroideries my sect shows off in that buildin', then agin I draw deep breaths full of praise and admiration, sunthin' like sithes, only happier ones, to think mine eyes had been permitted to gaze on the marvels and wonders my own sect had wrought. And then I thought of Isabelle, and I thought I would love to have her there to neighbor with; thinkses I, if it hadn't been for her we wouldn't have been discovered at all, as I know on, and then where would have been the Woman's Buildin'? I thought I would love to talk it over with her; how, though she furnished the means for a man to discover us, yet four hundred years had to wear away before men thought that wimmen wuz capable of takin' part in any Internatinal Exposition. I wanted Isabelle there that day--I wanted her like a dog. But my thoughts wuz brought back from my rapt contemplation by my companion's voice. He sez: "By Jocks! I hadn't no idee that wimmen had ever done so much work that is useful as well as ornamental." Sez he, "I had read a sight about the Lady Managers, and I had got the idee that them ladies couldn't do much more than to set down and tend poodles, and knit tattin'. I hadn't no idee that they wuz a-goin' to swing out and make such a show as this." [Illustration: Josiah's "idee" of "them ladies."] Them remarks of hisen wuz wrung out of him by the glory of the display, as the sweet sap is brung out of the maple trees by the all-powerful influence and glory of the spring sun, and they show more plain than song or poem of the wonders about us. Josiah don't love to praise wimmen--he hates to. But I answered him proudly, "Yes, this Magic Wonder Land o' beauty and practical use wuz wrought by Sophia Haydon, and other noble wimmen. They must have the credit for everything about it, and for all the work it shows off within its borders." Sez I, "Uncle Sam was a good-actin' creeter for once, anyway, when he made that act of Congress about the World's Columbian Exposition. He made that body of men appoint a board of Lady Managers--two ladies from each State and Territory, and eight lady managers at large, and nine at Chicago." That name "Lady Manager" wuz done by Uncle Sam's over-politeness to the sect, and I don't know as Josiah wuz to blame. You would think by the name that them ladies wuz a-settin' in rows of gilded chairs, a-holdin' a rosy in their hands. But, in fact, amongst them female managers there wuz one hard-workin' doctor and lawyer, real-estate agents, journalists, editors, merchants, two cotton planters, teachers, artists, farmers, and a cattle queen. And you'd think to hear it talked on that there wuz only eight ladies at large amongst 'em--that the rest on 'em wuz kinder shet up and hampered. But you'd git that idee out of your head after one look in that Woman's Buildin'. You'd think that not only the hull board of Lady Managers wuz at large, but that every female woman the hull length and breadth of our country not only wuz at large, but the wimmen of the hull world. Why, connected with this great work is not only the hull caboodle of our own wimmen, fur or near--American wimmen, every one on 'em a queen, or will be when she gits her rights; besides them wimmen, the Queen of England's daughter, the Princess Christian, is at the head of the British wimmen at the Fair. And Queen Victoria herself has sent over some things, amongst 'em them napkins of hern, spun and wove by her own hands. What a lesson for snobbish young ladies, who would think it lowerin' to hem a napkin! What would they think to tackle 'em in the flax? And then there wuz a hat made by England's Queen, and gin to her grand-daughter; and there wuz six pictures painted by her, original sketches from nater. One view wuz from the Queen's own room at Balmoral. And then the Princess of Wales sent a chair of carved walnut, upholstered with leather, all the work of her own hands. What another lesson that is to our lazy, fashionable girls! And Princess Maud of Wales sent a embroidered piano stool. And Princess Louise--Miss Lorne that now is--and Princess Beatrice sent the work of their own brains and hands. I guess queens have always made a practice of workin'. Why, I see there--and I could have wept when I seen it if I'd had the time--an elegant bedquilt made by poor Mary Queen of Scots. She sot the last stitches in it the day before her death. What queer stitches them must have been--Agony and Remorse a-twistin' the thread in the needle. [Illustration: Queen Victoria sent over some things.] And then there wuz a piece of embroidery by Queen Marie Antoinette. What queer stitches _them_ must have been, if she could have seen the End! And then there wuz a portrait of Maria de Medici, Queen of France, made by herself. And then there wuz a Bible presented by Queen Anne to the Moravian Church of New York, and a Bible of Princess Christian's. The fine needlework of the wimmen of Greece makes a splendid show. The Queen of Greece is at the head of their commission. The Queen of Italy goes ahead of all the other monarchs; she shows her own private collection of lace handkerchiefs, and neckties, and mantillys, and so forth. And even her crown laces--them beautiful laces that droop down over her regal head-dress when she sets with her crown on, and her sceptre held out in her hand. The Queen of Belgium is at the head of their exposition. And the German commission is headed by a Princess. Wall, you see from what I have said that there wuz a great variety of Queens a-showin' off in that buildin'; and as for Baronnesses, and Duchesses, and Ladies, etc., etc.--why, they wuz as common there as clover in a field of timothy. You felt real familiar with 'em. The reception-room of Mrs. Palmer, the beautiful President of the Woman's Committee, is a fittin' room for the presidin' genius. All along the walls below the ceilin' runs a design of roses, scattered and grouped with exquisite taste. Miss Agnes Pitman, of Cincinnati, decorated that room. In Mrs. Palmer's office is a wonderful table donated by the wimmen of Pennsylvania. In that table is cedar from Lebanon, oak from the yoke of Liberty Bell, oak from the good old ship Constitution, from Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge, and wood from other noted places. And none of the woods wuz ever put to better use than now, to hold the records of woman's Aspirations and Success in 1893. The ceilin' of the New York room wuz designed by Dora Keith Wheeler, and is beautiful and effective. And the room is full of objects of beauty and use. The gorgeous President's chair from Mexico is a sight; and so to me wuz the chair in the Kentucky room, three hundred years old, that used to be sot in by old Elder Brewster, of Plymouth. Good old creeter! if he could have been moved offen that rock of hisen three hundred years ago, into this White City, he would have fell out of that chair in a fit--I most know he would. And then there wuz a silk flag made by General Sheridan's mother when she wuz eighty years old, and a group of dolls dressed in costooms illustrating American history. And there wuz a shirt of old Peter Stuyvesent's and a baby dress of De Witt Clinton's. I never mistrusted that he wuz ever a baby till I seen that dress. I'd always thought on him as the first Governor of New York. And speakin' of babys--why, I wuz jest a-lookin' at that dress when I met Miss Job Presley, of Loontown. And I sez, almost the first thing, "Where is your baby?" And she sez, "It is in the Babys' Buildin'. I have got a check for her--one for her, and one for my umbrell." And she showed 'em to me. "Wall," sez I, "that is a good, noble idee to rest mothers' tired arms; but it must make you feel queer." And she said, as she put the checks back into her portmoney, "That it did make her feel queer as a dog." [Illustration: Miss Job Presley.] Wall, there wuz a table from Pennsylvania, containin' more than two thousand pieces of native wood; and there wuz a Scotchwoman with her good old spinnin'-wheel, and a Welsh girl a-weavin' cloth. And inventions of females of all kinds, from a toboggan slide, and a system of irrigation, and models of buildin's of all kinds, to a stock car. Why, the very elevator you rode up to the ruff garden on wuz made by a woman. And then there wuz cotton raised and ginned by wimmen of the South, and nets by the wimmen of New Jersey, and fruit raised by the wimmen of California--the most beautiful fruit I ever sot my eyes on, and wine made by her, too. (I could have wept when I see that, but presoom it wuz for sickness.) And from Colorado there wuz tracin's of minin' surveys. Wimmen a-findin' out things hid in the bowels of the earth! O good land! the idee on't! And engravin's and etchin's done by wimmen way back to 1581. And in stamped leather, wall decoration, furniture, it wuz a sight to see the noble doin's of my sect; and a exhibit that done my soul good wuz from Belva Lockwood, admittin' wimmen to practise in the Supreme Court. That wuz better than leather work, though that is worthy, and wuz more elevatin' to my sect than the elevator. The British exhibit is arranged splendidly to show off wimmen's noble work in charity, education, manafacture, art, literature, etc., and amongst their patents is one for a fire-escape, and one to extract gold from base metals. Both of these are good idees, as there can't anybody dispute. Another exhibit there that appeals strong to the feelin' heart wuz Kate Marsdon's Siberian leper village. She is a nurse of the Red Cross, and her heart ached with pity for them wretched lepers, in their dretful lonely huts in the forests of Siberia. She went herself to see their awful condition, and tried to help 'em; she raised money herself for horsepitals and nurses. [Illustration: Relics of Kate Marsdon.] Here is a model of the village, with church, horsepital, schoolhouse, store, and cottages for them that are able to work. Here is the saddle she wore durin' her long, dretful journey to Siberia, and the knife she carried, and some of the miserable, hard black bread she had to eat. Here are letters to her from Queen Victoria, and the Empress of Russia. But a Higher Power writ to her, writ on her heart, and went with her acrost the dark fields of snow and ice. Wall, after lookin' at everything under the sun, from a Lion's Head, by Rosa Bonhuer, to a piece of bead-work by a Injun, and every queer and beautiful Japan thing you ever thought on, or ever didn't think on, and everything else under the sun, moon, and stars, that wuz ever made by a woman--and there is no end to 'em--we went up into the ruff garden, where, amidst flowers, and fountains, and fresh air, happy children wuz a-playin', with birds and butterflies a-flyin' about 'em over their heads. The birds couldn't git out, nor the children either, for up fifteen feet high a wire screen wuz stretched along, coverin' the hull beautiful garden. Nothin' could git in or out of it but the sweet air and the sunshine. Oh, what a good idee! You could see that the Woman's Buildin' wuz full of beautiful, practical idees, from the ground floor to the very top; as you could see plain by this that the children wuz thought on and cared for, from the bottom to the top of this palace. Some say that wimmen soarin' out in art and business makes 'em hard and ontender; you can see that this is a plain falsehood jest by walkin' once through the Woman's Buildin'. If ever wimmen soared out in art and business, and genius, and philanthropy, and education, and religion, she does here; and from the floor to the ruff is the highest signs of her tenderness for the children, and all weak and helpless ones. Oh, what emotions I had in that buildin', and of what a immense size! Some of the time I got lost and by the side of myself, a-thinkin' such deep and high thoughts about the World's Fair, and wimmen, etc., and they wuz so fur-reachin', too; it wuz a sight. For I knew on that openin' day, when the hammer struck that marvellous golden nail, and this world of treasures opened at the signal--I knew that the echo of that blow wuzn't a-goin' to die out on Lake Michigan. I knew that at its echo old Prejudice, and Custom, and Might wuz a-goin' to skulk back and hide their hoary heads; and Young Progress, and Equality, and Right wuz a-goin' to advance and take their places. Stiflin', encumberin' veils wuz a-goin' to fall from the sad eyes of the wimmen of the East. Chains wuz a-goin' to fall from the delicate wrists of the wimmen of the West. I hailed that sound as helpin' forward the era of Love, Peace, goodwill to men and wimmen. Yes, it wuz a happy hour for her who was once Smith, when man, in the shape of President Cleveland, pressed the button with his thumb. And woman, in the form of Bertha Honore Palmer, drove that nail home with a hammer. Josiah thought it ort to been the other way. He sez, "That men wuz so used to hammer and nails;" and he sez, and stuck to it, that, "No woman livin' ever druv a nail home without splittin' her own nail in the effort, and bendin' the nail she driv sideways." But I sot him down in my mind as representin' Old Prejudice, and I did not dain a reply to him. Only I merely said-- "Wall, she did drive the nail in straight, and she clinched it solid with the golden words of her address." Yes, Mrs. Palmer has stood up on a high mount durin' the hard years past since the Fair wuz thought on. She has stood up so high that she could see things hid from them on the ground. She could see over the hull world, and could see that, like little children of one family, the nations wuz all havin' their own separate work to do to help their Pa's and Ma's--their Pa Progress, and Grandpa Civilization, and their Ma and Grandma Love and Humanity. She could see that some of the children wuz dark complexioned, and some lighter, and some kinder yeller favored, and some wuz big, and some wuz small. They differed in looks and behavior, as every big family will, and she could see that they had their little squabbles together, a-quarrelin' among themselves over their possessions, their toys and their rights--they wuz jealous of each other, and greedy, as children will be; and they had their perplexities, and their deep troubles, and their vexations, as children must have in this world, and some wuz fractious, and some wuz balky, and some wuz good dispositioned, and some wuz cross and mean, and had to be spanked more or less. But she could see from her sightly place that the hull of the children wuz a-movin' on, some slower and some faster, movin' on, and a-gittin' into line, and a-fallin' into step, to the music of the future. She could see, and she has seen from the first minute she wuz lifted up and looked off over the world, that this gatherin' of all the children together, a-showin' the best they had done, or could do, wuz a-goin' to help the hull family along more than tongue could tell, or mind could conceive of. She could see that it wuz encouragin' the good children to do still better. Allowin' the smart ones to show off their smartness to the best advantage. Awakenin' a spirit of helpful emulation in the more backward and sluggish of 'em. Yes, the light from this big house-warmin' she knew would penetrate and glow into the darkest corners of the earth, and, like a great warm sun, bring forth a glowin' and never-endin' harvest of blessed results. The hull family wuz a-doin' first rate, and their Pa and Ma wuz proud enough of 'em. And they felt well, for they knew that they wuz advancin' rapid, and with quick steps and with happy hearts. And when she looked way back, and watched the long procession a-defilin' along, some a-walkin' swift and some a-laggin' back with slower, more burdened footsteps (chains of different kinds a-draggin' on 'em)-- When she see the dark shadders of the past behind 'em--the dretful shapes of ignorance and evil a-lurkin' in the heavy blackness from which they wuz emergin'--her tender heart ached with sympathy. But when she looked fur off, fur off, ahead on 'em the gole that they wuz a-settin' out for, she had to almost lift her hands and hide her eyes from the dazzlin' glory. It most blinded her, so bright it wuz, and so golden the rays streamed out. Equal rights, Freedom for all, Love, Peace, Joy. I spoze she see a sight. Her face shone! But to resoom: Josiah wuz dretful interested in the Agricultural display of the ladies of Iowa, and it wuz interestin' to look at. On one end is panels of pansies all made out of kernels of corn, so nateral that you almost wanted to pick 'em off and make a posey of 'em. On one of the other walls is a row of wimmen's heads done in corn; the hair is done in corn silks, and their clothes out of the husks. And then there is a border made of corn, illustratin' the story of corn in Greek Mythology. There is a picture called the Water Carrier--a woman made of different kinds of corn, jest as nateral as life, and the landscape round her made of grasses, and trees of sorghum, and the frame is made of ears of corn. Josiah wuz crazy to have one to home. Sez he, "Samanthy, I am bound to have your picture took in corn, it is so cheap." Sez he, "Ury and I could do it some rainy day, and how you would treasure it!" sez he. Sez he, "I could make your hair out of white silk grass, and your face out of red pop-corn mostly." Sez he, "Of course, to make you life size it would take a big crop of corn. I should judge," sez he, "that it would take about two bushels to make your waist ribbon; but I wouldn't begretch it." Sez I, "If you want to make me happy in corn, Josiah Allen, take it to the mill and grind it into samp or good fine meal. You and Ury can't bring happiness to me by paintin' me in corn, so dismiss the thought to once, for I will not be took." "Yes, break it up," sez he bitterly; "you always do, if I branch out into anything uneek." It wuz some time before I could quiet him down. The display by Norway and Sweden is very complete, showin' the work of the lower and upper classes, laces, and embroideries, etc., etc. And so they wuz from every other nation of the Globe. It fairly makes my brain reel now, to think of the wonder and the glory of 'em. Wall, towards the last we went to see the model kitchen. And Miss Plank, who had been off with some friends, jined us here, and she wuz happy here, as happy as a queen on her throne; and Josiah, and I thought he richly deserved it, in the restaurant attached, he eat such a lunch as only a hungry man can eat, cooked jest as good as vittles can be, and all done by wimmen. Why, Miss Rorer herself, that I have kep (in book form) on my buttery shelf for years, wuz here in the body, a-learnin' folks to cook. That is sayin' enough for the vittles to them that knows her (in book form). There wuz every appliance and new-fangled invention to help wimmen cook, and do her work, and every old-fangled one. Miss Plank hunted hard to find sunthin' to make better pancakes than hern, but couldn't. But it wuz a sight--a sight, the things we see there. Wall, we spent the hull of the day here--never stepped our feet outside, and didn't want to, or at least I didn't. And as Night softly onrolled her mantilly, previous to drawin' it over her face and goin' to sleep, we reluctantly turned our feet away from this beautiful, sacred place, and went home on the cars. And didn't the bed feel good? And didn't Sleep come like a sweet, consolin' friend and lay her hand on my gray hair and weary fore-top jest as lovin' as Mother Smith ust to, and murmur in my ear, jest as soft and low as Ma Smith did, "Hush, my dear; lie still and slumber." CHAPTER XI. Wall, the next mornin'--such is the wonderful balm of onbroken sleep that any one takes in onbeknown to themselves--we felt considerable brisk. And Josiah proposed that we should go and pay attention to the Buildin' of Liberal Arts and Manafactures that day. Havin' had my way the day before on goin' to the home and headquarters of my sect first, I thought it wuzn't no more than right that my pardner should have his way that day as to what buildin' we should pay attention to, and he wanted to go to the biggest one next. He said that, "When he wuz a-shearin' sheep he always wanted to tackle the biggest one first, and he felt jest so about any hard job." I kinder wanted to go to the Art Gallery that mornin'; first wimmen, and then Art--them wuz my choices. But Love prevailed. And the feelin' that, after seein' the display that wimmen had wrought, that mebby it wuz best to go next to the largest house on the grounds, and the most liberal one. So we sot off, after a good breakfast. We thought we would meander kinder slow that mornin', and examine things closely. Truly we had been too much overcome by that first visit the day before to take much notice of things in particular. When that seen had bust onto us it wuz some like a blind man comin' to his sight in the middle of a June day. He wouldn't pay any particular attention to each separate glory that made up the seen--blue sky, green fields, sunshine, white clouds, sparklin' waters, rustlin' trees, wavin' grass, roses, green fields, and so forth and so forth. No, it would all mingle in one dazzlin' picture before his astounded eyeballs. So it had been with us, or with me, at any rate. Now we laid out to go slower and take things in more separate--one by one, as it were; and we seemed to realize more than we had sensed it the immense--immense size of the depot, the rumble of the elevated trains overhead, and the abundance of the facilities to git into the Columbian World's Fair. Why, there is about fifty places right there to git tickets, and ninety-six turnstiles--most a hundred! The idee! Wall, with no casualities worth enumeratin', we found ourselves in that glorious Court of Honor, and pretty nigh that gorgeous fountain of MacMonnies. This matchless work of art occupies the place of honor amidst the incomparable group of wonders in that Court of Honor, and it deserves it. Yes, indeed! its size is immense, but it don't show it, owin' to the size of the buildin's surroundin' it. Here in this fountain, as elsewhere at Columbus's doin's, female wimmen are put forward in the highest and loftiest places. High up, enthroned in a mammoth boat, stately and beautiful in design, sets a impressive female figger, her face all lit up with Truth and Earnest Purpose as she towers up above the others. The boat seems to be a-goin' aginst the wind, as boats that amount to anything and git there always have in the past, and most likely will in the future. And the keen wind wuz a-blowin' hard aginst the female figger that wuz a-standin' up in front of the boat, but she didn't care; it blowed her drapery back some, but it only floated out her wings better. She held a bugle in her hand, a-soundin' out, I should judge from her looks-- "How goes the world? I am comin' to help, but you needn't wait for me--I will overtake you!" She wuz bound to help the old world along, as you could see by her looks. I thought when I first looked at it that the hull thing wuz to show forth the powers of electricity. I thought that that wuz Electricity on top of that throne, and the woman in front wuz a-gazin' out fur ahead, a-tryin' to catch sight of that most wondrous New World that that strange Magician is a-goin' to sail us into. And I didn't wonder that she wuz a-gazin' so intent fur off ahead. For we don't know no more about that strange, onknown world than Columbus did when he sot sail from Genoa. A few strange birds have flown from it and lighted on the heads of the Discoverers, a few spars of wisdom has been washed ashore, and some strange leaves and sea-weeds, all tellin' us that they have come from a new world different from ours, and one more riz up like--more like the Immortal. But of the hull world of wonder, it is yet to be discovered; and I thought, as I looked at it, I shouldn't wonder if they will get there--the figger on the throne wuz so impressive, and the female in front so determined. Wisdom, and courage, and joyful hope and ardor. Helped by 'em, borne along by 'em in the face of envy, and detraction, and bigotry, and old custom, the boat sails grandly. "Ho! up there on the high mast! What news?" "Light! light ahead!" But to resoom: a-standin' up on each side of that impressive figger wuz another row of females--mebby they had oars in their hands, showin' that they wuz calculatin' to take hold and row the boat for a spell if it got stuck; and mebby they wuz poles, or sunthin'. But I don't believe they meant to use 'em on that solitary man that stood in back end of the boat, a-propellin' it--it would have been a shame if they had. No; I believe that they meant to help at sunthin' or ruther with them long sticks. They wuz all a-lookin' some distance ahead, all a-seemin' bound to get where they started for. Besides bein' gorgeous in the extreme, I took it as bein' a compliment to my sect, the way that fountain wuz laid out--ten or a dozen wimmen, and only one or two men. But after I got it all fixed out in my mind what that lofty and impressive figger meant, a bystander a-standin' by explained it all out to me. [Illustration: I took it as bein' a compliment to my sect the way that fountain wuz laid out--ten or a dozen wimmen and only one or two men.] He said that the female figger way up above the rest wuz Columbia, beautiful, strong, fearless. And that it wuz Fame that stood at the prow with the bugle, and that it wuz Father Time at the hellum, a-guidin' it through the dangers of the centuries. And the female figgers around Columbia's throne wuz meant for Science, Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, Music, Drama, Paintin', and Literature, all on 'em a-helpin' Columbia along in her grand pathway. And then I see that what I had hearn wuz true, that Columbia had jest discovered Woman. Yes, the boat wuz headed directly towards Woman, who stood up one hundred feet high in front. And I see plain that Columbia couldn't help discoverin' her if she wanted to, when she's lifted herself up so, and is showin' plain in 1893 jest how lofty and level-headed, how many-sided and yet how symmetrical she is. There she stands (Columbia didn't have to take my word for it), there she wuz a-towerin' up one hundred feet, lofty, serene, and sweet-faced, her calm, tender eyes a-lookin' off into the new order of centuries. And Columbia wuz a-sailin' right towards her, steered by Time, the invincible. I see there wuz a great commotion down in the water, a-snortin', and a-plungin', and a-actin' amongst the lower order of intelligences. But Columbia's eyes wuz clear, and calm, and determined, and Old Time couldn't be turned round by any prancin' from the powers below. _Woman is discovered._ But to resoom. This immense boat wuz in the centre, jest as it should be; and all before it and around wuz the horses of Neptune, and mermaids, and fishes, and all the mystery of the sea. Some of the snortin' and prancin' of the horses of the Ocean, and pullin' at the bits, so's the men couldn't hardly hold 'em, wuz meant, I spoze, to represent how awful tuckerin' it is for humanity to control the forces of Nater. Wall, of all the sights I ever see, that fountain wuz the upshot and cap sheaf; and how I would have loved to have told Mr. MacMonnies so! It would have been so encouragin' to him, and it would have seemed to have relieved that big debt of gratitude that Jonesville and America owed to him; and how I wish I could make a good cup of tea for him, and brile a hen or a hen turkey! I'd do it with a willin' mind. I wish he'd come to Jonesville and make a all-day's visit--stay to dinner and supper, and all night if he will, and travel round through Jonesville the next day. I would enjoy it, and so would Josiah. Of course, we couldn't show off in fireworks anything to what he does, havin' nothin' but a lantern and a torchlight left over from Cleveland's campain. No; we shouldn't try to have no such doin's. I know when I am outdone. Bime-by we stood in front of that noble statute of the Republic. And as I gazed clost at it, and took in all its noble and serene beauty, I had emotions of a bigger size, and more on 'em, than I had had in some time. Havin' such feelin's as I have for our own native land--discovered by Christopher Columbus, founded by George Washington, rescued, defended, and saved by Lincoln and Grant (and I could preach hours and hours on each one of these noble male texts, if I had time)-- Bein' so proud of the Republic as I have always been, and so sot on wantin' her to do jest right and soar up above all the other nations of the earth in nobility and goodness--havin' such feelin's for her, and such deep and heartfelt love and pride for my own sect--what wuz my emotions, as I see that statute riz up to the Republic in the form of a woman, when I went up clost and paid particular attention to her! A female, most sixty-five feet tall! Why, as I looked on her, my emotions riz me up so, and seemed to expand my own size so, that I felt as if I, too, towered up so high that I could lock arms with her, and walk off with her arm in arm, and look around and enjoy what wuz bein' done there in the great To-Day for her sect, and mine; and what that sect wuz a-branchin' out and doin' for herself. But, good land! it wuz only my emotions that riz me up; my common sense told me that I couldn't walk locked arms with her, for she wuz built out in the water, on a stagin' that lifted her up thirty or forty feet higher. And her hands wuz stretched out as if to welcome Columbia, who wuz a-sailin' right towards her. On the right hand a globe was held; the left arm extended above her head, holdin' a pole. I didn't know what that pole wuz for, and I didn't ask; but she held it some as if she wuz liable to bring it down onto the globe and gin it a whack. And I didn't wonder. It is enough to make a stun woman, or a wooden female, mad, to see how the nation always depicters wimmen in statutes, and pictures, and things, as if they wuz a-holdin' the hull world in the palm of their hand, when they hain't, in reality, willin' to gin 'em the right that a banty hen has to take care of their own young ones, and protect 'em from the hoverin' hawks of intemperance and every evil. But mebby she didn't have no idee of givin' a whack at the globe; she wuz a-holdin' it stiddy when I seen her, and she looked calm, and middlin' serene, and as beautiful, and lofty, and inspirin' as they make. She wuz dressed well, and a eagle had come to rest on her bosom, symbolical, mebby, of how wimmen's heart has, all through the ages, been the broodin' place and the rest of eagle man, and her heart warmed by its soft, flutterin' feathers, and pierced by its cruel beak. The crown wore on top of her noble forehead wuz dretful appropriate to show what wuz inside of a woman's head; for it wuz made of electric lights--flashin' lights, and strange, wrought of that mysterious substance that we don't understand yet. But we know that it is luminous, fur-reachin' in its rays, and possesses almost divine intelligence. It sheds its pure white light a good ways now, and no knowin' how much further it is a-goin' to flash 'em out--no knowin' what sublime and divine power of intelligence it will yet grow to be, when it is fully understood, and when it has the full, free power to branch out, and do all that is in it to do. Jest like wimmen's love, and divine ardor, and holy desires for a world's good--jest exactly. It wuz a good-lookin' head-dress. Her figger wuz noble, jest as majestic and perfect as the human form can be. And it stood up there jest as the Lord meant wimmen to stand, not lookin' like a hour-glass or a pismire, but a good sensible waist on her, jest as human creeters ort to have. I don't know what dressmakers would think of her. I dare presoom to say they would look down on her because she didn't taper. And they would probable be disgusted because she didn't wear cossets. But to me one of the greatest and grandest uses of that noble figger wuz to stand up there a-preachin' to more than a million wimmen daily of the beauty and symmetry of a perfect form, jest as the Lord made it, before it wuz tortured down into deformity and disease by whalebones and cosset strings. Imagine that stately, noble presence a-scrunchin' herself in to make a taper on herself--or to have her long, graceful, stately draperies cut off into a coat-tail bask--the idee! Here wuz the beauty and dignity of the human form, onbroken by vanity and folly. And I did hope my misguided sect would take it to heart. And of all the crowds of wimmen I see a-standin' in front of it admirin' it, I never see any of 'em, even if their own waists did look like pismires, but what liked its looks. Till one day I did see two tall, spindlin', fashionable-lookin' wimmen a-lookin' at it, and one sez to the other: "Oh, how sweet she would look in elbow-sleeves and a tight-fittin' polenay!" "Yes," sez the other; "and a bell skirt ruffled almost to the waist, and a Gainsboro hat, and a parasol." "And high-heel shoes and seven-button gloves," sez the other. And I turned my back on them then and there, and don't know what other improvements they did want to add to her--most likely a box of French candy, a card-case, some eye-glasses, a yeller-covered novel, and a pug dog. The idee! [Illustration: "How sweet she would look!"] And as I wended on at a pretty good jog after hearin' 'em, I sez to myself-- "Some wimmen are born fools, some achieve foolishness, and some have foolishness thrust on 'em, and I guess them two had all three of 'em." I said it to myself loud enough so's Josiah heard me, and he sez in joyful axents-- "I am glad, Samantha, that you have come to your senses at last, and have a realizin' sense of your sect's weaknesses and folly." And I wuz that wrought up with different emotions that I wuz almost perfectly by the side of myself, and I jest said to him-- "Shet up!" I wouldn't argy with him. I wuz fearful excited a-contemplatin' the heights of true womanhood and the depths of fashionable folly that a few--a very few--of my sect yet waded round in. But after I got quite a considerable distance off, I instinctively turned and looked up to the face of that noble creeter, the Republic. And I see that she didn't care what wuz said about her. Her face wuz sot towards the free, fresh air of the future--the past wuz behind her. The winds of Heaven wuz fannin' her noble fore-top, her eyes wuz lookin' off into the fur depths of space, her lips wuz wreathed with smiles caught from the sun and the dew, and the fire of the golden dawn. She wuz riz up above the blame or praise--the belittlin', foolish, personal babblin' of contemporary criticism. Her head wuz lifted towards the stars. But to resoom, and continue on. CHAPTER XII. After we reluctantly left off contemplatin' that statute of Woman, we wended along to the buildin' of Manafactures and Liberal Arts, that colossial structure that dwarfs all the other giants of the Exposition. This is the largest buildin' ever constructed by any exposition whatsoever. It covers with its galleries forty acres of land--it is as big as the hull of Elam Bobbet's farm--and Elam gets a good livin' offen that farm for him and Amanda and eight children, and he raises all kinds of crops on it, besides cows, and colts, and hens, grass land and pasture, and a creek goes a-runnin' through it, besides a piece of wood lot. And then, think to have one buildin' cover a place as large as Elam's farm! Why, jest the idee on't would, I believe, stunt Amanda Bobbet, or else throw her into spazzums. For she has always felt dretful proud of their farm, and the size of it; she has always said that it come hard on Elam to do all the work himself on such a big farm. She has acted haughty. And then, if I could have took Amanda by the hand, and sez-- "Here, Amanda, is one house that covers as much ground as your hull farm!" I believe she would have fell right down in a coniption fit. But Amanda wuzn't there; I had only my faithful pardner to share my emotions, as I went into one of its four great entrances, under its triumphal arches, each one bein' 40 feet wide and 80 feet high--as long as from our house to the back pasture. The idee! the idee! Why, to change my metafor a little about the bigness of this buildin', so's to let foreign nations git a little clearer idee of the size on't, I will state-- This one house is bigger than all those of Jonesville, and Loontown, and Shackville, and Zoar. It is the biggest house on this planet. Whether they have got any bigger ones in Mars, or Jupiter, or Saturn, I don't know; but I will say this--if they have, and the Marites, and Jupiterians, and Satens, are made up as we be, and calculate to go through the buildin's, I am sorry for their legs. It faces the lake, in plain view of all admirin' mariners, the long row of arches, and columns; is ornamented beyend anything that Jonesville ever drempt of, or Zoar, and a gallery fifty feet wide runs all round the buildin'; and from this gallery runs eighty-six smaller galleries, so nothin' hinders folks from lookin' down into the big hall below, and seein' the gorgeous seen of the Exposition, and the immense throng of people admirin' it. As Josiah and I wuz a-wendin' along on the gallery a-frontin' the lake, I heard a man--he looked some like a minister, too--say to another one, sez he, "The style of this buildin' is Corinthian." [Illustration: "This Buildin' is Corinthian."] And I spoke right up, bein' determined that Josiah and I too should be took for what we wuz--good, Bible-readin' Methodists. I said to Josiah, but loud enough so that the man should hear-- "The New Testament hain't got a better book in it than Corinthians--it is one of my favorites; I am glad that this buildin' takes after it." He looked kinder dumfoundered, and then he looked tickled; he see that we wuz congenial, though we met only as two barks that meet on the ocean, or two night-hawks a-sailin' past each other in the woods at Jonesville. But true it is that a good-principled person is always ready to stand by his colors. But the crowd swept us on, and we wuz divided--he to carry his good, solid principles out-doors, and disseminate 'em under the open sky; I to carry mine inside that immense--immense buildin'. Why, a week wouldn't do justice at all to this buildin'--you ort to come here every day for a month at least, and then you wouldn't see a half or a quarter of what is in it. Why, to stand and look all round you, and up and down the long aisles that stretch out about you on every side, you feel some as a ant would feel a-lookin' up round it in a forest, (I mean the ant "Thou sluggard" went to, not your ma's sister.) Fur up, fur up the light comes down through the immense skylight, so it is about like bein' out-doors, and in the night it is most as light as day, for the ark lights are so big that, if you'll believe it, there are galleries of 'em up in the chandliers, and men a-walkin' round in 'em a-fixin' the lights look like flies a-creepin' about. The idee! And the exhibits in that buildin' are like the sands of the sea for number, and it would be harder work to count 'em if you wuz a-goin' to tackle the job, for they hain't spread out smooth, like sea sand, but are histed up into the most gorgeous and beautiful pavilions, fixed off beyend anything you ever drempt on, or read of in Arabian Nights, or anywhere else. They wuz like towerin' palaces within a palace, and big towers all covered with wonderful exhibits, and cupalos, and peaks, and scollops, and every peak and every scollop ornamented and garnished beyend your wildest fancy. The United States don't make such a big show as Germany duz, right acrost, but come to look clost, you'll see that she holds her own. Why, Tiffany's and Gorham's beautiful pavilion, that rises up as a sort of a centre piece to the United States exhibit, some think are the most beautiful in the hull Exposition. Big crowds are always standin' in front of that admirin'ly; the decoration and colorin' are perfect. The pavilions of the different nations tower up in all their grandeur that their goverments could expend on 'em, and they rival each other in beauty; but private undertakin's show off nobly. There wuz one man who sells stoves who has built a stove as big as a house--put electric lights in it, to show off its name, and he asks folks to step into the stove, which is a pavilion, to see what he has to sell. [Illustration: He asks folks to step into the stove.] And then one man--a trunk-maker--has made a glass trunk as big as a house, and shows off his exhibits there. And take the thousands and thousands of pavilions and pagodas on every side of you, and every one of 'em filled with thousands and millions of beautiful exhibits, and you can see what a condition your head would be in after a half a day in that buildin', let alone your legs. Some think that the German Pavilion is the most notable of any. Never wuz such iron gates seen in this country, a-towerin' up twenty feet high, and ornamented off in the most elaborate manner, and high towers crowned by their gold eagles; and high up in the back is a majestic bronze Germania. On either side, and in the centre, are other wonderful pavilions. If you go through these gates you will want to stay there a week right along, examinin' the world of objects demandin' your attention--marvellous tapestry, porcelain, paintin', statuary, furniture, hammered iron, copper, printin', lithographin', etc., and etcetry. It wuz here that we see the Columbian diamond, a blue brilliant, the finest diamond at the Exposition. The French pavilion is a dream of beauty. It rises up in white, marble-like beauty, not excelled by any country, it seems to me, and is filled with the very finest things to be found in the French shops, and that is sayin' the finest in the world. Here are beautiful figgers in wax, wearin' the most magnificent dresses you ever hearn on--Papa, Mama, Grandma, Baby, and Nurse--all fitted out in clothes suitable, and the hite of beauty and elegance. Why, in goin' through this section you can jest imagine the most beautiful and perfect things you ever hearn on in dress, furniture, jewelry, etc., etc., and multiply 'em by one hundred, and then you wouldn't figger out the result half gorgeous enough. Why, it is insured for ten millions, and it is worth it. I wouldn't take a cent less for it--not a cent; and so I told Josiah. Why, there is one baby's cradle worth thirty-one thousand dollars, and a vase at twenty thousand, and a parasol at two thousand five hundred, and other things accordin'--the idee! The Gobelin tapestries that are loaned by the French Goverment are absolutely priceless. Austria's big pavilion has her double eagles reared up over it; it stands up sixty-five feet high, and is full of splendor. Bohemian glass in every form and shape bein' one of its best exhibits, and terry-cotty figgers, and beautiful gifts of Honor loaned by the Emperor, and etc. And you can tell the Russian pavilion as fur as you can see it by its dark, strong architecture. Along the outer court runs a long platform ornamented with urns and vases of hewn marble and other hard stuns, from the exile mines of Siberia. I wondered how many tears had wet the stuns as they wuz hewn out. But, howsumever, the Russians did well; their enamel in this exhibit is the best shown anywhere. They are dretful costly, but not any too much for the value of 'em. They don't want to cheat America, the Russians don't--they remember the past. One giant punch-bowl of gilt enamel is claimed to be the finest thing of the kind ever done in the Empire. Their bronzes are wonderful--there is vigor and life in 'em. A Laplander in his sledge, drawn by reindeers over the frozen sea, and a dromedary and his driver on the sandy desert, shows plain how fur the Zar's dominions extend. A Laplander killin' a seal in a ice hole--Two horses a-goin' furiously, tryin' to drag a sleigh away from pursuin' wolves--Mounted Cossacks--Farmers ploughin' the fields--A woman ridin' a farm horse, with a long rake in her hand-- A woman standin' on tiptoe to kiss her Cossack as he bends from his saddle--A rough rider out on the steepes a-catchin' a wild horse. After ten or twelve acres of Nymphs and Venuses in bronze, these are real refreshin' to see, and a change. And in furs and such their display is magnificent. Russia shows eight hundred schools in the Liberal Art Department, and it is here that the beautiful pieces of embroidery made by the larger scholars for Mrs. Grover Cleveland are displayed. No, Russia don't forgit the past. And the display of laces in the Belgian exhibit is sunthin' to remember for a hull lifetime, and its pottery, and gems, and bronzes. And the exhibit of Switzerland, though not so large as some of the rest, is uneek. Their exhibit is all surrounded by a panorama of the Alps, the high mountains a-lookin' down into the peaceful valley, with its arts and industries. Great Britain don't make so much show in her pavilions and in showin' off her things; but come to examine it clost, and you'll see, as is generally the case with our Ma Country, the sterling, sound qualities of solid worth. Her immense display of furniture, jewelry, and all objects of art and industry are worth spendin' weeks over, and then you'd want to stay longer. They don't make any attempt at display in pavilions and show winders. But in the plain, rich cases you find some of the most wonderful and gorgeous works of man. I spoze, mebby, as is the nater of showin' off, the Ma Country felt some as if she wuz right in the family, and she and her daughter America hadn't ort to dress up and try to put on so many ornaments as the visitors. I make a practice of that myself, to try to not dress up quite so ornamental as my company duz. But for solid worth and display, as I say, Great Britain and the United States are where they always are--in the first rank. But, speakin' of the visitors of the nation, if you want to git a good sight of 'em, jest stand in the clock tower, which looms up in the centre of the forty-acre buildin', as high as a Chicago house (and that is sayin' enough for hite), and you'll see all round you all the nations of the earth. The guests of the nation occupy the place of honor, as they ort to. Lookin' down, you see the flags of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Japan, India, Switzerland, Persia, Mexico, etc., etc., etc. Wall, Josiah wanted to go up to the top of the buildin' on the elevator, and though I considered it resky, I consented, and would you believe it--I don't suppose you will--but to look down from that hite, human bein's don't look much larger than flies. There they wuz, a-creepin' round in their toy-house fly-traps; it wuz a sight never to be forgot as long as Memory sets upon her high throne. Wall, as I said, in them pavilions and gorgeous glass cases in that vast buildin' you can find everything from every country on the globe. Everything you ever hearn on, and everything you ever didn't hearn on, from the finest lace to iron gates and fences-- From big, splendid rooms, all furnished off in the most splendid manner with the most gorgeous draperies and furniture, to a tiny gold and diamond ring for a baby, and everything else under the sun, moon, and stars, from a pill to a monument. Pictures, and statuary, and bronzes, and every other kind of beautiful ornament, that makes you fairly stunted with admiration as you look on 'em. At one place a silver fountain wuz sendin' up constantly a spray of the sweetest perfume, and when I first looked at it, Josiah wuz a-holdin' his bandana handkerchief under it, and he wuz a-dickerin' with the girl that stood behind it as to what such a fountain cost, and where he could git the water to run one. Sez he, "I'd give a dollar bill to have such a stream a-runnin' through our front yard." I hunched him, and sez I, "Keep still; don't show your ignorance. It hain't nateral water; it is manafactured." "Wall, all water is manafactured! Dum it, the stream that runs through our beaver medder is made somehow, or most probable it wouldn't be there." But I drawed him away and headed him up before some lovely dresses--the handsomest you ever see in your life--all trimmed with gold and pearl trimmin'. The price of that outfit wuz only twenty thousand dollars. And when I mentioned how becomin' such a dress would become me, I see by his words and mean that he had forgot the fountain. The demeanin' words that he used about my figger would keep females back from matrimony, if they knew on 'em. But I won't tell. No, indeed! And then there wuz all sorts of art work on enamel and metal, and all sorts of dazzlin' jewelry that wuz ever made or thought on, and all the silverware that wuz ever hearn or drempt of--why, jest one little service of seven pieces cost twenty thousand dollars. In Tiffany's gorgeous display wuz a case that illustrated the arts in Ireland in the fourteenth century. They said that it contained a tooth of St. Patrick. Mebbe it wuz his tooth; I can't dispute it, never havin' seen his gooms. Then there wuz a Latin book of the eighth century, containin' the four gospels; and in another wuz St. Peter's cross, they said. Mebby it wuz Peter's! And every kind of silk fabric that wuz ever made--raw silk, jest as the worm left it when she sot up as a butterfly, and jest what man has done to it after that--spinnin', weavin', dyein'--up to the time when it appears in the finest ribbon, and glossiest silk, and crapes, and gauzes, and velvets, and knit goods of every kind, and etc., and so forth. And every kind of cloth, and felt, and woollen, and carpets enough to carpet a path clear from Chicago to Jonesville for me and Josiah to go home in a triumphal procession, if they had felt like it. In front of the French section I see another statute of the Republic. She wuz a-settin' down. Poor creeter, she wuz tired; and then agin she had seen trouble--lots of it. Her left arm was a-restin' firm on a kind of a square block, with "The Rights of Man" carved on it, and half hidin' them words wuz a sword, which she also held in her left hand. The rights of Man and a sword wuz held in one hand, jest as they always have been. But, poor creeter! her right arm wuz gone--her good right hand wuz nowhere to be seen. I don't like to talk too glib about the judgments of Providence. The bad boys don't always git drownded when they go fishin' Sundays--they often git home with long strings of trout, and lick the good boys on their way home from Sunday-school. Such is real life, too oft. But I couldn't help sayin' to Josiah-- "Mebby if they had put onto that little monument she holds, 'The Rights of Man and Woman'--mebby she wouldn't had her arm took off." But anyway, judgment or not, anybody could see with one eye how one-sided, and onhandy, and cramped, and maimed, and everything a Republic is who has the use of only one of her arms. Them that run could read the great lesson-- "Male and female created He them." Both arms are needed to clasp round the old world, and hold it firm--Justice on one side, Love on the other. I felt sorry for the Republic--sorry as a dog. But that wuz the first time I see her. The next time she had had her arm put on. I guess Uncle Sam done it. That old man is a-gittin' waked up, and Eternal Right is a-hunchin' him in the sides. She wuz a-holdin' that right arm up towards the Heavens; the fingers wuz curved a little--they seemed to be begenin' to sunthin' up in the sky to come down and bless the world. Mebby it wuz Justice she wuz a-callin' on to come down and watch over the rights of wimmen. Anyway, she looked as well agin with both arms on her. Amongst the wonders of beauty in the French exhibit we see that vase of Gustave Dore's. That attracted crowds of admirers the hull time; it stood up fifteen feet high, and every inch of it wuz beautiful enough for the very finest handkerchief pin! There wuz hundreds of figgers from the animal and vegetable kingdom, and Mythology--cupids, nymphs, birds, and butterflies disportin' themselves in the most graceful way, and such beautiful female figgers!--Venuses as beautiful as dreams, and over all, and through all, wuz a-trailin' the rich clusters of the vine. The figgers seemed at first sight to kind o' encourage wine-makin' and wine-drinkin'. But look clost, and you'd see on one side, workin' his stiddy way up through the fairy landscape, up through the gay revellers, a venemous serpent wuz a-creepin'. He wuz bound to be there, and Venus or Nymph, or any of 'em that touched that foamin' wine, had to be stung by his deadly venoms. Mr. Dore made that plain. Wall, we tried to the best of our ability to not slight a single country, but I'm afraid we did; I tried to act the part of a lady and pay attention to the hull on 'em, but I'm afraid that fifty or sixty countries had reason to feel that we slighted 'em; but I hope that this will explain matters to 'em. I felt that I hadn't done justice to our own country and our Ma Country, not at all; but when you jest think how big the United States is, and how many firms try to show off in every county of every State--why, it tires anybody jest to think on't; and Great Britain too; for, as I thought, what good duz visitors do when their brain is a-reelin' under their head-dresses, and stove-pipe hats! And truly that wuz our condition before we fairly begun to go through the countries. Beautiful works of art--marvellous exhibits to the right of us, to the left of us, and before us and behind us--forty-five acres on 'em. What wuz two small pair of eyes and four ears to set up aginst this colossial and imeasureable show! We went till we wuz ready to drop down, and then Josiah sez, "Less take the rest of the grandeur for granted, and less go somewhere and git a cup of tea, and a nip of sunthin' to eat." I said sunthin' about hurtin' the different countries feelin's by not payin' attention to 'em. And he sez, "Dum it all, I don't know as it would make 'em any happier to have two old folks die on their hands; and I feel, Samantha, that the end is a-drawin' near," sez he. He did look real bad. So we went to the nearest place and got a cup of tea, and rested a spell, and when we come back we kinder left the Manafactures part, and tackled the Liberal part, and I declare that wuz the best of all by fur. That wuz enough to lift up anybody's morals, and prop 'em up strong, to see how much attention is paid to education and trainin' right from the nursery up--devolipin' the mind and the body. It wuz some as if the Manafactures part tended to the house and clothin', and this part tended to the livin' soul that inhabited it. It wuz dretful interestin' to see everything about devolipin' the strength and muscle in gymnasiums, skatin', rowin', boatin', and every other way. Food supply and its distribution, school kitchens. How to make buildin's the best way for health and comfort for workin'men, school-housen, churches, and etc. How to heat and ventilate housen, how to keep the sewers and drains all right, and how neccessary that is! Some folkses back doors are a abomination when their front doors are full of ornament. All kinds of instruction in infant schools, kindergartens; domestic and industrial trainin' for girls, models for teachin' and cookery, housework, dressmakin', etc.; how neccessary this is to turn out girls for real life, so much better than to have 'em know Greek, but not know a potatoe from a turnip; to understand geology, but not recognize a shirt gusset from a baby's bib! Books, literature, examples of printin' paper, bindin', religion, natural sciences, fine arts, school-books, newspapers, library apparatus, publications by Goverment, etc. And wuzn't it a queer coincidence? that right where books wuz all round me, right while my eyes wuz sot on 'em-- I hearn a voice I recognized. It wuz a-givin' utterance to the words I had heard so often-- "Two dollars and a half for cloth--three for sheep, and four for morocco." I turned, and there she wuz; there stood Arvilly Lanfear. She wuz in front of a good, meek-lookin' freckled woman, a-canvassin' her. Or, that is, she wuzn't exactly applyin' the canvas to her, but she wuz a-preparin' her for it. It seemed that she had been introduced to her, and wuz a-goin' to call on her the next day with the book. Sez I, advancin' onto her, "Arvilly Lanfear, did you really git here alive and well?" "Wall," sez she, "I shouldn't have got here, most likely, if I wuzn't alive, and I never wuz so well in my life, in body and in sperits. Hain't it glorious here?" sez she. "Yes," sez I; and, sez I, "Arvilly, did you walk afoot all the way here?" And then she went on and related her experience. She said that she wuz five weeks on her way, and made money all the way over and above her expenses. She walked the most of the way. She wuz now a-boardin' with a old acquaintance at five dollars a week, and she canvassed three days in the week, and come three days to the Fair, and more'n paid her way now. Sez I, "Arvilly, you look better than I ever knew you to look; you look ten years younger, and I don't know but 'leven." Sez I, "Your face has got a good color, and your eyes are bright." Sez I, "You hain't enjoyin' sech poor health as you did sometimes in Jonesville, be you?" Sez she, "I never wuz so well before in my life!" Sez I, "You've somehow got a different look onto you, Arvilly." Sez I, "Somehow, you look more meller and happy." "I be happy!" sez she. Sez I, "I spoze you are still a-sellin' the same old book, the 'Wild, Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man'?" She kinder blushed, and, sez she, "No; I have took up a new work." "What is it?" sez I, for she seemed to kinder hang back from tellin', but finally she sez, "It is the 'Peaceful, Prosperous, and Precious Performances of Man.'" "Wall," sez I, "I'm glad on't. Men should be walked round and painted on all sides to do justice to 'em. "'Im real glad that you're a-goin' to canvas on his better side, Arvilly." "Yes," sez she, "men are amiable and noble creeters when you git to understand 'em." The change in her mean and her sentiments almost made my brain reel under my slate-colored straw bunnet, and my knees fairly trembled under my frame. And, sez I, "Arvilly, explain to a old and true friend the change that has come onto you." So we withdrew our two selves to a sheltered nook, and there the story wuz onfolded to me in perfect confidence, and it _must_ be _kep._ I will tell it in my own words, for she rambles a good deal in her talk, and that is, indeed, a fault in female wimmen. Thank Heaven! I hain't got it. It seems that when she sot out for the World's Fair with the "Wild, Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man," she had only a dollar in her pocket, but hoards and hoards of pluck and patience. She canvassed along, a-walkin' afoot--some days a-makin' nothin' and bein' clear discouraged, and anon makin' a little sunthin', and then agin makin' first rate for a day or two, as the way of agents is. Till one day about sundown--she hadn't seen a house for milds back--she come to a little house a-standin' back on the edge of a pleasant strip of woods. A herd of sleek cows and some horses and some sheep wuz in pastures alongside of it, and a little creek of sparklin' water run before it, and she went over a rustic bridge, up through a pretty front yard, into a little vine-shaded porch, and rapped at the door. Nobody come; she rapped agin; nobody made a appearance. But anon she hearn a low groanin' and cryin' inside. So, bein' at the bottom one of the kindest-hearted creeters in the world, but embittered by strugglin' along alone, Arvilly opened the door and went in. She went through a little parlor into the back room, and wuzn't that a sight that met her eyes? A good-lookin' man of about Arvilly's age laid there all covered with blood and fainted entirely away, and on his breast wuz throwed the form of a little lame girl all covered with blood, and a-cryin' and a-groanin' as if her heart would break. She thought her Pa wuz dead. It seemed that he had cut his head dretfully with a tree branch a-fallin' onto it, and had jest made out to git to the house before he fainted; and his little girl, havin' never seen a faint, thought it wuz death; and it _is_ its first cousin. Wall, here wuz a place for Arvilly's patience, and pluck, and faculty, to soar round in. The first thing, she took up the little lame girl in her arms--a sweet little creeter of five summers--and sot her in a chair, and comforted her by tellin' her that her Pa would be all right in a few minutes. And she then, (and I don't spoze that she had ever been nigher to a good-lookin' man than from three to five feet,) but she had to lift up his head and wash the blood from the clusterin' brown hair, with some threads of silver in it, and tear her own handkerchief into strips to bind up his wounds; and she had some court-plaster with her and other neccessaries, and some good intment, and she is handy at everything, Arvilly is. Wall, by the time that a pair of good-lookin' blue eyes opened agin on this world, Arvilly had got the pretty little girl all washed and comforted, and a piller under his head; and the minute his blue eyes opened a spark flew out of 'em right from that piller that kindled up a simultanous one in the cool gray orbs of Arvilly. Wall, although he had his senses, he couldn't move or be moved for a day and a half. He didn't want nobody sent for, and Arvilly dassent leave 'em alone to go; so as a Christian she had to take holt and take care on 'em. Wall, Arvilly always wuz, and always will be, I spoze, as good a housekeeper and cook as ever wuz made. So I spoze it wuz a sight to see how quick she got that disordered settin'-room to lookin' cozy and home-like, and a good supper on a table drawed up to the side of the little lame girl. And I spoze that it wuz one of the strangest experiences that ever took place on this planet, and I d'no as they ever had any stranger ones in Mars or Jupiter. Arvilly had to kinder feed the invalid man, Cephus Shute by name--had to kinder kneel down by him and hold the plate and teacup, and help him to eat. And, strange to say, Arvilly wuzn't skairt a mite--she ruther enjoyed it of the two; for before two days wuz over she owned up that if there wuz any extra good bits she'd ruther he'd have 'em than to have 'em herself. [Illustration: And, strange to say, Arvilly wuzn't skairt a mite--she ruther enjoyed it.] The world is full of miracles; Sauls breathin' out vengeance are dropped down senseless by the power of Heaven. Pilgrim Arvilly's displayin' abroad the "Wild, Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man" are struck down helpless and mute by the power of Love. In less than three days she had promised to marry Cephus in the Fall. He had a good little property--his wife had been dead two years. His hired girl--a shiftless creeter--had flown the day Arvilly got there, and nothin' stood in the way of marriage and happiness. Arvilly's heart yearned over the little girl that had never walked a step, and she loved her Pa, and the Pa loved her. When she sot off from there a week later--for she wuz bound to see the Fair, and quiltin' had to be done, and clothin' made up before marriage, no matter how much Cephus plead for haste--he had got well enough to carry her ten milds to the cars, and she had come the rest of the way by rail; and she said, bein' kinder sick of canvassin' for that old book, she had tackled this new one, and wuz havin' real good luck with it. Wall, I wuz tickled enough for Arvilly, and I made up my mind then and there to give her a good linen table-cloth and a pair of new woollen sheets for a weddin' present, and I subscribed for the "Precious Performances" on the spot. I didn't spoze that I should care much about readin' "The Peaceful, Prosperous, and Precious Performances of Man"-- But I bought it to help her along. I knew that she would have to buy her "true so" (that is French, and means weddin' clothes), and I thought every little helped; but she said that it wuz "A be-a-u-tiful book, so full of man's noble deeds." "Wall," sez I, "you know that I always told you that you run men too much." "But," sez she, "I never drempt that men wuz such lovely creeters." "Oh, wall," sez I, "as for that, men have their spells of loveliness, jest like female mortals, and their spells of actin', like the old Harry." "Oh, no," sez she; "they are a beautiful race of bein's, almost perfect." "Wall," sez I, "I hope your opinion will hold out." But I don't spoze it will. Six months of married life--dry days, and wet ones, meals on time, and meals late, insufficient kindlin' wood, washin' days, and cleanin' house will modify her transports; but I wouldn't put no dampers onto her. I merely sez, "Oh, yes, Arvilly, men are likely creeters more'n half the time, and considerable agreeable." "Agreeable!" sez she; "they're almost divine." Arvilly always wuz most too ramptious in everything she undertook; she never loved to wander down the sweet, calm plains of Megumness, as I do. And then I spoze Cephus made everything of her, and it wuz a real rarity to her to be made on and flattered up by a good-lookin' man. But well he might make of her--he will be doin' dretful well to git Arvilly; she's a good worker and calculator, and her principles are like brass and iron for soundness; and she's real good-lookin', too, now--looks 'leven years younger, or ten and a half, anyway. But jest as Arvilly and I wuz a-withdrawin' ourselves from each other, I sez, "Arvilly, have you been to the Fair Sundays?" "No," sez she; "I didn't lay out to, for I could go week days. 'The Precious Performances' yields money to spare to take me there week days, and you know that I only wanted it open for them that couldn't git there any day but Sundays. And also," sez she honestly, "I talked a good deal, bein' so mad at the Nation for makin' such dretful hard work partakin' of a gnat, and then swallerin' down Barnum's hull circus, side-shows and all. "Why didn't the Nation shet up the saloons?" sez she, in bitter axents. "Folks can have their doubts about Sunday openin' bein' wicked, but the Lord sez expressly that 'no drunkard can inherit Heaven.' The nation wuz so anxious to set patterns before the young--why wuzn't it afraid to turn human bein's into fiends before 'em, liable to shoot down these dear young folks, or lead 'em into paths worse than death? "And it wuz so anxious to show off well before foreign nations. Wuz it any prettier sight to reel round before 'em, drunk as a fool, a-committin' suicide, and rapinin', and murder, and actin'? I wuz so mad," sez Arvilly, "that I felt ugly, and spoze I talked so." "Wall," sez I, "they've acted dretful queer about Sunday openin', take it from first to last. "But," sez I, reasonably, "takin' such a dretful big thing onto their hands to manage would be apt to make folks act queer. "I spoze," sez I, fallin' a little ways into oritory--"I spoze that if Josiah and me had took a rinosterhorse to board durin' the heated term, our actions would often be termed queer by our neighbors. To begin with, it's bein' such new business to us, we shouldn't know what to feed it, to agree with its immense stomach; we should, I dare presoom to say, try experiments with it before we got the hang of its feed, and peek through the barn doors dretful curious at it to see how it wuz a-actin', and how its food wuz agreein' with it. "We shouldn't dast to ride it to water, or holler at it, as if it wuz a calf; and if it should happen to break loose, Heaven knows what we should do with it! "And I spoze every fence would be full of neighbors a-standin' safe on their own solid premises, a-hollerin' out to us what to do, and every one on 'em mad as hens if we didn't foller their directions. "Some on 'em hollerin' to us to mount up on it and ride it back into the barn, when they knew that it would tear us to pieces if we went nigh it when it wuz mad. And some on 'em orderin' us to git rid of it. And how could we dispose of a ragin' rinosterhorse at a minute's notice? And some on 'em a-yellin' at us to kill it. How could we kill it, when the creeter didn't belong to us? "And some on 'em, not realizin' that our rinosterhorse boardin' wuz new business to us, and we wuz liable to make mistakes, standin' up on the ruff of their own barns, safe and sound, a-readin' the Bible to us and warnin' us, and we tuggin' away and swettin' with this wild creeter on our hands, and tryin' to do the best we could with it. "And then, right on top of this, Jonesville might serve a injunction onto us, that we had no right to let such a dangerous creeter into the precincts of Jonesville; and then we, feelin' kinder sorry, mebby, that we had ondertook the job, tried to git rid on't; and the rinosterhorse owner serves another injunction on us, makin' us keep it, sayin' that he'd paid its board in advance, and that he wouldn't take it back. "And there we would be, all wore out with our job, and not pleasin' nobody, nor nothin', but makin' the hull caboodle mad as hens at us; and we a-not meanin' any hurt, none of the time, a-meanin' well towards Jonesville and rinosterhorses. Wouldn't we be in a situation to be pitied, Arvilly?" "Yes," sez she, "it is jest so as I tell you; Cephus sez that he won't wait a minute longer than September." I see how it wuz--she hadn't hearn a word of my remarkable eloquence. Like all the rest, she had vivid idees about Sunday closin'; but come to the p'int, her own affairs wuz of the most consequence. She forgot all about the struggles of the Directors in their efforts to do what wuz right and best, in thoughts of Cephus. But I considered it human nater, and forgive her. Wall, after Arvilly left me, I returned agin to the sights in the noble Liberal Arts Department, and see everything else that wuz riz up and helpful; and finding out everything about the land and sea, the Heavens, and depths below the earth and seas. And oh, what queer, queer feelin's that sight gin me; they hain't to be described upon, and I hain't a-goin' to try to; it would be too much--too much for the public to hear about it, and for me to record 'em; though there wuz plenty of weights, measures, and balances, if I had tried to tackle the job of weighin' 'em. Now, what I have said of the liberal part, and especially of the trainin' of the young, you can see plain that it wuz as much more interestin' than the manafactures part as the soul is superior to the body, or eternity is longer than time. So, the world bein' such a sort of a curious place, it didn't surprise me a mite to see that this department, that wuz the most important in the hull Columbian World's Fair, wuz dretful cramped for room, and kinder put away upstairs. For, as I sez to myself, the old world has such dretful curious kinks in it, it didn't surprise me a mite to have this department sort o' squeezed into the end o' one buildin', and upstairs kinder, while the display for horned cattle covered over sixty acres. A good many farmers are as careful agin of their blooded stock as they are of the welfare of their wives and children. They will put work and hardship on the mother of their children that they wouldn't think of darin' to venture with their cows with a pedigree, for they would say, such overwork will injure the calf. How is it with their own children, when the delicate mother does all the household drudgery of a farm, and milks seven or eight cows night and mornin'? Toilin' till late bedtime, gettin' up before half rested, and takin' up agin the hard toil till the little feeble child-life is born into the world. How is it with the mother and the child? For answer, I refer you to countless newspaper files, under the headin' of "mysterious dispensations of Providence," and to old solitary churchyards, and to the insane statisticks of the country. The bereaved husband, a-blamin' Providence, but takin' some comfort in the thought that "the Lord loveth whom He chasteneth," walks out under his mournin' weed, and pats the sleek sides of his Alderney cow, and its fat, healthy young one, and ponders on how he could improve their condition, and better the stock, and mebby has passin' thoughts on some bloomin' young girl, who he could persuade to try the fate of the first. And he'll have no trouble in doin' so--not at all; putty is hard in comparison to wimmin's heads and hearts, sometimes. But I am, indeed, eppisodin', and to resoom, and proceed. In this world, where the material, the practical, so oft overshadows the spiritual, it didn't surprise me a mite to have this noble--noble liberal art display crowded back by less riz up and exalted ones. And oh, what curious things we did see in this Hall of Wonders--curious as a dog, and curiouser. The New South Wales exhibit in the west gallery is awful big, and divided into five courts, and all full of Beauty and Use. These Australians are pert and kinder sassy; they look on our country as old, and wore out--some as we look at our Ma Country. But their exhibit is a wonderful one--exhibit of their mines, that they say are a-goin' to be the richest in the World. And lots of pictures showin' their strange, melancholy Australian scenery. And their big trees. Why, one of these trees, they say, is the biggest yet discovered in the World; it is 400 and 80 feet high. And it wuz here that I see the very queerest thing that I ever did see in my life; it wuz in their collection of strange stuffed birds, and animals which wuz large, and complete, and rangin' from the Emu down to a pure white hummin'-bird. It wuz here that I see this Thing that Scientists hain't never classified; it is about the size of a beaver--has fur like a seal, eyes like a fish, is web-footed, lays eggs, and hatches its young and lives in the water. It is called a Platypus--there wuz four on 'em. Queer creeter as I ever see. No wonder that Scientists furled their spectacles in front of it, and sot down discouraged. Wall, we hung round there till most night, and Josiah and I went home as tired as two dogs, and tireder. And we both gin in that we hadn't seen nothin' to what we might have seen there; as you may say, we hadn't done any more justice to the contents of that buildin' than we would if we had undertook to count the slate-stuns in our old creek back of our house clear from Jonesville to Zoar--- more'n five miles of clear slate-stun. What could we do to it in one day? But fatigue and hunger--on Josiah's part, a prancin' team--bore us away, and we went home in pretty good sperits after all, though some late. Miss Plank had a good supper. We wuz late, but she had kept it warm for us--some briled chicken, and some green peas, and a light nice puddin', and other things accordin'; and Josiah _did_ indeed do justice to it. CHAPTER XIII. Wall, the next day after our visit to the Manafactures and Liberal Arts Buildin', I told Josiah to-day I wouldn't put it off a minute longer, I wuz goin' to see the Convent of La Rabida; and sez I, "I feel mortified and ashamed to think I hain't been before." Sez I, "What would Christopher Columbus say to think I had slighted him all this time if he knew on't!" And Josiah said "he guessed I wouldn't git into any trouble with Columbus about it, after he'd been dead four hundred years." "Wall," sez I, "I don't spoze I would, but I d'no but folkses feelin's can be hurt if their bodies have moved away from earth. I d'no anything about it, nor you don't, Josiah Allen." "Wall," he said, "he wouldn't be afraid to venter it." He wanted to go to the Live-Stock Exhibit that day--wanted to like a dog. But I persuaded him off the notion, and I don't know but I jest as soon tell how I done it. I see Columbus's feelin's wouldn't do, and so forth, nor sentiment, nor spirituality, don't appeal to Josiah Allen nothin' as vittles do. So I told him, what wuz indeed the truth, that a restaurant was nigh there where delicious food could be obtained at very low prices. He yielded instantly, and sez he, "It hain't hardly fair, when Christopher is the cause of all these doin's, that he should be slighted so by us." And I sez, "No, indeed!" so we went directly there by the nearest way, which wuz partly by land and partly by water; and as our boat sailed on through the waves under the brilliant sunshine and the grandeur of eighteen ninety-three, did it not make me think of Him, weary, despairin', misunderstood, with his soul all hemmed in by envious and malicious foes, so that there wuz but one open path for him to soar in, and that wuz upward, as his boat crept and felt its way along through the night, and storm, and oncertainty of 1492. Wall, anon or about that time, we drew near the place where I wanted to be. The Convent of La Rabida is a little to the east of Agricultural Hall, a sort of a inlet lake that feeds a long portion of the grand canal. A promontory is formed by the meetin' of the two waters, and all round this point of land, risin' to a height of twenty-two feet, is a rough stun wall. This wall is a reproduction of the dangerous coast of Spain, and back on this rise of ground can be seen the Convent of La Rabida, a fac-simile, or, as you might say, a similer fact, a exact reproduction of the convent where Columbus planned out his voyage to the new world. Yes, within these walls wuz born the great and darin' scheme of Columbus--a great birth indeed; only next to us in eternal consequences to the birth in the manger. It stands jest as it ort to, a-facin' the risin' sun. A low, eight-sided cupalo surmounts the choir space inside the chapel, and above the nave rises the balcony. On three sides of a broad, open court are the lonesome cloisters in which the Monks knelt in their ceaseless prayers. The chapel floor is a little higher than the court and cloisters, and is paved with bricks. It wuz at this very convent door that Columbus arrived heart-sore and weary after seven years' fruitless labor in the cause he held so clost to his heart. Seven long years that he had spent beggin' and importunin' for help to carry out his Heaven-sent visions. A livin' light shinin' in his sad eyes, and he couldn't git anybody else to see it. The constant washin' of new seas on new shores, and he couldn't git anybody to hear 'em. A constant glow, prophetic and ardent, longin' to carry the religion of Christ into a new land that he knew wuz a-waitin' him, but everybody else deaf and dumb to his heart-sick longin's. Oh, I thought to myself as I stood there, if that poor creeter could only had a few of the gorgeous banners that wuz waved out to the air, enough to clothe an army; if he could have only had enough of 'em to made him a hull shirt; if he could have had enough of the banquets spread to his memory, enough to feed all the armies of the earth; if he could have a slice of bread and a good cup of tea out of 'em, how glad I would be, and how glad he would have been! But it wuzn't to be, it wuzn't to be. Hungry and in rags, almost naked, foot-sore, heart-sore, he arrived at the convent gate, to ask food and shelter for himself and child. [Illustration: Almost naked, foot-sore, heart-sore, he arrived at the convent gate.] It wuz here that he found an asylum for a few years, carryin' on his plans, makin' out new arguments, stronger, mebby, than he had argued with for seven stiddy years, and I should a thought them old arguments must have been wore out. It wuz in one of the rooms of the convent that he met the Monks in debate, and also argued back and forth with Garcia Fernandez and Alonzo Penzen, gettin' the better of Alonzo every time, but makin' it up to him afterwards by lettin' him command one of the vessels of his fleet. It wuz from here the superior of the convent, won over by Columbuses eloquence, went for audience with the Queen, and from it Columbus wuz summoned to appear at court. In this very convent he made his preparations for his voyage, and on the mornin' he sailed from Palos he worshipped God in this little chapel. What visions riz up before his eyes as he knelt on the brick floor of that little chapel, jest ready to leave the certainty and sail out into the oncertainty, leavin' the oncertainty and goin' out into the certainty! A curious prayer that must have been, and a riz up one. In that prayer, in the confidence and aspiration of that one man, lay the hull new world. The hope, the freedom, the liberty, the enlightenment of a globe, jest riz up on the breath of that one prayer. A momentious prayer as wuz ever riz up on earth. But the stun walls didn't give no heed to it, and I dare say that Alonzo and the rest wuz sick a-waitin' for him, and wanted to cut it short. Yes, Columbus must have had emotions in this convent as hefty and as soarin' as they make, and truly they must have been immense to gone ahead of mine, as I stood there and thought on him, what he had done and what he had suffered. Why, I had more'n a hundred and twenty-five or thirty a minute right along, and I don't know but more. When I see them relics of that noble creeter, paper that he had had his own hand on, that his own eyes had looked at, his own brain had dictated, every one of 'em full of the ardentcy and earnestness of his religion--why, they increased the number and frequency of my emotions to a almost alarmin' extent. [Illustration: Manuscripts] Here are twenty-nine manuscripts all in his own hand. They are truly worth more than their weight in gold--they are worth their weight in diamonds. Amongst the most priceless manuscripts and documents is the original of the contract made with the Soverigns of Spain before his first voyage, under which Columbus made his first voyage to America. The most remarkable contract that wuz ever drawn, in which the Soverigns of Spain guaranteed to Columbus and his heirs forever one eighth of all that might be produced of any character whatever in any land he might discover, and appinted him and his descendants perpetual rulers over such lands, with the title of Viceroy. I looked at the contract, and then thought of how Columbus died in poverty and disgrace, and now, four hundred years after his death, the world a-spendin' twenty million to honor his memory. A sense of the folly and the strangeness of all things come over me like a flood, and I bent my head in shame to think I belonged to a race of bein's so ongrateful, and so lyin', and everything else. I thought of that humble grave where a broken heart hid itself four hundred years ago, and then I looked out towards that matchless White City of gorgeous palaces riz up to his honor four hundred years too late; and a sense of the futility of all things, the pity of it, the vanity of all things here below, swept over me, and instinctively I lay holt of my pardner's arm, and thought for a minute I must leave the buildin'; but I thought better on't, and he thought I laid holt of his arm as a mark of affection. And I didn't ondeceive him in it. Then there is Columbuses commission as Admiral of the Ocean Seas. His correspondence with Ferdinand and Isabella before and after his discovery, and a host of other invaluable papers loaned by the Spanish Goverment and the living descendants of Columbus in Spain. And there is pieces of the house his father-in-law built for him--a cane made from one of the jistes, and the shutters of one of the windows. Columbuses own hand may have opened them shutters! O my heart! think on't. And then there wuz the original copy of the first books relatin' to America, over one hundred of 'em, obtained from the Vatican at Rome, and museums, and libraries, in London, and Paris, and Madrid, and Washington, D.C. They are writ by Lords, and Cardinals, and Bishops, way back as fur as fourteen hundred and ninety-three. Then there wuz quaint maps and charts of the newly discovered country, lookin' some as our first maps would of Mars, if the United States had made up its mind to annex that planet, and Uncle Sam had jest begun to lay it out into countries. Then there are the portraits of Columbus. Good creeter! it seemed a pity to see so many of 'em--his enemies might keep right on abusin' him, and say that he wuz double-faced, or sixty or eighty faced, when I know, and they all ort to know, that he wuz straightforward and stiddy as the sun. Poor creeter! it wuz too bad that there should be so many of 'em. [Illustration (handwritten in the illustration): These are my authentic portraits! Ch. Columbus, Esq. mp] [Illustration: Poor creeter! it wuz too bad that there should be so many of 'em.] Then there are models and photographs of statutes and monuments of him, and the very stun and clay that them tall monuments is made of, mebby they are the very stuns that hurt his bare feet, and the clay the very same his tears had fell on, as he'd throw himself down heart-weary on his lonesome pilgrimages. I dare presoom to say that he would lay his head down under some wayside tree and cry--I hain't a doubt on't. When I thought it over, how much had been said about Columbus even durin' the last year in Jonesville and Chicago, to say nothin' about the rest of the world, it wuz a treat indeed to see the first printed allusion that wuz ever made to Columbus, about three months after Columbus arrived in Portugal, March fifteenth, fourteen hundred and ninety-three. It was writ by Mr. Carvugal, Spanish Cardinal. In it Mr. Carvugal says-- "And Christ placed under their rule (Ferdinand and Isabella) the Fortunate Islands." I sez to Josiah, "I guess if Mr. Carvugal was sot down here to-day, and see what he would see here, he would be apt to think indeed they wuz Fortunate Islands." But as I said that I heard a voice a-sayin'-- "Who is Mr. Carvugal, Samantha?" I recognized the voice, and I sez, "Why, Irena Flanders, is it you? I have been to see you; I hearn you wuz sick." "Yes," sez she, "I wuz beat out, and I thought I couldn't stand it; but I feel better to-day, so we have been to the Forestry Buildin', and thought we would come in here." But I see that she didn't feel as I did about the immortal relics, but she kinder pretended to, as folks will; and Elam and Josiah went to talkin' about hayin', and wondered how the crops wuz a-gittin' along in Jonesville. But I kep on a-lookin' round and listenin' to Irena's remarks about her symptoms with one half of my mind, or about half, and examinin' the relics with the other half. There wuz a little Latin book with queer wood-cuts, "Concernin' Islands lately discovered," published in Switzerland in 1494; under the title it begun--"Christopher Colum--" It made me mad to hear that good, noble creeter's name cut off and demeaned, and I told Irena so. And she sez, "That's what little Benjy calls our old white duck; his name is Columbus, but he calls it Colum." She is a great duck-raiser; but I didn't thank her for alludin' to barn-yard fowls in such a time as this. Wall, there wuz the first life of Columbus ever writ, by his son Farnendo. And a book relatin' to the namin' of America. I thought it would been a good plan if there had been a few more about that, and had named it Columbia--jest what it ort to be, and not let another man take the honor that should have been Christopher's. But I meditated on what a queer place this old world wuz, and how nateral for one man to toil and work, and another step in and take the pay for it; so it didn't surprise me a mite, but it madded me some. Then there wuz the histories of the different cities where he wuz born, and the different places where his bones repose. Poor creeter! they fit then because they didn't want his bones, and they starved him so that he wuzn't much besides bones, and they didn't want his bones anyway, and they put chains onto them poor old bones, and led 'em off to prison. And now hull cities and countries would hold it their chief honor to lie about it, and claim the credit of givin' 'em burial. O dear suz! O dear me! Wall, there wuz one of the anchors, and the canvas used by Columbus on board his flag-ship. The very canvas that the wind swelled out and wafted the great Discoverer. O my heart, think on't! And then there wuz the ruins of the little town of Isabella, the first established in the new world, brung lately from San Domingo by a man-of-war. And then there wuz the first church bell that ever rung in America, presented to the town of Isabella by King Ferdinand. Oh, if I could have swung out with that old bell, and my senses could have took in the sights and seens the sound had echoed over! What a sight--what a sight it would have been! Ringin' out barbarism and ringin' in the newer religion; ringin' out, as time went on, old simple ways, and idees--mebby bringin' in barbarous ways; swingin' back and forth, to and fro; ringin' in now, I hope and pray, the era of love and justice, goodwill to man and woman. Wall, I wuz almost lost in my thoughts in hangin' over that old bell. It had took me back into the dim old green forest isles and onbroken wilderness, when I heard a bystander a-sayin' to another one--"There is Columbuses relations; there is the Duke of Veragua." And on lookin' up, I indeed see Columbuses own relation on his own side, with his wife and daughter. The relation on Columbuses side wuz a middlin' good-lookin' and a good-natered lookin' man, no taller than Josiah, with blue eyes, gray hair, and short whiskers. [Illustration: Columbuses own relation on his own side, with his wife and daughter.] His wife wuz a good-lookin', plump woman, some younger apparently than he wuz, and the daughter wuz pretty and fresh-lookin' as a pink rose. I liked their looks first rate. And jest the minute my eyes fell on 'em, so quick my intellect moves, I knew what was incumbent on me to do. It wuz my place, it would be expected of me--I must welcome them to America; I must, in the name of my own dignity, and the power of the Nation, gin 'em the freedom of Jonesville. I must not slight them for their own sakes, and their noble ancestors. One human weakness might be discovered in me by a clost observer in that rapt hour: I didn't really know how to address the wife of the Duke. And I whispered to Irena Flanders, and, sez I, "If a man is a duke, what would his wife be called?" Sez I, "She'd feel hurt if I slighted her." And sez she, "If one is a duke, the other would naterally be called a drake." I knew better than that--she hain't any too smart by nater, and her mind runs to fowls, what there is of it. But my Josiah heard the inquiry, and sez he-- "I should call her a duck;" and he continued, with his eyes riveted on the beautiful face of the Duke's daughter-- "That pretty girl is a duck, and no mistake." But I sez, "Hush; that would be too familiar and also too rural." I hain't ashamed of the country--no, indeed, I am proud on't; still I knew that it wuz, specially in June, noted for its tender greenness. And sez I, "I'll trust to the hour to inspire me; I'll sail out as his great ancestor did, and trust to Providence to help me out." So I advanced onto 'em, and I thought, as I went, if you call a man by the hull of his name he hadn't ort to complain; so I sez with a deep curchey--I knew a plain curchey wouldn't do justice to the occasion. So I gracefully took hold of my alpaca skirt with both hands and held it out slightly, and curchied from ten to fourteen inches, I should judge. I wanted it deep enough to show the profound esteem and honor in which I held him, and not deep enough so's to give him the false idee that I wuz a professional dancer, or opera singer, or anything of that sort. I judged that my curchey wuz jest about right. [Illustration: "I salute you in the name of Jonesville and America."] Imegatly after my curchey I sez, "Don Christobel Colon De Toledo De La Cerda Y Gante," and then I paused for breath, while the world waited-- "I welcome you to this country--I salute you in the name of Jonesville and America." And then agin I made that noble, beautiful curchey. He bowed so low that if a basin of water had been sot on his back it would have run down over his head. Sez I, "The man in whose veins flows a drop of the precious blood of the Hero who discovered us is near and dear to the heart of the new world." Sez I, "I feel that we can't do too much to honor you, and I hereby offer you the freedom of Jonesville." And sez I, "I would have brung it in a paper collar box if I'd thought on't, but I hope you will overlook the omission, and take it verbal." Agin he bowed that dretful perlite, courteous bow, and agin I put in that noble curchey. It wuz a hour long to be remembered by any one who wuz fortunate enough to witness it; and sez he-- "I am sensible of the distinguished honor you do me, Madam; accept my profound thanks." I then turned to his wife, and sez I, "Miss Christobel Colon Toledo Ohio--" I got kinder mixed up here by my emotions, and the efforts my curcheys had cost me; I hadn't ort to mentioned the word Ohio. But I waded out agin--"De La Cerda Y Gante-- "As a pardner of Columbus, and also as a female woman, I bid you also welcome to America in the name of woman, and I tender to you also the freedom of Jonesville, and Loontown, and Zoar. "And you," sez I, "Honorable Maria Del Pillow Colon Y Aguilera-- "You sweet little creeter you, I'd love to have you come and stay with me a week right along, you pretty thing." Sez I, "How proud your Grandpa would be of you if he wuz here!" My feelin's had carried me away, and I felt that I had lost the formal, polite tone of etiquette that I had intended to carry on through the interview. But she wuz so awful pretty, I couldn't help it; but I felt that it wuz best to terminate it, so I bowed low, a-holdin' out my alpaca skirt kinder noble in one hand and my green veil in the other, some like a banner, and backed off. They too bowed deep, and sorter backed off too. Oh, what a hour for America! Josiah put out his arm anxiously, for I wuz indeed a-movin' backwards into a glass case of relics, and the great seen terminated. Miss Flanders and Elam had gone--they shrunk from publicity. I guess they wuz afraid it wuz too great a job, the ceremony attendin' our givin' these noble foreigners the freedom of our native town. But they no need to. A willin' mind makes a light job. It had been gin to 'em, and gin well, too. Wall, Josiah and I didn't stay very much longer. I'd have been glad to seen the Princess sent out from Spain to our doin's, and I know she will feel it, not seein' of me. She wuzn't there, but I thought of her as I wended my way out, as I looked over the grandeur of the seen that her female ancestor had rendered possible. Thinkses I, she must have different feelin's from what her folks did in fourteen hundred. Then how loath they wuz to even listen to Columbuses pathetic appeals and prayers! But they did at last touch the heart of a woman. That woman believed him, while the rest of Spain sneered at him. Had she lived, Columbus wouldn't have been sent to prison in chains. No, indeed! But she passed away, and Spain misused him. But now they send their royalties to meet with all the kings and queens of the earth to bow down to his memory. As we wended out, the caravels lay there in the calm water--the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, all becalmed in front of the convent. No more rough seas in front of 'em; they furl their sails in the sunlight of success. All is glory, all is rejoicing, all is praise. Four hundred years after the brave soul that planned and accomplished it all died heart-broken and in chains, despised and rejected by men, persecuted by his enemies, betrayed by his friends. True, brave heart, I wonder if the God he trusted in, and tried to honor, lets him come back on some fair mornin' or cloudless moonlight evenin', and look down and see what the nations are sayin' and doin' for him in eighteen hundred and ninety-three! I don't know, nor Josiah don't. But as I stood a-thinkin' of this, the sun come out from under a cloud and lit up the caravels with its golden light, and lay on the water like a long, shinin' path leadin' into glory. And a light breeze stirred the white sails of the Santa Maria, some as though it wuz a-goin' to set sail agin. And the shadders almost seemed alive that lay on the narrer deck. After we left La Rabida, Josiah wanted to go and see the exhibit called Man and his Works. Sez he, "I'll show you now, Samantha, what _our_ works are. I'll show you the most beautiful and august exposition on the grounds." Sez he, "You boasted high about wimmen's doin's, and they wuz fair," sez he, "what I call fair to middlin'. But in this you'll see grandeur and True Greatness." Josiah didn't know a thing about the show, only what he gathered from its name; and feelin' as he did about himself and his sect, he naterally expected wonders. So, leanin' on the arm of Justice, I accompanied him into the buildin', which wuzn't fur from La Rabida. But almost the first room we went into, Josiah almost swooned at the sight, and I clung to his arm instinctively. There we wuz amongst more than three thousand skeletons and skulls. Why, the goose pimples that rose on me didn't subside till most night. And in the very next room wuz a collection of mummies, the humbliest ones that I ever sot my eyes on in my hull life--two or three hundred on 'em, from Peru, Utah, New Mexico, Egypt, British Columbia, etc., etc. When Josiah's eyes fell onto 'em, my poor pardner sez, "Samantha, less be a-goin'." Sez I, "Are you satisfied, Josiah Allen, with the Works of Man?" And he advised me strong--"Not to make a luny and a idiot of myself." And sez he, "Dum it all, why do they call it the works of man? There is as many wimmen amongst them dum skeletons as men, I'll bet a cent." Wall, we went into another room and found a very interestin' exhibit--the measurements of heads: long-headed folks and short-headed ones; and measurements of children's heads who wuz educated, and the heads of savage children, showin' the influence that moral trainin' has on the brains of boys and girls. Wall, it would take weeks to examine all we see there--the remains of the Aborigines, the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians. We could see by them relics how they lived--their religions, their domestic life, their arts, and their industries. And then we see photographs by the hullsale of mounds and ruins from all over the world. Why, we see so many pictures of ruins, that Josiah said that "he felt almost ruined." And I sez, "That must come from the inside, Josiah. It hadn't ort to make you feel so." And then we see all sorts of things to illustrate the games that these old ruined folks used to play, and their religions they believed in--idols, and clay altars, and things; and once, when I wuz a-tryin' to look calm at the very meanest-lookin' idol that I ever laid eyes on, Sez Josiah, "The folks that would try to worship such a lookin' thing as that ort to be ruined." And I whispered back, "If the secret things that folks worship to-day could be materialized, they would look enough sight worse than this." Sez I, "How would the mammon of Greed look carved in stun, or the beast of Intemperance?" "Oh!" sez he, "bring in your dum temperance talk everywhere, will you? I should think we wuz in a bad enough place here to let your ears rest, anyway." "Wall," sez I, "then don't run down folks that couldn't answer back for ten thousand years." But truly we wuz in a bad place, if humbliness is bad, for them idols did beat all, and then there wuz a almost endless display of amulets, charms, totems, and other things that they used to carry on their religious meetin's with, or what they called religion. And then we see some strange clay altars containin' cremated human bein's. Here Josiah hunched me agin-- "You feel dretful cut up if you hear any one speak aginst these old creeters, but what do you think of that?" sez he, a-pintin' to the burnt bodies. Sez he, "Most likely them bodies wuz victims that wuz killed on their dum altars--dum 'em!" "Yes," sez I, "but we of the nineteenth century slay two hundred thousand victims every year on the altar of Mammon, and Intemperance." "Keep it up, will you--keep a preachin'!" sez he, and his tone wuz bitter and voyalent in the extreme. And here he turned his back on me and went to examine some of the various games of all countries, such as cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, etc., etc. [Illustration: Josiah turned his back on me.] Which shows that in that savage age, as well as in our too civilized one, amusements wuz a part of their daily life. Wall, it wuz all dretful interestin' to me, though Skairfulness wuz present with us, and goose pimples wuz abroad. And out-doors the exhibit wuz jest as fascinatin'. Along the shores of the pond are grouped tribes of Indians from North America. They live in their primitive huts and tents, and there we see their rude boats and canoes. New York contributes a council house and a bark lodge once used by the once powerful Iroquois confederation. And, poor things! where be they now? Passed away. Their canoes have gone down the stream of Time, and gone down the Falls out of sight. But to resoom. Wall, seein' they wuz right there, we went to see the ruins of Yucatan--they wuz only a few steps away. Now, I never had paid any attention to Yucatan. I had always seen it on the map of Mexico, a little strip of land a-runnin' out into the water, and washed by the waves on both sides. But, good land! I would have paid more attention to it if I had known that down deep under its forests, where they had lain for more than a thousand years, wuz the ruins of a vast city, with its castles and monuments wrought in marble, and fashioned with highest beauty and art. Whose hands had wrought them marble columns, and carved facades? The silence of a thousand years lays between my question and its true answer. I can't tell who they wuz, where they come from, or where they went to. But the pieces of soulless stun remain for us to marvel over, when the livin' hands that wrought these have vanished forever. Curious, very. But mebby some magnetizm still hangs about them hoary old walls that has the power to draw their founders from their new home, wherever it is now. Mebby them old Yucatanners come down in a shadder sloop and lay off over aginst them ruins, and enjoy themselves first-rate. Here too is the city of the Cliff Dwellers--the most wonderful city I ever see or ever expect to see. There towers up a mountain made to look exactly like Battle Mountain, where these ruins are found--the homes and abidin' place of a race so much older than the Mexican and Peru old ones that they seem like folks of last week--almost like babies. The hull of these buildin's which is called Cliff Palace is over two hundred feet long, and the rooms look pretty much all alike. They wuz round rooms mostly, with a hole in the floor for a fireplace, and stun seats a-runnin' clear round the room, and I'd a gin a dollar bill if I could a seen a-settin' in them seats the ones that used to set there--if I could seen 'em sot down there in Jackson Park, and its marvels, and I could have hearn 'em tell what Old World wonders they had seen, and what they had felt and suffered--the beliefs of that old time; the laws that governed 'em, or that didn't govern 'em; their friends and their enemies; the strange animals that lurked round 'em; the wonderful flowers and vegetation--in short, if I could a sot down and neighbored with 'em, I would a gin, I believe my soul, as much as a dollar and thirty-five cents. The rooms are about six feet high, and they wuz like me in one thing--they didn't care so much for ornament as they did for solid foundation. The only ornament I see in any of the rooms wuz some kinder wavin' streaks of red paint. But, oh! how solid the housen wuz, how firm the underpinnin'. There wuz some stun towers and some winders, and oh! how I do wish I could seen what them Old Cliffers looked out on when they rested their arms on the stun winder sills and looked down on the deep valley below. Children a-lookin' out for pleasure mebby; older ones a-lookin' for Happiness and Ambition like as not, the aged ones a-leanin' their tired arms on the hard stun, while the settin' sun lit up their white locks, and a-lookin' for rest. The cliffs are a good many colors, and each a good-lookin' one. One thing struck me in all the housen, and made me think that though the Cliff Dwellers wuz older than Abraham or Moses, yet if I could see some of them female Cliffers I could neighbor with 'em like sisters. They did love closets so well, and that made 'em so congenial to me. I never had half closets enough, and I don't believe any woman did if she would tell the truth. There wuz sights of closets all closed up with good slab doors, some like grave-stuns. I shouldn't have liked that so well, to had to heave down that heavy slab every time that I wanted a teacup, but mebby they didn't drink tea. I spoze they kep their strange-lookin' pottery there, and I presoom the wimmen prided themselves on havin' more of them jars than a neighbor female Cliffer did. Then there are farmin' implements, and sandals, and leggins, and weapons, and baby boards--and didn't I wish that I could ketch sight of one of them babies! The bodies of the dead wuz wrapped in four different winders--first in fine cloth, then a robe of turkey feathers wove with Yucca fibre, then a mattin', and then a wrap made of reeds. The mummies found wrapped in these grave-clothes are more perfect than any found in Egypt, the hot, dry air of Colorado a-doin' its best to keep folks alive, and then after they are dead, a-keepin' 'em so as long as it can. There wuz one, a woman with pretty figure, and small hands and feet, and soft, light-colored hair. What wuz she a-thinkin' on as she done up that fore-top or braided that back hair? Did any hand ever lay on that soft, shinin' hair in caresses? I presoom more than like as not there had. Her mother's, anyway, and mebby a lover's, sence the fashion of love is older than the pyramids enough sight--old as Adam, and before that Love wuz. For Love thought out the World. By her side wuz a jar with some seeds in it--probable the hand of Love put it there to sustain her on her long journey. Wall, the centuries have gone by sence she sot out for the Land of Sperits, but the seeds are there yet. She didn't need 'em. These seeds are in good shape, but they won't sprout. That shows plain how much older these mummies are than the Egyptian ones, for the seeds found by them will sprout and grow, but these are too old--the life in the seeds is gone, as well as the life in the dead forms by 'em, centuries ago, mebby. Wall, it wuz a sight--a sight to see that city, and then to see a-windin' up the face of the cliff the windin' trail, and the little burros a-climbin' up slowly from the valley, and the strange four-horned sheep of the Navago herds a-grazin' amongst the high rocks. It wuz one of the most impressive sights of all the wonderful sights of the Columbus Fair, and so I told Josiah. Wall, seein' we wuz right there, we thought we would pay attention to the Forestry Buildin'. And if I ever felt ashamed of myself, and mortified, I did there; of which more anon. It wuz quite a big buildin', kinder long and low--about two and a half acres big, I should judge. Every house has its peculiarities, the same as folks do, and the peculiar kink in this house wuz it hadn't a nail or a bit of iron in it anywhere from top to bottom--bolts and pegs made of wood a-holdin' it together. Wall, I hadn't no idee that there wuz so many kinds of wood in the hull world, from Asia and Greenland to Jonesville, as I see there in five minutes. Of course I had been round enough in our woods and the swamp to know that there wuz several different kinds of wood--ellum and butnut, cedar and dog-wood, and so forth. But good land! to see the hundreds and thousands of kinds that I see here made anybody feel curious, curious as a dog, and made 'em feel, too, how enormous big the world is--and how little he or she is, as the case may be. The sides of the buildin' are made of slabs, with the bark took off, and the roof is thatched with tan-bark and other barks. The winder-frames are made in the same rustic, wooden way. The main entrances are made of different kinds of wood, cut and carved first-rate. All around this buildin' is a veranda, and supportin' its roof is a long row of columns, each composed of three tree trunks twenty-five feet in length--one big one and the other two smaller. These wuz contributed by the different States and Territories and by foreign countries, each sendin' specimens of its most noted trees. And right here wuz when I felt mad at myself, mad as a settin' hen, to think how forgetful I had been, and how lackin' in what belongs to good manners and politeness. Why hadn't I brung some of our native Jonesville trees, hallowed by the presence of Josiah Allen's wife? Why hadn't I brung some of the maples from our dooryard, that shakes out its green and crimson banners over our heads every spring and fall? Or why hadn't I brung one of the low-spreadin' apple-trees out of Mother Smith's orchard, where I used to climb in search of robins' nests in June mornin's? Or one of the pale green willers that bent over my head as I sot on the low plank foot-bridge, with my bare feet a-swingin' off into the water as I fished for minnies with a pin-hook-- The summer sky overhead, and summer in my heart. Oh, happy summer days gone by--gone by, fur back you lay in the past, and the June skies now have lost that old light and freshness. But poor children that we are, we still keep on a-fishin' with our bent pin-hooks; we still drop our weak lines down into the depths, a-fishin' for happiness, for rest, for ambition, for Heaven knows what all--and now, as in the past, our hooks break or our lines float away on the eddies, and we don't catch what we are after. Poor children! poor creeters! But I am eppisodin', and to resoom. As I said to Josiah, what a oversight that wuz my not thinkin' of it! Sez I, "How the nations would have prized them trees!" And sez I, "What would Christopher Columbus say if he knew on't?" And Josiah sez, "He guessed he would have got along without 'em." "Wall," sez I, "what will America and the World's Fair think on't, my makin' such a oversight?" And he sez, "He guessed they would worry along somehow without 'em." "Wall," sez I, "I am mortified--as mortified as a dog." And I wuz. There wuzn't any need of makin' any mistake about the trees, for there wuz a little metal plate fastened to each tree, with the name marked on it--the common name and the high-learnt botanical name. But Josiah, who always has a hankerin' after fashion and show, he talked a sight to me about the "Abusex-celsa," and the "Genus-salix," and the "Fycus-sycamorus," and the "Atractylus-gummifera." He boasted in particular about the rarity of them trees. He said they grew in Hindoostan and on the highest peaks of the Uriah Mountains; and he sez, "How strange that he should ever live to see 'em." He talked proud and high-learnt about 'em, till I got tired out, and pinted him to the other names of 'em. [Illustration: He talked proud and high learnt about 'em.] Then his feathers drooped, and sez he, "A Norway spruce, a willer, a sycamore, and a pine. Dum it all, what do they want to put on such names as them onto trees that grow right in our dooryard?" "To show off," sez I, coldly, "and to make other folks show off who have a hankerin' after fashion and display." He did not frame a reply to me--he had no frame. CHAPTER XIV. I told Josiah this mornin' I wanted to go to the place where they had flowers, and plants, and roses, and things--I felt that duty wuz a-drawin' me. For, as I told him, old Miss Mahew wanted me to get her a slip of monthly rose if they had 'em to spare--she said, "If they seemed to have quite a few, I might tackle 'em about it, and if they seemed to be kinder scrimped for varieties, she stood willin' to swap one of her best kinds for one of theirn--she said she spozed they would have as many as ten or a dozen plants of each kind." And I thought mebby I could get a tulip bulb--I had had such poor luck with mine the year before. But sez I, "Mebby they won't have none to spare--I d'no how well they be off for 'em," but I spozed mebby I would see as many as a dozen or fifteen tulips, and as many roses. He kinder wanted to go and see the plows and horse-rakes that mornin', but I capitulated with him by sayin' if he would go there first with me, anon we would go together to the horse-rake house. So we sot out the first thing for the Horticultural Buildin', and good land! good land! when we got to it I wuz jest browbeat and frustrated with the size on't--it is the biggest buildin' that wuz ever built in the world for plants and flowers. And when you jest think how big the world is, and how long it has stood, and how many houses has been built for posies from Persia and Ingy, down to Chicago and Jonesville, then you will mebby get it into your head the immense bigness on't--yes, that buildin' is two hundred and sixty thousand square feet, and every foot all filled up with beauty, and bloom, and perfume. It faces the risin' sun, as any place for flowers and plants ort to. Like all the rest of the Exposition buildin's, it has sights of ornaments and statutes. One of the most impressive statutes I see there wuz Spring Asleep. It struck so deep a blow onto my fancy that I thought on't the last thing at night, and I waked up in the night and thought on't. There never wuz a better-lookin' creeter than Spring wuz, awful big too--riz way up lofty and grand, and hantin' as our own dreams of Spring are as we set shiverin' in the Winter. Her noble face wuz perfect in its beauty, and she sot there with her arms outstretched; and grouped all round her wuz beautiful forms--lovely wimmen, and babies, and children, all bound in slumber, but, as I should imagine, jest on the pint of wakin' up. I guess they wuz all a-dreamin' about the song of birds a-comin' back from the south land, and silky, pale green willers a-bendin' low over gurglin' brooks, and pink and white may-flowers a-hidin' under the leafy hollows of Northern hills, and the golden glow of cowslips down in the dusky brown shallows in green swamps, and white clouds a-sailin' over blue skies, and soft winds a-blowin' up from the South. They wuz asleep, but the cookoo's notes would wake 'em in a minute or two; and then I could see by their clothes that they wuz expectin' warmer weather. It wuz a very impressive statute. Mr. Tafft done his very best--I couldn't have done as well myself--not nigh. Wall, to go through that buildin' wuz like walkin' through fairyland, if fairyland had jest blown all out full of beauty and greenness. Right in the centre overhead, way up, way up, is a crystal ruff made to represent the sky, and it seems to be a-glitterin' in its crystal beauty way up in the clouds; underneath wuz the most beautiful pictures you ever see, or Josiah, or anybody. They wuz painted in Paris--not Paris in the upper end of Lyme County, but Paris in France, way over the billowy Atlantic; and under this magnificent dome wuz all kinds of the most beautiful palms, bamboos and tree ferns, with their shiny, feathery foliage, and big leaves. Why some of them long, feathery leaves wuz so big, if the tree wuz in the middle of our dooryard the ends of 'em would go over into the orchard--one leaf; the idee! Why, you would almost fancy you wuz in a tropical forest, as you looked up into the great feathery masses and leaves as big as a hull tree almost; and risin' right in the centre wuz a mountain sixty feet high all covered with tropical verdure; leadin' into it wuz a shady, cool grotto, where wuz all kinds of ferns, and exquisite plants, that love to grow in such spots. And way in through, a-flashin' through the cool darkness of the spot, you could see the wonderful rays of that strange light that has a soul. And if you will believe it--I don't spoze you will--but there is plants here grown by that artificial light--the idee! I sez to Josiah, "Did you ever see anything like the idee of growin' plants by lamplight?" and he sez-- "It is a new thing, but a crackin' good one," and he added-- "What can be done in one place can in another," and he got all excited up, and took his old account-book out of his pocket and went to calculatin' on how many cowcumbers he could raise in the winter down suller by the light of his old lantern. I discouraged him, and sez I, "You can't raise plants by the light of that old karsene lantern, and there hain't no room, anyway, in our suller." And he said, "He wuz bound to spade up round the pork barrel and try a few hills, anyway;" and sez he, dreamily, "We might raise a few string-beans and have 'em run up on the soap tub." But I made him put up his book, for we wuz attractin' attention, and I told him agin that we hadn't got the conveniences to home that they had here. He put up his book and we wended on, but he had a look on his face that made me think he hadn't gin up the idee, and I spoze that some good cowcumber seed will be wasted like as not, to say nothin' of karsene. Wall, all connected with this house is two big open courts, full and runnin' over with beauty and wonder; on the south is the aquatic garden, showin' all the plants and flowers and wonderful water growth. Here Josiah begun to make calculations agin about growin' flowers in our old mill-pond, but I broke it up. On the north court is a magnificent orange grove. Why, it makes you feel as though you wuz a-standin' in California or Florida, under the beautiful green trees, full of the ripe, rich fruit, and blossoms, and green leaves. Wall, the hull house, take it all in all, is such a seen of wonder, and enchantment, and delight, that it might have been transplanted, jest as it stood, from the Arabian nights entertainment. And you would almost expect if you turned a corner to meet Old Alibaby, or a Grand Vizier, or somebody before you got out of there. But we didn't; and after feastin' our eyes on the beauty and wonder on't, we sot off to see the rest of the flowers and plants, for we laid out when we first went to the World's Fair to see one thing at a time so fur as we could, and then tackle another, though I am free to confess that it wuz sometimes like tacklin' the sea-shore to count the grains of sand, or tacklin' the great north woods to count how many leaves wuz on the trees, or measurin' the waters of Lake Ontario with a teaspoon, or any other hard job you are a mind to bring up. But this day we laid out to see as much as we could of the immense display of flowers. But where there is milds and milds of clear flowers, what can you do? You can't look at every one on 'em, to save your life. Why, to jest give you a small idee of the magnitude and size, jest think of five hundred thousand pansies from every quarter of the globe, and every beautiful color that wuz ever seen or drempt of. You know them posies do look some like faces, and the faces look like "the great multitude no man could number," that we read about, and every one of them faces a-bloomin' with every color of the rainbow. And speakin' of rainbows, before long we did see one--a long, shinin', glitterin' rainbow, made out of pure pansies, of which more anon and bimeby. And then, think of seein' from five to ten millions of tulips. Why, I had thought I had raised tulips; I had had from twenty to thirty in full blow at one time, and had realized it, though I didn't mean to be proud nor haughty. But I knew that my tulips wuz fur ahead of Miss Isham's, or any other Jonesvillian, and I had feelin's accordin'. But then to think of ten millions of 'em--why, it would took Miss Isham and me more'n a week to jest count 'em, and work hard, too, all the time. Why, when I jest stretched out my eye-sight to try to take in them ten millions of globes of gorgeous beauty, my sperits sunk in me further than the Queen of Sheba's did before the glory of Solomon; I felt that minute that I would love to see Miss Sheba, and neighbor with her a spell, and talk with her about pride, and how it felt when it wuz a-fallin'. I could go ahead of her, fur, fur, and I thought I would have loved to own it up to her, and if Solomon had been present, too, I wouldn't have cared a mite--I felt humble. And I jest marched off and never said a word about gittin' a root for me or Miss Isham--I wuz fairly overcome. And still we walked round through milds and milds of solid beauty and bloom. Every beautiful posey I had ever hearn on, and them I had never hearn on wuz there, right before my dazzled eyes. The biggest crowd we see in the Horticultural Hall wuz round what you may call the humblest thing--a tree, something like old Bobbetses calf, with five legs. There wuz a fern from Japan, two separate varieties growin' together in one plant. There wuz Japanese dwarf trees one hundred years old and about as big as gooseberries. A travellin' tree from Madagascar wuz one of the most interestin' things to look at. And then there wuz a giant fern from Australia that measured thirty-two feet--the largest, so I wuz told, in Europe or America. Thirty-two feet! And there I have felt so good and even proud-sperited over my fern I took up out of our woods and brung home and sot out in Mother Smith's old blue sugar-bowl. Why, that fern wuz so large and beautiful, and attracted the envious and admirin' attention of so many Jonesvillians, that I had strong idees of takin' it to the Fair! Philury said she "hadn't a doubt of my gittin' the first prize medal on't." "Why," sez she, "it is as long as Ury's arm!" And it wuz. Miss Lum thought it would be a good thing to take it, to let Chicago and the rest of the world see what vegetation wuz nateral to Jonesville, feelin' that they would most likely have a deep interest in it. And Deacon Henzy thought "it might draw population there." And the schoolmaster thought that "it would be useful to the foreign powers to see to what height swamp culture had attained in the growth of its idigenious plants." I didn't really understand everything he said--there wuz a number more big words in his talk--but I presoom he did, and felt comforted to use 'em. Why, as I said, I had boasted that fern wuz as long as my arm. But thirty-two feet--as high as Josiah, and his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, and his great-great-grandfather, and Ury on top. Where, where wuz my boastin'? Gone, washed away utterly on the sea of wonder and or. And then there wuz a century plant with a blossom stem thirty feet high, and a posey accordin', one posey agin as high as my Josiah, and his father, and etc., etc., etc., and Ury. Oh, good gracious! oh, dear me suz! That plant wuzn't expected to blow out in several years, but all of a sudden it shot up that immense stalk, up, up to thirty feet. It wuz as if the Queen of the Flowery Kingdom had come with the rest of the kings and princesses of the earth to the Columbus World's Fair. Had changed her plans to come with the rest of the royal family. It wuz a sight. Wall, after roamin' there the best part of two hours, I said to my companion, "Less go and see the Wooded Island." And he said with a deep sithe, "I am ready, and more than ready. The name sounds good to me. I would love to see some good plain wood, either corded up or in sled length." I see he wuz sick of lookin' at flowers, and I d'no as I could blame him; for my own head seemed to be jest a-turnin' round and round, and every turnin' had more colors than any rainbow you ever laid eyes on. He wuz dretful anxious to git out-doors himself. He said it wuz all for himself that he wuz hurryin' so. I d'no that, but I do know that in his haste to help me git out he stepped on my foot, and almost made a wreck of that valuable member. I looked bad, and groaned, and sithed considerable 'fore he got to the sheltered bench he'd sot out for. He acted sorry, and I didn't reproach him any. I only sez, "Oh, I don't lay it up aginst you, Josiah. It jest reminds me of Sister Blanker." And he sez, "I don't thank you to compare me to that slab-sided old maid." Sez I, "I believe she's a Christian, Josiah." And so I do. But sez I, "Folks must be megum even in goodness, Josiah Allen, and in order to set down and hold a half orphan in your arms, you mustn't overset yourself and come down on the floor on top of a hull orphan or a nursin' child. "You mustn't tromple so fast on your way to the gole as to walk over and upset two or three lame ones and paryletics." Sez I, "Do you remember my eppisode with Sister Blanker, Josiah?" He did not frame a reply to me, but sot off to look at sunthin' or ruther, sayin' that he would come back in a few minutes. And as I sot there alone Memory went on and onrolled her panorama in front of my eyeballs, about my singular eppisode with Drusilla Blanker. Sister Blanker is a good woman and a Christian, but she never so much as sot her foot on the fair plains of megumness, whose balmy, even climate has afforded me so much comfort all my life. No; she is a woman who stalks on towards goles and don't mind who or what she upsets on her way. She is a woman who a-chasin' sinners slams the door in the faces of saints. And what I mean by this is that she is in such a hurry to git inside the door of Duty (a real heavy door sometimes, heavy as iron), she don't see whether or not it is a-goin' to slam back and hit somebody in the forward. A remarkable instance of this memory onrolled on her panorama--a eppisode that took place in our own Jonesville meetin'-house. The session room where we go to session sometimes and to transact other business has got a heavy swing door. And everybody who goes through it always calculates to hold it back if there is anybody comin' behind 'em, for that door has been known to knock a man down when it come onto him onexpected and onbeknown to him. Wall, Sister Blanker wuz a-goin' on ahead of me one night; it wuz a charitable meetin' that we wuz a-goin' to--to quilt a bedquilt for a heathen--and she knew I wuz jest behind her--right on her tracts, as you may say, for we had sot out together from the preachin'-room, and we had been a-talkin' all the way there on the different merits of otter color or butnut for linin' for the quilt, and as to whether herrin'-bone looked so good as a quiltin' stitch as plain rib. She favored rib and otter; I kinder leaned toward herrin'-bone and butnut. We had had a agreeable talk all the way, though I couldn't help seein' she wuz too hard on butnut, and slightin' in her remarks on herrin'-bone. Anyway, she knew I wuz with her in the body; but as she ketched sight of the door that wuz a-goin' to let her in where she could begin to do good, her mind jest soared right up, and she forgot everything and everybody, and she let that door slam right back and hit me on my right arm, and laid me up for over five weeks. And I fell right back on Edna Garvin, and she is lame, and it knocked her over backwards onto Sally Ann Bobbetses little girl, and she fell flat down, and Miss Gowdey on top of her, and Miss Gowdey, bein' a-walkin' along lost in thought about the bedquilt, and thinkin' how much battin' we should need in it, and not lookin' for a obstacle in her path, slipped right up and fell forwards. Wall, a-tryin' to save little Annie Gowdey from bein' squashed right down, Miss Gowdey throwed herself sideways and strained her back. She weighs two hundred, and is loose-jinted. And she hain't got over it to this day. She insists on't that she loosened her spine in the affair. And I d'no but she did! But the child wuz gin up to die. So for weeks and weeks the Bobbetses and all of Sally Ann's relations (she wuz a Henzy and wide connected in the Methodist meetin'-house) had to give up all their time a-hangin' over that sick-bed. And the Garvins wuz mad as hens, and they bein' connected with most everybody in the Dorcuss Society--and it wuzn't over than above large--why, take it with my bein' laid up and the children havin' to be home so much, Sister Blanker in that one slam jest about cleaned out the hull Methodist meetin'-house. The quilt wuzn't touched after that night, and the heathen lay cold all winter, for all I know. I had all I could do to take care of my own arm, catnip and lobela alternately and a-follerin' after each other I pursued for weeks and weeks, and the pain wuz fearful. Sister Blanker wuz about the only one who come out hull, and she had plenty of time to set down and mourn over a lack of opportunities to do good, and to talk a sight about the lukewarmness of members of the meetin'-house in good works. And there they wuz to home a-sufferin', and it wuz her own self who had brung it all on. You see, as I have said more formally, in our efforts to march forwards to do good it is highly neccessary to see that we hain't a-tromplin' on anybody; and in order to help sinners in Africa it hain't neccessary to knock down Christians in New Jersey and Rhode Island, or to stomp onto professors in Maine. Howsumever, that is some folkses ways. Wall, I'd a been a-lookin' at the panorama with one half of my mind and admirin' the beauty round me with the other half. But at this minute--and it wuz lucky my eppisode had come to an end, for if there is anything I hate it is to be broke up in eppisodin'--my Josiah returned. In front of Horticultural Hall is a flower terrace for out-door exhibits of loveliness, and then in front of that is the beautiful, cool water, and down in the centre of that, below the terrace, and its beauty, and vases, is a boat-landin'. The water did look dretful good to me after lookin' at so many gorgeous colors--more than any rainbow ever boasted of, enough sight--it did seem good to me to look down into them cool waters; and I sez to my pardner-- "The water does look dretful good and sort o' satisfyin', don't it, Josiah?" A bystander a-standin' by sez, "I guess if you would go into the south pavilion here and look at the display of wine you wouldn't talk about lookin' at water; why," sez he, "to say nothin' of the display of our own country, the exhibit of wine from France, Italy, Spain, and Germany is enough to set a man half crazy to look at." I looked at him coldly--his nose wuz as red as fire--and I sez, "I hain't got no call to look at wine. [Illustration: His nose wuz as red as fire.] "I wouldn't give a cent a barrel for the best there is there, if I had got to consoom it myself. "Though," sez I, reasonably, "I wouldn't object to havin' a pint bottle on't to keep in the house in case of sickness, or to make jell, or sunthin'. "But I will not go and encourage the makin' of such quantities as there is there, I will not encourage 'em in makin' that show." He looked mad, and sez he, "I guess they won't stop their show because you won't go and see it." "Probable not," sez I; but sez I, real eloquent, "I will hold up my banner afoot or on horseback." And then I sez to my husband, with quite a good deal of dignity-- "Less proceed to the Wooded Island, Josiah Allen." But alas! for Josiah's hope of seein' sunthin' plain and simple. When we got there, that seemed to be the very central garden of the earth for flowers, and beauty, and bloom, and there it wuz that we see the most gorgeous rainbow--all made of pansies--glow and dazzlement. The island contains seventeen acres, and it stands on such a rise of ground, that every buildin' on the Fair ground can be seen plain. In the centre of the south end wuz the rose garden, where the choicest and most beautiful roses from all over the world bloom in their glowin' richness. When I thought how much store I had sot by one little monthly rose a-growin' in a old earthen teapot of Mother Allen's--and when it wuz all blowed out I had reason to be proud on't-- But jest think of seein' fifty thousand of the choicest roses in the world, all a-blowin' out at one time. Why, I had a immense number of emotions. I thought of the ancient rose gardens we read of, and Solomon's Songs, and most everything. It wuz surrounded on all four sides with a wire trellis, with archways openin' on four sides, and all over these pretty trellises climbin' roses and honeysuckles, and all lovely climbin' plants covered it into four walls of perfect beauty. It wuz truly the World's Rose Garden. Well might Josiah say he wuz sick of flowers, and wanted to see some plain cord wood! Why, that day we see in one batch twenty thousand orchids, six thousand Parmee violets, and one man--jest one man--sent 'leven hundred ivies and one thousand hydarangeas, and every flower you ever hearn on in proportion, let alone what all the other men all over the earth had sent. On the north side of the island Japan jest shows herself at her very best, and lets the world see her in a native village, and how she raises flowers, and makes shrubs and trees look curious as anything you ever see, and curiouser, too; all surrounded a temple where she keeps what she calls her religion, and lots of other things. Japan is one of the likeliest countries that are represented in Columbuses doin's. She wuz the first country to respond to the invitation to take part in it, and I spoze mebby that is the reason that Chicago gin her this beautiful place to hold her own individual doin's in. The temple is a gorgeous-lookin' one, but queer as anything--as anything I ever see. But then, on the other hand, I spoze them Japans would call the Jonesville meetin'-house queer; for what is strange in one country is second nater in another. This temple is built with one body and two wings, to represent the Phoenix--or so they say; the wood part wuz built in Japan and put up here by native Japans, brung over for that purpose. It is elaborate and gorgeous-lookin' in the extreme, and the gorgeousness a-differin' from our gorgeousness as one star differeth from a rutabaga turnip. Not that I mean any disrespect to Japan or the United States by the metafor, but I had to use a strong one to show off the difference. In one wing of the temple is exhibited articles from one thousand to four thousand years old--old bronzes, and arms, and first attempts at pottery and lacquer. Some of these illustrate arts that are lost fur back in the past--I d'no how or where, nor Josiah don't. In the other wing are Japan productions four hundred years old, showin' the state of the country when Columbus sot out to discover their country; for it wuz stories of a wonderful island--most probable Japan--that wuz one thing that influenced Columbus strong. In the main buildin' are sights and sights of goods from Japan at the present day. All of the north part of the island is a marvellous show of their skill and ingenuity in landscape gardenin', and dwarf trees, and the wonderful garden effects for which they are noted. They make a present of the temple and all of these horticultural works to Chicago. To remain always a ornament of Jackson Park, which I call very pretty in 'em. Take it all together, the exhibits of Japan are about as interesting as that of any country of the globe. In some things they go ahead of us fur. Now in some of their meetin'-houses I am told they don't have much of anything but a lookin'-glass a-hangin', to show the duty and neccessity of lookin' at your own sins. To set for a hour and a half and examine your own self and meditate on your own shortcomin's. How useful and improvin' that would be if used--as it ort to be--in Jonesville or Chicago! But still the world would call it queer. I leaned up hard on that thought, and wuz carried safe through all the queer sights I see there. I see quite a number of the Japans there, pretty, small-bonded folks, with faces kinder yellowish brown, dark eyes sot considerable fur back in their heads, their noses not Romans by any means--quite the reverse--and their hair glossy and dark, little hands and feet. Some on 'em wuz dressed like Jonesvillians, but others had their queer-shaped clothin', and dretful ornamental. Josiah wuz bound to have a sack embroidered like one of theirn, and some wooden shoes, and caps with tossels--he thought they wuz dressy--and he wanted some big sleeves that he could use as a pocket; and then sez he-- "To have shoes that have a separate place for the big toe, what a boon for that dum old corn on that toe of mine that would be!" But I frowned on the idee; but sez he-- "If you mind the expense, I could take one of your old short night-gowns and color it black, and set some embroidery onto it. I could cut some figgers out of creton--it wouldn't be much work. Why," sez he, "I could pin 'em on--no, dum it all," sez he, "I couldn't set down in it, but I could glue 'em on." But I sez, "If you want to foller the Japans I could tell you a custom of theirn, and I would give ten cents willin'ly to see you foller it." "What is that?" sez he, ready, as I could see, to ornament himself, or shave his hair, or dress up his big toe, or anything. But I sez, "It is their politeness, Josiah Allen." "I'd be a dum fool if I wuz in your place," sez he. "What do I want to foller 'em for? I am polite, and always wuz." I looked coldly at him, and sez I-- "Japans wouldn't call their wives a dum fool no quicker than they would take their heads off." Sez he, conscience-struck, "I didn't call you one. I said _I_ would be one if I wuz in your place--I wuz a-demeanin' myself, Samantha." Sez I, not mindin' his persiflage, "The Japans are the politest nation on the earth; they say cheatin' and lyin' hain't polite, and so they don't want to foller 'em; they hitch principle and politeness right up in one team and ride after it." "Wall," sez he, "I do and always have." I wouldn't deign to argue with him, only I remarked, "Wall, the team prances, and throws you time and again, Josiah Allen." Sez I, "The Japans are neat, industrious, studious, and progressive, ardent in desirin' knowledge." "Wall," sez he, "if you think so much on 'em, why don't you buy a pipe--they all smoke, men and wimmen." He didn't love to hear me praisin' even a nation, that man didn't, but I soothed him down by drawin' his attention to the housen of the little village. They wuz low, and had broad eaves, and a sort of a piazza a-runnin' all round 'em; they seemed to be kinder plastered on the outside; and the doors and winders--I wouldn't want to swear to it--but they did seem to be wood frames covered with paper, that would slide back and forth, and the partitions of the housen seemed to be made of paper that could be slipped and slided every way, or be took down and turn the hull house into one room. And the little gardens round the housen looked curious as a dog, and curiouser, with trees and shrubs dwarfed and trained into forms of animals and so forth. But I leaned heavy on the thought that my house and garden in Jonesville would look jest as queer to 'em, and got along without bein' too dumbfoundered. As I wuz a-walkin' along there I did think of the errant Old Miss Baker sent by me. She wanted me to git her a japanned dust-pan. She said that "them she bought of tin-peddlers wuzn't worth a cent--the japan all wore off of 'em." "But," sez she, "you buy it right at headquarters--you'd be apt to git a good one;" and she told me that I might go as high as twenty-five cents if I couldn't git it for no less. And I spoke on't there, but Josiah said "that he wouldn't go a-luggin' round dust-pans for nobody to this Fair." But I sez, "I guess that Columbus went through more than that." But I did in my own mind hate to go round before the nations a-carryin' a dust-pan--they're so kinder rakish-lookin'. But if I'd seen a good one I should have leaned on duty and bought it. But we didn't see no signs of any. But we see pictures and ornaments so queer that I felt my own eyes a-movin' round sideways a-beholdin' of 'em, or would have if we had stayed there long enough. We see as we wended along that all round the island wuz another garden all full of flowers, and ornamental grasses, and beautiful shrubs, and windin' walks, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth--an Eden of beauty. And in one place we see in a large tank the Victoria Regia. Its leaves wuz ten feet long, and when in the water in its own home, the River Amazon in Brazil, the leaves will hold up a child six years old. Then there wuz the lotus from Egypt, and Indian lilies, and that magnificent flower, Humboldt's last discovery, "the water poppy." It wuz a sight--a sight. But of all the sights I see that day I guess the one that stayed by me the longest, and that I thought more on than any of the other contents of Horticultural Hall, as I lay there on my peaceful pillow at Miss Plankses, wuz the reproduction of the Crystal Cave of Dakota. [Illustration: My peaceful pillow at Miss Plankses.] The original cave, so fur as they have discovered it, is thirty-three milds long-- Three times as long as the hull town of Lyme--the idee! Thirty lakes of pure water has been found in it, and one thousand four hundred rooms have been opened up. Here is a reproduction of seven of them rooms. Two men of Deadwood of Dakota wuz over a year a-gittin' specimens of the stalactites and stalagmites which they have brought to the Exposition. One of the rooms is called "Garden of the Gods;" another is "Abode of the Fairies," and one is the "Bridal Chamber;" another is the "Cathedral Chimes." Language can't paint nor do anything towards paintin' the dazzlin' glory of them rooms, with the great masses of gleamin' crystal, and slender columns, and all sorts of forms and fancies wrought in the dazzlin' crystalline masses. The chimes wuz perfect in their musical records--the guide played a tune on 'em. They wuz all lit up by electricity, and it wuz here that the plants wuz a-growin' by no other light but electricity. By windin' passages a-windin' through groups of fairy-like beauty and grandeur, you at last come out into the principal chamber, and here indeed you did feel that you wuz in the Garden of the Gods, as you looked round and beheld with your almost dazzled eyes the gorgeous colors radiatin' from the crystals, and the gleamin' and glowin' fancies on every side of you. And I sez to Josiah-- "The hull thirty-three milds that this represents wuz considered till about a year ago as only a small hole in the ground, so little do we know." Sez I, "What glorious and majestic sights are about us on every side, liable to be revealed to us when the time comes." And then he wuz all rousted up about a hole down in our paster. Sez he, "Who knows what it would lead to if it wuz opened up?" Sez he, "I'll put twenty men to diggin' there the minute I git home." Sez I, "Josiah, that is a woodchuck hole--the woodchuck wuz took in it; you have got to be megum in caves as much as anything. Be calm," sez I, for he wuz a-breathin' hard and wuz fearful excited, and I led him out as quick as I could. But he wuz a-sleepin' now peaceful, forgittin' his enthusiasm, while I, who took it calm at the time, kep awake to muse on the glory of the spectacle. After we left the Horticultural Buildin' I proposed that we should branch out for once and git a fashionable dinner. "Dinner!" sez Josiah. "Are you crazy, or what does ail you? Talk about gittin' dinner at this time of day--most bedtime!" But I explained it out to him that fashion called for dinner at the hour that we usually partook of our evenin' meal at Jonesville. Sez I, "Josiah, I would love for jest once to go to a big fashionable restaurant and mingle with the fashionable throng--jest for instruction and education, Josiah, not that I want to foller it up." But sez he, "We'd better go to the same old place where we've got good, clean dinners and supperses, and enough on 'em, and at a livin' price." But he argued warm at the foolishness of the enterprise. But onlucky creeter that I wuz, I argued that, bein' a woman in search of instruction and wisdom, I wanted to see life on as many sides as I could; while I was at Columbuses doin's I wanted to look round and see all I could in a social and educational way. Poor deceived human creeters, how they will blind their own eyes when they pursue their own desires! I do spoze it wuz vanity and pride that wuz at the bottom of it. And truly, if I desired to see life on a new side I wuz about to have my wish; and if I had a haughty sperit when I entered that hall of fashion, it wuz with droopin' feathers and lowered crest that I went out on't. Josiah wuz mad when he finally gin up and accompanied and went in with me. It wuz a beautifully decorated room, and crowds of splendidly dressed men and wimmen wuz a-settin' round at little tables all over the room. And as we went in, a tall, elegant-lookin' man, who I spozed for a long time wuz a minister, and I wondered enough what brung him there, and why he should advance and wait on me, but spozed it wuz because of the high opinion they had of me at Chicago, and their wantin' to use me so awful well. But for all his white collar, and necktie, and sanctimonious look, I found out that he wuz a waiter, for all on 'em looked jest as he did, slick enough to be kept in a bandbox, and only let out once in a while to air. Wall, he led the way to a little table, and we seated ourselves, Josiah still a-actin' mad--mad as a hen, and uppish. And then the waiter put some little slips of paper before us, one with printin' and one with writin' on it, and a pencil, and sez he, "I will be back when you make out your order." And Josiah took out his old silver spectacles and begun to read out loud, and his voice wuz angry and morbid in the extreme. Sez he, loud and clear, "Blue pints--pints of what, I'd love to know? If it wuz a good pint of sweetened vinegar and ginger, I'd fall in with the idee." Sez I, "Keep still, Josiah; they're a-lookin' at you." "Wall, let 'em look," sez he, out loud and defiant. "Consomme of chicken a la princess--what do we want of Princesses here, or Queens, or Dukesses--we want sunthin' to eat! Devilish crabs--do you want some, Samantha?" I looked over his shoulder, in wild horrer at them awful words, and then I whispered, "Devilled crabs--and do you keep still, Josiah Allen; I'd ruther not have anythin' to eat at all than to have you act so--it hain't devilish." "Wall, what is the difference?" he sez, out loud and strong; "devilish or bedevilled, they both mean the same. "And it is true, too--too true; they are all bedevilled," sez he, gloomily eyin' the bill. I allers hated crabs from the time they used to fasten to my bare toes down in the old swimmin' hole in the creek. "Wall, you don't want any bedevilled crabs, do you?" [Illustration: "I allus hated crabs!"] "No," sez I, faintly; for I wuz mortified enough to sink through the floor if there had been any sinkin' place, and I whispered, "I'd ruther go without any dinner at all than to have you act so." "Oh, no," sez he, loud and positive, "you don't want to go without your dinner; you want to be fashionable and cut style--you want to make a show." "Wall," sez I, faint as a cat, "I am apt to git my wish." For three men looked up and laughed, and one girl snickered, besides some other wimmen. Sez I, hunchin' him, "Do be still and less go to our old place." "Oh, no," sez he, speakin' up to the top of his voice, "don't less leave; here is such a variety!" "Potatoes surprise," sez he; "it must be that they are mealy and cooked decent; that would be about as much of a surprise as I could have about potatoes here, to have 'em biled fit to eat; we'll have some of them, anyway. "Philadelphia caperin'--I didn't know that Philadelphia caperin' wuz any better than Chicago a-caperin' or New York a-caperin'. Veal o just! I guess if he had been kicked by calves as much as I have, he wouldn't talk so much about their Christian habits. "Leg of mutton with caper sass--wall, it is nateral for sheep to caper and act sassy, and it is nobody's bizness. "Supreme pinted bogardus--what in thunder is that? Supreme--wall, I've hearn of a supreme ijiot, and I believe that Bogardus is his name. "Terrapin a-layin' on Maryland--I never knew that terrapin wuz a hen before, and why is it any better to lay on Maryland than anywhere else? Mebby eggs are higher there; wall, Maryland hain't much too big for a good-sized hen's nest, nor Rhode Island neither." "Josiah Allen," I whispered, deep and solemn, "if you don't stop I will part with you." Folks wuz in a full snicker and a giggle by this time. "Oh, no," sez he, loud and strong, "you don't want to part with me till I git you a fashionable dinner, and we both cut style. "Tenderloin of beef a-tryin' on"--a-tryin' on what, I'd love to know?--style, most probable, this is such a stylish place." "Will you be still, Josiah Allen?" sez I, a-layin' holt of his vest. "No, I won't; I am tryin' to put on style, Samantha, and buy you sunthin' stylish to eat." "Wall, you needn't," sez I; "I have lost my appetite." "Siberian Punch! Let him come on," sez Josiah; "if I can't use my fists equal to any dum Siberian that ever trod shoe leather, then I'll give in." Then three wimmen giggled, and the waiters began to look mad and troubled. "English rifles"--wall, I shouldn't have thought they would have tried that agin. No, trifles," sez he, a-lookin' closer at it. "English trifles!--lions' tails and coronets, mebby--English trifles and tutty-frutty. Do have some tutty-frutty, Samantha, it has such a stylish sound to it, so different from good pork and beans and roast beef; I believe you would enjoy it dearly. "Waiter," sez he, "bring on some tutty-frutty to once." The waiter approached cautiously, and made a motion to me, and touched his forehead. He thought he wuz crazy, and he whispered to me, "Is it caused by drinkin'? or is it nateral and come on sudden--" Josiah heard it, and answered out loud, "It wuz caused by style, by bein' fashionable; my only aim has been to git my wife a fashionable dinner, but I see it has overcome her." The waiter wuz a good-hearted-lookin' man--a kind heart beat below that white necktie (considerable below it on the left side), and sez he to me-- "Shall I bring you a dinner, Mom, without takin' the order?" And I replied gratefully-- "Yes, so do;" and so he brung it, a good enough dinner for anybody--good roast beef, and potatoes, and lemon pie, and tea, and Josiah eat hearty, and had to quiet down some, though he kept a-mournin' all through the meal about its not bein' carried on fashionable and stylish, and that it wuz my doin's a-breakin' it up, and etc., etc., and the last thing a-wantin' tutty-frutty, and etc., etc. And I paid for the meal out of my own pocket; the waiter thought I had to on account of my companion's luny state, and he gin the bill to me. And Josiah a-chucklin' over it, as I could see, for savin' his money. And I got him out of that place as quick as I could, the bystanders, or ruther the bysetters, a-laughin' or a-lookin' pitiful at me, as their naters differed. And as we wended off down the broad path on the outside, I sez, "You have disgraced us forever in the eyes of the nation, Josiah Allen." And he sez, "What have I done? You can't throw it in my face, Samantha, that I hain't tried to cut style--that I didn't try to git you a stylish meal." I wouldn't say a word further to him, and I never spoke to him once that night--not once, only in the night I thought there wuz a mouse in the room, and I forgot myself and called on him for help. And for three days I didn't pass nothin' but the compliments with him; he felt bad--he worships me. He did it all to keep me from goin' to a costly place--I know what his motives wuz--but he had mortified me too deep. CHAPTER XV. Wall, this mornin' I said that I would go to see the Palace of Art if I had to go on my hands and knees. And Josiah sez, "I guess you'd need a new pair of knees by the time you got there." And I do spoze it wuz milds and milds from where I wuz. But I only wanted to let Josiah Allen know my cast-iron determination to not be put off another minute in payin' my devours to Art. He see it writ in my mean and didn't make no moves towards breakin' it up. Only he muttered sunthin' about not carin' so much about ile paintin's as he did for lots of other things. But I heeded him not, and sez I, "We will go early in the mornin' before any one gits there." But I guess that several hundred thousand other folks must have laid on the same plans overnight, for we found the rooms full and runnin' over when we got there. Before we got to the Art Palace, you'd know you wuz in its neighborhood by the beautiful statutes and groups of figgers you'd see all round you. The buildin' itself is a gem of art, if you can call anything a gem that is acres and acres big of itself, and then has immense annexes connected with it by broad, handsome corridors on either side. It is Greek in style, and the dome rises one hundred and twenty-five feet and is surmounted by Martiny's wonderful winged Victory. Another female is depictered standin' on top of the globe with wreaths in her outstretched hands. Wall, I hope the figger is symbolical, and I believe in my soul she is! You enter this palace by four great portals, beautiful with sculptured figgers and ornaments, and as you go on in the colonnade you see beautiful paintin's illustratin' the rise and progress of Art. And way up on the outside, on what they call the freeze of the buildin' (and good land! I don't see what they wuz a-thinkin' on, for I wuz jest a-meltin' down where I wuz, and it must have been hotter up there). But that's their way. Wall, way up there and on the pediment of the principal entrances are sculptures and portraits of the ancient masters of Art in relief. In relief? That's what they called it, and I spoze them old men must felt real relieved and contented to be sot down there in such a grand place, and so riz up like. You could see plain by their liniments how glad and proud they wuz to be in Chicago, a-lookin' down on that seen of beauty all round 'em. Lookin' down on the terraces richly ornamented with balustrades--down over the immense flight of steps down into the blue water, with its flocks of steam lanches, and gondolas, like gay birds of passage, settled down there ready for flight. All the light in this buildin' comes down through immense skylights. There is no danger of folks a-fallin' out of the winders or havin' anybody peek in unless it is the man in the moon. All round this vast room is a gallery forty feet wide, where you could lock arms and promenade, and talk about hens. But you wouldn't want to, I don't believe. You'd want to spend every minute a-feastin' your eyes on the Best of the World. All along the floors of the nave and transepts are displayed the most beautiful sculptures that wuz ever sculped in any part of the world, while the walls are covered with paintin's and sculptured panels in relief. That's what they call 'em, because it's such a relief for folks to set down and look at 'em. Between the promenades and naves and transepts are the smaller rooms, where the private collections of picters are kep and the works of the different Art Schools, and the four corners are filled with smaller picter galleries. Why, to go through jest one of them annexes, let alone the palace itself, would take a week if you examined 'em as you ort to. Josiah told me that mornin', with a encouraged look onto his face-- "Samantha, after we've seen all the ile paintin's we'll go somewhere, and have a good time." "But good land! see all the ile paintin's!" Why, as I told him after we'd wandered through there for hours and hours, sez I, "If we spent every minute of the hull summer we couldn't do justice to 'em all." And we couldn't. Why, it has been all calculated out by a good calculator, that spend one minute to a picter, and it would take twenty-six days to go through 'em. And good land! what is one minute to some of the picters you see. Why, half a day wuzn't none too long to pour over some on 'em, and when I say pour, I mean pour, for I see dozens of folks weepin' quite hard before some on 'em. [Illustration: I see dozens of folks weepin' quite hard before some on 'em.] For these picters wuzn't picked out haphazard all over the country. No, they had to, every one on 'em, run the gantlet of the most severe and close criticism. The Jury of Admittance stood in front of that gallery, and over it, as you may say, like the very finest and strongest wire sieve, a-strainin' out all but the finest and clearest merits. No dregs could git through--not a dreg. I guess that hain't a very good metafor, and if I wuzn't in such a hurry I'd look round and try to find a better one, not knowin', too, but what that Jury of Admittance will feel mad as hens at me to be compared to sieves; but I don't mean the common wire ones, such as tin-peddlers sell. No, I mean the searchin' and elevatin' process by which the very best of our country and the hull world wuz separated from the less meritorious ones, and spread out there for the inspiration and delight of the assembled nations. And wuzn't it a sight what wuz to be found there! Landscapes from every land on the globe--from Lapland to the Orient. Tropical forests, with soft southern faces lookin' out of the verdant shadows. Frozen icebergs, with fur-clad figgers with stern aspects, and grizzly bears and ice-suckles. Bits of the beauty of all climes under all skies, dark or sunny. Mountains, trees, valleys, forests, plains and prairies, palaces and huts, ships, boats and balloons. The beauty and the sadness of every season of the year, beautiful faces, inspired faces, humbly faces, strikin' powerful means, and mean cowardly sly liniments looked out on every side of us. Picters illustratin' every phase of human life, in every corner of the globe, from birth to death, from kingly prosperity and luxurious ease to prisons and scaffolds, the throne, the hospital, the convent, the pulpit, the monastery, the home, the battle-field, the mid-ocean, and the sheltered way, and Heaven and Hell, and Life and Death. Every seen and spot the human mind had ever conceived wuz here depictered. Every emotion man or woman ever felt, every inspiration that ever possessed their soul, every joy and every grief that ever lifted or bowed down their heads wuz here depictered. And seens from the literature of every land wuz illustrated, the world of matter, the world of mind, all their secrets laid bare to the eyes of the admirin' nations. It wuz a sight--a sight! Gallery after gallery, room after room did we wander through till the gorgeous colorin' seemed to dye our very thoughts and emotions, and I looked at Josiah in a kinder mixed-up, lofty way, as if he wuz a ile paintin' or a statute, and he looked at me almost as if he considered me a chromo. It wuz a time not to be forgot as long as memory sets up high on her high throne. Room after room, gallery after gallery, beauty dazzlin' us on every side, and lameness and twinges of rumatiz a-harassin' us in our four extremities. Why, the sight seemed so endless and so immense, that some of the time we felt like two needles in a haymow, a haymow made up of a vision of loveliness, and the two little needles feelin' fairly tuckered out, and blunted, and browbeat. Why, we got so kinder bewildered and carried away, that some of the time I couldn't tell whether the masterpiece I wuz a-devourin' with my eyes come from Germany or Jonesville, from France or Shackville, from Holland or from Zoar, up in the upper part of Lyme. Of course amongst that endless display there wuz some picters that struck such hard blows at the heart and fancy that you can't forgit 'em if you wanted to, which most probable you don't. And now, in thinkin' back on 'em, I can't sort 'em out and lay 'em down where they belong and mark 'em 1, 2, 3, 4, and etcetry, as I'd ort to. But I'm jest as likely to let my mind jump right from what I see at the entrance to sunthin' that I see way to the latter end of the buildin', and visa versa. It kinder worries me. I love to even meditate and allegore with some degree of order and system, but I can't here. I must allegore and meditate on 'em jest as they come, and truly a-thinkin' on these picters, I feel as Hosey Bigelow ust to say: "I can't tell what's comin'--gall or honey." But some of them picters and statutes made perfect dents in my memory, and can't be smoothed out agin nohow. There wuz one little figger jest at the entrance where we went in, "The Young Acrobat," that impressed me dretfully. It wuz a man's hand and arm that wuz a-risin' up out of a pedestal, and on the hand wuz set the cutest little baby you ever see. I guess it wuz the first time that he'd ever sot up anywhere out of the cradle or his ma's arms. He looked some skairt, and some proud, and too cunnin' for anything, as I hearn remarked by a few hundred female wimmen that day. And like as not it is jest like my incoherence in revery that from that little baby my mind would spring right on to the French exhibit to that noble statute of Jennie D. Ark, kneelin' there with her clasped hands and her eyes lifted as if she wuz a-sayin': "I _did_ hear the voices!" And so she did hear the language of Heaven, and the dull souls around her wuz too earthly to comprehend the divine harmonies, and so they burnt her up for it. Lots of folks are burnt up in different fires to-day, for the same thing. Then mebby my mind will jest jump to the "Age of Iron" or to the "Secrets of the Tomb," or "The Eagle and the Vulture," or "Washington and Lafayette," or "Charity"--a good-lookin' creeter she wuz--she could think of other children besides her own; or mebby it will jump right over onto the "Indian Buffalo Hunt"--a horse a-rarin' right up to git rid of a buffalo that wuz a-pressin' right in under its forelegs. I don't see how that hunter could stay on his back--I couldn't--to say nothin' to shootin' the arrows into the critter as he's a-doin'. Or mebby my mind'll jump right over to the "Soldier of Marathon," or "Eve," no knowin' at all where my thoughts will take me amongst them noble marble figgers. And as for picters, my revery on 'em now is a perfect sight; a show as good as a panorama is a-goin' on in my fore-top now when I let my thoughts take their full swing on them picters. Amongst them that struck the hardest blows on my fancy wuz them that told stories that touched the heart. There wuz one in the Holland exhibit, called "Alone in the World," a picter that rousted up my feelin's to a almost alarmin' extent. It wuz a picter by Josef Israel. It wuz a sight to see how this picter touched the hearts of the people. No grandeur about it, but it held the soul of things--pathos, heart-breakin' sorrow. A peasant had come home to his bare-lookin' cottage, and found his wife dead in her bed. He didn't rave round and act, and strike an attitude. No, he jest turned round and sot there on his hard stool, with his hands on his knees, a-facin' the bare future. The hull of the desolation of that long life of emptiness and grief that he sees stretch out before him without her, that he had loved and lost, wuz in the man's grief-stricken face. It wuz that face that made up the loss and the strength of the picter. I cried and wept in front of it, and cried and wept. I thought what if that wuz Josiah that sot there with that agony in his face, and that desolation in his heart, and I couldn't comfort him-- Couldn't say to him: "Josiah, we'll bear it together." I wuz fearful overcome. [Illustration: I cried and wept in front of it, and cried and wept.] And then there wuz another picter called "Breakin' Home Ties." A crowd always stood before that. It wuz a boy jest a-settin' out to seek his fortune. The breakfast-table still stood in the room. The old grandma a-settin' there still; time had dulled her vision for lookin' forward. She wuz a-lookin' into the past, into the realm that had held so many partin's for her, and mebby lookin' way over the present into the land of meetin's. The little girl with her hand on the old dog is too small to fully realize what it all means. But in the mother's face you can see the full meanin' of the partin'--the breakin' of the old ties that bound her boy so fast to her in the past. The lettin' him go out into the evil world without her lovin' watchfulness and love. All the love that would fain go with him--all the admonition that she would fain give him--all the love and all the hope she feels for him is writ in her gentle face. As for the boy, anticipation and dread are writ on his mean, but the man is waitin' impatient outside to take him away. The partin' must come. You turn away, glad you can't see that last kiss. Then there wuz "Holy Night," the Christ Child, with its father and mother, and some surroundin' worshippers of both sects. Mary's face held all the sweetness and strength you'd expect to see in the mother of our Lord. And Joseph looked real well too--quite well. Josiah said that "the halos round his head and Mary's looked some like big white plates." But I sez, "You hain't much of a judge of halos, anyway. Mebby if you should try to make a few halos you'd speak better of 'em." I often think this in the presence of critics, mebby if they should lay holt and paint a few picters, they wouldn't find fault with 'em so glib. It looks real mean to me to see folks find so much fault with what they can't do half so well themselves. Then there wuz the wimmen at the tomb of the Christ. The door is open, the Angel is begenin' for 'em to enter. In the faces of them weepin', waitin' wimmen is depictered the very height and depth of sorrow. You can't see the face of one on 'em, but her poster gives the impression of absolute grief and loss. The quiverin' lips seems formin' the words--"Farwell, farwell, best beloved." Deathless love shines through the eyes streamin' with tears. In the British section there wuz one picter that struck such a deep blow onto my heart that its strings hain't got over vibratin' still. They send back some of them deep, thrillin' echoes every time I think on't in the day-time or wake up in the night and think on't. It wuz "Love and Death," and wuz painted by Mr. Watts, of London. It showed a home where Love had made its sweet restin'-place--vines grew up round the pleasant door-way, emblematic of how the heart's deep affection twined round the spot. But in the door-way stood a mighty form, veiled and shadowy, but relentless. It has torn the vines down, they lay witherin' at its feet. It wuz bound to enter. Though you couldn't see the face of this veiled shape, a mysterious, dretful atmosphere darkened and surrounded it, and you knew that its name wuz Death. Love stood in the door-way, vainly a-tryin' to keep it out, but you could see plain how its pleadin', implorin' hand, extended out a-tryin' to push the figger away, wuz a-goin' to be swept aside by the inexorable, silent shape. Death when he goes up on a door-step and pauses before a door has got to enter, and Love can't push it away. No, it can only git its wings torn off and trompled on in the vain effort. It wuz a dretful impressive picter, one that can't be forgot while life remains. On the opposite wall wuz Crane's noble picter, "Freedom;" I stood before that for some time nearly lost and by the side of myself. Crane did first-rate; I'd a been glad to have told him so--it would a been so encouragin' to him. Then there wuz another picter in the English section called "The Passing of Arthur" that rousted up deep emotions. I'd hearn Thomas J. read so much about Arthur, and that round extension table of hisen, that I seemed to be well acquainted with him and his mates. I knew that he had a dretful hard time on't, what with his wife a-fallin' in love with another man--which is always hard to bear--and etcetry. And I always approved of his doin's. He never tried to go West to git a divorce. No; he merely sez to her, when she knelt at his feet a-wantin' to make up with him, he sez, "Live so that in Heaven thou shalt be Arthur's true wife, and not another's." I'll bet that shamed Genevere, and made her feel real bad. And his death-bed always seemed dretful pathetic to me. And here it wuz all painted out. The boat floatin' out on the pale golden green light, and Arthur a-layin' there with the three queens a-weepin' over him. A-floatin' on to the island valley of Avilion, "Where falls not hail nor rain, nor any snow." And then there wuz a picter by Whistler, called "The Princess of the Land of Porcelain." You couldn't really tell why that slender little figger in the long trailin' silken robes, and the deep dark eyes, and vivid red lips should take such a holt on you. But she did, and that face peers out of Memory-aisles time and time agin, and you wake up a-thinkin' on her in the night. Mr. Whistler must a been dretful interested himself in the Lady of the Land of Porcelain, or he couldn't have interested other folks so. And then there wuz another by Mr. Whistler, called "The Lady of the Yellow Buskin." A poem of glowin' color and life. And right there nigh by wuz one by Mr. Chase, jest about as good. The name on't wuz "Alice." I believe Alice Ben Bolt looked some like her when she wuz of the same age, you know-- "Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown, Who wept with delight when Mr. Ben Bolt gin her a smile; And trembled with fear at Mr. Ben Boltses frown." She ort to had more gumption than that; but I always liked her. Elihu Vedder's picters rousted up deep emotions in my soul--jest about the deepest I have got, and the most mysterious and weird. Other artists may paint the outside of things, but he goes deeper, and paints the emotions of the soul that are so deep that you don't hardly know yourself that you've got them of that variety. In lookin' through these picters of hisen illustratin' that old Persian poem, "Omer Kyham"-- Why, I have had from eighty to a hundred emotions right along for half a day at a time. Mr. Vedder had here "A Soul in Bondage," "The Young Marysus and Morning," and "Delila and Sampson," and several others remarkably impressive. And Mr. Sargent's "Mother and Child" looked first-rate in its cool, soft colors. They put me in mind a good deal of Tirzah Ann and Babe. And "The Delaware Valley" and "A Gray Lowery Day," by Mr. George Inness, impressed me wonderfully. Many a day like it have I passed through in Jonesville. "Hard Times," also in a American department, wuz dretful impressive. A man and a woman wuz a-standin' in the hard, dusty road. His face looked as though all the despair, and care, and perplexities of the hard times wuz depictered in it. He wuz stalkin' along as if he had forgot everything but his trouble. And I presoom that he'd had a dretful hard time on't--dretful. He couldn't git no work, mebby, and wuz obleeged to stand and see his family starve and suffer round him. Yes, he wuz a-walkin' along with his hands in his empty pockets and his eyes bent towards the ground. But the woman, though her face looked haggard, and fur wanner than hissen, yet she wuz a-lookin' back and reachin' out her arms towards the children that wuz a-comin' along fur back. One of 'em wuz a-cryin', I guess. His ma hadn't nothin' but love to give him, but you could see that she wuz a-givin' him that liberal. And Durant's "Spanish Singing Girl" rousted up a sight of admiration; she wuz _very_ good-lookin'--looked a good deal like my son's wife. Well, in the Russian Department (and jest see how my revery flops about, clear from America to Russia at one jump)-- There wuz a picter there of a boat in a storm. And on that boat is thrown a vivid ray of sunshine. You'd think that it wuz the real thing, and that you could warm your fingers at it, but it hain't--it is only painted sunshine. But it beats all I ever see; I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to use it for a noon-mark. In the German Exhibit wuz as awful a picter as I want to see. It was Julia, old Mr. Serviuses girl--Miss Tarquin that now is--a-ridin' over her pa and killin' him a purpose, so she could git his property. To see Miss Tarquin, that wicked, wicked creeter, a-doin' that wicked act, is enough to make a perfect race of old maids and bacheldors. The idea of havin' a lot of children to take care on and then be rid over by 'em! But I shall always believe that she wuz put up to it by the Tarquin boys. I never liked 'em--they wuzn't likely. But the picter is a sight--dretful big and skairful. And in that section is a beautiful picter by Fritz Uhele, whose figgers, folks say, are the best in the world. "The Angels Appearing to the Shepherds." Oh, what glowin' faces the angels had! You read in 'em what the shepherds did: "Love, Good Will to Man." There wuz some little picters there about six inches square, and marked: "Little Picters for a Child's Album." And Josiah sez to me, "I believe I'll buy one of 'em for Babe's album that I got her last Christmas." Sez he, "I've got ten cents in change, but probable," sez he, "it won't be over eight cents." Sez I, "Don't be too sanguine, Josiah Allen." Sez he, "I am never sanguinary without good horse sense to back it up. They throwed in a chromo three feet square with the last calico dress you bought at Jonesville, and this hain't over five or six inches big." "Wall," sez I, "buy it if you want to." "Wall," sez he, "that's what I lay out to do, mom." So he accosted a Columbus Guard that stood nigh, and sez he-- "I'm a-goin' to buy that little picter, and I want to know if I can take it home now in my vest pocket?" [Illustration: "I'm a-goin' to buy that little picter, and I want to know if I can take it home now in my vest pocket?"] "That picter," sez he, "is twenty thousand dollars. It is owned by the German National Gallery, and is loaned by them," and sez he, with a ready flow of knowledge inherent to them Guards, "the artist, Adolph Menzel, is to German art what Meissonier is to the French. His picters are all bought by the National Gallery, and bring enormous sums." Josiah almost swooned away. Nothin' but pride kep him up-- I didn't say nothin' to add to his mortification. Only I simply said-- "Babe will prize that picter, Josiah Allen." And he sez, "Be a fool if you want to; I'm a-goin' to git sunthin' to eat." [Illustration: "Be a fool if you want to."] And he hurried me along at almost a dog-trot, but I would stop to look at a "Spring Day in Bavaria," and the "Fish Market in Amsterdam," and the "Nun," and some others, I would--they wuz all beautiful in the extreme. Wall, after we come back into the gallery agin, the first picter we went to see wuz "Christ Before Pilate," by Mr. Muncaxey. There He stood, the Man of Sorrows, with His tall figure full of patient dignity, and His face full of love, and pity, and anguish, all bent into a indescribable majesty and power. His hands wuz bound, He stood there the centre of that sneering, murderous crowd of priests and pharisees. On every side of Him He would meet a look of hate and savage exultation in His misery. And He, like a lamb before the shearers, wuz dumb, bearing patiently the sins and sorrows of a world. The fate of a universe looked out of His deep, sweet eyes. He could bear it all--the hate, all the ignominy, the cruel death drawin' so near--He could bear it all through love and pity--the highest heights love ever went, and the deepest pity. Only one face out of that jeerin', evil crowd had a look of pity on't, and that wuz the one woman in the throng, and she held a child in her arms. Mebby Love had taught her the secret of Grief. Anyway, she looked as if she pitied Him and would have loosed His bonds if she could. It wuz a dretful impressive picter, one that touched the most sacred feelin's of the beholder. There wuz a great fuss made over Alma Tadema's picter of "Crowning Bachus." But I didn't approve on't. The girls' figgers in it wuz very beautiful, with the wonderful floatin' hair of red gold crowned with roses. But I wanted to tell them girls that after they got Mr. Bachus all crowned, he'd turn on 'em, and jest as like as not pull out hull handfuls of that golden hair, and kick at 'em, and act. Mr. Bachus is a villain of the deepest dye. I felt jest like warnin' 'em. I like Miss Tadema's picters enough sight better--pretty little girls playin' innocent games, and dreamin' sweet fancies By the Fireside. "The Flaggalants," by Carl Marr, is a enormous big picter, but fearful to look at. It made me feel real bad to see how them men wuz a-hurtin' their own selves. They hadn't ort to. Another picter by the same artist, called "A Summer Afternoon," I liked as well agin; the soul of the pleasant summer-time looked out of that picter, and the faces of the wimmen and children in it. The little one clingin' to its mother's hand and feedin' the chickens looked cute enough to kiss. She favored Babe a good deal in her looks. "The Cemetery in Delmatia" and the "Market Scene in Cairo," by Leopold Muller, struck hard blows onto my fancy. And so did three by Madame Weisenger-- "Mornin' by the Sea-shore," "Breakfast in the Country," and "The Laundress of the Mountain." "Christ and the Children," by Julius Schmid, wuz beautiful as could be. And so wuz "The Death of Autumn," by Franz Pensinger--they held in 'em all the sadly glorious beauty of the closing year. "The Three Beggars of Cordova," by Edwin Weeks, wuz dretful interestin'. Them tramps set there lookin' so sassy, and lazy, nateral as life. Lots of jest such ones have importuned me for food on my Jonesville door-step. [Illustration: Them tramps set there lookin' so sassy and lazy, nateral as life.] Then he had two Hindoo fakirs that wuz real interestin'. The fur-off Indian city, the river, and the fakir a-layin' in the boat, tired out, I presoom, a-makin' folks stand up in the air, and climb up ladders into Nowhere, and eatin' swords, and eatin' fire, and etcetry. He wuz beat out, and no wonder. The colorin' of this picter is superb. And so wuz his "Persian Horse Dealers" and others. Mr. Melcher's "Sermon" and "Communion" wuz very impressive, as nateral as the meetin'-housen and congregation at Jonesville and Zoar. In the Holland Exhibit wuz all kinds of clouds painted-- Clouds a-layin' low in sombre piles, and clouds with the sun almost a-shinin' through 'em. Wonderful effects as I ever see. And I wuz a-lookin' at a picter there so glowin' and beautiful that it seemed to hold in it the very secret of summer. The heart fire and glow of summer shone through its fine atmosphere. And sez I, "Josiah, did you ever see anything like it?" "Oh, yes," sez he; "it's quite fair." "Fair!" sez I; "can't you say sunthin' more than that?" "Wall, from fair to middlin', then," sez he. "But for real beauty," sez he, "give me them picters made in corn, and oats, and beans. Give me that Dakota cow made out of grain, with a tail of timothy grass, and straw legs, and corn ear horns. There is real beauty," sez he. "Or that picter in the State Buildin' of the hull farm made in seeds. The old bean farm-house, and barley well-sweep, and the fields bounded with corn twig fences, and horses made of silk-weed, and manes and tales of corn-silk--there is beauty," sez he. "And as for statutes, I'd ruther see one of them figgers that Miss Brooks of Nebraska makes out of butter than a hull carload of marble figgers." I sithed a deep, curious sithe, and he went on: "Why," sez he, "it stands to reason they're more valuable; what good would the stun be to you if a marble statute got smashed? A dead loss on your hands. "But let one of her Iolanthes git knocked over and broke to pieces, why there you are, good, solid butter, worth 30 cents of any man's money. "Give me statuary that is ornamental in prosperity, and that you can eat up if reverses come to you," sez he. "Why," sez he, "there is one hundred kinds of grain in that one model farm of Illinois. "Now, if that picter should git torn to pieces by a cyclone, what would a ile paintin' be? A dead loss. "But that grain farm-house, what food for hens that would make--such a variety. Why, the hens would jest pour out eggs fed on the ruins of that farm. "Give me beauty and economy hitched together in one team." [Illustration: "What food for hens that would make."] I sithed, and the sithe wuz deep, almost like a groan, and sez I-- "You tire me, Josiah Allen--you tire me almost to death." "Wall," sez he, "I'm talkin' good horse sense." Sez I, "I should think it wuz animal sense of some kind--nothin' spiritual about it and riz up." "Wall," sez he, "you'll see five hundred folks a-standin' round and praisin' up them seed picters where there is one that gits carried away as you do over Wattses 'Love and Death' and Elihu Vedder's dum picters." "Wall," sez I, in a tired-out axent, "that don't prove anything, Josiah Allen. The multitude chose Barrabus to the Divine One. "Not," sez I reasonably, "that I would want to compare the seed picters and the butter females to a robber. "They're extremely curious and interestin' to look at, and wonderful in their way as anything in the hull Exposition. "But," sez I, "there is a height and a depth in the soul that them butter figgers can't touch--no, nor the pop-corn trees can't reach that height with their sorghum branches. It lays fur beyond the switchin' timothy tail of that seed horse or the wavin' raisen mane of that prune charger. It is a realm," sez I, "that I fear you will never stand in, Josiah Allen." "No, indeed," sez he; "and I don't want to. I hain't no desires that way." Again I sithed, and we walked off into another gallery. Wall, I might write and keep a-writin' from Fourth of July to Christmas Eve, and then git up Christmas mornin' and say truly that the half hadn't been told of what we see there, and so what is the use of tryin' to relate it in this epistle. But suffice it to say that we stayed there all day long, and that night we meandered home perfectly wore out, and perfectly riz up in our two minds, or at least I wuz. Josiah's feelin's seemed to be clear fag, jest plain wore out fag. The nights are always cool in Chicago--that is, if the weather is anyways comfortable durin' the day. And this night it wuz so cool that a good woollen blanket and bedspread wuz none too much for comfort. And it wuz with a sithe of contentment that I lay down on my peaceful goose-feather pillow, and drawed the blankets up over my weary frame and sunk to sleep. I had been to sleep I know not how long when a angry, excited voice wakened me. It said, "Lay down, can't you!" I hearn it as one in a dream. I couldn't sense where I wuz nor who wuz talkin', when agin I hearn-- "Dum it all! why can't you fall as you ort to?" Wuz some struggle a-goin' on in my room? The bed wuz in an alcove, and I could not see the place from where the voice proceeded. I reached my hand out. My worst apprehensions wuz realized. Josiah wuz not there. Wuz some one a-killin' him, and a-orderin' him to lay still and fall as he ort to? Wuz such boldness in crime possible? I raised my head and looked out into the room, and then with a wild shriek I covered up my head. Then I discovered that there wuz only one thin sheet over me. The sight I had seen had driv' the blood in my veins all back to my heart. A tall white figger wuz a-standin' before the glass, draped from head to foot in heavy white drapery. I'd often turned it over in my mind in hours of ease which I'd ruther have appear to me in the night--a burglar or a ghost. And now in the tumultous beatin's of my heart I owned up that I would ruther a hundred times it would be a burglar. Anything seemed to me better than to be alone at night with a ghost. But anon, as I quaked and trembled under that sheet, the voice spoke agin-- "Samantha, are you awake?" And I sprung up in bed agin, and sez I-- "Josiah Allen, where are you? Oh, save me, Josiah! save me!" The white figger turned. "Save you from what, Samantha? Is there a mouse under the bed, or is it a spider, or what?" "Who be you?" sez I, almost incoherently. "Be you a ghost? Oh, Josiah, Josiah!" And I sunk back onto the pillow and busted into tears. The relief wuz too great. But anon Wonder seized the place that Fear had held in my frame, and dried up the tear-drops, and I sprung up agin and sez-- "What be you a-doin', Josiah Allen, rigged up as you be in the middle of the night, with the lights all a-burnin'?" For every gas jet in the room was a-blazin' high. Sez he, "I am posin' for a statute, Samantha." And come to look closter, I see he had took off the blanket and bedspread and had swathed 'em round his form some like a toga. And I see it wuz them that he wuz apostrofizin' and orderin' to lay down in folds and fall graceful. And somehow the idee of his takin' the bedclothes offen me seemed to mad me about as much as his foolishness and vanity did. And sez I, "Do you take off them bedclothes offen you, and put 'em back agin, and come to bed!" But he didn't heed me, he went on with his vain doin's and actin'. "I am impersonatin' Apollo!" sez he, a-layin' his head onto one side and a-lookin' at me over his shoulder in a kind of a languishin' way. Sez he, a-liftin' his heel, and holdin' it up a little ways, "I did think I would be Mercury, but I hadn't any wing handy for my off heel. I would be strikin' as Mercury," sez he, "but I think I would be at my best as Apollo. What do you think I had better be, Samantha?" [Illustration: "I would be strikin' as Mercury, but I think I would be at my best as Apollo."] "A loonatick would strike me as the right thing, Josiah Allen, or an idiot from birth. "Or," sez I, speakin' more ironicler as my fear died away, leavin' in its void a great madness and tiredness, "if you'd brung your scythe along you might personate Old Father Time." I guess this kinder madded him, and sez he, "Don't you want to pose, Samantha? "Don't you want to be the Witch of Endor?" sez he. "Yes," sez I, "I'd love to! If I _wuz_ her you'd see sights in this room that would bow your old bald head in horrow, and drive you, vain old creeter that you be, back where you belong." He wuz afraid he'd gone too fur, and sez he, "Mebby you'd ruther be Venus, Samantha? Mebby you'd ruther appear in the nude?" Sez I, coldly, "I should think that you'd done your best to make me appear in that way, Josiah Allen. There's only one thin sheet to keep me from it. "But," sez I, spruntin' up, "if you talk in that way any more to me I'll holler to Miss Plank! "Pardner or no pardner, I hain't a-goin' to be imposed upon this time of night!" Sez I, "I should be ashamed if I wuz in your place, the father and grandfather of a family, and the deacon in a meetin'-house, to be up at midnight a-posin' for statutes and actin'." "But," sez he, "I didn't know but they would want to sculp me while I wuz here in Chicago, and I thought I'd git a attitude all ready. You never know what may happen, and it's always well to be prepared, and attitudes are dretful hard to catch onto at a minute's notice." Sez I, "Do you come back to bed, Josiah Allen. What would they want of you for a statute?" "Wall," sez he, reluctantly relinquishin' his toga, or, in other words the flannel blanket and bedspread-- "I see many a statute to-day with not half my good looks, and if Chicago wanted me to ornament it, I wanted to be prepared." I sithed aloud, and sez I-- "Here I be waked up for good, as tired as I wuz, all for your vanity and actin'." "Wall," sez he, "Samantha, my mind wuz all so stirred up and excited by seein' so many ile paintin's and statutes to-day, that I felt dretful." And as he sez this my madness all died away, as the way of pardners is, and a great pity stole into my heart. I do spoze he wuz half delirous with seein' too much. Like a man who has oversot himself and come down on the floor. That man had been led round too much that day, for my own pleasure; to gratify my own esthetik taste I had almost ruined the pardner of my youth and middle age. His mind had been stretched too fur, for the size on't, so I sez soothin'ly-- "Wall, wall, Josiah, come back to bed and go to sleep, and to-morrow we'll go and see some live stock and some plows and things." So at last I got him quieted down, though he did murmur once or twice in his sleep--Apollo! Hercules! etc., so I see what his inward state wuz. But towards mornin' he seemed to git into a good sound sleep, and I did too, and we waked up feelin' quite considerable rested and refreshed. And it wuzn't till I had a sick-headache bad, and he wuz more than good to me, and I see that he repented deep of it, that I forgive him fully. But of course it broke up our goin' to fashionable places agin to eat--he come out conqueror, after all--men are deep. CHAPTER XVI. Wall, this mornin'--it bein' kind of a muggy and cloudy one, I proposed that we should go and visit the Fishery Department. And I d'no why I should a thought on it this mornin' more'n another one--only it wuz jest such a day as Josiah and Thomas Jefferson always took for goin' a-fishin' in the creek back of Jonesville. And then we had fish for breakfast too--siscoes--mebby that put me in mind on it some. But anyway, I wuz always interested in the subject of fishin', and the hull world is. For what wuz the Postles? Fishers. For what did the Great Master name His beloved? Fishers of men. Why, the Bible is full of fishin' and fisherman, clear back to Jonah; and how took up he wuz with a fish, and how full the fish wuz of him! Fishin' wuz the first industry in the New World. When our Forefathers landed on Plymouth Rock they found the harbor shaped some like a fish-hook, and then consequently they went to fishin'. Who got Washington and his army over the Delaware River that bitter cold night in 1777, when the fate of our country wuz a-hangin' over that sea of broken ice--ruin on this side, and possible success on the other, but the impassable gulf of bitter cold water and the crashing masses of ice between--who got 'em acrost? Fisherman. Our country has always been noted in its interest in fishin'. Why, at the Internatial Exhibition at Berlin in 1880, America won the first prize given by the Emperor for its display. And I knew when it done so well on a foreign shore, it wuzn't goin' to make any failure of itself here under its own line, and fish tree, so to speak. Wall, as I said, Josiah expressed a willingness to go, and consequently and subsequently we went. Wall, we found it wuz a group of buildin's on a beautiful island--in the northern part of the lagoon, joinin' the improved part of Jackson Park. There wuz three on em' in number. The middle one wuz a long buildin' with a high dome, and some towers in the centre on't, and the arches and the pillows wuz all ornamented off with figgers of fishes, and crabs, and lobsters, and all sorts of water growth. It looked uneek, and first-rate, too. And when I say it wuz a long buildin', I don't want it understood that I mean length as we call it in Jonesville, but Chicago length--or rather Chicago Jackson Park length, which is fur longer than jest plain Chicago largeness. In the centre of the big buildin' is a fish-pond all ornamented with rock work, and all sorts of aquatic plants. And then all joined on to the main buildin', at each end and connected with it by carved arches, handsome as arches wuz ever made in the world, and trimmed off in the uneek way I've mentioned prior to and beforehand, wuz two other buildin's, each one on 'em 135 feet long. The buildin' to the east is the aquarum, or live fish exhibit, and that to the west is to show off the anglin' exhibit. They wuz round and kinder double-breasted lookin' on both sides. The shape on 'em is called pollygon--probable named after the man's wife that built it. It had a good many sides to it--mebby Polly had to her. I know wimmen are falsely called seven-sided lots of times. Wall, in the middle of the buildin' designed for the aquarum is a big pool of water 26 feet in diameter; in the middle of the pool is a risin' up some rocks covered with moss and ferns, from which cool streams of water are a-drippin' and a-drizzlin' down onto the reeds and rushes, where the most gorgeous-colored fishes you ever see are playin' round in the water, as cool and happy in the middle of a meltin' summer-day--not needin' no fans or parasols, jest a-divin' and a-splashin' down in the wet water, and enjoyin' themselves. I bet lots of swelterin' folks jest envied 'em. Surroundin' this rotunda, under a glass ruff, runs two lines of aquarums, separated by a wide gallery--more'n fifty of 'em in all. In the fresh water wuz all kinds of fishes from all parts of the country, and the world. Salmons, muskalunges, the great Mississippi cat-fish, alligators, trout, white-fish, sun-fishes, etc., and etcetry. In the salt water wuz sharks, torpedoes, dog-fishes, goose-fishes, sheeps heads, blue-fishes, weak-fish, and strong ones, too, I should think--why, more'n I could name if I should talk all day. [Illustration: In the salt water wuz sharks, torpedoes, dog fishes, goose-fishes, weak-fish, and strong ones, too, I should think.] Why, I shouldn't a been surprised a mite if I had seen a-floatin' up to me that old Leviathan of Job's that "couldn't be pulled out with a hook, or his nose with a cord that wuz let down." Why, I wouldn't a been surprised at nothin'--I felt a good deal of the time jest like that in all of the buildin's, and I said so to my Josiah when he'd try to surprise me by lookin' at some strange thing. "No, Josiah," I would say, "I can't be surprised no more, the time for that has gone by--gone by, a long time ago." And then there wuz gobys, sticklebacks, sea-horses, devil-fishes, and I believe there wuz a jell fish, though I didn't see it. Though so fur as jell goes, as I told Josiah, I would ruther make my own jell out of my own berries and crab-apples, and then I know how it's made. But, howsumever, there wuz all the fishes that ever swum in America, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Asia, and I d'no but what there wuz a few from Africa. And to see on the bottom of them aquarums shells a-walkin' round, with the owners of them shells inside of 'em, wuz a sight to see. Why, any one here would have 60 or 70 emotions a minute right along--a-seein' these, and a-meditatin' on the wonders of the deep. And then there wuz the rainbow fish, which is found both on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts--it has all the colors the rainbow ever had, and more too. And then to see our own magnificent water-lilies a-floatin' on top of the water, and then to see 'em down under the water, with fishes a-floatin' all amongst 'em--oh, what a sight! what a sight it wuz! Outside of the buildin', when at last we did tear ourselves away from that seen of enchantment, and went outside, I upheld by my motive to see everything I could, and Josiah by the idee that we would step into a restaurant that wuzn't fur away. When outside we see a lot of ponds all illustratin' the best way of pond culture, and all sorts of aquatic plants. Wall, at Josiah's request, we went to the nighest place and had a cup of tea and a good little lunch. And then we went back to see the fish-hooks and things that is in the west buildin' of the group. Josiah said mebby he could git his eye on some new kind of a fish-hook. He said he'd love to go beyend Deacon Henzy and Sime Yerden if he could--they boasted so over their tackle. And truly I should have thought he might have gone ahead of anything, or anybody, if he could have carried 'em home. There wuz everything that could be thought on, or that ever wuz seen in the form of fishin' apparatus--every kind of hook, and spear, and rod, and queer-lookin' baskets and pots, and tackle to catch eels and lobsters, and then there wuz models of fishin' boats and vessels, and everything else under the sun that any fisherman ever sot eyes on, from Josiah back to the Postles, and from the Postles down to any fishin' club in 1893. Why, if you'll believe it--and I d'no as I would blame you if you wouldn't, it bein' a fish story, as it were--but we did see some fish-hooks from Pompeii that had been buried 2000 years, and come out fish-hooks after all--a good deal like them Josiah uses in Jonesville creek. And speakin' of old things, we see some fishes that day--the oldest in the world; they come from Colorado--dug out of the rocks of ages ago; they wuz covered with bone instead of scales, which showed that they had had a pretty hard time on't. [Illustration: They wuz covered with bone instead of scales.] And then there wuz a big collection of nets made by the Indians from seal sinew, seal-skin braided, roots of willow tree, and whalebone. Of these last it took four men three weeks to make one, and two of these wuz gin in exchange for a jug of molasses to make rum with. A shame and a disgrace! No savage would have cheated so--no, it takes a white man to do that. And we see artificial flies so nateral that a spider would go to weavin' a net to catch it. And artificial grasshoppers, and crickets, and frogs, and little artificial minney fish made of metal, glass, pearl, and rubber. Why, if I had seen one of 'em in the brook that runs through our paster, I should have been tempted to have bent a pin, and take some weltin' cord out of my pocket and go to fishin' for it. And if they fooled me, who am often called very wise, what would you think of their foolin' a fish, who hain't got any bump of wisdom on their heads? And then there wuz trollin' spoons of all kinds and shapes, in all kinds of metal, and trollin' squids--I'd never hearn of that name before--squid! but they had 'em of all kinds; and tackle boxes, and floats, and landin' nets, and gaff hooks; there is sunthin' else I never hearn on--gaff hooks! and snells, and gimps, and spinners. Why, I'd never hearn on 'em, and Josiah hadn't either, though he acted dretful knowin', and put on a face of extreme enjoyment and appreciation. And he sez, "How a man duz enjoy seein' such things that he's ust to and knows all about!" And I sez, "What do you do with squids, anyway, or gaffs, or snells?" "Why," sez he, "I should snell with 'em, and gaff, and squid. What do you spoze?" "How do you do it?" sez I. "How do you snell?" And then he had to own up that he didn't know how it wuz done. Truly it has been said that three questions will floor the biggest philosopher. But it only took two to take the pride and vainglory out of Josiah Allen. Wall, the information gathered together here from all parts of the world, and disseminated out to individuals of the collected world, will probable make a great difference in the enjoyment and practical benefit of the fisherman, and tell hard on the fishes of 1894. Wall, we stayed round here a-lookin' at 'em different buildin's till dark, and then we didn't see a thousandth nor a millionth part of what wuz to be seen there. And I hain't half described its wonders and glories as I'd ort to, and one reason is, nobody can describe any of the buildin's--no, not if they had the tongue of men and angels. No, they are too stupendous to describe. And then, agin, I have had a kind of a feelin' of delicacy that has kind of held me back--I have been hampered. For I have kep such a tight grip holt of my principle all the while I've been describin' it, that it has weakened the grasp of my good right hand on my steel pen. I knew well how hard, how almost impossible it wuz to talk about fishin' for any length of time without lyin'. But I know I have told Josiah time and agin that it wuz possible to do it, if you kep a firm holt of the hellum, and leaned heavy on principle. I have done it, and I am proud and happy in the thought. Unless, mebby, I have lied the other way. Good land! I didn't think of that; I wuz so determined to keep within bounds, that I am actually afraid that I've lied that way; in order not to tell the fish story too big, I hain't told it big enough. Good land! I guess I won't boast any more. Wall, seein' that I am in sunthin' of a hurry, I will let it go, and mebby if I should go over it agin I should lie the other way. Good land! good land! what a world this is, and with all your care and watchfulness, how hard it is to keep walkin' right along, in Injun file, along the narrer rope walk of megumness and exact truth. But I am a-eppisodin', and to resoom. Wall, as I said, we didn't git home till pitch dark, and then I drempt of fish all night, and eels, and alligators, and such. It wuz tegus. [Illustration: I drempt of fish all night.] The next mornin' Josiah Allen met me all riz up with a new idee. He had been out to buy a new pair of suspenders, his havin' gin out the day before; and he come to our room, where I wuz calmly settin' a-bastin' in some clean cotton lace into the sleeves of my alpaca dress. And sez he right out abrup, with no preamble, "Samantha, less go down to the Fair Ground in a whale." "In a whale?" sez I; "are you a loonatick, or what duz ail you, to try to make a pair of Jonahses of us at our age?" "Wall," sez he, "they have 'em here to carry folks down to the Fair, I know, for I hearn it straight, and I should think we wuz jest the right age to go as easy as possible, and try experiments." "Wall," sez I firmly, "I hain't a-goin' to try no such experiment as that. If the Lord called me to tackle a whale, I would tackle it, but I hain't had no callin', and I hain't goin' to try to ride out in no whale." "I'm a-callin' you," sez he. "Wall," sez I dryly, "you hain't the Deity--no, indeed, fur from it." "Wall," sez he, "I'd love to go, Samantha. What a glorious piece of news to carry back to Jonesville, that we rid out in a whale. In the old Jonesville meetin'-house now, when Elder Minkley is a-preachin' on Jonah--and you know he trots him out a dozen times a year as a warnin'--how you and I could lift up our heads and tost 'em, and how the necks of the Jonesvillians would be craned round to look at us--we two, who had rid out in a whale--we had been right there, and knew how it wuz." "I don't want to show off," sez I, "and I don't want any necks craned or tosted on account of my gettin' into a whale and ridin' it;" and then I sez, "Good land! what won't Chicago do next?" And I added, "It don't surprise me a mite; it hain't no more of a wonder than lots of things I have seen here. I might a known if Chicago had sot its mind on havin' a whale to transport folks to the World's Fair she'd a done it, but I won't tackle the job." "There it is," sez he gloomily, "I never make arrangements to distinguish myself and make a name, but you must break it up. I had lotted on this, Samantha," sez he. He looked sad and deprested, and though I was bound not to give in and go, yet I made some inquiries. "How many does the whale carry? What makes you think we could both git into it?" Sez Josiah, "It carries 5000 at a time." I felt weak as a cat, jest as I had felt time and agin sence I had come to Chicago. "Wall," sez I in weak axents, and dumbfoundered, "any whale story I could hear about Chicago wouldn't surprise me a mite." And I wiped my brow on my white linen handkerchief, for though the idee didn't surprise me none, it started the sweat. Sez Josiah, "It is 225 feet long, and has a fountain in it, and a skylight 138 feet long." But jest at that minute, before I could frame a reply, even if I could have found a frame queer-shaped enough to hold my curious--curious feelin's-- Miss Plank knocked at the door and said she wuz ready to go--we had made arrangements to go together that mornin'--and Josiah tackled her about the whale; and sez she briskly-- "Oh, yes; the whaleback Christopher Columbus! It would be a good idee to go to the grounds in it; you can go down in it in half an hour--it is only seven or eight milds." So we fell in with her idee; and bein' ust to the place, she took the lead, and also the street cars, and we soon found ourselves on board the biggest floatin' ship I ever laid eyes on. And I couldn't see as it looked much like a whale, unless it wuz that it wuz long, and kinder pinted, and turned up at both ends, some the shape of a whale. Wall, I guess the hull five thousand folks wuz on board, and had brung their relations on both sides. It looked like it, and we steamed along by the shore for quite a spell, the city a-layin' in plain view for mild after mild--or that is, in as plain view as it could be under its envelopin' curtain of smoke. But bimeby the smoke all cleared away, the air wuz clear and pure, and the lake lay fair and placid fur off as we could see. It might a been the ocean, for all we could tell, for you can't see no further than you _can_, anyway, and you can't see no further than that on the Atlantic or the Pacific. Way beyend what you can't see might stretch thousands and thousands of milds and a new continent; or it might be a loggin' camp, or Kalamazoo. It don't make no difference to your feelin's, it has all the illimitable expanse, the vastness of the great ocean. So it wuz with the outlook on the flashin' blue waters on that magic mornin'. And pretty soon the White City riz up like a city of bewilderin' beauty and enchantment, with the sun a-lookin' down from a blue sky, and lightin' up the tall, white walls, and gilded domes, and towers, and minarets. And as we floated along by Jackson Park, and could git a plain view of the perfect buildin's--the lagoons with fairy boats a-skimmin' over the sparklin' surface--in fact, in plain view of the hull vast, bewilderin' seen of matchless splendor--why, I declare I felt almost as if I wuz took back clear into the Arabian Nights Entertainments, and magic seens wuz bein' unfolded before my enraptured vision. Why, I almost felt that my Josiah wuz a genii, and Miss Plank a geniess. I wouldn't a wondered a mite any minute if a carpet had dropped down for us to git onto, and we floated off into Bagdad. I felt queer--extremely. But Bagdad nor no other Dad wuz ever so enchantin'ly lovely as the seen outspread before our eyes. As surpassin'ly beautiful as the Exposition is from every side, hind side and fore side, and from top to bottom, it is, I do believe, most radiantly lovely from the water approach. You needn't be a mite afraid of gittin' your idees too riz up about the onspeakable beauty of the seen. No matter if they wuz riz up higher than you ever drempt of rizin' 'em up, instead of fallin', they will, so to speak, find themselves on the ground floor--in the suller, as you may say--so fur up beyend your highest imagination is the reality of that wonderful White City of the West-- Magic city that has sprung up there amidst the blue waters and green forests like a dream of enchantment, a hymn of glory, with not one false, harsh note in it to mar the glory and perfectness of the song. Now, I have had my idees riz up lots of times--they have riz and fell so much that my muse has fairly lamed herself time and agin, and went round limpin' for some time. And Josiah had told me time and agin, as I would go on about the beauty I expected to see at the World's Fair, "Samantha, you expect too much; you will get dissapinted; tain't Heaven you are goin' to; anybody would most expect, to hear you go on, that you expected to see the New Jerusalem--you are goin' to be dissapinted." Wall, sure enough I wuz, but the dissapintment wuz on the other side--I hadn't expected half nor a quarter nor a millionth part enough. My muse instead of comin' down from the heights that I spozed she wuz on a-cungerin' up that seen--to use metafor--she had always, as you may say, sot down flat on the ground. Why, I couldn't do justice to it in words, nor Josiah couldn't, nor Miss Plank couldn't, not if we all on us had a dictionary in one hand and a English reader in the other, and had travelled down there that beautiful mornin' with a brass band. I wuz so wropped up in my bewildered and extatic admiration that my companions wuz entirely lost from sight, when Miss Plank sez-- "Here we are, ready to land." And indeed I see on comin' to myself that the hull 5000, and their relations on both sides, wuz on the move, and it wuz time for me to disembark myself, which I proceeded to do, a-follered by the forms of my Josiah and Miss Plank. She stepped out quite briskly over her namesake, and so did Josiah. They didn't take in the full beauty and grandeur of the seen as I did--no, indeed. [Illustration: I proceeded to disembark, a-follered by the forms of my Josiah and Miss Plank.] They could think of vittles even at that time, for I heard Josiah say-- "We will settle on some place to go that is handy to a restaurant." And Miss Plank picked one where the biled corned beef wuz delicious, and the pies and coffee-- Corned beef! oh, my heart, in such a time as this! Beef corned in such a hour! But I forgive 'em and pitied 'em, for it wuz my duty. Wall, we told Josiah he should have his way that mornin', and go where he wanted to--and he wanted to tackle Machinery Hall; consequently we tackled it. And how many acres big do you suppose this buildin' wuz? Seventeen acres and a half is the size of the floor-- Jest half a acre more than Silenas Bobbetses farm, that he broke old Squire Bobbetses will to git, and he and his twin brother Zebulin come to hands and blows about, in front of the Jonesville post-office. Zebulin said it wuz too much land to give to one of the children--they wuz leven of 'em--and the farm didn't go round--the others didn't have only fifteen acres apiece. Yes; this one buildin' covered as much ground as Silenas Bobbet gits a good livin' from, a-raisin' cabbage and spinach. And the buildin' wuz seemin'ly all wrought of white marble, with statutes, and colonnades, and towers, and everything else for its comfort, and inside wuz every machine that wuz ever made or thought on, from a sassage-cutter and apple-parer to a steam engine in full blast. I believe they tuned up higher and louder when I went in--it wouldn't be nothin' surprisin' if they did, some as the brass band strikes up as the hero enters. This song wuz the loud, strong chorus of Labor, that echoes all over the world, grand chorus that is played by the full orkestry of the sons and daughters of toil. Oh, how many notes there is in this strong, ail-pervadin' anthem! Genius, and Patience, and Ambition, and Enterprise, and Ardent Endeavor--high notes, and low ones, all blent together, all tuned to the hauntin' key. It is a sam that shakes the hull earth with its might. As I entered this palace, sacred to its song, how its echoes rolled through my ear pans, how them pans seemed to fairly shiver under the mighty strokes of the song, and its weird, painful accompaniment of boilers a-boilin', rollin' mills a-rollin'! Water wheels, freight elevators--cranes a-cranin', derricks a-derrickin', divin' apparatus, fire-extinguishin' apparatus-- Machines of all sorts and kinds to manufacture all sorts of goods, and all hands to work at it--silk, cotton, wool, linen, ingy-rubber, ropes, and paper. Saw-mills, wind-mills, printin'-presses a-pressin'. All sorts of tools to make all sorts of picters--engravin's, color printin'--picters from the 16th century up to 1893--they wuz relief engravin's. I spoze they are called so because it is such a relief to think we don't have to look at them old picters now. And there wuz half-tone processes, mechanical and medicinal processes, and every other process you ever hearn on, and didn't ever hear on, right there in a procession in front of me, and all a-processin'. And there wuz machines for makin' clocks, and watches, and jewelry, and buttons, and pins, and all kinds of appliances ever used in machinery, and stun, sawin', and glass-grindin' machinery a-grindin' and makin' bricks and pottery, and used in makin' artificial stun--the idee! You'd a thought the stun wuz all made before the Lord rested. And there wuz rollin' mills a-rollin', and forges a-forgin', and rollin' trains, and harnesses, and squeezers a-squeezin'--and every machine that wuz ever made to shape metals and tire mills, and mills that wuzn't tired, I guess--I didn't see any, but I spoze they wuz there. But they all looked tired to me--tired as a dog, but I spoze it wuz my feelin's. I see all through this buildin' that there wuz more wimmen than men there--which shows what interest wimmen takes in solid things as well as ornimental. Wall, we hung around there till I wuz fearfully wore out--with the sights I see and the noise I hearn--and it wuz a relief to my eyes and ears (and I believe them ear pans never will be the pans they wuz before I went in there)--it wuz a relief when my companion begun to feel the nawin's of hunger. And after we went through Machinery Hall we went through the machine shops, at a pretty good jog, and the power-house, where there is the biggest engine in the world--24,000 horse power. Good land! and in Jonesville we consider 4 horses hitched to a load _very_ powerful; but jest think of it, twenty-four thousand horses jest hitched along in front of each other--why, they would reach from our house clear to Zoar--the idee! But Josiah's inward state grew worse and worse, and finally sez he, in pitiful axents-- "Samantha, I am in a starvin' state," and Miss Plank looked quite bad. So at their request we went a little further south to the White Horse Inn. This inn is a exact reproduction of the famous White Horse Inn in England. Thinkin' so much of Dickens as I do (introduced to him by Thomas Jefferson), it wuz a comfort to see over the mantlery-piece the well-known form of "Sam Weller," the old maid, and others of Dickenses characters, that seem jest as real to me as Thomas Jefferson, or Tirzah Ann. Over the main entrance is a statute of a white horse, lookin' considerable like our old mair, only more high-headed. The original inn had a open court, where stage-coaches drove in to unload, and from which Mr. Pickwick and his faithful Sam Weller often alighted. But instead of using it for horses now, they use it for a smokin'-room for men; they can't use it for both of 'em, for horses don't want to go in there--horses don't smoke; tobacco makes 'em sick--sick as a snipe. Man is the only animal, so fur as I know, who can have tobacco in any shape put into his mouth without resentin' it, it is so nasty. Wall, we got a good clean meal there at a reasonable price, though Miss Plank thought there wuzn't enough emptin' in the bread, and the sponge cake lacked sugar. But I think they know how to cook there--that inn is the headquarters of the Pickwick Club. Lots of English folks go there, as is nateral. Wall, after we had a lunch and rested for a spell, Josiah proposed that we should go and see the Transportation Buildin'. Miss Plank had to leave us now to go home and see about her cookin'. And we wended on alone. On our way there we met Thomas J. and Maggie and Isabelle. They wuz jest a-goin' to Machinery Hall. Maggie and Isabelle looked sweet as two new-blown roses, and Thomas J. smart and handsome. We stopped and visited quite a spell, real affectionate and agreeable. Oh, what a interestin' couple our son and his wife are! and Isabelle is a girl of a thousand. Krit had gone on to Dakota, on business, they said, but wuz comin' back anon--or mebby before. Truly, if anybody had kep track of their pride and self-conceit, and counted how many times it fell, and fell hard, too, durin' the World's Fair, it would have been a lesson to 'em on the vanity of earthly things, and a good lesson in rithmetic, too. Why, they couldn't tell the number of times unless they could go up into millions, and I d'no but trillions. Why, it would keep a-fallin' and a-fallin' the hull durin' time you wuz there, if you kep watch on it to see; but truly you didn't have no time to, no more'n you did your breathin', only when it took a little deeper fall than common, and then as it lay prostrate and wounded, it drawed your attention to it. Now, at Jonesville, the neighborin' wimmen had envied and looked up to my transportation facilities. Miss Gowdy and she that wuz Submit Tewksbury would often say to me-- "Oh, if I had your way of gittin' round--if I could only have your way of goin' jest where you want to and when you want to!" Such remarks had fed my vanity and pride. And I will own right up, like a righteous sinner, that I had ofttimes, though I had on the outside a becomin' appearance of modesty-- Yet on the inside I wuz all puffed up by a feelin' of my superior advantages-- As I would set up easy on the back seat of the democrat, and the old mair would bear me on gloriously, and admired by the neighborin' wimmen who walked along the side of the road afoot, and anon the old mair a-leavin' 'em fur behind. And, like all high stations, that back seat in the democrat and that noble old mair had brung down envy onto me and mean remarks. It come straight back to me--Miss Lyman Tarbox told she that wuz Sally Ann Mayhew, and she that wuz Sally Ann told the minister's wife, and she told her aunt, and her aunt told my son-in-law's mother, and Miss Minkley told Tirzah Ann, and she told me--it come straight-- "That Josiah Allen's wife looked like a fool, and acted like one, a-settin' up a-ridin' whenever she went anywhere, while them that wuz full as likely walked afoot!" I took them remarks as a tribute to my greatness--a plain acknowledgement of my superior means of locomotion and transportation. They didn't break the puff ball of my vanity and pride, and let the wind out--no, indeed! But alas! alas! as I entered the Transportation Buildin', and looked round me, there wuz no gentle prick to that overgrown puff ball to let the gas out drizzlin'ly and gradual--no, there wuz a sudden smash, a wild collapse, a flat and total squshiness--the puff ball wuz broke into a thousand pieces, and the wind it contained, where wuz it? Ask the breezes that wafted away Caesar's last groans, that blowed up the dust over buried Pompeii. The buildin' itself wuz a sight--why, it is 960 feet long, and the cupola in the centre 166 feet high, with eight elevators to take you up to it; the great main entrance wuz all overlaid with gold--looked full as good as Solomon's temple, I do believe--and broad enough and big enough for a hull army of giants to walk through abreast, and then room enough for Josiah and me besides. But it wuz on the inside of it that my pride fell and broke all to pieces, as I looked round me and down the long distance behind and before me. I knew--for I had been told--that one fourth of all the savin's of civilized man is invested in railroads, and when I thought of how dretful rich some men and countries are, and kings and emperors, etc., I felt prepared to do homage to a undertakin' that had swallowed up one fourth of all that accumulated wealth. But sence the world begun, never had there been a exhibition before showin' all the railroad systems of the world side by side, all the big American railroads, and great Britain, and France, and Germany. The Baltimore and Ohio exhibit shows how the railroads of the world have been thought out gradual, and come up from nothin' to what they are--grew up from a little steam carriage that wuz shut up in Paris in 1760 as bein' disordely. "Disordely!" Good land! there never wuz a new idee worth anything in this world but has been called "disordely" by fools. You can see that very little carriage here at the Fair; after bein' shut up for two hundred years, it comes out triumphant, just as Columbus has. Stevensonses first engine is here--an exact reproduction--and the hull caboodle of the first attempts leadin' up to the engines of to-day. Dretful interestin' to look at these rough little inventions and to speculate on what prophetic strivin's, and yearnin's, and heartaches, and despairs, and triumphs went into every one on 'em. For every one on 'em wuz follered, as a man is by his black shadder, by the cold, evil spirits of unbelief, malice, envy, and cheatin'. The sun the inventors walked under--the glowin' sun of prophecy and foreknowledge--always casts such shadders, some as our sun duz, only blacker. And every one of them old engines by the help of machinery is moved and turned, just as if Old Time himself had laid his hour-glass offen his head, and wuz a-puttin' his old shoulders under their iron shafts, and a-settin' them to goin' agin, after so long a time. How I wished as I looked at 'em that Stevenson and the rest of them men who lived, and worked, and suffered ahead of their time, could a been there to see the fruit of their glowin' fancies blow out in full bloom! But then I thought, as I looked out of a winder into the clear, blue depths of sky overhead, Like as not they are here now, their souls havin' wrought out some finer existence, so etheral that our coarser senses couldn't recognize 'em--mebby they wuz right here round the old home of their thoughts, as men's dreams will hang round the homes of their boyhood. Who knows now? I don't, nor Josiah. The New York Central exhibit shows the old Mohawk and Hudson train, a model of the first locomotive sot a-goin' on the Hudson in 1807 with a boundin' heart and a tremblin' hand by Robert Fulton, and which wuz pushed off from the pier and propelled onwards by the sneerin', mockin', unbelievin' laughs of the spectators as much as from the breezes that swept up from the south. I would gin a cent freely and willin'ly if I could a seen Robert stand there side by side with that old locomotive and the fastest lightin' express of to-day--like seed and harvest--with Josiah and me for a verdant and sympathizin' background. Oh, what a sight it would a been, if his emotions could a been laid bare, and mine, too! It would a been a sight long to remember. But to resoom. The first locomotive ever seen in Chicago wuz there a-puffin' out its own steam. It must felt proud-sperited in all of its old jints, but it acted well and snorted with the best on 'em. The 999, the fastest engine in the world, wuz by the side of the Clinton, the first engine ever made. I opened the coach door and got in. It looked jest like a common two-seated buggy of to-day, with seats on top, and water and wood to run it with kep in barrels behind the engine. And England and Germany, not to be outdone, brung over some of their finest railroads. Why, Wales brought over some of the actual stun ties and iron rails of the first railway in Great Britain; and as for the splendor of the coaches, they go beyend anything that wuz ever seen in the world. Side by side with the finest passenger coaches that London sends stands the Canadian Pacific, with its dinin' and sleepin' cars, and you can form an idee about the richness on 'em when I tell you that the woodwork of 'em is pure mahogany. And then the other big railroads, not to be outdone, they have their finest and most elegant cars on show-- The Pullman and Wagner and the Empire State, with its lightnin' speed, and post-office and newspaper cars, and freight, and express, and private cars. There is a German exhibit of some of them likely ambulance cars used by the Red Cross Society in war time--cars that angels bend over as the poor dyin' ones are carried from the battle-field--angels of Healin' and of Pain. Then the Belgians have a full exhibit of the light, handy vehicles of all shapes, from a barrel to a basket, that they make to run on rails. Platforms movin' by the instantaneous action of the Westinghouse brake on a train of one hundred cars is a sight to see. There are railroads for goin' like lightin' over level roads, and goin' up and down, and all sorts of street cars, a-goin' by horses, or mules, or lightnin', as the case might be. President Polk's old carriage looked jest like Grandpa Smedly's great-grandfather's buggy, that stands in this old stun carriage house, and has stood there for 100 years and more. And all sorts of gorgeous carriages that wuz ever seen or hearn on, and carts, and wagons, and buggies, from a tallyho coach to a invalid's chair and a wheelbarrow, and from a toboggan to a bicycle, and palanquins of Japan, China, India, and Africa. Howdahs for elephants, saddles for camels, donkey exhibits from South America and Egypt, the rig of the water-carriers of Cairo, the milk-sellers of South America, and the cargados, or human pack-horses, of both sexes of that country--models that show the human and brute forms of labor. Models of ox-carts, used in Jacob's time, and in which, I dare presoom to say, Old Miss Jacob ust to go a-visitin' to old Miss Abraham and Isaac, and mebby stay all day, she and the children. [Illustration: Ox-cart in which old Miss Jacob ust to go a-visitin'.] And pneumatic tubes that I spoze will be used fur more in the future, and for more various uses, and all kinds of balloons and air-ships. Balloon transportation--ridin' through the air swift as the wind--what idees that riz up under my fore-top, of takin' breakfast to home, and a-eatin' supper with the Widder Albert, or some of her folks, and spendin' the night with the Sphynx, a-settin' out by moonlight on the pyramids--a-settin' on the top stun, my feet on another one, and my chin in my hand, a-meditatin' on queer things, and a-neighborin' with 'em. From Jonesville to the Desert of Sarah, in a flash, as it were. Where wuz the old democrat--where, oh, where wuz she? Ask the ocean waves as they break in thunder on the cliff, and hain't heard from no more--ask 'em, and if they answer you, you may hear from the old democrat. And then there wuz all kinds of vessels, and boats, and steamships, and canal-boats, and yachts, and elevators, and water railways. Why, right there in plain sight wuz a section sixty feet long of one of the new Atlantic steamers, cut out of the ship, some as you cut a quarter out of an orange, or cut off a stick of candy. You can see the hull of the ship in that one piece, from the hold to the upper deck--it looks like a structure five stories high--it shows the state-room, saloon, music-room, and so forth, fitted up exactly as they are at sea, gorgeous and comogeous in the extreme. And here is the reproduction of the Viking ship, nine hundred years old--dug up in a sand-hill in Norway, in 1880. It is fitted up exactly as the Storm Kings of one thousand years ago used 'em--thirty-two oars, each seventeen feet long. Mebby that same ship brung over some Vikings here when the old Newport Mill wuz new. The English exhibit has a model of H.M.S. Victoria, three hundred and sixty feet long; there is a immense lookin'-glass behind this model, so as to make it look complete, and it is a sight to behold--a sight. Why, the U.S. has models of their great steamships, the Etruria and the Umbria, and there are every kind of vessels that wuz ever hearn on, for trade, pleasure, or war, and all kinds of Oriental ships, and all kinds of craft that ever floated in every ocean and river of the known world. From a miniature Egyptian canoe, found in a tomb, to the sheep-skin rafts of the Euphrates and the dugouts of Africa, with sails, to the gorgeous sail-boats of the Adriatic and the most ancient vessels in the world. What a sight! what a sight! It would take weeks to jest count 'em, let alone studyin' 'em as you ort. And every machine in the known world for propellin' boats and railways, from steam to lightnin'. Where wuz my old mair in such a seen? Oh, ask my droopin' sperits where wuz she? And there wuz everything about protection of life and property, communication at sea, protection against storms and fire, and all kinds of light-houses and divin' apparatus, and pontoons for raisin' sunken vessels out of the depths of the sea. And relics of Arctic explorations, every one on 'em weighted down with memories of cold, and hunger, and frozen death. And then there wuz movin' platforms and sidewalks. The idee! What would Submit and Miss Henzy say--to go out from our house and stand stun-still on the side of the road and be moved over to Miss Solomon Corkses! Oh, my soul, oh, my soul, think on't! And there wuz what they called a gravity road. And I asked Josiah "what he spozed that wuz?" and he said, "He guessed it meant our country roads in the spring or fall." Sez he, "If them roads won't make a man feel grave to drive over 'em, or a horse feel grave, too, as they are a-wadin' up to their knees in the mud, and a-draggin' a wagon stuck half way up over the hub in slush and thick mud"-- Sez he, "If a man won't feel grave under such circumstances, and a horse, too, then I don't know what will make him." "Wall," sez I, "if I wuz in Uncle Sam's place I wouldn't try to display 'em to foreign nations." Sez I, "They are disgraces to our country, and I would hush 'em up." "Yes," sez Josiah; "that is a woman's first idee to cover up sunthin'." Sez he, "I honor the old man a-comin' right out and ownin' up his weaknesses. The country roads are shameful, and he knew it, and he knew that we knew it; so why not come right out open and show 'em up?" "Wall," sez I, "it would look as well agin in him to show a good road--a good country road, that one could go over in the spring of the year without wishin' to do as Job did--curse God and die." Sez Josiah, "Job didn't do that; his wife wanted him to, and he refused; men hain't profane naterally." "Josiah Allen," sez I, "the language you have used over that Jonesville road in muddy times has been enough to chill the blood in my veins. Tell me that men hain't profane!" "Not naterally, I said; biles and country roads is enough to make Job and me swear." And he looked gloomy as he thought of the stretch from Grout Hozletons to Jonesville, and how it looked from March till June. "Wall," sez I, "less get our minds off on't," and I hurried him on to look at the Austrian exhibit, and the Alps seemed to git his mind off some. There they wuz. There was the Alps, with a railroad in the foreground; then the ship of the Invincible Armada, in the Madrid exhibit, seemed to take up his mind; and all of the guns, from the fifteenth century on to our day; and the Spanish collection of models of block-houses, forts, castles, towers, and so forth. In the middle of the main buildin' stood two big masts fifty feet high--one of our own day, with every modern convenience; the other like them masts on them ships of Columbus. I hope our sails will waft on the ship of our country to as great a success as Columbuses did. Mebby it will; I hope so. Wall, after we left the Transportation Buildin', sez Josiah, "I am dead sick of grandeur, and palaces 30 and 40 acres big, and gildin', and arches, and pillars, and iron." Sez he, "I would give a cent this minute to see our sugar house, and if I could see Sam Widrig's hovel, where he keeps his sheep, and our old log milk house, I'd be willin' to give a dollar bill." "Wall," sez I, in a kinder low voice, for I didn't want it to git out--I felt that I would ruther lose no end of comfort than to hurt the Christopher Columbus World's Fair's feelin's-- I whispered, "I feel jest exactly as you do. And," sez I, "less go and find a cabin and some huts if we can, and a board." So we, havin' been told before where we should find these, wended our way to the Esquimo village, and lo! there wuz a big board fence round it. And Josiah went up and laid his hand on them good hemlock boards lovin'ly, and sez he, "It looks good enough to eat." I could hardly withdraw him from it--he clung to it like a brother. [Illustration: "It looks good enough to eat."] Wall, inside that board fence wuz a number of cabins or huts, containin' some of 'em a hide bag or a bed, a dog sled with some strips of tin for a harness, and some plain tables, white as snow in some huts, and in some as black as dirt could make 'em. There wuz about fifty or sixty males and females and children there, and one on 'em, a little bit of a baby, born right there on the Fair ground. She wuz about as big as a little toy doll. She wuz a-swingin' there in a little hammock, and she didn't seem to care a mite whether she wuz born up to the Arctic Pole or in Chicago. Good land! what did she care about the pole? Mother love wuz the hull equatorial circle to her, and it wuz a-bendin' right over her. The little mother had pantaloons on, and didn't seem to like it; she had a long jacket and some moccasins. Right there inside of that board fence is as good a object lesson as you'll find of the cleansin' and elevatin' power of the Christian religion. There wuz two heathen families, and their cabins wuz dirty and squalid, while the Christianized homes are as clean and pure as hands can make 'em. First godliness, and then cleanliness. The way the Esquimos tell their age is to have a bag with stuns in it for years. Every year in the middle of summer they drop a stun in. How handy that would be for them who want to act young--why jest let the summer run by without droppin' the stun in, or let a hole come sort o' axidental in the bag, and let a few drop out. But, then, what good would it do? Sence Old Time himself is a-storin' up the stunny years in his bag that can't be dickered with, or deceived. And he will jest hit you over the head with them stuns; they will hit your head and make it gray--hit your eyes, and they will lose their bright light--hit your strong young limbs and make 'em weak and sort o' wobblin'. What use is there a-tryin' to drop 'em out of your own private collection of stuns? But to resoom. The Esquimos show forth some traits that are dretful interestin' to a philosopher and a investigator. They do well with what they have to do with. Now, no sewin' machine ever made finer stitches than they take on their sleepin' bags and their rain coats, etc. But the thread they use is only reindeer sinews split fine with their teeth. What would they do with sewin' silk and No. 70 thread? I believe they would do wonders if they had things to do with. There wuz one young boy who they said wuz fifteen, but he didn't look more'n seven or eight. He looked out from his little cap that come right up from his coat, or whatever you call it; it looks some like the loose frock that Josiah sometimes wears on the farm, only of course Josiah's don't have a hood to it. No, indeed; I never can make him wear a hood in our wildest storms, nor a sun-bunnet. But this little Esquimo, whose name is Pomyak, he looked out on the world as if he wuz a-drinkin' in knowledge in every pore; he looked kinder cross, too, and morbid. I guess lookin' at ice-suckles so much had made his nater kinder cold. And who knows what changes it will make in his future up there in the frozen north--his summer spent here in Chicago? Anyway, durin' the long, long night, he will always have sunthin' besides the northern lights to light up its darkness. What must memory do for him as he sits by the low fire durin' the six months night? Cold and blackness outside, and in his mind the warm breath of summer lands, the gay crowds, the throng of motley dressed foreigners, the marvellous city of white palaces by the blue waters. Wall, Josiah got real rested and sort o' sot up agin. And he laid his hand agin lovin'ly on the boards as we left the seen. Wall, on our way home I had an awful trial with Josiah Allen. Mebby what he had seen that day had made him feel kind o' riz up, and want to act. He and I wuz a-wendin' our way along the lagoon, when all of a sudden he sez-- "Samantha, I want to go out sailin' in a gondola--I want to swing out and be romantic," sez he. Sez he, "I always wanted to be romantic, and I always wanted to be a gondolier, but it never come handy before, and now I will! I _will_ be romantic, and sail round with you in a gondola. I'd love to go by moonlight, but sunlight is better than nothin'." [Illustration: "I want to swing out and be romantic and sail round with you in a gondola."] I looked down pityin'ly on him as he stood a few steps below me on the flight o' stairs a-leadin' down to the water's edge. I leaned hard on my faithful old umbrell, for I had a touch of rumatiz that day. And sez I, "Romance, Josiah, should be looked at with the bright eyes of youth, not through spectacles No. 12." Sez I, "The glowin' mist that wrops her round fades away under the magnifyin' lights of them specs, Josiah Allen." He had took his hat off to cool his forward, and I sez further-- "Romance and bald heads don't go together worth a cent, and rumatiz and azmy are perfect strangers to her. Romance locks arms with young souls, Josiah Allen, and walks off with 'em." "Oh, shaw!" sez Josiah, "we hain't so very old. Old Uncle Smedly would call us young, and we be, compared to him." "Wall," sez I, "through the purblind gaze of ninety winters we may look younger, but bald heads and spectacles, Josiah Allen, tell their own silent story. We are not young, Josiah Allen, and all our lyin' and pretendin' won't make us so." "Wall, dum it all! I never shall be any younger. You can't dispute that." "No," sez I; "I don't spoze you will, in this spear." "Wall, I am bound to go out in a gondola, I am bound to be a gondolier before I die. So you may as well make up your mind first as last, and the sooner I go, the younger I shall go. Hain't that so?" With a deep sithe I answered, "I spoze so." And he continued on, "There is such wild, free pleasure on the deep, Samantha." But, sez I, layin' down the sword of common sense, and takin' up the weepons of affection, "Think of the dangers, Josiah. The water is damp and cold, and your rumatiz is fearful." "Dum it all! I hain't a-goin' _in_ the water, am I?" "I don't know," sez I sadly, "I don't know, Josiah, and anyway the winds sweep down the lagoons, and azmy lingers on its wings. Pause, Josiah Allen, for my sake, for liniments and poultices as well as clouds have their dark linin's, and they turn 'em out to me as I ponder on your course." Sez I, "Your danger appauls me, and also the idee of bein' up nights with you." "But," sez he firmly, "I _will_ be a gondolier, I'm bound on't. And," sez he, "I want one of them gorgeous silk dresses that they wear. I'd love to appear in a red and yeller suit, Samantha, or a green and purple, or a blue and maroon, with a pink sash made of thin glitterin' silk, but I spoze that you will break that up in a minute. So, I spoze that I shall have to dwindle down onto a silk scarf, or some plumes in my hat, mebby--you never are willin' for me to soar out and spread myself, but you probable wouldn't break up a few feathers." I groaned aloud, and mentally groped round for aid, and instinctively ketched holt of religion. Sez I, "Elder Minkley is here, Josiah Allen, and Deacon Henzy--Jonesville church is languishin' in debt. Is this a time for feathers? What will they think on't? If you can spend money for silk scarfs and plumes, they'll expect you, and with good reason, too, to raise the debt on the meetin'-house." He paused. Economy prevailed; what love couldn't effect or common sense, closeness did. His brow cleared from its anxious, ambitious creases, and sez he, "Wall, do come on and less be goin." CHAPTER XVII. It rained some in the mornin', and Josiah said, "That it wuz presumptious for any one to go out onto the Fair ground in such a time." So he settled down with the last Sunday's _World_, which he hadn't had time to read before, and looked and acted as if he wuzn't goin' to stir out of his tracks in some time. [Illustration: He wuzn't goin' to stir.] But I went out onto the stoop and kinder put my hand out and looked up into the clouds clost, and I see that it didn't do no more than to mist some, and I felt as if it wuz a-goin' to clear off before long. So I said that I wuz a-goin' to venter out. Josiah opposed me warmly, and brung up the dangers that might befall me with no pardner to protect me. He brung up a hull heap on 'em and laid 'em down in front of me, but I calmly walked past 'em, and took down my second-best dress and bunnet, and a good deep water-proof cape, and sot off. Wall, I got to the Fair ground with no casualities worth mentionin', and I sauntered round there with my faithful umbrell as my only gardeen, and see a sight, and took considerable comfort. I had a good honorable lunch at noon, and I wuz a-standin' on the steps of one of the noble palaces, when I see a sedan chair approachin' shaped jest like them in my old Gography, borne by two of the men who carry such chairs. Curius-lookin' creeters they be, with their gay turbans and sashes, and long colored robes lookin' some like my long night-gowns, only much gayer-lookin'. As it approached nearer I see a pretty girlish face a-lookin' out of the side from the curtains that wuz drawed away, a sweet face with a smile on it. And I sez to myself, "There is a good, wholesome-lookin' girl, who don't care for the rain no more than I do," when I heard a man behind me say in a awe-strucken voice, "That is the Princess! that is the Infanty!" [Illustration: "There is a good, wholesome-lookin' girl."] And I sez to myself, here is a chance to put yourself right in her eyes. For I wuz afraid that she would think that I hadn't done right by her sence she come over from Spain to see us. And I didn't want her to go back with any false impressions. I wanted Spain to know jest where I stood in matters of etiquette and politeness. So it happened jest right--she descended from her chair and stood waitin' on the steps for the rest of her folks, I guess. And I approached with good nater in my mean, and my umbrell in my hand. And sez I, a-holdin' out my hand horsepitably, sez I, "Ulaley, I am dretful glad of a chance to see you." Sez I, "You have had so much company ever sence you come to America, that I hain't had no chance to pay attention to you before. "And I wanted to see you the worst kind, and tell you jest the reason I hain't invited you to my house to visit." Sez I, a-bowin' deep, "I am Josiah Allen's Wife, of Jonesville." "Of Jonesville?" sez she, in a silver voice. "Yes," sez I; "Jonesville, in the town of Lyme." Sez I, "You have probable read my books, Ulaley." Sez I, "I spoze they are devoured all over the World as eager as Ruger's Arithmetic, or the English Reader." She made a real polite bow here, and I most knew from her looks that she wuz familiar with 'em. And I kep right on, and sez I-- "From everything that I have hearn on you ever sence you come here I have took to you, jest as the hull of the rest of America has. We think a sight on you--you have shown a pattern of sweetness, and grace, and true politeness, that is long to be remembered. "And I want you to know that the only reason that I hain't invited you to Jonesville to visit me is that you have had such sights and sights of company and invitations here and there, that I told Josiah that I wouldn't put another effort onto you. "I sez to him, sez I, 'There are times when it is greater kindness to kinder slight anybody than it is to make on 'em.' And I told Josiah that though I would be tickled enough to have you come and stay a week right along, and though, as I sez to him, "'The Infanty may feel real hurt to not have me pay no attention to her,' still I felt that I had Right on my side. "Sez I, 'It is enough to kill a young woman to have to be on the go all the time, as she has had to.' Sez I, 'The American Eagle has jest driv her about from pillar to post. And Uncle Sam has most wore his old legs out a-escortin' her about "from pleasure to palaces," as the Him reads.' "And then, sez I, 'She has had considerable to do with Ward McAllister, and he's dretful wearin'.' "He's well-meanin', no doubt, and I have a good deal of sympathy for him. For, as I told Josiah, he's gittin' along in years, and I don't know what pervision eternity would give to him in the way of entertainment and use. He can't expect to go on there to all eternity a-samplin' wine, and tyin' neckties, and makin' button-hole bokays. "And I don't suppose that he will be allowed to sort out the angels, and learn 'em to bow and walk backwards, and brand some on 'em four hundred, and pick out a few and brand 'em one hundred, and keep some on 'em back, and let some on 'em in, and act. "I d'no what is a-goin' to be done in the next world, the home of eternal Truth and Realities, with a man who has spent his hull life a-smoothin' out and varnishin' the husks of life, and hain't paid no attention to the kernel. "He tires America dretful, Ward duz, and I spoze like as not he'd be still more tuckerin' to Spain, not bein' used to him, and then, too, she's smaller, Spain is, and mebby can't stand so much countin' and actin'. So, as I said to Josiah, 'The Infanty is a-havin' a hard time on't with the Ward McAllisters of society;' for, sez I, 'Though she has set 'em a pattern of simple courtesy and good manners every time she's had a chance, I knew them four hundred well enough to know that it wouldn't be took.' I knew that the American Republic, as showed out by Ward McAllister and his 'postles, wouldn't be contented to use the simple, quiet courtesy of a Royal Princess. "No; I knew America and Jonesville would have to see 'em a-goin' on, and actin', and a-plannin' which foot ort to be advanced first, and how many long breaths and how many short ones could be genteelly drawed by 'em durin' a introduction, and how many buttons their gloves must have, and how many inches the tops of their heads ort to come from the floor when they bowed, and whether their little fingers ort to be held still, or allowed to move a little. "And while Ward and his 'postles was drawed up in a line on one side of the ball-room, and not dastin' to move hand or foot for fear they wouldn't be moved genteel, you got dead tired a-waitin' for 'em to make a move of some kind. "It wuz a weary, tuckerin' sight to America and me, and must have been dretful for you to gone through. "And I sez to Josiah, 'It is no wonder that the Infanty got so tired of them performances that she had to set down and rest. "It tired America so a-seein' 'em a-pilotin' the party that she would have been glad to have sot down and rested. "Now if I'd invited you, Ulaley, as I wanted to, I wuzn't a-calculatin' to draw up Josiah and the boys and Ury on one side of the room, and the girls and myself in a line on the other side, and not dastin' to advance and welcome you for fear I wouldn't put the right foot out first, or wouldn't put in the right number of breaths a second I ort to. "No; I should have forgot myself in the pleasure of welcomin' you. I should have advanced to once with pride and welcome in every line of my liniment, and held out my hand in a respectful and joyful greetin', and let you know in every move I made how proud and glad I wuz to see you, and how proud and glad I wuz you could see me, and then I should have introduced Josiah and the children, who would have showed in their happy faces how truly welcome you wuz to Jonesville. You'd've enjoyed it first rate, Ulaley, and if there had been any difference in our manners from what you'd been used to, and we might have made a bow or two less than you wuz accustomed to, why, your good sense would have told you that manners in Jonesville wuz different from Madrid, and you'd expect it and enjoy the difference, mebby. "Of course, I knew that we couldn't do by you exactly as they do in Spain in the way of amusement--we couldn't git up no bull fight, not havin' the two materials. "But Josiah has got a old pair of steers down in our back medder that was always touchy and kinder quarrelsome. They are gittin' along in years, but mebby there is some fight left in 'em yet. "I think like as not that Josiah and Ury could have got 'em to kinder backin' up and kickin' at each other, and actin'. "I wouldn't gin a cent to seen it go on, but it would have been interesting I hain't a doubt on't, to them that wuz gin to that sort o' things. "But, as I sez, I wouldn't put it on you, Ulaley." The Infanty looked real pleasant here--she almost laughed, she looked so amiable at me; she realized well that she wuz a-meetin' one of the first wimmen of the nation, and that woman wuz a-doin' well by her. "But, as I say, Ulaley, I knew that it wuz too hard for you. I knew that between them Ward McAllisters of society, and the hosts of your honest admirers, from Uncle Sam down to Commander Davis and Miss Mayor Gilroy, you wuz fairly beat out. And I wouldn't put you to the extra effort of comin' to Jonesville. I hated to give it up, but Duty made me, and I want you to understand it and to explain it all out to Spain jest how it wuz." She smiled real sweet, and said she would, and she said "that she appreciated my thoughtful kindness." She wuz too much of a lady to talk about them that had entertained her. And I spoze she _had_ been entertained through them New York parties. She's quite a case for fun, and we got to feelin' real well acquainted with each other, and congenial. She looked dretful pretty as she looked out sideways at me and smiled. She's as pretty as a pink. And sez she, "You are very kind, madam; I highly appreciate your goodness." "Yes," sez I, "it wuz nothin' but goodness that kep me back, for Josiah and I both think our eyes on you, both as a smart, pretty woman, and a representative of that country that wuz the means of discoverin' us." And sez I with a shudder, and a skairful look onto me, "I can't bear to think of the contingency to not had Jonesville and Chicago discovered, to say nothin' of the rest of the World. "But," sez I, "my anxiety to put myself right in your eyes has runaway with my politeness." Sez I, "How is all your folks?" Sez I, "How is little Alphonso? We think a sight of that boy here, and his Ma. She's a-bringin' him up first rate, and you tell her that I think so. It will encourage her. "And how is your Ma?" sez I; and then I kinder backed out polite from that subject, and sez I, "I dare presoom to say that she has her good qualities; and mebby, like all the rest of the world, she has her drawbacks." And then a thought come onto me that made me blush with shame and mortification, and sez I, "I hain't said a word about your husband." Sez I, "I have said that I would pay particular attention to that man if I come in sight on him, and here I be, jest like the rest of America, not payin' him the attention that I ort, and leavin' him a-standin' up behind you, as usual. "How is Antoine?" sez I. She said that "He was very well." "Wall," sez I, "I am glad on't; from everything that America and I can learn of him he is a good feller--a manly, good-appearin', good-actin' young man. "And America and I wish you both dretful well--you and Spain. We think dretful well of all of you; and now," sez I, with some stateliness, "I am a-goin' to withdraw myself, and not tire you out any more." And so we shook hands cordial, and said good-bye, and I proceeded to withdraw myself, and I wuz jest a-backin' off, as I make a practice of doin' in my interviews with Royalty, when Duty gin me a sharp hunch in my left side, and I had to lock arms with her, and approach the Infanty agin on a delicate subject. I hated to, but I had to. Sez I, "Ulaley, I want you to forgive me for it if you feel hurt, but there is one subject that I feel as if I want to tackle you on." Sez I, "You've acted like a perfect lady, and a sampler of all womanly and royal graces, ever sence you come over here a-visitin', good enough to frame," sez I, "and hang up in our heart of hearts. "And there hain't but one fault that I have got to find with you, and I want to tell you plain and serious, jest as I'd love to have your folks tell Tirzah Ann if she should go over to Spain to represent Jonesville-- "I want to say, jest as kind as I can say, that if I wuz in your place I wouldn't smoke so much. "I want to tell you that if my girl, Tirzah Ann, should ever go to Spain under the circumstances I speak on, and should light up her pipe in the Escurial, I should want you to put it out for her. "I hate to have you smoke, Ulaley--I hate to like a dog. Of course," sez I, in reasonable axents, "if you wanted to smoke a little mullen or catnip for the tizik, I wouldn't mind it; but cigaretts are dretful onhealthy, and I'm afraid that they will undermind your constitution. And I think too much on you, Ulaley, to want you underminded." [Illustration: "I hate to have you smoke, Ulaley--I hate to like a dog."] She smiled, and said sunthin' about its bein' the custom of her country. And I looked real pleasant at her, but firm, and sez I, "Customs has to be gone aginst by true Reformers, and Prophets, Ulaley." Sez I, "Four hundred years ago it wuzn't the custom of the countries to discover new worlds. "But your illustrious countryman branched out and stemmed the tide of popular disfavor, and found a grand New Land. "New Worlds lay before all on us, Ulaley--we can sail by 'em on the winds of popular favor and old custom, or we can stem the tide and row aginst the stream, and, 'Go in and take the country.' "You don't know what good lays in your power to do, Ulaley, you sweet young creeter you, and now God bless you, and good-bye." There wuz a tear standin' in every one of my eyes as I said it, for a hull tide of emotions from four hundred years past to the present swashed up aginst me as I grasped holt of her pretty hand, and we parted. She looked real tender-hearted and good at me, as if she liked me, and as if her heart leaned up aginst my heart real clost. (What duz Ward McAllister and his 'postles know of such rapt moments?) Her escort driv up in two carriages jest then, and I left her, and as I went down the steps on the other side I heard her talkin' volubly to 'em--a-describin' the great seen that had took place between us, I dare say. They wuz pleased with it, I could see they wuz fairly a-laughin', they wuz so edified and highly tickled. Yes, Spain realizes it, my makin' so much on't. Wall, I didn't stay much longer, for weariness, and also the cords of affection, wuz a-drawin' me back to Miss Planks. Wall, the days and weeks wuz a-wearin' away, and Josiah and I wuz a-enjoyin' ourselves first rate. The children, and Isabelle, and Krit wuz a-havin' jest as good a time, too, as four smart young folks can have. Their minds wuz naterally, all four on 'em, as bright as a new dollar, and they had been enriched and disciplined by culture and education, so there wuz good soil indeed for the marvellous seed sowed here to spring up in a bountiful harvest. They, all four on 'em, enjoyed more than anything else the Congresses, and meetin's of the different societies of the world, for noble, and humane, and philanthropic interests. And as for me, if I wuz to be made to tell at the pint of the sword what I thought wuz the very best and most glorious product of the World's Columbian Fair, I would say I thought it wuz these orations, and debates, by the brightest men and wimmen on earth, congregated at Columbuses doin's. They wuz the wreaths of the very finest, sweetest blossoms that crowned Uncle Sam's old brow this glorious summer of 1893. The most advanced thought on religion, art, science, philanthropy, and every branch of these noble and riz-up subjects wuz listened to there by my own rapt and orstruck ears. And not only the good and eloquent of my own Christian race, but Moslem, Buddhist, and Hindoo. Teachers of every religious and philosophical system wuz heard, givin' friendly idees, and dretful riz-up ones, on every subject designed to increase progress, prosperity, and the peace of mankind. What subjects could be bigger than these, and more important to the World and Jonesville? Not any; not one. And what solid comfort I took through the hull caboodle of 'em--Peace Societies, Temperance, Wimmen's Rights, Sabbath Schools, Kindergarten, Christian Science, Woman's protective union, Improvement in dress, etc., etc., and etcetry. I sot happy as a queen through 'em all, and so did the girls, a-listenin' to every topic hearn on the great subject of makin' the old world happier and better behaved. Josiah didn't seem to care so much about it. He would often excuse himself--sometimes he would have a headache, but most always his headaches would improve so that he could git out into the city somewhere or onto the Fair ground. He would most always recooperate pretty soon after we started to the Congress, or Lecture Hall, or wherever our intellectual treat wuz. [Illustration: Sometimes he would have a headache.] And when I'd come home I'd find him pretty chipper. And then often the children would come after us in a carriage and take us all over the city and out into the suburbs, and display all the strange sights to us, or they would take us to the beautiful parks, through the long, smooth, beautiful boulevards. And no city in the world can go ahead of Chicago in this, or so it seems to me--the number and beauty of their parks, and the approaches to them. There wuz a considerable number of railroads to cross, and I wuz afraid of bein' killed time and agin a-crossin' of 'em, and would mention the fact anon, if not oftener; but I didn't git killed, not once. Wall, so Time run along; roses and ripe fruit wreathed his old hour-glass, and we didn't hardly realize how fast he wuz a-swingin' his old scythe, and how rapid he was a-walkin'. Isabelle had promised to come and stay a week with me jest as soon as a room was vacant. And so the day that Gertrude Plank left I writ a affectionate note to her, and reminded her of her promise, and that I should expect her that evenin' without fail. I sent the note in the mornin', and at my pardner's request, and also agreeable to my own wishes, we meandered out into the Fair grounds agin. There wuz a number of things that we hadn't seen yet, and so there would have been if we had stayed there a hull year. But that day we thought we would tackle the Battle Ship, so we went straight to it the nearest way. Wall, as I looked off and got a plain view of the Illinois, it was headed towards me jest right, and I thought it wuz shaped some like my biggest flat-iron, or sad-iron, as some call 'em. And I don't know why, I am sure, unless it is because wimmen are middlin' sad when they git a big ironin' in the clothes-basket, and only one pair of hands to do it, and mebby green wood, or like as not have to pick up their wood, only jest them arms to do it all, them and their sad-irons. Wall, as I say, it wuz headed jest right, so it did look shaped for all the world like that old flat-iron that fell on to me from Mother Allen. Of course it wuz bigger, fur bigger, and had a hull string of flags hitched from each end on't to the middle. Wall, it wuz a high, good-lookin' banner a-risin' out and perched on top of a curius-lookin' smoke-stack. And for all the world, if that line of flags didn't look some like a line of calico clothes a-hangin' out to dry, hitched up in the middle to the top of the cherry-tree, and then dwindlin' down each end to the corner of the house, and the horse barn. But I wouldn't have that Battle-Ship git wind on't that I compared it to clothes-lines, and flat-irons, not for a dollar bill; for battle-ships are naterally ferocious, and git mad easy. There wuz sights of good-lookin' flags histed up at one end on't, besides the clothes-line full, and lots of men a-standin' round on't. They didn't seem to act a mite afraid, and I don't spoze I ort to be. But lo and behold! come to pry into things, and look about and find out, as the poet sez, that wuzn't a real ship a-sailin' round, as it looked like, but it wuz built up on what they call pilin'--jest as if Josiah should stick sticks up on the edge of the creek, and build a hen-house on 'em, or anything. [Illustration: Come to pry into things, and look about and find out, that wuzn't a real ship a-sailin' round.] It is a exact full-sized model, three hundred and forty-eight feet long, of one of the new coast-line battle-ships now a-bein' built for the safety and protection of our country, at a cost of about three million dollars each. The imitation ship is built on the lake front at the northeastern point of Jackson Park. It is all surrounded with water, and has all the appearance of bein' moored to the wharf. It has all the fittin's that belong to the actual ship, and all the appliances for workin' it. Officers, seamen, marines, mechanics, are sent there by the navy department, and the discipline and way of life on a naval vessel is fully shown. I wuz glad to see that it had a woman for a figger-head. I guess that the nation thought, after seein' how Miss Palmer went ahead and overcome the difficulties in her path, and kep her beautiful face serene, and above the swashin' waves of opposition all the time--they thought that they wuzn't afraid to let a woman be riz up on their ship, a-lookin' fur out over the waters, and a-takin' the lead. It looked quite well. There wuz lots of lace-work and ornaments about her, but she carried herself first rate. Wall, the ship as a hull is dretful interestin' to warriors and such, and mariners. As for me, I thought more of statutes, and pictures, and posies, and Josiah didn't take to it so much as he did to steers, and horse-rakes, and so forth. But good land! in such a time as this, when there is everything on the face of the earth, and under it, and above the earth to see, everybody has a perfect right to suit themselves in sights, and side shows. Wall, we stayed there for some time a-lookin' round, and a-meditatin' on how useful this ship and others like it would be in case another war should break out, and how them ships and what is contained in 'em would be the means of savin' America and Jonesville. And I had quite a number of emotions, and I guess Josiah did too. And then we kinder sauntered along on that broad, smooth path by the side of Lake Michigan, and kinder looked off onto her with a affectionate look, and neighbored some with her. Her waters looked dretful peaceful and calm, after seein' everybody in the hull world, and hearin' every voice that ever wuz hearn, a-talkin' in every language, and seein' every strange costume that wuz ever worn, and etc., etc., etc. And so we sauntered along till we got to the Casino, and Music Hall a-risin' up at the eastern end of the grand basin. We had laid out to come here before, and should, most probable, if the hull of music had been shet up inside of that tall, impressive-lookin' buildin'; but truly music had cheered our souls frequent on our daily pilgrimages, so we had neglected to pay attention to the Music Hall and Casino till now. Josiah wuz anxious to attend to it. And I myself felt that Duty drawed me, bein' quite a case for music. And havin' led the choir for years before my marriage to Josiah Allen, and havin' married a man that _sez_ he can sing. But if the noise he makes is singin', then I would be willin' to say that I never had riz the eight notes, or fell 'em neither. But he sez that he loves music; and he had talked quite a good deal to me about the Music Hall and Casino. That Casino didn't sound quite right; it sounded sunthin' like "Seven-Up" and "Pedro," and I told him so. But he said that "it wuz all right;" he said "that it wuz took from the Hebrew." But I believe he said that to blind my eyes. Wall, when we hove in sight of it we see the high towers that riz up above it some distance off, with flags a-comin' kinder out of it on both sides, some like a stupendious pump, with handles on both sides and red table-cloths a-hangin' over 'em, but immense--immense in height. Wall, I spozed it would look as well agin there as the Jonesville Singin' School, and be fur bigger. But good land! and good land! Why, jest the entrance to them buildin's is enough to strike the most careless beholder with or. Such pillows, and such arches, and such ornaments, I never expected to see till I got through with _this_ planet anyway. But there wuz one piece of sculpture there that when I see it I instinctively stopped stun still and gazed up at it with mingled feelin's of pride and sorrow. It wuz a chariot in which stood the Discoverer, a-lookin' off, fur-sighted, and determined, and prophetic, and everything else that could be expected of that noble Prophet and Martyr, Columbus. The chariot wuz drawn by four high-headed and likely horses as I ever see. But alas! for my own sect. Two noble and beautiful wimmen stood a-walkin' afoot, barefoot too--stood right there between the horses, each one a-holdin' the bits of two of them high-headed beasts, and their huffs ready to kick at 'em. They didn't look afraid a mite, so I don't know as I need to worry about 'em. But I couldn't help thinkin'--that is the way that it has always been, men a-ridin' the chariots of Power, drawed by satisfied ambition, and enterprise, and social and legal powers, and the wimmen a-walkin' along afoot by the side of the chariot, and a-leadin' the horses. Bringin' men into the world, nurturin' 'em, comfortin' 'em through life, and weepin' over their tomb. Yes, she has led the horse, but walked afoot, and the stuns have been sharp and cold under her bare feet, and the dust from the chariot has riz up and blinded her sad eyes time and agin, so's that she couldn't look off any distance. The horses have been hard bitted; their high huffs and heads drawed dretful hard at the bit held in her weak grasp, and she has been kicked a good deal by their sharp huffs. On the two off horses there wuz two figgers a-holdin' up high gorgeous banners; of course they wuz men, and of course they wuz ridin'. Three men a-ridin' and two wimmen a-walkin' afoot; it didn't seem right. Not that I begretched Columbus--that noble creeter--the ease he had; if I'd had my way I'd had a good spring seat fixed onto that chariot, so that he could rid a-settin' down; or, at any rate, I'd laid a board acrost it, with a buffalo robe on't. I wouldn't had him a-standin' up. It hain't because I've got anything aginst Columbus--no indeed; but I am such a well-wisher of my own sect that I hate to see 'em in such a tryin' place. But I wuz glad of one thing, and mebby that wuz one thing that made them poor wimmen look so fearless and sort of riz up. They wuz in the East--they wuz in the past; the sun wuz a-movin' along, they could foller its rays along into the golden day. Why, right before 'em, on the other side of the basin, with only a little water between 'em that would soon be crossed, they could see a woman a-towerin' up a hundred feet, in plain view of all the countries of the assembled world, a-holdin' in her outstretched hand the emblems of Power and Liberty. But to resoom: Josiah and I had a first-rate time there at that Music Hall, and enjoyed ourselves first rate a-hearin' that most melodious music, though pretty loud, and a-seein' the Musicianers all dressed up in the gayest colors, as if they wuz officers. And truly they wuz. They marshalled the rank and file of that most powerful army on earth, the grand onseen forces of melody, that vanquishes the civilized and savage alike, and charms the very beast and reptile. The sweet power that moves the world, and the only earth delight that we know will greet us in the land of the Immortals. Truly the hour we spent there wuz long, long to be remembered. And after we reluctantly left the Hall of Melody, the music still swelled out and come to our ears in hauntin' echoes. Josiah had wandered away to a little distance to see sunthin' or ruther that had attracted his attention, and I stood still, lost in thought, and almost by the side of myself, a-listenin' to the low, sobbin' music of the band. [Illustration: A-listenin' to the low, sobbin' music.] I wuz almost by the side of myself with my rapt emotions when I hearn a voice that recalled me to myself-- "Drusilla, I'm clean beat out." "Are you, Deacon Sypher? Wall, it is because you are so smart, and see so much." Truly, thinkses I, it don't take much smartness to see much in this place. But instinctively with that idee come the thought--nobody but Drusilla Sypher could or would make that admirin' remark. And I turned and advanced onto 'em with a calm mean. But I see in that first look that they looked haggard and wan, as wan agin as I ever see 'em look, and fur, fur haggarder. They looked all broke up, and their clothes looked all rumpled up and seedy, some as if they had slept in 'em for some weeks. But I hain't one to desert old friends under any circumstances, so I advanced onto 'em, and sez, with a mean that looked welcomin' and glad-- "Why, Drusilla and Deacon Sypher," sez I, "how glad I am to see you! When did you come? Have you been here long?" And they said "they had been in Chicago some five weeks." "Is that so?" sez I. "And how have you enjoyed the Fair? I spoze you have seen a good deal, if you have been here so long." Sez Drusilly, "This is the first time we have been on to the Fair ground." "Why'ee!" sez I, "what wuz the matter?" She turned round, and see that Deacon Sypher had stopped some distance away to speak to my pardner and to look at sunthin' or ruther, and she told me all about it. She said that the Deacon had thought that it would be cheaper to live in a tent, and cook over a alcohol lamp; so they had hired a cheap tent, and went to livin' in it. But a hard wind and rain-storm come up the very first night, and blew the hull tent away; so they had to live under a umbrell the first night in a hard rain. Wall, she took a awful cold, and by the time they got the tent fastened down agin she wuz down with a sore throat and wuz feverish, and couldn't be left alone a minit, so the doctor said. [Illustration: She took a awful cold.] So the Deacon had to stay with her night and day, and change poultices, and give medicine, etc., and he had to hire porridges made for her, and things. There wouldn't any of the campers round 'em do anything for 'em; for he had, accordin' to his own wishes, got right into a perfect nest of Prohibitionists. The Deacon wuz perfectly devoted to the temperance cause himself--wouldn't drink a drop to save his life--and dretful bitter and onforgivin' to them that drinked. But it happened that bottle of alcohol for their lamp got broke right onto the Deacon's clothes. His vest, and pantaloons, and coat wuz jest soaked with it; so's when he went after help they called him an old soaker, and said if he'd been sober the tent wouldn't have broke loose. They scorfed at him fearful, and wouldn't do a thing to help him. He told 'em he wuz a strict tetoteler, and hadn't drinked a drop for over forty years. And they said, "Git out, you wretched old sot! You smell like a saloon!" And another said, "Don't tell any of your lies to me, when jest one whiff of your breath is enough to make a man reel." It cut the Deacon up dretful to be accused of drinkin' and lyin'. But they wouldn't one of 'em help a mite, and it kep him boned right down a-waitin' on her. And they, jest as she got a little better, there come on a drizzlin' rain, and it soaked right down through the tent, and run in under it, so they wuz a-drippin', both on 'em. But the Deacon took it worse than she did, for he elevated her onto their trunks, made a bed up on top of 'em for her as well as he could. But he got soaked through and through, and it brung on rumatiz, and he couldn't move for over nine days. And the doctors said that his case wuz critical. Of course she couldn't leave him, and havin' to cook over a alcohol lamp, it kep her to home every minit, even if he could be left. So she said they got discouraged, and their bills run up so high for doctors, and medicines, and plasters, etc., that they calculated to break up tent and go and board for a few days, git a look at the Fair, and then go home. And sez she, "I spoze you have been here every day." "Yes," sez I; "we would have a nice warm breakfast and supper at our boardin' place, and a good comfortable bed to sleep in, and we would buy our dinner here on the Fair ground, and we have kep real well." She looked enviously at me out of her pale and haggard face. Sez she, "We have both ruined our stomachs a-livin' on crackers and cheese. I shall never see a well day agin! And we both have got rumatiz for life, a-layin' round out-doors. It is dangerous at our time of life," sez she. "What made you do it, Drusilla?" sez I. "Wall," she said, "the Deacon wanted to; he thought he couldn't afford to board in a house; and you know," sez Drusilla, "that the Deacon is a man of most splendid judgment." "Not in this case," sez I. And then, at my request, she told me what they had paid out for doctors and medicines, and it come to five dollars and 63 cents more than Josiah and I had paid for our board, and gate fees, and everything. And that didn't count in the cost of their two dyspeptic boards, or their agony in sickness and sufferin', or their total loss of happiness and instruction at the Fair. When we reckoned this up Drusilla come the nighest to disapprovin' of the Deacon's management that I ever knew her to. She sez, and it wuz strong language for Drusilla Sypher to use-- Sez she, "If it had been any other man but Deacon Sypher that had done this, I should been mad as a hen. But the Deacon is, as you well know, Josiah Allen's Wife, a wonderful man." "Yes," sez I, "Drusilla, I know it, and have known it for some time." She looked real contented, and then I sez-- "Josiah Allen had got his mind all made up to tent out durin' the Fair. But I broke it up," sez I--"I broke it up in time!" At this very minit Josiah and Deacon Sypher come back to us, the Deacon a-limpin', and a-lookin' ten years older than when we last seen him in Jonesville. And my pardner pert, and upright, and fat, under my management. Wall, we four stayed together the rest of the day, a-lookin' at one thing and another. And when we got home that night, lo and behold! Isabelle had come jest before we did. And supper wuz all ready--or dinner, as they all called it; but I don't know as it makes much difference when you are hungry. The vittles taste jest about the same--awful good, anyway. We wuz pretty late, so there wuzn't anybody to the table but jest Isabelle and Josiah and me. And we three had a dretful good visit with each other. She is jest as sweet as a rosey in June. I make no matches, nor break none. But I couldn't help tellin' Josiah Allen in confidence from time to time that it did seem to me that Isabelle and Mr. Freeman wuz cut out for each other. Every time I see Isabelle--and Krit and Thomas J. had often made some app'intment where our family party could all meet--and every time I see her, I liked her better and better. And Maggie, who of course had seen more of her than I had, bein' in the same house with her, she told me in confidence, and in the Mexican Exhibit, that "Isabelle was an angel." No, I make no matches, nor break none. But I happened to speak sort of axidently as it were to Mr. Freeman one day, and told him my niece wuz a-comin' to spend a week with me, jest as quick as Miss Planks step-sister's daughter's cousin got away. (Miss Plank, like the rest of Chicago freeholders, had relations back to the 3d and 4th generation come onto 'em like flocks of ravenin' grasshoppers or locusses, durin' the Fair.) And I sez--though I am the one that hadn't ort to say it, mebby--"She is one of the sweetest girls on earth." Sez I, "I call her a girl, though I spoze I ort to call her a woman, for she is one in years. But because she hain't never been married," sez I presently, "hain't, no reason that she couldn't be, for she has had offers, and offers, and might be married any day now. "But," sez I, "she kep single from duty once, and now it seems to be from choice." He sort of smiled with his eyes. He wuz used to such talk, I spoze. Good land! the wimmen all made perfect fools of themselves about him. But he sez in his pleasant way, "I shall be very glad to meet your niece. I shall be sure to like her, if she is any like her aunt." Pretty admirin' talk, that wuz. But good land! Josiah sot right there, and he wuzn't jealous a mite. Mr. Freeman wuz young enough to be my boy, anyway. And then Josiah knew what I had in my mind. But I told my pardner that night, sez I-- "I hain't mentioned Mr. Freeman's name to Isabelle, and hain't a-goin' to; for one reason, she wouldn't come nigh the house if she knew what I wuz a-thinkin' on, and for another reason, I am a-goin' to try to stop a-thinkin' on't. He took it so beautiful, and he has match-makers a-besettin' him so much, I dare presoom to say he mistrusted what I wuz up to in my own mind. And, like as not, Isabelle wouldn't look at him, or any other man, anyway. "But I wouldn't have thought on't in the first place," sez I, "if Isabelle hadn't been such a born angel, and seemed cut out a purpose for him by Providence. But I shall try to stop a-thinkin' on't." And sez Josiah, "You had better have done that in the first place." Wall, I wuz as good as my word. I didn't say another word _pro_ nor _con_. But I kep up a-thinkin' inside of me, bein' but mortal, and havin' two eyes in my head. Wall, as I say, finally Gertrude Plank had left her room vacant, and our niece had come to us with a cheerful face and one small trunk full of neccessaries for her week's visit. I call her our niece, though she wuzn't quite that relationship to us. But it is quite hard sometimes to git the relationship headed right, and marshal 'em out into company before you--specially when they are fifth or sixth cousins. And I thought, bein' our ages wuz such, and our affections wuz so strong, back and forth, that it would be jest as well to jest use that plain term aunt and uncle and niece--it looked better, anyway, as our ages stood. And I didn't think it wuz anything wrong, for good land! we are called uncle and aunt, my Josiah and me are, by lots of folks that hain't no sort of kin to us, and Isabelle wuz related to us anyway by kin and by soul ties. Wall, to resoom: the evenin' after Isabelle got there it wuz burnin' warm in my room. And her room wuz still worse, way up on top of the house; but it wuz the best room that we could git for her, and she wuz contented with it for the sake of bein' with her Uncle Josiah and me. After we got up from the supper-table--Mr. Freeman wuz away that day, but I felt free to take her into that big, cool room, and so we went into that beautiful place. And then, all of a sudden, as Isabelle stood there in front of that pretty girl down by the medder brook amongst the deep grasses-- All of a sudden it come to me who the girl looked like: it wuz Isabelle. As she stood in front of it, in her long white dress, with her white hands clasped loose in front of her, and her auburn hair pushed back careless from her beautiful face, I see the girl in the picture, or as she would be if she had grown refined and beautiful by sorrow and a sweet patience and reasonableness, which is the twin of Patience, both on 'em the children of Pain. As I stood there a-lookin' at her in admiration and surprise, I heard a sound behind me. It wuzn't a cry nor a sithe, but it wuz sunthin' different from both, more eager like, and deadly earnest, and dumbfoundered. And then it wuz Mr. Freeman's voice I knew that said-- "My God! am I a-dreamin'?" And then Isabelle turned, and her face filled with a rapturous surprise and joy, and everything. And sez she-- "Tom!" And he jest rushed forward, and in a secent had her in his arms. And I bust out a-cryin', and turned my back to 'em, and went out. But it wuzn't more than a few minutes before they rapped at my door, and their faces looked like the faces of two angels who have left the sorrows of earth and got into Heaven at last. And I cried agin, and Isabelle cried as I held her in my arms silently, and kissed her a dozen times, and I presoom more. And Mr. Freeman kissed me on my left cheek, and wrung my hand that hard that that right hand ached hard more'n a hour and a half. And I bathed it in arneky and water long enough after Isabelle had gone to her room, and Mr. Freeman to hisen. For till this mortal has put on immortality folks have to eat and sleep, and if their hands are wrung half off, either through happiness or anger, flesh, while it is corruptible, will ache, and bones will cry out if most crushed down. But arneky relieved the pain, and the light of the mornin' showed the faces of these reunited lovers, full of such a radiant bliss that it did one's soul good even to look at 'em. It seems that Isabelle had told him in that long-ago time when they parted that she wouldn't keep up a correspondence with him. She felt that she had ort to leave him free. And he wuz poor, and he would not fetter her with a memory she might perhaps better forgit. Poor things! lovin' and half broken-hearted, and both hampered with duties, and both good as gold. So they parted, she to take care of her feeble parents, and he to take care of his invalid mother and the two little ones. But lo and behold! after they had lived in that Western city for a few years, Tom a-workin' hard as he could to keep the wolf from the door, and from devourin' the three helpless ones, his brother returned from California as rich as a Jew, and he took his two little girls back with him and put 'em in school, and give Tom the money to start in business, and he wuz fortunate beyend any tellin'--got independent rich; then his ma wuz took sick and died, he a-waitin' on her devoted to the very last. Then, heart-hungry and lonesome, he broke through the vow he had made, and writ to Isabelle; but Isabelle had gone from the old place--she didn't git the letters. Then he writ agin, for his love wuz strong and his pride weak--weak as a cat. True Love will always have that effect on pride and resolve, etc. But no answer came back to his longin' and waitin' heart. And then, I spoze, Pride kinder riz up agin, and he said to himself that he wouldn't worry her and weary her with letters that she didn't think enough of to answer. And he had about made up his mind that all he should ever see of Isabelle would be the shadder of her beauty in the girl by the old medder bars, standin' in the fresh grasses, by the laughin' brook, all lookin' so like the dear old farm when he won her love so long ago. That dead, mute, irresponsive picture wuz more to him than any livin', breathin' woman could ever be. So he camped down before it, as you may say, for life--that is, he thought so; but Providence wuz a-watchin' over him, and his thoughtful, unselfish kindness to a stranger, or strangers, wuz to be rewarded with the prize of love and bliss. Wall, the World's Fair wuz, I spoze, looked on by many a pair of glad eyes. Hearts that throbbed high with happiness beat on through them majestic rooms. But happier hearts and gladder eyes never glowed and rejoiced in 'em than Isabelle's and her handsome lover's. And wuzn't Krit glad? Wuzn't he glad of soul to see Isabelle's happiness? Yes, indeed! And Maggie and Thomas Jefferson. Why, of course we wouldn't sing out loud in public, not for anything. We knew it wouldn't do to go along the streets or in the halls and corridors of the World's Fair, a-singin' as loud as we could-- "Joy to the World!" Or, "What amazin' bliss is this!" or anything else of that kind--no, we wuz too well-bread to attempt it; but inside of us we jest sung for joy, the hull set and caboodle of us. All but Miss Plank, and a few old maids and widders, and such, who mebby had had hopes. Miss Plank looked and acted as flat and crushed down as one of her favorite cakes, or as if she wuz a-layin' under her own sirname. She said she hated to lose the profit of such a boarder, and mebby that wuz it--I don't say it wuzn't. But this I know, wimmen will keep up hopes, moles or no moles, and age has no power to keep out expectations. But I make no insinuations, nor will take none. She said that it wuz money she hated to lose, and mebby it wuz. But on that question I riz up her hopes agin, for Mr. Freeman wuz bound on bein' married imegatly and to once, and he said that they would remain right there for the remainder of the year at least. Isabelle hung off, and wanted to go back to Jonesville and be married to our house, as I warmly urged 'em to. But Mr. Freeman, lookin' decided and firm as anything you ever see, he sez to Isabelle-- "Do you suppose I am ever goin' to lose sight of you agin? No indeed!" And I sez, "Wall, come right home with us to Jonesville, and keep your eyes on her." I wuz as happy as a king, and he knew it. And he thinks a sight of me, for it wuz through me, he sez, that their meetin' wuz brought about. He didn't say he wouldn't do that, so I wuz greatly in hopes that that would be the way it would turn out. I thought to myself, "Oh, how I would love to have 'em married in my parlor, right back of the hangin' lamp!" The semi-detatched widder said she got a letter about that time bringin' her bad news, trials, and tribulations, so it wuzn't to be wondered that she looked sad and worried. Mebby she did git such a letter. But anyway she and Miss Plank made up with each other. They become clost friends. Miss Plank told me, "She loved her like a sister." And the semi-detatched widder told me, "If she ever see a woman that she thought more on than she did her own mother, it wuz Miss Plank." Wall, I wuz glad enough to see 'em reconciled, for they had been at such sword's pints, as you may say, that it made it dretful disagreeable to the other boarders. Miss Piddock acted, and I believe wuz tickled, to see Mr. Freeman's happiness; for he didn't make any secret of it, and couldn't, if he wanted to. For radiant eyes and blissful smiles would have told the story of his joy, if his lips hadn't. Miss Piddock said that "if Mr. Piddock had been alive that he could say truly that he could sympathize with him in every respect, for that dear departed man had known, if anybody had, true connubial bliss." And then she brung up such piles of reminiscences of that man, that I felt as if I must sink under 'em. But I didn't; I managed to keep my head above 'em, and keep on a-breathin' as calm and stiddy as I could. Even Nony acted a trifle less bitter and austeer when he heard the news, and made the remark, "That he hoped that he would be happy." But there wuz a dark and shudderin' oncertainty and onbelief in his cold eyes as he said that "Hope" that wuz dretful deprestin' to me--not to Mr. Freeman; no, that blessed creeter wuz too happy to be affected by such glacial congratulations as Nony Piddock's. CHAPTER XVIII. Of course, feelin' as I did about my Uncle Samuel, it wouldn't have done to not gone to the Government Buildin', where he makes his headquarters, so to say. Like the other palaces, this is so vast that it seemed as we stepped up to it some like wadin' out into Lake Michigan to examine her. We couldn't do it--we couldn't do justice to Michigan with one pair of feet and eyes--no, indeed. Wall, no more we couldn't do justice to these buildin's unless we laid out to live as long as Methusleah did, and hang round here for a hundred years or so. We had to go by a lot of officers all dressed up in uniforms. But we wuzn't afraid--we knew we hadn't done anything to make us afraid. Josiah wuz considerable interested in the enormous display of rifles, and all the machinery for makin' 'em, and showin' how and where the destructive instruments used in war are made. And then there wuz dummy cavalry horses, and men, and ponies, and cattle, showin' the early means for transportation of the mails, compared with the modern way of carryin' it on lightnin' coaches. But it wuz a treat indeed to me to see the original papers writ by our noble forefathers. To be sure, they wuz considerable faded out, so that I couldn't read 'em much of any; but it wuz a treat indeed to jest see the paper on which the hands of them good old creeters had rested while they shaped the Destinies of the New World. They held the pen, but the Almighty held the hands, and guided them over the paper. When I see with my own two eyes, and my Josiah's eyes, which makes four eyes of my own (for are we two not one? Yes, indeed, we are a good deal of the time)-- Wall, when I see with these four eyes the very paper that Washington, the Immortal Founder of His Country, had rested his own hand on--when I see the very handwritin' of his right hand and the written thoughts of hisen, which made it seem some like lookin' into the inside of that revered and noble head, my feelin's riz up so that they wuz almost beyend my control, and I had to lean back hard on the pillow of megumness that I always carry with me to stiddy myself with. I had to lean hard, or I should have been perfectly wobblin' and broke up. And then to see Jefferson's writin', and Hamilton's, and Benjamin Franklin's--he who also discovered a New World, the mystic World that we draw on with such a stiddy and increasin' demand for supplies of light, and heat, and motion, and everything-- When I see the very writin' of that hand that had drawed down the lightnin', and had hitched it to the car of commerce and progress-- Oh, what feelin's I felt, and how many of 'em--it wuz a sight. And then I see the Proclamation of the President; and though I always made a practice of skippin' 'em when I see 'em in the newspaper, somehow they looked different to me here. [Illustration: I see the Proclamation of the President.] And then there wuz agreements with Foreign Powers, and some of them Powers' own handwritin' photographed; and lots of treaties made by Uncle Sam--some of 'em, especially them with the Injuns, I guess the least said about the soonest mended, but the biggest heft on 'em I guess he has kept-- Treaties of peace and alliance, pardon of Louisiana and Florida, Alaska, etc., all in Uncle Sam's own handwritin'. And then there wuz the arms of the United States--and hain't it a sight how fur them arms reach out north and south, east and west--protectin' and fosterin' arms a good deal of the time they are, and then how strong they can hit when they feel like it! And then there wuz the big seal of the United States. I had read a description of it to Josiah that mornin', and had explained it all out to him--all about the Argant, and Jules, and the breast of the American Eagle displayed proper. I sez, "That means that it is proper for a bird to display its breast in public places; and," sez I, "though it don't speak right out, it probable means to gin a strong hint to fashionable wimmen. "And then," says I, "it holds in its dexter talons a olive branch. That means that it is so dextrous in wavin' that branch round and gittin' holt of what it wants. "And holdin' in its sinister talons a bunch of arrows." Sez I, "That means that in war it is so awful sinister, and lets them arrows fly onto its enemies where they are needed most." And then the Eagle holds in its beak a strip of paper with "E. Pluribus Unum" on it, which means "One formed out of many." And how many countries will wheel into the procession and become part of the great one as the centuries go on? I don't believe Uncle Sam has the least idee; I know I hain't, nor Josiah. For on the back part is a pyramiad unfinished; no knowin' how many bricks will yet be laid on top of that pyramiad, or how high it will shoot up into the heavens. And then there is a big eye surrounded with a Glory. The eye of the United States most likely, and I spozed mebby it meant big I and little You. I didn't know exactly what it did mean till I catched sight of the words above, meanin' "The eye of Providence is favorable to our undertakin's." And then I felt better, and hoped it wuz so. Down under the pyramiad is words meanin' "A New Order of Centuries." That riz me up still more, for I knew it wuz true. Yes; when Columbus pinted the prow of that caraval of hisen towards the New World, the water broke on each side of it, a-washin' back towards the Old World the decayin' creeds and orders of the Old World, and the ripples that danced ahead on't, clear acrost the Atlantic, wuz a-carryin' new laws, new governments; and hoverin' over the prow as it swept on in the darkness and the dawn, onseen to any eye, not even the prophetic eye of the discoverer, hovered the great angels Liberty, Equal Rights, and Human Brotherhood. For them angels could see further than we can; they could see clear ahead when the iron chains should fall from black wrists, and as mighty chains, though wrought with gold, mebby, should fall from the delicate white wrists of mother, and wife, and sister. It could see that this indeed wuz "A New Order of Centuries." And then we see--kep jest as careful as though it wuz pure gold and diamonds--the petition of the Colonies to the King of England. And I'll bet England has been sorry enuff to think it didn't hear to 'em, and act a little more lenient to 'em. And then there wuz the old Constitution of the United States, in the very handwritin' of its immortal framer. And then there wuz the Declaration of Independence. Good, likely old document as ever wuz made. I know I hain't felt towards it as I'd ort to time and agin, when I've hearn it read Fourth of Julys by a long-winded orator, in muggy and sultry dog-days in Jonesville. But though, as I ort to own up, I've turned my back onto it at sech times, I've allers respected it deeply, and it wuz indeed a treat to see it now-- The very paper, writ in the darkness of oncertainty, and hopelessness, and despair of our forefathers, and which them four old fathers wuz willin' to seal with their blood. Oh, if that piece of yeller, faded old paper could jest speak out and tell what emotions wuz a-rackin' the hearts, and what wild dreams and despairs wuz a-hantin' the brains of the ones that bent over it in that dark day, 1776-- Why, the World's Fair would be thrilled to its inmost depths; Chicago would tremble from its ground floor up to its 20th and 30th story, and Josiah and I would be perfectly browbeat and stunted. But it wuzn't to be; only the old yeller paper remained writ over with them immortal words. Their wild emotions, their dreams, their despairs, and their raptures have passed away, bloomin' out agin in the nation's glory and grandeur. And then we see amongst the treaties with foreign powers friendship tokens from semi-barbarous tribes and nations-- Poor little gifts that didn't always buy friendship and justice, and I'd told Uncle Sam so right to his old face if I'd've met him there as I wuz a-lookin' at 'em. I'd a done it if he had turned me right out of the Government Buildin' the next minit. And then there wuz the first cannon ever brought to America, and the first church-bell ever rung in America, and picters of every place that Columbus ever had anything to do with, and a hull set of photographs of hisen. Good creeter! it is a shame and a disgrace that there is so many on 'em, and all lookin' so different--as different as Josiah and Queen Elizabeth. And then there wuz everything relatin' to conquest--conquest of Mexico and etc., and everything about the food and occupations of men--all sorts of food, savage and civilized, and all sorts of occupations, from makin' molasses to gatherin' tea. And there wuz the most perfect collection of coins and medals ever made--7500 coins and 2300 medals. There wuz some kinder stern-lookin' guards a-watchin' over these, but they had no need to be afraid; I wouldn't have meddled with one of 'em no more'n I'd've torn out the Book of Job out of the family Bible. [Illustration: Stern-lookin' guards a-watchin' over the coins.] There wuz everything under the sun that could be seen in South America, from a mule to a orchid. And in the centre of the buildin' wuz a section of the great Sequois tree from California. The tree is twenty-five feet in diameter, and has been hollowed out, and a stairway built up inside of it. Stairs inside of a tree! Good land! But what is the use, I have only waded out a few steps. The deep lake lays before us. I hain't gin much idee of all there is to see in that buildin', and I hain't in any on 'em. You have got to swim out for yourself, and then you may have some idee of the vastness on't. But you can't describe 'em, I don't believe--nobody can't. In front of that buildin' we see one of the two largest guns ever made in the world. It wuz made in Essen, Germany. It weighs two hundred and seventy thousand pounds, and is forty-seven feet long. It will hit anything sixteen miles off, and with perfect accuracy and effect at a distance of twelve miles. Good land! further than from Zoar to Shackville. It costs one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to discharge it once. As Josiah looked at it, sez he-- "Oh, how I do wish I had sech a gun! How I could rake off the crows with it in plantin' time! Why," sez he, "by shootin' it off once or twice I could clear the hull country of 'em from Jonesville to Loontown." "Yes," sez I; "and have you got a thousand dollars to pay for every batch of crows you kill, besides damages--heavy damages--for killin' human bein's, and horses, and cows, and sech?" And he gin in that it wouldn't be feasible to own one. And I sez, "I wouldn't have one on the premises if Mr. Krupp should give me one." So we wended onwards. Wall, about the most interestin' and surprisin' hours I enjoyed at Columbuses doin's wuz to the stately house set apart for that great wizard of the 19th century--Electricity. As wuz befittin', most the first thing that our eyes fell on wuz a big, noble statute of Benjamin Franklin. He stands with his kite in his hand, a-lookin' up with a rapt look as if waitin' for instructions from on high. He seemed to be guardin' the entrance to this temple, and he looked as if he wuz glad to be there, and I truly wuz glad to have him there. For he ort to be put side by side with Christopher Columbus. Both sailed out on the onknown, both discovered a new world. Columbuses world we have got the lay on now considerable, and we have mapped it out and counted the inhabitants. But who--who shall map out this vast realm that Benjamin F. discovered? We stand jest by the sea-shore. We have jest landed from our boats. The onbroken forest lays before us, and beyend is deep valleys, and high, sun-kissed mountains, and rushin' rivers. A few trees have been felled by Morse, Edison, Field and others, so that we can git glimpses into the forest depths, but not enough to even give us a glimpse of the mountains or the seas. The realm as a whole is onexplored; nobody knows or can dream of the grandeur and glory that awaits the advance guard that shall march in and take the country. This beautiful house built in its honor is 690 feet long and 345 feet wide. The main entrance, which is in the south side, has a magnificently decorated open vestibule covered by a half dome, capable of the most brilliant illumination. Indeed, you can judge whether this buildin' has advantages for bein' lit up, when I tell you that it has 20,000 incandescent and 3000 ark lights. I hearn a bystander a-tellin' this, and sez Josiah, "I can't imagine what a ark light is--Noah couldn't had a light so bright as that is. But," he sez, "mebby the light shines out as big as the ark did over the big water." And I spoze mebby that is it. Why, they say the big light on top of the buildin'--the biggest in the world--why, they do say that that throws such a big light way off--way off over Lake Michigan, that the very white fishes think it is mornin', and git up and go to doin' up their mornin's work. There wuz everything in the buildin' that has been hearn on up to the present time in connection with electricity--everything that we know about, that that Magician uses to show off his magic powers, from a search-light of 60,000 candle power down to a engine and dynamo combined, that can be packed in a box no bigger than a pea. Josiah looked at the immense display with a wise eye, and pretended to understand all about it, and he even went to explainin' it to me. But I sez, "You needn't tire yourself, Josiah Allen; I should know jest as much after you got through as I do now. "And," sez I, "you can explain to me jest as well how the hoe and the planter cause the seed to spring up in the loosened ground. You put the seed in the ground, Josiah Allen, and the hoe loosens the soil round it. You may assist the plant some, but there is a secret back of it all, Josiah Allen, that you can't explain to me. "No, nor Edison couldn't, nor Benjamin Franklin himself couldn't with his kite." Sez Josiah, "I could explain it all out to you if you would listen--all about my winter rye, and all about electricity." But agin I sez considerately, "Don't tire yourself, Josiah Allen; it is a pretty hot day, and you hain't over and above well to-day." He didn't like it at all; he wanted to talk about electric currents to me, and magnets, and dynamos, but I wouldn't listen to it. I felt that we wuz in the palace of the Great Enchanter, the King of Wonders of the 19th century, and I knew that orr and silence wuz befittin' mantillys to wrop ourselves in as we entered his court, and stood in his imperial presence. And I told Josiah so. And he sez, "You won't catch me with a mantilly on." He is dretful fraid to wear wimmen's clothes. I can't git a apron or a sun-bunnet on him in churnin' time or berryin' in dog-days--he is sot. But I sez, "Josiah, I spoke in metafor." And he sez, "I would ruther you would use pantaloons and vests, if you are a-goin' to allegore about me." But to resoom. France, England, Germany, all have wonderful exhibits, and as for our own country, there wuz no end seemin'ly to the marvellous sight. Why, to give you a idee of the size and splendor of 'em, one electrical company alone spent 350,000 dollars on its exhibit. Among the German exhibits wuz a wonderful search-light--jest as searchin' as any light ever could be--it wuz sunthin' like the day of judgment in lightin' up and showin' forth. One of the strange things long to be remembered wuz to set down alone beside of a big horn in Chicago and hear a melodious orkestry in New York, hundreds and hundreds of miles away, a-discoursin' the sweetest melody. Wall, what took up Josiah's mind most of anything wuz a house all fitted up from basement to attic with electricity. You come home (say you come in the evenin' and bring company with you); you press a button at the door, the door opens; touch another button, and the hall will be all lighted up, and so with every other room in the house. Some of these lights will be rosettes of light let into the wall, and some on 'em lamps behind white, and rose-tinted, and amber porcelain. When you go upstairs to put on another coat, you touch a button, the electric elevator takes you to your room; and when you open the closet door, that lights the lamp in the closet; when you have found your coat and vest, shuttin' the door puts the light out. In the mean time, your visitors down below are entertained by a selection from operatic or sacred music or comic songs from a phonograph on the parlor table. Or if they want to hear Gladstone debate, or Chauncey Depew joke, or Ingersoll lecture, or no matter what their tastes are, they can be gratified. The phonograph don't care; it will bring to 'em anything they call for. Then, when they have got ready for dinner, a button is touched; the dinner comes down from the kitchen in the attic, where it wuz all cooked by electricity, baked, roasted, or biled, whatever it is. When the vittles are put on the table, they are kept warm by electric warmin' furnaces. They start up a rousin' fire in the open fireplace by pressin' a button, and if they git kinder warm, electric fans cool the air agin, though there hain't much chance of gittin' too warm, for electric thermostats regulate the atmosphere. But in the summer the fans come handy. When dinner is over the dishes mount upstairs agin, and are washed by a electric automatic dish washer, and dried by a electric dish drier. The ice for dinner is made by a miniature ammonia ice plant, which keeps the hull house cool in hot days and nights. On washin' days the woman of the house throws the dirty clothes and a piece of soap into a tub, and electricity heats the water, rubs and cleanses the clothes, shoves 'em along and rings 'em through an electric ringer, and dries 'em in a electric dryin' oven, and then irons 'em by an electric ironin' machine. If the female of the house wants to sew a little, she don't have to wear out her own vital powers a-runnin' that sewin' machine--no; electricity jest runs it for her smooth as a dollar. If she wants to sweep her floor, does she have to wear out her own elbows? No, indeed; electricity jest sweeps it for her clean as a pin. Oh, what a house! what a house! Josiah of course wuz rampant with idees of havin' our house run jest like it. He thought mebby he could run it by horse power or by wind. "But," I sez, "I guess the old mair has enough on her hands without washin' dishes and cookin'." He see it wuzn't feasible. "But," sez he, "I believe I could run it by wind. Don't you know what wind storms we have in Jonesville?" And I sez, "You won't catch me a-sewin' by it, a-blowin' me away one minute, and then stoppin' stun-still the next;" and sez I, "How could we be elevated by it? blow us half way upstairs, and then go down, and drop us. We shouldn't live through it a week, even if you could git the machinery a-runnin'." "Wall," sez he, with a wise, shrewd look, "as fur as the elevator is concerned, I believe I could fix that on a endless chain--keep it a-runnin' all the time, sunthin' like perpetual motion." "How could we git on it?" sez I coldly. "Catch on," sez he; "it would be worth everything to both on us to make us spry and limber-jinted." "Oh, shaw!" sez I; "your idees are luny--luny as can be; it has got to go by electricity." "Wall," sez he, "I never see any sharper lightnin' than we have to Jonesville. I believe I could git the machinery all rigged up, and catch lightnin' enough to run it. I mean to try, anyway." "Wall," sez I, "I guess that you won't want to be elevated by lightnin' more'n once; I guess that that would be pretty apt to end your experiments." "Oh, wall," sez he, "break it up! I never in my hull life tried to do sunthin' remarkable and noteworthy but what you put a drag on to me." Sez I, "I have saved your life, Josiah Allen, time and agin, to say nothin' of my own." He wuz mad, but I drawed his attention off onto a ocean cable, and asked him to explain it to me how the news went; and he wuz happy once more--happier than I wuz by fur. I wuz wretched, and had got myself into a job of weariness onspeakable and confusion, etc., and so forth. But to such immense sacrifices will a woman's love lead her. [Illustration: He wuz happy once more.] I could not brook his dallyin' with lightnin' at his age or to have it brung into our house in a raw state. Josiah wuz dretful impressed with a big post completely covered with red, white, and blue globes, and all other colors, and at the top it branched out into four posts, extendin' towards the corners of the ceilin'. A spark of electricity starts at the base of the post, and steadily works its way up. It lights the red, then the white, and then the blue, and etc., and then it goes on and lights the four branches until it gits to the end, and then it lights up a big ball. And then it goes back to the beginnin' agin, and so it goes on--flash! flash! flash! sparkle! sparkle! sparkle! in glowin' colors. It is a sight to see it. But what impressed me beyend anything wuz what seemed a mighty onseen hand a-risin' up out of Nowhere, and a-holdin' a pencil, and a-writin' on the wall in letters of flame. And then that same onseen hand will wipe out what has been writ, and write sunthin' else. Why, it all makes folks feel a good deal like Belschazarses, only more riz up like. He felt guilty as a dog, which must hendered his lofty emotions from playin' free; but folks that see this awsome and magestick spectacle don't have nothin' to drag down their soarin' emotions. Why, I'll bet that I had more emotions durin' that sight than Belschazar had when he see his writin' on the wall, only different. I guess that mine wuz more like Daniel's, though I can't tell, havin' never talked it over with Daniel. But to resoom. When we left the Electrical Buildin', it wuz so nigh at hand we jest stepped acrost into the Hall of Mines and Minin'. And it wuz dretful curious, wuzn't it? Here we two wuz on the surface of the Earth, and we had jest been a-studyin' in a entranced way the workin's of a mighty sperit, who wuz, in the first place, brung down from _above_ the Earth, and now, lo and behold! we wuz on our way to see what wuz below the Earth. Curious and coincidin', very. Wall, as I walked acrost them few steps I thought of a good many things. One thing I thought on wuz the path I wuz a-walkin' on. I d'no as I've mentioned it before, but them foot-paths at the World's Fair are as worthy of attention as anything as there is there. I'll bet Columbus would have been glad to had such paths to walk on when he wuz foot-sore, and tired out. They are made of a compound of granite and cement, and are as smooth as a board, and as durable as adamant. What a boon sech roads would be in the Spring and the Fall! How it would lessen profanity, and broken wagons, and broken-backed horses! Folks say that they will be used throughout the World. Jonesville waits for it with longin'. Its name is Medusaline. I wuz real glad it had such a pretty name--it deserves it. Josiah wuz dretful took with the name. He said that he wuz a-goin' to name his nephew's twins Maryline and Medusaline. But mebby he'll forgit it. Wall, the Hall of Mines and Minin' is a immense, gorgeous palace, jest as all the rest on 'em be, and, like 'em all, it has more'n enough orniments, and domes, and banners, and so forth to make it comfortable. As we advanced up the magestick portal the figgers of miners, with hammers and pans in their hands, seemed to welcome us, and tell us what they had to do with the big show inside; they seemed to be a-sayin' with their still lips, "If it hadn't been for us--for the great Army of Labor, this show would have been a pretty slim one." Yes; the great vanguard of Labor leads the van, and cuts down the trees, so's that Old Civilization and Progress can walk along, and swing their arms, and spread themselves, as they have a way of doin'. Wall, to anybody that loves to look on every side of a idee from top to bottom, and had had sech experiences on top of the Earth as I had, it wuz a great treat to see what wuz inside of the Old World. And wuzn't it a sight! Sech heaps of glitterin' golden and silver ore, sech slabs of shinin' marble, and sech precious stuns I never expect to see agin till I git where the gates are Pearl and the streets paved with Pure Gold. On the west side are the exhibits from Foreign mineral-producin' countries, beginnin' with the Central and South American States. These Mines, worked way back before history begins, that furnished the gold that Cortez loaded his returnin' galleons with, still keep right on a-yieldin' their rich treasures, provin' that there is no end to 'em, as you may say. On the opposite side of the avenue are the treasures of our own country. Each State and Territory has tried, seemin'ly, to make the richest and most dazzlin' exhibition. Here New England shows in a way that can't be disputed her solid granite and marble foundation--vast and beautiful and glossy exhibit. Then the immense coal exhibit of the great States of the Appalachian range, and the Ohio valley, shows forth its wealth in shinin' black masses. Pyramiads and arches of glitterin' iron and steel, statutes in brass, bronze, and copper, supported on pedestals of elaborate wrought metals. Then there are pillows and statutes and pyramiads of salt so blindin'ly brilliant that you almost have to shet your eyes when you look at 'em. The South shows up her mineral fertilizers, and paints, and her precious ores. The gold of North Carolina, the phosphates of Florida, and the iron ores of Alabama are here in plain sight. California, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, shows a gorgeous exhibit of gold and other precious ores. In the large porch in the centre of the buildin' is a high tower, made at the bottom of all sorts of minerals, and trimmed off handsome and appropriate; and the tower that shoots up from this foundation is made of all sorts of machines employed in minin'. From this centre aisles and avenues branch off in every direction. Great Britain and Germany and our own greatest mineral States are here facin' this centre. And you can walk down every avenue, and have your eyes most blinded by the splendor of the exhibit. You can see jest how they extract the gold from the ore from the minute it is dug out of the earth till it is wrought into the shinin' dollar or beautiful orniment. You can see how Electricity, the Wizard, plays his part here, as everywhere else, in drivin' drills, and workin' huge minin' pumps and hoistin' appliances. You can see how this Wizard gives the signals, fires the blast, and does everything he is told to do, and does it better than anybody else could, and easier. Then there are figgers in groups representin' the old laborious way of minin', old crushin' mortars and mills of ancient Mexico, propelled by mules, compared with the automatic tramways and hydraulic transmission of coal by a liquid medium, and all the other swift and modern ways. South Africa shows off her diamond fields. The machinery picks up the blue clay right before our eyes, the native Kaffirs pick out the precious pebbles and sort 'em out, and a diamond-cutter right here, with his chisel and wheel, cuts and polishes 'em till they are turned out a flashin' gem to adorn a queen. Then, if you git tired of roamin' round on the first floor, you can go up into the broad gallery and look down in the vast halls and avenues, full of dazzle and glitter. Dretful interestin' them wuz to look at--dretful. And up here are the offices of Geoligists, Minin' Engineers, and Scientists, and a big library under charge of a librarian. And here, too, is a laboratory where experiments are a-bein' conducted all the time. Wall, it wuz a sight--a sight what we see there. But the thing that impressed me the most in the hull buildin', and I thought on't all the time I wuz there, and thought on't goin' home, and waked up and thought on't-- It wuz a statute of woman named Justice--a female big as life, made of solid silver from her head to her heels, and a-standin' on a gold world-- Jest as they do in the streets of the New Jerusalem. Oh, my heart, think on't! Yes, it tickled me to a extraordinary degree, for sech a thing must mean sunthin'! The world borne on the outspread wings of an eagle is under her feet, and under that is a foundation of solid gold. First, the riches of the earth to the bottom; then the eagle Ambition, and wavin' wings of power and conquest, carryin' the hull round world, and then, above 'em all, Woman. Yes, Justice in the form of woman stood jest where she ort to stand--right on top of the world. Justice and Woman has too long been crumpled down, and trod on. But she has got on top now, and I believe will stay there for some time. She holds a septer in her right hand, and in her left a pair of scales. She holds her scales evenly balanced--that is jest as it ort to be; they have always tipped up on the side of man (which has been the side of Might). But now they are held even, and _Right_ will determine how the notches stand, not Might. I don't believe that the Nation would make a statute of woman out of solid silver, and stand it on top of the world, if it didn't lay out to give her sect a little mite of what she symbolizes. They hain't a-goin' to make a silver woman and call it Justice, if they lay out to keep their idee of wimmen in the future, as they have in the past, the holler pewter image stuffed full of all sorts of injustices, and meannesses, and downtroddenness. They hain't a-goin' to stand the figger of woman and Justice on top of the world, and then let woman herself grope along in the deepest and darkest swamps and morasses of injustice and oppression, taxed without representation, condemned and hung by laws they have no voice in makin'. Goin' on in the future as in the past--bringin' children into the world, dearer to 'em than their heart's blood, and then have their hearts torn out of 'em to see these children go to ruin before 'em through the foolishness and wickedness of laws they have no power to prevent--nay, if they are rich, to see their loved ones helped to their doom by their own wealth; taxed to extend and perpetuate these means of death and Hell, and they with their hands bound by the chains of Slavery and old Custom. But things are a-goin' to be different. I see it plain. And I looked on that figger with big emotions in my heart, and my umbrell in my hand. I knew the Nation wuzn't a-goin' to depicter woman with the hull earth at her feet, and then deny her the rights of the poorest dog that walks that globe. No; that would be makin' too light of her, and makin' perfect fools of themselves. They wouldn't of their own accord put a septer in her hand, if they laid out to keep her where she is now--under the rule of the lowest criminal landed on our shores, and beneath niggers, and Injuns, and a-settin' on the same bench in a even row with idiots, lunaticks, and criminals. No; I think better of 'em; they are a-goin' to carry out the idee of that silver image in the gold of practical justice, I believe. If I hadn't thought so, I would a-histed up my umbrell and hit that septer of hern, and knocked that globe out from under her feet. And them four mountaineers, a-guardin' her with rifles in their hands, might have led me off to prison for it if they had wanted too--I would a done it anyway. But, as I sez, I hope for better things, and what give me the most courage of anything about it wuz that Justice had got her bandages off. That is jest what I have wanted her to do for a long time. I had advised Justice jest as if she had been my own Mother-in-law. I had argued with her time and agin to take that bandage offen her eyes. And when I see that she had took my advice, and meditated on what happiness and freedom wuz ahead for my sect, and realized plain that it wuz probable all my doin's--why, the proud and happy emotions that swelled my breast most broke off four buttons offen my bask waist. And onbeknown to me I carried myself in that proud and stately way that Josiah asked me anxiously-- "If I had got a crick in my back?" I told him, "No, I hadn't got any crick, but I had proud and lofty emotions on the inside of my soul that no man could give or take away." "Wall," sez he, "you walked considerable like our old peacock when she wants to show off." I pitied him for his short-sightedness, but unconsciously I did, I dare presoom to say, onbend a little in my proud gait. And we proceeded onwards. Wall, on our way home we heard a bystander a-speakin' about the beautiful vistas, and the other one replied, and said how wonderful and beautiful he considered 'em. And Josiah sez to me, "Where be them 'Vistas,' anyway? I've hearn more talk about 'em than a little--do they keep 'em in cases, or be they rolled up in rolls? I want to see 'em, anyway," and he turned and went to go into one of the big palaces. Sez he, "He seemed to be a-pintin' this way; we must have missed 'em the day we wuz here." But I took holt of his arm and drawed him back, and I pinted down the long, beautiful distance, the glorious view bounded by the snowy sculptured heights of palaces--long, green, flower-gemmed avenues of beauty--with the blue waters a-shinin' calm behind towerin' statutes of marvellous conception, and sez I-- "Behold a vista!" [Illustration: "Behold a vista!"] He put on his specs and looked clost, and sez he-- "I don't see nothin' out of the common." "No," sez I; "spiritual things are spiritually discerned. The wind bloweth where it listeth," sez I. "Oh, bring up the Bible," sez he; "there is a time for all things." He acted real pudgiky. But I at last got him to understand what a vista wuz, and I told him that Mr. Burnham and the others who had charge of buildin' this marvellous city took no end of pains to design these marvellous picters--more lovely than wuz ever painted on canvas sence the world begun. And sez I, as I looked round me once more, some as Moses did on Pisga's height, "and viewed the landscape o'er"-- Sez I, "I _must_ thank the head one here--I _must_ thank Director-General Davis in my own name, and in the name of Jonesville, and the world, for gittin' up this incomparable spectacle, the like of which will never be seen agin by livin' eyes." And if you'll believe it, I hadn't hardly finished speakin' when who should come towards us but General Davis himself. I knew him in a minute, for his picter had been printed in papers as many as two or three times since the Fair begun--it wuz a real good-lookin' face, anyway, in a paper or out of it. And I gathered up the folds of my cotton umbrell more gracefully in my left hand, and kinder shook out the drapery of my alpaca skirt, and wuz jest advancin' to accost him, when Josiah laid holt of my arm and whispered in a sharp axent-- "I won't have it. You hain't a-goin' to stop and visit with that man." I faced him with dignity and with some madness in my liniment, and sez I, "Why?" Sez he, "Do you ask why?" "Yes," sez I, with that same noble, riz-up look on my eyebrow--"why?" "Wall," sez he, a-lookin' kinder meachin', "I want sunthin' to eat, and you'd probable talk a hour with him by the way you've praised up his doin's here." By this time General Davis wuz fur away. And I sithed, when I thought on't, what he'd lost by not receivin' my eloquent and heartfelt thanks, and what I'd lost in not givin' 'em. I d'no as Josiah was jealous--mebby he wuzn't. But General Davis is considerable handsome, and Josiah can't bear to have me praise up any man, livin' or dead. Sometimes I have almost mistrusted that he didn't like to have me praise up St. Paul too much, or David, or Job--or he don't seem to care so much about Job. But, as I say, mebby it wuzn't jealousy--his appetite is good; mebby it was hunger. CHAPTER XIX. Wall, this mornin', on our way to the grounds, I sez to Josiah-- "There is one thing that I want you to do the first thing to-day, and that is for you to see that good creeter, Senator Palmer." Sez I, "I jest happened to read this mornin' how he's takin' up a subscription to help the Duke of Veragua, and we must see him and help the cause along." Sez I, "I can't bear to think of Columbuses folks a-sufferin' for things." Sez Josiah, "Let Columbuses folks nip in and work jest as I do, and they'll git along." "They hain't been brung up to it," sez I; "I don't spoze he ever ploughed a acre of land in his life, or sheared a sheep. And I don't spoze she knows what it is to pick a goose, or do a two weeks' washin'." I'm sorry for 'em as I can be. And to think that that villain of a Manager should have run away with that money while they wuz over here a-helpin' their forefathers birthday! Sez I, "It makes me feel like death." "It makes me feel," sez Josiah gloomily, "that no knowin' but the Old Harry will git into Ury while we are away." But I sez, "Don't worry, Josiah--Ury and Philura are pure gold." "Wall, dum it all, pure gold can be melted if the fire is hot enough." But I went back to the old subject--"We must give sunthin' to the cause; it will be expected of us, and it is right that we should." "But," sez Josiah, with a gloomy and fierce look, "if I can git out of Chicago with a hull shirt on my back it's all I expect to do. I hain't no money to spend on Dukes, and you'll say so when we come to pay our bills." Sez I, "You needn't send any money, Josiah Allen; but," sez I, "we might send 'em a tub of butter and a kag of cowcumber pickles jest as well as not, and a ham, to help 'em along through the winter, and I'd gladly send him and her yarn enough for a good pair of socks and stockin's. She might knit 'em," sez I, "or I would. I'll send him a pair of fringe mittens anyway," sez I; "it hain't noways likely that she knows how to make them. They take intellect and practice to knit." And sez I, "I want you to be sure and see Senator Palmer without fail, and tell him to be sure and let us know when he sends things, so's we can put in and add our two mites." Sez he, "The money has gone." "Wall," sez I, "I am a disap'inted creeter. I wanted to do my part towards gittin' them good, noble folks enough to live on till Spring." Sez Josiah (and mebby it wuz to git my attention off from the subject, which he felt wuz perilous to his pocket--he is clost)--sez he, "There is one man here, Samantha, that I'd give a cent to see." Sez I, "Who is it that you are willin' to make such a extraordinary outlay for?" "The Rager," sez he. "The Rager," sez I dreamily; "who's that?" "Why, the Rager from India. I spoze," sez he, "that he is one of the raginest men that you ever see. He took his name from that, most likely, and to intimidate his subjects. Now, King or Emperor don't strike the same breathless terror; but Rager--why, jest the name is enough to make 'em behave." "Wall," sez I, "if the Monarch of Ingy is here I must see him, and git him not to burn any more widders with their dead pardners." Sez I, "It's a clear waste of widders, besides bein' wicked as wicked can be. Widders is handy," sez I, "now to keep boardin'-housen, or to go round as agents. Old maids hain't nothin' by the side of 'em, and they look so sort o' respectable behind their black veils, and then they are needed so for the widdower supply--and that market is always full." Sez I, "I don't want 'em wasted, and I want the wickedness to be stopped. "And then to insist on marryin' so many wimmen. I'd love to labor with him, and convince him that one's enough." "It seems to me," sez Josiah, "that I could make him _know_ that one's enough. It _seems_ as if _any married man might_. Heaven knows, it _seems_ so!" sez he. I didn't like his axent. There seemed to be some iron in it, but I wouldn't dane to parley. "And then," sez I, "their makin' their wimmen wear veils all the time. What a foolish habit! What's the use on't? Smotherin' 'em half to death, and wearin' out their veils for nothin'. "And then I'd make him educate 'em--gin 'em a chance," sez I; "but whether he gives it or not the bell of Freedom is a-echoin' clear from Wyomin' to Ingy, and it sounds clear under them veils. They will be throwed off whether he is willin' or not, and I'd love to tell him so." Sez Josiah, "I guess it will be as the Rager sez." "No," sez I solemnly; "it will be as the Lord sez, and He is callin' to wimmen all over the earth, and they are answerin' the call." But we hearn afterwards that Josiah had got it wrong--it wuz Ragah--R-a-g-a-h--instead of Rager--and he wuz one of the most sensiblest fellers that ever stepped on our shores in royal shoes. He paid his own bills, wuz modest, and intelligent, wanted to git information instead of idolatry from the American people. He didn't want no ball, no bowin' and backin' off--no escort. No chance at all here for the Ward McAllisters to show off, and act. He acted like a good sensible American man, some as our son Thomas Jefferson would act if he should go over to his neighborhood on business. He wanted to see for himself the life of the Americans, the way the common people lived--he wanted to git information to help his own people. And he wanted to see Edison the most of all. That in itself would make him congenial to me. I myself think of Edison side by side with Christopher Columbus, and I guess the high chair he sets on up in my mind, with his lap full of his marvellous discoveries, is a little higher than Columbuses high chair. Oh, how congenial the Ragah of Kahurthalia would be! How I wish we could have visited together! But it wuzn't to be, for Josiah said that he'd gone the night before, so we wended on. Wall, we hadn't more than got into the grounds this mornin' when Josiah hearn a bystander a-standin' near tell another one about the Ferris Wheel. "Why," sez he, "you jest git into one of them cars, and you are carried up so that it seems as if you can see the hull world at your feet." Josiah turned right round in his tracts, and sez he, "Where can I find that wheel?" And the man sez, "On the Midway Plaisance." And Josiah sez, "Where is that?" And the man pinted out the nearest way, and nothin' to do but what we must set out to find that wheel, and go up in one. I counselled caution and delay, but to no effect. That wheel had got to be found to once, and both on us took up in it. I dreaded the job. Wall, the Plaisance begins not fur back of the Woman's Buildin'. It is a strip of land about six hundred feet wide and a mild in length, connecting Washington Park with Jackson Park, where Columbus has his doin's, and it comes out at the Fair Ground right behind the Woman's Buildin'. Josiah jest wanted to rush along, clamorin' for the wheel, and not lookin' for nothin' on either side till he found it. But I wuz firm in this as a rock, that if I went at all I would go megum actin' and quiet, and look at everything we come to. And wuzn't there enough to look at jest in the street? Folks of all nations under the earth. They seemed like the leaves of a forest, or the sands of the sea, if them sands and leaves wuz turned into men, wimmen, and children--high hats, bunnets, umbrells, fans, canes, parasols, turbans, long robes, and short ones, gay ones, bright ones, feathers, sedan chairs, bijous, rollin' chairs, Shacks--or that is how Josiah pronounced it. I told him that they wuz spelt S-h-e-i-k-s. But he sez that you could tell that they wuz Shacks by the looks on 'em. Truly it wuz a sight--a sight what we see in that street. Why, it wuz like payin' out some thousand dollars, and with two trunks, and onmeasured fatigue, spend years and years travellin' over the world. Why, we seemed to be a-journeyin' through foreign countries, a-carryin' the thought with us that we took our breakfast in our own hum, and that we should sleep there that night, but for all that we wuz in Turkey, and Japan, and Dahomey, and Lapland, etc., etc., etc. Wall, the first thing we come to as we begun on the right side--and anybody with my solid principles wouldn't begin on any other side but the sheep's side--we wouldn't begin on the goats--no, indeed! The first thing we come to wuz the Match Company. Here you could see everything about makin' matches, and when you consider how hard it would be to go back to the old way of strikin' light with a flint, and traipsin' off to the neighbors to borrow a few coals on a January mornin', you will know how interestin' that exhibit wuz. And then come the International Dress and Costume Company--all the different countries of the globe show their home life and costumes. And I sez to Josiah, "If this Fair had been put off ten years, or even five, I believe the American wimmen would show a costume less adapted to squeezin' the life out of 'em, and scrapin' up all the filth and disease in the streets, and rakin' it hum." And Josiah sez, "Oh, do come along! we shan't git to that wheel to-day if you dally so, and begin to talk about wimmen and their doin's." Then come the Workin' Man's Home in Philadelphia. Then the Libby Glass Works, and when Josiah discovered it wuz free, he willin'ly accedded to my request to walk in and look round. He told me from the first on't that he wuzn't goin' to pay out a cent of money there. Sez he, "We can see enough--Heaven knows we can--without payin' for any sights." Wall, here we see all kinds of American glass manufactured, from goblets and butter-dishes up to glass draperies, dresses, laces, neckties, and all sorts of orniments. Josiah sez, "Samantha, oh, how I would like a glass necktie--it would be so uneek; how I could show off to Deacon Gowdy!" "Wall," sez I, "we can try to buy one, and at the same time I will order a glass polenay." "Oh, no," sez he, "it would be too resky; glass is so brittle it would make you restive." And he tried to hurry me along, but I would look round a little; and we see there right before our face and eyes a man take a long tube and dip it into melted glass, and blow out cups and flower-vases, and trim 'em all off with flowers of glass of all colors, and sech cut glass as we see there I never see before; why, one little piece takes a man a month to cut it out into its diamond glitter. And I would stop to see that glass dress all finished off for the Princess Eulaly. There it wuz in plain sight in Mr. Libby's factory draped on a wax figger of Eulaly. Mr. Libby made it and presented it to the Princess. It took ten million feet of glass thread; it wuz wove into twelve yards of cloth, and sent to a dressmaker in New York, who fitted it to the Princess on her last days in the city. It is low neck and short sleeves, and has a row of glass fringe round the bottom, and soft glass ruching round the neck and sleeves. It looks some like pure white satin, and some different. It is as beautiful as any dress ever could be, and Eulaly will look real sweet in it. She'll be sorry to not have me see her in it, I hain't a doubt. [Illustration: It took ten million feet of glass thread, and Eulaly will look real sweet in it.] And oh, how I did wish, as I looked at it, that her ancestor could have seen it, and meditated how pert and forwards the land wuz that he'd discovered! Glass dresses--the idee! But Josiah looked kinder oneasy all the time that I wuz a-lookin' at it; he wuz afraid of what thoughts I might be entertainin' in my mind onbeknown to him, and he hurried me onwards. But the very next place we come to be wuz still more anxious to proceed rapidly, for this wuz the Irish Village, where native wimmen make the famous Irish laces. It wuz a perfect Irish village, lackin' the dirt, and broken winders, and the neighborly pigs, and etc. At one end of it is the exact reproduction of the ancient castle Donegal, famed in song and story. In the rooms of this castle the lace wuz exhibited--beautiful laces as I ever see, or want to see, and piles and piles of it, and of every beautiful pattern. I did hanker for some of it to trim a night-cap. As I told Josiah, "I wouldn't give a cent for any of the white lace dresses, not if I had to wear 'em, or white lace cloaks." Sez I, "I'd feel like a fool a-goin' to meetin' or to the store to carry off butter with a white lace dress on, or a white lace mantilly, but I would love dearly to own some of that narrer lace for a night-cap border." But his anxiety wuz extreme to go on that very instant. He wanted to see the Blarney stun on top of the tower of the castle. It is a stun about as big as Josiah's hat, let down below the floor, so's you have to stoop way down to even see it, let alone kissin' it. Josiah wuz very anxious to kiss it, but I frowned on the needless expense. Sez I, "Men don't _need_ to kiss it; Blarney is born in 'em, as you may say, and is nateral nater to 'em." Sez he, "But it is so stylish to embrace it, Samantha, and it only costs ten cents." [Illustration: "But it is so stylish, Samantha, and it only costs ten cents."] "But," I sez firmly, "you hain't a-goin' to kiss no chunk of Chicago stun, Josiah Allen, or pay out your money for demeanin' yourself." Sez I, "The original Blarney stun is right there in its place in the tower of Blarney Castle in Ireland. It hain't been touched, and couldn't be." "I don't believe that Lady Aberdeen would allow no sech works to go on," sez he. Sez I, "Lady Aberdeen can't help herself. How can a minister keep the hull of his congregation from lyin'?" Sez I, "She is one of the nicest wimmen in the world--one of the few noble ones that reach down from high places, and lift up the lowly, and help the world. I don't spoze she knows about the Blarney stun. And don't you go to tellin' her," sez I severely, "and hurt her feelin's." Sez he, in a morbid tone, "We hain't been in the habit of visitin' back and forth, and probable if we wuz, you'd tell her before I could if you got a chance. Wimmen have sech long tongues." He wuz mad, as I could see, about my breakin' up his fashionable performance with that Chicago rock, but I didn't care. I merely sez, "If you want to do anything to remember the place, you can buy me a yard and a half of linen lace to trim that night-cap, or a under-clothe, Josiah." But he acted agitated here, and sez he, "I presoom that it is cotton lace." Sez I, "I wish you'd be megum, Josiah Allen. This lace is perfectly beautiful, and it is jest what they say it is. "And what a noble thing it wuz," sez I, "for Lady Aberdeen to do to gin these poor Irish lace-makers a start that mebby will lift 'em right up into prosperity; and spozen," sez I, "that you buy me a yard or two?" But he fairly tore me away from the spot. He acted fearful agitated. But alas! for him, he found the next place we entered also exceedin'ly full of dangers to his pocket-book, for this wuz a Japanese Bazaar, where every kind of queer, beautiful manufactures can be bought-- [Illustration: He found the next place we entered full of dangers to his pocket-book.] Rugs, bronzes, lacquer work, bamboo work, fans, screens, more tea-cups than you ever see before, and little silk napkins of all colors, where you can have your name wove right in it before your eyes, and etcetry, etcetry. Here also the peculiar fire department of the Japanese is kept. The next large place is occupied by the Javanese; this concession and the one right acrost the road south of it is called the "Dutch Settlement," because the villages wuz got up by a lot of Dutch merchants. But the people are from the Figi, Philippine, and Solomon Islands, Samoa, Java, Borneo, New Zealand, and the Polnesian Archipelagoes. Jest think on't! there Josiah Allen and I wuz a-travellin' way off to places too fur to be reached only by our strainin' fancy--places that we never expected or drempt that we could see with our mortal eyes only in a gography. Here I wuz a-walkin' right through their country villages with my faithful pardner by my side, and my old cotton umbrell in my hand, a-seemin' to anchor me to the present while I floated off into strange realms. All these different countries show their native industries. We went into the Japanese Village, under a high arch, all fixed off with towers, and wreaths, and swords--dretful ornimental. There wuz more than a hundred natives here. Their housen are back in the inclosure, and their work-shops in front, and in these shops and porticos are carried on right before your eyes every trade known in Japan, and jest as they do it at home--carvers, carpenters, spinners, weavers, dyers, musicians, etc., etc. The colorin' they do is a sight to see, and takes almost a lifetime to learn. The housen of this village are mostly made of bamboo--not a nail used in the place. Why, sometimes one hull side of their housen would be made of a mat of braided bamboo. Bamboo is used by them for food, shelter, war implements, medicine, musical instruments, and everything else. Their housen wuz made in Japan, and brung over here and set up by native workmen. They have thatched ruffs and kinder open-work sides, dretful curious-lookin', and on the wide porticos of these housen little native wimmen set and embroider, and wind skeins of gay-colored cotton, and play with their little brown black-eyed babies. The costumes of the Japanese look dretful curious to us; their loose gay-colored robes and turbans, and sandals, etc., look jest as strange as Josiah's pantaloons and hat, and my bask waist duz to them, I spoze. They're a pleasant little brown people, always polite--that is learnt 'em as regular as any other lesson. Then there is another thing that our civilized race could learn of the heathen ones. Missionaries that we send out to teach the heathen let their own children sass 'em and run over 'em. That is the reason that they act so sassy when they're growed up. Politeness ort to be learnt young, even if it has to be stomped in with spanks. The Japanese are a child-like people easily pleased, easily grieved--laughin' and cryin' jest like children. They work all day, not fast enough to hurt 'em, and at nightfall they go out and play all sorts of native games. That's a good idee. I wish that Jonesvillians would foller it. You'd much better be shootin' arrers from blowpipes than to blow round and jaw your household. And you'd much better be runnin' a foot race than runnin' your neighbors. They've got a theatre where they perform their native dances and plays, and one man sets behind a curtain and duz all the conversation for all the actors. I spoze he changes his voice some for the different folks. Wall, I led Josiah off towards the church, where all the articles of furniture is a big bamboo chair, where the priest sets and meditates when he thinks his people needs his thought. I d'no but it helps 'em some, if he thinks hard enough--thoughts are dretful curious things, anyway. Josiah and I took considerable comfort a-wanderin' round and seein' all we could, and noticin' how kind o' turned round things wuz from Jonesville idees. Now, they had some queer-lookin' little store-housen, and for all the world they opened at the top instead of the sides, to keep the snakes out of the rice in their native land, so they said. Josiah wuz jest crazy to have one made like it. "Why," sez he, "think of the safety on't, Samantha! Who'd ever think of goin' into a corn house on top if they wanted to steal some corn?" But I sez, "Foreign customs have got to be adopted with megumness, Josiah Allen." Sez I, "With your rumatiz, how would you climb up on't a dozen times a day?" He hadn't thought of that, and he gin up the idee. Then the ideal figger of the Japanese wimmen is narrer shoulders and big waist. And though I hailed the big waist joyfully, I drawed the line at the narrer shoulders. They have long poles about their housen, with holes bored in 'em, through which the wind blows with a mournful sort of a voice, and they think that that noise skairs away evil sperits. When they come here each of their little verandas had a cage with a sacred bird in it to coax the good sperits; they all died off, and now they've got some pigens for 'em, and made 'em think that they wuz sacred birds. And Josiah, as he see 'em, instinctively sez, "Dum 'em, I'd ruther have the evil sperits themselves round than them pigens, any time." He hates 'em, and I spoze they do pull up seeds considerable. Them Japanese wimmen are dretful cheerful-lookin', and Josiah and I talked about it considerable. Sez Josiah, "It's queer when, accordin' to their belief, a man's horse can go to Heaven, but their wives can't; but the minute they leave this world another celestial wife meets him, and he and his earth wife parts forever. It is queer," sez he, "how under them circumstances that the wimmen can look so happy." And I sez, "It can't be that they hail anhialation as a welcome rest from married life, can it?" Josiah acted mad, and sez he, "I'd be a fool if I wuz in your place!" And bein' kinder mad, he snapped out, "Them wimmen don't look as if they knew much more than monkeys; compared to American wimmen, it's a sight." But I sez, "You can't always tell by looks, Josiah Allen." Sez I, "As small as they be, they've showed some of the greatest qualities since they've been here--Constancy, Fidelity, Love." Now one of them females lost a baby while she wuz here. Did she act as some of our fashionable American wimmen do? No. They own twenty Saritoga trunks, and wear their entire contents, but they do, as is well known, commit crime to evade the cares of motherhood. But this little woman right here in Chicago, she jest laid down broken-hearted and died because her baby died. Her true heart broke. Little and humbly, no doubt, and not many clothes on, but from a upper view I wonder if her soul don't look better than the civilized, fashionably dressed murderess? There wuz theatres here with dancin' girls goin' as fur ahead, they said, of Louie Fuller and Carmenciti as them two go ahead of Josiah and Deacon Sypher as skirt-dancers. I guess that Josiah Allen would have gone in, regardless of price, to see this sight, so onbecomin' to a deacon and a grandfather, but I broke it up at the first hint he gin. Sez I, "What would your pasture say to your ondertakin' such a enterprise? What would be the opinion of Jonesville?" "Dum it all," sez he; "David danced before the Ark." "Wall," sez I, "I hain't seen no ark, and I hain't seen no David." Sez I reasonably, "I wouldn't object to your seein' David dance if he wuz here and I wouldn't object to your seein' the Ark." "Oh, wall, have your own way," sez he, and we wandered into the German Village. [Illustration: "Oh, wall, have your own way," sez he, and we wandered into the German Village.] The German Village represents housen in the upper Bavarian Mountains. There are thirty-six different buildin's. Inside the village is a Country Fair, the German Concert Garden, a Water Tower, and two Restaurants, Tyrolese dancers, Beer Hall, etc. In the centre is a 16th century castle, with moat round it, and palisades. Josiah wuz all took up with this, and said "how he would love to have a moat round our house." Sez he, "Jest let some folks that I know try to git in, wouldn't I jest hist up the drawbridge and drop 'em outside?" And I sez, "Heaven knows, Josiah, that sech a thing would be convenient ofttimes, but," sez I, "anxieties and annoyances have a way of swimmin' moats, you can't keep 'em out." But he said "that he believed that he and Ury could dig a moat, and rig up a drawbridge." And to git his mind off on't I hurried him on. Inside the castle is a dretful war-like-lookin' group of iron men, all dressed up in full uniform, and there wuz all kinds of weepons and armor of Germany. The Town Hall of this village is a museum. In the village market-place is sold all kinds of German goods. Two bands of music pipe up, and everybody is a-talkin' German. It made it considerable lively to look at, but not so edifyin' to us as if we knew a word they said. And then come the Street of Cairo, a exact representation of one of the most picturesque streets in old Cairo, with queer-lookin' kinder square housen, and some of the winders stood open, through which we got lovely views of a inner court, with green shrubs, and flowers, and fountains. On both sides of this street are dance halls, mosques, and shops filled with manufactures from Arabia and the Soudan. In the Museum are many curious curiosities from Cairo and Alexandria. And the street is filled with dogs, and donkeys, and children and fortune-tellers, and dromedaries, and sedan chairs, with their bearers, and camels, and birds, and wimmen with long veils on coverin' most of their faces, jest their eyes a-peerin' out as if they would love to git acquainted with the strange Eastern world, where wimmen walk with faces uncovered, and swung out into effort and achievement. I guess they wuz real good-lookin'. I know that the men with their turbans and long robes looked quite well, though odd. In the shops wuz the most beautiful jewelry and precious stuns, and queer-lookin' but magnificent silk goods, and cotton, and lamps, and leather goods, and weepons, etc., etc., etc. Wall, right there, as we wuz a-wanderin' through that street, from the handsomest of the residences streamed forth a bridal procession. The bride wuz dressed in gorgeous array of the beautiful fabrics of the East. And the bridegroom, with a train of haughty-lookin' Arabs follerin' him, all swept down the streets towards the Mosque, with music a-soundin' out, and flowers a-bein' throwed at 'em, and boys a-yellin', and dogs a-barkin', etc., etc. I drew my pardner out of the way, for he stood open-mouthed with admiration a-starin' at the bride, and almost rooted to the spot. [Illustration: A-starin' at the bride.] But I drawed him back, and sez I, "If you've got to be killed here, Josiah Allen, I don't want you killed by a Arab." And he sez, "I d'no but I'd jest as lieves be killed by a Arab as a Turkey. "But," sez he, "you tend to yourself, and I'll tend to myself. I wuz jest a-studyin' human nater, Samantha." And that wuz all the thanks I got for rescuin' him. It wuz jest as interestin' to walk through that village as it would be to go to Egypt, and more so--for we felt considerable safer right under Uncle Sam's right arm, as it wuz--for here we wuz way off in Africa, amongst their minarets and shops, and tents, men, wimmen, and children in their strange garbs, dancin', playin' music, cookin' and servin' their food, jest as though they wuz to hum, and we wuz neighborin' with 'em, jest as nateral as we neighbor to hum with Sister Henzy or she that wuz Submit Tewksbury. Then there wuz some native Arabs with 'em who wuz a-eatin' scorpions, and a-luggin' round snakes, and a-cuttin' and piercin' themselves with wicked-lookin' weepons, and eatin' glass; I wuz glad enough to git out of there. I hate daggers, and abominate snakes, and always did. And then I knew what a case Josiah Allen is to imitate and foller new-fangled idees, and I didn't want my new glass butter dish and cream pitcher to fall a victim to his experiments. Wall, next come Algeria and Tunis, and then Tunicks showed jest how they lived and moved in their own Barbery's state. Their housen are beautiful, truly Oriental--white, with decorations of pale green, blue, and vermilion. One is a theatre that will hold 600 folks. Then comes the panorama of the big volcano Kilauana. They couldn't bring the volcano with 'em, as volcanoes can't be histed round and lifted up on camels, or packed with sawdust, specially when they're twenty-seven milds acrost. So they brung this great picter of it. I spoze it is a sight to see it. But Josiah felt that he couldn't afford to go in and see the sight, and he sez, "It is only a hole with some fire and ashes comin' out of the top of it." I sez ironically, "Some like our leech barrel, hain't it, with a few cinders on top?" "Why, yes; sunthin' like that," sez he. "It wouldn't pay to throw away money on ashes and fire that we can see any day to hum." I didn't argue with him, for I never took to volcanoes much--I never loved to git intimate with 'em. But it wuz a sight to behold, so Miss Plank said--she went in to see it. She said, "It took her breath away the sight on't, but she's got it back agin (the breath); she talked real diffuse about it. But to resoom. The Chinese Village wuz jest like goin' through China or bein' dropped down onbeknown to you into a China village. Two hundred Chinamen are here by a special dispensation of Uncle Sam. And next to China is the Captive Balloon. I had wondered a sight what that meant. Josiah thought that somebody had catched a young balloon, and wuz bringin' it up by hand, but I knew better than that. I knew that balloons didn't grow indigenious. And it wuz jest as I'd mistrusted--they had a big balloon here all tied up ready to start off at a minute's notice. You jest paid your money, and you could go on a trip up in it through the blue fields of air. I told Josiah "that it wouldn't be but a few years before folks would ride round in 'em jest as common as they do in wagons." Sez I, "Mebby we shall have a couple of our own stanchled up in our own barn." "You mean tied up," sez he, and I do spoze I did mean that. But now to look up at the great deep overhead, and consider the vastness of space, and consider the smallness of the ropes a-holdin' the balloon down, I said to myself, "Mebby it wuz jest as well not to tackle the job of ridin' out in it that day." Jest as I wuz a-meditatin' this Josiah spoke up, and sez, "I won't pay out no two dollars apiece to ride in it." And I sez, "I kinder want to go up in it, and I kinder don't want to." And he sez, "That is jest like wimmen--whifflin', onstabled, weak-livered." Sez I, "I believe you're afraid to go up in it." "Afraid!" sez he; "I wouldn't be afraid a mite if it broke loose and sailed off free into space." "Why don't you try it, then?" I urged. "Wall," he sez, a-lookin' round as if mebby he could find some excuse a-layin' round on the ground, or sailin' round in the air, "if I wuz," sez he--"if I had another vest on. I hain't dressed up exactly as I'd want to be to go a-balloon ridin'. "And then," sez he, a-brightenin' up, "I don't want to skair you. You'd most probable be skairt into a fit if it should break loose and start off independent into space. And it would take away all my enjoyment of such a pleasure excursion to see you a-layin' on the earth in a fit." Sez I, "It hain't vests or affection that holds you back, Josiah Allen--it's fear." "Fear!" sez he; "I don't know the meanin' of that word only from what I've read about it in the dictionary. Men don't know what it is to be afraid, and that is why," sez he, "that I've always been so anxious to have wimmen keep in her own spear, where men could watch over her, humble, domestic, grateful. "Nater plotted it so," sez he; "nater designs the male of creation to branch out, to venter, to labor, to dare, while the female stays to hum and tends to her children and the housework." Sez he, "In all the works of nater the females stay to hum, and the males soar out free. "It is a sweet and solemn truth," sez he, "and female wimmen ort to lay it to heart. In these latter days," sez he, "too many females are a-risin' up, and vainly a-tryin' to kick aginst this great law. But they can't knock it over," sez he--"the female foot hain't strong enough." He wuz a-goin' on in this remarkably eloquent way on his congenial theme, but I kinder drawed him in by remindin' him of Miss Sheldon's tent we see in the Transportation Buildin'--the one she used in her lonely journeyin' a-explorin' the Dark Continent. Sez I, "There is a woman that has kinder branched out." "Yes," sez he, "but men had to carry her." Sez he, "Samantha, the Lord designed it that females should stay to hum and tend to their babies, and wash the dishes. And when you go aginst that idee you are goin' aginst the everlastin' forces of nater. Nater has always had laws sot and immovable, and always will have 'em, and a passel of wimmen managers or lecturers hain't a-goin' to turn 'em round. "Nater made wimmen and sot 'em apart for domestic duties--some of which I have enumerated," sez he. "Whilst the males, from creation down, have been left free to skirmish round and git a livin' for themselves and the females secreted in the holy privacy of the hum life." Jest as he reached this climax we come in front of the Ostrich Farm, where thirty of the long-legged, humbly creeters are kept, and we hearn the keeper a-describin' the habits of the ostriches to some folks that stood round him. And Josiah, feelin' dretful good-natered and kinder patronizin' towards wimmen, and thinkin' that he wuz a-goin' to be strengthened in his talk by what the man wuz a-sayin', sez to me in a dretful, overbearin', patronizin' way, and some with the air as if he owned a few of the ostriches, and me, too, he kinder stood up straight and crooked his forefinger and bagoned to me. "Samantha," sez he, "draw near and hear these interestin' remarks. I always love," sez he, "to have females hear about the works of nater. It has a tendency," sez he, "to keep her in her place." Sez the man as we drew near, a-goin' on with his remarks--he wuz addressin' some big man--but we hearn him say, sez he-- "The ostrich lays about a dozen and a half eggs in the layin' season--one every other day--and then she sets on the eggs about six hours out of the twenty-four, the male bird takin' her place for eighteen hours to her six. "The male bird, as you see, stays to hum and sets on the eggs three times as long as she duz, and takes the entire care of the young ostriches, while the female roams round free, as you may say." I turned round and sez to Josiah, "How interestin' the works of Nater are, Josiah Allen. How it puts woman in her proper spear, and men, too!" He looked real meachin' for most a minute, and then a look of madness and dark revenge come over his liniment. A tall, humbly male bird stood nigh him, as tall agin most as he wuz. And as I looked at Josiah he muttered, "I'll learn him--I'll learn the cussed fool to keep in his own spear." I laid holt of his vest, and sez I, "What, do you mean, Josiah Allen, by them dark threats? Tell me instantly," sez I, for I feared the worst. "Seein' this dum fool is so willin' to take work on him that don't belong for males to do, I'll give him a job at it. I'll see if I can't ride some of the consarned foolishness out of him." Sez I, "Be calm, Josiah; don't throw away your own precious life through madness and revenge. The ostrich hain't to blame, he's only actin' out Nater." "Nater!" sez Josiah scornfully--"Nater for males to stay to hum and set on eggs, and hatch 'em, and brood young ones? Don't talk to me!" He wuz almost by the side of himself. And in spite of my almost frenzied appeals to restrain him, he lanched upon him. You could ride 'em by payin' so much, and money seemed to Josiah like so much water then, so wild with wrath and revenge wuz he. I see he would go, and I reached my hand up, and sez I, "Dear Josiah, farewell!" But he only nodded to me, and I hearn him murmurin' darkly-- "Seein' he's so dum accommodatin' that he's took wimmen's work on him that they ort to do themselves, I'll give him a pull that will be apt to teach him his own place." [Illustration: "I'll give him a pull that will be apt to teach him his own place."] And he started off at a fearful rate; round and round that inclosure they went, Josiah layin' his cane over the sides of the bird, and the keeper a-yellin' at him that he'd be killed. And when they come round by us the first time I heard him a-aposthrofizin' the bird-- "Don't you want to set on some more eggs? don't you want to brood a spell?" and then he would kick him, and the ostrich would jump, and leap, and rare round. But the third time he come round I see a change--I see deadly fear depictered in his mean, and sez he wildly-- "Samantha, save me! save me! I am lost!" sez he. I wuz now in tears, and I sez wildly-- "I will save that dear man, or perish!" and I wuz jest a-rushin' into the inclosure when they come a-tearin' round for the fourth time, and jest a little ways from us the ostrich give a wild yell and leap, and Josiah wuz thrown almost onto our feet. As the keeper rushed in to pick him up, we see he held a feather in his hand. He thought it wuz tore out by excitement, and Josiah clinched the feathers to save himself. But Josiah owned up to me afterwards that he gin up that he wuz a-goin' to be killed, and that his last thought wuz as he swooned away--wuz how much ostrich feathers cost, and how sweet it would be to give me a last gift of dyin' love, by pickin' a feather off for nothin'. I groaned and sithed when he told me, and sez I, "What won't you do next, Josiah Allen?" But this wuz hereafter, and to pick up the thread of my story agin. Wall, Josiah wuzn't killed, he wuz only stunted, and he soon recovered his conscientousness. And before half a hour passed away he wuz a-talkin' as pert as you please, a-boastin' of how he would tell it in Jonesville. Sez he, "I wonder what Deacon Henzy will say when I tell him that I rode a bird while I wuz here?" Sez he, "He never rode a crow or a sparrer." "Nor you, nuther," sez I; "how could you ride a crow?" "Wall," sez he, "I've rid a ostrich, and the news will cause great excitement in Jonesville, and probable up as fur as Zoar and Loontown." Then come Solomon's Temple. Josiah and I both felt that that wuz a good scriptural sight, worthy of a deacon and a deaconess, for some say that that is the proper way to address a deacon's wife. But come to find out, the Temple wuz inside of a house, and you had to pay to go in. And I sez, "Less pay, Josiah Allen, and go in." And he said that "it wuzn't scriptural. Solomon's Temple in Bible times never had a house built round it. And he wuzn't a-goin' to encourage folks to go on and build meetin'-housen inside of other housen. "Why," sez he, "if that idee is encouraged, they will be for buildin' a house round the Jonesville meetin'-house, and we will have to pay to go in." Sez he, "Less show our colors for the right, Samantha." The argument wuz a middlin' good one, though I felt that there wuzn't no danger. But he went on ahead, and I had to foller on after him, like two old ducks goin' to water. I guess that if it had been free he wouldn't have insisted on our showin' our colors. Wall, the end of the Plaisance wuz devoted to soldiers, military displays, and camps and drill grounds. Quite a spacious place, as big as two city blocks, and it must have been very interestin' for war-like people to look on and see 'em in their handsome uniforms, a-marchin', and a-counter-marchin', and a-haltin', and a-presentin' arms, etc., etc. And there wuz gardens and orange groves nigh by, too, where you could see ripe oranges and green ones hangin' to the same trees--dretful interestin' sight. Wall, if you would turn back agin and go towards the Fair ground on the south side, a Hungarian Orpheum is seen first. This is a dance hall, theatre, and restaurant all combined. Folks can dance here all the time from mornin' till night, if they want to, but we didn't want to dance--no, indeed! nor see it; our legs wuz too wore out, and so wuz our eyes, so we wended on to the Lapland Village. The main buildin' in this is a hundred feet long, with a square tower in the centre. Above the main entrance is a large paintin' representin' a scene in Lapland. Inside the inclosure are the huts of a Lapland Village, with the Laps all there to work at their own work. What a marvellous change for them! Transported from a country where there is eight months of total darkness, and four months of twilight or midnight sun, and so cold that no instrument has ever been invented to tell how cold it is. When the frozen seas and ice and snow is all they can see from birth till death. I wonder what they think of the change to this dazzlin' daylight, and the grandeur and bloom of 1893! But still they seem to weather it out a considerable time in their own icy home. King Bull, who is in Chicago, is one hundred and twelve years old, and is a five great-grandpa. And most of the five generations of children is with him here. But marryin' as they do at ten or twelve, they can be grandpa a good many times in a hundred years, as well as not. In this village is their housen, their earth huts, their tepees, orniments, reindeers, dogs, sledges, fur clothin', boats, fishin' tackle, etc., etc. As queer a sight as I ever see, and here it wuz agin, my Josiah and me a-journeyin' way off in Lapland--the idee! [Illustration: My Josiah and me a-journeyin' way off in Lapland--the idee!] The Dahomey Village come next. This shows the homes and customs of that country where the wimmen do all the fightin'. I sez to Josiah, "What a curiosity that wuz!" And he sez, "I d'no about the curiosity on't. It don't seem so to me; some wimmen fight with their fists," sez he, "and some with their tongues." That wuz his mean, onderhanded way of talkin'. But these wimmen are about as humbly as they make wimmen anywhere. And as for clothes, they are about as poor on't for 'em as anybody I see to the Fair. They had on jest as few as they could. They say their war dances is a sight to see. But I didn't let Josiah look on any dancin' or anything of the kind that I could help. I did not forget what I mistrusted he sometimes lost sight on, when he's on towers--that he wuz a deacon and a grandpa. He acted kinder longin' to the last. He said "he spozed it wuz a sight to see 'em dance and beat their tom-toms." And I sez, "I don't want to see no children beat; and," sez I, "what did Tom do to deserve beatin'?" Sez he, "I meant their drums, and the stuns they roll round in their husky skin bags, and cymbals," sez he. "Then," sez I, "why didn't you say so?" Sez he, "I spoze to see them humbly creeters with rings in their noses, a-dancin' and contortin' their bodies, and twistin' 'em round, is a sight. And I spoze the noises is as deafenin' as it would be for all the Jonesville meetin'-house to knock all the tin pans and bilers they could git holt of together, and yell. "And they don't wear nothin' but some feathers," sez he. "Wall," sez I, "I don't want to see no sech sight, and I don't want you to." And dretful visions, as I said it, rolled through my mind of the awful day it would be for Jonesville, if Josiah Allen should carry home any such wild idees, and git the other old Jonesvillians stirred up in it. To see him, and Deacon Henzy, and Deacon Bobbet, and the rest dressed up in a few feathers a-jumpin' round, and a-beatin' tin-pans, and a-contortin' their old frames, would, I thought, be the finishin' touch to me. I had stood lots of his experimentin' and branchin's out into new idees, but I felt that I could not brook this, so I would not heed his desire to stop. I made him move onwards. And then come Austria. There is thirty-six buildin's here, and they show Austrian life and costumes in every particular. Then come the Police Station, and Fire Department, and then a French Cider Press; but I didn't care nothin' about seein' that--cider duz more hurt than whiskey enough sight, American or French, and it wuzn't any treat to me to see it made, or drunk up, nor the effects on it nuther. Then there wuz a large French Restaurant, one of the best-built structures on the ground. Then come right along St. Peter's, jest as it is in this world, saints a-follerin' sinners. It is the exact model of the Church of St. Peter's at Rome. I would go in to see that, and Josiah consented after a parley. It is the exact model down to the most minute details of that most wonderful glory of art. It is about thirty feet long, and about three times as high as Josiah, and it is a sight to remember; it is perfectly beautiful. In this buildin' where the model is seen is some portraits of the different Popes, and besides these large models is some smaller ones of the beautiful Cathedral of Milan, the Piambino Palace, the Pantheon, and a statute of St. Peter himself. Good old creeter, how I've always liked him, and thought on him! But Josiah hurried me almost beyend my strength on the way out, for the Ferris Wheel wuz indeed nigh to us, and I forgive Josiah for his ardor when I see it. [Illustration: The Ferris Wheel wuz indeed nigh to us, and I forgive Josiah for his ardor when I see it.] If there wuz nothin' else to the World's Fair but jest that wheel, it would pay well to go clear from Jonesville to Chicago to see it. It stands up aginst the sky like a huge spider-web. It is two hundred and fifty feet in diameter--jest one wheel; think of that! As wide as twenty full-sized city houses--the idee! And there are thirty-six cars hitched to it, and sixty persons can ride in each car. So you can figger it out jest how much that huge spider-web catches when it gits in motion. Wall, my feelin's when I wuz a-bein' histed up through the air wuz about half and half--half sublimity and orr as I looked out on the hull glory of the world spread at my feet, and Lake Michigan, and everything-- That part wuz clear riz up and noble, and then the other half wuz a skittish feelin' and a-wonderin' whether the tacklin' would give way, and we should descend with a smash. But the fifty-nine other people in the car with me didn't seem to be afraid, and I thought of the thirty-five other cars, all full, and a-swingin' up in the air with me; and the thought revived me some, and I managed to maintain my dignity and composure. Josiah acted real highlarious, and he wanted to swing round time and agin; he said "he would give a cent to keep a-goin' all day long." But I frowned on the idee, and I hurried him off by the model of the Eiffel Tower into Persia. There it wuz agin, my pardner and I a-travellin' in Persia--the very same Persia that our old Olney's gography had told us about years and years ago--a-visitin' it our own selves. I see the bazaars and booths all filled with the costliest laces, and rugs, and embroideries, and the Persians themselves a-sellin' 'em. But Josiah hurried me along at a fearful rate, for I had got my eye onto some lace that I wanted. I did not want to be extravagant, but I did want some of that lace; I thought how it would set off that night-cap. But he said "that Jonesville lace wuz good enough if I had got to have any; but," sez he, "I don't wear lace on my night-cap." "No," sez I; "how lace would look on a red woollen night-cap!" "Wall," sez he, "why don't you wear red woollen ones?" Sez I, "Josiah, you're not a woman." "No," sez he; "you wouldn't catch a man goin' to Persia for trimmin' for a night-cap." His axents jarred onto me, and mechanically I follered him into the Moorish Palace. One reason why I follered him so meekly and willin'ly, I didn't know but he would broach the subject of seein' them Persian wimmen dance. And I felt that I would ruther give a hull churnin' of fall's butter than to have his moral old mind contaminated with the sight. For they do say, them who have seen the sight, that "them Persian dancin' girls carry dancin' clear to the very verge of ondecency, and drop way off over the verge." I see lots of wimmen comin' out with their fan held before their blushin' faces. They say that wimmen fairly enjoy a-goin' in there to be horrified. They go day after day, they say, so to come out all horrified up, and their faces bathed in blushes. The men didn't come out at all, so they said. Wall, Josiah Allen didn't git in--no, indeed. I remembered the Jonesville meetin'-house, our pasture, and the grandchildren, and kept 'em before him all the time, so I tided him over that crisis. Now, I never had paid any attention to the Moors, and Josiah hadn't; we never had had any to neighbor with, and I felt that I wuzn't acquainted with 'em at all, unless of course I had a sort of bowin' acquaintance, as it wuz, with that one old Moor in my Olney's gography in my school-days. And what I'd seen of him didn't seem to make me hanker after any further acquaintance with him. But when I see that Palace of theirn I felt overwhelmed with shame and regret to think I'd always slighted 'em so, and never had made any overtoors towards becomin' intimate with 'em. The outside on't wuz splendid enough to almost take your breath, with its strange and gorgeous magnificence. It wuz sech a contrast in its construction to the Exposition Buildin's that lift their domes in such glory on the East. But if the outside struck a blow onto our admiration and astonishment, what--what shall I say of the inside? Why, as I entered that magnificent arched vestibule, with my faithful pardner by my side, and my good cotton umbrell grasped in my right hand, the view wuz pretty nigh overwhelmin' in its profusion of orniment and gorgeous decoration. That first look seemed to take me back to Spain right out of Chicago, and other troubles. I wuz a-roamin' there with Mr. Washington Irving, and Mr. Bancroft, and other congenial and descriptive minds, and surrounded with the gorgeous picters of that old time. I wuz back, I should presoom to say, as much, if not more, than four hundred years, when all to once I was recalled by my companion. "Dum it, I didn't know they charged folks for goin' to meetin'!" "Hush!" sez I; "this is not a meetin'-house, this is a palace; be calm!" And comin' down through the centuries as sudden as if jerked by a electric lasso of lightnin', I see that old familiar sight of a man a-settin' a-sellin' tickets. And Josiah with a deep sithe paid our fares, and we meandered onwards. Right beyend the ticket man, to the right on him, wuz a colonnade runnin' round a circular room covered with a ruff in the shape of a tent. The ceilin' and walls are covered with landscape views of Southern Spain, and a mandolin orchestra carried out the idee of a Andulusian Garden. And then comes a labyrinth of columns and mirrors, and through 'em and round 'em and up overhead wuz splendor on splendor of orniment, gorgeousness on gorgeousness. These columns are made to put one in mind of the Alhambria, where we so often strayed with our friend Washington Irving. [Illustration: Josiah paid our fares.] And oh, what curious feelin's it did make me have to cast my eyes onwards amongst these splendid arches and pillows, and see anon or oftener a tall Moor, with his long robe and his white turban, or whatever they call it, a-fallin' round his face! And then another and another of the white-robed figgers, a-glidin' round in amongst the arches, or a-settin' there in a vista of gorgeousness, like ghosts of the past come to visit the Columbus Fair. Way beyend the labyrinths, and to the left on't, is the Palm Garden, with lounging places for three or four hundred visitors, and a Moorish orchestra hid by a cluster of branchin' palms, and Arab attendants in native costumes. And then there wuz grottoes and fountains lit by electric lights, and groups of statuary illustratin' famous historical seens. And right here, while the past wuz a-pressin' so clost to us, that we wuz almost took back there in the body--our minds wuz there, way, way back-- When sudden, swift, wuz we brung back from the past--brung back to conscientousness, as it were, by two forms and two voices. Here of all places in the world, in the heart of a Moorish palace, did my eyes fall upon the faces of Bizer Dagget, and Selinda, his wife. And I sez, as my eyes fell from the contemplation of art-decked freeze and fretted archways onto the old familar freckled face, and green alpaca dress, and Bizer's meek sandy whiskers, and pepper-and-salt suit-- Sez I, "Whyee, Selinda and Bizer, is it you? How do you do? When did you git here? You didn't lay out to come when we started." "No," sez Selinda; "you know jest how it wuz, you know we had his folks to take care on, and Father Dagget wuz so helpless that we had to lift him round. And we shouldn't been able to git here at all, only Father had a severe fall out o' bed one night in the dead of night. He wuz all alone, and skairt--so we spoze--and that fall took him off on the second day. "And as quick as we could git ready we sot off here. [Illustration: "Whyee! Selinda and Bizer, is it you?"] "It didn't seem really right, but you know Father hain't known anything for upwards of two years, and you know jest how bad we did want to come here. "But I don't know as it wuz exactly right to come off so soon after he fell. I spoze it will make talk, I spoze his folks will talk, and the Jonesvillians." "But," I sez, for I wanted to comfort her--she's a good creeter-- Sez I, "Columbus had to wait before he sot out to discover us, till Grenada fell, and that made talk." Sez I, "Probable Columbuses folks talked as much as Bizer's folks will. But," sez I, "it wuz all for the best. "And," sez I, "your Father Dagget wuz a good creeter before he lost his mind." "Yes," sez she, "but for upwards of two years he's tried to put his pantaloons on over his head, and he'd put his arms in his boots every time if we'd let him, thinkin' it wuz a vest." "Wall," sez I, "you've did well by him, Selinda, and now if I wuz in your and Bizer's place, I'd try to look round all I could and git my mind off, and see everything I could see." Sez she with a deep sithe, "There hain't no trouble about that; there is enough to see." Sez she, "It seems as though I had seen enough every five minutes sence I come, if it wuz spread out even and smooth, to cover a hull lifetime, and cover it thick, too," sez she. "And," sez I, warmly and candidly, "Heaven knows that is true--true as gospel." And then Selinda and Bizer, and Josiah and me walked on into other parts of the buildin', and there we see a small-lookin' model of the Santa Maria, the Admiral's flag-ship, manned by men with the same clothes on as wuz wore by Columbuses mariners. That filled me with large emotions, and Selinda felt it too. And it wuz here that Josiah nudged me, and sez he, "You've always throwed it into my face that men don't think so much of each other as wimmen do; and now," sez he, "look at them two men--I've watched 'em as long as ten minutes--a-holdin' each other's hands." And sure enough, I turned, and I see two good-lookin' men a-holdin' each other by the hand as if they loved each other fondly-- As if they couldn't bear to leggo. They wuz first-rate lookin' men, too, and you could see plain by their liniments how much store they sot by each other. Wall, Josiah and I wended off and looked at the wax figgers of Lincoln, and the death of Marie Antoinette, and lots of other interestin' wax statutes; and when we come back, there stood them two men still a-holdin' each other by the hand; and Josiah whispered agin, "How they love each other! no gabblin' and gushin', like wimmen, but jest silent, clost, deep love." "But," I sez, "I believe there is sunthin' wrong about 'em. It hain't nateral for men to stand still so long holt of hands. I believe they're in a fit or sunthin'." "A fit!" sez he. "I spoze a woman would have a fit if she had to keep still a minute with another woman in gunshot of her. "But to satisfy you," sez he, "I'll see." So he accosted 'em, and sez he, "I will ask the way to Noah's Ark." So he advanced with a polite air, and sez he, "Could either one of you two gentlemen tell me where Noah's Ark is situated?" Sez he, "Bizer is anxious to see it." They didn't move or stir, and Josiah agin sez, "Do you know where Noah's Ark is?" and he laid his hand on the arm of one of the men who stood near him. A Columbian Guard who stood near sez, "Keep your hand offen the wax figger!" Josiah wuz mortified most to death. He'd wanted to show off the equality of his sect, and to have man's love and fidelity proved to be but wax wuz harrowin'. But he didn't stay mortified more'n a minute and a half on sech a business. And the Guard told us where Noah's Ark wuz. And Bizer and Josiah wuz all carried away with it. This wuz in the children's room, and all the animals are reproduced life size, every one of 'em two and two, jest as they enter the Ark. We couldn't hardly tear our two pardners away, Selinda and I couldn't. Josiah said, "It wuz so beautiful and interestin'," and so Bizer said. But I believe what made them men cling to it so for sech a length of time, they hearn us talk about how we wanted to go into the Bazaar, where there wuz lots of things to sell. But finally they see they couldn't hold us back no longer, so we went through that gorgeous place, all full of bronzes, rugs, vases, pipes, and etcetry. We didn't stay long here, though, for Bizer and Josiah said that the air wuz that bad they wuz chokin', and that they couldn't stan' it. And Selinda and I a-feelin' that chokin' a pardner wuz the last thing we wanted to undertake, we went through it at a pretty good jog, and anon we found ourselves in Turkey; and here I found the Turkeys had done first-rate. Why, one piece of their hand-wrought lace wuz worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. While I wuz a-admirin' of it, Josiah whispered firmly-- "Don't go to thinkin' of that old night-cap in sech a time as this." And I whispered back, "I hain't no more idee on't than you have of buyin' that old tent to take down to the lake with you a-fishin'." That very old battle-tent wuz all hand work, embroidered in gold and silver and silk in nateral figgers, and they said it wuz worth five millions of dollars-- And a silver bedstead the Sultan is a-goin' to give to his daughter as a part of her settin' out when she marries wuz worth four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You can from this form some idee of the value of the other enormous exhibits. And the most beautiful horses you ever see, right from the Sultan's stable, wuz a-prancin' round. And one hundred Beoudins with camels and dromedaries added to the picteresqueness of the seen. And then we see Cleopatri's needle, that tall column a-risin' up to the sky, all covered with writin' worse than mine, and that's a-sayin' a good deal. I couldn't read a word on't, nor Josiah couldn't. And to the back of the Grand Bazaar wuz leven cottages, where male and female Turkeys wuz workin' at their different trades, showin' jest how rugs, and carpets, and embroideries, and brass work is made. As I said to Selinda, "Would you believed it possible, Selinda, if we'd been told on't a dozen years ago that you and I should be a-travellin' in Turkey to-day?" And she said, "No, indeed; she had never imagined that she should ever visit sech foreign shores." Yes, we felt considerable riz up to think that we wuz engaged in foreign travel, but not hauty. No, we are both on us well-principled, and don't believe in puttin' on airs. Wall, we stayed here a good while, and Josiah thought he'd eat sunthin' here, too. If he'd had his way, he would had a good square meal in every foreign country, and native one, too. That man's appetite is wonderful. Foreign countries can't quell it down, nor rumatiz, nor nothin'. Hakenbeck's animal show comes next, and it is the most complete--so they say--that wuz ever exhibited. The tent is two hundred feet square, and is filled with all the animals that ever went into the Ark, and more, too, I believe. Five thousand people can go in here at one time, and set down, and see lions a-ridin' on horseback, with a woman to run the performance, and see animals a-doin' everything else that ever wuz done by 'em, and tigers, and elephants, and performin' horses, and two hundred monkeys, and one thousand parrots. We didn't go in, but Josiah slipped in one day when I wuzn't with him, and he described it to me. He owned up to me that he had. And he said he did it to keep me from havin' sech a skair. "Why," sez he, "a woman that is afraid of a gobbler, and runs from a snake-- "Why," sez he, "I wouldn't as a man of feelin' take her right in the way of havin' her feelin's hurt and skairin' her most to death for nothin' this world could give." And I said--and I meant it--"If it hadn't been for the fifty cents I guess you wouldn't felt so, Josiah Allen." But he stuck to it that it wuz pure affection and principle. I d'no what to think about it, but I have my suspicions. Wall, at the next place Josiah could not be restrained. It wuz the good old-fashioned New England house with gable ends, and here a good New England dinner wuz served. And sez Josiah, "I don't leave this house till I have a good square meal." Bizer felt jest so, and so Selinda and I jined 'em in a meal most as good as she and I got up to hum, and that is sayin' a great deal. Josiah's satisfaction in eatin' that pork and beans, and them doughnuts, wuz a sight to witness. Bizer called for cold biled vittles, and sure enough, they brung 'em on. And the enjoyment of them two men wuz extreme. Selinda and I took comfort in some old-fashioned pound-cake and custard pie. Selinda said she'd love to have the receipt of that pound-cake. Selinda is a good plain cook. She can't cook like me, of course, but she duz well. Wall, their extra good meal had sot up Josiah and Bizer to a wonderful extent (they had drunk coffee too strong for 'em by half, and I knew it), and them two men wanted to go back into the Cairo Street. Bizer and Selinda had never seen it, and all the way there Josiah seemed to be on the lookout to do sunthin' heroic and surprisin' to Bizer. And jest after we got there, we did see as strange a sight as I ever see. It wuz a Eastern Fakir, as they called him. He wuz performin' one of his strange sights right there before our face and eyes. A big crowd wuz gathered round him of human bein's in all strange costumes, and camels and their drivers, and dromedaries, and donkeys, and everything else under the sun. But this man stood calm under the sights and ear-piercin' yells and jabbers. And in some way, I d'no how, nor Josiah don't, he wuz a-holdin' another Japan or Turkey--anyway, one of them foreign men--suspended right up in the air. I see it, and Josiah see it, and Bizerses folks. Eight eyes from Jonesville looked at it, to say nothin' of the assembled crowd. He wuzn't restin' on nothin' at all, so fur as we could see. What material wrought out of the Occult World wuz piled up under him I d'no. There might have been a sofa and two cushions wrought out of another fabric different from what we know anything about, and that don't make any show aginst the summer sky. And then, agin, it might be that Josiah wuz right. He sez, "It's easy enough to do that. He casts a mist before our eyes, and we have to see jest what he wanted us to." "Wall," sez I, "if I had to do one of 'em to entertain the Missionary Society at Jonesville, I d'no but I had jest as soon hist Submit Tewksbury up in the air, and suspend her there in our parlor, as to cast mists before the eyes of the Jonesvillians and make 'em see her there when she wuz a-settin' on the sofa. Either one on 'em is queer--queer as a dog." "Wall," sez he, "you don't want to go into any sech a job. You'll kill Submit, anyway, experimentin' on her." And I sez, "You needn't worry; I hain't a-goin' to try to branch out into no sech doin's." Sez I, "I wuz usin' Submit as a metafor." Wall, the Fakir after a while asked the queer-lookin' crowd gathered round him for money to try more experiments with. And wantin' to branch out and outdo Bizer, and make himself a hero, Josiah planked out a five-dollar bill. And then the man asked Josiah to look in his hat, and there inside the band he found the money, or so it seemed. And then he told me to look in my pocket, and there wuz five silver dollars to all appearance. I felt real well about it, and wuz about to put 'em into my portmoney, thinkin' that they wuz my lawful prey, seein' they had fell onto me through my pardner's weakness, when lo and behold! they wuzn't there. I felt real stunted, and kinder sot back. "Slight of hand," sez Josiah to me and Bizer. "Don't be afraid, I'll make it all right." And he reached out his hand to git the money back. The man handed the money back, or so we spozed, and vanished in the crowd. And Josiah, when he went to look in his hand, found some pink and white paper. He hollered round and acted for quite a spell, but the man wuz gone for good, and Josiah's money with him. Wall, Josiah wuz almost broken-hearted over the loss of his money; he felt awful browbeat and smut, and acted so. And then it wuz Bizer's time to show off and act. Nothin' to do but what Selinda had got to ride a camel. She hung back and acted 'fraid. She hain't a bit well, for all she is so fat. She has real dizzy spells sometimes, and is that cowardly that she'd be 'fraid to ride a cow, let alone one of them tall, humbly monsters. But nothin' to do but what Bizer would have his way. He did it jest to go ahead of us, and I knew it, for I put my foot right down in the first on't. Josiah would a paid out the money willin'ly ruther than had Bizer go ahead of him. Bizer said he wanted to give Selinda all the enjoyment he could while on her tower, she had been shet up so much, and hadn't had the pleasures she ort to had. I knew his motives and Selinda's feelin's, but couldn't break it up, for Selinda had always follered Elder Minkley's orders strict, that he gin her at the altar-- "Wives, obey your husbands." She didn't rebel outward, but she whispered to me in pitiful axents-- "I hate to ride that creeter--oh, how I hate to! But you know my principles," sez she; "you know I always said that wives ort to obey their pardners." And I sez, "When pardners and common sense conflict, I foller common sense every time. Howsumever," sez I, "if you want to air them principles of yourn, you won't be apt to find a more lofty place to exhibit 'em." And I glanced up the gray precipitous sides of that camel, and she looked up 'em, too, with fear and tremblin', but begun to gird her lions, figgeratively speakin', to obey Bizer and embark. She has always boasted to me and the other neighborin' wimmen that she has never disobeyed her husband once; and I sez to her cheerfully, "Wall, I have, and expect to agin, if the Lord spares my life." And so Miss Bobbet told her, and Miss Gowdy, and Miss Peedick, and all the rest. She acted so high-headed about it, that we said it some to take down her pride, and some on principle. We believed there wuz reason in all things, and none of us wimmen felt that we would stand "On a burnin' deck, Whence all but we had fled," and burn up, even if our pardners had ordered us to. We wuz law-abidin', every one on us, but we felt there wuz times where law ended and common sense begun. But Selinda argued, I well remember, that if Bizer had ordered her to stay on that deck, she should stay and be sot fire to. And she praised up little Casey Bianky warmly, while we thought and said that Casey acted like a fool, and felt that Mr. Bianky would much ruther had him run and save himself than to burn up; anyway, old Miss Bianky would, and I believe his pa would. Men are good-hearted creeters the biggest heft of the time, but failable in judgment sometimes, jest like female wimmen. But Selinda wuz firm in her belief. And here this day in Chicago she gin one of the most remarkable proofs of it ever seen in this country. So while Selinda trembled like a popple leaf, and her false teeth rattled over her dry tongue (besides the camel, she wuz 'fraid as death of the Turkey that driv it, and he did look fierce), the camel knelt down, and the almost swoonin' Selinda was histed up onto his back by the proud and haughty Bizer, and the strange-lookin' Turkey. She had no more than got seated when the driver give a skairful yell, and the camel give a fearful lunge, and straightened up on its feet, and Selinda's bunnet fell back onto her neck, and lay there through the hull of the enterprise, and her gray hair floated back onchecked, for she dassent let her hands go a minit to fix it. It wuz a mournin' bunnet and veil, but black gittin' soiled so easy, she had put on a bright green alpaca dress she had, thinkin' that she wouldn't see nobody she knew; and she wore some old yeller mitts for the same reason, and some low, shabby-lookin' shoes, and some white stockin's. And her weight bein' two hundred and forty, she showed off vivid aginst the settin' sun. Selinda is a meek woman and obedient, but she cries easy. You have got to take good traits and bad ones in folks. She can't help it. She always cries in class meetin', or anywhere--has cried time and agin a-tellin' how she would be trompled on and lay down and have her head chopped off if Bizer told her to. And of course it couldn't be expected she would go through this fearful experience without sheddin' tears. No; before she had been up there two minits she begun to cry. [Illustration: Before she had been up there two minits she begun to cry.] She always makes up pitiful faces when she weeps. It has been talked on a sight in Jonesville, some sayin' she might help it, and some contendin' that she couldn't; but she skairs children frequent. But now she dassent leggo a minit to git her handkerchief, so she rode along weepin' silently, and a fearful sight for men or angels, but truly a cryin' monument of wifely devotion. As she moved off, I could see at the first strain her dress waist, bein' one of the short round ones with a belt, had bust asunder, leavin' a white waist of cotton flannel between 'em, which seemed to be a-growin' wider and wider all the time. (She wears cotton flannel for her health.) As I see this, and not knowin' what would ensue and take place in her clothin', I cast onto the wind my own fears, and the shrinkin' timidity of my sect, and graspin' my umbrell in my hand, I run along by the side of the lofty quadreped, a-tryin' to reach up and fix her a little. But I could not; her position wuz too lofty, the mount wuz too precipitous on which she sot. She see me, but she didn't stop her cryin', and the faces she wuz a-makin' wuz pitiful in the extreme, and skairful to anybody that hadn't seen 'em so much as I had. She wuz half bent, which made her cotton-flannel infirmity harder to witness. The camel wuz a-swayin' fearful from side to side, and a-lurchin' forwards and a lurchin' backwards at a dangerous rate. Oh, how dizzy-headed Selinda must have been! How skairt and how dretful her feelin's wuz! Sez I, "Dismount to once, Selinda Dagget." "No," sez she; "Bizer has placed me here, and here I will stay." "You don't know whether you will or not," sez I. "I believe you are a-fallin' off; and," sez I, "I'm 'fraid you'll git killed, Selinda; do git down!" "I fear it too," sez she, and she looked down on me with agony in her mean, and sez she-- "Good-bye, Sister Allen; if we don't meet agin, we both believe in a better country." I wuz all carried away by my emotions, or wouldn't spoke out so; but I sez-- "This country is all right enough, if folks didn't act like fools in it." Sez I, "Do you git down and pull down your bask, and wipe your nose and eyes; you look like fury, Selinda Dagget." "No," sez she; "Bizer wanted me to ride, and I shall die a-pleasin' him. I took vows of obedience onto me at the altar, and if I die here, Sister Allen, tell the female sistern at Jonesville that I died a-keepin' them vows." Sez I, "I'll tell 'em you died a nateral fool;" and sez I agin, "Git down offen that camel, Selinda Dagget, before you fall off." And I kep clost by her, and kinder poked at her with my umbrell, to let her know I hadn't deserted her, and havin' a blind idee that I could hold her up with it if the worst come. Where wuz Bizer durin' this fearful seen? while I wuz a-showin' plain the deathless devotion to my sect--to another one in distress. He wuz all took up with his own feelin's of pride and show. He wuz a-ridin' a donkey, and it wuz a-backin' up and a-actin', and took every mite of his strength and firmness to keep on. He had a tall white hat with a mournin' weed on't, and a long linen duster, and the wind blowed this out some like a balloon. He looked queer; but as soon as he stiddied himself on't he tried his best to reach the side of Selinda--I'll say that for him. But the donkey wuz obstinate, and kep a-backin' up, and Bizer, bein' his legs dragged, kinder walked along with the donkey under him. Occasionally he would set down for a spell, but the most of his journey wuz done a-walkin' afoot. And the crowd see it and cheered. It wuz hard on Bizer. Nothin' but pride and ambition led him into the undertakin', or kep him up through it. As for me, I lost all patience, and my breath, too, and went back to my pardner. And anon or about that time they made their rounds, and come back where Josiah and I stood. I reached up a handkerchief to Selinda as quick as I could, but she couldn't wipe her eyes or tend to her nose until she dismounted, or fix the gapin' kasum at the back of her waist. She greeted me warmly the minit her feet touched terry firmy, as one might who had come out of great peril. She's a good-hearted creeter. And between us both, with some pins I took out of my huzzy I always carry with me, we fixed her up agin. And if you'll believe it, the very minit I got her pinned up she begun to act high-headed and to boast of how much principle she'd shown. And I said, "You've shown more'n principle, Selinda; you've showed cotton flannel that you had ort to have kep to yourself. You have made a panorama that can't be described." "Yes," sez she; "it will be sunthin' to tell on all my life." She took it as a compliment. Oh dear me suz! Bizer had scraped the patent leather all offen the toes of his shoes, and had squandered three dollars in money, but he felt good. Yes, they both said what a excitement this adventure would make in Jonesville when they told on't. And I thought to myself, if the Jonesvillians could see jest how she looked, and he too, it would be apt to make a excitement. How many times did I digest this great truth while on my tower! How little we know sometimes what a appearance we are a-makin' before men and angels, when we think we are a-doin' sunthin' wonderful! Wall, Josiah wuz all took aback; he couldn't seem to bear Bizer's patronizin' ways so well as I could Selinda's. Truly, females learn the lesson well to suffer and be calm. But he acted kinder surly, and proposed that we should go hum; and bein' tired as a dog, I gin a willin' consent, and Bizer and Selinda parted from us, their way layin' different from ourn. Wall, that night, after we got back to Miss Plankses, I felt all kind o' shook up in sperit, and considerable as I do when I've eat too hearty, and of too many kinds of food. You know, you mustn't swaller a big meal too quick, or eat too many kinds of food when you're tired, or it won't set right on your stomach. I felt real dyspeptic in my mind that night, and I felt that I had wandered out of the sweet, level paths of Moderation and Megumness that I love to wander in. But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom. It seemed as if the bed never felt so good to me as it did that night; and the pillers never felt so soft, and quiet, and comfortable. And with a deep sithe of content I went out at once into the Land of Sleep, and bein' too tired to "tread its windin' ways Beyend the reach of busy feet," I sunk down under the shade of a branchin' Poppy Tree, and laid there becalmed and peaceful till Miss Plankses risin' bell rung--way up the stairway, up into my bedroom--and echoed over into the Land, shook the drowsy boughs over my head, and waked me up. And then, tired as I wuz the night before, I felt considerable chipper. CHAPTER XX. Wall, this mornin' we sot off in good season. We would always lay our plans in the mornin', and that mornin' I said, "I would love to tackle the Agricultural Buildin'." And Josiah gin his willin' consent. He said, "After so much gildin' and orniments, he would love to look at a potato, or a rutabagy, or a cowcumber." And I sez, "If you lay out to git rid of seein' orniments, you had better not stir out of your tracks." And Nony Piddock said, "It sickened a man to see so much vain orniment." And the Twin said, "It wuz perfectly beautiful to see it." And the rest of the boarders bein' agreed jest about as well on't, we set out for the Agricultural Hall in pretty good sperits. Wall, truly did Nony say that the orniments wuz impressive and overwhelmin'. Now, I thought I had seen orniments, and I thought I had seen pillows. Why, Father Allen had a porch held up by as many as five pillows--holler ones--boarded round and painted to look like granite stun. And our Meetin'-House steeple wuz, I had always spozed, ornimented. Why, we had gin as high as fourteen dollars for the ornimental work on that steeple, and the Jonesvillians, and the Loontowns, and the Zoarites come from fur and near to look at it and admire it, the Jonesvillians in pride and the others in envy, and a-hankerin' to have one like it. [Illustration: The Jonesvillians, and the Loontowns, and the Zoarites came from fur and near to admire it.] But truly our pride in that steeple tottered and fell when we hove in sight of that Agricultural Hall. And when you look at the size of that buildin', and the grandeur of it, you can see plain what sort of a place Agriculture holds in the minds of the world, and how much store folks set on eatin'; and truly, how could the world git along without it? It would run right down. Why, imagine, if you can, eight hundred feet one way and five hundred the other way, all orniments and pillows, pillows and orniments, and one big towerin' dome in the centre, and lots of smaller ones, each one topped off with the most beautiful figger, and groups of figgers, you ever laid eyes on. Where wuz Father Allen's pillow, and our steeple? Gone, crushed down under twenty-six hundred feet of clear pillows and orniments. On top of the great central dome stands the beautiful figger of Diana, who had flown away from Madison Square, New York, and had settled down here on purpose to delight the beholders of the United Globe with her beauty and grace. She wuz still a-holdin' her arrows in her hand, still a-turnin' her beautiful face around so everybody could see it, still a-kickin' at the wind with her pretty heel. But, as in the past, so now, let her kick ever so hard, she couldn't turn the wind a mite when it got its mind made up to blow from any particular pint of the compass. And besides this figger on the dome, every little while on the four corners of the buildin' wuz long, low groups of female wimmen a-holdin' garlands, depicterin' the four seasons. And the long line of pillows would be broken by noble piers, with a beautiful group of figgers on every one on 'em, and some flags a-wavin' out, as if to draw attention to the perfectness of the statutes. One on 'em wuz a good-lookin' man a-holdin' two prancin' horses, and I sez to myself, I am glad to see a man a-holdin' the bits for once. But come to look closter, I see that there wuz two figgers--little girls, I guess--that wuz holt of the horses' heads. And then I see the man had a sword in one hand and a club in the other. He wuzn't to blame--he couldn't hold 'em. Jest like Josiah; lots of times he would be real glad to do things, only his hands are full. And then another group wuz a beautiful female a-standin' up between two great, big, long-horned oxen, a-holdin' them powerful-lookin' beasts with a rope made of posies. Good land! I wouldn't held 'em with iron chains. They looked so high-headed, and their horns looked so long, and it seemed too bad to put her at such a dangerous job. But she didn't seem to be a mite afraid; she looked calm, and she had on plenty of store clothes, which wuz indeed a comfort. [Illustration: She didn't seem to be a mite afraid.] And then, besides these main piers, with their large, beautiful groups, there wuz fifty-two smaller piers, each one havin' a handsome statute, representin' winged Geniis, sometimes a-holdin' tablets in their hands, and anon horns of plenty, and abundance. Most of this beautiful sculpture wuz designed by a man named Martiney, French born, but I guess a-callin' himself an American now. And I thought, as I looked at it, I would love to see him, and tell him how well I thought on him and his works. He also made the beautiful orniments in the interior of the large rotunda, and the great figger of Ceres that stands in the centre. In the pediment over the main entrance stands another beautiful figger of Ceres--she that wuz Demetor Saturn. I spoze, mebby, now we ort to call her Miss Jupiter. But, anyway, she is as good-hearted as can be, always a-handin' out grain and food to the perishin'. Here she stands in the sculpture, which is made by an American, Mr. Mead by name--here she stands, tall and benignant, in the centre of as many as twenty men, wimmen, and children, a-sufferin' from hunger the most on 'em, and she a-handin' out food right and left. What a good creeter she is, anyway! Wall, mebby I have gin you a faint, a very faint idee of the beauty of the hull twenty-six hundred feet of solid loveliness and perfection. But who--who will tell what we see inside on't? In this buildin' every State in the Union, and almost every civilized nation of the world, is represented with agricultural exhibits, and food products in their manufactured state. Prizes will be gin at the end of the Fair to the _best_. Every nation is shown up here; and if you have got any learnin', you can look it up in your own Gography, and realize the number on 'em, and the immense size of the exhibition. And then there is the most interestin' exhibits in agricultural teachin', Schools and Colleges of different nations, side by side with the best American colleges of Agriculture, and Experimental Stations. Here in this exhibit you can see everything eatable and drinkable, from Jonesville wheat to palm sugar, and all sorts of vegetables that wuz ever seen, and the very biggest ones that wuz ever grown, from a sweet potato to a squash, and peanuts to cocoanuts-- And all sorts of animal products, from a elephant's tusk, from Africa, to a sleek deacon's skin, from Jonesville. And then, besides the exhibit of raw products of every kind, from Egypt to Shackville, there are shown off all sorts of manufactured foods, and everything else, and so forth and so on. If you stay here long enough, say from 2 to 3 months, you can git a good idee of what the world feeds on, from Hindoostan to Loontown and Zoar. Josiah enjoyed himself here richly. He hardly could be torn away. And I took comfort, too, in the dairy, where the butter and cheese from the different States is shown off in handsome cases, and kep cool and fresh in dog-days. This wuz, I spoze, to test the merits of the different breeds of dairy cattle, and teach the very best methods of makin' butter and cheese. I took solid comfort here, and I also got some new and useful idees that I could disseminate to Miss Isham, and she that wuz Submit Tewksbury. As for Philury, I mean to give her lessons daily (she runs our dairy in my absence). In the annex of this buildin' wuz exhibits of all the Agricultural implements ever known or hearn on, from the first old rickety reaper up to the noble machine of to-day, that will cut the grain, and take out a string and tie it up in sheafs; and I guess if it wuz encouraged enough, it would take it to the mill and grind it-- And the first old cotton-gin and mower up to the finished machines of to-day. Outside this buildin', directly on the lagoon, wuz exhibits of gates, fences, and all sorts of wind-mills, from the picteresque old Dutch mills up to the ones of eighteen hundred and ninety-three. And engines, portable and traction ones. I asked Josiah, "What he spozed a traction engine wuz," and he sez, "One that is tractable--easy to manage." Sez he, "Some on 'em, you know, is obstropolos." I don't know whether he got it right or not, but he seemed sure on't, and that is half the battle, so fur as makin' a show is concerned, in this world. Jined to this department is a Assembly Hall, on purpose for speakers and orators to disseminate the best and latest idees about agriculture. And, take it all in all, what a boon to Jonesville and the World the hull exhibit is! It wuz a sight! Wall, bein' pretty nigh to it--only a little walk acrost a tree-shaded green--I acceded to my pardner's request that I would go with him to the Stock Exhibit. He had been before, but I hadn't got round to it. It is sixty-three acres big, forty-four acres under ruff. Think of a house forty-four acres big! Wall, here we see every live animal that wuz ever seen, from a little trick pony to a elephant, and from a sheep to a camel--a dretful interestin' exhibit, but noisy. And all kinds of dogs, from a poodle to a mastiff. Why, there wuz one dog there that wuz worth three thousand and seven hundred dollars; it is the biggest dog in the world. But I told Josiah that I wouldn't gin a cent for it if I had got to have it round; it wuz so big that it wuz fairly skairful. Why it weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds. [Illustration: It wuz so big that it wuz fairly skairful.] It wuz a St. Bernard; but I told Josiah, "Santi or not, I wouldn't want to meet it alone in the back lane in the evenin'." It would skair a young child into fits to go through this department; some of them wild creeters look so ferocious, especially the painters, they made my blood fairly curdle. Wall, we stayed here for some time, or until my ear-pans seemed to be ruined for life. And then we had a little time on our hands, and Josiah proposed that we should go out on the water and take a short voyage to rest off. I gin a glad consent, and we sot off. Wall, after bein' on the water a little while, I begun to feel so much rested that I proposed that we should row round to the other end of the park, and pay attention to some of the State Buildin's. "For," sez I, "if the different countries should hear on't that I have been here all this while, without payin' 'em any attention, they will feel hurt." And sez I, "I had ruther give a cent than to have Great Britain feel hurt, and lots of the rest on 'em. "And then," sez I, "it hain't right to slight 'em, even if they never heard on't." "Oh, shaw!" sez Josiah, "I guess that they would git along if you didn't go at all; I guess that they hain't a-sufferin' for company this year." "But," sez I with dignity, "this is a fur different thing, and as fur as our own United States Buildin's are concerned, I feel bound to 'em, bein' such a intimate friend to their Father-in-law." "What do you mean?" sez Josiah. "Why, Uncle Sam," sez I--"U.S. Epluribus Unim." Agin he sez, "Oh, shaw!" But I held firm, and at my request the boat headed that way. And we landed as nigh 'em as we could. You see, all the United States, and most of the Foreign Countries, have a separate buildin', mostly gin up to social and friendly purposes, where natives of that State and country can go in and rest, and recooperate--see some of their friends, and so on, and so forth. Wall, we laid out to pay attention to a lot on 'em that day. But, as it turned out, we didn't go to but jest three on 'em, the reasons of which I will set down, and recapitulate. I felt that we _had_ to go to New York and Illinois. Loyalty and Politeness stood on both sides of us, a-leadin' us to the home of our own native State, and the folks we wuz a-visitin'; and we found New York a perfect palace, modelled after an Italian one. And the row of green plants a-standin' on the ruff all round made it look real uneek and dretful handsome. And inside it wuz fitted up as luxurious as any palace need to be, with a banquet hall eighty-four feet long and forty-six feet high; a glow of white, and gold, and red, and crystal. Yes, the hull house wuz pleasant and horsepitable, as become the dwellin' place of the Empire State. And Illinois! You might know what you'd expect to find inside, when you see what they had outside on't. That statute, "Hide and Seek," before the entrance, wuz, I do believe, the very best thing I see to the hull Fair-- Five little children with merry, laughin' faces a-playin' at hide and seek in a broken gray old stump, and flowers, and vines, and mosses a-runnin' round it and over it as nateral as life. Wall, I stood before that beautiful object till Josiah had to draw me away from it almost by main force. But inside it come my time to draw him away. When we see that picter of the old farm made in seeds, he wuz as rooted to the spot as if he intended to remain sot out there, and grow up with the State. [Illustration: He wuz rooted to the spot.] And it wuz a dretful interestin' sight--the farm-house, the barns, the well, the old windmill, the long fields a-stretchin' back, and fenced off, with different crops on 'em, the good-lookin' men and wimmen, and the horses, with their glossy hides and silky manes and tails, and all made of different kinds of seeds and grasses. It wuz a sight to see the crowd that stood before that from mornin' till night, and you ask ten folks what impressed 'em the most at the Fair, and more'n half on 'em would most likely say that it wuz that seed picter in the Illinois Buildin'. Over one side on't wuz draped sunthin' that I took to be the very richest silk or velvet, all fringed out with a deep fringe on the end on't. But it wuz all made of grasses of different kinds--the idee! Fifteen young ladies of Illinois made that, and they done first-rate. I want 'em to know what I think on't, and what Josiah duz. Wall, inside the buildin' wuz full and runnin' over with beautiful objects--lovely picters, noble statuary, beautiful works of art and industry done by the sons and daughters of the State. It would take more'n a week to do any justice to it. Illinois done splendid. I want her to know how I appreciated it. She'll be glad to know how riz up I felt there. Wall, when we left there we had a little dialogue--not mad exactly, but earnest. I wanted to go and see Great Britain, and Josiah wanted to go to Vermont (he has got a third cousin a-livin' there, and he wanted to see him). "Wall," sez I, "we've got a mother to tend to; the Mother Country calls for a little filial attention." "Oh, shaw!" sez he; "I guess you feel more related than they do; and," sez he, "I shall go to Vermont. Mebby I shall meet Bildad Allen right there in the settin'-room." So there it wuz--we wuz both determined. I see by my companion's mean that it wouldn't do to insist on Great Britain. But a woman hates to give in awful. So I suggested makin' a compromise on California. [Illustration: A woman hates to give in awful, so I suggested a compromise on California.] And he agreed to it. He, too, had seen a look of marble determination on my mean, and he dassent press the Vermont question too hard. So we directed our steps towards the California Buildin'. It is a exact reproduction of the old Monastery of San Diego, and one hundred thousand square feet is the size on't. It is full of the products of California. Sech fruit and flowers I never see, and don't expect to agin. The flowers wuz gorgeous, and perfectly beautiful, and I spoze, though I don't really want to twit 'em of it, yet I do spoze they brought every mite of fruit out of California for this occasion. I don't spoze there wuz a orange left there, or a grape, nor anything else in the line of fruit. Mebby there might a been one or two green oranges left, but I doubt it. And as for canned and dried fruit, I don't spoze there wuz a teacupful left in the hull State. Why, jest think of the dried prunes it must have took to make that horse that wuz rared up there seven feet from the floor! And wuzn't that horse a sight to see?--jest as nateral as though he wuz made of flesh instead of fruit. I hearn, but mebby it come from some of their own folks--but I hearn that California had the best exhibits of all kinds of any of the States. But I wouldn't want it told from me. I don't want to git thirty or forty States mad as a hen at me; the States are dretful touchy, anyway, in the matter of State Rights and pride. But the show wuz impressive--dretful. This house wuz built, I spoze, in honor of Spain, like a old Spanish Mission Buildin'; and up in the towers which rise up on the four corners are belfrys, in which are some of the old Spanish bells, that still ring out and call to prayers, when the good old Fathers that used to hear 'em, and the Injun converts, generations and generations of 'em, have slept so sound that the bells can't wake 'em. And the bells still swing out over this restless and ambitious generation, and they will swing and echo jest the same when we too have gone to sleep, and sleep sound. Queer, hain't it, that a little dead lump of metal should outlive the beatin' human heart--the active, outreachin' human life, with its world-wide activities and Heaven-high aspiration? But so it is; generations and generations are born, live, and die, and the old bells, a-takin' life easy, jest swing on, and ring out jest as sweet and calm and kinder careless at our death as at our birth. The bells sounded dretful melancholy and heart achin' to me; that day they seemed to be soundin' a requiem clear from California to Jonesville for the good Man who had passed away. Jest as we went down the steps we hearn a bystander a-tellin' another one "that Leland Stanford wuz dead." And I wuz fearful rousted up about it; I felt like death to hear on't; and to think that I never had a chance to tell him what I thought on him. I was fearful agitated, and almost by the side of myself; but jest at that juncture--jest as I sez to Josiah, "I shouldn't felt so bad if I had had a chance to tell him what I thought on him, and encourage him in his noble doin's, and warn him in one or two things"--jest at that minit, sez Josiah, "I've lost my bandanny handkerchief;" and he told me, "To wait there for him, that he thought that he remembered where he had dropped it--back in a antick room in the back part of the house." And I thought more'n like as not that wuz the last I should see of him for hours and hours, the crowd wuz so immense and the search wuz so oncertain. But it wuz a good new handkerchief--red and yeller, with a palm-tree pattern on it--and I couldn't discourage him from huntin' for it. And jest as he turned to go back, he sez-- "Why, if there hain't Deacon Rogers of Loontown!" And he advanced onto a good-lookin' man, who wuz a-standin' some distance off. My pardner put out his hand and stepped forward with a glad face till he got to within three feet of him, and then his gladness died out, and he looked meachin'. It wuzn't Rogers. And my pardner jest turned on his tracks, and disappeared round the buildin'. A bystander who wuz a-standin' by spoke up and sez: "That is Governor Markham, of California." "Why'ee!" sez I, "is that so?" and then the thought come to me that the pityin' Providence that had removed Senator Stanford from my encouragement, and warnin', had throwed this man in my way. I see in a minit what would be expected of me both by the nation and by my own Gardeen Angel of Duty. I must encourage him by tellin' him what I thought of the noble doin's of one of his folks, and I must warn him on a few things, and git him to turn round in his tracks. So I advanced, and accosted him. He was a-standin' out a little ways to one side a-lookin' up to the handsome front of the house, and I sez to him, in a voice nearly tremblin' with emotion-- "I have wanted to tell you, Governor Markham, how I feel, and how Josiah feels." He turned round and looked kinder surprised, but good-natered, and I see then that he wuz a real good-lookin' man, and sez he--"Who is Josiah?" And I sez, "My own pardner. I am Josiah Allen's Wife." And as I sez this, bein' very polite, I kinder bowed my head, and he kinder bowed his head too. We appeared real well, both on us. And sez I, "We feel it dretful, the passin' away and expirin' of one of your folks." And sez he, "You allude to Senator Stanford?" And I sez, "Yes; when I think of that noble school of hisen that he has sot up there in your great State--the finest school in the world for poor boys and poor girls, as well as rich ones--when I think what that great educational power is a-goin' to do for the children of this great country, rich and poor, I think on him almost by the side of Christopher Columbus. For if Christopher discovered a new world, Senator Stanford wuz a-takin' the youth of this country into a new realm--a-sailin' 'em out into a new world, and a grander one than they'd any idee on--a-sailin' 'em out on the great ship of his magnificent Charity; and that Ship," sez I, in a kind of a tremblin' voice, "wuz wafted out at first on the sombre wings of a heart-breakin' sorrow; but they grew white," sez I--"they grew silver white as that great Ship sailed on and on. "And up through the cloudless blue overhead I believe an angel looks down smilin'ly and lovin'ly on what has been done, and what is a-doin' now--that youth whose tender heart, while he walked with man, wuz so tender and compassionate to the poor, and so wise to help 'em." The Governor showed plain in his good-lookin' face how deeply he felt what I said, and I hastened to add-- "I wanted to thank him who is gone for this great and noble work; and as he has passed on beyend this world's praise, or blame, I want to tell you about it, seein' that you're at the head of the family. "I speak," sez I, "in the name of Jonesville!" "Whose name?" sez he. And I sez, "My own native land, Jonesville, nigh to Loontown, seven milds from Zoar." "Oh!" sez he. "Yes," sez I, "Jonesville wuz proud of his doin's, and she thinks a sight of California. "But in one thing she feels bad: she don't want California to make so much wine; she wishes you'd stop it. "She's proud of your fruit, your flowers, your big trees, and other products, but she wishes you'd stop makin' so much wine. Jonesville wouldn't care if you made a couple of quarts for sickness or jell, but she feels as if she couldn't bear to see you swing out and make so much." Sez I, "Jonesville and I want you to stop makin' it--we want you to like dogs." And then sez I, in still firmer axents, "It hain't a-settin' a good example to the schoolchildren in Palo Alto and the United States." He looked real downcasted and sad, some as if he'd never thought on't in that light before. He didn't really promise me, but I presoom to say that he won't never make another drop. But his face looked dretful deprested. I see that he felt it deeply to think I had found fault with him. But to resoom. Sez I--for here my gardeen angel hunched me hard and told me that here wuz a chance to do good--mebby the Governor could carry out the wishes of him that wuz gone--sez I, "Another great thing that Jonesville and I approve of wuz Senator Stanford's bill about lendin' money." Sez I, "There never wuz a better bill brought before America, and if Uncle Sam don't pass it, he hain't the old man I think he is. "For," sez I, "jest take the case of Jim Widrig alone; that would pay for the trouble of passin' it. "He has got a big farm of more'n two hundred acres, but the land is all run down--he can't raise nothin' on it hardly, it needs enrichin' so; he hain't no stock, and, as he often sez, 'If I should run in debt for 'em, we should soon be landed in the Poor-House.' He's got a wife and seven boys. "Wall, now if he could only borry 2000 dollars of Uncle Sam, and only pay forty dollars a year for it--why, they would be jest made. "They could put on twenty young cows on the place, two good horses, and go right on to success, for Jim is hard-workin', and Mahala Widrig is one of the best hard-workin' wimmen in the precincks of Jonesville, and I don't believe she has got a second dress to her back." The Governor murmured sunthin' about a engagement he had. He looked worried and anxious, but I and my Gardeen Angel hadn't no idee of lettin' him go while there wuz a chance for us to plead for the Right. And I hastened to say, "Uncle Sam needn't be 'fraid of lendin' money on that farm, for it is there solid, clear down to China; it can't run away." The Governor kinder moved off a little, as if meditatin' flight, and I spoke up some louder, bein' determined to do all I could for Mahala Widrig--good, honest, hard-workin' creeter. Sez I, "It will be the makin' of Jim Widrigses folks and more'n fifty others right there round Jonesville, to say nothin' about the hull of the United States; and it will be money in Uncle Sam's pocket, too, in the end, and he will own up to me that it is." The Governor here took out his watch and looked at it almost onbeknown to me, I wuz so took up a-talkin' for Justice and Mahala. [Illustration: The Governor took out his watch.] Sez I, "This bill will bring money into Uncle Samuel's pocket in the end, for it will keep the boys to hum on the old farm." Sez I, "It is Poverty that has driv the boys off--hard work, high taxes, and ruinous mortgages drives to the city lots of 'em, to add to the pauper and criminal classes--boys that Uncle Sam might have kep to hum by the means I speak of, to grow up into sober, respectable, prosperous citizens, a strength and a safeguard to the Republic, but whom he now will have to support in prisons and almshouses, a danger and menace to the Goverment. "Poor Uncle Sam!--poor, well-meanin', but oft misguided old creeter! It would be easier for him, if he only knew it, to do what Mr. Stanford wanted him to. "Besides, think of the masses of fosterin' crime he would be a-pressin' back and a-turnin' into good, pure influences to bless the world! And besides, the oncounted gain to Heaven and earth! Uncle Sam would git the two-cent mortgages back a dozen times in the increase of taxable property." The Governor murmured agin that he wuz wanted to once, in a distant part of the city--he must start for California imegatly, and on the next train. Sez he incoherently, "That school wuz about to open; he must be to the University to once." He wuz nearly delirious--I spoze he wuz nearly overcome by my remarkable eloquence, but don't know. But as he sot off, a-movin' backward in a polite way but swift, entirely onbeknown to him he come up aginst a big tree, and with a hopeless look of resignation he leaned up aginst it, while I, a-feelin' that Providence had interfered to give me another chance at him, advanced onwards, and sez to him in a real eloquent way, "That bill will do more than any amount of beggin', or jawin', or preachin', towards keepin' the boys to hum on the old deserted farms that are so thick in the country; and," sez I, "now that bill has fell out of his hands, I want you to take it up and pass it on to success." Sez I, "Let Uncle Sam and you go out, as I have, in the country byroads in Jonesville, and Loontown, and Zoar, and you'll both gin in that I'm a-tellin' the truth." Sez I, "If it hain't a pitiful sight in one short mornin's ride to go by more'n a dozen of them poor deserted old homes, as I have many a time, and I spoze they lay jest as thick scattered all over the State and country as they do round Jonesville." Sez I, "To see them old brown ruffs a-humpin' themselves up jest as lonesome-lookin' and cold--no smoke a-comin' out of the chimblys to cheer 'em up--to see the bare winders a-facin' the west, and no bright eyes a-lookin' out, nor curly locks for the sunlight to git tangled in--to see the poor old door-step a-settin' there alone, as if a-tellin' over its troubles to the front gate, and that a-creakin' back to it on lonesome nights or cold, fair mornin's-- "And the old well-sweep a-pintin' up into the sky overhead, as if a-callin' Heaven to witness that it wuzn't to blame for the state of things-- "And the apple trees, with low swingin' branches, with no bare brown feet to press on 'em on the way up to the robin's nest overhead--empty barns, ruins, weedy gardens, long, lonesome stretches of paster and medder lands-- "Why, if Uncle Sam could look on sech sights, and have me right by him to tell him the reason on't--to tell him that two thousand dollars lent on easy interest would turn every one of them worthless, decayin' pieces of property into beautiful, flourishin', prosperous homes, he'd probable feel different about passin' the bill from what he duz now-- [Illustration: "If Uncle Sam could have me right by him to tell him the reason."] "When I told him that most generally out behind the barn, and under the apple trees and gambrul ruff, wuz crouchin' the monster that had sapped the life out of the hum--the bloated, misshapen form of a mortgage at six per cent, and that old, insatiable monster had devoured and drinked down every cent of the earnin's that the hull family could bring to appease it with-- "It would open its snappin' old jaws and swaller 'em all down, and then set down refreshed but unappeased to wait for the next earnin's to be brung him. "Wall, now, if they could pay off that mortgage, and git rid of it, they could walk over its prostrate form into prosperity; they could afford to lighten up the bare poverty of a country farm, so repellin' to the young, with some touches of brightness. Books, music, good horses, carriages would preach louder lessons of content to the children than any they would hear from their pa's or ma's or ministers. "They would love their hums--would make them yield, instead of ruin and depressin' influences, a good income to themselves, and good tax-payin' property to help Uncle Sam-- "Decrease vice, increase virtue--lead away from prisons and almshousen, lead toward meetin'-housen, and the halls of justice, mebby. For in the highest places of trust and honor in the United States to-day is to be found the sons and daughters of country homes." Here, at jest this juncture, my umbrell fell out of my hand, and it brung my eyes down to earth agin; for some time, entirely onbeknown to me, I had been a-lookin' up into the encirclin' heavens, and a-soarin' round there in oratory. But as my eyes fell onto the Governor, I noticed the extreme weariness and mute agony on his liniment; he picked up my umbrell and handed it to me, and sez he, a-speakin' fast and agitated, as if in fear of sunthin' or ruther:-- "Your remarks are truly eloquent, and I believe every word on 'em; but," sez he, "I have an engagement of nearly life and death; I must leave you," and he sot off nearly on a run. And I spread my umbrell and walked off with composure and dignity to tackle the next buildin', which wuz Oregon. But my pardner jined me at that minit with his handkerchief held triumphantly in his hand. And at his earnest request we didn't examine clost any of the State buildin's--that is, we didn't go in and look 'em over; but, from the outside view, we had a high opinion on 'em. They wuz beautiful and extremely gorgeous, some on 'em. And they looked real good, too, and wuz comfortable inside, I hain't a doubt on't. I felt bad not to pay attention to every State jest as they come, and I know that they'll feel it if they ever hear on't. But, as Josiah said, there wuz so many to pay attention to 'em, that they wouldn't mind so much as if they wuz more alone and lonely. Wall, Josiah felt as if he'd got to have a bite of sunthin' to eat, and so we sot off at a pretty good jog for the nearest restaurant, and there we got a good lunch, and after we had done eatin', and Josiah wuz in a real good frame of mind, to all human appearance, I sez, "I'm a-goin' to see Hatye, if I don't see nothin' else." And Josiah sez, "Where is Hatye?" And I sez, "Not but a little ways from the German Buildin'." And sez he, "Who is Hatye, anyway?" And I sez, "Hatye is one of the first islands that Columbus discovered, and it ort to take a front rank in his doin's, and for lots of other reasons, too," sez I. "It is there that we see the exhibit of our colored men and bretheren." We found Hatye a good-lookin' buildin', a story and a half high, with a good-lookin' dome a-risin' out of the centre. And inside on't we found exhibits in fruit, grain, and machinery, and all sorts of products, and in the picters and other works of art we see that the Hatyeans wuz a-doin' first rate. And, as I remarked to Josiah, sez I, "If Christopher Columbus stood right here by my side, he'd say-- "'Josiah Allen's wife, Hatye has done real well, and I am glad that I discovered it.'" [Illustration: "Josiah Allen's wife, Hatye has done real well, and I am glad that I discovered it."] Wall, that night, when I got back to Miss Plankses, I found a letter from Tirzah Ann, and my worst apprehensions I had apprehended in her case wuz realized. She and Whitfield wuzn't a-comin' to the Fair at all. By the time she got her oyster-shell stockin's done, the weather had moderated, so it wuz too cool to wear 'em, and it was too late then to begin woosted ones (of course, she could buy stockin's, but she wuz sot on havin' hand-made ones, bein' so much nicer, and so much more liable to attract respect and admiration)-- And then by that time the weather wuz so variable that she didn't know whether to take summer clothes or winter ones, and so she dallied along till it got so late that Whitfield didn't dast to take her out at all, she wuz so kinder mauger. She had wore herself all out a-bonin' down and knittin' them stockin's, and embroiderin' them night-shirts, and preparin' for the Fair, so they gin up comin'. I felt bad. CHAPTER XXI. Wall, it wuz all settled as I wanted it to be. Them two angels, as I couldn't hardly keep callin' 'em, if one of 'em wuz a he angel--them two lovely good creeters wuz married right in the place where I wanted 'em to be married--right in our parlor, in front of the picter of Grant, and not fur back of the hangin' lamp, but fur enough back so's to allow of a lovely bell of white roses and lilies to swing over their heads. The bell wuz made of the white roses, and a fair white lily hung down, a-swingin' its noiseless music out into the hearts below--sacred music which we all seemed to hear in our inmost hearts as we looked into the faces that stood under that magic bell. Isabelle had on a white muslin gown, plain, but shear and fine, and she wore a bunch of white roses at her belt and at her white throat, and she carried in her hand a bunch of rare ones. But it all corresponded, for she wuz the white lily herself, as tall, and fair, and queenly. Only when the words wuz said that made her Tom's wife, her cheeks flushed up as no white lily ever did, even under the sun's rosiest rays. But a sun wuz a-shinin' on her that went beyend any earthly sun--it wuz the rays of the great planet Love that illuminated her face, and lit up her glorified eyes with the light that wuz never on sea nor on shore. Her husband looked right into her face all the while the Elder wuz a-unitin' 'em, a-lookin' at her as if he could not quite believe in his happiness yet--looked at her as one looks at a pearl of great price, when he has recovered it after a long loss. I sez to Josiah, as I see that look on his face-- "Many waters may not quench it, Josiah Allen, nor floods drown it, can they?" And he brung me back to the present by remarkin'-- "I wouldn't bring up drowndins and conflagrations at such a time as this, Samantha." And I sithed and sez to myself, what I have said so many times to she that wuz Samantha Smith, in strict confidence-- "How different, how different Josiah Allen and I look at things! And still we worship each other, jest about." Wall, Thomas Jefferson and Maggie wuz there, and Tirzah Ann and Whitfield, and the children, and Krit. The two girls, our daughters, wuz dressed in white, and the Babe stood up by the bride dressed in white, and holdin' a cunnin' little basket of posies in her hand, and they all looked pretty, and felt pretty, and acted so. We had good refreshments to refresh ourselves with, and everything went off happy and joyous, as weddings should, and will, if True Love stands up with 'em; and she is the only Bridesmaid worth a cent. (I am aware that it is usual to call Love a he, but I believe in fair play, and you may as well call it a she once in a while, specially as the female sect are as lovin' agin as the he ones, so I think.) Wall, they had lots and lots of presents--nice ones too. Mr. Freeman's gift to her wuz two diamond and ruby bracelets, that shone on her white wrists like sparks of fire and dew. Them diamonds seemed to be the mates of the ones that had burned on her finger ever sence a day or two after they met at the World's Fair. So you see, though she gin her jewels away in her youth, she found 'em agin in her ripe, sweet womanhood. She gin away the jewels of her ambition, her glowin' hopes and desires, for a career, and she found 'em more than all made up to her. But the jewels her husband prized most in her wuz the calm light of patience, and love, and womanliness that shone on her face. They wuz made, them pure pearls of hern, as pearls always are, by long sufferin' and endurance, and the "constant anguish of patience." Krit give her for his gift a beautiful cross of precious stones, and I mistrusted, from what I see in her face when he gin it to her, that he meant it to be symbolical, and then agin I don't know. But, anyway, she wore it a-fastenin' the lace at her white throat. [Illustration: Krit give her a beautiful cross.] But I do know that the girls and I gin her some good linen napkins, and towels, and table-cloths, and the boys a handsome set of books. And I do know that the supper afterwards wuz, although well I know the impoliteness of my even hintin' at it--I do know, and I should lie if I said that I didn't know it, that that supper wuz a good one--as good a one, so fur as my knowledge goes, as wuz ever put on a table in the town of Lyme, or the village of Jonesville. And Josiah Allen, he eat too much--fur, fur too much. And I hunched him three times to that effect at the time, to no avail. And once I stepped on his toe--a dretful warnin' steppin'--and he asked me out loud and snappish (I hit a corn, I spoze, onbeknown to me)--and he asked me right out before 'em all, voyalent, "What I wuz a-steppin' on his toe for?" [Illustration: I stepped on his toe.] And so, of course, that curbed me in, and I had to let him go on, and cut a full swath in the vittles. But it wuz some comfort for me to think that most likely he wouldn't be tempted by a weddin' supper agin--not for some time, anyway. For the Babe wuz but young yet, and we wuz gettin' along. Yes, that hull weddin' went off perfectly beautiful, and there wuzn't but one drawback to my happiness on that golden day that united them two happy lovers. Yes, onbeknown to me a feelin' of sadness come over me--sadness and regret. It wuzn't any worriment and concern about the fate of Isabelle and her husband--no; True Love wuz a-goin' out with 'em on their weddin' tower, and I knew if he went ahead of 'em, and they wuz a-walkin' in the light of his torch, their way wuz a-goin' to be a radiant and a satisfyin' one, whether it led up hill or down or over the deep waters--yea, even over the swellin' of Jordan. No, it wuzn't that, nor anything relatin' to the children, or my dress, or anything-- No, my dress--a new lilock gray alpaca--sot out noble round my form, and my new head-dress wuz foamin' lookin', but it didn't foam too much. No, it wuzn't that, nor anything about the neighbors--no; they looked some envious at our noble doin's, and walked by the house considerable, and the wimmen made errents, and borrowed more tea and sugar, durin' the preparations, than it seemed as if they could use in two years; but I pitied 'em, and forgive 'em-- And it wuzn't anything about the children or Krit. For the children wuz happy in their happy and prosperous hums, and Krit, they say--I don't tell it for certain--but they say that he come back engaged to a sweet young girl of Chicago-- Come back from the great New World of the World's Fair, as his illustrious namesake went home so long ago, in chains-- Only Krit's chains wuz wrought of linked love and blessedness instead of iron--so they say. I've seen her picter; but good land! how can I tell who or what it is? It is pretty as a doll, and Krit seems to think his eyes on it; but he's so full of fun, I can't git any straight story out of him. But Thomas Jefferson says she is a bonny fidy girl--a good one and a pretty one, and has got a father dretful well off; and he sez that she and Krit are engaged. So I spoze more'n like as not they be. And I also learnt, through a letter received that very day, that Mr. Bolster has led Miss Plank to the altar, or she has led him--it don't make much difference. Anyway, she has walked offen the Plank of widowhood, and settled down onto a Bolster for life. [Illustration: Mr. Bolster led Miss Plank to the altar.] I wuz glad on't. She wanted a companion, and he loves to converse, Heaven knows; and he is sure of one thing--he's almost certain, or as certain as we can be of anything in this life, that he will have the best pancakes that hands can make or spoons stir up. I learnt also from her letter--Miss Bolster's, knee Plankses--that Nony Piddock wuz a-goin into the ministery. What a case for funerals he will be, and shockin' casualities! But he won't be good for much on a weddin' occasion. And speakin' of weddin's brings me back to my subject agin. No, it wuzn't any of these things that cast that mournful shadder on my eyebrows, anon, and even oftener, when I wuz out by myself-- And I spoze that I might as well tell what it wuz that I regretted and missed-- It wuz Christopher Columbus! the Brave Admiral! good, noble creeter! I felt, in view of all he had done for America and the world, it wuz too bad that he had to die without havin' the privilege of seein' Jonesville, and bein' with us that day, and seein' what we see, and hearin' what we heard, and eatin' what we eat-- It wuz his doin's, the hull on't wuz Christopher Columbuses doin's. For if he hadn't discovered America, why, he wouldn't had no World's Fair for him. And then it stands to reason that Josiah and I shouldn't have gone to it. And if we hadn't gone to Miss Plankses, Mr. Freeman and Isabelle wouldn't have met. Yes, I felt to lay the praise of it all to that blessed old mariner--I felt that I hadn't done nothin' towards it to what he had. And I kep on a-sayin' to myself-- "Oh, if he could only have been here, and seen with his own eyes what he had done!" And when I thought how he walked hungry through the streets of Genoa, oh, how I did wish he could have had some of my scolloped oysters, and pressed chickens, and jell-cake, and tarts, and my heartfelt pity and sympathy, to say nothin' of other vittles, and well-meanin' actions accordin'. [Illustration: How I did wish he could have had some of my scolloped oysters, and jell-cake, and tarts.] Of course, I would have been pleased to have had Queen Isabelle and Ferdinand there-- There wuz cake enough, and ice-cream, and oysters, and everything. And everybody that knows me knows that I hain't one to begrech havin' one or two more visitors to wait on and provide for than I had planned havin'. Yes, I should have been glad to seen 'em, and wait on 'em. But I didn't seem to care anything about seein' 'em, compared to my feelin's about Christopher Columbus. Yes, Christopher wuz my theme, and my constant burden of mind. But I had to gin it up. I couldn't expect a man to live four or five hundred years jest to please me, and gratify Jonesville. No, Columbus wuzn't there. He wuz off somewhere a-discoverin' new continents, or planets, mebby. For I don't believe he crumpled right down, and sot down forever on them golden streets. No; I believe the eager, active mind would be a-reachin' out, a-findin' out new truths, new discoveries, so great that it would probable make us shet our eyes before the blindin' glory of 'em, if we could only git a glimpse of 'em. But there, in that New World that lays beyend the sunset, he is happy at last--blest in the companionship of other true prophetic ones, whose deepest strivin's wuz, like his, to make the world better and wiser--them who longed for deeper, fuller understandin', and who walked the narrer streets of earth, like him, in chains and soul-hunger. I love to think that now, onhampered by mutinous foes, or mortal weakness, they are a-sailin' out on that broad sea of full knowledge, and comprehension, and divine sympathy. Lit by the sunshine of infinite love, they sail on, and on, and on. THE END. Other Works by Joshiah Allen's Wife. POEMS. A Charming Volume of Poetry. Beautifully Illustrated by W. Hamilton Gibson and other Artists. Bound in Colors. Square 12mo, 216 pp. Cloth, $2.00. "Will win for her a title to an honorable place among American poets."--_Chicago Standard._ "Miss Holley has here more than sustained her previous high literary reputation."--_Interior, Chicago._ SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHREN. By "Josiah Allen's Wife." Illustrated. Square 12mo, 452 pp. Cloth, $2.50. "It is irresistibly humorous and true."--_Bishop John P. Newman._ "It is as full of meat as an egg.... Calculated to do immense good in that department of woman's rights which relates to her participation in the great work of the Church of Christ, _beyond the scrubbing and papering of the meeting-house_."--_Ex-Judge Noah Davis._ "It abounds in mingled humor, pathos and inexorable common sense."--_Will Carleton._ "It is exceedingly entertaining."--_New York Observer._ SWEET CICELY; Or, Josiah Allen as a Politician. A Fascinating Story. Square 12mo, 390 pp. Cloth, $2.00. "The interest of the book is intense.... Never was such a defender of woman's rights, never was such an exponent of woman's wrongs! In Samantha's pithy, pointed, scornful utterances we have in very truth the expression of feelings common to most thoughtful women, well understood among them, but rarely finding voice except in confidential intercourses and for sympathetic ears. Other women besides poor Cicely, and warm-hearted, clear-headed Samantha, and 'humble' Dorlesky eat their hearts out over the injustice of laws that they have no hand in making, and can have no hand in altering, though ruin and agony are their result.... It would be impossible to find in literature anything more pitiful than this story of the struggle of a gentle-natured woman against the dangers which surround her child, and her agony as she realizes her helplessness to avert evil from her fellow-sufferers. If it were not for the strong vein of humor which lightens up the darkest passages, the interest would be too painful. But Samantha intervenes with her quaint epigrams and keen-witted analysis, and lo, a smile broadens before the tear has dried!... Alongside of the fun are genuine eloquence and profound pathos; we scarcely know which is the more delightful."--_The Literary World, London, Eng._ FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY PUBLISHERS LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO