Samantha at the World's Fair, Marietta Holley [most life changing books txt] 📗
- Author: Marietta Holley
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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[Pg 545] 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 [Pg 546]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 sho[Pg 547]win' 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[Pg 548] 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.
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, espe[Pg 549]cially 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.
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"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 t[Pg 551]he 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.
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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.
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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 [Pg 554]of 'em no more'n I'd've torn out the Book of Job out of the family Bible.
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.
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It will hit anything sixteen miles off, and with perfect accuracy and effect at a distance of twelve miles.
Good land! further than from
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