Samantha at the World's Fair, Marietta Holley [most life changing books txt] 📗
- Author: Marietta Holley
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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 al[Pg 664]l 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.
A woman hates to give in awful, so I suggested a compromise on California.
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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 [Pg 667]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.
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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—
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"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 ho[Pg 670]use, 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 C[Pg 671]harity; 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
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