Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife Part 55

You know when you hear of some marriages a part of you is pleased, mebby it is Common Sense, whilst Romance and Fancy has to set dumb and demute. Or mebby Fancy sings whilst cold Reason is spreadin' a wet blanket on her part of the band, chillin' the notes and spilein' the instrument. But here Reason, Romance, Love and Common Sense all jined in together and sung the wedding anthem loud and clear.

But Miss Meechim, I felt dubersome about her; Dorothy didn't mention her in her letter, bein' so took up with Robert and Love, so I spozed.

I knowed well how repugnant matrimony wuz to her and how sternly resolved she wuz that Dorothy should go through life a bachelor maid.

I hated to read Miss Meechim's letter, I dreaded it like a dog. How did I know but her great disappointment and crushin' grief to see her hull life work smashed and demolished, had smit her down, and she had pa.s.sed away writin' my name on a envelope with her last flicker of life and some stranger pen had writ me of the tragedy.

I put the letter up on the mantletry piece and thought I wouldn't read it till about a hour after dinner.

And whilst I wuz gittin' dinner and eatin' it and went about doin' up my work afterwards, I eyed that letter some as a cat eyes a dog kennel and hung off from readin' it. But wantin' to git the hard job over before night sot in, about the middle of the afternoon I read a few verses of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, put two cushions in the rockin'

chair, took a swaller of spignut and thorough-o'-wort to kinder hold up my strength, and a few whiffs of camfire, and then I put on my near-to specs, opened the letter with a deep sithe and begun to read.

But good land! I needn't have foreboded so; I might have knowed that though her hatred of matrimony wuz great, her egotism and self esteem wuz bigger yet.

The letter stated in glowin' terms her gratefulness to her Creator to think she had a nephew so bound up in her interest and welfare. She said that she had mentioned one day, durin' a severe attack of bilerous colic her fears and forebodin's about Dorothy's future if she should succ.u.mb to the colic and leave her alone. She said that it wuzn't a week after this that her nephew and Dorothy had confided to her the fact of their engagement.

Sez she, "Not one word to Dorothy have I mentioned or ever shall mention as to Robert's reasons for sacrificin' himself to ease my mind, and make me more care free. I wouldn't for the world," sez she, "have Dorothy suspect why Robert has made a martyr of himself, and to no one but you, Josiah Allen's wife," sez she, "shall I ever breathe it." But she felt that she could confide in me, and wanted me to know just how it wuz.

So her colossial self esteem carried her through safely, and she wuz as happy as any on 'em. She wuz goin' to live in a little house Robert had bought for her in San Francisco. Martha, the steady English maid, wuz goin' to live with her, as she had proved faithful. And she added a few heart breakin' words of grief and mournfulness about our dear lost Aronette.

And she gin me to understand that sence Aronette's dretful death in New York she had gradually changed her mind about drinking.

I believe Arvilly's talk helped convince her, though Miss Meechim would never own it to her dyin' day, and I d'no as Arvilly would want her to, they just naterally abominate each other.

But 'tennyrate she said she felt that nothing that could lead on to that awful termination and terrible tragedy, could be called genteel.

And she said she had had a argument with Rev. Mr. Weakdew, in which they had both got genteelly angry (tearin' mad I should call it from what she told me of their interview). But I will pa.s.s over particulars which filled eight pages of large note paper, the upshot bein' that she had left his church for good and all, and jined a Temperance mission church down in the city. And she wuz now writin' tracts to prove that intemperance wuz the beast with seven horns mentioned in Scripture.

Good land! it has got more than seven horns, I believe, and all of 'em dagger sharp and wet with tears and heart's blood.

She expected, she said, that these tracts would make a end to the liquor power and the social evil, and temperance would rain in the world some time durin' the comin' fall.

But they won't. These evils are sot too firm on American soil, it will take a greater power than Miss Meechim's tracts to upheave 'em. But I am glad she is sot that way, for every little helps, and the breath of Miss Meechim's converted soul is blowin' the right way and when the hull Christian world shall be converted, the united influence will move along a mighty overwhelmin' power that will sweep these unG.o.dly evils from the face of the earth. Then will come the golden days of peace, righteousness, the reign of the Lord Jesus, for which we pray every day when we say "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."

A FEW FROM HUNDREDS OF PRESS NOTICES OF SAMANTHA AT THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION by JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE--(Marietta Holley)

Few characters of fiction will live longer than Samantha. A fund of old-fashioned, homely but decidedly sound philosophy, yet an eye for the facetious phases of human nature, witty as well as philosophical.

Older readers can remember a few who have pleased for a time and been forgotten, and the few in recent years like David Harum and Eben Holden have been most enthusiastically appreciated. The philosophy of Samantha is broader and deeper than any of these characters. Her insight when dealing with hidden motives is sharper and her wit keener. It is not surprising that the character has so long stood the test of time, and that a new book from the author is regarded as an important event in the book world.

_Pittsburg Press_

Those who went to the St. Louis Exposition--and those who wished to but did not, can have a good souvenir of the great show, and an account of it that will be interesting years hence as now, in "Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition."

Samantha and Josiah went to the Fair, "took it all in," and Samantha relates their experiences in her well-known quaint style. The characteristic ill.u.s.trations of their adventures by C. Grunwald are great.

_Cleveland Plain Dealer_

The main points of interest at the Exposition are discussed and moralized over in her inimitable way by Samantha.

_The Outlook_

Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition, by Josiah Allen's wife, is a revival of what was perhaps one of the most popular humorous series ever issued. The present volume contains the same pathos and shrewd rustic sense with all the humor of her previous works.

_Baker & Taylor's Monthly Bulletin of Best Selling Books_

She has sampled the glories of the St. Louis Fair and described them in language of enduring worth.

_Boston Advertiser_

A story full of the mixture of wit, pathos, eloquence and common sense.

_New York Globe_

Very unlike her earlier books in appearance. It has a smart up-to-date binding and striking modern ill.u.s.trations by Grunwald. But Miss Holley's part is perfectly natural and familiar. It has lost none of its mirth, none of its common sense, none of its good clear-eyed religious way of looking at things. It is faithful to the spirit of a great deal that is best in American life.

_Syracuse Post Standard_

G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY

PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY OF SAMANTHA AT THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

_The New York Tribune_ says--and it is true--that "Mr. Brady is fond of dashing themes and certainly here he has found a subject to suit his most exacting mood. He has taken a rascal for the hero of his picaresque and rattling romance. The author is lavish in incident and handles one thrilling situation after another with due sense of all the dramatic force that is to be got out of it. His description of the last moments of the old pirate is one of the most effective pieces of writing he has put to his credit. SIR HENRY MORGAN--BUCCANEER is an absorbing story."

"Cyrus Townsend Brady has had the hardihood to set aside the romantic pirate of fictional tradition and paint a genuine historic pirate; l.u.s.tful, murderous, brutal, relentless. The story has force and dramatic interest."--_The Lamp._

"Mr. Brady has never before been so successful in creating a character who so completely fills the scene. Morgan dominates the book from the first line to the last."--_Philadelphia Item._

"The story is a fascinating one--a concentration of all the pirate stories that ever were written."--_Rochester Herald._

"Mr. Brady has a graphic and realistic power of description. The novel is full measure and running over with thrills."--_Brooklyn Eagle._

"A thrilling pirate story, a lively romance sufficiently sensational yet not lacking in delicacy."--_Boston Transcript._

"The story is full of incident and has an appropriate measure of love and sword play."--_N. Y. Times._

"It is as rakish and dashing a craft on seas literary as any of the hero's black-flagged ships on seas actual."--_N. Y. World._

"There is 'hot stuff' in SIR HENRY MORGAN--BUCCANEER."--_N. Y. Evening Sun._

"The interest of the action, pitched high in the beginning, is held to the point of utmost tension throughout."--_St. Louis Star._