Samantha at Coney Island Part 21

JOSIAH FOUND AT LAST! THE AWFUL FIRE AT DREAMLAND AND THE TERRIBLE SIGHTS I SAW THERE

I didn't go out that evenin', weariness and rumatiz both kep me to home a settin' on that piazza. And in vain for me did the countless lights burn and blaze. The great tower that lighted up the deep breast of the Atlantic, for milds and milds, couldn't light up my gloomy sperit.

Where wuz my Josiah? Where wuz the pardner of my youth? In vain did the melogious music blare out its loudest blares, it brought no bam to my sperit. I sot and looked on the countless hosts pa.s.sin' by as if they wuzn't there, the man I loved wuz not among 'em. I sot there lost in mournful thought till the endless crowd gradually dispersed. The music ceased, the lights went out. The hand of Midnight let down her dark mantilly of repose, spangled with stars, Silence sot on the throne Noise had vacated.

The great City of Mirth wuz asleep. Only the Atlantic and Samantha seemed awake, the Ocean's deep voice sounded out in the same ontranslated language it has from the creation, and will I spoze till there is no more sea. Ontranslated to most, but to me it thundered out, Swish!--Swosh!--Roar! Where is Josiah? Where is Josiah? Where?

Where? Swish!--Swosh!--Roar!

I didn't want to go to bed, but knowed I needed rest for another arjous day of Husband huntin'. I retired to bed but not to sleep.

Anxiety and Grief lay on both sides on me and crowded me, and prodded me with their sharp elbows.

But I spoze I must have droze off, for all to once I wuz pa.s.sin'

through a great silent city. Hours and hours I trod up and down broad stun highways, through endless parks and Pleasure Places, climbin'

interminable flights of marble stairs, walkin' through immense picture galleries. Days and days went by, whilst I wuz conductin' this quest through a deserted city, searchin' for sunthin' I couldn't name. Till at last I lay wore out, on a couch, and Josiah wuz bendin' over me. He had a small green hat sot rakishly on one side, a red neck-tie flashed out, a immense cigar wuz in his mouth, out of which streamed a flame of fire. As he bent over me, and I see his dissolute linement and mean, I groaned out, "Oh Josiah, is it thus we meet?"

"We meet as Highlariers!" sez he gayly, and bent still closter, I spozed he wuz goin' to kiss me. And so philosophical is my mind asleep or awake, I thought even then, the law couldn't touch him for it if he did. But before his face met mine, that immense flaming cigar sot fire to the piller case. The flames riz up round me, the smoke entered my nostrils and nose.

I sprung up. Josiah had disappeared, but the smell of fire remained. I hurried to the winder. As I had last seen it all the great pleasure ground seemed fast asleep. Gone wuz the tread of the innumerable mult.i.tude. The music of the bands wuz hushed, the cries of the different venders and showmen, automobiles, wagons, the stiddy sound of machinery running the mechanical amus.e.m.e.nts, and the constant sound of footsteps and voices, that filled the day full, wuz all hushed.

Even to the long onshapely animal house Night had brought silence. The hull place looked like a City of Dreams, only the eternal waves washin' up on the beach, seemed to emphasize the silence.

But what wuz that I see over the dim ruffs? A slender spiral of flame shootin' up through the shadows, and on Dreamland tower a rosy blush seemed to grow on its whiteness. As I watched the flame, it grew larger and larger, and my heart most stopped beatin', for I knowed what a fire would mean in them unsubstantial buildin's. And somewhere there under them flimsy ruffs was my Josiah!

The flame increased! Coney Island wuz afire! Made sensitive by anxiety, I had reconized the smoke borne to me on some vagrant breeze.

The long elaborate dream of mine hadn't lasted a second. It wuz staged in the _real_ Dream Land, for the awful drayma so soon to be enacted there, by the terrible actor, Fire! The most fearful and tragic actor on the hull stage of life.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Thus did I scream as I throwed on my clothes, I thought at the top of my voice, but I don't spoze it wuz much above a whisper, for Bildad's folks didn't hear me in the next room, through the thin wall, till I rushed to their door and knocked, cryin' out:

"Bildad, git up! Josiah is afire!"

"What you say?" he called back.

"Dreamland is afire! Josiah is in danger! But I will save him or perish!" And I ketched up a two quart pail of water, and rushed out doors. You can't recall your exact thoughts at such a time, yet I have a ricellection of thinkin'--Josiah is small boneded, and two quarts of water might put him out if he had jest got afire. But where wuz the idol of my soul? I spoze every woman on Coney Island thought them thoughts whether she remembers it or not. Where is _he_? Will he escape? And men wuz thinkin', Where is _she_? Is she safe? Love puts the question, and Fear and Horrer answers it.

As I rushed along cryin' Fire! winders wuz throwed up, doors opened, and in less time than I can tell on't, Surf Avenue wuz full of people.

Frenzied cries and shouts rung through the air. And as the flames riz higher and higher, so did the shrieks and yells of the crowd, which had swelled to a mob; bells clanged, fire wagons raced and jangled.

Quicker than any seen wuz ever changed at a theatre the Quiet Night wuz turned into Pandemonium. Men, wimmen and children rushin' every which way--police--firemen--fire bells clangin'--men shoutin'--wimmen shriekin'--and every minute the flames increased!

The firemen did what they could, they worked like giants, but the element they wuz workin' aginst wuz more powerful than man. Anon burnin' timbers fell with a crash, clouds of smoke wropped us round and choked us, the firemen sent up streams of water that turned to mountains of steam.

I wuz carried by the screechin' mob hither and yon with no will of my own. Another element wuz added to the dretful seen. Someone cried out:

"The wild animals are loose!"

Wimmen fainted, and men, wimmen and children screamed louder than ever, expectin' any minute a tiger or lion or leapord to rush at 'em, or a maddened elephant to tromple 'em down.

They said the sight at that time in the animal house wuz enough to turn the soundest brain, for to save the animals they had to let 'em loose. And as they couldn't be driven out, at last it wuz a great writhin', strugglin' ma.s.s of animal forms appallin' to see, while the ears wuz deafened by the maddened cries of leapords and hyenas--the wild jabberin' of monkeys, snarlin' and growlin' of panthers, tigers and bears, roarin' of lions--hybrids--hissin' of serpents--pitiful frightened neighing of ponies, trumpetin' of elephants. A great screamin', roarin, hissin', writhin', fightin' ma.s.s!

But as they refused to be driven to safety, the keepers after heroic efforts to save 'em, give 'em a more merciful death. It took fur greater heroism to do this, for some of 'em wuz dear pets, and it wuz like slayin' their own children, and they aimed their revolvers at 'em through tearful eyes.

A bareheaded bystander sez, "The fire started in h.e.l.l Gate."

Sez I, "Jest what you could expect of that place, I never hearn no good of it yet."

But the wild crowd surged to and fro. Earth and Heaven seemed filled with the dretful roar and confusion--

It wuz a riot of deafenin' noise and clamor below, and fur fur above, Dreamland Tower flamed up a immense pillar of fire, blazin' out for the last time over sea and land, and with a dyin' effort at decoration, crashed down, sendin' up a shower of golden sparks a hundred feet high.

Jest then a woman sez, "The little Incubator Babies have been forgotten."

"Not by me!" I sez, and I strove to push my way towards 'em, the woman toilin' along by my side through the inferno of clamor, steam, smoke, and shriekin' rushin' humanity. But jest before we got there we met the good doctors and nurses who wuz bearin' 'em to safety, and I sez to the woman, "It will be a shame if them helpless mites are ever brought back to this place of danger."

"Danger!" the words rousted up afresh my agonized fears. Where wuz Josiah? Where wuz my idol? The woman tried to comfort me, for I wuz now cryin' aloud, and callin' on his name.

She sez, "He will escape; men can git round so much easier than wimmen."

"Have you a husband in this dretful place?" sez I.

"No," sez she, "only their dust, I have got three in a vase on my mantle piece in Surf Avenue." Instinctively I thought "she'd had husbands to burn, but some wimmen can't get one to save their lives, and them that get one can't keep track on him."

But I d'no whether she saved her vase or not, for we wuz parted by the hustlin', tearin', scramblin' mob, and I wuz carried in another direction, choked and blinded, and tossted and torn.

I hearn someone say, "Black Prince is loose, the biggest lion of all!"

And sure enough, wild and crazy with the fiery heat and noise, the great beast rushed up and down, the crowd givin' him the Right of Way.

And at last he clim' up onto a battlement and looked down on the mad seen below, the shoutin' yellin' mob bore me onwards, so I stood only a stun's throw from the spot.

Never agin will there be such a seen presented to the eye of man, as that kingly form, standin' up above the crowd aginst the background of lurid flame.

But who wuz that standin' directly beneath, in the very middle of danger? My heart bounded so it most broke through my bodist waist.

Did I not know that small boneded figger? That bald head lit up by the glare of flames? It wuz! it wuz Josiah! My pardner-huntin' wuz ended, but wuz it to be death at the gole? That agonizin' thought made me by the side of myself, and entirely onbeknown to me I rushed forwards and cried to the lordly beast above, jest ready to spring:

"Don't harm Josiah! Devour me instead!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "_I rushed forwards and cried to the lordly beast above, jest ready to spring: 'Don't harm Josiah! Devour me instead._'" (_See page 303_)]

I knowed I would make a better meal for it; Josiah is lean and boney.

But I won't try to make myself out better than I am; I didn't think of the lion's digestion, and how Josiah would set on his stomach. My only thought wuz to save my pardner. And with a herculaneum effort I reached his side, and s.n.a.t.c.hed him away jest as a shot rung out and the n.o.ble beast fell, his great, s.h.a.ggy head restin' on the bal.u.s.trade, lookin' down on the crowd below as if in questionin' agony and contempt, as though his last thoughts wuz:

"Did you tear me away from my own free, beautiful, tropical forest for such a fate as this? Where is man's boasted wisdom and power? I could have cared for myself, lived and died in happiness and safety, but civilized man has ruined and destroyed the wild beast."

The rest of that seen is like a dream to me. I guess when the heavy dread and fear I had carried so long, wuz lifted from my brain, it made me light-headed. 'Tennyrate, it don't seem as if I come fully to myself, till Josiah and I wuz takin' leave at Bildad's with tickets for Jonesville in our pockets.