Samantha at the World's Fair Part 38

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 n.o.ble fore-top, her eyes wuz lookin' off into the fur depths of s.p.a.ce, 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, gra.s.s 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "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 n.o.bly.

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: He asks folks to step into the stove.]

And then one man--a trunk-maker--has made a gla.s.s trunk as big as a house, and shows off his exhibits there.

And take the thousands and thousands of pavilions and paG.o.das 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!