Samantha at the World's Fair Part 45

Sez I, "I feel that we can't do too much to honor you, and I hereby offer you the freedom of Jonesville."

And sez I, "I would have brung it in a paper collar box if I'd thought on't, but I hope you will overlook the omission, and take it verbal."

Agin he bowed that dretful perlite, courteous bow, and agin I put in that n.o.ble curchey.

It wuz a hour long to be remembered by any one who wuz fortunate enough to witness it; and sez he--

"I am sensible of the distinguished honor you do me, Madam; accept my profound thanks."

I then turned to his wife, and sez I, "Miss Christobel Colon Toledo Ohio--"

I got kinder mixed up here by my emotions, and the efforts my curcheys had cost me; I hadn't ort to mentioned the word Ohio.

But I waded out agin--"De La Cerda Y Gante--

"As a pardner of Columbus, and also as a female woman, I bid you also welcome to America in the name of woman, and I tender to you also the freedom of Jonesville, and Loontown, and Zoar.

"And you," sez I, "Honorable Maria Del Pillow Colon Y Aguilera--

"You sweet little creeter you, I'd love to have you come and stay with me a week right along, you pretty thing." Sez I, "How proud your Grandpa would be of you if he wuz here!"

My feelin's had carried me away, and I felt that I had lost the formal, polite tone of etiquette that I had intended to carry on through the interview.

But she wuz so awful pretty, I couldn't help it; but I felt that it wuz best to terminate it, so I bowed low, a-holdin' out my alpaca skirt kinder n.o.ble in one hand and my green veil in the other, some like a banner, and backed off.

They too bowed deep, and sorter backed off too. Oh, what a hour for America!

Josiah put out his arm anxiously, for I wuz indeed a-movin' backwards into a gla.s.s case of relics, and the great seen terminated.

Miss Flanders and Elam had gone--they shrunk from publicity. I guess they wuz afraid it wuz too great a job, the ceremony attendin' our givin' these n.o.ble foreigners the freedom of our native town.

But they no need to. A willin' mind makes a light job.

It had been gin to 'em, and gin well, too.

Wall, Josiah and I didn't stay very much longer. I'd have been glad to seen the Princess sent out from Spain to our doin's, and I know she will feel it, not seein' of me.

She wuzn't there, but I thought of her as I wended my way out, as I looked over the grandeur of the seen that her female ancestor had rendered possible.

Thinkses I, she must have different feelin's from what her folks did in fourteen hundred.

Then how loath they wuz to even listen to Columbuses pathetic appeals and prayers! But they did at last touch the heart of a woman. That woman believed him, while the rest of Spain sneered at him. Had she lived, Columbus wouldn't have been sent to prison in chains. No, indeed! But she pa.s.sed away, and Spain misused him. But now they send their royalties to meet with all the kings and queens of the earth to bow down to his memory.

As we wended out, the caravels lay there in the calm water--the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, all becalmed in front of the convent.

No more rough seas in front of 'em; they furl their sails in the sunlight of success.

All is glory, all is rejoicing, all is praise.

Four hundred years after the brave soul that planned and accomplished it all died heart-broken and in chains, despised and rejected by men, persecuted by his enemies, betrayed by his friends.

True, brave heart, I wonder if the G.o.d he trusted in, and tried to honor, lets him come back on some fair mornin' or cloudless moonlight evenin', and look down and see what the nations are sayin' and doin' for him in eighteen hundred and ninety-three!

I don't know, nor Josiah don't.

But as I stood a-thinkin' of this, the sun come out from under a cloud and lit up the caravels with its golden light, and lay on the water like a long, s.h.i.+nin' path leadin' into glory.

And a light breeze stirred the white sails of the Santa Maria, some as though it wuz a-goin' to set sail agin.

And the shadders almost seemed alive that lay on the narrer deck.

After we left La Rabida, Josiah wanted to go and see the exhibit called Man and his Works.

Sez he, "I'll show you now, Samantha, what _our_ works are. I'll show you the most beautiful and august exposition on the grounds."

Sez he, "You boasted high about wimmen's doin's, and they wuz fair," sez he, "what I call fair to middlin'. But in this you'll see grandeur and True Greatness."

Josiah didn't know a thing about the show, only what he gathered from its name; and feelin' as he did about himself and his sect, he naterally expected wonders.

So, leanin' on the arm of Justice, I accompanied him into the buildin', which wuzn't fur from La Rabida.

But almost the first room we went into, Josiah almost swooned at the sight, and I clung to his arm instinctively. There we wuz amongst more than three thousand skeletons and skulls.

Why, the goose pimples that rose on me didn't subside till most night.

And in the very next room wuz a collection of mummies, the humbliest ones that I ever sot my eyes on in my hull life--two or three hundred on 'em, from Peru, Utah, New Mexico, Egypt, British Columbia, etc., etc.

When Josiah's eyes fell onto 'em, my poor pardner sez, "Samantha, less be a-goin'."

Sez I, "Are you satisfied, Josiah Allen, with the Works of Man?"

And he advised me strong--"Not to make a luny and a idiot of myself."

And sez he, "Dum it all, why do they call it the works of man? There is as many wimmen amongst them dum skeletons as men, I'll bet a cent."

Wall, we went into another room and found a very interestin'

exhibit--the measurements of heads: long-headed folks and short-headed ones; and measurements of children's heads who wuz educated, and the heads of savage children, showin' the influence that moral trainin' has on the brains of boys and girls.

Wall, it would take weeks to examine all we see there--the remains of the Aborigines, the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians. We could see by them relics how they lived--their religions, their domestic life, their arts, and their industries.

And then we see photographs by the hullsale of mounds and ruins from all over the world.

Why, we see so many pictures of ruins, that Josiah said that "he felt almost ruined."

And I sez, "That must come from the inside, Josiah. It hadn't ort to make you feel so."

And then we see all sorts of things to ill.u.s.trate the games that these old ruined folks used to play, and their religions they believed in--idols, and clay altars, and things; and once, when I wuz a-tryin' to look calm at the very meanest-lookin' idol that I ever laid eyes on,

Sez Josiah, "The folks that would try to wors.h.i.+p such a lookin' thing as that ort to be ruined."