Samantha at the World's Fair Part 34

No, indeed; no, indeed!

But wimmen are ust to hard jobs, and if she begins 'em she will carry 'em out and finish 'em; as wuz proved by the cloak we see there, made of feathers, that took five years to make.

But when I go to talk about the paintin's, and statutes, and the embroideries my sect shows off in that buildin', then agin I draw deep breaths full of praise and admiration, sunthin' like sithes, only happier ones, to think mine eyes had been permitted to gaze on the marvels and wonders my own sect had wrought.

And then I thought of Isabelle, and I thought I would love to have her there to neighbor with; thinkses I, if it hadn't been for her we wouldn't have been discovered at all, as I know on, and then where would have been the Woman's Buildin'? I thought I would love to talk it over with her; how, though she furnished the means for a man to discover us, yet four hundred years had to wear away before men thought that wimmen wuz capable of takin' part in any Internatinal Exposition. I wanted Isabelle there that day--I wanted her like a dog.

But my thoughts wuz brought back from my rapt contemplation by my companion's voice. He sez:

"By Jocks! I hadn't no idee that wimmen had ever done so much work that is useful as well as ornamental." Sez he, "I had read a sight about the Lady Managers, and I had got the idee that them ladies couldn't do much more than to set down and tend poodles, and knit tattin'. I hadn't no idee that they wuz a-goin' to swing out and make such a show as this."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Josiah's "idee" of "them ladies."]

Them remarks of hisen wuz wrung out of him by the glory of the display, as the sweet sap is brung out of the maple trees by the all-powerful influence and glory of the spring sun, and they show more plain than song or poem of the wonders about us.

Josiah don't love to praise wimmen--he hates to. But I answered him proudly, "Yes, this Magic Wonder Land o' beauty and practical use wuz wrought by Sophia Haydon, and other n.o.ble wimmen. They must have the credit for everything about it, and for all the work it shows off within its borders."

Sez I, "Uncle Sam was a good-actin' creeter for once, anyway, when he made that act of Congress about the World's Columbian Exposition. He made that body of men appoint a board of Lady Managers--two ladies from each State and Territory, and eight lady managers at large, and nine at Chicago."

That name "Lady Manager" wuz done by Uncle Sam's over-politeness to the sect, and I don't know as Josiah wuz to blame. You would think by the name that them ladies wuz a-settin' in rows of gilded chairs, a-holdin'

a rosy in their hands.

But, in fact, amongst them female managers there wuz one hard-workin'

doctor and lawyer, real-estate agents, journalists, editors, merchants, two cotton planters, teachers, artists, farmers, and a cattle queen.

And you'd think to hear it talked on that there wuz only eight ladies at large amongst 'em--that the rest on 'em wuz kinder shet up and hampered.

But you'd git that idee out of your head after one look in that Woman's Buildin'. You'd think that not only the hull board of Lady Managers wuz at large, but that every female woman the hull length and breadth of our country not only wuz at large, but the wimmen of the hull world. Why, connected with this great work is not only the hull caboodle of our own wimmen, fur or near--American wimmen, every one on 'em a queen, or will be when she gits her rights; besides them wimmen, the Queen of England's daughter, the Princess Christian, is at the head of the British wimmen at the Fair.

And Queen Victoria herself has sent over some things, amongst 'em them napkins of hern, spun and wove by her own hands.

What a lesson for sn.o.bbish young ladies, who would think it lowerin' to hem a napkin! What would they think to tackle 'em in the flax? And then there wuz a hat made by England's Queen, and gin to her grand-daughter; and there wuz six pictures painted by her, original sketches from nater.

One view wuz from the Queen's own room at Balmoral.

And then the Princess of Wales sent a chair of carved walnut, upholstered with leather, all the work of her own hands.

What another lesson that is to our lazy, fas.h.i.+onable girls! And Princess Maud of Wales sent a embroidered piano stool. And Princess Louise--Miss Lorne that now is--and Princess Beatrice sent the work of their own brains and hands.

I guess queens have always made a practice of workin'.

Why, I see there--and I could have wept when I seen it if I'd had the time--an elegant bedquilt made by poor Mary Queen of Scots. She sot the last st.i.tches in it the day before her death.

What queer st.i.tches them must have been--Agony and Remorse a-twistin'

the thread in the needle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Queen Victoria sent over some things.]

And then there wuz a piece of embroidery by Queen Marie Antoinette. What queer st.i.tches _them_ must have been, if she could have seen the End!

And then there wuz a portrait of Maria de Medici, Queen of France, made by herself.

And then there wuz a Bible presented by Queen Anne to the Moravian Church of New York, and a Bible of Princess Christian's.

The fine needlework of the wimmen of Greece makes a splendid show. The Queen of Greece is at the head of their commission.

The Queen of Italy goes ahead of all the other monarchs; she shows her own private collection of lace handkerchiefs, and neckties, and mantillys, and so forth. And even her crown laces--them beautiful laces that droop down over her regal head-dress when she sets with her crown on, and her sceptre held out in her hand.

The Queen of Belgium is at the head of their exposition. And the German commission is headed by a Princess.

Wall, you see from what I have said that there wuz a great variety of Queens a-showin' off in that buildin'; and as for Baronnesses, and d.u.c.h.esses, and Ladies, etc., etc.--why, they wuz as common there as clover in a field of timothy. You felt real familiar with 'em.

The reception-room of Mrs. Palmer, the beautiful President of the Woman's Committee, is a fittin' room for the presidin' genius.

All along the walls below the ceilin' runs a design of roses, scattered and grouped with exquisite taste. Miss Agnes Pitman, of Cincinnati, decorated that room.

In Mrs. Palmer's office is a wonderful table donated by the wimmen of Pennsylvania.

In that table is cedar from Lebanon, oak from the yoke of Liberty Bell, oak from the good old s.h.i.+p Const.i.tution, from Was.h.i.+ngton's headquarters at Valley Forge, and wood from other noted places.

And none of the woods wuz ever put to better use than now, to hold the records of woman's Aspirations and Success in 1893.

The ceilin' of the New York room wuz designed by Dora Keith Wheeler, and is beautiful and effective. And the room is full of objects of beauty and use.

The gorgeous President's chair from Mexico is a sight; and so to me wuz the chair in the Kentucky room, three hundred years old, that used to be sot in by old Elder Brewster, of Plymouth.

Good old creeter! if he could have been moved offen that rock of hisen three hundred years ago, into this White City, he would have fell out of that chair in a fit--I most know he would.

And then there wuz a silk flag made by General Sheridan's mother when she wuz eighty years old, and a group of dolls dressed in costooms ill.u.s.trating American history.

And there wuz a s.h.i.+rt of old Peter Stuyvesent's and a baby dress of De Witt Clinton's.

I never mistrusted that he wuz ever a baby till I seen that dress. I'd always thought on him as the first Governor of New York.

And speakin' of babys--why, I wuz jest a-lookin' at that dress when I met Miss Job Presley, of Loontown.

And I sez, almost the first thing, "Where is your baby?"

And she sez, "It is in the Babys' Buildin'. I have got a check for her--one for her, and one for my umbrell." And she showed 'em to me.

"Wall," sez I, "that is a good, n.o.ble idee to rest mothers' tired arms; but it must make you feel queer."

And she said, as she put the checks back into her portmoney, "That it did make her feel queer as a dog."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Miss Job Presley.]

Wall, there wuz a table from Pennsylvania, containin' more than two thousand pieces of native wood; and there wuz a Scotchwoman with her good old spinnin'-wheel, and a Welsh girl a-weavin' cloth.

And inventions of females of all kinds, from a toboggan slide, and a system of irrigation, and models of buildin's of all kinds, to a stock car.

Why, the very elevator you rode up to the ruff garden on wuz made by a woman.