Samantha at the World's Fair Part 39

The Gobelin tapestries that are loaned by the French Goverment are absolutely priceless.

Austria's big pavilion has her double eagles reared up over it; it stands up sixty-five feet high, and is full of splendor.

Bohemian gla.s.s in every form and shape bein' one of its best exhibits, and terry-cotty figgers, and beautiful gifts of Honor loaned by the Emperor, and etc.

And you can tell the Russian pavilion as fur as you can see it by its dark, strong architecture.

Along the outer court runs a long platform ornamented with urns and vases of hewn marble and other hard stuns, from the exile mines of Siberia.

I wondered how many tears had wet the stuns as they wuz hewn out.

But, howsumever, the Russians did well; their enamel in this exhibit is the best shown anywhere. They are dretful costly, but not any too much for the value of 'em. They don't want to cheat America, the Russians don't--they remember the past.

One giant punch-bowl of gilt enamel is claimed to be the finest thing of the kind ever done in the Empire.

Their bronzes are wonderful--there is vigor and life in 'em. A Laplander in his sledge, drawn by reindeers over the frozen sea, and a dromedary and his driver on the sandy desert, shows plain how fur the Zar's dominions extend.

A Laplander killin' a seal in a ice hole--Two horses a-goin' furiously, tryin' to drag a sleigh away from pursuin' wolves--Mounted Cossacks--Farmers ploughin' the fields--A woman ridin' a farm horse, with a long rake in her hand--

A woman standin' on tiptoe to kiss her Cossack as he bends from his saddle--A rough rider out on the steepes a-catchin' a wild horse.

After ten or twelve acres of Nymphs and Venuses in bronze, these are real refres.h.i.+n' to see, and a change. And in furs and such their display is magnificent.

Russia shows eight hundred schools in the Liberal Art Department, and it is here that the beautiful pieces of embroidery made by the larger scholars for Mrs. Grover Cleveland are displayed.

No, Russia don't forgit the past.

And the display of laces in the Belgian exhibit is sunthin' to remember for a hull lifetime, and its pottery, and gems, and bronzes. And the exhibit of Switzerland, though not so large as some of the rest, is uneek. Their exhibit is all surrounded by a panorama of the Alps, the high mountains a-lookin' down into the peaceful valley, with its arts and industries.

Great Britain don't make so much show in her pavilions and in showin'

off her things; but come to examine it clost, and you'll see, as is generally the case with our Ma Country, the sterling, sound qualities of solid worth.

Her immense display of furniture, jewelry, and all objects of art and industry are worth spendin' weeks over, and then you'd want to stay longer.

They don't make any attempt at display in pavilions and show winders.

But in the plain, rich cases you find some of the most wonderful and gorgeous works of man.

I spoze, mebby, as is the nater of showin' off, the Ma Country felt some as if she wuz right in the family, and she and her daughter America hadn't ort to dress up and try to put on so many ornaments as the visitors.

I make a practice of that myself, to try to not dress up quite so ornamental as my company duz.

But for solid worth and display, as I say, Great Britain and the United States are where they always are--in the first rank.

But, speakin' of the visitors of the nation, if you want to git a good sight of 'em, jest stand in the clock tower, which looms up in the centre of the forty-acre buildin', as high as a Chicago house (and that is sayin' enough for hite), and you'll see all round you all the nations of the earth.

The guests of the nation occupy the place of honor, as they ort to.

Lookin' down, you see the flags of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, j.a.pan, India, Switzerland, Persia, Mexico, etc., etc., etc.

Wall, Josiah wanted to go up to the top of the buildin' on the elevator, and though I considered it resky, I consented, and would you believe it--I don't suppose you will--but to look down from that hite, human bein's don't look much larger than flies. There they wuz, a-creepin'

round in their toy-house fly-traps; it wuz a sight never to be forgot as long as Memory sets upon her high throne.

Wall, as I said, in them pavilions and gorgeous gla.s.s cases in that vast buildin' you can find everything from every country on the globe.

Everything you ever hearn on, and everything you ever didn't hearn on, from the finest lace to iron gates and fences--

From big, splendid rooms, all furnished off in the most splendid manner with the most gorgeous draperies and furniture, to a tiny gold and diamond ring for a baby, and everything else under the sun, moon, and stars, from a pill to a monument.

Pictures, and statuary, and bronzes, and every other kind of beautiful ornament, that makes you fairly stunted with admiration as you look on 'em.

At one place a silver fountain wuz sendin' up constantly a spray of the sweetest perfume, and when I first looked at it, Josiah wuz a-holdin'

his bandana handkerchief under it, and he wuz a-d.i.c.kerin' with the girl that stood behind it as to what such a fountain cost, and where he could git the water to run one.

Sez he, "I'd give a dollar bill to have such a stream a-runnin' through our front yard."

I hunched him, and sez I, "Keep still; don't show your ignorance. It hain't nateral water; it is manafactured."

"Wall, all water is manafactured! Dum it, the stream that runs through our beaver medder is made somehow, or most probable it wouldn't be there."

But I drawed him away and headed him up before some lovely dresses--the handsomest you ever see in your life--all trimmed with gold and pearl trimmin'. The price of that outfit wuz only twenty thousand dollars.

And when I mentioned how becomin' such a dress would become me, I see by his words and mean that he had forgot the fountain.

The demeanin' words that he used about my figger would keep females back from matrimony, if they knew on 'em.

But I won't tell. No, indeed!

And then there wuz all sorts of art work on enamel and metal, and all sorts of dazzlin' jewelry that wuz ever made or thought on, and all the silverware that wuz ever hearn or drempt of--why, jest one little service of seven pieces cost twenty thousand dollars.

In Tiffany's gorgeous display wuz a case that ill.u.s.trated the arts in Ireland in the fourteenth century.

They said that it contained a tooth of St. Patrick. Mebbe it wuz his tooth; I can't dispute it, never havin' seen his gooms.

Then there wuz a Latin book of the eighth century, containin' the four gospels; and in another wuz St. Peter's cross, they said. Mebby it wuz Peter's!

And every kind of silk fabric that wuz ever made--raw silk, jest as the worm left it when she sot up as a b.u.t.terfly, and jest what man has done to it after that--spinnin', weavin', dyein'--up to the time when it appears in the finest ribbon, and glossiest silk, and c.r.a.pes, and gauzes, and velvets, and knit goods of every kind, and etc., and so forth.

And every kind of cloth, and felt, and woollen, and carpets enough to carpet a path clear from Chicago to Jonesville for me and Josiah to go home in a triumphal procession, if they had felt like it.

In front of the French section I see another statute of the Republic.

She wuz a-settin' down. Poor creeter, she wuz tired; and then agin she had seen trouble--lots of it.

Her left arm was a-restin' firm on a kind of a square block, with "The Rights of Man" carved on it, and half hidin' them words wuz a sword, which she also held in her left hand.

The rights of Man and a sword wuz held in one hand, jest as they always have been.

But, poor creeter! her right arm wuz gone--her good right hand wuz nowhere to be seen.