The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair Part 9

It is in this place where you may stand with coral reefs and ring-tailed sh.e.l.ls on either side and watch strange fish with spikes on their backs open their mouths and gape until each one looks like the letter O. The sea turtles stand on their heads and wave yellow flippers at the wide-eyed crowd, and a devil crab makes all the women s.h.i.+ver and pull the children away from the gla.s.s. In one aquarium there are so many catfish that they make the water cloudy.

In front of one of the cases there was a learned discussion. The label simply said "Anemone." On the rocks and sh.e.l.ls were some things shaped like stars and mushrooms, except that they were moss-colored and had whiskers floating out in the water. "Annymone, what the d.i.c.kens are they?" asked a man with a linen duster.

"Some kind of sea-weed, I believe," said an elderly gentleman in a patronizing manner.

"No, they ain't they're animals, broke in a third.

"But, sir, they are stuck fast there and can't move," said the elderly gentleman.

"I know that but they reach out with those whiskers and grab stuff and feed themselves that way."

"Well, that's the first time I ever heard of anything feedin' itself with its whiskers."

One of the young women looked at the sheepshead aquarium and murmured: "What long bills they have." Her escort smiled in a knowing way and said: "That is not a bill; that is a proboscis, I believe. I wish I had a hook and line."

A Columbian guard said he was tired of hearing the same old jokes, for nearly every young man who came in with a girl said: "When I come back here I'll bring a hook and line."

They finished the day here, and wearied with the noise and tumult of the streets were glad to find rest in their rooms when evening came.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "NEXT TIME I'LL BRING A HOOK AND LINE."]

The sweetness of this rural family was nowhere better to be seen than when they were resting at home in the evening after the fatiguing experiences of the day.

"Grandpa," said f.a.n.n.y, when they were comfortably at rest, "I can't help but get angry at the women as I walk about, for I do see them do so much foolishness. Why, to-day I saw one crazy for souvenirs, and I believe she thought everything was a souvenir. I saw her pick up a nail and put it into her handbag, and when she came up to the Pennsylvania coal monument in the Mining building, she commenced putting pieces of the coal in her pocket. Then one of the working men played really a mean joke on her. He came up with a lump as big as a water bucket. Then he asked her if she wouldn't like to have that to remember the Fair by. And what do you think, she just said she thought he was very kind, but she didn't believe she could take it, for it was so big. But she would like awfully to have it. I saw the man shut one eye and say to the other man that the woman was crazy, because it was just the same kind of coal that she put into the stove every day at home."

"Now the only thing I've got to grumble about," said Uncle, "is what's models and what's facts. There is no use of scaring people to death with things that ain't so. Now over in the Government building I saw some hop plant lice that was not less than a foot long; there was a potato bug nine inches long, and there was a chinch bug two feet long, for I out with my rule and measured it. When I seen them I said, the Lord help the people who live where them things do, and then some city folks laughed at me, when at last f.a.n.n.y came along and said they was models. Then we went into another room and there was soldiers from everywhere and army things that made me believe I was back again with Sherman, but there again they were wax, excepting the wagons and guns. I went up to one of the officers when I fust come in and I says, says I, "Are you regular army folks or Illinois militia?" and he didn't answer, and I turned to one of the privates and I asked why there was so many of them bunched together, then I seed some folks a laughing at me and I slunk away. I say the government is in poor business when it makes sport of its own defenders."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A souvenir for her."]

"Over there in the Transportation building I seen what it said was the boat Columbus sailed in; but after all, f.a.n.n.y said it was a model. Right close to it was the boat what Grace Darling rowed out into the storming sea and saved so many lives. I thought it was a model, but f.a.n.n.y said it was the very boat she used. I jest thought ef that was really the boat, we could all be sure that Grace Darling didn't stand o' Sunday mornins afore the gla.s.s a paintin' and a powderin'." He was getting himself worked up to the belief that he was a very much abused old soldier, when f.a.n.n.y said:

"Grandpa, I have just cut a splendid piece of poetry out of the paper about the Fair. The man who wrote it don't live far from us, for his address says at the bottom, 'Mr. Matthews, from Effingham County,' and I'm going to keep it in my sc.r.a.p-book. Let me read it to you:

_The City of the Workers of the World_

THE BUILDING OF IT

In a wilderness of wonders they are piling up the stores Gathered by the hands of labor on a hundred happy sh.o.r.es; In a palpitating plexus of white palaces they heap The marvels of the earth and air--the treasures of the deep; They have reached their restless fingers in the pockets of the past, And robbed the sleeping miser of the wealth he had ama.s.sed-- To the festival of nations--to the tournament of toil, They have garnered in the offerings of every sun and soil; They have levied on the genius of the age, and it replies Full handed, with the blessed light of heaven in its eyes; In honor of old Spain they have taxed the brawn and brain Of a planet, for the glory of that Master of the Main, Whose fort.i.tude is written on each flag that is unfurled Above the great white city of the world.

THE MEETING OF THE NATIONS

They are climbing over mountains, they are sailing over seas, From the artics, from the tropics, from the dim antipodes; In the steams.h.i.+p, in the wars.h.i.+p, under banners loved the best, They are laughing up the waters from the east and from the west: From the courts of Andalusia, from the castles of the Rhone, To the meeting of the brotherhood of nations they are blown; From the kraals beside the Congo, from the harems of the Nile, They are thronging to the occident in never-ending file; From the farthest crags of Asia, from the continents of snow, The long-converging rivers of mankind begin to flow; In the twilight of the century, its wars forever past, The nations of the universe are clasping hands at last By Columbia's inland waters, where in beauty lies impearled The imperial white city of the workers of the world.

THE Pa.s.sING OF THE PAGEANT

When the roses of the summer burn to ashes in the sun, When the feast of love is finished, and the heart is overrun; When the hungry soul is sated and the tongue at last denies Expression to the wonders that are wearing out the eyes, Then the splendor it will wane like a dream that haunts the brain, Or the swift dissolving beauty of the bow above the rain; And the summer domes of pleasure that bubble up the sky Will tumble into legends in the twinkling of an eye; But the art of man endureth, and the heart of man will glow With reanimated ardor as the ages come and go.

The pageants of the present are but pledges of a time When strifes shall be forgotten in a cycle more sublime When the fancies of the future into golden wreaths are curled O'er the dim, remembered city of the workers of the world.

_CHAPTER VIII_

LA RABIDA

It was a warm summer day, and rolling chairs, launches and gondolas were in great demand. At f.a.n.n.y's suggestion they decided to take an electric launch and go around to La Rabida, where the relics of Columbus were kept. She accosted one of the guards who attends to the moorings by asking how near the launch would take them to La Rabida.

"La-Ra-La what? I don't think I know what that is," said the guide.

"La Rabida is the convent--the Columbus relics are there. Columbus was the man who discovered America," Aunt volunteered to tell him.

"Oh, yes; I have heard of Columbus, of course, but I haven't been here very long."

"Well, the convent is over at the lake end of the Agricultural building.

Do the launches go there?"

"The Agricultural building? Let me see; that is over----"

"Do you know where the colonnade is?"

"No. I don't."

"Ever hear of the grand basin, the gold statue, the lagoon?"

"Oh, yes; this is the lagoon."

"Well, how long will it be before a launch will come along?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "BEFORE THEM WAS THE STRANGE OLD CONVENT."]

He went out to the edge of the landing and looked up the lagoon. Then he jerked out, "in three-quarters of a minute." He was provoked about something. It may have been because she wanted to know so much; it may have been for a latent discovery of a lack of knowledge on his part, or it may have been because f.a.n.n.y had been laughing at something; f.a.n.n.y laughs easily. She is just as likely to laugh where she ought to cry; the electric guard didn't see anything to laugh at. They sat down on a pile of lumber to wait the three-quarters of a minute. It was three-quarters, and several more. The guard said the warm weather had come unexpectedly. They would have the whole fifty-two launches running soon. But only about half the number had been necessary until now, and they were very busy and could not keep up the time. One came soon after that. As they were stepping in f.a.n.n.y asked how much the round trips were. Some one said "25 cents in the Director General's schedule, but in the launches they are 50 cents." The captain, or the man who takes the money, heard him. He smiled, and charged them 25 cents apiece to La Rabida. Just afterward a man handed him $1 and said "Administration building--for two." The Administration building is considerably this side of La Rabida. The captain slipped the dollar into his pocket and pa.s.sed on to the next. The woman said:

"Did he keep the whole of it?"

"Keep it? I should think he did. You don't get much back on these side experiences. I ought to have asked him how much it costs to go all the way."

But the man made no reply. He was meditating. He evidently had not read the morning papers. They gave all the prices--admissions and extra convenience.

It was with feelings of considerable curiosity, mingled with awe, that they approached La Rabida.

Before them was the strange old building which they knew was the convent where Columbus had received such rest, comfort and inspiration in his great enterprise that opened the door to modern civilization.

A number of tents were on the south of the house, and soldiers were to be seen standing about, with their heavy muskets, which mean nothing but that their lives are pledged to protect this collection, belonging to the Vatican and the descendants of Columbus. All the royal letters patent from the sovereigns of Spain to Columbus and many letters written by Columbus himself, are in the cases. His will is also there. The signature of Columbus is written in this way:

_S._ _S. A. S._ _X. N. Y._ _Xpo Ferens._