[Samantha at the World’s Fair by Marietta Holley]@TWC D-Link bookSamantha at the World’s Fair CHAPTER X 7/32
No, fair and stately and serene as a dream Queen, she stood a fittin' centre for the onspeakable beauty of her surroundin's. It wuz all perfect, everything--no flaw in the perfect harmony of the seen.
No limit to its onapproachable beauty.
Yes, the glory of that seen as it bust onto my raptured vision will go with me through life, and won't never be outdone and replaced by anything more perfect, till that rapt hour when the mortal puts on immortality, and the glory that no eye hath seen busts on my glorified vision. And as we wended onwards and got still further views of the matchless wonders of the Columbus World's Fair--wall, I gin in, and felt and said, that I spozed I had had emotions all my life, and sights of 'em; why, I have had 'em as high as from 70 to 80 a minute right along for a hour on a stretch--sometimes when I have been rousted up about sunthin'. But when I stood stun still in my tracts, and the full glory and beauty of that seen of wonder and enchantment broke onto my almost enraptured vision, I gin up that I never had had a emotion in my hull life, not one, nothin' but plain, common breathin's and sithes. When I see these snowy palaces, vast and beautiful and dreamlike, risin' up from the blue waters, and their pure white columns and statuary reflected into the mirrow below, and the green beauty of the Wooded Island, and the tall trees a-dottin' them here and there-- And when I see the lagoon a-windin' along, and arched over with bridges, like the best of the beauty of Venice born agin, perfect and fresh in the heart of the New World-- When I beheld the immense quantity of shrubs and flowers of every kind known to the world-- And all along the blue waters of the Grand Basin, surrounded by the magnificence and glory of these beautiful palaces--the fountains a-sprayin' up, and waters a-flashin', and banners a-flyin', and the tall white statutes a-standin' on every side of us a-watchin' us with their still eyes, to see how we took in the transcendent seen, and how we appeared under the display--wall, I stood, as I say, stun still in my tracts, and sez to myself-- "It would be jest as easy to comprehend the wonder of this Exposition by readin' about it, as it would be for any one to try to judge Niagara by lookin' at a pan of dishwater." They are both water, but different, fur different. And you have got to take in the wonder and majesty of the sight, through the pores as it wuz, through all your soul, not at first, but it has got to grow and soak in, and make it a part of yourself. And then, when you have, you hain't a-goin' to describe it--words can't do it; you can walk through it and talk about the size of the buildin's, and the wonders of the display, but that hain't a-goin' to describe it, no more than the pan of dishwater can explain Niagara. You can converse about Niagara, the depth, the eddies, the swirl of the waters, the horseshoe falls, the rainbow that rises over it, the grotto, the slate-stun on the banks below, and so forth, and so forth, and so on. And how to show off the might and rush of the volume of water that shakes the earth, the mountain of shinin' mist that floats up to the wonderin' and admirin' heavens--how to paint this wonderful and inexpressible glory by tongue, how to put in words that which is mightier than any words that wuz ever said or sung! Wonder and awe, overwhelmin' sensation that makes the pulse stop and then beat agin in bounds. When you paint a picture showin' the full power and depth of a mother's love; when you can paint the ardor and extacy that inspires the hero's soul as he leads the forlorn hope, and dies with his face to the foe-- Then you may try to describe Niagara; no pen, no tongue can describe this ever rushin', ever old and ever new Wonder of the new world. And no more can any pen describe the World's Fair, the tall, towerin' fruit of the four-century tree of civilization, and liberty, and equal rights. You can talk about the buildin's--how they are made, how long and wide they are.
You can talk about the lagoons, the Grand Basin, the Bridges, the Statutes, the Fountains, the wonders of the flowers and foliage, the grandeur of the display, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. But how to describe this as a hull, its immensity, its concentrated might of material, practical beauty and use, that moves the world with its volume and power-- Or the more wonderful forces and influences that arise from it, like a gold mist seekin' the Heavens, to fall in showers of blessin's to the uttermost ends of the earth--knowledge, wisdom, and beauty, of Freedom, and Individual Liberty, Educational, Moral, and Beneficent influences--who is a-goin' to describe all this? I can't, nor Josiah, nor Miss Plank, nor nobody.
No, Mr.Bolster couldn't. Why, jest a-lookin' at it cracked the Old Liberty Bell, and I don't wonder.
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