As surpassin'ly beautiful as the Exposition is from every side, hind side and fore side, and from top to bottom, it is, I do believe, most radiantly lovely from the water approach.
You needn't be a mite afraid of gittin' your idees too riz up about the onspeakable beauty of the seen.

No matter if they wuz riz up higher than you ever drempt of rizin' 'em up, instead of fallin', they will, so to speak, find themselves on the ground floor--in the suller, as you may say--so fur up beyend your highest imagination is the reality of that wonderful White City of the West-- Magic city that has sprung up there amidst the blue waters and green forests like a dream of enchantment, a hymn of glory, with not one false, harsh note in it to mar the glory and perfectness of the song.
Now, I have had my idees riz up lots of times--they have riz and fell so much that my muse has fairly lamed herself time and agin, and went round limpin' for some time.
And Josiah had told me time and agin, as I would go on about the beauty I expected to see at the World's Fair, "Samantha, you expect too much; you will get dissapinted; tain't Heaven you are goin' to; anybody would most expect, to hear you go on, that you expected to see the New Jerusalem--you are goin' to be dissapinted." Wall, sure enough I wuz, but the dissapintment wuz on the other side--I hadn't expected half nor a quarter nor a millionth part enough.

My muse instead of comin' down from the heights that I spozed she wuz on a-cungerin' up that seen--to use metafor--she had always, as you may say, sot down flat on the ground.
Why, I couldn't do justice to it in words, nor Josiah couldn't, nor Miss Plank couldn't, not if we all on us had a dictionary in one hand and a English reader in the other, and had travelled down there that beautiful mornin' with a brass band.
I wuz so wropped up in my bewildered and extatic admiration that my companions wuz entirely lost from sight, when Miss Plank sez-- "Here we are, ready to land." And indeed I see on comin' to myself that the hull 5000, and their relations on both sides, wuz on the move, and it wuz time for me to disembark myself, which I proceeded to do, a-follered by the forms of my Josiah and Miss Plank.

She stepped out quite briskly over her namesake, and so did Josiah.

They didn't take in the full beauty and grandeur of the seen as I did--no, indeed.
[Illustration: I proceeded to disembark, a-follered by the forms of my Josiah and Miss Plank.] They could think of vittles even at that time, for I heard Josiah say-- "We will settle on some place to go that is handy to a restaurant." And Miss Plank picked one where the biled corned beef wuz delicious, and the pies and coffee-- Corned beef! oh, my heart, in such a time as this! Beef corned in such a hour! But I forgive 'em and pitied 'em, for it wuz my duty.
Wall, we told Josiah he should have his way that mornin', and go where he wanted to--and he wanted to tackle Machinery Hall; consequently we tackled it.
And how many acres big do you suppose this buildin' wuz?
Seventeen acres and a half is the size of the floor-- Jest half a acre more than Silenas Bobbetses farm, that he broke old Squire Bobbetses will to git, and he and his twin brother Zebulin come to hands and blows about, in front of the Jonesville post-office.
Zebulin said it wuz too much land to give to one of the children--they wuz leven of 'em--and the farm didn't go round--the others didn't have only fifteen acres apiece.
Yes; this one buildin' covered as much ground as Silenas Bobbet gits a good livin' from, a-raisin' cabbage and spinach.
And the buildin' wuz seemin'ly all wrought of white marble, with statutes, and colonnades, and towers, and everything else for its comfort, and inside wuz every machine that wuz ever made or thought on, from a sassage-cutter and apple-parer to a steam engine in full blast.
I believe they tuned up higher and louder when I went in--it wouldn't be nothin' surprisin' if they did, some as the brass band strikes up as the hero enters.
This song wuz the loud, strong chorus of Labor, that echoes all over the world, grand chorus that is played by the full orkestry of the sons and daughters of toil.
Oh, how many notes there is in this strong, ail-pervadin' anthem! Genius, and Patience, and Ambition, and Enterprise, and Ardent Endeavor--high notes, and low ones, all blent together, all tuned to the hauntin' key.