[Samantha at the World’s Fair by Marietta Holley]@TWC D-Link bookSamantha at the World’s Fair CHAPTER XVIII 10/14
Jonesville waits for it with longin'. Its name is Medusaline.
I wuz real glad it had such a pretty name--it deserves it. Josiah wuz dretful took with the name.
He said that he wuz a-goin' to name his nephew's twins Maryline and Medusaline.
But mebby he'll forgit it. Wall, the Hall of Mines and Minin' is a immense, gorgeous palace, jest as all the rest on 'em be, and, like 'em all, it has more'n enough orniments, and domes, and banners, and so forth to make it comfortable. As we advanced up the magestick portal the figgers of miners, with hammers and pans in their hands, seemed to welcome us, and tell us what they had to do with the big show inside; they seemed to be a-sayin' with their still lips, "If it hadn't been for us--for the great Army of Labor, this show would have been a pretty slim one." Yes; the great vanguard of Labor leads the van, and cuts down the trees, so's that Old Civilization and Progress can walk along, and swing their arms, and spread themselves, as they have a way of doin'. Wall, to anybody that loves to look on every side of a idee from top to bottom, and had had sech experiences on top of the Earth as I had, it wuz a great treat to see what wuz inside of the Old World. And wuzn't it a sight! Sech heaps of glitterin' golden and silver ore, sech slabs of shinin' marble, and sech precious stuns I never expect to see agin till I git where the gates are Pearl and the streets paved with Pure Gold. On the west side are the exhibits from Foreign mineral-producin' countries, beginnin' with the Central and South American States. These Mines, worked way back before history begins, that furnished the gold that Cortez loaded his returnin' galleons with, still keep right on a-yieldin' their rich treasures, provin' that there is no end to 'em, as you may say. On the opposite side of the avenue are the treasures of our own country. Each State and Territory has tried, seemin'ly, to make the richest and most dazzlin' exhibition. Here New England shows in a way that can't be disputed her solid granite and marble foundation--vast and beautiful and glossy exhibit. Then the immense coal exhibit of the great States of the Appalachian range, and the Ohio valley, shows forth its wealth in shinin' black masses. Pyramiads and arches of glitterin' iron and steel, statutes in brass, bronze, and copper, supported on pedestals of elaborate wrought metals. Then there are pillows and statutes and pyramiads of salt so blindin'ly brilliant that you almost have to shet your eyes when you look at 'em. The South shows up her mineral fertilizers, and paints, and her precious ores.
The gold of North Carolina, the phosphates of Florida, and the iron ores of Alabama are here in plain sight. California, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, shows a gorgeous exhibit of gold and other precious ores. In the large porch in the centre of the buildin' is a high tower, made at the bottom of all sorts of minerals, and trimmed off handsome and appropriate; and the tower that shoots up from this foundation is made of all sorts of machines employed in minin'. From this centre aisles and avenues branch off in every direction. Great Britain and Germany and our own greatest mineral States are here facin' this centre. And you can walk down every avenue, and have your eyes most blinded by the splendor of the exhibit. You can see jest how they extract the gold from the ore from the minute it is dug out of the earth till it is wrought into the shinin' dollar or beautiful orniment. You can see how Electricity, the Wizard, plays his part here, as everywhere else, in drivin' drills, and workin' huge minin' pumps and hoistin' appliances. You can see how this Wizard gives the signals, fires the blast, and does everything he is told to do, and does it better than anybody else could, and easier. Then there are figgers in groups representin' the old laborious way of minin', old crushin' mortars and mills of ancient Mexico, propelled by mules, compared with the automatic tramways and hydraulic transmission of coal by a liquid medium, and all the other swift and modern ways. South Africa shows off her diamond fields.
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