Samantha at the World's Fair

uz very agreeable, as well as oncommon smart, which two qualities don't always

r Krit arrived and got there, that another

t, half hisen and half mine, but clear hisen. Cl

for bein' born his cousin. (Though that wuz onbeknown t

Allen, Esquire, of Menlo Park, California, wuz

z he when

handle that very word "Snipe" a-describin' Elnathan Allen's form

, and a woman can't stand only jest about so much aggra

ut "The Worm," an

ss. Good land! 'Zekiel Smith hain't the only man on earth who is ornary and no account. Every pardner has 'em, more

l; I admitted it only whe

s capital first rate, some on it in a big E

ttle Maid, as he called her; he jest id

at her Pa said-no, I didn't take all his

had seen her, had been out to California on a e

blue, big luminous eyes, that draw the hearts and souls of folks right out of their bo

oses that climbed all Winter round her winder-and the sweetest, daintiest w

o suit me, but I got the idee from what she

ooks runnin' towards the sea, all his talk, every anecdote he told, and every

shippe

der why you don't take some of them object lessons to heart-why you don't set down at her feet, and learn of her-and I wonder too where she took her sweet charity from

r her mother. But they alway

tch my horse in front of t

much property, and had come on to pay a flyin' visit to Jonesville, not forgittin' Loon

uz c

e he could git one he thought wuz healthy enough and splendid enough for her. At last he selected one, standin' on a consider

nd one for the nurse. He got the two rooms for t

got two b

e very purest and best kind there wuz made, and t

ies of it, I couldn't help thinkin' of what Barzelia had told me about that

of tenement housen, miserable old rotten affairs, down in stifl

ange of property, and he found they paid so well,

hat she did; she said the money got in that way, by housin' the poor in such horrible pestilental

ldren well and happy, my thoughts kept a-roamin', and I couldn't help it. Down from the lovely spot where The Little Maid wuz, down, down, into the dretful places that Barzelia had told me about. W

warms and herds of useless and criminal humanity a-cumberin' the ground, and he threw a lot of statisticks at me. But they did

o tear 'em down, and build wholesome ones, and in the place of the worst ones, to help make som

hlessness, and shiftlessness, and viciou

lives, when they are a-starvin' to death? And how is an

ey didn't hit me, and then he kinder laughed agin, and assumed something of a jokelar ai

geous in one way, if in no other-they help to reduce the surplus population. If it wuzn't for such places, an

tion!" sez I, and my voice shook w

your statisticks, for a spell, and come down on

f you wuz a-livin' down there in them horrible pits of disease and death-if you wuz a-standin' over the dyin' bed of wife or mother, or other dear one,

e the one you loved best a-slippin' away from you-borne out of your sight, borne away into the onknown, on

t, and I knew it, for I

nder all my talk. It didn't im

touch him. He thought, in the words of the Him slightly changed, that: "H

off to him, the woes, and wants, and crimes of our poor hu

dened Elnathan's heart-it wi

ations on his side, and I done well by

he estate took quite a spe

are of The Little Maid. She wrote to him every day;" and s

me! oh d

er from England with a cargo of trouble and c

ery children, and a drunken husband, and had given this sister two small rooms in one of his tenement housen, and asked so

wuz kept clean, and so high up that the

r to Elnathan asking for new stairs, and new sanitary arrangements, as the deaths wuz so frequent in that particular tenement, that the Agen

in' a new orchid house (he had more'n a dozen of 'em befor

Little Maid's apartments. And a stained-glass gallery, leading from the conservatory to the greenhouses, and these ot

he wuz making on his own place at Menlo Park would cost more than a hundred thousand dollars-and he felt that he couldn't fix them stai

ing for 'em, the next thing they would want w

use that week, and bein' a man of some sense, though hampered, wrote back and s

n a dozen had been wanted there in that very ho

wuz accustomed to there;) he didn't wr

ned the stairs, and agin

ned-glass angel or some stained-glass cherubs a-hoverin' over the gallery in front of The Little

allowed. Eln

airs al

repairs all made, and the

rs, so I have hearn; I don't say that I am postive knowin' to it. B

an enjoyed it twice over, once and first i

little appetite didn't seem to be very good, and th

ry in Loontown fell onto Elnat

tle idees and images had got all overlaid and covered up with glass angels, orchids, bank stock, some mines, palm-houses, po

always shall believe it, that he wuz in doubt whether we had things good enough for her. The idee! He said he thought it

t orders to not go down into the city below a certain street, which wuz a

nurse str

Cain did, and jest as David did, when he killed Ury, and Joseph's broth

Little Maid one day, a home-sick feelin' come over her all of

fair, she thought mebby

of old England, where she and Katy used to find birds' nests, and the blue wuz jest the shade of the sweet old English violets. How she

not to go down into the city, and not t

that mebby if she kep one of her promis

you told your wife you would bring her home a present, and come home

of a stirring sermon, that I wouldn't forgit it,

nurse thought she would keep half of the Master's or

ey, Elnathan didn't stent her on wages.

beautiful streets, lined with stately housen and filled with a th

h side, and full of a well-dressed, hurrying crowd of business me

ng the narrow, filthy street, wearing the semblance of manhood and w

ld walks, and hoverin' over all a dretful

t), she wuz pale as death, and the big tears wuz a-rollin' down h

Jean and Kate fell into each other's arms, and forgot the world while they mingl

y, dretful court-yard, swarmin' with ragged children i

of the kind before in her

at there wuz such

est eyes full of tears, as she start

of desires to hel

tears bl

n she stumbl

weight; the stairs, jest hangin' together by links of planked rotte

tunted-not hurt

ory white wuz the perfect little face, with the long golden hair hangin' b

oken, but he said, after she roused from her faintin' fit, and her arm wuz

e would conceal her sin, and git her back to t

and jest as I thought when I laid the Bible over the ho

r would, if that had been all, but the pois

fled, choked with the putrid air, and each day the red in her

she got delerious,

ein' made down in the stiflin', crowded,

sky, and breathe the sweet air-she talked about fresh dewey grass on which the

pure water down where now wuz

m terrible slantin' old housen bein' torn dow

r feverish lips of how the woes, and evils, and cri

nacted on the pages of history-of the sorely oppressed masses turnin

z very delerious-she might have dreamed of the time when our statesmen and lawgivers would p

in' the small hands of the children, and leadin' them away fro

is) but when she would step aside and let J

uld control the great enterprises, needed by all, but addin' riches to but few-when comfort

lay there, a victim of wrong inflicted on the low-a martyr

with her little fever-parched l

, flittin', in little vague, tangl

reen, beautiful garden, and the cro

after Elnathan got there, and me

Presence beautiful and divine, we thought from her words. He smiled as he saw the

the happy children there, and then she looked away from us all with a smile, and I spozed, and I always shall spoze, that the Divine One a-walkin' in the coo

ry the lambs

Elnathan Allen is a ch

surplus population to him.

o him as I could be all th

as a old man's in l

ar in makin' money he brought to bear on

it wuz a

urnin' weed; and if ever a weed wuz deep, an

e well; I have writ t

f that filthy hole, a lovely little park, with fresh green grass, a fou

e is green, rustlin' boughs for the birds to build their nests

ts onto the kind, patient heart of their first mother, Nature, and she soo

of a dove. They find insensibly the grime washed away by these pure drops, their hands are le

badly, for it is a rich man w

in front of the bare old tenement housen-the harsh glare of them walls seem

ts rough walls-they follow the glint