Samantha at the World's Fair

ville and the adjacent and surroundin' world

fightin' back and forth about t

the saloons bein' open too, be

d to be all settled from the very first on't that the saloons

and wife-beaters, and arsons, and rapiners, and child-killers had to be made. That wuz neccessary, and considered so from the first. For if this trade wuz to stop for ev

ith business, and the prisons, and jails, and reformato

s; that wuz considered as almost a se

the neccessarys, or it wouldn't have gone into

oin' on about havin' the World's Fair, the broad galle

ore right up and down that if Christopher Columbus let folks

hristopher and make him gin up his doin's, or ruth

her than have the young people who would be gathered there from the four ends of the earth-ruther than have these innocent young creeter

bout it, and hearn powerful tal

ng up on both sides-arguments calculated to make a bystander wobble

a number of us had got there early, and this subj

who give utterance to the

ould be felt, he shouldn't attend to it if it wuz open Sunday.

ave Cornelius Jr. go to Chicago if the Fair is open Sundays, not for a wor

ear (she is always on the co

"You ask why? You a

ez Arvil

l broke up, and he would be a ruined boy. I expect that he will be there two months-that would make eight days of worldliness and wickedness;

a teachin' of the greatness and the glory of the Lord of Heaven, and the might and power of the human intellect. Wonders of Heaven, and wonders o

we and worshipful love for the One, the great and loving mind that had thought out all these m

on Sundays it is a crime to even think on it. Sundays should be kep pure and holy and riz up, and I wou

ile he wuz in Chicago if he d

oves to put on Arville, and twit her of her single state, and k

d Cornelius Jr. go if h

dy, and Miss Cork hemmed and hawed, and

meetin',

o years, and we all knew it, and Miss Co

tin' here to Jonesv

go to meet

I spoze it wuz to pay Miss

rom Fasset's saloon, and I see him and more'n a

nge all their habits and ways to once, and I believe if Corn

my duty to lift my voice and my strength aginst the Sunday openin' of the Fair, and even if th

o burned up their boys' cards, and checker-boards, and story-b

ed for recreation and amusement, and seein' that they couldn't git it at home, under the fosterin' care of their father and mother, why, they looked for it elsewhere, and found it

tell stories to the multitude, to amuse 'em, draw 'em by the silken cord of fancy towards

kely to have," says Miss Cor

the world which the Lord made and give to His children for their amusement and comfort-I would ruther have 'em there than to have 'em help swell a congrega

re and beckon the raw youth of the country. They will flaunt their gaudy at

f beauty and sublimity, drawin' their minds and hearts insensibly and in spite of themselves upward and onw

d be pretty sure that they wouldn't git out of it in time to go any great lengths in sin that day; a

air buildin's than runnin' loose in the streets of Chicago. They won't go to meetin' every Sunday, and I c

but I know when they hain't got anything to do,

know that my Cornelius will never dis

ean acts that wuz worse; so we didn't say anything, but we all looked queer; and Arville kinder sniffed, and turned

elius and Cornelius Jr. to go to it, and the rest of the country, I wo

jest so," se

Elihu Widrig's only son, and he has been

Greek and lots of other languages tha

up, and

his Sabbat

't by our means. We didn't want any of his new-fangl

n, bein' determine

lers in the Euphrates Valley kep a Sabbath. They spozed there wuz seven planets, and one day wuz give to each of them. And Saturday, the old Jewish Sabbath, wuz gi

Ma regard

gin a mite of work Fridays, not even hemi

history to the Hebrews, we find it a par

Sabbath is, the Lord rested on that day. In the fifth book we find the r

u do, you are obeying the fourth commandment. According to that command, you c

one from that observed by Moses and the

ght way to keep the Sabbath is jest as we do, go t

n't understand its meaning so well as we do to-day, after the

en looked tickled, she is so blind in her own conceit, and Lihu spoke so p

Pegrum spoke u

ve in keeping th

ssed break in the hard creakin' roll of the wheel of Labor, a needed rest-needed in every way for

ma used to think. She used to have to whip him time and agin for bringin' out secret

or we knew that he meant every word that he said, and we knew that he had stud

den spoke up

nd always will say, that if any belief goes aginst the Bible,

lf of us wimmen

that we didn't love to have 'em disturbed. It wuz like havin' somebody take a spade and dig up th

had ruther be mistook than to have the

ur lives with our mother's milk; that sustains us and helps us to bear the hard toils and burdens of the day of life, and that go with us through the Valley and the Shadow-the

or if the pages have become blotted by the dust of time, we hated to

fellow feelin' for Miss Yerde

and havin' a hard cold, he said "he guessed he would go over

then Miss Cork spo

ations to have us a breakin' Sundays after ke

is desecrated. Saturday nights and Sundays is the very time for the devil's high jinks. More whiskey

brandy carrys off hull barrels of it most every Sat

bodies, and sodden intellects, and achin' hearts are more fre

consistent to flare up and be so dretful afraid of desecratin' the Sabbath by havin' a place of education,

ies of the world. How will it look to 'em to have our Goverment permit such Sunday desecration? This is a national affair, and w

y Sundays, and not only permit it, but go into pardnership with it, and take part of the pay-if it can do this Sunda

f the country, and I d'no but it will be, it will have a bad l

e so much about it herself, but thought the neighbors would blame her; and Ned got to goin' away from home for amusement, and is

et her Ned play

he might have known folks would talk anyway-if they can't run folks for d

t you forgit i

, and Miss Cork begun

n on the Sabbath. The onseemly and deafnin' noise and clatter of the machinery, and the toil of the men that it will take to

or not; it is most of it run by water-power and electricity, an

stop, Miss Cork, be

't hear yourself speak there hardly, so it wuz what yo

ed down her upper lip in a real contempti

se thunder-storms Sundays, it does seem to me, than I ever see week days. And when old Mom Nater

ve to run by work-hard work, too. Preachin', and singin', and ringin' bells, a

n to and frow; conductors, and brakemen,

ard, and coachmen, and drivers, and men and w

y day out of the seven. They take a place with thirty cows on it,

e, and then Jim drives them off to pasture and comes back and harnesses up and carries th

r dishes and the immense milk-cans, sweeps, cleans lamps and stoves, makes beds, etcetry, and feeds the chickens, and ducks, and turkeys. And by that time it is nine o'clock. Then she hurries

her lap. And Jim, havin' by this time got through with his work and toiled into his best suit, they drive off, a colt follerin'

irst, and both talk for quite a length of time; they are quite gifted, and are called so. And then they set up straight through the sermon, and that Free-well Baptist preaches more'n a hour, hot or cold weather, and then

he out-door work to tend to, and what with her headache, and her tired-out nerves and body, and the work and care of the babies, Jane is cross as a bear-sn

s the hardest day

er parmetty dress done for the World's Fair-but she said that she shouldn't go if it wu

anybody, and always have been regular. But I s

hought she would; and Lophemia Pegrum spoke up-she is a dretful pretty girl

sun lights and warms the World, the grass grows, the grain ripens, the fruit gathers the sunshine in its golden and rosy globes, the birds sing, the trees rustle, the wind blows, the stars r

speaker-she hain't to be depended on, in argument. But she speaks q

he week and who can't spend the time week da

r families, to keep starvation away from themselves and children-clerks, seamstresses, mech

or all the week, with the wolves of Cold and Hunger a-prowlin' round 'em, ready to

d white slaves to have one day out of the seven to feast t

wuz full of work, their quickened fancy would live over again the too brief hours they spent in communion with the World's best-the gathered beauty and

ss Sanders blushed and stopped. They ha

Sanders speech at all, but a-goin' back to Arvilly's

ected with church-goin' that it wuz to worship God, and it wuz ther

Nature that will be exhibited at the World's Fair would be as upliftin' and inspirin' to me as some of th

t would bring me nearer to him, and them plagues and tha

wonderful picture of the crucifixion or the ascension, wrought by hands that the Lord Himself held while they wuz painted-I

harisees, and told He wuz breakin' the Sabbath. And He said t

-that is, consider the Lord, and be

e Lord, he has to do it through his own work, his writin', which he did himself with a steel pen. And I d'no as it is takin' the idees of

e wonderful and more beautiful than the lilies, and I d'

ow what the Bible sez-'Forget not the

b

b Lum, aged fourtee

here won't complain about there not bein' folks enough asse

attention to Bub, an

ays and Sundays too. It stands to reason that the Lord wo

things. There will be meetin'-housen left and ministers in 1894, m

He has done for us sence He wakened the soul of His servant, Columbus, and sent him over the troubled ocean

sperit of prophecy and accomplishment

d to the Bible this week, and we could have the Lord'

ries of your own to wander through Sundays, and gardens and greenhouses full of beauty and sweetness, and the means to seek out loveliness through the world, and who

hat way, Arville. To add or diminish one wor

"I hain't thought on't. I am merely statin' what, in

young man-smart as a whip, and does well by the school, and m

', and some say that he and Lophemia Pegrum

matter. There is so much to be said on both sides of this subject that it is almos

a great object lesson to the youth of this nation and the world a

t turned into a day of amusement, a

ad, of the regard we have for the day of rest that God appointed. The regard we have for things spiritual, onseen-our conflicts and victories for co

knowin' what it will do agin. And I think," sez she, "that it would look better now both from the under and upper side-both on earth and in Heaven-to close them murdero

the last word-s

ed, yet he bowed kinder genteel to Arvilly, as much as to say, "I will not dispute an

ect of their different minds

I myself see things so plain on both sides that

t it would be the only right thing to do, to shet up the

nvince myself (ontirely onbeknown to me) that it would be the means

nd a-disputin' with myself, and a-carryin' metafors b

lf, a-disputin' with jest my own self, I didn't spoze so

Miss Cork "If she had heard that the

e subject, and one that could be

wuz a saf

down, and I led it gradual into way