The daily gazette., 1876-11-08

home didn't take day :and yet I've heard
my father tell that when he went to at
tend the first Congress, it took two weeks,
and his horse was all worn out when he
got there.
| don't think much ofPhiladelphia hotels
--at least, the one we went to that nigth.
Il looked more like barn than anything
else, only the ceilings were papered with
calico. There were no feathers in the
bed, which Mamie said was made of corn
husks the sheets were not ironed, and
there was just one kitchen-towel and a
little pitcher of water for Mamie and me.
Somehow, it seems to me the inns might
have been more comfortable a hundred
years ago.
The next morning we went to the Ex-
position, and at first was terribly disap-
pointed. There were long rows Of shan
ties, just like a country fair, with adver-
tisements over them of prize pigs and
monstrous oxen, fiat women and double
babies, mixed up with places to eat and
drink in, and gardens where they had all
sorts performances. 1t all looked so
tawdry and common, that blushed to
think the foreign nations should come
here and take this as specimen of our
country, till my son said:
come, mother, let's go in."
And then 1 found this wasn't the Ex-
position at all and L wondered if all
around the gates of heaven there would
| be painted mouths of hell; to make peo-
pie think heaven isn't such a wonderful
place after all. What a time we didstand
on that line; and how we did get tsqueezed,
before we paid our bright silver half-dol-
| lars, and been pushed through the thing
like that which they use to keep the
cowr out of our pasture. But inside
there wasn't any crowd at all there was
room enough for everybody and seats
enough for everybody that wanted to sit
down, and ice-water enough ror every
body to drink, and the Exposition is al
together the most beautiful place that /
ever saw in all my seventy-eight years /;
and only wish my father and the rest
| of the "signers" come out of their
graves to see what their poor little young
| republic has been doing these hundreds
years.
! Now children I'm not going to try to
tell you what 1 saw during our five days
at the Centennial. feel as if 1 was a
kaleidoscope, and if you were to shake
your grandmother up, and look into her,
you would see fragments of glass and
| china, splendid furniture and curtains
| carved wood and tapestry, kettles and
monuments, iron ratings and Brussels
lace, fine dresses and carriages, bells and
)jewelry, organs and ships, Chinese toys
and printing presses, and pretty nearly,
things without names-all mixed up in
her old brain in the direst confusion.
thought, when 1 stood in Machinery
Hall, that, as the old prophet Ezekiel
says, "The spirit of the living creature
was in the wheels" and John says 1
was right, for the genius ofthe American
people runs in the line of inventing ma
| chinery; and / thought when we had in
spected the Brewers Hall that it was a
| pity the brewers should not only exhibit
their implements of trade, instead or
some of their finished manufactures, as
the other trades do. Priscilla Alden's
diamonds interested me most of the jew
elry and | should have liked to stay a
long time in the New England log cabin,
looking at John Alden's desk, Peregrine
Whites cradle, and the other relics OF
the Maytiower. We took our dinner
there but somehow, except for the
name of it, Ldon't think baked beans
are the incest dinner in the world, and |
would rather sit by the "morning glory"
in the cushioned chair my grandchildren
made me present of last Christmas, than
on any Puritan "settee' of them after
all.
But how things have changed, to be
sure! l remember when we used to con-
slider fathers Revolutionary gun, hung
up in the kitchen, wonderful instru-
ment of destruction; but they've got guns
in the Government Building so big that
they tell me it takes most hundred
pounds of powder to load them. And
there's the Woman's Department.: carved
gossmer lace-work, all done by them,-
instead of warm, knitted socks and calico
gowns.
"No, don't like to see Turks, Chinese,
and other heathens walking about in pet
ticoats, just as they do at home. There
were none of them in the ships that land
ed at Plymouth Rock, and they hadn't
freedom to worship God" Perhaps,
though, some of them may be converted.
There's Bibles enough in the Exposition,
and that's the best feature in it, though
somehow it does seem strange to see
them side by side with the rum-shops.
John told me how many places there are
in the grounds where they sell liquor;
but amt going to tell, for fear the West
women should get excited and come and
time, which would be pity.
1 was disappointed in the German
barons and French counts; even the
English nobility did not look so very un-
like other people, and it did seem
as though all the queer-looking foreigners
might have just spoken in plain English,
if they only would. And as to the educa-
tional departments, it's no wonder you
children are such a puny race compared
with your grandfathers; it must stunt you
Just to remember the names of the things
which have been invented to help you
study.
The flowers are beautiful, but I don't
know that strange-looking plants without
perfume; and with queer names, are bit
better worth seeing than the cabbage
| roses and ladcS which your grandfather
father used to bring me Sunday nights.
But the gardens are just as pretty as fairy.
| land-if there is such a placc-only,
somehow, they haven't been able to keep
| their paths straight at all
There is just one place that should
think all the girls should keep out and
that's the cart Annex" l don't think
anything would have hired Mary Chiffon
or Rose Standish, or the girls of the Rev.
olution, to walk among those white mar
BILE people, or look at the pictures with no
clothes on. L suppose Pm an old fogy,
i II