Around the World with Josiah Allen's WifeHolley, Marietta
General
Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife
Holley, Marietta
Women travelers -- Fiction
In the Church of Sante Croce we see the tomb of Machiavelli, a very
wise, deep man and a wise patriot, but a man lied about the worst kind
by them that hate liberty; the tomb of the poet, Alfieri, with Italy
weepin' over it; the tombs of Michael Angelo and Galileo; the mother
of the Bonapartes, and many, many others. Galileo's monument wuz a
sizeable one, but none too big for the man who discovered the
telescope and the motion of the earth. But just as the way of the
world is because he found new stars and insisted that the earth did
move, his enemies multiplied, he wuz persecuted and imprisoned. I sot
great store by him, and so did Robert Strong, and I sez to him,
"Robert, you too are discovering new and radiant stars in your City
of Justice and proving that the world does move." And I gin a queer
look onto Miss Meechim and sez:
"I hope you won't be persecuted for it."
Miss Meechim looked some like her sirname with the last letter changed
to n. But to resoom: The galleries of Florence contains priceless
pictures and statuary, so many of 'em that to enjoy them as you
should, and want to, would take years. Why, in the hall of Niobe I
wanted to stay for days to cry and weep and enjoy myself. I took my
linen handkerchief out of my pocket to have it ready, for I laid out
to weep some, and did, the mother's agony wuz so real, holdin' one
child while the rest wuz grouped about her in dyin' agony. One of the
sons looked so natural, and his expression of despair and sufferin'
wuz so intense that Arvilly said:
"I believe he drinked, his face shows a guilty conscience, and his ma
looks jest as the mother of drunkards always looks."
I told her that the death of Niobe's children wuz caused by envy and
jealousy, which duz just such things to-day as fur as they dast all
the way from New York to Jonesville, and so on through the surroundin'
world. Sez I, "Apollo and Diana killed 'em all just because Niobe had
such beautiful children and so many of 'em and wuz naterally proud and
had boasted about 'em some, and Apollo and Diana didn't want their ma
looked down on and run upon because she had only two children, and
probable their ma bein' envious and jealous sot 'em up."
But Arvilly wouldn't give up; she said a ma would always try to cover
up things and insisted on it to the last that she should always
believe they drinked and got into a fight with Latony's boy and girl.
"No," sez I agin, "it wuz Envy and Jealousy that took aim and did this
dretful deed."
Josiah sez: "Why didn't Ni-obe keep her mouth shet then?"
Well, it wuz vain to enjoy deep emotions in the face of such
practicality. I put up my handkerchief and moved off into another
room.
Besides pictures, these galleries contain rare gems of art in bronze,
crystal, precious stones, coins, arms, helmets, etc., etc. Enough as I
say to keep one's mind rousted up and busy for years and years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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