Josiah Allen's Wife as a P. A. and P. I.: Samantha at the Centennial.: Designed As a Bright and Shining Light, to Pierce the Fogs of Error and Injustice That Surround Society and Josiah, and to Bring More Clearly to View the Path That Leads Straight on to Virtue and Happiness.Holley, Marietta
General
Josiah Allen's Wife as a P. A. and P. I.: Samantha at the Centennial.: Designed As a Bright and Shining Light, to Pierce the Fogs of Error and Injustice That Surround Society and Josiah, and to Bring More Clearly to View the Path That Leads Straight on to Virtue and Happiness.
Holley, Marietta
Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.) -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Debates and debating -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Husband and wife -- Fiction; Women's rights -- Fiction
Cornelius Cork, the President, they say has been a tryin to learn
himself; has tried to take gestures and motions up in his own head; but
bein’ a poor man and not bein’ able to hire a teacher, of course he
don’t make much headway; don’t git along nigh so well. He haint got but
one gesture broke in so he can handle it to any advantage, and that is:
pointin’ his forefinger at the audience, with the rest of his hand shet
up; dartin’ it out sometimes, as if it was a bayonet he was goin’ to run
through their hearts; and sometimes holdin’ it back, and takin’ a more
distant and deliberate aim with it, as if it was a popgun he kep’ by him
to shoot down congregations with. That is all he has got at present; but
truly, he does the best he can, with what he has to do with. It don’t
scare the audience so much I s’pose as he thinks it ort to, and he
probable gits discouraged; but he ort to consider that he can’t show off
much in gestures, while Solomon Cypher is livin’. A kerosine lamp can’t
show off to any advantage when the sun gits up. But the President done
well as I said, with what he had to do with. He pinted that forefinger
almost threatningly in every direction, from Zenith to Nathan, as he
went on to say: he hadn’t no personal objections to Josiah Allen’s wife,
“_fur frummit_.”
[Illustration: THE ONE GESTURE.]
Cornelius Cork bein’ a poor man, and shackled with the support of four
maiden sisters of his own, and a mother-in-law and a grandmother-in-law
of his wife’s, besides a large family of childern of their own, haint
never felt able to own a dictionary, and so he pronounces by ear, and
makes mistakes. But considerin’ his circumstances and shackles, I don’t
think he ort to be run down for it. It makes it very bad, sometimes, for
Solomon Cypher, for he bein’ so took up with gestures and motions, and
bein’ one easy led astray by them that are in high office, he follers on
blindly after the President and uses lots of words he wouldn’t dremp of
usin’, if he hadn’t heerd the President use ’em. It makes it bad for
Solomon, very.
The President repeated the words again, with dignity and emphasis: “_fur
frummit_.” He trusted he realized too well whose tower it was, that
bein’ gone off on, had lifted Jonesville fur up above surroundin’
nations; had lifted it high up on fame’s towerin’ pillow, and shed a
lurid light on the housen thereof. He trusted he was too familiar with
that noble book of hern, of which he had read the biggest heft, and was
calculatin’ to tackle the rest of it if he lived long enough. And he had
said, and he said still, that such a book as that, was liable to live
and go down to Posterity, if Posterity didn’t git shiftless and hang off
too long. And if anybody said it wasn’t liable to, he called ’em
“traitor, to the face; traitor to Jonesville; traitor to Josiah Allen’s
wife; traitor to Josiah.”
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