Phemie Frost's ExperiencesStephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
General
Phemie Frost's Experiences
Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
Fiction
Well, the first thing that came was a crash that made me hop right up,
and near about break my parasol. No wonder; for more than a hundred men
were just flooding the air with music, that rose and fell and fluttered
till the trees and bushes shook under it. I do believe the sweetness and
the thundering outbursts would have inspired me to break into some good
old tune myself, if there hadn't been so much rustling and talking and
flirting all around me. As it was, there arose a clatter of confusing
sounds that gave one's nerves a jerky feeling that I for one haven't got
over yet. I do wonder why city people have no better manners. I should
just as soon think of speaking out in meeting, as of chattering when
others wanted to listen to music.
Well, after a hard tussle between the people and the music, the people
came out first-best--more shame to 'em. Then a gentleman they call Judge
Daly--a real nice-looking person--got out and reached out his arms
toward the pyramid, wrapped up in flags.
The minute he did this all the people began to stamp and clap their
hands, and fling out their handkerchiefs as if they had gone crazy. The
more he tried to speak, the more they stamped and clapped and shouted;
and he kept a-bowing real graceful, till by and by they stopped and let
him speak.
Then he went right on and told them all about the statue, which ought to
have been done and put up on the day that Mr. Shakespeare was three
hundred years old, only the statue wasn't ready then, but that was of no
account, when we considered how beautiful the whole thing was, and what
an honor it would be to American art. Judge Daly was all alive with this
idea, and spoke splendidly. When he had done, I just laid down my
parasol, and clapped my hands till a pair of three-button gloves gave
out. Sisters, that one clap cost me just three dollars and fifty cents.
When Judge Daly sat down, a gentleman walked up to the pyramid, and
stood by it looking awful pale and anxious, as if the thousands and
thousands of eyes bent on him had drawn all the blood from his body. He
was a fine, handsome-looking man, and somehow I took a shine to him at
first sight.
All at once his face flushed up, and I saw that he held the end of a
rope in his hand. While I was a-looking and wondering, he gave the rope
a jerk, and down come those silk flags, all in a wild flutter, and there
stood Mr. Shakespeare as if he'd just stopped to rest a minute after
walking, and had been struck with an idea which he was thinking over.
His head was just a little bent, and he held a book up against his
bosom, with his finger between the leaves.
Mr. Shakespeare must have been a proper handsome man about two hundred
and seventy-five years ago. No wonder that elderly young lady fell in
love with him. I could have done it myself, not because I am elderly,
far from it, but because he was--well, I suppose because he was
Shakespeare, and awful handsome at that.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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