Samantha at the St. Louis ExpositionHolley, Marietta
General
Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition
Holley, Marietta
Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 : Saint Louis, Mo.) -- Fiction
Truly he spoke the truth; I could cling to his arm, drink out of the
same cup, set in the same chair, lay my head on the same piller, and
yet, he might be millions of milds from me in sperit, 'round with other
wimmen for all I knew. Queer, hain't it?
Yes, he wuz thinkin' of food right here in this Holy City. As for me, a
perfect troop of lofty emotions wuz sweepin' through my mind, as I
looked 'round me on the very same seen our Lord had looked at. Low
old-fashioned stun housen such as He might have entered in, men and
wimmen clad in long robes such as He wore.
And to think of seein' the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrows, that He
walked, carryin' the agony of humanity, and the pityin' compassion of
divinity.
And the Nine Stations of the Cross where our Lord stopped to rest on
that bitter journey, toiling up the steep hill carrying up the heavy
cross and the woes and sins of the world, awful! beautiful Calvary!
sacred, heart-breaking, holy place. How my soul burnt within me thinkin'
of all this as I stood in the Holy City.
And there wuz the Tower of David, the Shepherd king. I always liked
David, though I could advised him for his good in lots of things. He
didn't do right by Ury, and he ortn't to had so many wives, if he'd
scrimped himself a little in 'em, mebby his son, Solomon, wouldn't had
so many, and one is enough, as I told Josiah.
"Yes," sez he with intense conviction in his tone. "One wife is enough
for any man, heaven knows, and anybody that hankers after more than one
is a fool!"
I didn't really like his axent; he'd been layin' it up, I guess what I
said about vittles, but I didn't mind it.
And we went through the different quarters of the city. The little
stores and bazars by the side of the street wuz full of real nice things
to sell, rich Eastern woven goods, embroideries, cushions, curtains,
rugs, lamps, jewels, ornaments, trinkets of all kinds, etc., etc. There
is more than a hundred of these little booths and stores in Jerusalem,
and all full of handsome things. I loved to look at 'em, though Josiah
tried to draw me away.
Sez he, "You don't want to buy here; you can do as well agin in
Jonesville tradin' off your butter and eggs, and probable git a chromo
throwed in."
I didn't argy, but I bought a string of beads for Tirzah Ann and a pipe
for Thomas J., the wood of which growed on the Mount of Olives, so the
man said.
I told Josiah they would prize 'em high havin' come from Jerusalem.
And he said, "They never see Jerusalem," he said they wuz growed over in
New Jersey, and when I asked him how he knew, he said he re_cog_nized
the berries and the grain of the wood.
But he couldn't no such thing, and I presoom the man told considerable
truth. And we see Rabbis, Turkish cavalry, common people livin' in the
queer little housen jest as they did in Jerusalem, and the priests goin'
through their religious ceremonies jest the same. And we went through
the Citadel and the different public buildin's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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