And here is the reproduction of the Viking ship, nine hundred years
old--dug up in a sand-hill in Norway, in 1880. It is fitted up exactly
as the Storm Kings of one thousand years ago used 'em--thirty-two oars,
each seventeen feet long. Mebby that same ship brung over some Vikings
here when the old Newport Mill wuz new.
The English exhibit has a model of H.M.S. Victoria, three hundred and
sixty feet long; there is a immense lookin'-glass behind this model, so
as to make it look complete, and it is a sight to behold--a sight.
Why, the U.S. has models of their great steamships, the Etruria and
the Umbria, and there are every kind of vessels that wuz ever hearn on,
for trade, pleasure, or war, and all kinds of Oriental ships, and all
kinds of craft that ever floated in every ocean and river of the known
world.
From a miniature Egyptian canoe, found in a tomb, to the sheep-skin
rafts of the Euphrates and the dugouts of Africa, with sails, to the
gorgeous sail-boats of the Adriatic and the most ancient vessels in the
world.
What a sight! what a sight! It would take weeks to jest count 'em, let
alone studyin' 'em as you ort.
And every machine in the known world for propellin' boats and railways,
from steam to lightnin'.
Where wuz my old mair in such a seen? Oh, ask my droopin' sperits where
wuz she?
And there wuz everything about protection of life and property,
communication at sea, protection against storms and fire, and all kinds
of light-houses and divin' apparatus, and pontoons for raisin' sunken
vessels out of the depths of the sea.
And relics of Arctic explorations, every one on 'em weighted down with
memories of cold, and hunger, and frozen death.
And then there wuz movin' platforms and sidewalks. The idee! What
would Submit and Miss Henzy say--to go out from our house and stand
stun-still on the side of the road and be moved over to Miss Solomon
Corkses!
Oh, my soul, oh, my soul, think on't!
And there wuz what they called a gravity road.
And I asked Josiah "what he spozed that wuz?" and he said,
"He guessed it meant our country roads in the spring or fall."
Sez he, "If them roads won't make a man feel grave to drive over 'em, or
a horse feel grave, too, as they are a-wadin' up to their knees in the
mud, and a-draggin' a wagon stuck half way up over the hub in slush and
thick mud"--
Sez he, "If a man won't feel grave under such circumstances, and a
horse, too, then I don't know what will make him."
"Wall," sez I, "if I wuz in Uncle Sam's place I wouldn't try to display
'em to foreign nations." Sez I, "They are disgraces to our country, and
I would hush 'em up."
"Yes," sez Josiah; "that is a woman's first idee to cover up sunthin'."
Sez he, "I honor the old man a-comin' right out and ownin' up his
weaknesses. The country roads are shameful, and he knew it, and he knew
that we knew it; so why not come right out open and show 'em up?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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