Seets i' Paris: Sammywell Grimes's trip with his old chum Billy Baccus, his opinion o' th' French, and th' French opinion o' th' exhibition he made ov hissenHartley, John
General
Seets i' Paris: Sammywell Grimes's trip with his old chum Billy Baccus, his opinion o' th' French, and th' French opinion o' th' exhibition he made ov hissen
Hartley, John
British -- France -- Paris -- Fiction; Dialect literature, English -- England -- Yorkshire; Paris (France) -- Fiction
"Why," aw says, "aw hardly know but couldn't yo let us have a latch-kay
soas if we should be lat we can get in?"
"We've noa latch kays, but as yor two chaps aw can trust, awl let yo
have th' kay for th' back door an' then yo can come in what time yo
like, an' awl leeav th' gas burnin' an' a bit o' supper ready for yo."
We tell'd him we wor varry much obleeged to him, an' aw put th' kay
i' mi pocket an' we wor sooin comfortably seated in a carriage drivin'
along. It's cappin ha different streets luk when th' shops are shut up!
we'd gooan ovver a lot o' th' same graand befoor but us een had seldom
or ivver been lifted higher nor th' furst stoory, but nah we wor
surprised to see what a lot o' things ther wor aboon'at wor worth
nooatice. Awd nivver enjoyed a ride better an' aw felt ommost sooary
when we gate to th' entrance. We paid th' cabby an' walked in, an' when
aw tell yo'at we wor content to spend th' mooast pairt o' th' day thear
yo may be sewer ther wor summat worth stoppin' for. To me th' graves an'
th' monuments wor th' leeast interestin' o' owt we saw, but th' walks
under th' trees an' between beds o' th' richest coloured flaars, set
like brilliant gems ith' midst o' emerald green velvet, carried mi
thowts back to what awd seen at th' Crystal Palace, but it worn't
to compare one wi' t'other but to contrast'em, for this wor as mich
superior to that as that had been to owt awd seen befoor.
"What does ta think it luks like, Billy?"
"Aw dooan't know what it's like, but it's as unlike a cemetary as owt aw
ivver saw; let's sit daan an' have a rest."
They seem to think a deeal moor o' ther deead nor we do, for ther wor
hardly a stooan or a grass covered grave but what had wreaths o' flaars
strewn over'em, yet amang all th' craads'at passed us aw could find no
trace o' sorrow or sadness, an' them'at had flaars i' ther hands to lay
ovver th' remains o' one'at had been dear to'em when livin', wor laffin
an' chattin' away as if they wor gooin' to a gala, but yet they all wor
dressed in the "habiliments of woe"--fashion an' show,--nowt else!=
``"What impious mockery, when, with soulless art,
``Fashion, intrusive, seeks to rule the heart;
``Directs how grief may tastefully be borne;
``Instructs Bereavement just how long to mourn;
``Shows Sorrow how by nice degrees to fade,
``And marks its measure in a ribbon's shade!
``More impious still, when, through her wanton laws,
``She desecrates Religion's sacred cause;
``Shows how the narrow road is easiest trod,
``And how, genteelest, worms may worship God."=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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