in a long, low-vaulted place, some like a immense tunnel. We could
jest ketch a glimpse of a light way off at the end, and we sot off for
it, I lookin' clost and sharp on every side for my pardner, hopin' and
dreadin' to find him there. When all of a sudden, the most terrific
yells and shrieks sounded on every side and we see cages of wild
animals on both sides of us movin' up and down howlin' and snarlin'.
Sez the woman, "They're men dressed up as wild beasts."
Sez I, "Have they got to stay here always? Do you spoze it is wrong
doin' that has changed 'em into wild animals?" Sez I, "Judgin' from
the papers some on 'em wouldn't need much of a turn." But oh, I
groaned to myself, "Is Josiah Allen turned into a bear or a cammy
leapord! Is he here? I don't believe," sez I to myself, "he has ever
been bad enough to be turned into anything worse than a sheep or a
rooster." And as I didn't hear any blattin' or crowin', and knowed
that if he had seen me he would have tried to communicate with his
beloved pardner, I felt hopeful he wuzn't there.
We went on and as soon as we got out she asked me if I didn't want to
see the Incubator babies, and bein' agreeable to the idee, we went and
see 'em. There they lay in glass cases, pretty little creeters lookin'
like wee bits of dolls, I felt sad as I looked down on 'em, and
thought on the hard journey them tiny feet must set out on from them
glass boxes. What rough crosses the little fingers had got to grasp
holt of, and onbeknown to me my mind fell onto the follerin' poetry--
"Our crosses are made from different trees,
But we all of us have our Calvaries;
We may climb the mount from a different side,
But we all go up to be crucified."
Of course, I knowed there would be some bright posies wreathed round
the crosses; but there would be thorns in them. And though the road
might be soft and agreeable in spots, yet I knowed well what hard
rocks there wuz in the highway of life to stub toes on, even
common-sized toes, and it did seem a pity such little mites of feet
had got to git stun bruises on 'em.
Poor little creeters! I thought, little do you know what sadness and
ecstacy, what grief and joy, gloom and glory lays ahead on you. I wuz
sorry for 'em, sorry as a dog.
And then I didn't like the idee of the little helpless creeters bein'
laid out on exhibition, like shirt buttons, or hooks and eyes, to be
stared on by saint and sinner, by eyes tender or cruel--and voices
lovin' and hateful to comment on. I felt that the place for little
babies wuz to home in the bedroom. And I thought nothin' would tempt
me, if Josiah wuz a infant babe, to place him on exhibition like
Hamburg edgin', or bobbinet lace. The very idee wuz repugnant to me.
And I wuz more than willin' when the female asked me if I didn't want
to go and see the midgets, and we went.
And you don't know what interestin' little creeters they wuz, mindin'
their own bizness and midgetin' away. Actin' out a little play jest as
if a company of dolls had come to life, talkin' and actin'. They
seemed to be jest as happy and contented as if they wuz eight or ten
feet high and heavy accordin'.
As we left this place the female ketched sight of her husband. He
bagoned hautily to her with one finger, and she hastened to jine him.
Such is females. And so true it is that love in either sect will rise
up above naggin', or any other kind of pardner meanness.
I went forward alone to see the Head Hunters. And I looked on the
brown little folks with a feelin' of pity. How did I know they had
ever had good advice? I felt here wuz a noble chance for a P. A.
So I sez to 'em, "I've hearn of your doin's, and I want to advise you
for your good." They looked at me real stiddy and I went on, "You may
think you hain't so guilty because you only take folkses heads. But
for the lands sakes! did you ever stop to think on't? What can they do
without their heads? Of course," sez I reasonably, "there is a
difference in heads. Some folkses heads hain't got so much sense in
'em as others. I've seen 'em myself that I've thought a good wooden
head would be jest as useful. But they are the best they've got, and
they're attached to 'em, and they can't git along without 'em. And I
always thought you might jest as well take their hull bodies whilst
you wuz about it. Don't you see that is so? When it is pinted out to
you by a P. A.?"
[Illustration: _"I went forward to see the Head Hunters. I sez to 'em
'I've hearn of your doin's and I want to advise you for
your good_.'" (_See page 281_)]
They kinder jabbered over sunthin' to themselves, and I sez as I
turned away, "Now, don't let me hear of any more such doin's! Be
contented with the heads you've got, and don't try to git somebody
elses that don't belong to you." Sez I, "Sunthin' like that, namely
stealin' the interior of folkses heads, has been done time and agin
among more civilized folks, and it don't work; they git found out."
I left 'em getisculatin' and jabberin' in that strange lingo and am in
hopes they wuz promisin' to quit their Head Huntin', but can't tell
for certain.
As I santered along a female asked me if I had seen the Divin' Girls,
sez she, "There is a immense pond of water, and they are the best
divers and swimmers in the world."
But I sez, "Nobody can dive into deeper depths than I have doven
to-day."
"The ocean?" sez she.
"Oceans of anxiety," sez I, "rivers of grief." I spoze my dretful
emotions showed on my linement, and to git my mind off she sez, "You
ort to see the aligators."
I'd hearn they had immense tanks of water as long as from our house to
Philander Dagget's, holdin' thousands and thousands and thousands of
aligators, from them jest born, to them a hundred years old, from them
the size of your little finger weighin' a few ounces, to them big as
elephants, weighin' two tons.
But I told her I could worry along for years without aligators, I
never seemed to hanker for 'em, I wouldn't take 'em as a gift if I had
to let 'em have the run of the house. Humbly things! though I spoze
they hain't to blame for their looks, or their temperses, which are
fierce. And I didn't go into the big animal house, thinkin' I wuz so
dog tired that I would go back to Bildad's and come back the next day
and see all the animals and birds and the hundreds of other shows I'd
had to slight that day, enough to devour days of stiddy sight seein'.
The Siege of Richmond, The Great Divide, Switzerland, Congress of
Nations, Indian Village, The Orient, Bathin' Pavilions, Japanese Tea
Gardens, and etc.
I did want to see the Shimpanzee who duz everything but talk. And I
thought mebby the reason he wuz so close-mouthed wuz because he hearn
so much talkin' he wuz sick on't, as I wuz, and made a sample of
himself. But if he did nobody follered it, no indeed! Why, you jest
spozen a hundred swarms of bees big as giants, with buzzes big
accordin', all a swarmin' and a buzzin', and you'll git a little idee
of the noise and tumult of Coney Island. But you won't spozen' fur
enough, I don't believe. Yes, I laid out to spend considerable time in
Dreamland next day. But little did I think of what a day might bring
forth, and have got it to think on like them that lose friends, "Oh
why didn't I do thus and so? And now it is too late to wait on 'em,
and pay attention to 'em?" But I'm leadin' a melancholy horse up to a
mournin' wagon, before the thills are on, so I'll stop eppisodin' and
resoom forwards. Jest outside the gate of Dreamland I met Bildad, and
he sez, "Have you found Josiah yet?"
"No," I sez in despairin' axents, "I hain't seen hide nor hair on
him."
And he sez, "Mebby he's gone in bathin'."
"No," I sez, "He took a bath in the wash-tub the night before he come
here, and he hain't a man that will wash oftener than he has to."
Sez he, "Hundreds of folks take sand baths, lay in the sand and throw
it at each other, cover themselves up in it."
"What for?" I sez.
"Oh, jest for fun. They'll go into the water mebby, and then come
ashore and roll and tumble in the sand, men, wimmen, and children,
mostly foreigners," sez he.
I sez, "It don't seem as if Josiah would go into that bizness; he
always despised sand."
"Well," sez he, "as I come by there jest now, I see somebody that
looked like Josiah, goin' towards the beach with a girl by him."
I turned onto my heel to once and asked sternly, "Where is that beach?
And where is that sand?" He told me and I made for it to once. I
hain't got a jealous hair in my head, but I thought I'd go. Well, it
wuz a sight to see, acres and acres of sand dotted with men, wimmen,
and children. And beyond, the melancholy ocean, also dotted with
swimming heads, with bodies attached, so I spozed. Well might Atlantic
be melancholy to see such sights, hundreds of folks comin' out of the
water, hundreds goin' in, and other hundreds walkin' or rollin' in the
sand or throwin' it at each other or half covered up with it.
And as for the clothes they had on, I thought no wonder the Ocean and
I sithed to see it, no money would tempt me to wear 'em to mill or
meetin', or to let Josiah wear 'em. They didn't look decent. Either
they wuz scrimped for cloth, or they wanted to look so; whichever way
it wuz, I pitied 'em.
[Illustration: _"It wuz a sight to see, acres and acres of sand dotted
with men, wimmen, and children." (See page 286)_]
But where wuz Josiah? On every side wuz folks settin' and walkin', and
mounds of sand with sometimes a head stickin' out, or a foot, or a
arm, or a nose. I had hard work to keep from treadin' on 'em. There
would be little hillocks of sand with mebby a child's head or foot
stickin' out.
Anon a mound over a fat man or a woman big as a hay stack. I walked
along for some time keepin' a clost watch on every side, but no Josiah
did I see nor no mound I felt wuz hisen, till jest as I wuz ready to
drop down with fatigue with my arjous work to keep from treadin' on
folks, I ketched sight of a nose stickin' out of a small mound that I
thought sure I reconized. My heart bounded at the sight. My first look
wuz to see if any girl mound wuz nigh him. But there wuzn't nothin'
but some children's heads and feet stickin' about, and I hastened to
that nose and poked the sand from it with my umbrell cryin':
"Dear Josiah! Is this indeed your nose? Have I found you at last?"
When to my horrow a fierce red whiskered face rared itself up from the
sand, and jabbored at me in a onknown tongue; onknown the words, but
the language of anger can be read in any tongue. Hisen betokened the
most intense madness, and I spoze that in my agitation I might have
jabbed him some with my umbrell, and I hastened away, tromplin' as I
did so in my haste on various heads and arms, and follered by loud
busts of what I most know wuz blood curdlin' profanity, though not
Jonesville swearin'.
Well, I wuz tired out and discouraged. No Josiah, no pardner! I felt
some like a grass widder, or I guess it wuz more like a real widder.
'Tennyrate my feelin's wuz too awful to describe, so lonesome, so
cast-down and deprested. And no knowin' as I would ever feel any
better, no knowin' if that dear man would ever be found. And what
would life be without him? Nothin' but a holler mockery filled with
movin' shadders, the Reality of life gone and lost.
Night wuz comin' on apace and I thought I might as well abandon my
quest for the time, so I returned to Bildad's feelin' some as if I wuz
a sickly serial readin'--"To be continued in our next." For I knowed
that I would resoom the search bright and early, and find that man or
perish in my tracks.
Friday--onlucky day, as it has always been called--had gone to jine
the days of the past. I sot on the piazza at Bildad's lookin' out on
the seen that, bewilderin' as it wuz by daylight, wuz ten times more
bewilderin'ly beautiful by night. Like stars in the tropics, the
electric lights flashed out over the hull place, the greatest number
of electric lights in the same space in the world, I wuz told and
believe.
Every pinnacle, battlement, tower, balcony, winder, ruff, wuz edged
with the blazin' fire embroidery. And the tall mountains, palaces,
graceful bridges, piers, pleasure places of all kinds, looked fairy
like, under the friendly hand of Night. And 'way up to the very
heavens Dreamland tower lifted itself, a gigantic shaft of dazzling
brilliancy, dominatin' the hull island. Passingly beautiful tower by
night or day, the first thing the homesick mariner sees as he
approaches his Homeland.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of gay pleasure seekers trod the
walks to and fro. Thousands and thousands more, rich and poor dined in
the gay restaurants and balconies, surrounded with flowers and light
and music. And still other thousands enjoyed the myriad amusements
afforded them. Bildad's sister, who wuz on a visit there from
Hoboken, thinks it aristocratick, and herself more refined and rare to
run the place down. Lots of folks do that; they go there and stay from
mornin' till night, go up in the Awful Tower, take in every
Bump-de-Bump and Wobble-de-Wobble, and then turn up their noses
talkin' to outsiders about it, as fur as their different noses will
turn. She was lame at the time from tromplin' all over the place for
the past week. But she sez to me (with her nose turned up as fur as it
could, bein' a pug to start with):
"It is Common people who come here mostly." And she kinder glared at
me as if mistrustin' I wuz one of 'em.
And I sez, "Well, you know, Lucindy, who it wuz the common people
received gladly, and who dwelt among them? And you know Lincoln said,
'It must be the Lord liked the common people, He made so many on
'em.'"
She didn't reply, only with her nose, which looked disdainful. And I
sez to myself in astonishment, "Can this be Samantha, praisin' up what
she has always run down?" But I had to own up to myself that though I
had seen many places more congenial to me, yet I wuz glad that so many
people, some of 'em cut off from the beauty of life, could come here
quickly and easily, and forgit their cares and toil for awhile, and go
home refreshed and ready to take up their burdens agin. And the
children, God bless them! I knowed it wuz indeed to them, the big
Wonder Place, and beauty spot of the world and their life.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JOSIAH FOUND AT LAST! THE AWFUL FIRE AT DREAMLAND AND THE TERRIBLE
SIGHTS I SAW THERE
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JOSIAH FOUND AT LAST! THE AWFUL FIRE AT DREAMLAND AND THE TERRIBLE
SIGHTS I SAW THERE
I didn't go out that evenin', weariness and rumatiz both kep me to
home a settin' on that piazza. And in vain for me did the countless
lights burn and blaze. The great tower that lighted up the deep breast
of the Atlantic, for milds and milds, couldn't light up my gloomy
sperit.
Where wuz my Josiah? Where wuz the pardner of my youth? In vain did
the melogious music blare out its loudest blares, it brought no bam to
my sperit. I sot and looked on the countless hosts passin' by as if
they wuzn't there, the man I loved wuz not among 'em. I sot there lost
in mournful thought till the endless crowd gradually dispersed. The
music ceased, the lights went out. The hand of Midnight let down her
dark mantilly of repose, spangled with stars, Silence sot on the
throne Noise had vacated.
The great City of Mirth wuz asleep. Only the Atlantic and Samantha
seemed awake, the Ocean's deep voice sounded out in the same
ontranslated language it has from the creation, and will I spoze till
there is no more sea. Ontranslated to most, but to me it thundered
out, Swish!--Swosh!--Roar! Where is Josiah? Where is Josiah? Where?
Where? Swish!--Swosh!--Roar!
I didn't want to go to bed, but knowed I needed rest for another
arjous day of Husband huntin'. I retired to bed but not to sleep.
Anxiety and Grief lay on both sides on me and crowded me, and prodded
me with their sharp elbows.
But I spoze I must have droze off, for all to once I wuz passin'
through a great silent city. Hours and hours I trod up and down broad
stun highways, through endless parks and Pleasure Places, climbin'
interminable flights of marble stairs, walkin' through immense picture
galleries. Days and days went by, whilst I wuz conductin' this quest
through a deserted city, searchin' for sunthin' I couldn't name. Till
at last I lay wore out, on a couch, and Josiah wuz bendin' over me. He
had a small green hat sot rakishly on one side, a red neck-tie flashed
out, a immense cigar wuz in his mouth, out of which streamed a flame
of fire. As he bent over me, and I see his dissolute linement and
mean, I groaned out, "Oh Josiah, is it thus we meet?"
"We meet as Highlariers!" sez he gayly, and bent still closter, I
spozed he wuz goin' to kiss me. And so philosophical is my mind asleep
or awake, I thought even then, the law couldn't touch him for it if he
did. But before his face met mine, that immense flaming cigar sot fire
to the piller case. The flames riz up round me, the smoke entered my
nostrils and nose.
I sprung up. Josiah had disappeared, but the smell of fire remained. I
hurried to the winder. As I had last seen it all the great pleasure
ground seemed fast asleep. Gone wuz the tread of the innumerable
multitude. The music of the bands wuz hushed, the cries of the
different venders and showmen, automobiles, wagons, the stiddy sound
of machinery running the mechanical amusements, and the constant sound
of footsteps and voices, that filled the day full, wuz all hushed.
Even to the long onshapely animal house Night had brought silence. The
hull place looked like a City of Dreams, only the eternal waves
washin' up on the beach, seemed to emphasize the silence.
But what wuz that I see over the dim ruffs? A slender spiral of flame
shootin' up through the shadows, and on Dreamland tower a rosy blush
seemed to grow on its whiteness. As I watched the flame, it grew
larger and larger, and my heart most stopped beatin', for I knowed
what a fire would mean in them unsubstantial buildin's. And somewhere
there under them flimsy ruffs was my Josiah!
The flame increased! Coney Island wuz afire! Made sensitive by
anxiety, I had reconized the smoke borne to me on some vagrant
breeze.
The long elaborate dream of mine hadn't lasted a second. It wuz staged
in the _real_ Dream Land, for the awful drayma so soon to be enacted
there, by the terrible actor, Fire! The most fearful and tragic actor
on the hull stage of life.
Fire! Fire! Fire!
Thus did I scream as I throwed on my clothes, I thought at the top of
my voice, but I don't spoze it wuz much above a whisper, for Bildad's
folks didn't hear me in the next room, through the thin wall, till I
rushed to their door and knocked, cryin' out:
"Bildad, git up! Josiah is afire!"
"What you say?" he called back.
"Dreamland is afire! Josiah is in danger! But I will save him or
perish!" And I ketched up a two quart pail of water, and rushed out
doors. You can't recall your exact thoughts at such a time, yet I have
a ricellection of thinkin'--Josiah is small boneded, and two quarts of
water might put him out if he had jest got afire. But where wuz the
idol of my soul? I spoze every woman on Coney Island thought them
thoughts whether she remembers it or not. Where is _he_? Will he
escape? And men wuz thinkin', Where is _she_? Is she safe? Love puts
the question, and Fear and Horrer answers it.
As I rushed along cryin' Fire! winders wuz throwed up, doors opened,
and in less time than I can tell on't, Surf Avenue wuz full of people.
Frenzied cries and shouts rung through the air. And as the flames riz
higher and higher, so did the shrieks and yells of the crowd, which
had swelled to a mob; bells clanged, fire wagons raced and jangled.
Quicker than any seen wuz ever changed at a theatre the Quiet Night
wuz turned into Pandemonium. Men, wimmen and children rushin' every
which way--police--firemen--fire bells clangin'--men shoutin'--wimmen
shriekin'--and every minute the flames increased!
The firemen did what they could, they worked like giants, but the
element they wuz workin' aginst wuz more powerful than man. Anon
burnin' timbers fell with a crash, clouds of smoke wropped us round
and choked us, the firemen sent up streams of water that turned to
mountains of steam.
I wuz carried by the screechin' mob hither and yon with no will of my
own. Another element wuz added to the dretful seen. Someone cried
out:
"The wild animals are loose!"
Wimmen fainted, and men, wimmen and children screamed louder than
ever, expectin' any minute a tiger or lion or leapord to rush at 'em,
or a maddened elephant to tromple 'em down.
They said the sight at that time in the animal house wuz enough to
turn the soundest brain, for to save the animals they had to let 'em
loose. And as they couldn't be driven out, at last it wuz a great
writhin', strugglin' mass of animal forms appallin' to see, while the
ears wuz deafened by the maddened cries of leapords and hyenas--the
wild jabberin' of monkeys, snarlin' and growlin' of panthers, tigers
and bears, roarin' of lions--hybrids--hissin' of serpents--pitiful
frightened neighing of ponies, trumpetin' of elephants. A great
screamin', roarin, hissin', writhin', fightin' mass!
But as they refused to be driven to safety, the keepers after heroic
efforts to save 'em, give 'em a more merciful death. It took fur
greater heroism to do this, for some of 'em wuz dear pets, and it wuz
like slayin' their own children, and they aimed their revolvers at 'em
through tearful eyes.
A bareheaded bystander sez, "The fire started in Hell Gate."
Sez I, "Jest what you could expect of that place, I never hearn no
good of it yet."
But the wild crowd surged to and fro. Earth and Heaven seemed filled
with the dretful roar and confusion--
It wuz a riot of deafenin' noise and clamor below, and fur fur above,
Dreamland Tower flamed up a immense pillar of fire, blazin' out for
the last time over sea and land, and with a dyin' effort at
decoration, crashed down, sendin' up a shower of golden sparks a
hundred feet high.
Jest then a woman sez, "The little Incubator Babies have been
forgotten."
"Not by me!" I sez, and I strove to push my way towards 'em, the woman
toilin' along by my side through the inferno of clamor, steam, smoke,
and shriekin' rushin' humanity. But jest before we got there we met
the good doctors and nurses who wuz bearin' 'em to safety, and I sez
to the woman, "It will be a shame if them helpless mites are ever
brought back to this place of danger."
"Danger!" the words rousted up afresh my agonized fears. Where wuz
Josiah? Where wuz my idol? The woman tried to comfort me, for I wuz
now cryin' aloud, and callin' on his name.
She sez, "He will escape; men can git round so much easier than
wimmen."
"Have you a husband in this dretful place?" sez I.
"No," sez she, "only their dust, I have got three in a vase on my
mantle piece in Surf Avenue." Instinctively I thought "she'd had
husbands to burn, but some wimmen can't get one to save their lives,
and them that get one can't keep track on him."
But I d'no whether she saved her vase or not, for we wuz parted by the
hustlin', tearin', scramblin' mob, and I wuz carried in another
direction, choked and blinded, and tossted and torn.
I hearn someone say, "Black Prince is loose, the biggest lion of all!"
And sure enough, wild and crazy with the fiery heat and noise, the
great beast rushed up and down, the crowd givin' him the Right of Way.
And at last he clim' up onto a battlement and looked down on the mad
seen below, the shoutin' yellin' mob bore me onwards, so I stood only
a stun's throw from the spot.
Never agin will there be such a seen presented to the eye of man, as
that kingly form, standin' up above the crowd aginst the background of
lurid flame.
But who wuz that standin' directly beneath, in the very middle of
danger? My heart bounded so it most broke through my bodist waist.
Did I not know that small boneded figger? That bald head lit up by the
glare of flames? It wuz! it wuz Josiah! My pardner-huntin' wuz ended,
but wuz it to be death at the gole? That agonizin' thought made me by
the side of myself, and entirely onbeknown to me I rushed forwards and
cried to the lordly beast above, jest ready to spring:
"Don't harm Josiah! Devour me instead!"
[Illustration: "_I rushed forwards and cried to the lordly beast above,
jest ready to spring: 'Don't harm Josiah! Devour me
instead._'" (_See page 303_)]
I knowed I would make a better meal for it; Josiah is lean and boney.
But I won't try to make myself out better than I am; I didn't think of
the lion's digestion, and how Josiah would set on his stomach. My only
thought wuz to save my pardner. And with a herculaneum effort I
reached his side, and snatched him away jest as a shot rung out and
the noble beast fell, his great, shaggy head restin' on the
balustrade, lookin' down on the crowd below as if in questionin' agony
and contempt, as though his last thoughts wuz: