(i)^t'' 
 
 ¥^J 
 
 ^"^'•^■^ OTHER ■fM'^' 
 
i^®^«^€©«3see^5ses©s*s 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
I^H, |iifVMX/v(/i/T.' 
 
THE GREAT 
 
 CO-PARTNERSHIP 
 
 AND OTHER PAPERS. 
 
 BY OBE^D., 
 
 . I' 
 
 iS Tn G O KT ID IE X> I T I O KT . 
 
 " lie sKi-e you're rir/M, then go aheafV—TTou. David Crocket. 
 When sure yov're wrong, then change your course. 
 
 CLEVELAND: 
 
 Ingham, Clarke & Co. 
 
 1879. 
 
T^ Uv 
 
 ,C' 
 
 COPYRIGHT : 
 
 IT. U. JOHNSON, 
 
 1879. 
 
 liUKFAlX), N. Y: 
 A. C. VANDrZKK, EXCiUyWER. 
 
 KRIE, PA.: 
 
 JXO. M. C,LA7AFAl, Printer. 
 1879. 
 
'OU. 
 
PKEP^ACE. 
 
 Surrounded by his three friends, Job sat in the 
 ashes and exclaimed, " My desire is, that my ad- 
 versary had written a book." Just what prompted 
 tlic good man of Uz to advance such an idea, may, 
 after the lapse of so, many ages, be a question more 
 easily asked than answered. Perhaps he felt con- 
 fident that nothing evil could be said of him, for he 
 proposed to bear the volume upon his shoulders; 
 or, perhaps lie wished to subject his adversary to 
 tlie ordeal of a critic's review, as the most excrucia- 
 ting torture to which he could be subjected. 
 
 If the former was the cause, he would not have 
 expressed the wish had he lived in this day of re- 
 turning boards, cipher dispatches, and congres- 
 sional investigations, for before proceeding with his 
 task that enemy would have had a committee ap- 
 pointed with power to summon witnesses, and Job 
 would have been implicated in inciting the Sabeans 
 to the destruction of his property, and in raising the 
 wind that demolished the building in which his 
 sons and daughters were having their gay frolic, 
 that the courts might not be troubled with any con- 
 tested will cases, wTiile Satan would have " walked 
 to and fro in the earth," without suspicion. If the 
 latter. Job was a heartless man, which the record 
 will not for a moment justify us in believing. 
 
C)becl is of the opinion that just at this juncture 
 his liunior got the hctter of his pain and the arj^u- 
 mcnls of his frieiuls, and that he was imagining 
 how one of Mrs. Job's curtain lectures would look 
 on jiarchnient, for from all (hat we can learn of 
 that estimable lady she was an a-la-Caudk', and 
 probably the proverbial patience of Job was largely 
 owing to the self restraint he had learned to prac- 
 tice through a long series of domestic unpleasant- 
 nesses, in many of which he no doubt acknowledged 
 himself, as every considerate man does, lai'gely to 
 blame. 
 
 Be these opinions right or wrong, Obed has not 
 written a book because he is an adversary of any- 
 one, and as to the critics, whj', every man should 
 thrive by bis profession. Thp private, as well as 
 the more public, lectures of Mrs. Obed, have been 
 very salutary to him ; and in very gladness he 
 has learned to love the comicalities, as well as the 
 stern duties of life. Some of these he has en- 
 deavored to poi'tray in these papers, hoping thereby 
 to waken pleasant memories in the hearts of the 
 old ; to incite the young to a study of usages fast 
 passing away, and to give them a faint conception 
 of what awaits them in the pathway of life. Such 
 is the desire of Obkd. 
 
''KNOW ALL MEN," 
 
 Tliat to Mrs. Obed, lier Friend, and all others who 
 have, or who have not, entered into the labyrinths 
 of the Great Co-partnership, or who endured the 
 dust, the fatigues, the crowds and the sweats, inci- 
 dent to a 
 
 CENTENNIAL EXCURSION, 
 or who appreciate the foibles and fun, as well as 
 the more sensible realities of life, Obed, with a deep 
 fellow feeling, dedicates these papers. Thus Obed 
 dedicates them. 
 
N. B. 
 
 They that soiv in tears shall reap in joy. — Ps. 120 : 5. 
 Few of these enjoy the seed-time, whilst most are dissatisfied 
 with the harvest yield. 
 
 A soft ansirer turneth atvay m-ath ; but grievous tcords stir up anger. — 
 Piov. 15: 1. 
 
 Solomon does not raeau seutimeutally soft. Wheu Mrs. Solo- 
 mon said to him, " My deah, g,et up and build the fiah," the 
 words were grievous. 
 
 Better is a dinner of herbs cohere love is, than a stalled ox and hatred 
 tficreunth. — Pro. lo: 17. 
 
 Most people prefer their herbs sea.soued with .some of the 
 ox, though they do have to mingle a little of the lastuamed in- 
 credieut. 
 
^HV.A>- ^^-^^i<TNjct,^ 
 
 " Do you believe that matches are made in 
 heaven ?" said Mrs. Obed blandly to her husband 
 as she came in from the Woman's Monthly Mission- 
 ary meeting. 
 
 "Do I believe what?" asked Obed, looking 
 up from some experiments with which he was 
 busily engaged. 
 
 " That matches are made in heaven ?" 
 
 " Well, the only match I have any personal 
 recollection of was made in front of an old-fash- 
 
— 10— 
 
 ioiied fire-i)ltice whilst the head of the rainily inul liis 
 better-half were lustily snoring behind the curtains 
 in the opposite end of the room, and the younger 
 members, save one, were fast asleep in the loft," re- 
 plied Obed. " But now that you speak of it, I look 
 back through a long succession of hrcczea and do re- 
 member it as a heavenly sort of place." 
 
 " Pshaw! if you go to talking in that kind of 
 style you'll look at it — " 
 
 " Through a regular thunder storm. Well, let 
 it come ; I've somewhere read, ' There is no flood in 
 woman's passion but hath an ebb.' " 
 
 " Now, Obed, I'd like to know what satisfaction 
 there is in that quotation ?" 
 
—11— 
 
 " 0! none to you, I presume. But tell me what 
 match-making has to do with foreign missions? 
 That's what I'd like to know." 
 
 " Well, a good deal. Mrs. H brought in an 
 
 Indiana paper this afternoon and read an account 
 of a single court in that State granting twenty-four 
 divorces in one day." 
 
 " Were they granted to men or women ?" 
 
 " To men, every one of them." 
 
 " And so your society is going to take an ap- 
 peal ?" 
 
 "Take a what?" 
 
 " Why, carry the matter up to the court where 
 you think those matches were made." 
 
 " No sir, wo shall do no such thing, but we 
 
 shall " 
 
 " Divert your funds from Hindoostan, and ap- 
 ply them to the con,version of those Hoosier courts." 
 
 There was a sudden closing of his office door, 
 and Obed was once more alone. The chemical 
 combinations he was investigating were all gone up 
 in gas, and an entirely new train of thought had 
 taken possession of his mind. He remembered that 
 Adam began business alone. This, as is gathered 
 from the narrative, soon 'becoming irksome to him 
 he took in a partner who came highly recommended 
 
—12— 
 
 Tliis junior member of tlie firm seems to have 
 been of a very communicative as well as venture- 
 some turn of mind, and before the senior had time 
 to give her full instructions, was readily induced 
 by the first dnuiimer of whom we have any account, to 
 divulge the full extent of the business, and add to 
 . the stock an interdicted article. The result was a 
 sudden reduction to bankruptc}^, and the issuing by 
 the Supreme Court of the Universe of a peremptory 
 writ of ejectment from the premises heretofore oc- 
 cupied. 
 
 These were facts that Obed liad early learned 
 without being able fully to comprehend their im- 
 port ; but he understands them now, for he no 
 longer thinks as a child. Many a time, in his im- 
 agination, has lie looked in on that stranded firm 
 in their new abode, that first night when brambles 
 and briers began to grow up about them, and list- 
 ened to the dulcet tones of Mrs. Adam as she gave 
 vent to the first curtain lecture of earth. Stricken 
 as he was at the dire calamity which had befallen 
 him and his, how it must have grated upon the ear 
 of Adam to hear himsalf called a " pimj)," " a cow- 
 ard," and ''an ungrateful wretch," by tlie very 
 being whom he had so recently considered his chief 
 joy. 15ut then the "old Ad;im" was tliere, and in 
 
-13- 
 
 her brief Ccatchings for breatl), there fell upon the 
 delicate ear of the first woman those ungallaiit ex- 
 pressions, "a tongue hung in the middle," "if it 
 had'nt been for you," "you did it." T'was only the 
 beginning of a literature which has defied all 
 etymological changes coming down to us in its 
 original spirit, through all the mutations of lan- 
 guage. 
 
 " But then," said Obed, half apologetically, 
 " that primitive couple had no time to study each 
 other through a pleasing courtship, and no wonder 
 they started off a little wrong. Get the devil out of 
 the way, and give a little time for studying charac- 
 ter, then we shall find how smoothly things will 
 work." 
 
 Thus saying, his imagination floated down the 
 stream of time an^l he beheld a hale old couple who 
 had been com[)anions for a hundred years, first as 
 brother and sister, but mostly as husl>and and wife. 
 In the joy and childdike gladness of their hearts, 
 they were indulging in a great feast in honor of 
 " A CJay Young 'framj) " who had come unex- 
 pectedly into their nomadic home; l)ut because 
 the good old lady saw Ishmacl cutting some antics 
 behind a lent pole, whilst jrobably wishing himself 
 the son of his aunt, that he, too, might have a birth- 
 
—14— 
 
 (lay party, she made things terribly blue ; and the 
 old patriarch, who had stood "unawed before 
 Kings," was glad to purchase becoming quiet by 
 sending Hagar away with a loaf of bread, a bottle 
 of water, the patriarchal blessing, and, perhaps, a 
 kiss of remembrance, if he only got a chance to ad- 
 minister it. 
 
 There was a woman in the upsetting of Abra- 
 ham's domestic happiness, and, considering the 
 events of the day, it was with ill grace that he 
 could say to the young wives about him, 
 
 " Let not your angry passions rise." 
 
 In the experience of Solomon, Obed found lit- 
 tle to brighten the picture. With three hundred 
 wives to comb his head, the great King found mar- 
 ried life very unsatisfactory, and in his vexation of 
 spirit, he WTote many proverbs not at all flattering 
 to the gentler sex. It was fashion, lust, and ex- 
 travagance, not wisdom, that took all the bliss out 
 of the wise man's domestic civch. 
 
 '■ But what is the use of going so far back," 
 reasoned Obed. " The world but little cares about the 
 happiness or misery of departed prophet, priest or 
 patriarch. "They twain shall be one flesh," is still 
 the doctrine, except, perhaps, among Frcdorcrs, and 
 still the matrimonial skies are clouded. The devil, 
 
—15— 
 
 alcohol, a man or a, woman, pride, vanity, petu- 
 lance or some other distracting factor, is continually 
 worjning itself into the earthly j:»aradisc,(?) bring- 
 ing in its train, if not the evils of the first fall, a 
 multitude of others, well calculated to destroy 
 domestic hajipiness. 
 
 The springs of wooing gush, and murmur, and 
 boil in youthful sunlight, throwing their spray 
 bright as ever, and gallant 3'ouths and blushing 
 maidens come and sip, thinking they are i)artaking 
 of Ihe "Elixir of Life;" but 
 
 " Their shallow draughts iatoxicate llie brain," 
 
 and they plunge into the connubial waters without 
 any calculation as to their depth, or even having 
 first ascertained that they are brackish and bitter, 
 infortnation which any maiden aunt would have 
 im])arted to them gratuitously. Then, after a very 
 brief honeymoon, when tribulations arise, they be- 
 gin 
 
 " To fret, and worry, and torment each other " 
 
 in processes only to cease when the grim gentleman 
 who rides the pale horse enters with a subpoena for 
 one of them, unless, perchance, he has been antici- 
 pated by an ap})eal to an Indianaor Chicago Judge." 
 Thus generalizing, Obed turned to a memoran- 
 dum in which for thirty years he has kept a care- 
 
— 16— 
 
 fill record of iiiaiiy of the cases of domeslic iiii- 
 })licily wbicb, both at home and abroad, have come 
 under bis personal observation, and read : 
 
 " Boarding at Williams' this week. Loose 
 board partition l)et\vcen 'family' and 'spare bed.' 
 Last niaht beard a t>rutf voice sav, 'take vour cold 
 bucks away from my legs.' 
 
 A gentle voice replied, 'you did'nt use to call 
 them so.' 
 
 'Well, now, whine, wont you ? Did you sup- 
 pose I was always going to be a fool and say 'foot- 
 sies-tootsies T ^ 
 
 'Hush, hush,' said the same gentle voice, 'the 
 master will hear you.' 
 
 'What do you sup])Ose I care for tlie master ; I 
 want to sleep, so keep your feet away.' 
 
 Long after Williams was snoring, subdued 
 sighs told of a mental agony in the breast of the 
 wife, struggling to control itself. 
 
 " Last week," said Obed to himself, " I called 
 upon that couple. 
 
 "Out of tlie old home, they've moved up into 
 the new," but are prematurel}' old, wrinkled, and 
 gray. The hard lines upon ^Villiams' face speak as 
 plainly as ever, "What do you suppose I care?" 
 
• —17— 
 
 whilst the saddened brow and wan cheeks of his 
 companion prochiim thirty years of domestic sub- 
 jugation and servitude. 
 
 The little ones whom I taught in the district 
 school are grown and gone, having no pleasant 
 memories of home except' those that cluster around 
 a tender mother's care." 
 
 A few pages farther on Obed read, " I met my 
 old chum John this morning. The poor fellow is 
 in hot water. He's been married five weeks. Three 
 days ago his wife said to him, 'My dear, will you 
 take me home to-day ?' John replied that his em- 
 ployer's arrangements made it impossible for him 
 to leave. 
 
 'John, you must take me,' was the rejoinder. 
 
 'But I tell you Mr. B. cannot possibly spare me 
 to day,' persisted John. 
 
 'Well, sir, Mr. B., or no Mr. B., I shall go 
 home.' 
 
 'Well, then, go ; but you'll go on foot and alone. 
 I shall attend to business.' 
 
 This was the first pass. In five minutes the 
 young wife was in spasms, whilst John, stood over 
 her shocked at what had happened, and the, to him? 
 inexplicable results. Three days of hysterics and 
 
-18- 
 
 foriy-eiglit hours of inotlier-iu-lavv, liavc cut more 
 wisdom teeth for him than he supposed he had. 
 Alas, poor John !" 
 
 A subsequent note showed that after fifteen 
 years of very spasmodic life, there came a decree of 
 divorce which left but a single chance for second 
 marriage, and John declared that he would never 
 avail himself of that, but he broke his vow inside 
 of twelve months. As he read, Obed exclaimed, 
 " Such is life." 
 
 Again, " The price of farm products has fallen 
 off one-third whilst the advancing age and devel- 
 opment of Mr. K.'s daughters have advanced their 
 wants fully fifty per cent., two facts not at all in 
 unison with his financial tastes. 
 
 Yesterday, as he was about starting for town, 
 Mrs. K. said, 'Father the girls need some things: 
 Mary wants a pair of kid shoes; Susie must have 
 cloth gaiters and a pair of rubbers ; Lucy requires 
 some slippers and a poplin dress; Louise, some hand- 
 kerchiefs and a pair of gloves ; Nettie, a parasol and 
 Kit, some yarn for tidies ; then they will all have to 
 have some underclothing, summer hats, and " 
 
 'What in thunder won't they have to have?' 
 
 'Mr. K.,' said the wife in a very decided voice. 
 
-19- 
 
 'Well, madam, what is it?' 
 
 'I have told you these things are needed ' 
 
 'Yes, I never go to town lately, but the girls 
 need half a dry goods store, and a small millinery 
 shop.' 
 
 'Well, sir, if you didn't expect to get things for 
 your girls, you shouldn't have had so many, that's 
 all I've got to say.' 
 
 'Well, if it is, I'm glad, for you never know 
 when to stop.' 
 
 'You old fool, you're too mean to be the hus- 
 band of a decent woman, and too stingy to .' 
 
 Now Mr. and Mrs. K. are really good people 
 to everybody outside of themselves, but full of 
 tinder. When everything is balmy, they can say 
 'Father,' 'Mother,' on 'low do' so sweetly; but let the 
 least thing go awry and they will run through the 
 domestic gamut to 'You old fool,' in the eighth 
 octave, with surprising rapidity. Thus it always 
 has been with them ; thus it always will be, for 
 neither will learn the maxim, 'Know thyself.' 
 
 " Mrs. Tate is a very pious woman and a good 
 singer, excellencies which do not always go together. 
 Her husband is a very honest, good sort of a fellow. 
 
— 20- 
 
 seldom saying anything cither at home or ahroad. 
 Thougli not religiously inclined, he always accom- 
 panies her to church, where she never forgets to 
 make mention of him in her devotions. 
 
 In the prayer meeting last night, tlic unction 
 of the spirit rested upon her with peculiar power. 
 She was unusually gifted in prayer, and sang 
 
 " Shall we know each other there ?" 
 
 as we had never known her to sing it before ; many 
 -were melted to tears. 
 
 On the way home, being a short distance ahead 
 of me, with a quisical tremor in his voice, Tate 
 asked, 'Wouldn't it be nice, Mary, if there were a 
 hymn 
 
 " Shall we know each other here. ?" 
 
 'It might suit you, sir.' 
 
 'Yes, 'I think I should often enjoy it far more 
 than the song8 I am daily called upon to hear, and 
 particularly the one of this morning.' 
 
 'Well, sir, I shall sing you a sliarper song than 
 that before you are much older, if you do not at- 
 tend to your own business and mind what I say.' 
 
 'No doubt of that, m.ij dear; but tlicn wouldn't 
 it be better if you would learn to spread your 
 religion out evenly, rather than keep it bottled for 
 public display ?' 
 
—21— 
 
 'My religion is my own.' 
 
 'Yes, so I've thought for a long time.' 
 
 'Now, sir, its time for yoii to ' 
 
 . I had reached my gate. The tribulations of 
 poor Tate under a species of petty aggravations at 
 home, cloaked under a great show of religious zeal 
 abroad, have long been known to me. He bears up 
 under it manfully, but if ever a change of heart 
 comes to him, it will be when Mrs. T. has experi- 
 enced a new birth." 
 
 'I'd like to know what you're going to do with 
 that horse, Mr. Hayes,' said his wife this morning, 
 as he came leading a fine five-year old toward the 
 street. 
 
 'I'm going to get him shod,' replied Hayes. 
 
 'We'll see about that.' 
 
 'I've seen about it already ; I guess I'm com- 
 petent to see to the horse shoeing. You'd better go 
 into the house and 'tend to your own aff'airs.' 
 
 'I think I'll 'tend to them right here. That 
 horse is not going to be shod. You needn't think 
 you'll slip him over to Jones', as you promised yes- 
 terday.' 
 
—22— 
 
 'As I promised yesterday V 
 
 'Yes, sir, as you promised yesterday. You 
 can't lie to me. Ben told me all about it.' 
 
 Til thrash Ben.' 
 
 'You'd better try it, and I'll smash your head. 
 I'll let you know who owns this property, and who'll 
 thi^ash the children !' 
 
 'You've let me know a good many times 
 already. I wish I had never seen you nor the 
 property either.' 
 
 'So do I. And now, sir, do you put that horse 
 in the pasture where you found him.' 
 
 There was no alternative, and he obeyed. 
 
 Three years ago an unsophisticated bachelor, 
 Hayes married Mrs. Snodgrass, and with the widow, 
 took as encumbrances four children and a well 
 stocked farm. The widow alone would have been 
 a match for him ; with the encumbrances she is far 
 more. Almost every day he is reminded that her 
 money bought such and such property, and he is 
 not slow to let her know that it also bought him. 
 Alas, they are both badly sold." 
 
 A letter carefully pinned to one of the leaves 
 and furnishing its own comment, read as follows : 
 
-23— 
 
 , May lOih, 1877. 
 
 'My Dear Friend : 
 
 'Again I appeal to you for advice ; matters are 
 not improving with us. Henry is becoming more 
 and more abandoned and dissolute. Last evening, 
 for the first time, he subjected me to personal vio- 
 lence. 'Tis the old story. He has used up his 
 means, and squandered his wages, until privation 
 and hunger are the |jortion of myself and the 
 children. 
 
 'Last night when he came home the children 
 were crying for supper, whilst I had nothing to give 
 them. He had been drinking, and was unusually 
 cross. He began to upbraid me because the chil- 
 dren were not quiet and in bed. I may have done 
 wrong, God forgive me if I did, but I told him it 
 was for bread they were crying, and had he but 
 acted a father's part he would not be thus annoyed. 
 I will not recount the words that followed. Suffice 
 it to say he dealt me a severe blow across the face, 
 which felled me to the floor. When I had recov- 
 ered myself he was gone. Fearing further violence, 
 I sought shelter for myself and children with a 
 neighbor. 
 
 'As I write under another's roof, 1 think of the 
 many happy girlhood days I spent beneath yours, 
 
—24— 
 
 and recall the ever kind advice and counsel of your 
 wife and ^^ourself. Then little did I think it would 
 ever come to this ; and yet I know my cu}) is not 
 full. When you told me of Henry's proclivities I 
 could not believe it, but I may not shrink from the 
 terrible realization of it now. 
 
 'Tell me, dear friend, shall I still cling to the 
 man of my choice — the man against whom friends 
 and parents protested, or shall I be justifiable in 
 fleeing from certain destitution and perhaps from 
 still fiercer outburst, of passion and violence ? 
 Yours, in affliction, 
 
 Nell.' " 
 
 Thus page after page, covered with bickerings, 
 heart-burnings, angry altercations, and cruel 
 blows was turned, until, heart-sick, Obed closed the 
 book. As he did so the words of the good parson 
 who metamorphosed him from the 07ie of hvo to the 
 half of one came across his mind. He was a bland 
 old gentleman, then living with his fifth wife. 
 Taking his young friend one side when the cere- 
 mony was over, says he, " Obed, my boy, you've a 
 great deal to learn about this matter of married 
 life, and the principal thing is this, — 'Learn to keep 
 your teeth tight shut when there are indications of 
 
—25— 
 
 a breeze,' for such occasions will come." Observa- 
 tion had already given Obed au inkling of this 
 matter, and experience has convinced him that 
 Socrates, under the severest goadings of Xantippe, 
 never uttered a truth, if followed, more condusive 
 to human happiness than that of his reverend 
 friend. 
 
 Then said Obed to himself, "This matter of 
 matrimony is indeed a great Co-partnership, con- 
 ceived in the councils of heaven and instituted on 
 earth in the very morning of the race, and multi- 
 plied until the copies have become innumerable. 
 The oldest institution of earth, it is practically the 
 least understood. Designed and calculated to serve 
 the purest purposes of life, and to secure the 
 greatest possible amount of happiness, it is prosti- 
 tuted to the basest purposes, and in numberless 
 instances becomes a pandemonium to those who 
 enter its sacred pale. 
 
 In entering upon other partnerships, which, at 
 most, are expected to continue but a few years, fre- 
 quently but as many months, and involving little 
 that cannot be solved by mathematical calcula- 
 tions, men hedge themselves about with strongly 
 written contracts in which are specified the 
 minutest particulars to be fulfilled, and these papers 
 
duly witnessed, are frequently referred to, in order 
 that no misunderstanding may arise ; but into tlie 
 great co-partnership of marriage wiiicli it is lio[)ed 
 will continue for at least fifty years and then lap 
 over onto tlie 'evergreen shore ;' a eo-i)artnership 
 which is to give birth and training to rosy cheeked 
 candidates for future firms ; to In'ing its members 
 daily and hourly into the closest possible intimacy 
 where the veriest weaknesses will be revealed.; to 
 foster and develop those truths and principles 
 which are the foundation stones of social and civil 
 institutions; co-partnerships in which better than 
 an3'-where else the essential doctrines of moral and 
 religious truth can be developed and strengthened ; 
 in which the parties contracting should remember 
 they will grow old, wrinkled, decrepit and person- 
 ally less attractive, and which should be broken up 
 only by the hand of death — into such a co-partner- 
 ship as this myriads of men and women are con- 
 stantly entering, seemingly without any thought as 
 to what the responsibilities and self-denials of the 
 future are to be. 
 
 Most marriage contracts if, exhibited to the eye, 
 would present a strange medley of sheei)S-eyes, 
 'My dears,' 'I'll tell mas,' and cool, mossy seats, 
 withered flowers, swinging gales, midnight views 
 
—27— 
 
 of the moon, peanut shucks, candy mottoes, care- 
 fully kept l)illct (loux, small talks about the last 
 concert, the masquerade, and the new novel, gifts 
 of woolen scarfs and plated rings, the merest 
 sprinkling of real business, fantastically ari'anged 
 about 
 
 "• ^Id. 37-0-0. e-v-er ?■ "V7"ell, ii.a.xa.137- e^rer." 
 
 an 'Exquisite Alexander Adolph us' and his 
 'adorable Maria Louise Deborah Ann,' engaged 
 in a tete-a-tete as central figures. 
 
-28- 
 
 Crola-aa. I'ei-iipletoa:!. Tma-s a, m.a.rL cf irrii/ht ai.-r^5. 3.±sT^i.^z 
 
— 29— 
 
 An inspection of the co-partners would never 
 lead to the conclusion that the apostolic doctrine, 
 'Be ye not unecjually yoked together,' had ever 
 been promulgated. Here is a gay rollicking hus- 
 l>and, with a wife sedate and circumspect ; there one 
 with stern business airs and economical ideas, with 
 a helpmate of butterfly proclivities, who has never 
 ^''et learned the number of cents it takes to make a 
 dollar. Husbands rough, uncouth, and profane, 
 with wives cultivated, refined, and zealous in all 
 malters of religion, growing up into 'Mothers 
 in Israel ;' husbands who are pillars in the church, 
 having wives who are very termigants; husbands 
 by the score, built for nothing else than to hold down 
 1)0X('S and benches about places of public resort, 
 with wives at liomo taking in washing and sewing 
 to sujiport their families; husbands of taste and 
 high aspirations, with wives slatternly and unambi- 
 tious; husbands brutish and sensual, with wives 
 who vainly long for a higher existence, into whose 
 hearts often come those saddest of all sad words, 
 
 'It might have been ;' 
 
 husbands of three score years, with wives of 'sweet 
 sixteen ;' men not old enough to go on the bachelor 
 list who have broken into the homes of widows of 
 
-30- 
 
 T / , / I 
 
 
 forty; men of weiglit and dignity with wives light 
 and trifling. 
 
—31— 
 
 But all pairs aro not tliiis incongruously mated. 
 As there is more of sunshine than shadow in the 
 natural world, so there are more bright ha})j)y 
 
 T-wreaa-ty laiaae aiiLd. fortjr after tlie Honesr ^^ooam.. 
 
 homes than the contrary. God has not forsaken 
 his original design, and though marriage is treated 
 too much as a great lottery, the prizes drawn are far 
 more numerous than the blanks, and although 
 there is so much of uncongeniality, there is far more 
 
-32— 
 
 of titness, and with the culture and gro\vin<5 
 amenities of modern civilization, domestic hapj)iness 
 is greatly on the increase, and partnershi})S that 
 began in weakness are being built U}) in the strength 
 of growing conjugal affection. 
 
 Looking back on the old homestead when all 
 were there, 
 
 'Father, mother, 
 
 Brother, sister. 
 
 All who hold each other dear,' 
 
 mail}' a young father and mother remember that 
 clouds did sometimes come over that old-time sky, 
 and sharp words pass between the now 'departed,' 
 yet there was so much of home born, heart-felt joy, 
 that they learned to sing, 
 
 'Home, sweet home. 
 
 There is no place like home,' 
 
 and the lessons of 'bear and forbear' come vividly 
 back through the vista of years to guide them as 
 
 voyagers over an old sea old, yet ever new 
 
 and untried. 
 
 Little by little the world is gathering up, and, 
 let croakers say what they will, home shall yet 
 fill the original design, becoming the fittest earthly 
 type of heaven, where the graces and endearments 
 of life are assiduously studied. 
 
—33— 
 
 Of all that lias ever been said or written on the 
 vexed question of matrimonial relations, nothing 
 is better than the advice of a shrewd old bachelor 
 whc»,. after abundant opportunity for observing 
 among his own j)eople and particularly in foreign 
 lands, wrote to some friends of his who appear to 
 have been peculiarly mixed up on the subject, 
 'Husbands, love your wives; wives, reverence your 
 husbands.' There's the key note of happiness to 
 both parties, for if there is anything in the world, 
 after a new hat with a five dollar feather, a nice 
 dress in the latest style, and an undisturbed oppor- 
 tunity to lead the conversation, that will please a 
 woman more than another, it is the assiduous 
 attention of her husband, saying to all observers 
 that in his estimation at least, she is a 'Pearl among 
 rubies ;' and as for the other side of the house, pro- 
 visions made for his cigars, a good dinner, and an 
 undisputed right to stay out at night as late as he 
 chooses, there is nothing so gratifying to his manly 
 pride as to know that his wife regards him as a 
 kind of demi-god, and that the proudest term in 
 her vocabulary is ^My husband! There is no self- 
 ishness in him in this matter. No, no. It is purely 
 the working of the apostolic sentiment in his manly 
 nature ; that is all. 
 
—34— 
 
 Yet when all this love and reverence are brought 
 into practice, human nature will sometimes out, and 
 we must remember 
 
 'Each other's ills to bear. ' 
 
 As 'eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' so self- 
 denial and forbearance are the cost of 'wedded love,' 
 and he who expects a smooth domestic sea must be 
 sure there is no vestige of a beam of strife in his 
 own eye, for if there is, he will find any amount of 
 sand in the orb of his companion." 
 
 Thus musing Obed opened the door. There 
 sat Mrs. 0. over a young Obed's unmentionables, 
 
 "Stitch, stitch, stitcli," 
 
 as a woman always must. There was no more flash 
 in her eye, but a shade of sadness rested on her 
 brow. As she looked up, Obed said, "Well, I've 
 thought that question all over, and I find that the 
 first match was of divine origin, and 1 think it 
 probable they are still made in heaven ; but in 
 transplanting, the earthly soil is so uncongenial ; so 
 little care is taken in fostering the tender rootlets, 
 and in after-pruning, that the 'matrimony-vine' 
 grows thorns, becomes knotty, and brings compara- 
 tively little fruit to perfection, and divorces are 
 resorted to as an end of trouble." 
 
-35— 
 
 There was a smile on the cheek of the wife, a 
 
 tear glistened in her eye, and, well, no 
 
 matter ; youthful usages will sometimes repent 
 themselves in maturer years — she said, " When you 
 vex me I sometiriies wish I never had had you, hut 
 if I hadn't, I know I should always have wished 
 I had." This Obed believes to be the embodiment 
 of a universal sentiment among women, relative to 
 their husbands. 
 
 There were no more bantering words in the 
 home of Obed that evening, but all was peaceful 
 and serene. 
 

 
 r^^>S\^|^.^f^^2>#^ 
 
OBED VISITS WATEKFOKD. 
 
 " There's to be a grand gatliering of my braves 
 and bravesses at Water ford for inspection and drill ; 
 come over and help ns." Thus wrote the Grand 
 Sacliem of the Pedagogues of Erie county to Obed, 
 and that individual responded, " I go, sir," and at 
 the time appointed he went. 
 
 lie had heard much of the classic beauty of 
 the place, and hence was not slow in gathering up 
 his satchel and umbrella when the brakeman sang 
 out " Water-ford !" Once upon the platform, his 
 bright visions were mercilessly dispelled, for there 
 Obed stood in the midst of a little clump of build- 
 ings "stuck in the mud," and his heart was fast 
 sinkins: within him when from the midst of a lux- 
 
—38— 
 
 uriaiit growth of red wliiskers there came floating 
 in silvery tones, " Only ten cents to go up town in 
 this 'ere conveyance." Placing two bright nickels 
 in the warm hand of the fiery headed Jehu, Obed 
 mounted to a pleasant seat in what was evidently 
 a pic-nic vehicle, and with him a jovial, partially 
 bald, very talkative gentleman, running over full 
 of health suggestions. Jehu mounted the box, drew 
 his reins, gave his crackerless whip an old fashioned 
 stage-coach flourish, and was off in advance of the 
 regular buss. 
 
 " Stop at a hotel gentlemen ?" said Jehu, as his 
 team went splashing througli the mud. 
 
 " Don't wish to stop here," said Obed. 
 
 "Good hotels?" said the gentleman with the 
 shiny crown. 
 
 " The EiKjh is a grand house," replied Jehu. 
 
 " Take us to the Eagle then," responded the 
 man of health, I always prefer Eagle to Crow. Get 
 good bread, good butter, good water and good air, 
 driver?" 
 
 " All good, sir," came down from the box. 
 
 " What's remarkable about this town ?" said 
 Obed. 
 
 "What's remarkable? why, George Washing- 
 ton." 
 
-39- 
 
 "Well, what of him?" 
 
 " Wliy, he came here and put up for several 
 days." 
 
 " At the Eagle ?" 
 
 " To be sure." 
 
 " Do any of your people remember him 7" 
 
 " The landlord remembers him well ; whoa !" 
 
 Obed and his new-made friend alighted and 
 liastened to the capacious bar-room, where a great 
 wood fire, resting upon old-fashioned andirons, 
 roared up the chimney just as Obed had seen fires 
 in his boyhood. Behind the bar stood a fine look- 
 ing old gentleman whose whitened locks bespoke 
 the Days Lavr/ 8i/ne, He was evidently one of the 
 first inhabitants. 
 
 "So you'r the landlord," said Obed. 
 
 " So they say." 
 
 " And you remember George Washington ?" 
 
 " None better." 
 
 " And he put up at the Eagle when he was out 
 for Mr. Dinwiddle?" 
 
 " He stopped here." 
 
 " Well, landlord, give us the room that George 
 occupied, will you ?" 
 
 " Here, Joe, take these gentlemen to No. 24," 
 and Obed and his friend were soon enjoying them- 
 
— 40— 
 
 selves in the occui)ancy of the strong hold desig- 
 nated. 
 
 The Grand Sachem greeted Obed with much 
 cordiality, and they went in and out together before 
 the great assembly, enjoying, in the meantime, the 
 hospitalities of the Eagle. The council was a 
 pleasant one to look upon. There were line looking 
 young men, and pleasant young maidens, and 
 maidens not so young, and Obed said to himself, 
 " These are the teachers of the county. Into their 
 hands are committed great destinies, and it is well 
 they are thus gathered together for instruction and 
 improvement." 
 
 There was one thing however, that struck Obed 
 as peculiar — the great excess in number of ladies. 
 " Little," said Obed, " did the great Horace think 
 when he said, 'Go West, young man,' that he was 
 doing so much towards hastening that Scripture 
 period when 'Seven women shall la}^ hold on one 
 man,' but if it must come in my day, let me fall 
 into the hands of the allotted number of Erie 
 county school marms." Thus Obed said. 
 
 Being something of a newspaper man, Obed 
 went up to the Astonisher office, but as Mrs. Aston- 
 isher was out, and the little Astonishers were 
 nowhere to be seen, he was forced to leave with his 
 
—41- 
 
 curiosity unsatisfied, 
 affliction. 
 
 This to Obed was a great 
 
 
 lAJJl^h 
 
 -— ^.^!| - rrf fn|"rfrrr!.r||| f 
 ~ i!!:"'lli!iln'l|li' 
 
 ^cxt XjelBoe-o-f as ret-a.ilt, ITOS ; 'b-vjLr^n.eoL, Ivlarcla. 21st, 
 
 iaes. 
 
 There are places of historic interest whieli 
 Obed must needs visit, so on a pleasant afternoon 
 he sallied out and wandered around the site of the 
 old Fort. Here was the cellar with its walls in a 
 good state of preservation. In it the French stored 
 their ammunition as well as other necessaries. 
 From this ran the subterranean passage down to 
 the spring by the creek's side from which they pro- 
 cured their water. Little else remains of Fort 
 
-42- 
 
 LeBoeuf in which St. Pierre courteously received 
 the youthful Washington and gave his decided 
 refusal to relinquish the Ohio country, and from 
 whose enclosure started the expedition which 
 demolished the English fortifications at the con- 
 fluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela, and 
 on its site erected Fort du Quesne. Satisfied with 
 his survey of the Fort, Obed walked down to the 
 point whence the fleet of birch canoes put off* on 
 this expedition down the Allegheny. Thence he 
 wandered over to the hill where the future father 
 of his country made his rude camp, and wrote a 
 part of that journal whose occasion introduced him 
 and Waterford to immortality, and which needs no 
 excuse for being inserted here. 
 
 " December 7th. At twelve o'clock we set out 
 (from Venango) for the Fort, (LeBoeuf ) but were 
 prevented arriving there until the 11th, by exces- 
 sive rains, snows and bad traveling through many 
 mires and swamps, these we were obliged to pass 
 to avoid crossing, which was impossible, either by 
 fording or rafting, the water was so high and rapid. 
 
 " We passed over much good land since we left 
 Venango, and through several very extensive and 
 rich meadows, one of which, I believe, was nearly 
 
-43- 
 
 fbur miles in length and considerably wide in some 
 places. 
 
 " December 12th. I prepared early to wait upon 
 the commander, and was received and conducted to 
 him by the second officer in command. I ac- 
 quainted him with my business and offered my 
 commission and letter, both of which he requested 
 me to keep until the arrival of Monsieur Reparte, 
 captain at the next fort, who was sent for and ex- 
 pected every hour. 
 
 " The commander is a knight of the military 
 order of St. Louis, and named Legardeur de St. 
 Pierre. He is an elderly gentleman, and has much 
 the air of a soldier. He was sent over to take the 
 command immediately upon the death of the late 
 General, and arrived here about seven days before 
 me. 
 
 "At two o'clock the gentleman who was sent 
 for arrived, when I offered the letter &c., again, 
 which they received, and adjourned into a private 
 apartment for the captain to translate, who under- 
 stood a little English. After he had done it, the 
 commander desired I would walk in and bring my 
 interpreter to peruse and correct it, which I did. 
 
 " December 13th. The chief officers retired to 
 hold a council of war, which gave me an oppor- 
 
—44— 
 
 tunity of taking the dimensions of the fort, and 
 making what observations I could. 
 
 " It is situated on the south or west fork of 
 French creek, near the water, and is ahnost sur- 
 rounded by the creek, and a small branch of it, 
 which forms a kind of island. Four houses com- 
 posed the .sides. The bastions are made of piles 
 driven into the ground, standing more than twelve 
 feet above it, and sharp at the top, with port holes 
 cut for cannon, and loop holes for the small arms 
 to fire through. There are eight six-pound pieces 
 mounted in each bastion, and one piece of four 
 pounds before the gate. In the bastions are a guard- 
 house, chapel, doctor's lodging, and the command- 
 er's private store, round which are laid platforms 
 for the cannon and men to stand on. There are 
 several barracks without the fort, for the soldiers' 
 dwellings, covered wdth bark and some with boards, 
 made chiefly of logs. There are also several other 
 houses, such as stables, smith's shop, etc. 
 
 " I could get no certain account of the men 
 here, but according to the best judgment I could 
 form, there are a hundred, exclusive of officers, of 
 whom there are many. I also gave orders to the 
 people who were with me to take an exact account 
 of the canoes which were hauled up to convey their 
 
-45- 
 
 forces down in the Spring. This they did, and told 
 fifty of birch bark and a hundred and seventy of 
 pine, besides many others which were blocked out 
 in readiness for being made. 
 
 " December 14th. As the snow increased very 
 fast, and our horses daily became weaker, I sent 
 them off unloaded under the care of Barnaby 
 Curran and two others, to make all convenient dis- 
 patch to Venango, and there to await our arrival, if 
 there was a prospect of the river's freezing, if not, 
 then to continue down to Shanapin's Town, at the 
 forks of Ohio, and there wait until we came to cross 
 the Allegheny, intending myself to go down by 
 water, as I had the offer of a canoe or two. 
 
 " As I found many plots concerted to retai'd the 
 Indians' business, and prevent their returning with 
 me, I endeavored all that lay in my power to frus- 
 trate their schemes, and hurried them on to exe- 
 cute their intended design. They accordingly 
 pressed for admittance this evening, which at length 
 was granted them, privately, to the commander and 
 one or two other officers. The Half King told me 
 that he offered the wampum to the commander, 
 who evaded taking it, and made many fair promises 
 of love and friendship ; said he wanted to live in 
 peace and trade amicably with them, as a proof of 
 
-46- 
 
 which, he would send some goods immediately 
 down to Log's Town for them. But I rather think 
 the design of that is to bring away all our strag- 
 gling traders they meet with, as I privately under- 
 stood, they intended to carry an officer, &c., with 
 them. And what rather confirms this opinion, I 
 was inquiring of the commander by what author- 
 ity he had made prisoners of several of our Eng- 
 lish subjects. He told me that the country be- 
 longed to them; that no Englishman had a right to 
 trade upon those waters, and that he had orders to 
 make every person prisoner who attempted it on the 
 Ohio, or the waters of it. 
 
 " I inquired of Captain Reparte about the boy 
 that Was carried by this place, as it was done while 
 the command devolved upon him, between the 
 death of the late General and the arrival of the 
 present. He acknowledged that a boy had been 
 carried past, and that the Indians had two or three 
 whitemen's scalps, (I was told by some of the 
 Indians at Venango, eight,) but pretended to have 
 forgotten the name of the place the boy came from, 
 and all the particular facts, though he had ques- 
 tioned him for some hours as they were carrying 
 past. I likewise inquired what they had done with 
 John Trotter and James McClocklan (McLaughlin), 
 
—47— 
 
 two Pennsylvania traders whom they had takeH 
 with all their goods. They told me they had been 
 sent to Canada, but were now returned home. 
 
 " This evening I received an answer to his 
 honor, the Governor's letter, from the commandant." 
 Omitting the letter, the Journal continues : 
 " December 15th. The commandant ordered 
 a plentiful store of liquor, provisions, &c , to be put 
 on board our canoes and appeared to be extremely 
 complaisant, though he was exerting every artifice 
 which he could invent to set our Indians at variance 
 with us, to prevent them going until after our 
 departure ; presents, rewards, and everything which 
 could be suggested by him or his officers. I cannot 
 say that ever in my life I suffered so much anxiety 
 as I did in this affair. I saw that every stratagem 
 which the most fruitful brain could invent was 
 practiced to win the Half King to their interest, 
 and that leaving him there was giving them the 
 opportunity they aimed at. I went to the Half 
 King and pressed him in the strongest terms to go ; 
 he told me that the command would not discharge 
 him until the morning. I then went to the com- 
 mandant and desired him to do their business, and 
 complained of ill-treatment ; for keeping them, as 
 they were part of my company, was detaining me. 
 
—48— 
 
 This he promised not to do, but to forward my 
 journey as much as he coukl. He protested he did 
 not keep them, but was ignorant of the cause of 
 their stay, though I soon found it out. He had 
 promised them a present of guns, &c., if they would 
 wait until morning. As I was very murh pressed 
 by the Indians to wait this day for them. I con- 
 sented, on a promise that nothing should hinder 
 them in the morning." 
 
 The following from the journal of the IGth, 
 written after leaving, shows up the strategy of bolii 
 parties on the morning of final departure. 
 
 "The French were not slack in their inventions 
 to keep the Indians this day also, but as they were 
 obliged, according to promise, to give the present, 
 they then endeavored to try the powers of liquor, 
 which I doubt not would have prevailed at any 
 other time than this, but I urged and insisted with 
 the King so closely upon his word, that he refrained 
 and set off with us as he had engaged." 
 
 Now, far as the eye can reach are to be seen 
 field, farm house and evidence of culture; then all 
 was wild, sombre, and savage. A solitary muskrat, 
 swimming along at the base of the hill, was the 
 only lineal descendant of that long ago. Musing 
 of the wonderful man who, one hundred and 
 
-49— 
 
 twent^'-five years before, drew his blanket around 
 him and lay down lo sleep beneath the tall pines 
 that capped the little eminence. Obed retraced his 
 steps and took a drink from the spring, from which 
 Indian and Frenchman alike slacked his thirst. 
 The fountain is measurably secluded, and filled 
 with beautiful trout. Having no piscatorial procliv- 
 ities, he cast in no hook. Obed did not. 
 
 A country churchyard has a charm for Obed 
 as he expects to go out some day feet first, and tiike 
 possession of a retired lot in one. " Tliere's a quiet 
 old yard down west of town," said mine host of 
 the Eagle, and to it Obed bent his steps. The little 
 city showed marks of age, and the rude brown 
 stones covered with moss, s[)oke of the affections of 
 fifty, sixty and seventy years ago when husband, 
 wife or child was laid away in a plain board coffin 
 for the " sleep that knows no waking." They rest 
 amid brambles, thorn and general dilapidation, for 
 the new city, with carriage-ways, monuments, cask- 
 ets and sleeping rooms, is more inviting to a resi- 
 dence in its pretentious abodes. " In a few more 
 years," mused Obed, " wheat and corn will be wav- 
 ing over these silent homes. Then there will be 
 canibalism in Waterford, for somebody will be eat- 
 ing his grandfather." 
 
-so- 
 
 " Waterford Academy, MDCCCXXII," caught 
 the eye of Obed, on an old stone front, and the door 
 being opened he entered and passed through the 
 halls where for more than fifty years have echoed 
 the footsteps of the seekers after knowledge. There 
 upon the walls were the names of those rendered 
 immortal by a single stroke of the pencil, and un- 
 mistakable evidence of the fact that 
 
 " Th". Yank'^e boy, before he's sent to school, 
 "Well knows the mystery of that inigic tool, 
 The pocket knife." 
 
 As Obcd stood and mused he thought of the then 
 and now of pedagogics ; of the changes that have 
 wrought in methods, instruction and discipline since 
 those old walls were built ; then he remembered to 
 have heard it said that Waterford has furnished 
 more prominent men than any other township in 
 the county, and he mentally exclaimed, " This old 
 building explains it all ; blessed be the memory of 
 those who builded it, and those who have carried it 
 on ;" and echo answered, " Blessed." 
 
 But the time set by Mrs. Obed for his return 
 had arrived, and there was nothing for him to do 
 but to return to the hotel. Suiting his actions to 
 his necessities, he returned, and, taking an affec- 
 tionate leave of the Grand Sachem and the gay old 
 
liost of the Eagle, and consigning himself to the 
 tender mercies of the fiery headed Jehu, he was soon 
 homeward bound, mentall}^ vowing if ever invited 
 to Waterford again, he would certainly go. Thus 
 Obed vowed. 
 
 OBED AT THE HEAD. 
 
 It was summer, warm and genial, and Strong 
 Vincent Post of the " Boys in Blue " advertised an 
 encampment, with hard tack and beans, at the 
 Head. Having had some experience in blue 
 
 clothes, hard tack and s b , Obed resolved 
 
 to play " comrade." Suiting the act to the resolu- 
 tion, having first obtained the consent of Mrs. Obed, 
 who has a great aversion to everything that looks 
 in the remotest degree like war, he took the 
 cars on the morning appointed and was soon in 
 the city and making his way, in a headlong manner, 
 down State street towards the dock. 
 
—52— 
 
 Once on board the Hunter, his ticket for the 
 beans safely secured next his — stomach, and pass- 
 ing out from the dilapidated docks, Obed. fell to 
 musing, a practice to which he is much given, 
 sometimes to the great discomfort of even his near- 
 est friends — Mrs. and the young Obeds, for instance. 
 In his imagination he saw the Bay as it was a 
 hundred years ago, visited only by an occasional 
 sail, for the steamboat man had not then been 
 invented. Instead of the spires of a busy city, a 
 rude fortress occupied the lonely shore from which 
 scarce a wily Indian came down to ripple the quiet 
 waters with his birchen canoe. These things Obed 
 saw, and more. Settlers came; a hut village sprang 
 up ; soldiers went and came ; one morning the 
 post band played the funeral diige, and brave boys 
 laid "Mad Anthony," at the "foot of the flag 
 staff" to wait the reveille of the judgment morn- 
 ing ; he saw the youthful Perry, as under his 
 master hand there sprang up, as by magic, that 
 renowned fleet that, once " lightered " over the bar, 
 sallied out, " met the enemy and they are ours ;" 
 he saw the thriving village become a naval station, 
 and then a lake city at whose expanding wharves 
 a busy commerce plied ; he heard a shrill neigh, 
 and the " iron horse " was on the Lake Shore, and 
 
—53— 
 
 for a time there was " war in Erie," and when 
 peace was restored the wharves began to rot as the 
 city extended herself inland, and Obed wondered if 
 
 ever serial navigation would " Ticket, sir," 
 
 said a "blue" labeled "67," and the rectangular form 
 of his pasteboard was soon destroyed, and Obed's 
 revery was at an end. It was ended. 
 
 The Hunter was now far out on the Bay, and 
 Obed felt at liberty to take a survey of the crowd of 
 strangers around him. It possessed all the charac- 
 teristics of an excursion. There were men, women 
 and children ; young men and maidens — not so 
 young ; elegant perfumes, and fumes not so elegant 
 — " But then, it is only twenty-five cents, and who 
 can't afford a little extra touch," said Obed, half 
 aloud. " What's that, sir ?" said a demure-looking 
 individual — " Show your tickets to the guard," 
 sang out a military voice, and looking up, Obed 
 })orceived that one-half of the company was already 
 upon the dock, and he also made haste to go ashore. 
 
 Once on terra firma, Obed hastened to carry into 
 execution the resolution he had formed to scrape 
 many acquaintances, and he succeeded admirably, 
 for beneath the badge of the " Grand Army " 
 there's a warm heart for all comrades. Here he 
 
—54— 
 
 met one with an unpleasant limp. "How was it, 
 old boy ?" " A bullet through the knee at Gaines' 
 Mill." There he accosted a man with a bad scar on 
 his face, supplemented by another on the back of 
 the neck. '"Twas a warm reception at Cold Har- 
 bor." Two canes told the story of cold lead through 
 the spine at Antietam. A crutch and a cane re- 
 counted the story of Fredericksburg, and an empty 
 sleeve revived the " Battle above the clouds." Sit- 
 ting down by a pleasant fellow with two staffs, Obed 
 laid his hand familiarly upon his femur — 'twas a 
 regular " patent thing." " The flesh and blood," 
 said his new made friend, " are resting at Five 
 Forks." "Gone on the retired list," said Obed. 
 
 At the Head, Obed met the army of the 
 Potomac, the siegers of Vicksburg ; those who 
 " marched with Sherman to the sea," and heroes of 
 Gettysburg. He "took rations" again from the 
 " Commissary Department," dipped his coffee 
 from a "black sally," and cracked jokes at the 
 " mess board ;" he sat again on the drum head and 
 laughed at the mock review, and as he noted the 
 rapture of Young America, closely resembling that 
 exhibited on "General Training Day " forty years 
 ago, the days of his boyhood came across his mind, 
 and he repeated, — 
 
— 5S- 
 
 " O were yoii ne'er a school boy ? 
 
 And did you never train, 
 And feel that swelling of the heart, 
 
 You ne'er can feel again ?' 
 
 The sun was far out over the lake, the "light 
 fantastic toe " was tripping it to the sound of the 
 merry music, and Obed, as he looked over the rest- 
 less throng said, '" The crow foot is marking the 
 brave men of sixteen years ago, and the 'boys' of 
 that day are becoming tinged with a loyal gray. 
 We light our camp fires, but there come fewer and 
 fewer to enjoy their genial warmth; 
 
 'Our numbers dwindle year by year. 
 Our comrades seek the other shore.' " 
 
 Just then the whistle sounded, and as he 
 caught the bright reflection of the sum from the 
 bosom of old Erie, Obed remembered 'tis written, 
 "In tlije evening time it shall be light," and he 
 took his departure homeward with this petition in 
 his heart for all his " comrades :" 
 
 " So live that when command is given : 
 'Break ranks', we leave the drill below, 
 To bivouac in the camp of Heaven." 
 
OBED ON STRIKES. 
 
 " You are too late, sir; the strike has reached 
 us at last," said the gentlemanly agent at North 
 East, as Obed, a stranger to all about, carne up for 
 the purpose of making a shipment. Thus it was, 
 click, click, click had gone the telegraph unceasing- 
 ly for two, three, four days, announcing that first one 
 road then anothei" had succumbed to ignoble, if not 
 unreasonable demands, until finally the Lake Shore 
 was no exception. All travel was suspended ; the 
 business interests of the country stood paralyzed, 
 and riot was laying vandal hands on much that 
 was fair and valuable. 
 
 Obed looked at the agent, then up and down 
 the track, and then at the perishable fruit he 
 wished to send to some distant friends, and his 
 thoughts were not of the pleasantest nature. But 
 th«n there was no use breaking the third com- 
 mandment, and as he turned him about and pre- 
 pared to go into the canning business, his memory 
 
— S7- 
 
 was busy, for he has observed that strikes are pecu- 
 liar inslitutions, and that most people have at some 
 time indulged in them. In fact, Obed himself has 
 been a striker. His experience runs in this wise : — 
 
 When quite a little child he wished to go visit- 
 ing with his parents, so he put on his happiest face 
 and his kindest manner. He was most bewitching 
 on tliat occasion, but it was of no use; he could 
 not go. Then he struck — threw himself U]>on the 
 floor, distorted his face and uttered hideous screams. 
 Here the majesty of the law in the person of the 
 elder Obed came in, and soon an urchin, artistically 
 turned up, was heard exclaiming, " Oh ! don't, 
 don't, father; I won't do so any more." The strike 
 was suppressed, and Obed was a wiser child. 
 
 Again, in his school days, when the teacher 
 was calling to afternoon lessons by beating lustily 
 on the sash with a Daboll's arithmetic, Obed and 
 three of his companions struck — for the skating 
 pond. An hour later there was music in the old 
 sohoolhouse. A concert of human voices led by 
 the sharp thuds of a well seasoned gad. One more 
 strike was suppressed. When he returned home 
 that night Obed had nothing but words of praise 
 for that teacher — he was so kind and attentive. 
 Those were the days when children never made 
 
—58- 
 
 mention of discipline at school. Obed was a wiser 
 boy. 
 
 It was long years after the above, and Obed was 
 
 O-ra.ia.d.fa.tlierO'bea.'sm.etli.oa. cf s-u.ppressixi.g' a. Stride. 
 
 With a slight variation from Patrick Henry, the old gentle- 
 man was wont to say, " I have but one lamp b}^ which my hand 
 is guided, and that is the lamn of experience." 
 
in the midst of a delightful morning dream, in 
 which wealth, and honor, and fame were all gather- 
 ing around him, that a sharp voice exclaimed in 
 his ear, " Obed, Obed, get up and start a fire!" He 
 raised himself gently upon his elbow, but soon sank 
 gracefully back upon his pillow. It was but for a 
 moment. A sharp thrust in the ribs, and, " Obed ! 
 Obed ! I tell you get up ; it's house-cleaning day, 
 and Nancy Jones will be here before we're out of 
 bed," brought him to a realization of the situation. 
 He arose and went mechanically about the duties 
 of the hour, continually revolving in his mind the 
 glories of that wonderful dream. Breakfast over, 
 Mrs. Obed directed him to remove the parlor stove 
 to the sitting room and readjust it. Now if there 
 is anything in the wide world that Obed hates to 
 meddle with, it is a stove and pipe. He has heard 
 good men utter fearful words whilst attempting to 
 fit dissimilar joints ; and he knows that really pious 
 men indulge in wicked thoughts on such occasions ; 
 so lest he should be betrayed into one of these 
 follies, he watclied his opportunity when Mrs. Obed 
 was busy, and struck — down town. Thus Obed 
 struck. 
 
 Down town he stayed until near noon. Then 
 he put in an appearance at home. There stood the 
 
—66— 
 
 stove, and near it stood Mrs. O., broom in hand. 
 " Now, sir," said a pair of thin lips, " tend to that 
 stove !" Obed surveyed the situation for a moment. 
 There stood the commander-in-chief of the house- 
 hold with the implement of her authority well 
 poised. In the background stood Nancy as a kind 
 of " reserved force." There was determination in 
 two pair of eyes. With Obed discretion had long 
 been the better part of valor. That stove was soon 
 adjusted without a swear. The clouds broke, and 
 domestic sunshine blessed a hearty dinner. Obed 
 was a wiser man. 
 
 Various are the causes for which men strike. 
 Obed remembers that the first one on record was 
 made for an increase of knowledge — a very worthy 
 object, 'tis true. There came of it "fig-leaf aprons" 
 and death. Then Cain struck for the elevation of 
 his craft, and as a result Adam turned sexton and 
 the striker received a slit in the ear and a home in 
 the " land of Nod," since which time it has been 
 habitual for deacons to sleep in church. Many 
 people pattern after the deacons. 
 
 All Israel went on a big strike down in Egypt, 
 and did the greatest job of borrowing that ever was 
 known ; and yet, as is generally the case with strik- 
 ers, they got an elephant on their hands. It took 
 
—61— 
 
 them forty years to learn to manage him, and he 
 proved breachy ever afterwards. 
 
 The Barons put up a good job of striking on 
 John at Runny Mede, which has only been eclipsed 
 by that of Jonathan on his old mother in '76. 
 These, much as we delight in them, were fraught 
 with much of evil and suffering, and have been the 
 prolific parents of a host of similar strikes, lacking 
 the principle, but having all the nerve and spirit. 
 The sacrifice of property and life under such cir- 
 cumstances has been fearful. 
 
 Reflecting on these things, Obed has concluded 
 that when men 
 
 " Strike for their altars and their fires ; 
 Strike for the green graves of their sires, 
 God and their native land," 
 
 it is all right, and they should succeed. But when, 
 on the contrary, they 
 
 Strike, evil passions to inspire ; 
 Strike for the things that none require, 
 For anarchy and "sand," 
 
 there should be miserable failure. Personal and 
 public happiness depend upon law and order. By 
 these let all the people stand. Let parents impress 
 ihem upon the sensibilities of childhood. Let 
 teachers instill them into the mind of youth, and 
 
—62— 
 
 wives insist that their liege lords shall carry them 
 out in their daily lives. Above all, let not great 
 municipalities encourage riot, theft and arson, against 
 even a soulless corporation ; for at best the act is 
 dangerous, and may become an expensive luxury, 
 tarnishing even legislative reputation. 
 
 OBED'S DAY AT FAIR POINT. 
 
 Obed had heard of the beauties, the privileges, 
 and the piety of Fair Point, and for a long time 
 had desired to visit it. At length a leisure day pre- 
 sented itself, and, that he might enjoy it in full, he 
 took time by the forelock and started the evening 
 previous. 
 
 Once aboard the train and moving, he gazed 
 with delight upon the beautiful scenery constantly 
 presenting itself. The faces about him were all 
 strange, so Obed had nothing to do but gaze in 
 
-63- 
 
 silence. This he did until a change of cars for the 
 " Cross Cut" brought new scenes and new com- 
 panions. Here was a stripling from the east, hav- 
 ing a worm medicine of rare virtue, the fruits of 
 which, carefully bottled, he was triumphantly ex- 
 hibiting ; there was a man from Indiana with" an 
 opera glass at his eye, a tongue loaded with " I 
 declare," and a soul full of Sunday school enthu- 
 siasm ; yonder were several ladies with a full assort- 
 ment of band-boxes and babies, chattering like so 
 many magpies. " Fair Point" was on the tongues 
 of all these, and they were happy in their antici- 
 pations. The medicine man iu the misery he 
 should relieve, and the harvest he should reap ; the 
 Hoosier in beholding those on whom the mantle of 
 the immortal Raikes has fallen, and the ladies in 
 the delightful passtimcs and the sweet rest they 
 were to have. As for Obed, he was happy in ob- 
 serving the earnestness and comicalities of his com- 
 panions, and the delightful scenery through which 
 he was passing, and as he looked out upon the 
 signs of advancing civilization he mentally ex- 
 claimed, " Lo, the poor Indian," and he presumes 
 in a minute more he would have dived right into 
 the hole that the " wild fox dug, unscared," had not 
 the conductor just then sung out " Mayville !" 
 
-64- 
 
 Then came the bustle and excitement incident to a 
 change from car to steamboat, and Obed was soon 
 afloat on the beautiful lake, now glittering in the 
 evening twilight, and whose shores are rich in 
 legendary tales. 
 
 As the steamer glided away, and he looked 
 upon the pleasure-boats on every hand, the occu- 
 pants merrily enjoying the cool of the evening, his 
 exclamation was, " The red man bathed his limbs 
 in this sedgy lake in the long ago, and its waters 
 were broken by his birchen canoe j^ears before the 
 race of Fulton's began." To what flights of fancy 
 his imagination might have risen, on other people's 
 language, Obed knows not, had not a display of 
 lights resembling the glitter of gas jets in front of 
 a theatre, just then attracted his attention. " What's 
 that?" inquired our hero. "Fair Point," replied 
 the Captain. Feeling that behind such lights there 
 must be a happy place and some fun, Obed seated 
 himself upon the bow of the boat, and gave himself 
 up to pleasing meditations until the craft touched 
 the dock, where he descended, and for two pieces of 
 silver purchased pass-ports to the " Elysian Fields" 
 of his expedition. 
 
 Once within the gate, he inquired of a man, 
 selling peanuts and candy, the way to the sanctum 
 
—65— 
 
 of the scribes who write up the doings of the Fair 
 Pointers. "0 just you go up to the Auditorium 
 and the pump, and you'll see it— who'll have 
 another glass V" said the dealer. Remarking that 
 he knew nothing about their Horium, which caused 
 a smile among the bystanders, Obed passed on and 
 soon came to a vast multitude of people who were 
 listening to some men, seated in a great box con- 
 siderably elevated above the rest, as they arose and 
 told, one after another, of the wonderful deeds of 
 some good men who had recently died. Some, it 
 appeared, had been great preachers, and another 
 had been a man of song. As he listened to the 
 words of praise, interspersed as they were with ex- 
 cellent music, Obed wondered if ever there was a 
 memorial service for the great "Preacher of 
 righteousness," or if any u-aterlng place ever set aside 
 a day in commemoration of the " Sweet singer of 
 Israel." 
 
 The exercises drawing to a close, Obed sought 
 out the place of the scribes, a kind of ten by four- 
 teen foot arrangement, very plain in its appliances, 
 but all a-Flood with Moor6-of-Dobbs than anybody 
 else except an unclerical-looking chap, who pos- 
 sessed the rare faculty of deciphering quail tracks 
 
—66— 
 
 without flinching, even in presence of ministerial 
 dignity. 
 
 After a pleasant chat, Obed was informed that 
 the time when all Pointers must retire was at hand, 
 and if he didn't want to be "policed" he must find 
 a place to burrow, and was kindly directed to the 
 General Office for further information. This, after 
 some wandering, he succeeded in finding and was 
 sent thence to the keeper of the keys of the '' Land 
 of Nod " for all wayfarers on the Point. Here, 
 after paying two pieces of silver he was put in tow 
 of a small honest faced bo}', in whose wake he fol- 
 lowed for half an hour through mazy streets and 
 tangled wild wood, and then returned to the " place 
 whence he came " for repairs, a new number and a 
 new start. Some minutes brisk walk brought him 
 
 to No. 42 Avenue, where he was consigned to 
 
 the tender mercies of a benevolent-looking gentle- 
 man who led him up a narrow stair into a hall of 
 indefinite length, but four feet wide, and split in 
 in the middle by a row of sheets suspended from 
 the joists above. Behind these, as nearly as he 
 could judge, were several ladies suspended from 
 pins in the studding. One of these, that is, one of 
 the ladies cried out in a squeakX! voice, " Laws a 
 massy ! don't bring a man in here !" and a gruff 
 
-67- 
 
 fellow, whom Obed thought to be leaned up in an 
 adjoining corner, growled out something about 
 thieves, when the host remarked that the gentleman 
 with him had an honest countenance, and all sub- 
 sided into silence, and the work of bed making pro- 
 ceeded. This consisted in spreading out an unusu- 
 ally long saw horse, to the ribs of which was firmly 
 attached a piece of canvass eighteen inches wide 
 and five feet long ; across one end was laid a bundle 
 of straw, and over all was spread an "army blanket" 
 which had evidently seen service, the whole re- 
 minding Obed of the days of his military experience. 
 When all was ready, his host bade him a kind good- 
 night, and slowly and sadly Obed turned in. As 
 he did so, he remembered the couch of his boyhood, 
 prepared by a mother's careful hand, and he re- 
 peated, with slight variation, as her sainted lips 
 had taught him, 
 
 " Now I lay me ttp to sleep." 
 
 The words had a soothing eff'ect on the mind of 
 Obed, and he wassoon in the land of dreams, in 
 which Sunday school exercises, memorial services, 
 summer resorts, and various pursuits of pleasure 
 were continually rising before him. 
 
 At early dawn Obed was on his feet. His 
 ablutions performed and prayers, few and short, 
 
—68— 
 
 said, he set out for the " Holy Land." A single 
 Arab of the tribe of Abou Van-Lennep had pre- 
 ceeded him. As he appeared perfectly civil, not 
 even demanding " buchesh," Obed felt perfectly at 
 
 OToed. laid, "vj-p to sleep. 
 
 ease. After wandering through the " hill country 
 of Judea," he " went down to Samaria," and thence 
 ascended to Mount Carniel, and took a view of the 
 Plain of Sharon and the " Great Sea." Leaving 
 this, he came down across " Esdradon," passed 
 through " Nazareth," and soon stood by " deep 
 Galilee," upon which the first rays of the morning 
 
sun were now resting. Having satisfied himself 
 that no " fisherman " would cast in his net that 
 morning, he departed " to " Mount Tabor," and 
 then " came down " and " crossed over Jordan," 
 only to traverse " Bashan " and the "Land of 
 Moab." This done he came round the " Dead Sea," 
 and stood at the eatrance of " Machpelah " in 
 " Hebron." As he did so, thoughts of that first 
 dealing in real estate of the long ago, and the many 
 " six feet by two " transfers since, and as he went 
 up to " Jerusalem " the myriad of hallowed scenes 
 connected with the '■ Land of Promise," where the 
 
 " Holy and Just with the people sat down," 
 
 went flitting through his mind, and he was glad that 
 God had put it into the heart of the great " Mow- 
 ing macliine" man to transfer the "Land" in 
 miniature, to the banks of beautiful Chautauqua, 
 where untold thousands may come, and in pleasant 
 pastimes, learn so much of the ivord. 
 
 When he had gazed his fill, Obed went up to 
 view the city. She was just beginning to put on 
 her morning activity, and as he threaded her 
 avenues, bearing the names of the immortal dead, 
 and the honored living of the church, and listened 
 to the songs of thanksgiving and words of prayer 
 
-70- 
 
 as they rose from cottage and tent he said, "Truly 
 the groves were God's first temples." 
 
 Like other men, Obed is subjected to sensations 
 of hunger. These the rambles of the morning had 
 called into vigorous activity, and he turned 
 aside to a hotel and for two pieces of silver gained 
 admittance. After a protracted waiting, th^re were 
 set before him " ham and eggs, mutton chops, pota- 
 toes, tea, and bread, butter and molasses," on which 
 he fed with joy and gladness. Thus refreshed he 
 went up and viewed the " pyramid," and then 
 walked down to the " Oriental House," which he 
 carefuU}' inspected, seeing better than ever be- 
 fore how " They tore up the roof and let him down 
 in the midst ;" how they " walked upon the house 
 top in the evening-time and gathered themselves 
 into the court in seasons of danger." 
 
 This was a " Day of song " in which great 
 multitudes took delight, but Obed delighted rather 
 in studying the multitude itself In it he saw great 
 bodies of divinity, some of whom had been "Doc- 
 tored," whilst others were patiently waiting for the 
 same pleasing process. He saw men seeking — some 
 for wisdom, others for money, and not a few for 
 sport. His eyes rested upon a few real Marys, 
 Marthas and Dorcases were by no means unrepre- 
 
—71— 
 
 sented. But Obed saw more of the frollicking, fun- 
 loving, good-natured sisters of our frail humanity 
 than of any other. Even " Pansy " as she strolled 
 around, looking anxiously after her " Four Girles," 
 was not insensible to feelings of mirthfulness. 
 
 The day was wearing away, and the burden of 
 Obed's musing was, " Fair Point is a miniature 
 world in itself, presenting all the hopes and fears, 
 joys and sorrows of the great one, in which we are 
 all called to move and act." Thus impressed, he 
 hastened to the dock, gave up his pasle-board, and 
 passed without the gate, only to behold the " 3Iay- 
 ville" and the '' Crriffith" " neck and neck," each 
 trying to make the wharf. There was high pressure 
 in the boilers, and a full head of steam on in all 
 the humans that thronged the deck of the respective 
 crafts. Calvary, the cross, and the Sunday school 
 interests generally were lost sight of in the intense 
 excitement " for our side " to beat. Tired women 
 waved their handkerchiefs and invalid men, and 
 grave shepherds, energetically gesticulating, lifted up 
 their voices in wild hurrahs. Quietly but firmly 
 the "Mowing machine" man lifted up his voice in 
 behalf of order and safety. After much delay a 
 landing from both boats was made without accident, 
 and stepping aboard the Griffith, Obed made May- 
 
—72— 
 
 ville just in time to see his train glide out of sight. 
 Then a lively team " With its loved presence 
 brought balm " for sixteen pieces of silver, and he 
 and several new made friends remembering that 
 " every cloud has a silver lining," enjoyed a most 
 delightful ride across the country to Westfield, 
 under the guidance of a merry Jehu, and there 
 made a western bound train. A good supper and 
 a soft bed soothed every disquietude in the mind of 
 Obed, and he arose to the light of a new day, glad 
 that he had learned by another experience the force 
 ofmultum in parvo. 
 
CENTENNIAL KEMINISCENCES. 
 
 The Start. 
 
 There were sounds of labor and " notes of 
 preparation" in the home of the Obeds. And where- 
 fore? Obed feared he would not live to see 1976, and 
 so hfc had concluded to do the next best thing, visit 
 the Centennial Exposition. His companions were 
 lo be his wife and a lady friend. Obed bought, and 
 Mrs. Obed and her friend cut and sewed, and 
 arranged as only ladies will when they are going 
 abroad and will appear presentable. As for Obed, 
 he contented himself with a twenty-five cent palm- 
 leaf for one extremity, a pair of brogans for the 
 other, and suitable hot weather garments for the 
 five -feet-eight between. Such was Obed's outfit, 
 arranged for business rather than pleasure. All 
 things ready and the day appointed for departure 
 reached, good-byes were said, and three happy 
 mortals stepped aboard the train which was to bear 
 
—74- 
 
 them from their rustic home to see the wonders 
 which " Brother Jonathan " had invited his old 
 mother and her many sisters to bring to his dwelling 
 place, that he might compare notes of a hundred 
 3'ears with them. Obed had heard of momentous 
 occasions. As nearly as he could judge from his 
 knowledge of the dictionary and the state of his 
 feelings, this to him was such a one. 
 
 The whistle sounded ; the train moved ; the 
 fields glided by ; the village and the home in which 
 were the young Obeds faded from sight ; trees, fields 
 and forests took up a "merry whirl," and when Obed 
 looked into the faces of his companions as the train 
 dashed along, every lineament seemed to say 
 
 " Bless me, this is pleasant, 
 Riding on a rail." 
 
 Soon the white farm houses and green pastures 
 of Cheesedora began to give place to dust and 
 smoke, general grindiness and the clink of iron, 
 and he perceived that he was leaving the land of 
 kine for the realm of coal. Directly the road came 
 upon that great work of the fathers, the Pennsyl- 
 vania and Ohio Canal which, completed, was the 
 glory of the projectors — for a day. Obed re- 
 membered that he had plied the barrow and the 
 spade on that same old ditch in the days when the 
 
—73— 
 
 captain took in sails by knocking down the driver 
 and the " cook " protected her eyes by taking a 
 reef in the stovepipe. Now the tow-path is broken 
 down, the " locks" are removed, the old barges are 
 rotting all along the valley, and the " car " is the 
 glory of those who once adored the " packet." 
 Obed had tried both, and he was satisfied with his 
 seat. 
 
 Across the beautiful Mahoning, amid ever- 
 greens and forest trees, appeared for a moment the 
 marbled mementoes of the loved and lost, and Obed 
 remembered that in the silent city on the hill above 
 the noisy one in the valley beneath, sleeps a sister 
 who had shared the sports of his boyhood in the 
 long ago. Memories of the old home, of father and 
 mother, brothers and sisters, who will greet him no 
 more, thronged his memory, and he wiped his 
 moistened eyes, saying, "By and by." 
 
 An hour more and the Buckeye State was be- 
 hind him, and Obed was breathing the air and 
 drinking in the scenery of the Keystone, noble old 
 State, land of Penn, and home of liberty and equal 
 rights. Obed and his companions admired the 
 beautiful and varied scenery through which they 
 passed. He noted the many changes that had taken 
 place along the Ohio since the days of his boyhood, 
 
—76— 
 
 and said, " What w'ould the noble red man of '76 
 say, could he look upon all these evidences of the 
 Great Spirit's care for the white man ?" 
 
 A temporary stop in the Smoky City, and Obed 
 was sent out by the ladies to procure some delicacies. 
 On every door save one, as he passed down the 
 street, was " Lager," " Lager," " Lager." The "save 
 one " was " XXX Ale." At last he came to a door 
 marked, " Coffin Rooms," and he said, " A fitting 
 end to this row." As he thought of the bloated , 
 blear-eyed, besotted beings he had just passed, this 
 ejaculation escaped him, " Wine is a mocker ; 
 strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived 
 thereby is not wise." 
 
 Saddened by the sights he had seen, and dis- 
 gusted with the fumes of inebriation he had in- 
 haled, Obed retraced his steps, seeking no further 
 for delicacies. 
 
 Onward. 
 
 "Ca's fo' Philade'h'a, New Yo'k, Bos'n— a' places 
 Eas'," called the train crier. "All aboard," shouted 
 the conductor, and Obed and his company were soon 
 leaving the city of smoke and soot, of rattle and 
 bang, of invincible industry, behind them. A huu- 
 
—11— 
 
 dred years ago Pittsburg was a mere military trad- 
 ing post, far beyond the borders of civilization ; to- 
 day she is the Manchester of a Continent. "A single 
 pulsation in our Titan growth," mused Obed,and the 
 train reached "Braddock's Field." 
 
 Here it was that the proud Briton shocked the 
 sensibilities of the youthful, but circumspect George, 
 by that historic expression, more forcible than ele- 
 gant, "High times, high times, by G — d, when a 
 young buckskin can teach a British General how to 
 fight." Alas, poor Braddock ! He has been sold by 
 the acre many times since then, and no one longer 
 holds grudge against him for his treatment of him 
 who soon became, "First in war ; first in peace, and 
 first in the hearts of his countrymen." Obed, even, 
 is not envious of the price he brings. Obed is not. 
 
 There's a dashing along over mountain and 
 down valley, iind, as darkness gathers around, the 
 whistle sends its shrill notes through the train, the 
 brakeman opens the door and calls out "Altoona." 
 There is no chance to see, but Obed remembers that 
 here in the darkest days of the Rebellion came the 
 Loyal Governors and took counsel how best to stay 
 up the hands of the noble President, and the no less 
 worthy thousands, struggling on the field for nation- 
 al existence. The world knows how well they did 
 
—78- 
 
 their work, but they will meet in council no more. 
 Tod — Honest Dave, sleeps in the valley he loved so 
 well, and which he did so much to develop. Mor- 
 ton, no longer lithe of limb as then, now lifts his 
 clear voice in the chief council of the nation. Over 
 the erring course of another, not over his patriot- 
 ism, let us draw the mantle of forgetful ness, except 
 for the lesson it teaches. Let us cherish their mem- 
 ories for their sterling worth. 
 
 Daylight revealed to Obed the beautiful scenery 
 of the Susquehanna. He looked in the faces of the 
 ladies. They were lengthened from yesterday ; their 
 ruehes were sadly demoralized, and they eyed with 
 besmoked vision, and no pleasant smile the dust and 
 cinder that covered their garb. As for Obed his 
 countenance was "clear as mud," and he found him- 
 self in very much the same condition that Gilpin 
 did after he had taken several turns in that famous 
 ride of his But then, Obed and his companions 
 were going to the Centennial ; they had made up 
 their minds to "endure hardness," so raising a merry 
 laugh, they whiled away the time in counting the 
 minutes it took to pass by Tom Scott's line, under 
 the streets of Baltimore; in watching the market 
 women, with their baskets, and in wondering what 
 the country about Washington, with its evergreen 
 
—79- 
 
 shrubs and dwarfed muUens was made for. As yet, 
 "no man knoweth." 
 
 A sudden curve in the road, and the dome of 
 the Capitol was in view. There was no more time for 
 languor. Obed and his companions were on the — 
 were on the — were on the, yes, now he has it — on the 
 qui vive, which means in plain English, "on the 
 lookout." Obed and his companions were on the 
 lookout for objects of interest. As the train made 
 its circuitous way into the city, Obed noted many 
 changes since the days of the Rebellion. Once 
 within the depot, a pleasant looking man cried out, 
 " This way ; tree buss for the Tremont House." 
 As Obed is fond of " free busses, " he accepted the 
 invitation, and soon he and his companions found 
 themselves in very pleasant rooms, with water, 
 towels and everything essential to thorough ablu- 
 tions. These performed, clean apparel donned, a 
 savory meal disposed of, in the midst of the most 
 assiduous attention from intelligent waiters, and the 
 Obeds were ready for " business." 
 
 At the Capitol. 
 
 Up they went to the Capitol, the sun pouring 
 at the ratfe of 105° to the minute, and Obed, as he 
 
-80- 
 
 wiped the perspiration from his streaming face, was 
 soon convinced that this was the pursuit of pleasure 
 bj'' water. The building once reached, the visitors 
 were delighted in wandering about the Rotunda, the 
 various passages, Halls and Galleries ; in examin- 
 ing the statuary and inspecting the paintings. Here 
 Obed met face to face, George, and John, and Tho- 
 mas, James I and James II, and John whose second 
 name was "Q." and Andrew who was familiarly cal- 
 led "Hickory," and Martin who delighted in the 
 poetic appellation of "Matty Van," and a host of 
 other worthies. He remembered that most of these 
 had been unexceptionable boys, sons of one mother. 
 To Obed it is a great thing to be an unexceptional 
 boy. Such never enter the Benevolent Institutions 
 of the land to pursue a course of instruction on the 
 one study system. It is said to them, "Come up 
 higher." Here Obed and his companions gazed up- 
 on the "Landing of the Pilgrims" till, hot as it was, 
 they heard 
 
 "The dashing waves beat high 
 On a stern and rock-bound coast." 
 
 Here they saw that amiable daughter of Old 
 Mrs. Powhatan as she rushed forward and saved the 
 race of Smiths to the New World — an act deserving 
 undying gratitude, but from which the* ruthless 
 
-81— 
 
 hands of historians are trying to strip every vestige 
 of artistic attitude, and rob it of all its poetic fancy. 
 They contemplated with wonder and delight, the 
 crowning piece of the Capitol, the "Emigration," 
 whose cumbrous wagons and noble steeds ; whoso 
 stalwart men and cheery women ; whose lowing herds 
 and bleating flocks ; whose barking dogs and shouting 
 babies, winding along valleys and scaling moun- 
 tain crests, show how well the painter understood 
 how the great West has been peopled. 
 
 But the Obeds could not spend all their time 
 on statuary and paintings, however worthy. They 
 must see the life of the Capitol, so they made their 
 way to the gallery of the "House" and looked 
 down into the pit. There Obed saw a seething, 
 shouting, disorderly, turbulent mass of humanity, 
 and he said, "These are the sons of aunh. No one 
 mother ever fciihered so much recklessness. It is 
 not a good thing to be the son of one's aunt." Obed 
 had been told of an " Old Boy," but has heard his 
 existence questioned. Obed questioned it no longer. 
 Let whosoever does, look in upon the American 
 House of Representatives and he shall see not one, 
 but a ''legion'' — a legion of old boys in the House of 
 Representatives. v 
 
—82— 
 
 Calm and quiet was the Senate Chamber. One 
 gentleman blandl}' discussed the Currency Ques- 
 tion, whilst about thirty others quietly chatted, po- 
 lite/i/ napped, or undisturbedly poured over the 
 daily news. The Senate was decorus ; but, well, 
 but — 
 
 The Departments are objects of interest in 
 Washington. To these the Obeds went, but brie fly. 
 Lastly, they wended their way to the "White 
 House," which the iadies were particularly anxious 
 to visit. Obed has many times observed that ladies 
 readily gravitate towards a good house. It was so 
 in this instance. The hall was entered with bated 
 breath ; tlie " East Room " was threaded with noise- 
 less step and wondering eye. Thus much was all 
 the Obeds expected, but they were to be more than 
 gratified. The races were over, and " His Ex- 
 cellency " had returned the previous evening from 
 Long Branch, and they were apprised by a 
 polite attendant that they would be permitted to 
 make him a call as soon as he had completed some 
 business with a colored representative, wdiich led 
 Obed to reflect that Soloman made a mistake when 
 he said, " There is no new thing under the sun." 
 
 Once ushered into the Cabinet Room, the leader 
 of the party said, "Obed, from Ohio, Mr. President." 
 
—83— 
 
 And "His Excellency" responded, "Mr. Obed, 
 Mrs. Obed, and Mrs. Obed's friend," as he grasped 
 them severally by the hand. Obed cooled himself 
 with his " palmleal," the ladies made a vigorous 
 use of their fans, and His Excellency wiped the 
 sweat from his brow with his coat sleeve. 
 
 -A. Tvarrrci. tiixie Idtl tlie Ca-Tsinet. 
 
 The Obeds looked up, and His ExL-ellciicy 
 looked down." Tlicy all said '•Good day," and 
 that "Cabinet Meeting" stood adjourned. 
 
 Again on the cars, the Obed.s were hurried out 
 of the city of Magnificent Distances, with her 
 
—84— 
 
 broad streets and beautiful parks ; her pleasant 
 homes and hospitable inhabitants ; her moral tur- 
 pitude and political chicanery, through the Region 
 of Agricultural Despair, and under the Monumental 
 City, with barely time to reflect that here, sixty-two 
 years before, a prisoner on a British Man-of-War 
 then hurling shot and shell at the first " American 
 Flag" ever raised. Key indicted "The Star 
 Spangled Banner." And Obed said, 
 
 " Long may it wave 
 O'er the Land of the Free 
 
 And the Home of the Brave." 
 
 Philadelphia Reached. 
 
 Onward sped the train through ever improving 
 lands ; amid homes and scenery each hour liecom- 
 ing more and more attractive, until just us the sun 
 rested his broad disc upon the Alleghcnies, Phila- 
 delphia was called. Weary and hungry, Obed 
 alighted and looked about for the man who sold 
 the youthful Benjamin the " rolls." He was not .to 
 be seen ; his place of business was closed — closed 
 in Philadelphia, so Obed and his companions 
 sought a hotel, and after a hearty supper, with the 
 atmospliere at " ninety five," 
 
 " They rajjt 
 The drapery of I hdr couches round them, and lay down " 
 
— 8S— 
 
 to hot Centennial dreams, in the midst of which the 
 rapacious buy made haste to levy and collect his first 
 bloody contribution. 
 
 Beginning Work. 
 
 The tlicrmometer at 05°, a close room, and 
 those awful bugs, made the shrill cry of "cat fish," as 
 it came up from the pavement in the early morn, 
 music sweeter than any lullaby, and Obed quickly 
 arose and performed his ablutions, and tried to com- 
 pose his mind to a devotional frame, but he had a 
 scratching time of it. 
 
—86- 
 
 A good breakfast brought balm, and the excur- 
 siouists soon sallied forth to enter vigorously upon 
 the work in hand, and as there was no more fitting 
 place to begin than 
 
 Independence Hall, 
 
 to this they wended their way. The "Spirit of '76," 
 in the person of divers old men, dressed in the cos- 
 tume of the "Continentals," had preceded them, and 
 was driving a brisk business in playing news boy 
 with fac similes of the journalism of a hundred 
 years ago. Pushing their way ]>ast these and a 
 host of otlier curiosity venders, all blessed with gen- 
 uine "Bedouin" grit, though chid in Yankee habili- 
 ments, they soon stood within the Hall hallowed by 
 a thousand sacred memories, for here one hundred 
 years before did true men "Proclaim Liberty 
 throughout the land, to all the iidialiitants thereof;" 
 here, during the dark days of the Revolution had 
 echoed the foot steps of Washington, the Adamses, 
 Hancock, Fraiiklin, Jefferson and Morris, — all the 
 fathers of the Republic, — as they came and took 
 counsel together ; because their counsels were wise 
 and their determinations unswerving, Philadelphia 
 stretches out over miles of territory and her nearly 
 a million of people gave entertainment to the world ; 
 
-87— 
 
 and because they fouglit, suffered and endured, a 
 great people is free, prosperous and happy, offering 
 an asylum to the oppressed of every clime, but 
 firmly asking that they bring not the demoralizing 
 institutions of their old homes to engraft upon the 
 fresher, purer ones of the land of their adoption. 
 Turning to the left they entered 
 
 Independence Chamber, 
 
 which they were informed by a picture vender, pre- 
 sented much the same appearance that it did a luui- 
 dred years ago. The only important change is the 
 old wood floor has given placo to one of marble. 
 Here they found the chair and table occupied by 
 John Hancock, whilst President of the Congress of 
 1776. The chairs of many of the other members 
 still remain. These are of wooil, strongly made, 
 with seat and arms covered with leather. 
 
 Here, in a case prepared for the purpose, is the 
 original Declaration of Independence. It has b.en 
 so many times copied that the names are 'nearly 
 obliterated. In the same case is the silver inkstand 
 used in signing both the Declaration and the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 On the walls they saw many portraits of dis- 
 tinguished patriots of the Revolution; among them 
 
-88- 
 
 that of Washington is most conspicuous, as it ever 
 must be. The chandelier which lighted the fathers 
 in their nightly sittings, with its little " sticks " for 
 the "tallow dip," hanging from the old ceiling, was 
 in strong contrast with the gorgeous ones they were 
 soon to see in the Main Building. Several of the 
 old banners with the devise of the serpent, and the 
 motto, " Don't tread on me," are here carefully pre- 
 served. 
 
 Across the vestibule from the Chamber the 
 Obeds entered the 
 
 National Museum, 
 
 into which are being collected the relicts of our 
 early and more modern history. They found pic- 
 tures of historic interest, portraits of the Georges, 
 and of American and French worthies, on the 
 walls. 
 
 Obed looked long upon old Independence Bell 
 and it5 unic^ue hangings of heavy timber, remember- 
 ing that, though it rings no longer, its tones are by 
 no means dead. He looked with reverence upon 
 the " First Prayer in Congress," as the quaint old 
 manuscript appeared before him, and w4th deepest 
 interest on the original Charter of Philadelphia, 
 
—89— 
 
 written by Penn himself. Seated \a an old church 
 pew, often occupied by the worihies of long ago, 
 Obed reverently laid his hands upon a piece of the 
 lightening rod put by Franklin upon the " West 
 Mansion" in 17(57. Ashe did so, he thought of 
 the great number of " Cable " and other patents 
 which have appeared as offspring of that simple 
 contrivance, and of the vast amount oi negative truth 
 to whicli their sale has given rise, and he was glad 
 that the iniquities of the children are not visited 
 upon the parents to the fourth generation, for if so, 
 where would "Poor Richard" be? 
 
 Leaving the ladies to examine the quilts, dolls 
 and laces of the motliers of the Ptevohition, and feel- 
 ing sorry that he could not note a hundred things 
 of interest, Obed proceeded to copy the following : 
 
 "This building commenced 1732 A. U. C. 50 
 Andrew Hamilton Architect and Snperintendent 
 Was occupied by tlie Legislative Assembly of Penn- 
 sylvania 17;:U>to 1709 TheSuprc^me Court 1743 to 
 1775 The Congress of the Union 1775 to 17S1 
 Peasle's Museum 1802 to 182S The Councils of 
 Philadelphia from consolidation of the liberties 
 1854." 
 
 The brick of which the Hall was built, were 
 brought from England, and the original cost of the 
 edifice was 5,000 pounds sterling. 
 
—90- 
 
 At one of the lanJin,i>-s was found the following 
 inscription, speaking volumes for tlic patriotism of 
 the past and the generous emulation oflhe present: 
 
 ''The State House of Pennsylvania, consecrated 
 h}'- the memories of Events that occurred within and 
 under Shadow of its Walls, is dedicated by the Citi- 
 zens of Philadelphia to their Fellow Countrymen of 
 the United States a Perpetual Monument to the 
 Founders of American Independence on the Nation- 
 al Centennial Anniversary, July 4th, 1870." 
 
 The inspection ended, the little company passed 
 through the beautiful park in the rear of the build- 
 ing, and made haste to reach the "Centennial 
 Grounds." 
 
 In the Main Building. 
 
 That universal yankee expletive "wal," so ex- 
 pressive of satisfaction, and of every thing else that 
 is grand and glorious, burst involuntarily from the 
 lips of Obed as he entered the magnificent structure, 
 designed as the place ot principal exhibit. He had 
 seen its mammoth proportions in the distance. He 
 had looked upon its manner of construction from 
 without, and admired the beauty and design of its 
 workmanship. Upon all these Obed looked, but 
 once upon its twenty-one and a half acres of floors, 
 
—91— 
 
 with the choicest gifts of the nations spread out be- 
 fore him, and the mellowed and variegated light 
 from the thousands of stained panes falling over all, 
 the scene battled description. Obed remembered 
 that in the days of his boyhood he had read the 
 "Arabian Nights," and there came floating back 
 through his memory visions of genii and fairies; of 
 gorgeous palaces with all their rich furnishings of 
 choicest woods, and silver, and gold, and upholstery 
 of damask and crimson; of their inhabitants clad in 
 the rich satins and delicate laces of the Orient. 
 Again he beheld that marvelous lamp which, in the 
 hands of Allaain, wrought such wonders; again he 
 heard the " Open sesame" which yielded up untold 
 treasures at its utterance. Obed had been taught 
 that all these wen only .stor/cs to please his boyish 
 fancy, but never in any way to be realized. But 
 were they not uiore than realized in what he saw 
 around him ? 
 
 The Vision. 
 
 Overcome with the varied sensations of the 
 scene, Obed seated himself musingly, when there 
 was before him a venerable form having the impre-s 
 of genius upon his brow and an irresittable energy 
 
—92 — 
 
 marking his every motion. He stretched out the 
 wand of science over the surging deep, and a new 
 world, clad in primeval grandeur and of vast ex- 
 tent, rose slowl}^ from the world of waters. Its 
 people were a wild and simple race, unlike the in- 
 habitants of the land of the great magician who 
 had called them into view. And Obed noticed that 
 when the great seer made known to his people what, 
 he had done, and their souls and the souls of their 
 neighbors were stirred within them, that in great 
 numbers, some impelled by love of adventure, some 
 by thirst for gain, and some that they might pro- 
 vide a resting place for tliemselves and their loved 
 ones, sought the shores of this strange land. And 
 he observed further, that, as they began to plant 
 homes along her borders, to dig for treasures be- 
 neath her soil, to traverse her interminnble forests 
 and to navigate her noble rivers in search of new 
 scenes, there hovered over her fairest portions the 
 form of a beautiful female. On her countenance 
 there beamed a smile of conscious purity of pur- 
 pose; about her brow was a crown of choicest fruits 
 and grains, interwoven with the green of the "palm 
 and the pine;" her garments falling in graceful 
 folds about her, revealed the handiwork of every 
 craft; in her left hand she held the volume of truth, 
 
-93- 
 
 whilst, with her right, she extended to the nations 
 the olive branch of peace. And as the people who 
 had known nothing but war, and bloodshed, and 
 oppression, and ignorance, saw the tokens, Obed be- 
 held that men left the home and graves of their 
 fathers by hundreds and by thousands, and siie ap- 
 pointed them dwellings by broad bays, along wind- 
 ing rivers and in fertile valleys. Wherever she 
 breathed, there was the spirit of liberty. And Obed 
 noted that the people constructed for themselves 
 highways, and beautiful homes and churches and 
 temples in which their children were taught the 
 ways of knowledge ; that the dusky natives of the 
 soil relultantly gave way before them ; that the 
 forests, felled by the woodman, gave place to tields 
 of waving grain, and in tlieir happiness the people 
 called their guiding spirit the " Genius of the 
 West." As Obed gazed in wonder and delight on 
 all this, toward the rising sun a cloud rose dark and 
 muttering, and the spirit of the East, maddened 
 that liis peii[)le grew restless at the prosperity of 
 their kinsfolks in their new land, came forth, all clad 
 in the panoply of war, and would throttle their 
 effort-^ and chain them as bondsmen to his chariot 
 wheels. Then it was that Obe<l saw the matchless 
 power of of the beautiful figure upon which he had 
 
—94— 
 
 heretofore been gazing. Gathering her beloved 
 children about her, she breathed upon them the 
 spirit of her own invincible will, and bade them 
 prepare for the struggle, without once doubting as 
 to the result. On came the spirit of the East, lead- 
 ing his minions of tyranny. Long and fierce was 
 the struggle; the land was drenched in blood ; the 
 hearts of the stoutest trembled for the fate of their 
 cause. But Justice had unfurled her banner over 
 the new land, and in her own good time the Genius 
 of the West placed the sword of victory in the 
 hands of one of her own braVe sons who had fol- 
 lowed her with unswerving step through all her 
 years of strife, and who now was enshined as first 
 in the affections of all his fellows. And Obed saw 
 that the spirit of the East relinquished his hold up- 
 on all the ftiir land over which the spirit of liberty 
 had hovered, and as he returned to his island home 
 beyond the great deep, the people of the land 
 gathered themselves together and said our guiding 
 spirit shall no more be called the Genius of the 
 West. Henceforth her name shall be Columbia, and 
 the land shall be known as hers. And Columbia 
 taught her people how to make laws equitable and 
 just; how to rid them.selves of old vices: how to 
 protect themselves against their enemies and against 
 
-95- 
 
 tlicmsclves, even at the expense of blood. Under 
 her guidance they quickly spread themselves over 
 all the land the spirit of the East had left them, and 
 much which they afterward secured, so that they 
 reached even unto a great sea beyond them ; their 
 cities became like the stars for number; their 
 children learned wisdom in her tens of thousands 
 of temples, and the people worshiped in innumer- 
 able courts which themselves had builded ; th( y 
 listened to the hum of spindles, the clank of looms, 
 and the clink of hammers arising from their untold 
 manufactories; they traveled in gorgeous palaces 
 upon their rivers and lakes; they constructed 
 curious roads of iron and journeyed over them in 
 gilded coaches, fast as the eye could follow, their 
 steel clad steeds shrieking in their headlong course ; 
 they talk with each other though thousands of miles 
 apart, with tongues of lightening; the earth yielded 
 them her increase and the mountains opened up to 
 them rich treasures of silver and gold; their ships 
 rode on every sea; their fame extended to the ends 
 of the earth, so that all people wondered because of 
 them. 
 
 Then Obed heard Columbia say to her people, 
 " Come lot us build us a great house in the city of 
 Brotherly Love that we may bring of all our mer- 
 
—96— 
 
 chandises and riches into it, and invite all peoples 
 to do the same, that they may come and visit and 
 make merry with us on ni}^ birth day." And Obed 
 saw that " They had a mind to the work." And 
 they builded a great palace of iron and of glass, 
 garnished with rich colors, and they brought into 
 it all the glories and excellencies of the land, and 
 the peo]de of every clime and tongue came with 
 their offerings. Even the spirit of the East, forget- 
 ting the da} of his vanquishing, came with his rich- 
 est stores and treasures. And all were hap[)y as 
 they looked upon the rich cloths, the gorgeous robes, 
 the elaborately wrought furnitures, the aromatic 
 fruits and spices, and curious compounds; the 
 chandaliers glittering in silver and gold ; myriads 
 of implements of every kind flashing in the sun- 
 light, or listened to the strains of music as they 
 came floating from instruments of rarest tone. As 
 Obed gazed about him on the bewildering scene, he 
 said, "Surely, I am in some enchanted land, and 
 this structure of Columbia's is but a fairy palace 
 which needs but the touch of her magic wand to 
 dissolve it into nothingness. " Just then a friend 
 from the Buckeye State tapped him on the shoulder 
 and said, "What, Obed asleep at the Oentennial !" 
 And he arose, rubbed his eyes, looked around and 
 
—1 OS- 
 thousand dollars. Obed bad tbe ability to do tbe 
 asking, 
 
 " Only this and nothing more." 
 The Concert. 
 
 It is probable that nothing produces so much 
 harmony in a household as the " wherewithal 6'Aa// loe 
 be clothed," and as if in periect keeping witii this 
 sentiment, just here there broke in rich strains of 
 music, and Ohed looked up, thinking it was " in the 
 air." Then it was that he first saw great organs, 
 placed on high above the heads of the people, whose 
 tones filled the domes and arches and then floated 
 down to greet the accompaniments from 8teinway, 
 and Chickering, and Bradbury, and Hamlin, and 
 scores of other American pianos and organs, and the 
 many brands from beyond the sea. 
 
 Mrs. Obed and her friend went off in *' ecstatic 
 raptures" over the "grand concert " but Obed was 
 calm and collected, for though his soul is full of 
 music, he has had but a slight introduction into the 
 mysteries of tune, just enough to catch faint glimpses 
 of " Yankee Doodle," " Hail Columbia," " Old Hun- 
 dred," and "Rock ot x\ges " — airs full of patriotism 
 and of heaven. And Obed said, there is progress in 
 
—106— 
 
 all this for Columbia; not "merely material pro- 
 g^ress," as some contemptuously say, but progress for 
 the finer sensibilities of the soul. And Obed re- 
 membered how the fathers toiled all the weary six 
 days and then, resting on the seventh, in a log school 
 house or rustic church, raised 
 
 "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." 
 
 And Obed saw those blessings as they came in 
 pleasanter homes, less of begriuiming labor, tidier 
 school liouses, more commodious churches and 
 "forks" with which to pitch "Windham," and 
 "China," and "Coronation " 
 
 " From Greenland's icy mountains 
 ^o India's coi'al strand." 
 
 Obed rejoices in the memory of that old time 
 music, and congregational singing, and the institu- 
 tions of the fathers, and the lullabies of the mothers, 
 but he is not so "old fogyish " as. to deny that we 
 are even more blessed than they, — no he is not. 
 And when he remembers that " David's hands made 
 the organ, and his lingers joined the psaltry " and 
 that he afterwards became a great king, ruling with 
 energy, Obed has no fears but our daughters will 
 make wives and mothers good as those our fathers 
 had, though Columbia has euabled us to fill our 
 
homes, our schools and our churches with "string- 
 ed instruments and organs " on which they play 
 
 "One more day's ■work for Jesus." 
 
 Obed has honored the music of the "spindle" 
 and the " shuttle " — glories in their day, but God 
 has said "Man shall not live by bread alone," and 
 as he thought how much he is enabling us to do for 
 our children by way of refinement and culture, an 
 exclamation of satisfaction escaped his lips, and a 
 policeman said, " What, sirY" and Obed replied, 
 " This is grand ! " Thus Obed replied. 
 
 Arms. 
 
 The concert ended, Obed found himself stand- 
 ing beside a "Gatling Gun," a gun " fearfully and 
 wonderfully made," carrying its 4| ounce balls two 
 miles, at the rate of 300 per minute. It was Obed's 
 to look admiringly on, this time, while Mrs. 0. and 
 her friend, obeying their feminine impressions, kept 
 at a respectful distance. The old lady's opinion of 
 a gun was uppermost in their minds. Not so with 
 Obed. He had handled " arms," and so having 
 pronounced this "Gatlihg" none of your ordinary 
 " shooters," he was off among the offerings of " Mars," 
 that he might see what the bloody god is construct- 
 ing as implements of his craft. 
 
— 108- 
 
 And Obed saw guns; guns long, and guns sliort; 
 guns richly mounted, and guns mounted to kill ; 
 guns wrought by Columbian hands, and guns from 
 " Celestial " climes ; guns of the most approved 
 European models, and guns of South American de- 
 vice ; guns from every land, each speaking some 
 peculiarity of its people, and silently telling its 
 deadi}^ purpose. Obed saw pistols ; pistols from 
 Worcester and Springfield ; pistols from Berlin and 
 Paris; pistols from a hundred marts in all the world 
 beside; pistols robed in silver and burnished with 
 gold; pistols grouped in the most fantastic manner 
 as festoons, as bedsteads, as gaily dresssd dolls with 
 their little butts resting on downy pillows ; but 
 Obed knew there was death in the breeches of them 
 all. 
 
 There were swords in abundance ; swords from 
 Chicopee and Birmingham ; "Toledo Blades," that 
 spoke of Morish cavaliers, and scymitars from Da- 
 mascus, that carried him back in imagination until 
 he almost saw Abraham arm his servants from her 
 traders; David sending down^ his agents to bargain 
 for new supplies at her manufactories ; Peter adroitly 
 shaving the side of Malchus' head, and the stalwart 
 crusaders, parrying with their heavy broad swords, 
 
— 109— 
 
 the well aimed thrusts of the wiley Moslems' steel ; 
 swords 
 
 " Whose diamonds lischt the passage of their blades," 
 
 And Obed beheld battleaxes that had done 
 valiant service in the hands of Northman and 
 Hun; spears that had let hi light into many an 
 African countenance; bows that had sent forth ar- 
 rows of death, and knives well calculated to peel a 
 pale-face's crou'H. And Obed said "These are im- 
 plements of war for which there will be no use when 
 the lion lies down with the lamb, and the bear eats 
 straw like an ox." Then as he looked out across 
 the " Avenue of the Republic" and saw the mam- 
 moth cannons, mortars, turrets and other enginry 
 of battle, he thought what a falling off there will be 
 in the manufacture of crude metalic ores when all 
 these are beaten into '' plow shares and pruning- 
 hooks." As lie thought of that " good time coming," 
 had he been a singer, Obed would have struck up 
 
 " O, that will be joyful, joyful, 
 When men learn war no more." 
 
 As it is, Obed leaves it witli Him who has promised 
 it, not doubting but in "the fullness of time" He 
 will fuimi. 
 
—110— 
 Pipes. 
 
 Passing from among these implements of carn- 
 age, Obed sought the " arts of peace," and stood be- 
 fore the German dis|jlay of pipes. Remembering, 
 as he looked upon the "Meerschaums," "ambers" 
 and "ivories," with their rich mountings and artis- 
 tic "stems" that his r//-mf ancestor was a Teuton, he 
 almost broke forth, "O mine herf", mine frau, mine 
 Got — mine — mine — mineshmokebipe. Run, Shon! 
 pring me mine dobacca pox, gwick ! " But Obed 
 i-estrained himself; he never "dissipates." Obed 
 never dissipated but once. He was a "small boy." 
 It was a small cigar. It was a little smoke, but was 
 soon followed by as earnest an " Lord, Lord, 
 what shall I do ? " as mortal boy ever ])ut up to his 
 Maker. He wanted none to see him — no mother to 
 hold his head, nor has he had a hankering for the 
 weed, since. 
 
 The Pulpit. 
 
 But a little way from the marvelous display of 
 pipes, was an object very different in design, and 
 of much greater ii.tcrest to Obed and his compan- 
 ions. 
 
-tll- 
 
 "The pulpit, anrl I name it fllled with solemn awe, 
 Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, 
 The most important and efficient guard 
 Support, and ornament of virtue's cause," 
 
 wrote Cowper his soul all aglow, and believing with 
 him in the truth of these sentiments, did Obed ap- 
 proach the " Berlin Pulpit." f 
 There it stood a thing of most perfect work- 
 manship, its five faces richly carved '" with scrip- 
 ture stories from the life of Christ," telling of that 
 long ago betrothal of the virgin to the jmt carpen- 
 ter ; of the "annunciation;" of the visit of Eliza- 
 beth ; of the manger " cradle " and the angel 
 throng, and of that lone flight to Egypt. As Obed 
 looked up, he saw surmounting the whole, delicate- 
 ly formed angels, their tiny wings outspread as if 
 to bear " good news " from earth to heaven, as in 
 that olden time real ones brought "glad tidings" 
 down to men. He admired the beautiful piece of 
 mechanism, in its great height, its exact propor- 
 tions, its ingenious devices. Obed admired, and as 
 he did so, he thought of the plain ci)anLry church 
 in which he was accustomed to worship, with its 
 old-fashioned pulpit, its plain seats, and the throng 
 of friends and neighbors who gathered there on the 
 return of each peaceful Sabbath ; and then he tried 
 to conceive the magnitude of the church that 
 
—US- 
 should be fitted for such a pulpit ; of the richness 
 of its furnishings, and the wealth of those who 
 should Quter within its " pale." And then he re- 
 raembeped that the object before him was for Kinoj- 
 1} land^, and his mind runaway to another part of 
 the '' Buihlino; "' where he had seen the plain 
 " Board " behind which Whitefield stood more than 
 a hundred years ago, and />r/brc which, in response 
 to his impassioned appeals, multitudes prostrated 
 themselves, weef)ing. and inquired, as in a second 
 Pentecost, " Men and brethren what shall we do to 
 be saved." Obed recognized anew that "God is no 
 respector of persons " and calls all, 
 
 " To worship Him, who designs in humbles*; fame, 
 On wildest shore, to meet the upright in hearts ;" 
 
 he was renewedly thankful that the poor, as well as 
 the rich, "have the gospel preached to them." 
 Obe<l was thankful. 
 
 Scenes of the Crucifixion. 
 
 If the "Pulpit" with its rich designs was well 
 calculated to waken the devotional element in 
 Obed's nature, much more was a view wl'ich soon 
 after greeted him in a neighboring court — a court of 
 the "Father Land." Turning a sharp angle into 
 this court, amid the rich altar furnishings of some 
 
—113- 
 
 stately cathedrnl, " He of whom Moses and tlie 
 Prophets did write," was before him. The hand of 
 the artist had, indeed, made tlie inanimate earth 
 speak. There, life size, was Jesus: Jesus upon the 
 cross, the death agony on his brow, the lips almost 
 quivering into " Father forgive them," the blood, 
 staining hands, and side, and feet ; Jesus, liis " beg- 
 ged " body delivered to his friends, his head resting 
 uf)OU his mother's knee, that knee that long ago had 
 supported him, a babe in Bethlehem, every linea- 
 ment of that.pallid countenance seeming to say, " It 
 is finished ; " Jesus in the tomb of the Arimathean, 
 those wounds dripping blood, but a face radiant with 
 the promise, " I am the resurrection and the life ; " 
 " Let not your hearts be troubled." Here Obed stood 
 and wondered, wept, and worshipped in the presence 
 of a mere human conception of the "Divine Trag- 
 edy." Many a time has he conned the words, whilst 
 others have given them the gush of song, 
 
 " There is a fountain filled wiLli blood 
 Drawn from Inimanael's veins ; 
 And sinners plunged beneath that flood, 
 Lo;e all their guilty stains," 
 
 but never before had they come to him with such 
 " spirit and understanding " as-now. 
 
 Ere he turned away from this touching delinea- 
 tion of that greatest of sacrifices which was to come 
 
-114- 
 
 in the ''fullness of timb," all those touching minis- 
 trations which marked the iji/jrimage of the Master; 
 that perjured court ; the ascent of Calvary ; the reiid- 
 ing of the veil ; the walking forth of the risen dead, 
 and the teslimon}' of that unearthly darkness, had 
 passed before his mental vision, and he wondered 
 whether there is not a hidden power to the "Mother 
 Church " in her multiform representations of angels, 
 divinities, saints and scenes, presented to her vo- 
 taries from rosy childhood to hoary age. Many a 
 man has read a piece of statuary or a painting who 
 could not peruse a printed page. "See tliou make 
 all things according to the pattern shewed thee in 
 tlie Mount," is an old injunction, but its spirit is not 
 yet dead. 
 
 Educational Interost. 
 
 Turnlno; from the figures which had so interest- 
 cd him, Obed bethought him of the special request 
 of a friend, who had already witnessed it, that he 
 should be sure and visit the Japanese Educational 
 exhibit. Now said friend looks at everything with 
 an eye to the "recompense of reward," and his visit 
 to the above named Educational Department had 
 "dried up the fountains " of liis benevolence so far 
 
—115— 
 
 as missionar}^ subscriptions are concerned ; — he will 
 give no more to carry the gcspel to the crown- 
 shaved, Uifted Japs, or to cc^nvert the " pig-tailed 
 Celestials." "A new phase to an old idea," mused 
 Obed ; "twenty-five cents saved to the credit side of 
 your profit and loss account in the second century 
 of the republic, old boy, and a dead loss of a quarter 
 to the "American Board." 
 
 Reaching the court where the Japan school ap- 
 pliances were outspread. Obed did not so much won- 
 der at his friend's anti-mi'^sionary spirit. There 
 were numeral frames, writing charts, drawing cards, 
 cubes, cones, and quadrilaterals ; botanical speci- 
 mens, birds, insects, quadrupeds, and le.'ssons from 
 stones and minerals; air-pumps, electrical machines, 
 mechanical powers, and optical instruments; mor- 
 tars, retorts, crucibles, gasometers and other requis- 
 ites for the laboratory ; in short every appliance i'rom 
 " kindergarten " incentives up to university demon- 
 strations. On all these Obed looked, — looked with 
 interest, for although they were truly educational, 
 they were pre-eminently Oriental; very unlike the 
 manufactures of Wight man and Chamberlain. 
 
 Musing on the schools of the land of 8iogun 
 and the Mikado; of their juvenile classes ; of their 
 girls pressing the newly gathered flowers, the boys 
 
—116- 
 
 classifying the results of their geological surveys, 
 and all uniting in the rhetorical exercises of (Jon:i- 
 position Day, Obed wondered if they still indulge 
 in the "heathenish practice of having the teachers 
 board 'round," and presuming from the merry 
 twinkling of the oblique eyes about him they do, he 
 said, "I will not follow the example of my friend, 
 and cut off my missionary support." 
 
 A- move of a few paces and Obed was at home — 
 was in the Educational Department of the Buckeye 
 State. The fathers had not failed to labor that Ohio 
 might be well represented, and if figures and 
 facts would do it, it was done. But the world did 
 not go to the Centennial to study figures and facts 
 on paper. The world went to see, and so did Obed. 
 Feeling thus he passed quickly into "Indiana," and 
 his state pride was humbled in presence of what the 
 Hoosiers had done. Facts and figures they had not 
 omitted, but beyond these they had brought school 
 methods, implements, and models. Therj in miniar 
 ture were some of their finest school buildings of to- 
 day, and over against them one of the long ago — a 
 " School House of 1827." On this Obed looked, and 
 his boyhood rose up before him. Again he thread- 
 ed his weary way through the woods to the old log 
 school house at the " four corners " and sat upon a 
 
—1 17— 
 
 slab scat on the old puncheon floor; again, his back 
 to tlie teacher, he laid his "Elementary" on the 
 desk, a slab supported on pins driven into the wall, 
 and ate pop corn with a relish known only to boys 
 intent .on study; again he" toed the mark" and 
 ppelled "baker," and read, those vivid thoughts, 
 " Wood and coal will make a hot fire," and " I had 
 some green corn in July on a plate;" and those 
 thrilling tales of the " Old man who found the rude 
 boy stealing apples and desired him to come down," 
 but boy-like, the 3'oungster " would not; " the maid 
 who counted her chickens so prehiaturely, and the 
 lawyer's bull which gored the farmer's ox; again, 
 he saw the Obed ox-team bringing up the family 
 portion of wood which he must needs chop for re- 
 cess and nooning pastimes; again he ate his dinner 
 of slapjacks and sausages and slid down hill on a 
 board until that part of his jeans most liable to 
 " wear and tear" became sadly demoralized, only to 
 appear to him next morning under a change of 
 colors; again he was in at the "barring out" and 
 enjoyed alike the master's discomfort, and the ap- 
 ples and cider furnished as a holida}^ consideration 
 foropeningthedoor ; all theseand many other remem- 
 brances of school boy life in the back woods flitted 
 through his mind, as he stood there in presence of 
 
—118— 
 
 that life-like picture of the pnst. He saw himself 
 the owner of a "Kirkham" and the inheritor of a 
 "DaboU" and slate which had done service with 
 the older members of the family; he ciphered to the 
 Rule of Three; he was admitted to practice before the 
 Board of Examiners, and then went boarding round;'' 
 he slept in the loft; slept in the "spare bed;" slept 
 with the head of the family; slopt with the child- 
 ren ; he heard the children say, " Master, mother 
 wants you to come next week," and " Mother dt)n't 
 want you to come 'til after butchering." 
 
 Thus in the presence of those model buildings 
 did Obed review much of his school life, and as he 
 thought of the then and the noiv of it, he said, " Pro- 
 gress in education, — progress in Japan, Ohio and 
 Indiana, progress everywhere," 
 
 Turning to leave the Indiana display, Obed's 
 eye caught an object of interest before unobserved. 
 This was a fine photographic grouping of a '^ IJoosier 
 Family " — a father, motiier, and ten bright eyed lads 
 and lasses, all school goers ; the father and mother 
 as visitors, the children as pupils in various stages 
 of advancement. Upon inquiry of the attendant, 
 Obed learned that Samuel Jones is an honest 
 mechanic of the city of Indianapolis; an efficient 
 member of the School Board, and an earnest advo- 
 
-119- 
 
 cate of the Public School S^'stern of the State. So 
 conspicuous indeed, have he and his family become, 
 that the proprietors of the educational exhibit con- 
 ceived the happy thought of presenting him and 
 his as a part of the same, that not only the State 
 but the World might see one of its benefactors ; 
 and Obed passed on, hoping that the Jones family 
 may increase and multiply until it shall become 
 more numerous than the family of SmitJi even, and 
 that there may never be found one among its mem- 
 bers advocating the single heir doctrine now becom- 
 ing so destructive of real American influence, but 
 that they may continue to fulfill the great law of 
 labor and love in all things. Obed trusts they 
 may. 
 
 Medicines. 
 
 Down upon the first floor again, Obed gave his 
 attention to the department of medicines and 
 chemicals for a time. This was glorious. To Obed 
 this was glorious. The man who cares most for his 
 kind — the man who in the language of the immor- 
 tal "ike "has "ascended into the deep arcana of 
 nature " — the man who has expended Ibrtunes in 
 traveling researches, has exposed life and health 
 
— 120- 
 
 beneath tropic suns and amid polar frosts, that he 
 might bring comfort to the afflicted and "with his 
 loved presence," healing to all the ailmenls of 
 humanit}^ — yes, the patent medicine man was there, 
 and Obed gazed long and wistfully on his wares. 
 How could he do otherwise? He could not with- 
 out the basest ingratitude. There* were "elixirs," 
 and " tonics," and " vermifuges," " pectorals," and 
 " expect-youraioit.s,^' warranted to cure "a thousand 
 and one" diseases each. Many of them have al- 
 ready relieved nine hundred and ninety-nine cases 
 of simple dcbilitij in its most chronic forms. There 
 were "restoratives" for bald crowiis; "dyes" for 
 locks prematurely gray ; "dentrifices" for the teeth ; 
 "balms" for the breath; "extracts" for pestering 
 freckles, and rogues (rouges) for maiden cheeks. 
 On all these Obed looked, and as he did so his 
 memory was busy. He thought of all the fading 
 grandmothers, nervous wives, and shattered hus- 
 bands, and frail Itumans of other classes that ever he 
 had seen ; he thought of his own cup-bonrd and 
 of the bushel or two of empty bottles that might 
 there be gathered up, and of the streams of Cod 
 Liver Oil and 'appetizers " he had swallowed, and 
 as his eye rested on gilted and glittering " Ayers," 
 "Janes," "Halls," " Hooflands," and "Humbugs," 
 
—121— 
 
 bis wish was that all their patrons might live to 
 stand in presence of their show cases at the next 
 Centennial. This only could Obed wish. 
 
 Chemicals. 
 
 Satisfied with gazing at "bitters" aiid "pills," 
 Obed began an inspection of other products of the 
 laboratory. Plere on the one hand was a mass of 
 alum, cubical in form, clear as crystal, and weigh- 
 ing only three tons. Alum enough, thought Obed, 
 to pucker the mouths of the boys of all Yankee 
 Land for the next hundred years. A little way from 
 this was a fine cylindrical mass clear as the other, 
 and weighing five tons. Another one of still dif- 
 ferent form, beautiful in its crystline arrangement, 
 weighed seven tons, whilst a fourth in the form of a 
 large parallelopiped, and weighing nine tons, was 
 traversed throughout its whole length by a " Mam- 
 moth Cave " artistically decorated with stalactites 
 and stalagmites, revealing crystals of most perfect 
 form. In presence of these an astirgent sensation 
 was fast stealing over the mind of Obed, and it was 
 with difficulty that he tried to imagine himself a 
 boy again ; sucking alum, nibbling his mother's 
 
—122— 
 
 bees-wax and eating "choke-cherries" — choice de- 
 lights of juvenile years — of Obed's juvenile years. 
 
 Whether he would have shriveled entirely up, 
 Obed will not pretend to say, for just then a friend 
 said, "0 see there!" And he looked and beheld a 
 great pyramid of indigo — indigo sufficient to furnish 
 "rainbow tint" for a tliousand years. Obed never 
 looks upon indigo but it wakens fragrant memories, 
 and how could it be otherwise there in presence of 
 so muc'li Uhief I could not. To Obed it could not. 
 Again he saw the old time home with its broad 
 cheerful "fire-place;" again the rolls, white, fleecy 
 rolls, were spun; again the skeins were "knotted;" 
 again the great earthen jar was brought out and set 
 "in its ace istomed place;' again there sounded 
 through the house " notes of preparation," and for 
 long weeks, manipulated by the mother's hand, the 
 " savory odors " of the " dye tub " rose fresher than 
 the " balm of a thousand flowers," precursors they 
 of sky-blue mits for misses hands, and '"clouded" 
 socks for boyish feet. No mothers now with coloreil 
 hands. D\ing, they lived ; living, the^^ dyed, but 
 science has despoiled their daughters of those annual 
 rounds our mothers so well knew. "My lads, now 
 mind your p's," no longer enters the list of house- 
 hold words, though many a stalwart naan remem- 
 
—123— 
 
 bers them, as delicate " requisitions " from matron- 
 ly lips. And Obed said, "How wonderful the 
 change since I was a boy." 
 
 Sundries, 
 
 Many and curious were the " ides " and " ites," 
 the "ates" and "phates" and other compounds, 
 some liquids, others solids, upon which Obed look- 
 ed. Had one-half the list been presented to his 
 grandmother, the good old lady would have shaken 
 her head and quoted Solomon on " many inventions." 
 She carried the progenitor of Obed, with his eleven 
 brothers and sisters, safely through the whooping 
 cough, the "canker-rash," the measles, the itch and 
 the other diseases incident to Connecticut childhood 
 with a few simple remedies, as blue mass, lobelia, 
 catnip, sulphur and molasses, " nanny tea," and " oil- 
 of-spank." These would now avail little in the 
 " ager " district of the West. But Obed does not stop 
 to particularize. A great mass of "Extract of Ijog- 
 wood"*over against a fine display (>f "Arnold';; 
 Writing Fluid," wakened memories of " lang snmic," 
 of the times he took basket aud axe and gathered 
 oak bark and alder from the forest to mi.K with lug- 
 wood chips, that the homespun might assume a 
 
—124— 
 
 cinnamon tinge or a sable hue, as a good mother 
 willed. Then, the dying done, Obed prepared liis 
 school-boy's supply of ink. It was not proof against 
 -the attacks of Jack Frost, 'tis true, but then it was 
 the best he had, the best he could get, and — Obed 
 had wandered to the front of a magnificent display 
 of Aikin, Lambert & Go's Gold Pens, and as he gazed 
 upon the broad "commercial" the stately "Con- 
 gress " the pliable " corresponding" and the delicate 
 "Lady's," in his imagination, he again dipped the 
 honored "goose-quili" of long ago in the vial of 
 domestic manufacture, hanging on the wall; with 
 boyish care he made his " pot hooks " and " tram- 
 mels," little dreaming what ihey had to do. with 
 forming letters, and many times caring less ; again 
 he saw the " Jolly old Pedagogue," and the peda- 
 gogue that was not so jolly, his hair and ears loaded 
 with un wrought quills and half-used pens; again he 
 heard those oft repeated cries " Teacher, mend my 
 pen ;" " Master, this pen splatters;" " School ma'ain, 
 this pen makes too broad a mark." These were 
 pleasant reflections. To 01)ed they were peasant, 
 and might have continued long had not some one 
 just then said " My gracious," and looking up he 
 saw on the one hand a rich display of "Joseph's" 
 " Best Steel Pens," and on the other agoi'geous case 
 
—125- 
 
 of " A. W. Faber's celebrated pencils." " Not much 
 like the 'plummet' of the long ago" said Obed to 
 himself, as he remembered the long strip of lead 
 that served alike for ruling his paper, or sinking his 
 line in the fishing time. As Obed turned to leave 
 those standard pens and pencils, he wondered if 
 Gillott and Faber would be at the next Centennial, 
 or if the manufacture of their wares is as conducive 
 to health as the spinning of thread to the "Coates " 
 family or the compounding of cologne to the tribe 
 of " Johannes Johannessen," of whom several hun- 
 dred genuine "originals" still reside in the city of 
 " many smells." Obed wondered, and wandered on. 
 
 Knives and Forks. 
 
 A pencil is worth little without a knife, and 
 this was to be bad at the Centennial. Obed saw 
 knives — knives from the tiny " single blade " with 
 which a lady may clean her nails, to the murderous 
 " Bow II'," with which " chivalry " was wontloavenge 
 itself, and the reeking '■ scal[»or," used by the noble 
 red m:'.n in adorning the walls of his lodge with 
 ornaments chipped irom the crowns of our fathers, 
 a fine art not entirely uncultivaled on our western 
 frontiers to this day. Obed §aw knives from the 
 
—126— 
 
 shops of America and England, from Germany and 
 Brazil, from Mexico and all the Orient ; knives 
 with pearl handles, and handles of ebony and ivory, 
 all inlaid and beautified with silver, and gold, and 
 precious stones ; with blades, saws, files, forceps, 
 forks, spoons, gimlets, cork-screws, screw-drivers, 
 wrenches, hammers, chisels and boot-jacks, and a 
 tacit assurance that by the next Centennial there 
 will be added a chamber set, a dining room and 
 kitchen, a cook stove, a horse and buggy, one cow, 
 a small vegetable garden, and a chbck for groceries, 
 with coupons attached. On all these Obed looked, 
 and as he did so, he wondered if the Yankee ele- 
 ment is not to be found in the soul of all boys, 
 whether amid the bogs of Ireland, the higher 
 culture of the Fatherland, or developing the infantile 
 cue of a Ching-Chang, or reverently bowing, a ten- 
 year-old follower of the Prophet. Obed wondered, 
 and as he did so, he remembered the long ago, when 
 he became the sole owner of a six-and a-fourth-cent 
 "dog knife," a genuine animal, with "pot metal" 
 body, legs set for running, a well-formed head, the 
 sj)ring protruding as a stump tail, and blade for 
 tongue. That knife was a treasure over which Obed 
 gloated with pride, and which gained him the 
 enmity of many a boy less fortunate. Then came 
 
—127— 
 
 the glory that the ownership of a real " Barlow," 
 brought with it, and Gbed said " Alas, poor Bar- 
 low ! he lives only in the memory of men growing 
 gray ; no one has brought Jiis knife to the exposition." 
 Thus Obed said and passed to the inspection of 
 knives and forks. Of these he found not a few, 
 coming from many lands. And Obed said, "Most 
 people now use knives and forks, but it was not al- 
 ways so ; and still, Ah Sin and his Orient cousins 
 adhere to the usageof their fathers; Ah Sin and his 
 cousins do." 
 
 There were knives and forks with bone and 
 wooden handles, with handles of horn and ivory ; 
 knives and forks with blades and tines of burnished 
 steel, and tripple plated with silver ; there were 
 "teas," and "dinners," and "carvers." On all 
 these the world had done her best, but as he stood 
 in the presence of the "Beaver Falls" exhibit, Obed 
 said "Columbia leads the van in these." Es- 
 pecially did he admire that giant carving knife of 
 seven foot blade, and ivory handle, and rich letter- 
 ing, and perfect polish, and gorgeous mountings, 
 and its companion fork ; and he pictured to him- 
 self the man who could handle such implements. 
 Then there arose before his imagination a gobbler 
 "worthy of its steel," and a great thanksgiving 
 
—128— 
 
 table was spread ; the knives were like broad 
 swords, the plates four feet across, the soup tu- 
 reens held half a barrel, the coffee cups, two gallons 
 each; they brouglit in potatoes and turnips by the 
 bushel; the slices of bread were six feet long ; the 
 apple pies ten inches deep; pumpkin pies and 
 everything else were in proportion ; and when all 
 was ready a race of giants came in and sat down. 
 A couimensurate grace was said, when the master 
 of ceremonies arose to carve, and Obed looked 
 up, and up, and — "What are you thinking about 
 now?" said a sharp voice — the massive walls 
 and lofty columns vanished, — all was gone, — and 
 Obed demurely followed Mrs. Obcd and her friend, 
 revolving in his mind how Solomon and the favorite 
 Mrs. S. managed when they gave the first dinner 
 party in the new palace royal, their table 'spread 
 with dishes of gold, and not a fork to -use; how 
 Cffisar and his friends must have looked at the im- 
 perial table, dipping their soj> and tearing their 
 meat with their fingers, and how Miles Standish 
 supported, at the table on the Mayflower, 
 
 "The laudable use of foi'ks, 
 Brought into custom there as they were in Italy, 
 To the sparing of napkins." 
 
 Thus musing, Obed realized that there are few 
 things that more betoken progress than a simple 
 
—129— 
 
 fork ; at first a stick, two uncouth iron prongs, two 
 — three — four well-phxted tines, and one of these 
 a blade, with wliich a peasant girl a grace displays 
 that queens might once have envied. And he was 
 glad, glad he had interviewed Birmingham and 
 Beaver Falls. Obed was glad. 
 
 Pottery. 
 
 Nothing more natural than that knives and 
 forks sliould suggest di-hes to the Obeds, and so it 
 was. In a German court they surveyed the " Royal 
 Pottery" of Berlin, in all its polish and beauty. 
 There were plates, and vase^, and flagons, and beak- 
 ers, and coolers all of the choicest wares and richest 
 patterns, embellished from the paintings of Raphael, 
 Afurillo and others of the masters, and spreading 
 out before the beholder many a royal palace, feudal 
 castle and rich landscape of the Fatherland. On all 
 these Obcd might freely gaze, but nothing more, for 
 they were for palace tables and imperial halls. Obed 
 perceived they were for sale — for sale at prices 
 ranging all the way from S500 to -fj/J'lO per set, or 
 single articles. And Obed said, " it was not always 
 thus in the land of Germania. Once Anglo Saxon, 
 fiery llun, and warlike tribes long since extinct, 
 
—ISO- 
 ranged her interminable forests; and kings, and 
 dames of noble birth, and their retainers all, ate their 
 meat from wooden trenchers or from iron pots, and 
 drank their wine from flagons rude." All this Obed 
 said and there rose up before him visions of pewter 
 platters, blue edged plates, and sets of figured blue; 
 and with dishes such as these he knew many a 
 cheery housewife had been. happy as a queen, and 
 had sighed for nothing better. Stepping just around 
 a screen he stood in presence of gray stone beer 
 mugs and pitchers, imitating in their forms and 
 their blue trimmings old German wares. Their 
 forms were quaint and figures curious, and here are 
 specimens of the homely rhymes rudely inscribed 
 on some of them : 
 
 " From sour beer and a scolding wife 
 May heavea protect thee all thy life." 
 
 to which Obed fully subscribes. Again 
 
 "To none will fate true pleasure bring,' 
 Who does not love, and drink, and sing." 
 
 With the orthodoxy of this latter he is not satisfied. 
 But Germany was not alone in specimens of the 
 ceramic art. China and Japan were there in orien- 
 tal display. Semi-barbaric as they are, Christendom 
 has produced no such porcelain as our oblique-eyed 
 
—131— 
 
 cousins of the house of Shem brought to compare 
 with that of the enlightened sons of Japheth and the 
 sable descendants of Ham. There were dishes 
 superlatively fine, with designs and colorings 
 characteristic of the East; and vases — vases urn 
 shaped, and shaped every way ; vases standing on 
 their own bottoms and vases standing on bottoms of 
 birds and beasts ; vases covered with Eastern scenery 
 and Mongolian devices; vases high and vases low, 
 — as low as $5,000 ; vases whose capacity would he 
 measured by the barrel. On all these Obed looked 
 in wonder and astonishment, but most on the vases. 
 He looked on these, and as' he did so, remembering 
 the ' Portlands " that stand on his own mantle, and 
 Mrs. Obed's dahlias and roses, pinks and posiVs, 
 wondered of the flowers of the Orient ; of sepals and 
 petals, broad and out-spreading ; of their pistils like 
 walking sticks ; of the size of a boquet proportioned 
 to one of the vases, and of the amount of aroma tliat 
 would float out from it ; of the dimensions of a parlor 
 suited for such a display, and wiiat a nice thing a 
 brace of them, placed upon a piiljjit, would bo fir an 
 embarrassed minister to hide bdiind. On all tlieso 
 things and many more, Obed was musing, wlieu 
 " Chin-chan-chang-che-whang-likee " fell upon liis 
 ear. Mrs. Obed and her friend laughed. "John" 
 
—132— 
 
 looked at Obed ; Obed looked at " John," then they 
 bowed, and the Obeds passed on. 
 
 Then came a survey of pottery from England, 
 bearing unmistakable evidence of John Bull ; pot- ■ 
 tery bearing the impress of the Russian bear; pot- 
 tery from Spain, tasty and cheap — a nice water 
 cooler for 25 cts ; pottery from Turkey and Egypt, 
 including nice bottles of goats skin of just the pat- 
 tern the Miss Jethros were carrying when Moses, 
 old bachelor as he was, played the gallant, thirty- 
 four hundred years ago; — the same thcitllagar car- ' 
 ried out into the desert long years before, when 
 Abraham kindly dismissed her on account of the 
 " late unpleasantness " between herself and Mrs. 
 Abraham. As Obed looked he said, " How many 
 things the Father has left to connect the present 
 with the j)ast, and to substantiate the truth of His 
 word!" Thus musing Obed passed into a Peruvian 
 court, where he saw pottery which, if not so rich, 
 was rarer than all. Three thousand years ago the 
 potter placed his clay upon the wiieel, and here in 
 the Centennial was the result; vessels shaped like 
 three legged men with tlie dropsy ; like stuttering 
 boy with new cap, sh')rt shirt, and barefooted; like 
 limbless ladies with their jaws bound up ; like 
 quadrupeds that walk, and reptiles that crawl ; like 
 
—133- 
 
 iiihabitants of air and sea ; vessels all covered with 
 curious symbols which when read will reveal the 
 history of the strange people who formed them, and 
 builded the great mounds in which they have been 
 preserved for hoary centuries. Not only upon this 
 potter}^ did Obed feast his eyes, but upon the potters 
 themselves. Yes, old Mr. and Mrs. Incus and a 
 number of the Junior Incases were at the Centen- 
 nial. For three thousand years had they patiently 
 waited for an opportunity to visit Yankee Land. 
 Marvelous patience beside which that of the man of 
 Uz fades away ! But now their desire was gratified. 
 Though they were a little dry and somewhat bony in 
 appearance, the people came and paid their respects 
 to them, but Darwin failed to draw out the secret of 
 their origin. To Mrs. Obed and her friend, these 
 distant relatives were obj^^cts of special interest and 
 the}^ often speak of them, and Obed remembers them 
 in his dreams 
 
 Dolls. 
 
 A woman of sense always takes to anything in 
 the form of child! lood as natural !}'• as a duck does 
 to watei". hence Obed was not at all surprised when 
 he found Mrs. 0. and her friend standine; in front 
 
—134— 
 
 of the exhibit oi artifciul innocency, and enthusias- 
 tically discussing the rare beauty of both form and 
 finish. By way of interlude, just to give them 
 breath, Obed was remarking that so far at least as 
 docility is concerned, art had made an improvement 
 on nature, when a fine old. lady who stood by, ob- 
 serving the rolling of the eyes of one in the hands 
 of an exldbitor exclaimed, " La me, sir, they are 
 almost as natural as if they were home-made," to 
 which Obed could but reply, " Very natural, indeed, 
 mam," and hurried off to inspect a " Chinese Bed- 
 stead," marked "$4,500." It was said to have been 
 carved out with a knife, and bore representations of 
 everything hideous in heaven, earth, and sea, and 
 as he gazed upon it Obed remarked to himself, " If 
 there is anything better calculated than a mince 
 pie and a quart of hard cider, to give a man the 
 night mare, it would be to sleep upon that bedstead. 
 It was fit only for " Celestial " climes. 
 
 Norwegian Figures. 
 
 " Life is real, life is earnest," 
 
 sang Longfellow years before Centennial Exposi- 
 tions were thought of, and his words came flitting 
 through the mind of Obed as he entered the " Nor- 
 wegian Court ; " for there he saw what no other 
 
— 13S— 
 
 nation thought to put on exhibition — the varied 
 phases, of real life among the great mass of the 
 people. 
 
 Here in a little corner, upon mimic snow, was 
 placed a sledge with reindeer attached, and pater 
 fami/ias, well wrapped in woolens and furs, seated 
 for the long drive, 
 
 " Over frosty Lapland dreary," 
 
 whilst his better half stood by handing his lighted 
 pipe, the pedal extremities of a "Baby mine " pro- 
 truding from beneath the left arm. She looked the 
 ver}'- picture of womaidy meekness, and wife-like 
 obedience. To Obed the ])icture was one of rare 
 interest, and his feelings took to themselves wings 
 of pros}', and audibly arose in these words, 
 
 "Happy the man whose fortunes share 
 A woman of such tender care. " 
 
 Turning to see wdiat the impression w.is upon the 
 ladies, Mrs. Obed curtly replied, " I'd like to see 
 myself lighting a [)ipe or carrying a young one for 
 any man living." To this her friend nodded assent, 
 and Obed responded, '" So would I." 
 
 Just acro:s the aisle was another group. It was 
 the old, old story — an empty cradle; a filled coffin, 
 plain and simple; a young mother bowing under 
 this her first great affliction, whilst the holy man of 
 
—136- 
 
 God, book in hand, stood by administering words 
 of consolation. As Obed looked, tears of grati- 
 tude welled up in his eyes, that the great Father 
 had left his own band of loved ones all unbroken. 
 
 Just over the railing, at a little cross legged 
 table, sat an old father and mother, crowned with 
 the glory of years, he reading the " Book," outsj)read 
 before him; she busily plying the needles that knit- 
 ted socks for little feet of other homes, as in the long 
 ago they had for the heads of those homes, then 
 prattlers upon the hearthstone wliero now but two 
 again sat down. 
 
 It were almost needless to refer to the old 
 "Tinker" intently working over a worm eaten time 
 piece, whilst his " hale old wife " pours some quest- 
 ion of interest into his ear, closely observed by the 
 damsel in plain homespun, aud by the bashful 
 swain, looking as though life or death, to him, de- 
 pended upon the coloquy going on at the table. It 
 was only a repetition of what has transpired thous- 
 ands of times in well i*egulated families — the refer- 
 ence of a " popped question " from the hanger on 
 at the gate to the " powers that be " — a mere matter 
 of form, good for nothing unless |ja'pa comes down 
 with a pleasant affirmation and a commcnsura'opilf^ 
 of dust. 
 
-137- 
 Pltimes. 
 
 Away down in the south-western corner of tho 
 buihlino; was a small court of South African ex- 
 liibits attracting- but little attention, and yet it con- 
 tained bugs and beetles and birds of rare beauty, as 
 well as grains, and animals that had passed through 
 the hands of the taxidermist; but the most pleasing 
 tiling to Obed was a nest of ostrich eggs, from the 
 center of which waved a pbtmc of several feathers of 
 gigantic proportions. As he stood contemplating 
 these and the natural history of their parentage, re- 
 membering that Uncle Sam pays only $10,000,000 
 annually for this single product to please the fancy 
 of his fair daughters, he exclaimed, "Cheap enough ' 
 for the transfer of so much beauty from tho tail of 
 one bird to the head of another." 
 
 Machinery Hall. 
 
 Five hundred feet away from the Main Build- 
 ing stood Machinery Hall. Of its wonders none 
 can tell. Its wealth of devices in wood and stone, in 
 iron and brass, in copper and bronze; in science and 
 art, in literature and aesthetics; for peace and war, 
 for air and earth, and under the earth ; for making 
 toys and constructing locomotives, was an over- 
 
—138— 
 
 wbelmingly eloquent sermon on, " But man has 
 so "ig-lit out many inventions." To but one of its 
 lessons can Obed refer, the most impressive of them 
 all, the climax of the Exposition, the 
 
 " Corliss Engine." 
 
 Before this be stood in wonder and astonish- 
 ment; around it again and a,<;ain be walked ad- 
 miringf the symmetry of its proportions, tlie com- 
 pleteness of its workmanship, and the perfect 
 unifurmity of its motion, sustaining and vivifying 
 the mechanical irorhl around. Then bis mind ran 
 back to the opening day of the Exposition. The 
 oration had been pronounced, the venerable Whit- 
 tier had read his sim})le "Song of a Hundred 
 Years," the Orchestra had thundered forth its grand 
 Anthem, General Grant had delivered his character- 
 istic speech, "I now declare the Exposition open," 
 when tbe grand procession, headed by the President 
 nnd the Empress of Brazil, followed immediately by 
 Dom Pedro and Mrs. Grant, and made up of the 
 wealth, refinement and enterpris^^ of many lands, 
 began its triumphal march amid the gorgeous dis- 
 play of the Main Building. The Hall reached, all 
 was silent and motionless as the 2;rave. The saw- 
 
—139 — 
 
 3'er stood at his buzz ; the weaver stood by liis loom 
 and the spinner at her " Jenny ; " the " Editor sat 
 in his sanctum ; " the pressman stood at his form, 
 and the devil, ink pot in hand; — ail over the vast 
 building every artisan was, statue-like, in his place. 
 On the procession moved amid the universal quie- 
 tudp until the Engine was reached. Then a plain 
 unpretending man, stepping down, as'sisted the Em- 
 i^^ress and Mrs. Grant to a place on the platform and 
 stationed their husbands at the re-^pective valves of 
 the Engine. When all was ready, turning to tlie 
 Emperor, he said, " Your highness will please turn 
 that crank," and immediately the ponderous beam 
 above began to move, then turning to the President, 
 "Your Excellency will please turn tiiat crank," and 
 no sooner had he who had commanded from Don- 
 aldson to Appomatto.x:, obeyed, than thirteen miles 
 of shafting was in harmonious motion, and fourteen 
 ar;re.s of operatives were busy at their respective avo- 
 cations. Never was there a grander sight, or a more 
 impressive lesson than wlien, in presence of the 
 educated, the honored, the elite of two hemispheres, 
 dignity, heroism and royally, did the liidding of a 
 simple American mechanic. Never since the 
 Master said, " My Father worketh hilher'to, and I 
 work," has labor been so dignified as wlien Emperor 
 
— 140— 
 
 and President did tlie bidding of Geo. H. Corliss 
 npon the platform of the Titan of the Exhibition. 
 
 State Buildings. 
 
 If there is any advantage in advertising, Kan- 
 sas has had it from the days of the " Omnibus 
 Bill," down to the time of the "Exodus," in her 
 "bleeding," her " Ossawattomie," whose 
 
 "Soul Roes marching on,"' 
 
 in her grasshoppers, her tornadoes, her land 
 sciiemes; but nowhere better than in her Centen- 
 nial exhibit, a very exposition in itself. 
 
 Joining with her sister of " bug " notoriety, 
 they placed upon the grounds a building suited to 
 a display of their air, soil, water, and mines ; and 
 this display they made to the satisfaction of every- 
 body, particularly themselves. Entering the build- 
 ing, the first thing that attracted attention was "In- 
 dependence Bell," constructed irom Kansas grain 
 by Kansas fingers, its gourd clapper of such dimen- 
 sions as would have made Jonah's eyes water could 
 he have seen it when his own vine withered away; 
 then came corn stalks well calculated for "Liberty 
 poles," and these were loaded with " ears " any one 
 of which would have afforded an amj)le meal of 
 " succotash " for an old time family. The wheats, 
 
_141 — 
 
 oats, barleys, grapes, fruits, and timbers, were simp- 
 ly enormous, and as the Commissioner expatiated 
 on the rapidity of their growth, Obed thought how 
 useless a time-piece in such a land, where the flight 
 of the hours might be marked b}' the inches of 
 vegetable growth. 
 
 At the left of the main entrance was the Color- 
 ado display. Here were ores of the precious metals, 
 and metals not so precious; coals, and building 
 stones, but most imposing of all, the motar/crie of 
 Mrs. Maxwell, " Huntress of the West," the most 
 artistically arranged collection of animals, birds 
 and reptiles upon the grounds; so life-Wke, indeed, 
 as almost to make one imagine himself amou": the 
 living realities in the fastness of their mountain 
 homes. 
 
 Passing along " State Avenue," Obed could but 
 bestow a passing glance upon the buildings of the 
 different States. l-[ere was the unique house built 
 by the "Canucks," speaking volumes for Canada's 
 I'ich resources in luinl)er and timber. A little far- 
 ther along wns the more imposing building of Cali- 
 fornia, displaying her beautiful myrtles and other 
 lumber and rich products, to fine advantage ; and 
 then came the mystic " Mis-^issippi Home," with the 
 long niosscs suspended from its eaves. 
 
—142— 
 
 The Connecticut building wns the home of 
 Obed's cousins. Ashe passed across the yard lie 
 refreshed himself with a draught from 
 
 "The old oaken bucket, the iron iDouud bucket, 
 Tlie moss covered bucket that hnng in the well." 
 
 Euteiing he was permitted to regale himself upon 
 the savory odors of a wooden ham seasoned willi 
 nutmeg made from a bough of the " Charter Oak," 
 slowly cooking over a tire ignited from a spark 
 struck from a horn Mint. 
 
 Some state buildin'js were more im{)osing, oth- 
 ers more unique, but none were so gratifying to the. 
 eye of Ohed*is that of Ohio. Passing through the 
 office and general.lounge roont, he fi:ially drew up 
 in the "Parlor." Here he saw the veritable apron 
 which the great Father of his country used to wear 
 after he was permitted to see " more light," and to go 
 in and out with the "craft" from "labor"' to "re- 
 freshment." The great (juestion wassett'ed. Truth- 
 ful (ieorge did ste}) within the " Mystic Brother- 
 hood," and however it may be with tiiose who " ride 
 the goat" in these degenerate days, certain it is that 
 AVashington always met upon the " level," and 
 parted upon the "square." 
 
 Without any dispara;::ment to either " Empire" 
 or "Keystone" there was an honest nride in the 
 
-143- 
 
 heart of Obed as he contemplated the " Buckeye " 
 buildhig, showino^ a=! it did the varied building re- 
 sources of his native state ; and remembering her 
 rich agricultural and other products he penciled in 
 his memorandum, 
 
 " From her lake that bears bold Indian name 
 Away to the " Beautiful " river, 
 There is naught of the earth, and naught of the air, 
 But praises the Bountiful Giver. 
 
 In her forests are choicest ribbings of oak. 
 
 Her streams furnish glorious fishing ; 
 Then her highlands yield wheat, her lowlands give corn, 
 
 By our only properly wishing. 
 
 She has iron in store, and coal even more. 
 And the lime that's used in the " pigging ; "' 
 
 Not a man in all her borders need want. 
 If he's only the "grit" to "keep digging." 
 
 As her fathers are men of a right worthy sorb, 
 So their wives are with gooriness a-brimming ; 
 
 And her boys, full of true American blood, 
 Have fair sisters not given to " trimming." 
 
 Of our dear Uncle Sam she's beconiing the pet, 
 And of " Presidents," bids to be "Mother : " 
 
 Yet she bears her rich laurels in manner so meek. 
 As not e'en to offend any other." 
 
 United. States Department. 
 
 The General Government did not forget to put 
 itself on record in a special buiMing where Uncle 
 
—144— 
 
 Sam might exliibit himself. This he did, in part 
 by marching out his sohliers and marines of every 
 period of the Republic, and Obed went on a tour 
 of '"inspection." lie found Jark Tar and his lineal 
 descendants, from the days of Paul Jones to tbe 
 noble boys who made up the Castor-Oil Fleet, ready 
 to tip the tarpaulin or strike for 
 
 " A home on the rolling deep," 
 
 as duty might require. Troopers and infantry, 
 sharp shooters and artillery men, had alike reported 
 for duty ; old Revolutionary, patriot of 1812, hero 
 of Mexico, and boy in blue, artificially done, all 
 were there. Old musket, flint-lock riHe, and 
 "Springfield;" horse pistol" and seven shooter; 
 twelve pounder, mortar, " Paxhan " and " Needle 
 Gun," all said " Here we are ; take us." 
 
 The war [)ower of the country, past and pres- 
 ent, was only a tythe of the features of interest. 
 Many things brought from the Departments at 
 Washington were on exhibition. Many relics of 
 the Revolution were to be seen; among them sev- 
 eral brass and other cannons presented to the coun- 
 try l)y La Fayette. These pounders of the olden 
 time contrasted strangely with the modern field 
 pieces around them, and when he remembered the 
 service they did the country, as did also the gallant 
 
—145— 
 
 young Frenchman, at whose command they uttered 
 their voice of thunder in favor of American liberty, 
 the feelings of Obed became almost reverential, and 
 he pities the man who did not give wa}^ to his feel- 
 ings in presence of these, of the old " First Flag," 
 the chair of " Old Hickory " and the " camp chest " 
 of Washington. 
 
 The Woman's Pavilion. 
 
 This building was the conception and property 
 of ladies. Here the women of the country made a 
 fine display of their genius, and daily exhibited their 
 mechanical and manufacturing skill. Sewing ma- 
 chines, knitters, looms for laces and other fine 
 fabrics, were to be seen in great abundance, many 
 of them in active operation. Here were many 
 articles of goods such as ladies are specially interest- 
 ed in, and with most bewitching smiles, the fair 
 venders importuned Obed to buy, and how could he 
 resist, for the ladies had already liberally patronized 
 "Ah Sin" and "Abdel Sheik f" 
 
 When they had gazed their fill on veils, laces, 
 shawls, ribbons, embroideries, bonnets, dolls, robes, 
 and other products of female handicraft, and had 
 patronized a red hot candy stand, Obed called a po- 
 
—146— 
 
 liceman to show them tbe"Whist]e." Thislittleobject, 
 a marvel in its line, was the work of a New England 
 lass, who cruelly withheld her person/and even her 
 name from the interview'mq world, and Obed, so far 
 as he knows, was the only one so fortunate as to 
 obtain a photograph of the fair artist. This lady 
 
 had taken all the poetry out of a time-honored ad- 
 age, by actually wringing n pig's tail without des- 
 troying the curl, and giving, as the result of her 
 
—147— 
 
 ingonait}^ a veritable whistle, to which was append- 
 ed this Byronic verse : 
 
 " There's a proverb wide known, 
 
 As Scotland's famed tliistle, 
 That out of a pigs's tail, you 
 
 Can't make a whistle ; 
 We believe we've accomplished 
 
 That wonderful thing. 
 And those who do wish to 
 
 May make this tail sing," 
 
 and Obcd tried it to 
 
 "The girl I left behind me," 
 
 with admirable success. 
 
 In the New England Kitchen. 
 
 Obed had heard of the " New England Kitch- 
 en," and as raa}^ very well be supposed, was desir- 
 ous of seeing for himself how his ancestors formerly, 
 and his, lo him, unseen cousins, still live, so in his 
 early rambles about the grounds he took in the 
 "Kitchen," of course. It was just ns he had 
 expected. The double log-frame house with its 
 chimneys set without and the broad open iire place 
 within; the little yard in front with its posies such 
 as our mothers loved before the days of hot houses 
 
—148- 
 
 and importations of flowers, the morning glory, the 
 'stertion, the touch-me-not, and the holly hock, with 
 here and there a plant of more useful kind, as a beet 
 or a cabbage. To Obed, with his old time notions, 
 these things were pleasant, and as he saw placed in 
 great letters above the doorway " Welcome to all," 
 he entered, and as he had done a thousand times 
 in the days of his boyhood in his Western home, 
 seated himself on the rustic seat under the " stoop " 
 for grateful rest. 
 
 For a time the mind of Obed was busy with the 
 memories of other days — of days long gone when he 
 gathered in the cool of the summer evening with 
 father and m.other, brothers and sisters with whom 
 he will gather about the doorway no more in the 
 evening time, but with whom he hopes to meet about 
 *'the great wliite throne," and listen to stories of 
 New England times and customs, and of a six week's 
 journey through an almost pathless wilderness to 
 " New Connecticut." Of such things Obed mused 
 until his revcry was broken, and the " latch string" 
 being out he arose and entered. Obed entered the 
 " Kitchen." 
 
 There, just as he had expect ^d, was the great 
 "family room" with its broad, grateful fire place, 
 over which hung the apples and the pumpkins to 
 
dry; the big wheel stood by the front window, with 
 Aunt Phebe by its side trying to untangle the yarn 
 which Jedediah had unwittingly tangled ; the old 
 rifle and powder horn hung from their hooks on tlie 
 wall; the " pewter platters " were in their appro- 
 priate places on the shelf; the old family Bible with 
 long s's lay upon the stand, and by its side the well 
 thummed hymn book which many a time at the 
 family altar, at church, and when loved ones have 
 been laid away, has famished words for " Mear," 
 "Coronation," and "Old Hundred;" pennyroj'al, 
 cat-nip, and boneset, hung drying from the rafters; 
 corn was braided and hungup for the next year's 
 use, and the twins were asleep in tlie cradle, whilst 
 "Jowler" and "Tabby" were quietly dozing in 
 the shade. As Obed looked around on all these 
 things, and the many others that were about him, 
 he thought of the time when, snugly " tucked up " 
 in the bed in the cornei', he would quietly raise his 
 head to see how "sparking" was done, as his sist- 
 ers, older than himself, sat with their beaux by the 
 dimly burning fire. It was naughty for him to do 
 so, but Obed was a 6o,y. Then he remembered how 
 he disliked to a])ply himself at the old "dasher 
 churn," and how he enjoyed the ' app e bees" — for 
 just a few minutes, and then longed for the games 
 
— ISO— 
 
 of "hide-and-seek," "button," and "snap-and-catch- 
 them." Obed remembered all these. 
 
 But a police-man said, " Move on," and Obed 
 moved — moved to the bed room, where was the old 
 bed wliose clothes did service six generations ago, 
 and whose testers stood as of old, while the ancient 
 curtains fell gracefully abo it them. Aunt Doritha 
 was here, mild as a matron born, and pointed out to 
 Obed the looking glass before which her great-grand- 
 mother's aunt's great-grand-father's wife's husband 
 used to shave himself, and a little wheel on which 
 was spun two hundred years ago any yarn but 
 " street j'-arn." Here, too, Obed met Tabitha Sprig- 
 gins, of Sprigginsville, relict of Obediah Spriggins, 
 she that was a Bumpus. As she had done for the 
 last sixty years, widow Spriggins was diligently 
 plying her needle, never forgetting to sto|> at frequent 
 intervals, tap her snuff box and mention some good 
 quality or deed of the long departed Obediah. Obed 
 would gladly have dropped some words of consola- 
 tion in her ear, but circumstances forbade, and he 
 passed on. Obed passed on with a feeling of sad- 
 ness for the once fair Bumpus. 
 
 Experiencing a feeling of "goneness;^' Obed v.'ent 
 to the wicket where Dolly sat as a receiver of custom, 
 and bargained for a quarter for a " New England 
 
—151— 
 
 lunch." And he ate his bread, butter, and berries, 
 drank his tea, and was satisfied. Not so with some 
 finely dressed ladies who sat at the table with him. 
 They ate, grumbled, and slily filled their pockets 
 with doughnuts. And Obed said to himself, " You 
 cannot always tell the character of a person by the 
 clothes he wears." This from long experience is 
 Obed's belief. 
 
 And Obed watched Patience, and Huldah, and 
 Prudence, dressed in their simple attire, with tidy 
 caps and graceful ruffles, and he thought of the 
 time when Jonathan, and Hezekiah, and 'Zekiel 
 should bashfully come and take these to themselves, 
 leaving Diana, and Ke^ia in "single blessedness," 
 still to grace the "old New England home," for 
 Obed has heard it said that it is not complete with- 
 out a maiden auntie or two —and he said 'tis good 
 to have maiden aunts ; many shall arise and call 
 them blessed. 
 
 And Obed left the " Kitchen," glad that he had 
 been there — glad that it had been put on the ground, 
 thus connecting the old with the new. Obed 
 believes in holding on to the old land marks that 
 connect us with our fathers. If we forsake New 
 England institutions, where shall we be found ? 
 
— 1S2— 
 In Agricultural Hall. 
 
 Refreshed with sleep and invigorated by a 
 hearty breakfast, Obed was ready for a day of real 
 Centennial work. Having been reared on a farm 
 he naturally gravitated to Agricultural Hall. His 
 first impression was that he was at a trial of mow- 
 ing machines, for on entering he was greeted with 
 a view of Klrbi/, Backcije, Champion, Excelsior, and a 
 host of others, some with, others without reaper at- 
 tachments, but all in vigorous motion, doing their 
 best — doing their best in Agricultural Hall without 
 a thing to cut. As he gazed about on these highly 
 finished products of American ingenuit}', Obed 
 thought of tlie time when " Armstrony-'s " was the 
 only available machine, and then in his im- 
 agination he saw the long rows of them that used 
 to gather in the early morning, of the days " lang 
 syne," in the great meadows and after a brisk 
 tune f/rou'fr^ out of " Qaennebogs," commence that 
 stately swing than which none was ever more grace- 
 ful. Again Obed heard the voice of the father as 
 he said, " Keep down your /iff/ boys, and tend to your 
 pointing out;'' agaiu ho beheld the double swath; 
 again he engaged in the run ; again he heard the 
 shout that' at'osg when th§ leader's scythe was 
 
— 1S3— 
 
 " grassed." And Obed sighed for the good old days, 
 for he always loved the hang of a scythe — the hang 
 of a scythe in an apple tree and a seat in the shade 
 with the ten o'clock lunch spread before him. 
 
 Obed passed among the Thrashers and remem- 
 bered the solemn music the sturdy farmer was wont 
 to make, as flail in hand, he brought down the 
 swingel on the golden grain, and the ga}'' times the 
 boys enjoyed as they rode Bud- and Berry around 
 the great barn floor to get the c/rist tramped out for 
 to-morrow's milling. 
 
 Among the bright steel plows and well wrought 
 sub-soilers, Obed met a genuine specimen of '"76," 
 an old time plow, with wooden mould board which 
 some one had thought to bring in to contrast with 
 the implements of "these degenerate days." As 
 he surveyed it he said, " 'Tis well ; the age of iron 
 is better than the age of wood, at least in the age of 
 plows." Thus Obed said, and passed rapidly on 
 from one class of agricultural implements to anoth- 
 er, ever finding some strong points of contrast be- 
 tween the old and the new, furnishing rich fields 
 for reflection. 
 
 Obed could not content himself with a view of 
 agricultural implements only, found in the great 
 Hall devoted to their display. There were a thous- 
 
— 1S4— 
 
 and objects demanding attention, to many of these 
 he paid his respects. He stood' among ice-cream 
 freezers and heard their respective merits discussed 
 until his temperature fell below the sweating point; 
 then he went up to view the old wind-mill with its 
 ponderous wings, speaking their volumes of other 
 times, and other men. Here was a display of canned 
 fruit, put up by a patent process, making Obed's 
 mouth water, at the very sight, but then between 
 the snowy white pears and him there was strong 
 glass, and Obed tasted not. A little way off he 
 espied a very fine ox, and having an eye for the 
 bovine, he hastened to a close inspection. It was of 
 a dark red color, and weighed 3,200 pounds. It 
 was a very quiet ox, and Obed was pleased at its ex- 
 treme docility. Though the flies buzzed about, it 
 switched not its tail ; and as the ladies waved their 
 parasols in front of it to point out the singular intel- 
 ligence protrayed in the high forehead, it never 
 winked. Then Obed observed it had a glass eye, 
 and he said, '"Tis only stuffed — stuffed for the Cen- 
 tennial." After this he observed many exhibits 
 of stuffing — stuffing incidents not to this country 
 only, but to foreign lands. He visited the depart- 
 ment of fishes. A few swam in aquariums, but most 
 were stuffed, fishes, turtles, seals and whales. "Old 
 
—188— 
 
 Abe" was there proud as when in the hour of bat- 
 tle, he perched above the brave Wisconsin boys. 
 No other bird fluttered. All were stuffed. In the 
 distance Obed &aw some fine "Chester Whites" 
 looking as though just ready to grunt with hoggish 
 satisfaction. On close inspection he found the> too 
 had glass eyes and weighed 500 pounds, stuffed. 
 And he said, " This is an age of stuffing." 
 
 As he walked on he saw many fine specimens 
 of the lands that did not admit of anything artificial. 
 He gazed with delight on the great " cotton pavil- 
 ion " of Brazil, and the rich grains and fruits of 
 the "Empire" in grand display beneath it ; on the 
 woods and dyes, and gums of all South America; 
 upon all varied mineral and animal resources. 
 Mexico was there with all her mahogany, her indi- 
 go, and cactuses in abundance. There were pines 
 and furs from British Columbia and Labrador, and 
 the works of Indian artificers from the frozen North. 
 And Obed musing said these lands are but the sub- 
 urbs of "Uncle S.im " — suburbs of Uncle Sam. 
 In the great day of Reform when we get turtle soup 
 from Cuba, they will be our turtles; when we have 
 killed all the Blackfeet and Sioux, and war with the 
 Dog-ribs, they will be our Indians; when our col- 
 leges l\old their regattas of the " Horn," it will be 
 
—156— 
 
 our Horn. And Obed saw that all the nations had 
 worked with a will to fill Agricultural Hall with 
 the things that go to show national wealth and pow- 
 er, and he was glad, for it speaks of the approach of 
 that day when swords shall be beaten into plow- 
 shares, and spears into pruning hooks,; and when 
 nations shall learn war no more. To Obed it speaks 
 of these things. 
 
 In Brewers' Hall. 
 
 Obed had heard of Brewers' Hall, had read 
 somewhat of the protestations uttered against hav- 
 ing the alcholic brand of Columbian industry rep- 
 resented at the Centennial. In fact, he was in full 
 accord with the proliibition sentiment on that point, 
 hence he approached the hall with anything but 
 feelings of enthusiasm. The exterior was very plain, 
 and there was little about it to attract attention. A 
 few nicely trained hop vines, and " Brewers'- Hall," 
 in bold letters, indicated its purpose. As he was 
 there to have a peep at everything about the Cen- 
 tennial, he hesitated not to enter. 
 
 Great was his surprise, for instead of the dirty 
 appearance, sour atmosphere, bloated faces and blear 
 eyes he expected -to encounter, everything was tidy 
 
—187— 
 
 in the extreme. The air was full of pleasant odors, 
 and a more agreeable set of men, with frank, open 
 countenances, one could not find on the grounds. 
 So pre-eminently true was this, that order reigned 
 without policeman's aid. A. 1 were very communi- 
 cative with regard to their exhibit, its arrangement 
 and design. 
 
 The first thing that attracted Obed's attention 
 was the "steeping cisterns" filled with steaming 
 barley going through the first step preparatory to 
 the foaming mug. When he had gazed his fill 
 on these he passed to the "couching floor," dusted 
 and clean as a lady's parlor, and beheld the great 
 piles of steeped grain giving out their fruity aroma ; 
 then came the "drying" and "sifting" depart- 
 ments, and everywhere his questions were answered 
 with so much courtesy and candor that (3bed's 
 prejudices against the building began to give way, 
 and he viewed the "grinding" and "mashing," 
 tlie "drawing off'," "boiling" and "straining" of 
 the "wort," the processes of the "gyle tuns," and 
 finally the placing of the "yeasted liquid " in casks 
 "to work itself cl.ear," with enthusiastic satisfaction. 
 Nor was his visit to the "storage rooms" less en- 
 joyable than his passage through the manufacturing 
 department. 
 
—138— 
 
 In his onward course Obed was presented with 
 a copy of " Essays on the Malt Liquor Question," 
 from a cursory glance at which he learned that 
 many excellent men endorse the use of aleH and 
 heers, and that the manufacture of these in the home 
 of Columbia alone gives employment to more than 
 35,000 men, at an annual expense of $14,000,000, 
 and that it pays to the government an annual tax of 
 $9,000,000. As he looked, and talked, and read, his 
 faith in extreme temperance was shaken. Obed's 
 faith was shaken. 
 
 Having become separated from his companions 
 before his survey of the hall began, and the day 
 being now well spent, Obed thought to seek his 
 hotel by the nearest way, so bidding his new-made 
 friends good day, he hastened, to the eastern door- 
 way, intending to take a winding pathway through 
 the beautiful grove between the grounds and the 
 Schuylkill. On reaching the threshold, instead of 
 the beautiful scenery he had anticipated there 
 greeted him a broad, open highway, stretching away 
 from the very base of the building, far as the eye 
 could reach. As Obed stood gazing at this unex- 
 pected sight, four richly caparisoned steeds, draw- 
 ing a stately pi imed hearse, issued from a door- 
 way beneath him. In the hearse was placed an 
 
—159— 
 
 elaborately carved casket, decked with flowers, in- 
 tertwined in the national colors, and the mourners, 
 as they came in their carriages, appeared of the 
 highest respectability. Following this came a 
 hearse less richly adorned, yet speaking well for the 
 position of its occupant. Then there was a plain 
 country wagon with its white pine coffin, and in 
 close proximity there followed a mule cart, bearing 
 a still ruder box, marked — 
 
 " Rattle his bones over the stones, 
 He's only a pauper whom nobody owns." 
 
 As O.bed gazed in astonishment, team after 
 team, ever varying in appearance, emerged from 
 beneath the Hall, each bearing its encoffiaed freight, 
 until the head of the procession was lost in the 
 distance, notwithstanding the number that had 
 turned aside at city cemetery, village church yard, 
 or at the potters' field. 
 
 As he stood wondering, what all this could 
 mean, suddenly there stood beside him a pleasant 
 looking female who, pointing to the procession said, 
 " Wonder not ; these are the forms of some of those 
 who 'seek mixed wine.' The first hearse you saw, 
 bore away the form of a man who had been tlie 
 Governor of a State, and had occupied a position in 
 the highest council of the nation. Multitudes, 
 
— leo- 
 deliglited, have listened to his utterances of patri- 
 otic eloquence. But stronger than his love of 
 reputation, country, home, was his passion for strong 
 drink, though he acknowledged it not. You have 
 seen the result. 
 
 " Another bore the remains of a merchant who 
 had handled sums untold, and whose business ca- 
 pacity was measured only by his power of endur- 
 ance. Those who were borne off in the humbler 
 manner have many of them left families in abject 
 poverty. 
 
 " There was one casket upon which you look- 
 ed with peculiar interest. Its garlands of flowefs 
 and elaborate decorations covered the form of a once 
 beautiful and gifted mother. Unfortunately she 
 learned to love wine at her father's table, and the 
 appetite strengthened with her years. , Yesterday, 
 to the world, she died of cjeneral nervous profit ration , 
 but to those who had seen her in her besotted con- 
 dition in her own parlor, the true cause was appar- 
 ent. Everybody knows that the poor hod carrier 
 died drunk. All these that you see are the victims 
 of intemperance, mostly begun in the use of mild 
 beverages." 
 
 As the procession moved on, Obed ventured to 
 inquire how long this thoroughfare had existed. 
 
—161— 
 
 " These many years," replied the genius ; " it began 
 in the days of Noah. Day and night it has been 
 thus thronged, so many are they who ' look upon 
 the wine,' and regale themselves on sparkling ales." 
 "Here he is," exclaimed a familiar voice — the 
 vision wns gone, and Obed was joined by Mrs. Obed 
 and her friend. As they hurried down the winding 
 footpath, the groves were rich in diamonds glean- 
 ed from a recent shower, and every fruit and flower 
 around them was redolent of praise. But despite 
 all these and the gay chatting of the ladies, the 
 thoughts of Obed were of Breioers' Hall, and the 
 fruits of the great industry it lepresents. Thus he 
 mused : "Thirty-five thousand men furnished with 
 employment, and four hundred thousand thereby 
 rendered homeless; $14,000,000 paid in wages, and 
 $100,000,000 expended in ale houses, that should go 
 for home comforts, where now is squalid poverty ; 
 $9,000,000 paid in revenue, against $45,000,000 
 spent in criminal prosecutions growing out of the use 
 of ardent spirits, to say nothing of the millions more 
 required to support reformatory and other institu- 
 tions, which, but for this one cause, would be all 
 unneeded." 
 
 The "Opinions and Facts from Eminent Physi- 
 cians, Chemists and others in favor of Ale and Beer 
 
—162— 
 
 as light wholesome beverages," and the order and 
 tidiness of Brewers' Hall became as mockery to 
 Obed, in view of the 00,000 who go down annually 
 to drunkards' graves and the 000,000 regular re- 
 cruits who rush on to fill up the depleted ranks, to 
 say nothing of the unmeasured wretchedness of body 
 and soul continually enshrouding them. 
 
 When Obed laid his head upon iiis pillow that 
 night, it was with a renewed consecration of himself 
 to the ever safe principles of total abstinence. In 
 these he sees the only safe course. 
 
 / Memorial Hall. 
 
 Having read of that far of! wedding at which 
 they ran out of grajie juice and were so miraculous- 
 ly supplied, that they had* the " Best of the wine at 
 the last of the feast," and remembering that in all 
 well regulated families they present the choicest 
 viands at the close of the meal, the Obeds reserved 
 Memorial Hall for their last survey, and a glorious 
 one it was. Passing up the flight of steps from the 
 Avenue of the Republic to the main entrance, they 
 stopped a moment to gaze upon the monster figures 
 of Pegassus, stationed on either hand, which, with 
 Bellerophon ready for the mounting, possessed enough 
 
of tlie mythological to carry the mind back to the 
 time when tlie gods sported with the daughters of 
 men, and the marvellous was much less impotent 
 than now. Looking up as if to catch a glimpse of 
 " flying horses " in the air, Obed saw Columbia 
 winking at him from the dome of the Hall as much 
 as to say, " No time for those old sportings in my 
 land," and he passed on, bestowing a passing glance 
 upon the " Dying lioness " in her majestic agon3^ 
 Once within the Hall, all the world beside was 
 shut out, — shut out as comi)letely as it is of a Sab- 
 bath morning when the pastor asks the pra3'ers of 
 the people, whilst he draws the gospel bow at a 
 venture, letting the arrows mostly fl}^ in directions 
 where there is no game. Here was the group, 
 " America leading the Nations," just then and there 
 very suggestive, though not remarkable for artistic 
 beaut3^ Then there was Washington magnificently 
 chiselled by an Italian artist. As he gazed upon 
 that benign countenance, Obed thought of the many 
 representations of the great man, he had seen in 
 different Courts, f^onc by the artists of every land, 
 some on canvas, others in terra cotta or tlie more 
 beautiful and enduring marble. A German had 
 given him all the buoyancy of lager beer ins[)ira- 
 tion, Andalusian swarthiness spoke the Spanish 
 
—164- 
 
 pencil, whilst an enthusiastic genius of the Emerald 
 Isle had curled his lip as if just ready to say, " Be- 
 gorrah, sir." "Well, they are not much to be 
 blamed for their covetousness, after all," mused Obed, 
 "for no nation but ours has looked u^jon his like." 
 Over against Washington, in strange contrast, was 
 the great Prussian Premier— all German, — all 
 Bismark. 
 
 Leaving the vestibule, the courts and passage 
 ways were f'jund literally filled with works of art, 
 — works of pen and pencil, brush and chisel. Here 
 were several figures chiseled from the cold marble 
 with rich drapery falling about them, and such 
 beautiful veils — veils of marble lace — covering the 
 face. Everything was so natural that the Obeds, in 
 common with the multitude, stopped and gave vent 
 to their satisfaction in many a " How curious?" " 
 dear," and "My stars." Just a little way along there 
 was a fine colltction mostly exhumed from buried 
 cities and castles of sunny Italy. Busts of warriors, 
 poets, statesmen and emperors stood boldly forth, 
 some uncrowned othjrs crowned with myrtle or royal 
 diadems. There were busts of women, — Roman 
 mothers of days long departed, whose noble daring 
 in instances not a few, saved the Imperial ('ity from 
 anarchy and destruction. Tiiere was one with 
 
— 16B— 
 
 which Obed was particularly struck. It was of a 
 matron of noble brow and sparkling eye; but alas, 
 that without which there is no beauty was gone — 
 some vandal hand had broken her nose. As he re- 
 membered his many lady acquaintances whom he 
 has seen in the like painful condition, the query 
 naturally arose, " Was it the denial of a new dress; 
 refusal of attendance upon the theater, or had she 
 failed to receive the last Bazaar P^ But there was 
 none to answer, and Obed passed on and stood be- 
 fore the bronze figure of a hegro, bearing aloft in 
 one hand the Proclamation which brouglit freedom 
 to four millions of his race, whilst from the wrist of 
 the other dropped the shackles that had so long 
 shut them out from every endearment of citizenship. 
 Every lineament was radiant w-ith gladness, such 
 as only an African can express, and as he thought 
 of the myriads of "Lor 'bless Massa Linkum," that 
 have gone up from sable lips, Obed mused, "If we 
 can not say of the martyred President as we do of 
 the great leader of the Revolution, ' First in war, 
 first in peace, and (irstin the heart of his country- 
 men,' we ma) justly claim for him the title of 
 'She})herd of his People,' and perpetually intertwine 
 his name and his fame with that of the ' Father of 
 his Countrv.'" 
 
—166— 
 
 A short distance from the " Battle of Gettys- 
 burg," so historic in its corapleteness, appeared 
 what, to patriotic tliousands, was the paint- 
 ing of tlie Exhibition — Willard's " Yanivee Doodle." 
 Not that it was so perfect a piece of art, perhaps, 
 as some, as many others, but then the memories of 
 a hundred years were centered on a few square feet 
 of canvas. As lie gazed on the dismounted cannon, 
 the old man " Yankee," with sleeves rolled up, col- 
 lar thrown back, waist coat and heavy hair alike 
 streaming in the wind ; at his deserted team and 
 plow, standing in the furrow; upon musicians — 
 man and bc'y — catching the inspiration of his man- 
 ner, as, with the instrument of the fallen fifer, he 
 led the little band of heroes fearle.ssly to the charge, 
 Obed exclaimed, " 'Those were the days that tried 
 men's souls,' and there were men and women, too, 
 with souls to be tried," he rejoiced that among them 
 was a Captain Goodin, that he was the owner of a 
 pony and a cap, and that he procured that wonder- 
 ful feather which is known and honored the world 
 over. 
 
 Americans were not the only ones who looked 
 with satisfaction upon that picture. As Obed stood 
 gazing, " Chee-wheu " suddenly broke upon' his ear, 
 and a regular pigtail was swinging in his face, as 
 
—167— 
 
 the disciple of Confucius enthusiastically exclaimed, 
 " Amencanee, blowee goodee." " Mine Gott," said 
 a rotund German ; but Obed could catch no more, 
 for just then he was thrust irresistably aside by an 
 impetuous son of the Land of St. Patrick, whose 
 sentiments welled over in the following strain, 
 " Arab, bedad ! bad luck, bad luck to the Bull who 
 meddles with that Doodle." 
 
 Passing by " Playing Possum," a game which 
 many bipeds in all lands play as successfully as our 
 American marsupial, and other subjects that would 
 extend these Reminiscences over many pages, asingle 
 mention more must i)ring tliem to a close. Early 
 in their visit a friend had informed the Obeds of 
 a painting he was particularly, anxious they should 
 see, but for the finding, of which, as the sequel 
 showed, he had given improper directions. It was 
 that of an artist past middle life, whose wife had 
 long been dead. After her decease his whole soul 
 centered in two charming daughters, who grew up 
 beneath his watchful care. Tiien the father painted 
 her as paying him and the remaining one an 
 angelic visit. This little story particularly excited 
 the interest of Mrs. Obed and her friend who are at 
 times especially impressible by anything that par- 
 takes, even remotely, of the supernatural. Day 
 
—168— 
 
 after day, whilst in Memorial Hall, dilligent search 
 was made for this gem of affection, but all in vain. 
 But a half liour remained. Obed set out on one 
 more desperate hunt, which was soon crowned with 
 success. There was the benign artist, simply clad 
 maiden with arms folded about him, andthe sister 
 spirit floating in the air. He hastened back and 
 soon the ladies stood before the canvas so much 
 sought. No sooner did his wife cast her eye upon 
 it than she exclaimed, " Why Obed, you great 
 goose, that is Abraham preparing to offer Isaac." 
 Obed looked up, and sure enough, like the Father 
 of the Faithful he had failed to see the ram in the 
 thicket until the very last moment. There was a 
 rush for the train, a gathering of satchels, and soon 
 the " Centennial," to the Obeds, was among the 
 things which were. 
 
 Ob3d, as Youngest Son. 
 
 Obed had the honor of being the youngest son 
 of his mother. This fact he learned from the family 
 record, and from many varied experiences. To be 
 the youngest son in a family, when there are several 
 brothers and sisterfe older and sisters younger, is to 
 occupy at once a position of honor, trust, and re- 
 
—169- 
 
 sponsibility. Tliis position was Obed's; hence his 
 name, for Obed was a servant of all. He was, and 
 many a youngest son who reads this history will 
 know how to sympathize with him. It was not 
 only his, as soon aa he could toddle, to do, all the lit- 
 tle errandings for papa and mama, to bring them 
 slippers and water, cane and spectacles, and all oth- 
 er things with the bearing of which they " delight- 
 ed to honor him," but to perform the work that had 
 formerly been parceled out among older hands'. 
 " Let Obed pick up the chips ; " " Let Obed bring in 
 the wood;" Let Obed churn;" "Let Obed feed the 
 chickens," soon became household expressions. 
 And he did all these. Those were the days when 
 laws were loose, fences poor, and tlie highways long 
 pasturcfi, and Obed chased the pigs from the garden, 
 the cows from the corn, tlie horses from the meadow, 
 ■whilst the big boys hallooed, "Run, Obed, run." 
 He carried water to the field, and lunch to the 
 harvest, whilst those sturdy fellows rested. Obed 
 " Hoed the boy's row." Had that been all he would 
 not complain. But then in the absence of the 
 " powers that be" in ftimily government, those elder 
 boys assumed special rights, and applied the birch ; 
 and the grown up sisters exercised dictatorial powers, 
 and enforced them with a broom upon poor Obed. 
 
 u 
 
— 170— 
 
 But why recount. 
 
 " 'Tis the old, old story," not of the "blessed 
 cross," but of the cross that all youngest sons have 
 borne since long before Joseph was thrown into the 
 pit, and Benjamin was accused of stealing silver. 
 Those early experiences have always caused Obed 
 to have great sjnnpathy for Abel, poor fellow! He 
 never sees the youngest son suffering from the taunts 
 of older brothers and sisters, but he thinks there is 
 still something of Cainishness left as indicative of 
 the fall. Still, for all this, he would not have it in- 
 ferred that all youngest sons are " righteous Abels." 
 Obed would not. 
 
 The youngest son occupies a glorious position 
 for vexing the older members of the family and 
 teasing the younger, and if there is any gimp in him 
 he is sure to exercise a retaliating hand. But Obed 
 forbears to divulge, for the halcyon days of long 
 families among Yankees has passed, never to return. 
 None shall hereafter have to regret that he is the 
 third or fourth son, much less the srventh. Such in- 
 stitutions are now very unfashionable. What use 
 for a whole troop of rollicking brothers and sisters 
 tumbling over hay mows, nest hunting, making mud 
 pies, or engaging in the thousand and oae other 
 pastimes formerly in vogue among children, Obed 
 
—171— . 
 
 has observed that such things, by the best families, 
 are now considered very vulgar. Better, far better, 
 to have the affection that was formerly spread out 
 over a dozen, concentrated in one frail and fur- 
 belowed little dear with kid slippers, done up in 
 band-box style. Then the youngest son has no 
 tribulations. He gets his share of the patrimony. 
 
 But Obed remembers his tribulations as things 
 of the past. The wrongs, whether real or fancied, 
 which he experienced from those older than him- 
 self were long since forgiven, and his own acts of an- 
 noyance are no doubt forgotten. Some of them cer- 
 tainly are, for those on whom they were practiced 
 are sleeping, silently sleeping, and Obed will vex 
 them no more. Thirty and nine years ago the 
 family of which Obed is a member, all gathered 
 around the "old family hearth " ior the last time. 
 The oldest sister was given away, as many another 
 oldest sister has been, amid tears and jests, sighs and 
 gladness, of which Obed th»:;n had but little con- 
 ception, but Aow he couiprehends them. Five of 
 that happy throng are not, and of the live remain- 
 ing, Obed is still the youngest son, with no sister to 
 look up and call him " Brother.' When, after years 
 of separation, the}^ occasionally meet in their far 
 sundered homes in sets of twos, or at most threes, 
 
. —172— 
 
 each shows marks of time and labor, and none thinks 
 to bid Obed do this or do that; but he is fondly 
 cherished as the youngest left of that home of other 
 days. Then it is that he says, " Who would not be 
 the youngest son, that a father and a mother may 
 lean on him last of all, and that brothers and sisters 
 as they pass into the evening time, may look back 
 and bestow on him their benedictions ! " Then it 
 is that the sensations that prevade the breast of 
 Obed are blessed. To him they are blessed. 
 
m-. lU' 
 
 
A GREENBACK MEETING. 
 
 A Greenback meeting to be addressed by the 
 Hon. Patrick O'Leary, was advertised to come off at 
 Tunket's Corners, and as Obed had never attended 
 anything of the kind, he decided to go. A pleas- 
 ant drive of an hour with a "fiat" friend, and the 
 Corners were reached. The school house was full 
 and who should be called to the chair but Sara 
 Jones, whom Obed knew in 1840 as a staunch young 
 Jackson Democrat, present, with a clear voice, 
 wherever a hickory pole was to be raised, or an ash 
 one to be cut down. Through all the intervening 
 years Obed knows he has adhered to the better 
 phases of the party, but recently a mortgage on his 
 farm has caused him to see "light" in the pure 
 green of the new party. On the front seat sat Dea- 
 con Williams, who drove a " log cabin team " in 
 the great " hard cider campaign," and cast his first 
 ballot for " Tippecanoe and Tyler too," really be- 
 
—175— 
 
 lievingthat it was a sure g^uaranty that he should 
 ever after eat "roast beef" and receive "two dol- 
 lars a day" for his labor. Good, clever soul! he 
 has been tossed about by every new political doc- 
 trine, and Obed was not surprised to sfee him re- 
 ceiving this last as the laboring man's real " New 
 Testament." A hasty glance over the audience con- 
 vinced Obed that the Joneses and Williamses pres- 
 ent were not a few. 
 
 The EON. PATRICK 0' LEAHY, 
 in his great speech at TunkeVs Corners, prrpaving to read from th£ Fi- 
 nancial Policy of John Law, hut of which he forgot to give the con^e-" 
 qucnccs. 
 
—176— 
 
 The meeting organized, the Hon. Patrick pro- 
 ceeded to depict the woes of the laboring classes, 
 tlie indignities heaped upon them and the wrongs 
 that are weighing them down. As a workingman, 
 Obed began to feel deeply interested ; he perceived 
 that a great mistake was made when it was said, 
 "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread." 
 Obed felt it wasagreat mistake. The bloated bond- 
 holder was mercilessly excorciated, then spitted 
 and held writhing over " his own place " until 
 O'Leary was satisfied; and Obed felt that the punish- 
 ment was but just for one who had so little regard 
 for the rights of his fellow men. He was really as- 
 tonished that he had lived so many years uncon- 
 cious of the amount of suffering and wrong there 
 is in the world. Obed was astonished. But he had 
 little time for reflection, for the speaker fully warm- 
 ed to his theme, and amid the wildest enthusiasm, 
 went on to show the rights, the duties, and the pow- 
 ers of the government in the premises. Money was 
 made plenty, all men became instinctively indus- 
 trious; every available acre of the public domain 
 was converted into a garden ; tramps were only 
 known in the few fossils exhumed in the prosecu- 
 tion of public works : monopolies became evane- 
 scent; capitalists, conscience smitten at their long 
 
—177— 
 
 course of tyranny, hid themselves from the public 
 gaze, and Congress became a body of apostolic pu- 
 rity — all this would be if the people only proved 
 true to themselves and the new party. 
 
 The speaker closed ; the .meeting adjourned, 
 and Jones and Williams seized Obed by the hands 
 and asked if he was not now persuaded. His repl}'' 
 was, "Almost persuaded." Thus Obed replied. 
 
 Tlie ride home was a thoughtful one. Obed 
 was not quite sure that the Greenbackers are not 
 more than half right, and he vowed to investigate 
 the subject carefully. Throwing himself upon his 
 couch, he was soon in that land into which Cain en- 
 tered six thousand years ago, and its revelations 
 were wonderful. The sky was arched with 18 8-0 ; 
 the people were all alive with excitement; the great 
 political parties massed themselves for the contest ; 
 the working men flang to the breeze "Butler and 
 Victory," and everywhere inscribed on their ban- 
 ners might be seen, " Give us Greenbacks," " Down 
 with the Bondholder" "Equal Chances for All," 
 and such like devices. Against these " Honest 
 Money " and " Plighted Faith " could make but 
 little headway, and at the appointed time the party 
 in power stepped gracefully down, and honest men, 
 men of the people, ascended to their places. 
 
—US- 
 All this Obed saw, and much more. In his 
 hour of triumph Benjamin remembered his friends, 
 the friends of the people. Samuel received the 
 Portfolio; to Walter was corifided the keys of the 
 Treasury, whilst Dennis was made master of the In- 
 terior, and La Matyr was commissioned " Adjuster 
 of Moral Ballast." 
 
 The venerable Cooper looked on and wept for 
 joy whilst the new government was organized, and 
 when the great "Fiat Mills" began their work he 
 clapped his hands in very gladness, as did the mil- 
 lions who had waited for this auspicious moment. 
 
 Congress was true to the platform of the party. 
 That the people might have labor, untold internal 
 improvements were voted; that corporate enterprise 
 might be stimulated, charters were granted for the 
 carrying out of many important enterprises, as the 
 organization of a hose company for utilizing Niagara 
 Falls in irrigating Utah and Nevada; another for 
 constructing ice cream grottos in the National Park, 
 and one for applying the northern lights to general 
 illuminating purposes; that individual enterprise 
 and genius might not go unrewarded, boot blacks 
 were paid five cents extra for a " shine ; " inventors 
 received heavy premiums on their patents, and all 
 
—179— 
 
 writers of poetry and novels were granted annuities 
 for life; that the government might be known as 
 liberal in its moral relations, marble fountains were 
 set up in all beer gardens; church debts were every- 
 where cancelled, and ten millions of dollars were 
 invested in searching for the "lost link" in the 
 Development Theory; that human suffering might 
 be alleviated, all step-children were granted excur- 
 sion tickets on the fourth of July, and to attend all 
 animal shows, and every man having a mother in- 
 law residing within twenty-five miles, was granted 
 an annual pension of $1,000. Thus the people were 
 blessed, and Obed saw they were happ3^ 
 
 The popular will had triumphed ; the true 
 secret of government, hidden for six thousand years, 
 had been discovered ; capitalists stood abashed ; 
 hard money advocates were few and in the back- 
 ground ; business was brisk; speculation nought new 
 opportunities; day laborers bought corner lots; 
 school boys left their books and dealt in stocks ; 
 Bridget's back presentod a rare display of miliinery 
 goods; Paris was lost sight of in the brilliancy of 
 our national capital : the country was sup[)lic(l witli 
 every luxury; matrimonial alliances were made 
 only near home; and when the mortal coil was 
 shuffled off, glass caskets with gold mountings, only, 
 
-ISO— 
 
 Tli.e DDeacoaa. 2.:a. Xj-u-cIs:. 
 
—181— 
 
 were in demand. And why not? The great func- 
 tion of the government is to create money ; and this 
 the government was doing. 
 
 Jones paid off his mortgage and invested a 
 million dollars in the "' Hose Company." The Dea- 
 con was in luck. In a state of ecstatic rapture he 
 seized Obed's hand exclaiming, " Didn't I tell you 
 so, oidboy?" And how could Obed demur? He 
 couldn't. 
 
 There were somethings, however, that appeared 
 a little strange. Obed observed that many more 
 men than ever before frequented the capilol, and 
 lobbying was pushed with shameful effrontery. 
 Benjamin quietly changed a million dollars of gov- 
 ernment bonds into gold before the law converting- 
 hard money into bullion took effect. This was 
 privately stowed away in his Massachusetts cellar. 
 Strange hgurings were going on in high places, but 
 what did the people care ? They had enough and to 
 spare, so that the groat army of tramps, even though 
 quadrupled in ils })roportions, was allowed to pro- 
 ceed on its foraging march all undisturbed. 
 
 Obed wondered that any should run in debt, 
 and yet the " Fiat Mills" were insufficient to sup- 
 ply the " growing wants " of the people, and un- 
 
—182— 
 
 limited credit was asked and given, until one morn- 
 ing the telegraph announced the failure of J. Scroggs 
 & Co , managers of the " Niagara Hose Enterprise," 
 which had just laid its pipes as far as the Mississippi, 
 for $20,000,000,000. There was wild dismay in all 
 the land. Not a husiness interest but was affected. 
 Firm after firm succumbed with the rapidity of 
 lightning. " Hisexcellency " left the executive man- 
 sion at noon for New England, with a package of 
 gold spoons and plate marked " N. O." Samuel was 
 suddenl}' called to Cincinnati to look after " private 
 interests;" Dennis took an early train for the 
 "Golden Gale," and the political parson to a west- 
 ern conference for a first-class city appointment, 
 salary not less than $2,500, parsonage furnished. 
 Jones was ruined; the good Deacon's voice blended 
 pitiously in the universal wail of despair as the 
 words "No Redemption," "Repudiation," in lurid 
 letters, extending from zenith to horizon, lighted up 
 the evening sky, and.Obed — "I do wish you'd keep 
 still so I can sleep," rang out the voice of Mrs. Obed. 
 The sleeper awoke to the consciousness that it was 
 but a dream. Obed was glad, for, vision though it 
 was, he was convinced that there is no really safe 
 way to national prosperity, as there is not to indi- 
 vidual, only by industry and economy. 
 
-183— 
 
 Obed, O'Learytothe contrary notwithstandiii! 
 now fully endorses the doctrine, 
 
 " 'Tis better to endiu-e the ills we have, 
 Than fly to others we know not of." 
 
 THE STATIONERY ACCOUNT. 
 
 His friend Henry was elected to the legislature, 
 a thing gratifying to Obed, and particularly so to 
 his aspiring friend who acknowledged himself un- 
 der many obligations for campaign assistance. 
 His letters during the first session which he attend- 
 ed were full of glowing descriptions of Capital life, 
 and breathed hopefully of political preferment, as 
 heclaimedtobe " learning the ropes " rapidly. 
 
 Soon after the close of the session Obed paid 
 him a visit, and was most cordially welcomed by 
 friend and family. The little ones must needs show 
 
—184— 
 
 him the tilings papa brought tliem from the 'laiet', 
 and the older ones, together with Mrs. H., were not 
 slow in exhibiting the presents the honorable head 
 of the family had brought them from the seat of 
 government. 
 
 The hours flew by all too rapidly, as Henry re- 
 counted his legislative experiences, detailing the 
 pleasant acquaintances he had made, the rece^jtions 
 he had attended, and, above all the bright anticipa- 
 tions he had in store for the future; for his speeches 
 had been most favorably received by his compeers 
 and the people. Before the time for leaving arrived 
 a promise had been extorted from Obed that he 
 would visit his friend at the capital the next winter. 
 
 Agreeably to the arrangement the winter of 
 187- found Obed threading legislative halls, arm in 
 arm with his friend. After the galleries, the ro- 
 tunda, the committee rooms, the Governor's apart- 
 ment and all other places of general interest' had 
 been visited, Henry said : 
 
 " Obed, I must show you the crypf 
 " The crypt," said Obed; " What is that? " 
 "0, you'll see; it's an apartment we don't show 
 everybody. Of course we know our men." 
 " Of course you do," said Obed. 
 
—185— 
 
 Down a flight of stairs tripped the friends, and 
 the lawmaker quietly opened the door of a spacious 
 apartment which had all the appearances of a gen- 
 eral store room. 
 
 " And is this the crypt?" queried Obed. 
 
 "Nothing else," said his friend. 
 
 " 0, I supposed I was coming into the abode of 
 some mummified legislator to whose shrine you are 
 accustomed to retire, Mohamedan like, to reassure 
 fainting political faith." 
 
 " Not exactly so ; but then it is the dead room, 
 and when entered has a comforting effect," said 
 Henry with a smile. 
 
 " Yes, yes, so I begin to perceive, said Obed ; it 
 looks like a branch of the Paper Company." 
 
 "Well, yes, this is the Stationery Department 
 of the " Mill " up stairs. You remember the 
 package of fine " Congress " I gave you last spring ? 
 Well that was a sample of our work." 
 
 "Yes, but you didn't sample me with one oJ' 
 these knives," said Obed, as he laid his hand on a 
 package of packet cutlery marked $36 per dozen. 
 
 "No," laughed Henry, "I had to remember all 
 my friends, and Jones being better on a shingle than 
 you, received the knife. There's a fitness in all 
 things, you know." 
 
—186— 
 
 " Yes, and so it was fitting that Mrs. M. should 
 receive that beautiful croquette set, as being better 
 at electioneering than her husband." 
 
 " Exactly." 
 
 " But tell me, Henry, what did these cost, and 
 who are to get the balance of them, for I see you 
 have still enough left to stock at least two grounds 
 in every county in the State." 
 
 " O, they only cost $ t a set by the hundred, and 
 next summer will be campaign season again ; there'll 
 bo no trouble in clisjtosinr/ of them." 
 
 " But what about so many gold pens, paper 
 holders and erasers? You've enough to stock a 
 wholesale establishment." 
 
 " My dear fellow, didi,i't I tell you this is our 
 Stationer}' Department? Each member is supposed 
 to require at least five or six in a term; the}'- wear 
 out rapidly, get lost, or we forget and leave them at 
 home." 
 
 " Yes, your minds are so occupied, it is not to 
 be wondered at that you lay them on your parlor 
 tables and forget to take them again ; but then there's 
 this satisfaction, they are not lost in growing fami- 
 lies. But these metalic boot-jacks, do they come 
 uuder the head of stationery ? " 
 
—187— 
 
 " If a boot-jack isn't stationary I'd like to know 
 what is." 
 
 " Fact ; I hadn't thoaght of it before in that 
 light" said Obed ; "But how fibout these patent 
 tops? They are certainly very movable.'" 
 
 "One of them kept my Jimmy quiet for full 
 two hours. This is essentially the experience of 
 many members with whom I have talked, and we 
 are fully agreed that anything calculated to serve 
 our purposes, or to soothe our minds, comes legiti- 
 mately within the definition of stationery, and we 
 provide it." 
 
 "Ah, yes, and that accounts for these cham- 
 pagne bottles. AVell, well, I don't so much wonder 
 at the way Stationery Accounts foot up. I suppose 
 they've an enormous crypt -di Washingt )n, and that 
 there are suialler ones for counties and municipal- 
 ities, in which are stowed a thousand little con- 
 veniencies, put there at the public expense. But 
 tell me how do you Republicans anil Democrat-^ get 
 along without exposing one another over these 
 matters ? " 
 
 "Pshaw, man, that's tlie^ easiest thing in the 
 world. No matter how much we disagree on the 
 curreiicy question, or struggle over, the "bloody 
 
—188- 
 
 shirt," we are all agreed in this, that ' He that pro- 
 videth not for his own household has denied the 
 faith,' hence we are all orthodox. All tliese little 
 matters we consider as perquisites and share them 
 with the attachees about the Capitol, iind they learn 
 
 to keep qui "' 
 
 " I do wish you'd get up to Ijreakfast," said a 
 familiar voice, and Obed, who had attended a po- 
 litical meeting the evening before, awoke to the 
 consciousness that this interview with his friend 
 Henry was all a dream, and he was glad ; glad be- 
 cause he knows something of the self sacrificing 
 spirit of American politicians, and of the rigid 
 economy of their views ; glad because they are wil- 
 ling to spend session after session of our legislative 
 bodies in electioneering schemes, and the vacation 
 season on investigating committees, traveling from 
 one end of the country to tlie other in a most self- 
 denying way; glad that lobbying is totally 
 ignored ; glad that all men in high j)iaces are 
 so tenacious for the purity of the ballot box ; glad 
 that no American official has ever l)een guilty of 
 even the appearance of peculation ; glad that, as 
 a nation, we have no need to apply to ourselves the 
 doctrine, " When the wicked bear rule, the people 
 mourn." Of these things and many more going to 
 
—ISO- 
 
 show that the pure purposes of the fathers still 
 have a dwelling place in the hearts of the sons, 
 Obed is glad. 
 
 OBED VISITS A ''HOME." 
 
 " An hour till train time," said Obed to him- 
 self, in one of oar beautiful lake cities, " and I can- 
 not better improve it than by calling at the 'Home 
 for the Friendless.' " No sooner thought than ex- 
 ecuted, for he laid his hand vigorously upon the 
 bell knob, and was soon comfortably seated in the 
 plain, substantial reception room. ■ Directly the 
 Matron appeared. ''Obed," said our visitor, and 
 the lady greeted him cordially. 
 
 It took not long to learn of the origin of this 
 noble institution, nor of the kindly, benevolent 
 soirit that has ever fostered it. More than seven 
 
— 190— 
 
 liundred " little neglected ones'' have come with- 
 in its walls and found " Home, food, clothing and 
 schooling," and, with scarce an exception, have 
 gone out to lives of respectability and usefulness. 
 " Treasurer in heaven for many a donor," said 
 Obed, and he perceived how " Charity covereth a 
 multitude of sins." 
 
 He was shown through the building. Every- 
 where there were neatness and order, everywhere a 
 learning to work on the part of those who were old 
 enough to be employed in labor. 
 
 The tour of inspection made, there came upon 
 the lawn beneath the window a troup of children 
 with bright eyes and happy faces. Most of them 
 were viother less ; some fatherless also "No matter 
 if many of them had been forsaken, the Lord has 
 taken them up, and a christian public has assumed 
 their parentage," mused Obed, as he hid his hands 
 amid the curls of a little creature vcho came confid- 
 ingly near. Ashe marked the confidence the}' re- 
 posed in the Matron, more than ever Obed realized 
 what that Scripture raeaneth, "Of such is the king- 
 dom of heaven." From homes of poverty, drunk- 
 eness and abuse these, in m"iny instances, had come, 
 but there was the childlike spirit still, which Siull- 
 
—191— 
 
 ful hands and willing hearts shall train for the 
 "Life that now is, and for that which is to come." 
 
 As Obed walked awa}' there was in "his heart a 
 mingled feeling of sorrow and gladness. Sorrow, 
 that there is so much of misery in the world ; glad- 
 ness, because there are so many who can truly sa^% 
 as the}^ toil amid objects of charity, 
 
 ■'Ours is the grateful service whence 
 Comes day by day the recompense ; 
 Better the toils of fields like these 
 Than waking dream and slothful ease. 
 
 " Who calls this glorious service hard '. 
 Who deems it not its own reward :' 
 Who, for its trinls, calls it ]es=! 
 A e luse of praise and thankfulness :■ " 
 
OBED S THANKSGIVING. 
 
 The year ISTO came — the year of all others of 
 most interest in Yankee Land, because it brought 
 with it the Hundreth birlliday of our dear old Uncle 
 Sam, Obed's Uncle Sam, the hale old Uncle of more 
 than forty million children. Now Uncle Sam has 
 always cherished his birthdays, (particularly the 
 last one) and ushered them in with a great deal of 
 noise and hurrah, regaling himself in abundant laud- 
 atory speeches, toasts and toddies. Though the old 
 gentleman has sometimes been accused of being a 
 little vain, he has never quite forgotten the humil- 
 ity of his cradle, the trials of his boyhood days, nor 
 the bountiful Giver of his broad acres and rich 
 stores of intellectual and social enjoyment. Uncle 
 Sam has never forgotten these, but through all his 
 years, has annually appointed that his children 
 shall gather them.selves together in their respective 
 places of worship and in their many homes, and 
 then and there pray and sing psalms, and eat tur- 
 
—97— 
 
 exclaimed, "Industry is the lamp, and intelligence 
 the sesame which converts the fairy castles of Ara- 
 bian tales into Yankee realities, over which the 
 American eagle flaps her wings with more of satis- 
 faction than was ever enjoyed by the mythic bird 
 which gave Sinbad his aerial ride." And as he took 
 the arm of his friend, and iiis eye rested upon the 
 '"U. S." everywhere conspicuous, Obed rejoiced that 
 his is a Columbian home. Yankee Doodle welled 
 up to overflowing in the heart of Obed. 
 
 Cottons. 
 
 His vision fully ended and his mind restored 
 to its wonted equilibrium, Obed was ready to in- 
 spect tbe wares and wonders of the luitions spread 
 out in profusion around him. Having an eye for 
 c((lico he at once took up tbe display of cottons, ad- 
 miring the '"raw material," of wliieli he had never 
 seen any before ; tbe nankeens of China and tlie 
 flannels of Canton; tbe handiworks of the looms of 
 Hindostan and Africa and the mills of Brazil. But 
 most was Obed delighted with tbe shirtinr/s and 
 prints of New England, for by them could he best 
 measure progress in this departn.ent. Obed gloried 
 
—98— 
 
 in the Merrimacs, Cochecoes, the Middlesexes, and 
 the score more brands put up in rich display to 
 show what the streams of the hilly North can do 
 for the products of the sunny South. Obed claimed 
 them as American all. He rejoiced that they made 
 him the possessor of a fine Lonsdale shirt, a thing 
 his father never owned ; that they had enabled Mrs. 
 Obed and her friend to go to the Centennial, each 
 in a twenty-yard-fivecent " Oriental Fancy." As 
 Obed remembered that his mother, one of the belles 
 of New Connecticut, used to rejoice in a six-yard- 
 seventy five cent "French Calico," a feeling of 
 gratitude came over him, that he lives in an age 
 when the costs of prints will allow even the adorn- 
 ing of the human form divine; an age when " cut- 
 and-try " and "scrimp" form no part of the dress- 
 maker's vocabulary — an age in which "a dollar or 
 tM'o" will bring so much of sunshine to the domes- 
 tic sky. Obed was grateful, and as he looked 
 around he regretted only that the great pyramids of 
 "Coats' Best Six Cord" and " Clark's 'O. N. T.' " 
 had to be brought across the deep ; but Obed con- 
 tented himself with saying, " Cotton was king ; cot- 
 ton is king no longer, and ere the next Centennial 
 year, American genius will provide American 
 thread — American genius will." 
 
Though the thermometer stood at 95'' Obed 
 realized that summer does not last always, and he 
 passed from the realm of cotton, to the domain of 
 
 Wools. 
 
 Wools native, wools manufactured ; w^ools 
 Merino, Southdown, Saxon and Cotswold ; wools 
 American, Australian, African, Spanish, and Thibi- 
 tan ; wools from every land where there are bleat- 
 ing flocks ; wools fine and coarse, long and short • 
 wools wrought into every conceivable fabric, by 
 needle, spindle, knitter and loom ; wools in yarns, 
 cloths, carpets, and blankets. Gazing on the tweeds, 
 cassimeres, and broad-cloths; on the merinos, cassi- 
 meres, and serges, Obed could but think of the days 
 oi the home spufis — days when our mothers made 
 the kerseys, the sheeps greys and the full-cloths; 
 made linse3'-woolseys, the home dyed plaids, and 
 the " Nigerawf/ivai/ " flannels, which the boys and 
 girls were glad to get, even as second-haiid-cut- 
 downs. Obed at least was glad. As he looked upon 
 the delicate flannels and felt their downy smooth- 
 ness, remembrances of the soft woolens his mother 
 used to bring out when the " cold November rains " 
 came on, and placed upon his tender back, rose up 
 
— lOO- 
 
 in the mind of Obed. Again he passed, in imagin- 
 ation through a week of itchings, scratchings, 
 burnings, naughty thoughts, and bitter execrations 
 on the man who first invented woolen underclothes. 
 To Obed those were the days of the bloody shirt, but 
 he will shake it no longer, for lie remembers that 
 mother of other days with tenderest affection. He 
 knows she did the best possible for those God had 
 given her, for she was of that great army of pioneer 
 mothers, now asleep or waiting in the sunset of life. 
 We count them as women whose price is above 
 rubies. They sought wool and flax and worked 
 willingly with their hands. They rose whilst it was 
 yet night and gave meat to their households. They 
 laid their hands to the spindles; their hands 
 held the distaffs. They oj)ened their mouths with 
 motherly wisdom, and their chi.dren arise and call 
 them blessed. Even forty millions of their sons 
 and daughters call those mothers blessed. Obed 
 blesses his above all other women. 
 
 Finally Obed stood in presence of the Califor- 
 nia display, and as he perceived the velvety softness 
 of her blankets, he felt inclined to clasp his hands 
 and exclaim, " Now I lay me down to sleep," but it 
 was noon day, and he passed on saying, " I have 
 seen an end of all perfections in woolens. Solomon 
 
— lOl— 
 
 in all his glory was not arrayed in goods like these, 
 and as for the Mrs. Solomons, they knew nothing of 
 rag carpets, three-plies, or Brussels, such as adorn 
 this Jubilee of Columbia for the nations." And 
 Obed saw herein only signs of progress ; he saw only 
 these. 
 
 Silks. 
 
 Obed saw silks as he pursued his onward way. 
 Silks in the green mulberry leaf; silks in the 
 mouth of the worm ; silks in the cocoon; silks in 
 the raw thread ; silks on pyramids of spools ; silks 
 in tiny scarfs ; silks in gorgeous robes for priestly 
 wear; silks in the hands of its native spinner ; silks 
 of every hue on the backs of gaily dressed ladies — 
 all these he saw. It was simply the warp of one 
 worm become the woof of another. And Obed ad- 
 mired the butterflies — l)utterflies from the hand of 
 nature; l>uLterflies from the hand of fashion. Obed 
 jiiliuired them all. 
 
 Linens. 
 
 There were delicate white linens, ond linens of 
 darker hues aiid coarser thread to claim the atten- 
 tion of Obed. Linens that once waved a bright 
 
green, or danced in fields of delicate blue in many 
 a land. As he gazed on these, he thought what 
 "flax pullings" they must have in the "father 
 land " among our Teuton relatives, and in "Svvate 
 Ireland " among our cousins of the " real auld 
 stock." But Obed's reflections on flax were not con- 
 fined to " lands beyond the sea." Again he went 
 back to the old Buckeye farm where he first learned 
 the duties of American citizenship. Again he 
 went to the field with father and mother, brothers 
 and sisters, and bowed his back over the flaxen 
 bowls of his prescribed " tltroiu/h" until on straight- 
 ening up he found there was a bone in it sure. 
 Once more he brought the swingle down on devoted 
 heads and then spread the beaten stalks upon the 
 even sward only to hear it said every few da^s, 
 " Obed, my boy, go and turn that flax." And he 
 turned and rg-turned it, until he exclaimed, in his 
 vexation, " Bat the flax," and the flax rotted. Then 
 Obed bound that rotted flax, and laid it away, only 
 to bear it in early spring time to the top of the 
 " old log house " and lay it across the stick chimney 
 to dry. This was Obed's part of the work, whilst 
 his father put it vigorously through the "jaws " of 
 the old " brake " as it was dropped, dried, to him 
 by his "youngest son," and the older ones, "knives 
 
—103- 
 
 in hand, did valorous work at the " skutching 
 board," beating out the " shives." Those were 
 halc3^on days to Obed, and from his lofty site he 
 " viewed the landscape o'er." Sometimes, in his 
 fits of mental abstraction, he allowed his drying 
 charge to " go up " in smoke. Then, as he was a 
 boy, he received a boy's reward. Many a boy has 
 suffered for the want of such reward ; Obed has 
 not. 
 
 There were other links between the growing 
 fib;'e and the copperas pants and tow shirts of other 
 days in Yankee Land, that rose up in the mind of 
 Obed, despite all the grandeur around him. He 
 descended from his perch on the roof onl}^ to find 
 that mother of other days, her head bound round 
 with a bright " bandanna," all covered with dust 
 and lint, busily drawing the loosened bark through 
 the " hatchel " to separate the " flax " from the 
 " tow." Then there were the " big wheel," the " lit- 
 tle wheel," with its tiny gourd water box, the "reel" 
 with its hickory snapper to count the " knots ;" the 
 "swifts" and the "loom," upon all of which the 
 "maidens" of the household could play tunes that 
 brought clothing and comfort. Upon all these Obed 
 looked again through tlie lapse of years, and was 
 just about to ejaculate, "Let the man who can 
 
—104— 
 
 deprecate these appliances of the olclen time, 'stretch 
 hemp,'" when exclamations of delight from Mrs. 
 Obed and her friend, drew his attention, and he 
 hastened to the show case before which they stood 
 gazing on the prettiest, tiniest baby dress imagin- 
 able; so delicate in its material, its style, its make 
 up, its jirive — only $600. Had there been no cheaper 
 baby clotlies than that, in years gone by, the young 
 Obeds would have worn " aprons of fig leaves" to 
 this day. The young Obeds would. 
 
 Robes. 
 
 Baby dresses of extravagant prices were not the 
 only articles of wearing apparel, and items of per- 
 sonal conveniences on which the Obeds feasted their 
 eyes as they stood before those glittering cases. As 
 before stated, there were rich robes interwoven with 
 threads of geld and silver for priestly wear; and 
 there were dresses of delicate laces and rich satin, 
 with and without trails, for ladies whose husbands 
 have never yet touched bottom financially ; there 
 were shaAvls from Cashmere; scarfs of crimson from 
 Damascus, and handkerchiefs almost etherial from 
 France, and all to be had — had merely for the ask- 
 ing and a few hundred, or at most, but a few 
 
— 19S— 
 
 key and pumpkin pies, in thanksgiving for the 
 bounties tliat crown the year. 
 
 Uncle Sam failed not, after the rich enjoyment 
 of his centenary birthday, to appoint a Thanksgiv- 
 ing, that should befittingly mark his "new depar- 
 ture." And it came, not like the first one, to a few 
 hundred thousand homes where "anxious hopes, 
 and doubts, and fears," were the principal things the 
 inmates had to be thankful for, but to many mil- 
 lions of them, where "Peace and plenty crowned the 
 board." 
 
 Among others, it came to Obed's home with 
 peaceful plenty, and plentiful peace. For the twen- 
 ty-fourth time Thanksgiving came to the household 
 of Obcd and found him thankful — thankful for the 
 bounties of Providence so freely showered upon his 
 friends and country, as well as upon himself. As 
 he sat with the few friends he had gathered around 
 him, Obed was not only thankful, but his mind was 
 filled with busy memories. He thought of that first 
 Thanksgiving when he and his, numbering only 
 two, sought his old home to eat mother's Thanks- 
 giving dinner. And Obed ate with a relish such as 
 a man never has for any cookery but mother's; No 
 Turkey, no bread and butter, no coffee, no apple 
 pie, iiQ nothing like the viands we get from a moth- 
 
—194— 
 
 er's hands in boyhood. Because Abram could get 
 them no longer, he was the more willing to go to 
 "A land flowing with milk and lioney." With a 
 mind filled with the tenderest memories of a good 
 old mother's larder, Jessee posted the youthful 
 David off to camp with home delicacies for those 
 older brothers who were with Saul, down by the 
 brook E!ah. So. too, during our "late unpleasant- 
 ness," was the heart of many a hoy in blue, touched 
 with yearning memories of "home" and "mother," 
 as he regaled himself, after long dieting on "hog 
 and hardtack," over the well-filled box that "she 
 who loved him best," had carefally forwarded. 
 
 There were present at that Thanksgiving, fath- 
 er and mother and sisters two. Obed saw them in 
 memory as they were on that da}-. Thanksgiving 
 came again. There had been substraction in the 
 home ci Obed, and one from two left three, and 
 again the old homestead was sought. As it has 
 been times without number, so was it on that occa- 
 sion ; that little subtrahend, in the eyes of grand- 
 father and grandmother, was "Just the nicest baby 
 boy that ever was." Thus the mind of Obed ran 
 over the years. The time came when three from 
 two left five ; the cradle gave place for the school 
 room; he passed through scenes of watching and 
 
—193— 
 
 anxiety; a^ain he witnessed scenes of childish 
 anger and fisti-cuffing of thb kind in which he had 
 often "taken a hand" in the long ago ; wisps of do- 
 mestic cloud followed by broad bands of sunshine, 
 
 :2ra.nn.ple of IDcnncisstic S-a.-btra.ctioii.. 
 
 chased each other across his mental vision ; Thanks- 
 giving followed Thanksgiving and the five were al- 
 
—196- 
 
 ways together, and — "Dinner is reacl3%" said Mrs. 
 Obed. Then Obed and his guests rei)aired to the 
 table. There upon the right and upon the left of 
 him, each 'in its place, was a plate turned down 
 "with tender womanly care." A glance at Mrs. 
 Obed revealed instead of the raven tresses he had 
 once admired, a mixture of glorious grey; there 
 were wrinkles stealing over the cheeks where orst 
 all was freshness ; a glimpse of his own countenance 
 in an adjacent mirror showed unmistakable signs 
 of "evening time," and as Obed looked at 
 
 "The little faithful copy of his sire 
 In face aad gesture." 
 
 sitting opposite, and thought of the ones whose 
 places were vacant beside him he experienced a 
 sensation unknown before. 
 
 "Only three of us to-day," mused Obed. "Though 
 children still, they are chihhvn no longer," and he 
 thought that a few weeks before, as the train rolled 
 up, he had taken by the hand a manly form, just 
 going forth in the world to try ife for himself. 
 Tiiere was a quiver on the lip of the son, such as 
 had never been there before; a tremor in the heart 
 of the father ; a tear, may be. in the eyes of each ; a 
 "good bye ;" a "God bless you"— "All aboard,"— and 
 
—197— 
 
 "What shall the harvest be ?" Shall it be "garnered 
 sheaves?" God only knows. 
 
 As he thought of the loved ones absent, and 
 wondered whether strangers would provide them a 
 Thanksgiving dinner, and if they would think of 
 home, Obed became so oblivious to what was about 
 him that he began to carve the turnip instead of 
 the turkey, and set his teacup on the table cloth, 
 until Mrs. Obed said, as she only can say, "Obed," 
 and his leverie was gone. His reverie was ended. 
 
 That night,, as he laid his head upon his pillow, 
 Obed could realize better than ever before what 
 parental solicitude and responsibility are, and re- 
 membering that his sensations for the d-iy were only 
 a continuation of those begun in the h(^art of Adam, 
 and vibrating ceaselessly in the hearts of every gen- 
 eration since, he fell asleep. ref>eating 
 
 ''Precious promise God has givea 
 To the weaiy pass^■r-by, 
 On the way from earth to heaven, — 
 'I v^ ill guide thi e with luiiie eye.' " 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Arms, ... ... ... ... ... ... 107 
 
 As Youngest Son, ... ... ... ... 168 
 
 At The Capitol, ... ... ... ... ... 79 
 
 At a Greenback Mketing, ... ... ... 174 
 
 At The Head, ... ... ... ... ... 51 
 
 At Fair Point, ... ... ... ... 62 
 
 Beginning Work, ... ... ... ... ... . 85 
 
 Centennial Eeminiscences, ... ... ... 73 
 
 Chemicals, ... ... ... ... ... 121 
 
 CoRLis Engine, ... ... ... ... 138 
 
 Cottons, ... ... ... ... ... ... 97 
 
 Dolls, ... ... ... ... ... 133 
 
 Edjcvtional Interests, ... ... ... ... 114 
 
 Indepevdexce Chamber, ... ... ... 87 
 
 Indkpendence Hall, ... ... ... ... 86 
 
 In Agricultural Hall, ... ... ... 152 
 
 In Brewers' Hall, ... ... ... ... 1.16 
 
 In The Kitchen, ... ... ... ... 147 
 
 In Thi-: Main Building, ... ... ... ... '90 
 
 Knives And Forks, ... ... ... ... 125 
 
 Linens, ... ... ... ... ... ... loi 
 
 Machinery Hall, ... ... ... ... 137 
 
 Medicines, ... ... ... ... ... 119 
 
 Memorial Hall, ... ... ... ... 162 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 National Museum, 
 
 Onward, .. 
 
 On Strikes, 
 
 Pipes, 
 
 Philadelphia Keachj:d, 
 
 The Home, 
 The Pulpit, 
 
 The Vision, 
 
 83 
 
 Norwegian Figures, ... ••- ••■ 134 
 
 76 
 
 56 
 110 
 
 84 
 
 Plumes, ... ••■ ••• ••• •• •• ^^^ 
 
 Pottery, 
 
 Robes, 
 
 Silks, 
 
 104 
 101 
 
 State Buildings, ... ... ••• •■• ••• ^^^^ 
 
 Sundries, 
 
 The Great Co-Partnership, ... ... ■•• -^ 
 
 Thanksgiving, 
 
 The Start, 
 
 The Concert, ... ... ■■• ••■ ••• ^"■' 
 
 The Crucifixion, ... ... ■•• ••• ••• l^'-^ 
 
 92 
 73 
 
 189 
 110 
 
 The Stationery Account, ... ... ••• 1*^-^ 
 
 91 
 
 The WoMAN'.s Pavilion, ... .. ••• 1^5 
 
 U. S. Department, ... ••• ••• ••• ^^1^ 
 
 Waterford, ... ... ••• ••■ ••• '^' 
 
 Wools, ^^ 
 
"SEVENTEEN SEVENTY-SIX 1" 
 
 B"^ SI. TJ vJOEcisrsoisr, 
 
 CLEVELAND: BROOKS, SHINKLE & CO. 
 
 Muslin, Beveled Edges, Nicely Gilted, $1.00 
 
 This volume of chaste flowing treats of subjects, patriotic and re- 
 ligious, sentimental and liumorous. 
 
 The followinvr are among the many favorable notices it has re- 
 ceiveil from the press: 
 
 "In the tasty volumr" befoi-e us the gracpful pen of Mr. Johnson, so 
 well and favoraiily known to our readers, carries us all the w-'y from 
 ■what *''e fatliers suflfered to the sinuT'ing sights that Oh^d saw at the 
 great Centennial. Everybody should have a copy."— IT. R. Chroniclf. 
 
 "The language is sch"larly and chaste, the thoughts flowing on 
 smootli and pure, as we suspect the life itself <>f th • man has d 'ne. 
 The work of their old tencher will be hailfd with gladness by a mul'i- 
 tuile of his former students scattered over the country."— Cmci?tn.a<i 
 Cumrnfrciai 
 
 "The inscript'on to his wife, at once tender, affectionate and hu- 
 mon^us, is characterist'c of the inaii and tiie work. Several hundred 
 copies have been sold within the few days since its appearance." — 
 Ravenna Democrat. 
 
 "The unique sentiment, 
 
 'Nothing for policy ; 
 Everything for principle,' 
 
 to which we first opened, characterizes tiie man and the book. We 
 predict for it a ready s&Xe."— Ashtabula JVews. 
 
 Copies 55nt by tho Author on Ksceipt of Price.