Elsie at the World's Fair

by Martha Finley

  CHAPTER V.

  Everybody was ready for an early start the next morning and Harold andHerbert were waiting for them in the Peristyle. Some time was spent thereand in the Court of Honor, then in the Midway Plaisance. Watching thecrowds was very amusing--the wild people from Dahomey wearing Americanflags around their dusky thighs, the Turks, the Arabs, and men, women, andchildren of many other nations all in their peculiar costumes, sodifferent from the dress of our own people.

  Then the hundred thousand flags, very many of our own with their stripesand stars, and those of perhaps every other nation that has one todisplay--were flung to the breeze, while bands from Cincinnati and Iowa,from Vienna, Suabia, and Arabia had all got together and were playingYankee Doodle.

  There were besides many curious bands of Oriental musicians--some of themmaking great but futile efforts to play our national airs--producingsounds that were by no means delightsome to the American ear; not half sopleasing as the sight of the multi-colored flags decorating the huts andcastles of foreign architecture.

  It turned out to be a day of pleasant surprises. As they neared the end ofthe Plaisance they came suddenly and unexpectedly upon Chester and FrankDinsmore and Will Croley, the old college mate of Harold and Herbert, whomnone of them had seen since the summer spent together on the New Englandcoast several years before.

  All were delighted; cordial greetings on both sides were exchanged, andscarcely were these over when in a lady passing by Grandma Elsierecognized, with a little cry of joyous surprise, her old time friend andcousin, Annis Keith.

  "Annis! oh, how glad I am to see you!" she exclaimed.

  "Elsie! my dear, dearest cousin!" cried Annis in return, as they graspedeach other's hands and looked with ardent affection each into the other'seyes. "Oh, how delightful to have come upon you so quickly! I waswondering if I could ever find you in all this crowd, and to have fairlystumbled upon you almost the first thing after leaving the cars is mostfortunate."

  "Yes; for us as well as you, Annis," Mr. Dinsmore said with a smile,offering his hand as he spoke. "Are you just from Pleasant Plains?"

  "Yes, sir; we left there this morning, and but a moment since stepped offthe train that brought us--nearly all the family of brothers and sisterswith their children."

  "Why, yes, to be sure, here are Mildred and the doctor and--well, reallyCharley,"--shaking hands with Mildred and her husband--"I will have to beintroduced to all these younger folks."

  There was quite a crowd of them--young, middle-aged, and elderly, for thefamilies had been increasing in numbers, the younger ones growing in size,and all in years.

  All wanted to be together for a time, the older ones to be able to talkfreely of absent dear ones and other family matters, the younger to makeacquaintance with each other.

  "Suppose we take a car in the Ferris Wheel," suggested Harold Travilla;"we can then have a ride, a grand view of the Fair grounds, and a chat,all at one and the same time."

  Everyone seemed to favor the proposition and without further discussionthey all started in that direction.

  Arriving at the place they climbed a broad stairway very much like theapproach to an Elevated station.

  "This way, ladies and gentleman," said a man in a blue coat, pointing to adoorway between two knotted beams, and they passed into a sunshiny roomwith two rows of chairs at each side. There were windows all about itbarred with iron.

  "This is one of the cars," remarked Captain Raymond, in answer to anenquiring look from Annis, and he and the other gentlemen of the partybusied themselves in seeing the ladies comfortably seated, then tookpossession of chairs as near them as might be.

  Other people were coming in, and in a very few moments the car was inmotion, the click of a latch having told that they were locked in.

  Some of our party who were trying the wheel for the first time looked atrifle pale and alarmed as the movement began, and one or two of the girlsasked low and tremulously if it were certainly quite safe.

  "Yes, I am entirely sure of that," replied Harold with his pleasant smile;"but don't look out of the windows just yet."

  "You are not at all frightened, I see," said Chester Dinsmore in a lowtone to Lulu, having contrived to secure a seat close at her side.

  "Oh, no, indeed!" she returned. "This is my second trip and I hardly feltat all timid even the first time, because my father had assured us it wasperfectly safe, and I have entire confidence in his opinion and his word."

  "I don't know any man whose word or opinion I would be more ready totake," returned Chester, giving her a look that seemed to say he would beno less willing to take the captain's daughter, were the opportunityafforded him.

  But Lucilla did not notice the look, for she was already gazing out of thewindow and thinking of nothing but the prospect from it.

  "Oh, look, Chester!" she said eagerly, "This gives us such a grand view ofthe Plaisance. It is the second time our party have made this trip--no,not that--the second time we have been in these cars; we went round twicethat day, and I hope will go at least as often to-day. Presently, when weget to the highest part the people down below will look like the merestblack dots and the houses like toy ones."

  "Yes," he returned, "it is a trip worth taking. I should not have liked tomiss it."

  "Nor should I," said Lucilla. "I think of asking papa to bring us hereseveral times more."

  "In that case I hope I may be permitted to be one of the party every time,for it is a fine sight indeed."

  "Are you and Frank new arrivals?" she asked.

  "Yes, we got into the city last evening. We would have hunted up yourparty at once, but did not know just where to look for you."

  "We are making the yacht our home," she returned, "and it is anchored forthe greater part of the time at no great distance from the Peristyle. Wespend our nights on it, but so far our days have been passed in visitingdifferent parts of the Fair."

  "And you haven't seen everything in it yet?" he queried laughingly.

  "No, indeed! I heard someone estimate the other day that it would takemore than forty years to do that."

  "And in a few months the vast majority of the sights will be withdrawn,"he said with a half sigh; "so we will have to content ourselves withseeing a few of such things as interest us most. How long will you stay?"

  "I don't know; that depends upon the decisions of the higher powers; inother words of the older people. How long do you?"

  "Perhaps two or three weeks. It will depend probably upon how we enjoyourselves."

  "Then you will be likely to stay a good while, I think," she returned."There! we are at the top of the wheel, and is not the view magnificent?"

  They made the circuit a second time, then seeing that very many peoplewere awaiting an opportunity to fill their places in the car, they vacatedthem and wandered elsewhere about the Fair grounds for a little.

  Then Grandma Elsie expressed a desire to visit the building of her nativeState--Louisiana--and invited all in the party to go with her and dinethere as her guests. All accepted the invitation with apparent pleasureand immediately turned their steps thitherward.

  "Where is it?" someone asked, and Harold answered: "At the northern curveof the horseshoe formed by the State sites around the Fine Art Galleriesand just west of the Missouri building. It is not a long walk."

  "Ah," exclaimed Grandma Elsie when they caught sight of their destination,"see those trees in front laden with moss from our Southern bayous! Thesight almost carries one back to the old days at Viamede."

  "Yes; that and the foliage generally, which is of the tropical order,"remarked her father in reply; "see, the cacti are conspicuous. And I likethe simple style of the building with its galleries and verandas."

  "And the site is a fine one," remarked the captain, "not far from thecable car entrance and fronting the Art Palace."

  "Shall we dine first and then look at the exhibits?" asked Grandma Elsie."I want to give you all a real Southern dinner, hoping it may proveagreeable to your palates."


  "I presume we can stand it for once, mother dear," returned Herbert, andthe rest of the party seemed equally willing.

  They passed in and were presently regaling themselves with gumbo soup,opossum, and various other dishes peculiar to the part of the countryrepresented by the building and its appurtenances, being served by cooksand waiters directly from the plantations of the river country.

  Then, having satisfied their appetites, they spent some time in examiningthe relics on exhibit in the building.

  One of these was a picture of the Madonna by Raphael. There was also anexhibition of carvings done by women, which excited both admiration andsurprise, and in one of the rooms was some richly carved furniture fromthe State museum at Baton Rouge, which had once belonged to GovernorGalvez.

  They went next to the Florida building, which was a reproduction of oldFort Marion, whose foundations were laid in 1620, the year of the landingof the Pilgrims in Massachusetts.

  The captain mentioned that fact, then asked: "Do you know, Grace, how longthat fort was in building?"

  "No, papa," she replied, "can you tell us?"

  "It took one hundred and fifty years of toil by exiles, convicts, andslaves to construct the heavy walls, curtains, bastions, and towers ofdefence. Its bloodiest days were more than a century before our Civil War,in which it did not take a very prominent part."

  "Where are the curtains, papa?" asked little Elsie. "I don't see any."

  "It is the name given to that part of the rampart which connects theflanks of two bastions," replied her father.

  "And it was here that the Apaches were imprisoned," remarked Walter.

  "Yes," returned his mother, "and a most gloomy prison it must have provedto them, used as they were to the free life of the mountains, prairies,and forests."

  Some little time longer was spent in viewing the tropical plants and treesthat adorned the exterior of the fort, then they passed inside andexamined the many beautiful things to be seen there.

  Their next visit was to the headquarters of the State of Washington,where they were much interested in the display of her native woods and therockery built of native ores, showing pure streaks of gold and silver, soillustrating the mineral wealth of the State.

  "Where next?" asked Mr. Dinsmore as they passed out.

  "Papa, I'm so tired," little Elsie was saying at the same moment, in a lowaside to her father.

  "I, too," added Ned, overhearing her. "Please can't we take a ride now?"

  "Surely," said Grandpa Dinsmore, overhearing the request. "I invite youall to try an electric boat on the lagoon."

  No one seemed disposed to decline the invitation; some time was spent onthe water, then on the Intramural Railway. After that the whole party, atthe invitation of Violet and the captain, went aboard the yacht, stilllying in the lake at no great distance from the Peristyle, and partook ofa supper which was no unpleasant contrast to the enjoyable dinner withwhich Grandma Elsie had provided them.

  The little folks were ready for bed, on leaving the table; the older onesrested for a time on the _Dolphin's_ deck, chatting together whileenjoying the sunset, then they returned to the Court of Honor, to revel inits beauties as seen by the witchery of the electric light.