Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife. Marietta Holley

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СКАЧАТЬ They wuz a bridal couple, that anybody could see. The blessed fact could be seen in their hull personality––dress, demeanor, shinin’ new satchels and everything, but I didn’t recognize ’em till Tommy sez:

      “Oh, grandma, there is Phila Henzy and the man she married!”

      Could it be? Yes it wuz Phila Ann Henzy, Philemon Henzy’s oldest girl, named for her pa and ma, I knew she 37 wuz married in Loontown the week before. I’d hearn on’t, but had never seen the groom, but knew he wuz a young chap she had met to the Buffalo Exposition, and who had courted her more or less ever sence. They seemed real glad to see me, though their manners and smiles and hull demeanors seemed kinder new, somehow, like their clothes. They had hearn from friends in Jonesville that I wuz on my way to California, and they’d been lookin’ for me. Sez the groom, with a fond look on her:

      “I am so glad we found you, for Baby would have been so disappointed if we hadn’t met you.”

      Baby! Phila Ann wuz six feet high if she wuz a inch, but good lookin’ in a big sized way. And he wuz barely five feet, and scrawny at that; but a good amiable lookin’ young man. But I didn’t approve of his callin’ her Baby when she could have carried him easy on one arm and not felt it. The Henzys are all big sized, and Ann, her ma, could always clean her upper buttery shelves without gittin’ up in a chair, reach right up from the floor.

      But he probable had noble qualities if he wuz spindlin’ lookin’, or she couldn’t adore him as she did. Phila Ann jest worshipped him I could see, and he her, visey versey. Sez she, with a tender look down onto him:

      “Yes, I’ve been tellin’ pa how I did hope we should meet you.”

      Pa! There wuz sunthin’ else I didn’t approve of; callin’ him pa, when the fact that they wuz on their bridal tower wuz stomped on ’em both jest as plain as I ever stomped a pat of butter with clover leaves. But I didn’t spoze I could do anything to help or hender, for I realized they wuz both in a state of delirium or trance. But I meditated further as I looked on, it wouldn’t probable last no great length of time. The honeymoon would be clouded over anon or before that. The clouds would clear away agin, no doubt, and the sun of Love shine out permanent if their affection for each other wuz cast-iron and sincere. But the light of this 38 magic moon I knew would never shine on ’em agin. The light of that moon makes things look dretful queer and casts strange shadders onto things and folks laugh at it but no other light is so heavenly bright while it lasts. I think so and so duz Josiah.

      But to resoom forwards. The groom went somewhere to send a telegram and Phila sot down by me for a spell; their seat wuz further off but she wanted to talk with me. She wuz real happy and confided in me, and remarked “What a lovely state matrimony is.”

      And I sez, “Yes indeed! it is, but you hain’t got fur enough along in marriage gography to bound the state on all sides as you will in the future.”

      But she smiled blissful and her eyes looked fur off in rapped delight (the light of that moon shin’ full on her) as she said:

      “What bliss it is for me to know that I have got sunthin’ to lean on.”

      And I thought that it would be sad day for him if she leaned her hull heft, but didn’t say so, not knowin’ how it would be took.

      I inquired all about the neighbors in Jonesville and Zoar and Loontown, and sez I, “I spoze Elder White is still doin’ all he can for that meetin’ house of hisen in Loontown, and I inquired particular about him, for Ernest White is a young man I set store by. He come from his home in Boston to visit his uncle, the banker, in East Loontown. He wuz right from the German university and college and preachin’ school, and he wuz so rich he might have sot down and twiddled his thumbs for the rest of his days. But he had a passion for work––a passion of pity for poor tempted humanity. He wanted to reach down and try to lift up the strugglin’ ‘submerged tenth.’ He wuz a student and disciple of Ruskin, and felt that he must carry a message of helpfulness and beauty into starved lives. And, best of all, he wuz a follower of Jesus, who went about doin’ good. 39 When his rich family found that he would be a clergyman they wanted to git him a big city church, and he might have had twenty, for he wuz smart as a whip, handsome, rich, and jest run after in society. But no; he said there wuz plenty to take those rich fat places; he would work amongst the poor, them who needed him.”

      East Loontown is a factory village, and the little chapel was standin’ empty for want of funds, but twenty saloons wuz booming, full of the operatives, who spent all of their spare time and most of their money there. So Ernest White stayed right there and preached, at first to empty seats and a few old wimmen, but as they got to know him, the best young men and young wimmen went, and he filled their hearts with aspiration and hope and beauty and determination to help the world. Not being contented with what he wuz doing he spent half his time with the factory hands, who wuz driven to work by Want, and harried by the mighty foe, Intemperance. A saloon on every corner and block, our twin American idols, Intemperance and Greed, taking every cent of money from the poor worshippers, to pour into the greedy pockets of the saloon-keepers, brewers, whiskey men and the Government, and all who fatten on the corpse of manhood.

      Well, he jest threw himself into the work of helping those poor souls, and helping them as he did in sickness and health they got to liking him, so that they wuz willing to go and hear him preach, which was one hard blow to the Demon. The next thing he got all the ministers he could to unite in a Church Union to fight the Liquor Power, and undertaking it in the right way, at the ballot-box, they got it pretty well subdued, and as sane minds begun to reign in healthier bodies, better times come.

      Elder White not only preached every Sunday, but kep’ his church open every evening of the week, and his boys and girls met there for healthful and innocent amusements. He got a good library, all sorts of good games, music; and had 40 short, interesting lectures and entertainments and his Church of Love rivalled the Idol Temples and drew away its idol worshippers one by one, and besides the ministers, many prominent business men helped him; my son, Thomas J., is forward in helpin’ it along. And they say that besides all the good they’re doing, they have good times too, and enjoy themselves first-rate evenings. They don’t stay out late––that’s another thing Elder White is trying to inculcate into their minds––right living in the way of health as well as morals. Every little while he and somebody else who is fitted for it gives short talks on subjects that will help the boys and girls along in Temperance and all good things. The young folks jest worship him, so they say, and I wuz glad to hear right from him. Phila is a worker in his meetin’ house, and a active member, and so is her pa and ma, and she said that there wuz no tellin’ how much good he had done.

      “When he come there,” sez she, “there wuz twenty saloons goin’ full blast in a village of two thousand inhabitants and the mill operatives wuz spendin’ most all they earnt there, leavin’ their families to suffer and half starve; but when Elder White opened his Church of Love week day evenin’s as well as Sunday, you have no idee what a change there is. There isn’t a saloon in the place. He has made his church so pleasant for the young folks that he has drawn away crowds that used to fill the saloons.”

      “Yes,” sez I, “Thomas J. is dretful interested in it; he has gin three lectures there.”

      “Yes, most all the best citizens have joined the Help Union to fight against the Whiskey Power, though,” sez Phila, “there is one or two ministers who are afraid of contaminating their religion by politics. They had ruther stand up in their pulpits and preach to a few wimmen about the old Jews and the patience of Job than take holt and do a man’s work in a man’s way––the only practical way, grapple 41 with the monster Evil at its lair, where it breeds and fattens––the ballot-box.”

      “Yes,” СКАЧАТЬ