Samantha at the World's Fair by Marietta Holley
page 274 of 569 (48%)
page 274 of 569 (48%)
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and you know that I only wanted it open for them that couldn't git there
any day but Sundays. And also," sez she honestly, "I talked a good deal, bein' so mad at the Nation for makin' such dretful hard work partakin' of a gnat, and then swallerin' down Barnum's hull circus, side-shows and all. "Why didn't the Nation shet up the saloons?" sez she, in bitter axents. "Folks can have their doubts about Sunday openin' bein' wicked, but the Lord sez expressly that 'no drunkard can inherit Heaven.' The nation wuz so anxious to set patterns before the young--why wuzn't it afraid to turn human bein's into fiends before 'em, liable to shoot down these dear young folks, or lead 'em into paths worse than death? "And it wuz so anxious to show off well before foreign nations. Wuz it any prettier sight to reel round before 'em, drunk as a fool, a-committin' suicide, and rapinin', and murder, and actin'? I wuz so mad," sez Arvilly, "that I felt ugly, and spoze I talked so." "Wall," sez I, "they've acted dretful queer about Sunday openin', take it from first to last. "But," sez I, reasonably, "takin' such a dretful big thing onto their hands to manage would be apt to make folks act queer. "I spoze," sez I, fallin' a little ways into oritory--"I spoze that if Josiah and me had took a rinosterhorse to board durin' the heated term, our actions would often be termed queer by our neighbors. To begin with, it's bein' such new business to us, we shouldn't know what to feed it, to agree with its immense stomach; we should, I dare presoom to say, |
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