ILLUSTRATIONS.
Zigzag Journeys in the White City.
CHAPTER I.
THE MARLOWES AT HOME.
ANTON MARLOWE was the Superintendent of the Public Schools, and the President of the Folk-Lore Society in his native town, which consisted of a New England village surrounded by a wide extent of country. He was usually the chairman of the Committee on Patriotic Celebrations; and he took an active interest in the Society for Schoolhouse Decorations, and in the Society for the Improvement of the Country Roads. He was a Sam Adams-like man, always busy in some plan for the public good. His father was Ephraim Marlowe, the Quaker, and he had a son named Ephraim, a lad some fifteen years old,—“old Ephraim and young Ephraim,” the townspeople called them.
The Village Improvement and Folk-Lore Society, as an active organization in the old town had come at last to be called, passed some singular resolutions in the spring of 1893. This society had begun as a village improvement effort; but it had found so many old traditions and legends in its historic work that it had added to it the Historic Society, under the name of the Folk-Lore Society. The workers in this organization had given a number of entertainments on the evenings of patriotic holidays, and had saved several hundred dollars for public use. Manton Marlowe had been the leading mind in these societies. He had arranged the entertainments for the holiday evenings, had conducted excursions into historic fields, had been a leader in the repair of old roads and the marking of historic places. He was a good story-teller, and he had collected the old traditions of the place, and related them in story-telling lectures to the last society.
FINE ARTS BUILDING.
When the Village Improvement and Folk-Lore Society met in May, it greatly surprised good Mr. Marlowe. It resolved:—
- (1) “That the efforts of our worthy President merit practical appreciation;
- (2) “That the Society appropriate one hundred and fifty dollars from its treasury to give him an excursion to the World’s Columbian Exhibition;
“That he be asked to accept this as an expression of esteem, and that he be respectfully requested to answer, on his return, the following questions:
- (1) “What was the most amusing thing that you saw at the Fair?
- (2) “What was the most useful exhibit that you saw at the Fair?
- (3) “What was the grandest sight that you saw at the Fair?
- (4) “And what was the most useful lesson of the Fair?”
- (1) “That the efforts of our worthy President merit practical appreciation;
- (2) “That the Society appropriate one hundred and fifty dollars from its treasury to give him an excursion to the World’s Columbian Exhibition;
- (1) “What was the most amusing thing that you saw at the Fair?
- (2) “What was the most useful exhibit that you saw at the Fair?
- (3) “What was the grandest sight that you saw at the Fair?
- (4) “And what was the most useful lesson of the Fair?”
Mr. Marlowe listened to these resolutions with amazement. As President of the Society, he left the chair, and the Vice President put the resolutions to vote.
“As many as are in favor of these Resolutions, whose purpose is to send our President to the World’s Columbian Exhibition, that he may see the Fair for us, and return to us with new plans for the improvement of our town and its social life, please say ‘Ay.’”
Every voice in the Society shouted “Ay.”
“It is a unanimous vote,” said the Vice President. “Mr. Marlowe, we cannot go to the Fair, so we have selected you to see the Fair for us, and to report what you may find there that may be of use to a country town. Will you serve the Society?”
Mr. Marlowe stood silent for a time, and then said with a choking voice:—
“Yes, yes, my friends, if you put it in that way! My heart is full, but I promise you all that I will put my conscience into my eyes. I will use my eyes for the town and not for myself. I would do anything to advance the interests of this grand old town. Let me see, what is it I am to do? Report to you what, is the funniest, most useful, and the grandest thing that I see at the Fair, and all that I find that can be of benefit to us here. Yes, my friends, I will go. I thank you for your good will and confidence with all my heart!”
One of the Directors of the principal railroad to California via Chicago, was present. He arose and said:—
“Mr. Marlowe, your interest in the Village Improvement Society was the influence that led our company to extend a branch line here. I will give you two passes to Chicago and return. You may like to take one of your family with you.”
When Manton Marlowe returned home that night, he was a happy man. His public spirit had returned to bless him. His wife was an invalid, and she could not go to the Fair. His son Ephraim wished to go. He had heard what the Society had done.
So Ephraim sat down by his father, and expected to receive the invitation.
It was a mellow May evening. As the two sat side by side, old Ephraim came slowly into the room and joined them.
“Manton,” said the latter, “I am an old man.”
“Yes, father, but not very old.”
“I can travel on the cars.”
“Yes, as well as I.”
“I never been to many places in my long life.”
“No. I wish that you could go to the Fair, father.”
“Manton, I want to go. Why, I have been preaching peace in the old Meeting-House on the Hill for forty years, and I would feel as though I could depart in peace, if I could only attend the meetings of the Peace Congress. I have been reading about that proposed Congress, and dreaming about it.”
“Young Ephraim,” said Mr. Marlowe, “I know that you want to go to the Fair; but would you not rather have grandfather go?”
“Yes, father,” said the manly boy, “I shall be happy if he can go.”
“Thou hast well spoken,” said old Ephraim. “Thy heart is right, and I can see that it is already consecrated. But why can we not both go? I have a little money of my own. I will pay my own way.”
“Oh, grandfather, and we will see the world all living together in peace in one white city.”
“Yes, boy. I have seen it in visions. I never expected to see it in the flesh. What have you to say, Manton?”
AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.
“We will all go. The papers say that the White City by the Lake is the most beautiful sight that ever arose in this world under the sun. I am glad that we can see it together.”
“I am told,” said the old man, “that the white-bordered flag is to be carried there. That flag is the beginning of the peace of the world. To see it would turn this old heart into a psalm. It would make me sing like the men of old, Quaker that I am!”
The sunset lit up the far hills and faded, and the three sat together long into the evening, planning their journey to the White City.
Mr. Marlowe was a popular story-teller. His love of folk-lore stories had given him his place as leader of the Village Improvement Society. He liked to relate stories in which old-time characters could be imitated by voice and manner. We shall use in this volume several stories of this kind, as he told them at some folk-lore social gatherings at the Fair.
A favorite story of his, “The Old Auctioneer,” or “The Last Song of the Robin,” is a specimen of his peculiar stories, and a picture of that department of folk-lore called the “Folk-Lore Story.” We give it here:—