human
I suppose you have visited the Midway,
gpt
Yes, all I want to,
human
Don’t say that. I expect you to pilot me to all the shows.
gpt
You’ll be disappointed, then. Civilization’s good enough for me. If I’d had a call to minister to naked savages, I s’pose I’d ’a’ been given grace to conquer; but to listen to ’em yell, and see ’em dance, is a mighty queer thing for Christians to seek for entertainment, it seems to me. If I could go into that Pleasance with plenty o’ hot water and Castile soap, and some sensible clothes, and could help those poor critters to a more godly way o’ livin’ that would be a different thing; but when I want a good time I ain’t goin’ to try to get it bein’ trod on by camels and yelled at by Turks, all the time smellin’ smells I don’t know the name of and would be afraid to. No, sir.
human
Perhaps the Midway Plaisance is an acquired taste, he said.
gpt
You may like it better, later.
human
No, I’ve seen enough of it if I can’t be a missionary, but I’m glad all the natives have got it warm at last, anyway.
gpt
Which natives?
human
Oh, all those foreign folks. They’re all natives of some place, I s’pose, and they do say when ’t was rainy and cold and muddy they had a forlorn time of it in the Pleasance.
gpt
Yes; we used to read about it, and my brother Robert nicknamed the street then the Mudway Nuisance. We all laughed at the joke but Jack. It is against Jack’s principles to jest at sacred things like Chicago and her Fair. I shall have to get him to show me the fine points of the Midway. He won’t refuse me.
human
No, indeed. There’s plenty that like it. The place gets more crowded every day. Why, Mr. Gorham, Miss Berry dropped her rather sad, musing tone, and spoke feelingly.
gpt
That Midway is just a representation of matter, and this great White City is an emblem of mind. In the Midway it’s some dirty and all barbaric. It deafens you with noise; the worst folks in there are avaricious and bad, and the best are just children in their ignorance, and when you’re feelin’ bewildered with the smells and sounds and sights, always changin’ like one o’ these kaleidoscopes, and when you come out o’ that mile-long babel where you’ve been elbowed and cheated, you pass under a bridge—and all of a sudden you are in a great, beautiful silence. The angels on the Woman’s Buildin’ smile down and bless you, and you know that in what seemed like one step, you’ve passed out o’ darkness into light. Aunt Love paused thoughtfully.
human
It’s come to me, Mr. Gorham, that perhaps dyin’ is goin’ to be somethin’ like crossin’ the dividin’ line that separates the Midway from the White City. I’ve asked myself when I’ve passed under that bridge and felt the difference down so deep, what did make it so strong? ’T ain’t only the quiet and the grandeur o’ those buildin’s compared with the fantastic things you’ve left behind; I believe it’s just the fact that the makers o’ the Fair believed in God and put Him and their enlightenment from Him into what they did; and we feel it some like we’d feel an electric shock.
gpt
You make me more interested than ever in my prospect of sightseeing, he said.
human
Now I propose that you show me the way to that café where you say the others will come this evening, and we will take lunch together there. Not a word of objection, Aunt Love. This is a great day. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us charge on the café under the candle-snuffers.
gpt
I won’t attempt to take you through the buildin’ itself, said Miss Berry,