think I'd always slighted 'em so, and never had made any
overtoors towards becomin' intimate with 'em.

The outside on't wuz splendid enough to almost take your breath, with
its strange and gorgeous magnificence. It wuz sech a contrast in its
construction to the Exposition Buildin's that lift their domes in such
glory on the East.

But if the outside struck a blow onto our admiration and astonishment,
what--what shall I say of the inside?

Why, as I entered that magnificent arched vestibule, with my faithful
pardner by my side, and my good cotton umbrell grasped in my right hand,
the view wuz pretty nigh overwhelmin' in its profusion of orniment and
gorgeous decoration.

That first look seemed to take me back to Spain right out of Chicago,
and other troubles. I wuz a-roamin' there with Mr. Washington Irving,
and Mr. Bancroft, and other congenial and descriptive minds, and
surrounded with the gorgeous picters of that old time.

I wuz back, I should presoom to say, as much, if not more, than four
hundred years, when all to once I was recalled by my companion.

"Dum it, I didn't know they charged folks for goin' to meetin'!"

"Hush!" sez I; "this is not a meetin'-house, this is a palace; be calm!"

And comin' down through the centuries as sudden as if jerked by a
electric lasso of lightnin', I see that old familiar sight of a man
a-settin' a-sellin' tickets.

And Josiah with a deep sithe paid our fares, and we meandered onwards.

Right beyend the ticket man, to the right on him, wuz a colonnade
runnin' round a circular room covered with a ruff in the shape of a
tent. The ceilin' and walls are covered with landscape views of Southern
Spain, and a mandolin orchestra carried out the idee of a Andulusian
Garden.

And then comes a labyrinth of columns and mirrors, and through 'em and
round 'em and up overhead wuz splendor on splendor of orniment,
gorgeousness on gorgeousness.

These columns are made to put one in mind of the Alhambria, where we so
often strayed with our friend Washington Irving.

[Illustration: Josiah paid our fares.]

And oh, what curious feelin's it did make me have to cast my eyes
onwards amongst these splendid arches and pillows, and see anon or
oftener a tall Moor, with his long robe and his white turban, or
whatever they call it, a-fallin' round his face!

And then another and another of the white-robed figgers, a-glidin' round
in amongst the arches, or a-settin' there in a vista of gor