'Yes, sir,' resumed the man, with a brisk nod, 'it's a big thing! When
'twas first talked up I was a good deal sot on havin' it in Noo York
State. I'd been there, ye see, twenty years ago on my weddin' trip; I
was livin' in Pennsylvany then. But, Lor! Noo York couldn't 'a' done
this here! No, sir, she couldn't. Chicargo gits my money--not that
I've got much on it,' with a nervous start and a shrugging movement as
if he were trying to draw in his pockets and obliterate all traces of
them. 'I don't never believe in carryin' money to sech places.' Then,
as if anxious to get away from a dangerous subject, he asked, 'Been
here long, stranger?'

'About half an hour.'

'M--um! I've done better than that; been here two hull hours. Come in
on one of them Village Grove cable cars, and come plum through
Middleway Pleasants. M--um! but they're some, them furren fellers;
only it seems to me they ain't no need of so many of them niggers of
all shades, dressed up like Callathumpians on Fourth of July, and
standin' round in everybody's way.'

I was not there to impart information, and I let the honest soul
babble on. He had brawny shoulders and an ingenuous face, but I felt
sure he had brought with him more money than was wise or needful, and
that he would come to grief if he continued to deny the possession of
money, with his tell-tale face flatly contradicting his words.

But I was now recalled to myself and my own affairs; and dropping a
few politely meaningless words, I left my first acquaintance and made
my way toward the pavilion at the corner, where I had been told I
should find the 'man in authority' whom I sought.

Putting my question to a guard in the ante-room, I was told that the
man in authority was absent--would be absent two hours, perhaps; and,
not much loth to pass a little time in that splendid rotunda, stood
gazing about the beautiful Court of Honour, with its fountains,
statues, glittering and fair facades, rippling lagoons, and snowy and
superb peristyle, statue-crowned and gleaming, with blue Lake
Michigan, sun-kissed and breeze-tossed, stretching away to the horizon
in pulsating perspective.

Fairer than any dream it looked that fair May day, with Justice,
golden and glorious, rising from out the waves, splendid as a sun
goddess, and dominating all the rest.

As I turned away, having looked and looked again, I saw my first White
City acquaintance seated upon a settle in the shadow of one of the
mammoth a