f the crowd below wuz impressive, and though it
seemed to me that everybody in New York and Brooklyn and the adjacent
villages and country, wuz all there a Steeple Chasin', yet I knowed
there wuz jest as many dreamin' in Dreamland and bein' luny in Luny
Park. And Surf Avenue wuz full, and what they called the Bowery of
Coney Island, and all the amusement places along the shore. And all on
'em on the move, jostlin' and bein' jostled, foolin' and bein' fooled,
laughin' and bein' laughed at.

Why, I wuz told and believe, that sometimes a million folks go to
Coney Island on a holiday. And I wuz knowin' myself to over three
thousand orphan children goin' there at one time to spend a happy day,
the treat bein' gin 'em by some big-hearted men. Plenty to eat and
drink, and a hull day of enjoyment, candy, pop corn, circus, etc.,
bright day, happy hearts, how that day will stand out aginst the dull
gray background of their lives! And them men ort to hug themselves
thinkin' the thought, over three thousand happinesses wuz set down to
their credit in the books of the Recordin' Angel. And I sez to myself,
"Samantha, you ort to speak well of anything that so brightens the
lives of the children of the great city."

As I went into Dreamland Park, it seemed agin as if all the folks in
the city wuz there in the immense inner court, surrounded by
amusements on every side. They wuz comin' and goin', talkin',
laughin', hurryin', santerin', to and fro, fro and to. Lots on 'em
talkin' language I never hearn before, but I thought, poor things, you
never had the advantage of livin' in Jonesville, so I overlooked it in
'em.

[Illustration: _"As I went into Dreamland it seemed as if all the folks
in the city was there." (See page 266)_]

I see most the first thing as I entered, a place called Creation, and
feelin' dubersome that any thing more could be created than what I'd
seen that day, I bought a ticket and went in, and to my glad surprise,
I found it wuz some like a prayer meetin'. For a man with a loud
preachin' voice quoted a lot of Scripter most the first thing. After
we all got seated it turned dark as pitch all in a minute. But you
could dimly see a vast waste of water, kinder movin' and swashin' to
and fro, as if some great force wuz workin' down below. And out of the
darkness we hearn that Voice:

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth, and the Earth
wuz without form and void, and darkness wuz on the face of the