But what is the use, I have only waded out a few steps.  The deep lake lays before us.

I hain’t gin much idee of all there is to see in that buildin’, and I hain’t in any on ’em.

You have got to swim out for yourself, and then you may have some idee of the vastness on’t.  But you can’t describe ’em, I don’t believe—­nobody can’t.

In front of that buildin’ we see one of the two largest guns ever made in the world.

It wuz made in Essen, Germany.  It weighs two hundred and seventy thousand pounds, and is forty-seven feet long.

It will hit anything sixteen miles off, and with perfect accuracy and effect at a distance of twelve miles.

Good land! further than from Zoar to Shackville.

It costs one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to discharge it once.  As Josiah looked at it, sez he—­

“Oh, how I do wish I had sech a gun!  How I could rake off the crows with it in plantin’ time!  Why,” sez he, “by shootin’ it off once or twice I could clear the hull country of ’em from Jonesville to Loontown.”

“Yes,” sez I; “and have you got a thousand dollars to pay for every batch of crows you kill, besides damages—­heavy damages—­for killin’ human bein’s, and horses, and cows, and sech?”

And he gin in that it wouldn’t be feasible to own one.  And I sez, “I wouldn’t have one on the premises if Mr. Krupp should give me one.”

So we wended onwards.

Wall, about the most interestin’ and surprisin’ hours I enjoyed at Columbuses doin’s wuz to the stately house set apart for that great wizard of the 19th century—­Electricity.

As wuz befittin’, most the first thing that our eyes fell on wuz a big, noble statute of Benjamin Franklin.  He stands with his kite in his hand, a-lookin’ up with a rapt look as if waitin’ for instructions from on high.

He seemed to be guardin’ the entrance to this temple, and he looked as if he wuz glad to be there, and I truly wuz glad to have him there.

For he ort to be put side by side with Christopher Columbus.  Both sailed out on the onknown, both discovered a new world.

Columbuses world we have got the lay on now considerable, and we have mapped it out and counted the inhabitants.

But who—­who shall map out this vast realm that Benjamin F. discovered?

We stand jest by the sea-shore.  We have jest landed from our boats.  The onbroken forest lays before us, and beyend is deep valleys, and high, sun-kissed mountains, and rushin’ rivers.

A few trees have been felled by Morse, Edison, Field and others, so that we can git glimpses into the forest depths, but not enough to even give us a glimpse of the mountains or the seas.  The realm as a whole is onexplored; nobody knows or can dream of the grandeur and glory that awaits the advance guard that shall march in and take the country.

This beautiful house built in its honor is 690 feet long and 345 feet wide.