Identifier: argosythe48wood (find matches)
Title: The Argosy
Year: 1865 (1860s)
Authors: Wood, Henry, Mrs., 1814-1887 Wood, Charles W. (Charles William), b. 1850?
Subjects:
Publisher: London (etc.) R. Bentley (etc.)
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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those who were there to witness it; but what could it havebeen in comparison with the wonders of the Paris Exhibition of1889? The night was sultry; the heat was intense. The Parisianswandered about in their airiest costumes. But a large proportion ofthe French were evidently from the Provinces; and they were armedwith baskets and umbrellas ; and their costumes were as fearful andwonderful as the patois they conversed in. But we, lost in dreams and wonder, gazed on and on at the scene;and the more we gazed the more bewildered we grew. The buildingseemed endless, the place gigantic. It was a world of its own. Itought to have taken years to construct instead of days and months.Was it all destined to demolition when the last day was ended andthe last door was closed ? This seemed impossible. However, we awoke to something like realities, and made for theentrance to the tower. During all this time the lifts had been going \..r; . ;:■■ ■:,. /. ■■-,/ Sm .^4^^ <: •..•■ v./
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W^ ^^w 4o6 Modern Babylon. up and down, up and down; always crowded; moving smoothly andnoiselessly as a roller might pass over a lawn ; no rattling of trains, nojarring, no whirring and wheezing. The miniature railway close by,conveying its passengers to different parts of the Exhibition, workedmuch more noisily. The whistle shrieked and the engine puffedlike an asthmatic machine going up hill, and the carriages rumbledand rolled and rattled. But the machinery of the Eiffel Tower wasbuilt by a sorcerer, and acted like witchcraft. True, one of the lifts came to a sudden stoppage the other day,and for an hour people found themselves, like Mahomets cofifin,suspended in mid-air between earth and heaven ; and some womenshrieked and others fainted, and strong men turned pale ; and it wasnot even a case of Sauve qui pent! for there was nothing but airto tread upon if they escaped; and it is only disembodied spirits whopossess the privilege of walking on air. But the little contretemps after

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