American Rebirth

by Norma Jean Lutz

  Her mother agreed. “I much prefer the cheerful displays.”

  “Are you ready to go upstairs?” asked Uncle Daniel.

  Ted was filled with wonder at the things he saw upstairs. A door opened when he walked on a certain part of the floor. A person could write something down and the writing would be sent to another part of the country by a new machine called a tel-auto-graph. In a walnut shell sat the world’s smallest steam engine, which they looked at through a magnifying glass.

  “Whatever are these chickens doing here?” Aunt Marcia asked, looking into a sandy enclosure.

  Ted and Emily hurried to her side. “Oh, they’re so cute!” Emily said, looking at the fluffy yellow chicks.

  A small house made of curtains stood in the middle of the sand. Ted read the banner stretched across the house. “‘Who needs Mother now!’”

  “Well!” Aunt Marcia pretended to be insulted.

  “What do chickens have to do with electricity?” Anna asked. “And why don’t the chicks need a mother?”

  A mustached young man attending the booth smiled at her. “If you’ll step to the other side of the exhibit, you will see.”

  Ted and the Allertons did as he suggested. “This is called an incubator,” the young man told them. “Electricity supplies the warmth needed to hatch the eggs and to keep the chicks warm. So as you can see, they don’t need a mother.”

  Ted and the others stared through the side of the incubator. “Look! There’s one hatching now!”

  They watched, fascinated, while a little beak poked its way through a shell. In another part of the incubator, another chick broke free of the last of its shell.

  “Poor thing,” Emily exclaimed. “It looks cold and wet.”

  “It won’t be for long,” Ted said. “It’s already headed for the lightbulb.”

  The damp chick stumbled and hopped to a lightbulb and leaned against it, gathering warmth.

  “What do you do with the chicks?” Emily asked the man.

  A smile beamed from beneath his mustache. “We give them away. Would you like one? I can put one in a box for you.”

  Emily swung around to her father. “May I? They are so sweet, and it would be such fun to watch one grow up.”

  Father laughed. “Where would you keep it while we visit the fair? It needs water and food and warmth.”

  “I could keep the box in our hotel room while we’re at the fair,” she suggested eagerly.

  Richard shook his head. “I doubt the conductor of the Pullman car would let you keep the chick with you on the train. Besides, where would you keep a chicken at home?”

  Emily turned to her mother.

  Her mother lifted a finger. “Don’t even ask, Emily Marie. I’ll not have a chicken in my home or in my yard.”

  Ted flung an arm around his cousin’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’m sure there are lots of children in Chicago who will give the chicks homes.”

  “At least until the chicks grow big enough to eat,” Richard said cheerfully.

  “Murderer!” Emily gave him a dark look.

  Emily seemed to forget about the chicks when they entered the model home where everything was done by electricity. They entered after ringing an electric doorbell. Aunt Marcia smiled. “How charming!”

  The home was filled with electric wonders: a fire alarm, hot plates, an electric iron, an electric sewing machine, an electric fan, an electric stove, a carpet sweeper, and even a washing machine.

  “I want a home like this when I grow up,” Emily declared.

  “I want a home like this now,” her mother added.

  Uncle Daniel laughed and pulled her arm through his. “With all these inventions, there won’t be anything left for a woman to do around the house.”

  “That suits me fine,” Aunt Marcia declared.

  “Me, too!” Emily and Anna chimed in.

  Uncle Daniel’s chuckle died away as he stood at the railing and looked down at the first floor. Ted stood beside him. Electrical wonders met his gaze everywhere he looked.

  “This is a great time to be a child,” his uncle said. “When I look at all these inventions, I get excited wondering what new things will be invented in your lifetimes.”

  “I wonder how many of these things were developed by Thomas Edison,” Richard mused. “I read that it would take twenty-five acres just to display all the machines he’s worked on.”

  “The things he’s created have already changed the way people live,” Uncle Daniel told them. “People say his creations will change the way people live in the twentieth century, too.”

  “He has a new invention here that I want to see,” Richard said.

  “His dynamo?” his father asked. “I understand he has one here. So do other inventors. Scientists say this kind of power will begin a new phase in history.”

  Richard shook his head. “What I want to see is much smaller than a dynamo.”

  His father swung out an arm. “Lead on.”

  As they were following Richard, Ted said, “I read in the newspaper that one hundred years from now, the person who is alive today who will be most remembered is Thomas Edison. Even more remembered than James Hill, the railroad king.”

  Emily grabbed Ted’s sleeve so hard that she almost jerked him off balance. He heard her gasp.

  “What is it?” he asked, tugging at his jacket sleeve.

  She pointed toward three men in suits and bowler hats standing near the display they were passing. The men seemed to be in a friendly argument. They talked fast, laughed through their beards and mustaches, and waved their hands about as though trying to draw pictures in the air for each other.

  “Isn’t that … isn’t it … Ed … Ed …”

  “Edison. It’s Thomas Edison,” her father finished for her. His voice was low but filled with excitement.

  Ted’s heart seemed to jump to his throat and beat wildly.

  Aunt Marcia laid her gloved hand on Uncle Daniel’s forearm. “Are you sure it’s Mr. Edison?”

  “Oh, yes, I’m sure,” he answered. “I’ve seen his picture in newspapers and magazines often enough.”

  “Me, too,” Richard agreed. “I sure wish we had a camera!”

  Emily looked up at her father. “Can we meet him, Father? We could introduce ourselves.”

  “I’m afraid not.” Uncle Daniel shook his head, but Ted thought he looked like he wanted to say yes. “It wouldn’t be polite. If he were meeting strangers, there would be others about him.”

  “But maybe those men he’s talking to were strangers, too,” Emily pressed.

  Her mother smiled. “I doubt that. They appear to know each other well.”

  She laid a gentle hand on Richard’s arm. “Let us move on to the exhibit you wanted to show us. It isn’t polite to gawk at people, even if they are famous.”

  They moved on slowly. In spite of Aunt Marcia’s words, Ted couldn’t help watching the great man. He noticed Emily was doing the same. She walked as close as she could to the three men as they passed. Ted stayed right beside her.

  “I’ve heard that you believe in a personal God,” one of the men was saying to Edison. “Is that true?”

  “Certainly.” The white-haired genius nodded. “The existence of a God can almost be proven by chemistry. Look at the atoms, at the orderly way the universe is put together. Could this have happened without a great, intelligent God?”

  Ted and Emily smiled at each other. Once they were out of earshot, they kept on craning their necks to watch the famous man. Ted twisted his head about until his neck hurt. Suddenly he bumped into Emily.

  Aunt Marcia cried out, falling against Uncle Daniel.

  Ted saw in a flash that Emily had bumped into her mother before he had bumped into Emily.

  Uncle Daniel caught Aunt Marcia before she could fall but not before her pride was hurt. Her cheeks flamed dark red. Ted groaned, and he saw Emily squeeze her eyes shut and wince.

  “I’m sorry, Mother.” Emily’s apology rushed out. “I
was watching … that is …”

  Ted knew she’d remembered just in time that they weren’t supposed to be gawking at Mr. Edison.

  Aunt Marcia straightened her new hat. “You were ogling Mr. Edison, weren’t you?”

  For a minute Ted thought Emily was going to deny it. Then she clasped her hands behind her new green dress, looked at the floor, and nodded.

  Aunt Marcia sighed deeply. “I can hardly blame you, though it was rude. It was also dangerous. What if I had been a stranger without a husband to catch me from falling? You could have hurt someone.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Emily murmured. “I’ll try to be more careful, I promise.”

  Richard interrupted. “This is the exhibit I wanted to see. It’s Edison’s new kinetoscope.” “His what?” Ted asked.

  “Kinetoscope,” Richard answered. “You look into a box at picture film. There’s a magnifying glass, and the film has an electric light behind it so you can see the picture.”

  “Like a stereoscope with a light?” Aunt Marcia asked.

  “What is new about looking at pictures?” Emily demanded.

  “Don’t you read anything in the newspapers?” Richard asked. “These pictures move.”

  “Moving pictures?” Ted grinned. “You’re pulling our legs.”

  Richard didn’t smile. “Not only do the pictures move, but they talk.”

  Ted laughed again.

  “You will see.” Richard turned on his heel and entered the exhibit.

  Ted and the others followed. Inside was a box about two feet square. It stood four feet high. Beside it stood a phonograph.

  Richard climbed up on a stool. The man in charge of the booth handed him earphones. Then Richard looked down into the box.

  “Wow!”

  Ted thought he sounded almost as excited as Uncle Daniel had when they saw Edison.

  In less than a minute, Richard was removing the headphones and climbing down from the stool. A grin spread from ear to ear. His black eyes shone like new marbles. “That’s fantastic!”

  Ted waited impatiently to see what was so fantastic. All the Allertons climbed the stool and looked into the box first. Each one came away looking as excited as Richard had.

  Emily was the last of the Allertons to view it. “You won’t believe it, Ted!”

  He climbed the stool eagerly and fitted the earphones over his head. He looked through a small slit on top of the box.

  He saw a picture of a blacksmith. The blacksmith began moving! Ted gasped. The blacksmith used his sledgehammer and tongs, then laughed and looked like he was talking to friends in his blacksmith shop. The film stopped.

  Ted was disappointed and excited at the same time. “That was great! I wish it would have lasted longer, though. Do you think Mr. Edison will sell his kinetoscopes for people to use in their homes with their phonographs, Uncle Daniel?”

  His uncle grinned. “I expect they will be toys for rich people, like the automobiles we saw in the Transportation Building yesterday.”

  Ted spread his arms wide and laughed. “Well, I guess I’m just going to have to get rich one day! Now all I have to do is figure out how!”

  When they left the booth, Ted glanced down the aisle, hoping for another glimpse of Mr. Edison. He was still there, but so was a small crowd. A man in a suit was angrily trying to grab a black box from one of the fair’s policemen.

  “What’s happening?” Ted asked the guide who was standing outside the booth they’d just left.

  The man nodded toward the disturbance. “A newspaper reporter tried to take a picture of Mr. Edison. The policeman took away his camera.”

  Ted felt like he’d swallowed a rock. The scene reminded him of the boy he and Emily had seen arrested the day before. He glanced at Emily. Her face looked as sad as he felt. “Don’t gawk,” Anna reminded them.

  Ted bit back an angry retort. Fourteen-year-old Anna sounded just like her mother.

  Uncle Daniel cleared his throat. “Let’s find a restaurant and have lunch. Then how about a ride on the Ferris wheel?”

  Excitement sent a chill through Ted. Emily grabbed his arm and bounced up and down. They’d been able to see the Ferris wheel whenever they were outside. It was much taller than any of the buildings. Ted had never been up as high as it went. And in an hour or two, he’d be on it!

  CHAPTER 9

  Trouble on the Midway

  As hungry as he’d been after spending all morning walking around Electricity Hall, Ted didn’t think they’d ever get done eating and over to the Ferris wheel. Only Aunt Marcia’s constant reminders kept him and Emily from running all the way from the restaurant to the wheel that towered over the fair.

  Aunt Marcia raised her parasol to protect herself from the noonday sun. “I do wish we didn’t have to go so far down the Midway to ride the Ferris wheel. I’ve heard the Midway is filled with inappropriate displays.”

  Ted opened his mouth to say something, then shut it tight. He’d heard the Midway was filled with fun exhibits, but Emily’s mother often seemed to think fun was “inappropriate.” Ted’s mother said it was because Aunt Marcia was a proper lady and that more women should act like her.

  Anna opened her parasol and leaned it against her shoulder. Ted smiled. She was always copying her mother. No wonder Aunt Marcia thought Anna was a perfect young lady.

  Emily wrinkled her brow. “How is the Midway different from the rest of the fair?” she asked Richard.

  “The Midway is more like a circus than like the White City.”

  The wide Midway was even more crowded than the walkways by the White City. Women with parasols and men in bowler hats or smart round straw hats peered in wonder at the buildings and exhibits that edged the street.

  Roar!

  Ted jumped. “What was that?”

  Richard laughed. “A lion. Behind those walls on our left is a big animal show. Can’t you read the signs?”

  Ted grinned sheepishly. He’d been so intent on the huge wheel at the end of the street that he wasn’t paying attention to what they were passing.

  He looked to the other side of the street. He wasn’t going to be caught daydreaming again! “That looks like a castle. The sign on it says Blarney Castle.”

  “It’s a copy of a castle in Ireland,” Richard explained. “Ireland sent over the Blarney Stone, and it’s here in Blarney Castle. Legend says that if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you will have a wonderful way with words all your life.”

  Soft music filled the air. “That doesn’t sound Irish,” Emily said.

  They all stopped and watched young Japanese women with gongs and tinkling bells. Ted thought the music seemed almost too sweet for the busy street.

  A few steps later a stronger beat caught his attention. South Sea Islanders sat above the opening for their exhibit. The dark men wore only small cloths around their hips. They pounded out music on hollow logs.

  Ted barely noticed the German and Turkish villages they passed next. He was too intent on the Ferris wheel, which seemed to grow larger as they neared it.

  When they reached the ticket line, Ted and the others stared up, up at the revolving wheel.

  “Oh, my,” Aunt Marcia said in a little voice. One gloved hand slipped to her lace-covered neck. “It’s so big and so high. Are you sure it is safe?”

  “Absolutely,” answered Richard, who had his trusty guidebook in hand. “Thousands, maybe millions, of people have ridden it since the fair started.”

  “I suppose,” his mother said in that same tiny voice.

  Ted followed her gaze back into the sky. The monstrous wheel did make a person feel small, but that didn’t frighten him. He glanced at Emily. From the way her eyes sparkled, he knew she was as excited as he was.

  Richard studied his book. “It says here that the wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris—that’s why it’s called the Ferris wheel.”

  “Even I could have guessed that,” Emily said, giving him a withering look.

  Ted hid a grin.
Sometimes Richard did sound like a know-it-all, but he had to admit he liked finding out what Richard knew about the things they saw.

  “He built the Ferris wheel for the fair,” Richard continued. “The fair planners wanted something that would be as spectacular as the Eiffel Tower that was built for the Paris fair.”

  Uncle Daniel paid for their tickets, and Ted swallowed a cry of surprise. Fifty cents each! That was as much as it cost to get into the entire fair. He remembered his father saying the cost was way too much for a working man.

  The unhappiness of the country’s money troubles swept over him. He pushed it away, angry that it had intruded on this wonderful day of fun.

  The Ferris wheel came to a stop. The door of a large car was opened, and people poured out. They chatted eagerly with each other about the sights they’d seen from the wheel.

  Ted and the Allertons filed into the glass and wood car and sat down in the plush swivel seats. Ted counted the seats while other passengers filed in. “Forty seats! And the sign near the ticket window said there are thirty-six cars on the Ferris wheel.”

  “Each car can hold twenty standing passengers besides,” Richard said.

  “That means the Ferris wheel can carry over two thousand people at once!” Emily’s voice was filled with awe.

  “Oh, dear,” Aunt Marcia said in her small voice. “Are you certain it won’t fall down?”

  Uncle Daniel patted her gloved hand and smiled down at her. “I promise it won’t fall down, my dear.”

  The door closed, and the car began to move.

  Ted and Emily shared excited glances. Then Ted looked out the glass windows that went from ceiling to floor all about the car.

  The car rose many feet then stopped. Ted looked down at the Midway. “The people look small from up here.” Soon it started up once more.

  When it stopped again, they were quite high above the buildings and could see a long way. The White City gleamed bright as ice cream in the sunshine. Its lagoons and basins were blue in the midst of the beautiful buildings.

  “Oh, it’s lovely!” Aunt Marcia leaned forward eagerly.

  Ted and Emily grinned at each other. “Mother seems to have forgotten to be afraid,” Emily whispered.