. Our Philadelphia. Whites assistant,it being a test of Philadelphia respectability to have onesteeth seen to by Dr. White or one of his assistants or stu-dents, and the regular appointment was as much of obliga-tion for me as Mass on Sunday; visits to the Academyof Fine Arts in the old Chestnut Street building, as Iremember set back at the end of a court that made of it aplace apart, a consecrated place which I entered with aslittle anticipation of amusement as St. Josephs Churchhidden in Willings Alley, and was the more surprisedtherefore to be entertained, as I must have been, by Benja-min
. Our Philadelphia. Whites assistant,it being a test of Philadelphia respectability to have onesteeth seen to by Dr. White or one of his assistants or stu-dents, and the regular appointment was as much of obliga-tion for me as Mass on Sunday; visits to the Academyof Fine Arts in the old Chestnut Street building, as Iremember set back at the end of a court that made of it aplace apart, a consecrated place which I entered with aslittle anticipation of amusement as St. Josephs Churchhidden in Willings Alley, and was the more surprisedtherefore to be entertained, as I must have been, by Benja-min West, for of no other painter there have I the faintestrecollection; visits to the Academy of Natural Sciences,where I liked the rows upon rows of stuffed birds, and thestrange things in bottles, and the colossal skeletons thatfilled me with the same delicious shivers as the stories ofafreets and genii in The Arabian Nightsj visits to Fair-mount Park, leagues away, houses left behind before it .^.^^ ;-:?.;%>/. a«*- v.*?^«^ ^ ^:r *s- CLASSIC FAIRMOUNT A CHILD IN PHILADELPHIA 67 was reached, where the mysterious machinery of theWaterworks was as terrifying as the skeletons, and Ithought it much pleasanter outside under the blue sky;visits to the theatre—the most wonderful visits of all, forthey took me out into the night that I knew only fromstolen vigils in the Convent dormitory, or glimpses fromthe Spruce Street windows. Romance was in the dimly-htstreets, in the stars above, in the town after dark, whichI was warned I was never to brave alone until I can laughnow to think how terrified I was the first time I came homelate lay myself, in my terror jumping into a street-carand claiming the protection of a contemptuous youngwoman whom work had not allowed to draw a conventionalline between day and night. I have never got rid of that suggestion of romance,not so much in the theatre itself as in the going to it, and,to this day, a matinee in broad daylight will bring back al
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