It occurs to me now that I have never seen the ice-storm put upon canvas, and have not heard that any painter has tried to do it.  I wonder why that is.  Is it that paint cannot counterfeit the intense blaze of a sun-flooded jewel?  There should be, and must be, a reason, and a good one, why the most enchanting sight that Nature has created has been neglected by the brush.

Often, the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.  The describers of the Taj have used the word gem in its strictest sense—­its scientific sense.  In that sense it is a mild word, and promises but little to the eye-nothing bright, nothing brilliant, nothing sparkling, nothing splendid in the way of color.  It accurately describes the sober and unobtrusive gem-work of the Taj; that is, to the very highly-educated one person in a thousand; but it most falsely describes it to the 999.  But the 999 are the people who ought to be especially taken care of, and to them it does not mean quiet-colored designs wrought in carnelians, or agates, or such things; they know the word in its wide and ordinary sense only, and so to them it means diamonds and rubies and opals and their kindred, and the moment their eyes fall upon it in print they see a vision of glorious colors clothed in fire.

These describers are writing for the “general,” and so, in order to make sure of being understood, they ought to use words in their ordinary sense, or else explain.  The word fountain means one thing in Syria, where there is but a handful of people; it means quite another thing in North America, where there are 75,000,000.  If I were describing some Syrian scenery, and should exclaim, “Within the narrow space of a quarter of a mile square I saw, in the glory of the flooding moonlight, two hundred noble fountains—­imagine the spectacle!” the North American would have a vision of clustering columns of water soaring aloft, bending over in graceful arches, bursting in beaded spray and raining white fire in the moonlight-and he would be deceived.  But the Syrian would not be deceived; he would merely see two hundred fresh-water springs—­two hundred drowsing puddles, as level and unpretentious and unexcited as so many door-mats, and even with the help of the moonlight he would not lose his grip in the presence of the exhibition.  My word “fountain” would be correct; it would speak the strict truth; and it would convey the strict truth to the handful of Syrians, and the strictest misinformation to the North American millions.  With their gems—­and gems—­and more gems—­and gems again—­and still other gems—­the describers of the Taj are within their legal but not their moral rights; they are dealing in the strictest scientific truth; and in doing it they succeed to admiration in telling “what ain’t so.”

CHAPTER LX.

Satan (impatiently) to new-comer.  The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous. 
                                  —­Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.