Latest / Classic Science Fiction Books / 17 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey - Ingersoll Lockwood

Transcript

17 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey - Ingersoll Lockwood · Classic Science Fiction Books

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, in which read dear friends, something about a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: live alarm clock and a pseudopsy bather and rubber, our
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: first breakfast in the city of Silver, A new way
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to catch fish without hurting their feelings. How the streets
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and houses were numbered, and where the sign boards were
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: A very original library in which books never get dog eared.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: How velvet souls enjoyed her favorite poets. I am presented
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to the learned barrel brow, who proceeds to give me
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: his views of the upper world. They entertained me amazingly
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and may interest you. I can't tell you, dear friends,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: exactly how long Bulgar and I slept, but it must
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: have been a good while, for when I was awakened,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I felt thoroughly refreshed. I say awakened, for I was
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: awakened by a gentle tapping on the back of my hand,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: six taps. At first I thought I was dreaming, but
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: upon rubbing my eyes, I saw standing by the side
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: of my bed one of the udopsys, who, feeling me
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: stir took up his tablet and wrote as follows. My
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: name is Taphard. I am a clock. There is a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: score of us. We keep the time for our people.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: By counting the swing of the pendulum in the time house,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: it swings about as fast as we breathe. There are
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: one hundred breaths to a minute and one hundred minutes
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: to an hour. Our day is divided into six hours
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: work time and six hours sleep time. It is now
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the rising hour. If thou wilt be pleased to rise
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: one of our people from the health house, will rub
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: all the tired out of thy limbs. I touched Taphart's
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: heart to thank him, and made haste to scramble out
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of bed. Now, for the first time, I looked about
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the silver chamber in which I had slept. On silver
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: shelves lay silver combs, and silver shears and silver knives.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: On a silver stand stood a silver ewer within a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: silver basin. On silver pegs hung silken towels, while spread
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: upon the silver floor lay soft silk and rugs, and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: above and around on seating in walls. The tongues of
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: flame were a thousand times repeated in the panels of
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: burnished silver. I had made trial of all sorts of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: oriental rubber and bath attendants in my day, But the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: silent little pseudopsy who laughed and rubbed and tapped and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: stroked me, exceeding the all in dexterity, added to which
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was a new charm, for I was not obliged to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: listen to long and senseless tales of adventure in a tree,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: but was left quite alone to my own thoughts. Bulger
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: was also treated to a sponging and a rubbing, a
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: luxury which he had not enjoyed since we had left
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Castle Trump. My toilette was no sooner completed than long
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Thumbs made his appearance to inquire after my health and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to superintend the serving of my breakfast, which consisted of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a piece of most delicate boiled fish, flanked with oysters
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of delicious flavor, and trimmed with slices of those monstrous
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: mushrooms which I had eaten among the Micamenkes. The whole
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: served in a beautiful silver dish on a silver tray
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: with silver eating utensils. Remembering the strange way in which
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the fish were caught and killed in the land of Amcamenke's,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I was curious to know how the pseudopsis managed it,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: for I knew enough of them to know that the
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: sensation of anything struggling for its life in their hands
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: would suffice to throw them into fits of great suffering,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to fill their gentle hearts with nameless terror. At the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: end of one of the many corridors leading out of
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: our city, explained long thumbs, there is a rocky chamber,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: which was called by our ancestors oposlop or the death hole,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: because any being which breathes its air for a few
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: moments is sure to die, so they closed it up forever,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: leaving only a small pipe projecting through the door. But
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: strange to say, those who breathe this air suffer no
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: pain whatever, but presently drop off into a pleasant dream,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and unless they be rescued, would of course never wake again. Now,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: as our laws forbid us to cause any pain to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the most insignificant creature, it occurred to our ancestors that,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: by means of a long pipe, they could turn this
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: poisoned air into the river whenever they wanted a supply
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of fish for food. This they did, and, strange to say,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the moment the fish felt the gas bubbling into the river,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: they at once swam up to the mouth of the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: pipe and struggled with each other for a chance to
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: catch the deadly bubbles. As they left its mouth. So
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: pleasant a sensation do they cause as they gradually plunged
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the creature, breathing them into his last sleep. And in
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: this way it is we are able to feed upon
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the fish in our river without breaking the law of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the land. I began to understand that I had fallen
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: in with a very original and interesting folk. But Bulgar
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: was not altogether pleased with them, for several reasons, as
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I soon observed. In the first place, he couldn't accustom
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: himself to the cold and glassy look of their eyes,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and in the next he was a bit jealous of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: their wonderfully keen scent, a sense which with them was
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: so strong that they invariably gave signs of being conscious
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of Bulgar's approach even before I could see him, and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: always turned their faces in the direction in which he
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: was coming. You will remember, dear friends, that I mention
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the fact that the former folk went barefoot, and that
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: their feet, as well as their hands, seemed altogether too
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: large for their bodies. And I wished to add that
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: while Bulgar and I were being led through the long
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: corridors and winding passages on our way into the city
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: of Silver, the three soudopsies frequently half halted and seemed
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to be feeling on the floor for something with the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: balls of their feet. I thought no more about it
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: until Bulgar and I started out for our first stroll
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: through their wonderful town, when, to my great delight, I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: made the discovery that the numbers of the houses, the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: names of the occupants, the names of the streets, as
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: well as all sign boards, so to speak, and all
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: guide posts were in slightly raised letters on the floors
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and pavements. And then the truth dawned upon me that
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Long Thumbs and his companions were simply halting now and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: then to read the names of the streets with the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: balls of their feet in order to know if they
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: were taking the right road. I more than this, dear friends,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the first time Bulgar and I passed through one of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the open squares of the city of Silver. You may
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: imagine my satisfaction upon the discovery that the silver pavements
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: were literally covered with the writings of the pseudopsy authors
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: in raised characters. Now in Don Fun's wonderful book, he had,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: in his masterly manner, giving me the key to the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: language of the former folk, so that with very slight effort,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I was able to make the additional discovery that some
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of the streets were given up to the writers of
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: history and some to story writers, while others were filled
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: with the learned works of philosophers, and others still contained
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: many thousands of lines from the best poets which the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: nation had produced. And I had very little difficulty in
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: discovering which were the favorite poems of the pseudopsis, For
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: as you may readily suppose, these were polished like a
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: silver mirror by the shuffling of the many thankful feet
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: over their sweet and soulful lines. I noticed that the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: writings of the philosophers in this as in my own world,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: found few readers, for the raised letters were in many
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: cases tarnished and black from lack of souls trampling over
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: them in search of wisdom. Somewhat later, when I had
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: become acquainted with velvet souls, the daughter of long thumbs,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: a gracious little being, as full of inward light as
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: she was blind to the outer world, and she invited
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: me to come for a read. I had a hard
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: task of it in persuading her that I could not
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: remove what she called my ridiculous foot boxes and join
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: her in enjoying some of her favorite poems. It was
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to me a delicious pastime to accompany this happy little
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: maiden when she went for a reed to walk beside
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: her and watch the ever varying expression of her beautiful
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: face as the souls of her tiny feet pressed the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: words of love and hope and joy, and her heart expanded,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and she clasped her hands in attitudes of blissful enjoyment,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: seemingly just as deep and fervent as if the blessed
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: sunlight rested on her brow, and her eyes were drinking
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: in the glory of a summer sunset, Oh dwellers in
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the upper world, with the light streaming into the windows
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of your souls, with your ears open, to the music
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of type and flute and violin, and to the sweeter
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: music of the voice of love, how much more heavy
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: than she? And yet how rarely are ye as happy?
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: How rarely do ye know that sweet contentment, which, as
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in this case, came from within. Go to the ant,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Consider her way as it be wise, which, having no guide,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: gathereth her food in the harvest. In a short time,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the former folks seemed to become quite accustomed to having
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: bulgar in me among them, and they apparently touched hands
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: with me in quite as friendly a fashion as if
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I had been one of them. One day, long Thumbs
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: conducted me to the house of the most aged and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: learned of the Pseudopsy's berrel brow by name. He received
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: me very cordially, although I interrupted him at his studies,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: for as I entered his apartment, he was in the
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: act of reading four different books at the same time.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Two were lying on the floor and he was perusing
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: their raised characters with the soles of his feet, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: two others were set up on a frame in front
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of him, and he was deciphering them with the tips
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: of his fingers. But when informed who I was, he
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: stopped work at once, and, taking up his tablets, asked
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: me a number of questions concerning the Upper world, of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: which he had, however, no very exalted opinion you people,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: said he, if I understand correctly, the ancient writings of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: those of our nation who still preserved certain traditions of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the Upper world, are endowed with several senses which are
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: utterly lacking in us. I am happy to say, for
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: if I understand correctly, ye have in the first place
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: a sense, which ye call hearing, a most troublesome sense,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: for by means of it, ye are being constantly disturbed
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and annoyed by vibrations of the air coming from afar.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Now they can be of no possible good to you.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: He might as well have a sense that would inform
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: you what was going on in the moon. Therefore, my
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: conclusion is that the sense of hearing only serves to
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: distract and weaken the brain. Another sense that ye are
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: possessed of, continued Beryl brow. Ye call the sense of
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: sight a power even more useless and distracting than hearing,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: for the reason that it enables you to know things
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: which it is utterly fruitless to know, such as what
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: your next door neighbors may be doing, how the mountains
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: are acting on the other side of your rivers, how
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: your sky, as ye call it, might feel if if
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you could touch it with your fingers, which you can't do. However,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: how soon rain will fall, which is a useless piece
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of knowledge. If ye have ruse to cover you, as
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I suppose ye have, but the most ridiculous use which
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: ye make of this sense of sight is the manufacture
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: of what you call pictures, by means of which he
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: seemed to take the greatest pleasure in deceiving, this very
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: sense of which ye are so very proud, if I
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: understand correctly, These pictures, if felt of, are quite as
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: smooth as a panel there. But so cunningly do ye
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: draw the lines and lay in the colors whatever they
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: may be, that ye really succeed in deceiving yourselves, And
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: stand for hours in front of one of these bits
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: of trickery when ye might, if ye choose, feast your eyes,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: as ye call it, upon the very thing which the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: trickster has imitated. Now, as life is much shorter in
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the Upper world than in ours, it seems very strange
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to me that ye should wish to waste it in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: this foolish manner. Then there is another thing, little baron
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: continued the learned barrel brow, which I wish to mention.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: It is this. The people of the upper world pride
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: themselves very much upon what they termed the power of speech, which,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: if I understand correctly, is a faculty they have of
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: expressing their thoughts to each other by violently expelling the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: air from their lungs, and that this air rushing into
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the ventilators of the brain, which ye call ears, produces
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a sensation of sound, as ye term it. And in
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: this way one of thy people, standing at one end
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: of the town might make his wishes known to another
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: standing at the other end. Now thou wilt pardon my thinking, so,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: little Baron, But this seems to me to be not
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: a whit above the brute creature, which, opening its vast
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: jaws thus sets the air in motion, and calling its
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: young or breathing defiance at an enemy. And if I
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: understand correctly, little Baron, so are thy people of this
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: power of speech, that they insist upon making use of
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it at all times and upon all occasions. And strange
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to say, these talkers can always find plenty of people
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: to open their ears to these vibrations of the air,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: although the effect is so wearying to the brain that
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: in the end they invariably fall asleep. But if I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: understand correctly, the women are even fonder of displaying their
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: skill in thus puffing out the air from their lungs
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: than the men are. But that not satisfied with this
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: superior power of puffing out the words, they actually have
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: recourse to a potent herb, which they steep in boiling
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: water and drink as hot as possible, on account of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: its effect in loosening the tongue and allowing the talker
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to do more puffing than she could otherwise. But all
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: this little baron continued the learned barrel brow might be
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: overlooked and regarded in the light of mere amusement. Where
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: not for the fact, if I understand correctly that brain
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: ventilators being of different sizes in different persons, the consequence
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: is that these puffs of air which ye use to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: make your thoughts to each other, produce different effects upon
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: different persons. And the result is that the people of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the upper world spent half of their time repeating the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: puffs which they have already sent out, And that even
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: then thou canst rarely find two people who will agree
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: exactly as to the number, kind, strength, and meaning of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the puffs blown into each other's brain ventilators, And that
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: therefore it has become necessary to provide what ye call
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: judges to settle these disputes, which offered last for lifetimes,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the two parties spending their entire fortunes hiring witnesses to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: come before these judges and imitate the sound which the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: air made when it was set in motion years ago
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: by the angry puffs of the two parties. I sincerely
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: trust little Baron, wrote the learned Beryl Brow on his
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: tablet of silver, that when thou returnest to thy people,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: thou wilt make known to them what I have written
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: for thee to day. For it is never too late
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to correct a fault, and the longer that fault has lasted,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the greater the credit for correcting it. I promised the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: learned Pseodopsy to do as he requested, and then we
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: touched each other on the back of the head, which
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: is the way they say good bye in the land
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: of the former folk, a touch on the forehead, meaning
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: how d'ye do? End of Chapter seventeen.