That she came right out and spoke of the Farnese Bull as a bull, instead
of referring to him as a gentleman cow, was evidence of the extent to
which travel had enlarged her vision, for with half an eye anyone could
tell that she belonged to the period of our social development when
certain honest and innocent words were supposed to be indelicate--that
she had been reared in a society whose ideal of a perfect lady was one
who could say limb, without thinking leg. I hope she found her bull, but
I imagine she was disappointed when she did find it. I know I was. The
sculpturing may be of a very high order--the authorities agree that it
is--but I judge the two artists to whom the group is attributed carved
the bull last and ran out of material and so skimped him a bit. The
unfortunate Dirce, who is about to be bound to his horns by the sons
of Antiope, the latter standing by to see that the boys make a good
thorough job of it, is larger really than the bull. You can picture the
lady carrying off the bull but not the bull carrying off the lady.
Numerously encountered are the tourists who are doing Europe under a
time limit as exact as the schedule of a limited train. They go through
Europe on the dead run, being intent on seeing it all and therefore
seeing none of it. They cover ten countries in a space of time which a
sane person gives to one; after which they return home exhausted, but
triumphant. I think it must be months before some of them quit panting,
and certainly their poor, misused feet can never again be the feet they
were.
With them adherence to the time card is everything. If a look at the
calendar shows the day to be Monday, they know they are in Munich, and
as they lope along they get out their guidebooks and study the chapters
devoted to Munich. But if it be Tuesday, then it is Dresden, and they
give their attention to literature dealing with the attractions of
Dresden; seeing Dresden after the fashion of one sitting before a
runaway moving picture film.
Then they pack up and depart, galloping, for Prague with their tongues
hanging out. For Wednesday is Prague and Prague is Wednesday--the two
words are synonymous and interchangeable. Surely to such as these, the
places they have visited must mean as much to them, afterward, as the
labels upon their trunks mean to the trunks--just flimsy names pasted
on, all confused and overlapping, and certain to be scraped off in time,
leaving nothing but faint marks upon an indurated surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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