“I don't know,” Boswell replied. “That is a matter outside of the
jurisdiction of the committee and must be decided by a full vote of the
club. I hope they will, however. As manager of the enterprise I need
assistance, and there are some of the men who can't be managed by
anybody except their wives, or mothers-in-law, anyhow. I'll be through
in a few minutes. Meanwhile let me hand you the latest product of the
Boswell press.”
With this the genial spirit produced from an invisible pocket a
red-covered book bearing the delicious title of “Baedeker's Hades: A
Hand-book for Travellers,” which has entirely superseded, according to
the advertisement on the fly-leaves, such books as Virgil and Dante's
Inferno as the best guide to the lower regions, as well it might, for
it appeared on perusal to have been prepared with as much care as one
of the more material guide-books of the same publisher, which so greatly
assist travellers on this side of the Stygian River.
Some time, if Boswell will permit, I shall endeavor to have this little
volume published in this country since it contains many valuable hints
to the man of a roving disposition, or for the stay-at-home, for that
matter, for all roads lead to Hades. For instance, we do not find in
previous guide-books, like Dante's Inferno, any references whatsoever to
the languages it is well to know before taking the Stygian tour; to the
kind of money needed, or its quantity per capita; no allusion to
the necessity of passports is found in Dante or Virgil; custom-house
requirements are ignored by these authors; no statements as to the
kind of clothing needed, the quality of the hotels--nor indeed any real
information of vital importance to the traveller is to be found in the
older books. In Baedeker's Hades, on the other hand, all these subjects
are exhaustively treated, together with a very comprehensive series
of chapters on “Stygian Wines,” “Climate,” and “Hellish Art”--the
expression is not mine--and other topics of essential interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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