And of what suggestive quality was this little book. Who would ever have
guessed from a perusal of Dante that as Hades is the place of departed
spirits so also is it the ultimate resting-place of all other departed
things. What delightful anticipations are there in the idea of a visit
to the Alexandrian library, now suitably housed on the south side of
Apollyon Square, Cimmeria, in a building that would drive the trustees
of the Boston Public Library into envious despair, even though living
Bacchantes are found daily improving their minds in the recesses of
its commodious alcoves! What joyous feelings it gives one to think of
visiting the navy-yards of Tyre and finding there the ships concerning
the whereabouts of which poets have vainly asked questions for ages!
Who would ever dream that the question of the balladist, himself an able
dreamer concerning classic things, “Where are the Cities of Old Time,”
could ever find its answer in a simple guide-book telling us where
Carthage is, where Troy and all the lost cities of antiquity!
Then the details of amusements in this wonderful country--who could
gather aught of these from the Italian poet? The theatres of Gehenna,
with “Hamlet” produced under the joint direction of Shakespeare and the
Prince of Denmark himself, the great Zoo of Sheolia, with Jumbo, and the
famous woolly horse of earlier days, not to mention the long series
of menageries which have passed over the dark river in the ages now
forgotten; the hanging gardens of Babylon, where the picnicking element
of Hades flock week after week, chuting the chutes, and clambering
joyously in and out of the Trojan Horse, now set up in all its majesty
therein, with bowling-alleys on its roof, elevators in its legs, and
the original Ferris-wheel in its head; the freak museums in the densely
populated sections of the large cities, where Hop o' my Thumb and Jack
the Giant Killer are exhibited day after day alongside of the great
ogres they have killed; the opera-house, with Siegfried himself singing,
supported by the real Brunhild and the original, bona fide dragon
Fafnir, running of his own motive power, and breathing actual fire and
smoke without the aid of a steam-engine and a plumber to connect him
therewith before he can go out upon the stage to engage Siegfried in
deadly combat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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