[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Union, like a checker-board, with the sombre sadness of
245 of 339
Around the World in 80 Days
right-angles, as Victor Hugo expresses it. The founder of
the City of the Saints could not escape from the taste for
symmetry which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxons. In this
strange country, where the people are certainly not up to
the level of their institutions, everything is done
squarely cities, houses, and follies.
The travellers, then, were promenading, at three
o clock, about the streets of the town built between the
banks of the Jordan and the spurs of the Wahsatch Range.
They saw few or no churches, but the prophet s mansion,
the court-house, and the arsenal, blue-brick houses with
verandas and porches, surrounded by gardens bordered
with acacias, palms, and locusts. A clay and pebble wall,
built in 1853, surrounded the town; and in the principal
street were the market and several hotels adorned with
pavilions. The place did not seem thickly populated. The
streets were almost deserted, except in the vicinity of the
temple, which they only reached after having traversed
several quarters surrounded by palisades. There were many
women, which was easily accounted for by the peculiar
institution of the Mormons; but it must not be supposed
that all the Mormons are polygamists. They are free to
marry or not, as they please; but it is worth noting that it
is mainly the female citizens of Utah who are anxious to
246 of 339
Around the World in 80 Days
marry, as, according to the Mormon religion, maiden
ladies are not admitted to the possession of its highest joys.
These poor creatures seemed to be neither well off nor
happy. Some the more well-to-do, no doubt wore
short, open, black silk dresses, under a hood or modest
shawl; others were habited in Indian fashion.
Passepartout could not behold without a certain fright
these women, charged, in groups, with conferring
happiness on a single Mormon. His common sense pitied,
above all, the husband. It seemed to him a terrible thing to
have to guide so many wives at once across the vicissitudes
of life, and to conduct them, as it were, in a body to the
Mormon paradise with the prospect of seeing them in the
company of the glorious Smith, who doubtless was the
chief ornament of that delightful place, to all eternity. He
felt decidedly repelled from such a vocation, and he
imagined perhaps he was mistaken that the fair ones of
Salt Lake City cast rather alarming glances on his person.
Happily, his stay there was but brief. At four the party
found themselves again at the station, took their places in
the train, and the whistle sounded for starting. Just at the
moment, however, that the locomotive wheels began to
move, cries of Stop! stop! were heard.
247 of 339
Around the World in 80 Days
Trains, like time and tide, stop for no one. The
gentleman who uttered the cries was evidently a belated
Mormon. He was breathless with running. Happily for
him, the station had neither gates nor barriers. He rushed
along the track, jumped on the rear platform of the train,
and fell, exhausted, into one of the seats.
Passepartout, who had been anxiously watching this
amateur gymnast, approached him with lively interest, and
learned that he had taken flight after an unpleasant
domestic scene.
When the Mormon had recovered his breath,
Passepartout ventured to ask him politely how many wives
he had; for, from the manner in which he had decamped,
it might be thought that he had twenty at least.
One, sir, replied the Mormon, raising his arms
heavenward one, and that was enough!
248 of 339
Around the World in 80 Days
Chapter XXVIII
IN WHICH PASSEPARTOUT
DOES NOT SUCCEED IN
MAKING ANYBODY LISTEN
TO REASON
The train, on leaving Great Salt Lake at Ogden, passed
northward for an hour as far as Weber River, having
completed nearly nine hundred miles from San Francisco.
From this point it took an easterly direction towards the
jagged Wahsatch Mountains. It was in the section included
between this range and the Rocky Mountains that the
American engineers found the most formidable difficulties
in laying the road, and that the government granted a
subsidy of forty-eight thousand dollars per mile, instead of
sixteen thousand allowed for the work done on the plains.
But the engineers, instead of violating nature, avoided its
difficulties by winding around, instead of penetrating the
rocks. One tunnel only, fourteen thousand feet in length,
was pierced in order to arrive at the great basin.
249 of 339
Around the World in 80 Days
The track up to this time had reached its highest
elevation at the Great Salt Lake. From this point it
described a long curve, descending towards Bitter Creek
Valley, to rise again to the dividing ridge of the waters
between the Atlantic and the Pacific. There were many
creeks in this mountainous region, and it was necessary to
cross Muddy Creek, Green Creek, and others, upon
culverts.
Passepartout grew more and more impatient as they
went on, while Fix longed to get out of this difficult
region, and was more anxious than Phileas Fogg himself to
be beyond the danger of delays and accidents, and set foot
on English soil.
At ten o clock at night the train stopped at Fort Bridger
station, and twenty minutes later entered Wyoming
Territory, following the valley of Bitter Creek
throughout. The next day, 7th December, they stopped
for a quarter of an hour at Green River station. Snow had
fallen abundantly during the night, but, being mixed with
rain, it had half melted, and did not interrupt their
progress. The bad weather, however, annoyed
Passepartout; for the accumulation of snow, by blocking
the wheels of the cars, would certainly have been fatal to
Mr. Fogg s tour.
250 of 339
Around the World in 80 Days
What an idea! he said to himself. Why did my master
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]