Around the World in Eighty Days, Part 8: Ocean to Ocean

5:06:34 Chapter XXV: In which a slight sketch is given of San Francisco on a day of public meeting

5:06:34 Chapter Twenty-five. In which a slight sketch is given of San Francisco on a day of public meeting.

5:06:42 It was seven o'clock in the morning when Phileas Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and Passepartout set foot on the American continent—if indeed that name can be given to the floating quay on which they landed.

5:06:55 These quays, rising and falling with the tide, make the loading and unloading of ships easier. Here lie moored clippers of every size, steamers of every nationality, and those steamboats several decks high which ply on the Sacramento and its tributaries.

5:07:13 Here too are piled the goods of a trade that reaches to Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Europe, Asia and all the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

5:07:24 Passepartout, in his joy at touching American soil at last, had thought fit to make his landing by turning a somersault in the finest style.

5:07:34 But when he came down on the quay, whose planking was worm-eaten, he very nearly went straight through it.

5:07:42 Quite put out by the way in which he had 'set foot' on the new continent, the honest fellow let out a tremendous yell,

5:07:50 which put to flight a countless flock of cormorants and pelicans, the usual tenants of the floating quays.

5:07:58 As soon as he had landed, Mr. Fogg inquired at what hour the first train left for New York. It was at six in the evening.

5:08:06 Mr. Fogg thus had a whole day to spend in the Californian capital. He sent for a carriage for Mrs. Aouda and himself. Passepartout climbed up on the box, and the vehicle, at three dollars the drive, made for the International Hotel.

5:08:23 From his high perch Passepartout observed the great American city with curiosity: broad streets, low houses in neat rows, churches and chapels in an Anglo-Saxon Gothic, immense docks, warehouses like palaces, some of wood, others of brick;

5:08:42 in the streets, carriages in great numbers, omnibuses, tramway cars; and on the crowded pavements, not only Americans and Europeans but also Chinese and Native Americans—in short, enough to make up a population of more than two hundred thousand inhabitants.

5:09:02 Passepartout was rather surprised by what he saw.

5:09:05 He had got no further than the legendary city of eighteen forty-nine, the city of bandits, incendiaries and murderers who had flocked there in pursuit of nuggets, a vast jumble of all society's outcasts, where men gambled for gold dust with a revolver in one hand and a knife in the other.

5:09:25 But 'those good old days' were gone. San Francisco had the look of a great commercial city.

5:09:32 The tall tower of the town hall, where the watchmen keep their lookout, overlooked the whole network of streets and avenues crossing at right angles, among which green squares opened out; and then a Chinese town which seemed to have been imported from the Chinese Empire in a toy-box.

5:09:51 No more sombreros, no more red shirts in the fashion of the gold-diggers, but silk hats and black coats, worn by a great many gentlemen endowed with a devouring energy.

5:10:03 Certain streets, among them Montgommery Street—the Regent Street of London, the Boulevard des Italiens of Paris, the Broadway of New York—were lined with splendid shops, displaying in their windows the products of the whole world.

5:10:19 When Passepartout reached the International Hotel, it did not seem to him that he had ever left England.

5:10:27 The ground floor of the hotel was taken up by an immense bar, a kind of buffet open free of charge to every passer-by. Dried meat, oyster soup, biscuits and Cheshire cheese were dispensed there without the customer having to untie his purse-strings.

5:10:44 He paid only for his drink—ale, port or sherry—if the fancy took him to refresh himself. This struck Passepartout as 'very American'.

5:10:55 The hotel restaurant was comfortable. Mr. Fogg and Mrs. Aouda sat down at a table and were lavishly served in Lilliputian dishes by attentive waiters.

5:11:07 After breakfast Phileas Fogg, accompanied by Mrs. Aouda, left the hotel and went to the English consul's office to have his passport visaed. On the pavement he found his servant, who asked him:

5:11:21 Jean Passepartout: Before taking the Pacific Railroad, would it not be prudent to buy a few dozen Enfield rifles or Colt revolvers?

5:11:28 Passepartout had heard tell of Sioux and Pawnees who stop trains just like ordinary Spanish highwaymen.

5:11:35 Mr. Fogg replied that this was a needless precaution, but he left him free to act as he thought fit. Then he made his way to the consular agent's office.

5:11:47 Phileas Fogg had not gone two hundred paces when, 'by the merest chance', he met Fix. The inspector showed himself extremely surprised.

5:11:57 Fix: What! Mr. Fogg, you and I have crossed the Pacific together, and we have not met on board!

5:12:04 In any case, Fix could only be honoured to see again the gentleman to whom he owed so much; and as his business was calling him back to Europe, he would be delighted to continue his journey in such agreeable company.

5:12:19 Mr. Fogg replied that the honour would be his; and Fix—who was determined not to lose sight of him—asked his permission to see that curious city of San Francisco in his company. This was granted.

5:12:34 So here are Mrs. Aouda, Phileas Fogg and Fix strolling through the streets. They soon found themselves in Montgommery Street, where the throng of common people was enormous.

5:12:47 On the pavements, in the middle of the roadway, on the tramway rails in spite of the ceaseless passing of coaches and omnibuses, on the doorsteps of the shops, at the windows of every house, and even up on the roofs—a countless crowd.

5:13:02 Sandwich-men moved about among the groups. Banners and streamers floated in the wind. Shouts burst out on every side.

5:13:11 Hurrah for Kamerfield!

5:13:13 Hurrah for Mandiboy!

5:13:15 It was a public meeting. At least that was what Fix thought, and he passed on his idea to Mr. Fogg, adding:

5:13:23 Fix: We might do well, sir, not to mix with this mob. There is nothing to be got from it but hard knocks.

5:13:29 Phileas Fogg: Quite so, and a punch is none the less a punch for being political!

5:13:35 Fix thought it proper to smile at this remark; and in order to see without being caught up in the fray, Mrs. Aouda, Phileas Fogg and he took up a position on the top landing of a flight of steps that led up to a terrace overlooking Montgommery Street.

5:13:51 In front of them, on the other side of the street, between a coal merchant's wharf and a petroleum dealer's warehouse, stood a large open-air platform, towards which the various currents of the crowd seemed to converge.

5:14:05 And now, what was this meeting about? On what occasion was it being held? Phileas Fogg had absolutely no idea.

5:14:15 Was it the appointment of some high military or civil official, a State governor or a member of Congress? One might well conjecture as much, seeing the extraordinary excitement that was stirring the city.

5:14:29 At that moment a great surge went through the crowd. Every hand was in the air. Some of them, tightly clenched, seemed to rise and fall rapidly amid the shouting—an energetic way, no doubt, of casting a vote.

5:14:43 Eddies stirred the mass, which surged back. The banners swayed, disappeared for an instant and reappeared in tatters. The undulations of the swell spread right up to the steps, while all the heads bobbed on the surface like a sea suddenly whipped up by a squall.

5:15:01 The number of black hats was visibly dwindling, and most of them seemed to have lost something of their normal height.

5:15:08 Fix: It is evidently a meeting, and the question that called it must be a burning one. I should not be surprised if it were the Alabama affair again, although that has been settled.

5:15:18 Phileas Fogg: Perhaps.

5:15:20 Fix: In any case, there are two champions face to face: the Honourable Kamerfield and the Honourable Mandiboy.

5:15:28 Mrs. Aouda, on Phileas Fogg's arm, was watching this tumultuous scene in surprise, and Fix was about to ask one of his neighbours the reason for this popular ferment, when a more decided movement took shape.

5:15:41 The hurrahs, garnished with insults, redoubled. The banner-poles were turned into weapons of offence. No more hands—fists everywhere. From the tops of halted carriages and of omnibuses brought to a standstill, blows were freely exchanged. Everything served as a missile.

5:15:59 Boots and shoes described very flat trajectories through the air, and it even seemed that a few revolvers were mingling their national reports with the yells of the crowd.

5:16:10 The mob came nearer to the steps and surged up over the lowest of them. One of the parties was evidently being driven back, though mere spectators could not make out whether the advantage lay with Mandiboy or with Kamerfield.

5:16:25 Fix: I think it would be prudent to withdraw,

5:16:27 said Fix, who had no wish to see 'his man' take a bad knock or get himself into a bad scrape.

5:16:34 Fix: If England has anything to do with all this, and we are recognised, we shall come off very badly in the fray!

5:16:40 Phileas Fogg: An English citizen…

5:16:42 But the gentleman could not finish his sentence. Behind him, from the terrace at the head of the steps, came the most frightful howls. People were shouting,

5:16:51 Hurrah! Hip! Hip! for Mandiboy!

5:16:54 It was a band of voters coming to the rescue, taking Kamerfield's supporters in the flank.

5:17:01 Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and Fix found themselves between two fires. It was too late to escape. This torrent of men, armed with loaded canes and cudgels, was irresistible.

5:17:13 Phileas Fogg and Fix, shielding the young woman, were horribly jostled. Mr. Fogg, no less phlegmatic than usual, tried to defend himself with those natural weapons which nature has placed at the end of every Englishman's arms, but in vain.

5:17:30 A huge fellow with a red goatee and a florid face, broad in the shoulders, who seemed to be the leader of the band, raised his formidable fist at Mr. Fogg.

5:17:41 He would have done the gentleman a great deal of damage if Fix, out of devotion, had not taken the blow in his place.

5:17:48 An enormous bump instantly swelled up under the detective's silk hat, which had been turned into a mere skull-cap.

5:17:57 Phileas Fogg: Yankee!

5:17:58 said Mr. Fogg, darting a look of profound contempt at his adversary.

5:18:03 Colonel Stamp Proctor: Englishman!

5:18:04 Phileas Fogg: We shall meet again!

5:18:06 Colonel Stamp Proctor: Whenever you please. Your name?

5:18:10 Phileas Fogg: Phileas Fogg. And yours?

5:18:12 Colonel Stamp Proctor: Colonel Stamp W. Proctor.

5:18:15 Then, with that, the tide swept past. Fix was knocked down, and got up again with his clothes torn but without any serious bruise.

5:18:25 His travelling overcoat had come apart into two unequal halves, and his trousers looked like those breeches which certain wearers—it is a matter of fashion—put on only after first removing the seat.

5:18:38 But all in all Mrs. Aouda had been spared, and Fix alone had got a punch for his pains.

5:18:46 Phileas Fogg: Thank you,

5:18:46 said Mr. Fogg to the inspector, as soon as they were clear of the crowd.

5:18:51 Fix: Not at all. But come along.

5:18:53 Phileas Fogg: Where?

5:18:54 Fix: To a clothier's.

5:18:56 And indeed the visit was timely. The clothes of Phileas Fogg and of Fix were in shreds, as if the two gentlemen had been fighting on behalf of the Honourable Kamerfield and Mandiboy.

5:19:09 An hour later they were decently clothed and hatted. Then they returned to the International Hotel.

5:19:16 There Passepartout was waiting for his master, armed with half a dozen six-shot, centre-fire dagger-revolvers.

5:19:25 When he caught sight of Fix in Mr. Fogg's company, his brow darkened. But once Mrs. Aouda had told him in a few words what had happened, Passepartout's face cleared.

5:19:37 Clearly Fix was no longer an enemy; he was an ally. He was keeping his word.

5:19:43 Dinner over, a coach was brought round which was to take the travellers and their luggage to the station. As he was getting in, Mr. Fogg said to Fix:

5:19:53 Phileas Fogg: You have not seen that Colonel Proctor again?

5:19:56 Fix: No.

5:19:57 Phileas Fogg: I shall come back to America to find him. It would not be fitting for an English citizen to let himself be treated in that fashion.

5:20:06 The inspector smiled and made no answer. But, as can be seen, Mr. Fogg was of that breed of Englishmen who, though they do not tolerate duelling at home, will fight abroad when it comes to upholding their honour.

5:20:21 At a quarter to six the travellers reached the station and found the train ready to leave. Just as Mr. Fogg was about to get in, he noticed a railway employee, and going up to him:

5:20:34 Phileas Fogg: My friend, has there not been some trouble in San Francisco today?

5:20:39 the San Francisco porter: It was a meeting, sir.

5:20:40 Phileas Fogg: And yet I thought I noticed a certain liveliness in the streets.

5:20:45 the San Francisco porter: It was just a meeting called for an election.

5:20:47 Phileas Fogg: The election of a commander-in-chief, no doubt?

5:20:51 the San Francisco porter: No, sir. Of a justice of the peace.

5:21:00 On this reply Phileas Fogg climbed into the car, and the train set off at full steam.

5:21:06 Chapter XXVI: In which the express train of the Pacific Railroad is taken

5:21:11 Chapter Twenty-six. In which the express train of the Pacific Railroad is taken.

5:21:17 'Ocean to Ocean'—so the Americans say—and those three words ought to be the general name of the great trunk line which crosses the United States of America at their widest.

5:21:29 In reality, however, the Pacific Railroad is divided into two distinct parts: the Central Pacific between San Francisco and Ogden, and the Union Pacific between Ogden and Omaha. There five distinct lines join it, which put Omaha in frequent communication with New York.

5:21:49 New York and San Francisco are thus at present joined by an unbroken ribbon of metal measuring no less than three thousand seven hundred and eighty-six miles.

5:22:00 Between Omaha and the Pacific the railway crosses a region still frequented by the Sioux and the Pawnee, and by wild beasts—a vast stretch of territory which the Mormons began to settle about eighteen forty-five, after they had been driven out of Illinois.

5:22:19 In former days, in the most favourable circumstances, it took six months to go from New York to San Francisco.

5:22:27 Now it takes seven days.

5:22:31 It was in eighteen sixty-two that, in spite of the opposition of the Southern members of Congress, who wanted a more southerly line, the route of the railroad was fixed between the forty-first and the forty-second parallels.

5:22:44 President Lincoln, of such lamented memory, himself fixed the terminus of the new system at the town of Omaha, in the State of Nebraska. Work was begun at once and pushed on with that American energy which is neither red-tape-ridden nor bureaucratic.

5:23:01 The speed of the labour was in no way to harm the sound construction of the road. On the prairie they advanced at the rate of a mile and a half a day.

5:23:11 A locomotive, running on the rails of the day before, brought up the rails for the day after, and ran on along them as fast as they were laid.

5:23:22 Along its course the Pacific Railroad throws off several branches into the States of Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and Oregon.

5:23:31 On leaving Omaha it runs along the left bank of the Platte River as far as the mouth of the North Fork, and follows the South Fork. It crosses the Laramie country and the Wahsatch Mountains, skirts the Salt Lake, reaches Salt Lake City, the Mormon capital, and plunges into the Tuilla Valley.

5:23:50 It runs past the American Desert, the Cedar and Humboldt Mountains, the Humboldt River and the Sierra Nevada, and comes down by way of Sacramento to the Pacific; and nowhere on this route does the gradient exceed a hundred and twelve feet to the mile, even in crossing the Rocky Mountains.

5:24:08 Such was the long artery which the trains covered in seven days, and which was going to allow the honourable Phileas Fogg—so at least he hoped—to take the Liverpool steamer at New York on the eleventh.

5:24:23 The car occupied by Phileas Fogg was a kind of long omnibus resting on two four-wheeled bogies, whose mobility allows it to take curves of small radius.

5:24:34 Inside there were no compartments: two rows of seats, set on either side at right angles to the axis, with a passage left between them leading to the washrooms and other conveniences with which every car is provided.

5:24:48 Along the whole length of the train the carriages communicated by gangways, and the passengers could move from one end of the train to the other. It placed at their disposal saloon cars, terrace cars, dining cars and café cars.

5:25:04 All that was lacking was theatre cars.

5:25:08 But there will be some one day.

5:25:10 Along the gangways there was a constant coming and going of book and newspaper sellers hawking their wares, and of vendors of spirits, provisions and cigars, who were never short of customers.

5:25:24 The travellers had left Oakland station at six o'clock in the evening. It was already night—a cold, dark night, with an overcast sky whose clouds threatened to turn to snow.

5:25:37 The train was not going at any great speed. Allowing for stops, it covered no more than twenty miles an hour, a speed which should nevertheless enable it to cross the United States in the scheduled time.

5:25:51 There was little talk in the car. Besides, sleep would soon overtake the travellers. Passepartout found himself seated next to the police inspector, but he did not speak to him.

5:26:03 Since recent events their relations had cooled considerably. No more fellow-feeling, no more intimacy. Fix had changed nothing in his manner; but Passepartout, on the contrary, kept to an extreme reserve, ready at the least suspicion to strangle his former friend.

5:26:23 An hour after the train had left, snow began to fall—a fine snow which, very fortunately, could not slow the progress of the train. Nothing could be seen through the windows now but an immense white sheet, against which the steam of the locomotive, unrolling its spirals, looked greyish.

5:26:45 At eight o'clock a steward came into the car and announced to the passengers:

5:26:50 the sleeping-car steward: The hour for bed has struck.

5:26:52 This car was a sleeping-car, and in a few minutes it was turned into a dormitory. The backs of the seats folded down;

5:27:00 carefully packed berths unrolled by an ingenious system; cabins were improvised in a few moments; and each traveller soon had at his disposal a comfortable bed, protected from every prying eye by thick curtains.

5:27:15 The sheets were white, the pillows soft. There was nothing left to do but lie down and sleep—which everyone did, as if he had been in the comfortable cabin of a steamer—while the train sped at full steam across the State of California.

5:27:32 In the stretch of country between San Francisco and Sacramento the ground is not very broken. This part of the railway, under the name of the Central Pacific Road, first took Sacramento as its starting point and advanced eastwards to meet the line coming from Omaha.

5:27:49 From San Francisco to the capital of California the line ran directly north-east, along the American River, which flows into San Pablo Bay. The hundred and twenty miles between these two important cities were covered in six hours, and towards midnight, while they were in their first sleep, the travellers passed through Sacramento.

5:28:11 So they saw nothing of that considerable town, the seat of the legislature of the State of California: not its fine quays, nor its broad streets, nor its splendid hotels, nor its squares, nor its churches.

5:28:27 Leaving Sacramento, the train passed the stations of Junction, Roclin, Auburn and Colfax, and entered the mountain mass of the Sierra Nevada. It was seven o'clock in the morning when it went through Cisco station.

5:28:41 An hour later the dormitory had become an ordinary car again, and through the windows the travellers could catch glimpses of the picturesque views of that mountainous country.

5:28:52 The track obeyed every caprice of the Sierra: here clinging to the mountainside, there hanging above precipices, avoiding sharp angles by daring curves, plunging into narrow gorges that seemed to have no way out.

5:29:06 The locomotive glittered like a reliquary, with its great headlamp casting tawny gleams, its silvered bell, and its cow-catcher jutting out like a spur. It mingled its whistling and its roaring with the roar of the torrents and waterfalls, and twisted its smoke among the black boughs of the fir trees.

5:29:27 Few tunnels or none, and no bridges, along the way. The railroad wound round the flanks of the mountains, not seeking the shortest way from one point to another in a straight line, and doing no violence to nature.

5:29:42 Towards nine o'clock the train entered the State of Nevada by the Carson Valley, still heading north-east. At noon it left Reno, where the travellers had twenty minutes for lunch.

5:29:54 From that point the line, keeping alongside the Humboldt River, ran northwards for some miles, following its course. Then it bent round to the east, and was not to leave the river again until it reached the Humboldt Ranges, where the river rises, almost at the eastern end of the State of Nevada.

5:30:13 After lunch Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and their companions took their seats in the car again. Phileas Fogg, the young woman, Fix and Passepartout, comfortably settled, watched the varied landscape passing before their eyes: vast prairies, mountains outlined on the horizon, creeks rolling their foaming waters.

5:30:37 Now and then a great herd of bison, massing in the distance, looked like a moving dam. These countless armies of ruminants often put an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the trains.

5:30:50 Thousands of these animals have been seen filing across the railroad in close ranks for several hours on end. The locomotive is then forced to stop and wait until the line is clear again.

5:31:03 And that is just what happened on this occasion. Towards three o'clock in the afternoon a herd of ten to twelve thousand head barred the railroad.

5:31:13 The engine, after slackening its speed, tried to drive its spur into the flank of the immense column, but it had to stop before the impenetrable mass.

5:31:23 These ruminants—these buffaloes, as the Americans wrongly call them—could be seen walking along at their quiet pace, now and then letting out tremendous bellows.

5:31:34 They were larger than the bulls of Europe, with short legs and short tails, high withers forming a muscular hump, horns set wide apart at the base, and head, neck and shoulders covered with a long-haired mane.

5:31:49 There could be no thought of stopping this migration. When bison have chosen a direction, nothing could either check or alter their march. They are a torrent of living flesh which no dam could hold back.

5:32:05 The passengers, scattered about the gangways, watched this curious spectacle. But the one who ought to have been in the greatest hurry of all, Phileas Fogg, had stayed in his seat and was waiting philosophically until it should please the buffaloes to let him pass.

5:32:22 Passepartout was furious at the delay caused by this mass of animals. He would have liked to empty his arsenal of revolvers at them.

5:32:30 Jean Passepartout: What a country! Mere cattle stopping trains, and filing off there in procession, in no more of a hurry than if they weren't holding up the traffic at all!

5:32:40 Jean Passepartout: Pardieu! I should very much like to know whether Mr. Fogg had allowed for this mishap in his programme! And that engine-driver, who doesn't dare drive his engine through these cumbersome cattle!

5:32:52 The engine-driver had not tried to overthrow the obstacle, and he had acted prudently. No doubt he would have crushed the first buffaloes struck by the locomotive's spur; but however powerful it was, the engine would soon have been brought to a stop, a derailment would inevitably have followed, and the train would have been left stranded.

5:33:13 The best course, then, was to wait patiently, and afterwards make up the lost time by speeding up the train. The procession of bison lasted three full hours, and the line was not clear again until nightfall.

5:33:27 At that moment the last ranks of the herd were crossing the rails, while the first were disappearing below the southern horizon.

5:33:36 It was eight o'clock, therefore, when the train passed through the defiles of the Humboldt Ranges, and half-past nine when it entered the territory of Utah, the region of the Great Salt Lake, the curious country of the Mormons.

5:33:52 Chapter XXVII: In which Passepartout follows, at a speed of twenty miles an hour, a course of Mormon history

5:33:57 Chapter Twenty-seven. In which Passepartout follows, at a speed of twenty miles an hour, a course of Mormon history.

5:34:06 During the night of the fifth to the sixth of December the train ran south-east for about fifty miles; then it climbed as many again to the north-east, drawing near to the Great Salt Lake.

5:34:18 Towards nine o'clock in the morning Passepartout came out on the gangways to take the air. The weather was cold, the sky grey, but it was no longer snowing.

5:34:29 The disc of the sun, enlarged by the mists, looked like an enormous gold coin, and Passepartout was busy reckoning its value in pounds sterling when he was distracted from this useful task by the appearance of a rather strange personage.

5:34:46 This personage, who had boarded the train at Elko station, was a tall man, very dark, with black moustaches, black stockings, a black silk hat, a black waistcoat, black trousers, a white tie and dogskin gloves.

5:35:03 He might have been a clergyman. He was going from one end of the train to the other, and on the door of each car he was sticking up, with sealing wafers, a handwritten notice.

5:35:15 Passepartout went up and read on one of these notices that the honourable Elder William Hitch, Mormon missionary, taking advantage of his presence on train number forty-eight, would give a lecture on Mormonism in car number one hundred and seventeen, from eleven o'clock to noon;

5:35:32 and that he invited all gentlemen desirous of instruction in the mysteries of the religion of the 'Latter-day Saints' to come and hear it.

5:35:41 Jean Passepartout: I'll certainly go,

5:35:42 said Passepartout to himself, for he knew little of Mormonism beyond its polygamous customs.

5:35:50 The news spread quickly through the train, which was carrying about a hundred passengers. Of that number thirty at most, drawn by the bait of the lecture, were occupying the benches of car number one hundred and seventeen at eleven o'clock.

5:36:04 Passepartout sat in the front row of the faithful. Neither his master nor Fix had thought it worth their while to stir.

5:36:13 At the appointed hour Elder William Hitch rose, and in a rather irritated voice, as if he had been contradicted in advance, he cried:

5:36:22 Elder William Hitch: I tell you that Joe Smyth is a martyr, that his brother Hyram is a martyr, and that the persecutions of the Union government against the prophets are going to make a martyr of Brigham Young as well! Who would dare to maintain the contrary?

5:36:37 No one ventured to contradict the missionary, whose fervour was in contrast with his naturally calm countenance. But no doubt his anger was explained by the fact that Mormonism was at that time undergoing severe trials.

5:36:52 And indeed the government of the United States had just, not without difficulty, brought these independent believers to heel. It had made itself master of Utah and subjected it to the laws of the Union, after imprisoning Brigham Young on charges of rebellion and polygamy.

5:37:10 Since then the disciples of the prophet had redoubled their efforts; and, while waiting for deeds, they were resisting the claims of Congress with words.

5:37:21 As can be seen, Elder William Hitch carried his proselytising even onto the railway.

5:37:28 And then, heightening his story with the outbursts of his voice and the violence of his gestures, he told the history of Mormonism from biblical times: how, in Israel, a Mormon prophet of the tribe of Joseph published the annals of the new religion and bequeathed them to his son Morom;

5:37:47 how, many centuries later, a translation of this precious book, written in Egyptian characters, was made by Joseph Smyth junior, a farmer of the State of Vermont, who revealed himself as a mystic prophet in eighteen twenty-five;

5:38:02 how, lastly, a heavenly messenger appeared to him in a luminous forest and gave him the annals of the Lord.

5:38:10 At this point a few of the listeners, not much interested in the missionary's retrospective narrative, left the car;

5:38:19 but William Hitch went on, and told how Smyth junior, gathering together his father, his two brothers and a few disciples, founded the religion of the Latter-day Saints—a religion which, adopted not only in America but in England, Scandinavia and Germany, counts among its faithful artisans and also a good many people of the liberal professions;

5:38:42 how a colony was founded in Ohio; how a temple was raised at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars and a town built at Kirkland; how Smyth became a daring banker, and received from a mere showman of mummies a papyrus containing a narrative written in the hand of Abraham and other celebrated Egyptians.

5:39:05 As this narrative was growing rather long, the ranks of the audience thinned further, and the public now consisted of no more than twenty or so people.

5:39:15 But the elder, untroubled by this desertion, related in detail how Joe Smyth went bankrupt in eighteen thirty-seven; how his ruined shareholders tarred and feathered him;

5:39:26 how he turned up again some years later, more honourable and more honoured than ever, at Independance, in Missouri, as the head of a flourishing community of no fewer than three thousand disciples;

5:39:40 and how then, pursued by the hatred of the Gentiles, he had to flee into the American Far West.

5:39:47 Ten listeners were still there, among them the honest Passepartout, who was listening with all his ears.

5:39:54 And so he learned how, after long persecutions, Smyth reappeared in Illinois and in eighteen thirty-nine, on the banks of the Mississippi, founded Nauvoo the Beautiful, whose population rose to as many as twenty-five thousand souls;

5:40:11 how Smyth became its mayor, its chief justice and its commander-in-chief; how in eighteen forty-three he put himself forward as a candidate for the presidency of the United States; and how at last, lured into an ambush at Carthage, he was thrown into prison and murdered by a band of masked men.

5:40:33 By now Passepartout was entirely alone in the car, and the elder, looking him full in the face and holding him spellbound with his words, reminded him that two years after Smyth's murder his successor, the inspired prophet Brigham Young, leaving Nauvoo, came and settled on the shores of the Salt Lake.

5:40:54 And there, on that admirable territory, in the midst of that fertile country, on the road of the emigrants crossing Utah on their way to California, the new colony, thanks to the polygamous principles of Mormonism, had grown enormously.

5:41:10 Elder William Hitch: And that, that is why the jealousy of Congress has been turned against us! why the soldiers of the Union have trodden the soil of Utah! why our leader, the prophet Brigham Young, has been imprisoned in defiance of all justice!

5:41:26 Elder William Hitch: Shall we yield to force? Never! Driven out of Vermont, driven out of Illinois, driven out of Ohio, driven out of Missouri, driven out of Utah, we shall yet find some independent territory where we shall pitch our tent… And you, my faithful listener,

5:41:43 added the elder, fixing his one remaining hearer with an angry gaze,

5:41:48 Elder William Hitch: will you pitch yours in the shadow of our flag?

5:41:52 Jean Passepartout: No,

5:41:54 replied Passepartout bravely; and he fled in his turn,

5:41:59 leaving the elder to preach in the wilderness.

5:42:04 But during the lecture the train had been travelling fast, and towards half-past twelve it touched the Great Salt Lake at its north-western point. From there one could take in, over a vast circuit, the whole aspect of that inland sea, which also bears the name of Dead Sea, and into which an American Jordan flows.

5:42:26 An admirable lake, framed in fine wild rocks with broad bases, encrusted with white salt; a superb sheet of water which once covered a larger area. But with time its shores, rising little by little, have reduced its surface while increasing its depth.

5:42:46 The Salt Lake, about seventy miles long and thirty-five wide, lies three thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. Very different from Lake Asphaltites, whose depression lies twelve hundred feet below that level, it is very salty, and its waters hold in solution a quarter of their weight of solid matter.

5:43:07 Their specific gravity is eleven hundred and seventy, that of distilled water being one thousand. And so fish cannot live in it. Those carried into it by the Jordan, the Weber and other creeks soon perish there; but it is not true that its waters are so dense that a man cannot dive into them.

5:43:28 Around the lake the country was admirably cultivated, for the Mormons understand the work of the land: ranchos and corrals for the domestic animals, fields of wheat, maize and sorghum, luxuriant meadows, everywhere hedges of wild roses, clumps of acacias and euphorbias—such would have been the look of the country six months later.

5:43:51 But at that moment the ground was hidden under a thin layer of snow, which powdered it lightly.

5:43:58 At two o'clock the travellers got out at Ogden station. As the train was not to leave again until six, Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and their two companions had time to go to the City of the Saints by the little branch line that leaves from Ogden station.

5:44:14 Two hours were enough to see this thoroughly American town, built, as such, on the pattern of all the towns of the Union: vast chessboards of long, cold lines, with 'the lugubrious sadness of right angles', in Victor Hugo's phrase.

5:44:31 The founder of the City of the Saints could not escape that need for symmetry which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxons. In this singular country everything is done 'squarely': towns, houses and follies alike.

5:44:46 At three o'clock, then, the travellers were walking through the streets of the city, which is built between the bank of the Jordan and the first undulations of the Wahsatch Mountains.

5:44:56 They noticed few churches or none; but by way of monuments, the prophet's house, the Court-house and the arsenal; then houses of bluish brick with verandas and galleries, surrounded by gardens and bordered with acacias, palms and carob trees.

5:45:14 A wall of clay and pebbles, built in eighteen fifty-three, encircled the town. In the main street, where the market is held, stood a few hotels decked with flags, among them the Salt Lake House.

5:45:29 Mr. Fogg and his companions did not find the city very populous. The streets were almost deserted—except, however, for the quarter of the Temple, which they reached only after passing through several districts enclosed by palisades.

5:45:45 Women were rather numerous, which is explained by the singular make-up of Mormon households. It must not be supposed, however, that all Mormons are polygamists. They are free to choose; but it is worth remarking that it is the lady citizens of Utah who are the most anxious to be married.

5:46:03 For according to the religion of the country, the Mormon heaven does not admit unmarried persons of the female sex to the enjoyment of its beatitudes. These women seemed neither well off nor happy.

5:46:17 Some of them, the richest no doubt, wore a black silk jacket open at the waist, under a hood or a very modest shawl. The others were dressed only in printed calico.

5:46:30 Passepartout, for his part, as a confirmed bachelor, could not look without a certain alarm at these Mormon women whose task it was, several together, to make the happiness of a single Mormon.

5:46:43 In his good sense, it was the husband he pitied most. It seemed to him a terrible thing to have to guide so many ladies at once through the vicissitudes of life, and to lead them in a body like that all the way to the Mormon paradise.

5:46:58 And then there was the prospect of finding them there again for all eternity, in the company of the glorious Smyth, who was to be the ornament of that place of delights.

5:47:09 Decidedly, he did not feel the vocation; and he fancied—perhaps he was mistaken in this—that the lady citizens of Great Salt Lake City were casting rather alarming glances at his person.

5:47:24 Very fortunately, his stay in the City of the Saints was not to be a long one. A few minutes before four o'clock the travellers were back at the station and took their seats in their cars again.

5:47:35 The whistle sounded;

5:47:37 but just as the driving wheels of the locomotive, slipping on the rails, were beginning to give the train some speed, these cries rang out:

5:47:46 the belated Mormon: Stop! Stop!

5:47:48 A train in motion is not stopped. The gentleman uttering these cries was evidently a belated Mormon. He was running himself out of breath.

5:47:58 Luckily for him, the station had neither gates nor barriers. So he dashed along the track, leapt onto the step of the last carriage,

5:48:06 and dropped breathless onto one of the seats in the car.

5:48:10 Passepartout, who had followed the incidents of this gymnastic display with some excitement, came to contemplate the latecomer; and he took a lively interest in him on learning that this citizen of Utah had taken to flight in this way only as the result of a domestic quarrel.

5:48:28 When the Mormon had got his breath back, Passepartout ventured to ask him politely how many wives he had, all to himself—for judging by the way he had just decamped, he supposed he must have at least twenty.

5:48:42 the belated Mormon: One, sir!

5:48:43 replied the Mormon, raising his arms to heaven.

5:48:47 the belated Mormon: One, and that was enough!