介绍:
Chapter 16
So then the seventh planet was the Earth.
The Earth is not just an ordinary planet! One can count,
there, 111 kings (not forgetting, to be sure, the Negro kings
among them), 7,000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen,
7,500,000 tipplers, 311,000,000 conceited men that is to say,
about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups.
To give you an idea of the size of the Earth, I will tell
you that before the invention of electricity it was necessary to
maintain, over the whole of the six continents, a Veritable army
of 462,511 lamplighters for the street lamps.
Seen from a slight distance, that would make a Splendid
spectacle. The movements of this army would be regulated
like those of the ballet in the opera. First would come the turn
of the lamplighters of New Zealand and Australia. Having
set their lamps alight, these would go off to sleep. Next, the
lamplighters of China and Siberia would enter for their steps
in the dance, and then they too would be waved back into the
wings. After that would come the turn of the lamplighters of
Russia and the Indies; then those of Africa and Europe, then
those of South America; then those of North America. And
never would they make a mistake in the order of their entry
upon the stage. It would be magnificent.
Only the man who was in charge of the single lamp at
the North Pole, and his colleague who was responsible for the
single lamp at the South Pole-- only these two would live free
from toil and care: they would be busy twice a year.
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