📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 73
1IN WHICH PASSEPARTOUT UNDERGOES, AT A SPEED OF TWENTY MILES AN HOUR, A COURSE OF MORMON HISTORY During the night of the
25th of December, the train ran south-easterly for about fifty miles; then rose an equal distance in a north-easterly
3direction, towards the Great Salt Lake. Passepartout, about nine o'clock, went out upon the platform to take the air.
4The weather was cold, the heavens grey, but it was not snowing. The sun's disc, enlarged by the mist, seemed an enormous
5ring of gold, and Passepartout was amusing himself by calculating its value in pounds sterling, when he was diverted
6from this interesting study by a strange-looking personage who made his appearance on the platform. This personage, who
7had taken the train at Elko, was tall and dark, with black moustache, black stockings, a black silk hat, a black
8waistcoat, black trousers, a white cravat, and dogskin gloves. He might have been taken for a clergyman. He went from
9one end of the train to the other, and affixed to the door of each car a notice written in manuscript. Passepartout
10approached and read one of these notices, which stated that Elder William Hitch, Mormon missionary, taking advantage of
11his presence on train No. 48, would deliver a lecture on Mormonism in car No. 117, from eleven to twelve o'clock; and
12that he invited all who were desirous of being instructed concerning the mysteries of the religion of the "Latter Day
13Saints" to attend. "I'll go," said Passepartout to himself. He knew nothing of Mormonism except the custom of polygamy,
14which is its foundation. The news quickly spread through the train, which contained about one hundred passengers, thirty
15of whom, at most, attracted by the notice, ensconced themselves in car No. 117. Passepartout took one of the front
16seats. Neither Mr. Fogg nor Fix cared to attend. At the appointed hour Elder William Hitch rose, and, in an irritated
17voice, as if he had already been contradicted, said, "I tell you that Joe Smith is a martyr, that his brother Hiram is a
18martyr, and that the persecutions of the United States Government against the prophets will also make a martyr of
19Brigham Young. Who dares to say the contrary?" No one ventured to gainsay the missionary, whose excited tone contrasted
20curiously with his naturally calm visage. No doubt his anger arose from the hardships to which the Mormons were actually
21subjected. The government had just succeeded, with some difficulty, in reducing these independent fanatics to its rule.
22It had made itself master of Utah, and subjected that territory to the laws of the Union, after imprisoning Brigham
23Young on a charge of rebellion and polygamy. The disciples of the prophet had since redoubled their efforts, and
24resisted, by words at least, the authority of Congress. Elder Hitch, as is seen, was trying to make proselytes on the
25very railway trains. Then, emphasising his words with his loud voice and frequent gestures, he related the history of
26the Mormons from Biblical times: how that, in Israel, a Mormon prophet of the tribe of Joseph published the annals of
27the new religion, and bequeathed them to his son Mormon; how, many centuries later, a translation of this precious book,
28which was written in Egyptian, was made by Joseph Smith, junior, a Vermont farmer, who revealed himself as a mystical
29prophet in 1825; and how, in short, the celestial messenger appeared to him in an illuminated forest, and gave him the
30annals of the Lord. Several of the audience, not being much interested in the missionary's narrative, here left the car;
31but Elder Hitch, continuing his lecture, related how Smith, junior, with his father, two brothers, and a few disciples,
32founded the church of the "Latter Day Saints," which, adopted not only in America, but in England, Norway and Sweden,
33and Germany, counts many artisans, as well as men engaged in the liberal professions, among its members; how a colony
34was established in Ohio, a temple erected there at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, and a town built at Kirkland;
35how Smith became an enterprising banker, and received from a simple mummy showman a papyrus scroll written by Abraham
36and several famous Egyptians. The Elder's story became somewhat wearisome, and his audience grew gradually less, until
37it was reduced to twenty passengers. But this did not disconcert the enthusiast, who proceeded with the story of Joseph
38Smith's bankruptcy in 1837, and how his ruined creditors gave him a coat of tar and feathers; his reappearance some
39years afterwards, more honourable and honoured than ever, at Independence, Missouri, the chief of a flourishing colony
40of three thousand disciples, and his pursuit thence by outraged Gentiles, and retirement into the Far West. Ten hearers
41only were now left, among them honest Passepartout, who was listening with all his ears. Thus he learned that, after
42long persecutions, Smith reappeared in Illinois, and in 1839 founded a community at Nauvoo, on the Mississippi,
43numbering twenty-five thousand souls, of which he became mayor, chief justice, and general-in-chief; that he announced
44himself, in 1843, as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States; and that finally, being drawn into ambuscade
45at Carthage, he was thrown into prison, and assassinated by a band of men disguised in masks. Passepartout was now the
46only person left in the car, and the Elder, looking him full in the face, reminded him that, two years after the
47assassination of Joseph Smith, the inspired prophet, Brigham Young, his successor, left Nauvoo for the banks of the
48Great Salt Lake, where, in the midst of that fertile region, directly on the route of the emigrants who crossed Utah on
49their way to California, the new colony, thanks to the polygamy practised by the Mormons, had flourished beyond
50expectations. "And this," added Elder William Hitch, "this is why the jealousy of Congress has been aroused against us!
51Why have the soldiers of the Union invaded the soil of Utah? Why has Brigham Young, our chief, been imprisoned, in
52contempt of all justice? Shall we yield to force? Never! Driven from Vermont, driven from Illinois, driven from Ohio,
53driven from Missouri, driven from Utah, we shall yet find some independent territory on which to plant our tents. And
54you, my brother," continued the Elder, fixing his angry eyes upon his single auditor, "will you not plant yours there,
55too, under the shadow of our flag?" "No!" replied Passepartout courageously, in his turn retiring from the car, and
56leaving the Elder to preach to vacancy. During the lecture the train had been making good progress, and towards
57half-past twelve it reached the northwest border of the Great Salt Lake. Thence the passengers could observe the vast
58extent of this interior sea, which is also called the Dead Sea, and into which flows an American Jordan. It is a
59picturesque expanse, framed in lofty crags in large strata, encrusted with white salt--a superb sheet of water, which
60was formerly of larger extent than now, its shores having encroached with the lapse of time, and thus at once reduced
61its breadth and increased its depth. The Salt Lake, seventy miles long and thirty-five wide, is situated three miles
62eight hundred feet above the sea. Quite different from Lake Asphaltite, whose depression is twelve hundred feet below
63the sea, it contains considerable salt, and one quarter of the weight of its water is solid matter, its specific weight
64being 1,170, and, after being distilled, 1,000. Fishes are, of course, unable to live in it, and those which descend
65through the Jordan, the Weber, and other streams soon perish. The country around the lake was well cultivated, for the
66Mormons are mostly farmers; while ranches and pens for domesticated animals, fields of wheat, corn, and other cereals,
67luxuriant prairies, hedges of wild rose, clumps of acacias and milk-wort, would have been seen six months later. Now the
68ground was covered with a thin powdering of snow. The train reached Ogden at two o'clock, where it rested for six hours,
69Mr. Fogg and his party had time to pay a visit to Salt Lake City, connected with Ogden by a branch road; and they spent
70two hours in this strikingly American town, built on the pattern of other cities of the Union, like a checker-board,
71"with the sombre sadness of right-angles," as Victor Hugo expresses it. The founder of the City of the Saints could not
72escape from the taste for symmetry which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxons. In this strange country, where the people are
73certainly not up to the level of their institutions, everything is done "squarely"--cities, houses, and follies.
🎉 全部完成！共 73 行