[MT on Swiss ladder-railroads] | 11 June 1892
Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.), 11 June 1892. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045081/1892-06-11/ed-1/seq-12/>
This article is an excerpt from Mark Twain's travel letters from Switzerland which were eventually published under the title “Switzerland, The Cradle of Liberty” in the collection What is Man? (1917, 193-208).
Key to annotations on German translations of Mark Twain's original texts
| Transcription | English Translation / Original Text |
|---|---|
| Mark Twain über die Schweiz. Der berühmte amerikanische Humorist, dessen Ansichten über Berlin wir kürzlich mittheilten, äußert sich nun auch über die Schweiz: „Es ist viele Jahre her“ - schreibt Mark Twain aus Interlaken - „daß ich nicht in der Schweiz gewesen bin. Damals gab es nur eine Zahnradbahn. Jetzt hat aber jeder Berg hier eine oder zwei, die ihm wie Hosenträger über dem Rücken laufen. Bald wird der Bauer auf jenen Höhen, wenn er des Nachts ausgeht, eine Laterne mitnehmen müssen, um nicht über eine Bergbahn zu stolpern, die gebaut worden, seit er das letzte Mal ausgegangen. Ein Bauer, durch dessen Kartoffelfeld keine Bahn geht, wird einst so berühmt werden, wie Wilhelm Tell.“ | {Mark Twain on Switzerland. The famous American humorist, whose views on Berlin we recently reported on, now also has something to say about Switzerland:} It is a good many years {- Mark Twain writes from Interlaken -} since I was in Switzerland last. In that remote time there was only one ladder railway in the country. That state of things is all changed. There isn't a mountain in Switzerland now that hasn't a ladder railroad or two up its back like suspenders; <indeed, some mountains are latticed with them, and two years hence all will be.> In that day [translated as “soon”] the peasant of the high altitudes will have to carry a lantern when he goes visiting in the night to keep from stumbling over railroads that have been built since his last round. And also in that day, <if there shall remain> a <high-altitude> peasant whose potato-patch hasn't a railroad through it, it will make him as conspicuous as William Tell. |