Himalayan platform
American countryside
Genre novel
Mark Twain
abstract
The King of Thailand will present a white elephant to the Queen of England as a gesture of friendship. The Queen of England appointed Indian colonial officials to escort the white elephant to Britain. The ship carrying the white elephant had an accident when it arrived at new york Port, and the white elephant was stolen. The protagonist reported the case to the Chief Inspector of new york, and a farce to find the stolen white elephant began.
The chief inspector sent his officers to look for clues in all directions. Sure enough, there are traces of white elephants in all directions, and the police scattered all over the country keep sending back telegrams, reporting the footprints of white elephants, the damage caused by white elephants, the destruction of objects by white elephants and so on. The Chief Inspector also wrote to the suspects who had been dead for two years, asking them to negotiate and redeem the white elephant. Three weeks later, the protagonist of the novel spent142,000 pounds on the so-called bonus and redemption fee, and became penniless, but the money fell into the pockets of the chief inspector and the policemen.
Finally, the body of the white elephant was found in the basement of the building where the police were playing. It shows that the chief inspector has found the white elephant, and even the white elephant was stolen by the police. Sending police officers to look for clues is a bluff, with the aim of squeezing the informant's money.
My perception
The humor of this novel is full of profound satire, which satirizes the hypocrisy, deception, greed and inhumanity of American social police, and severely criticizes the irresponsible, inaccurate reports and random guesses of have it both ways, a news newspaper.
highlight
1, he is a man of medium height and strong physique; Whenever he thinks deeply, he always frowns habitually and taps his forehead thoughtfully. These performances immediately leave an impression on you, believing that you are standing in front of an extraordinary person. His image alone strengthened my confidence and brought me hope.
I explained my purpose. These words never touched him; This has no greater influence on his steely and calm attitude, as if I were saying that someone had stolen one of my dogs.
Several clerks were working at the other end of the room, and for the next six or seven minutes, only their pens rustled on the paper. Meanwhile, the Chief Inspector sat there, lost in thought.
4. "This is not an ordinary case. Every step must be careful; Every next move, we must be practical about the last step and keep it secret-absolutely strictly confidential. Don't mention it to anyone, not even to reporters. I will deal with them; I will notice that they can only find out what I mean and let them know. "
5. "We must use this one-because we have no better one; Unfortunately, it rolled up its nose and stuffed it into its mouth. What a pity. It means that people make wrong judgments because it usually doesn't put its nose there. "
6. We usually look at the way he commits crimes and the size of what he wants to steal, so as to get subtle clues and guess who we want to hunt. We are not dealing with pickpockets or shoplifters. You must admit this.
7. "Well, ask him what he eats-he eats everything. It can eat people and the Bible-it can eat anything between humans and the Bible. "
8. "I don't think it cares about illustrations; In other words, I don't think it values those with illustrations more than those with only words. "
9. "It will leave the Bible and eat bricks; Will drop bricks and eat bottles; Will drop bottles and eat clothes; Will leave clothes to eat cats; Will leave the cat and eat oysters; Will leave oysters and eat ham; Will leave ham and eat sugar; Will leave sugar to eat pie; Will leave the pie and eat potatoes; Will leave potatoes and eat wheat bran; Will leave the wheat bran and eat hay; Will leave the hay and eat oats; Will leave oats and eat rice because it is fed with rice. There is nothing he doesn't want to eat except European butter, but he will eat it as long as he is willing to taste it. "
10, "Drink all liquids. Milk, water, whisky, molasses, castor oil, turpentine, carbolic acid ... I can't list them here; Whatever liquid it is, write down what you think. It must drink all liquids except European coffee. "
1 1, "Duffy and mcfadden are the fiercest villains in their line; The chief inspector has reason to believe that they stole the stove from the detective headquarters on a cold night last winter-as a result, before the next morning, the chief inspector and all the agents went to see a doctor, some of them were frozen to their feet, others were frozen to their fingers, ears and other parts of their bodies. "
12, "Our duty is not to stop crimes, but to punish them. But we can't punish crimes in advance, we must wait until someone commits a crime. "
13, "My God!" The chief inspector said, "can't it even eat the gas bill?"
14, barnum [7] is willing to obtain the patent right of elephants for mobile advertising at the price of 4,000 yuan per year. From now on, until the detective finds the elephant. Prepare to put a circus poster on the elephant.
15, don't worry about the white elephant! It kills people all the way. The villagers in shock escaped! What opens the way for it is white terror, followed by death and destruction! Behind all this are those agents. The barn was washed away, the factory was completely destroyed, the crops were eaten up and the mass meeting was broken up. At the same time, what happened was an unspeakable massacre!
16, "Make them laugh; He who laughs last laughs best. "
17, my worship of this man has become a kind of worship. I was inseparable from him. His office has become an embarrassment to me, and the situation is getting worse every day. However, since he can bear it, I will bear it; At least until I'm incapable.
18, "What a great agent! He may be a little slow to find such a gadget-although he pursued it for three weeks and slept with its rotting corpse all night, he finally found it-in fact, as long as he can find the person who misplaced the elephant there and point out the place for him! "
19, I am a person who has lost everything. I am a displaced person in the world-but until today, my admiration for that gentleman has never become indifferent, and I will never become indifferent. I always believe that he is the greatest agent the world has ever seen. (20220 1 13)