第 14 节
作者:炒作      更新:2024-07-17 14:41      字数:2073
  no city money; the enormous legal expenses on both sides had to be
  defrayed by private subscription。  But at last the people came to their
  senses; and said:
  〃Pudd'nhead was right at the startwe ought to have hired the official
  half of that human phillipene to resign; but it's too late now; some of
  us haven't got anything left to hire him with。〃
  〃Yes; we have;〃 said another citizen; 〃we've got this〃and he produced a
  halter。
  Many shouted: 〃That's the ticket。〃  But others said: 〃NoCount Angelo is
  innocent; we mustn't hang him。〃
  〃Who said anything about hanging him?  We are only going to hang the
  other one。〃
  〃Then that is all rightthere is no objection to that。〃
  So they hanged Luigi。  And so ends the history of 〃Those Extraordinary
  Twins。〃
  FINAL REMARKS
  As you see; it was an extravagant sort of a tale; and had no purpose but
  to exhibit that monstrous 〃freak〃 in all sorts of grotesque lights。  But
  when Roxy wandered into the tale she had to be furnished with something
  to do; so she changed the children in the cradle; this necessitated the
  invention of a reason for it; this; in turn; resulted in making the
  children prominent personagesnothing could prevent it of course。  Their
  career began to take a tragic aspect; and some one had to be brought in
  to help work the machinery; so Pudd'nhead Wilson was introduced and taken
  on trial。  By this time the whole show was being run by the new people
  and in their interest; and the original show was become side…tracked and
  forgotten; the twin…monster; and the heroine; and the lads; and the old
  ladies had dwindled to inconsequentialities and were merely in the way。
  Their story was one story; the new people's story was another story; and
  there was no connection between them; no interdependence; no kinship。
  It is not practicable or rational to try to tell two stories at the same
  time; so I dug out the farce and left the tragedy。
  The reader already knew how the expert works; he knows now how the other
  kind do it。
  MARK TWAIN。
  End