Harry Harrison Galactic Dreams (SS Collection)

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amazed!
The professor switched on the device and, after a few minutes of fiddling with
the dials, exacted from the loud-speaker what might be described as a human
voice mouthing harsh animal sounds.
"What was that? I asked.
"Proto-mandarin of the later part of the thirteenth century B.C., obviously,"
he mumbled, hard at work again on the dials, "but just idle chatter about the
rice crop, the barbarians from the south, and such. That is the difficulty; I
have to listen to volumes of that sort of thing before I chance on an
authentic beginning and record it. But I have been doing just that - and
succeeding!
He slapped his hand on a loose pile of scrawled pages that stood upon the
desk. "Here are my first successes, fragmentary as yet, but I'm on the way. I
have traced a number of important events back to their sources and recorded
the very words of their originators at the precise moment of inception. Of
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course the translations are rough and quite colloquial-but that can be
corrected later. My study of beginnings has begun.
I'm afraid I left the professor's company at that time. I did want to hear the
ball game and I regret to say that it was the last time that I or anyone else
ever saw him alive. The sheets of paper he so valued were taken to be the
ravings of an unwell mind, their true worth misunderstood, and they were
discarded. I have salvaged some of them and now present them to the public,
who can truly judge their real worth. For fragmentary as they are, they still
cast the strong light of knowledge into many a darkened corner of history that
has been obscured in the past.
". . . even though it is a palace it is still my home, and it is too small by
far with my new stepmother, who is a bitz. I had hoped to continue in my
philosophy studies, but it is impossible here. Guess I better run the army
down to the border; there may be trouble there.
Alexander, Macedonia, 336 B.C
". . . hot is not Ye word for it, and all of VIRGINIA is like an Oven this
summer. When Opportunity arose to earn a little l. s. d. running a Survey line
through the hills I grabbed it before M.F. could change his Minde. That is how
I met today (forgot his name, must ask him tomorrow) in the Taverne. We did
have an Ale together and did both complain mightily upon the Heat. With one
thing leading to Another as they are wont to do, we had more Ales and he did
Confide in me. He is a member of a secret club named, I think since Memory is
hazy here, The Sons of Liberty, or some such . . . .
George Washington, 1765
"France has lost its greatness when an honest inventor gains no profit from
his onerous toil. I have neglected my practice for months now, perfecting my
handy Hacker Supreme Salami Slicer. I should have earned a fortune selling the
small models to every butcher in France. But no!, the Convention uses the
large model without paying a sou to me, and the butchers are naturally
reluctant now to purchase.
J. I. Guillotine, M.D., 1791
"My head doth ache as though I suffereth an ague, and if I ever chance on the
slippery-fingered soddish son of an illtempered whore who dropped that
night-vessel in Fetter Lane, I will roundly thrash him to within an inch of
his life, and perhaps a bit beyond. Since arrival in London I have learned the
neatness of step and dexterity of motion needed to avoid the contents of the
many vessels emptied into the street, but this is the first time there was
need to dodge the container itself. Had I moved a trifle quicker this body, of
crockery in motion would have continued in motion. But my head doth ache. As
soon as it is better I must think on this; there is the shade of an idea
here.
Sir Isaac Newton, 1682
"I. is afraid that F. knows! If he does I have had it. If I. was not so
seductively attractive I would find someone else's bed-but she does lead me on
so. She says she can sell some of her jewelry and buy those three ships she
was looking at. The last place I want to go is to the damn Spice Islands,
right now at the height of the Madrid season. But F. is king, and if he finds
out . . . !
(Attributed to Cristoforo Colombo of Genoa, 1492, but derivation is obscure.)
"Am I glad I got little Pierre the Erector Set. As soon as he is asleep I'll
grab the funny tower he just made. I know the Exposition Committee won't use
anything like this, but it will keep them quiet for a while.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, 1888
"Woe unto China! Crop failures continue this year and the depression is
getting worse. Millions unemployed. The only plan that seems at all workable
is this construction project that Wah-Ping-Ah is so hot about. He says it will [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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