diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/paris10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/paris10.txt | 973 |
1 files changed, 973 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/paris10.txt b/old/paris10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a21f55 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/paris10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,973 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Street Of Paris And Its Inhabitant, by Honore De Balzac +#108 in our series by Honore De Balzac + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Street Of Paris And Its Inhabitant + +Author: Honore De Balzac + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8150] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 20, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STREET OF PARIS *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, John Bickers and David Widger + + + + + + A STREET OF PARIS + + AND + + ITS INHABITANT + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + + Henri Pene du Bois + + + Illustrated by + + Francois Courboin + + + + + PREPARER'S NOTE + + This eBook was prepared from an edition published by Meyer + Brothers and Company, New York, 1900. + + Of this edition 400 copies were printed. + 25 copies on Japan Paper, numbered 1 to 25. + 375 copies on specially made paper, numbered 26 to 400. + + + + PREFACE + +This little Parisian silhouette in prose was written by Balzac to be +the first chapter of a new series of the "Comedie Humaine" that he was +preparing while the first was finishing. Balzac was never tired. He +said that the men who were tired were those who rested and tried to +work afterwards. + +"A Street of Paris and its Inhabitant" was in its author's mind when +Hetzel, engaged in collecting a copy for the work entitled "Le Diable +a Paris" that all book lovers admire, asked Balzac for an unpublished +manuscript. + +Balzac gave him this, after retouching it, in order that it should +have the air of a finished story. Why Hetzel did not use it in "Le +Diable a Paris," no one knows. He went into exile, in Brussels, at the +military revolution that made Napoleon III Emperor and, needing money, +sold "A Street of Paris and its Inhabitant" with other manuscripts to +Le Siecle. + +Balzac's work was printed entire in three pages of the journal Le +Siecle, in Paris, July 28, 1845. M. le Vicomte Spoelberch de Lovenjoul +owns Balzac's autograph manuscript of it. These details are given by +him and might be reproduced here with his signature. But the +publishers wish not to be deprived of the pleasure of paying homage to +the Vicomte Spoelberch de Lovenjoul. + +He has made in the biography of Balzac, in editions of his books, in +the pious collection of his unpublished writings, the ideal literary +man's monument. + +H. P. du B. + + + + I + + PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE STREET + +Paris has curved streets, streets that are serpentine. It counts, +perhaps, only the Rue Boudreau in the Chaussee d'Antin and the Rue +Duguay-Trouin near the Luxembourg as streets shaped exactly like a +T-square. The Rue Duguay-Trouin extends one of its two arms to the Rue +d'Assas and the other to the Rue de Fleurus. + +In 1827 the Rue Duguay-Trouin was paved neither on one side nor on the +other; it was lighted neither at its angle nor at its ends. Perhaps it +is not, even to-day, paved or lighted. In truth, this street has so +few houses, or the houses are so modest, that one does not see them; +the city's forgetfulness of them is explained, then, by their little +importance. + +Lack of solidity in the soil is a reason for that state of things. The +street is situated on a point of the Catacombs so dangerous that a +portion of the road disappeared recently, leaving an excavation to the +astonished eyes of the scarce inhabitants of that corner of Paris. + +A great clamor arose in the newspapers about it. The government corked +up the "Fontis"--such is the name of that territorial bankruptcy--and +the gardens that border the street, destitute of passers-by, were +reassured the more easily because the tax list did not weigh on them. + +The arm of the street that extends to the Rue de Fleurus is entirely +occupied, at the left, by a wall on the top of which shine broken +bottles and iron lances fixed in the plaster--a sort of warning to +hands of lovers and of thieves. + +In this wall is a door, the famous little garden door, so necessary to +dramas and to novels, which is beginning to disappear from Paris. + +This door, painted in dark green, having an invisible lock, and on +which the tax collector had not yet painted a number; this wall, along +which grow thistles and grass with beaded blades; this street, with +furrows made by the wheels of wagons; other walls gray and crowned +with foliage, are in harmony with the silence that reigns in the +Luxembourg, in the convent of the Carmelites, in the gardens of the +Rue de Fleurus. + +If you went there, you would ask yourself, "Who can possibly live +here?" + +Who? Wait and see. + + + + II + + SILHOUETTE OF THE INHABITANT + +One day, about three in the afternoon, that door was opened. Out of it +came a little old man, fat, provided with an abdomen heavy and +projecting which obliges him to make many sacrifices. He has to wear +trousers excessively wide, not to be troubled in walking. He has +renounced, long ago, the use of boots and trouser straps. He wears +shoes. His shoes were hardly polished. + +The waistcoat, incessantly impelled to the upper part of the gastric +cavities by that great abdomen, and depressed by the weight of two +thoracic bumps that would make the happiness of a thin woman, offers +to the pleasantries of the passers-by a perfect resemblance to a +napkin rolled on the knees of a guest absorbed in discussion at +dessert. + +The legs are thin, the arm is long, one of the hands is gloved only on +most solemn occasions and the other hand ignores absolutely the +advantage of a second skin. + +That personage avoids the alms and the pity that his venerable green +frock coat invites, by wearing the red ribbon at his button-hole. This +proves the utility of the Order of the Legion of Honor which has been +contested too much in the past ten years, the new Knights of the Order +say. + +The battered hat, in a constant state of horror in the places where a +reddish fuzz endures, would not be picked up by a rag picker, if the +little old man let it fall and left it at a street corner. + +Too absent-minded to submit to the bother that the wearing of a wig +entails, that man of science--he is a man of science--shows, when he +makes a bow, a head that, viewed from the top, has the appearance of +the Farnese Hercules's knee. + +Above each ear, tufts of twisted white hair shine in the sun like the +angry silken hairs of a boar at bay. The neck is athletic and +recommends itself to the notice of caricaturists by an infinity of +wrinkles, of furrows; by a dewlap faded but armed with darts in the +fashion of thistles. + +The constant state of the beard explains at once why the necktie, +always crumpled and rolled by the gestures of a disquiet head, has its +own beard, infinitely softer than that of the good old man, and formed +of threads scratched from its unfortunate tissue. + +Now, if you have divined the torso and the powerful back, you will +know the sweet tempered face, somewhat pale, the blue ecstatic eyes +and the inquisitive nose of that good old man, when you learn that, in +the morning, wearing a silk head kerchief and tightened in a dressing- +gown, the illustrious professor--he is a professor--resembled an old +woman so much that a young man who came from the depths of Saxony, of +Weimar, or of Prussia, expressly to see him, said to him, "Forgive me, +Madame!" and withdrew. + +This silhouette of one of the most learned and most venerated members +of the Institute betrays so well enthusiasm for study and absent- +mindedness caused by application to the quest of truth, that you must +recognize in it the celebrated Professor Jean Nepomucene Apollodore +Marmus de Saint-Leu, one of the most admirable men of genius of our +time. + + + + III + + MADAME ADOLPHE + +When the old man--the professor counted then sixty-two summers--had +walked three steps, he turned his head at this question, hurled in an +acute tone by a voice that he recognized: + +"Have you a handkerchief?" + +A woman stood on the step of the garden door and was watching her +master with solicitude. + +She seemed to be fifty years of age, and her dress indicated that she +was one of those servants who are invested with full authority in +household affairs. + +She was darning stockings. + +The man of science came back and said naively: + +"Yes, Madame Adolphe, I have my handkerchief." + +"Have you your spectacles?" she asked. + +The man of science felt the side pocket of his waistcoat. + +"I have them," he replied. + +"Show them to me," she said. "Often you have only the case." + +The professor took the case out of his pocket and showed the +spectacles with a triumphant air. + +"You would do well to keep them on your nose," she said. + +M. de Saint-Leu put on his spectacles, after rubbing the glasses with +his handkerchief. + +Naturally, he thrust the handkerchief under his left arm while he set +his spectacles on his nose. Then he walked a few steps towards the Rue +de Fleurus and relaxed his hold on the handkerchief, which fell. + +"I was sure of it," said Madame Adolphe to herself. She picked up the +handkerchief and cried: + +"Monsieur! Monsieur!" + +"Well!" exclaimed the professor, made indignant by her watchfulness. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, receiving the handkerchief. + +"Have you any money?" asked Madame Adolphe with maternal solicitude. + +"I need none," he replied naively, explaining thus the lives of all +men of science. + +"It depends," Madame Adolphe said. "If you go by way of the Pont des +Arts you need one sou." + +"You are right," replied the man of science, as if he were retracing +instructions for a voyage to the North Pole. "I will go through the +Luxembourg, the Rue de Seine, the Pont des Arts, the Louvre, the Rue +du Coq, the Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue des Fosses- +Montmartre. It is the shortest route to the Faubourg Poissonniere." + +"It is three o'clock," Madame Adolphe said. "Your sister-in-law dines +at six. You have three hours before you--Yes--you'll be there, but +you'll be late." She searched her apron pocket for two sous, which she +handed to the professor. + +"Very well, then," she said to him. "Do not eat too much. You are not +a glutton, but you think of other things. You are frugal, but you eat +when you are absent-minded as if you had no bread at home. Take care +not to make Madame Vernet, your sister-in-law, wait. If you make her +wait, you will never be permitted again to go there alone, and it will +be shameful for you." + +Madame Adolphe returned to the threshold of the little door and from +there watched her master. She had to cry to him, "To the right! To the +right!" for he was turning toward the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. + +"And yet he is a man of science, people say," she muttered to herself. +"How did he ever manage to get married? I'll ask Madame when I dress +her hair." + + + + IV + + INCONVENIENCE OF QUAYS WHERE ARE BOOK STALLS + +At four o'clock, Professor Marmus was at the end of the Rue de Seine, +under the arcades of the Institute. Those who know him will admit that +he had done nobly, since he had taken only one hour to go through the +Luxembourg and down the Rue de Seine. + +There a lamentable voice, the voice of a child, plucked from the good +man the two sous that Madame Adolphe had given to him. When he reached +the Pont des Arts he remembered that he had to pay toll and turned +back suddenly to beg for a sou from the child. + +The little rascal had gone to break the coin, in order to give only +one sou to his mother. She was walking up and down the Rue Mazarine +with her baby at her breast. + +It became necessary for the professor to turn his back on the veteran +soldier who guards against the possibility of a Parisian passing over +the bridge without paying the toll. + +Two roads were open to him: the Pont Neuf and the Pont Royal. +Curiosity makes one lose more time in Paris than anywhere else. + +How may one walk without looking at those little oblong boxes, wide as +the stones of the parapet, that all along the quays stimulate book +lovers with posters saying, "Four Sous--Six Sous--Ten Sous--Twelve +Sous--Thirty Sous?" These catacombs of glory have devoured many hours +that belonged to the poets, to the philosophers and to the men of +science of Paris. + +Great is the number of ten-sous pieces spent in the four-sous stalls! + +The professor saw a pamphlet by Vicq-d'Azyr, a complete Charles Bonnet +in the edition of Fauche Borel, and an essay on Malus. + +"And such then is the sum of our achievements," he said to himself. +"Malus! A genius arrested in his course when he had almost captured +the empire of light! But we have had Fresnel. Fresnel has done +excellent things!--Oh, they will recognize some day that light is only +a mode of substance." + +The professor held the notice on Malus. He turned its pages. He had +known Malus. He recalled to himself and recited the names of all the +Maluses. Then he returned to Malus, to his dear Malus, for they had +entered the Institute together at the return to Paris of the +expedition to Egypt. Ah! It was then the Institute of France and not a +mass of disunited Academies. + +"The Emperor had preserved," said Marmus to himself, "the saintly idea +of the Convention. I remember," he muttered aloud, "what he said to me +when I was presented to him as a member of the Institute. Napoleon the +First said, 'Marmus, I am the Emperor of the French, but you are the +King of the infinitely little and you will organize them as I have +organized the Empire.' Ah, he was a very great man and a man of wit! +The French appreciated this too late." + +The professor replaced Malus and the essay on him in the ten-sous +stall, without remarking how often hope had been lit and extinguished +alternately in the gray eyes of an old woman seated on a stool in an +angle of the quay. + +"He was there," Marmus said, pointing to the Tuileries on the opposite +bank of the river. "I saw him reviewing his sublime troops! I saw him +thin, ardent as the sands of Egypt; but, as soon as he became Emperor, +he grew fat and good-natured, for all fat men are excellent--this is +why Sinard is thin, he is a gall-making machine. But would Napoleon +have supported my theory?" + + + + V + + FIRST COURSE + +It was the hour at which they went to the dinner table in the house of +Marmus's sister-in-law. The professor walked slowly toward the Chamber +of Deputies, asking himself if his theory might have had Napoleon's +support. He could no longer judge Napoleon save from that point of +view. Did Napoleon's genius coincide with that of Marmus in regard to +the assimilation of things engendered by an attraction perpetual and +continuous? + + + + VI + + SECOND COURSE + +"No, Baron Sinard was a worshipper of power. He would have gone to the +Emperor and told him that my theory was the inspiration of an atheist. +And Napoleon, who has done a great deal of religious sermonizing for +political reasons, would have persecuted me. He had no love for ideas. +He was a courtier of facts! Moreover, in Napoleon's time, it would not +have been possible for me to communicate freely with Germany. Would +they have lent me their aid--Wytheimler, Grosthuys, Scheele, Stamback, +Wagner? + +"To make men of science agree--men of science agree!--the Emperor +should have made peace; in time of peace, perhaps, he would have taken +an interest in my quarrel with Sinard! Sinard, my friend, my pupil, +become my antagonist, my enemy! He, a man of genius-- + +"Yes, he is a man of genius. I do justice to him in the face of all +the world." + +At this moment the professor could talk aloud without trouble to +himself or to the passers-by. He was near the Chamber of Deputies, the +session was closed, all Paris was at dinner--except the man of +science. + +Marmus was haranguing the statues which, it must be conceded, are +similar to all audiences. In France there is not an audience that is +not prohibited from giving marks of approval or disapproval. +Otherwise, there is not an audience that would not turn orator. + +At the Iena bridge Marmus had a pain in the stomach. He heard the +hoarse voice of a cab driver. Marmus thought that he was ill and let +himself be ushered into the cab. He made himself comfortable in it. + +When the driver asked, "Where?" Marmus replied quietly: + +"Home." + +"Where is your home, Monsieur?" asked the driver. + +"Number three," Marmus replied. + +"What street?" asked the driver. + +"Ah, you are right, my friend. But this is extraordinary," he said, +taking the driver into his confidence. "I have been so busy comparing +the hyoides and the caracoides--yes, that's it. I will catch Sinard in +the act. At the next session of the Institute he will have to yield to +evidence." + +The driver wrapped his ragged cloak around him. Resignedly, he was +saying to himself, "I have seen many odd folks, but this one--" He +heard the word "Institute." + +"The Institute, Monsieur?" he asked. + +"Yes, my friend, the Institute," replied Marmus. + +"Well he wears the red ribbon," said the driver to himself. "Perhaps +he has something to do with the Institute." + +The professor, infinitely more comfortable in his cab than on the +sidewalk, devoted himself entirely to solving the problem that went +against his theory and would not surrender--the rascal! The cab stops +at the Institute; the janitor sees the Academician and bows to him +respectfully. The cab driver, his suspicions dispelled, talks with the +janitor of the Institute while the illustrious professor goes--at +eight in the evening--to the Academie des Sciences. + +The cab driver tells the janitor where he found his fare. + +"At the Iena bridge," repeats the janitor. "M. Marmus was coming back +from Passy. He had dined, doubtless, with M. Planchette, one of his +friends of the Academy." + +"He couldn't tell me his address," says the cab driver. + +"He lives in the Rue Duguay-Trouin, Number three," says the janitor. + +"What a neighborhood!" exclaims the driver. + +"My friend," asks of the janitor the professor who had found the door +shut, "is there no meeting of the Academy to-day?" + +"To-day!" exclaims the janitor. "At this hour!" + +"What is the time?" asks the man of science. + +"About eight o'clock," the janitor replies. + +"It is late," comments M. Marmus. "Take me home, driver." + +The driver goes through the quays, the Rue du Bac, falls into a tangle +of wagons, returns by the Rue de Grenelle, the Croix-Rouge, the Rue +Cassette, then he makes a mistake. He tries to find the Rue d'Assas, +in the Rue Honore-Chevalier, in the Rue Madame, in all the impossible +streets and, swearing that if he had known he would not have come so +far for a hundred sous, disembarks the professor in the Rue Duguay- +Trouin. + +The cab driver claims an hour, for the police ordinances, that defend +consumers of time in cabs from the stratagems of cab drivers, had not +yet posted the walls of Paris with their protecting articles that +settle in advance all difficulties. + +"Very well, my friend," says M. Marmus to the cab driver. "Pay him," +M. Marmus says to Madame Adolphe. "I do not feel well, my child." + +"Monsieur, what did I tell you?" she exclaimed. "You have eaten too +much. While you were away, I said to myself, 'It is Mme. Vernet's +birthday. They will urge him at table and he will come back sick.' +Well, go to bed. I will make camomile tea for you." + + + + VII + + DESSERT + +The professor walked through the garden into a pavilion at one of its +corners, where he lived alone in order not to be disturbed by his +wife. + +He went up the stairway leading to his little room, and complained so +much of his pains in the stomach that Madame Adolphe filled him with +camomile tea. + +"Ah, here is a carriage! It is Madame returning in great anxiety, I am +sure," said Madame Adolphe, giving to the professor his sixth cup of +camomile tea. "Now, sir, I hope that you will be able to drink it +without me. Do not let it fall all over your bed. You know how Madame +would laugh. You are very happy to have a little wife who is so +amiable and so joyful." + +"Say nothing to her, my child," exclaimed the professor, whose +features expressed a sort of childish fear. + +The truly great man is always more or less a child. + + + + VIII + + THIS SHOWS THAT THE WIFE OF A MAN OF SCIENCE IS VERY UNHAPPY + +"Well, good-bye. Return in the cab, it is paid for," Madame Marmus was +saying when Madame Adolphe arrived at the door. + +The cab had already turned the corner. Madame Adolphe, not having seen +Madame Marmus's escort, said to herself: + +"Poor Madame! He must be her nephew." + +Madame Marmus, a little woman, lithe, graceful, mirthful, was divinely +dressed and in a fashion too young for her age, counting her twenty- +five years as a wife. Nevertheless, she wore well a gown with small +pink stripes, a cape embroidered and edged with lace, boots pretty as +the wings of a butterfly. She carried in her hand a pink hat with +peach flowers. + +"You see, Madame Adolphe," she said, "my hair is all uncurled. I told +you that in this hot weather it should be dressed in bandeaux." + +"Madame," the servant replied, "Monsieur is very sick. You let him eat +too much." + +"What could I do?" Madame Marmus replied. "He was at one end of the +table and I at the other. He returned without me, as his habit is! +Poor little man! I will go to him as soon as I change my dress." + +Madame Adolphe returns to the pavilion to propose an emetic, and +scolds the professor for not having returned with Madame Marmus. + +"Since you wished to come in a cab, you might have spared me the +expense of the one that Madame Marmus took. The charge for your cab +was an hour. Did you stop anywhere?" + +"At the Institute," he replied. + +"At the Institute! Where did you take the cab?" she asked. + +"In front of a bridge, I think," he replied. + +"Was it still daylight?" she asked. + +"Almost," he said. + +"Then you did not go to Madame Vernet's!" exclaimed Madame Adolphe. + +"Why did you not come to Madame Vernet's?" asked his wife. + +Madame Marmus, having come to the door on the tips of her toes, had +heard Madame Adolphe's exclamation. She did not wish to see Madame +Adolphe's astonishment. Surely Madame Adolphe could not have forgotten +the assurance with which the professor's wife had placed him in +imagination at Madame Vernet's table. + +"My dear child, I do not know," said the professor in a repentant +tone. + +"Then you have not dined," said Madame Marmus, whose attitude remained +that of the purest innocence. + +"With what could he have dined, Madame? He had two sous," said Madame +Adolphe, looking at Madame Marmus with an accusing air. + +"Ah, I am truly to be pitied, my poor Madame Adolphe," said Madame +Marmus. "This sort of thing has been going on for twenty years, and I +am not yet accustomed to it. Six days after our wedding, we were going +out of our room one morning to take breakfast. M. Marmus hears the +drum of the Polytechnic School pupils of whom he was the professor. He +quits me to go and see them pass. I was nineteen years of age and when +I pouted, you cannot guess what he said to me. He said, 'These young +people are the flower and the glory of France!' This is how my +marriage began. You can judge of the rest." + +"Oh, Monsieur, is it possible?" asked Madame Adolphe with an indignant +air. + +"I have cornered Sinard!" exclaimed M. Marmus triumphantly. + +"Oh, he would let himself die!" exclaimed Madame Adolphe. + +"Get something for him to eat," said Madame Marmus. "He would let +himself do anything. Ah, my good Madame Adolphe, a man of science, you +see, is a man who knows nothing--of life." + +The malady was cured by a cataplasm of Italian cheese that the man of +science ate without knowing what he was eating, for he held Sinard in +a corner-- + +"Poor Madame," said the kind Madame Adolphe. "I pity you. He was +really so absent-minded as that!" + +And Madame Adolphe forgot the strange avowal of her mistress. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Street Of Paris And Its Inhabitant +by Honore De Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STREET OF PARIS *** + +This file should be named paris10.txt or paris10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, paris11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, paris10a.txt + +Produced by Dagny, John Bickers and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + |