"Hans Phaall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

consequences attending thereupon, had proved so fatally subversive
of both person and personal dignity to his Excellency, the illustrious
Burgomaster Mynheer Superbus Von Underduk. That functionary,
however, had not failed, during his circumgyratory movements, to
bestow a thought upon the important subject of securing the packet in
question, which was seen, upon inspection, to have fallen into the
most proper hands, being actually addressed to himself and Professor
Rub-a-dub, in their official capacities of President and
Vice-President of the Rotterdam College of Astronomy. It was
accordingly opened by those dignitaries upon the spot, and found to
contain the following extraordinary, and indeed very serious,
communications.

To their Excellencies Von Underduk and Rub-a-dub, President and
Vice-President of the States' College of Astronomers, in the city of
Rotterdam.

Your Excellencies may perhaps be able to remember an humble artizan,
by name Hans Phaall, and by occupation a mender of bellows, who,
with three others, disappeared from Rotterdam, about five years ago,
in a manner which must have been considered by all parties at once
sudden, and extremely unaccountable. If, however, it so please your
Excellencies, I, the writer of this communication, am the identical
Hans Phaall himself. It is well known to most of my fellow citizens,
that for the period of forty years I continued to occupy the little
square brick building, at the head of the alley called Sauerkraut,
in which I resided at the time of my disappearance. My ancestors
have also resided therein time out of mind- they, as well as myself,
steadily following the respectable and indeed lucrative profession
of mending of bellows. For, to speak the truth, until of late years,
that the heads of all the people have been set agog with politics,
no better business than my own could an honest citizen of Rotterdam
either desire or deserve. Credit was good, employment was never
wanting, and on all hands there was no lack of either money or
good-will. But, as I was saying, we soon began to feel the effects
of liberty and long speeches, and radicalism, and all that sort of
thing. People who were formerly, the very best customers in the world,
had now not a moment of time to think of us at all. They had, so
they said, as much as they could do to read about the revolutions, and
keep up with the march of intellect and the spirit of the age. If a
fire wanted fanning, it could readily be fanned with a newspaper,
and as the government grew weaker, I have no doubt that leather and
iron acquired durability in proportion, for, in a very short time,
there was not a pair of bellows in all Rotterdam that ever stood in
need of a stitch or required the assistance of a hammer. This was a
state of things not to be endured. I soon grew as poor as a rat,
and, having a wife and children to provide for, my burdens at length
became intolerable, and I spent hour after hour in reflecting upon the
most convenient method of putting an end to my life. Duns, in the
meantime, left me little leisure for contemplation. My house was