Welcome back to the blog-tour commemorating Phileas Fogg’s trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years later. The one-day train ride from Allahabad to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) went well.
Along the way, the train stopped at Benares, where Sir Francis Cromarty departed the group. At 7:00 am on the 25th, the train pulled in the station in Calcutta, giving them 5 hours until the steamer would leave at noon. Fogg and Passepartout had covered 7325 miles, about 29.8% of the total distance, and they’d consumed 28.8% of the time.
Princess Aouda had recovered from her drugged state, surprised to be in the company of strangers, her rescuers. When told a relative of hers resided in Hong Kong, Fogg decided to convey her there.
A policeman arrived, ordering Fogg and Passepartout to accompany him. He escorted them to the office of a judge. Three Brahmin priests accused them, not of interfering with a suttee ceremony in Pillaji, as they thought, but of desecrating a temple in Bombay by wearing shoes inside (see my Day 18 entry).
The judge imposed a sentence of 300 pounds and 15 days imprisonment for Passepartout, and 150 pounds and 1 week in prison for Phileas Fogg. Watching from a hidden corner, Detective Fix rubbed his hands in delight since the warrant for Fogg’s arrest as a bank robber had not yet reached Calcutta, but would likely do so in that time.
Detective Fix might have wanted to accuse Phileas Fogg of theft, but you can get my new ebook, 80 Hours, for a steal at only $2.99. What are they thinking at Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, and Tolino anyway?
Back to Verne’s story. Unperturbed, Fogg stated his willingness to pay bail. Without batting an eye, he handed over 2000 pounds bail money and the judge released them both. Passepartout even got his shoes back.
At the time of the story, Calcutta’s population had reached 633,000. Low-lying areas of the city had suffered terrible losses in the cyclones of 1864, 1867, and 1870. In 2022, Kolkata boasts a population over 7 times that number—4.5 million.
Today, if you travel from Allahabad to Kolkata, you don’t need a full day, as Fogg did. An airline flight takes as little as five or six hours, though you may have to stop in Raipur or Gorakhpur on the way.
For this blogpost series, you can’t fly. Like Fogg, you must board the steamer Rangoon. Fogg estimated the travel time to Hong Kong as ten to twelve days, so look for the next entry on November 4 (good weather) or 6 (bad weather).
Kindly watch your step on the gangway, along with Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda, Fix, and—
Poseidon’s Scribe
Hi Steve, I Google-found your article on Tom Swift Jr. and thought I would comment. You might have been me, hungrily awaiting each new title in the TSJ series, fantasizing about the inventions, wishing I were Bud Barclay! I never read the sequel series–Tom ain’t Tom without Chow and a repelatron! It’s amazing how little TSJ gets discussed… the “Rev.” Bob Finnan website is, as always, a joke.
As a person of years, I turned my interest into a series of full-length “reimagined” TSJ titles, now approaching the 50th and final one. I think I did the old series justice.
I’d much enjoy being in touch with you; best to reach me by old-fashioned email at Scodiar629@gmail.com, though I am on Facebook. The website noted below has no “contact” feature, but does list what I’ve done, Swiftwise and otherwise. All the best–hope we can be in touch. (Incidentally, do you have a relation named David Southard, whom I used to know?) SD
Thank you very much for the comment. I explored parts of your website, and your updated TSJ series looks fascinating. Congratulations on that accomplishment. Sorry, I don’t know David Southard, though it’s possible we’re related. I’ll correspond with you privately, as you asked.