Little
Prince Table of Contents
So then the seventh planet was the Earth.
The
Earth is not just an ordinary planet!
One
can count, there 111 kings (not forgetting, to be sure, the Negro
kings among them), 7000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7,500,000
tipplers, 311,000,000 conceited men, that is to say, about 2,000,000,000
grown-ups.
To
give you an idea of the size of the Earth, I will tell you that
before the invention of electricity it was necessary to maintain,
over the whole of the six continents, a veritable army of 462,511
lamplighters for the street lamps. Seen
from a slight distance, that would make a splendid spectacle.
The
movements of this army would be regulated like those of the ballet
in the opera. First would come the turn of the lamplighters of
New Zealand and Australia. Having set their lamps alight, these
would go off to sleep. Next, the lamplighters of China and Siberia
would enter for their steps in the dance, and then they too would
be waved back into the wings. After that would come the turn of
the lamplighters of Russia and the Indies; then those of Africa
and Europe, then those of South America; then those of North America.
And never would they make a mistake in the order of their entry
upon the stage. It would be magnificent.
Only
the man who was in charge of the single lamp at the North Pole,
and his colleague who was responsible for the single lamp at the
South Pole, only these two would live free from toil and care:
they would be busy twice a year.
Go
to Chapter 17
