Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

We'll begin our book collection
with a pair of pamphlets.
An imagined meeting between
notable personalities at death's
doorstep provided
commentators of centuries
past a wry forum in which to
examine the day's issues.
Chapter 32 -- To Cross the Styx
A Description of the Passage
of Thomas Late Earle of
Strafford over the River of
Styx, with the Conference
Betwixt Him, Charon, and
William Noy (1641)
"It's a great thing," he said, with a smirk of satisfaction--"it's a great thing to be the go-between
between two states of being; to have the exclusive franchise to export and import shades from
one state to the other, and withal to have had as clean a record as mine has been. Valuable as
is my franchise, I never corrupted a public official in my life, and --"
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Siris in the Shades : A
Dialogue Concerning Tar
Water; between Mr. Benjamin
Smith, Lately Deceased, Dr.
Hancock, and Dr. Garth, at
Their Meeting upon the
Banks of the River Styx
(1744)
We'll add two works by John Kendrick Bangs about the denizens of Hades, plus the compilation
of the two.
John Kendrick Bangs, A House-
Boat on the Styx (1895)
Pursuit of the Houseboat
(1897)
From A House-Boat on the Styx, we quote from "Charon Makes a Discovery."
The Singular Problem of the
Stygian House-Boat,
Charon, the Ferryman of renown, was cruising slowly along the Styx one pleasant Friday
morning not long ago, and as he paddled idly on he chuckled mildly to himself as he thought of
the monopoly in ferriage which in the course of years he had managed to build up.
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