Mark Twain is a God

Italy – extravagant spending, nonsensical decisions, poverty, poor spending
Italian Churches – wealth deposits, state-controlled, exhausted, banks, extravagant,
Italian Clergy – wasteful, playboys, happy, comfortable, blinded by the light, corrupt
Medici – dead and damned, blasphemous, cruelly tyrannized over Florence, curse, trivial, forgotten,
Old Masters – bad artists, adulation of monsters, groveling spirit,
Italian Cities – smelly, dirty, ignorant, people are lazy, hot
Italian People – uncleanly, lazy, poorly dressed, backwards, poorly educated
Papal states – archaic, uneducated, disorderly,
Rome – Discovered, over trodden, overtly religious, corrupt, racist
St. Peter’s – monstrous, outwardly ugly, overbearing, deniable
Coliseum – holy place, theatre, social battleground,
Cliché statements – tiresome, bad taste,
Michelangelo – overly famous
Relics – absurd

“As for the railways – we have none like them. The cars slide as smoothly along as if they were on runners.” Page 188
- I thought that trains did use runners, which is why they are so smooth? By telling the reader that the railway cars run as if on runners while all trains run on runners, Twain is making the reader question pre-held notions which translates into humor.

“All the churches in an ordinary American city put together could hardly buy the jeweled frippery in one of her hundred cathedrals.” Page 190
- I found this amusing only because it is so true! He makes it funny by using the word ‘frippery’ to describe the riches of Italian church.

“And now that my temper is up, I may as well go on and abuse everybody I can think of.” Page 191
- This is hilarious because he is announcing that he is going to abuse people. The word ‘abuse’ is used in such a way as to prepare the reader to laugh. ‘I am going to go on a rampage, so prepare yourself!’ I love Mark Twain.

“Having eaten the friendless orphan – having driven away his comrades – having grown calm and reflective at length – I now feel in a kindlier mood.” Page 192
- I believe this to be funny because Twain is making a mockery of the fact that so many people are getting lost in Italian extravagance. Beggars fall to the wayside and are ‘eaten’.

“It is well the alleys are not wider, because they hold as much smell now as a person can stand, and of course if they were wider they would hold more, and then the people would die.” Page 193
- This statement makes no sense and is therefore hilarious! If alleys get wider, the smell would become less… not more. As for funny words, how about ‘die’. It is so over the top that it becomes funny.

“One portion of the men go into the military, another into the priesthood, and the rest into the shoemaking business.” Page 194
- The generalization here is absurd, and therefore funny. In reading it you see that 1/3 go into the military and another into the priesthood, which isn’t that absurd. However the final third partake in the shoemaking business??? It is so random that it becomes funny.

Mark Twain employs strong sarcasm throughout this entire piece, which is what makes it so enjoyable. He tends to blow things out of proportion and make large generalizations for further humor, but I believe that his most frequent literary device would be sarcasm.