Years ago the "Allegheny Portage Railroad" near Cresson, Pennsylvania where Robert Peary, said to be the first man to the North Pole in 1909, was born, the US National Parks Service used to hire an actor to portray Charles Dickens, to give the speech he once gave there at the top of the Alleghenies at the Lemon Tavern. He was popular in the US, once swum in Boston Harbor, and here near Altoona, before the "Horseshoe Bend" railroad engineering, then a series of steam powered inclined planes hauling canal boats on flat cars up over the mountains for Pittsburgh, past where Prince Galatzin, a heir to the Russian throne, a Catholic missionary, paused to drink from the "sinking springs" he gave a talk perhaps from atop the only known "skewed arch bridge" in the Western Hemisphere. They found some wire rope there, probably replaced manila, which went on to build the Brooklyn Bridge and other suspension bridges. - from the ghosts of scary railroads past.
Source: Wired News: Stop the Christmas Carol Spoofs
Guardian Unlimited Book of the week The Dickens of a good show Malcolm Andrews' Charles Dickens and His Performing Selves reveals a love of performance and a delight in the audience, says Simon Callow
The Dickens of a good show Review Guardian Unlimited Books
Special Report: Gun Violence in America: Bad Tidings In the tiny town of North Pole, Alaska, it's Christmas 365 days of the year. Santa is king, schoolchildren are his 'little helpers' replying to letters from around the world - good cheer is a civic duty. So why did six pupils plot a Columbine-style massacre last April? Jon Ronson investigates.
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