A few people were hurt, but much less damage was
done than might have been expected. I may mention for the benefit
of English readers that the tunnels through Monte Piottino and the
Biaschina are marvels of engineering skill, being both of them
spiral; the road describes a complete circle, and descends rapidly
all the while, so that the point of egress as one goes from Airolo
towards Faido is at a much lower level than that of ingress.
If an accident does happen, they call it a disgrazia, thus
confirming the soundness of a philosophy which I put forward in an
earlier work. Every misfortune they hold (and quite rightly) to be
a disgrace to the person who suffers it; "Son disgraziato" is the
Italian for "I have been unfortunate." I was once going to give a
penny to a poor woman by the roadside, when two other women stopped
me. "Non merita," they said; "She is no deserving object for
charity"--the fact being that she was an idiot. Nevertheless they
were very kind to her.
CHAPTER V--Calonico (continued) and Giornico
Our inventions increase in geometrical ratio. They are like living
beings, each one of which may become parent of a dozen others--some
good and some ne'er-do-weels; but they differ from animals and
vegetables inasmuch as they not only increase in a geometrical
ratio, but the period of their gestation decreases in geometrical
ratio also.
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