Chapter 38 Summary

Back on the Quaker City, those passengers who remained in Constantinople bombarded the other travelers with questions about the Emperor's reception. Once all the details were revealed, the event became an ongoing source of mockery. The cooks and crew and those who were not at the reception now walk around regularly mimicking the formal address written by the passengers to the Emperor. Five people were assigned to write the address, one of them was Mark Twain, so he now feels a little offended by this mockery.

The first Asian city of biblical interest is Smyrna, which Twain compares to Constantinople. The city is loud, busy, crowded and the people dress strangely and are not clean. Smyrna is mentioned in the Bible, declaring that the churches must "be faithful unto death." Twain explains that often people misinterpret the biblical prophecies, and the cases of...