WHO CONTROLS THE MIGHTY RIVER?

摘要

Mark Twain, the bard of the Mississippi River, was always skeptical of human efforts to control it. "Ten thousand river commissions, with the mines of the world at their back, cannot tame that lawless stream, cannot curb it or confine it, cannot say to it, 'Go here,' or 'Go there,' and make it obey," he wrote in 1883. Twain genuinely admired "the West Point engineers" who dreamed of caging the beast. He truly wanted to believe their confident pronouncements "that they can fetter and handcuff that river and boss him."