Existing comment:
Mark Twain
Manuscript containing "At the tomb of Adam" passage from The Innocents Abroad, November 1870
Chief among sites of interest was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Church was overrun with relic-peddlers, miracle mongers, and other frauds. Twain saved his most withering satire for the tomb of Adam, where he delivered a biting mock soliloquy: "The tomb of Adam! How touching it was here in a land of strangers, far away from home, and friends, and all who cared for me, thus to discover the grave of a blood relation." |