The seventh planet was the Earth. 🔊✎ The Earth is not just any old planet! 🔊✎ There, you can find one hundred and eleven kings (not forgetting, of course, the tribal kings), seven thousand geographers, nine hundred thousand businessmen, seven and a half million drunks, three and a half million vain people, all in all about two billion grown-ups. 🔊✎ To give you an idea of how big the Earth is, I will tell you that before the invention of electricity it was necessary, on the six continents, to maintain a veritable army of four hundred and sixty-two thousand, five hundred and eleven lamplighters. 🔊✎
Seen from a distance, it was an amazing spectacle. 🔊✎ The movements of this army were as carefully coordinated as those of a ballet company. 🔊✎ First came the lamplighters from New Zealand and Australia. 🔊✎ They lit their lamps and went to bed. 🔊✎ Then it was the turn of the lamplighters from China and Siberia. 🔊✎ They finished and disappeared back behind the scenes. 🔊✎ After them were the ones from Africa and Europe. 🔊✎ Then the ones from South America. 🔊✎ Then the ones from North America. 🔊✎ No one ever got out of step, no one ever missed their entry. 🔊✎ It was magnificent. 🔊✎ The only people leading lives of idle leisure were the single lamplighter at the North Pole and his colleague at the South Pole; they had to work just twice a year.