Dream

I dreamed I was doing research and came across a cache of documents and ephemera from an alternative universe. It was all connected to an event on one day in the 1890s, when a steel bridge over Niagara Falls was dedicated. There were articles about it, both original hand written manuscripts and newspapers with the published accounts, and lots of photos, both as prints and original large format glass plate negatives. Studying them, I found that in this other reality Mark Twain was the President of the United States. Jules Verne was the President of the French Republic. France apparently still owned Canada. Presidents Twain and Verne met at the middle of the bridge at the international border and shook hands; there were lots of photos of that. I was excited about finding this documentation of an alternative universe, but knew that only a handful of academics and history nerds would find my discovery interesting.

Dream was no doubt inspired in part by the fact that I've been reading a fair amount of Jules Verne recently, inspired by being scheduled at the Jules Verne Festival at the end of the month. Mark Twain and Verne were both childhood literary friends through books I got at libraries and used book shops. Twain I've periodically returned to, but I've neglected Verne since I was 12 or 13. Now the texts of lots of his works are online. I also read a little about Verne; the dream was no doubt influenced by my finding out he'd served in elected office (City Council of Amiens) and his only travel outside of Europe & the Mediterranean was a voyage to New York City with an excursion to Niagara Falls.