place
South Pole
the South Pole
also: Южный полюс
The earth's southern polar point, wholly unreached in 1880; the squib's opening joke sends a Moscow newspaper correspondent there in the deadpan grammar of a real arrivals notice.
Reading notes
- Departed from Moscow: §1 the South Pole
In 1880 the South Pole was wholly unreached and unexplored; sending a Moscow correspondent there is the piece's opening absurdity, in the deadpan grammar of a newspaper's real arrivals-and-departures column.