Pope Francis concluded his visit to Philadelphia today with a visit to the location near Elfreth's Alley where Canada's charming Hitchbot was beheaded and dismembered.
The cheerful hitchhiking robot had made cross-country trips across Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. It had intended to travel across the United States as well. Instead, it survived all of 300 miles on the mean streets of the U.S.A. Two weeks after beginning its U.S. trip in Boston, the robot was beheaded and torn apart in the streets of Philadelphia.
In Pope Francis' crowning event in the United States, he blessed the spot this evening, and tweeted out several inspiring tweets, including "Join me in praying for Hitchbot. May his tormentor burn in hell for all of eternity."
The cheerful hitchhiking robot had made cross-country trips across Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. It had intended to travel across the United States as well. Instead, it survived all of 300 miles on the mean streets of the U.S.A. Two weeks after beginning its U.S. trip in Boston, the robot was beheaded and torn apart in the streets of Philadelphia.
In Pope Francis' crowning event in the United States, he blessed the spot this evening, and tweeted out several inspiring tweets, including "Join me in praying for Hitchbot. May his tormentor burn in hell for all of eternity."
| Below: Pope Francis blesses the alley where Hitchbot was beheaded and dismembered.  | The Pope also read "Oh Sumptuous robot," a poem by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) that was read by Pope Leo XIII at a memorial after an eerily similar slaughter of a robot from the early 20th century. In the early 1900's, an Italian robot by the name of "Conductron" made several guest appearances in the United States where he conducted orchestras across the country. Conductron conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Pops. Then shortly after an evening concert of Bruckner and Mahler with the Philadelphia Orchestra, bits and pieces of Condcutron were found in the Wissahickon Creek in Fairmount Park. His head was never found. |
Shortly after the fragments of Conductron were found, Pope Leo XIII traveled to Philadelphia and read "Oh Sumptuous robot" -- a poem Dickinson wrote as a teenager after Austin Dickinson broke apart a robot that he was building. Later, Dickinson's poem inspired his third cousin Emily to write "Oh Sumptuous moment."
Below left: Conductron, the conducting robot, before he was beheaded and dismembered in Philadelphia.
Below right: Pope Leo XIII traveled to Philadelphia and blessed the spot in Fairmount park where fragments of Conductron were found.
Below left: Conductron, the conducting robot, before he was beheaded and dismembered in Philadelphia.
Below right: Pope Leo XIII traveled to Philadelphia and blessed the spot in Fairmount park where fragments of Conductron were found.
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| By Emmett Lee Dickinson: Oh Sumptuous robot No more goes So I must now bless thee -- 'Twill never be the same to live Now your torn limbs I see -- What was your skirmish, then and now -- Indifference that Day Lead him unto the Gallows now -- No mourning for this guy -- | By Emily Dickinson: Oh Sumptuous moment Slower go That I may gloat on thee -- 'Twill never be the same to starve Now I abundance see -- Which was to famish, then or now -- The difference of Day Ask him unto the Gallows led -- With morning in the sky -- |
To read about Pope Francis' visit to the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard), click HERE.
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