RUDYARD KIPLING.

Otago Witness, 25 January 1900, Page 64

RUDYARD KIPLING.

By W. H. Clakk.

I. Each succeeding age produces its own leaders of thought as it must produce its own leaders of action. From the past, ■which has been prodigal in its gifts -to younger generations, much may be and much has been learned ; bub it is the word, spoken or written, of him who is in closest touch with his own generation, who looks into the hearts of his contemporaries, sees their very thoughts, and lays bare their motives, that with prophetic utterance urges them to nobler deeds, warns them of impending evil, or lashes them with satiric scourges ior their shortcomings. Yet to everyone it is not given that hie own generation will hear and understand. The message of many an intellectual gLnt is to ths age in which he lives but as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. To few, indeed, does their own age open its arms and take to its heart with rapture. A "Burns" is generally recognised all too late, and is followed to his last restingplace by a sorrowing nation. Only once or twice in a century is a writer welcomed as was Charles Dickens, whose earliest writings took his countrymen by storm. Recent years have witnessed, and in an intensified form, this rare phenomenon in the enthusiasm with which not only England but English-speaking peoples have hailed the writings of Rudyard Kipling. How much this author has endeared himself to the Anglo-Saxon race was most powerfully evidenced some months ago in his almost latal illness. Throughout the British Empire (and America, too, in equal degree) the daily bulletin as to his condition was eagerly scanned, the various changes of his malady noted, and his very pulse-beats almost counted by myriads. Not the least tribute to his influence upon his contemporaries was the poem purporting to bo the prayer of Tommy Atkins for his recovery : — An' we all prayed 'arc! and earliest, "O Gawd, don't take him yet! Just let him stop and 'e\p us, An' warn, lest we forget!" To possess such fame as a writer, R,udyard Kipling is still a very young man. So far as can be gathered iroin tin bnet scraps of his biography that have become public property, he was born in Bombay in 1865, the son of John Lockwcod Kipling — himself an author, and also the illustrator of his more illustrious son's " Jungle Books." In his early years he was sent to England to be educated. Ido not know whether his " Baa Baa, Black Sheep " is to any extent autobiographical, but the insight into the working oi the child-mind in the down-trodden Punch (as clear and sympathetic as K. L. Stevenson's cleanest cut work) leads one to surmise that that painfully pathetic little story is not altogether a work of the imagination. Kipling returned to India early in the eighties, and for a number of years was a member of the staff of the Lahore Gazette. His journalistic work was evidently good training for o.ur author (as it has been to so many well-known names in literature), and Kipling, besides gaining much knowledge of men, gained reputation for tho vigour with which he threw himself into his labour and for the quantity and excellence of his journalistic output. In 1886 he made his first independent ventures in literature by issuing his " Departmental Ditties. ' Originally appearing in the Lahore Gazette, they were at the instance of friends (" friends " have much to answer for in this respect!) issued in a tiny volume, with a brown paper cover so printed as to rewneble a government docket. Though the original price was but a trifle, he who possesses a copy purchased 13 years ago. holds what is more valuable than much scrip in a successful gold mine. A copy sold in London lately brought £94 ! and the price of the next copy offered for sale will probably exceed £100 ! Some little time later Sir William Hunter, writing m the Academy, spoke of Kipling as a " new literary star of no mean magnitude, rising in the East,*' and subsequent events have proved the accuracy of that critical judgment. In 1889, ten years ago, Kipling left India, performing the nineteenth century round trip, in the course of his journeyings passing through this colony, where by his iDersonal chaim he gained many personal friends and considerably increased the interest oi the general public in his wo"ks. Kipling's first prose volume was his " Plain Tales from the Hills, ' which was speedily followed by his once familiar thin octavo volumes, half a dozen in number — "The Story of the Gadsbys," "Wee Willie Winkie," " Soldiers Three," and others. In i these he. wrote of life in the various phases |in which he saw it in India : (1) Among the natives — the teeming millions of the Ganges Valley, the hillmen of the north, and the still wilder borderers of the north-west ; or (2) among the Anglo-Indians. — the official and governing class — or (3) ; (and here his word-pictures took the English-speaking world by storm) — among the British soldiers that garrison and guard our Indian Empire. The Anglo-Indians furnished Kipling with his first audience, and it Avas in their midst that the scenes of his earliest tales are laid ; their sayings and doings furnished the raw material from which his tales were constructed. The life of this society differs and must differ essentially from that of the old country ov its colonies. The members of this class, infinitely removed from the natives .among whom they live, over whom they exercise not a littl control, and yet, with whom they can have nothing in common, are practically a law unto themselves. Their continual migrations, -too, under the requirements of their departmental duties, ! render the ties binding the units toother of the slightest, while added to these elements, we must also consider the climatic conditions, the real helplessness of the governed, and the cheapness of human life nmong the native populations as all contributing to form the characteristics °$ the Anglo-Jn.-

dians. That selfishness and cynicism should be found among a cless so placed is not surprising. Anglo-Indians of every type are mefc with in these tales of Kipling. One moment we meet with the best of the viceroys, who confesses, in confidence, " that he is the electro-plated figurehead of a golden administration," and who sums up his philosophy of government in terms that would endear him to the colonial politician : " IsTo wise man has a policy- — a policy is the blackmail levied on the fool by the'unforcseen ! " From viceroys we descend through every grade of official life, and to the credit of British rule in India, not infrequently meet with men who, while exhibiting a rough ' and cynical exterior, are wearing their lives out for the welfare of the native races whom inscrutable Fate has placed in their \ hands. " William the Conqueror" (The Day's Work) tells the story of one of theae. In this tale the hero, Scott by name, does wonders in a iamine-stricken district, saving, almost against their own will, the lives of many natives with their children, illustrating in his action the truth of the short ! verse which heads the tale : j I have do_ie one braver thing Thpn all the worthies 'did, And yet a braver theme did spring — ' Which is to keep it hid. j Poetic justice is satisfied at the close of this tale in its" hero gaining a rich reward in the sister of his friend, Martyn — a vcung lady of both matter-of-fact and romantic nature, who gives her name to ihe story. Yet another of these nameless heroes of peace is figured in " The Head of the District " (Liie'.s Handicap). Yardlcy Orde, the deputy-commissioner of the Kot Ivamharsen, in the north-west, is dying of fever on the banks of the swollen Indus, over which his wife is by the cruel irony of Fate hastening all too late to minister to him. In his life Orde had bullied and thieatened into submission the wild and lawless, yet stilJ childlike mountaineers, and won them over to " the paths of a moderate righteousness" by his high-handed methods, and is now sincerely mourned by them as their father and friend. The picture is evidently drawn true to life, and its production has also evidently- been a labour of love to the author. But the sequence brings out his" cynicism ! The very " greatest of all the Aicero} s' 1 in his wisdom decides that " statesmanship and originality" would be exhibited in his appointing as successor to the strong; man " a child of the conntry to rule in that country," and consequently amid a flourish of trumpets and with much Babu English laudation, the appointment is announced of Mr Grish Chunder De, M.A. This new departure in government has the result expected by those who know the temper oi the borderers. Mr De, M.A. , arrives in all the dignity of his new commifsionership. He immediately succeeds in offending the susceptibilities of the natives, and instantly the border is aflame with revolt. With undignified haste the commissioner scuttles out of h:s difficulties in fear and trembling, leaving his subordinate — Tallantire, another strong-willed Englishman — to reduce the border again to obedience. This tale, with many another, discloses to us Kipling's idea of the methods by which India should be governed. Elsewhere ("The Man Who Was") he says: " Asia is not going to be civilised after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia, and she is too old. You cannot reform a lady of many lovers, and Asia has been insatiable in her flirtations aforetime. She will never attend Sunday school or learn to vote, save with swords, "for tickets." Among the many portraits Kipling draws from his observations among the AngloIndian*, the most finished is, perhaps, that of Mrs Hawksbee. She is a " little, brown, thin, almost skinny woman, with big, rolling, violet-blue eyes, and the sweetest manners in the world." These sketches in which she appears are among the liveliest of Kipling's earlier writings, and are at times marked by his cynical views of the life he is dealing with, wherein shone this woman, " clever, witty, brilliant, and sparkling beyond most of her kind ; but possessed of many devils, of malice, and mischievousness." One reads with interest of how she rescued Plufflos, a callow youth, yet withal self-opinionated — a type by no means rare — from himself, his own worst enemy, and a Mrs Reiver ; of the trickery by which she helped Tarrion to a nice little sinecure ; and one can feel, too, that the lady even enjoyed her own discomfiture at the hands of Mrs Biemmils, as narrated in that little tale " Three and — an Extra," which is as true a transcript of feminine nature as recent literature affords. Among other satisfactorily drawn portraits in these tale's is that of Strickland, of the police — a man who acted upon the theory " that a policeman in Lidia should try to know as much about the natives of India as the natives themselves." His adventures when submerged among the native populace are varied in character, not the least amusing being his appearance as " Miss Toughal's Bais," when he loses himself in native guise for the purpose of winning his rSride from her unwilling parents. More detailed and more connected in plot are the sketches included under the title of the "Story of the Gadsbys." Through this series, which is dramatic in form, runs a strong vein of cynicism, though the humour is more pronounced than in some of the other sketches already referred to. Briefly told, the plot is this : Miss Thrugan, a demure young damsel, succeeds in captivating the affections of a cavalry officer, who, in the oj>ening sketch, acts as cavaliei servante to her mamma. This event causes general surprise in Simla, and at a dinnei table creates " a scene "' in modified form with a " Mrs Herriott," after whom the captain had apparently been " dangling, ' as the phrase is. Marriage follows, of course, and the wife, also, of course, makes discoveries. Marriage, too, has its effect upon the captain. . From a dashing cavalry officer, afraid of nothing, he bee mies timorous and fearful — not foi his own sake, but for that of his wife and child, and ultimately he leaves the army. Thes*e sketches are certainly not too pleasant reading, the characters depicted are bj' no means faultless, and there is a .cenej^l undei'-

current of suggestion which does not " maks for righteousness." Kipling rarely attempts to paint characters of the Grandison type — very human indeed are the puppets who, ■ on his stage, play their brief parts, and the Gadsbys have several very human failings. The obvious moral of these sketches is, " A good man married is a good man marred " — not too lofty a one, and scarcely needing " L'envoi " in verse to enfoice it : "What is the moral? Who rides may read, When the night is thick and the tracks ar3 blind ; A friend at a pinch is a friend indeed, But a fool to wait for the laggard behind: Down to Gehenna, or up to tl Throne — He travels fastest who travels alone. Nor yet the ironical verse with which it closes : Wherefore the more ye be helpen or stayed— - Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil — Sing the heretical song I have made — His ba the labour, and yours be the spoil; Win by his aid raid the aid disown — He travels fastest who travels alone. More serious in tone is the story of • The Man Who Was."' The author in this tale gives us of his best, produced at a white heat and in evident sincerity. Here, too, he shows his skill in plot construction, for not until almost the very end of the story is the drift of the narrative revealed. Of Kipling s strongly anti-Russian feeling this talc also furnishes evidence. That he anticipates a bitter .conflict in no distant future between the Power of the North and Great Britain is also indicated in the reply of Dirkovitca to Little Mildred (the gianfc^ of the White Hussars) on bidding good-bye : " Yes, but I will come again. My dear friends, is that road shut?' He pointed to where the North Star burned over the Kyber Pass. . . . Little Mildred answered nothing, but watched the North Star and hummed a selection from a recent Simla burlesque that had much delighted the White Hussars. It ran — I'm sorry for Mister Bluebeard, I'm sorry to cause him pain ; But a terrible spree there's sure to be When he conies back again. There is no doubt as to the Imperial note that sounds clearly through the whole range of Kipling's tales of Tfadia. He recognises that the removal of the strong hand of English Government would result' in the relapse of the peninsula into v a state of chronic warfare and barbarism. But he also sees clearly that the British rule is not perfect. The Government makes mistakes, great and many. One has already been instanced in the appointment of Mr De, M.A., as a deputy-commissioner in the wild Northwest. Another and humourous narrative of how the well-meant intentions of Gevernment officials produce evil results through their failure to understand the native mind is found in " TocVs Amendment." Here a little child all unconsciously secures a needed amendment in an agrarian enactment which otherwise would have produced much Avidespread discontent ,if .not more serious evil. The quality of the material employed in enlarging our borders in the East and the administering of that mighty dependency" is very happily illustrated in his " Conference of the Powers," in which tale several youtu"ui subolterns, fresh from Burmah, under the leadership of " The Infant " (another giant officer — men in whom Kipling delights), astonish the popular novelist Uleever by the unconcerned narrative in mess-room and barrack square slang of their wonderful doings in the interests of Empire among its more than half-savage enemies ; and, adds Kipling suggestively, ~ a **Thank heaven, we have within the land 10,000 as good as they !"' But there is a side of Anglo-Indian life where, though " The East is East, and West is West, and never the twain to meet," the two races do come into contact, where the barriers are broken down under the influence of a common humanity, and this aspect of Indian life receives due share of Kipling's attention. Deeply pathetic is the tale of " George Porgie "' ; it shows that the human heart, whether beating in the breast of British or Burmese, harbours the same emotions. Another story of the same class is " Without Benefit of Clergy " — more idyllic in character and less fanciful, though equally sad in its denouement.- Ameera, the heroine of this tale, is one of the sweetest of Kipling's female characters — indeed, sweetness ' can. scarcely be described as a general characteristic of his women-folk, — and here this feature strikes me almost as ' a surprise ; and the scenes wherein she and her child Tota figure are pretty pictures of domestic felicity. But inexorable fate demands the sacrifice of these two. Ameera recognises that she can be no permanent part of John Holden's life. First the child and then the mother dies, and her parting with the man she loved is a most passionate one. " The black cholera does its work quietly, and without explanation. Ameera was being thrust out of life as if che Angel of Death had himself put his hand upon her. Holden could only wait and suffer. . . . The soul came back a little and the lips moved. Holden bent down to listen. ' Keep nothing of mine,' said Ameera. ' Take no hair from my head. She would make thee burn it later on. That flame should feel. Lower ! stoop lower ! Remember only that I was thine, and bore thee a son. Though thou wed a white woman to-morrow, the pleasure of receiving in thy arms thy first son is taken from thee for ever. Rememberme when thy son is born — the one that shall carry thy name before all men. His misfortunes be on my head. I bear witness' — the lips were forming the words on his ear — ' that there is no "God but — thee, beloved!' Then she died." (To be continued.)