KIPLINGIANA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 98, 25 May 1900, Page 1

KIPLINGIANA.

Toe following specimens of Rudy&rd Kipling's genius are quoted amongst other literary notes in the Dun* edin Star by the London correspondent of that paper:—" The realmonstrosityof the ship is an American who is not quite g.-own up. I cannot call it a toy, though officially it is orly eight, wears* striped jacket, and eats with the children. It has the wearied appearance of an infant monkey—there ar« lines round its mouth and under its eyebrows. When it has nothing else to do it will answer to the name of Albert. It has been two years on the continuous travel—has spent a month in India; has seen Constantinople, Tripoli, Spain; has lived in tente and on horseback for thirty days and thirty nights, as it wps careful to inform me; and has exhausted the rounds of this world's delights. There is no flesh on its bones, and it live) in the smoking room financing the arrangements of the daily lottery, I was afraid of it, but it followed me, and in a level expressionless voice began to tell me how lotteries were constructed. When I protested that I knew, it continued without regarding the interruption, and finally, as a reward for my patience, volunteered to give me the names and idiosyncrasies of all on board. Then it vanished through the smoking room window, because the door was only eight feet high, and therefore too narrow for that bulk of abnormal experiences. On certain subjecis it was partly better informed than I; on others it displayed the infinite credulity of a two-year-old. But the wearied eyes were ever the same. Tiiey will be the same when it is fifty. I was moi* sorry for it than I could say. All it* reminiscences had got jumbled, and incidents of Spain were baled into Turkey and India. Some day a schoolmaster wi!\ get hold of it and try to educate it, and I should- dearly lik« to see at which end he will begin. The head is too full already, and the—

the other part does not exist. Albert is, 1 presume, but aa ordinary American child. He was to me a revelation. Now I want to see a little American g ; rl—but not now—not just no.v. My nerves are shattered by the Jews ana | Albert; and unless they recover their tone I shall turn back at Yokohama." Whilst I cannot agree with Mr. Kipling that his two new volumes of juvenile " globe-trotting" ought to nave remained buried in the daoent seclusion of Indian newspaper files, in which they first appeared, i am bound to say that when lie found resurreatioa inevitable I do think he might wisely have used the blue pencil a bit. Tot old tale is too long in places. We moat of us know Hongkong and Colombo and the P. and 0. boats by heart. Not that any Australian wou'd, I'm sure, miss " Our Kip's " description of aP. and 0. liner. Here it is: "I want to go home 1 I want to go back to India 1 lam miserable. 'ill* steamship Nawab at this time of tin year ought to have been empty, instead of which we have one hundred tirst class passengers and sixty-six second. All the pretty girls are in the latter (.lass, bomethiug must have happened at Colombo —two steamers must hava clashed. We have the results of the collision, and we are a menagerie. Tilt captain says that there ought to hava been only ten or twelve passengers by rights, and had the rush been anticipated a larger steamer would have been provided. .Persona ly, I consider that half our shipmates ought to be thrown overboard. They are only travelling round the world for pleasure, and thai „<sort of dissipation leads to the forming of .hasty and intemperate opinions. Anyhow, give me freedom and th« cockroaches of the British-India, when we dined on deck, altered the hours of tbe meals by plebiscite, and were lords of all wo saw. You know the chain* gong regulations of the P. and 0.; how you must approach the captain stand* ing on ) our head with your feet waving reverently; how you must crawl into the presence of the chief steward on your belly and call him Thrice-Puissant .bottle-washer; how you mu*t not smoke übaft the sheep-pens; must not ; stand in the companion; must put on : a clean coat when the ship's library is opened. This shows ignorance of human nature. The P. and o.* want healthy competition. They call their captains commanders, and out a> though it were a tavor to allow you to embark, Again, freedom and tha jHritish-India for ever, and down with th,a comforts of a ooolie-ship and tkt prioes of a palace 1"