HAS KIPLING DECLINED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 21, 19 October 1907, Page 10

HAS KIPLING DECLINED.

Once in a while we get a letter, apparently • from some one preparing for a debate or paper before a literary club, askingus ''Has Killing declined!in!popularity?" or "What is the cause of the deterioration of Kipling?" (We lave replied to the latter :cnquiry by suggesting that,it could be answeredvituthe same way as the question which perplexed the wise ! inen of the court long ago: "Why does .a basin of water weigh less wheria fish is put init?'V ■ \ As it may be that-more of our readers are. interested in the question, than have written .to us about it, and since it is bound to be discussed, now owing, :tb the\ rumour,, that Itudyard Kipling will receive the Nobel prize of 40,000 dollars for-the best wbrk'in idealistic literature done"anywhere;in the world, it is worth some consideration here. ...''. The two questions, "Is Kipling as popular as evor?" ! and "Is his work as good?" are not the same; and:have,vwe are .sorry-to,say, no logical connection. -Now books crowd out the' old simply because they are new, not because they are better. The "Kipling oraze"'undoubtedly passed away, at the be- § inning of the century, but in our opinion he as as : many sincere admirers now as he ever . had, and/if he has fewer readers, it is because he has been so~extensivcly read. "Professor H. Morse Stephens, in a talk at-the .University of California,not,long. ago,. „oxt. pressed his qualification on the change that had come brgr^the ideals s ofi«Jcoliege students, "i Whenl.he was;.at Oxford, fi#said, their desks were le'tteredtwith ; 'Swinburn'e and Wilde; but now . the . students.. had taken Kipling as their "guide and ! inspiration, and were being, influenced by'his insistence oh the importance' of work andiidisqipline. ..,„.,.. ,_ When' Kipling made'his sensational advent into London at.the'^^'age" : ''o'f ; twenty-five'with' his tales we had the chrtrmYof triple, , novelty—a : new style, a new field artd'a"hew : ■ ideal. Now, seventeen ' years later, these- ' have become common property. ■• Most' ofthe younger set of writers have taken lessons- of. his craftsmanship,,'as;..their~forms:'and,j3ven their phrases show: ; -:Indiaiis?no longer'a . fresh field; and iniperialism'is':an ! old-Btory:-' If Kipling could'write'artother'-tale of Simla or Lahore; or should unearth one from the files of the "Civil and' Military' Gazette" as ..-. good as any of those he turned put -after; hours to fill a-' space'iri ; the jri'exfijday's paper,' - it would not create.a.v.literary, : Jfurpr6. But",' this is not', unfortunately/ popular taste has,improved,in,;the,.meantime, arid v outgrown hini ; We Have a pat example of the impossibility of repeating a/ success in H. Eider Haggard." In'lßß6 "She" was the' sensation of the day; twenty • years later "Ayesha" appeared, as near like it as two peas, and it'fell flat. From figures' furnished by a public'library in ah" important' city" wo find that the relative popularity of some of Kipling's books is as follows, beginning with those most called for: "Puck of Pook'sHill,"- . "Jungle Books," "Captains Courageous," "Kim," "Traffics arid Discoveries,". .".Wee Willie Winkie,"-.'-'The 'Light TJiat ■Failed," ."Soldiers Three," "Plain" Tales froni ; the Hills, "Barrack Room Ballads." ...Juveniles always outrun books for adults; apart frorii this it is evident, that the public, calls most for the' recent books and dccidedly.r.-prefers , novels to volumes of short stories'. ■■ . ■ .-.,■■, 'To see if Kipling holds his own we' must compare him with his contemporaries. There were a thousand books of fiction publishod in Englcnd in 1390 when "Plain Tales from tho Hills" appeared. How many of now more read ?, Here are tho best sellers ( of that day, and a .good.list-it ip, too.';JVil-* liam Black's "Stand^Ea'st'•'Craig-Royston,"-' Walter Bc3ant's''>"Afmqrel : 6f L'yonesse," Hall ';" Cainc.'s "The Bondman," Maar'ten Maartcn's "Tho. .Sin.Qf';Jo.ostMve^^g,"iWilliam'Mc>r^is's , "Nows':'fr6i.ri''No-,vliefc, ,! - HaggaVd-arid'-Lang's' •The WorkPs Desire,"-and Edwin. Arnold's "Phra the Phoenician." ■•*■*; hi the United: States, when Kipling niacie his debut;"wo were reading Margn'rct ; Dclahd's "Sidney-;",:Hpwcll's "Shadow'' of a Dream;',' Crawford's." "Cigarette Maker.'s.-\Romance," Mrs. Bnrtpri'- Harrison!^:..','Angldmaniacs," Tourgoo's,. ; ;;-","Pactolus '~Prime,'':#.lgriatius Donnlly's''"Caesar's Column'.''; arid'-Jaiivi'eii's-■■•■'Aztec Triasurc-House.'M'KfloivjlongvagoTit', - seems].'; ,;■■".; ,' ;?::.;i';>;,^'H" : ' : i^*< W< Does Kipling's, poetry jhoh'lJite ; ' ; owh'? : -%t war. in,' : lß36,that!"Thc SovcnSeas" appeared, and that same year we'''had, let us see, Swinburne's "Tho Tale of Baden," William Watson' 3 "Tho Purple East," Alfred Austin's ■"England's Darling," 'Stephen Phillips's "Christ in Hades" and Fiona Macleod's (nee William. Sharp). "From.- the'; Hills of Dawn." How many linos can you.quote from these very rospectablo volumes to match what you remember of "M'Andrews' Hymn," "The Last Chantoy," "The Song ;of, the English," "The Rhyme of the Three Sealers," "An Amorican," "The Miracles," "The NativeBorn," "The Cholera Camp," "That Day," "Tho 'Eathen" and "L'Envoi" ? But how does Kipling's recent work compare with his earlier?.-,; Mr. Kipling,is writing more slowly now, or at-any:rato publishing less, but we are unable to detect uny falling off in literary skill. His latest'poem, "The Son's, of Martha," which •appeared in ( the Sunday supplement of many daily papers , this spring, is certainly one of his best, most striking and original in thought and versification. Its title as applied to ;workingmen seems liKely to become part of the language as "The Whitehall's Burden" and "Lost Wo Forgot." /When it was written-we have no means of knowing, b.ut it could npt.havoibecn very long ago'for-he; makes an'effective'use of one of the.;recently .'discovered >Jogia of Christ. "As in tho thronged and lightened- ways, So in the dark and the desert they stand, ; .Wary and watchful all their days, That their brethren's, days may,be long,.in the" land. v ; ' :i< '■-'"-• • .";■;/..,' ..,;-. Lift ye the stone or cleave the wood To make a path more fair or flat— Lo! it is bluck already with blood ■ Some Sons of Martha spilled, for .that." Considered merely as a tour de force Kipling's latest short story,. "With tho "Night Mail," published' in "M'Clure's Magazine," is unequalled in its line, cither by himself or any ono else.' It is a thomc.that has been often attempted; a trip dhanairship-intho year 2025, but Verne, Bollamy and the host of others who have dealt with the mechanics of tho future have been unable to manage their many inventions. ~'■. Wells -alone has • been, tolerably successful in keeping tho 'lumaii interest from being swamped, and he

does it! by a discreet' reticence about mechan cal /details. '," .jstbi oti't' "of'' this refractory''mate'rial;* invents''"' ' now technological vocabulary, and teaches by! his old trick of assuming tVjat the readc already has the knowledgo that he is cast ally imparting .to him. At the ond of dozen pages, with no tiresome explanatior tho reador knows moro al)out the. airship ( tho...futu.ro/ than about his own,'.bicycle,;' ,Vh can, or thinks ho can, draw a of ono, and tell how it is superior to othc makes, how each part came to bo inventec and' what are' the signals arid'ihternatioft: rules of aerial navigation; all without losin the run of the story, which tolls how Postf Packet 162 was caught in a flurry over th Blink Mark.Boat "when the 'heavens wor balancing their volt accounts.'' 1 ,./''. .'" I ","/ . "We were dragged hither and yon by warn )r frozen suctions, belched up on the tops o A'ulli-was, spun.dctwn by. vortices, and, clubbei iside, .by laterals .under a- dizzying,,rush,;p ifars, in company with a drunken moon.V tieard the rushing' click of the midship en ;ine lever sliding in'and out, the low grow )f the lift-shunts and louder than the yellini ivinds without, the scream of the bow-rnddo; »ouging into any lull that promised' to holt or an instant." .. . . With a poem and a .story like these ii nind, together with "TJiey" and "Puck o Pook's Hill,""it is impossible to .say .thai Spling's hand has lost its cunning.—Nev ITork "Independent." • CHRONICLE AND COMMENT. Jarlow Rediivivus. '"When-.the last mail left England.the-"Pal Hall Gazette"' appears to have ,been prosirated by the appearance of an amazing booh ssjiecl by tho Religious Tract Society. It is ailed "Fifty-two Nature Rambles," and conists of this amazing stuff:—"Just now I saw a lovely yellow, bird'.'bn he top of one of those furze bushes, .Uncle; .•as it a canary?" "No', no,' my observant ■ nephew, it was cerainly not a canary, although. your. descripion is .a good one. ~,. .. It is. often called the ellow .hammer/'/ ; ■-.'. ~'- ) "Does it sing a song?" "Yes, it utters a very pleasing little conribution to Nature's choir."" This (moans the "Pall Mall" reviewer) is Ir. Barlow's very purr. Hear him again in 'the gloaming hour, just as" the thrushes ?ere making the whole woodland re-echo with pul-inspiring music." :— iu ,„, v "Uncle, do bats lay/eggs'-like birds?" "A reasauable qu_es.tion;;i, , f 'for■' you. to ask, tanley, for perhaps^.not-one' person in a hunred is acquainted with the'bat's place in the Unification of animals. -Not'only is tho bat mammal—li'ke you ; .and'l (sic)—but he. is at he very head of ithe British: mammalia. . . . fow listen, foiy.Khear from;,yondcr woodland he mellow h.d.jilfr'of ;a,.,tawny;pwl.'' And. so weeks, o.'tho grapi6.u^''^ni^.lini^hts.'l)fjt l hc last ram"And no i^',Jas-,'itJ'.is>;th'e',d'KStv : day. of the old ear, ;few'<'hours-i;we' : . shall .have enered npon'■ another, our",''lives, let ie at once wish ; you.,ayery..happy'and proscrous New Yey.iii'May/.Vybur. „future: be joyus and full ofrj;br^h^trie^s, , ''and _ may you alrays look back!'v:itfcpleasTir'e'''upon your early, ays with.Nat^iSS'' , !")V;JJ ,: lii.y i ' "Uncle, a fond nephew''offers you -a thousnd thanks."',;•'>•; ',',"."'; r ,'.''' ■~ ournalism in Servia. The futility of trying to crush the cxpresion of public opinion is shown by. tho followug extract from a leader in tho Bolgrade 'Otatsbina" : —"The Court has nullified the olice decreo which confiscated ono of our reent..editions..,Hero J ,is i the verdict:—'Wo Jind hat tho,words "hideous blbodrSucEef'drainrig the, life,. rhosfebn'ly.vtalont lay'/in 'jbojisjir£cy;,"|' 'bandit [pheld:'by.:a' gang-igf'assassins, ! J do; not aserse H. M.' King Peter, and we authorise the iill publication'-''..of 'the' /article"..:, containing Hem:'' "'Our'readers will therefore find the iicriminated; article_given-;on page-3;jwith the wo 're'confident" that''they atisfactiph. T'v'Justice is still extant in lefvia:'" *■ '' •• J - ' ••' ' .imerioks.ji--, ;ii>i,jf ' Apropos, of .t.ho London crazo for "Lime;cks," 'the following- famous exorcises, in the rt/by. Kipling-,-'.Bret ■Hart'e,-- , D,-'6._llossetti Ihd' Wi.-S.vGilbert are- worth.-recalling:■!— Thero-was a small boy Of; . ! ■ •■■ Who was ..buried in snow/to/ his neck; !; When they said, "Arc you "friz?",; ,- - ■ -He. replied, "Yes,- I/ 7 is— -,- ,__,.... . But we don't'.call this cold/m''Quebec." .<■ A'fafman. who lived' on" the/Rhine"'''! Was.asked."At..what.bpur.will 'you dine?" He answered, "Eleven," " ~ : Three, four, five, and seven, '■" Six, eight, and a quarter to -nine!" There's a Portuguese , person named / . Howell, ■:■■■_ ■'■;; f-r: ~, ,' ~ ■ ;, -Who lay's on./his:lies with a trowel; ■-. •he give over lying, \ "'Twill bo when he's done dying, For living is lying with Howell. . .'!' There was. an old' man Of St. ! Bees, Who, was stung on the arm by a wasp, '.'■ When 'asked'::'"Does it hurt?" He replied: "No, doesn't, But I thought all the time 'twas a :•'-• '•'■'■ hornet "• ''-•-