MR KIPLING TO THE SCOUTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1924, Page 4

MR KIPLING TO THE SCOUTS.

A hook by Mr Budyard Kipling is always an event, ami the reader will easily reconcile himself to tlie fact that not all of the ‘ Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides” are new. Some of them have seen the light of day before, but of those most have never appeared m volume form, hut wore published years ago in periodicals, which arc no longer obtainable. The hook opens with a set ol verses, which emphasise the importance of keeping lit:

There is one lesson at all times and places. One changeless truth on all things changing writ, For hoys and girls, men, women, nations, races—lie lit--he lit! And once again, he fit! Then Mr Kipling describes some of the deeds which earned the \ ictoria Gross, deeds which exemplify every type and variety of bravery, from the cold-blooded 1 hcfii'c-breakfast courage to the •'sheer reckless strength that hacks through a crowd ot amazed men, an F kl conics out grinning on the other side.” \i-xt is a story written at the time of tin- South African war, and illustrating the value of the rule of scoutcraft •‘Never return bv the same way that you wont out. Th'* intention is dear, but it is difficult to sec what Mr Kipling would have us learn from the following I ale. I talced ol these stories it may he said that some ol them have morals and some have no morals at all. Here a bright lad, the son of a liooghli pilot, takes a Chinese junk down the river “on his own,” as the saying is. It is a remarkable but a grossly improper exploit, and it the authorities heard of it there would he trouble. Hut although Jim gets a taste ol the rope's cud he achieves his dearest ambition, We leave him on the point of being apprenticed to a pilot—with better luck, we hope, than the hero of W. S. Gilbert's “Pirates of Penzance.” F.qually elusive is the moral of “The Son of his Father," a story which is contained in the volume "File's Handicap,'’ if we remember right. Strickland. police oflicer and expert solver oT mysteries, luts occasion to chastise his small hoy. His ayah happens to he present, and Adam's sense ot dignity is outraged because he has been beaten before a woman. His izzat must be restored, and so he allows his father to be hoodwinked and led upon a wild goose chase by his own servants. Then, honours being easy, all is well.

There is a capital tale of the Prawn otherwise William (Masse Sawyer, t

once despised member of the Pelican Troop, lie is no credit to the Hoy Scout movement. He lias, apparently, not a single accomplishment. "He could track nothing smaller than a tramcar on a single line, and that only if there were no traffic. He could neither hammer a nail, carry an order, tie a knot, light a lire, notice any natural object except food, nor Use any edged tool except a table knife.” An utterly useless, hopeless person, il might seem, yet chance and circumstance discover him to he a boru cook. This moves M.r Kipling to a composition in the manner of Chaucer, in the course of which he observes: — Whereby it cornel h past disputisou, Cookes over alio men have dominion. There is a naval yarn in which in the skipper of the destroyer Gardenia wo meet a readily recognisable species ot naval oliiccr. Jle is ”a reversion to the primitive Marryat type—a predatory, astute, resourceful pirate, too well known to all his Majesty s dockvards. a man of easily-injured innocence, who could always prove an alibi, and in whose ship, if his torpedo coxswain had ever allowed anyone to look there, several sorts ot missing Government pronerlv might have been found N'c-edless to .-av. the property t« question went to the embellishment of his .-bin, which was the pride ol his heart. This gentleman's ambition "was to raise pigs ■animals he only knew as haeon) in Shropshire (a county he had never seen) after the war, so he waged his war with zeal to bring that

happy day nearer. There is a description of Mr Kipling’s old school at Westward Ho, m Devon, containing some autobiographical touche.-, and a story, “The Parable of |!ov -lone-," written before the war that was afterward- to point it- moral so forcibly. There i- also a "Stalky” story, which, though it appeared first of the series in the "Windsor Maga-

zine,” was for some reason not included in the volume "Stalky and Go.” Among the other old work is the tale of "The Bold ’Prentice.” a young Anglo-Indian yailw'ay official, who brings off a fine save through knowing his job ; and an account of i In; burning ol the troopship -"Sarah Sand-," all incident which, though less known than the sinking ot the Birkenhead, was .signalised -by an equally memorable display of heroism on the part of the troops on board. The stories are interspersed with verses. We quote "The Hour of the Angel,” which sums up the meaning and moral of the whole hook. I.lhuricl, it will fie remembered, was that archangel whose spear had the magic property of showing everyone exactly and truthfully what he was:—

Sooner or late —in earnest or in jest—(But the stakes are no jest) Jthuriel’s I lo uiWill spring on us, lor the first time, the test Of our sole unbacked competence and power Fp to the limit of our years and dower Of judgment-—or beyond. But here wg have Prepared long since our garland or our grave. For. in that hour, the sum of all our past Act, habit, thought, and passion, shall be cast In one addition, be it more orMess, And as that- reading runs so shall we do ; Meeting, astounded, victory at the last. Or, first and last, our own unworthiness. And none can change us though they die to save!