Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-21
AND. LANG ON KIpLrNG.
The Young Man Severely Scored and by
Engiishman-TheA Author as Seen at Hon

The Young Man Severely Scored and by m
Insiishman-TheA Author Seen at Home.
compatriot Of Rudyard Kpling. obviously
Andrew Lang, thus takes him editorially to
task in the London Daily Ne,Ds for his recently
| published articles on America:
| MIR. Rudyard Kiplng is displeased with
America. He does not like its ways. He dis
approves Of its hotel clerks. He is offended by
its accent especially by the accent Of its women.
He is disquieted by it's interviewers, and on
that point We can only say that we are not sur
prised. But it is only fair to say that there are
| interviewers in other lands as we'll as in the
American states. America may have had the
odious distinction Of inventing the interviewer,
but other countries have had the still more
odious responsibility Of adopting and national
izing and multiplying him. America may
have sinned by inventing him out Of pure
hghtness of heart, but surely the countries that
forewarned. and therefore forearmed, en-
couraged him to grow and blossom and
bourgeon and spread among them are more
culpable still than even his Needless inventors.
However, we are not going to find fault with
Mr.. Kipling because he does not like inter-
viewers. He says they have no such news
paper tribe in India; but then, can it be that
Mr.. kipling never reads any Of the Indian news
paperG Or can il be that in the Indian news
papers the editors invent the interviews with
out taking the trouble to send round the inter-
viewer to wGylay his victim? II we can trust
the evidence Of our eyes tho interviews do now
and then appear in Indian newspapers. but
perhaps Mr.. Kipling's point is that it would be
more convenient to have the interviews pub
lished without having the interviewed put to
the trouble Of a call from the interviewer.
There certainly is something in that.
The American, Mr.. Kiplng says, has no Ian
guage. HE is dialect, slang. provincialism,
accent and so forth" Now that Mr.. Kipling
has heard American voices all the beauty of
Bret Harte is ruined for him. He nnds himself
catching through the roll OF Bret Harte g rhyth-
mical prose the cadence of Bret IIarte's peculiar
fatherland. 1t is rather pity that traveller
should be go curiously sensitive. 1t is rather q
pity, too, that traveller should be 30 general or
so monotonous in his impressions. We do
not know how much OF America Mr.. kipiing
has seen or heard, but he certainly writes
about accents az if he was under the impress
sion that New York and Vermont give tongue
and tone to America. ''Get an American lady,"
he says, ito read to you How Santa Claus Came
to Simpsons Bar and see how much is under
her tongue, left Of the beauty of the original"
An American lady? We are inclined to
think that such reading, say by Miss
Ada RehArl, would not be q bad thing to lis
ten to. There are soft, sweet voices of women
along the Pacific slope, and there are musical
tones in Virginia and enchanting accents in
Louisiana. Not all the voices of Anglo-Indian
women are like the voice of Cordelia, and there
are doubt ess English Indies whose reading from
Shakespeare would be surely to the prejudice
Of the immortal bard in the ears Of too sensi-
tive listener.
ADVICE OF DICKENS.
II one is in q mood to find fault one finds
reasons for fault finding. Dickens strongly
advised people never to travsxwith the precon-
ceiyed idea, How cleyerf Fam and how funny
every one Dickens himself, perhaps,
bega1>&1s own travelling with something of this
ideS. but his warning against it was only the
Evidently went to America with the conviction
flown deep in his soul, How clever l am, and
how funny every one else is" His estimate of
himself is reasonable enough, but we distrust
his estimate of every one else.
In a certain bohemian club Mr.. Kipling was
told some good stories, specimens OF which he
reproducea Is it possible that the little chest
nut bell was not rung while these stories were
being told? For they are as old the hills
from which the 'Plain Tales themselves have
come. The tellers of the stories must have felt
a fearful joy when they found they had got
hold of young man fresh from India to whom
these ancient narratives were new and amusing.
Mr.. Kipling. it is right to say, is grateful for
the stories. ever If he Is not grateful for any
thing else in America. His books arc we'll APP
preciated in the United States. He was recog-
nized in America as soon or almost as soon
he was recognized here. 1t is certainly a sign
and an evidence of his independence of char
acter and the unpurchasable toughness of his
judgment that he cannot be won over by mere
praise. If he does not like q lady's accent he
bluntly says SO, even though the tones that
grated on hts ears may have been rasping
out unmeasured eulogy of his latest and
his fayorite masterpiece. The hotel
clerk, whom he ..,, detests, may have
read all your books. Mr.. kipling, sir, 1 know
all your books backward" An ordinary author
would perhaps be Modified little, for the
vanity Of authorship is a common weakness in
the tribe. But Mr.: Kipling is not to be Inolli-
fed in this way. He does not like the hotel
clerk, and he thinks all hotel clerks are built
the same way. He "goes for the hotel clerk
accordingly.
Poor hotel clerks! We have heard, we have
read, We have dreamed that some of them are
remarkably civil and obhging persons. We
have been told, or have read in romance, per-
haps, of English travellers who have found
much comfort in their American wanderings
from the courtesy and kind attentiveness of
the hotel clerk. But there are hotel clerks of
various kinds and there are travellers Of various
kinds.
VIRTUE IN OUR SLANG.
Mr.. Kipling finds fault with the slang Of
America. There is no doubt a great deal of
slang in America. But the one virtue of
American slang is that it is an effert to find
AZ" oAAN S-PASoSi'S PAiooSo AVE hC" ODJSCto
and new conditions Of life. Our slang here is
usually employed to give second and what is
supposed to be comical name TO something
which has already well established and
recognized name OF it own. This fact was
pointed out and well illustrated by Bret
Harte years and years ago. We have a good
deal Of slang in England, and Judging by Mr.
Kiplings novels they must have an immense
amount of slang in the English society of In
dian regions. Mr.. Kipling's latest novel,
The Light That Failed" is a story of
England and is practically all slang.
The men and women never for one
sentence, never by any chance, talk
pure English. The whole conversation is
mere jargon which to foreigner not well
skilled i'll the English vernacular of daily life
would be hopeless puzzle out Of which no
dictionory could help him. tits all very clever.
very spirited, very much like the real English
life of the class the story describes and of to-
day, and in its very realism an American might
find the easiest answer TO Mr.. Eipling's charge
about the OVERRIDING Of slang in the United
States.
II Mr.. Kipling's dialogues were not true to
life in certain English society then Mr.. Kipling
would be still entitled to find fault with the
slang of certain American society. But if Mr..
KiplinSs English slang is genuine-and it is
why talk of America if it were the one coun-
try on the face of the earth from the lips of
whose children comes forth the Ianguag. of
slang? Some Of the customs which Mr. Kipling
describes still existing in America were
existing no doubt in the days of Mar
tin Chuzzlavit lint from what wa have