New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-10
THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK.
MowGLrs FAREWELL TO HIS FRIENDS.
THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK. BY Rudyard
Kiplng. Decorated by John Lockwood Kip
ling. c. l. E. svo PIP. 1874 The Century Com


Kipllng Decorated by John Lockwood Kip
ling. c. l. E. Svo PIP. S2i. The Century Com
pany.
At the end Of this second Jungle Book the three
friends Of Mowgl Baloo, Bagheera ard Kaa, sing
him the outsong OF the jungle, a song OF farewell
1t rings hercely Mr.. Kipling sets it down in
swinging verse but the crash of the jungle voices
through the thickets and the trees cannot drown
the tenderness which the companions Of his youth
feel for Messuas child The boy becomes man.
He goes back TO the Man-Pack from which he
sprang Since his going Is made the occasion of
THE Spring Running" one of the most imagi-
natively conceived Of all Mr. Kiplng's stories, the
event is not one Of unqualified sorrow to the read
err But 1t is nevertheless hard for the latter to
say goodby to the figure around whom so many
perfect narratives have been woven. The jungle
Is left and all Of Mr.. Kpng's mastery of its
secrets. In The Miracle OF Purun Bhagat,
which makes the second of the eight stories In
the book there is no talk of Mowgli, but In 1t we
hear with the unmistakable reality Of Mowglfs
deepest haunts the great bear Soma, "shuffling
and grunting thrusting a curious fore
paw under fallen trunks, and bringing It away
with whoof OF Impotence" While Mr.. Kip
ling can paint for us pictures as vivid and con-
else as this one Of the Hmalayan black bear that
made friends with Purun Bhagat. we can forgive
the absence Of Mother Volts Man Cub. But with
what Irresistible affection one will come back to
him, with what sense Of their fresh and burn
ing power one will return to the fragmentary
sketches OF his career after having read them
over ard for any number Of times.
Time takes nothing from tale like Red Dog.
the thrilling history Of that combat with the
dholes OF the Dekkan. in which Mowglfs human
wit brought to the aid Of the Seeonee Pack the
sinister coils Of Kaa and the infinite stings of the
Little People Of the Rocks. the bees of the
Waingunga There is one battle scene In modern
literature, Victor Hugos description OF Waterloo,
which might pretend to comparison with the
Homeric fight celebrated in Red Dog but beside
this terse account OF the triumph Of the wolves
40 graphic that the existence OF an Intermediary
between the reader and the fight Itself is scarcely
realzed-the Frenchman's gorgeous chronicle Is
streaked all over with the big brush marks OF
the scene painter and lit Enthusiastically with cleo
tric light. In Red Dog there is drama, followed
with inexorable swftness and with the ease OF
nature from the first scene to the last The thrill
Of apprehension that runs through the Seeonee
Pack IL IL learned that the terrible red dogs Of
the Dekkan are out to kill in portentous num-
beers. runs into the very hbre OF the story and
the quicker breathing OF the wolves wakes In the
follow the marvel of Mowglrs plot. the
whelming descent OF the bees upon the dogs the
bloody encounter between wolf and dog the
bank OF the river and through the entire episode
the murmur OF the Jungle the bending OF its trees.
the CULVER Of its heavy flowers and the ripple of
the sunlight through Its leafy giades. The very
smell of the forest IL waited through these pages.
Could Mr.. Kipling do anything better than this
epic in little? Probably not but he main
tain himself upon the level therein attained, as
witness other tales contained within the covers
OF this book
One flaw find and a rat Their irritating one. in
The Undertakers" To bring back upon the
scene. as the killer Of the Mugger. the Engshman
whose life, when a baby. had but just escaped the
jaws OF the man-eating brute savors OF con-
ventionality which belongs to lesser men than Mr..
Kipling. Any author might have dragged In that
amiable fancy OF retrbution. But no one save Mr..
Kipling himself could have made a ghoulish
crocodile. an adjutant crane with a crocodlle's
tastes and jackal who seems little more I'M
speakably vile than either Of them gather to-
gether the edge OF stream and discuss their
experiences as diners out. with quite the veri-
simiitude that Is actually achieved In the present
instance. The ghastness OF this story Is indie
scribabe. but so Is its power its fascination
Mowgli Is not mentioned: but here as In "rhe
Miracle Of Purun BhagaL" his absence is easily
condoned
He Is greeted again with.deght In The Kings
Ankus." In The SDrlng Running" which Ia q