New-York tribune., 1896-11-01
4 COMPARISON NOT ODIOUS
THE, AMERICAN K1PLING" AND THE
"ENGLIsH BRET HARTE."

n,,,p.c ,1-cI5 AND OTHER STORIES Ry
'1 Nret Harte Octave. PIP. 2s5. 1ioughton. Mii'nn
& co.
SOLDIER STORIES. By Rudyard hira'ns, @ S,v VIZ dr
Numerous Illustrations oc'a'o' PP WIZ w.
Tin Macmillan Company
,,r ,ar,e.s stories are. IN the main, new. Mr..
1,inIngs have all been published In book FORM nc
fore and somo OF them In several eni'iohs' bn'
,bo volumes appear simultaneously, ana az 'ncJ
and side bv side they invite study or the authors
,ogether with a little moro urgency than has h"en
60, ,,cs neonle first began to talk about the Eng
ush Pre-, IIarte" and the american kipling. Such
study enforccs with peculiar ire<hl 80 ana p'ih'
the conviction that two sobrquots were never moro
fooIishly bestowed Tho reader who turns over the
nagcs OF "Rarkcr's Luck and Soldier Stories
v,,bin tho same hour will wonder how on earth
.ho u.r,,ers of those pages could ever have been
confused Yet such a confusion could not nave
bccn brought about without some reason. and 1t Is
,,orth while to trace the now familiar comparison
IN It's sourc, There learn nothing more than
,ba, Bret Harte and Rudyard Kipling have written
stor,es short in length. have both sought
tbo,r most characteristic types among mems
mon and have both known how to wrte
good nervous picturesque and OF ginal prose
and verse No more a.initcs OF any consequence
between the TWO are TO be enumerated. There is no
more relation between Oakes. for example, and the
Man Who Was beyond the relation which springs
from a common humanity. common reality. than
there is between any two characters chosen at ran
dom from the worlds gallery of fiction. When FUR
tber relations been desired by impulslve critics
they have been found in n series of beautiful mis-
conceptions.
OF all tho fatuous parallels which have been drawn
between Kipling and Harte perhaps the most ab-
surd has been that one which has implied that the
mon were somehow the prophets Of a primevsl
state of society that the local color OF each ro-
mancer owed much Of its charm TO the unbridled
nature of state OF life In which men
were constantly coming face to face with
sudden death, far from home and under semi
barbaric conditions Consider the facts OF the case
Bret Harte has been the choragus OF an absolutely
virgin state Of social development. celebrating the
virtues and vices of men produced by one new civil
igation to make another. His Forty-Niner was
chiefly type Of pioneer. man whose brng'nS-up
had generally been itself affair Of rude discipline.
and who built the West up out Of a practically un-
fertzed soil All his traits the traits OF a So
cety without glimmer Of tradition behind II. with
living TO be employed in Its develop nent Bret
Harte's gamblers and many 0! his miners had had
college educaiions In the East. The young fellows
rho appear In the iular story OF his latest volume
are wel-bred adventurers. But TO state that Bret
Harte from first 10 last has devoted himself TO an
entirely raw class OF individuals with the
Of a polished society only cropping out an
tricity, Is to state the most obvious thing In the
world Now survey the side OF life upon which
Kiplins has found his inspiration. His soldiers
ana military or semi military life has provided him