New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-10-03

rageouS Is a sufficient reply to these critics 1t
Is true that 1t could not fairly be described a
novel; that Mr.. Kipling can write a great novel
remains to be SEEN He has himself said that to
make a beginning as a novelist one must be
forty at least. But in Captains Courageous he
gets far outside the limits Of short story and
gives study Of character developing under
the play of circumstance through considerable
length of time. Harvey Cheyne stayed the
Banks only about four months. but in that period
he passed through as many experiences as can
be crowded into the life on board small fishing
schooner, whose few men are accustomed to
struggle necessarily with storm and fog for a
comparatively meagre livelihood Most writers
Of the day would have left the impression that
the We're Here Of Gloucester had been flung
into half dozen dramatic episodes merely to
keep an atmosphere Of adventure around the
lad who Is swept off the deck Of an Atlantic
liner and rescued by one If the schooner's crew.
But Mr.. Kipling uses here the same art which
he has exercised in the handling Of his Indian
material. He has told of the most mys-
FERROUS and creepy and dramatic tales of the
East, and has rendered them perfectly convinc-
Ing through refusing to make any fuss over his
mystery or his drama captains Courageous"
has the sea in it and the seas power. its mys
terry its charm; but the narrative flows with
q simplicity like that of life itself There are no
adventures made to order in this book. Once,
only once there seems possibility that Mr..
Kipling is going to take the step that means
error-it is when he connects the prayers Of the
hazy- minded Penn with the rescue Of Jason Oh
lcy's boy-but the suspicion Of artiice here Is
swept away soon as ii rouses itself for the
author does not dwell upon the scene; he takes
1t as he takes the leaping cod and the ail-per-
vadng fog Before one has chance 10 hotIcc
the meolranatc hint in the scene referred TO-
one is back in the whirl and freshness ana
magic of the voyage Mr.. Kipling prefiXes to
this book a fragment Of Longfeow. touching the
irresistib'e call of the sea. Without any such
explicit confession it would have been obvious
10 the reader that in these pages the author
mad let himself go with enthusiasm. The cVo-
luton Of Harvey Cheyne from an unlocked cub
into man is interesting; the picture OF Amer
ican hsher-life Is fascinatingly true and capu-
'duhg; kipling's humor shines through the book
ana In dozen other directions 1t makes
Strong appeal. But the passion Of the sea Is in
The story, and it is this that gives it an lncom-
parable charm
MT CUTLER Couch having completed the last
Six chapters Of Stevensons posthumous ro- !
nance Of "St. Ives" it is published by the Scrib-
hers with a brief note explaining the manner In f
"hlch the work has been prepared for the press
The author dictated 1t to his amanuensis, and
was at work upon 1t until shortly before his
Death Then he turned from 1t to weir Of Her
miston." He had left an outline Of the conclud-
Ing chapters. and accordingly Mr.. CUTLER
COUGHS pages have an unexpected finish. He
has caught well. too. the style Of his author. At
inc end OF the book. az at the beginning. we arc
eware Of the Vicomta Anne az q courageous