The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-27
THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR.

THE TRUCE OF THE BEAR.
~
Rudyard Kipling in Literature.
To a full appreciation of the "Truce OF
the Bear" it is necessary to remem-
Der that the bear typifies Russia, and
that the truce means the Cars disaf-
mament proclamation. Stripped of its
poetic veil, Kipling's warning resolves
iteslf into the declaration that the time
to strike Englands enemy is when she
is showing signs of weakness.
Yearly. with tent and rifle, our careless
white men go
By the pass called Muttianee, to shoot
in the vale below
Yearly by Muttiance he follows our
white men in
Matun. the old blind beggar bandaged
from brow to chin.
Eyeless, noseless and lipless-toothless
of broken speech.
Seeking dole. at the doorway he mum
bles his tale to each
Over and over the story, ending as he
began;
Make We no truce with Adam-zad-
the bear that walks like a man
''rhere was flint in my musket--
pricked and primed was the pan
when 1 went hunting Adam-zad-the
bear that stands like a man.
Il looked my last on the timber, / look
ed my last on the snow
when l went hunting Adam-zad fifty
summers ago.
Il knew his times and seasons as he
knew mine that fed.
by night in the ripened maizefield and
robbed my house of bread
Il knew his strength and cunning, as
he knew mine that crept
Sat dawn to the crowded goat-pens
and plundered while slept
up from his stony playground down
from his well-digged lair
"Out of the naked ridges ran Adam
zad the bear,
Grooming, granting and roaring, heavy
with stolen meals,
1.-TWO long marches to northward and
/ was at his heels.
1.-TWO full marches northward at the
fall of the second night,
Il came on mine enemy Adam-zad. al
weary from his flight.
There was Il charge in the musket--
pricked and primed was the pan
My finger crooked on the trigger
when he reared up like a man.
Horrible, hairy, human, with paws like
hands in prayer
Making his supplication rose Adam
Fad the bear.
Il looked at the swaying shoulders, at
the paunch's swag and swing,
''And my heart was touched with pity
for the monstrous pleading thing.
Touched with pity and wonder, I did
not fire then.
Il have looked no more on women-I
have walked no more with men.
Nearer he tottered and nearer. with
paws like hands that pray
From brow to jaw the steel-shod paw
it ripped my face away
Sudden, silent. and savage, soaring as
flame the blow
.'Faceless / fell before his feet fifty
summers ago,
Il heard him grunt and chuckle-I
uedTu uliil pass ~ HIS utu-
''He left me blind to the darkling
years and the little mercy of men.
'.Now We go down in the morning with
guns of the newer style.
''That load q have felt in the middle
and range q have heard mile?
Luck to the white mans rifle, that
shoots so fast and true,
8. r \, II
show what the bear can do!'
Flesh like Stag in the furnace, knobbed
and withered and gray
Matun. the old blind beggar. he gives
good worth for his pay.)
Rouse him at noon in the bushes, fo,-
low and press him hard
Not for his raging and roarings finch
We from Adam-zad.
"But (pay and i put back the bandage)
this is the time to fear,
when he stands up like a tired man,
tottering near and near;
when he stands up ais pleading, in
monstrous. man-brute guise,
when he wells the hate and cunning of
the little swinish eyes.
when he shows as seeking quarter,
with paws like hands in prayer,
THAT is the time of peril-the time of
the Truce of the Bear
Eyeless, noseless, and lipless, asking a
dole at the door,
Matun the old blind beggar, he tells il
DER and DER;
Fumbling and feeling the rifles, warm
ing his hands at the flame,
Hearing our careless white men talk of
the morrow's game;
Over and over the story, ending as he
began;
'There is no truce with Adam-zad, the
bear that looks like manw
DIR. BULLS COUGH SYRUP will
give immediate relief to n child suffo-
eating with the dreadful croun Mofh-