The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-05
RUDYARD KIPLIEG.

fCDlAhb hIFAIhG.
After an illness that has brought him
into the very shadow of death, Rudyard
Kipling is on the mend, and unless un-
forseen complications arise, viii shortly
be restored 10 that health which some
how seems his prerogative. 1t may not
be 50 in England, but there is no living
man on this continent for whom the
whole community would have united in
feeling the acute personal anxiety and
intense concern which the indispostion
of Mr. Kipling has excited.
The importance which has been at
tached to Mr.. Kiping's sickness and the
intense satisfaction that is felt I'M tho
prospect of his recovery, are a tribute
which kings and magnates might well
envy. Enviable indeed is the man about
whose deathbed a nation watches with
bated breath. 1t must be remembered.
however that if Kipling is the most
distinguished and masterful spirit in
literature today, he is also a plain man,
who ten years ago was doing hard
work in a colonial newspaper office, and
who, although he has reaped the Just
financial rewards of his splendid genius,
is still comparatively a poor man.
This is called the age of the almighty
dollar, and this the country par ex-
cellence. People constantly affirm. and
other people believe, or affect to be-
Heve, that money was never such a
power as at the present moment, and
they instance the influence exerted by
money in politics, in society, in the pull
pit, in the courts Of justice, in the am
billions of men and women as a proof
of the power of gold, The United States
enjoys the reputation of being the
greatest worshipper of the golden calf
Be this as it may, there is reason,
for believing that our national
blood is not so infected with the 1ustSor
gold as pessimists would have it be-
lieved. We are not beyond caring for
things that are quite disassoctated from
money, and men of genius is one Of
these.
A comparison of the attitude of the
press and of the sentiments of the pub
lie toward the possible loss of Mr.. Kip
ling may instructiveIy be compared
with those which attended the demise
of Jay Gould. 1t amuses US to talk as
if the man who could make the most
money We're the finest fellow in the
world in our heart of hearts we still
know better
But aside from the fact that it gives
the lie to the charge of overmasterng
worship the public interest
in Mr. Kipling is significant as a sign
of the alteration which the past one
hundred years have worked in the re-
lations of the literary man to the pub
lie No telephone or deep-sea cable
could more effectively mark the gulf
between a RUdyard Kipling, the idol not
only of eager publishers, but of the en-
tire English-speaking world, who re-
kept poor Savage, Dick Steel or
Molly in funds for a month, and DR.
| Sam Johnson, humbly awaiting in a
great lords ante chamber the interview
which should give him the permission to
dedicate his prospective dictionary to
his naughty, lapguids lordship. ,....
DIR. johnson was the alastEgrest figure
of that old apologize literature: with
him began the manly, brave attitude
which has characterized the literary
men of English stock in increasing
! measure since, his day. and because of
which literature has evolved from the
cringing performance it once was. into
a dignified profession, appealing with
out subterfuge or patronage to con-
| stantly growing public and having its
own market with its own laws of sup
ply and demand. The powerful and
noble upon whose capricious patronage
it once depended whether a man OBJ
tanned a hearing, have been supplanted
by the people, who now create and de-
pose their kings and crown and I'M
crown them as they will, without re-
gard for authority. Mr. Kipling is the
most triumphant example the times
can show of the dignity and freedom
and power of literature as a craft, and
of the passionate love and admiration
that the literary man may inspire
How it comes about that Mr.. Kip
ling has been the man to inspire these
sentiments pre-eminently, would re
quire a review Of his unique. almost
spectacular career, and even then it is
doubtful if a satisfactory conclusion
would be reached. Kipling cannot be
accounted for. Yet it is one Of the
most significant elements in his life
that, beginning as a diverter of people
in their less serious moods. he has
without losing one whit of his original
charm and vigor, assumed a position
that is akin to that of the seer. aDef-
Other men have felt perhaps not less
keenly than he the, future of the Eng
fish people, but none has had his su-
preme consciousness of the deep cur
rent of race inheritance that is the
4 Anglo Saxon's birthright, or the pow 4
to voice the, AngloSaxon comm IN
hopes and common destiny. Rudyard
Kipling has given to Americans and
English alike a new sense of the broth
erhood of man.