The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-10

give wise counsel"
But if Mr.. Kipling liked the Amer
lean girl, there were other things in
this country that he distinctly did not
like. One of these is our national habit
of guessing. There is considerably
too much guessing about this large
nation AS one of them put it rather
forcibly: We guess a trestle will stand
for ever, and we guess that we. can
patch up a washout on the track, and
we guess the roads clear, and some
times we guess ourselves into the de-
pot, and sometimes we guess ourselves
, into hell"
And again: When Mr.. Howe1ls
writes a novel, when a reckless hero
| dams flood by heaving a dynamite
| shattered mountain into it, or when
notoriety hunting preacher marries a
couple in a balloon you shall hear the
great American press rise on its hind
legs and walk around mounting over
the versatility of the American citizen.
And he is versatile-horribly So The
unlimited exercise of the right of pri-
vate judgment (Which, by the way, is a
| weapon not one man in ten is COM
petent to handle), his blatant cocksure-
ness, and the dry air-bred restlessness
| that makes him crawl all over the fur
niture when he is talking to you, con-
| spire to make him versatile. But
what he calls versatility the impartial
| bystander of Anglo-Indian extraction is
| apt to deem mere casualness, and dan
| gerous casualness at that"
Nor did the negro house servant find
favor in Mr.. Kiplng's eye. Nov, let
me draw breath and curse the negro
waiter and through him the negro in
service generally. He is a big, black,
vain baby and a man rolled into one.
A colored gentleman who insisted on
getting me pie when I wanted some
thing else, demanded information about
India. 1 gave him some facts about
wages. ooh, helIl' said he cheerfully,
| that wouldn't keep me in cigars for a
month Then he fawned on me for a
ten-cent piece"
Chicago struck Kipling as place in
habited by savages, place he urgent
| ly desired never to see again. They
| told him to go to the Palmer House,
| which is a gilded and mirrored rabbit
Warren, and there 1 found a huge
hall of tessellated marble, crammed
with people talking about money and
splitting about everywhere. Other bar
| barians charged in and out of this in
ferno with letters and kilograms in their
hands, and yet others shouted at each
other. A man who had drunk quite as
much as was good for him, told me that
this was the finest hotel in the finest
city on God Almighty's earth
THE street life of Chicago impressed
him with great horror. Never except
in London, had he seen 80 many white
people gathered together, and never
such a collection of miserables." Sun
day brought him 1.-The queerest expert
ence of ala revelation of barbarism
complete. I found place that was
officially described as church. 1t was
a circus, really; but that the worship
ers did not know. There were flowers
all about the building, which was fitted
lup with plush and stained glass and
much luxury, including twisted brass
candlesticks of severest Gothic design
To these things, and congregation Of
savages, entered suddenly a wonderful
man. completely in the confidence Of
their gods, whom he treated colo
quially and exploited very much as {
newspaper reporter would exploit &
foreign potentate. But, unlike the
newspaper reporter, he never allowed
his listeners to forget that he and not
He was the centre of attraction. Will
a voice of silver and with imagery Dor
rowed from the auction room, he bull
up for his hearers a heaven on the line!
of the Palmer House (but with all thu
Igilding, real gold and all the plate-glas
diamond, and set in the centre of it {
iloud-voiced, argumentative and yer!
lshrewd creation that he called God
One sentence at this point caught m!
delighted ear. 1t was apropos of SOM
question of the judgment day, and ran
No! / tell you God doesn't do business
that way He was giving them deit,
whom they could comprehend, in golt
and jewel heaven in which they coult
take a natural interest. He interlardeC
his performance with the slang of tn
streets. the counter and the exchange
and he said that religion ought to en-
ter into daily life. Consequently,
Ipresume he introduced it as daily life
his own and the life of his friends"
Kipling's impression of Mormonisn
as he saw it in Salt Lake City was tina
there are the makings of a very fin
creed about" it, Concerning prohi
bitior he was not so sanguine. 1t make
a man who wants a drink a shirke
and a contriver, which things are no
goodfor the soul of man, and presently
| specially il he be young, causes him t
believe that he may just as well b.
hanged for sheep as for lamb; ant
the end of that young man is not pref
ty."
But hard as Rudyard Kipling Otter
seems upon America and the Ameri
cans, he confesses before he has go
through with us that there is something
admirable about us. Let there be NJ
misunderstanding about the matter,
he writes. Il love this people, and /
any contemptuous criticism has to b,
done, 1 will do it myself. My heart hal
gone out 70 them beyond all other PEG
pies: and for the life of me, 1 canno
tell why. They are bleeding raw at I'll,
edges almost more conceited than thu
English, vulgar with massive vulgar
ity which is as though the Pyramid
were coated with Christmas cake su
gar-works Cocksure they are, lawes
and as casual as they are cocksure
but ] love them, and realized it whei
met an Englishman who laughed a
them: I admit everything said |
Their governments provisional; thei
laws the notion of the moment; thei
railways are made Of hairpins ant
match sticks, and most of their gooc
luck lives in their woods and mine
and rivers, and not their brains; bu
for all that they are the biggest, fin
est, and best people on the surface o
the globe!'"
But why quote these scraps AM
patches from a book, every page o
which is quotable? From Sea to Sea-
must be read before its engaging quail
tiles can be appreciated, and this tn
admirer of Rudyard Kipling's geniu
will not be slow to do.
SEPTEMBER MAGAZINES.