The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-11
WEAKNESSES OF KIpLING.
REV. ". @. BLAKEMAN THINKS
THAT HIS Words WILL NOT SUR


REV. ". @. BLAKEMAN THINKS
THAT HIS Words WILL NOT SUR
WYE.
Am Exceedingly Interesting Address
Before the New York East Conference
Mfd-Year NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and Fa-
tai Defects of the Great Writer,-Weals
on Constructive Imagination, and
Lacks sympathy.
Rev. w. c. Brakeman Of Brooklyn
N. Y, formerly pastor of EpWortn
Church in this city, who while here won
a 81 900 prize from the New York Her
aid in a competition in story writing, de-
livered a most interesting address on
1.-THE Secret of Kipling' yesterday
morning at the mid-year assembly OF
r the New York East Conference held in
Brooklyn. Mr.. Brakeman spoke as fol-
lows:
When an author attains to the hon
or of being read in many languages II
is nature to ask: Is his popularity we'll
earned? What are the causes OF MS
success? and will his fame be endur-
ing? An Irishman at heart, an Eng ISM
man by choice, a heather by assocla-
ton and world-rover for the sake or
his art, Rudyard Kipling is to-day the
foremost performer upon that wonder
full organ, the human tongue. Born
at Bombay, famous at %, hardly "a to-
day, the author of rs volumes, and
trained by the suns rays OF north,
south, east and west, he is old in eXper-
fence at an age when other young auth
ors are only about to try their wings.
But it is not Of Rudyard Kipling the
man, but of Rudyard Kipling the writer,
that we have to do. Why has he achiev-
ed success while others equally indus
trious and perhaps equally gifted, have
failed?
The answer is not an easy one. Each
poet, each painter, each novelist, each
carries away his secret with him.
There is no receipt for genius. When
we have done our BEST the real essence
will probably escape us as the secret
Of life escapes the most painstaking
chemist But let us analyze his art.
No man succeeds because of one pre-
dominal trait. There is always
plexus of causes.
The first in the case of Mr.. Kipling is
his STYLE 1t is said that the style is
the man. 1t is, of course, but "a half
truth, but half the truth it Is in the
case of the present author. He Is a
wizard of words. More than any other
modern writer, he understands the sor-
Gerry of the sentence. The flexible Ian
guage- signs, a picturesque mob at the
wild call of Carlyle, moving with soldier
1y step under the precise pen of Mac
auley, an enthused and brilliant assem-
bly, at the ushering of Ruskin, and
carefully select drawing room cult at
the bidding of the French masters,
Flauyert and Maupassant, in the case
of Mr. Kipling owe their efficiency to
the individuality of the unit. He has
received the gift of the English langu-
age. His verbs and adjectives find
strong bedfellows. If he chooses to be
pathetic, finger-touch is sufficient
He does not squeeze the sponge like
Dickens. What the other writer takes
100 pages to relate he will tell in ten.
His adjectives have color. His words
are a door to the truth, and not like
"
hide it. Give Cuvier bone and he will |
construct an animal. Give Kiping a
end or verb and he will
make a story. If he saw hen picking |
a grain he would find many curious |
and original things to say about it. He |
is not a classic writer. His thrust is |
the ugly hit Of street-brawler rather |
than the trained blow of scientific |
boxer. Nor is he, as some critics have |
said. impersonal He often jumps |
through the paper. You frequently see
the shadow of the author behind the |
figuer of Esau, but the voice Is the !
voice of Jacob. The matter of his
work varies from the stern realism of |
SOLDIERS Three" to the quaint fancy of |
1.-THE Phantom Rickshaw" and his |
scenes range from 1.-THE Seven Seas"
to "The City of Dreadful Night" and
always his style is the same, always the
driving is the driving Of the Jehu. He is
crisp telegram like furious. He sug-
gests more than he describes, inslnuates
more than he declares. You see the
heads of the columns you infer whole !
regiments behind each dashing colonel.
So much for the letter of his style. For
The spirit, he has seized the pen of \
Bret Harte that drew the literary pic
of VagabondS caught the
spark of Macauley that flashed out
proper names, learned De Foes
rick of using minute details, imbbed
Dickens sympathy with the lowy, |
md absorbed from the Bible a large |
share of his cunning simplicity; but his
skill to WELD those together into a
lnique alloy, his irony of the under
statement, his search-light and dark
antern power, his interchangeable in
iustry, his Indian word-jugglery his
utility to make a dream come true and
lie seem something else-these vari
Jus and astonishing talents Were given
o him by no other than Rudyard KiE@
ing himself.
Another trait in the author which
lids for your interest is his downright
His heroes love work more
han song, more than wine, more than |
yomen If not always lovable they
ire always admirable, always flat on |
heir feet. With fist clenched and load |
d to the muzzle with will, they are |
he kind you want for a friend. Single
landed they would storm the red-hot
-ates of hell Naked and at midnight |
how 40 p1It tn swim rivers haciaoe ,