The record-union., 1899-04-29
KIPLING AND HIS POETRY.
PROFESSOR GAYLEY SAYS HE
is A GENIUS.
q Very Interesting Lecture at the
Congregational Church
Last Night.

Professor Gayley of the State Univer-
sity, lectured on Rudyard Kipling, at
the Congregational Church last night
He announced no special subject be-
yond the name of the Well-known au-
thor. The audience was composed al
most wholly of women.
Il am laboring under an enlbarrass-
nlent of material" he said, for shall
try to give you the substance of three
lectures that 1 have recently delivered
in San Francisco on various phases OF
kipling's work"
The Professor had not gone far be-
fore it was evident he was Kiplins
worshiper, for he forthwith declared
him "the representative Anglo-Saxon
poet of to-day and before he had pro-
ceeded far he had ranged all the bat
teries of his logic in such a way that
every voliey would denolish the oppo-
nents Of such a view. By induction,
by deduction, by esthetics, by common
sense, he defended his idol; by the
idealist1c, the realistic, and the romantic
standards the speaker argued THAT Kip
ling is great in his thoughts, beautiful
in his morals, and artistic in his ex-
pressions.
In lola We have sordid realism" he
said; sin Mrs. Wards Robert Elsmere'
we have the excessive idealism of the
purpose novel (Which is not the highest
art; and in Miss Harr5adons Ships
That Pass in the Night we have the
excess of the romantic-sentiment
gush:-but in Kipling you have a just
blending of methods"
The speaker is q recent convert to the
idea that Kipling is a demi-god, differ
ing thereby from many great critics,
who say he has not yet done great work
that will live. Two years ago I fell
under his SPELL" said the lecturer,
while 1 was in Ireland. Twas one
sleepless night, when 1 picked up a lit
tie poem called To the True Romance.
1t was ideal, a dream" The speaker
then read the poem-an abstract, E1ner-
Sonian sort Of verse; it might be thrill
ing, as Emerson's Sphinx is to many
but the audience did not grow enthu-
siastic. Later there was applause,
however, when some of the little cock
nley verses were read-"F Fuzzy Wuzzy,"
particularly
kfpling defines the true romance Of
1ife." said the speaker, which reveals
the beauty and love of life. He also
has hurnor. which is the sanity of life;
his humor has body and force for it
moves from vital forces He glorifie S
the commonplace and breaches the i'm
perialism of democracy, the all-pervad-
ing gospel Of energy; and in his stories
and poems he knows wonderfully we'll
now and where to use the vernacular,
as in The Widow at Windsor and in
the Tomlinson example, where he por-
trays the luke-warm soul He has q
L g.
sublime with the tragic, the pathetic,
the satirical, and the humorous; and
humor is sometimes all that saves him
from sacrilege.''
The lecturer thought THE Walking
Delegate a fine portrayal of a we'll
known phase Of political and social
life, hit on a phase of labor unionism.
THE Brushwood Boy he recommended
as zone of the sweetest stories ever
written" He thought it marvellous
that Kipling tells his whole story in
the first paragraph, then gives details
later-an old newspaper habit, probably
due to Kipling's newspaper training.
He interprets the Consciousness of the
Anglo-Saxon race" said the speaker.
and. having done that, he awakens its
conscience. The RecessionaP recalls
England to duty, and The White Man
Burden shows Americans their grave
duty in international problems. Cheap
laurels and boosting will no longer
count. They will be cursed by tribes
Chalf-devil. half-child) they seek to
free from Egyptian might. In poem
called An American Kipling portrays
cur faults, our hands black with blood
and how wildly the Georgia lynching
last week recalls US to our shamel'
1t has been but little more than a
decade since Kipling landed in San
Francisco, a mere boy with grievance
against Americans. His American
Notes were more severe than the crit
icisms Of Dickens; and he was then
seeking a sale for his literary wares,
which now bring the worlds highest
prices and elicit the energies Of publish
ers and lecturers. So swift are the
wings of famel