The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-08-05
the use OF the "dum dunn" bullet on ''the
lesser breeds without the law"
.El1e Nau. Nor1. Rao1x.,.a.. Ill. ILL.,.

lesser breeds without the law"
The New York Bookman calls atten
ton to the fact that, nlaugre the an
nouncement that the new volumes OF
kipling's American Notes are exact
texts OF the original publication, the au-
thor's cunning hand has pruned said
text, as it were, cutting out much that
was printed in the days before he dreamt
OF reaping such harvest in the United
States. OF the "pruned" matter, the
principal item was what the Bookman
calls "Kipling's Curse" which was
written under the following provocation
1--WE may say, in parentheses, that it did
not require much provocation, previous
to the recent Anglo-American lovefcast,
for hungry Englshman to jump upon
the Americans).
Before Kipling had discovered the soft
snap which awaited him in the United
States, and, while travelling in Japan, he
turned into bookside in Nikko, expect
ing to be able to purchase some pure
English literature, his own Barrack Bal
lads or Indian tales, for instance. I'm
agine his horror when he discovered that
the only English works in the place we're
those issued by blooming" Yankee
institution, the Seaside Library. This
was enough at that timc-his purely
British days, ere Yankee gold bridled
his hatrcd-and, after reading one OF the
aforesaid crudcscences, with lions
tooth, styled the following curse on
some American paper which he was also
compelled to purchase because he could
find no English paper in the place:
"Then l cursed the Seaside Library
and the United States that bred it very
copiously, in these terms and others un-
reported:
Because you steal the property of a
mans head, which is more his peculiar
property than his pipe, his horse, or his
wife, and because you glory in your theft
and have the indccency to praise or criti-
else the author from whom you steal,
and because your ignorance, which is as
dense as pickpocket's ignorance Of
anything outside his calling, leads you
to triflc with his spelling, and because
you print the stolen property aforesaid
very vilely and uncleanly, you shall be
cursed with this curse from Alaska to
Florida and back again:
"Your women shall scream like pea
cocks when they talk and your men
neigh like horses when they laugh. You
shall call round 'raound' and very
vary and news 'noos' till the end of
time.
"You shall be governed by the Irish
man and the German, the vcndcr of
drinks and the keeper OF vie dens; that
your streets may be filthy in your midst
and your sewage arrangements filthicr.
"You shall be given over 10 the cult Of
tin-pot secret societies and the organ;z z
ing Of tuppenny hapenny' professions,
the spouting OF nonsense and the per-
petration thereof.
"You shall be governed by laws that
you cannot enforce and sentimsnts that
you cannot control; that the murderer
may walk around you in vision of de-
light to young women and the darling
of old maids while you are engaged in
shooting the wrong man.
"You shall prostitute and pervcrt the
English language till an Englshman has
neither power nor desire to understand
you any more.
"You shall be cursed Sta.e by State,
Territory by Territory, with provin-
cialism beyond provincialism OF an En-
glish country town-you and your gov
ernors and what you are pleased to call
your literature, your newspapers, an !
your politics.
"You shall buy your art from France,
and considerably spoil it in the buying,
because you are dishonest.
"Your hearts shall be so blinded that
you shall consider each one OF the curses
foregoing blessing to you as it comes
about, and, finally, | myself will curse
you more elaborately later on"
This delicate passage appeared in the
Pioneer Mail, volume 16, No. 10, for
Nov. 10, 1880.
An English Priests Anrea1.