The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-04-22
FRENCH FLING At KIPLING
NINE. BLANC DEPLORES MS INIIr.
ENCE on BRITISH C~HiRiITER.
She Thinks That His Writings Appeal to the
Worst Instincts OF the AnglO-SaSon and
Teach Him 10 Glory In the Brutalitics
Of War Americans Included In Those
Thus Harmfully Influenced, She says.

IehCu HUI 10 sIOTy " tht bFutii1tlca
Of War Americans Included In Those
Thus Harmfully Influenced, She saws.
Nine. Marie Thcrese Blanc, better known
as Til. Benton" has in the RerRe drs Dcgs
Mondes for April an article entitled The English
Army as Painted by kiplng, in which sho dep
recates kipling's influence on the rising gcncrs
| ton Of Anglo Saxons, And among the Anglo
Saxons 81 influenced she includes American
During her last visit Ia this country Nine. Blanc
went at commencement time 10 Harvard Univcr.
sity. She has since then written many e~ulogie,
Of H%yard, The university men seem to have
impressed her as typical Of what vas best in young
American manhood She saw in the Harvard
underg rnduates much happy promise for Amer
ica's future. But in her last article ON kipling
she recalls that his influence was manifest at
Harvard and She expresses surprise at the fact
We were much surprised" She writes, to hear
the Kipling morality celebrated in America 1t
was al the distribution OF diplomas al Harvard
University. IT is n vinle moral. said the orator,
a very young graduate, Women cannnt 10
Judges Of il, Kipling does not write for them
In a country where women are held As tutclary
deities, the fact alone Of denying to them, in a
tone Of disdain, the right to estimate the worth =
a mralist. is sufficient indication Of the strength
Of the philtre which Kipling has poured out for the
youth Of this generation 10 harden them. And Il,
had not yet written his last work 'Stalky and Co.
which is on a plane 10 he within the reach of child
hood even, for II seems that We cannot be brought
TO understand the worthlessness Of everything
save forbidden escapades. perilous adventure.
Spartan endurance and violent nsticufs. /, il
said that kipling when he was sent u England
10 school from Bombay. where he was born, en-.
tered the very college whore he places his tho
Of ornaments, Stalky, MacTurk and Beetle. This
boarding school is not recommended by any very
precise reg ulations, although the excellent prac.
tice Of administering canings is piously preserved
there -canings which the most intractable Of
the big boys Of the school receive without com.
plant az the hands OF the master, They, the
scholars, care for nothing, moreover, save
athletics and military exercises; they smoke, swear
and drink, promising although they are Of the
stuff from which officers are made TO hold their
own Ibd in ra 'hsse I res FIenc Ti, 1a,d ar WI ss1 bel t%m% N.Y.
had reached the age Of manhood could ever read
to the end Of Stalky: we will not dwell, therefore.
upon this mistake Of the Professor of Energy
Speaking Of kipling's burden of responsibility
and defining what he stands for Nine Blanc
says,
who SOW at hazard q seed which may grow into
an evil crop, should weigh upon kipling moro
! than any other, for he knows always what he is
doing and what he wants. He wants war Hs
mingles in the combat; he studies il. he makes
himself its passionate a~pologist he. sings is
glories with a fierce JOY. Nobody will ever ha,s
contributed more than he 20 rouse Anglo SaIun
animalism. The very water seems 10 come int,
the mouths Of his fayorite characters, the soldierv
In the colonies, when they tell each other their
different methods Of killing All the methods
seem equally good N Kipling The sole vifius
that he recognizes is force, whether il concerns
an individual, a machine or an empire and
TO his way Of thinking. The human butchcrics
which meet his approval probably are valuable
TO him in sanguinary inspirations, in treasure
,rove OF atrocities Just as assassinations are vel.
liable 10 the sensational reporter"
Speaking Of the anti .kipling sentiment recently
developed in England, Nine. Blanc says
In the year Just ended the books Of the ufaCls
and the lnspirer OF the war were sold more than
those Of any other writer; in America i"oo"1
copies, This is very fine. but it seems to Us ih"t
or less success Of the British armies. Just In
proportion as the armies suffered their first r-
verses, dlscordant clamors began 10 mlngle "A
The chorus OF eulORy that SO long had been unhni
nous, The signal was given in America. $50
In England itself an article vehement even 10 m
Justice, for u attacked the talent Of the writer
appeared In the great review Of London, the con.
temporary. The author, Mr.. Robert BUCHANAN.
lads Of the Barrack Room, which brings us N
contact with the vilest and cuarsest sides of n.
English mercenary under preteNt Of following
lhr soldier In his pains and his pleasures.
The gauntlet was soon taken W, il is true IN the
Contemporary Rerisr itself by Sir Walter BrSani
with avarmth equal TO that Of Mr. buchanan,
and the innumarable friends Of kipllng. n might
be expected decide that all that is lacking w. hun
Is The auIeole Of persecution, that he will lo''
nothing but, on The contrary, viii gain mu,n
by such assaults. IL Is his punishment for has,
ing sirayed from the paths Of literature pure and
single ME ,.r.., =, ~, 81. o,, rn,.u,ru.
land in a struggle that has but Just begun, viii
depend very much the future popularity # ih'
theories OF kipling upon the army. the navy tho
education of men, colonial extension and he NJ
teresting problem Of the government Of differ
.nt races united upon one soil. But, whatever
happens, he Will remain the one writer, otgluGl
and modern among all others. who has known
how TO seize the element Of beauty IN our practical
life 10 transform the kissing Of steam into muse