The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-14
A Criterion of kinl;ne

After several years of most inordinate
adulation, it is at least interesting to note
Il reaction in the genera sentiment I'll
kipling criticism, and a certain change in
the attitude of the / eorlc generally to-
Yard his later work. A great many OF
the adverse criticisms which have APP
peared have been as excessive in their
bitterness as the former ones had been
excessive in their exaltation. So long as
these criticisms have been so fagrantIy
prejudiced, prompted by envy and malice
they have had no effect upon the public
thought However, in the last number
oil the Cosmopolitan, Charles E. Rus
sci, writing on Are There Two Kip
Hrgs?' deals the bard of ne strenuous
life some hard blows and makes out
something of case against him. This is
perhaps the strongest adverse criticism
of Kpling that has appeared of late
Eut, although Mr.. Russells findings will
displease the Kipling faddists, he has
hot written in a spirit of bitterness nor
with any attempt at rhetorical smart
Eess, and he hurls no shaft of satire 1t
Is the calm, judicial expression of a man
who believes that Kipling's work is the
embodiment of forces which cannot long
be vital in the twentieth century Kip
ling's ability is conceded, but the spirit OF
his work is assailed. After marsha%ng
his facts at some length, Mr.. Russell rem
ders this summary:
Summing up the product of these
twelve or thirteen years. Mr. Kipling
seems easily the foremost figure of their
literature and easily the most sinister
and malign. He is anomalous. He has
the sense of laughter, but not of tears.
He writes about men, but not to them.
He is the apostle of the gospel of hard
blows. He is the laureate of material
ism and the champion of things as thew
Heretofore nd hn
cts of literature have usually been in
ADVANCE OF their age he has reversed
precedent by reviving in the nineteenth
century the spirit of the fourteenth
This is why his audience has slipped
away; this is why his hand has lost its
cunning. From even the lowest and most
material point of view the profit of art is
the human sympathy of it. He that has
no care for other men cannot long COM
mand their attention. He cannot even
maintain the natural excellence of his
gifts. The democratic spirit that Mr.
Klpling SO heartily despisesS would have
been his saving grace, would have made
MN e-emlnently great. The want of
1t mas left him hard as stone and APP
parently as unfertile. -
The Voice of the Hooligan' he was
called by a great soul now silent. The
voice of all that retards and represses he
assuredly is. If the creed he has taught
is rlgnt charlty is an amiable weakness,
hospitals are lost expense, good will
among men is myth, the beauty of the
world is without lesson, the joy of life is
physical strength there is no courage but
for physical combat, only that man lives
Worth1ly who elbows his way to the lore
and only that nation fulfills it's mission
that lays strong hands upon the weaker
peoples.
The steadfast trend of the changes In
the race contradicts and repudiates such
a creed. What other generations may
think of one whose face has been set so
resolutely against the flood is no better
than guess, but it seems reasonable
surmise that if they think well of him it
backward.