The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1902-10-26
A MeIu Phase of Kfplino.

Tenderness is not one Of Mr. Kiplings salient
traits, but the nearest he gets to Il is in his
stories for children. The Just So Stories" de-
rive their title from the veraeious accuracy with
which the author makes up" the dozen whimsi-
cal tales. With two exceptions they deal with
animals Like the best literature for Young read
ers OF today these delightful flights Of the srenu-
GUS kipling imagination appeal even more strong
ly to adults. Whatever the present status of
kiplng's vogue may be, he has not gone Oft at
all IN virile charm or exuberanee Of invention in
this book
There is a new exhibition Of his versatility in
the Just So Stories, in that they are illustrated
by himself with twenty remarkable drawings,
which are extremely clever The humor they
express is in perfect accord with that which
plays so steadily through the text In fact, every
thing about this book shows that it was a labor
OF love He gives such good measure, like a
fatherly confeotioner who tits the scoop till the
scale thumps down with bang as his eye rests
on the wide-eyed open-mouth urohin waiting for
his goodies" For Kipling not only has a win
some--yes l9fnSome if it is Kipling--circum-
stantiality in lining up his facts, but he throws
himself earnestly into the drawings adds a
trippity-trip poem and also most truly
elucidative description of the pictorial embellish-
ments There is so much character to the latter
that they tell everything themselves, and as a
rule the effect is secured by slight but telling
strokes
It is worth while to quote entire one Of these
notes explanatory Of the pictures Er uHo disco
oDtreS. Il is the story OF The Elephants Child .
This is the Elephants Child having his nose
pulled by the Crocodile He is much surprised
and astonshcd and hurt, and he is talking through
his and saying Led go You are hurtig
be y He is pulling very hard, and so is the Croco-
die; but the Bi-Coored- Python-R ock-Snake is
hurrying through the water to help the Elephants
Child. All that black stuff is the banks of the
great gray-green, greasy Limpopo river (but l
not allowed to paint these pictures), and the
botty-tree with the twisty roots and the eight
leaves is one of the fever trees that grow there
Underneath the truly picture are shadows of
African animals walking into an African ark.
There are two lions two ostriches. two oxen, two
camels, two sheep and two other things that
look like rats. but l think they are rock rab-
bits. They don't mean anything. put them
in because / thought they would look pretty.
They would look very fine II l were allowed
to paint them"
After seeing how we'll Kipling draws and on
hearing this naif desire to paint, one wishes he
would Perhaps some day he will. and probably
it will pull up more OF the truly judcious art
lovers at some Royal Academy show than his
cousin Burne-Jones's paintings would The pic
ture of the Cat that Walked by Himself walking
by his wild lone through the Wet Wild Woods,
and waving his wild tail" is most artistic, and
quite in the modern vein OF art. Il is Frenchy,
with suggestion of Rafaelli--not Raffaele.
Though the Just SO Stories" are about ami
mails, they are in quite a different vein from
the Jungle Book" Their sedulous nai0ete is Of
far more robust order than that of Lewis Carroll
in the Alice" stories. They are distinctly Kip
lingish,-Literary Digest.