New-York tribune., 1902-07-26
&" WIRELESS"
MR.. KIPLING's NEW STORY IN "sCRIB
NER's MAGAZINE"


Mr.. Kipling's admirers read with the keenest
interest some time ago the announcement that
a new short story by him would in due course
appear in "Scribner's Magazine" They have
hoped that with the conclusion of the war IN
South Africa his depIorable preoccupation with
that matter would cease. and that, as we re-
marked apropos of the announcement OF his
new story the latter would give the promise OF
a permanent dedication of his powers to the
sphere of activity most favorable to his genius.
Wireless" as this eagerly awaited tale is en-
titled is printed in the August NUMBER OIL
"Scribner's" and If it is not one of Mr.. Kip
ling's masterpieces 1t is, at all events. greatly
superior to his South African twaddle. and alto
gether encouraging.
The scene is laid in an English apothecary's
shop near the coast. in which the proprietor
nephew is presiding over experiment with
the Marconi apparatus. having appropriated
the house for Il long range installation" With
his passion for technicalities, Mr.. Kipling mas
here of course, a precious opportunity, and the
readers expectation of some Vividly descriptive
passages is not disappointed. The talk between
the electrician and the suppostitious narrator
is of the sort in which Mr.. Kiplng delights
and has the luminosity characteristic of the
author. Marcon venture to say, has not
had an Interpreter clearer than is the writer of
this dialogue:
Then let's see if I've got It correctly. Miles
off, at Poole, wherever IL is
1T will be anywhere in ten years"
You've got q charged wire'--
say. two hundred and thirty million times
second" Mr.. Cashell snaked his forehnger rap
idly through the air.
IAN right-a charged wire at Poole, giving
out these waves into space. Then this wire or
house-in some mysterious way gets charged
with those waves from Poole
"Or anywhere-it only happens to be Poole to-
night
And those waves set the coherer at work.
just like ordinary telegraph office uckerY
NO! That's where so many people make the
mistake The Hertzian waves wouldn't be
strong enough 10 work a great. heavy Morse
instrument like ours. They can only just make
that dust cohere, and while 1t coheres Ca little
while for a dot and a longer time for a dash)
the current from this battery-the home bat
through to the Morse printing machine to record
the dot or dash. Let make 1t clearer. Do
you know anything about steam?''
Very little But go on
well, the coherer's like a steam valve. Any
child can open valve and start a steamers
engines, because a turn of the hand let's in the
main steam, doesn't it? Now, this home battery
here is the main steam, ready to print The
coherer is the valve always ready to be turned
on. The Hertzian wave is the child's hand that
turns it."
"I see. That's marvellous"
incidentally, Mr.. Kipng displays his
quaintance with the contents and general char
acter of a drug shop. My chances OF ralolng
chemists shops are few says the teller of the
story, land I make the most of them: and the
establishment described in Wireless is a won
derfully we'll painted interior, In which we move
acutey conscious of all its sights and smells.
But Wireless" is chiefly concerned with neither
Marconi nor H1sculapius, but with one of those
mysterious and fantastic episodes on which the
author has more than once wreaked himself.
His hero is a consumptive clerk. who repeats
in his disease and in his calling the experience
of Keats and the parallel passes through fur
ther developments which. is usual with Mr..
Kipling are made as plausible as they are sur
prising. To relate those developments would be
to deprive the reader OF his pleasure. Suffice 1t
TO say that out of his scientific inspiration Mr..
lAipling has evolved a curiously appropriate
though purely imaginative scheme. one charac-
teristic and deeply interesting. The story is
good in itself and though we repeat, II is not
one of the authors most brilliant performances,
1t certainly does much TO revive confidence in
him. We look forward with renewed hope to his
future work.