The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-13
Kipling on Sam Grices Type
Writer Portray Thief Hero in British sode-Fermer
Characteristics Become Uppermos Starting
BY FREDERICK R. REcHDoLr.

Thief or hero-take your choice of
names for Convict Sam Grice Stripe
clad, he is going through the process of
introduction to Utah's state penitentiary.
1t consists of occupying a cell by himself
with unlimited opportunities for introspec-
ton and studying rules. And so the COM
munity looks down on him.
On the scene comes Sam Grice's wife
and says that through the British consul
she will recall to Englands memory the
deed of valour by which her husband got
his Victoria cross Then she says men
will call him hero. Which viii happen.
when II comes to calling names-Sam
Grice must be branded thief or glori-
His recent history gained Sam Grice his
stripes. He has been the most persistent
burglar Salt Lake ever knew On
history further back his wife is relying
to free hin--for he was the sort OF hero
Rudyard kipli1g made dear to 1;I E1gis snS
der, whom the author made to sing:
An when the war began, we chased the
An we made the bIoomin' Ghazi for to
flee, Boys, o.
An we marched into Kabul, an we took
the Balar' Issar,
An we taught EN- to respec' the British
soldier"
Sam Grice was typical Tommy Atkins,
and more than that he got his bit of
"Bobs," as the soldiers call Lord Rob
erts. Probably in the end he will yet get
judge him by what he did in those old
days or else what ne did here in Salt
Lake-and won't try to balance the two
KipIing Tells the Deeds.
Now as to what he did before-the deeds
ish government chancesslto hear of them
again He tried to tellsof them the other
day and made a failure of it, because pos
slbly his tongue is more glib on the wit
ness stand that it is in matters of history.
At any rate he told hating story when
he might have helped himself by telling
il smoothly. OF these old days Kipling
has written the histOry-the story of sam
Grice He knows that Sam Grice, and his
Yates fight ] heroes, and conquerors
of about two thirds of the world
one can find fragments of Sam Grice's
history. And the beauty of this story IS
that the teller knew the hero and the cur
that often lie beneath the same skin, and
is able to show both. These things that
follow are bits of song and story. whose
verses or chapters Sam Grice helped TO
make. He fought in these places and did
these same things. Perhaps, told as Kip
ling tells them. they may hep to judge
the man who is now beginning his twelve
years:
Leaves as "Recruity."
In the beginning-new to the ranks and
the barracks-just as this old thief when
he was young. went to Afghanistan:
when the arf-made recruity goes out
to the east.
Fl acts like a babe an e drinks like a
beast,
An e wonders because e is frequent de-
ceased
Ere 'es fit for to serve as a soldier.
If your officers dead and the sergeants
look white.
Remember its ruin to run from d fight,
So, take open order, lie down an sit tight,
An wait for supports like a soldier.
when you're wounded an left on At
ghaniStan's plains,
An the women come out to cut up what
remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your
brains,
An go 10 your Gawd like soldier"
Which Nipling sung in The Young Brit
ish Soldier"
Not so well did Sam Grice put it when
he told why he saved the officer, then
unknown to him.
They used to torture anyone that was