The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1906-05-25

Evidence of the collapse of new Inn.
perlalism in England Is found In the
national elections, which returned To
parliament many nota bles who wera
not at the front with the shouting
crowd during the Boer war. Further
evidence is pointed out by c. F. Mas
terman in his new book, 'In Peril of
Change" which adduces q new spirit
in literature as the expression of a new
national feeling.
Fifteen years ago a new and arrest
! ing spirit manifested itself in English
| literature. It's message, proclaimed by
a few men of genius, diffused itself
through thousand obscure channels
in press and platform and imposed
new enthusiasm upon the public. This
was the imperialistic spirit, and its
chief apostles We're w. E. Henley and
Rudyard Kipllng. The result of this
spirit was a literature of forced feroci-
| ty. Under its influence imperial des-
tiny replaced national we'll being, and
men were no longer asked to pursue
the just course, but TO approve the in
evitable 1t was a message of vigor
and revolt. pleasing to a nation wearied
of the drabness of its uniform success
es. The vogue of the imperialistic
writer's, Mr.. Masterman explains,
LASTED only so long as 1t could keep
/ fnn nd Onnfna6
to its world of Illusion" Enlarging
upon this point, he continues:
| While British wars consisted of battues
| of blacks with the minimum OF loss and
! pain to ourselves, the falsity of the at
| mosphere of Mr.. Kipling's battle tales was
| undlscoverable.
With the outbreak of real war and some
| apprehension of its meaning the spell
snapped. Directly Mr. Kipling commenced
to write of the actual conflict in South
Africa the note suddenly Jared and rang
| false. His judgment was found to be con-
cerned not with war, but with the idea of
war-the conception in the brain of
| journalist. The jauntiness and cocksure-
ness, the surface swagger, were suddenly
| confronted with realities-death and loss
| and longing. There was a good killing
| at Paardeberg-the first satisfactory kill
| ing of the whole war" This attitude i'm
mediately disclosed its essential vulgarity;
| a grimace from the teeth outward; war
| as viewed from Capel Court or White
chapel or any other place where men are
| noisy and impotent.
Real war gave indeed a revelation Of
/ high sacrifice. the coming of the fire of
/ Prometheus" into the common ways OF
| men; flaming up under the stress OF
| vast upheaval in the conflict of life and
| of death. 1t was not given to the apostles
/ OF the new Imperialism to estimate or
| even to understand those deeper tides of
| the human soul. Their conception was OF
/ war carried on In the spirit of the music
| hall comedy; the men at the close of the
! struggle wiping their hands, which have
/ successfully gouged out the eyes of their
enemies. while they hum the latest pop
| ular song. With the coming of a war
/ which it had so furiously demanded the
I literature of reaction fell. first into shrill
ness, then into silence. Read today. the
/ whole thing stands remote and fantastic.
/ the child of time infinitely far away. OF
| its authors. some are dead. and some con-
tinue a strange shadowy life In an alien
time.
This imperialistic spirit in Engltsh