Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-13
Kipling Prototype of
Hero of French Novel

f<N INGLEY the Famous Author,
which has been awarded the
"Prfx Goncourt' as the best
French novel of the year. is generally re-
garded as based study of kipling.
| Anyhow the fictitious famous author bears
a striking resemblance in many respects to
| the living one He portrayed as an Eng
| lish man of letters who has won fame at
forty; whose verses soldiers sing when they
| set out to fight. and who has supreme con-
| fidence in the mission of the Anglo-Saxon
race. While his countrymen are getting the
worst of it in the earlier stages of the Boer
war he conceives the idea of stimulating
patriotic pride by writing a mover in which
a worthless loafer enlists and in the field
| finds himself and develops into conquer
| ing hero. That sounds quite Kiplingesque.
To get the proper local color for his book
| he goes to Cape Town with his wife and
child. Leaving them, he starts for the veldt.
A message reaches him that his child is
dangerously ILL On his way back to Cape
Town he is captured by Boer, who on
| hearing his story lets him go and assists
| him on his way. By this means he sue
ceeds in reaching his child in time to kiss
| 1t before it dies.
In the course of the war the Boer is taken
| prisoner and condemned to death. 1t is
then Dingley shows that he is no true Kip
| ling after all. He refuses to intercede for
| the chivalrous foe who had befriended him
and the prisoner is executed. Dingleys
novel makes big hit. Its dramatic incl
dents shown by a bioscope in London
music hall. And the picture of the eXecu-
| ton of the Boer arouses tremendous enthu-
Siasm.
X
The book is not calculated to promote the
| entente cordiale. And friends of Kipling
will resent the association of his charac-
| teristcs with those of a dastardly migrate.
But it is powerful, vigorous work. 1t is
the joint production of two brothers Jerome
| and Jean Theraud, who are not yet thirty
| years of age They are journalists by pro-
| fession and devote their leisure to writing
| novels. Their methods are those of Kip
| ling. They insist on seeing things them
selves and studying life in all its phases
at close range, instead of depending on their
| imaginations for characters and incidents
| Fame has come to them earlier than it did
| to Kipling, and brilliant literary careers
are predicted for them.
| Readers of the life of Edward Fitzger-
| aid, the translator of "Omar Khayyam,'
| will recall 'Posh,' the skipper who enjoyed
| such a strange intimacy with the eccentric
| man of letters. "Posh' still lives at Lowe
| stoft, but in his old age he has fallen on
| evil days, and an appeal has been made to
| admirers of Fitzgerald's work to contribute
l
his days outside the workhouse 1t was
| while wandering about the shore one night,
| sorely stricken over the loss of friend,
| that, according to his own account, Fitz-
! gerald came across "Posh" and bestowed
| on him the vacant place in his affections.
! The two men were constantly together at
| Lowestoft, and, as Fitzgeralds conduct at
times was decidedly unconventional, stran-
| gers were apt to regard him Junatic
and "Posh" as his keeper. He had the
highest admiration for the skipper He has
described him as "a man of the finest
Saxon type" and he considered him the
| tues He had his portrait painted that it
might hang with those of his two other
friends, Thackeray and Tennyson.
| X *
J. NJ. Barrie does not go in for strenuous
sport himself, but he believes in encourag-
ing it in others. At the ungodly hour of
7:3O in the morning the other day, while
the novelist himself was probably sleeping
soundly in his warm bed, Twenty-Five shiv-
ering and misguided enthusiasts plunged
into the icy waters of the Serpentine to
AS a Scot Mr.. Barrie ought to play golf,
but he doesn't. His favorite game is
cricket. Truth to tell, he enjoys it much
better than he plays it. He knows it, too
| One day he was walking in the country
with his friend. E. w. Hornung, author
| who is also a cricket enthusiast. They
came to a village green where several old
men were playing cricket. "Ah," said
Hornung, joking, you should bring your
team down to play this lot NO no." an
swered Barrie with an air Of great solem-
| nifty, they seem a healthy lot here; go and
| ask them if their fathers are alive, and il
so. We'll challenge them"
Nature never meant Barrie to be an ath-
lete, or made him sufficiently athletic even
to be a good cricketer He is short and
slim with very long arms and massive head
| But it is not the head Of an idealist. He
finds writing pl: VS. pays better than writ
| ing books, and we may have to wait long
for another novel from his pen.
Zolas ashes are to receive the honor OF
. interment in the Pantheon, but that affords
no guarantee that they will remain there
Burial in Westminster Abbey is perma.
nent, however much posterity may reverse
i, the verdict passed by contemporaries or
, | those deemed worthy of repose in the ma
tional Vahalla. But Parisians refuse to be
dictated to in such matters by their ances-
tors Mirabeau was the first man be
| buried in the Pantheon, after 1t was decided
| to make it a place of interment for distin-
/ guished people. That he a great mar
none can dispute, bui his bones were not
allowed to remain there. The remains OF
the Infamous Murat shared similar fate
| The tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau are
| there, but they are empty. At the ReStora
! | ton their ashes were flung ANONYMOUSLY
into the Seine. Victor Hugo has lam a
rest there twenty years, but it doesn't fol-
| low that his remains will still be there
twenty years hence. lola has far les:
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