New-York tribune., 1908-04-19
THE FRONTIER NEWSPAPER

Rudyard Kipling in Golfers Weekly.
Let it be granted that: as the loud voiced herald
hired by the eolthic tribe to cry the news of the
coming day along the preceded the chosen
tribal bard. who sang the picturesque history
of the tribe. is journalism senior TO literature, in
that journalism meets the first tribal need after
warmth, food and
In new countries 1t shows clear trace Of its de-
scent from the tribal herald. tribe thinly occu-
pyng large spaces feels lonely il desires TO hear
the rocall Of its members cried often and loudly:
10 comfort Itself with the knoWedge that there are
companions JUST below the horizon 1t employs
therefore heraids to name and describe all who
pass. That is why newspapers of new countries
seem often go outrageously personal. The tribe
moreover needs quick and sure knowledge of every
thing that touches on its daily life in the big
spaces-earth. air an Water-news which the older
peoples have put behind them. That is why its
newspapers so often so laboriously trivial.
For example, red-nosed member of the tribe
Pete O'Haloran. comes in thirty miles to have his
horse shod. and Incidentally smsshes the king bolt
or MS buckboard at bad place In the road. The
! IrloaI Herald-a thin weekly. with a patent in
slue-connects the red and the breakdown
with an innuendo which, TO the outsider Is chimney
libel But the Tribal Herald understands that
tWo-and- seventy families of the tribe NAV use that
road weekly 1t concerns them to discover whether
the accident was due to Pete being drunk or as
Pete protests, TO the neglected state of the road
Fifteen men happen 10 know that Pete's nose ia
an afnlctlon, not an indication. One of them loafs
across and explains 10 the Tribal Herald who
next week cries aloud that the road ought TO he
mcnded. Meantime Pete, warm 10 the marrow at
having focused the attention the triba for 4eu
moments, retres thirty miles up-stage pursued by
advertisements Of buckboards guaranteed not to
break their king bolts and later (Which Is what
the tribe were after all the time) some tribal
authority or other mends the road
This is only big scale diagram. but With 2 1it
tie attention you the tribal instinct op
self-preservatiou quite logically UNDERMINING all
sorts Of queer modern developments
AS the tribe grows and do not behold tho
horizon from edge 70 unbroken edge their desire
70 know all about the next weakens a LITTLE
but not much. Outside the cities are still tho long
distances. the vast unoccupied areas Of the sd
Vertisements; and the men who come and 20 vearn
10 keep touch with and report themselves as Of old
10 their lodges. man stepping out Of the dark
into the circle OF the fires naturally, If he La a
true man, holds up his hands and says: "I So-and-
so, am here" You watch the ritual in full
swing at any hotel when the reporter (pro Tribal
HERALD runs his eyes down the list OF ar-riyag
and before he can turn from the register is met
b. the newcomer, Who without special desire for
notoriety, explains his business and intentions
Observe, it is always evening that the reporter
concerns himself with strangers By day he fol-
lows the activities OF his city and the dolngs
of nearby chiefs but when 1t is time TO close tho
stockade to lager the wagons, to draw tho thorn
bush back into the gap then in all lands he TO-
verts TO the Tribal Herald, who is also the Tribal
Outer Guard
Copyright. 1908 by Rudyard KiplinKl