The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-02-22
m1HE EoRELoPER.u

The interesting fact has just been
brought to light that Rudyard Kipling
once wrote a poem which ranks with
the best of his literary products, but
he has lost all recollection of when
and where it was published and even
Of the work itself Credit belongs pri-
marily to Professor Edmond S. Meany
of the historical department of the
University of washington for the dis
covery. For several years he had
possessed six vagrant lines which he
greatly admired and which were all
the world seemed to possess of the
poem. They had been used some time
previously by Professor Frederick
Jackson Turner of the University of
| Wisconsin as a preface to an essay on
THE Influence of the Frontier on His
tory" They were credited to THE
| Foreloper'' by Rudyard Kipling, but
this was all that was known or could
be learned at the time concerning
! them. Every effort to round out the
| fragment proved futile, as the collect
| ed editions of Kiplings works made
i no reference to "The Foreloper"
/ They commended themselves to Pro-
fessor Meany because they were pecul-
iarly appropriate in the discussion of
the influence of the frontier, and he
found them stimulating to him in
studying and lecturing upon themes
of history in that far-away old Oregon
country.
Having his interest in the matter
aroused Professor Meany contributed
a letter to the January Century rela-
tive to his search for the poem. The
response was immediate Scarcely had
the magazine reached Seattle before
it fell into the hands of a reader who
possessed the poem. This was Mr..
i Blake D. Mills, a real estate agent, who
had clipped the verses from a news
paper years ago. Since their publ
cation the verses had been in his
scrap book. He sent the poem by
first mail to Professor Meany. In its
complete form it is as follows:
The gull shall whistle in his wake
the blind wave break in fire.
He shall fulfill Gods utmost will I'm
knowing his desire:
And he shall see old planets pass anG
alien stars arise,
And give the gale his reckless sail IL
shadow of new skies.
) Strong lust of gear shall drive him GU
: and hunger arm his hand
, To wiring his food from desert nude
his foothold from the sand.
His neighbours smoke shall veX hi
eyes, their voices break his rest
He shall go forth till South is North
sullen and dispossessed
And he shall desire loneliness, ant
his desire shall bring
Hard on his heels a thousand wheels
i a people, and king;
4 And he shall come back in his owl
: track, and by his scarce COG
D camp;
: There he shall meet the roaring street
the derrick, and the stamp;
For he must blaze a nations way
with Ratchet and with brand,
:, Till on his last won wilderness an en-
pire's bulwarks stand.
V The lines Professor Meany so great
IS ly admired were the last six, tn
e missing ones the first eight. Whel
D. Kipling was communicated with o.
r the subject early in the investigation
D. his secretary replied that "the line
to which you refer are his, but he car
not remember when or where the
n were published, or what the rest Q
" the poem is" 1t seems strange tina
d man who could write such stirrin
1t lines should forget all about then
1t Professor Meany believes the poer
n was written by Mr.. Kipling during hi
o early residence in India, and that a
A. ter publication in the oriental paper
d found its way to this country Wha
O. ever the circumstances of its frs
IN publication, it is a valuable additio
Of % the literary treasury