The San Francisco call., 1910-11-06
MAGIC OF THE JUNGLE BOOKS

WSHUsV wi Hill
You can work ii out by fractions or the
simple Rule of Three,
But the way of Tweedledum is not the
way of Tweedledee.
You can twist it, you can turn it, you
can plait it till you drop,
But the way of Pilly Winky is not the
way of Winkie-Pop.
II HOSE lines are just about as true
as anything can be. The more one
thinks of it, the more one realizes
that there are as many different ways
as there are Tweedledees OF Winkie-
Pops, or other people with names not
so unusual. We each have our own way
of seeing things as we'll as doing Them
no two persons it is said, can report
some little incident seen in the street
or occurring in their own house, and
tell of it in just the same way.
Tweedledum will have his, and
Tweedledee his, and one way is as good
as the other although different, and
probably the thing they are describing
is not quite like the story told by
either. For just here comes in what is
called the personal equation, and has
its own say. No one ever sees every
thing. 1t is reflected into the eye, to
be sure, but the mind unconsciously
chooses what most strikes it. and
makes up its picture from this choice;
and no two minds make precisely the
same choice
That is the reason why it is not true
that all the stories have been told,
though we hear people say so. Every
story is partly made up of the story
teller himself; he is mixed up at least
a little bit in everything that happens,
though YOU hardly notice this as you
read. No matter how much he twists
and turns his story, he can't possibly
turn himself out of it. For though his
books may be all different from each
other. they viii nevertheless be told
and felt and understood in Pilly-
Winkys way, if he is Pilly -Winky, and
never in the way of Winkie-Pop.
John Burroughs writes delightful
stories of out of door scenes and the
lives of birds and animals, not to speak
of bees anj flowers. Burroughs way
of telling his stories is to put his facts
before you in the clearest and simplest
description, with the wonder and love-
liness of natures habits explained in
so far as he has been able to explain
them to himself by closely observing
the incidents that have come under his
eve. He will tell you how he saw two
orioles build their nest as he watched
from his cabin window or how he saw
the squirrel prepare for winter by stor-
ing nuts in it's nest in the hollow tree,
or rabbit take care Of it's young, or
bee fly home with its honey.
Kiplings Jungle Book" is another
delightful outdoor story. IT is impos-
sible to think how two ways could be
more different than those of Mr. Bur-
roughs and Mr.. Kipling. Yet they are
both concerned with the world of ma
ture and the wild creatures, and
though large part of the Jungle
Book is makebelieve, none tine less
Kipling tells only what is true of the
habits of the animals. He gives us
a real impression Of, their lives an
impression quite as correct as though
he had not pretended that Mowgli ana
the forest people could talk together.
For all this is Kipling's way Of show
ing us how the animals and their Gu
rious lives strike him. Mr.. Burroughs
tells us facts in simple and beautiful
manner. Mr. Kipling tells us facts.
too, and then on these facts he builds
a wonderful-and how wonderful ii is!
story of imaginary facts. And the
one is as real as the other for in
the imaginary part he reveals HIM
self and certainly he is real enough.
Could any one else have written "Rik-
ki-Tikki-r i-ravi' for instance? IT is, to
be sure, the result Of intimate knowl-
edge of the mongoose and the cobra
and the other animals mentioned Do
you remember the little touch where
the red ants begin 20 march toward
the hole after the fight is finished
And ii any of you have ever heard an
angry mongoose you will know that
there is no better description OF his
cry than the name Kipling gives
him. II is a story OF actual facts, but il
is more, too. Pages OF description
could not make us feel the horror and
the terror Of the cobra as does that
tense moment when Teddy~ sits staring
at his father, afraid TO move lest the