Newark post. (Newark, Del.) 1910-1969, 1916-11-08


dren and grown ups. He has wri'
ten of the Sea and of Ships and of
Men who go down to the Sea in
Ships. Stories of machinery hav
come from his facile pen. In the
province of stories of a dreamy
and mystical nature, such as the
'Brushwood Boy and They ne
has given us some of his finest
work.
Most of these stories deal with
contemporary life and with life ir
action. He is interested in every
thing that moves-from the little
mongoose in Rikki Tiki Tavi to
the elephant in My Lord the Ele-
plant; from the little shifting en-
CINE .O07 to the ship in The Ship
that Found Herself; from We
Willie Winkie to Mulvaney of his
Soldier Stories or Mr.. Pyecroft of
his sea tales. Animate and mani
mate things; brute and human
creation-are of equal interest to
him. He is seemingly as fond of a
shining Martini rife as of his fav-
orite Terence Mulvaney; of his
polo pony, the Maltese Cat, as
his William the Conqueror. The
lives of men and animals and ma
chimes, life in action, action too
which endangers the lives of mer
and things-herein lies the mate
rial for the bulk of Kipling's short
stories.
There is danger in the use of
superlatives: but | think that | am
safe in saying that these short
stories of Kipling's are the work
of the greatest English short-siory
writer. To understand and APP
preciate rightly these stories we
ought first to know what a short
story is end what it is not. Many
attempts have have been made to
frame a complete definition for
this literary form. | will give you
what | consider to be its main
characteristics, and then try to il
lustrate by referring to several of
Kipling's typical short stories.
THE typical short-story is limit
ed to a brief period of time, to
single incident or to two or more
closely related incidents; to
single character or to several
characters one of which is strong
ly emphasized; and to a single
place.
"The aim of the ort-story
writer is to make a single impress
sion-to treat completely one trait
of character, one significant phase
of human experience, one charac-
teristic aspect of environment.
"The short-story differs from
tale, simple narrative, in that the
tale aims merely to present inter-
Cstingly a connected series Of
events; whereas the short-story
emphasizes the causal relation be-
tween events. 1t differs from the
novel in that the novel is longer,
includes many significant Incl
dents, treats several important
characters, and presents interrela-
tions between several characters
or groups of characters.
Technically considered, the
stories in The Days Work are not
as good examples Of the typical
short story as are other stories of
kipling's." The speaker paused to
go outside the particular book I'M
der consideration to give list of
short stories which illustrated al
most all phases of Kipling's work.
The books mentioned We're Cupid's
Arrows in Plain Tales from the
Hills; Muhammad Din, in Plain
Tales from the Hills: Bertran and
Bimi in Life's Handicap; The Man
Who Was, in Lies Handicap; The
Counting of Dinah Shadd in Life's
Handicap; Without Benefit of
Clergy in Lies Handicap; The
Brushwood Boy in The Days
Work; They in Traffics and Dis
coveries.
Stories in The Days Work
DR.. Sypherd continued, eve are
in a position now, / think, to con-
slider the stories of our book, The
Days Work. There are twelve
stories in the book; ten of them
fit we'll the title of the book-all of
these ten stories deal with the
work of the day, with the work of i
men and things, men, horses,
ships, locomotives; two of them,
The Error in the Fourth Dimen-
ion and My Sunday at Home, deal
with what an outsider might call
the anomalies of English civiliza-
I ion will ,uhof ,l,