New-York tribune., 1918-02-03
kipling's Touch
Is Strongly Felt
In 'Gipsy Trail.
Housun, Got Inspiration for
Romantic Michael From
English Poet

Robert Housum, author of "Tho
1ipsy Trail." is an inlander born and
bred; and yet vicariously, in the char
acscr of Michael Ruddcr, the gypsy hero
of his comedy, he has made the whole
round ball Of whimsical world play
thing. Thereby he has given to his
audiences clew to happy pilgrimag IS
INTO romance that need take one but a
step from the freside these frosty
nights: for when the wanderlust seizes
Robert Housum in Cleveland he goes
no further than his bookshelf. With
hlpiing he can roam from far Cathay
to Vermont pastures-in short, become
Tor the evening as happy vagabond as
his own creation, Michael.
Michael isn't real," said We grudg
lngly to Housum while his comedy was
In rehearsal: "New York is full of lust
such glpsy-venturers-but they have
stocked their way overseas. or sweated
across the continent from city to city
working at Grass, unpoetic jobs. They
would never have leisure to lie on the
deck Of trading schooner as Michael
says he did, and watch the moncrel
crew and the Chinese cook with his
yellow face pasted on the pale blue
background of the sky They would
have been cleaning pots and pans in
the galley for that same cook, or work
ing side by side with the mongrel
crew.
Housum smiled. "Why should Michael
be real? He is one of the beloved vaq-
abonds who come out of book mr.
play with the love Of the open road
shlnlng In their eyes. For that mo-
ment they are far more real and low
Gus than the stokers you call to mind
MlchaeI has worked-you remember
ehe summary of his achievements in
the first act?-'worked like a dog at
some jobs that would crumple up some
OF your rising young business men in
thirty seconds'-but he has forgotten
all the toll, and has remembered onlv
tne romance of it all. That is Michael's
way.
Il ask you. why should Michael be
real-or unreal? So long as a charac-
ter can convince one even for q little
while that perhaps somewhere there is
romance 1t is unfair to quibble over
reality and unreality. Consider the
lovable, impossible people whom Kip
ing sometimes conjured into being
"The Brushwood Boy" for instance IF
you know him yoa will understand
Michael. If you know Una and Dan.
you will understand Michael. MichaeI
In the first act recognizes the first note
OF The Gypsy Trail as Frances sings
IT. and that is the poem of Kipling's
that expresses all that feel is best in
Michael. The poem itself is q news
paper waif-never yet included in au-
1horlzed editions of Kipling's works
but, set to music, it shimmers with the
stuff of which dreams-and Michael
are made:
II he white moth to the closing vine
me bee TO the op'ning clover
A',o n ehe gypsy blood to the gypsy blood
, Ever the wild world over
Lver the wild world over lass
Ever the trail held true
over the world and under the world
AND back at the last to you!
out Ga. OF the luck of the .gorgo camp.
Gut or the grim and the gray
MorninE waits al the end Of the world
Gipsy, come away
hoth TO the road again, again!
Out OF d clean sea track
follow d'H the the cross cross of the gypsy train.
Follow the Romany patteran
West to the sinking sun,
III the Junk lift through the homeless
=. And the West and the East are one,
Follow the Rornany patteran
East where the silence broods
by purple wave on opal beach
In the hush Of the Mahiln woods
The he wild hawk to the wind swept sky.
Inc deer TO the wholesome wold
Ano the heart OF man to the heart OF a
AS 1t was In the days of old
me heart OF a man to the heart Of a maid.
Light OF my tents. be fleet! A'
Mornlng waits at the end OF the world -
And the world Is all at our feet!
II don't know how much Of Michael
owe to Kipling-I never dared add up
my indebtedness. Still, he has given
me authority, What 'e thought e might
require, e went and took-the same as
me!' Do you remember Kipling's sSes-
tina Of the Tramp Royal? Michael
quotes from it in the second act That's
the sort Of person Michael is.
"And, by the way, you know what an
1nexpressibly set and silly verse-form
sestina is? Invented by an Italian
troubadour with a scant vocabulary
and without ingenuity enough to in
vent vers libre? Well, doesn't the
very fact that Kipling was able to take
the silliest possible verse-form and
write live poetry without transeressinp
the letter Of the old Italian rule. prove
that it is never necessary to make prose
out OF prosaic ingredients? With the
master touch to mingle them they be-
come pure poetry. Read Kipling and
you will understand Michael"
The "Sestina" already referred to is
summing up of wanderlust by mas
ter accountants:
.".Speakin in general I ave tried 'en all
ne appy roads that take YOU Ger the
FOR I'm that doth not work must surely die.
lsot that's no reason man should labour all
is HE Oh one same shift life's none so long.
Therefore. from Job to Job I've moved along.
Pay couldn't old me when nv TINA wa q dons