12 'Cbe Conservative.
Less than ten
KIPLING'S
ATTITUDE. years ngo a young
man named Rud-
yard Kipling came into public notice as
a writer of amusing and rather boister
ous stories of British life in India. He
also wrote poetry , which few people
took seriously , though he himself seemed
very much in earnest about it. It is not
easy poetry to read ; the many rhymes
bewilder one , and it is full of condensed
expressions , each with the substance of
a chapter compressed into it ; it comes
out with a sputter , indicating , as jou
might say , an enormous nm/zlo-energy ;
you have to listen closely , and then you
feel as if you were being cuffed on both
sides of the head.
There is a wide-spread impression that
Mr. Kipling's later stories are not as en
tertaining as the first ones were ; on the
other hand , he has recently put out two
short poems , which have caused , and
are still causing , more thought and dis
cussion , it is safe to say , than any liter
ary material for a great many years.
Statesmen give interviews upon them ,
editors of the first rank devote leaders
to them , divines make sermons on them ,
in all English-speaking countries ; and
the reason is that they deal with the
great questions , affecting the future of
all mankind , with which our wide
spread race is now wrestling. These
poems are his "Recessional , " written
last year , and "The Truce of the Bear , "
which is only a few weeks old.
To judge from the opinions that we
see quoted , many people find these two
utterances of Mr. Kipling's contradic
tory , and think that they imply a radi
cal change in his standpoint , which
seems very puzzling to them , and espec
ially to the clergy , who so warmly wel
comed the "Recessional. " This is cer
tainly , however , a mistaken view ; the
two fit together , and into our inherited
character , like hand and glove ; the idea
of a contradiction can only arise from a
misconception of the tendency of the
"Recessional. " In the first place , while
this is a deeply religious composition , it
is not sentimental. It would not by any
means make so good a church-hymn as
those of Dr. Isaac Watts. The author's
attitude is that thoughtful frame of
mind into which one who has accom
plished wonderful things may fall , in
which he wonders whether these things
that ho has done will endure forever ;
or has ho already reached the summit of
his mountain , from which his way will
decline into the valley of destruction ,
whither so many have gone before him ;
and he turns his mind , by a most solemn
impulse , to his Creator , the giver of all
gifts. It is because it was so under
stood that it was so widely taken up , by
a people not so very susceptible to merely
pious rhapsodies. And it is to bo noted
that the deity who is invoked is not the
God of Mercy and of Grace , but
"Lord God of Hosts. " This , as is well
known , is the stereotyped paraphrase of
the name applied by the Hebrews to
their deity during their rise as a nation ,
in their successful wars of conquest.
"Jehovah , god of armies , " is a better
translation , and this throws another
light on Kipling's use of it. It is the
language , not of a man renouncing the
world , but of ouo girding himself anew
for battle , with a soberer consciousness
of what he is about.
' The Truce of the Bear" admits of no
misconception. In it he says plainly
that Russia is a dangerous and treach
erous wild beast , seeking to betray
England into a false peace ; and he re
commends that the spear be kept sharp
and ready , and iiscd at the first oppor
tunity. Without touching on the mer
its of this proposition , it may bo pointed
out that it contains nothing inconsis
tent with the previous poem. The
author , while engaged in pious medita
tion , becomes aware that a particularly
obnoxious miscreant is coming at him
from behind ; and he breaks off his de
votions , picks up his gun and attends to
him , ji'hannum ke marfik. This may not
be in accordance witl- the ideals of Eas
tern philosophy , but it is very , very nat
ural for an Englishman. John Bunyan
would have thought it so. Suppose Mr.
Greatheart , while ruminating on his
sins , or little Joseph's last dialog with
Mercy , had learned that the Giant Slay-
good was not dead ; would ho not have
deferred the remainder of his exercises
until such time as he had finished the
giant ?
Or figure Oliver Cromwell , while con
ducting the devotions of a company ol
the godly , receiving notice of a body ol
Cavaliers around the hill ; he might not
have said , as the man in the Three Mus
keteers did , who was reading poetry to
some ladies , "Just excuse mo while 1
kill this gentleman , and I'll finish the
piece ; " but buff-coat and steel cap
would have displaced the hymn-book
then and there. Both were business ,
both were pleasure. But Oliver would
have felt that one was urgent , while the
other could wait.
In the play of "Joshua Whitcomb , "
Uncle Josh is interrupted , while praying
with a dying child , by the child's father ,
who comes in drunk. The old man
rises from his knees , projects the father
through the window , and returns in si
lence to kneel again by his chair and re
sume his supplication ; and the audience
always applaud with enthusiasm. And
is there not a story , generally told with
approval , of a Yankee minister coming
down from his pulpit to march off to the
fight at Lexington ?
If we were to prophesy , we would say
that this last poem had settled the hash
of Mr. Kipling's poet-laureateship ( sup
posing that poets laureate have hash )
for so long as Queen Victoria lives ; but
that if the long-looked-for battle of the
giants should come about under some
successor of hers , it might have a dif
ferent working.
KANSAS HUMANS AND THE KANSAS
HEN.
Now that the election is over and the
snowfall of ballots in Kansas has drifted
and piled up over the ambition of Peffer
and temporarily hidden from view the
unsocked feet of the Honorable Jerry
Simpson , the poets of that politically
paroxysmal state are again warbling.
Peans to pigs abound in a recent report
of Mr. F. E. Cortis , secretary of the
state board of agriculture , and commin
gle with ballads to bulls and exhorta
tions on the horse. But in the midst of
this great out-gush of genius scintillates
the following on The Kansas Hen :
"We have read of Maud on a summer day ,
"Who raked , barefooted , the new mown hay ;
Wo have read of the maid in the early morn ,
Who milked the cow with the crumpled horn ,
And we've read the lays that the poets sing
Of the rustling corn and the flowers of spring ;
But of all the lays of tongue or pen
There's naught like the lay of the Kansas hen.
Long , long before Maud rakes her hay ,
The Kansas hen has begun to lay ,
And , ere the milkmaid stirs a peg ,
The hen is up and has dropped her egg ;
The corn must rustle and flowers spring
If they hold their own with the barnyard ring.
If Maud is needing a hat and gown
She doesn't hustle her hay to town ,
But goes to the store and obtains her suit
With a basketful of her fresh hen fruit ;
[ f the milkmaid's beau makes n Sunday call
She doesn't feed him on milk at all ,
But works up eggs in a custard pie
And stuffs him full of a chicken fry.
And when the old man wants a horn ,
Docs ho take the druggist a load of corn ?
Not much ! He simply robs a nest ,
And to town he goes you know the rest.
Ho hangs around with the cliques and rings ,
And talks of politics and things ,
While his poor wife stays at homo and scowls ,
But is saved from want by those self-tamo
fowls ;
For , while her husband lingers there ,
She watches the cackling hens with care ,
And gathers eggs , and the eggs she'll hide
Till she saves enough to stem the tide.
Then hail , all hail , to the Kansas hen ,
The greatest blessing of all to men 1
Throw up your hats and emit a howl
For the persevering barnyard fowl !
Corn may be king , but its plainly seen
The Kansas hen is the Kansas queen.
Whether the husband of Mary Yelliii'
Lease will admit the hen. sovereignty
above claimed , is an unsettled qiaestion.
But that hens have done more for Kan
sas than her recent statesmen can not be
denied without great injustice to the
hen !
Improved methods of production have
impressed themselves upon every manu
facturing establishment in the United
States. Utensils , implements and in
struments made of iron and steel are put
upon the market at constantly lessening
prices.
And soon , upon all farms not upon a
small mimber intelligent men will with
system and discreet economy demon
strate the value and increasing profits of
improved methods of agricultural pro
duction. Farmers will keep books.
Farmers will plant , harvest , garner and
sell uuderstaiidiugly.