'k11 V ' < ' x * ' -Ok *
* *
i $ . y * * >
_
- - ' , * ' t |
L t - - - - |
tlbe Conservative * 11
KIPLING A IIAKI1AIUAN.
There has been a recent rumor of
| Rudyard Kipling's ambition to enter
higher politics in Great Britain. It
is said that he aspires to bo prime
minister , and from that high place guide
England's destiny as an empire. It
must be admitted that there is nothing
improbable nor impossible in his way , if
he chose to seek such preferment. Not
a single statesman nor a great company
of statesmen in Great Britain can claim
to have done as much in modern times
to popularize the menus of empire. Ho
has given it a sentimental basis , and has
clothed it in the garments of romance.
What Peter the Hermit was to the
Crusades , Kipling has been to the march
of British power. Ho has quenched the
scruples of mercy , has made cruelty
seem kinduess ; greed has become be
nevolence under his touch , and selfish
ness has lost its cold calculation , and
been made to appear as sacrifice.
Not only in Great Britain has his in
fluence been potent. It has gone out
into the world and changed or quelled
the conscience of nations , until the
strong are combined against the weak
and pity makes no sign and mercy no
protest. In this way he has done more
for England than all her finished and
astute diplomacy could accomplish. The
only opposition she encounters is from
the same motive that urges her aggres
sions. Of course that simply cements
her people in the purpose to overrun and
capture everything she can reach , be-
caaso otherwise her neighbors will do
the same thing , and by additions to their
empire will more nearly equalize her
power.
Perhaps no man who has reached the
premiership has preceded his elevation
with equal service to the British empire ,
therefore no one need wonder if Kipling
should attain that position and admin
ister it in the virile spirit which has
made it possible for him to aspire.
The influence of Kipling upon the
minds of men in the United States is
hardly secondary to that upon English
men. He has popularized here reasons
for public action which five years ago
were utterly repugnant to the American
mind. This fact has not escaped
thoughtful attention in this country.
Recently Mr. William M. Salter , in
Chicago , made this public estimate of
Kipling , which , while moderate in tone ,
is admonitory in its conclusions :
Kipling is a public influence. He
stands along with statesmen in shaping
the course of affairs only his influence
is subtler. He stirs the feelings , am
bitions and ideals of men. The writer
of the charming Jungle Books and of
racy short stories is more he is the poet
of militant England and militant Am
erica , of a militant ethics and a militant
religion. He never sings of liberty , he
nowhere pleads for the oppressed. He
is the complete antithesis of poets like
Byron and Shelley , Lowell and Whittier.
He celebrates the soldier and war. He
sneered at the Czar's proposal for peace
among nations. His ideal is of British
or , at best , Anglo-Saxon supremacy
in the world. Ho summoned us to lay
hold of the Philippines. Ho was one of
the causes of the Boer war , making
Capo Town years ago dream
Of empire to the northward , Ay , one Innd
From Lion's Head to Line I
He anticipates further conquests. He
urges Englishmen to stand together for
the last great fight of all , Russia being
evidently in mind , and nourishes racial
suspicion and hatred to that end. His
religion does not surpass his ethics. God
is not the God of the human family , in
cluding the Russian and the Boer , but
the God of the Anglo-Saxon race , the
"Lord of our far-flung battle line. " On
the whole , and apart from his lighter
and purely literary performances , Kip
ling represents the temporary recrudes
cence of barbarism among English-
speaking peoples , and helps to create it.
He stands for an expansion of dominion
and a contraction of ideas a withering
of some of the best sentiments that have
over visited man's heart , and that had
been supposed to be the special glory
of the nineteenth century.
That estimate is true. None of the
critics of Kipling has as keenly analyzed
his style and purpose and the nature of
his influence and its effect upon the
world.
%
His nearest American representative
is Governor Roosevelt , whose advocacy
of "the strenuous life" is a complete
crystallization of Kipling's ideas.
It is the fashion to blame the govern
ments of countries like England and the
United States for this lapse toward ideals
that are associated with the crude and
barbarous ages. But a calm philosophy
will look behind government to the force
which actuates it , and that force at
present is the Anglo-Saxon appetite for
power. It was the passion of the
Vikings ; it was the force that
founded the power of the North
men in Normandy and transferred it to
the British Isles. It was always cruel ,
but had its historic justification in the
founding of civil institutions as the re
sult of conquest. But , as we have often
contended , these institutions , like the
passion for dominion which preceded
them , are racial , and they can exist only
where the race can perpetuate itself
from generation to generation. This is
left out of Kipling's philosopy. He
recognizes no physical facts , and
climatic characteristics do not enter into
his calculations at all.
The race that he has inspired with the
spirit of conquest acquired its virility ,
its thews and sinews , its distinctive
character and its overcoming quality
and hardy timber by survival of the
fittest in a contest , ages long , with the
cold and forbidden aspects of nature , in
the unfriendly north. Whenever it has
seated itself in the south it has degenera
ted , physically and morally. Nature
" ,
j ' it /
lias forbidden it passage of the boundary
she has sot for the races of men. None
can remove her landmark. Cancer and
Capricorn cannot be conquested , and ,
until the zodiac changes , Anglo-Saxon
thirst for dominion will be punished by
extinction of the race between the
tropics. San Francisco Call.
A RIDE TO IJLOEMFONTEIN.
I saw ahead of mo a swarm of vul
tures soaring in as thick a cloud as if
they had been moths. As I drew near I
noticed that the bulk of each one's body
was very groat. On the ground , where
there were two score waddling about ,
they seemed even larger.
They marked the outer edge of the
great and horrid field of carnage. Many
dead horses lay on the veldt , and these
birds wore eating some and perching on
the backs of others.
They wore to be my constant com
panions for throe days. I was to see
hundreds upon hundreds of them and
never once by day fail to see them. Yet
there were not enough of them to make
away with all the food that war had
given them.
Of all the pitiful , heart-rending sights
I have ever seen , none has compared to
this view of hundreds upon hundreds of
dead and dying horses on this one hun
dred miles of war's promenade.
The poor beasts had done no man any
harm in fact , each one had been a
man's reliance and to see them shat
tered by shell and then ripped open by
vultures , often before they were dead ,
was enough to snap the tenderest chords
in one's breast. For some reason hun
dreds had dragged themselves to the
main road and there had died either in
the track of the wagons or by the side.
My companion used to turn and look
back at these dying horses to find that
they were still straining their sad eyes
after the cart. Then he would say :
"lie is looking at us yet. Oh , it makes
mo sick. Look , he is staring at us like
a guilty conscience. "
For my part I would not look behind.
Heaven knows it was bad ahead , where
horses stumbled and fell from weakness
while the horrible vultures swept in
circles over them , eager to rend their
living flesh. Julian Ralph , in Asso
ciated Press.
A GIKL'S COLLEGE EDUCATION.
A graduate of Cornell University will
tell in a carefully detailed article in the
August Ladies' Home Journal , "How a
Girl Can Work Her Way Through Col
lege. " There are almost innumerable
methods by which a girl can pay for her
education while she is studying. Col
leges and universities make most gener
ous provision for young women and
young men who are without money , but
who have brains and energy. So no
apt , worthy girl need be without a college -
lego education if she wants one and is
determined to have it. This article will
tell how it is to be obtained through
personal effort.