Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/331

This page needs to be proofread.

us. ix. APRIL 25, i9K] NOTES AND QUERIES.


325


mellow, adj. = melting. " In hot weather, the painting on their face has been so mellow." ' D.L.C.,' I. i. 156.

mitigate, intrans. verb=to alloy.

God, for fear of surfeit, thought it meet

To mitigate, since we swell with what is sweet.

' Mon. Col.,' 149.

(A very wrong use of the word, as something bitter is mixed with something sweet.)

monoloyist, noun=one who repeats a single word. " The fatal monologist. . . .cuckoo." ' Cuck.,' V. ii. 143.

mouth, noun (?). "A vessel .... carries a letter of mart in her mouth." ' Cuck.,' II. iv. 137.

B ON A. F. BOURGEOIS.

(To be continued.)


RTJDYARD KIPLING'S LETTERS OF TRAVEL. In the course of a journey to the Orient and back by way of the Canadian North - West in 1892, Mr. Kipling wrote a series of eight letters of travel, which appeared in several newspapers in that year, but which seem to have been overlooked by his biblio- graphers. John Lane lists four of them as having appeared in The Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore, but their English and American publication has been entirely ignored. In England they were published in the London Times. In the United States they seem to have been syndicated, and probably appeared in most of the larger cities. In New York they were printed in the Sunday Sun. A fuller account of them will be found in The Bookman (N.Y.) for March, 1914. They contain much inter- esting material, including the first drafts of a number of poems. It is noteworthy that there is considerable variation between the English and American versions of the letters, the latter including several poems which do not appear in The Times.

The following are the titles, dates, and subjects of the letters. The facts in regard to their Indian publication I take from John Lane's Bibliography in Le Gallienne's ' lludyard Kipling : a Criticism.'

1. ' In Sight of Monadnock ' : London Times, 13 April, 1892 ; New York Sun, 17 April, 1892. Winter scenes in Vermont.

2. ' From Tideway to Tideway ' : London Times, 1 and 9 May, 1892 ; New York Sun, 8 and

15 May, 1892. In the Sun the first part was entitled ' New York and St. Paul as Seen by lludyard Kipling,' and the second ' Across the Continent from Tideway to Tideway.' The first part contains severe criticisms of New York, and more lenient ones of St. Paul. The second describes the prairie and the Canadian Rockies.

3. ' The Edge of the East ' : London Times, 2 July, 1892 ; New York Sun, 3 and 17 July, 1892 ; Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, 9 and

16 July, 1892. Describes Japan, and closes with the first draft of ' Buddha at Kamakura-'


4. ' Our Overseas Men ' : London Times, 30 July,. 1892 ; New York Sun, 31 July and 7 Aug., 1892 ; Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, 8 and 15 Aug.,. 1892. Describes some of the types of men one meets in foreign parts, and especially in the clubs of Yokohama.

5. ' Some Earthquakes ' : London Times, 13 Aug., 1892 ; New York Sun, 14 Aug., 1892 ;. Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, 22 and 27 Aug., 1892. Japanese earthquakes, terrestrial and financial.

6. ' Half-a-Dozen Pictures ' : London Times,. 20 Aug., 1892 ; New York Sun, 28 Aug., 1892 ; Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, 3 and 5 Sept.,. 1892. Also in Current Literature (N.Y.), October, 1892. Six striking scenes in different parts of the world. As published in America, the letter closes with the first draft of " When Earth's last picture is painted."

7. ' Captains Courageous ' : London Times ,. 23 Nov., 1892 ; New York Sun, 27 Nov., 1892. In The Sun the title reads " What lludyard Kipling saw on his way back from Japan. With something about out-land adventurers and the- boom spirit of the great West," which sufficiently describes the contents. The American version; contains the first draft of the opening stanza of ' The Rhyme of the Three Sealers,' and opens with ' The Foreloper.'

8. ' On One Side Only ' : London Times , 29 Nov., 1892 ; New York Sun, 4 Dec., 1892. Summer in Vermont, with some remarks about American nerves and character.

J. DE LANCEY FERGUSON. Columbia University.

[See also 11 S. viii. 441, 464, 485, 515 ; ix. 34, 93,. 134, 309.]

AMERICAN PONY EXPRESS. The following extract from the life of John Young Nelson,, who was born at Charleston, Virginia, iiL 1826, is perhaps worth a place in ' N. & Q., r inasmuch as the book containing it is not very well known. Nelson ran away from home at twelve years of age, and lived for many years with a tribe of Sioux Indians, a band of whom, known as the Brules, adopted him as one of their own. He later in life acted as guide to Brigham Young, who wa& met while leading the first band of Mormons in search of the Promised Land. Later still, he accompanied a troop of American soldiers sent out to punish the same Mormons,, who had massacred in cold blood a band of defenceless emigrants a notorious outrage,, still known as the " Mountain Meadow affair." The author of the book gives, numerous other thrilling incidents in Nelson's- life, vouching for the absolute truth of everything therein narrated.

" One day I fell across A B. Miller, the Super- intendent of the Pony Express Agency then running to California. He told me the Pi-Ute Indians had broken out along the route, and had sca,red his two riders, who were the half-breed sons of a Capt. Egan, by telling them that if they came through the country again they would be