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Show MR. KIFLING AGAIN Rudyard Kipling, regarded by some critics as a bright literary light, and by others as one not so bright, has broken out into verse again. Whatever one may think of Rudyard's ability as a rhymster and literary man there can be no question, judging from some of his latest work that he is a little weak on logic. Among other things, in his latest volume, Mr. Kipling evolved a little poem drilled dr-illed "The Vineyard." In his poem, according to the critics, he has taken Uncle Sam to task for his conduct in the aftermath of the World War. The poem is very properly enclosed in a volume entitled en-titled "Debits and Credits." The rhyme about the vinyard starts off as follows: At the eleventh hour he came But his wages were the same As ours who all day long had trod The winepress of the wrath of God. Since his back had felt no load, ; Virtue in him still abode; . So he swiftly made his own, , Those lost spoils we had not won. This is supposed to refer to the part of Uncle Sam in the war. . It seems to suggest that he came in late, then grabbed off all the plunder without making any sacrifice of his own. This may be all right in poetry, if you have enough poetic license to put it over, but we fail to get the logic of it. Will somebody please have Mr. Kipling or some of his friends in this country tell us about the wages Uncle Sam received? Up to this time it would seem that he has been paid mostly in ingratitude. And the load he has borne and will bear includes not only the killed and wounded, but about fifty or so billions of dollars that it will cost him before the war expense has been entirely liquidated. It is to be admitted that there probably wouldn't have been any spoils won had not Uncle Sam gone into the game; but just when did he meke those spoils his own? ' A careful inventory of his pockets fails to discover any reparations, repara-tions, any Alsace-Lorraines, Any Asia Minors, flowing with oil and honey, any territory in Africa or among the isles of the Pacific. If Uncle Sam took over the spoils, he is holding out on his bo3's and girls, and we are entitled to know about it. |