Actions and Reactions
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Rudyard Kipling >> Actions and Reactions
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The human, as apart from the scientific, side (developed in his
own volumes) of his epoch-making discoveries is marked with a
simplicity, clarity, and good sense beyond praise. I would
specially refer such as doubt the sustaining influence of
ancestral faith upon character and will to the eleventh and
nineteenth chapters, in which are contained the opening and
consummation of the Tellurionical Records extending over nine
years. Of their tremendous significance be sure that the modest
house at Meudon knew as little as that the Records would one day
be the planet's standard in all official meteorology. It was
enough for them that their Xavier--this son, this father, this
husband--ascended periodically to commune with powers, it might
be angelic, beyond their comprehension, and that they united
daily in prayers for his safety.
"Pray for me," he says upon the eve of each of his excursions,
and returning, with an equal simplicity, he renders thanks "after
supper in the little room where he kept his barometers."
To the last Lavalle was a Catholic of the old school,
accepting--he who had looked into the very heart of the
lightnings--the dogmas of papal infallibility, of absolution, of
confession--of relics great and small. Marvellous--enviable
contradiction!
The completion of the Tellurionical Records closed what Lavalle
himself was pleased to call the theoretical side of his
labours--labours from which the youngest and least impressionable
planeur might well have shrunk. He had traced through cold and
heat, across the deeps of the oceans, with instruments of his own
invention, over the inhospitable heart of the polar ice and the
sterile visage of the deserts, league by league, patiently,
unweariedly, remorselessly, from their ever-shifting cradle under
the magnetic pole to their exalted death-bed in the utmost ether
of the upper atmosphere each one of the Isoconical Tellurions
Lavalle's Curves, as we call them today. He had disentangled the
nodes of their intersections, assigning to each its regulated
period of flux and reflux. Thus equipped, he summons Herrera and
Tinsley, his pupils, to the final demonstration as calmly as
though he were ordering his flighter for some mid-day journey to
Marseilles.
"I have proved my thesis," he writes. "It remains now only that
you should witness the proof. We go to Manila to-morrow. A
cyclone will form off the Pescadores S. 17 E. in four days, and
will reach its maximum intensity twenty-seven hours after
inception. It is there I will show you the Truth."
A letter heretofore unpublished from Herrera to Madame Lavalle
tells us how the Master's prophecy was verified.
I will not destroy its simplicity or its significance by any
attempt to quote. Note well, though, that Herrera's preoccupation
throughout that day and night of superhuman strain is always for
the Master's bodily health and comfort.
"At such a time," he writes, "I forced the Master to take the
broth"; or "I made him put on the fur coat as you told me." Nor
is Tinsley (see pp. 184, 85) less concerned. He prepares the
nourishment. He cooks eternally, imperturbably, suspended in the
chaos of which the Master interprets the meaning. Tinsley, bowed
down with the laurels of both hemispheres, raises himself to yet
nobler heights in his capacity of a devoted chef. It is almost
unbelievable! And yet men write of the Master as cold, aloof,
self-contained. Such characters do not elicit the joyous and
unswerving devotion which Lavalle commanded throughout life.
Truly, we have changed very little in the course of the ages! The
secrets of earth and sky and the links that bind them, we
felicitate ourselves we are on the road to discover; but our
neighbours' heart and mind we misread, we misjudge, we condemn
now as ever. Let all, then, who love a man read these most human,
tender, and wise volumes.
*************
transcriber's note: These "advertisements" appeared in the format
that would have been used in a newspaper or magazine ad
section--that is in two columns for the smaller ads, and in
quarter, half, full and double page layouts for the others. also
L is used as the symbol for pounds.
*************
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MISCELLANEOUS
[ WANTS ]
REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY, FOR East Africa, a thoroughly competent
Plane and Dirigible Driver, acquainted with Petrol Radium and
Helium motors and generators. Low-level work only, but must
understand heavy-weight digs.
MOSSAMEDES TRANSPORT ASSOC.
84 Palestine Buildings, E. C.
------------------------------------------------
MAN WANTED-DIG DRIVER for Southern Alps with Saharan summer
trips. High levels, high speed. high wages:
Apply M. SIDNEY
Hotel San Stefano. Monte Carlo.
------------------------------------------------
FAMILY DIRIGIBLE. A COMPETENT, steady man wanted for slow speed,
low level Tangye dirigible. No night work, no sea trips. Must be
member of the Church of England, and make himself useful in the
garden.
M. R.
The Rectory, Gray's Barton, Wilts.
------------------------------------------------
COMMERCIAL DIG, CENTRAL and Southern Europe. A smart, active man
for a L. M. T. Dig. Night work only. Headquarters London and
Cairo. A linguist preferred.
BAGMAN
Charing Cross Hotel, W. C. (urgent.)
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FOR SALE--A BARGAIN--Single Plane, narrow-gauge vans, Pinke
motor. Restayed this autumn. Hansen air-kit, 58 in. chest, 153
collar. Can be seen by appointment.
N. 2650 This office.
------------------------------------------------
The BEE-LINE BOOKSHOP
BELT'S WAY-BOOKS, giving town lights for all towns over 4,000
pop. as laid down by A. B. O.
THE WORLD. Complete 2 vols. Thin Oxford, limp back. 12L 6d.
BELT'S COASTAL ITINERARY. Short Lights of the World. 7s. 6d.
THE TRANSATLANTIC AND MEDITERRANEAN TRAFFIC LINES.
(By authority of the A.B.C.) Paper,
1s. 6d.; cloth. 2s. 6d. Ready, Jan. 16.
ARCTIC AEROPLANING. Siemens and Gait. Cloth, bds. Ss. 6d.
LAVALLE'S HEART OF THE CYCLONE, with supplementary charts. 4s.
6d.
RIMINGTON'S PITFALLS IN THE AIR, and Table of Comparative
Densities 3s. 6d.
ANGELO'S DESERT IN A DIRIGIBLE. New edition, revised. 5s. 9d.
VAUGHAN'S PLANE RACING IN CALM AND STORM. 2s. 6d.
VAUGHAN'S HINTS TO THE AIRMATEUR 1s.
HOFMAN'S LAWS OF LIFT AND VELOCITY. With diagrams, 3s. 6d.
DE VITRE'S THEORY OF SHIFTING BALLAST IN DIRIGIBLES. 2s. 6d.
SANGERS WEATHERS OF THE WORLD. 4s.
SANGER'S TEMPERATURES AT HIGH ALTITUDES. 4s.
HAWKIN'S FOG AND HOW To AVOID IT. 3s.
VAN ZUYLAN'S SECONDARY EFFECTS OF THUNDERSTORMS. 4s. 6d.
DAHLGREN'S AIR CURRENTS AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 5s. 6d.
REDMAYNE'S DISEASE AND THE BAROMETER. 7s. 6d.
WALTON'S HEALTH RESORTS OF THE GOBI AND SHAMO. 3s. 6d.
WALTON'S THE POLE AND PULMONARY COMPLAINTS. 7s. ad.
MUTLOWS HIGH LEVEL BACTERIOLOGY. 7s. 6d.
HALLIWELL'S ILLUMINATED STAR MAP, with clockwork attachment,
giving apparent motion of heavens, boxed, complete with
clamps for binnacle, 36 inch size, only L2. 2. 0.
Invaluable for night work.) With A.B.C. certificate. L3. 10s.
0d. Zalinski's Standard Works:
PASSES OF THE HIMALAYAS, 5s.
PASSES OF THE SIERRAS, 5s.
PASSES OF THE ROOKIES. 5s.
PASSES OF THE URALS, 5s.
The four boxed, limp cloth, with charts, 15s.
GRAY'S AIR CURRENTS at MOUNTAIN GORGES, 7s. 6d.
A. C. BELT & SON, READING
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SAFETY WEAR FOR AERONAUTS
------------------------------------------------
Fickers! Flickers! Flickers!
HIGH LEVEL FLICKERS
"He that is down need fear no fall,"
Fear not! You will fall lightly as down!
Hansen's air-kits are down in all respects. Tremendous reductions
in prices previous to winter stocking. Pure para kit with
cellulose seat and shoulder-pads, weighted to balance. Unequalled
for all drop-work.
Our trebly resilient heavy kit is the ne plus ultra of
comfort and safety.
Gas-buoyed, waterproof, hail-proof, nonconducting Flickers with
pipe and nozzle fitting all types of generator. Graduated tap on
left hip.
Hansen's Flickers Lead the Aerial Flight
197 Oxford Street
The new weighted Flicker with tweed or cheviot surface
cannot be distinguished from the ordinary suit till inflated.
Fickers! Flickers! Flickers!
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APPLIANCES FOR AIR PLANES
------------------------------------------------
What
"SKID"
was to our forefathers on the ground,
"PITCH"
is to their sons in the air.
The popularity of the large, unwieldy, slow, expensive Dirigible
over the light swift, Plane is mainly due to the former's
immunity from pitch.
Collison's forward-socketed Air Van renders it impossible for any
plane to pitch. The C.F.S. is automatic, simple as a shutter,
certain\ as a power hammer, safe as oxygen. Fitted to any make of
plane.
COLLISON
186 Brompton Road
Workshops, Chiswick
LUNDIE do MATTERS
Sole Agts for East'n Hemisphere
------------------------------------------------
STARTERS AND GUIDES
Hotel, club, and private house plane-starters, slips and guides
affixed by skilled workmen in accordance with local building
laws.
Rackstraww's forty-foot collapsible steel starters with automatic
release at end of travel--prices per foot run, clamps and
crampons included. The safest on the market.
Weaver & Denison
Middleboro
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AIR PLANES AND DIRIGIBLE GOODS
------------------------------------------------
REMEMBER
Planes are swift--so is Death
Planes are cheap--so is Life
Why does the plane builder insist on the safety of his machines?
Methinks the gentleman protests too much.
The Standard Dig Construction Company do not build kites.
They build, equip and guarantee dirigibles.
Standard Dig construction Co.
Millwall and Buenos Ayres
------------------------------------------------
HOVERS
POWELL'S
Wind Hovers
for 'planes lying-to in heavy weather, save the motor and strain
on the forebody. Will not send to leeward. "Albatross"
wind-hovers, rigid-ribbed; according to h.p. and weight.
We fit and test free to
40 east of Greenwich Village
L. & W. POWELL
196 Victoria Street, W.
------------------------------------------------
REMEMBER
We shall always be pleased to see you.
We build and test and guarantee our dirigibles or all purposes.
They go up when you please and they do not come down till you
please.
You can please yourself, but--you might as well choose a
dirigible.
STANDARD DIRIGIBLE CONSTRUCTION CO.
Millwall and Buenos Ayres
------------------------------------------------
GAYER AND HUNT
Birmingham and Birmingham
Eng. Ala.
Towers. Landing Stages,
Slips and Lifts
public and private
Contractors to the A. B. C., South-Western European Postal
Construction Dept. Sole patentees and owners of the
Collison anti-quake diagonal tower-tie. Only gold medal Kyoto
Exhibition of Aerial Appliances, 1997.
------------------------------------------------
AIR PLANES AND DIRIGIBLES
------------------------------------------------
C. M. C.
Our Synthetical Mineral
BEARINGS
are chemically and crystal logically identical with the minerals
whose names they bear. Any size, any surface. Diamond,
Rock-Crystal, Agate and Ruby Bearings-cups, caps and collars for
the higher speeds. For tractor bearings and spindles-Imperative.
For rear propellers-Indispensable. For all working
parts-Advisable.
Commercial Minerals Co.
107 Minories
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RESURGAM!
If you have not Clothed YOURSELF in a
NORMANDIE RESURGAM
YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT BE INTERESTED IN OUR NEXT WEEK'S LIST OF
AIR-KIT.
RESURGAM AIR-KIT EMPORIUM
HYMANS & GRAHAM
1198 Lower Broadway, New York
------------------------------------------------
REMEMBER!
------------------------------------------------
* It is now nearly, a generation since the Plane was to
supersede the Dirigible for all purposes. * TO-DAY none of the
Planet's freight is carried en plane. * Less than two per rent of
the Planet's passengers are carried en plane.
We design, equip guarantee Dirigibles for all purposes.
Standard Dig Construction Company MILLWALL and BUENOS AYRES
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BAT-BOATS
------------------------------------------------
FLINT & MANTEL
SOUTHAMPTON
FOR SALE
at the end of Season the following Bat-Boats:
GRISELDA, 65 knt., 42 ft., 430(nom.) Maginnis Motor,
under-rake rudder.
MABELLE, 50 knt., 40 ft., 310 Hargreaves Motor,
Douglas' lock-steering gear.
IVEMONA, 50 knt., 35 ft., 300 Hargreaves (Radium accelerator),
Miller keel and rudder.
The above are well known on the South Coast as sound, wholesome
knockabout boats, with ample cruising accommodation. Griselda
carries spare set of Hofman racing vans and can be lied three
foot clear in smooth water with ballast-tank swung aft. The
others do not lift, clear of water, and are recommended for
beginners.
Also, by private treaty, racing B.B. Tarpon (76 winning flags)
120 knt., 60 ft.; Long-Davidson double under-rake rudder, new
this season and unstrained. 850 nom. Maginnis motor, Radium
relays and Pond generator. Bronze breakwater forward, and treble
reinforced forefoot and entry. Talfourd rockered keel: Triple set
of Hofman vans, giving maximum lifting surface of 5327 sq. ft.
Tarpon-has been lifted and held seven feet for two miles between
touch and touch.
Our Autumn List of racing and family Bats ready on the 9th
January.
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AIR PLANES AND STARTERS
------------------------------------------------
HINKS MODERATOR
Monorail overhead starter
for family and private planes
up to twenty-five foot over all
Absolutely Safe
Hinks & Co.. Birmingham
------------------------------------------------
J. D. ARDAGH
I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH YOUR PLANE I AFTER IT LEAVES MY GUIDES,
BUT TILL THEN I HOLD MYSELF PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LIFE,
SAFETY, AND COMFORT. MY HYDRAULIC BUFFER-STOP CANNOT RELEASE
TILL THE MOTORS ARE WORKING UP TO BEARING SPEED, THUS SECURING
A SAFE AND GRACEFUL FLIGHT WITHOUT PITCHING.
Remember our motto, "Upward and Outward,"
and do not trust yourself to so-called "rigid" guide-bars
J. D. ARDAGH, BELFAST AND TURIN
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ACCESSORIES AND SPARES
------------------------------------------------
CHRISTIAN WRIGHT & OLDIS
ESTABLISHED 1924
ACCESSORIES and SPARES
Hooded Binnacles with dip-dials automatically recording
change of level (illuminated face).
All heights from 50 to 15,000 feet L2 10 0
With Aerial Board of Control certificate L3 11 0
Foot and Hand Foghoms; Sirens toned to any club note; with
air-chest belt-driven horn motor L6 8 0
Wireless installations syntonised to A.B.C. requirements, in neat
mahogany case, hundred mile range L3 3 0
Grapnels, mushroom--anchors, pithing-irons, winches, hawsers,
snaps, shackles and mooring ropes, for lawn, city, and public
installations.
Detachable under-cars, aluminum or stamped steel.
Keeled under-cars for planes: single-action detaching-gear,
turning car into boat with one motion of the wrist. Invaluable
for sea trips.
Head, side, and riding lights (by size) Nos.00 to 20 A.B.C.
Standard. Rockets and fog-bombs in colours and tones of the
principal clubs (boxed).
A selection of twenty L2 17 6
International night-signals (boxed) L1 11 6
Spare generators guaranteed to lifting power marked on cover
(prices according to power).
Wind-noses for dirigibles--Pegamoid, cane-stiffened, lacquered
cane or aluminum and flux for winter work.
Smoke-ring cannon for hail storms, swivel mounted, bow or stern.
Propeller blades: metal, tungsten backed; paper-mache wire
stiffened; ribbed Xylonite (Nickson's patent); all razor-edged
(price by pitch and diameter).
Compressed steel bow-screws for winter work.
Fused Ruby or Commercial Mineral Co. bearings and collars.
Agate-mounted thrust-blocks up to 4 inch.
Magniac's bow-rudders--(Lavales patent grooving).
Wove steel beltings for outboard motors (nonmagnetic).
Radium batteries, all powers to 150 h.p. (in pairs).
Helium batteries, all powers to 300 h.p. (tandem).
Stun'sle brakes worked from upper or lower platform.
Direct plunge-brakes worked from lower platform only, loaded silk
or fibre, wind-tight.
CATALOGUES FREE THROUGHOUT THE PLANET
------------------------------------------------
THE FOUR ANGELS
As ADAM lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Earth came down, and offered Earth in fee.
But Adam did not need it,
Nor the plough he would not speed it,
Singing:--"Earth and Water, Air and Fire,
What more can mortal man desire?"
(The Apple Tree's in bud.)
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Waters offered all the Seas in fee.
But Adam would not take 'em,
Nor the ships he wouldn't make 'em,
Singing:--"Water, Earth and Air and Fire,
What more can mortal man desire?"
(The Apple Tree's in leaf.)
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Air he offered all the Air in fee.
But Adam did not crave it,
Nor the flight he wouldn't brave it,
Singing:--"Air and Water, Earth and Fire,
What more can mortal man desire?"
(The Apple Tree's in bloom.)
As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,
The Angel of the Fire rose up and not a word said he.
But he wished a fire and made it,
And in Adam's heart he laid it,
Singing.--"Fire, fire, burning Fire,
Stand up and reach your heart's desire!"
(The Apple Blossom's set.)
As Adam was a-working outside of Eden-Wall,
He used the Earth, he used the Seas, he used the Air and all;
And out of black disaster
He arose to be the master
Of Earth and Water, Air and Fire,
But never reached his heart's desire!
(The Apple Tree's cut down!)
A DEAL IN COTTON
Long and long ago, when Devadatta was King of Benares, I wrote
some tales concerning Strickland of the Punjab Police (who
married Miss Youghal), and Adam, his son. Strickland has finished
his Indian Service, and lives now at a place in England called
Weston-super-Mare, where his wife plays the organ in one of the
churches. Semi-occasionally he comes up to London, and
occasionally his wife makes him visit his friends. Otherwise he
plays golf and follows the harriers for his figure's sake.
If you remember that Infant who told a tale to Eustace Cleever
the novelist, you will remember that he became a baronet with a
vast estate. He has, owing to cookery, a little lost his figure,
but he never loses his friends. I have found a wing of his house
turned into a hospital for sick men, and there I once spent a
week in the company of two dismal nurses and a specialist in
"Sprue." Another time the place was full of schoolboys--sons of
Anglo-Indians whom the Infant had collected for the holidays, and
they nearly broke his keeper's heart.
But my last visit was better. The Infant called me up by wire,
and I fell into the arms of a friend of mine, Colonel A.L.
Corkran, so that the years departed from us, and we praised
Allah, who had not yet terminated the Delights, nor separated the
Companions.
Said Corkran, when he had explained how it felt to command a
native Infantry regiment on the border: "The Stricks are coming
for to-night-with their boy."
"I remember him. The little fellow I wrote a story about," I
said. "Is he in the Service?"
"No. Strick got him into the Centro-Euro-Africa Protectorate.
He's Assistant-Commissioner at Dupe--wherever that is.
Somaliland, ain't it, Stalky?" asked the Infant.
Stalky puffed out his nostrils scornfully. "You're only three
thousand miles out. Look at the atlas."
"Anyhow, he's as rotten full of fever as the rest of you," said
the Infant, at length on the big divan. "And he's bringing a
native servant with him. Stalky be an athlete, and tell Ipps to
put him in the stable room."
"Why? Is he a Yao--like the fellow Wade brought here--when your
housekeeper had fits?" Stalky often visits the Infant, and has
seen some odd things.
"No. He's one of old Strickland's Punjabi policemen--and quite
European--I believe."
"Hooray! Haven't talked Punjabi for three months--and a Punjabi
from Central Africa ought to be amusin'."
We heard the chuff of the motor in the porch, and the first to
enter was Agnes Strickland, whom the Infant makes no secret of
adoring.
He is devoted, in a fat man's placid way, to at least eight
designing women; but she nursed him once through a bad bout of
Peshawur fever, and when she is in the house, it is more than all
hers.
"You didn't send rugs enough," she began. "Adam might have taken
a chill."
"It's quite warm in the tonneau. Why did you let him ride in
front? "
"Because he wanted to," she replied, with the mother's smile, and
we were introduced to the shadow of a young man leaning heavily
on the shoulder of a bearded Punjabi Mohammedan.
"That is all that came home of him," said his father to me. There
was nothing in it of the child with whom I had journeyed to
Dalhousie centuries since."
"And what is this uniform?" Stalky asked of Imam Din, the
servant, who came to attention on the marble floor.
"The uniform of the Protectorate troops, Sahib. Though I am the
Little Sahib's body-servant, it is not seemly for us white men to
be attended by folk dressed altogether as servants."
"And--and you white men wait at table on horseback?" Stalky
pointed to the man's spurs.
"These I added for the sake of honour when I came to England,"
said Imam Din Adam smiled the ghost of a little smile that I
began to remember, and we put him on the big couch for
refreshments. Stalky asked him how much leave he had, and he said
"Six months."
"But he'll take another six on medical certificate," said Agnes
anxiously. Adam knit his brows.
"You don't want to--eh? I know. Wonder what my second in command
is doing." Stalky tugged his moustache, and fell to thinking of
his Sikhs.
"Ah!" said the Infant. "I've only a few thousand pheasants to
look after. Come along and dress for dinner. We're just
ourselves. What flower is your honour's ladyship commanding for
the table?"
"Just ourselves?" she said, looking at the crotons in the great
hall. "Then let's have marigolds the little cemetery ones."
So it was ordered.
Now, marigolds to us mean hot weather, discomfort, parting, and
death. That smell in our nostrils, and Adam's servant in waiting,
we naturally fell back more and more on the old slang, recalling
at each glass those who had gone before. We did not sit at the
big table, but in the bay window overlooking the park, where they
were carting the last of the hay. When twilight fell we would not
have candles, but waited for the moon, and continued our talk in
the dusk that makes one remember.
Young Adam was not interested in our past except where it had
touched his future. I think his mother held his hand beneath the
table. Imam Din--shoeless, out of respect to the floors--brought
him his medicine, poured it drop by drop, and asked for orders.
"Wait to take him to his cot when he grows weary," said his
mother, and Imam Din retired into the shadow by the ancestral
portraits.
"Now what d'you expect to get out of your country?" the Infant
asked, when--our India laid aside we talked Adam's Africa. It
roused him at once.
"Rubber -nuts -gums -and so on," he said. "But our real future is
cotton. I grew fifty acres of it last year in my District."
"My District!" said his father. "Hear him, Mummy!"
"I did though! I wish I could show you the sample. Some
Manchester chaps said it was as good as any Sea Island cotton on
the market."
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