From Sea to Sea

and Other Sketches

Letters of Travel

‘Write me as one that loved his fellow-men’

1899

Rudyard Kipling


Volume 1

Preface

 

LETTERS OF MARQUE

I
Of the Beginning of Things. Of the Taj and the Globe-trotter. The Young Man from Manchester and Certain Moral Reflections

II
Shows the Charm of Rajputana and of Jeypore, the City of the Globe-trotter. Of its Founder and its Embellishment. Explains the Use and Destiny of the Stud-bred, and fails to explain Many More Important Matters

III
Does not in Any Sort Describe the Dead City of Amber, but gives Detailed Information about a Cotton-Press

IV
The Temple of Mahadeo and the Manners of Such as see India. The Man by the Water-troughs and his Knowledge. The Voice of the City and what it said. Personalities and the Hospital. The House Beautiful of Jeypore and its Builders

V
Of the Sordidness of the Supreme Government on the Revenue Side; and of the Palace of Jeypore. A Great King’s Pleasure-house, and the Work of the Servants of State

VI
Showing how Her Majesty’s Mails went to Udaipur and fell out by the Way

VII
Touching the Children of the Sun and their City; and the Hat-marked Caste and their Merits; and a Good Man’s Works in the Wilderness

VIII
Divers Passages of Speech and Action whence the Nature, Arts, and Disposition of the King and his Subjects may be observed

IX
Of the Pig-drive which was a Panther-killing, and of the Departure to Chitor

X
A Little of the History of Chitor, and the Malpractices of a She-elephant

XI
Proves conclusively the Existence of the Dark Tower visited by Childe Rolande, and of ‘Bogey’ who frightens Children

XII
Contains the History of the Bhumia of Jhaswara, and the Record of a Visit to the House of Strange Stories. Demonstrates the Felicity of Loaferdom, which is the veritable Companionship of the Indian Empire, and proposes a Scheme for the Better Officering of Two Departments

XIII
A King’s House and Country. Further Consideration of the Hat-marked Caste

XIV
Among the Houyhnhnms

XV
Treats of the Startling Effect of a Reduction in Wages and the Pleasures of Loaferdom. Paints the State of the Boondi Road and the Treachery of Ganesh of Situr

XVI
The Comedy of Errors and the Exploitation of Boondi. The Castaway of the Dispensary and the Children of the Schools. A Consideration of the Shields of Rajasthan and Other Trifles

XVII
Shows that there may be Poetry in a Bank, and attempts to show the Wonders of the Palace of Boondi

XVIII
Of the Uncivilised Night and the Departure to Things Civilised. Showing how a Friend may keep an Appointment too well

XIX
Comes back to the Railway, after Reflections on the Management of the Empire; and so Home again, with Apology to All who have read thus far

 

FROM SEA TO SEA

I
Of Freedom and the Necessity of using her. The Motive and the Scheme that will come to Nothing. A Disquisition upon the Otherness of Things and the Torments of the Damned

II
The River of the Lost Footsteps and the Golden Mystery upon its Banks. Shows how a Man may go to the Shway Dagon Pagoda and see it not and to the Pegu Club and hear too much. A Dissertation on Mixed Drinks

III
The City of Elephants which is governed by the Great God of Idleness, who lives on the Top of a Hill. The History of Three Great Discoveries and the Naughty Children of Iquique

IV
Showing how I came to Palmiste Island and the Place of Paul and Virginia, and fell Asleep in a Garden. A Disquisition on the Folly of Sight-seeing

V
Of the Threshold of the Far East and the Dwellers thereon. A Dissertation upon the Use of the British Lion

VI
Of the Well-dressed Islanders of Singapur and their Diversions; proving that all Stations are exactly Alike. Shows how One Chicago Jew and an American Child can poison the Purest Mind

VII
Shows how I arrived in China and saw entirely through the Great Wall and out upon the Other Side

VIII
Of Jenny and her Friends. Showing how a Man may go to see Life and meet Death there. Of the Felicity of Life and the Happiness of Corinthian Kate. The Woman and the Cholera

IX
Some Talk with a Taipan and a General: proves in what Manner a Sea-Picnic may be a Success

X
Shows how I came to Goblin Market and took a Scunner at it and cursed the Chinese People. Shows further how I initiated all Hong-Kong into our Fraternity

XI
Of Japan at Ten Hours’ Sight, containing a Complete Account of the Manners and Customs of its People, a History of its Constitution, Products, Art, and Civilisation, and omitting a Tiffin in a Tea-house with O-Toyo

XII
A Further Consideration of Japan. The Inland Sea, and Good Cookery. The Mystery of Passports and Consulates and Certain Other Matters

XIII
The Japanese Theatre and the Story of the Thunder Cat. Treating also of the Quiet Places and the Dead Man in the Street

XIV
Explains in what Manner I was taken to Venice in the Rain and climbed into a Devil Fort; a Tin-pot Exhibition and a Bath. Of the Maiden and the Boltless Door, the Cultivator and his Fields, and the Manufacture of Ethnological Theories at Railroad Speed. Ends with Kioto

XV
Kioto, and how I fell in Love with the Chief Belle there after I had conferred with Certain China Merchants who trafficked in Tea. Shows further how, in a Great Temple, I broke the Tenth Commandment in Fifty-three Places and bowed down before Kano and a Carpenter. Takes me to Arashima

XVI
The Party in the Parlour who played Games. A Complete History of All Modern Japanese Art; a Survey of the Past and a Prophecy of the Future, arranged and composed in the Kioto Factories

XVII
Of the Nature of the Tokaido and Japanese Railway Construction. One Traveller explains the Life of the Sahib-Log, and Another the Origin of Dice. Of the Babies in the Bath-Tub and the Man in D.T.

XVIII
Concerning a Hot-Water Tap, and Some General Conversation

XIX
The Legend of Nikko Ford and the Story of the Avoidance of Misfortune

XX
Shows how I grossly libelled the Japanese Army, and edited a Civil and Military Gazette which is not in the least Trustworthy

XXI
Shows the Similarity between the Babu and the Japanese. Contains the Earnest Outcry of an Unbeliever. The Explanation of Mr. Smith of California and Elsewhere. Takes me on Board Ship after Due Warning to those who follow

XXII
Shows how I came to America before My Time and was much shaken in Body and Soul

XXIII
How I got to San Francisco and took Tea with the Natives there

XXIV
Shows how through Folly I assisted at a Murder and was Afraid. The Rule of the Democracy and the Despotism of the Alien

 

Volume 2

XXV
Tells how I dropped into Politics and the Tenderer Sentiments. Contains a Moral Treatise on American Maidens and an Ethnological One on the Negro. Ends with a Banquet and a Type-writer.

XXVI
Takes me through Bret Harte’s Country, and to Portland with ‘Old Man California.’ Explains how Two Vagabonds became Homesick through looking at Other People’s Houses.

XXVII
Shows how I caught Salmon in the Clackamas

XXVIII
Takes me from Vancouver to the Yellowstone National Park.

XXIX
Shows how Yankee Jim introduced me to Diana of the Crossways on the Banks of the Yellowstone and how a German Jew said I was no True Citizen. Ends with the Celebration of the 4th of July and a Few Lessons therefrom

XXX
Shows how I entered Mazanderan of the Persians and saw Devils of Every Colour, and some Troopers. Hell and the Old Lady from Chicago. The Captain and the Lieutenant.

XXXI
Ends with the Cañon of the Yellowstone. The Maiden from New Hampshire—Larry—‘Wrap-up-his-Tail’—Tom—The Old Lady from Chicago—and a Few Natural Phenomena—including one Briton

XXXII
Of the American Army and the City of the Saints. The Temple, the Book of Mormon, and the Girl from Dorset. An Oriental Consideration of Polygamy

XXXIII
How I met Certain People of Importance between Salt Lake and Omaha

XXXIV
Across the Great Divide; and how the Man Gring showed me. the Garments of the Ellewomen

XXXV
How I struck Chicago, and how Chicago struck me. Of Religion, Politics, and Pig-sticking, and the Incarnation of the City among Shambles

XXXVI
How I found Peace at Musquash on the Monongahela

XXXVII
An Interview with Mark Twain

 

THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT

I
A Real Live City

II
The Reflections of a Savage

III
The Council of the Gods

IV
On the Banks of the Hughli

V
With the Calcutta Police

VI
The City of Dreadful Night

VII
Deeper and Deeper Still

VIII
Concerning Lucia

 

AMONG THE RAILWAY FOLK

I
A Railway Settlement

II
The Shops

III
Vulcan’s Forge

 

THE GIRIDIH COAL-FIELDS

I
On the Surface

II
In the Depths

III
The Perils of the Pits

 

IN AN OPIUM FACTORY

 

THE SMITH ADMINISTRATION

The following are newspaper articles written between 1887 and 1888 for my paper.—R. K.


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