From Sea
to Sea


MARCH-SEPTEMBER, 1889




Notes by David Page with considerable help from the 2003 work of D.H. Stewart in editing 'Kipling’s American: Travel Letters, 1889-1895', and of the ORG. 		Introduction
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXX



[December 31st 2010]

No. 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.



Publication History

The edited text largely corresponds with that first published in the Pioneer of 8 January 1890.

Maps and Journey

For this section of Kipling’s travels, see the 1895 maps for Montana and Wyoming. His stay in Livingston generated the story "A Little More Beef" that is collected in Abaft the Funnel.

He also had the chance to revel in yet more trout fishing before he arrived at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel 4 July, and which he left on 10 July. See also The Letters of Rudyard Kipling (Ed. Pinney), vol 1. for 2 July, 5 July, and 10 July, pp.327-331.


Notes on the text


[Title] All these references are explained in the notes to the text, below.

[Page 66, line 1] Livingstone This should be Livingston, without the final 'e'. This town in Montana is on the Yellowstone River and acts as a junction with one of the main routes of the Northern Pacific Railroad and its spur line, which runs south alongside the Yellowstone River towards the Yellowstone National Park. The spur terminated at Cinnabar (see later) just before entering the Park. The Yellowstone River rises in the Park and flows north across the Montana border where it turns E and NE to join with the Missouri River.

[Page 66, line 16] That was a picture I shall not soon forget. See the story "A Little More Beef", collected in Abaft the Funnel.

[Page 67, line 4] coyotes Canis latrans, otherwise known as the American jackal or prairie wolf.

[Page 68, line 4] 4th of July Independence Day. A Public Holiday in the United States to celebrate the date on which the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was signed – 4 July 1776.

[Page 68, line 17] purblind nearly blind.

[Page 68, line 22] cherubims little angels, part of the Heavenly Host first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 3,24, where they act as guardians of the Tree of Life. Later they appear in Exodus 25,20: 'And the Cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the Mercy Seat with their wings.'

[Page 69, line 8] Ananias See the Bible: Acts of the Apostles 5.1-5. He was a dishonest man, who gave a gift to the Church from the sale of some land, but secretly kept back part of it.

[Page 70, line 18] ‘on the neck the small head buoyant ...’ from “A Toccata of Galuppi’s”, verse 5, by Robert Browning (1812-1889). [D.H.S.]

[Pages 70 & 71, lines 33 & 1] Diana of the Crossways a novel by George Meredith (1828-1909), published in 1885. The beautiful Diana Warwick is the heroine of the novel.

[Page 71, line 7] lariat or lasso, a loop on the end of a rope used by cowboys for catching and controlling catte.

[Page 71, lines 17 & 18] Gardiner City the town just south of Cinnabar, the end of the N.P.R. spur from Livingston.

[Page 72, line 5] Cinnabar the town at the end of the N.P.R. spur. The city is named after the red mercuric sulphide which was found in the vicinity.

[Page 72, line 10] Mammoth Hot Springs is just inside the north-west border of the Yellowstone Park.

[Page 72, line 12] Rayment’s excursion parties In his letter to Mrs Edmonia Hill of 5 July 1889 (The Letters of Rudyard Kipling (Ed. Pinney), vol 1. p.329). Kipling writes the name correctly as ‘Raymond’s excursionists’.

Raymond’s arranged a “Vacation Excursion to Pacific Coast” in 1889, publishing a:

Souvenir List of Members Participating in the Eighth Grand Trip of the Season to the Pacific Coast, with Incidental Visits to Chicago, Las Vegas, Hot Springs, Santa Fe, etc., Raymond and Whitcomb's Tours, Party Leaving Boston, New York and Philadelphia, Thursday, March 7, 1889.
They had already organised at least one excursion to Yellowstone National Park in August,1888. See this website.

[Page 72, line 17] T. Cook and Son Thomas Cook (1808-1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, in northern England, effectively started the mass travel business, starting with Temperance League excursions. The travel group under his name still continues, and Kipling made regular use of the firm’s services throughout his life to arrange his overseas travel. See Egypt of the Magicians also in tis collection.

[Page 72, line 23] brake-load a brake was a horse-drawn open cart fitted with several rows of seats.

A brake-load was the full complement of passengers.

[Page 72, line 23] trapezing perhaps from 'trapes' or 'traipse' – to walk about in a trailing or untidy way. [D.H.S / O.E.D.]

[Page 73, line 9] headstalls a 'headstall' is a band that is the part of a horse’s bridle and fits over and round its head.

[Page 74, line 5] Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, in 1901.

[Page 75, line 31] ‘My country, ‘tis of thee’ . . . Up until the 1890s “Hail Columbia” was played as the de facto American National Anthem. See this site. [D.P./D.H.S.]



[D.P./D.H.S.]

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