Seventy Years Among Savages by Henry S. Salt (George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London, 1921). 10s. 6d.
This is not the story of strange adventures among the savages of some far off south sea island, but the record of a long and busy life among the people of the British Isles ; written by a cultured and liberal-minded scholar and humanitarian who has now reached the haven of a serene old age, and who looking back upon many years of life spent in the prosecution of good and noble service to the humanitarian cause, thought it fitting to describe his life among his fellow countrymen as being spent among people with the habits and outlook of book is partly ironic, and partly a challenge. He quotes as the heading to his first chapter the pregnant words of the late Ernest Crosby “A strange lot this; to be dropped down in a world of barbarians—Men who see clearly enough the barbarity of all ages except their own.”
Mr. Salt was born in 1850 (sic) and was educated at Eton and Oxford (sic), afterwards becoming a master at Eton, a post which he held for over ten years. He has many extraordinary and very laughable things to tell us about his days at Eton. Especially funny is his description of The Lower Master at Eton who was the Rev. F. E. Durnford, nicknamed “Judy” “A strange, laughable yet almost pathetic figure, with whimsical puckered visage and generally weather-beaten aspect, like a sort of ancient Mariner in academic garb. He, too, used the birch freely in his domain of lower school, but his castigations were of the paternal kind, and between the strokes of the rod he would interject moral reproofs in his queer nasal voice, such as; You nahty, nahty boy!” It was said that during the punishment he would even enter into conversation with the offender, especially when he knew his people personally, and that on one occasion he was overheard to enquire of a boy on the block; “Have you seen your uncle lately?” A question which, in the circumstances, would at first sight seem irrelevant, but was probably intended to awaken repentance in the criminal by directing his thoughts to some pious and respected relative.”
He has many very interesting anecdotes too regarding William Johnson-Cory who was also a master at Eton, and a poet of rare distinction, who published a little book of verse “lonica” which is recognised by critics as poetry of the highest order. Cory was extremely absentminded and Mr. Salt relates of him that “he was seen pursuing a hen down Windsor Hill and making futile grabs at her, under the belief that she was his hat.” Mr. Salt also relates the story of a certain Etonian who, being invited to write an account of St. James the Elder and St. James the Less was able to give a brief description of the Elder, but was reduced, in the case of the Lesser Saint, to the rather inadequate, though so far correct, statement that; “The other was another.”
After he left Eton the great work of Mr. Salt’s life was the founding of the Humanitarian League and for many years he not only edited the journal of the League but was the moving spirit in its manifold activities. The League took a strong line against the cruelties of sport, it protested very vigorously in the press, on the platform, and by means of leaflets, pamphlets and books, against all the grosser forms of cruelty, practised not only under the name of sport, but under the name of law and order, flogging in the navy, rabbit coursing, deer-hunting, breaking up hares, fox-hunting, all these things were protested against by the League in the name of Humanity. And Mr. Salt was the life and soul of the League throughout.
Mr. Salt has also been a very active man of letters, and has published among other books, a life of Thoreau, the great American naturalist and apostle of the simple life, a study of the life and work of the great pessimist poet, James Thomson (B. V.) and an anthology of poetry “Sons of Freedom,” the poems of Francis Adams (Songs of the Army of the Night) with an introduction, a volume of interpretation and appreciation of the life and work of Shelley, and a fascinating volume of recollections of Eton College.
His friendships have included many of the greatest men of letters and thinkers of his time. At the age of seventy-one (sic) Mr. Salt can look back over a life well spent in the service of his fellow-men and women. The outbreak of the great war was of course a great blow to his ideals. For a moment it seemed as if everything for which he had wrought and toiled had failed under the shadow of the great blood-letting, and in the midst of the organised lying and outbreak of stupid hatred which the war engendered. To Mr. Salt the outbreak of the war suggested the following reflections “It might bring a return to the ethics of, say, the Middle ages ; our countrymen’s innate savagery would be rather more openly and avowedly practised — that would be all. They would be like the troupe of monkeys who, having been trained to go through their performance with grave and sedate demeanour, were loosed suddenly, by the flinging of a handful of nuts, into all their native lawlessness.”
Seventy Years among Savages is one of the most fascinating books that has come our way for some time. It not only bubbles over with humour, it is full of a love for all great and noble causes which help mankind “to let the ape and tiger die”. It is the record of a life pilgrimage of one of those rare souls who from time to time are given by the Gods to a cruel and erring world, that they may hold aloft the banner of brave endeavour, and point the way to the uplands of life and conduct.
The Hindustan Review, Vol. 46 No. 276, April 1923, pp. 333-4
Book Reviewed: Seventy Years Among Savages