ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS 107 



was awfully good of you to take the trouble, and 

 you've put me under an obligation. The change 

 to * Red Deer ' will be made for a new edition that's 

 coming out soon and for other editions as requisite. 

 " It's rather a coincidence that in the first and 

 last verse of those verses I should have made errors 

 which had to be corrected. I put (originally) the 

 two- or three-toed horse in the Neolithic Age, and 

 was very justly hauled over the coals for so doing. 

 I have your big vols. of the Mammals of Great 

 Britain, and I don't think that you anywhere state 

 that the common hedgehog is extraordinarily proof 

 against poisons toxic for choice. He does not 

 mind diphtheria or tetanus germs, and can also 

 absorb mineral poisons in large quantities. A 

 learned professor told me so this year. Is it true ? 1 



" Very gratefully yours, 

 " RUDYARD KIPLING." 



A man I knew well for a short time was Theodore 

 Roosevelt, late President of the North American 

 Republic, and it was a great disappointment to 

 me that his untimely death prevented a visit I 

 had hoped to pay him in 1919. 



Nearly all ages and nations produce men of 

 exceptional physical and mental capacity that tower 

 above their fellows. From youth upwards they 

 exhibit a strong disposition to lead others, and allow 

 none of those obstacles that deter lesser creatures 

 to obstruct the path of ambition and success. 

 Theodore Roosevelt was one of these " super-men," 

 and though born with advantages superior to the 



1 It is very doubtful if hedgehogs are immune, as suggested. 

 They are easily poisoned by strychnine. 



