Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
A Free Gift
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
Summary
Published: Pioneer, 19 March 1888; Pioneer Mail, 21 March 1888.
Atrribution: Not in the Scrapbooks, but the story clearly follows from ‘The Tracking of Chuckerbutti’, published eighteen days earlier, which is in the Scrapbooks.
Text: Pioneer.
Note: The story has been reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets and in Harbord, iv, 1994– 7.
If his worst enemy had been at his elbow all the time Chuckerbutti could hardly have mismanaged things more thoroughly. He had a splendid chance too. All that he wanted was just the least little bit of reserve – the “judicious impartiality” trick. But he threw his chance away. And in this fashion.
Chuckerbutti had been permitted to call his Viceroys pet names – such as “George Samivel” or “Freddy.” When they pleased him, he slapped them on the back familious-fash, and said:– “Shabash! Babu how he can make eshlave!” Some Viecroys rather winced, but some of them liked it awfully. When they didn't please him, Chuckerbutti used to dance in front of Government Place and snap his fingers at them. “We're the salt of the Earth and you're a dilettante mediocrity. We'll pull the scalp about your ears,” shouted Churkerbutti. Then the Viceroys, who were not altogether unknown men, used to put on their collective eye-glasses and say:– “How interesting? Is it possible that this – ahem – gentleman has never been beyond the Ditch?” Then they would go on with whatever work was most urgent, and Chuckerbutti jumped with indignation. Some years before a man had come along and stroked Chuckerbutti on the head, saying:– “You haven't taken any scrip in railways or mills or any single commercial enterprise: you don't know what cleanliness means, and you keep rayther too tight a hand upon your women folk; but you're a great man – you're the Heir of all the Ages.” Chuckerbutti had been living on that certificate ever since. When he came across a Viceroy who recognised that there were other people in the world besides Chuckerbutti, he naturally ramped. But that was his blunder. If he had said:– “I'm a down-trodden Aryan groaning under a brutal heel. Observe my bleeding chest!” and stopped there, the hat would have gone round for pice, and Chuckerbutti would have secured unlimited pity.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cause of Humanity and Other StoriesThe Cause of Humanity and Other Stories Uncollected Prose Fictions, pp. 205 - 209Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018