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Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 180
Jaime Gil-Lafuente
Domenico Marino
Francesco Carlo Morabito Editors
Economy, Business
and Uncertainty:
New Ideas for a
Euro-Mediterranean
Industrial Policy
Studies in Systems, Decision and Control
Volume 180
Series editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
e-mail: [email protected]
The series “Studies in Systems, Decision and Control” (SSDC) covers both new
developments and advances, as well as the state of the art, in the various areas of
broadly perceived systems, decision making and control–quickly, up to date and
with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and perspectives
on the state of the art and future developments relevant to systems, decision
making, control, complex processes and related areas, as embedded in the fields of
engineering, computer science, physics, economics, social and life sciences, as well
as the paradigms and methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs,
textbooks, lecture notes and edited volumes in systems, decision making and
control spanning the areas of Cyber-Physical Systems, Autonomous Systems,
Sensor Networks, Control Systems, Energy Systems, Automotive Systems,
Biological Systems, Vehicular Networking and Connected Vehicles, Aerospace
Systems, Automation, Manufacturing, Smart Grids, Nonlinear Systems, Power
Systems, Robotics, Social Systems, Economic Systems and other. Of particular
value to both the contributors and the readership are the short publication timeframe
and the world-wide distribution and exposure which enable both a wide and rapid
dissemination of research output.
Economy, Business
and Uncertainty: New Ideas
for a Euro-Mediterranean
Industrial Policy
123
Editors
Jaime Gil-Lafuente Francesco Carlo Morabito
Departament d’Empresa Department of Civil, Energy, Environment
Universitat de Barcelona and Materials Engineering
Barcelona, Spain Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria
Reggio Calabria, Italy
Domenico Marino
Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria
Reggio Calabria, Italy
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Introduction
On 4th and 5th of September 2017, the XXVI International Conference of the
European Academy of Management and Business Economics was held at Reggio
Calabria, a welcoming Mediterranean city in Italy. The main motto of the confer-
ence was Economy, Business and Uncertainty: ideas for a European and
Mediterranean industrial policy.
The modern economy is made up of a «complex system in evolution» in which
single individuals are joined by relational forces, that the dynamic characteristics
cannot be represented by means of individual approaches, but through collective
properties submitted to successive non-reversible scansions. Thus, it is imaginable
that each economic system, in its evolution, manifests both a multiplicity of
equilibrium points, each dependent on previous historical interrelations, and the
presence of inefficiencies and lock-ins that may be selected during the evolutionary
course of the system, to the detriment of the possible efficient solutions.
The government of the economy, read as a complex system in evolution,
excludes, therefore, the possibility that commands can be expressed thinking of a
prescribed type mechanism, as would happen if the system under analysis were
substantially closed and characterized by a low level of interrelations between the
agents.
Within this paradigm, the involvement of professors and researchers from dif-
ferent Spanish, Italian and Latin American universities allowed us to develop and
enrich scientific knowledge in specializations such as finance, marketing, opera-
tional techniques, management, production, human resources, business organiza-
tion or management computing, among other subjects.
The level of some of the works presented and discussed in the forum on teaching
and research experiences which AEDEM makes up led us to consider the possibility
of compiling them in a document so that they could be published by a
v
vi Introduction
world-renowned publishing house. The generosity and intense work of the pro-
fessors Francesco Carlo Morabito and Domenico Marino have made possible that
today this book becomes a reality.
Jaime Gil-Lafuente
Domenico Marino
Francesco Carlo Morabito
Contents
vii
viii Contents
1 Introduction
This study analyzes the negative behavior of the consumer regarding any possible issue
or problem in their relationships with a company, that is to say, the customer’s dis-
satisfaction. Consumers do not always act or react the way they expect. Consumers’
preferences, habits, feelings and behaviors are in a changing and complex environment,
and therefore it is important to study their reactions and the causes that lead to customer
dissatisfaction and discontent. To be successful, you have to know the consumers,
know how they want to be treated, what can bother them or why they might be
disappointed. As is well known, sometimes your best client can become your worst
enemy.
There are internal and external factors that can encourage a negative reaction from
the customer towards the company when an unfair situation is perceived, which will
depend on the culture, personal influence, situational determinants, perception, expe-
rience and learning or attitudes, among others. Why are there consumers who simply
decide to make a personal complaint to the company and others opt for the option of
hanging a video on YouTube telling their bad experience with the intention of boy-
cotting or damaging the company or the brand? Why are there other consumers who
prefer to do nothing? If the relationship with the company is good, will this have a
damping effect, or will you feel more betrayed? In short, these are the questions that are
answered in this research.
Although they are key questions for companies, they have not been deeply treated
in the academic literature. Even though many investigations have been carried out
regarding consumer purchase behavior, few have been the ones that study the post
purchase behavior, the negative reactions of the consumers, and the types of behaviors
that they can lead to dissatisfaction (Kähr et al. 2016; Johnson et al. 2017).
In short, the objective of this work is to achieve a deep knowledge about negative
reactions carried out by consumers when they are not happy with a brand or a company
and what are the consequences for the companies, using a bibliometric analysis for this
purpose.
After entering into the WOS these two keywords (dissatisfaction and
consumer/customer), the following filters were applied: fields in the area of social
sciences (Social Sciences); specific subfields the area of social sciences and business
economics and psychology, behavioral sciences, etc., and related subfields were
eliminated such as engineering or medicine; Finally, we selected exclusively scientific
articles (not Congresses, thesis or others). The total sample of items incorporated into
these filters was 380 items for a period of time from 1980 to the present.
Then we proceeded to delete the inconsistencies of the database and prepared a new
file from a classification confirming the names of the authors.
3 Results
First, in Table 1 most cited documents are presented (in this case specifically articles).
These are items that have had the greatest impact, influence or have contributed more to
the development of the discipline being treated. The most cited articles represent the
basis of knowledge of a discipline and they reflect a consensus among its protagonists
(Ramos 2017), which allows knowing the list for required reading in a particular field
or discipline. The statistical technique used was by counting frequency, having pre-
viously done the relevant deleting.
As the article shown in said Table 1 the article that has been mentioned 66 times,
was developed by Bitner, M. and has been published in the Journal of Marketing under
the name “Evaluating service encounters: the effects of physical surroundings and
employee responses”, followed by the article written by Oliver that has been cited 65
times in the Journal Marketing Research, which is entitled “A Cognitive Model of the
Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions”. Coincidentally the third
most cited article belongs to the same author as the second most cited article, “Cus-
tomer delight: foundations, findings, and managerial insight”. Therefore, it is stated that
the author with the most cited articles is Oliver, adding up to a total of 119 citations is
this table. In addition, Parasuraman also has a high number in the Journal of Marketing
and Journal of Retailing magazines, specifically with 94 citations overall.
Secondly, in Table 2 the most cited authors are presented, that is, those who have
had greater impact, influence or have contributed more to the development of a par-
ticular discipline. The great utility in this point is to know what authors can be con-
sidered authorities on a particular subject, and if there is relation between the most
productive and most cited authors. The statistical technique used is the counting of
frequencies, although it has one limitation because only the first author of the article is
considered.
Of the total items extracted in the sample (380), Oliver, R. has the most citations
with 176 which reflect that he is an expert or an authority in analyzing dissatisfaction.
Next is Fornell, C. with 102 quotes. As seen, this table relates to Table 3, since there
are many authors that are repeated.
Thirdly, coauthors analysis (Fig. 1) which uses data coauthored performed to
measure the collaboration. Quotations are used as a measure of influence, so if an
article is cited it is considered important. This analysis is based on the assumption that
the authors cite documents considered important for their work and examine the social
4 L. Pascual-Nebreda et al.
networks that scientists create in scientific articles (Acedo et al. 2006). A relationship
between two authors is established when an article is co –published (Liu et al. 2013).
Co-authorship is a measure of collaboration that assumes that the creation of a
publication is synonymous with being responsible for the work done. However, just
because the name of a person appears as a co- author of a scientific paper, it does not
necessarily mean that person contributed with any significant amount of work (Martin
1997). In addition, there could be scientists who contributed to the work but whose
names do not appear on the authors list.
As seen in Fig. 1, small islands that reflect different positions within this field and
the author that is featured in each can be observed. Interestingly in the field studied
there are different views or aspects, since most of the figures are completely inde-
pendent and do not keep relationship between them. In the figures of the group on the
Bibliometric Analysis on Customer Dissatisfaction 5
right the author Oliver, R. prevails, and in the other three figures in the representation.
Therefore Oliver, R. ranked first, he has been the most cited overall. Topics covered by
Oliver shown on the map are economic psychology, marketing services or consumer
behavior.
In addition to the other two figures that appear in the upper left part, the authors that
predominate are Roseman, I. and Nunnally, J.; they keep some relationship between
their researches, as they are joined by lines. Common themes that these authors treat are
social psychology, and psychometric theories.
Fourth, in Table 3, the most productive authors in this research line appear, which
are the experts or leaders in this scientific field and are the authors whose work should
be known in a particular discipline. The statistical technique used is the frequency
count of chain of text after making a good deletion.
This table represents the most productive authors, and therefore those who have
written and published more articles in this field. Interestingly being the most fruitful or
those that have more publications, are not the most cited. If Table 2 is examined, it is
found that most of these authors do not appear. This is because these authors have not
had enough impact and therefore do not match the authors most cited. The author with
more number of papers published in this field is Mattila, AS., followed by Hyun, SS.
and Bitner, M.
6 L. Pascual-Nebreda et al.
Fifthly, we analyze which journals have had the greatest impact (Table 4), and how
they have changed over time, in addition to which are the forum magazines that form
the intellectual basis of a discipline. The statistical technique used was the frequency
count, and the procedure used was extracting each journal reference and removing
duplicates.
Table 4. Most cited magazines or forum of journals with impact index JCR year 2016
Number of Journals forum Impact Quartil
Articles JCR JCR
21 Journal of Business Research 3.354 Q1
17 Total Quality Management & Business 1.368 Q3
Excellence
14 International Journal of Service Industry n.a. * n.a.*
Management
12 Journal of Service Research 6.847 Q1
12 Journal of Services Marketing n.a. * n.a.*
8 Tourism Management 4.707 Q1
7 African Journal of Business Management n.a. * n.a.*
6 Managing Service Quality n.a. * n.a.*
6 Journal of the Academy of Marketing 5.888 Q1
Science
6 Journal of Service Management n.a. * n.a.*
6 Journal of Retailing 3.775 Q1
6 Service Industries Journal 3.012 Q2
n.a.*: Not available. Magazines that in the year 2016 were no longer
indexed in the JCR index, but in the year considered in the study.
changes in the structure of the field. This longitudinal analysis can reveal how particular
groups within an intellectual structure emerge, grow or disappear. The statistical technique
used is the frequency count, and the software called Bibexcel and Excel.
As shown in Fig. 2, in 1981 the first article on this subject was published, which
reflects that it is a very fresh and new topic. As the years advance, investigations and
therefore citations are more numerous. This reflects that the subject studied is an
emerging field, and can be considered as an interesting and captivating discipline for
many researchers.
Subsequently which terms are associated most frequently with a specific line of
research are analyzed, when did these terms emerge and how they have evolved. While
a co-word analysis has also been performed to cite publications, the analysis unit is a
word, which means that thresholds for the appearance of words should be established.
The statistical technique used is the count of the citations and the removal of duplicates.
As shown in Table 5, the most important word that is repeated more times is satis-
faction which makes reference to the feeling of comfort or pleasure you have when you
have filled a want or covered a need, a term closely related to the field of study.
Although in this research the study has been namely customer dissatisfaction, the word
appears 235 times in the satisfaction articles of this field. The next word with more hits
is client/customers, followed by the word service/services. The words that are repeated
fewer times are analysis, information and complaint. All these terms relate in one way
or another with this study.
Finally, a map of co- key words, co-words or associated words have been produced
(Fig. 3), reflecting on how is the structure and dynamics of a conceptual field, what
terms have contributed to the development of discipline, if they can identify “topics”
associated with a research and how these concepts have evolved. It is interesting how
8 L. Pascual-Nebreda et al.
the building of density maps and strategic centrality of correlate (Callon et al. 1995).
The purpose of this correlation matrix is to identify the structure underlying data, and
tools used for processing have been multivariable analysis, social network analysis and
mapping or SNA. The representation of the factor solution is made through the Zhao
procedure and Stormantt.
4 Implications
In literature on consumer behavior it special attention has been paid to the study of
conceptualization, antecedents and consequences of satisfaction as a phenomenon
previous to a shopping experience or consumption. However, a minor concern is seen
from the analysis of processes and variables accompanying dissatisfaction because the
theoretical body commonly uses the same approach that was applied in the area of
satisfaction. Achieving full “customer satisfaction” is a must in earning a spot in the
“mind” of customers and the target market. Therefore, in order to maintain the
objective of “customer satisfaction” it has crossed the borders of the marketing
department to become one of the main objectives of all functional areas (production,
finance, human resources, etc.) of successful companies. Because this is essential to
analyze the issue of customer dissatisfaction, the causes, consequences, and the process
it leads them to act in one way or another. It is considered that the study of customer
dissatisfaction is in an evolutionary stage as there is growing interest in this field today,
and although it has not been very much studied so far and it is a relatively new field
which is captivating and transcendental. “Your most unhappy customer is your best
source of learning.” Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft.
Bibliometric methods are used to describe the evolution of the activity of publi-
cation, most representative partners, the methodologies and the content of articles in
order to explore the main research topics. These analyses identify potential avenues for
future research that could be significant to advance the consolidation of the discipline.
Therefore with bibliometric analysis contributions have been made for this line, using
different types of measures and indicators to describe the evolution of production and
the structure of the field. Bibliometric methods show great potential for quantitative
confirmation of derived categories subjectively published reviews as well as explo-
ration of the research field and identifying categories. Mapping science with biblio-
metric methods are useful for two main reasons: (a) help new investigators to a field to
quickly understand the structure of that field and (b) introduce quantitative rigor in
traditional literature reviews.
10 L. Pascual-Nebreda et al.
Magazines include more quality; therefore the synthesis presented in this research
represents the state of the art research bibliometric management and organization.
Bibliometric methods are not a substitute for reading and extensive synthesis. Bib-
liometrics can connect reliably publications, authors or magazines; Identify research
streams; and produce, but research published maps depends on the researcher and his
knowledge of the field to interpret the findings, which is the hard part.
It reveals that the study of customer dissatisfaction is a relatively recent issue, and it
is increasingly studied and researched. It also has much relevance in the business world
and marketing. The usefulness of this research has allowed us to know the different
customer behaviors that have before experienced a service failure or brand failure such
as reactions which are processed psychologically, and the consequences that these
negative behaviors can have for businesses. Empowered by new technological possi-
bilities, consumers can now wreak havoc on a brand with relatively little effort, and this
is a very worrying issue and which is on the agenda. Many news stories show how
public figures or anonymous people tell about their negative experience trying and
often getting to damage the brand or company, uploading a simple video to any social
network telling the terrible experience gained is already a danger to any company and
therefore an alarming issue for them.
As for future researches, it is interesting to consider this issue to come to under-
stand more deeply these complex behaviors and their consequences involved.
With the bibliometric analysis we can see what the global situation on this inter-
esting subject is currently, and knowing the most expert authors in the field, items with
the most impacting keywords which have greater relevance, the life cycle of articles
that we have had throughout history and relationships between them, plus analysis of
co-words offers new currents links between research and emerging issues. Thanks to
this we can further research on benchmarks with great wisdom on this subject so
fascinating, and has been so little studied until now.
Some limitations of this study are acknowledged. First, analysis of co-words pro-
vides a small number of significant clusters taking into account the number of key-
words considered.
In addition, this paper focuses on a set of indicators and bibliometric techniques to
examine the content of articles published in selected journals. Other objective analysis
techniques data with different objectives are useful mapping methods to identify basic
sets of articles, authors or magazines in particular disciplines, the possibility of using
other bibliometric techniques that complement this study and provide a systematic
description of the structure of the field of customer dissatisfaction before a service
failure, since it is likely that several new bibliometric methods become prominent in the
future.
This study opens up new possibilities for discovering important research areas. It
provides theoretical and methodical suggestions that can improve the development of
this subject as a discipline.
Bibliometric Analysis on Customer Dissatisfaction 11
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management and organizational studies: an empirical and network analysis. J. Manag. Stud.
43, 957–983 (2006)
Börner, K., Chen, C., Boyack, K.W.: Visualizing knowledge domains. Annu. Rev. Inf. Sci.
Technol. 37, 179–255 (2003)
Callon, M., Courtial, J.P., Penan, H.: Cienciometría. El estudio cuantitativo de la actividad
científica: de la bibliometría a la vigilancia tecnológica. Ed. Trea SL., Gijón (1995)
He, T., et al.: A simplified system for generating recombinant adenoviruses. Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. U.S.A. 95, 2509–2514 (1998)
Johnson, M.D., Herrmann, A., Huber, F.: The evolution of loyalty intentions. J. Mark. 70,
122–132 (2017)
Kähr, A., Nyffenegger, B., Krohmer, H., Hoyer, W.D.: When hostile consumers wreak havoc on
your brand: the phenomenon of consumer brand sabotage. J. Mark. 80(3), 25–41 (2016)
Liu, J.S., Lu, L.Y., Lu, W.-M., Lin, B.J.: Data envelopment analysis 1978–2010: a citation-based
literature survey. Omega 41(1), 3–15 (2013)
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343–362 (1997)
Ramos, F.J.: Manual sobre Introducción a los métodos bibliométricos. Seminario Fundación
Camilo Prado, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (2017)
Holistic Learning Evidences in the Supervised
Teaching Practice Reports
1 Introduction
Students of the curricular unit of Supervised Teaching Practice (STP) of the Preschool
and Primary School Teacher Education master program contact with the professional
context (kindergartens and primary schools) in a progressive way. This requires a
supervision process, essential to help students improve reflexion about the contexts and
their reality, calling for the “creation and sustainability of environments that promote
the construction and the professional development, following a sustainable path of
progressive development and professional autonomy” (Alarcão and Roldão 2010).
According to Vieira (2009), there should exist a close relation between pedagogy,
comprising a conceptual dimension, and supervision, which integrates an experiential
component, and whose integration results in praxis. The supervision practice appeals to
the cooperation between all the actors as a life-long professional development process
that places students, practitioners and supervisors together, sharing knowledge, func-
tions and achievements.
However, supervision is not enough for future teachers to understand the profes-
sional reality they are experiencing. To be substantial, supervision has to focus on the
multidimensionality of the pedagogical process. It should focus on the students’ per-
formance and in the reflexion that leads them to a sustainable and holistic approach
about the profession. Practitioners and supervisors should stimulate students to think
critically about what they are doing, why, and the impact of their actions. This dia-
logical process should be supported by documenting, questioning and inquiring, so that
theory and practice come together in a joint development of educational action that
should be constantly evolving.
In this perspective, supervision is a process that can contribute to make meaning
about professional reality and, in this way, induce pedagogical change. According to
Freire (1979), praxis is where theory and practice (or practice and theory) meet. It
flavours the interpretation of the experience that leads us to a better understanding of
the action, and to pedagogical intentionality. This complex process is where critical
pedagogy develops.
This study assumes a holistic approach of the professional practices that connects
the supervision and pedagogy. This approach is supported by a concept of practice that
assumes the intentionality towards change and an ethical commitment with children,
their families and the community.
As referred above, the STP should ensure the development of specific, multidimen-
sional, knowledge, that are described, in writing, in a document that helps the students
to understand and reflect on the path they are experiencing. The final report describes
the teaching-learning activities developed through the STP duration, comprising sev-
eral educational levels, subjects within the teaching domain, and the critical reflexion
about them. The reflexion should be supported by pedagogical and scientific literature,
14 M. C. del Río-Rama
as well as on information gathered from the practice, highlighting the critical analysis
and the results obtained.
Considering the meaning of pedagogy discussed above, students should reveal, in
their writing, a critical and reflexive attitude that allows them to unveil the research
performed on the content areas and on the teaching-learning process, associating the
content of the curricular areas and the way they articulate with the self-control, atti-
tudes, representations, beliefs, preferences and styles, purpose and priorities, learning
strategies and techniques, and the didactical process.
The written document should reflect the result of a constant reflexion that helps the
student, in his effort towards autonomy, to perform changes concerning his concepts
and practices. According to Alarcão and Tavares (2016), current trends are leading to a
democratic supervision process and to strategies that value reflexion, cooperative
learning, and to self-supervision and self-learning mechanisms.
The development of reflexion on the practice helps future teachers to identify
coherent pedagogical approaches, to substantiate their options, to understand the value
of some pedagogical strategies, to recognize their difficulties and to overcome them,
and to develop the attitude for active and innovative pedagogical-didactical practice.
This is further strengthened with the role of “facilitator of reflexion, raising awareness
of his situation, helping him identifying problems and planning strategies for their
resolution” (Amaral et al. 1996, p. 97).
field); (iv) learning by playing; (v) the existence of a structured, although flexible, daily
and weekly routine; (vi) the appreciation of the children culture as a pedagogical
resource; (vii) the involvement of parents in the school life of their children; (viii) the
respect of the children’s voice and the recognition of their participative competence;
and (xix) the existence of qualified teachers, deeply involved in professional devel-
opment processes that support their own research and learning.
In this context, the Starting Strong reports (OECD 2004, 2006, 2012) have been
highlighting the need to ensure professional development opportunities, considering
that the teaching procession should embrace a wide range of social responsibilities.
Teachers should demonstrate a consistent knowledge of how children learn and
develop, creating rich learning experiences for all, including the most vulnerable,
involving children of diverse social and ethnical origins, in different levels of devel-
opment. The functions of the professionals assume a complex nature, that implies the
reflexion and development of critical thinking concerning the pedagogies developed in
context.
3 Methodology
The study presented in the article assumes an exploratory approach that intends to
verify, through the analysis of several STP reports, the areas of content that future
teacher value and the pedagogical strategies used during the professional training.
Considering the importance of a holistic perspective of the pre-school and primary
school curricula, it is also intended the analysis of the degree of integration of the
teaching activities. Finally, a relation is established between the main strategies and the
content.
The study included all the reports from the last four years, in a total of 62 (17 from
2012, 12 from 2013, 22 from 2014 and 11 from 2015). All of them are available in the
digital repository (https://bibliotecadigital.ipb.pt) in the PDF format, allowing a digital
analysis.
Due to the large quantity of text (a total of 6723 pages, with 1832566 words), text-
mining tools were used. Text organizes letters in words and these in phrases, gathering
the information that can be stored, transmitted and read. Large quantities of text can
make the interpretation of content and pattern discovery a difficult task. Using infor-
mation processing algorithms, such as lexical analysis, pattern recognition, syntactical
function annotation and natural language processing, among others, allows highlight-
ing potentially useful information, difficult to assess otherwise. In its simpler form, it
allows identifying the documents that satisfy given criteria in a large collection.
In this work, a classification process was used, to sort documents according to its
content, looking for terms that define content areas and the teaching-learning strategies
that were used. Text was initially pre-processed, to eliminate repeated forms and
irrelevant words, as well as to minimize the different forms a word has by reducing
flexed and derived words (for example, the word Didactic, DIDACTIC or didactic were
converted to the common term didactic, as well as collaborate, collaboration, collab-
orative to the root collator).
16 M. C. del Río-Rama
Each of these entries is characterized by words and sentences. For example, the
sentences “memory game”, “puppets”, “theatre”, “drama”, “drama game”, “dance”,
characterize the Drama Expression area, and the sentences “musical instruments”,
“songs”, “beat”, “rhythm forms”, “song rhythm”, “sound creations”, “rhythm and
sounds”, are all associated to the Musical Expression area.
Holistic Learning Evidences in the STP Reports 17
After this initial step, a histogram of different terms was built, both for the content
area and for the teaching-learning strategies, to check the frequency of each term in all
the STP reports. The analysis continued by grouping related terms in each report,
resulting in several multiconnected charts. Finally, a heat map crossing the teaching-
learning strategies and the content was built, to check their intersections and interde-
pendencies. The next section present and discuss the data from each of this instruments.
The histograms of the different terms, related to the content (Fig. 1) and to the
teaching-learning strategies (Fig. 2) allows sorting the frequency of each term in all the
reports.
Most of the reports refer all the content areas related to pre-school and primary
school education, meaning that students consider the development of all areas. How-
ever, mention to Expressão Musical (Musical Expression) (56 reports) and Expressão
Físico-Motora (Physical Expression) (47 reports) are less referred. This fact may be
associated with the offer of activities in extracurricular regime, existent in most insti-
tutions and schools.
The histogram related to the teaching-learning strategies developed during the
teacher training period has higher incidence in the Resolução de Problemas (Problem
Resolution) and in the Atividades Experimentais (Experimental Activities). Students
use a diversity of active strategies, although their use is not transversal in the reports.
18 M. C. del Río-Rama
For better visualization, multilinked graphs were built, with the content area dis-
tribution (Fig. 3) and teaching-learning strategies (Fig. 4) in each report. The graphical
representation is very similar in all the reports and therefore the pictures are an example
of the global. From the analysis of the graphs, each report (represented in the centre of
the picture) has several connections to the terms that characterizes it. The dispersion is
remarkable, and it describes the representativeness of several areas and strategies in
each report.
Beyond references to the areas and strategies, students frequently mention the
organization of classes around small group activities (60 reports) and large group
activities (62 reports), which means that students choose the type of group organization
that ensures the success of the activity, considering the pedagogical resources available.
It may also mean a diversity of options, considering the educational levels in which
they are developing activities (these data needs more research in future work so that the
differences between the pre-school options and primary school can be assessed).
Usually, the report is structure in two main parts. The first is related to the pre-
school education and the second to the primary school. It is possible to estimate the if a
term is related to the first or to the second, according to the initial page it firstly appears.
Although not infallible, it provides a reasonable heuristic. In this context, the initial
position of the term Atividade Integradora (Integrative Activity) was retrieved in the 24
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
“Always when the other correspondents come here to Cheer Street
—and nearly all of them call to see father—I have made them all tell
me about the bravest deed—the bravest man—they have ever seen
or known in all their services. I think I know them all but yours.”
“And what do you think my bravest man will be like, you collector of
heroisms?”
“That’s just the point, Routledge-san. I think yours won’t be a man of
merely brute courage. That’s why I am so anxious to hear.”
“In this case I am like one of the messengers to Job—I alone remain
to tell you. I have never told any one, but sometimes it occurs to me
to write the story of Rawder for the few who care to understand. He
is my property, Miss Noreen, a humble martyr with a mighty soul like
Saint Paul’s.
“He is a man born to suffer, as all the great are, who crucify
themselves in various ways to lessen the sufferings of commoner
men. I have never felt the same about any other man. There is
something quite miraculous about our relation. Accidentally, as it
appears, I have met him somewhere every second year for a double
decade—the last time in Hong Kong this trip home. I surely shall see
him again? Does it sound foolish to you—this idea of being destined
to meet a certain some one from time to time somewhere—until the
End?”
“No. I want to hear it all, just as it comes to you, with all your
thoughts about it—please. Father will be busy for a half-hour in his
study. I think I shall understand.”
Routledge leaned back with a cigarette, which with him was only an
occasional indulgence. “As I say, I meet him every second year in
my wanderings, and I am always healed from the jangle of the world
and world-politics after a day with Rawder,” he resumed, watching
her. “He had a strangely unattractive face as a boy—slow with that
dullness which sometimes goes with the deaf, and a moist, diffused
pallor that suggests epilepsy. His original home was away up in a
New England village, restricted as a mortise-box in its thought and
heart. The Rawders were a large, brief family—six or seven children
—the whole in harrowing poverty. Certain of the littler ones were
hare-lipped; all were the fright of other children. I never liked New
England.... I can see yet the gray, unpainted house of the Rawders,
high on a barren hill against the gray, bitter sky—rags in the broken
window-panes; voices in the house that you could not forget, yet
loathed to remember.... All died in a year except this boy who
became my friend. All met the Reaper without pomp or heraldry, the
funerals overlapping, so that the village was dazed, and the name of
Rawder stands to-day for Old Mortality at his worst. So there was left
only this one, a strange, wordless type of Failure in the eyes of the
village.
“He was a little older than I—but a sort of slave of mine. I see it now.
I had everything that good family and parental wisdom could bless a
boy with, and he had nothing. That I pitied him seemed to warm his
soul with gratitude. He expected so little and was willing to give so
much. I wish I had understood better then.... He aspired to the
ministry, but his ordination was long denied him. He was second in
his class after years of study in a theological school, earned with
incredible penury, but his trial sermon or something about him
shocked the community. I know now that it was a wider, gentler piety.
About this time I had come in from my first trip around the world.
Unable to get a church, he asked for a foreign mission, the smallest
mission in the loneliest, most dreadful land. His answer was a
whisper through the assembly of preachers, challenging his sanity.
Forgive them, as he did, Miss Noreen. I could not have fully
understood the features of his tragedy, but I remember that when I
parted from him that time, there was a vague desolation in my heart.
I could not forget the deep, troubled eyes nor the heavy homely face,
all scourged with harshness from a babe, a veritable magnet of evil
fortunes.
“Back from England again, I encountered him in Boston under the
banners and torches of the Salvation Army. He was thinner, deeper-
eyed, richer-voiced, and all animate with love for his race. For the
first time I felt the real spell of the man. It was something in his eyes,
I think—something that you see in the eyes of a little child that is
dying without pain.”
“Visions,” she whispered.
“Yes, that is the word. Some God-touched thing about the man in the
streets of Boston. But I am making my story long, Miss Noreen. I did
not know that I had all these details. It has become rather an intimate
fancy of mine—this story.”
“Please tell me all. I think it is to be the story of a great victory.”
“Yes, the years to come will end it so.... Two years ago, I was riding
with Tarrant’s cavalry in southern Luzon when I discovered Rawder
among the troopers. It was in the midst of a blistering march of
twelve hours from San Pedro Macati to Indang, without a halt for
coffee or bacon. He did not see me, and I could not get to him until
the column broke formation. What he must have suffered climbing
Fool’s Hill as a regular cavalry recruit! There was a fight in the
afternoon, and the column was badly jumbled. Every fourth man
stayed behind with three horses and his own. The rest advanced,
dismounted, into action. Rawder was with the fighting force. I caught
a glimpse of him during the early stress of things. There was just as
much iron in his jaw as in Tarrant’s, whose valor had vibrated across
the Pacific. Even so, I heard a non-commissioned officer abuse him
like a cur—God knows why, unless it was because Rawder did not
shoot to kill. That night when we entered Indang, I could not find him.
He was not in the formation next morning. Tarrant rode on without
him. Apparently, I was the only one who cared. I think he was
regarded much the same in the cavalry as he was by the Methodist
conference and before the committee on foreign missions.
“The next week Tarrant’s column struck war—a bit of real war. I
found all that archipelago-service interesting, hit-and-run
campaigning, with all the human interest of bigger lines. We were
caught on a sunken jungle-trail and fired upon from three sides.
Small in numbers, but that fight was of the sort which makes the
mess-talk of English regiments for decades, and their flag
decorations. I never saw a bit of action at closer range. It was even
shown to me—the peculiar way men open their mouths when struck
about the belt. I heard souls speak as they passed—strange,
befuddled utterances, from brains and lips running down, but full of
meaning—sayings of great and memorable meaning. I saw Tarrant
stand for thirty seconds under the first volleys, dismayed in the
yellow glare. There is no sight for a soldier so terrible as a glimpse of
havoc in the face of his chief, but he righted quickly enough. For the
moment the men tried to cover themselves in the soiled short straws
of their religion.
“It was a voice in the jungle that had startled Tarrant. I tell you the
whole story, Miss Noreen, because of that voice in the jungle. The
natives were led by a white man, who wore the khaki of an American
soldier. It was this white leadership which had herded Tarrant’s
column for slaughter in that hot sink of the jungle. The cry of
‘Rawder! Rawder!’ went up from the American command. Something
in the voice troubled me—just for a second—with the fear that
Rawder might have run mad at the last.... Listen, I think there is no
hate in the world so baleful and destructive as that aroused by a
deserter who leads the enemy against his own people. And this man
led a black force of Malays!... The natives retired finally, and the
white man with them. An Indiana soldier was dying in the sun when
all was still. I heard him say wearily, ‘Gawd, if I could only have killed
Rawder, hell would have been a cinch for me!’
“That’s how they hated him that day. The story of Rawder, the
deserter, went around the world. It had the eternal grip of interest of
a scapegoat who turns into a fire-brand. Manila sent column after
column of infantry into the Indang country and down below to the
Camarines, but the renegade was not to be captured just yet.
“I continued to ride with Tarrant for awhile after that. He found action
when there was any; moreover, I felt that the real story of Rawder
had not been written. He was big to me, and I could not believe the
voice from the jungle was his. Tarrant was ordered with his troop and
two others, dismounted, to Minday, a little island south of Luzon,
which Nature has punished in various ways. I remember the empty,
sun-blinded inlet, as our little transport stirred the sand. Not a banco
or casco came out to meet us. We were in the midst of a people who
put up no front for peace. There is a Spanish tradition that each male
native of Minday is possessed of seven devils and the leaders ten.
“‘Best fighting men on the islands—these Mindayans,’ Tarrant told
me. ‘The price of life here is to kill first, to kill all the time, snakes and
men.’ That night I wandered about the deserted port in the Crusoe
silence. At the edge of the town, I was ‘put out’ by the route of
flashing stars—a blow on the head from behind.
“Oddly enough, Miss Noreen, the natives let me live. In the morning I
awoke in a bungalow and discovered Rawder sitting in the doorway.
“His queerly-cut eyelids were drawn together by the intensity of light.
Outside, the sunlight waved in pure white flame. It was the vividest
time of the day, of the hottest time of the year, in the fieriest island of
the globe. Minday is insidious. You can breathe and walk outside,
but if you don’t get under cover when your scalp warns you with its
prickling, you will likely be buried at eventide by the wild dogs of
Minday. Or, possibly, if your vitality is immense, the sun will spare
your life, but fry the contents of your brain-pan, which is rather worse
than losing an arm.
“Rawder did not note that I was awake. He was exchanging ideas
with a young Mindayan whose skin was the color of the dead wet
oak leaves which floor the woods at home in the spring. It appears
that this stained one had been in Luzon and learned eighteen or
twenty words of English. Through these, and the signs which clasp
the world, Rawder was amassing Mindayan for the purpose of—
administering Methodism to the natives.
“I had been unconscious for many hours. I could not rise, and my
brain seemed to be working on a little boy’s shift. For ages, it
seemed, I watched the hand and lip converse, too weak to call, to
ask why I lived—my skull filled with sick-room wonderings. Rawder
labored on with the language, calm, gentle, homely unto pain. He
was leaner, stronger, than before; untanned, but the pasty pallor was
gone from his face. Years had outgrown the heritage of physical
disorder. I had always noted how his thoughts formed, slowly,
thoroughly, without adornment, but each thought straining his
limitations to the roof of his brain. If an action were involved in any of
Rawder’s thoughts, he carried out that action, as good hounds run—
to the death. I saw now that wonderful look about him, that Heaven-
warmed something which distinguishes a man who has great work to
do in the world. Perhaps I alone could see it. They say God never
sends a great soul among men without some one to recognize it. It
may be that the honor is mine in the case of Rawder. Stricken as I
was, I could not help noting his endurance of concentration. This, as
you know, is the gift only of mystics. He was driving the monkey-
mind of the Mindayan interpreter to the beds of torture with it.... He
saw, at last, that my eyes were open, and came to me, kneeling
down to take my hand. The native seized the moment to escape.
“It transpired I was in the real village, two miles back from the port.
The Mindayans had brought me with several American soldiers who
had wandered the night before over the edge of camp, to furnish a
bright torture-entertainment in the town-plaza. Rawder had saved my
life, but the others had gone out in unmentionable ways.
“‘I was awake when they brought you in,’ he said. ‘These people
have not rallied to me very strongly yet, or I could have saved the
boys who were captured.... But you—I begged for your life through
the interpreter, saying that you were a great teacher and not a
soldier, showing them the difference in your garments—and your
face.’
“Perhaps you can picture, Miss Noreen, his struggle with the natives,
while I had lain unconscious that night.... I explained to him that
Tarrant’s command took him for a deserter and a renegade, whose
leadership had made fiends of the Tagals. He stared out in the open
for a long time without speaking. He was not whipped nor enraged,
as a lesser man would be. I think I shall always remember his words:
“‘I seem to fail so many times and in so many ways before getting
started in my real work, Mr. Routledge. The soldiers are not to
blame. They could not understand me; and yet my purpose was so
simple. I should not have told them that I meant to be a missionary in
Asia when my enlistment was through. It confused them. Some time
all will understand. Some time I shall do well and not fail.’
“‘But how did you get away from the command?’ I asked.
“‘I do not know,’ he answered. ‘During the fight I fell from the heat
and a slight wound. I awoke alone, concealed my arms in the jungle,
and tried to follow the troop. I must have mistaken the trail, because I
never saw the American outfit again. Three days of night travel
brought me close to the big native coast town of Triacnakato, where I
fell in with a party of Mindayans, there on a trading voyage——’
“‘Tell me, Rawder,’ I interrupted, ‘why you joined the cavalry in the
first place.’
“‘Asia called to me. Always, in those last days in Boston I heard Asia
call me to work. I had no money to reach the Pacific nor to cross it,
so I was enlisted with a regiment ordered to service here. I had
heard of certain soldiers doing good work among their fellows in the
old English regiments, and thought that until I was free again I might
be a help in the troop. White men do not seem to listen to me, Mr.
Routledge.’
“Thus he talked, Miss Noreen. Do you like him a little bit—my great
man, Rawder?”
The girl regarded him hesitatingly for a moment, as if to reply was
not easy. “I like him so well,” she answered at last, “that I wish it
were my destiny to meet him every little while up the years, as you
do. Tell me all.”
“And so he had started in to teach the words of John Wesley, and
others, to these Mindayans whom Spain had left to themselves on
account of their ferocity. God knows why the Mindayans gave him a
Messiah’s chance to learn their language and explain his message,
but they let him live. And now I must tell you about another moment
or two of battle. There has been far too much war already for your
frightened eyes, but this is short and about my bravest man.
“As we talked, there was a sharp crack of a Krag carbine. I could not
rise, but crawled to the doorway. The Mindayans had formed in the
plaza for action. Tarrant was coming with his squadron of cavalry to
settle for the murders of the night before, and the naked Mindayans
essayed to meet him in the open—as the Tagals of Luzon had never
dared to do. It was all on in a moment. Out of the jungle came the
boys from the States—queer, quick lines, blowing their bubbles of
white smoke, dropping down to fire and running forward in skirmish,
answering the trumpet-talk as running metal answers to the grooves
of a mold. In the blazing open—in a light so intense that it was pain
to look through it—the forces met. Mindayans, with guns dating from
Magellan; the Americans with their swift, animate Krags; a squadron
of white men, three skeleton troops picked from forty States, stacked
against a thousand-odd glistening blacks all enthused to die. Hell’s
forbidden chambers were emptied that hour, Miss Noreen. I hated
war then—but have hated it since far more.
“They met—before my eyes they met—and the dead flew out of the
lines like chaff, and were trampled like chaff by the toilers. Hand-to-
hand at last; shiny black of flesh against the dull green-brown of
khaki; the jungle alive with reserves exchanging poisoned salads of
metal; science against primal lust; seasoned courage against
fanaticism; yellow sky above, yellow sand beneath; blood-letting
between, and the eternal jungle on every hand. It was a battle to
haunt and debase a watcher’s brain.
“I did not know Tarrant’s prowess until that day. One man might falter
in his command, but the lines were rigid as steel. His trumpeter
interpreted every movement of the commander’s lips. I pawed the
matting of the hut, but could not lift the anchorage of my hips.
Rawder stood above me, watching, the lines of his sweating face
weaving with sorrow. The thing was growing upon me—what the end
of the fight would mean to him—but his sad face was clean of all
fear. Years ago, when I was a boy and loved physical courage, I
should have worshipped that clean look of his. Tears in his eyes for
the men who had brutalized him!...
“There is always a last minute to a fight, Miss Noreen,—when each
force puts forth its final flicker of courage, and the lesser zeal is
killed. The last drain of gameness wins the battle, when strength and
strategy are gone. It wins for spiders and boys and armies. Tarrant
had it.... When it was all over, the men of Rawder’s troop saw him in
the doorway and rushed forward.
“‘Mr. Routledge,’ he said softly, ‘they are coming for me. The boys
have spoiled my mission here.’
“His hand touched my forehead. The ghastly illness left me.... I don’t
believe in telling a lady a story which one would refrain from telling
his fellow war-scribes, Miss Noreen, but believe me, you have
impelled it with perfect listening——”
“His hand touched your forehead,” she repeated.
“Yes, and there was something about the touch that a dealer in war-
stuff could not very well enlarge upon in print. At one moment I was
but the shell of a man—and the next I could rise.
“Rawder’s old troop was running forward to finish him—Tarrant in the
lead. I tried to make them hear—these white men, as they rushed in,
full of the hang-over hell of a fight. But they would not hear me. The
men saw only the crown of a great day—to kill the deserter who had
led the Tagals against them in Luzon—Rawder, the renegade, whom
they believed stood also behind the deaths of last night and this day.
To kill him after whipping the Mindayans would call down the glory of
the Pantheon.... Rawder stepped back, smiling, empty of hand. I
managed to trip Tarrant and yell the story in his ears as he fell. A top-
sergeant went by me with a native-knife.... The fluids were running
from the man who had saved me, before Tarrant or I could intervene,
but the rest were stopped.
“Hours afterward, in the night, he regained consciousness. At least,
consciousness wavered in his eyes, and I bent to hear, ‘I am not yet
to die.’...
“And it was true, Miss Noreen, in spite of a fearful wound—but that is
all healed.... Tarrant was relieved from Minday. Back in Manila, we
learned that the real renegade of lower Luzon had been captured
alive by volunteer infantry. His name is Devlin, and he is since
notorious in Luzon story. Through Tarrant, whom I saturated with the
substance of Rawder’s character, my bravest man was discharged
for disability.... A month ago, I left him on the Hong Kong water-front.
He had found night-work among the sailors—saving them from the
human vultures who prey upon poor Jack-ashore-with-money-in-his-
pocket—hard, evil-judged work, but the only kind that Rawder knows
so far. Many a drugged or drunken sailor has awakened on board his
own ship with a tithe of his earnings and a whole skin left, to wonder
vaguely in after voyages who was his strange-voiced, gentle-handed
protector—the last he remembered in Hong Kong.... Rawder told me
I should find him in India next—said that he was called to the heart of
India by a dream. He is to find his teacher.... Is it beyond belief to
you, Miss Noreen, that there is a great meaning in this Indian
shadow which has fallen upon my bravest man? I have known
Hindus who could look beyond the flesh of men—despised by their
own race—and discover souls of stirring evolution and inspiring
purity.”
Jerry Cardinegh entered. Noreen caught her breath quickly, as if
suddenly awakened from a dream.
“I feel that some time I shall see your bravest man, Routledge-san,”
she whispered.
FIRST CHAPTER
MOTHER INDIA IS SAID TO BE QUIVERING WITH
HATRED FOR HER WHITE CHILD, THE BRITISH
FOUNDLING
The dusk was stretching out over the windy hills. There had been a
skirmish that day in upper India. Two British columns which had
campaigned for months apart telescoped with frightful sounds of
gladness. Her Majesty’s foot-soldiers, already tightly knotted about
their supper-fires, hooted the cavalrymen who were still struggling
with halter-shanks, picket-lines, and mounts that pounded the turf
and nickered sky-high for the feed-wagons to come in. Every puff of
wind bore a new smell—coffee, camels, leather, gun-reek,
cigarettes, saddle-blankets, and nameless others. To-morrow there
would be a mile square of hill-pasture so tainted by man and beast
that a native-bullock would starve before cropping there until the
season of torrents soaked it sweet again.
The civilian correspondents grouped together for mess. There was
Bingley of the Thames, respected but not loved, and rather better
known as the “Horse-killer”—a young man of Napoleonic ambition
and Cowperish gloom. There was Finacune of the Word, who made
a florid romance of war-stuff, garnished his battle-fields with palms
and ancient temples, and would no more forget his moonlight than
the estimate of the number slain. Finacune made a red-blooded
wooer out of the British army, and a brown, full-breasted she-devil
out of the enemy. His story of the campaign was a courtship of these
two, and it read like “A Passion in the Desert,” for which the Word
paid him well and loved him mightily. Finacune had another
inimitable peculiarity. He possessed one of those slight, natty figures
which even civilized clothes cannot spoil; and he could emerge from
thirty days in the field, dapper and sartorially fit as from a morning’s
fox-hunt.
Then there were Feeney and Trollope and Talliaferro, who carry
trays and announce carriages in this narrative, though high priests of
the press and Londoners of mark.
The point of the gathering was old Jerry Cardinegh, of the Witness,
by profession dean of the cult of the British word-painters of war, but
a Tyrone patriot, bone and brain and passion. Just now, old Jerry
was taking a dry smoke, two ounces of Scotch, commanding his
servants to beat a bull-cheek into tenderloin, and adorning the part of
master of ceremonies. Cardinegh wore easily a triple fame: first, and
always first, for the quality of his work; second, for having seen more
of war (twenty-seven campaigns since he messed with the Chinese
Gordon, to this night in Bhurpal) than any other man on the planet;
and third for being the father of Noreen Cardinegh, absolutely the
loveliest young woman manifesting at the present time in London.
The old man’s tenderness of heart for Ireland and for all that Ireland
had done and failed, was known in part among the scribes and
Pharisees. It had been an endless matter of humor among his
compatriots. Just now Finacune remembered the stock question and
launched it:
“Jerry, if England and Ireland went to war, which would be your
home-office—London Witness or Dublin Contemporary?”
Cardinegh had never answered twice the same. “Neither,” he
declared lightly now, extracting a can of kippered herring from
Finacune’s saddle-bags, “but a captain’s tent, during such times as I
wasn’t leading the Irish to glory. Have you an opener? I need a relish
to cut this whiskey.”
“The old war-horse isn’t always humorous,” remarked Bingley, who
was sitting apart. Bingley always sat apart, lest somebody should
see his black book of notes or borrow his provisions.
Trollope turned to Finacune with a whisper. “The dean is looking ill.
Have you noticed?”
Finacune nodded.
“It would be a heller if this little affair in the hills should prove the old
man’s last campaign,” Trollope drawled softly.
Another figure emerged from the dusk, and Jerry Cardinegh leaped
with a roar into the arms of an agile giant in a great frieze coat. For a
moment it appeared as if the two were in deadly conflict. Pup-tents
were unpinned, supper-kits scattered, native servants crawled off as
from a duel of man-eaters, and the saintly camels lifted their heads
in fresh dismay. It was a good, a relishable greeting, and the proper
way for men who love each other to meet after prolonged absence.
“Arise, my children, and kow-tow to Routledge, your spiritual father!”
Cardinegh commanded at last.
All but Bingley obeyed.
“Get up, you young scut,” Jerry called ominously, “or go feed with the
camels.”
“I haven’t the honor of knowing the gentleman,” Bingley said without
rising.
“Better read your history some more,” the dean observed, turning his
back upon the young lion of the Thames. “Gentlemen,” he resumed
with an oratorical pause, “behold the man whom the Gods formed for
a war-correspondent—or a spy, as you like—and they tempered him
in hell’s fire and holy water—the Gods. Gentlemen, this is Routledge,
who knows India better than any of you know London, and he’s an
American. This is Routledge, who rides alone, who stays afield in
times of peace promoting wars for us—and more wars. I say,
Routledge, when were you home last?”
“Sit down, you ‘damaged archangel,’” Routledge said laughingly. “I
sat before your fireside in Cheer Street, London, little more than a
year ago.”
Hearing the name of the newcomer, the “Horse-killer” was not slow
to gain his feet. He came forward hastily, the sullenness gone from
his face, giving place to a mixture of envy and admiration. He stared
long and intently at the gaunt profile of Routledge. Finacune saw the
look and interpreted it for his own pleasure in these words: “And so
you are Routledge, the, just now, so-called greatest of all. Well, I am
Bingley of the Thames. I have surpassed all the others in this
campaign, and some time I shall measure wit and grit with you.
Meanwhile, you are worth cultivating.” And truly enough the first
words of the “Horse-killer” as he extended his hand were:
“I am Bingley of the Thames, Mr. Routledge.”
“I have both seen and heard of your work, and admired it, Mr.
Bingley,” Routledge responded cordially. “It is good to know you.”
“And I have heard of you, too,” Bingley replied, to the delight of the
others.
Routledge embraced several old friends, but to most he was known
less in person than by reputation. He had a tendency to laugh at the
Powers in the act of making war, a tendency to make the world see
that war was a hang-over from the days when men ate their flesh hot
from the kill, not from the fire. Veiled under all his work, and often
expressed openly in a stinging line, was his conviction that war was
a ghastly imposition upon the men in the ranks. This was considered
by the rest as a mere mental dissipation of a truly great worker.
A certain aloofness added to the mystery and enchantment of the
man. In the field, he would attach himself to some far-ranging
column out for dirty work, choosing his command from an intimate
knowledge of the leader and the men; to which was added a
conception of India, her topography, strategies, fighters, and her
methods of thought and action which could hardly be paralleled—
outside of the secret service—in any British mind.
The Review invariably kept a second man at the heart of things to
cover the routine, so that Routledge could follow his inclinations for
hard-riding and bring in his wondrous tales of far chances, night
attacks, the enemy at first hand, the faces and valor of the few who
hearkened to the swish of the Reaper, the scream from inert flesh as
the spirit flees away—the humor, the horror, the hell of the clash.
It is an axiom of the craft that in a platoon fighting for its life there is
all the grip of human interest that appals in the collision of fifty-mile
battle-fronts; and Routledge played the lesser game to the seeds. It
was said of him that he could crawl into the soldier’s brain and watch
the machinery falter in full blast and break down. Always you felt, as
you read him, that he had a great pity for the ranker, and a great
hate for the system that used him.
Where the Terrible was involved, there was a jolting energy in the
descriptive powers of Routledge. Even the type which bore his
messages from the field to the streets of London seemed sometimes
vivid, crackling characters snapped hot from the reeking centres of
war. He could make his first lines stand out in the thick Review
columns like a desert sunset.
At the end of a campaign, instead of seeking the seductions of hero-
worshipping London, Routledge would drift, possibly disguised, into
some Indian hot-bed, there to study language, occultism, Borgian
poisons, or Cleopatran perfumes. Tales of his ways and his work
took the place of his presence at home in times of peace. Some
traveller coming in from afar would relate how Routledge had smiled
through a six-day water-famine; how Routledge had missed the
native knives which find so often the source of human fountains in
the dark. It was whispered, and accredited, that the Brahmins called
him One; that they remembered him as great and distinguished and
of sacerdotal caste in some former incarnation, and were loyal still.
This is an honor so great that there are not five score men in all the
occident who adequately can appreciate it. Mother India is sensitive
to the warming currents of a great man, even though he be a derelict
in the world.
Routledge had made the English-speaking world utter his name
familiarly and to look for the same in public prints. For this reason,
Finacune, with his typewriter on his lap, an American poncho spread
upon the turf beneath him, his back against a stone, and a lantern at
his elbow, rained a column upon his machine. Finishing the work
with a half-smile, he hooted aloud:
“Oh, Routledge—see what comes o’ riding alone! In a month or six
weeks, God loving the mails, the Word will publish: ‘The civilian
mess was joined to-night by that young roving planet, Cosmo
Routledge, who in present and former campaigns has driven straight
to the source of exclusive information and pulled the hole in after
him.’ Then, for a stick or two, I have discussed the great frieze coat,”
Finacune added whimsically, “described the prophet’s brow, the
slender hands of swift eloquence, and the sad, ineffable eyes of
Routledge, born of America, a correspondent for the British, a citizen
of the world, at home in India, and mystic of the wars.”
“Just add,” Cardinegh remarked meltingly, “that his heart beats for
Ireland.”
That was a marvellous night. Big natures throbbed in rhythm.
Whiskey as it sometimes will—the devil of it—brought out the brave
and true and tender of human speech. Routledge told a bit of the
story of the great frieze coat.... They were moments of trampling
violence in the narrative; instants of torrid romance—to which the
wearer had been a witness or a listener....
“Ah, they made cloth in those days,” old Jerry sighed. “Would you
look under the collar of it for the name of the old Belfast maker?”
“It’s there, sure enough,” said Routledge, “as Tyrone is water-marked
in the great Cardinegh scroll.”
Jerry did not answer for a moment. His face looked singularly white
in the dark.
“The dean went back to Ireland just before we came out here this
trip,” growled old Feeney, of the Pan-Anglo News Service. “It seems
he couldn’t start an insurrection there, so he rushed back to the
Witness office and haunted the cable-editor’s room until the
Bhurpalese took pity on him and began shooting at Tommies.”
Hours passed with talk and laughter, liquor and song. It was strictly a
night session of the inner section of war-painters; and in spirit the
high priests of elder service trooped back to listen among the low-
hanging Indian stars.... It was knee-deep in the morning hours when
Routledge and Cardinegh drew apart at last. They walked out
between the snoring lines, whispering:
“Jerry, what has this narrow-gauge campaign done to you? Fever or
famine? You look drawn and blown and bleached.”
“I am going into the lair after this,” Cardinegh said. “The boys won’t
believe it, but this is absolutely my last fling at the field. I am going
home to Noreen, son, and London and the Witness may go to hell.”
There was unnatural venom in the old man’s words. His tightened
hands stirred restlessly; his eyes, seen in the flare of a match as he
lit a cigarette, were unquiet, alive with some torture of tension.
Routledge gripped the vehement arm.
“You are oxidizing a bit too much tissue, old war-horse,” he said
quietly. “You’ll want to go into the meadows for a while when you get
back—but you won’t stay there. This stuff—the smell of it, as now in
the dawn-dew, and the muttering formations presently”—Routledge
waved his arm over the bivouac—“things like this won’t let you run
long in the pasture. When the war-headings begin to grow on the
front pages of the Witness, and the cloud no bigger than a man’s
hand grows and blackens into a mailed fist gripping a dagger—why,
you’ll be at the lane-fence nickering for harness.”
“Routledge, don’t go over all that rot again,” said the old man. “It isn’t
that I’m out of strength, but I’m too full of hate to go on. I’ve always
hated this smug English people, and I’m not mellowing with years. I
feel it hotter and hotter—sometimes I feel it like a running
incandescence inside. It leaves my brain charred and noxious—
that’s the way it seems to me.... Yet, I have been one of England’s
first aggrandizers. I have rejoiced in print at her victories. I have
cheered with the low-browed mob, ‘God save the Queen!’ I have
borne the brunt of her wars—the son of my father!”
Routledge was disturbed, but he chuckled softly. “One would think
you were still a fire-brand of the Fenians, Jerry.”
“I know to whom I am talking,” was whispered queerly. “The Fenians
are not dead yet—not all the Fenians.”
“When did you hear from Miss Noreen last?”
“Oh, it’s a fortnight. We ought to get mail at Madirabad.... I must
write. My God, I must write!... Don’t mind me if I ramble a bit,
Routledge. I drank rather plenty to welcome you back. Whiskey
sizzles along my spine rather faster than once upon a time.... And
you haven’t seen Noreen for——?”
“For over a year,” Routledge said.
“And you haven’t heard that they call her the most beautiful woman
in London?”
“Yes, Jerry. I heard it from General Falconer at Bombay; from the
Sewards in Simla; from Bleakley, who came back to Hong Kong after
a year’s leave with a made-over liver and a child-wife. But then I
knew it, Jerry—yes, I knew it.”
“But she burst into bloom astonishingly after you left us. She has
never forgotten you, Routledge.... She is like the Irish girl who gave
her to me.”
“Come on to bed, Jerry. We drive like carrion-birds across the world
wherever there is blood spilt upon the ground. We’re not fit for a
woman to remember.”
“The woman who gave Noreen to me—could remember and wait,
son!... Ah, God, the red hells I have passed through!”
Routledge reflected upon the furious emotions which had stormed
his old friend in a ten minutes’ walk. From the furnaces of British
hate, he had swept to the cold caverns of gloom wherein he had laid
the wife of his youth. Only four months ago he had left Cardinegh
hard, full-blooded, iron-gray. The dawn showed him now a bent,
ashen, darting-eyed old man, of volatile but uncentered speech. The
tragedy of it all was germinating in the faculties of the younger man.
Moreover, with a thrilling freshness, the night and the return to old
London friends had brought back his own memories.... “She has
never forgotten you, Routledge!”... Nor had he forgotten the pale,
exquisite face of Noreen, large-eyed with listening under the lamp in
Cheer Street. Her every change of expression recurred to him; and
for each phase of the story he had related, there had been different
ranges of sorrow and sympathy.
In the queer, sensitive mood, Routledge tried to put away his
memories. Only a God was fit to mate with this moment’s conception
of Noreen Cardinegh, as he stood with her father in the new day,
already defiled by the sprawled army. He wished that he had not
seen so much of war. Fate had put a volume of battles into the
binding of his brain. In the very centres of his life, series upon series
of the world’s late and horrible tableaux had been imprinted.
Routledge was impressed with the queer thought that such pictures
must dull the delicacy of a man and sear the surface of his soul, like
lava over-running a vineyard of Italy.
“Will you go home after this little thing is over?” Jerry asked
suddenly.
“Yes, and it won’t be long.”
“You wizard!—what do you mean?” Cardinegh muttered, with a start.
“I mean the present bubble is just about to be pricked.”
“I—at least, the boys—supposed this campaign to be but nicely on!”
Cardinegh’s voice was a husky whisper, and his hand had gripped
the sleeve of the other. “Tell me what you know!”
“Softly, Jerry!” The voice of Routledge was inaudible two feet from
his lips. “It’s all rumor—indefinite, ungrippable, as if the clouds had
whispered it—and yet there is something big behind it all. Down in
Calcutta, the seats of the mighty are trembling. British India—take it
from me—is too agitated by some discovery within, or revelation
from without, to bother much further with a little native rebellion like
this. And yet even this may have its relation to the big trouble. A
native paper has dared to print this sentence—a good sentence, by
the way: ‘Mother India is quivering with hatred for her white child, the
British foundling!’ Would a Hindu journalist dare to print that without
real or fancied backing? ‘Unauthoritative, but important if true,’ as the
Review says, is my own idea. It is this: Russian spies have
insinuated themselves somewhere into the arcanum of British India;
the Bear has lumbered off with information that is already pulling the
English forces into defense—from bigger game than the Bhurpalese.
If Russia is arming the Border States and has secured information of
the fire-brand sort against England—the latter is a good deal like a
shorn Samson just now—throwing so much power in little Bhurpal!...
Something’s askew. There’s a rival in the north.... It’s all vague,
vague, but big—big as Asia!... Listen to an amateur prophet, old
Ironsides: if we live three years, we’ll see a collision of fifty-mile
battle-fronts!”
They were back in the civilian camp. Cardinegh did not speak, but
his face was mad with excitement, his hands ungovernable.
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