Thank you very much!
Let me ask a qualifying question: does it mean that Carnehan had been hunting for a "missionary's" privilege ticket, but Dravot considered it indecent?
Yan S.
D> I suspect that Fred Lerner is on the right track. I have just come across an article from the New York Times of 13 March 1912 http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0717FA3F5813738DDDAA0994DB405B828DF1D3 which refers to the use of a missionaries pass to gain nefarious entry to the cells of the Tombs (prison?).
D> ________________________________
D> From: Fred Lerner <[log in to unmask]>
D> To: [log in to unmask]
D> Sent: Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 14:48
D> Subject: Re: “The Man Who would be King”
D>
D> Wouldn't a "missionary's pass" be a document allowing a missionary to ride free or at reduced fare on the railways? Presumably there were those who sought to abuse such privileges, hence the opprobrium of calling someone a "missionary’s-pass-hunting hound".
D> It wasn't so long ago that one could ride on American trains with special passes. The Santa Fe used to have a "Banana Messenger" pass, and I had great fun speculating on precisely how one would qualify for one!
D> Fred Lerner
D> ________________________________________
D> From: To exchange information and views on the life and work of Rudyard Kipling [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Yan [[log in to unmask]]
D> Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:40
D> To: [log in to unmask]
D> Subject: “The Man Who would be King”
D> Dear list members,
D> In “The Man Who would be King”, Dravot blamed Carnehan (when they escaped to Bashkai with Billy Fish):
D> “’It’s your fault,’ says he, ‘for not looking after your Army better. There was mutiny in the midst, and you didn’t know—you damned engine-driving, plate-laying, missionary’s-pass-hunting hound!’ He sat upon a rock and called me every foul name he could lay tongue to.
D> Can anyone advise on the meaning of “missionary’s-pass-hunting”?
D> It is not unlikely to make no sense at all: Carnehan says above that “Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour.” On the other hand, “engine-driving” and “plate-laying” refers to previous professions of them both: “We have been boiler-fitters, engine-drivers, petty contractors, and all that,”; and “pass” in this respect may allude to Bolan Pass: “...like Billy Fish that drove the big tank-engine at Mach on the Bolan in the old days.
D> Many thanks in advance,
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