The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-10-10
RUDYARD KIPLiN0.


oOO AMI MT GiiN1s
A Pen Picture of the Writer Whose
Works are the Latest Literary Fad.
Imagine man born in Bombay, of
parents in whose veins runs the blood
OF more than one people, born and pass
ing the first five years of his life in that
strange, warm land; then taken back to
the parental roof-tree in old England
that he might know something of the
sweet childhood and healthy boyhood
peculiar to this sheltered island; and
again at the age of sixteen returning of
his own free will to the tropical country
which gave him birth, and for seven
long years doing the hardest kind of
journalistic woodworking from dawn
to eve, year in and year out, with the
thermometer frequently way up in the
hundreds, no substitute even of the
poorest possible in territory where
journalists are not to be obtained on
short notice for either love or money,
with fever looking him grimly in the
eye, cholera Staying those nearest and
dearest to him, and in his own heart al
ways that tumult of aspiration and de-
gifted--the only genuine consolation
lying in the hard labor which later on
was destined to bear ripe fruit, but
which at the moment in that deadly
climate strained the vitality to its
last possible limit. Imagine a man
who has led this kind of a
life, having but little society for
nearly decade beyond the rough-and-
ready representatives of the army and
the natives, with whom he has slum-
bered and fought, sorrowed and made
merry, watched and broken bread, until
they are to him as brothers-imagine all
this and see if you can not understand
why it is thatat this moment the writings
of Rudyard Kipling are astonishing two
worlds. Without previous knowledge
OF the soil whence has sprung all these
marvellous blossoms of human intel
lect, it is quite natural that the first ques-
ton should be whether this precocity
but presages an ultimate fiasco, or work
stronger than any this century has yet
known. Lionized as young man can be
only in society which constantly Graves
new sensation for it's dulled appetite,
courted with persistency which must
prove more fiattering than wholesome
at the age of twentyfour, it will not be
at all surprising if Mr.. Kipling has
startled the world this year only to fall
by the way in the end.
But may the gods be kind and avert
such catastrophe! and, indeed, as I
contemplated the modest menage near
the Thames, with the desk and chair
and the pen, which evidently saw long
and daily service, felt that after all,
genius would rise superior to society. A
charming little study that is with the
green of Victoria Embankment directly
beneath the windows, the glistening
waters of the ship-burdened river but
stones throw away, and such coziness
and cheer within. Walls hung with
army pictures reproduced by Detaille,
dozen well-used pipes of varying
sorts and sizes occupying a case
just above mostinviting sleepy hollow
chair, couch covered with tiger-skin,
which even in death is not free from
menace and alarm, great black cat,
thoroughly alive and happy and much
petted by her fond master; the little
tea-table, from which an ascetic repast
issnatched when inspiration comes thick
and fast-ah, it was all very fascinating
And the lord of this little realm. how
shall describe hint is so natural to
describe woman, so difficult to repro
duce the personality of man; woman
lends herself with ease to any kind of
portraiture, while it always seems to
me that man instinctively rebels against
it. Yet l would l could convey to you
some impression of that small, 1.-the,
graceful figure; of countenance which
even at the age of twenty-four is Begin
ming to tell the tale of persistent and
severe labor, and climate which must
eat the very heart out of a man, chin
cleft in twain, but strong and promi-
nent, telling of many a battle fought
and conquered, and many battle yet
to come; noStrils which expand with
every emotion like those of blooded
horses quivering for the race; com
plexion pale from study and also from
the great heat borne unremittingly for
so many years, and fine gray eyes, whose
widely dilating pupils behind the con-
stantly-worn eyeglasses fill one with a
vague alarm, as of some misfortune
lying in wait for their future sight
Helen Bartlett Bridgman, in Brooklyn
Record Union.