Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-27
RuDrAED 41rLIse's FIELD.
An Estimate Of His Work BY an Old Omoer
IN India.

RuDrARD s1rI.1sc's FIELD.
An Estimate Of His work By .. Old omoer
From the New York Times.
Capt. Clement NJ. Bellairs, now residing in
ST. Louis, was for ten years, from 1861 to 1871,
an officer in the royal Havre artillery in India.
He is a finished scholar, great traveller and
man OF rare literary attainments. He was
asked today for his views on the literary works
OF Rudyard Kipling In the course OF long
conversation on the subject Capt. Bellairs said
"Rudyard Kipling has been as fortunate rs
was Rider Haggard in his choice Of q new field
in which to dress the stage for his characters
and az long as he confined himself TO British
India, its society and the scenes Of its most
modern campaigns, just 80 long has he been
able to attract both attention and admiration.
lhe comparatively unknown details Of the mill
itary and social life of the men and women who
strut the stage of the great dependency Of Eng
land in the far east as its leading characters
cannot fail to be Of interest to those who are
curious to know how English habits, English
lawsc and English rul can be grated on a pop
ulation of 500, 600. 900 Hindu and Mussulman
fellow-subjects of the Kaiser 1. Hind In paint
ing the details kipling has proved himself q
master hand, both fearless and attractive.
'Teeming with interest. as are even the COM
monplaces Of everyday life in India, there have
been but very few Englishmen who have de-
voted themselves to writing about them. The
very great majority of the English whose lots
are cast In the great peninsula are in the direct
employ of the crown, either military men or
civil servants and for these the exposing Of
social or official shortcomings after the manner
OF klpling is at least frowned down, il even not
actually forbidden. Writing to the papers or
the publishing of fiction founded on fact, in
which the pieturing of the foibles of a senior
could possibly be suspected, would bring down
the wrath of the magnates of Indian oflicialism
on the head of the venturesome junior who at
temptedit.
=. Not being in government employ Mr.. Kip
ing has been entirely untrammeled by these
conscientious, and in his rare collection of
stories about India he has availed himself to
the utmost OF his opportunity. 1t has been
suggested that in these stories he has-that he
must have--cxaggerated the peculiarities of the
Anglo-lndian military, official and social sys-
tens. This is not however. exactly or even
generally correct. Here and there his points
are no doubt somewhat overdrawn, but. on the
whole: his coloring is not guilty of splashing.
and where he is fiorid the most simple mind of
his readers can see that he means his plaster
ing to be transparent. His greatest fault as a
writer of good stories-and this applies espe-
clally to his works when brought to this side OF
the Atlantic-is to be found in the copious
interlarding of his English with Hindostanee
doubt arises from the fact that in India,
whether in the drawing room, the mess
or the court house, Hindostanee words
and ldioms find their way into almost every
sentence. This is especially the case in Bengal
evidently the only part of India where Mr..
kipling is at home. Kipling's relapses into
Hindostanec are occasionally fatal to the
chances of any one but an Anglo-Indian under
! standing the matter he is reading. For in
stance, in one of the latest OF his works. The
Story OF the Gadsbys, he carries his reader with
him until he arrives at his cGmax--the deathbed
scene of dying bride. The young wife is de.
lirious; the husband is sitting, crushed. in an
adjoining room; the chaplain is administering
him consolation in the shape OF brandy and
soda. and the doctor, hopeless. comforts him az
best he can with the platitudes OF the Tn-the-
midst-of-l ife-we-are-in-d description. In.
cidentally the ayah Qady's maid) calls to man
outside. 'PInkah chords There is nothing in
the text which could explain the remark to the
ordinary reader, and the story progresses in
the direction of the fatal weakness of the one
and OF the increasing consolation to the other
of the principals. until the watchful ayah sud-
denly shrieks. 'Pusseena agyan From this
moment begins the restoration to health of the
young woman.
ITO the initiated the change is practically
simple. The ayah. noting the GOODNESS of her
mistress, has simply ordered the man pulling
the punkah over the bed to 'punkah chords
cease tanning, and subsequently, discerning a
new action of the lady's skin knows that her
mistress liz saved and announces it by the glad
shout Of 'Pusseena agya, the sweat has come
TO the ordinary American who has not mas
tered any Of the tongues of the gorgeous east
the eliminating point of in.eres. in the story of
The Gadsbyn must ever remain lost for his
want of knowledge Of the Hindostanee equiya-
lent OF the verb to perspirc. This is not clever
authorship.
1t is not possible that the Kipling stories
could ever be ~ possible in America as in Eng
land. for here there is no such specially inter
ested class to appeal to as there is across the
water, but still many of them would be attract
i've anywhere. Perhaps the very best of them.
or. at least. the one most powerfully written. il
that entitled The Man That Was All Of the
stories of the three soldiers. Mulvaney, Learoyd
and Ortheris are delicious and in few of his
productions Mr.. k;pling shines brightly in
pathos. His Wee Willie Winkle,' Thrown
Away and BY Word of Mouth are among
his best in this line, while the fun fairly
sparkles in his Taking of Lungtunepon' and
many other of his stories. Every one should
read kinliDg short stories even if he has never
learned how many annas there are in a rupee
or the joys con aimed in genuine Madras pawn
curry. My own experience has borne out the
truth contained in that singular and seemingly
exaggerated sketch. The Big Drunk Draft
In short, Rndyard kiplings stories represent
the only valuable attempt to penetrate and
portray the native social system Of India that
has been made since Capt. Meadows Taylo,
wrote his remarkable Confessions of Thug "