Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-11-13
IN THE LOCAL FIELD.
A BRATTLEBORO BOY
WHO Is ON THE ROAD TO LITER
AIRY DISTINCTION

The lOng-prOmiSed and much advertised
serial story, written by Rudyard Kipling
and Wolcott Balestier in collaboration,
makes brilliant opening in the November
number of the Century. This story has a
local interest from the fact that Mr. Bales
tier has an intimate connection with Brat
llcboro He is the grandson of the late J.
y. Balesticr, and of Madam Balester who
still occupies her handsome summer home
three miles from this village. Several
summers of the young authors life since
the death of his father, have been spent
here with his grandparents His mother,
Mrs Anna Balestier, is also very well
known i'm BrattlcbOrO through her residence
with her husbands parents. The young
mans ancestry on both sides is notable.
His paternal grandfather was prominent
New York lawyer. while his grandfather
on his mothers side, the late Hon.
Erasmus Peshine Smith of Rochester. y.
L.. was man of high distinction i'm the
law and in the public affairs with which he
was connected. His knowledge of interna-
tional law was of great value to William
II. Seward and Hamilton Fish, as secre-
tarcs of state. His most notable work
was accomplished when, i'm 1871, under
the recommendation of Secretary Fish. he
went to Japan as advisor to the Mikado in
International law. He was the first Amer
lean to thus assist the japanese govern
ment in an official capacity, and he did
much toward the advancement of the king
dom in the path of modern progress and
development then entered upon.
Wocott is a little less than 30 wears
old. and is the Oldest in a family of four
children, two of whom are daughters.
D.
his farm Just beyond that of his grand
mother, is his brother The young au-
thor is now a resident of London, and
his business is that of publisher, being
the Junior member of the firm of Heine-
mann ~ Balestier, whose fine editions of
the works of distinguished writers rival
those of the famous Tauchintz. The firm
has a branch at Leipsic.
Mr. Balestcr first came to notice as a
public writer when, i'm the campaign of
lNN4. he produced a campaign life of Mr..
Blaine at only few days notice. His lit
crary work has been that of a story writer,
mostly of the lighter sort. "a Victorious
Defeat from his pen, was published by
the lIarpers in one of their series. A re-
cent contribution of his to the pages of
the Century was "a Common Story"
The young man possesses winning per-
sonaity and enjoys the warm personal
friendship and admiration of Henry James,
the novelist. He and Mr. Kipling have
become close personal friends. Their story
was written in London last year and is,
beyond doubt, one of the very few works
Of its kind which has been done in genuine
collaboration, the two minds working upon
it in unison at the same time. A personal
friend, who was in London at the time it
was written, gives a charming picture of
the way the work was done by the two
friends-Balestier, who is an accomplished
typewriter, sitting at his machine and dash
ing off the sentences and chapters, while
Kipling Ia young man of only 26) paced
the room, each composing, suggesting or
Criticising in turn, and the mind of each
stimulating the other to its best work. The
collaboration was made still more striking
and valuable by the fact that Balestier has
spent some time at the West and knows
our frontier life by experience, while Kip
ling began his career in India, and so the
plot is laid in both countries, and its char
acters, scenes and incidents are drawn true
to the life of both, and the joint production
is "A story of West and East"
The novel is named The Naulahka."
As the plot is laid the scene opens in the
Western boom town of Topaz, where Kate
Sheriff, the heroine, lives with her father
and mother, who have been pushing out
into the wilderness, keeping just at the
end of each railroad section, until at last
civilization has overtaken them, and they
have permanent home in a crude town,
and the father has become well-to-dO
Through no fault of his own" Nicholas
Taryin, the girls lover, is typical Western
young man, a rustler, believing first of all
in the town in which he lives and its
glorious prospects, and this town is Topaz.
lie has been accustomed to see everything
bend to his own will until he strikes the
one snag of his life, the will of Mistress
Kate, who is thoroughly, absolutely and
irreyocably convinced that her Emission is
to 90 to India to ''save' her suffering and
down-trodden sisters in that heather land.
The story of Tarvins efforts day after day
to convince the girl that her real duty is TO
stay at home and marry him is amusingly
and brilliantly told. A political election is
impending in which Sheriff, the girls
father, is candidate for the legislature on
the Democratic side, while Tarvin, calm in
his boundless confidence in himself, is the
opposing candidate on the Republican side.
Here is the account of a joint debate be-
tween the two candidates, held at Canon
City:
An Extract from the COlIRbOrated
story.
He was wondering, as he listened to
Sheriff, how father could have the heart
TO get off false views on silver and the tariff
TO this crowd while his daughter was hatch
ing that CHASTITY business at home. The
true views were so much mixed up in his
own mind with Kate, that when he himself
rose at last to answer Sheriff, he found II
hard not to ask how the deuce man eX-
pected an intelligent mass-meeting to ac-
cept the political economy he was trying &c
apply to the government of a State, when
hr couldn't so much as run his own fam
IIy? Why in the world didn't he stop his
daughter from making such hash OF hel
lIte?-that was what he wanted to know
What We're fathers for? He reserved these
apt remarks, and launched instead upon q
Hood of figures, facts, aud arguments.
"Tavin had precisely the gift by which
the stump orator coils himself into the
heart of the stump auditor: he upbraided
he arraigned; he pleaded, insisted, de
nounced; he raised his lean, long arms
and called the gods and the statistics anC
the Republican party to witness, and, wher
he could make a point that way, he DC
not scorn to tell a story. Why, he woult
cry defiantly in that colloquial shout which
the political orator uses for his anecdotes
that is like a man l used to know back II
Wisconsin, who 1t wasn't very mucl
ike the man in Wisconsin, and TarYln haC