The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-20
RUDYARD KIPLING AT rs.
Greatest Storyteller in the worId-Oue
OF Glndstone's Four ImmortaIs.

OF Gladstone's Four ImmortaIs.
London Letter in Boston Advertiser.
by the time this letter appears in print.
Mr.. kipling may have ceased to be only
- he Will be . years of age on the 3Oth
Oh this month. he was born in the mag
nificent old rock city of Bombay. the sec
ond city in the British empire. on the Both
OF December, 1865. He was sent sshome,'
at an early age, and received his edu-
cation at a famous school in England. In
1852, at the age of Is, but probably
already maturcd man, he returned 10
India, and began his vivid, active life as
reporter and sub-editor on an India news
paper. What this life was we can gather
best by following the first person, the per-
vading 81" of his collected stories, in the
plain Tales from the Hills" in Soldiers
Three" and IN the volume of native stories
called "1n Black and White" The omni-
present. irrepressible, active reporter, who
has always such infinite leisure for starva-
ton or story of universal sympathies,
touching Indian life in every one of its
complex variations, now swelling il with
his 'slads and ladies'" as Mulvaney re-
marks, now the bosom crony of the same
Mulvaney, but always a gentlemen, and
entering into native character with q pen
etratiye depth of weight such as no other
European has attained to--this is only
the actual Rudyard kipiing. Those seven
years, 1SS2-1SS9. were the seed time and
the harvest of 4s work--it was then that
the stories and the verses in his seven
earlier volumes were written. for the most
part, as portion of his daily task work.
and after their appearance in journalistic
form were collected into quaint little
Indian printed books published by Thacker
4 sphinx, Calcutta, which would fetch
their weight in gold at this day. They
have gone, as Mr.. Andrew Lang puts it
the way of most first editions; and this
very fact shows that Kipling's work, from
the hrst, was keenly appreciated oh his
own ground.
Never was there such an illustration of
thine and the man. India is a great con-
tinent, with population i've times that OF
the much-boasted United States. a hun
dred different languages and religions,
with history which concentrates all the
wild romance of the East. AT least from
the days OF Virgil the name of India has
been synonymous with romance, or if, as
Mr.. kipling says, the history of India only
begins with the Company, it has anyhow,
for 200 years, been the recorded theater of
such absolutely varied action as no other
country can rival. And yet, until but the
other day, that fine old Colonel Meadows
Il Il
and of whom may sometimes have occa-
ton 10 speak-the author of "Tara,"
"Seeta," Confessions of Thug" and
several other excellent novels-Colonel
Taylor remained the one literary outcome
of two centuries of British rule in India.
Ii was certainly not an adequate product,
and one reason for this fact was that. as
Mr.. Kipling puts it, the government of In
dia acts on the beautiful principle of work
ing all its servants TO death and leaving
no surplus" man around. Then, in 1Ss2,
appeared Mr.. Kipling, who was most for
tunately surplus man as far as other OF
the services was concerned. India had
been waiting for him. through the dumb
centuries. When told him, the other
night, that he had been able TO dc this
aud that great thing for India. never done
before, NO" he said, feeling that he was
but the instrument. Say, If you will,
that was allowed to do it.h IL was an
easy task. 4" Twas my place of Danish
ment." he calls India in that bitter and
BEAUTIFUL ''Enyoi," at the close of Soldiers
Three" but he did his great work.
In the summer of 1889, Mr.. kipling,
aged %, and by achievement the greatest
teller of stories alive, not less great GER
tainly, than such veterans Brete Harte
and Alphonse Daudet. but probably know
ing little of all this himself, left his gor-
geous palace of Punishment" to go
.home, via China, Japan and America.
He wrote constant letters back to India.
describing his adventures and observations
bv the way. These letters will be col
lected, very shortly, into most fascina-
ting volume. And about fifteen months
AFRO he reached London. and soon after he
began TO flame across the entire literary
armament. He is keenly aware of the
start he has got over his contemporaries,
and he does not seem inclined 10 yield any
portion of this start. He has probably
never worked so hard as during this last
year of glory; he leads the life of an oys
ter. never seeing stranger, and
one of his friends relates that he
makes nothing of working fourteen
hours day have repeatedly
heard him called the hardest man in Lon
don TO meet. and, indeed, he is quite right
10 protect his seclusion. The brilliant
story of The Light That Failed" now
running in America is but one ofthe recent
results OF his great labor ventured TO
ask Mr.. Kipling question that Is doubt
less in the hearts OF i0nc0. namely
whether he was engaged in fulfilling the
half promise made TO the reader in the last
story Of the plain Tales, called Filled
for Reference" No" he said "no in
deed should have Ia be in India To do
that" But going back TO India he soon is;
he will some day take that wieTd and
rnatchless plot of the tile, and produce one
Of the novels of all time in tracing the for
tunes of English scholar. gentleman born,
lost in drunkenness. in Hinduism. and in
the slrms of that picturesque baZar
ought TO state that Mr.. kiphug. who,
il Is possible. has no better ground for in
formation on this point than an outsider
would have. saws: "Oh. be never said
such a thing, he couldn't have in refer
ence 70 Mr.. Gladstone's universally re-
ported ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, To the effect that
there are at this moment just four authors
Of any account in the English language
Tennyson. Ruskin. kipline and Meredith.
Certain IL is that Mr.. kipling. in common
with every old Indian. has such a scorn
for Mr.. Gladstone as 10 make him disposed
10 ind little honor in any prise from him.