The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-03
PRIVATE MULVANEY
original Of Rudyard Kipling's Tales Is
sssas How q Resident Of San
& Francisco.
1tOo story of the Famous Ride In the
Palauquin. How Kipling Gathered
His Material.

.Mf-
And now only a genius that is greater
evSr may care to undertake the task to
write more fascinating and more truthful
yarns Of barrack room life in her majesty's
East Indian service than did even the BIZ
osrapher Of the world famed Private Null
vaney.
!. For, truth to tell, Private Mulvaney
himself is at hand, ready to tell whose
ever has the ear for them the self-same
tales he told to Kipling, and Kipling to
the world; ready to tell even more than
Kipling has told. His real name is Will
liam McManus. He lives down on Ne
braska street and has been a resident Of
San Francisco for more years than his BIZ
cgrapher has been famous by picturng to
the world the adventures of Private Null
vaney. Ortheris and Learoyd, of the
BLACK Tyrones.''
In fact there was no such regiment as
the Tyrones in the East India service but
the Eighty-sixth Regiment was the Royal
County Downs, and Is easily identified as
the one Of which Kipling writes in his
masterful tale. And the selection of the
name Black Tyrones only thinly wells the
real identity of Private Mulvaney's regi-
ment to those who know for Tyrone is
county adjacent to County Down, and the
only county regiment from that part of
Ireland in the East Indian service and the
only regiment in the service that gloried
In private Mulvaney.
William McManus started for San Fran
cisco q few months after the "Reincarna-
ton Of Krishna Mulvaney" actually oc-
Cured at Delhi. He has lived here ever
since and Is well-known to the few East
Indian veterans on the coast. On one
14th Of July he was prominent figure in
the procession of the Mcmahon Guards,
being the only man in line who had served
full time in India and won three most val
liable medals. These medals he wore in
the march with the guards, and together
with his papers" they formed his sole for
tune when he landed here from the good
ship Aphrodite of Liverpool, on which he
worked his passage from Rangoon.
Rudyard Kipling has generously be-
slowed upon the hero of the Incarnation
Of 'Krishna Mulvaney'' a considerable
quantity Of rupees and massive gold
chain that the priest in the temple gave
him as hush money for deserving his pal
anQuin without exposing his identity as
mere human being-and one not very
sober at that. The fortune and some
other flourishes that Kipling has given the
narrative make it good book story, but
the facts of the case are about as interest
Ing, and nearly the same as Kipling re-
lates with these few exceptions: That
Mulvaney was at that time no longer in
the service; that he had saved good deal
of money from his work as a driver, with
which he went off on a tear as a relief
from his hard work under water; that the
palanQuin he rode to the temple in was
not the one he obtained from Dearsley to
prevent him swindling the natives on it
any further-that, as Kipling says else
where, Is quite another story-and that he
came back from the temple and his drunk
en- ride in the palanquin penniless instead
Of rich and glad enough to escape with a
and the possible judgment of the real
Krishna.
Yes, it was William McManus who rode
In that palanquin: it was William McMan-
US who gave Kipling the sound advice not
to name places, for man is thracked by
\ place" which Kipling carefully followed
In his tales; it was William MoManus who
courted Dinah Shadd-but he did not mar
ry her; 1t was he Of whom Kipling wrote
in Private Learoyd's Story" "Mulvaney
-grizzled, tender and very wise Ulysses,
sweltering on the earthwork Of Central
India line-judge If have forgotten old
days in the trap"
Them was the days I was bossin' a
gang of native track-layers on the gov
eminent railroad" says William Nc
Manus. well, 1 remember Kipling in
those days-a plucky, inquisitive little
fellow In the Civil Service, who I first
met at Cawnpore. where he passed his
bottle around, among us privates, and
then got us to tell him all the yarns of
the barrack room. He had little stub
BY black moustache and wore spectacles
lie stopped at my bungalow on the rail-
road all one day and drank out of my
bottle and helped me out on a square
meal And l was mighty glad of the
change to be civil to him."
my friend, Private Mulaney, was one
Of the sentries lat the 'inexpressibles
ba1l) because he was the tallest man In
The regiment" Kipfing has written That
8 William McManus-and not only the
allest, but the straightest, the best
hested, the biggest listed. the neatest
and trimmest and the kindest hearted
man in the regiment as his biographer
has variously and veraciously character
ICED him.
"How in the world did you come tt
know these things?" Kipling once ask
ed Of Private Mulanney in one of the
tales of Soldiers Three" And it wa.
William McManus who answered.
"Bekase I'm turned durin' the Duane.
pleasure to lump Nv wood, lookin' out
straight fornist me, wild a-a-candle al
brum in my hand for you to pick your
cards out av."
And you need not read Kipling tt
know that William McManus the orig
inal Private Mulvaney, was every inch
soldier. Today he is older than he was
and none the better off for the oft re
,peated sprees like the one that gave Kip
ling the inspiration for the Reincarna
ton story But he is as straight and a.
slick as ever he was, though his occupa
A,tion is that Of a laborer.
Kipling came upon Mulvaney (Mc
Manus) when he was doing pack-drill
Tor being dirty on parade" This as
pnished Kipling, who says: II nearl,
III into the fort ditch with astonish
Int and wrath, for Mulvaney is tn
mon that ovor mounted 49,.