The Indianapolis journal., 1896-07-05
KIPLING In INDIA.
"Reminiscences by a Brother Editor
Studied with a Purpose.

McClure's Magazine.
Journalism in India is uncommonly hard
labor for the few Englishmen who consti-
tute an editorial staff and with the
greatest dislike of using a razor to cut
grindstones. / could not help burdening
Kipling with good deA of daily drudg-
ery. NV experience of him as a newspaper
hack suggests, however, that If you want
to find man who will cheerfully do the
office work of three men, you should catch
a young genius. Like a blood horse be-
tween the shafts of a coal wagon, he may
go near to bursting his heart in the effort.
but he'll drag that wagon along as 1t
ought to go. The amount of stuff" that
Kipling got through in a day was indeed
wonderful, and though 1 had more or less
satisfactory assistants after he left. and
the staff grew with the papers prosperity
Il am sure more solid work was done in
that office when Kipling and / worked to-
gether than ever before after.
There was one popularity of Kiplings
work which / really must mention, name
| ly, the amount OF ink ne used to throw
| about. In the heat of summer white cot
ton trousers and a thin vest constituted
his Office attire. and by the days end he
was spotted all over like Dalmatian
| dog. He had a habit of dipping his pen
| frequently and deep into the ink pot, and
| as all his movements were abrupt almost
| jerky, the ink used to fly. When he darted
| into my room, as he used to do about one
| thing or another in connection with the
| contents of the paper a dozen times in the
| morning. l had to shout to him to stand
| off, otherwise, 1 know by experience,
| the abrupt halt he would make, and the
| flourish with which he placed the proof in
his hand before me, would send the penful
of ink-he always had full pen in
bis hand-hying over me. Driving or some
| times walking home to breakfast in his
| light attire plentifully besprinkled with
| ink, his specialized face peeping out under
| an enormous mushroom-shaped pith hat.
Kipling was a quaint-looking object. This
| was in hot weather, when Lahore lay
| blistering month after month under the
| sun, and every white woman anu half of
the white men had fed to cooler attitudes
| in the Himalayas. and only those men
| were left who, like Kipling and myself.
had to stay So it mattered little in what
| costume went to and from the office.
| In the winter, when society had returned
| TO Lahore. KiDling was rather scrupulous
IN the mater OF o[es5, Dee ms @ WIS.,, ths
| seasons.
| He was always the best of good COM
| which found vent in every detail of our
days work together; and the chance visi-
| tor to the editors office must often have
| carried away very erroneous notions of the
amount of work which was being done
when he found US in the fits of laughter
which usually accompanied our consulta
tions about the makeup of the paper
! This is my chief recollection of Kipling as
assistant and companion. And would
| place sensitiveness as his second charac-
| teristic.
For mind thus highly strung the plains
of India in the hot weather make bad
abiding place: and many OF Kiplings oc-
casional verses and passages in the In
dian stories tell US how deep he drank at
1 times of the dry cup that rises 10 the lips
| of the Englishman in India In the scorch-
| ing heat of the sleepness Indian night. In
| the dregs of that cup lies madness; anG
the sensibilities. the greater the danger. L
suffered little in the hot weather. day or
night and yet Kipling. who suffered puc.l
pursuit of his art which nothing would
have induced me to undergo His City or
Dreadful Night was no fancy sketch. but
| picture burned into his brain during the
| suffocating night hours that he spent ex-
| ploring the reeking dens of opium and vice
| Lahore: while his City of Two Creeds"
was another picture of Lahore from the
| Mussulman and Hindoo spending the mid
| night hours in mutual butchery.
| While possessing a marvellous faculty for
| assimila ting local color without apparent
effort. Kipling neglected no chance ana
| spared labor in acquiring experience
| that might serve literary purpose. OF the
! various races of India. whom the ordinary
| Engishman Jumps together as natives V
| kipiing knew the quaintest details respect
| ing habits. languages and distinct ways of
| thought. / remember well one long limbef
Pathan. indescribably filthy. but with mag
| nificent men and features-Mahbub Ali, I:
| think was his name-who regarded Kip
| ling. man apart from other '.Sahibs -
| After each of his wanderings across the
| unexplored fringes of Afghanistan, where
| his restless spirit of adventure led him.
| el-stained. drtier and more majestic than
ever. for confidential coloquy with "Kup-
peleen Sahib his friend; and i more
than fancy that to Eahbub Ali Kipling
| owed the wonderful local color which he
| was able to put into the story of THE Man
| who Would be King.
And Mahbub Ali-Deace to his ashes
was only one link in the strange chain of
| associations that Kipling riveted around
himself in India. No half-note in the
| wide gamut of native ideas and custom
| was unfamiliar to him: just he had left
no phase of white life in India unexplored.
| He knew the undercurrent of the soldiers
thoughts. in the whitewashed barracks on
the sunburnt plain of Mian Mir better than
| sergeant or chaplain. No father confessor
penetrated more deeply into the thoughts
OF fair but frail humanity than Kipling.
when the frivolous society Of Anglo-Indfa
formed the object of his inquiries. The
railway folk that queer colony Of white.
half white and three-quarters~b black which
remains an uncared-for and discreditable
J excrescence uDon British rule Ia India