The Indianapolis journal., 1896-07-05
seemed to have unburdened their souls to

seemed to have unburdened their souls to
kipling OF all their grievances, their poor
pride and their hopes. Some of the best OF
Kiplng's work is drawn from the lives
of these people, although TO the ordinary
Anglo-Indian. whose social caste restric-
those of the Hindoo whom he affects TO
despise on that account they are as
sealed book Sometimes. taking higher
flight, kipling has made ViceroyS ana
commanders-in-chief.m members OF council
and secretaries to government ms theme,
and the flashes of light that he has ,nr1Wn S,;,l
upon the inner workings of the machln-
cry of government in India have been re-
cognized as too truly colored TO be intul-
tive or aught but the light Of knowledge
reflected from the actual facts. NO
writer, for instance, could have excited,
as Kipling did, Lord Dufferin's curiosity
has thus been photographed, without hav-
ing somehow or other caught glimpse OF
things they We're for az least one mo-
ment. 1t is this which is the strongest
attribute of Kipling's mind: that IL photo
graphs, as il were, every detail or pass
ing scenes that can have any future utility
for literary reference or allusion. He was
able however he might be engaged TO make
mental excursions of various KINDS, sull
pursuing the even tenor of the business In
hand
In sporting matters, for instance. sup
pose nothing is more difficult than Tor
man who is no sportsman In the exciuse
the stables and the sawdust of the ring
with them wherever they go-to speak 10
own lines of thought. OF a novelist who
writes a good sporting story, IL is consid-
cred praise 10 say that none but rescl
sportsman could have written il. But
Kipling was no sportsman and an indiffer>
ent horseman: yet his sporting verses al
ways took the sporting world in India
(where sport takes precedence of almost
every other form of human activity by
storm.
1t was TO Kipling's power of satire. in
deed. that his early fame in India was
mainly due. The poems that made up his
Departmental Ditties" were personal and
topical in their origin, and gained tenfold
in force for readers who could supply the
names and places. There have been Davids
the poem Jack Barrett Went to Cuetta'
may be taken as applicable 10 all. But
those who had known the real Jack Bar
rett good fellow that he was. and the vile
superior and faithless wife who sent him
ION duty to his death. felt the heat of the
spirit which inspired Kipling's verse in a
way that gave those few lines imperish-
able force. Jack Barrett was the type
of Kiplings most successful earlier verse.
His short stories of frivolous Anglo-Indian
society are equally true TO life. The light
hearted. or rather heartless. amours or
Simla must have been witnessed at close
range If one would thoroughly appreciate
kiplings picturesque travesties of the wiles
and the wooings of Mrs. Hauksbee and the
who these ladies' were: and and the knowi-
edge gave a particular interest to the
Plain Tales from the Hills" AS an in
stance STA OF Slmla LOCAL color" / might note
wasps." All wasps are black and yellow
at least all English wasps are-but those
who knew Simla when Kiping wrote of il
would recOllect that the social wasp OF
Simla society. the original Mrs Hauks-
pee, in fact, used to be conspicuous at
the dances at Viceregal Lodge for the mag
nlncent costumes Of black and yellow with
which she draped her slim-waisted fig-
ure.