The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-27
RUDYARD KIPLING
AS a Newspaper Man In Far Lahore
"A Native staff,

Kipling has said that he who has
once been a. journalist remains jour-
nalist to the end. He said this in a
semi photographed sense.
AS a boy from school Kipling was
brought out to India, and began at
once tC earn his modest monthly
wage at the bottom of the ladder of
Anglo-Indian journalism. Newspaper
work in India is carried On by three
classes of men. The natives-Hindoo,
Mohammedan and Sikh-labor side by
side setting up the type and working the
machines; EurasianS and domiciled
British subjects supply the staff Of
readers" while the comparatively ex-
pensiye, because imported, Anglo-In-
dams fill the editorial staff.
And who are the shorthand reporters
and sub-editors? In Kiplings day the
up-country newspaper had none. The
editorial staff, comprising two men,
did the entire work of getting out the
daily paper, and If you want to know
how Kipling worked as one of the two
men who produced the civil and Mill
tary Gazette" daily, with its seven
pages of reading matter and seven OF
advertisements, you could not do better
than turn into that large double bunga>-
low on the Lahore Mall and ask CHEEKY
Milan Rukhn-un-din, the Mohammedan
foreman printer; ask BAIL Pertab
Sirgh, the loyal and orthodox Sikh
bCCkkeeper; ask Babu Hakim Ali, the
courteous Moslem clerk, to whom was
intrusted the task of FASTING Kip
lirg's printed work into volumes-for
in the earliest days Kipling had the
careful habits that SO seldom accom-
pany genius such as his; ask Habi-
head Kipling's office box came and
went daily. They will tell you how
Kipling worked.
AS 8 journalist he was the man
whom all editors seek and few find. He
was q staff in himself. He distrusted
his own powers, it is true, so much that
to demand a leading article from him
filed him with anguish. He said it
was above him." and he scarcely
wrote five in as many years. But for
every other kind of work, from writ
ing editorial notes to putting side
heads to paragraphs, or reporting a
police court case, he was as willing
as he was gifted.
There are nights in the Punjab when
the rains are delayed and the Their
mometer ranges about 100 degrees day
and night; when the days waking
thoughts of busy brain twist them
selves into torturing Nightmares in
those sitting hours that precede the
dawn, and the dawn brings no relief.
Such nights there were in 1887, and the
English speaking world then went near
to losing Kipling before it had heard
Of him.
But he never Stacked in his work,
of which on "high-collar'' days there
was more than enough. A ''high-collar"
day, it may be explained, was one OH
which no kilograms from England were
received before going to press, and edi-
torial "Notes Of the Day" had to be
written to fill the column which the
kilograms should have occupied, thus
bringing the editorial matter close up
to the head, like a high collar, of the
first column.
At other times a multiplicity Of tele-
grams crowded cut so many "NOtes of
the Day" that several of these, dealing
with original subjects, had to be
strung together into what Kipling call
ed patent seamless" leaders. Outside
contributors to papers in India nearly
all belong to the civil or military SER
vices, and their contributions were
often bald in style, though welcome
for the informa ton they contained
Adding the few lines to be used as
notes Kippling described as fitting on
the WIFI plash," and his were always
neatly tied and keen in application.