The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-01-28

beyond, with their queens and their con-
oubines He dated and cross dated, pedl-
greed and triple pedigreed, compared,
noted, connoted, wove, strung, sorted, Sc
lected, inferred calendared and counter
calendared for ten hours day. And be-
cause this sudden and new light Of love
was upon him he turned those dry bones
Of history and dirty records OF misdeeds in
to things to weep or to laugh over as he
pleased. His heart and soul were at the
end of his pen, and they got into the ink.
He was lowered with sympathy, insight
humor and style for 230 days and nights,
and his book was book. He had his vast
special knowledge with him, SO to speak,
but the spirit, the woven in human touch,
the poetry and the power of the output
were beyond all special knowledge But I
doubt whether he knew the gift that was
In him then, and thus he may have lost
some happiness. He was toiling for Title
Venner, not for himself. Men often do
their best work blind for some one else's
sake.
Also-though this has nothing to do
with the story-in India, where every one
knows every one else, you can watch men
being driven by the women who govern
them out of the rank and file and sent to
take up points alone A good man once
started goes forward, but an average man,
SO soon as the woman loses interest In his
success as a tribute to her power, comes
back to the battalion and Is no more heard
Of,
Wressley bore the first copy Of his book
to Simla and, blushing and stammering,
presented 1t to Miss Venner. She read
little of it. 1 give her review verbatim:
"Oh, your book9 It's all about those how
wild wajahs didn't understand it."
Wressley of the foreign office was broken,
smashed-I am not exaggerating-by this
one frivolous little girl All that he could
say feebly was: "But--but it's my mag.
mum opus! The work of my life" Miss
Venner did not know what magnum opus
meant, but she knew that Captain Ker-
rington had won three races at the last
Gymkhana. Wressley didn't press her to
wait for him any longer, He had sense
enough for that
Then came the reaction after the years
strain, and Wressley went back to the for
eign office and his "waiahs," compiling,
gazetteering, report writing hacks who
Nouih hdNo bcoI CpO FuItce u
month. He abided by Miss Venner's re.
view, which proves that the inspiration
in the book was purely temporary and un-
&C iuected with himself Nevertheless he
had no right to sink In hill tarn five
packing cases, brought up at enormous ex
penso from Bombay, Of the best book Of
Indian history ever written.
When he sold of before retiring, some
years later, was turning over his shelves
and came across the only existing copy Of
"Native Rnle In Central India"-tho copy
that Miss Venner could not understand. |
read it sitting on his mule trunks as long
as tho light lasted and offered him his own
price for it. He looked over my shoulder
for few pages and said to himself drear-
lily;
'Now, how in the world did come to
write such id good stuff ms that"
Then to me:
"Take it and keep 1t. Write one of your
penny farthing yarns about its birth. Per-
perhaps-the whole business may
have been ordained to that erd.
Which, knowing what Wressley of tn,
foreign office was once, struck me as about
tho bitterest thing that had ever heard
man say of his own work-Rudyard Kip
ling.