The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-18
In Youth He Was BY No Means
Prodigy.
COULD TELL GOOD STORIES
BUT HE NEVER WAS A SCHOOL
BOY HERO.
His Sight Was Too Defective For
Him to Excel In Games-Won
Only One Prize, That For Excel
1ence In English Iiterature-In-
clined to Be Joker.


In reading of Stalky, McTurk and
Beetle of Kipling's unique stories OF
school-boy life 1 feel as if 1 was meet
ing old friends. L knew the mischiev-
Gus trio we'll under their true names
Beresford, Dunsterville and Kioling
himself. Kipling was Beetle al
though we called him Gigs" Dunster-
vile has since become an officer in the
Indian army.
1 first met KiDling in 1879 when he
was IA years old. In that year
joined the United Service col
lege westward Ho" in the parish of
Northam, North Devon, which mad
been in existence for several years. L
was at once assigned to the same house
with KiDling under a master named
Pugh, and after a few terms Kioling
was changed to my dormitory. over
which his particular friend Dunster-
vile was eventually made Sup-oreIect
l sat at different times in the same
classes with KiDling and during the
last year that I spent at the college,
1888, my study was Immediately below
the one occupied by Beresford, Dun
sterville and Kipling.
The masters referred to in the stories
are Cornell Price, the head master;
w. c. Crofts, the classical master, and
NJ. II. Pugh. the house master, who
undoubtedly suggested the "Prout OF
whom Ki2ling speaks.
The United Service college, which
was intended chiefly for the education
of sons of Anglo-Indian, civil and
military officers. was within sight of
the open Atlantic. The immediate
neighborhood was of a character to
delight the heart Of any boy-high
frowning cliffs at whose base terrible
jagged rocks ran far out into the sea.
as q warning to vessels OF their sure
fate if by any unluclly chance they
missed the bar. These cliffs, however,
We're the abode of several species of
rare sea birds, thus offering a splendid
field Cor hazardous adventure.
NOT A YOUTHFUL PRODIGY.
During these four or five years, as
seen by his school fellows, it could
hardly be said that Kipling appeared
to them as a prodigy. In the first place,
he was always extremely near-sighted,
which was perhaps the reason for his
not taking any very keen interest in
either field sports or athletics-a prof.
cheney that. alone, almost makes an
English boy q hero in the sight of his
school fellows. On the other hand Kip
ling was not by any means a sweat"
He was not always to be seen BORING
top of his class, though to be sure he
was never at the bottom. He did not
take all the prizes that came in his
way, and he was not even in due course
promoted to the Office of sub-Drefect,
although when he left the college in
1882 he carried with him the we'll
earned first prize in English literature.
Only. he did seem to be able to solve a
problem in ten minutes over. which an
other boy might have labored for an
hour. He was chiefly noticeable in his
schoolfellows' eyes for a keen wit, and
a flow of language that could only be
suppressed by depriving him of his
sDectacleS.
'STALKY, BEETLE AND M'TURK."
About the middle of his school life
Kioling entered into a strong tie of
friendship with two other boys, in
many respects of his own temperament.
| The trio seemed to have aims of their
own apart from the rest of the college,
leading kind of Bohemian existence,
and amusing themselves by tits at the
powers that were, in which encounters
they frequently came off victorious, as
related in the ''Stalky" stories. At the
time when Kipling and his two chums
were first assigned to a room or
study for their own use, the
aesthetic wave of some seventeen years
ago was sweeping. over English society,
and the three boys at once determined
to live up to the prevailing fashion.
They first of all painted a wonderful
stork dado round their room; then
they purchased number of old plates
spoutless teapots and Japanese fans
and hung them upon the walls. They
called it very high art" and, for a
day the whole school came to see and
wondered.
At the United Service college the Gus.
tom prevailed, as in most English pub
lie schools, of placing great part OF
the out of-class discipline in the hands
of the head boys, who are called pre-
fects or monitors. In particular these
head boys are responsible for the main
tenance of order in the large dormitor-
les or sleeping roorns-one project hav-
ing charge of perhaps a dozen or fif-
teen boys.
TELLING STORIES AT NIGHT.
Now, it happens that the project OF
! the dormitory in which Rudyard Kip
| ling slept was a great admirer of the
! thousand and one stories of the Ara
! bian Nights and conceived the idea