The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-27
MIR. RILEY ON KIPLING.
Seems, to the HOOsier Poet, to Have
the Wisdom of the Ages.

the Wisdom OF the Ages.
James Whitcomb Riley was greatly
shocked last night when informed that Mr..
Kipling's condition was very critical and he
would possibly not survive the night The
poet, however said he had strong hopes of
Mr.. Kiplng's recovery, because of his great
vitality and heretofore splendid condition of
health. Mr.. Riley gave the following esti-
mate of the English writer, whom he has
always greatly admired:
II cannot remember in all my career an
other man SO endowed with such universal
and marvellous geuius-so startling and con-
tinuous q surprise to the world. He has
seemed to have the wisdom Of the ages. 1t
may have been that his very early trans
planting from the English to the Indian soil,
or a boys impresslonable temperament that
caused him to absorb the very wisdom of
that old Arabic people: the repose of intel
lect, the profound and stole character of
that old Eastern race
Even with the foreboding intelligence
brought by the wires I am yet hopeful, re-
calling my meeting with him, and the change
of impression his health and strength made
on me. He was strong and athletic and
active, and the most alive young man / ever
have seen or known. That he has been an
overindustrious man intellectually we have
every reason to believe, from the very un-
usual quantity of his product in both prose
and verse. He is a native-boTn story-teller,
to whom everything in life is of novel in
terest. 1 recall his talk as indicative Of a
natural ability to make every theme that he
conversed about graphically novel and en-
tertaining The face of Mr.. Kipling is a
stoical one in repose, possibly added to by
the thick lenses Of the glasses which his
IL. a.
but you can see in his features the play of
interested and subtle thought all the time
he talks. have heard, and can very well
believe. that he was endowed in a histronic
and artistic way as well as a literary way
man who might have been great as a
master In many lines. At his desk, where /
presume he had that day been working l
recall noticing a little pen sketch made on
the blotting pad of some vessel with COM
plicated rigging; and yet until one looked
closely at the sketch 1t bore the resemblance
in symmetry and detail to a careful and
finished engraving-a sketch presumably
suggested by some theme on which he had
been writing, and very probably drawn me-
chanicaly during some pause in the story.
II met Mr.. Kipling about five years ago.
He had come with his family to New york
from Brattleboro, VT, his summer home.
Mrs. Kipling's people, / believe, lived there.
With him was their child and Mrs. Kip
hngs mother and sister. Mr.. Kipling had
come to New York for conference with his
publishers, ana net him there in his lodg-
ings. A very interesting family was Mr..
Kipling's. They were all unusually bright
and happy, and, fancy, a particularly con-
genial household"
Mr.. Riley was asked last night what he
considered to be Mr.. Kiplng's greatest lit
erary effort. The poet replied:
1T would be difficult for me, lover of his
entire product, to select anything. think,
however, that he was greater as poet than
a writer of prose, but fancy that the man
himself would possibly be of different opin-
ion, the modesty Of Mr. Kiplng being as
great as his genius In proof of this you
will recall the statement regarding his
famous Reeessional poem. 1t was discarded
by him to the waste basket, and accident
ally discovered and reclaimed by Mrs. Kip
ling the wife and discerning critic. We
must not forget that Mr.. Kipling with the
greatness already attained is yet but a little
beyond thirty years of age and unlike that
mastery Story of his, The Ship That
Found Herself he is just barely coming
into a recognition of his own greatness. 1t
might be said that Mr.. Kipling had not yet
found himself He is man that possibly
could have no successor, standing as he does
absolutely individual and unique-simply an
intellectual phenomenon.
Let any most exacting critic take up Mr..
Kipling's products, and he will be bewil-
dered as to where he finds the greatest ex-
cellence. Be it finished novel or a short
sketch, either humorous or grim and start
ling; a poem in most serious English, or a
lifting, picturesque barrack-room ballad, or
again a juvenile story, such as 'Bah-bah
Blacksheep,' any critic, as 1 say, will be
simply bewildered as to where to place the
first claim of mastery excellence"