The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1899-04-12

| contributed to McCiure's four or five
years ago, he told something about the
way in which his verses were written,
saying:
''Bad as they were, burned twice
as many as were published, and of the
survivors at least two-thirds were cut
down at the last moment Nothing can
be wholly beautiful that is not useful,
and therefore my verses were made to
ease off the perpetual strife between
the manager extending his advertise
ments and my chief fighting for his
reading matter. They were born to be
sacrificed Rukn.Din, the foreman of
our side, approved of them immensely,
for he was a Muslin of culture He
would say. Your poetry very good,
sir Just coming proper length today
You giving more soon. One-third col
umn just proper. Always can take on
third page.
'sMahmoud, who set them up, had
an unpleasant way of referring to
new lyric as Elk aur chiz-one more
thing-which I never liked. The job
side, too, were unsympathetic, because
used to raid into their type for private
proofs with OLD English and Gothic
! headlines Even Hindoo does :. OF like
to find the serifs Of his f's cut away to
make long s's.
'sAnd in this manner, week by week,
my verses came to be printed in the
paper
OF course these verses Immediately
attracted the attention Of the English
exiles in India, and scores Of people
soon began to demand the publication
of the rhymes in book form. This was
a little more than Kipling had bar
gained for when he dashed eff his lines
as the exigencies of the paper or the
inspiration of the moment suggested.
Here again we may quote his own
words:
GA real book was out Of the ques
! tion, but I knew that Rukn-Din and
the Office plant were at my disposal at
price, if did not use the Office time:
also / had handled in the previous year
couple of small books of which l was
! part owner and had lost nothing. So
there was built sort Of book, lean
oblong docket, wire stitched, to initiate
D. O. government envelope, printed
on one side only, bound in brown paper
and secured with red tape. 1t was ad-
dressed to all heads Of departments and
all government officials, and among a
pile of papers would have deceived a
clerk of 20 years service. Of these
books we made some hundreds and
as there was no necessity for advertis-
ing, my public being to my hand, took
reply postcards, printed the news Of the
| birth of the book on one side, the blank
order form on the other and posted them
up and down the empire from Alden to
Singapore and from Quetta to Colombo.
There was no trade discount, no reck-
oning twelves as thirteens no commits
sion and no credit of any kind what
ever. The money came back in poor but
honest rupees and was transferred from
the publisher, the.left hand pocket, di-
rect to, the author. the right hand
pocket Every copy sold in few weeks,
and the ratio of expenses to profits, as
remember it, has since prevented my
injuring my health by sympathizing
with publishers who talk Of their risks
and advertisements.
The price received by Kipling for his
work he regards as nobody's business
but his own; nevertheless everybody
will feel keen interest in The British
Weekly paragraph on this subject
ssPerhaps no one receives such large
prices for his work as Mr.. Rudyard Kip
ling. He has contracted to write eight
stories for one of the magazines next
year, for each of which he will receive
about -e240 This is simply for the Eng
lish serial rights of the stories In ad-
dition Mr.. Kipling receives payment
from America. India and the colonies.
This will probably bring up the price of
the stories to about $500 each, making
81, 900 for the year In addition to this,
Mr.. Kipling receives the royalties for
book publication in England and Amer
| ica. This will not amount to less than
about ga, 00G, so that for each story the
author ultimately receives not less than
81, 600. Whether these high prices will
be kept up is very doubtful If the
cheap magazinism succeeds in injuring
the older periodicals they cannot be
maintained. 1t remains to be seen
whether the public cares much for
names. and it must be remembered that
the papers with the largest circulation
| in this country do not depend upon
names at all remember some years ago
Mr.. Kipling contributed one of his best
pieces of work, better work by great
deal than he has been doing lately, to a
monthly review The editor informed
me that not one extra copy Of the Pc
riodical was sold.
Among the first of the stories of Kip
ling to attract attention was ''The Man
Who Would Be King, and later came
from his prolific and versatile pen such
fascinating stories as 'The Phantom
Rickshaw, y tThe Taking Of Lungtung'
| f<u,1,o Nf hi a