The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-19
DEATH OF LITTLE JOE"

Rudyard Kipling seems to have been
impressed with a great fear that death
would some day claim one of the chill
dren he worshiped, for in his Gift of
the Sea-" he wrote:
90 feet have held in my hand,
o hands at my heart-to catch.
How should they know the road to go,
And how should they lift the latch? %
One of the most pathetic incidents
connected with little Josephine's death
was the bravery displayed by Mrs Kip
ling in keeping the sad news from hen
husband and appearing happy and
hopeful, until the doctors decided he
was strong enough to stand the shock.
The following picture of the scene at
the great authors bedside following his
daughters death, is from the New York
Journal:
Josephine, elder of Rudyard Kipling' S
tW o daughters, years of age and capti-
waiting as a child born in the happi-
ness of love Isl died of pneumonia at
$50 yesterday morning.
Her mother was smiling at Mr.. Kip
ling bravely then. He was in pain and
impatient, therefore he. was almost
we'll. The sun entered the room, rays
of it played in the prisrns of medicine
phialS on the nurses table.
Calmly the physician said pleasant,
hopeful things. Elsie, the younger
daughter, i'll of pneumonia also was
not severely attacked. There had been
no call from Josephine's bedside. Soon
Mrs. Kipling would be able to ge there.
She thought of the fresh air dispedling
her gloom in the interninable drive
from the Hotel Grenoble to the home of
her friend, Miss De Forest, on East
Thirty-fifth street, where Josephine
saved was, doubtless, crying for her
mother.
Hope crowns with wreaths Of roses
the victims that it leads to misfortune.
Mr.. Kipling, Elsie, John all pink and
white; the nurses, DR.. Durham, Mr..
Doubleday, delayed her for infinity of
reasons that were cheerful.
Mr.. Doubleday alone knew the secret.
He had received it on the telephone
and it had made livid his pale, tired
face. There was a moment when he
the tension of his nerves
Miss De Forrest came into the draw
ing room. His task was at an end. He
wept The two women fell into each
others arms, said nothing, thought of
Mr.. Kipling, ignorant even of the grav-
ity of his elder daughters illness, and
stified sobsI
Drawer than all the heroes made i'm
mortal in the legends was Mrs. Kipling
in her grief. DR.. James Conland of
Brattleboro Vt, was with Josephine at
her last breath. He came to her mother
in the wake of Miss De Forrest. He
knew Mrs Kipling when she was a
child. He is the physician of the Bales
tier family. To him Kipling has decii-
Gated his Captains. Courageous.
DR.. Conland himself was astOnished
by Mrs. Kipling's fortitude. She is
small, thin, delicate, extremely sansi-
tive. The sufferings Of a fortnight have
preyed upon her. But her husband has
seen her hopeful always, patient, kind,
even joyful.
He saw her often; he does not know
that his eldest child has gone out of
life. That is her triumph. But to her
it is not a triumph. She has to think
of telling Mr.. Kipling why he is not
to see Josephine again. When is it to
be told to him? Mr.. Doubleday, at the
suggestion of that unenviable duty, let
his arms fall desperately.
Mr. Kipling's greatest pleasure in
England was to see her running in d
white gown among the flowers of the
garden. He had a perpetual vision
while he was alarmingly i'll, of her
figure flying in the sunlight. He was
naive of her, instructive as a man must
be to captivate children, as a poet must
be to captivate inspiration.
His system of education for her was
to let her do all that she wished and to
give her all that she desired. He alb
stained only from permitting her to
hear lies and stupidiities. His little
Josephine would be divinely good, be-
cause the persons that she knew were
good, and intelligent, and instructive,