The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-03
KIPLING'S LIFE.
And Some of His Opinions.

{ Leon Kellner, author of Historical Outlines of English Syntax," published by Messrs Macmillan, who is on a
 prolonged visit to England to collect
 materials for his proposed History of
 English Literature in the Victoria
 Era" on which he has been engaged
 for the last ten years. Dr. Kellner nat
 urally desired to learn something about
 the most prominent figure in English
 literature at the end of the era-his
 aims. his method of work and the fac
 tors which have gone to create so ye-
 markable a phenomenon-and with
 Teutonic directness he applied to the
 distinguished author himself, he result
 was an interview, which appeared a
 few days ago as feulleton in Vien-
 nese journal--the "Neues Weiner Tag
 blatt"-doubtless with Mir. Kinpling's s
 permission.
 1 What appears to have struck Dr. ! Kellner most in the personality of his
 subject was the air of happiness which | surrounded him.
 1 "All that fate--Kipling would call 1t ! the good God'-has to bestow of al | worth has been granted to this wonder
 full child of fortune; love, domesticity, 1 independence, fame, and power in the
 vigor of youth Che is only thirty-two) and sound health, and, above all, the 1 capacity for enjoying his good fortune. He has known how by wise economy to obtain full independence; he has for many years been placed in such a po- Sition that he can withstand all the temptations of publishers and editors, and in his creative work need only re- spond to the inner call and his literary
 conscience Literary creation is, for
 him, the honest joy and the calling of a
 writer the noblest pursuit. Nor is that all; Kipling has the happiest fortune which can happen to q man when he
 has attained his highest aims, his fath-
 CT and mother are still al ve, and he can and does say with proudest modesty,
 All that I am I owe to them. kipling's
 father was an artist holding an official
 position in India, and lives now in re-
 tirement in the neighborhood of his son,
 for with such a globa-trotter Wiltshire
 is regarded as quite near Sussex. Hap
 py father and happier son! Of his
 mother he naturally does not speak to
 strangers, but it is sufficient to hear man say my mother to understand the
 relations that exist between them"
 The impression of all this happiness was so strong upon Dr Kelner that after his interview he said to himself,
 To-day I have seen happiness face to face"
 The first impression produced by MT Kipling on the interviewer was striking in it's diversity. Whatever Mr. Kipling speaks and turns his face full upon you would think you had before you a very wide-awake, lively and harmless child, but the profile shows strong man who has not grown up in the at mosphere of the study. have seldom" adds the interviewer, received two such different impressions from one and the same face The work room is of surprising simplicity; the north wall is covered with books half It's height &er the door hangs q portrait of Burne- ones (Mr. Kipl!ngs uncle); to the right near the window. stands a plain table not writing tabe-on which lie couple of pages containing verses. No works of art, no conveniences, no knickknacks-the unadorned room sim pie and earnest like Puritan chapel"
 T much fear" began the interviewer, rthat I have come to early and that I have disturbed you in your work ? "No, mo- interrupted Kipling, q have done my daily task"
 II looked astonshed at him. The late lamented Trolope came to my mind, who under all circumstances wrote his twenty pages every day-hut Trollope and Kiplng! He guessed at once what had astonished me-" "I do my daily task conscientiously, but not all that I write is printed; most of it goes there" "The wastepaper basket under the ta- ble here received a vigorous kick, and a mass of torn-up papers rolled on the ground. Kipling's movements are quick and lively, and perhaps somewhat ner- vous; a thoroughly southern tempera- ment."
 The interviewer despairs of giving any verbal account of the interview, which lasted for some five hours, but gives for his German readers a sort of analytic account of MT. Kiping after the manner of Taine, but evidently bas- ed on information supplied by the nov elist himself. Three different nationali- | ties have gone to make up his compli- | cated nature. On the mothers side Scotland and Ireland, on the fathers England though four hundred years ! ago the Kiplings came from Holland ! There is likewise mixture of two diff | ferent temperaments in the genealogy Both grandfathers were clergymen, but the father is an artist, and the moth CT has throughout her life told stories in verse and prose. The same complex ity existed in the early environment of the future author, spent iu the wonder , full world of India, midst the primitive culture of the east on one hand and the most advanced civilization of the west on the other. The child could thus see one family content with four clay walls under straw thatch, three earthen pots and a handful of rice, earned by hard work, while close by he could find himself surrounded by all the conveniences which Europeans find necessary to make their stay in India bearable. As the child began to talk he learned to call things by two differ- ent names. Kipling speaks Hindustanee as fuently as English. Through the ser wants he came in touch with all the re- ligions of Asia; his Avah was Roman and he knelt with her at the same altar; other servants took him