Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-03-17
kipIing and His Daughter.

Dear little. bright little happy little
iM.ddle kipiins il dead. for ',kiddie'',it
and the formal Josephine belongs to
| that outer world which reads of the child
in the newspapers, or who. perchance.
may write her name on a marble shaft.
| kiddie kipling was her fathers per.
his intimate companion. for mis- love Of
children is characteristic in its reality.
For her the Jungle Books" were begun
and written. Because she babbed of
what the horses talked to each other.
THE Walking Delegate" came to be Il
strong story in itself. Dear little Kid
die, with her big eyes and gentle ways,
| too pretty by far 10 look like, her father:
much prettier and fairer than her bru-
nettc mother. Elsie. the second child, re
sembles kiddie somewhat. but John. the
who, by the size and the force of him
makes strangers think he must be much
the senior of the gentle little Elsie.
Little Josephine kipling was a beautiful
child, Yet no one could possibly accuse
either of her parents of beauty Kiping
himself is short and round-shouldere1.
with a keen. alert face. strong as 10 nose
and chin. but a very long way from being
handsome. His prevailing expression -
one of sympathetic keenness. He is not
fond of show. and he dresses badly But
he is alert to every Influence and nothing
passes his observation. which. perhaps, Is
the foundation stone of his success.
Mrs. k!pling is very dark. and in her
girlhood and early married life possessed
a certain birdlike vivacity which was
charming. People have often criticised
her as dull. but that is not fair. STILL
who is ever fair to the consort of
genius? 1t is undeniable that she talked
well, and was quite able to keep up her
end of current conversation brightly and
interestingly. Perhaps she was never a
woman who exactly did things" She
did not play or sing or draw. but she is
a woman whose children are always well
kept. and her house ever excellently an
pointed. OF late years she has lost much
a haay
older than she is, older tan he. and these
hard years of newspaper work in India
Knocked the youth out of kipling pretty
well. that one does not realize how
early his reward has come to him until
one hunts up the record of his birth.
There has been great deal said in
,h,s ,ia about his trip to America at
here to seek fair weather. he knew better
than to expect that in February. but he
did want to escape from the English eli
ed TO see her folks" in Vermont: for,
though one brother has harassed them.
the kiplings are very fond of the rest of
the family, and are on excellen. terms
with them. Then it was his plan that he
might run down to Mexico and back in
side of six weeks. Alack and alas for
planning.
A great mistake is made when it is
supposed that kipling feels unfriendly
toward Americans. He came here d
young enthusiastic man, he wrote of ev-
Vi tHtiS liz IouItU IL, anu III Tree, HOW
ing. virile language. We resented crti-
cism be 1t never SO honest. and the press
OF the country poured forth its walls of
wrath upon him He came to. the concIu-
sion that America hated him, and Il resi-
dence in rural Vermont was not calculat-
ed to utterly overthrow that Impression
Vermont, where the people still fight the
battles OF the revolution and expect to
see, each Britishcr. come over the hills
with a line of ttessians behind him.
The White Mans Burden Is not new
t., rf,,1t ..x
our Venezuelan difficulties, because he
felt, with that characteristic intensity OF
his. that our strength was linked indisso!-
ubly with the AnSlo-Saxon, and he
southern Spanish of America were none
of our kin. Friends of his urged him to
write the ede then. nut he could not.
The american people don't like me; and
would say. diScOnSolately, ana with the
rivers of printed criticism which We're
then pouring in upon nim it was difficult
to deny the force of his remark.
He is most conscientious and labori-
Gus worker. When he did write The
White Mans Burden" he wrote and re-
wrote 1t so often that its pile of manu-
script came to be about three inches
thick. good measure, pressed down and
running over.
al" though the story of mrs. lipling's
reScuing the whole poem from the waste |
basket is all flub-dub.
kiplin~ is industrious and sincere. He |
hates attitudinizing. and has often said |
that he could utterly obliterate his own
personality and live only in the abstract |
through his books. He hates affectation.
He hates notoriety. He is a quiet hard |
working man who believes in the strong. |
simple things of life. and who knows his
Bible as all boys trained in good English |
schools must and does not disdain its vo-
cabulary in seeking out his own
People often begin by very much dislik-
ing kipling and then falling into an in
tense admiration of him. 1t seems impos-
sible to follow a miduie course tut ne
has few inumates. He aDDears nearly
sufficient unto himself. although he has