The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-02
NEWS HND COMMENT

The story of a Chicago reporters at
tempt to interview Kipling some years
ago is interesting and timely. Kipling
already had won a reputation for Acrtic
treatment of the press and many of the
boys were afraid to tackle him but this
one made the plunge and this Is his YER
sion of what happened:
Mr.. Kipling l said.
He turned upon me sharply. He looked
me In the eyes. Then he lowered his
eyes to my feet and began a slow study
of me from my shoes up. When his eyes
finally reached the point of my chin he
looked at my twisted card in his hand
and said in a short, choppy voice:
'Um-what If l am? 1 don't know you
Did you send me this card?
II admitted the soft impeachment.
I am just after being hurtled down
here by my city editor to find out what
YOU think about the world, the flesh and
the devil 1 said. Go ahead. Let's have
IT, Cough up. Any old thing you say will
do
"Itiplings rugged countenance was mo-
mentarily crossed by a very boyish, fetch
ing grin.
"'Youre a pretty cheeky Sort aren't
YOU? he inquired, not quite so choppiy
as he had spoken before. What does
your blasted city editor or anybody else
suppose that / know about the devil the
1
twenty--a kid; a kid in EnGand, at any
rate, where precocity, instead of being 1t
q premium, as it seems to be over here,
is a social vice. The word, the flesh and
the devil?' Haven't YOU got any hoary
patriarchs here to whom you can put that
question"
"'Slews of 'em,' I replied. But they
haven't written books about the dolngs of
MulVaney, Ortheris and Learoyd. That
isn't half bad You're of the improving
sort, think, and you'll probably do some
decent work later on, when you get next
to yourself
"Kiplng took off his spectacles, wiped
them with his pocket handkerchief re-
adjusted them, and looked me through
for fully a minute before he spoke.
~ say he said then, you're a con-
founded impertinent sort of cove, aren't t
! you? What the deuce do you mean? It's
| solacing to run across a man who's de-
vised of pure ga1--its novel, / mean.
| What do you want me to say?
" How do you like what you've seen of
this country anyhow | asked him, to
make a switch in the line of talk,
"I like it in spots he replied What
| difference does it make whether like 1t
or not?'
Lots" I said. We want to be ap-
| proved. We strive to please. We desire
! to he patted on the back. Go on and pat
us on the back some more I'll take it
! down In shorthand
81 wish you'd go away and let me
| alone said Kipling.
"'If ! was working for a salary, instead
of writing on space, I'd ob1ige you, for
| this isn't any fun for me- ! said. Tell
me some things about American soldiers
! what you've seen of them
They're blooming fine lot, your SCI
diers are said Kipling, looking interest
! ed. They are crack men-way-up nen-
! the horse outfits especially. I've visited
about a dozen posts and I'd like to have
! spent month at each of 'em. | imagine
| it must be fine work, soldering down
there in Arizona
Nice work said /. 4 often long 10
be back at old San Carlos. l put in three
! years as a buck private In one of the
| troops down there
| "Well that's how l got Kipling- be-
cause had soldlered, and if there's one
thing that interests Kipling more than
! another it's soldering. His honely phiz
! lit up when l mentioned that soldering
! incident in my tumultuous career, and
for three-quarters of an hour he sat there
in the window front of the Hotel Richie
lieu and talked over the military end of It
in clever luminous, sketChy way that
was fun of meat. He told me all about
the American military posts he had Wis
/ tied, comparing our soldiers with the men
who compose the British outfits end
well, it made over two columns of tiptop
stuff"
The immigrant without fat bank ac-
count had better not try to transplant
himself into Venezuela Says the Herald
of that country: "A little house for
two Small, clean and comfortable
| houses are very rare and rent at from $40
to $50 per month. A cook costs $40 per
month and maid who does not know
how to sew on a button S., and II re-
quires three maids to perform badly the
| service of an unframed Limerick girl.
| Provisions vary with flour, which is usu-
ally at 10 cnts per pound. The loaf Of -
| ounces sells at 10 cents; ordinary beef at
8 TO 10 cents, filet at 20 to %. Mutton prop
| erly so called does not exist; vegetables
are three times as dear as in the United
| states, and there is very little variety Of
| them; fowls sell at from 40 to so cents
| according to the size; win ordinaire at %
| cents the bottle; oil 20 cents the bottle ;
! eggs 81 To 40 cents per dozen; fresh fish
~ cents per pound, 70 pass TO clothing
| q suit TO mcasurc-ready made clothing
does not eNist-costs from 1925 to S35, and
that of a very bad material but tolerably
| well made; shoes from 81 to S.; washing:
| shirts, Is cents each collars, 4 cents eaCn.
| cabs, so cents per hour and 80 cents per
| r gto Of