Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-04-15

Pioneer at Lahore India, where his
parents then lived, offered him hand
some salary to start for India via Amer
lea, Honolulu, Japan, China, and so to
Lahore, writing letters for publication.
The offer was accepted.
When he returned to Lahore, he en-
tered the Office of The Pioneer and took
subordinate position in order to learn
everything in the publishing line. The
work was not cOngenial to him, and he
was anxious to turn his attention to
something else. 1t happened that the
Duke of Connaught, then military COM
mander of the northwestern district of
India, would occasionally pay visit to
the kiplings and spend an evening at
their house. When he met Rudyard, he
became greatly interested in him and,
in the course of conversation, remarked,
''What are you going to do, Mr.. Kip
ling now that you are in India again"
'Well, sir, have an ambition be-
yond the drudgery of working in the
office of The Pioneer
"What would you like to do, then,
Mr. Kipling?'
81 would like, sir, to live with the
army for time and go to the frontier
to write up Tommy Atkins " The duke
considered the matter and finally gave
him carte blanche to do whatever he
/ liked 90 to any military station in his
command and, if he wished 90 to the
frontier and live with officers or men,
and if at any time he required an escort
he could have one. Rudyard aEailed
himself of the dukes offer and went off
to make acquaintance with Tommy
Atkins. AT the same time he became a
! great student of nature and the life and
character Of the people
Thus began a career in literature
which has given Mr.. Kipling wide and
enduring fame.
Mr.. Kipling was married Jan. 10,
/ 1892, in London, to Miss Balestier, sister
of the young American novelist, WOlcott
Balestier, who died in Dresden in 1891,
and with whom Kipling collaborated
in the story called "The Naulahka
1t was through this brother that she be-
came acquainted with Mr.. Kipling.
Her father, Joseph Navarro Balestier,
!
and lawyer of New York city He
bought very extensively property in and
around Brattleboro, VT, and today the
Balestier estate there includes many
hundreds of acres
1t was thus that Mr.. Kipling settled
III BrattleborO shortly after his mar
riage He and Mrs. Kipling lived in
the town until their new home was fin
ished just outside the Brattleboro line.
1t is fashioned after the plan of an In
dian bungalow, in which one long cor
rldor from end to end of the building
divides all the apartments, as in a ho-
tel, and is built on the side of hill 1t
Is long, curious looking structure,
without an entrance on the side that
faces the roadway and with but one
door in the house, that on the hillside.
The property slopes down from the
hillside to the roadway, and at the base
of the hill, although there are no fences
or distractions, are scattered signs
reading, "Trespassing on These Premises
Is Forbidden.
Here Mr.. and Mrs. Kipling lived for
some time the year round, and many
stories are told in BrattleborO of his
life there Strangers who saw him for
the first time thought cowboy had
come to town, and his boots, his
greatcoat and his sombrero, whenever
the weather permitted him to go with
out thick cap, We're familiar to all the
town folk
There are few personalities more in
teresting than that of Rudyard Kip
ling, and there is no man of letters
abOnt whom there has been so much in
quiry yet he is very little known. He
has what is sometimes called the British
insular prejudice against inquiry into
his private life and habits.
good many hundreds of people who
have come in contact with him have
called him all the names that one may
use in polite society. The explanation
thereof is simple enough. Mr.. Kipling
did not care to know them and resented
their attempts to know him. To these
kipling is inclined to be exceedingly
short, not to say rude. He believes that
he gives the best he has to the public
i'll his writings and that it has no right
to bother about his private life.
To those to whom he gives his friend
ship he is as genial, as kindly, as warm
hearted, as any one could ask. He is the
most delightful of companions.
Personally Kipling is as complex and
remarkable as his writings. His affec-
tion for his wife and children amounts
to worship.
Everything in connection with his
life in this country shows how desirous
is the young man to avoid people who
bother him. He absolutely refuses to be
lionized, and the thought of seeing in
print what he ate for dinner draws
from him language as picturesque and
as vivid as his poems. but not SO print
able.
While Kipling has steadfastly refused
to tell the reporters much about him.
self, his personality is quite fully re-
vealed in his works. He may have had
Scudery's idea, II know better than
any other writer how to tell anecdotes
about myself. AS newspaper man
Kipling is described by himself. In his
remarkable story of 1.-The Man Who
Would Be King" he has given us a
sketch of himself sitting at his des& one
Saturday night waiting to put the pa
per to press. "A king or courtier was
dying at the ether end of the world, "
he says, land the paper was to be held
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