The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-19
KIPLING IN HIS HOME.
AS Seen by a New England Woman
Who Knows Him Well.
Springfield Republican.

The return of Rudyard Kpling to his
Brattleboro home after an absence of more
than two years renews local interest in
the celebrated English writer. A woman in
this city who has frequently visited in
the Kipling home and is well acquainted
with the BaleStiers Mrs. KiDling's family.
recalls with pleasure her impressions of
Kipling as she knew him three years or
more ago. The author of the East Indian
tales was not then as widely known IS
now, but even then the eyes of the literary
world watched iealOUsly the young Lon
doner. And Mr. kipling, even his admirers
aunt, felt she stltfening eItcct of public
F 6G oB he of Kn n3a q sr95
qualities. When the writer meets people on
his country walks and drives he talks with
them pleasantly and freely, but when he
appears in society among people of his own
class he is inclined to be unbending almost
snobbish at times. Mr.. Kipling'S Shortness
with newspaper men is proverbial, and this
characteristic is not reserved for that pro-
fession alone, but others feel its unpleasant-
ness. While not precisely ungentlemanly,
certainly, that quality is not a very posi-
be such, is one of omission, a carelessness of
little things that make up an attractive
man. Mrs. Kiplng is sometimes criticised
in this respect. Those who know them say
that she should exert more strongly wo-
mans privilege of making her partner see
himself as others see him. They think she
should make him understand that other men
have reached his eminence and that because
he has won renCWn is no excuse for his for
getting some of the common rules of ETH
quette.
A big, generous heart is Kipling's chief
characteristic. The Kindness and gentlenesf
that this sympathetic organ prompts COW
ers up many little faults that might other
wise be conspicuous. Mr. Kipling loves
children and has three bright ones himself
He stops and talks with the country chill
dren on his walks, gives them Slight pres
ents and makes them interested in what he
tells them and is himself interested in THEN
little tales to him. Yet, strangely, he cares
nothing for animal pets and not even a cal
purrs by the hearthstone. He drives good
horses, but his delight In them is rather In
their speed and locomotive powers than in
their personality. His daily life is filed with
kind deeds that make his acquaintance q
rare treat to those privileged to its posses
sion.
inquire and round, rudy face; dressed with
absolute style and cleanliness, but without
apparent taste. That is KipIng as his
BrattlebOro friends know him He is scrup-
ulously exact in his dress, appearing al
noon lunch and evening dinner in equally
careful costume. His habits Of work seen
from the outside, at least, to be rather ir-
regular. He walks much about the country
and in the woods, drives often and seems
always to have leisure. One is as apt to see
him in the city. three miles from his hillside
home, "Naulahka," in the middle of the
forenoon or early in the morning as at any
other time, until 1t is evident that his liter
airy work takes no regularly prescribed
period Of the day. Evenings are usually re-
served for mis- family and the few friends he
has in Brattleboro, and 1t may be taken for
certain THAI not much work comes from his
pen except during the day. This is Kipling
two or three years ago. What he is to-day
crowned with still more conspicuous laurels
no one in America, perhaps. knows, outside
the immediate family.