Evening star., 1899-02-11
INTERVIEW" WITH KiPLlNG

II near that R61yard k1plingS manners
have Improved agtgood deal since he first
came to this country. nearly ten years ago.
and that he has nut out that short, sharp
and decisive3f posesthat he then clung to so
tenaciously,''s said correspondent of a
Chicago paper who used to be hotel re-
porter in tIfa town of wind. 81 was sent
down to Kipimg's hotel to pick bit of talk
out of him when he first struck Chicago, on
his way from Sam Francisco to New York.
He wasn't quite such big gun then as he
is now, but illhe was big enough. All the
way from the coast to Chicago the report
ers he had met had been hammerng him
as case of a remarkably bright young
man afflicted with elephantiasis of the
skull. ! concluded that all of this anvil
chorus music made by the reporters Kip
ling had met was unjust. / had such an
opinion of my own interviewing skill that 1
would have been willing to lay better than
even money that I'd succeed in getting a
corking, red-hot talk out of the young East
Indian.
'He got into Chicago at 4 O'Clock in the
afternoon, too late for the hotel reporters
for the afternoon papers to get in talk
with hlm hpling put up at the Richelieu
ana sent my card up to him about Z
O'Clock in the evening After about five
minutes young man wearing a very
paSgy suit, of clothes and the bummest
black Derby hat ever saw, got off the ele-
Vator and shambled into the hotel lobby.
l Knew the young man was Kipling He
looked about the same then as he does now
same bulldog, Rock-of-Gibraitar jaw
stubDy mustache, searching eyes and gem
eral look of siouchiness.
He had my card in his hand as he en-
tered the hotel lobby. He seemed to regard
the card as great curiosity. He examin-
ed it from all points of view, walked over
10 the window front of the hotel and scru-
tinized 1t top and bottom; held it out at
md Cnar,, nod tn 1,nr oil Ii do
OF diHlculty in arriving at determination
what the deuce the card meant. l walked
over to where he was fumbling with the
card at the window front.
Mr.. kipling?' ] 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
nom 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
short. choppy voice.
'Um-what if l am? I don't know YOU
Did you send me this card?'
Il admitted the soft impeachment.
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 l said Go ahead. Let's have
do
"kiplng's rugged countenance was mo-
menfarily crossed by a very boyish. fetch
ing grin;
ou re d pretty cneeky sort, dTen [
you? he inquired, not quite so choppily as
he had spoken before. What does your
Blasted city editor or anybody else suppose
that l know about the devil, the flesh or
the world? I'm only six-and-twenty-a
KID; kid in England, at any rate where
precoclty, instead of being at a premium,
as it seems tc be over here, is a social
vice. THE world. the flesh and the devil?'
Haven't you got any hoary patriarchs here,
to whom you can put that question:?
- 'SleWS of EN- / reDliad. But thew
haven't written books about the doings of
Mulvaney, Oftherfs and Learoyd. That
stuff of yoursf is hpretty good-that is, it
isn't half bad. You're of the improving
sort, l think aand' you'll probably do some
very decent workuiater on, when you get
next to Yourself
'Kiping took OFF his spectacles, wiped
them with hs packet handkerchief read
justed them, Iand Hooked me through for
fully minute,befsre he spoke.
say he, said then you're a con-
founded impeftinent sort of a cove, aren't
you? What the deuce do you mean? It's
solacing to run across a man who's de-
vised of pure gaIl-it's novel, l mean.
What do you Rant. t.me to say?'
,,,s How ao,na do yRu Ike what you've seen of
make a switch in'the line of talk
Il like it i'll seets' he replied What
difference doestit make whether 1 like it
or not% '"f a. ?
" Lots said rive want to be approved
We striveI TO- please. We desire to be
patted on the back. Go on and pat us on
the back some. I'll take it down in short
hand iE .tE
II wish you'd go away and let me
alone, said Kipling.
If L working for salary, instead
OF writing on space, ia oblige you for
this isn't any fun for me- said i. Tell me
some things about American soldiers what
you've seen of them
They're a blooming fine lot, your SOL
diers are said Kiplng. looking interested
They are crack men-way-up men-the
horse outfits especially. I've visited about
a dozen posts, and I'd like to have spent
a month at each of 'em. 1 imagine 1t
must be fine work, soldering down there
in Arizona
"'Nice work said 1. I often long to be
back at old San Carlos. I put in three
years as a buck private in one of the
troops down there
well, that's how / got Kiping-because
/ had so1diered and if there's one thing
that interests Kipling more than another
it's soldering. His homely 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 Richeieu and
talked over the military end of it in a
clever, luminous, sketchy way that was
full of meat. He told me all about the
American military posts he had visited
comparing our soldiers with the men who
| compose the British outfits, and-weIl, it
made over two columns of tip-top stuff
w men rose TO take my leave of kipling
/ said:
Now, don't forget-whenever you write
something that you think is really good,
just send me along batch of advance
proofs and I'll give You a stick two of
| a notice in my paper, if I approve of the
stuff and consider it up to the mark
"Kipling simply glared at me amusedly
out of his shrewd eyes, said something that
sounded like 1mpudent whelpn and went
| away to write my interview"
Dogs for Tracking Turkeys.
From the Chicago Record.
The wild turkey is now hunted in Mis-
souri, with a slow-tracking dog, and whole
| Nocks are often killed in this way Till
| the trained dog was employed to follow up
| the wary bird this game fowl could battle
| the most skillfu1 hunter Now when a
| flock of turkeys is found the sportsman
| has little difficulty. A good dog will fol-
| low a turkey track that is three or four
| hours DID, and set the birds when over
| taken, just as the pointer does the quail.
After the turkey has been chased awhile