The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-18

| time that Is very precious to him.
I Every little while he would take a
1 turn in the garden; this rested him
| after squirt; or if his spirit tagged
a little. he would talk for a while and
| always delightfully."-. He never ed
words; whatever he said was said with
! neatness and despatch.
| Why did the reading public get the
| impression that he was discourteous
| and even bOorish, especially in the
treatment of the interviewer? He did
not need the assistance of any inter-
view to make his work known to the
/ world; he. personally, chose not TO be
| known. He felt that if an English
| mans house is his castle, his Amer
| lean home should serve him in the
| same stead; and that he had the right
| to privacy even if he We're a. transient
guest at some hotel in town or country.
| Here is a brief chapter in the new
| Calamities of Authors: a blizzard was
| furiously raging in the Green Noun
| tains. Naulakha was bound: no
one thought of ploughing through the
| mile-long drifts that lay between Kip
| ling and Brattleboro. No one? Yes,
someone, just one only, did and that
one a woman. At the height of the
storm there was a cry for help at the
=
woman, young if not beautiful, was
dug out of the buffalo robes in the
| depths of a livery sleigh and placed
within a safe distance of the great
| fireplace in the living-room. Restora-
| tives We're applied; the reviving cup
| of tea thawed the tears upon her icy
| cheeks. ley cheek? I should say so,
| The fairy of Naulakha was filed with
| pity, anxiety and surprise. To her
questions the stranger answered: Il
have come to interview Rudyard Kip
ling!"
Then followed this dialogue:
| But you cannot interview Mr.. Kip
ling
Il must interview him. I have been
| sent all the way from New York to
| interview him for The Largest Circu-
| Iation; L insist upon interviewing him"
1T is quite impossible. He is en-
gagged upon an important piece of work
and shall not be Interrupted
But I have come all the way from
Brattleboro through this awful storm,
and 1 insist upon seeing him"
IF you had telephoned me from
Brattleboro, 1 might have spared you
the journey
7 cannot leave without seeing him!'
Mrs. Kipling touches the button
Enter butler. Mrs. X. to butler
johnson, see that this lady's convey
ance is at the door at once Permit
me- madam, to escort you to the wait
ing-room. I lam sorry you have had
your trouble in vain. Good-day!"
There was no alternative; the journal
ist departed speechless with rage. In
due season a full-page interview with
Rudyard Kipling appeared in the daily
represented by the unwe1come visitor
and in it r. K. was made to say every
thing utterable Or unutterable that was
calculated to put him in the most I'M
J favorable light before the public. I
suppose the moral is that one should
welcome ones interviewer with open
| arms and fill her with milk and honey.
One day when We were talking, Kip
| ling suddenly said to me: why don't
you write a novel?' =
4 II have written one" replied l.
by Jove! I'd like to see it,"
| You can if you wish to-
| ''When?'' q
| Now
| Where is it?"
| Upstairs in my room"
| Bring it to me at once,"
| 1 brought it. He opened it upon the
! desk before him and dipped into it
! here and there. We sat for some time
in silence; he reading and occasional
! ly grunting a little grunt; I with my
heart in my throat, waiting for the
! verdict. The longer I waited the less
hope 1 had that he might find some
| thing in my manuscript worth COM
mending.
| L broke the anxious silence by say
! ing:
Il am sure you see nothing in it,
| Still turning the leaves he said:
My dear fellow, can't tell you how
much I see in it; but" I had symp-
toms of heart failure-'it should be
written all over again.
The Amateur Novelist is, perhaps,
unduly sensitive. 1 know that at that
moment I felt that if the thing must
be rewritten, it was, perhaps, not
worth rewriting; and that in any case
L could not possibly rewrite it, I said
as much and was laughed at; and then
he gave me much judicious criticism,
all of which I deeply appreciated and
made suggestions that We're enlighten-
ing and which kindled a spark of hope
within me.
Before We met I wrote and asked
Kipling if he had copy of South Sea
1dyls,' and, if not, might 1 have the
pleasure of sending him one' He re-
piled:
I've heard and seen much of South
Sea Idyls' and copy from the author
is a gift indeed. This summer 1 miss
ed-for the second time-taking a trip
through that fairyland. Now I'll be
dependent on your eyes, and will prob
ably have a better time than if I'd
ploughed the South Pacific in a schoon-
er to Apia.''
L was glad of the privilege of sending
him the Idyls," and waited rather
anxiously to hear if they had succeed
ed in interesting one to whom the
world is his oyster. The answer
came:
Your book has come. been read and
read aloud. I don't think it was quite
kind of you to send it. I'm settled
down for a New England winter in