Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-10-14
KIPLlNG INTERVIEWED
How the Famous Author was
Cornered in Brattleboro.
Two Courage ous Re porters Braved the
Authors Wrath and Secured a
Splendid story.

ing has been interviewed in the news-
paper sense only once during his career
aiter he had achieved an international
reputation. 1t was the fortune Of the
writer to be one OF the two newspaper
men, who finally obtained an interview
WIN the distinguished author
ihe interView took place In Bratte-
""fo several years ago, and II is the
fuipooe or this article to state in somc-
what abbreviated form what Mr.. Kip
ing said and to show him in his dress
and manners at that time.
Mr.. Kipling first visited Brattleboro
IN the spring OF 1892. His wife had lived
IN the outskirts of the pretty town for a
number or summers and was much at
tached to 1t ard 10 the people. Her
grandmother. Madame Balestier. had a
summer home about three miles ont of
tho village. For some reason Mr.. Kin
ling made a visit to the section tn either
March or April, 1892, and as he stated It
the mercury was Thirty below freez-
ing"
With his great industry and keen bush
ness sense MIR, Kipling had hardly reach
ID Brattleboro before he wrcio ono of
his brilliantly descriptive articles that
gave the color of the intense cold. the
town and everything else which passed
| under his observation. 1t was purchased
by the Mcclure syndicate and the story
was printed In many of the leading pa
pers of the country.
Mr.. Kipling wns not content to speak
Of the intense cold the heautiful views
and all that sort of thing. He also de-
scrbed the men and the women Here
arc few sentences from the first Frat
tlchoro story showing his wonderful
stve. There is certain scarcity of men
to make love with. Not SO much in
towns which have their own manufac-
turtles and lie within q lovers sabbath
day journey of New York. but in the
farms and villages. The men have gone
awnv--the Young men are fighting for
| fortune further West. and the women re-
main-remain forever rs women must
on the farms when the children depart
the old mon and the old women strive
to hold things together without help
ana the womans portion is work and
mouotony. Sometimes she goes mad TO
an extent which appreciahlY affects sta
tistics and is put down in census re-
ports. More often let rs hope, she only
dies.
I'm the villages where the necessity
for heavy work is not so urgent the wo-
men find consolation in the formation of
literary clubs and circles and so gather
to themselves n great deal of wisdom in
their own way. That way is not alto
gether lovely. They desire facts and the
knowledge that they are ct certain
page in a German or Italian book be-
fore certain time. or that they have
read the proper boks in proper way.
At any rate they have something to do
that seems as if they had been doing
something"
There was something about the pic
ture. something in the story that did
not please the people Of Brattleboro and
southern Vermont. They did not relish
It. The Rev D. George Leon Walker
published an article in reply To some Of
the views which Mr. Kipliing had taken
on the Vermont hills and in the village
giving a true picture Of Vermont people
as he had seen them for many years
The two articles caused considerable
comment and for n time there was a
feeling that Mr.. Kpllng had been I'M
lust, that his pictures We're not true Of
life.
It was while that feeling was quito
general In RrattIeboro that the writer
There were exaggerated stories nfioat
in relation to his manners. his dress, the
| usual yarns that are current In a coun-
try town about any celebrity who chanc-
es to make his home in small town
and who does not mingle with the peop-
lie freely, and who is a trine eccentric.
At that time Mr.. Kipling was building
| "Naulahka" the name OF his country
house. Just over the line in Dummer-
.ton about three miles from Brattleboro
village He was living while his coun-
try house was being built. in n small
| cottage on the bliss farm. which gen.
eral report said was formerly the home
! Of the coachman or assistant farmer on
| the farm. Certainly II was an exceed
| ingly modest residence for a man who
| even then had an income well UP in the
thousands.
| We called Mt the cottage on the dav
| of the interview, and were told that
Mr.. Kipling was walking somewhere on
the hills We then drove in the direc-
ton OF the Ealestier farm, where Ma
dame Bolester makes her summer
home. Presently we saw man coming
| down a steep hillside pasture above the
road. It was Enthusiastically Kpling
| In n minute or two he reached n po-
sition a few feet from barbed wire
fence. For brief instant he stood like
n bronze statue. The eye photographed
him in an instant. There was short
stock body supported by legs that seem
ed to he made for smaller man. They
| were covered with pair of old. almost
| skin-tight. brownish trousers. Mr. Kip
ling wore faded greenish Norfolk jack
ct A negligce shirt collar and a black
aill, four-in-hand showed at the neck.
His face was dark, his moustache dark
brown, his mouth was determined. His
ewes were sharp. rather retreating and
they we're partially covered by double
lens gold bowed spectacles, topped by
heavy eyebrows. His forehead seemed
| to be broad, but not high. He wore on
/ his head large gray slouch hat. II
caused him to look little top-heavy
! In his right hand was a heavy walking
airy market basket.
IT'S this Mr.. Kiplng?" said Mr. Flax
on.
Quick as flash came back the reply
"Who are you, newspaper reporters?'
| He did not wait for reply to his own
question Almost instantly he performed
an act that any professional athlete
would have been proud Of The walk
ing stick and market basket were tossed
over the barbed wire fence and then Mr.
Kipling actually dved between the
strands of the barhed wire and landed
on all tours in the grass weeds and