The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-09-18
KIPLING'S LOCAL
TROUBLE RECALLED
Alleged Attack OH America Brings Out
"reminiscences by Boston
Special Writer

Whether or not Mr. kipling said the
unpleasant things about America to the
imaginative Sheridan lady The says he
did notl, his unfriendty sentiments
with regard to us are well known
They have been repeatedly and cordially
expressed in his acknowledged writings
1t has been Impossible for the Nomad
10 become very much excited over the
alleged onslaught because he has long
been aware of that curious condition of
Mr.. kipling's mind which turned him.
some years ago, from being a very good
friend of America into a bitter hater
even of the American name The
change of heart, as is well known to
many people, especially at Brattleboro,
Vt seemed to date from certain I'M
favorable personal experiences. The
Nomad we'll remembers when Mr.. Kip
ling wrote very charming things about
us As all know, kipling married an
American woman, Miss Caroline Bales
tier. sister of Wolcott Balestier, a
Young novelist who died in Dresden i'll
1891, and also sister of Beatty Bales
tier, a somewhat eccentric and peculiar
man with whom kipling fell into a
violent quarrel. The Balestiers were of
Brattleboro, Vt. kiphng fell quite in
love with that state and place, and in
the early nineties he built a charming
house near Brattleboro, which he called
Naulahka, after the name OF a story in
the writing of which he elaborated
with Wolcott Balestier. The house
still stands, though it is now in quite
other hands than kipling's.
At about the same time kipling be
came deeply interested in the Glouce5-
ter fishermen and published Captain
Courageous, a sDlend1 picture OF their
brave voyagings, i'll 1891. But some
where along about this time he fell into
personal trouble with Beatty Balestier
who had become embroiled with certain
D.. LII. d. rsrae
lawsuit; kipling was brought into
court. and there were scenes which
made a great newspaper sensation. Mr..
kiphag became disguised with life in
Vermont and soon sold Naulahka and
moved away. But it is not to be sup
posed that Mr.. kipling,, would have
taken grudge against all Americans
merely because he had a quarrel with
his brother-in-law, especially as there
was always the memory OF the genial
and sincerely lamented Wolcott. But II
is undoubtedly true that he resented
the publicity and all the hullabaloo at
BrattleborO.
And then came the terrible illness at
New York. kipIing was taken i'll at the
Hotel GrenOble toward the end of
February. 1899, and soon fell into Il very
critical state. At about this time his
eldest child. Josephine, was also taken
i'll. and she died afterward at a private
house. where she was taken on account
of her fathers illness at the hotel. Her
father lifted the child off the floor on
the morning she left the hotel, and
kissed her as she lay on his bed. In his
illness Mr. kipling was attended by
DR. Theodore Durham. whose wife was
Mrs. Kipling's sister, and by Dr. f. c.
Janeway In his illness kiEling
imagined that he was in the hands of
enemies. and was constantly seeking
either to hide himself or to escape. Soon
after his recovery he returned to Eng
Land and never came back.
Throughout the illness there was the
keenest public concern. for at that time
Kipling was one of the most popular OF
men in this country. Thousands of
cards and other messages were received.
flowers came in masses, and when he
was recovering the family We're flooded
with all sorts of delicacies in the way
| of food. All this, together with the
! tragedy of his daughters death. seemed
/ to have a singular and a sinister effect
! upon kipling The first Indication of
| resentment was when, after returning
! to England. he instituted a suit against
| a very prominent American PUBLISHING
/ house for issuing an unauthorized cdi-
/ ton of his works In connection with
/ this suit he wrote a public letter in
| which he said of this concern: They
! have made me responsible. before a
| public to whom | do peculiarly owe the
/ best and most honest work 7 can turn
| ont. for an egregious nadded fake. end
/ all these things they did taking adva0-
| tage of that uUblic's interest in nv i'll
| ness when | lay at the point of death.
| This note indicates that at the time he
| had not vet developed any particular
hatred for Americans, But all his adj
miTeTs viii agree that he was certainly
| not the same writer after his recovery
Nothing that he has written since Tho
terrible illness has measured IN in
| quality to the poetry and the stories
| that went before; and the bitterness
| toward America and the American,
| seems 70 have been developed entirely
since the strain and stress of this px-
Derience. So nlaiH was it. that Kin
+ ling's mind end undergone detcriora
ton las evidence in bis work. that IL
was quite natural that the chang
| should have been attributed to some
loss or lesion which accompanied or re
suited from the Illness Cprtainlv Puck
I Of Pook's HILL Traffic and Discoveries
/ Actions and Reactions, and the hum
herring later verse, in which the lyric
faculty and all tho gift of cpi6~am ar
totally lost. seom hardly 10 no the ,vorl.
! of the man who wr0tn. Nanda Law Tom
1;nson. Soldiers 1hr"o The Brushw~0f
Row Kim ard The Jungle Books The
| furious slant a@aimSt the Yankee
| Gems 10 oo with that strarrr dotoriora
ION of mind ard BODY It nartalyoz of
the nature of mania We are cvidontlv
| a;n0d at in tho matra;n on Quebec
which reads Is follows:
From thy gray scarp | view with scorn-
Tgnoble broil Of freedom most unfree :
| But. fear not, Mother, where the car
rion lies.
There that uncIaau bird must be-
| Eut lust what does that rnean2 The
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