Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-25

alone.
Less than forty years ago the great
story teller was glad to sign q contract
which gave him $1,000 and a royalty
of two cents a copy for a number OF
volumes consisting of most of the fic'
ton he had written up to that time
tales which have since Joined those
Of Hardy, Defoe, Meredith and the
other great writer's of English classics
Kipling has always been one of the
most discussed celebrities of his time
and 1t is surprising that the story OF
his discovery has never been disclosed
have learned that story by happen
ing upon the diScoverer-his identity,
however, must still remain unknown.
For q long time he was head OF a
firm which controlled the news stands
on the Indian railways. 1t was while
l was renewing a wartime acquaint'
ance with him that l learned for the
first time that my friend had been in
tirnately associated with Rudyard
Kipling in the middle eighties.
Recognized His Ability.
He had, in fact, been the first to
publish. in England, anything written
by Kipling, who before this business
man recognized the possibilities of
his work, had attracted little atten-
ton, even in India.
"BeforeR A. IL. Wheeler & Co. pub
lished, first in India and later in Eng
land, the first series of Kipling's works
Soldiers Three, Wee Willie
Wrinkle The Phantom Rickshaw'
and others-I mad known the young
man for quite a time" my friend said.
He was on the staff of the Pioneer
when was in Allahabad and of course
was a member of the, Allahabad Club,
7 q Mt pa,
quently ate with him.
He was a rather shy young man.
of very retiring disposition, who wore
glasses, had dark, bristling hair,
penetrating eyes. and a somewhat reti-
cent manner-untib he was thoroughly
interested in his subject.
And then?
'Charming--full of absorbing yarns,
of very out-of-the-way nature, eX-
ceedingly humorous-when he cared
to be-and able to give amazingly
correct information regarding all man
ner of abstruse details connected with
the lives and persons, the goods and
chattels. and the politics and religions
OF Indians-either Hindu, Parsee,
Jaina, Sikh or Mahommedan.
Was Strong for Details.
HE was very young to have &C.
quired such a stock of information,
about % at the time, but then he was
q genius. He had an absolutely ex-
traordinary gift not only for acquiring
information. but for knowing what to
acquire and how to use it. He noted
details which might we'll have escaped
the keenest observer, and he had a
weird faculty of being able to under
stand, almost at once, the technical
ties Of trades and. professions outside
his own"
such as those that figure in Nc
Andrews Hymn for instance?"
"Yes-a. very good illustration of his
almost uncanny powers in that d.
rection. for it was written, I believe,
after q single voyage, in the course
of which Kipling spent most of his
time In the engine room, with the
Scottish chief engineer. And to Judge
from the inner knowledge 1t displays
Of the marine engineers calling you
would think that Kipling had been
brought UP in that line.
Curious to know how he had en-
pioyed his time in India between the
period of his return from school in
England and that of joining the La
hore paper, one day asked him what
he did in the interval. His reply was
that not being keen on polo. tennis
ana foot ball, the usual standby
games with which an Englishman in
India beguiles his leisure, and not be-
ing overload of social gayeties-danc-
ing, and that sort of thtng--he took
TO studying Indian life and character,
aided by the fact that having been
born In India and having spent his
early boyhood there he soon picked
UP the language, thus acquiring an in
innate acquaintance with m n y
classes Of Indians.
Long Visits Among Natives.
He told me that he would leave
homo for days together, and some
times weeks at time, and go about
with such Indian folk as interested
him, and said that he picked up a good
deal that was worth knowing during
such times"
did he ever tell you how he gained
his extraordinary knowledge of the
ways and the wiles of the British Tom
my IN India?"
''Only that he used to go about with
the soldiers a good deal and made
great friends Of Some of them-among
whom many have been the originals
of Privates OrtheI1s, Learoyd and
Mulvaney.
my suggestion to Kipling that
should publish some of his works
arose quite naturally out of our asso
citation. Like most men in Allahabad
and in Upper India generally, In those
days, I read the Weeks News and
became interested in the brilliant
stories Kipling wrote each week. All
can claim is that I had sufficient
sense to recognize that here was a
genius buried away in a newspaper
office, editing a SciSsorsand-paste
fugitive publication, which he was
vitAlizing by the most brilliant short
stories that had appeared since the
days Of Bret Hartet
ETt occurred to me that here was a
chance for g. very good stroke OF bust
ness, while 1t would also be the means
of introducing Kipling to TIE world
outside India, to which, at that time
he was unknown as a writer.
Confidence Was Justified.
"My confidence was more thar
justified, but l take credit to myself
only for having had a sufhcient liter
ary Judgment to enable me to appre
ciate Killings worth and the fore
sight to realize that it might be turned
to his and my own great profit.
1T made the suggestion to him one
evening at the club and recollect nov
how eagerly he listened to me wher
I told him that the stuff he was turn
ing out was far too good to fade away
in the files Of the Weeks News
that it deserved a very much better
fate-and how readily he RESPONDED
to my offer of publication.
Does 1t not strike you now as some
what remarkable that his Indian pub
fishers seemingly failed to perceive
the genius of his writings?"
q 1T does, most certainly. l think
and always have thought, that those