White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-11-09
KIPLING FINDS PAL
IN ROAD LAB0RER
Famous Poet Hobnobs With
Octogenarian.

Burwash, Observation-Disclosures Kip
ling eludes publicity but he can't elude
Mr.. Lavender. Perhaps it is because
Mr.. Lavender is eighty-dhe years old
and deaf and not at all fond OF con-
versation that Mr.. Kipling doesn't try
to. For Mr.. Lavender is the poets
new confidant and "pal," and folks
around here say he shears" all the
great mans secrets.
Mr.. Notwithstanding Is his first
name-is by profession road men
der. He has been mending roads
around this district for very long
time, and somehow the job never
seems to get finished.
Mr.. Kipling lives about mile down
the road and takes stroll In Mr..
Lavender's direction every morning.
There is convenient stile near MI.
Lavender's bit of road, upon which
Mr.. kipling perches . and quietly
watches his old friend work until the
"cricks'' in Mr.. Lavenders back call
a halt. Then Mr.. Kipling opens the
conversation in loud voice. Let Mr..
Lavender, unabashed by the society
of the great, tell the rest f the story {:
Knows Mrs. KipIIng Twenty Years.
ooh yes, have known Mr.. Kipling
and Caroline for twenty years now"
he drawls casually. "Caroline," by the
way, is the only name the old man
will use for Mrs Kipling.
"They usually come along just when
I'm in the middle of my work. Then
they sit on the stile and Mr.. Kipling
hollers, Come and sit down along Of
me, Lavender
soften / do and often don't, but
when l do just says yes and mo-
and That's right For, between our
selves, for the last five years l have
hardly heard word he has said. We
talks lot about cattle, or leastways
I think we do, and he says all he's
got to say and I listens Then gets
up and says. We'll, sir, I've got to go
on with me work. and Mr.. Kipling
tries to get me back on the stile, but
says, No, sir, no. Works work, and
I've got no tine for chattering.'
"But he's a nice gentleman with a
lot of education and only wish i
could hear what he is saying"
Asked in thunderous tones whether
he was not fattered at the attention
of the famous poet, he replied, shout.
ing, 81 don't know that | exactly
enjoy 1t, but don't mind it,"
Lavender Has Rival.
Mr.. Lavender has a fellow road
member, one Mr.. Stonestreet, to whom
Mr.. Kipling also talks. But Mr.. Stone
street has quick ears and so he isn't
told any secrets. The conversation is
usually about local topics and it
Loften terminates in discussion con-
cerning the action Of the local district
council in ordering small trench to
be cut on the border of Mr.. Kipling's
land to carry off the water from the
roadway. The poet feels very strong
ly about this, according. to Lavender
& Co., as the water thereby floods his
land.
sometimes he says to me-" supple
ments Stonestreet, not to be outdone
by Mr.. Lavender, "Why can't you
Seaye my land alone?" But when he
Is not talking about. his land he goes
on for hours about Sussex and cattle
and crops. He seems to know a lot
about cattle, too, and he's a regular
history book about Sussex.
"But If he were to see an Ameri.
cam" concluded Mr.. Stonestreet, with
q warning look, "he would run a
mile. He only talks to Mr.. Lavender
and me-"