RUDYARD KIPLING

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 17

RUDYARD KIPLING

HIS EARLY DAYS

"INK-SLINGING IN LAHORE"

Mr. Kipling's reference InJa/ recent speech to the "faraway 'days'' when he was an obscure journalist, "inkslinging in Lahore," recalls a most interesting and almost unknown chapter in the life-story of this world-famous author —a story which the writer of an article in an English rnewspaper, 3lr. H. Crichton, is in rather an exceptional position to tell. He writes:—

It was a blazing.stifling day;in 1586.; I was walking with a friend in the main street of Lahore'when I saw coming toward me, a shortish, squat, figure attired in white " cotton- trousers- and thin vest open at .the.neck,, and crowned by an.enormous.pith helmet, i The figure was bustling alongrj\vith -head down, evidently oblivious of .his 'surroundings. As lie passed he .chanced to glance upwards, and. I caught a glimpse of a sallow face and keen eyes looking. through large spectacles, as with a nod and a cheery, "good morning" to my companion he passed 'us. "Who is'that little man?','.! asked. "That's Kipling," my friend answered. "Farand away the cleverest young fellow in ■ Lahore;' and, unless 'I am much mistaken, the world ■will' 'hear, a good deal of him some day. '.- I must introduce you to him at the- club' this evening." ' ..-.'-. A few hours later the promised introduction was made and I-was, spending one of the most delightful hours, of my life in the company of the young man whose name was ■ already becoming familiar in India as author of . some clever verses, known to-day, the whole wo-rld over as "Departmental Ditties "; and it was not long" rJefore I realised that ,he was-indeed iah extraordinary young man.- .'.. ... ; SHY AT TIBST. For a time the young writer .seemed shy and indisposedto talk; but the shyness soon vanished, and he : ':was transfigured. The heavy face was alight with animation; „the halting speech became fluent, almost, torrential; .'. his eyes began literally to dance with humour; and the flashes, of .wit r and repartee succeeded each other as swiftly and brilliantly ;as: gleams of summer lightning. - ' .-■ Less than four years earlier young Kipling had come-from England,' where he had been educated at WestwardJEo, to do the work of assistant .".'editor on the Civil and Military Gazette and Pioneer, and these years he!had*spent in the dreary drudgery, of newspaper work—on scissors-and-paste: paragraphs, dry .political note? Bummaries of Government reports—tdoing. the work of three men in 'tife stifling heat of the Punjab, and dqnfgiittwithunfailing cheerfulness,: never 'showing weariness and never - downhearted.' After his long office hours were >over, he- found solace in writing hii, delightful sketches and .p6ems;,,sotne of which found a corner in-the .Gazette; others, which the editor could ;not find, room for, he sent to other papers in\exehange for a few rupees. -:•■.- ■ „'; * A few days after my. first" with Kipling, I, had the pleasure' •of spending an evening with his "family, which only included four members, ; but each was little less remarkable' than himself. The father,.- John Lockwood Kipling, then curator of the* Lahore Museum, was one .of the most genial and delightful menl have, eyerm'et, a man of great artistic and literary .gifts, and author, of more th'an-'one clever book. The mother . was a; charming lady, with a tongue .almost as'rvritty as

her son's; while Miss Kipling, the daughter, was a beautiful girl, devoted to art and letters, and with the most amazing memory I have ever known. COVERED WITH INK. The following morning,, at Mr. Kipling's invitation, I called at his office to see him at his work, an experience I shall never forget. As I entered I was greeted witli shrieks of merriment and. saw the assistant and his chief convulsed -with laughter, which oven my; appearance was powerless to check for some time. "You must really excuse me," said the editor after Mr. Kipling had composed himself sufficiently to introduce me; "but really I couldn't help it. This young fellow" (pointing to Kipling), "will be the death of me. He is so screamingly funny." And indeed I could have laughed loudly myself, for the assistant, nowrestored to proper decorum, was the strangest spectacle I have ever set eyes on. Picture him for a moment in his white trousers, his open vest, exposing an expanse of chest —and literally covered from neck to feet with splashes of ink, which also thickly sprinkled the floor for yards around his seat. "He is a most dangerous man to approach," said the chief,.seeing the cause of my; amusement. ."I scarcely over come near-him. without getting a dab of ink in my eye or on my clothes, so recklessly does he flourish his pen. But, you see, one can forgive much in a genius." "Genius be blowed!" was .Kipling's comment as the chief retired to his sanctum, and, we .settled down to our chat. Certainly no man ever so little suspected the genius that was already struggling for expression than Rudyard Kipling in those days. MAN OF MODEST GENIUS. When I suggested to Kipling that he was wasted in India, and should seek a wider sphere his laugh rang out merrily. 'Why should I?" he answered. "What does England know or care for an obscure Indian journalist. I am doing useful work- here,-getting a good drilling, and it will be time enough to leave it when I know that I can do really good work. But thai is not yet." Such was the incorrigible modesty of the man whose name within a few years was to be a household word in four continents. But he was quite right. The training.he was getting in the Punjab was necessary to his future fame; and no man ever worked- harder to secure it. Already there was no man who knew so intimately every phase of Indian life. Now he was hob.-nobbing -with the Tommies in tjie barracks on the sunscorched plain of Mian Mir, absorbing every detail of their lives, the£ thoughts, their language, .until he knew them inside out better than any chaplain or sergeant. Now he was living . among the railway men, that strange, jumble of whites and blacks who dwelt in a world of their own, receiving their confidences, listening to the stories of their lives, mastering all the technicalities of their work. Among the natives of. every class ha was equally at home, exploring every secret of their lives and customs, and. winning their confidence as no other man ever did. Hindu and Mussulman; Parsee and Pathan, he knew them all better than they knew themselves: and to-day many an eye will still brighten, at the very mention of "Kipling Sahib. " ' No danger deterred him in his quest of knowledge, for he was as ready to spend a suffocating night among the opium eaters in the lowest slum o£ Lahore as to look on, the midnight orgies and butcheries of the Mussulman and Hindu. Such was Kipling in his 'prentice years of hard toil in the sun^scorched suffocating city of Lahore, content to do to the best of his ability the work at hia hand, and dreaming little and caring less that within a very few years "R.K." of the poets' corner of Indian newspapers would be hailed the world over as one of the greatest forces in. i.EngHsh letters.