RUDYARD KIPLING IN INDIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10595, 12 September 1896, Page 6

RUDYARD KIPLING IN INDIA.

■ The numerous admirers of Rudyard Kipling's genius wonld do wall to secure a copy of this month's Pearson's Magazine," which contains an excellent article by Mr E. Kay Robinson, who \»&.i the editor of the Civil and Military Gazette - f Lahore when Mr Kipling vsas on the staff. Tbe following extracts are taken.from the article: —

i" Journalism in India is uncommonly hard labaur for the few Englishmen who conet;tute au editorial staff; and with the greatest dislike of using a razOT to cut grindstones, I could not help burdening Kipling with a good deal of daily drudgery. My experience of him as a newspaper hßck suggests, however, that if you want to find a man who willchcerfnily do the office work o£ three man, you should catch a 'young genius. Like a blood horse between the shafts of a coal waggou, he may go near to bursting his heart in the effort, but he'll drag that waggonalong as it ought to go. .

"The amount of stuff that Kipling got through in the day was indeed wonderful; and though I had more or less satisfactory assistants after he left, and tbe staff grew with the paper's prosperity, I am sure that more solid work was done in that office when Kiplingand I worked together than ever befora or after.

" There was one peculiarity of Kipling's work which I really- must mention—namely, the enormous amount of ink he used to throw about.

"In the heat of summer white cotton trousers and a thin vest constituted his office attire, and by the day's end he was spotted all over like a Dalmatian dog. He bad a habit of dipping bis pen frequently and deep iqto the inkpot, and as all his movements were abrupt—almost jerky—the ink need to

fly. . , ■ . . . " When he darted into my room, as be used to do' about one thing and another in connection with the contents of the paper a dozen times in the morning, I had to shout to'bim to .' stand off'; otherwise, as I knew by experience, the abrupt halt he would make and the flourish* with which he placed the proof in his hand before me, would send the penfol of ink—he always bad a foil pen in bis hand —flying over me.

" lie was always the best of company, bubbling over with delightful humour, which found vent in every detail of our day's work together; and the chance visitor to the editor's oMca must often have carried away very erroneous notions of the amount of work which was being done wlien he found us in the fits of laughter that usually accompanied our consultations about the make-up of the paper.

" This is my chief recollection of Kipling as assistant and companion; and I would placa sensitiveness as his second characteristic. . Although a master of repartee, for instance, he dreaded dining at the club, where there was one resident member, since dead, who disliked him, and was always endeavouring to snub him. Kipling's retorts invariably tamed the tables on his assailant, and let us all in a roar; and, beside this, Kipling was popular in the clnb, while bis enemy^as not.

" Under such circumstances an ordinary man would have courted the combat, and enjoyed provoking his clumsy opponent; but

the man'a animosity fcurt Kipling, and I knew that tie cften, to avysd the orde?3, dined in solitude at home *!ien he wonid infinitely, have preferred difing at the club ; but I j could never persuade him.of the .folly oi doing so.

"Apart from his marvellons faculty foi assimilating local colour without apparent effort, Kipling ni<gtected no chance and spared no labour in acquiring ssperience that might serve a literary purpose. Of ths various races of Isdia, whom the ordinary Englishman Jumps together as 'natives,' Kipling knew the quaintest details of habits and language and distinctive ways ol thought.

" I ramember vre'l one long-limbod Pathao, indescribably filthy, but with magnificent mien and features—Mabhab AH, I think, was his name —who rsgnrdetl Kipling as a man apart from all other ' Sahibs.' After each of his wanderings across the unexplored fringes of Afghanistan, .wisei'e his restless spirit of adventure led him, Mahbab AH always used to turn up travel-siiiiaed, dirtier, and more majastic than ever, for confidential colloquy with ''Kuppeling Sahib,' his'friend'; and I more than fancy that to Mahbab Ali Kipling owed the wonderfal local colour which he was able to put roto snch teies as " Dray wara yow deo ' and ' The Man Who Would bo King.'"