KIPLING AS A SCHOOLBOY AND THE PRANKS HE PLAYED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue VII, 17 February 1900, Page 334

KIPLING AS A SCHOOLBOY AND THE PRANKS HE PLAYED.

In reading of Stalky, McTurk and Beetle of Kipling’s unique stories of schoolboy life J feel as if I was meeting old friends. I knew the mischievous trio well under their true names

Beusford. Dunsterville and Kipling himself. Kipling was “Beetle,” although we called him “Gigs.” Dunsterville has since become an officer in the Indian army.

I first met Kipling in 1879 when he was 14 years old. In that year I joined the United Service College “Westward Ho” in the parish of Xortlinm. North Devon, which had been in existence for several years. During these four or five years, as seen by his school fellows, it could hardly be said that Kipling appeared to them as a prodigy. In the first place lie was always extremely near-

sighted, which was perhaps the reason for his not taking any very keen interest in either field sports or athletics—a proficiency that, alone, almost makes an English boy a hero in the sight of his school fellows. On the other hand Kipling was not by any means a “ sweat.” He was not always to be seen poring over his books. He was seldom at the top of his class, though to be sure he was never at the bottom. He did not take all the prizes that came in his way, and he was not even in due course promoted to the office of subprefect, although when he left the college in 1882 he carried with him the well-earned prize in English literature. Only he did seem to be able to solve a problem in ten minutes over which another boy might have laboured for an hour. He was chiefly u.iticeable in his school fellows’ eyes for a keen wit and a flow of language that could only be suppressed by depriving him of his spectacles. “ STALKY, BEETLE AND Me TURK.” About the middle of his school life Kipling entered into a strong tie of friendship with two other boys, in many respects of his own temperament. The trio seemed to have aims of their own apart from the rest of the college, leading a kind of Bohemian existence, and amusing themselves by tilts at the powers that were, in which encounters they frequently came off victorious, as related in the “Stalky” stories. At the time when Kipling and his two chums were first assigned to a room or “study ” for their own use. the esthetic wave of some seventeen years ago was sweeping over English society, and the three boys at once determined to “live up” to the prevailing fashion. They first of all painted a wonderful stork dado round their room; then they purchased a number of old plates, spoutless teapots and Japanese fans and hung them upon the walls. They called it very “ high art,” and for a day the whole school came to see and wondered. At the United Service College the custom prevailed as in most English “ public schools ” of placing a great part of the out-of-class discipline in the hands of the head boys who are called prefects or monitors. Tn particular these head boys are responsible for the maintenance of order in the large dormitories or sleeping-rooms—-one prefect having charge of perhaps a dozen or fifteen boys. TELLING STORIES AT NIGHT. Now it happens that the prefect of the dormitory in which Rudyard Kipling slept was a great admirer of the thousand and one stories of the Arabian Nights, and conceived the idea that it would conduce to his early repose if he compelled each of the boys in his room to tell stories in turn. The idea was at once put into practice, and the boys told such stories of sport, love and adventure as the fertility of their brains brought forth ; and it became quickly apparent that Kipling so far surpassed the others in that talent that the prefect insisted upon his telling stories out of his turn, the result of which practice would generally be somewhat as follows : The light having been extinguished, the voice of the prefect would be heard : “ Now. then, Gigs, a yarn.” “ Gigs ” was an abbreviation for gig lamps — a nickname conferred upon Kipling by his school fellows on account of the extraordinarily large spectacles he wore. There would be no response from the lied in the corner. “ Gigs ! You hear ? A yarn.” Still no answer. “ Look here, Gigs, if von don’t wnke up I’ll An expostulating voice from underneath the clothing—“ Oh. what is it?” “ A yarn, a yarn.”

Protestiugly, “ But I say, it’s not my turn,” Dictatorially, “ 1 don’t care if it isn’t—a yarn.” After which there would perhaps follow a pause of five minutes, when the voice of the prefect would be heard again. “ All right, Gigs, you brute,” immediately succeeded by the crash of a boot in the neighbourhod of Kipling’s bed, to be followed by the muffled sound of a piece of soap striking the clothes. “ I say,” from Kipling, by this time wide awake. “ What is it ?” “ A yarn, a yarn.” “ I don’t know any.” From the prefect : “ Oh, yes you do; but anyway I’ll give you a skeleton. Once upon a time there was a man who went to sea, killed the captain, turned pirate, got wrecked on an island, where he fought a. battle against a Ipt of savages, married the chief’s daughter, died, and lived happily ever afterward. Now go on.” “ With a grunt of dissatisfaction Kipling would thereupon begin, shortly. however, making the prefect the villain of the story and placing him in such absurd situations that the whole dormitory would be shouting with

laughter, and the noise of creaking shoes upon the stairs would come as a warning that the house master was on his way to see into the nocturnal disturbance. When a looking glass first engages the serious attention of a youth, a somewhat ludicrous devotion to the wardrobe is often the result. In that respect. Kipling and his two particular ehums inclined toward the Bohemian, until they perceived the opposite extreme a chance to enact a good part, which, for the time being, afforded their companions no little amusement. At the United Service College it happened that there was a certain classical master who had developed a profound aversion to anything approaching foppishness, and to whom fancy waistcoats, sporting scarfpins and silk handkerchiefs were an abomination second only to what was termed the “ modern ” side of the school. To such an extent did this master carry his discrimination in the matter of clothes that those attending his classes or coming more particularly under his jurisdiction, who evinced the least tendency to ” style ” were promptly made the butts of his most withering sarcasm, and were even occasionally peremptorily ordered not to. appear again in his presence wearing conspicuously offensive garments. Now Kipling and his two chums in the course of promotion at length found themselves brought into daily contact with this master, and having duly made nbte of his supreme aversion, they proceeded to stimulate it

lifter their own fashion. So it shortly came to be noticed that the Kipling trio were putting on “style” —a fact that the master in question noticed also, but concerning which he contented himself with scornful remarks until a shilling bottle of overpowering perfume was the direct cause of an explosion of wrath, the class room window’s being thrown wide open one cold winter morning, and of something besides invectives being hurled at the offenders’ heads.

In spite of this emphatic rebuff Kipling and his chums continued their efforts to approach the extreme height of fashion, borrowing such likely garments as they did not themselves possess, and choosing Sunday as the day on which to make a brave display of their personal adornments, for the three sat close to the classical master in church. Again, for a time, the master confined himself to sneering remarks ; but three pairs of light, clothtopped patent leather shoes brought the matter to a climax. On the particular Sunday when the shoes were first worn, the classical master quickly spied them out, and having beckoned the three youths before him, pointed to the objectionable articles and desired to be informed as to their precise nature. “ Which things, sir?” asked Kipling, following with his gaze the. direction indicated by the classical master’s forefinger, and wonderingly surveying the floor as if he expected to behold some strange insects crawling there. “ Which things, sir ?” “Those things,” emphatically replied the master, pointing to Kipling’s feet. “ My feet, sir ?” asked Kipling, as if he were still in doubt as to the master’s exact meaning. “ No, the vile things you’ve got on them,” angrily explained the former. “ Go and take them off at once. At once ! D’you understand me ?” Whereupon the Kipling trio divested themselves of their beautiful shoes,

and the classical master posted a house notice to the effect that patent leather shoes, among other enumerated “ foppish ” articles of dress, were henceforth strictly prohibited. As if in despair at the sweeping nature of this edict the Kipling trio immediately reverted to the other extreme, and the next- Sunday appeared at the church callover as if they bad slept in their best clothes overnight, with only their shoes so wonderfully polished that the classical master first mistook them for the contraband patent leathers. On closer inspection, however, being satisfied that his surmise was incorrect, and perhaps regarding the trio’s dishevelled appearance as, for once, a backward step in the right direction, he merely recommended a vigorous application of the brush, and unsuspectingly permitted them to go on their way to church. It was not long after the service had commenced before every one in the vicinity of the Kipling trio became conscious of a most pungent and sickening odour of blacking, the classical master who sat next to Kipling being the first, of course, to sniff the air with with suspicion. But as the church warmed up the smell became so altogether unbearable that the classical master, casting a look of supreme disgust upon the remarkably devout and apparently quite innocent youths at his side, hurriedly rose from his seat and sought refuge in another part of the church. Then, as the other boys near by crammed their handkerchiefs into their mouths to suppress explosions of laughter, a merry twinkle beamed out through Gig’s enormous spectacles. It was generally thought that the three would meet with a swift and terrible punishment ; but the classical master, for some reason, decided to hold his peace, ami thereafter permitted the edict regarding foppishness to fall into abeyance.