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RUDYARD KIPLING -AS
JOURNALIST.
w Once Kipling was a journalist to, the
marrow j and there was a real pathos in his
parting with his "rag" in India which he
had for years done so much to adorn, writes
One of his Editors" (Mr. E. K. Robinson)
in the Academy. When too, after fame
was his, and America and England competed
for his copy, he sent many a sketch
in his best vein to the old paper at the old
low rate of pay. The early hours of the
first morning of his flying return visit to
Labor his "City of Two Creeds saw
him, for sheer love of the old work, sitting
in the familiar office chair correcting the
teamS old proofs on the same old yellow
paper; is with Mian Bukkn-nd-din, the
Mohammedan foreman printer, flying
round the press frith green tribute awry,
informing all the hands that " Kuppuleeh
Sahib " has returned. And there his" old
editor found him when he came to the
office. As a boy from school Kipling was
brought out to India, and began at once to
earn his modest monthly wage at the
bottom of the ladder of Anglo-Indian
journalism. As to shorthand reporters and
sub-editors, in Kipling's day the up-country
newspaper had none. The editorial staff,
cgfnbtieiiig two men, did the entire work
of getting out the daily paper. As a
journalist Kipling was the man whom all
editors seek and few find. He was a Filoff
in himself. He distrusted his own powers,
it is true, so much that to demand a leading
article from him filled him with
anguish. He Said it was above him," and
he scarcely wrote five in as many years.
But for every other kind of work, from
writing editorial " notes" to putting side
heads to paragraphs, 'or reporting a police
court case, he was 33 willing as he was
gifted. To every grade of work he brought
a brilliance of happy thought which placed
his topic in its brightest light, a dead sure
aim With words which made his head-lines
fit his matter with that complete aptness
which satisfies the editorial heart ; a command
of abrupt turns of expression which
supplied humorous side headings to small
paragraphs in such taking ways that the
reader could not help but read ; but, more
than all, he exhibited a conscientious
industry and an inexhaustible pluck in his
work which made his friends many fishes
fear that the quick wheels of his mind
would the day whirr and stop. He went
near-to absence or twice.
Enliveninc Blue-books.
"But he never slackened in his work, of
which on ''high-collar" days there was
more than enough. A " high-collar " day,
it may be explained, was one on which no
telegrams from England were received
before going to press, and editorial "Notes
of the Day " had to be written to fill the
column which the telegrams should have
occupied, thus bringing the editorial
matter close up to the head (like a high
collar, of the first column. At other times
a multiplicity of telegrams crowded out so
many "Notes of the Day " that several of
these, dealing with cognate subjects, had
to be Sprung together into what Kipling
called " patent seamless " leaders. Outside
contributed by papers in India nearly all
belong to the civil or military services, and
their contributions were often ball in
style, though welcome for the information
they contained. Adding the few lines of
comment to qualify their contributions to
be used as notes Kipling described as
" fitting on the whip lash ;" and his were
always neatly tied and keen in application.
The heaviest and most distasteful burden
that Kipling bore in those journalistic
days was the Blue-book. At certain seasons
of the year the Government of India issues
a stream of official reports. This influx of
"Blue-books" has been not inaptly compared
to a swarm of white ants issuing
from an old beam of wood. It is the duty
of the painstaking Anglo-Indian journalist
to catch those reports as they come, dissect,
boil down, and serve them up with such
literary garnishing as may tempt the
appetite of the capricious reader. Forestry,
police, gaols, registration, education, public
works, etc, each with its pages of statistics,
come as the driest of grist to the mill, and
no small portion of Kipling's working hours
was devoted to the grinding thereof. Even
genius cannot build in marble with more
bricks, but Kipling off- went near to con-
verting Government reports into the crest-
ing and picturesque narrative. Besides
this, a great deal of sub-editor's work
necessarily fell to his share when the
entire drudgery of the daily paper had to
be done by two men. He was an adroit
wielder of scissors and paste brush, with a
quick eye for matter worth republishing,
and a happy knack of knocking it into
shape. As a reporter, whenever the nature
of the function to be described lent itself
to graphic or humourous treatment,
Kipling was inimitable and brilliant free
ments of the experience thus gained of
vice-regal durbar or "smashes" in
native States flash from the ears of many
of his later sketches. But his was a very
mixed bag of work. After-dinner speeches
at commemorative banquets, university
convocation, race meetings, or law suits,
a flower show or a military review, what
ever came, it was always Eioling's turn to
" did" it, for there was no one else but the
editor.
The Mission that Failed.
Probably the worst job ever entrusted to
Kipling was his mission to interview a
notorious fakir about, whom there was
great religious excitement in the Punjaub,
as he was reported to have cut out his
tongue in order that it might, with the
help of the goddess Kali, grow again in six
weeks, and thus prove the verity of the
Hindu faith. Kipling never found the
fakir ; but, through a hot Indian day, he
found himself misdirected from one un-
savoury slum of Armitsar to another, till
he was sick to death of his quest. It no
doubt suited the fakirs game to be evasive
when a sahib was looking for-, him and on
his return to Labor it was a very dirty
and travel-stained Kipling who cheerily
expressed the hope that the next time the
editor wanted details of a tongue cutting
boom he could go and get fish for him"
self. For a few, a very few, hundreds of
rupees a month he did the work of at least
two men, and in his odd moments of leisure
wrote his verses and sketches, some of
which have been republished in Departmental
DittieV' "SoYu'ors Three," and
" Plain Tales from the Hills." These were
scarcely journalism, but they were the only
portion of his work which are.- needed
"editing." His youthful fancy now and
then kicked too freely over the traces of
convention, and more than one sketch
found its home in the v.a:L.-j--jer basket.
Asa rule, however, they were much too
good for a week's pay on a power in the
north-west of India, and even" Kipling's
modesty, almost a fault, could not bring
him to the fact that he was selling his
brain-work far below its market, value,
wasting its razor-edged on blocks of literally
worthless and perishable matter. But he
believed that he owed a debt of gratitude
to the newspaper proprietors who took him
on credit and gave him a salary when he
was a boy fresh from school, and he determined
to serve them loyally for s, suspend
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