Show Kipling Often Waited for the Spirit That Would Move His Pen In after years friends enjoying Kipling's confidence have told us how on rare occasions he would reveal somo secret of his craft cratt- steeping himself for instance In the atmosphere of the story to be told and then waiting patiently until the spirit prompted his pen in the meantime turning oft off many a vivid sketch of fearsome creatures that never were on land or sea This exercise of the virtues of hope and patience was the very reverse of the maxim for tellers tale in Morler's classic of Hajji to Daba-to fold Cold up the carpet of thy desires and prowl not nol round and round thy victim This method of see walt may have prevailed in the fullness of Kipling's powers but bUl if it had been the process during that lowering flowering period at Lahore we should never have had that tropical shower of romances and Idylls dramas in brief and tilts against the hated Rus sian which poured from him in ins s such ch profusion Those stories or verses day by day or every other day were Kip Kip Kip- lings ling's own ow creations and it was their daring originality that caught Indias India's admiration from the first Whether they were skimmed off in the quiet of his own room at the family bungalow of arcaded shadow or dashed off at the office desk with the roar and scuffle around him the concentration while it lasted and the rein control over so many restive powers character originality of phrasing the ricochet of dialogue the flIcker of humor and above all the concise ness that meant a column or cr a col col- col column and a halt haU no this more was wha what t left his colleagues breathless John Philip Collins one of Rud yard Kipling's colleagues on the Civil and Military l Gazetteer of f La- La Lahore La hore India In The Nineteenth Cen tury and After |