It was in June, 1899, when Rudyard Kipling, after the loss of his daughter and his own almost fatal illness from pneumonia in America, sailed for his English home on the White Star liner, Teutonic.The party consisted of Kipling, his wife, his father J.Lockwood Kipling, Mr.and Mrs.Frank N.Doubleday, and Bok.It was only at the last moment that Bok decided to join the party, and the steamer having its full complement of passengers, he could only secure one of the officers'
large rooms on the upper deck.Owing to the sensitive condition of Kipling's lungs, it was not wise for him to be out on deck except in the most favorable weather.The atmosphere of the smoking-room was forbidding, and as the rooms of the rest of the party were below deck, it was decided to make Bok's convenient room the headquarters of the party.Here they assembled for the best part of each day; the talk ranged over literary and publishing matters of mutual interest, and Kipling promptly labelled the room "The Hatchery,"--from the plans and schemes that were hatched during these discussions.
It was decided on the first day out that the party, too active-minded to remain inert for any length of time, should publish a daily newspaper to be written on large sheets of paper and to be read each evening to the group.It was called The Teuton Tonic; Mr.Doubleday was appointed publisher and advertising manager; Mr.Lockwood Kipling was made art editor to embellish the news; Rudyard Kipling was the star reporter, and Bok was editor.
Kipling, just released from his long confinement, like a boy out of school, was the life of the party--and when, one day, he found a woman aboard reading a copy of The Ladies' Home Journal his joy knew no bounds; he turned in the most inimitable "copy" to the Tonic, describing the woman's feelings as she read the different departments in the magazine.Of course, Bok, as editor of the Tonic, promptly pigeon-holed the reporter's "copy"; then relented, and, in a fine spirit of large-mindedness, "printed" Kipling's peans of rapture over Bok's subscriber.The preparation of the paper was a daily joy: it kept the different members busy, and each evening the copy was handed to "the large circle of readers"--the two women of the party--to read aloud.At the end of the sixth day, it was voted to "suspend publication," and the daily of six issues was unanimously bequeathed to the little daughter of Mr.Lockwood de Forest, a close friend of the Kipling family--a choice bit of Kiplingania.
One day it was decided by the party that Bok should be taught the game of poker, and Kipling at once offered to be the instructor! He wrote out a list of the "hands" for Bok's guidance, which was placed in the centre of the table, and the party, augmented by the women, gathered to see the game.
A baby had been born that evening in the steerage, and it was decided to inaugurate a small "jack-pot" for the benefit of the mother.All went well until about the fourth hand, when Bok began to bid higher than had been originally planned.Kipling questioned the beginner's knowledge of the game and his tactics, but Bok retorted it was his money that he was putting into the pot and that no one was compelled to follow his bets if he did not choose to do so.Finally, the jack-pot assumed altogether too large dimensions for the party, Kipling "called" and Bok, true to the old idea of "beginner's luck" in cards, laid down a royal flush! This was too much, and poker, with Bok in it, was taboo from that moment.
Kipling's version of this card-playing does not agree in all particulars with the version here written."Bok learned the game of poker," Kipling says; "had the deck stacked on him, and on hearing that there was a woman aboard who read The Ladies' Home Journal insisted on playing after that with the cabin-door carefully shut." But Kipling's art as a reporter for The Tonic was not as reliable as the art of his more careful book work.
Bok derived special pleasure on this trip from his acquaintance with Father Kipling, as the party called him.Rudyard Kipling's respect for his father was the tribute of a loyal son to a wonderful father.
"What annoys me," said Kipling, speaking of his father one day, "is when the pater comes to America to have him referred to in the newspapers as 'the father of Rudyard Kipling.' It is in India where they get the relation correct: there I am always 'the son of Lockwood Kipling.'"Father Kipling was, in every sense, a choice spirit: gentle, kindly, and of a most remarkably even temperament.His knowledge of art, his wide reading, his extensive travel, and an interest in every phase of the world's doings, made him a rare conversationalist, when inclined to talk, and an encyclopedia of knowledge as extensive as it was accurate.
It was very easy to grow fond of Father Kipling, and he won Bok's affection as few men ever did.
Father Kipling's conversation was remarkable in that he was exceedingly careful of language and wasted few words.
One day Kipling and Bok were engaged in a discussion of the Boer problem, which was then pressing.Father Kipling sat by listening, but made no comment on the divergent views, since, Kipling holding the English side of the question and Bok the Dutch side, it followed that they could not agree.Finally Father Kipling arose and said: "Well, Iwill take a stroll and see if I can't listen to the water and get all this din out of my ears."Both men felt gently but firmly rebuked and the discussion was never again taken up.
Bok tried on one occasion to ascertain how the father regarded the son's work.
"You should feel pretty proud of your son," remarked Bok.
"A good sort," was the simple reply.
"I mean, rather, of his work.How does that strike you?" asked Bok.
"Which work?"
"His work as a whole," explained Bok.
"Creditable," was the succinct answer.
"No more than that?" asked Bok.
"Can there be more?" came from the father.
"Well," said Bok, "the judgment seems a little tame as applied to one who is generally regarded as a genius.""By whom?"
