Wichita eagle., 1888-05-13
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Daily - Ea9le
GEN. LEW WALLACE.
LITERARY METHODS OF THE AL
THOR OF "BEN-HUR.D

sipging Old Fashioned Hymns While
Writing His Famous Story-CharmiDg
Home Life-The Authors Absent Mind
edness-How he Loses His Spectacles.
In April, 1878 the writer was in the golden
age ''when the years ere all summers Her
happy lot it was to visit Mrs. Lew Wallace
in Charlottesville, Ind, the home where the
imaginary child Ben-Hur was growing up.
The famous chariot race was on" at that
very time, and one might fancy it would
have destroyed the family peace as thor
oughly as the car of Juggernaut crashing
through the house; but not SO, for Gen.
Wallace adds to his greatness the supreme
grace of being amiabie at nome 1t is g.
pleasure to remember that during the week
spent So near Ben-Hur and the ''wlfe of his
youth" the sky was not darkened by one i'm
patient word The crack of that chariot
whip is heard around the world in seven
different languages, but it never fell upon
those of his own household. The book was
dedicated to his lady love, ROYAL Offering
worn with every womanly grace BETTING it.
Gen. Wallace's manner was so courtly
that the first half the day the visitor trern-
bled and wished him away, that she might
enjoy the charming wife unoppressed by his
imperial presence. But the gulf was bridged
by his own music. The next morning the
house fairly quaked as he paced his study TO
the tune of Good old Ortonville," or some
other bulwark Of the Methodist hymn book,
roared so Justify that it might have walked
mummy! AT the breakfast table he said
with awful stateliness, did you hear sounds
OF melody from my room this morning!n
yes said the bashful maiden who still
had the ear ache, but / should call that
beuow-dy." The singer stared for an instant,
not being used to such very plain English,
then burst into a laugh as merry the CHEEKY
bic Brothers. The ice was broken, and be-
hold, the waters beneath We're warm-the
verleSt fountain of life and good cheer
The Ben Hur study hads but few require
ments for this easily satisfied man, so he had
chosen little nook as far from the household
souncs as possible, and as barren Of modern
conveniences" as a monk cell. The children
of his fancy needed no Seats-they peopled
the air-and he occupied the only chair in
the room. All the rest OF the furniture stood
on the four legs of a table-penS and paper
heaped confusedly on q big botter, the New
Testament, Geikie's Life of Christ, >" Ivan
hoe" and a few reference books The door
was always shut for work, but opened readily
for play, and tx. c:Sitor usually knocked as
she passed, and always heard the cordial
Come in, responsive to her Interruptions.
Then he would tilt back in his chair and
pocket his hands, Like all other men, Often
he would read aloud what he had lust writ
ten, and asked if it would DO in way that
would have BATTERED the very elect, and
which gave rise to the visitors doubtful
boast that she had helped write ''Ben-Hur'- /
that is, she hindered; but it was all the same
SO the author had made her think.
This was courtesy, pure and simple, and an |
example to less busy men. He wrote first on /
q slate TO rub out easily, then on soft paper
with pencil. His patience in going over
nnd over the same ground till he had brought .
1t up to his standard would have commanded
the respect of an ant. The final copy of the |
book was on large, unruled paper, in violet
ink, so exquisitely done that the professional /
reader of the Franklin square house declared .
1t the finest manuscript ever offered him.
Gen. Wallace's observation-disclosures is prov
erb in his family, which brings down many
gibe on his head, and before the laughter at
his putting sugar IN his soft boiled egg two .
heaping spoonfuls had died down he might
be seen just as deliberately sailing his coffee.
This quality might be one of heredity, if GER
tain wild legends pointing toward his mater
nal grandfather are true.
He always had time for household matters.
and could and did minister to them as well as
he could, and did minister plenipotentiate.
His wife said one day: Lew, the little ban
tam hen has Matched her family" HAS sher'
said he. "How manyE with as much interest
as if they were American eagles. And when
she asked him to go and take her off - he
went, and could be seen stopping down before
the nest, handling the tiny hair spring chickens
tenderly enough to suit even the fussy bit of
q mother. If those chicks knew who it was
that set them up housekeeping they would
have ali grown up peacockS.
He carries but two signs OF his years about
him The was born III Brookville, Ind. April
10, 1870 His hair has reached that uncom-
promising spicy mixture called pepper and
salt, and then the spectacleS-he is a sad VIC
tim to them-they and be play at q perpetual
game of hide and seeki OF course he never
remembers where he put them, nor what
their favorite hiding places are, and after
overhauling everything within reach he Gusts
them from ambush on top of his head or in
his other hand. They worry him quite out
of his wits, and / have seen him, while in the
mazeS of his admirable lecture on Turkey be-
fore a crowded house, begin that pitiful
search with his hands, feeling and reaching
ser them all over tho lecture field He is SO
used to depending on his wife to supply all
his little personal needs that, in the spectacle
case-which is the only one she cannot fill
he finds himself entirely at sea She is his
almanac and memorandum, and
wife In the highest sense of that high word
One Of her favorite sayings is: ITO work for
those l love is my chief joy" She and four
sisters were brought up by a Quaker mother
TO the wholesome old belief that lit is wicked
to be idle, and her well ordered home shows
the precept in hourly practice.-Emily Meigs
Ripley IN New y ork World
The Persian on Horseback.
II is stranCa that oItbourb ,ba p,--So,