Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-11

eighteen hundred years agone, but
somebody would bring him down with a
iocular lasso. and he never failed TO fall
with his smile on top.
He carries but two signs Of his years
about him The was born in Brookville,
Ind, April 10, 1927. His hair has
reached that uncompromising spicy
mixture called pepper and salt,and then
the spectacles-he is n sad victim to
them-they and he play at a perpetual
game OF hide-and-seekl or 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 seer him
while in the mazes of his admirable
lecture on Turkey before a crowded
house begin that pitiful search with
his hands, feeling and reaching for
them all over the lecture field. He is
so used to depending on his wife to sup
ply all his little personal needs that, in
the spectacle case, which is the only
one she cannot fiji he finds himself en-
tirely at sea. She is his secretary,
almanac and memorandum, and a wife
in the highest sense of that high word.
One Of her favorite sayings is, "To work
for those | love is my chief joy She
and four sisters were brought up by a
Quaker mother to the wholesome old
belief that st is wicked to be idle" and
and her we'll ordered home shows the
precept in hourly practice. In all their
tastes Ben Hur and she are as one, and
though fame has written his name in
every language that has a literature he
can never outgrow Mrs. Wallace.
Tho Co1len pnlf of tho family was an
orange-colored pony, inherited from the
forefathers, and held in joint possession
by Mrs. Wallace and her sister, Mrs.
Senator Lane. A drive behind this
ancient was regarded a sacred privilege.
She had but one dangerous habit, that
of walking in her sleep. One eye had
''gone out' and failed to come back,
like the raven that went out the win
dow of the ark mo doubt pony's grand
mother remembered the ~incident) but
the one that remained was so penetrate
ing that no man could make a latch or
bolt that could battle it. 1t was virtue,
not the combination lock, that kept that
intelligent creature from robbing the
bank. The dainty basket wagon that
followed her showed her off in ridicul-
contrast, but she never rebelled at it
she was too sleepy to care. When we
were ready to take up the dead march,
Ben-Hur would marshal us as
far as the gate to open it (pony never
would do it in harness), and then he
would charge us, as we dragged past
him behind u measuring worm, with
mocking voice and %twinkling eyes, mot
to go too fast" mot to hurry back"
and, "above all things, beware of a run
| away ''should he send a relief. if we
were not in by dark?n etc, in a way
.lnt ,,A.,1l h. ,l n0et lsn, htp 1tfn Mt thn
heels of any other horse than this
| somnambulist.
Finally she opened deaths door easily,
as she did all others, and went in, but
when she turned to come Out--ah. pony,
no lock or knob on the inside OF that
door! and so her place knew her no
more.
Among the other family portraits is
one of pony, done in pencil by the hand
of Ben-Hur.
In appearance General Wallace is
but these ante-mortem inquests should
draw the line at this point. If the sub
ject is not handsome, it is embarrassing,
if not dangerous to say so, and if he
is, it would turn the head of the noblest
Roman of them all. His father. Cover
nor Wallace, was called the handsomest
man in Indiana. His mother died in
her childhood, but her name lives in
Esther, the daughter Of Simonides.
We will never have Il true biography
of him. Whoever might undertake
it should be a Garfield in arms, an Irv-
ing in scholarships Dutferin in diplom-
acy, a Walter Scott in romance, and as
no one but himself has such versatility
of talents, the biography ought to be an
autobiography, as Longfellow's epigram
has it. The book ''Ben-Hurn in it's briel
life of seven years has had an excep'
tional sale, being now in the two hun
dred and twenty-five t~housandth. This
is the surface index of it's future. il
must needs always remain a popular
book: 1t should be read one year fol
its sacred history, the next for its thrill
ling narratives, the next for its delinea
tion. of characters and their eloquence
of speech, the next for revealing fila
and maternal love. then for its picture!
of tragedy, descriptions of sky, sea ant
land, then for its PHILOSOPHERS, and every
year for It's marvellous setting forth o
the dual character of our Lord the
Christ. This is the great heart Of the
book and it will beat in every Christian
land and declare its author Il man of un
matched genius, who, under an inspira
tion beyond our comprehension, ha
pictured the only divine Hero that evei
dwelt among men.
EMILY MEIGS RIPLEY.