Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-11
One WEEK WITH "BEN.H UR."
How General Lew Wallace Wrote
His Famous Book.
THE STORY TOLD BY A FRIEND
How the imaginary Child Ben-Hur
Grew up-The Construction of the
Book-Literary Methods OF its
Author-His Home Life.
mriicn tor the Snndnn nce-Copminhted.

mers." Her happy lot IL was IoNlslt MIS-
Lew Wallace in Charlottesville. Ind. the
home where the imaginary child Ben
Hur was growing up. The famous
"chariot race was onnat that very time,
and one might fancy it would have de-
stroyed the family peace rs thoroughly
as the car of Juggernaut crashing
through the house, but not so, for Sem
eral Wallace adds to his greatness
the supreme grace Of being amiable at
home.
1t is n pleasure to remember that dur
ing the week spent onear Ben-Hur and
the "wife of his youth" the sky was not
darkened by one impatient word. The
crack of that chariot whip is heard
around the world in seven different lar
guages, but it never fell upon those OF
his own household. The book was dedi-
Gated to his lady-love, a royal Offering.
worn with every womanly grace betit-
ting it.
General Wallace's manner was so
courtly that the first half day the visitor
trembled and wished him away that she
might enjoy the charming wife unop-
pressed 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
June of good old Ortonville," or some
other bulwark of the Methodist hymn
book, reared so Justify that it might
have walked a mummy. AT the break
fast table he said. with awful stateli-
ness, 'Did you hear sounds of melody
from my room this morning?" Yes
said the bashful maiden, twho still had
the earache) but | should call that
bellow-dy." The singer stared an in
slant, not being used to such very plain
English, then burst into a laugh as
merry as the Cheeryble brothers. The
ice was broken, and behold the waters
beneath we're warm-the veriest foun-
tain of life and good cheer.
The Ben-Hur study had but few re-
q%uirements for this easily satisfied man,
so he had chosen a little nook as far
from the household sounds as possible,
and as barren of modern conveniences'
as a monks 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 a big
blotter, the New Testament, Geikie's
Life of Christ" ~'.Ivanhoe," and a few
reference books. The door was always
shut for work, but opened readily for
play, and the visitor usually knocked as
she passed and always heard the cordial
''Come in responsive to her Interrupt
tions. Then he would tilt back in his
chair and pocket his hands, like all
other men, and laugh and talk like pre-
cious few other men. Often he would
read aloud what he had just written,
and ask if il would do in a way that
would nave 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 or a slate to rub out easily,
then on soft paper with a pencil. His
patience in going over and over the
same ground till he had brought it up
20 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 pronounced it the finest
manuscript ever offered him.
1 remember a little dispute between
Ben-Hur and his wife over a word. He
said that when he began the book he
was two days searching for an adjective
with just the right color init to describe
q certain thing, and at last he found il
in opalescent. Mrs. Wallece declared
for opaline as being simpler, but, wife
like, she yielded to the stronger author
ity, and, no doubt, flourlshed opaline in
her next publication.
We find this Jewel of Il word in the
march of the wise men-"By and by the
moon came up, and as the three tail
white figures sped with noiseless tread
through the opalescent light, they APP
peared like spectres flying from hateful.
shadows
General Wallace's Observation-Disclosures
is a proverb in his family, which bring:
down many a gibe On his head, and be
fore the laughter at his putting sugar II
his s~oft-boiled egg two heaping spoon
fuls) had died down, he might be seen
just as deliberately, sailing his coffee
This quality might be one of heredity
If certain wild legends pointing TOWARD
his maternal grandfather are true.
He is peculiarly a man OF reserved
force. He lives in the background o
himself, and the casual observer fails Il
see the big heart buttoned up within
the laughter carried in his sleeve, ant
the ineXhaustible industry in his peck
cts. Read the RECORD of what he hai
accomplished in the fields of battle, di
plomacy, art, and literature, and you
see how great his energy is, though
every trace of it is suppressed, some
how, as he goes about his daily dutie
with less buster and hurry skurry thar
the ordinary man takes to get his on'
talent buried IN the ground. SO he al
ways had time for household matters
and could and did minister to them a
well as he could, aud did minister plen
ipotentiate. His said N day, Lew
the little bantam hen has Matched he
family" HAS she?' said he-''hov
many?" with as much interes
as il they were American eagles
And when she asked him to Ego ant
take her off" he went, and could be seer
STOPPING down before the nest, handling
the tiny handspring chickens tenderl.
enough to sult even the fussy bit of
mother. If those chicks knew who i
was that set them up housekeeping, the.
would have all grown up peacocks
Fancy Thomas Carlyle asked to stool
so lowl II would have annihilated 'al
those pretty chickens and their dam a
one fell swoop," and then grumbled TO
a week because the hen had pickle,
him,
General Wallace is fond of writing
out under the forest trees that surrount