Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1891-10-02
GEN. LEW WALLACE.
LITERARY METHODS or THE Au-
THOR OF "BEN-HUR."

"Aihg MS Famous Story-Charmipg
Home Life-The Authors Absent Mind
edness-HOw He Loses bis Spectaoles.
Al April, 1878, the writer was in the golden
age when the years are all summers Her
nappy lot 1t was to visit Mrs. Lew Wallace
IN Charlottesville, Ind, the home where the
imaginary Il, child Ben-Hur was growing ND.
Inc famous chariot race was on at that
very time, and one might fancy it would
nave destroyed the family peace as thor
oughIy as the car of Juggernaut crashing
u the house; but not so. for Gen,
"ailace adds to his greatness the supreme
grace OF being amiable at home II is a
pressure TO remember that during the week
spent SO near Ben-Hur and the wife of his
your" The SKY was not darkened bv one i'm
patient word The crack of that chariot
Millp Is heard around the world in seven
inherent languages but it never fell upon
those OF his own household The book was
ueoicated to his Lady love, a royal Offering.
worn Win every womanly grace befitting it.
Uen. WaLaces manner was SO courtlv
.naU the nrst half the day the visitor trem-
oieu ana wished him away, that she might
ENJOY the charming wife unoppressed by his
~ Iai presence But the gulf was bridged
y! LIS own music. The next morning the
house larry quaked as hepaced his study, to
'ile uuhe OF Good old Ortonvillen or some
o'her oulwarN OF thu Methodist hymn book,
Aoai Gu SO Justify that 1t might have walked a
mummy! At the breakfast table he said.
WIN a"Iul stateiIness, Did you hear sounds
OF melody from my room this morninggn
Yes" said the bashful maiden (who still
mad the ear ache, but | should call that
! no Si7,C
not being used to such very plain English
Snel ourSG into a laugh as merry the CHEEKY
Ole brothers. The ice was broken. and be-
hola, the waters beneath We're warm-the
VeflesC fountain of life and good cheer.
The Ben Hur study had but few REQUIRE
mentS Tor this easily satisfied man, SO he had
chosen little nook as far from fine household
sounds as possible and as barren of modern
convenlences" as Il monks cell. The children
OF his fancy needed no seats-thev peopled
the air-and he occupied the only chair in
the room. Ali the rest of the furniture stood
on the four legs Of a table-pens and naner
heaped confusedly on big blotter. the New
Testament, Geikie's Life of Christ, Ivan
hoe and few reference books. The door
was always shut for work, but opened readily
for play, and the visitor usually knocked us
she passed, and always heard the cordial
| Come in" responsive to her Interruptions
! Then lie would tilt back in his chair and
pocket his hands, like all other men, Often
he would read aloud what lie had lust rit-
ten, and asked if it would do in a way That
would have fattered the very elecl. and
which gave rise to the visitors doubtful
boast that she had helped write "Ben-Hur''-
that IS, she hlndered; but it was all the same.
SO the author had made her think
Tins was courtesy, pure and simple, and an
example to less busy men. He wrote first on
slate to rub olt easily, then on soft paper
with pencil His patience in going over
and over the same ground till he had brought
it 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. W aliace'S Observation-Disclosures is a prov
erb in his family, which brings down many a
| 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 pIenipotentiate
His wife said one day: Lew, the little ban
tam hen has Matched her famiIy.n HAS sheT'
said he. Glow many!" 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
a mother If those chicks knew who it was
/ tha5 set them up housekeeping they would
! have all grown up peacOcks.
He carries but two signs of his years about
him (he was born i'll Brookville, Ind, April
/ 16, 1920. 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 he play at perpetual
game Of hide and seek! 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
for them all over the 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
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 1 love is my chief joy" She and four
sisters were brought up by Quaker mother
/ to the wholesome old belief that sit is wicked
to be idle" and her well ordered home shows
the precept in hourly practice. Meigs
Ripley in New York World.