Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-10-13
GEN. LEW WALLACE.
LITERARY METHODS or THE Au-
THOR or "sEN-HUR.s

singing Old FashfoDed Hymns while
Writing His Famous story-Charminx
Home Lifs--Tbe Authors Absent Mind /
edncss--How He Loses His spectseies-
In April, 1873 the writer was in the golden I
age when tine years are all mmmers.r Her
happy lot 1t was 70 yisis Mrs Lew wallacs |
In Charlottesville, Ind, the home where the |
Imaginary child Ben-Hur was growing up.
Inc famous chariot race was onr at that I
very time, and one might fancy it would /
nave destroyed the family peace az thor
oughly as the car of Juggernaut crashing |
through the house; but not 50, for Gen.
Wallace adds 10 his greatness the supreme |
grace OF being amiabie at home II Is q. |
pleasure to remember that during the week |
spent 80 near Ben-Hur and the sswrfe of his |
youth" the sky was not darkened by one i'm
patient word The crack Of that charioe |
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 bis lady iove, royal Offering.
worn with every womanly grace befitting il.
ten. WaiiaceB manner was 80 courtly
that the first half the day the visitor ITEM
bled and wished him away, that she might
enjoy the charming wife unoppressed by his
imperial presence. But the gulf was bridged
house fairly qnaked as he paced his study to
the tune of ''Good old Ortonville,n or some
other bulwark of tn, 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 rnoruing!'
"Yes, said the bashful maiden twho still
had the ear ache1, but / should call that
below-dy." The singer stared for an instant,
not being used to such very plain English.
then burs. into laugh as merry the Cherry
bic Brothers. The ice was broken, and be-
hold. the waters beneath were warm-ths
veriess fountain of life and good cheer. 81
The Ben Hur study bad but few require
ments for this easily satisfied man, so he had
chosen little nook as far from the household
sounds as possible, and as barren of modern
conveniencesN as monks cell The children
of MS fancy needed no seats--thcy peopled
the air-and he occupied the only chair in
the room All the rest OF the furniture stood
on the four legs Of table-pens and paper
Eeaped confusedly on big b,,tter, the New
Testament, Geikie's Life OF Christ, !" Ivan
I hoe and few reference books The door
was always shut for work, but opened readily
for play, and the visitor usually knocked rs
she passed, and always heard the coTiial
''Cone in, responsive to her Interruptions.
Then be would tilt back in his chair and
pocket his ha1. s, 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 fattered the very elect, and
which gave rise to the visitors doubtful
boast that she had helped write '.Ben-Hur'-
that is, she Numbered; but it was all the same,
50 the author had made her think.
This was courtesy, pure and simple and an
ala, tn.
a slate TO rub oat easily, then on soft paper
with pencil His patience in going over
and over the same ground till be had brought
it up to his standard would have Commanded
the respect OF an ant The final copy Of toe
book was on large, unruled paper, in violet
ink, exquisifely done that the professional
reader of the Franklin square house declared
it the finest manuscript ever offered him.
Gen. Wailaces observation-disclosures is a 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
heap.ng spoonfulsl 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
His wife said one day: Lew, the little BAN
tam hen has Matched her family HAS she n
said he. "How manyf' with as much interest
as if they were American eagles. And when
she asked him to go and take her of, = 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
mother If those chicks knew who it was
that set them up housekeeping they would
have all grown up peacocks.
He carries but two signs of his years about
him The was born in Brookville, Ind, April
Ii, 1s20. His hair has reached that uncom-
promising spicy mixture called pepper and
salt, and then the spectacles-he is a sad VIC
J tim to thern-they and he play at a perpetual
game of hide and seekl OF course he never
} remembers where he put them, nor what
! their favorite hiding places are, and after
overbauling 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: 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 York World.