The morning call., 1893-07-02
GENERAL LEW WALLACE
Home Life of the Author of Ben f1ur.

( visit the localities until after the compile
| ti0n of his greatest work. We may con
| slider it the greatest. because il is most
probable that his fame will rest upon the
'.TaIe of the Christ" o. which 500,0 0(
/ copies have been sold in the United States
alone 1t has had large sales in other
languages, but from these there is neither
report or profit TO the author. At that
time we had no international copyright
law. One has now been passed. and the
new book, "The Prince of India" will be
amply protected.
Sitting in his library. chatting with a
friend about his work, in answer to a
question as to his method, the general
cast his eve up to lovely little bit of
scenery from the coast of Naples, which
hung opposite, in dainty frame, and
meditatively remarked:
II have no method. If there is any
excellence in my composition set it
down first and last to that fact. / hold
that mode of expression in writing, like
mode Of expression in speech, are refer
able purely to feeling. not studied. but of
the moment. l never studied. When
was boy | ran wild in the great woods or
my native State. | hunted, fished, went
alone. slept with my dog. was idle, happy,
and came out with what few boys pos
sess in these days, constitution. My
very name was ldleness, except what |
read. Every moment | was still ] was
reading"
"But did you not go to school at all? ?"
Rarely. For fifteen years my father
paid my tuition bills regularly. but / did
not go TO school. He sent me to college,
but | ran away and was expelled.
Teachers would simply have nothing to do
with me-"
ITO what, then. general, do you owe
your liberal education"
ic oh Av
due to my fathers library. The book
which had most influence over me was and
is yet 'Plutarch's Lives Even now at
the age of &C. when my Will grows drowsy
and begins to halt, / take UP that old
book and it acts with the old charm. l am
we'll again directly"
Did you think Of writing stories when
you were very young?" was asked.
Il always had the idea of doing so at
some period of my life. Verses. tales.
pictures even, were always filing my
brain while | was reading. Even when l
became busy bread-winner they fol-
lowed me still, and sometimes took ma
terial shape and found their way to
paper"
You enjoyed writing. then ?''
VERY greatly. AT times it became i'm
perative with me, ana l have often left
my lawyers desk and dry statutes for the
recreation of the pen."
And your characters? Do they seem
to you like real beings, or merely the ere
ations of your own fancy?"
''My characters are essentially living.
breathing human creatures TO me. |
know them every one personally. AS /
write l see them before my eyes. 1 be-
come acquainted with them, as l do the
persons who come into my house and
mingle with me in my everyday life"
But how do you feel toward them
Have you likes and dislikes toward
them?'
Every decided ones. Some of them l
utterly detest." A fash OF the keen eye
gave force and point TO the exclama tion
then. with smile. he went on: Some of
them | only respect and admire. Others /
love tenderly, and the grief which touches
them touches me. | suffer when they
suffer; rejoice when they rejoice"
Then you must have had some peculiar
experiences while writing Ben Hur?'"
'Ah, yes, beyond any telling. Think OF
toe meeting of the three in the desert, OF
the meal eaten under the little tent pitched
on the burning sands, of listening, as each
told how he vas sent by the spirit and OF
his belief in the guiding star. Think of the
time when the shepherds, lying upon the
ground in that clear, chill, crisp night
saw the windows Of heaven open and the
ladder of light fall down; of hearing the
chorus of angels and seeing the multitude
of wings fiCttering on the sky of that frs
Christmas night! All, those were delight
full experiences!
He sighed and his face grew sad as ht
resumed:
Not so the hopeless condition of Ber
Hur, when he sat upon the rower's bench
a slave in Roman galley, home gone, for
tune vanished, name lost-only a thine
designated by number. doomed to sit an(
repeat his endless motion to the mon ton
Gus beat, beat. beat of the chiefs gavel
And then the sorrow-ob, the heartache
when Ben Hur's mother finds him lyine