The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-20
ABOUT THE CHARACTER
 OF GENERAL WALLACE

men to carry the carcass on his shoulder Tor an hour at time in the broiling sum- The next day he compelled them to fan it to keep off the fiies and the third day to bury it with suitable honors."
 When President Cleveland during tht Venezuelan incident declared in favor of resisting with force, if necessary all monarchical encroachments on the West ern Hemisphere" General Wallace of- fered immediately to raise brigade in Indiana to fight England He made a speech at a Loyal Legion dinner in h. dianapolis in which he said that within year from the declaration of war thera would be no British commerce and that the end, as he saw it, would be that the United States would own everything from the Gulf of Mexico to the North pole.
 General Wallace wrote only by labo- rious study and painstaking toll. He wzs his own best critic and scrutinized every line before he let it appear in his final copy. His habit was to write the rough draft of his ideas on a slate, so that erasures could be made easily. then to transfer the writing with a soft pencil to paper, and finally. when all was to his satisfaction, to copy the book in ink with the precision of a clerk. When Ben Hur" was sent to Harper's 1t was beautifully executed in purple ink, every line of exact length, every page of writ ing almost identical in the number of words with an ordinary printed page. This was the book that the publishing house hesltated for time about accept ing, fearing that it might not prove a financial success. It is said that Ben Hur" has been translated into every im- portant tongue in the world
 The General had a fine home in Craw- fordsville. Ind. an old-fashioned ram.- bling house with acres of ground His library was in beautiful stone building in the rear. In the library hangs a por- trait in oil of the Sultan Abdul Hamid, painted by the General. It was produced from secret sketches made by Wallace while minister to Turkey.
 T had to be very sly about it,'' he used to tell his visitors If I had been caught it would have bade great row. even if I was a member of the dlplo- matic corps Mohammedans regard that sort of thing as sacrilege."
 Thousands of Indiana people made an- nual pilgrimages to Crawfordville When ever possible General Wallace shook hands with every one
 General Wallace said frequently that it was owing to President Garfield that his book, "The Prince of India" was written. MT. Garfield had long been a friend of Wallace. Ben Hur'' appeared in the year of his election to the Presi- dency, and was greatly admired by Gar field. After his inauguration he sent for Wallace and said:
 "I want to send you as minister to Turkey. The duties of the office will ] leave you ample leisure for writing. and I want you to give us q book on Con- stantinople"
 General Wallace remained at the court of the Sultan until 1885. He returned to lis home in Charlottesville. Ind, and de- voted his time to writing.
 He was the best known as the author of Ben Hur.' A story often told. which was never denied by Wallace wss that he had conversation with Col. Robert q. Ingersoll one day on a train. and ur- ing the talk Ingersoll advised him to do some thinking on the question of reli- gious belief Ben Hur' was the result, according to the story.