Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-03-07

church warden of his parish church of
st. Thomas was part donor of a hand
some set of silver offertory plates,
which still are in use in the church.
with his name engraved thereon.
1t was In of these out
shop. hat supplied uniforms to the
famous sailors of the day, perhaps in
Guiding Nelson, lost it's prestige, re-
ferred to by Captain Marryat in Peter
Simple'-"We called at Meredith's the
tailor, and he promised that by next
morning we should be fitted complete"
Melchizedek showed his taste in we'd
ding while still a young man. a woman
of stately marriage. who bore him q
large family OF exceptionally fine chill
dren. including a son, Augustus, the
novelist's father. who inherited the
business. The four daughters, all beau
tiful girls. married we'll. One. Louisa,
who appears in the story as the Coun-
tess Silva, married a consul general for
the Azores, decorated by the Emperor
of Brazil and the King of Portugal.
Another, Harriet, became the wife of
a wealthy brewer. sketched by the nov
elist's pen under the name of Andrew
Cogf1lesby. A third vas the wife of a
lieutenant of the royal marines-the
Garry" of the book n the mother
Of Mr.. Ellis.
George, who was the only son of Au-
L AASA "Nt Will ~ G8lC ANSaAA
lily home in Observation-Disclosures famed
as the birthplace of Charles Dickens
in 1925. His father, who seems to have
been a "muddler," soon after emigrat-
ed, and the management OF the bust
ness was assumed. as related in Evan
Harrington by Mrs. Meredith until
her decease. some few years later.
Reared BY HE Aunts.
Thu novelist. then only but S years
| old. wal looked after by his paternal
aunts. He was sent to school. of which
his chief remembrance as he vaguely
stated to Mr.. Clodd. was three dreary
services on Sundays, the giving out of
the text being signal to me for invent
ing tales of the Saint George and
! dragon type. l was fond of 1.-The Ara
! bian Nights and this doubtless fed an
imagination which tool shape in The
Shaving of Sagpat.' learned very
little at school, until l was sent to
Neuweid."
This German finish to his education,
which was drawn from the meager for
tune left by his father, who had mean
while returned home from South Africa
n died, was the end of the writer's
connection with his native place. He
was is at the time. and it appears
that thereafter the young man DELHI
erately cut himself off from all inter
course with his relations.
THAT there was a QUARREL Mr.. Ellis
remarks, seems evident from the pun
| gent manner in which he dealt with
his family history in Evan Harring-
! ton"
The estrangement, whatever the
cause, did not. however, prevent the
novelist from later doing a member of
his family a good turn. Sir Samuel Ell
lis, his uncle by marriage, had written
a collection of West African stories,
| which were sent by him to a London
publisher. Meredith happened to be a
reader of the concern. and the house
accepted the work on his recommended
ton. 1t CHANGED, however. that the
book caused the publisher much trou-
BILE. as a certain James Pinnock
| sued for libel on the ground that he was
| maligned in one of the characters in
PRODUCED in h sketches. George Mere
dith was called, with other witnesses.
mock, replied Not since the days of
my youth, when l learned his cate
| chism."
The plaintiff won his suit and was
awarded $1,000 damages. The Times
treated the verdict to a leading article,
and Meredith's testimony a ira
vested in Punch in a cartoon entitled
by George No one was aware at the
| time Of Meredith's family connection
| with the author of the libelous book.
Spare as are the accounts furnished
by Mr.. Ellis Of George Meredith's long
| concealed ancestry, they furnish an
other instance of genius applying the
| time honored advice of Look into
thine own soul and WRITE Meredith
had the ura to look. and in looking
| dissect with the merciless scalpel OF
his art the "Demogorgon," as he called
it, Of hig own false. shame of blood.
Although he never succeeded in cast
ing out the devouring devil. the tor
ment of a lifetime, he had the nobility
to recognize his weakness and in an
immortalizing work call it by It's true
name. That is the moral of Evan Har-
| rington,' with its Ruy Blas-like hero.
A moral that haunts the reader of it,
as one trusts Mr.. Ellis will not be
] haunted by the shade of It's author"