The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-02-27
LIFELONG SECRET OF
MEREDITH LEAKS OUT
Vain Novelist Wrapped His
Ancestry In Veil OF Mys-
tery-Story Told.
From London Correspondents Of the New
York World.

From London Correspondents Of the New
York World.
The mystery of George Mere
dith's origin a long ~tantalized
the world, The reticence of the great
novelist himself On that subject helped
to beget various fantastic rumnrs-one
being that his birth was Swallowed by
the bar sinister. Not only has no one
attempted his biography. through lack
of authentic information as to his be-
ginnings. but all have been held back
by superstition such as has prevented
those confronted with the inscription in
Stratford church from disturbing
S~hakespeare's bones.
Il will horribly haunt any one who
attempts my biography" vas the dying
exclamation of the author Of The
Egoist" to a friend, who in spite OF his
intimacy v succeeded in extracting
tho slightest clew as to from whom or
whence Meredith sprung. The first
clew to the mystery was given in The
World at the time Of the novelist's
death, but now the secret is out; and
the world hardly knows whether to
laugh at or sympathize with the false
pride which was the cause OF the
writer's lifelong silence.
The Son of a Tailor.
George Meredith was the son of a
Portsmouth tailor, n the early years
over which he drew SO determined a
veil were associated with the memory
Of his father seated with thread and
needle in his hand.
A relative, s. M. Ellis, defying the
indignant shade of Genius, has revealed
the fact in order hat he may tardily
baSk in the glory of kinship with one
who rejected the destiny of the tail
ors' goose for the Immortality Of the
pen. By n stroke of his own matter
of-fact quill, this writer, in the current
number Of the Fortnightly. has dis
posed of the romantic Pigment Of high
born illegftimacy nat Meredith pre-
ferred to allow to live; Notwithstanding
the reflection upon his mother, rather
than AVE the truth proclaimed. SO
sensitive was the spirit of the author
to "Snippets' and other opprobious
names bestowed by snobbery on a call-
ing which his rugged rival, Carlyle,
devoted his best talents to p~otheosiz-
ing in "Sartor Resatus!"
Yet If Meredith was a snob at soul
and the greatest of writer's have had
their infirmities-he excoriated the
failing in himself after an immortal
manner. In Evan Harrington" one
Of his most brilliant novels, he has be-
queathed to posterity a biting analysis
of this same weakness, pillorying the
agonfes of his own false shame in the
person of the hero, V Harrington
as we learn from Mr.. Ellis, is a con-
science-tormented exploitation of his
great relatives family history, the fact
Of which was only lightly juggled with
in responce to the demands of man
The Great Mel of its pages, the flower
Of Tailordom, the Beau Brummel of
the town. the boon companion of local
aristocrats, was no other than George
Meredith's grandfather, from whom his
grandson drew his own love of titled
society; while those other characters,
called he Daughters of the Shearers,"
almost equally the delight of the reader
were his great aunts.
Thus did the artist in Meredith mock
the man, and passion for mastery ma
terial triumph over the. pangs of pri-
vate vanity in giving to the world a
chef d'oeuvre. the existence of which is
a shining example of the inconsistency
Of human nature.
Melchizedek Meredith.
1t was from the Great Mel Of his
novel, who in real life was Melchizedek
Meredith, an eccentric Portsmouth
tailor, that the author inherited his
classic, high-bred looks, as we'll as his
social aspirations. Handsome, gallant
with the finished Of a gentle
man. Melchizedek. by his e~xtravagances
and hobnobbing with local swells
brought his family to financial ruin
To the neglect Of his trade, he hunted
with his own horses: was an officer in
Portsmouth Yeoman cavalry-no small
luxury in those days-displaying his
patriotism in the threatened Invasion
of England by Napoleon; and as