Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-03-07
SECRET OF
MEREDITH LEAKS OUT
Vain Novelist Wrapped His
Ancestry In Veil Of Mys-
tery-Story Told.
From London Correspondence of the New
York World.

From London Correspondence of the New
York World.
h mystery of George Mere
dith's origin has long tantalized
the world. The reticence of the great
novelist himself on that subject helped
to beget various fantastic rumors-one
being that his birth was shadowed 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 horSibly haunt any one who
attempts my biography was the dying
exclamation of the author of The
lcgoist' to Il friend, who in spite of his
intimacy v succeeded in extracting
the slightest clew as to from whom or
whence Meredith sprung. The first
clew to the mystery was given i'm The
death. but now the secret is out; and
h world hardly knows whether to
laugh at or synpathize 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, and the early years
over which he drew so determined a
veil We're 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 that he may tardily
bask in the glory of kinship with one
h rejected the destiny of the tail
ors' goose for the Immortality OF the
pen. BY one stroke of his own natter
of-fact quill, this writer, in the current
number of the Fortnightly, has dis
posed of the romantic Pigment of high
born illegitimacy that Meredith pre-
ferred to allow to live: Notwithstanding
the reflection upon his mother. rather
h have the truth proclaimed. SC
sensitive was the spirit OF the author
to ~'Snippets" and other o%pprobious
names bestowed by snobbery on a call
ing which his rugged rival. Carlyle.
devoted his best talents to potheosiz-
ing in "Sartor Resatus!"
Yet If Meredith was a isnob 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. p%illorying the
agonies of his own false shame in the
person of the hero. Evan Harrington"
as WI 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
The Great Me- of Its pages. the flower
of Tailordom, the Beau Brummel OF
h town. the boon companion of local
aristOcrats. vas nc other than George
Meredith's grandfather, from whom his
grandson drew his own love Of titled
society; while those other characters,
called the Daughters Of the Shearers.''
almost equally the delight of the reader,
were his great aunts.
Thus dc 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.
Mslehizsdek Meredith.
1t vas 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 manner of a gentle
a Melchizedek, by his extravagances
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 Woman cavalry-no small
luxury in those days-displaying his
patriotism in the threatened invasion
of England by Napoleon; and as