A prosperous Brooklyn manufacturer tells how a single watchword
made him wealthy, besides helping him in his character. When
a young man he started for Australia in a sailing vessel,
intending to go into business there; but he became very weary
of the slow and stormy voyage and half determined to leave the
ship at a South American port and return home. He asked advice
from an old man, who was one of his fellow passengers. The
counsel he got was, “If you undertake to do a thing, do it.”
He took the advice, and the motto also. In Australia he soon
acquired twenty-five thousand dollars, which he brought back
to this country and greatly increased by fidelity to the same
ever-present watchword.
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* * * * *
If ever a literary success was earned by hard work, General
Wallace earned it with “Ben Hur.” He first started the book
as a novelette, which he intended to offer to _Harper’s
Magazine_; but the story expanded until it far outgrew the
original design, and occupied its author for seven years. Full
as it is with the most graphic pictures of Palestine, it is
difficult to realize that General Wallace had never been in
that country when he wrote the novel. The general was recently
asked how he accomplished such wonderful results, and replied as
follows:
“I doubt if any novel has ever had more careful studies for
its background and life than those made for ‘Ben Hur.’ I knew
that the novel would be criticized by men who had devoted their
lives to Biblical lore, and I studied Palestine through maps
and books. I read everything in the way of travel, scientific
investigation, and geography. I had scores of maps and worked
with them about me. My best guide was a relief map of Palestine
made in Germany. This was hung on my wall, and by means of it I
took my characters through the passes of the mountains and up
and down the hills, measuring their daily travel by the scale of
miles. I also made studies of the bird and animal life of the
time and place.” (Text.)
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