Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-05-04
UNCLE TOMS CABIN.

heard of Uncle Toms Cabin and as we
imagine but few of them have read it. we
propose in this article to capt what I'm
Gle Toms Cabin is. II is simply fiction,
belonging to that class of books known as
aoUels This novel is the production of a
Northern lady, known as Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, daughter OF the Rev Ly-
man Beecher The motive that in all
probability prompted Mrs. Stowe to write
this story, as is the case with all novel wri-
tiers, was of Pecuniary character. She
had doubtless wanted for sometime be-
fore she commenced her work, as did
Lord Byron when he began to write his
Don Juan-s'a hero" Well what was
to be her hero? Was he to be soldier
who was in love with some palefaced
beauty with auburn hair, beautiful blue
eyes, ivory teeth, alabaster neck, small
delicate hand with beautifully tapered fin
gers, tiny feet and form of faultless
proportious-a perfect beauty, who recip-
rocated the passion OF her lover and yet
before lie could taste the delectable cup Of
conuubial bliss, he must wade through
oceans of blood, and make ten thousand
hairbreadth escapes No too many
such stories as this had already been
written, to justify her entering into the
exploration of such field of romance
with a view of making money. Was the
hero to be love-sick swain, breathing
lcng breaths? No. Was he to be some
talented young gentleman whom she was
to- bring from obscuriLy and chill penury
through his industry, perseverance, and
strict attention to business, to some Ligh
position of honor and trust, and finally
wed the object of his primitive love >
No Was he to be il Jolly tar, performing
feats of daring and intrcpidity, and after
circumnavigating the globe a dozen of
times, experiencing all the hardShips and
dangers incident to the life of sailor, he
finally returns to his native cottage and
dies OF the ship fever on the very day he
was to have been united to his old flame?
No. Hundreds of stories like these and
many others had been written before
Well, what was she to do? She had sur
veyed the whole field of fiction, and was
about to despair for the want of a hero.
About this time her olfactory nerves
probably came to the relief of her weari-
ed imagination, and she smelt from afar
of great big, black, thickliPped, greasy,
and strongly proportioned negro fellow
Fancy whispered in her ear-'there's a
hero for YOU" Fancy suggestion COM
Judgment, and forthwith she adopted this
negro for her hero, and called him Gun
Gle Tom The ratiocinittiou that pas
sed through her brain was most likely in
this wise : My plan is to kill two birds
with one stone. | am an abolitlonlst and
wish to keep alive the fires of agitation.-
1t is impossible to send abolition tracts
and the like to the South, Genouncing
shareholders and the peculiar institu-
ton" 1 propose to do that indirectly
which, l cannot do directly. The time is
favorable. The passage of the Fugitive
Slave Law has more than ever embItter-
ed the North against the South. Now, a
novel protesting to be founded on facts,
detailing the horrors of slavery, will be
read with great avidity by the Northern
people, and hence [ can make money by
the sale whilst at the South it will in
.sinuate itself into the hands of a great ma
ny under the garb Of fiction, and thus |
can sow the seeds of agitation among the
Southern people. Gr
Well, the ground work being laid, Mrs.
Stowe wrote Uncle Toms Cabin. Her
success has doubtless surpassed her most
sangulue expectations. 1t has been less
than a year since the work was first issu-
ed, and she has already realized twenty
thousand dollars from the sales 1t has
been read universally in the South In
England it has been read as extensively
as in this country, probably more So
Whilst it has been translated into the va
rious languages OF otcontinental Europe, and
is read there by all classes, In Paris and
some otherplaces it has been dramatised
Certainly no work that was ever written,
has been so extensively read in the short
time that has elapsed since its first an.
pearance as Uncle Toms Cabin. We'll.
what is the character of the book? We
answer like Mr.. Graham of Graham's Ma
gazine-it is ''stupeudous lie'' from be-
ginning to end. 1t is a foul abolition
publication, intended insidiously to assai
the institutions Of the South. 1t is an in.
geuiously written story, founded here and
there upon a mere scintilla of truth
enough to give it p!ausibility-while the
main body oft is destitute of truth or the
semolance of truth. The fort of the sto-
ry' Is Its appeals to our sympathies, and
better nature; and so successful is the ar
list that she can bring tears from the We
ry man at whose interests and welfare
she has aimed a deadly blow. We are
free. to confess that our sympathies were
touched not q little when we read .JJncle
Toms Cabin" which was shortly after
its first appearance, although we were