Smyrna times., 1881-06-15

was poor and must be paid for it, bnt that
she would succeed. He then mentioned
Mrs. Stowe, and advised DR.. Bailey to
write to her, and by way of earnest, in
close her a draft for 800. The letter was
written and the draft sent. The next
week there appeared in the columns of
the National Era, not the first of Il series
of articles on slavery, but the first chap
ters of q story called "Uncle Toms
Cabin" The effect was instantaneous and
great. The scenes delineated with such
frequent strokes of eloquent simplicity
and covered with the somberncss of Chris
tian ahhomence of the slave system, went
home to the readers imagination with
wonderful force. The circulation of the |
National Era increased at once, and soon
became very large. Mrs. Stowe was poor
and earning her money so laboriously that |
for fear the great novel would be cut |
short, she was sent an additional draft for |
$500. Then she copyrighted the story,
which in book form has made her a for /
tune, and become more famous than any |
novel ever issued from printing-press.
THE DEATH OF UNCLE TOM.
Into the book she wove all the facts |
given her by Lewis Clark in connection
with information cleaned elsewhere. For |
instance, the first part of the character
and story of Uncle Tom himself was
taken from the experience of colored /
preacher, Josiah Henson, who had both .
arms broken below the shoulder in trying |
to ward off the blows of the club of a |
brutal Overseer. The broken bones were
not set, and the arms grew up so distorted |
that Henson cannot now feed himself |
The whipping to death Of Old Tom was
suggested by the fate of Sam Peter
blacksmith on the Kennedy plantation,
who was swung up by his hands to the
limb of Il locust tree (under whose sweet
blossoms Clarke stood this morning and
recited the story afresh) and given several
! hundred lashes and ''salted." Two weeks
later he was dead. and Clarke heard him
say to his mother, in the words Old Tom
used: Mother, tell master he has killed
me at last, for nothing but tell him if
God will forgive him, l can" Clarke cut
Il bunch of locust blossoms from the tree
as a relic to bear away with him. There
were some terrible masters in this section
fifty or seventy-five years ago. Among
them General Kennedy, Devil Bill Adams,
William Woods, Archy Woods, Ebcn Best
and others are still quoted among the
old negroes with awe and horror. 1t was
the day of plantations almost ducal in ex-
tent and value, of the aggressive spirit of
personal authority and ostentation, which
the adventurous survivors of Revolu-
tionary fields brought with them from the
camp and the field; of royal sport on the
turf, at the cardtablc and at faro The
Crab Orchard pike was the high road for
the rich drOveIS with their herds from
Tennessee. Here they rested ell route,
and at the old Kennedy mansion play
has gone high, and many determined
deed of valor and many desperate vain
folly have been done.
BACK ON THE PLANTATION
That was half century ago; Lewis
Clarke ran away ten years later; yester-
day he returned, as one of his friends said
like Moses, after wandering forty years in
the wilderness, to lead those he left be-
hind up to the heights. This morning
was the first time since he fed that he has
stood upon the ground where he saw so
much that was dreadful and so much that
was i'll its way pleasant, for slave life was
by turns Il smile and mOan
1t is a singular fact that in this neigh
bOrhood, whence sprung the most power
ful story of oppression and suffering that
was ever written, he stood last night in
the pulpit of handsome village church,
built, paid for and owned by some of the
very negroes whose wrongs and hardships
pitched the key of the story. He could
look out of one window and see on a
sister hill another church owned and paid
for by the same people; while over in
valley not far distant sits modest school
house, where all day long black school
teacher sits in the midst of flock of black
urchins teaching them how to read and
spell, the very knowledge that was then
: tabooed as forbidden fruit The book
} which Lewis Clarke aided in producing
: land nobody who reads his narrative can
doubt where Mrs. Stowe got most of her
facts and suggestions) had as much to do
: with producing this result as all the politi-
cal power of the country combined. 1t
gave political leaders a following from
quiet homes, where determination is bred.
-LOuisriIle Courier Journal.
elevated RAILWAY IN PHILADELPHIA.