The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1881-07-30

of Mrs. Lydia NJ. Childs and others
was proposed. Lewis rappen, who was
one Of the counsei,ors, finally said he
knew OF one woman who could do the
work successfully; that she was poor
and must be paid for it, but that she
would succeed. He then mentioned
Mrs. Stowe, and advised DIR. Bailey to
write to her, and by the way of earnest,
inclose her draft for SIoo. The letter
was written and the draft sent. The
next week there appeared in the
National Era, not the first Of series Of
articles on slavery, but the first chapters
Of story called "Uncle Toms Cabin"
The effect was instantaneous and great.
The scenes dclincatcd with such frequent
strokes of elegant simplicity and cover
cd with the sombrcness Of Christian alb
horence Of the slave system, went home
to the readers imagination with won
derful force. The circulation Of the
National Era increased at once, and
soon became very large. Mrs. Stowe
was poor and earned her money so Ia
boriously. that for fear the great novel
would be GU; short she was sent an adj
ditional $500. Then she copyrighted
the story, which in book form has made
her fortune.
Into the books she wovc all the facts
given her by Lewis Clarke in conncc-
tion with information cleaned elsewhere.
For instance, the first part Of the char
acter and story of Uncle Tom himself
was taken from the experience Of COL
ored preacher, Josiah Henson, who had
both arms broken below the shoulder in
trying TO ward OFF the blows Of the club
of brutal ovcrseer. The broken bones
were not set, and the arms grew so dis
tortcd 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 the
hands to the limb of 4 locust tree (under
whose sweet blossomc 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
"Mo,her, tell master he mas killed me at
last, for nothing, but tell him If God
will forgive him, can" Clarke cut
bunch of blossoms from the tree as 4
relic to bear away with him. There
were some terrible masters in that Sec
tion some fifty or scvcnty-five years ago.
Among them General Kennedy, Devil
Bill Adams, William Woods, Archy
Woods, Eben Best and others are still
quoted among the old negroes with awe
and horror. II was the day OF planta-
tions almost ducal in extent and value,
of the aggressive spirit Of personal au-
/ thority and ostentation, which the adven-
turous survivors Of Revolutionary fields
brought with them from the camp and
the field of rural sport on the turf, at
the card table and at faro. The Crab
Orchard pike was the high road for the
rich drovers with their herds from Ten
nessee. Here they rested en- route and
at the old Kennedy mansion play has
gone high, and many desperate deed
of valor and many desperate vain folly
have been done.
That was half 4 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 behind up to the heights. This
morning was the first time since he fled
that he stood upon the ground where he
saw so much that was dreadful, and so
much that was in its way pleasant, for
slave life was by turns 4 smile and n
moan.
II is a singular fact in this neighbor-
hood, whence sprung the most powerful
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 4 sister hill another church owned
and paid for by the same people while
over in valley, not far distant. sits 4
modest school house, where, all day long
4 black school-teacher sits in the midst
of flock Of black urchins teaching them
how to read and spell, the very knowl-
edge that was then tabooed as forbidden
fruit. The book which Lewis Clarke
aided in producing (and 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 political
power Of the country combined. II
gave political leaders following from
quiet homes, where determination is
bred.-Cor. LonisrGllc Journal