Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-01
MRS. STOVES DELUSI0NS.
THE AUTHOR OF JUNGLE TOMS CAB
IN" MILDLY INSANE.

Declining Health Accompanied by Men
tai Weakness Makes 1t Necessary to
Place Her in Retirement-Her Halluci-
nation Regarding Her Great Book-In-
teresting Facts About Her.
NEW YORK, Sept Harriet Beecher
Stowe has been removed from her long time
residence in Hartford to farmhouse near
Sag Harbor, Long Island. Her health has
become alarmingly bad, and this decline is
accompanied by mental eccentricity. Al
ways original and characteristic. she has
now become 50 peculiar that her relatives
ieem it best to keep her in retirement for
uwhile That she will recover from her
physical illness is not deemed likely, but an
immediate demise is not looked for, and her
physician says that her maladv Is not neces-
sarily fatal The decrepitude of old age has
come upon her. She is stopping at the resi-
dence of Capt. Lewis Corwin, an acquaint-
ance of half lifetime, and brother OF one
of the late Henry Ward Beecher's stslwart
parishoners She is almost III years old.
Until few years ago she retained her men
tai power to surprising degree, but latterly
it has declined, and now she is little like her
former self.
An overestimate of her famous book,
"Uncle Toms Cabin has grown upon her
until il is a halucinaton Her story was 50
great a sucress. and il was so potent polite
ally that il would have been affectation in
her to conceal her pride in it. The constant
and quite extensive sale that the book still
enjoys could not but convince her that its
hold upon the affections of her countrymen
was not mucn relaxed. Besides, although
she never witnessed a performance of a dra
matte version of Uncle Toms Cabin" she
was made aware by the newspapers that she
read, and by posters that she frequently saw
as she went about that the characters of her
creation still had moving qualities with the
people. 1t is only latterly that her ideas on
the subject have become irrational
At pres mt she is undeniably poses ed 81
delus nns She thinks that "Une,s Toms
Cabin was as much djvineiy IFS ,ired work
as the Bible-that she was merely meiium
through which God expressed His coniemns-
ton of human slavery. There is modestv
and not self-g lorification in the old lady's
theory on that point She argues that, I'M
aided, she would have been quite incapable
of writing the story. In support of TINS as
sertion she cites the fact that, although she
turned out other books they made nothing
!
challenge visitor to recall even by name
any other work of hers than "Uncle Toms
| Cabin" So strenuous did she at
/ length become in this matter that
| strangers and even acquaintance took
umbrage at it, and at length the
family strove to protect her from all in
trusion Tourists who went through Hart
| ford were in the habit of stopping over for
the express purpose of seeing her That had
to he stopped as early as last fall, and since
then she mas been all but inaccessible except
to her intimates
Mrs Stowe has estate enough to support
her comfortably Had she foreseen the enor-
nous popularity of her book she might have
be en- the richest of American authors: but
she sold the copyright for a price that yielded
to her only very small percentage OF the
profits Nor did she have the forethought to
reserve the right Of dramatization as is done
now with all novels. and therefore the pro-
tracted use of her story on the stage has
never brought her cent. Twov,- .,
: the proJ ct of bio raphv by Mrs Stowe
| was conceived by Mark Twain, who has
makge a great fortune out of books sold
through subscription agencies He believed
that A 81 volume of Mrs. Stoves recollec-
tons woui find an extensive sale. The en-
terprise progressed so far as the contra act
under which Mrs. Stowe began to work, but
her pen bad lost its cunning, and the little
she wrote proved unsuitable for the purpose.
Areeent modification of the plan eontem 1lat-
ed the composition of the book by somebody
else under Mrs Stoves supervision, and TO
be used as authenticated by her. But she
failed so rapidly aud completely that she can
do nothing whatever in the matter, and it
was not in a shape to proceed without GER
tain amount of her attention. Therefore the
proposed book can not he made