The St. Johns herald., 1898-06-04
UNCLE TOMS CABIN.
HSw Mrs. IT. B. StOwe's Potential
 Work Came to Be Written.

| Work Came to Be Written.
 Late in life, when Mrs Stowe was nearing her end, she was accoSted one by a retired sea captain. When was younger" said he, holding his hat in his hand, 'I read Uncle Toms Cabin The story impressed me, and am hap ! py to shake hands with you, Mrs. | Stowe, who wrote it. ''I did not write lady, shaking the captains hand. 'You didn'tY' exclaimed the old man. "Why, who did, thenY God wrote it." she replied. T merely wrote as He dictat- ed" "Amenr' responded the captain, walking reverently away. This anec- l dOte, quoted in Mrs. Fields Life and Letters of Mrs. Stowe" illustrates the mental and spiritual position toward her great work which the gifted au- thor always maintained.
 Years before this she told a friend, while they were diSrobing for the night, that she did not write the book.
 "What!' exclaimed the amazed friend. "You did not write Uncle TomY"
 'No; I only put down what I saw" answered Mrs. Stowe.
 But you have never been at the South, have you? asked the lady.
 "No; but 1t all came before me in visions, one after another, and I put them down in words"
 ''T'--t" '->~'~+~I +H~ ~l,oy>+'"o1 fr'on1 you must have arranged the events. "NO; your daughter annie reproach- ed me for letting Eva die. Why, I could not help It! l felt as badly as any one cOuIdi It was like a death in my own family. and 1t affected me so deeply that | could not write d word for two weeks after her death"
 And did you know" asked the friend, "that Uncle Tom would die?"
 "Oh, yes, knew he must die from the first, but I did not know how" said Mrs. Stowe. "When I got to that part of the story I saw no more for some time. l was physically exhausted, too. One day, after dinner" she continued, "Mr. Stowe and I went to our room to rest. He threw himself upon the bed. was to use the lounge. Suddenly there arose before me the death scene of Uncle Tom, with what led to 1t. I sat down at the table and wrote nine pages of foolscap paper without paus- Ing.
 Just as had finished. MT. Stowe awoke. Wife said he, have you not lain down yetY
 No answered. I have been writ. Ing, and wish you to listen to this and see if 1t will do.'
 q read 1t aloud to him, with the tears flowing fast. He wept, too, and be fore I had finished his sobs shook the bed upon which he was lying. He sprang up, saying, Do! should think 1t would dop And folding the sheets he directed and sent them to the pub fisher. I have often thought if any. thing had happened to that package in going, 1t would not have been possible for me to have reproduced It."
 Long after this conversation Mrs. Stowe, in a preface to a new edition of Uncle Tom," said that many years be- fore she thought of writing the book she had written a sketch of the death of m old slave, and read 1t to her chil- dren, who were much affected by It. This, in part, was the original idea of 'UUcle Tom"
 The next time the friend before men toned saw Mrs. Stowe she reminded ner Vf tie io.il.el ,vnTeIs..t4vH, ....>. suggested that the two accounts were inconsistent with each other. 'No," said Mrs. Stowe, "both are true. I had forgotten that I had written that sketch, and I suppose unconsciously wove 1t in with the other"