Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-07
MRS. STOVES GREAT BOOK.
Was Uncle Toms Cabin a VIcrous
Book?

F. Hopkinson Smith is a very versa
tile man; he can build a dock or
bridge, paint very cleverly and write
charming sketches of life in many
phases, from city streets to old Vir-
ginia society, make a lively speech
after dinner and lecture with or with
out stereopticon attachment But he
has his limitations, and he struck
one Of them when at the Newton club
the other evening he assailed "Uncle
Toms Cabin" in a fashion which has
been Anticipated for nigh forty years
That great novel did not, in his
opinion, truthfully portray southern
life in slavehol3ing days. This is
what he is reported to have said
4 left the south when 20 years old,
but not before l hda seen something
of the life in Virginia. it is true
that when an estate was broken
UP the slaves were often bought by
neighbors, but with a view of keep
ing them together near the old place.
When a vicious slave was met with he
was often sent to the rice fields of
South Carolina for the purpose of
preventing him corrupting the others.
There was no other way to dispose of
him. This book, Uncle Toms Cabin,
is the most vicious book that ever ap-
peared. 1t compares with Remnants
first book on Russia 1 could go into
the prisons of the north today and
write a similar book. The book pre-
cipitated the war, and made the north
believe nothing but the very worst
of the south. We are not an inhuman
people; we are all alike; we are Amer
leans. 1t was an outrage to rouse the
north against the south. The book
was an appalling, an awful and crimi-
nal mistake"
This is amazingly superficial, be
sides being wholly gratuitous. Mr..
Smith was born at Baltimore in 1888;
he has the fortune to perpetuate in
his name the memory of his great
grandfather, Francis Hopkinson, a
signer of the declaration of independ-
ence, who was as versatile as himself,
for besides being a statesman and a
publicist of much influence, he was
we'll acquainted with the science of
that day, and with painting and music
as we'll, and wrote verses of much
spirit, if rather lacking in poetry. But
neither Mr.. Smiths ancestry nor his
boyhood familiarity with Virginia life
furnished him with so vast an accumu-
lation of data regarding the character
of slave-holding civilization as Mrs.
Stowe possessed before she wrote her
tremendous book, which was done in
direct personal contact with slavery
and with entire appreciation of the
good qualities of the aristocratic sys-
tenn, as shown in Uncle Toms Cabin
and in bred quite as favorably and at
tractively as in Mr.. Smiths Col. Car
ter of Gainesville.
Within the half-century which has
| elapsed since Mrs. Stoves epoch-mak-
J ing book, whose influence Mr.. Smith
| does not overrate, full light has been
| thrown upon the good as well as the
| bad of the system of African slavery,
| and the result has been to confirm
every jot and little Of that work. More
than this: in recent years, since the
heat Of the conflict has subsidized.
there have come testimonies from the
south, from members of the old order
of things, which have certified to Mrs.
Stoves accuracy, and have gone
| further, and declared that no writer
has SO attractively portrayed the insti-
! tuition under it's best aspects, as in
the family of Mr.. Shelby, and in the
very lovable personality of st. Clair.
Here were Kentucky and louisiana
! the patriarchal system illustrated by
a household bound together, master
! and mistress and their slaves, by
warm affection; and by the easy, gen.
ial, indulgent master, who meant well
to mis- slaves, but whose will was not
even as strong as his conscience, and
SO wrought misery. Both cases IL
Illustrated that breaking up of estates OF
which Mr.. Smith speaks in so non.
chalant manner. 1t was not only
the vicious slave that was sold to the
rice fields; the good man like Mrs