The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-15

10 permit q not to permit the produc- tton of "uncie Toms Cabin in theatres of the Commonwealth is q question now agitating Kentuckians. The matter read when the Lexington chapter. Daughters of the ,Confederacy, raised protest against the plays production ip the cap itel of the blueErass Nov the anu number thousands; almost every chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy in the State has formally protested against the play. and bill is about to be in- troduced in the General Assembly for the purpose of suppressing the drama in this
 Tn any other State tho coincidence would be called singulsr-the coincidence ana incidents for a great novel being the first to take steps toward suppressing Its dramatlxation. In Kentucky. however. 1t is but natural seQuence-this attempt to bar by legislative enactment the . sp. play Uncle Toms Cabin" Mrs. Harriet Bescher Stowe's great slaye, epic. found ed on fact and fiction of Kentucky life. Kentucky gave to the world the two dis Union and President of the Confederacy. in that histcyy-making era ct the 'ees- the var between the States. chiefly brought about by Mrs. stowe's pen-and not take sides in the memorable conflict.
 Kentucky's Mixed Schools.
 Kentucky was the first state to estab- fish . school for the education of the two races that figured in the war. and many Kentuckians to this day still con- upon their fair section. but Berea College monument or not to it's founders. John c. Fee and Caseius N. CIsy. the "nercest ahelitionist of them all''- still stands. and every year graduate whites and blacks a1fkA HA TYStAn pARpa1tffnN Qf0 tt0n south of the Ohio river was located in the same County that furnished Mrs. Stowe. her characters
 Lewis George Clarke, the prototype of George Harris in the novel. came back to Kentucky to die-back to the State he had left more than hsK a century be- fore with price upon his head as slave. Turned out by the world else where. he wandered hack to native soil in the sunset of his life and was cared for as only Kentuckians can care for people.
 One would think from study of these Kentucky; but he does not know the characteristics of It's citizens. It has been truly said that the Kentuclxian Is like the Frenchmsn in his quick resentment. trough. are often fatal in the Dark and Blondy Ground" People of strong ,reju- dices, people who forgive but never for Eet, Is it any wonder that there is Tem.s % cabIn % and i is it .ax rss Wonder that tnat Kentucky women should lead the move ment? The Kentuckian Is nothing if not gallant. Each worships at a shrine with woman there enthroned.
 The Daughters of the Confederacy, therefore. in their determination to blot out the play will have the support of fathers. brothers, husbands, sweethearts; and the stone the Lexington chapter cast life few days ago will make ripples to the very edges of the State before an- other moon has waxed and waned.n From every section where wives, daughters lost cause have formed organizations. there comes a voice against further pro- Auction of the play in Kentucky. and, If any one doubts that measure to prohibit 1t will be introduced in the Lesis- lature. let him watch the dispatches from Frankfort after bin days.
 Mrs. Stowe's Inspiration.
 It will be remembefed by the millions who have read the bookk. ,"Uncle Toms Cabin" that Mrs Stowe opens 1t with of P-." This means Paint Lick, vil- lagc on. thd Louisville and Nashville Railroad in Garrard County. Mrs. Stowe many times confessed that the ground work of the plot was laid there. on the farm and among the negroes owned by General Thomas Kennedy, who was Gar rard County's first representative in the General Assembly of Kentucky. And this pective action of the present session of that body. Many friends of the Kennedy generations that have come into promi- nence since that Legislature at the close of the eighteenth century feel that Mrs. Stowe did General Kennedy an injustice in the way she mixed fiction with fact, coupling his name te each. Garrard County's wealthiest citizen and largest dealer in race horses and slaves, Gem KannAdv fhn rt1%Nr of the black man that Mrs. Stowe has led thousands to believe.
 This Is not hearsay evidence. as there still lives at Paint Lick the link between the fading past and the neeting present a diminutive negro. who was one of Gen eral Kennedy's slaves. and who remem- bers him as kind-hearted man. When the traveller reaches Paint Lick the first person he meets Is this same little crea- ture,. black as the groverbial ace of spades, three feet nine of Stature and sixty pounds of weight. He always meets all & trains s,s at the village station. knowed Uncle Tom" is his invariable in- troduction to a stranger. winding up with Whats yer name?"
 He tells the stranger in the first breath s justified by years of experience in gurmising that It will be the next dues- hon he has to answer. His life story Is told by him in darky dialect peculiar
 a"c-Denunh pidck man or the South. With the dialect eliminated. Argo said.
 1 am the only survivor of the 1o1 dawes left by General Kennedy. One hundred were willed to the old Gem krafs son, Thomas Kennedy, Jr6 while 4, who was one of the Generals house boys. was given to Robert Argo. That's where I got my last name. The General was always kind to us slaves, and used to ride his race horses. He won the girl Eliza in a race I rode for hi. rn''
 Norman is now over 100 years of age. having been born in the eighteenth cen tury. ,-
 s The Real George Harris.
 He vividly recalls slave life and the characters of Mrs Stowe'e novel. Ere uuently he slept and worked with Lewis George Clarke. the prototype of George Harris. the most prominent person in the novel.
 Clark was a weaver. knitter and sewer and cooked we'll when he was young. While General Kennedy was alive the young slave was not sent to the fields And Norman. being house boy, grew to Rnow well the hero of the novel. Young Tom Kennedy did not long survive his father. and Clark thought he was about to be put up for sale with the other ne- grces when he determined to gain his liberty. He conhded his plans to Nor man. One detail was to bleach himself from mulatto to a fair-skinned. white man. He wore gloves and big hat about his work. Norman says. and in few months carried out his declaration hv stealing 2 nnule and going North MarEie, the Eliza" of the story, and e. s