The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-01

, You're just the man I've been walt
 ing for these two months said Uncle
 Remus sympathetically. i've got a
 coat that will just fit you"
 Mr Harris has the undivided love of
 all Georgia. That he is loved the world over is proved by the way in which he Is sought out by visitors to Atlanta whether of high or low degree. One of
 the first things that Jerome K. Jerome did when he reached Atlanta last April vast to ask where Uncle Remus lived 4 few weeks before, MT. Carnegie had
 made a pilgrimage to "The Sign of the Wren's Nest" and when President Roose- welt was in Atlanta last October he count ed it great honor to grasp the hand
 of the man whose wonderful folk lore stories have given the Roosevelt chill
 dren many happy hours.
 T read your stories nearly every night
 of my life to the little folks said Mrs. Roosevelt to MT. Harris, and they never
 tire of the beloved Uncle Remus.'
 Indeed, so interested is Ethel Roosevelt in Uncle Remus and his tales that she
 has written letters to the author These are among his treasured possessions. It was at the luncheon given him at the Piedmont club that the President paid his glowing tribue to MT. Harris in some mysterious way, the latter had been eajoled into attending
 Now" began the President, after briefly telling his hosts how glad he was to be with them, I am going to very ill repay the courtesy with which l have been greeted by causing for minute or two acute discomfort to a man of whom l am very fond-Uncle Remus Presi- dents may come and Presidents may go. but Uncle Remus stays put Georgia has done a great many things for the union, but she has never done more than when she gave Mr. Joel Chandler Harris to American literature.
 T suppose he is one of those literary people who insist that art should have nothing to do with mortals, and will con demn me as a Philistine for not agreeing
 with them, but I want to say that one of the great reasons why I like what he
 has written is because after reading it I rise i-D with the purpose of being a bet ter man. a man who is bound to strive to do what is in him for the cause of de- eency anG for the couse of righteousness Gentlemen, l feel too strongly to in- dulge in any language of mere eompli- ment, or mere fiattery. Where MT. Harris seems to me to have done one of the greatest services is that he has written what exaits the south in the mind of every man who reads 1t. and yet what has not even flavor of the union "There is not an American anywhere who can read MT. Harris stories-I am
 not speaking at the moment of his won derful folk tales, but of his stories-who does not rise up a better citizen for hay ing head them; who does not rise up With ., more earnest desire to do his part in solving American problems aright 1 T cannot too strongly express the obli- gation l am under to MT. Harris and one of these obligations is to feel as a principle that 1t is my duty (which If have tfansgressed I have not trarsgress- cd ,1nowingly) never as an American to say that could be construed into an att
 tack upon any portion of our common
 country"
 Just before his train pulled out of the
 Atlanta station, the President turning to Clark Howell, one of his hosts, said with his boysh enthusiasm:
 'fThe best feature of the day, Mir. How ell was getting Joel Chandler Harris in to that luncheon By George, that was
 great! He Is a wonderful man. I regard him as the greatest educator in the south along the lines he writes of. One of the very pleasant memories of my visit to Atlanta will have been my association with him.
 When MT Harris was presented to the 1 President before the luncheon, he had to remain by the Presidents side while the rest of the guests were presented. And then it was that the President enthusias- ticaly told MT. Harris of the pleasure
 he, as well as the children, received from
 reading the Uncle Remus stories. It is doubtful whether Uncle Remus has yet got over blushing at the many nice things said to him by the President It was in April of this year that Laird of Slibo made his pilgrimage to the home of Uncle Remus
 Well, we'll" exclaimed MT. Carnegie.