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

1 what he wrote for this little sheet got him a place on the Savannah News. That was in 1871. when he was 2 years old. Hive years later, yellow fever having broken out in Savannah, MT. Harris took his wife of three years and their two babies to Atlanta, out of harms reach. It was not long before he had secured place on the staff of the Constitution.
 He did such good work that when the noted revivalist, Sam Small who had been writing column signed "Old Si, decided to leave the paper the editor loath to drop SO popular feature, asked Mr Harris if he could keep it going. Mir. Harris thought a little while, reck- oned he could. and then were published the first of the Uncle Remus stories. based on the folk tales that the printers boy had heard around the negro cabin fires on the plantation of his first em- ployer
 MT. Harris began writing these stories with not the slightest idea that they would create a furore, or make him a name But first thing he knew they were being copied far and wide, and then the editors of big magazines began implor- ing him to write Uncle Remus" stories for them. He did write a long series of them for the Century Magazine, and since then who in the growing up and grown-up worlds has been so neglectful as not to have made friends with Uncle Remus, Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, the Tar Baby. Daddy Jake, and the best friend and boon companion of all these quaint , characters-Joel Chandler Harris himself:
 And because everything happening just so, led to the writing of the first Uncle Remus stories, their author says that it was an accident that they ever came to be written at all. And the old world, lit tile and big, replies that accident or no accident. 1t doesn't see hcw it got along so long without knowing dear old Remus and Joel Chandler Harris.
 It's great treat to be an intimate friend of this very, very shy, very robust and round, somewhat stopped and de- eidedly good-humored man. Uncle Remus that is what MT. Harris is called by many people-bubbles over with quiet nu- nor at all times, and his quaint sayings and apparently unntentional jokes are a source of never-endng delight to all who hear them Indeed, Uncle Remus carries his sense of humor so far that he looks upon his own success as great biz joke. Consequently, the man or woman who tries to put Uncie Remus upon a pedestal in order to fall down and wor- ship him is foredoomed to miserable failure.
 Once one of MT. Harris. friends took him to task for painting the negro of -befoh de .waln'' in too glowing colors and ended with this parting shot;
 ssNow, honestly, MT. Harris, wouldn't Uncle Remus steal chickens if he got a chance?'
 "Well,' chucllled the author, If l foi- low the old man all day, you can't expect me to know what he does at night, too" :"
 Even the grim fact that he and his family were yellow fever refugees In 1876 couldn't make him lose sight of the humorous in life So he wrote this down on an Atlanta hotel register, "J. c. Har- ris, wife and two children and one bill ious nurse.'
 Long before he was ready to leave the hotel MT. Harris humor and droll sto- ries had served to revive the dropping spirits of his fellow-refugees, and turned the crowded hostelry from a place of gloom into one of llght-hearted laughter. The proprietor was quick to note the cause, and so when Mir. Harris approach ed him to settle his bill he was informed that he did not owe him penny.
 ..Why, sir explained the grateful bon iface, we're indebted to you at least g. !"
 The stranger seeking out Uncle Remus should not expect to experience any of those flashes of humor which are joy to Uncle Remus' boon friends. The pres ence of strangers-especially of the pill grim sort--all but paralyze Mir. Harris into utter speechlessness. At such times the slight impediment of speech that he has had since boyhood becomes quite pro- nounced, and in divers other ways he plainly gives evidence that he is painfully shy.
 This trait is a continual source of dis tress and merriment to his friends in