Evening star., 1921-08-28
NE Wa,hngton Really Great WersThe Ltt Cottage
Career Teacher the Public Schools the District
Little Popular Soreser Friendship With Harriet Beecer
Stowe-F1ovv Uncle Toms Cabin Came to Be Written

was transferred to the fourth or South Wash.
ingtcn district. Here on the organization q:
tbem aud acceptably served for a number of
yeafx.; There are quite number Of citizens
who have pleasant recouectiOns Of her efforts
5sapt.4 Robley d. Evans, it is believed, was
ash0ng her pupils.
Her first literary efforts appeared in a paper
Ecalled the Baltimore Visitor. Its editor WAS
DR., Snodgrass. whose anti-savery sentiments
rendered him extremely unpopular with the
to, sell out to DR.. Bailey. the proprietor of
the National Era Of this city. the paper in
which first appeared Uncle Toms Cabin"
had begun u story called "Retribution. which
was the frst serial ever published in this
country. As the authoress stated she had
no intention OF starting u serial. 1t was her
intention to complete the sketch in one num-
ber but she found that to be impossible She
wrote second and then a third and fourth
and by that time she found that she could not
finish 1t in ten numbers. Thus it was that
lengthy story was evolved from a small be-
ginning
The publication occurred in 1877. and two.
years later the story published by Harper
Brothers. This story established her reiu;a
tion as writer. Strange as IL may SEEM this
story was written without any compensation
for tue autIioress. She did not ask for any
thing and no reccnpense offered lay ti.
publisher. After its publication and for Two
years l,nger t1S49l she cont nrcd ,o teach
schOol during the day and al night wouId fol-
low her literary inrlinai inns. Her stores
u
continued to increase. The continued steady
work Of teaching school and writing ut night
proved TO he hard task in the course OF
years. and it then that she refused to
furnish further contributions unless she
ceived pay. Her services TO the paper too
valuable TO be dispensed with. Continuing TO
write for the National Era, Henry Peterson,
publisher Of the Philadelphia Saturday Even
ing Post. engaged Mrs. southworti to write
for his paper ape and Its , circulation ao rapidly & IN
part TO the popularity OF Mrs. Southworfh's
stories.
It is told in this old Star story that
when Robert Bonner came into pos
session of the New York Ledger he
turned it into a family paper and Of
fered Mrs. Southworth double the sum
she was receiving from the Phiiadel-
phia paper. This munificent pay was
SO column, and Mrs. Southworth
wrote four columns week. The
stories were later put in book form.
The SouthWorth stories ran for thirty
years in the New York Ledger, and 1t
was customary to republish one OF
them as a book each year 1t is said
of the working habits of Mrs. South
worth that she spent the time be-
tween noon and midnight. except for
the dinner hour. in her library. which
was the room in the northeast corner
of the little frame cottage. Her work
days were Monday and the following
! four days. On Saturday and Sunday
she laid her books ard writing ma
| terials aside and passed the time with
her friends who gathered at the cot
tage A story called The Hidden
! Hand was dramatized. and that book
and a number of Others were pub
lished in England. Mrs. Southwo-th
visited that country in connection
with the publication of certain of her
works. and while there was the guest
of Lady Byron.
(; One Of the many stories that cluster
| about the historic cottage at 36th
! street and Prospect avenue is that
the writing of ''Uncle Toms Cabin" was
, begun there. The Rambler has it
| from DIR. Sarah NJ. Huddleson. owner
| of the cottage. a collector of South
! worth first editions. relics of the
authoress and perhaps the most de-
voted of Southworthians in the world.
/! She had the account of the beginning
!, of Uncle Toms Cabin from Mrs Hunt.
| widow Of Gov. Hunt of Colorado and
| daughter of Judge Underwood. we'll
| known in early Washington. Mrs.
| Hunt was an intimate friend of Mrs.
T; Southworth. Mrs. Southworth and
/ Harriet Beecher Stowe were close
| friends of long staading. Mrs: Stowe,
after a term Of teaching school in
Kentucky, came to visit Mrs. South
| worth at the cottage. Mrs. South
worth was then a writer of renown.