Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II > Part 6

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WALTER LE CONTE STEVENS.

Walter Le Conte Stevens, Cassville, Cass Co., Ga., was born in 1847, and is a grandnephew of Louis Le Conte. He was graduated from the university of Georgia and became professor of natural sciences at Packer institute, New York. He then accepted an offer made by the Renssalaer Polytechnic institute, Troy, N. Y., in the science department. His contributions to the journals of the day have been widely copied in Europe.

WILLIAM LOUIS JONES, M. D.

William Louis Jones, M. D., born in Liberty county, Ga., in 1827, is a nephew of Louis Le Conte. He was graduated from the Franklin college, was at Harvard under Agassiz, and studied and practiced medicine. He succeeded Dr. Joseph Le Conte as professor of chemistry and natural history at Franklin college. Dr. Jones bought the "Southern Cultivator" after the war and moved to Atlanta. He contributed to this, as well as to the "Southern Farm and Weekly Constitution," many valuable scientific articles. His home is now in Atlanta.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.

Joel Chandler Harris was born Dec. 9, 1849, in Eatonton, the county seat of Putnam county, Ga. He was capable of reading and writing before he was six years old. Possessed of an imaginative nature, which had been

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

stimulated by reading the Vicar of Wakefield, he at this early age read everything in print that he could find. He attended the Eatonton academy a yew years, but that was the extent of his educational advantages. Near his home was the planta- tion of a Col. Turner, who there resided and published a weekly paper called "The Countryman." About the time young Harris was twelve years old, Col. Turner found need of the services of a bright, capable boy to learn the printer's trade, and this proved to be a piece of good fortune, which in a great measure supplied his lack of scholastic training and influenced his whole career. Young Harris applied to the Colonel and got the place. Turner was a bookish sort of man, and his wealth enabled him to gratify many whims. Two of his pet hobbies were to collect books and to run a newspaper. Col. Turner took a fancy to the applicant, and young Harris formed a liking for the publisher, and so he went to work at once. The work was not so hard as usually fell to the printer's devil of that period, and the lad had no difficulty in filling the position. Col. Turner, observing the mental activity of his boy, gave him a few judicious hints about a course of reading, and turned him loose in his leisure hours in the library. These books and his newspaper work constituted his educational training. He had no formal rules to go by and learned nothing by rote, but in a gradual and natural way acquired a large stock of information, and before long was fairly versed in belles-lettres. The first books he read showed a strong taste for a country boy. He was not interested in books of the present time, but was fond of the writers of the Elizabethan age. Good old Sir Thomas Browne was one of his special favorites, and other books, equally unique in character and beyond the usual range of a school boy's reading, were devoured by him. With the gaining of knowledge came the desire to write. His first efforts were sent in anonymously to "The Countryman," but when they were printed and Col. Turner commended them the author avowed himself. Following this he wrote regularly, and his contributions took a range embracing local articles, essays and poetry. The young printer and the planter were getting along finely until the appearance of Sherman's army. The plantation was so retired that they could not realize the nearness of the great conflict. The course of Sherman in his march toward the sea after burning Atlanta lay through Eatonton. Everybody deserted the place, taking all their possessions that could be speedily removed. Col. Turner was one of the last to go, taking his family and leaving Harris to occupy his mansion and save what he could from the invaders. Slocum's corps passed through the plantation and for three or four days the stationary occupant was kept busy doing what he could to protect the property of his employer. The invaders treated the young man well enough, after their fashion. They helped themselves to what they would, but were in a good humor and committed no outrages. In a few months the war was over and Harris sought a wider field. He was employed on the press successively in Macon, New Orleans, Forsyth and Savannah. In the last named city he was employed as an editorial writer on the "Morning News," then under the management of W. T. Thompson, the author. While in that city Mr. Harris married Miss La Rose of Canada. He was succeeding well and achieving fame, when the yellow fever scourge struck the city in 1876 and almost decimated it. This was the cause of his removal to Atlanta, where he became a member of the editorial staff of the "Constitution," and where his literary career proper really had its beginning. At that time Sam W. Small was a writer on the paper, being the author of the "Old Si" negro dialect sketches, and he shortly after resigned. The articles had been popular, and Mr. Harris was requested to try his hand in that line. In his boyhood on the Turner plantation he had spent night after night listening to the wonderful

LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.

folk-lore tales of the negroes, and as he had never seen them in print he decided to experiment with them. In a few months the Uncle Remus sketches attracted attention everywhere, and the result is familiar to the world in the shape of the volume entitled Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. The book was at once reprinted in England, and its appearance was an event in the literary circles of both countries. The author said regarding these marvelous fables that he was merely the reporter, and claimed no credit for them, but his deft manner of handling them and his subtle humor caught the public and there was eager desire to hear from him. In 1883 was published Nights with Uncle Remus; in 1884 Mingo, and Other Sketches in Black and White; in 1887 Free Joe and Other Sketches, Daddy Jake, On the Plantation, Little Mr. Thimblefinger, and other books. During these busy years Mr. Harris was closely held down by his editorial duties, and he was unable to form an opinion concerning the merits of his stories, and when he saw favorable reviews of them in every paper and no adverse criticism anywhere he was astounded. The success of the English editions amazed him, and the high praise received from the great London reviews was something he could not understand. Success has had no effect upon the modesty of this happy and fortunate story teller. He is told his writings are popular, and he knows that his pen is bringing him in an ample income, but it is still a mystery to him. Famous men in England write to him, French pub- lishers issue translations of his stories, fashionable clubs in the great cities tender him receptions, the publishers ask him by nearly every mail to send them somne- thing, but none of these communications are allowed to disturb the even tenor of his life. Mr. Harris is a hard working journalist, and is at his desk nearly every day in the year, and the copy that he furnishes his paper every twelve months would make seven or eight volumes of the regulation size. Under such circum- stances the wonder is that he has been able to do so much literary work of per- manent value and interest during the past eight or ten years. Just at present he is engaged upon Aaron, a novel which is destined to be the longest and most ambitious of his efforts. Hc has also completed, jointly with Mrs. M. S. Young, of Alabama (Eli Shepherd), Songs and Ballads of the Old Plantations, and the work will make its appearance at an early day.

Mr. Harris is of medium height, compact, but supple, and rather on the rotund order; he is the most pronounced of blondes, with chestnut hair, a mustache of the same shade, and blue eyes-very honest and modest-looking eyes, except when the owner of them is in a merry mood, and then they dance and flash with mischief. He makes it a point to be jolly at all times and under all circumstances. Sick or well, he is always in a good humor. He thoroughly enjoys his work, and manages to extract as much fun out of it as some people would get out of a continuous round of amusements. Yet he can be serious. He is serious when he talks about his favorite books-the Bible is one of them. He is serious when he speaks of his great heroes-Lincoln, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson-and he is serious enough when he comes across any real suffering, or when misfortunes befall good men. A more natural, unaffected man does not live. He cares little for society, and yet does not shun it. He is frank and outspoken upon all subjects, and it does not take any round-about mode of questioning to find out exactly where he stands upon any issue. The whole tendency of the man is toward sim- plicity. He likes old-fashioned ways and plain English. He loves a good story, but it must be a story, not a minute psychological analysis. The school of Howells, James, and Tolstoy has no charm for him. What he wants in everything is a touch of nature. The methods of work adopted by Mr. Harris are, perhaps, not out of the ordinary line. He does not wait for inspiration. He maps out a plot in

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

his mind, pictures to himself some of the leading actors, and then, after a hard day's editorial work, sits down to write. He writes with ease, and yet not rapidly. He puts his conscience into his work. If he cannot put nature on the printed page, he is determined to put her counterfeit presentment there. He does not strain after unusual and sensational effects, and he endeavors to use the simplest, clearest and strongest English he can command. Mr. Harris lives in a handsome Queen Anne residence, with spacious grounds, at West End, Atlanta's handsomest suburb, where, with his pleasant and attractive family, he entertains his literary friends and neighbors. In the introductory preface to Uncle Remus, Mr. Harris says:

"With respect to the folk-lore series, the effort has been to preserve the legends themselves in their original simplicity, and to wed them permanently to the quaint dialect-if, in these, it can be called a dialect-through the medium by which they have become a part of the domestic history of every southern family; and I have endeavored to give to the whole a genuine flavor of the old plantation. Each legend has its variants, but in every instance I have retained that particular version which seemed to me the most characteristic, and have given it without embellish- ment and without exaggeration .. . If the language of Uncle Remus fails to give vivid hints of the really poetic imagination of the negro, if it fails to embody the quaint and homely humor which was his most prominent characteristic, if it does not suggest a certain picturesque sensativeness-a curious exaltation of mind and temperament not to be defined by words-then I have reproduced the form of dialect merely, and not the essence, and my attempt may be counted a failure. At any rate, I trust I have been successful in presenting what must be, to a large portion of American readers, a new and by no means unattractive phase of negro character-a phase which may be considered a curiously sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe's wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the south. Mrs. Stowe, let me hasten to say, attacked the possibilities of slavery with all the eloquence of genius, but the same genius painted the portrait of the southern slave-holder, and defended him.

"If the reader not familiar with plantation life will imagine that the myth- stories of Uncle Remus are told night after night to a little boy by an old negro who appeared to have lived during the period which he describes-who has nothing but pleasant memories of the discipline of slavery, and who has all the prejudices of caste and family that were natural results of the system-if the reader can imagine all this, he will find little difficulty in appreciating and sympathizing with the air of affectionate superiority which Uncle Remus assumes as he proceeds to unfold the mysteries of plantation lore to a little child, who is a product of that practical reconstruction which has been going on to some extent since the war, in spite of the politicians."

The following sketches, taken from the books of Mr. Harris, show the quaint dialect and odd character upon which his interesting stories are founded:

The First of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox .- One evening recently the lady whom Uncle Remus calls "Miss Sally" missed her little seven-year-old. Making search for him through the house and through the yard, she heard the sound of voices in the old man's cabin, and, looking through the window, saw the child sitting by Uncle Remus. His head rested against the old man's arm, and he was gazing with an expression of the most intense interest into the rough, weather-beaten face that beamed so kindly upon him. This is what "Miss Sally" heard:

"Bimeby one day after Brer Fox bin doin' all dat he could do fer ter ketchi Brer Rabbit, en Brer Rabbit bin doin all he could fer to keep 'im fum it, Brer

LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.

Fox say to hise'f dat he'd put up a game on Brer Rabbit, en he ain't mo'n got the wuds out'n his mouf twell Brer Rabbit come a lopin' up de big road, lookin' dess ez plump en ez fat en ez sassy ez a Moggin hoss in a barley-patch.

"'Hol' on dar, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

" 'I ain't got time, Brer Fox,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, sorter mendin' his licks. " 'I wanter have some confab wid you, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

"'All right, Brer Fox; but you better holler fum whar you stan'. I'm monstus full er fleas dis mawnin',' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.

"'I seed Brer B'ar yestiddy," says Brer Fox, sezee, 'en he sorter rake me over de coals kaze you en me ain't make frens en live naberly, en I tole 'im dat I'd see you.'

"Den Brer Rabbit scratch one year wid his off hind-foot sorter jub'ously, en den he ups en sez, sezee :

"'All a settin', Brer Fox. Spose'n you drap roun' termorrer en take dinner wid me. We ain't got no great doin's at our house, but I speck de ole 'oman en de chilluns kin sorter scramble roun' en git up somp'n fer ter stay yo' stum- muck.'

" 'I'm 'gree'ble, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

"'Den I'll 'pen' on you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.

"'Nex' day Mr. Rabbit an' Miss Rabbit got up soon, 'fo' day, en raided on a gyarden like Miss Sally's out dar, en got some cabbiges, en some roas'n years, en some sparrer-grass, en dey fix up a smashin dinner. Bimeby one er der little Rabbits, playin' out in de backyard, come runnin' in hollerin', "Oh, ma! oh, ma! I seed Mr. Fox a comin'!" En den Brer Rabbit he tuck der chilluns by der years en make um set down, en den him en Miss Rabbit sorter dally roun' waitin' fer Brer Fox. En dey kep on waitin', but no Brer Fox ain't come. Atter 'while Brer Rabbit goes to de do', easy like, en peep out, en dar, stickin' out fum behime de cornder, wuz de tip-een' er Brer Fox tail. Den Brer Rabbit shot de do' en sot down, en put his paws behime his years en begin fer ter sing:

" 'De place wharbouts you spill de grease, right dar youer bound to slide; An' whar you fine a bunch of ha'r, you'll sholy fine de hide.'

" 'Nex' day Brer Fox sont word by Mr. Mink, en skuze hisse'f kaze he was too sick fer ter come, en he ax Brer Rabbit fer ter come en take dinner wid him; en Brer Rabbit say he wuz 'gree'ble.

"Bimeby, w'en de shaders wuz at der shortes', Brer Rabbit he sorter brush up en santer down to Brer Fox's house, en w'en he got dar, he yer somebody groanin', en he look in de do' en dar he see Brer Fox settin up in a rockin' cheer all wrop up wid flannil, en he look mighty weak. Brer Rabbit look all 'roun', he did, but he ain't see no dinner. De dish-pan wuz settin' on de table, en close by wuz a kyarvin' knife.

" 'Look like you gwineter have chicken fer dinner, Brer Fox,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.

"'Yes, Brer Rabbit, deyer nice, en fresh, en tender,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

"Den Brer Rabbit sorter pull his mustarsh, en say, 'You ain't got no calamus root, is you, Brer Fox? I done got so now dat I can't eat no chicken 'ceppin she's seasoned up wid calamus root.' And wid dat Brer Rabbit lipt out er de do', and dodge 'mong de bushes, en sot dar watchin' fer Brer Fox; en he ain't watch long, nudder, kase Brer Fox flung off de flannil en crope out er de house II-4

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

en got whar he could close in on Brer Rabbit, en bimeby Brer Rabbit holler out, 'Oh, Brer Fox! I'll dess put yo' calamus root out yer on dish yer stump. Better come git it while hit's fresh!'

"And wid dat Brer Rabbit galop off home. En Brer Fox ain't never kotch "im yit, en w'at's mo', honey, he ain't gwineter."

Race Improvement .- "Dere's a kind er limberness 'bout niggers dese days dat's mighty cu'us," remarked Uncle Remus yesterday, as he deposited a pitcher of fresh water upon the exchange table. "I notisses it in de aller-ways an' on de street-cordners. Dey er rackin' up, mon, dese yer cullud fokes is."

"What are you trying to give us now?" inquired one of the young men, in a bilious tone.

"The old man's mind is wandering," said the society editor, smoothing the wrinkles out of his lavender kids.

Uncle Remus laughed. "I speck I is gettin' mo' frailer dan I wuz fo' de fahmin days wuz over, but I sees wid my eyes an' I years wid my years, same ez enny er dese yer bucks w'at goes a gallopin' roun' huntin' up devilment, an' w'en I sees how dey er dancin' up, den I gets sorter hopeful dey er kinder ketchin' up wid me."

"How is that?"

"Oh, dey er movin," responded Uncle Remus. "Dey er sorter comin' roun'. Dey er gittin' so dey b'leeve dat dey ain't no better dan de w'ite fokes. W'en freedom come out de niggers sorter got dere humps up, an' dey staid dat way, twell bimeby dey begun fer ter git hongry, an' den dey begun fer ter drap inter line right smartually; an' now," continued the old man, emphatically, "dey er des ez palaverous ez dey wuz befo' de war. Dey er gittin' on solid groun', mon." "You think they are improving, then?"

"You er chawin' guv'ment now, boss. You slap de law onter a nigger a time er two, an' larn 'im dat he's got fer to look atter his own rashuns an' keep out'n udder foke's chick'n-coops, an' sorter coax 'im inter de idee dat he's got ter feed 'is own chilluns, an' I be blessed ef you ain't got 'im on risin' groun'. An' mo'n dat, w'en he gits holt er de fact dat a nigger k'n have yaller fever same ez w'ite fokes, you done got 'im on de mo'ner's bench, an' den ef you come down strong on de pint dat he oughter stan' fas' by de fokes what holp him w'en he wuz in trouble de job's done. W'en you does dat, ef you ain't got yo' han's on a new- made nigger, den my name ain't Remus, an' ef dat name's bin changed I ain't seen her abbertized."

MARY E. BRYAN.

Mrs. Mary E. Bryan, a native of Florida, has spent the greater portion of her life in Georgia, and now resides at Clarkston, within a half hour's ride of Atlanta. She married while a mere school girl, and at the age of nineteen accepted a posi- tion on "The Temperance Crusader," a literary weekly of some renown, which was published in Atlanta before the war, under the management of Mr. John H. Seals. Mrs. Bryan wrote stories and sketches for years, without coming prominently before the public, but in 1876 she gave Manche to the reading world, and in a short time Wild Work and other books followed in rapid succession. About this time she connected herself with "The Sunny South," a literary paper in Atlanta, conducted by the gentleman who had first engaged her services on "The Temperance Crusader." For this periodical she wrote in the course of ten years some of the best efforts of her life, but finding that her field was too narrow she went to New York, where she for several years edited the "Fashion Bazar"

LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.

and "The Fireside Companion," two of George Munro's popular publications. In the metropolis her brilliant abilities were properly appreciated, and in Sorosis and the Woman's Press club she held high official positions. Her novel, Wild Work, was pronounced by the New York "Herald" "the best American historical romance," and her other novels written for Mr. Munro were quite successful. But Mrs. Bryan has never seemed to care for the publicity which is so gratifying to many writers. She is a creature of impulse, and when she is in the mood she writes poems, short stories and novels with almost lightning-like rapidity. She never revises, and she has been known to write as many as four novels at the same time, turning from one to another without being in the slightest degree embar- rassed by the numerous characters and plots. When Alexander H. Stephens was asked to name his favorite novelist he unhesitatingly replied that Mrs. Bryan was his favorite, and when Manche was published he ordered 100 copies for dis- tribution among his friends. If this prolific writer of fiction had imitated some of her contemporaries in the matter of looking after her fame and her business interests, she would now be one of the most widely known and best remunerated ot American writers. Having a competency of her own, she has never cared much about the pecuniary rewards of literature, and the $10,000 a year which she earned in New York tempted her so little that she voluntarily gave up the editorship of "The Bazar" and "The Fireside Companion" and returned to Georgia under a contract to still furnish four novels a year to her late employer. It is impossible to know Mrs. Bryan without recognizing her as a woman of genius. Two generations of southerners have read her stories, and her name is more familiar to the people south of the Potomac than that of any other literary woman, with the exception of Mrs. Southworth and Miss Evans, the author of Beulah, Macaria, and other novels. While she writes with the greatest possible rapidity, her style is remarkable for its vivid coloring, graphic and picturesque description and a certain intensity which throws a spell over the average reader. She is still in the prime of womanhood, and it is possible that she will in her future work command even a larger constituency than she has attracted in the past.

PROF. WILLIAM HENRY PECK.

Prof. William Henry Peck is another novelist who is claimed by Georgia. Born in Louisiana some sixty years ago, he resided in Atlanta for a num- ber of years, until he sought a home in Florida. A professor of history, a college president and a journalist, this untiring worker may be said to rank with Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., as a writer of thrilling and romantic fiction. Up to the present time he has written about seventy long serial stories, and forty of them were produced, it is said, in the incredibly short period of ten years. Among some of his best known novels are The Miller of Marseilles, The Stone Cutter of Lisbon, The Queen's Secret, The Flower Girl of London, and The King's Messenger. During his residence in Atlanta he was a salaried contributor to the New York "Ledger," receiving $10,000 a year. He wrote also for the New York "Weekly," and "Sat- urday Night," and has been known to command $5,000 for a single serial. Prof. Peck has never been ranked by the critics and reviewers as a literary man, and yet his writings show a profound historical study, and in point of style they will suffer nothing by comparison with the works of more celebrated writers. But the critics and book reviewers are unwilling to say much in praise of a writer who sells his productions to the story weeklies, and turns out as many as four novels a year. If this gifted story-teller had gone about his work more deliberately, writing a novel once in every two or three years, for some well-known publishing firm, he would have won a much higher place among American novelists. But the critics resent fecundity, and when a man comes to the front with seventy novels in twenty

MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

years, the reviewers at once assign him an inferior place, without taking the trouble to examine his work.

JAMES MAURICE THOMPSON.

James Maurice Thompson, born in Indiana in 1844, and for a long time a resident of Georgia, stands in the front rank of the men of letters who have made this state their home. After serving four years in the Confederate army, he opened a law office at Calhoun. His first contributions appeared in "The Ladies' Home Gazette," and "Scott's Monthly," two popular Atlanta publications, and their scholarship and graceful style attracted the favorable attention of the reading public. Some years after the war he returned to his native state, Indiana, where he has since held the office of state geologist, and has devoted himself in his leisure hours to literature. He is a member of the New York "Independent's" staff, but finds time to write for numerous magazines and weeklies. Despite his fondness for a literary career, he is a man of affairs, with good business judgment, and makes no secret of the fact that he desires to reap substantial rewards rather than fame. He is a lover of science and an enthusiastic student of nature. Among his works are Hoosier Mosaics, Songs of Fair Weather, The Witchery of Archery, At Love's Extremes, A Tallahassee Girl, By-Ways and Bird Notes, A Fortnight of Folly, and a half dozen others of less note, to say nothing of his scores of short stories. Law, geology, and literature, together with judicious investments, have made Mr. Thompon a wealthy man, and among his neighbors he is regarded as a far-seeing man of business, whose judgment and predictions are worthy of the highest respect. With so many professions and occupations, and with his pen so constantly employed, it is natural that his style should be very unequal, and char -. acterized by so much variety that it is difficult to describe or classify it. In one book he writes in the dry and colorless fashion of a veteran scientist, while in another he displays the vivacity of a society novelist. His short stories are also of very unequal merit, and the sensational character of some of them makes it evident that they were written at an early period of his life, before his tastes and his style had felt the influence of a mature intellect. It is confidently expected by his admirers that some of his best work will be given to the world in the years to come, as he is now at his best, with no adverse conditions to hamper his genius.

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166