Evening star., 1915-07-04

along the roads around Wash
ington furnished a theme and
a picture for the Rambler
few Sundays ago There is another
picture which the Rambler would show
those persons who follow him on his
walks 1t Is the picture of a barn.
The barn has lived the allotted number
of years for barns. whatever the span
of a barns life may be. and is about to
become only memory in the minds of
those men who have long lived near it.
1t is safe thought that this old
barn in its many years OF life has
held a vast fortune in tobacco. The
tobacco that has been cured in that
barn has perhaps paid for bridal
clothes and requited the cost of the
cost of christenings for several ger
erations 1t has sent many, many
children to school and college. IL mas
bought. no one knows how many
kinds. 1t has made innumerable con-
tributions to the church and to the
poor. II has paid the bills of doctors
and lawyers. 1t has supported fam,-
lies for years, and the tobacco from
that barn has changed itself into silver
for the sexton who has opened ana
closed a home in the churchyard !or
those persons whom the old barn help-
81 10 iHdlHldlH.
There is a beauty about the ancient
gray barns of Maryland which trim and
up-to-date barns with sleek white sides
and. red roofs do not have. The old
tobacco barns were never touched by
paint brush. The years weathered them
to a gray which blends with the green
or the brown Of the landscape. Genera
tions, perhaps centuries. of tobacco nave
given to their timbers the richness and
the fragrance of q good cigar. These
unpainted barns live to great age. but
time conquers them at last.
The tobacco barn was a necessary
adjunct to the Maryland plantation. 1t
was matter of peculiar conslderation ION
when tobacco was the currency of the
colony.
Tobacco was never a satisfactory me-
dium of exchange. In one of the johns
Hopkins University studies in histori-
cal and political science by Clarence P.
Gould it is brought out that Like all
other crops. tobacco has good and bad
years. 1t was a serious hardship for
one who had contracted tobacco debt
during a year of plenty to be called
upon for payment during year OF
scarcity. So grievcus was the difficulty
at times that special acts were passed
relieving the pressure. The most nota-
BILE instance was In 1924 and 1928.
Crops seem to have been poor in both
1922 and 1923, and in 1924 the drought
was such that there was almost no to-
bacco produced at all. In the fall of
1724. therefore. the legislature passed
an act permitting all persons who had
not enough tobacco for taxes to make
oath to that fact and have their liabil-
jty for taxes postponed for one year.
After it was found what proportion of
the taxes was thus postponed, the same
proportion of all public debts was to be
repudiated for the year. An oath of in
a ahi1itv m alsn SllnerSeda all
executions for officers fees and private
debts for one year. Some irregularities
seem to have been practiced in the ad-
tional act was passed in 1925 continu-
Ing still longer the immunity from ex-
ecution in such cases.
Tobacco was variable in quality and
condition and 1t lacked the important
requirement for monetary medium,
durability. 1t could not be accumulated
from year to year because Of this lack
Of durability: and single bad crop
caused a woeful contraction In the cur
rency. II keld over for more than one
season its value declined to such an ex-
tent that II was necessary. or at least
very desirable, to ship the crop each
season.
Or. Gould says that in respect to
portability tobacco had two serious de-
fects OF these he wrote: so brittle is
the cured leaf that only in damp wealth
er can 1t be handled at all, and even
then 1t skaters SO badly as to make
each handling result in appreciable
loss. Furthermore. the great weight
and even the greater mass of tobacco
money made transportation a mechan-
ical difhculty so serious that the place
OF payment formed an essential part of
every contract. A government contract
in 1722 failed Of reasonable bids largely
because the enabling resolution did not
specify the place Of payment To meet
this condition some interesting laws
and customs came into vogue"
We come now to the importance of
the tobacco barn. Since the owner
ship of tobacco passed through few
hands. it was considered most conven-
lent not to move a crop except In car
rytng 1t from the plantation to the
ship in which 1t was to be exported
Tine merchant or other receiver of to-
bacco came to each plantation and had
the proper amounts weighed and packed