The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-16

watered a rich and fruitful country
under kindly sky, where great savan-
nahs lay almost ready for the plough,
while the broad. sheltered streams
made easy roads to the sea.
Men became rich there quickly. and
they became rich as planters, not farm
ers. In England people spoke of the
transatlantic country as ''the golden
Virgipias," and what made them golden
was the golden Virginia tobacco.
Everywhere were the rolling roads"
-Virginias famous highways that
earned their name because along them
there rolled the great hogsheads of to-
bacco, with pins driven in them to
serve as axles that horses and mules
might drag them to the river ports OF
Colchester at Occoquan Ferry and
Alexandria.
The charters making these two
towns ports of entry were obtained by
Major Lawrence Washington. George 8
half brother. who represented Fairfax
| county in the Virginia House OF
Burgesses. The House OF Burgesses
| talked and legislated in terms OF to-
bacco. Courts levied fines in tobacco.
Even church fees were paid In tobacco,
A Fairfax county minister's salary Of
that time is recorded in Fairfax Court
House as $4,000 pounds OF tobacco per
| annum." A prerogative OF the vestry
OF the Established Church was the
right to appoint "Processioners" 10
enumerate tobacco plants in the
| parishes.
Nirginian currency consisted largely
OF notes representing tobacco in ware
houses. The Shetiffs fees were in to-
bacco. He got $50 pounds OF Virginia
tobacco for hanging a felon. twenty
pounds for pillorying offenders. ten
pounds for putting unpopular persons
into the stocks, twenty pounds for
| logging them and the same quantity
! for duckinR scolds
| BY decree of the lawmakers. It was
ordered that a pillory, a pair of stocks.
a whipping post and a ducking stool
were to be erected in convenient prox-
unity; and the county falling to'pro-
vide these handy ornaments was to be
fined 5000 pounds Of tobacco.
| Paid 100 Pounds . nay.
Members of the House, OF Burgcsses
were paid $50 pounds of tobacco day.
In Fairfax Court House there are rec
ords showing that the travelling ex-
penses of tho members from that
county to tho capital at williams
burgh were 1,440 pounds.
A law passed In 1852 provided that
any parent refusing to have a child
baptized by lawful minister" should
be fined 1000 pounds Of tobacco, halt
Of which was to be paid to the in
former.
l. The same amount was the fine fof
stealing q hog. but there was a further
provision that In case OF inability 10
pay In tobacco. the thief must serve
one, year to the despoiied owner and
one year to the -informer. This solicit.
tude for property rights in hogs was
due not so much to virtues inherent
In Virginia hogs as hogs. as to the
fact that Virginia planters turned theil
hogs loose to forage for themselve,
In woods and swamps, and thus hos
stealing was crime against the com.
munfty akin to cattle rustling in tn,
later days of the Western open ranges
Only one other member OF the ami
msaasiioG dom was estimated at a still
higher price In tobacco. This was
member OF genus Homo. A law passe,
in the same year Q662) provided tina
every shipmaster bringing an,
Quaker to the colony" was to be fine,
5000 pounds.
Nearly every planter had hogs b.
the thousand that fattened withou
thought OF labor on his part-lilies o
tho field, as II were. Possibly this un
earned increment added flavor to tn
already divine favor OF Virginia hams
| Hsa "CountIess" Hogs.
On Gen. washington's land Their
were 80 many hogs that the inventor.
which accounts for all other live stocl
infinitely, contents itself with refer
ring to them as countless" A recor
OF the plantation house shows. how
ever. that $50 were slaughtered annu
ally for the use OF the family and tn
negroes. tx
The whole Virginia system was
system Of large land holdings. cultivs
ton Of which was made possible, Q
course, by the slave system which fe,
had begun at that time so much as I
question. George Washington grew VI
, In region where men counted thei
possessions not by hundreds OF acre.
, but by thousands. The county q
, westmorelsnd. where he was born, ha
, been huge enough 10 make a State b
itself and every few decades II ha
: been split into new counties, eac
| as.orn,e.,,a an S<fent Thus Qfaffor