The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-09

sAAesA AO0 NsSAA INC aoA8C BtAI or cir.
Gle as indicating an important can.
ter. Maryhnders lean strongly ~,
tradition and even today the mans
show Port Tobacco a. a secovd
class city. Not more than mr.
families live there.
Port Tobacco. obviously, vas IN.
Of the busiest Of the tobacco ~.
porting points. Il stood on an
estuary Of the Potomac. From h
radiated the roads peculiar fo
southern Maryland, roads over
which the planters rolled their
huge hogsheads Of tobacco. n.
courthouse was the pride Of. that
section. Its hotel was the social
center OF the country. In its public
square wes q marble fountain and
IS warehouses occupied wide
SPACES. It was an important CO.
loniai port. Today 1t is not 4 port
at all. There is no water at Port
Tobacco. The stream has been
filled in by erosion to such an e.
tent that its banks are half a mile
away from the town.
Vow q Deserted Village.
Port Tobacco chung to its tradi-
tons for some years after its wa
terway had deserted 1t because Il
was the county seat. La Plata. 4
new and growing town some three
miles away, which had sprung up
when the railroad came through.
was jealous of Port Tobacco's
court house. La Plata argued that
Port Tobacco was declining and
herself growing and petitioned the
legislature to move the county
seat. But tradition was too strong
and the court house stayed at Port
Tobacco. The Jealousy of La
Plata was not abated, and the leg
end says, finally reached a pitch
where a group of young La Plata
bloods stole in to Port Tobacco
one night and burned the fine Old
brick court house. Inasmuch q
the county must bear the expense
of erecting a new building, it was
urged successfully that it might a.
well be built in the new town and
it was. Today the few old man.
sions of Port Tobacco, the ruins Of
the court house, the tumbled down
remains of the hotel and even por-
tons of the marble fountain are
grass grown and honeywell IT.
ted to Goldsmith's description Of
the Deserted Village.
Piscataway was port on an es-
tuary of the Potomac not far dis
tant from Mount Vernon. 1t is per-
haps the. best preserved Of the
three typical lost cities. 1t would
not be possible to get even a canoe
up the stream which in the old
days bore ships big enough to cross
the Atlantic. Piscataway is at least
three miles from navigable water.
The town is some, Is miles from
! the nearest railroad and therefore
is about as deserted a ghost Of CO.
lonial days as can be found. It
has several very beautiful man
sions. Some Of them stand starkly
empty, with loose shutters bang
ing in the wind. One or two are
still kept up by survivors of the
old families that once flourished
there and a few are used as tene-
ment houses by negroes. The sin
gle tiny store and postoffice could
not live were it not supported BY
the surrounding country. for the
port which once had merchants
who sent ships to England now
has not to exceed hundred souls.
Yorktown is across the bay on
the Virginia shore. Its fate is at
tributable to somewhat different
causes. Its water highway, the
York river, has not filled up for
the current and tide are extremely
rapid at that point. But the wash
| ing away of the topsoil has im9ov-
erished the farms. Yorktown once
was the port of entry for Philadel-
phia and New York, being regarded
as an important place. Today it
has a population of 300, hall negro.
Yet its harbor, the mouth of the
York river, is one of the most mag
nificent in this country. During
the war the Atlantic feet anchored
in the harbor of the little town and
after the armistice, more than
thousand shipping board vessels
were moored there. The harbor is
so feet deep.
But progress has tricked these
cities into oblivion. The very ac-
tivity and prosperity of the early
days fastened their decay. The
more industriously the planters
ploughed to produce the wealth on
which the cities throve, the more
surely was their fate being sealed.