Evening capital. [volume] (Annapolis, Md.) 1922-1981, 1922-10-07
ICOntinued from yesterday.l

TWICE IL has been shorn OF large
Il parts OF the best and richest Of
its possessions. First. in 1851. when
ifs richest agricultural section was
cut on and created into Howard coun-
~. and the second time when The
Spoilers came in 1918 and took what
was again al that time our greatest
asset IN point OF wealth. In 1882 il
was known as one OF the greatest
counties OF the State and had By 1859
come 10 be one OF the wealthiest and
most p0pulnus One OF The most in
fiuential and aggressive. h had always
been. The names OF its men stand
boldly out on histOry's page for their
wisdom In peace, their daring in war.
From ST. Mary's City the State capital
was removed in 1884 10 Annapolis
The county development was then
rapid. and 10 Annapolis. the then
brilliant intellectual center. came not
alone on matters of public moment.
but by reason OF its delightful society,
the foremost spirits of that period
From that time, until the war be-
tween the States. the wealth. the cul-
tnre and re 1nemen. of the county, its
period when, indeed, deeds were mas
culine. words feminine, the beauty
and comfort of its country life, the
whole method and custom of, the
ines, had a charm regrettably now
forgotten save by an envied few
whose memory of the tender grace of
a day that is dead rarely finds itself
IN utterance. But the old regime is
dead. 1t will come back to US no
more forever.
Its lights are fed, its garlands dead,
its banquet halls deserted. The old
customs. the old life, are fading fast
away into the mists of obscurity A
glimmer breaks through just now and
then, when some one turns the
| searchlight backward and the lonely
ghosts of long ago stalk forth. as if to
see who and what we are The men
md women who made it great and
good and beautiful have passed into
the realm of things beyond. Their
souls are with the saints, | trust.
ITHEf who remember tho men and
things of an age that was indeed
| golden, look and long for those fit TO
take their places. But the quest is
vain. The inches that held them arc
| gfil MT. 80
covered the seats of the mighty, and
yet we wonder by whom and when the
sign ITO Let" will be pulled down, the
,obwehs gently brushed away and the
Did places, longing for companion
ship. again hold converse with con-
genial spirits
! We who live in this day do not
claim that we have their like we only
nope that some day the land wherein
hey dwelt and the places where they
leld sway will see their reincarnation.
The old plantations have almost
wholly changed hands. Comes now to
many of them the outlander. the man
Of another race, another cline. an
other sun, following the tide of i'm
migration. His wholly differing ideas
| If life, of comfort, of beauty and OF
government, affect the political as
we'll as the social life, and the process
If assimilation. that drags its slow
length along. is not of today and not
indeed, until some far distant day.
Other of the old homes have passed
nto the hands of wealthy men, COM
| ng from affair to the charm they find
here; but whoever or whatever those
who come. all alike glad to leave the
great. wicked, tax-burdened cities. or
20 nee from some less favored sec
ton to find happiness in a cline so
oongenial and surroundings so grip
ping.
There has been evident and COM
mendable desire in many cases to pre-
serve and retain the characteristics
and lines of the old homes. Not infre-
euently these have been closely ad-
hered to. but in many instances it has
been like setting house painter to
reproduce Rubens or an Alma
Tadema. A pipeless furnace is an in
suit to a Colonial house and a cab
bage patch adds no sanctity to where
ierraced garden was.
o
THE war that rent the States
l. asunder, that set brother against
brother, that wrecked homes, devas-
tated plantations and destroyed sys-
tens. crucified the men and customs