Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-13
The HQSkin Letter By , = 2s:2%


a second class city. Not more than
three families live there.
Port Tobacco, obviously. was one Of
the busiest of the tobacco exporting
points. 1t stood on an estuary of the
Potomac. From it radiated the roads
peculiar to southern Maryland. roads
over which the planters rolled their
huge hogsheads of tobacco. Its court
house was the pride of that section.
Its hotel was the social center of the
country. In its public square was a
marble fountain and it's warehouses oc-
cupied wide spaces. 1t was an import
ant colonial port. Today it is not a
port at all. There is no water at Port
Tobacco. The stream has been titled in
by erosion to such an extent that its
banks are half a mile away from the
town.
Port Tobacco chung to its traditions
for some years after its water highway
had deserted it because it was the
county seat. La Plata, a new and
growing town some three miles away,
which had sprung up when the rail
road came through, was jealous nf
Port Iobacco's courthouse. La Plata
argued that Port Tobacco was dsclin-
ing and herself growing and petitioned
the legislature TO move the county
seat.
but tradition was too strong
and the courthouse stayed at Port
Tobacco. The jealousy of La Plata
was not abated. and the legend says.
finally reached a pitch where q group
of young La Plata bloods stole in to
Port Tobacco one night and burned
the fine old brick courthouse. Inas-
much as the county must bear the ex-
pense of erecting a new building. it
was urged successfully that it might
as we'll be built in the new town and
it was. To-day. the few old mansions
of Port Tobacco. the ruins of the
court house. the tumbled down re-
mains OF the hotel and ever portions
OF the marble fountain are grass
grown and honeywell fitted TO
Goldsnith's description of the De-
serted Village.
Piscataway was a port on an estu-
airy of the Potomac not far distant
from Mount Vernon. 1t is perhaps
the best preserved of the three typi-
cal lost cities. 1t would not be pos
sible 10 get even a canoe up the stream
which in the old days bore ships big
enough 10 cross the Atlantic. Piseat-
away is at least three miles from
10 miles from the nearest railroad and
therefore is about as deserted a ghost
of colonial days as can be found. 1t
has several very beautiful mansions.
Some of them stand starkly empty,
with loose shutters banging 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 tenement houses by negroes.
The single tiny store and p~ostoffice
could not live were 1t not supported
by the surrounding country. for the
port which once had merchants who
exceed a hundred souls.
Yorktown is across the bay on the
Virginia shore. Its fate is attributable
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 washing away of the top-soil
has impoverished the farms. York
town once was the port of entry for
Philadelphia and New York. being re-
garded as an important place. Today
it has a population of 800. half negro.
Yet its harbor. the mouth Of the York
river. is one of the most magnificent
in this country. During the war. the
of the little town and after the armis-
tice. more than a thousand shipping
board vessels were moored there. The
harbor is so feet deep.
But progress has tricked these
cities into oblivion. The very activity
and prosperity of the early days has
tened their decay. The more indus
t~riously the planters plowed to pro-
duce the. wealth on which the cities
throve, the more surely was their fate
being sealed.