The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-11-17
(By ALBERT X. WEINBERG, In tn,

HldcHlHe-lHdue Sillclellcy anu material
istic accumulation.
While it is a far cry from present
day Baltimore to the wildly exagger-
eted metropolis of the picture-ex-
aggerated in both its technical inven-
tiveness and its iniquity-yet the
theme of the picture is one that for
Marylanders lies very close to home.
For Maryland, more so than any
other American State, is an instance
of the supersession of a simple rural
society by modern industrialism, Ma
rylanders more than Others must face
the question whether the values of to-
days metropolis are really worth the
giving up of the simpler and possibly
more wholesome values of the past.
The social life of Maryland up to
only few generations ago was domi-
mated by an almost completely Area
dian quality. By this it is not meant
that it was primitive or poverty
stricken; neither was the life of Ar
cady. 1t is meant rather that it's ele-
gance and wealth were that of the
country and small town measure, lack
ing in urban artifciality and immod-
erateness.
The society of Maryland has always
commanded leisure and comfort, but
it has been society of lords of the
manor and of country squires. The
leading people of Maryland first lived
on manors, vast and well-organized
estates that gave their stamp of both
fine living and country simplicity to
Maryland's social life for two ensuing
centuries.
The life of these people was charm
ing but simple. Today, for all our
Maryland agriculture, the people who
give the dominant tone to our social
life reside in great metropolis. Their
life is complex-but is it as charm
ing?
Those of the present generation
cannot regret a past they have never
known, but as late as 1876 plaintive
voices were raised by Baltimoreans
who had lived on into different age.
DR.. Oldboy, speaking to the inter
viewer from "Appleton's," then said:
"Manners and people have lost their
careless ease, their good nature, their
punctilious courtesy. We know more
and we want more a thousandfold, and
our knowlege-at least SO it appears
to me-brings US discomfort, and our
multiplied wants increase the Difficult
ties of living and keeping up social APP
pearances.
eve did not know SO much in those
days of which we have been speaking,
nor were our wants very many, but we
knew enough to be aware that happi-
ness was to be found in quietude and
hospitality and neighborly feeling, and
not in restlessness and push and EN-
terprise,' absorbing every faculty and
drying up the life blood in the veins.
What were those days to which DR.
Oldboy wistfully referred? How did
our ancestors, from the first settlers
to our very grandfathers, work and
play in that elleged golden age, 1t
may be well to answer somewhat this
query in bordering whether the metro
politan life of this vast Baltimore is
worth the candle. At least it is posi-
BILE to review quickly the main fea-
lures of that neutrality-suspicious. over
idealized-country life.
First of all it must be known how
Maryland came to be this State Of
manors with its society Of noble coun'
try gentlemen. When Sir George Cal
vert, the first Lord Baltimore, asked
for a part of the unsettled region tc
the north of the Potomac he received
from the king the grant of Maryland
in the form of a charter.
This charter erected Maryland into
a palatinate, equivalent to pricipal.
ity under the sole supremacy of the
crown, with the right in the hands Of
the proprietor not only of giving small
farms to simple settlers, but also Of
creating manors and all their dignities
for those of higher social status anG
greater wealth.
Under the allurement of rich Lands
and immortal dignities finely bloodet
colonists rapidly settled the State, fill
ing it with manors that were like
feudal estates with their system o.
dependents or "retentioners," theil
subservience to the "lord's" interests
their agricultural mode of life.
There were no real towns in those
early times. There was no reason fol
their establishment-all natural con
ditions were against them. Agricul
ture was the basis of life-specifically
the raising of tobacco. The Chesa
peake Bay and it's innumerable river
mouths, coves, creeks and inlets gave
the agriculturalists a system of inter
communication which touched almos
every manor and made towns or vii
lagos as facilities for shipping ant
business unnecessary. Ships brought
wares to the planters very door.