234 SPOFFORD 



Guests were numerous, and so open was the hospitality, that 

 no house was ever considered full, though each room (and they 

 were large) had half-a-dozen or more of guests ; and it was the 

 custom to serve all with mint-juleps in summer, and hot rum 

 or whiskey in winter, upon rising in the morning. People from 

 the North or from Europe called the style of living very extrava- 

 gant. In fact, many old families kept up a hospitality so ex- 

 pensive that they were almost ruined by it, and farms were 

 mortgaged recklessly to keep up appearances. 



Both in Maryland and Virginia, nothing was more striking 

 than the gallantry and deference shown by men of all classes 

 toward the fairer sex. The unanimous sentiment of the people 

 stood for the honor of man, and the virtue of woman ; and every 

 offence against either was quickly resented. 



The legal interest was six percent on money loans, and eight 

 percent on tobacco loans ; but many were compelled to borrow at 

 usury, even as high as twenty-four percent a year. The ruinous 

 expedient of issuing irredeemable paper money (that delusion and 

 snare of inexperienced states and nations) was more than once 

 resorted to, with the always certain result of speculation, col- 

 lapse, and heavy loss to the people. In the scarcity of gold and 

 silver, tobacco, the one product of the land which had a sure 

 commercial value, became the currency, and was made a legal- 

 tender in 1733 ; one of the few instances in which the remedy 

 was better than the disease. The whole financial fabric of 

 Maryland and Virginia rested upon tobacco. The colonial gov- 

 ernors' salaries were paid in tobacco. The doctor's bill was 

 settled by so many pounds of tobacco. The attorney's fee was 

 fixed at 100 pounds of tobacco in minor cases, and 200 pounds 

 in important ones. All day-laborers' and servants' wages were 

 paid in tobacco. The Virginia Company, in 1621, sent over 

 one widow and eleven maids for wives, requiring that " every 

 man that marries them give one hundred and twenty weight of 

 best leaf tobacco for each of them," to pay charges. Judges 

 and jurymen alike were paid in tobacco. The clergy-tax was 

 forty pounds of tobacco for every citizen, so that his very re- 

 ligion and his hope of heaven was measured by tobacco. 



So far was the ever-growing planting of tobacco carried, year 



