TOBACCO. 79 



spur to achievement and advancement, man- 

 kind is progressing. The belief in God and im- 

 mortality have always existed. 



And all the while, winnowing and sifting, 

 Nature is at work. 



Where the Run cuts its way through a strip 

 of land redeemed from the neighboring forest, 

 a humble cabin shelters an old negro and his 

 wife. A patch of tobacco grows luxuriantly 

 in the little enclosure which is the garden. 

 When the pink blossoms begin to appear, he 

 tops it. In due time the plants are hung from 

 poles to dry. This is all visible from the road. 

 What the further destination of the plant is 

 can be guessed. 



It is probably one of the earliest imports 

 into Europe from the New World. We read 

 that the French ambassador at the Court of 

 Portugal brought tobacco into France in the 

 year 1560, as a valuable medicinal drug. Its 

 introduction into England was discouraged and 

 laws passed against its cultivation and import 

 which are still in existence. 



At the time of the settlement of America 

 by the whites, tobacco was raised by the Indians. 

 Precisely as the old negro cultivates it to-day 

 did the aborigine care for this plant, which he 

 solaced himself with smoking. 



