The Tobacco Tiller A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco Fields   By: Sarah Bell Hackley

A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco Fields

by

SARAH BELL HACKLEY

The C. M. Clark Publishing Company Boston, Massachusetts 1909

Copyright, 1909. By the C. M. Clark Publishing Co., Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A.

All Rights Reserved.

[Illustration: "I dunno but what we'd better move to Texas."]

CONTENTS

I MR. DOGGETT AT HOME

II THE MYRTLE BUDS IN MISS LUCY'S GARDEN

III AT THE STRIPPING HOUSE

IV A COMPACT

V A VISIT TO THE SEERESS

VI A NEIGHBORLY CALL

VII RIVALS

VIII AT THE TOBACCO BARN

IX "SURE SOME DISASTER HAS BEFELL"

X NIGHT RIDERS

XI MORE NIGHT RIDERS

XII THE MAD COW

XIII MR. DOGGETT'S ACQUISITION

XIV MR. DOGGETT LENDS A HAND

XV "WEEP NO MORE, MY LADY"

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"I dunno but what we'd better move to Texas"

"Hit's Jeremiah, my pet," she explained soothingly

"Mistu Linney, is 'oo lovin' Miss Luty?"

"Here's a letter, Lucy Ann," he sneered

FOREWORD

Behold, friend, a multitude traversing a road shaded at its edge by mighty plants whose leaves are thick, broad, and rank in their odor, the nicotiana tabacum. Who are they of the multitude?

They are those who have had to do with the making of the history of the weed whose cousins are the thorn apple, and the night shade, from the time its existence came to be known to the civilized nations.

Listen, friend, to the roll call.

Ye whose bread was the banana, whose garb was the sunshine, whose gods were worshiped in the smoke cloud from the burning leaf of the Petun, whose weapons of war were arrows, poison tipped in the oil of tobacco, ye red barbarians of Central America, of the off lying islands, and of the farther northward country; ye from whom the world learned to use tobacco, answer to your names!

Sir of the silken robe and waving plume, dizzy with visions of the wealth of the Montezumas to be conquered, you who in the beginning of the sixteenth century, presented the Indian weed to your Sovereign at Madrid, Fernando Cortez answer to your name!

Sir Frances Drake, the first son of Old England to look to the borders of the Peaceful Ocean, bring forward Ralph Lane, starving pearl hunter of Roanoke Island, whom you rescued. Answer, Lane, you who introduced the Indian custom of "drinking tobacco" into your country!

Noble prisoner of the Tower, chivalrous subject of Her Sovereign Majesty, Elizabeth, in whose honor was named the sunny land which grew the herb of enchantment, you who made the herb fashionable in Britain, Sir Walter Raleigh, answer to roll call!

Silversmith, maker of the pipe of silver of the Queen's Favorite, and of the scales that enabled him to ascertain the weight of the smoke of a pipeful of tobacco, and win his majesty's wager, answer to your name!

You, whose name, by courtesy of the great Swedish student of nature, the Indian's weed bears, John Nicot, of the Country of Charlemagne, answer roll call!

And you, Madame, of the day fair face, and the night black heart, wife to one King, and mother to another, huntress, builder of the Tuileries, you, at whose feet lie the victims of that mid summer night of horror, the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day, you, Madame, first snuff taker of Europe, and christener of the Herbe de La Reine, Catherine de Medici, murderess, answer to roll call!

Mariners of the Mediterranean, Merchants of Venice, Genoan tradesmen, ye who enlightened the Levant, and the wide Continent to the borders of the deepest ocean, as to the intoxicating delights of the plant solanaceae, your names are called!

Hear all ye, who by might of Sovereign rule, of priestly power, and example, have endeavored to drive the weed of the West from your domains, answer to your names!

Unhappy prisoner of St. Helena, who in your day of power, secured to your Government the exclusive right of making and selling tobacco, answer to your name!

Governor of Virginia, compelled to adjust the proportion between the corn and the tobacco to be raised in the cleared lands, when the colonists, mad with thoughts of gold, neglected the culture of that which they could eat, for that which they could sell, Sir Thomas Dale, answer roll call!

Ye one hundred young women of "agreeable persons and respectable character," whose over seas passage was paid with the tobacco of your husbands to be, answer to your names!

All ye vast multitude concerned in the making of the past history of tobacco, answer to roll call!