h distinguished Virginia in bygone days.
Such are still to be encountered, though not often. The Virginia
gentleman has been elbowed out. Like the Knickerbockers of New
York--most of whom have shaken the ashes from their pipes, and gone
off--the old Virginia gentleman has disappeared--but been displaced by a
different enemy from that which disturbed the cogitations of the honest
Dutchman. While _Mein Herr_, happy and contented, sat in the door of his
simple dwelling, enjoying the pleasure of his pipe, he little thought,
or if he thought, he little cared perhaps, that the weed which afforded
so much comfort to his constitutionally comfortable frame, was drawing
forth the substance and exhausting the soil of one of the richest,
fairest and most attractive portions of the earth, and would in time
cover its surface with a stunted sickly growth of pine, through which
the wind might pour her low sad requiem for departed life. The honest
Hollander and his good vrow have gone on their journey, exiled by the
enterprising Yankee, or by the needy foreigner. The old Virginia
gentleman has gone, or is going--finding that his "old fields" are
rapidly increasing, and his crop of tobacco year by year
diminishing--where no hopes to find a richer soil and a better market.

For some years past, most of the counties in Eastern Virginia have
produced very little tobacco--some of them none at all. When we recall
to mind that this section of Virginia was once by far the richest part
of the state, and not to be surpassed by any soil in the country--that
it was celebrated for the large crops and excellent quality of its
tobacco--we naturally look for the reasons of this change. Now, although
our good friends down below, are very sensitive upon the subject, we
have no hesitation in saying that the cause generally assigned is the
true one, viz., that the soil is exhausted, worn out, and therefore
cannot produce tobacco, or any thing else of consequence. And here let
me encroach upon established rules and digress for a few moments,
leaving tobacco, to give my reader a little advice to aid him should he
ever visit the "Old Dominion." In the first place, if you stop at any
point along the shore, and especially should you reach Hampton, never
speak of "crabs." If you are fond of them, get them the best way you
can; you will have no difficulty in finding them; have them cooked, and
eat them; but don't ask for them--don't speak of them. The people of
V