was brought from England in 1761. Within its walls the voices of Rutledge, Pinckney, Gadsden, Lowndes and Laurens were raised to vehemently denounce the government, against whose tyranny the Thirteen original States" rebelled, from the old steps Washington addressed the Charlestonians in 1791; and for many years during this century it was an Exchange for the merchants of Charleston and vicinity. When the British occupied Charleston, the building was the scene of many exciting episodes. The

basement was taken for a prison, and all who were devoted to the cause of American liberty were confined therein. From that prison the martyr, Isaac Hayne, was led to execution; and in the cellars one hundred thousand pounds of powder lay safely hidden from the British during the whole time of their occupation. On the site of this building stood the old council chamber and watch-house used in the days of the "proprietary government."

The original plan of Charleston comprised a host of streets running at right angles, north and south, east and west, between the two rivers. But many of these streets were very narrow, being, in fact, nothing more than lanes; and they have remained unchanged to the present day. The darkness and narrowness of the old lanes, the elder colonists thought, would keep away the bright glare of the sun; but the modern Charlestonians do not seem of their opinion, for they open wide avenues, and court the sun freely in their spacious and elegant mansions on the "Battery." Many of the Charleston streets present a novel appearance, bordered as they are on either side by tall, weather-stained mansions, whose gable ends front upon the sidewalks, and which boast verandas attached to each story, screened from the sun and from observation by ample wooden lattices, and by

VOL. VIII.-10

NEGRO CABINS.

The high

trellised vines and creepers. walls, which one sees so often in France and England, surround the majority of the gardens, and it is only, as in New Orleans, through the gate that one can catch a glimpse of the loveliness within. In some of the streets remote from the harbor front, the stillness of death or desertion reigns; many of the better class of mansions are vacant, and here and there the residence of some former aristocrat is now serving as an abode for a dozen negro families. On King street one sees the most activity in the lighter branches of trade; there the ladies promenade, evening, morning, and afternoon, shopping; there is located the principal theater, the tasty little "Academy of Music," and there also, are some elegant homes. Along that section of King street, near the crossing of Broad, however, there is a host of tiny shops frequented by negroes, in which one sees the most extravagant array of gaudy but inexpensive articles of apparel; and of eatables which the negro palate cannot resist. The residence streets of the "palmetto city," on the side next the Ashley river, are picturesque and lovely. They are usually bordered by so many beautiful gardens that one easily forgets the many faults of architecture in the houses, and the aspect of decay characterizing so many of them. A labyrinth of long wooden piers and wharves runs out on

the lagoons and inlets near the Ashley, and the boasted resemblance of Charleston to Venice is, doubtless, founded on the perfect illusion produced by a view of that section from a distance, rather than on the impression produced by the first view of the harbor side. The magnificent and the mean jostle each other very closely in all quarters of the city; tumble-down rookeries are side by side with superb houses.

The stranger visiting Charleston is surprised to find that very little has been done towards rebuilding that portion of the city swept away by the fire in 1861. There are still large gaps left in the heart of the most populous sections; one suddenly comes upon the scarred and scorched walls of a huge church, on the foundations of some immense block, in a location which it seems folly to leave unimproved. But the Charlestonians explain that they do not need to rebuild as yet, for although the population is gradually increasing (it is now more than fifty thousand) the altered circumstances of some classes in society have compelled them to retire and make room for others. Before the war every sea-island planter had his house in town; now great numbers of those mansions are to rent or sell to newcomers since the planters are not rich enough to maintain a city residence.

If we climb into the tower of the stately building known as the "Orphan House, some pleasant evening, when the sunset is beginning to throw the dark walls and picturesque groupings of the sea-girdled city into strong relief, we can get a panoramic glimpse of all the chief features of Charleston's exterior. We shall, perhaps, be too far from the Battery, and its adjacent parks, to note fully the effect of the gay group promenading the stone parapet, against which the tides break gently, or to catch the perfect beauty of the palm-girt shores, so distinctly visible beyond the Ashley's current, now that the sunset has given them a blood-red background. The Battery is not crowded with carriages, as in those merry days when the State was still prosperous, or on that famous day when yonder black mass at the harbor's entrance was aflame, and when the flag of the nation, which had floated over it, was hauled down. But it is one of the airiest and most elegant promenades possessed by any Southern city, and the streets leading to it are quaint and beautiful. The church spires here and there are noticeable, and that one glistening in the distance, was a white mark

for many a day for the Federal batteries; yet few shells struck the stately steeple of St. Michael's, the old fashioned, staid, Episcopal house of prayer. Beyond this church one sees a mass of buildings, whose queer roofs and strangely shapen chimneys remind him of Antwerp or of Amsterdam. These date from colonial times; it is the Charleston of pre-revolutionary days which one sees clustered around St. Michael's. The bells were removed, during the siege of Charleston, to Columbia, were captured and accidentally cracked, were recovered, sent to England, and recast in the foundry in Whitechapel where they were originally cast. They were put back in their place in the steeple after the war, with great rejoicing amongst the old Charlestonians. Yonder, nearer the harbor, out of Church

street, arises another spire, the counterpart of St. Martin's in the Fields in London. It is the tower of St. Philip's, also an Episcopal church, and in the old graveyard opposite is a simple tomb in which repose the bones of Calhoun. The statesman rests in an antiquated, yet beautiful corner of the town. The venerable cemetery is embowered in trees, and hemmed round about by old buildings with tiled roofs. The remains were removed when the Union forces seemed likely to capture Charleston, but were replaced in 1871. The formidable ruin which the sunset glow throws so sharply upon your vision, is the old cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar, destroyed in the last great fire. On its site, when the Charlestonians were compelled to surrender to the British, occurred a tremendous explosion, occasioned by the rage of the conquered. They were compelled to deposit their arms at the arsenal, which was also a powder-magazine; and all coming at once, and hurling down upon the ground hundreds of fire-arms, an explosion took place, igniting twenty thousand pounds of powder and blowing to

SIS AND BABY.

atoms the adjacent lunatic asylum, poorhouse, guard-house, and barracks, as well as conquerors and conquered. The city has many other interesting churches, among them the Huguenot, which has many interesting ancient inscriptions on its walls. Grace Church (Episcopal) is the resort of the fashionable worshipers.

There is nothing remarkable in the secular architecture of Charleston; yet this old Orphan House, from whose tower we survey the others, with its lovely garden, hedged in from the street, with its statue of William Pitt, which the grateful citizens erected when the "stamp act" was repealed, is imposing. It was founded in 1790, is bountifully endowed, and thousands of orphan boys and girls have been well cared for within its walls. John C. Fremont and the Carolinian manumitter were educated there. There is an institution of the same class for the colored people. Neither the hotels nor the banks are distinguished for architectural excellence. The Charleston Hotel has an immense stone-pillared piazza fronting on Meeting street, but the Mills House and the Pavilion are simply solid blocks. The Charleston Club-house is an elegant structure, and the building of the South Carolina Hall is fine in interior arrangement. The club-house has be

STEADY!

The

the seat of the Federal courts, and white and black men sit together in juries there. Court - house and the City Hall are substantial edifices, fronting each other on corners of Broad and Meeting streets. Around them are always lounging crowds of negro men and women, as if they delighted to linger in the atmosphere of government and law, to the powers and responsibilities of which they have been lately introduced. Around the guard - house may note the white

one

and black policeman on terms of amity.

A FIELD HAND.

Charleston prospers despite the anomalous condition of politics and society in the State. What might she not become if the commonwealth were developed to its ut-. most? The people suffer many trying ills, the most aggravated of which is the small rôle which the present leaders of the majority permit it to play in State politics. The legislature has outNapoleoned Napoleon III. himself in measures for the corruption of suffrage, and has enacted an infamous law, which allows the Governor, through appointive commissioners, to completely control the ballot-boxes. The value to itself, of its vote, is swallowed up in the vote of Charleston county, and consequently it is not represented at all in the State assembly, but can only get a hearing through a score of ignorant negroes, sent from the plantations and small towns in the vicinity. The first election in Charleston after reconstruction was held in 1868, and the Republican candidate for mayor, Pillsbury, was elected by a majority of twenty-three in a poll of 10,000. He remained in office until the summer of 1871, when the Conservatives attempted a fusion, and ran a ticket, composed of white and black candidates, against the Republicans, with John A. Wagener, a German, for mayor, and elected him by 777 majority. This administration had continued to the date of my visit, when a new election took place, and exhibited in the most glaring light some of the atrocities of the present system. The Conservatives alleged, and it was, indeed, clearly proven, that four hundred negroes were imported from Edisto Island at one time, to create a majority in Charleston for the so-called "Republicans." None but Radical supervisors of the elections were appointed, and the right of challenge at every poll precinct

ROPER HOSPITAL-CHARLESTON.

was denied. The law required every person voting to swear that he was a citizen of Charleston, but the imported voters were provided with printed forms of the oath, from which the clause concerning the place of residence was omitted. With no power of interference, and no chance to dispute at the polls or in the counting of the votes, this city of fifty thousand inhabitants, possessing thirty millions of dollars worth of taxable property, was delivered over, bound hand and foot, to the tender mercies of the ignorant and the vicious. The party in power admit the abnormal condition of affairs. The present Governor not long since told an editor in Charleston, that every citizen of South Carolina could vote in Charleston, if he chose, without hinderance; there was no manner in which the Charlestonians could help themselves. The result of this latter election, in which the negro party was, of course, victorious, was a veritable ferment, culminating in mass meetings, investigations and, finally, in a series of arguments. It was charged and shown that the commissioners for the elections did not designate all the polling places so that the general public would know where they were, but that they stealthily opened them during the election, and there "rushed through" the illegal voters. It was also affirmed by the supporters of the present State government that "a residence in the city without limit as to time," in the county, sixty days, and in the State, one year, were qualifications sufficient for a voter under the act of 1873. The board of managers con

sisted, at the last election, almost entirely of negroes. Several hundred special deputy sheriffs were appointed to "maintain order" if the Conservatives made any attempt to challenge voters at the polls; and the managers refused to give the reporters of the city press any information concerning the changes made in the polling-places the night before the election. The Republican, or Radical, ticket was elected, and the protest of the citizens of Charleston having been entered, the "board of commissioners," appointed by the legislature, then published a formal announcement that the election was "legal and valid," and that the "protest was overruled." The Conservatives were bitterly grieved at this, as they had made a very firm stand, and it showed them how completely they were at the mercy of their present masters. They were not especially dissatisfied with the choice for mayor, as the present incumbent, Mr. Cunningham, is an honest man; but with other municipal officers elected, they were dissatisfied. The present police force of the city is about equally divided into black and white, and there are nine colored aldermen in the new board. It is not because of the presence of the negro in these offices of trust and honor that the Charlestonians are angry and grieved; but because he refuses them their share of rights which are inalienable. As they are now situated, the intelligence and property of the city are as completely shut out from political representation as if they were imprisoned within walls of adamant.

Charleston's city tax in 1872 amounted to two per cent.; but in 1873 was somewhat reduced. The combined city, county, and State tax, however, now amounts to three and a half per cent. The assessments are always fully up to, and usually over, the actual value of property. The property holder, in the first instance, makes his returns. If the county auditor is not satisfied with the estimates, he changes them to suit himself; and the citizen then has the refuge of appeal to a "board of equalization." The constitution requires that all property be taxed at its value. The present city debt is nearly five millions of dollars, some of which was incurred by subscriptions to railroads, before the war. The city, before the war, invested $1,000,000 in the Blue Ridge Railroad, and the State about $1,300,000. In 1868, or '69, the State stock, a majority, was sold for $13,000, to a Ring. Shortly before this the State had

guaranteed $4,000,000 of bonds of the road; these were hypothecated by the company. The Ring secured the passage of a law authorizing the State Treasurer to issue $1,800,000 of revenue bond scrip upon the surrender to him of the $4,000,000 guaranteed bonds, said scrip receivable for taxes. Exchange was made, and bonds have been cancelled, but the State Supreme Court has decided that the scrip is unconstitutional and void. The "licenses," which business and professions are compelled to submit to, are grievous burdens, and the people consider them such an odious form of municipal taxation that when the legislature passed a law for collecting State licenses, also, it was resisted, and, finally, its repeal was deemed expedient. The astute legislators even imposed a licensetax upon the railroads, which were, of course, already licensed by charter to do business!

Thus cut off, politically, Charleston, with grim patience, awaits a turn in the tide of affairs; and catches a little inspiration from the development of the scheme for a new railway route from Chicago to Charleston. This superb Air Line, when built, will pass by Columbia, and Spartanburg, in South Carolina, northward to Asheville, in the North Carolina mountains-thence through Cumberland Gap into Lexington, in Kentucky, and so onward to Chicago, giving an outlet on the sea one hundred miles nearer the northwest than New York now is by any existing line. The towns mentioned above are the very points of the route originally projected for the connec

SOME CHARLESTON ARCHITECTURE.

tion between the northwest and the Atlantic, and pronounced by all who have surveyed it as one of the most economical and practical ways across the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies "to be found from the headwaters of the Susquehanna to the southern. termination of those ranges."

The extensive marl-beds of the South Carolina lowlands, all comparatively near Charleston, have long been known; but they were first especially noticed by Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, a noted agriculturist, who had been very successful in renovating worn-out lands in his own State with marl. He examined the South Carolina marls, which were found to be much richer in carbonate of lime than those of Virginia, but that the carbonate was so combined with, and mineralized by silex, oxide of iron, phosphate of lime, and other substances, as to necessitate a change of its nature by burning before it could be applied to agricultural purposes. Among these marl deposits, which abound in the immediate vicinity of Charleston, are found hard nodular bodies of all sizes, varying from that of a pin's head to masses weighing hundreds of pounds. These nodules are now known as phosphate rock, and have been described as "incalculable heaps of animal remains thrown or washed together." Beautiful specimens of ribs, vertebræ, and teeth of land and sea monsters of the early tertiary period are found in profusion at a little distance below the surface, and are readily dug up with pick and shovel. The negroes are said even to dive for them to the river beds, and to bring up

large quantities. The people have, at last, awakened to the immense value of these deposits, and a number of establishments devoted to their conversion into phosphate manures have sprung up since the war. In these manufactories the nodules are baked thoroughly dry, then ground. to powder, which is finally mixed with sulphuric acid and charged with ammonia. The Wando Company, which first undertook the production of these fertilizers, made thirty per cent profit, and there are now two dozen companies in the State, organized for the