The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-18
Columbia Correspondence.

lished in the New York Ners. The
writer says truthfully, that 'scapital is
the main want of ALL"
This city is rising from its ashes
but slowly. The entire business
portion was burned. The business
that has sprung up is off from the
former Main street.-The business
street-and is very much scattered.
Ever thing is IN shops--wooden
shanties run up for temporary use, to
be pushed back whenever the means
OF the occupant may warrant his
putting up better house. On Main
street perhaps dozen houses have
been erected; these almost all one
story plain store-rooms, fitted up in
the cheapest style The total amount
| of goods on sale, however, is perhaps
greater than it has ever been hereto
fore; certainly the number of shops
is greater than ever before.
Mechanics are doing a thriving
business; and more carpenters and
brick masons are wanted But the
main want of all is capital capital to
put hands to work. and to revive
business in all its branches. Capital
can be safely and proftably invested
in a score of different ways.
The railroads connecting this point
with the world of trade and travel are
bestirring themselves Trains on the
South Carolina railroad will certainly
run through from Charleston to
Columbia on or before the 18th inst.
The Greenville and Columbia rail-
road has five miles of road and q
bridge yet to finish. The road will
be finished in about months time
from the present, but the bridge may
take three months to complete.
Travel, meanwhile, will connect across
the hiatus with stage and boats. The
Charlotte and South Carolina rail-
road-that connecting this city with
the great thoroughfares of northward
and westward travel-has about twen-
ty miles of road and long bridge
over the Catawba River, inst South
of Charlotte, to complete. The road
may be done by the 1st of March,
while>the bridge will take at least a
month longer.
All these delays are much increased
by the Incidence and unsettled habits
of the freedmen. It is hoped that
time will work great improvement in
their habits.
General Ely, in charge of the freed
mems interests at this point, has
organized schools, in which his wife
and daughters, with other teachers,
instruct the negroes; and they seem
to be very earnestly at their work,
thcusL it is feared they meet with
oriy limited success. The numbers
in attendance are large, but their
progress is not so rapid as had been
hoped. Better things are looked for
in the future. Public sentiment is
distinctly in favor of improving and
elevating the negro rs much as pos
sible
The South Carolina College, at the
recent session of the Legislature, was
changed into the University of South
Carolina. This institution went into
operation on the 9th inst, with about
twenty students. About sixty or
seventy are expected in the course of
q month or two; and the annual
session may reach hundred before
it closes. Senator Barnwell was
elected Chairman of the Faculty of
the University at the organization.
The Faculty consists of Professors
Barnwell, LaBorde, Reynolds, John
LeConte, Rivers, Joseph LeConte,
and Alexander. The Chair of Modern
Languages and Literature is still
vacant.
A goodly number of schools has
sprung up in the city; but they have
few students, in consequence of the
scarcity of money. Education has
been very much neglected for four
or five years.
A grand chance for capitalists is the
canal along the Congaree River, with
in a mile of the central pert of the
city. It is several miles in length,
and affords more available water
power. than is to be had at Lowell,
Massachusetts,. The recent Legisla-
ture put the disposal of the canal in
the hands of commission, the chair
man of which is Governor Orr.
The Sumter Watchmnn, of the 18th
inst, fears the growth Of too much
cotton. It says:
eve are fearful that some of our
planters, in their anxiety to make
cotton. will NEGLECT their corn fields