The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-12-30
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A few years ago perhaps the most
charming country town in America was
Beaufort, South Carolina It's situation
on the sea coast is unmatched for natur-
al beauty; the climate, especially IN TIE
winter season, is as delightful as an
Italian spring; the inhabitants were,
almost without exception, people OF
great wealth, rare intelligence and edu-
cation, and especially remarkable Tor
the grace of social culture rarely seen
except in the highest circles OF Euro
pean society. Beaufort was especially
city of home. AS such it contained
an unusually large proportion OF wo-
men and children and old people. 1t
was no field for the exertIOn OF probes
sional and business talent, and compar-
atively few of its inhabitants were en-
gagged in active life. 1t was the chosen
abode of the heartiest and the most ele-
CANT hospitality, of quiet and unosten,
tatious learning, OF the truest ana
warmeSt social and domestic life, OF the
broadest Christian charity. Whatever
might be the politics OF the philosophy
of the visitor to Beaufort, he could not
fail to love and reverence its people.
Their hearty, frank, broad and warm
natures disarmed prejudice at once;
and if there was one community In
America more than another for which
the traveller crayed the richest bounties
of Providence, it was this quiet society.
at Beaufort.
But the war came. Fortune so order
ed it that Beaufort fell in the path of
fleets and armies. Something harsher
than the fortune of war drove Its pec-
pie from their homes, and something
less wise than craftsmanship barred
their own doors to these people when
they would return. There has been
peace two years-and yet women and
children wander homeless on the shore
of the bay under the very shadow of the
elegant mansions which they Inherited
from their fathers. ,.
Two citizens of Savannah have re-
Gently visited this unfortunate town.
and the report which they bring back is
most pathetic. Some of the former cit.
izens have just returned, after an ab-
sence of five years, and the desolation
which meets them is lamentable. Their
elegant houses are in the hands Of
strangers, and they can only obtain
possession by purchasing these pretend
ed rights. Their furniture, pictures and
books, their carriages, boats and cattle,
have been stolen or ruthlessly destroy
ed. Those homes of the warmest hospi-
tality are now cold, blank walls, shell
tering the stranger and dforbidding the
rightful owner to enter.
Even this is notl the worst. These
poor people, most of whom are women
and children and helpless old men, are
destitute of food and of the means to
buy food as well. Beautiful and deli
cate women, once the light of happy
homes, living in luxury and ease, may
now be seen shivering for want of
sufficient clothing, and limiting their
own scanty means in order to satisfy
the hunger of their little snes. Those
who have visited them exelaim: "They
must have aid OF die of want. Absolute
ly, they have not means to give decent
burial to their dead "
Surely the bitterest hater of the re-
bellion cannot look at these homeless,
helpless and almost hopeless people
without profound compassion. What
is their crime but that they loved their
husbands and their sons! They who
dispensed the freest hospitality with
welcoming hearts, now wander under
the shade of the myrtle and magnolia
almost in despair, having no resource
Tor their winters Clothing, except in
the charity of their fellowmen.
In Savannah contributions of food,
and clothing, and money, are being
made for these sufferers; and it will be
discreditable to our richer Northern
cities if we do not add our mite to these
neutrality-suspicious., in the
present condition of the South, we may
be called upon to make for many other
places before the winter ends.