The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-20

Mr.. Albert NJ. Boozer has been ap-
pefntea magistrate for Cpluhibia.


it was stated that Commissioners Brown
had preliminary examination of the
case of James Richard, indicted for vio-
lation of internal revenue laws-iIlicit
distilling." Mr.. Richards asserts that
the charge was trumpeted against him
by dissatisfied individual, vino misun-
derstood the law. He furthermore con-
tends that he was not indicted-that it
was merely preliminary examination.
The communication being very lengthy
and somewhat personality implication
Or insinuation-in its nature, we decline
publishing it.
THE PIEDMONT LIFE INSURANCE Con-
pANY.-Speaking of this Southern COM
pany, (of which Captain Lcaphart is the
agent in this city,) the Edgefeld Adrer-
tiser says:
eve have received, and will publish in
our next issue, large advertisement
concerning this reliable and trustworthy
Southern Life Insurance Company, It
is established on firm basis, and is un-
der the control of honorable ana high
toned gentlemen-men who delight in
doing good, and who enjoy the conf
dence and respect of all with whom they
are acquainted. To persons who are
! thinking Of insuripg their lives, land
every man ought to do so forthwith J we
commend the Piedmont Life Insurance
Company There is no better company
North or South. In November, 1867,
this company commenced active opera
tions. It was organized under circum-
stances of extreme discouragement. The
| State of Virginia was laboring under
severe political disabilities, and painfully
awaiting the solution of the vexed pro-
blem of reconstruction Its people
were struggling against the embarrass-
ments of poverty and sustaining the
weight Of heavy trial. It's soil had been
upheaved with ramparts and furrowed
with bitches. The disastrous effects of
protracted conflict were everywhere evil
dent. In contrast with field of so little
apparent promise for the establishment
OF local life insurance company was the
extraordinary vigor with which the flour
ishing companies of the States, both
East and West, whose growth in fnan-
cial strength and population was COM
paratively undisturbed by the war, had
been pushed onward to the fullness of
prosperity. These, benefcent institu-
tions, unrestricted in their good work by
State lines, offered the arm Of protection
to the people Of Virginia There was a
feeling abroad at this time that Virginia
was. sort of ,itico-economi Nazareth
out of whicl % good, financially speak
ing, could come. We remember how,
| when it was announced that o life COM
pany hsd been organized in Virginia, O
New York paper sneered at the effort,
and talked as if New York alone were the
centre of all that is good, or great, or
worth aspiring to. Strange to say, this
prejudice was largely shared by Virgin
ians, and many Of them, while insuring
in Northern companies, freely expressed
distrust of Southern institutions for
similar purpose, and depreciation of all
attempts to uprear them upon firm and
enduring basis.
SIN the face Of such practical difficult
ties and perplexities, ordinary men
would have shrunk from tho promotion
of so doubtful scheme. But Major
Darlington, the chief engineer, is no or
dinary man, as the result has proved.
While th enterprise was in its prelimi-
nary and experimental stage, the home
Office was stationed in an interior town,
remote from the great centres of trade,
in order to keep expenses ut the lowest
mark. What, to-day, would be unwise
economy, was in the then depressed con-
dition of the State measure of pru-
dence. In the course of n few months,
when skeptics were convinced that fail
ure was not included in the estimates of
its projectors, and when the citizens of
the State began at least measurably to
recover from the business prostration
into which they had been plunged, the
homo Office was transferred to the city
of Richmond. This was in September.
1868. Up to that time the company had
issued 1000 policies. Since then the
number issued is 8, ,350-making in all
1850, a rate of progress which, in view
Of the obstacles to be surmounted, is
unprecedented, and, in point of fact,
has no equal in tho early history of the
older companies. In the brief period of
its career the assets have mounted up to
the handsome sum of $5OO,OOO. The
dividend, as calculated by the actuary,
Mr.. D. P. Fackler, on life policies, on
the 1st of April, was forty per cent
The losses paid to date amount to some