The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-04-10

Charleston correspondent of the Balti
more Gazette writes under date Of the *
instant:
If the activity which prevails at the Charles
City of Charleston Itself, it is far from being
still the dead place which it was represented tt
be, and which it indeed was for two years after
the close Of the war. The Charleston Hote
seems always to be full. The tables in the
large dining room arc crowded ut meal times
and the coaches which go or come at the de-
parture and arrival of the through mail trains
almost always carry full loads. The people
money; men md women from the North. some
with carpet. bags, some with trunks, and some
| even with babies and maid servants, on their
way to or from Florida, or 10 Mobile, or to the
interior, or on round to see what there is 10
be seen, which is very little, or what chance
| there is to make plopey, which some people
think very great.
| And it is very evident that q great deal OF
money has been made during the past year in
| South Carolina. Cotton fields have been culti-
vated. rice lands, which are safe from floods
| and not liable 10 salt water freshets, have been
| planted, and pine lands which we're formerly
untouched have been turn ID into turpeatine
farms. The amount of thrftiuess which has
been developed in Sou h Carolina is extraor-
binary, even among those people who we're
bred to luxury and used, from their childhood,
to the enjoyment OF large incomes. The eager
desire manifested after the close OF the war to
repair losses by bold ventures seems entirely to
have died out. The disastrous failures, conse-
quent upon the efforts made ut planting on q
large scale, arising from floods and caterpillar
and difficulty of controlling labor, have taug at
lessons which are already bearing fruit,
and the most enterprising now are salts
fed to aim only at that which they kuow they
can control and to plant what they feel they
will be able to reap. The one idea now seems
to be to N Ike money, and, no matter how little
is made, to spend little less. You go from
house to house, when you know the inmates
are at home, and yet you find each one as quiet
as dwelling in Belgrayia, out OF season.
Households that were once on footing which
was almost princely are now conducted on q
most modest scale, and members of the fam
lily evidently give an eye to domestic duties,
which were once entrusted to humble officials.
Nothing shows the total change IN high life in
Charleston more than the total absence Of car
riages. There seems 10 be scarcely a private
equpage among any Of the we'll known fami-
lies In the city, and on the battery promenade,
which used to be lined of afternoons with vehi-
cles, not one single private one is now to be
seen.
Economy is the order of the day, and if ever
lesson was taken to heart by tho people Of
South Carolina, it is the one that tells US that
"a penny saved is two-pence made" Pennies
are saved in every possible way, and In cases
where parties have been hampered with heavy
debts, the Bankrupt law is resorted to as a
short road to settlement OF accounts, prepar-
atory to making fresh start, in q country
where ruin has been so widespread that un-
paid debt entails no dishonor. Indeed, the
Bankrupt law seems, if anything, to have be-
come rather fashionable, from the fact that
large sums Of money, which are returned on
the schedules, arc due to Northern creditors
principally for advances made Immediately
after the close OF the war. The amount of
credit given by some speculative Northerners
to enthusiastic Southerners, in expectation OF
large returns, is simply marvellous. In one
instance, a young gentleman with nothing in
the world to recommend him but large and
very poor family connection and tolerably
glib tongue, succeeded in obtaining credit for
over S150, ,000 which he now returns to court,
his assets beng in reality mi.
But it is not only with Northerners that
some Southerners have learned to settle old
scores IN an expeditions way. Where the
Bankrupt law is found too sweeping, other de-
vices are sometimes resorted to; perhaps from
the fact that necessity is supposed to know no
law, or perhaps because general ruin has pro-
duced widespread Generalization. 1t 10 very
certain that measures are now occasionally re-
sorted to, in the desire to wipe out everything
connected with the past, which would not have
been employed ten years aeo. All contracts
for the purchase Of slaves during the war are
repudiated under the new State laws, and even
in cases where slaves were sold before the war
but we're not paid for, payment has been re-
fused, on the ground that judgment was not
obtained until after the time included in the
new statutes. In other cases, private advances
which were made, in sterling, during the war,
have been settled for in full, st fifty cents on
the dollar, and an. hing seems to be regarded
as proper which settles ole debts, puts stop
to litigation and paves the way for new start
in the world. What with carpet-bag officials,
scalawag judges, and negro representatives
aad jurymen, there is but one liberty left In
South Carolina. That is the liberty OF making
money, and Of this the Carolinians are bent on
availipg themselves.
Il is quite wonderful to see the stimulus
which has been Infused in.o the people here
by the receipts from the sale of q good crop.
An immense amount of money has been ex-
pended in fertilizers and agricultural imple-
ments, q great deal of money has been inges-
ted in gold, and considerable amounts are left
to lie idle in the hands OF bankers and COM
mission merchants. So great ID the distrust
OF anything like paper currency, and 80 uncer-
tain are peopls about Investments, while the
State is at the mercy Of Radical adventurers,
that there appears to be the greatest unwll-
lineness to lock up funds In any way. No rate
OF interest seems to tempt some OF these peo-
pie to part with their money. They prefer,
strange to say, to leave 1t in the hands OF their
own merchant, who holds 1t IN national bank
notes, to trusting it to parties who offer them
good security and nine or ten per cent, paya-
BILE in exactly the same currency.
1t is very evident that in South Carolina as
other cotton States the tide has turned. The
old families, comparatively few in number, will
never regain their former influence; but the
mercantile and middle classes are already be-
ginning to prosper, and agriculturists who are
able to work advantageously, and who know
how to live economically, must be certain to
thrive. Few Of the most despondent, even,
look for long continuance of the present mis-
rule. Capital, industry and population must,
they think, tell in the end, and even the North
erners, who go South to settle, as soon as they
invest their capital, will take part against the
et-baggers. Tho idea that therc can b.
the slightest ground for holding the Southern
States under Congressional subsection is at
once refuted by the fact that you may travel
for hundreds ofmiles without seeing soldier,
and that the most disafected city ON the con-
tnent is held under degrading despotism by
nero handful of TROOPS, who are scarcely
ever seen.
One moro good crop will make world of
difference in South Carolina, and the change
for the better which Is now marked will be,
then most decided. The assistance given by
Baltimore to the Southern people in the shape
OF charity, of assistance, and Of schooling tor
children, has been most timely and most use
ful. It was given to them in the most trying
hours of adversely, and at . time when sympa.
thy and encouragement were most welcome.
The educational aud given during the past two
wears has been especially beneficial. 1t has