The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-06-26

cable to our present condition? + read
one this morning, which this scene
brings before me again: your country
is desolate your cities are burnt with
fire; your land, strangers devour it in
your presence, and it is desolate, as over
thrown by ,strangers.'
"And if you had read on I began,
but she cut me short in my display of
biblical quotations, by asking
"Who can that be, Kate? O Broadway
exquisite?" A man, with the glossiest
OF white beavers set jauntily on his per-
fumed locks, and clad in frock coat of
superfne army blue, the most immacu-
late of shirt fronts and vests, and mex
pressibles, as if some eradite geometri
cian had been attempting to square enor-
nous orioles over their entire surface,
sauntered along with prodigious as
sumption of dignity.
''Who is it, Kate?" asked Lnce, tap
ping my hand impatiently. 'Is he the
President of the United States? or only
Governor of poor, little South Caro-
linn?"
He belongs to that fraternity known
in the yernacular rs ''carpet-baggers, !"
than whom the locusts of Egypt were
They not only sweep every green thing,
but the white and black, too, before
them.
"Do they put their hands into the peo-
ple's purse too?" asked Lace demurely.
Simple child. They hold the purse,
and draw up the strings and let them out
at pleasure. "But I ofteen SEQ long,
tiresome articles in their journals about
waste and extravaganza
eyes Judas, you know, complained of
the waste of that ointment, not because
he loved tho poor, but because ho was
the apostles treasure"
s'What is this mans name?"
ellis name is Grasper, with the inya-
riablo Colonel, rs gentle prefix. He
has bought the Shopley estates, and re-
paired the old place into the newest
style of shoddy elegance"
Lace glanced up, with quiet, startled
interest in her blue eyes-"And Char
ie?" she faltered.
"Gone to the bad," answered bitter
ly, for the vision of young man, with
inhamed, and disordered clothes, whom
I had seen staggering along the street
the day before. came vividly again before
my eyes, and then remembered the
handsome, noble young man, of whom
every body used to prophecy such glori-
ous things, and it was bitter and hard to
reconcile the two pictures, and think
time had used the same subject for BOTH
was thinking of the hearts that Charlie
Shopley's fell had broken, when sud-
denly l remembered that Lace, too, had
loved him. How stupid in me to forget
that they had been as fond of each other
glanced furtively at Lace, to see how
cha ha6 rnbn
plod face had gone down on tho arm
that lay folded on the window sill, and
the golden curls were o tangled frame
work around it.
"Forgive me. darling," said, peni-
tently. II ought to havo remembered.
I ought not to have told"
"You were right" said the soft voice.
very sadly. II would have to know
some time, and it is better that should
betray this touching her wet cheeks) to
you than to any one else"
Sweet, elastic disposition, I thought,
as after little, she went back to the old
subject by saying So the old house
even, that was SO exclusive, has gone
over to the enemy"
eyes. Colonel Grasper presides there,
and gives mongrel entertainments in the
most orthodox manner"
"How did it happen in regard to Char
lie?" asked Lace, after little. It was
plain to see she had no idea how bad it
was.
'.I hardly know, like most other young
men who go to the dogs" answered
reluctantly. "Old Mr.. Shopley's pro-
perty lay in the track of Sherman 8 army,
and was destroyed. When the war
closed, Charlie came to desolated home.
Like some others, he went nobly to work
to rebuild it. He was making his way
rapidly and successfully in the world,
when an unfortunate difficulty occurred
between him and freedman. The mill
tary took it up and dealt hardly with
him, poor fellow. When he came out of
prison, where they had kept him for
some time, he was 80 stung with sense
of his wrongs as to be scarcely respon-
sible being, and by his reckless conduct,
soon placed himself again under military
persecution. Poor Charlie! he came out
apain with hia hitter WrOnDs and broken