Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-02-20
5f(istellamtons &eadiug.
CHARLESTON..PAST AND PRESENT.

The Rev. j. Il. Kendrlck, OF New ork,
formerly pastor of the Citadel Square Baptist
Church in Charleston, has recently been on a
visit to the latter city. While in Charleston,
he wrote very interesting letter to the New
York Examiner and Chronicle, which we copy
entire. He says:
Never shall 1 forget my earliest visits to
Charleston. On one of these occasions found
myself, late in an afternoon, at the great fash
ionable resort Of the city, known as the Bat
terry There a vision of spendor broke upon
my young eyes to which they had been wholly
unused. The broad battery drive was literal
ly thronged with brilliant equipages slowly
crcling round and round to catch the refresh
ing breeze from the sea, while the broad
promenade was filled with elegantly dressed
pedestrians. 1t was a scene Of enchantment.
At that day, while as yet Central Park with
its unrivalled gories was not dreamed of, no
other city in the country have presented its
parallel. Then the private carriages of
Charleston were numbered by hundreds, pos
sibly by thousands; now, as am informed,
there is scarcely half dozen of them in all
the city. This single fact indicates the pro-
digious change that has come upon this peo-
pie.
OLD CHARLESTON.
Undoubtedly old Charleston was one of the
most interesting and attractive cities in the
land. 1t was beautiful for situation, and in
this respect, happily, it remains unchanged.
Lying between the Cooper and the Ashley, it
expands northward from the Battery focus
in fan-lke shape, much resembling New
York in its general confguration. Its har-
Dor, too is strikingly similar to that of the
great metropolis, except in its lack of bold
coast-lne and background features. The
Charleston climate for eight or nine months
in the year is delicious The mild breath of
the tropics tempers its winter air and gives it
much of the gorgeousness of tropical vegeta-
ton. Through the open window at which 1
now write my eye falls upon variety of rich
evergraens, and upon orange trees laden with
their golden fruit, though candor requires me
to add that this fruit is of the bitter-sweet Sort
and much more bitter than sweet. Charleston
is just now in her most amiable winter mood,
and is treating us to an interlude Of truly ce-
lestial weather. That famous ''sun of Aus
teritz" was nothing to the Southern sun which
here and now is clarifying nature and glad
dening the heart of man with such light as
is rarely poured on land or sea. When in
Naples was often reminded of Charleston,
and now the charms of Charleston carry me
back to Naples.
The visitor here is greeted at every turn by
the signs of a venerable age. He feels that
he is in no mus broom town that sprang up
last year. Charleston is quaint place, as
we'll as old, with discriminating individuali-
ty such as gives charm to many English and
continental cities. Its domestic architecture,
in particular, is its own. Intermingled with
the regulation houses are not a few noble
mansions of baronial size and grandeur. I
am at present enjoying the hospitality of a
friend who is the fortunate occupant of one of
these palatial homes, built some eighty years
ago, and in a style of architectural solidity
and fidelity rarely equalled in this fast period
of varnish and veneer. These ancient houses
are often rich in associations, tragic and COM
ic. Some of them are probably coeval with
ante-revolutionary times when Charleston was
the capital of "the pet colony" and was the
scene Of a gay and luxurious provincial life.
1t has long history of vivid and romantic
interest. The storm of fire has swept over it
again and again in desolating fury, the storm
of water has deluged it, the storm of shot and
shell has battered and torn it, the raven wing
of pestilence has often shadowed it, and yet
out of all its disasters it has always risen in
fascinating beauty
The society of Charleston was always fa-
nous for its cultivation and refinement. Its
people have been distinguished for certain
polished courtesy and quiet grace Of manner,
blending delicacy, dignity and conscious
though not offensive selfappreciation. 1t
was DR.. Jeter, I believe, who, some years
since, made the shrewd remark that the gen.
uine Bostonian seemed to say in his bearing,
II know all things" while the typical Charles
tonian said, "What don't know isn't worth
knowing" Charleston always prided itself
on its careful observance of the gentlemanly
proprieties, and with no little reason. Set
ting aside the weakness and absurdity of its
chivalry afectation, and its lingering barbar-
ism of "the CODE" it was undoubtedly, in this
respect, nearly model community. One
could hardly wish to meet a finer specimen of
manhood than was presented in Charlesto-
nian, whose native principles of honor were
regulated by genuine Christian convictions.
THE NEW ERA.
have been writing mainly of old Charles
ton-Charleston beyond the flood, not the
Noachian, but the Davis-Lincoln flood. Rare
ly, in the revolutions and convulsions which
history records, has there been change so
radical, so complete, so amazing, asthat which
has overtaken this interesting city. That
bomb which, in April 1861, was hurled at
Fort Sumter, and which started me from my
feverish morning slumbers as if bursting over
my own residence, initiated an overturning for
Charleston which even now seems scarcely
credible. All old conditions and relations
have been destroyed or inverted. To sum up
the whole matter in word, the ignorant and
coarse black slaves of this proud, refined and
sensitive people have become their actual
masters. AS I walk about these familiar
streets, I meet black men standing sentry as
guardians of public order, with the shield Of
the policeman glittering on their breasts. A
black Judge sits upon the city bench, and so
on to the end of the humiliating chapter.
And yet this shocking case is not near so bad
as one might imagine. By the consenting
testimony Of nearly all judicous and temper
ate persons with whom [ have conversed, the
negroes behave with extraordinary modera.
ton. While often complained of as idle and
useless, it is still acknowledged that they are
modest, respectful and consderate in their be-
haviour toward the whites. Such certainly is
the fact, so far as my own observation goes
I have not yet witnessed the slightest demon