Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-23

wires, no percussion caps. no Lucifer
matches, no tramways, but also when
there 1CGs no adulteratiOn Of food and
medicines, no speculation in the neces-
saries OF life, when there was but little
fraud. trickery and discrimination. when
friendship was not entirely a name, and
wnen some men and women could be
found who ''lOyed their neighbOrs as
themselves
Capt. Wlltberger moved his headquar-
tiers to the Pulaski House and made it IA
nous among the hotels Of the South. He
owned the building, the furniture, every
equipment, and all his ''men and maid ser
wants" Perhaps he was the only land
lord in the nation who did. 1t was a
grand piece of property. and was man.
aged with clOck-like precision. In his
earlier manhood he had followed the seas
and commanded merchant vessel. To
this vocation he probably owed his sue
cess as a caterer to the taste of the re-
fined. He was a very large man and had
a very large wife. Their joint weight
must have been 500 pounds. This large,
fine-lOOking couple had just one child-a
boy; and boy Of delicate health-a boy
reared like girl is reared. The parents
both died, and left their handsome property
to this boy, then grown to manhood. He
was managing the hotel well, when the
war came. The result took away the old
servants. the house was no longer like
itself, and the young master died. And
thus the Mansion House, the City Hotel,
and the Old-time glory of the Pulaski
House, with that of their master and his
heir, have passed into history. The world
about Savannah comes and goes, but few
know, and the many neither know nor
care, about that history.
The Marshall House is comparatively Of
modern date. AS l said, it is the only one
Of the three large hotels originally con-
stTucted as such. 1t is worthy of remark
that lcOBadn is entitled to that credit
Mrs. Marshall, the wife of Col. James
Marshall. On the site where it stands
there were many houses. Among them
was Mrs. Stebbins' boarding house. an
other of the well-knOwn and highly
esteemed boarding houses of the city.
Mrs. Marshall Is not merely entitled to
credit for this, but for building in various
parts of the city fine buildings in the
place of the old, many of them small and
dilapidated, ones. had the opportunity
when boy and youth of knowing the
old, and therefore l can better appreciate
the new. Mrs. Marshall was a wonderful
woman. As far back as / can recollect
she attended in person to the renting and
building OF her houses. This would not
have been so surprising if her husband
had not been a good business man. But
he was, and yet the wife took upon her
self the management of their vast real
estate in Savannah.
Soon your city will have a new and
large hotel, and thus keep progress with
her growth from seven thousand to forty
thousand Of population. Down the
corridor of time'' it too will have its
history, for then it Will be old, and the
children of to-day. and those not yet born.
when on the sunset side Of life, VIII relate
their memories of it, beginning with the
fact that it was once the site Of the United
States Barracks. But it will not acquire
the fame Of the City Hotel and the Pulaski
House in ante-bellum days, until this,
our new civilization, shall equal the old
in its men of honor and YalOr, and in its
women of virtue and refinement which
will take a long time, and then l doubt if
it ever will be. RICHARD II. CLARK.