The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-04-08

OF arabcs1ne iron-wnrk). one observes
that lew OF the gar.l,nS have Il WILL
kept or Italian look. \ hors OF barn
yard fowls may be scratching in them.
These are an evidence of the truyaity
of their owner, although there was
time when he was not frugal, and he
may now survey his chickens and his
untrimmed garden from one Of the
stateliest piazzas in this country.
In such Il city one should pass
through its colonial gateways, to get
the fine tints of its social color. For
it is in ~ people Of Charleston that
we find its greatest charm; in them we
note the same difference from the rest
of the world as is visible in their quaint
gardens and old houses Once within
the gates (having gained access by the
indispensable passports), it is sin for
the northern visitor-cvcn in thought
to play the moralist, and to peer into
| the causes of some things which are
new to him. What matter to observe
in the old slaves quarter rotten
foundation, and to seek it's cause in
other rcasn"s than mere damp and
mould? Alter all, i, it 1t human to
| err? The stittcst Phariscc will forget
his part when he comes t. pass an af-
ternoon on Charleston piazza. Soft
manners and soft voices, gayety, sim
plicity, aIl distinction will make him
| captive, if he bc not lost to all sense of
o.d-time grace. 1t is still halfcolonial
on Charleston piazzaS; and, inside, at
its board, it still smac!lS of Charles III.
TO best illustrate the old-fastioncd
department of its society, | must have
recourse to that tritc index OF local
manners, the ''ncw woman" and re-
mark that in the society Of Charleston
| ladies one feels as far removed from
| that person rs if one were in the at
mosphcre Of Sir Walter SCOTS Lucy
Ashton. That young lady, | am per-
suaded. still lives in some old room in
| Charleston, for in this dear town Sir
| Walter still holds a favoritc place in
the hearts OF both old and young. |
seem, in indicating the chief charms Of
this society. to have turned linstinctive-
| " to the fair S'N, but in the men. too,
there are traces oi the unusual person.
ality wIlic! used to mark them when
| their ari>tW.ratic institutions were in
force. And her. it may 1t b.. irrele
want to ask why American literature,
seeking so often for local color in for
eign lands. should overlook the treas
ureS in community 50 rare in charm
and peculiarity and individuality rs is
this old capital of Il former American
oligawhy:
| In ol'l days the masters at line
houses used to spend Il part of the year
on their plantations, but to-lay many
Of them stay in town all the year
round, finding business more profitable
than planting. or those that still keep
up estates in the country, the life in
| their bio houses is an isolated one, with
| little interest in the progress of the
outside world. Like the English plan
ters in Barbados and others f tho
| West Indies. they read little, and H.,
daily routine of a planters life seems to
fulfil their ambition. Probably it would
| NJ. please them to be Ieli Il ii that
| they are also citizens of the Dakotas
and of Oregon as well as of their i'm
me late rice-Gelds and magnolia groves.
But, however this may he, it may still
be said of them (as it was hy an Eng
| lish traveller more than two hundred
years ago. that ''thc gentlemen seated
| III the country are very courteous. live
very nobly in their houses, and give
very gentecl entertainments to all
| strangers and others that come to visit
| them. .-U0me .Jonrnn/.