The evening times., 1898-12-31
A PICTURESQUE OLD TOWN.
A Strangers View of Charleston
& G.

6.
CF'rom the New York Commercial Adveriiser.J
The going down of the sun tonight is
not a sunset of clouds and pink with
fanciful massings; it is an empty picture
without forms. spreading OF smoky
light over half the sky-and the water be-
meath. The face of the harbor, rejecting
orange and red brown, then a series of
pale and livid colorings, becomes at last
luminous white, like sea fire; shining dis
tances are banded by dying shores. the
blurred tops Of trees against the light of
the sky.
The city begins at the harbor wall-a
white shell path, small kind of park
with live oaks upon it, the asphalted
fashionable drive, the co!umned fronts OF
houses. That is the order. Then dwell
ings and more dwellings with high walls
and gardens, numbeTiess negroes. a few
white people. very many single mules
hauling two-wheeled cotton drays and
if you walk about two miles up town. an
abrupt ending Of these things in faded.
smoking plain.
You see an old. ragged and weather worn
city: with it the sun. the wind and the
wetness, apparently, have always Fad their
way; you remember that many cyclones
have harassed it: tidal waves swept its
level streets and flooded its gardens; that
OuCt, uOl lOUS ago. tue cdEtu Ol us iOun-
daton Irembled. You remember that hu-
man enemies bombarded the place for
years and that its life was crushed out
So the strangeness Of the look and color
ing OF things is not surprise.
ThA real life here lies somewhere in past
time. that is the obvious impression, The
city. being built for a purpose. once has
served il. but still stands; superseded else
where. its original shell remains whole de-
spite the efforts OF new men as If il had
been handed down in trust. The insensible
shell dominates. the sensible inhabitant tin
fancy. at leastl has been deposed. And
what contrives 10 force the notion home IS
this. that everywhere one looks al color
that is not man-made. but natural; upon
brick walls that are deep earthly brown,
rich with coating Of dampness, tinged
with moss; upon surfaces, originally Of
painted stucCo, the same hues of the open
landscape. in great variety-the yellow Of
clay banks, the swarthiness OF plowed
fields, the dense and unrefulgent shading
of water on cloudy day: most common Of
all you will see unmistakable cloud color
ings, and of almost any weather Add one
thing more, certain solemn green tshed
from very plentiful nameiess shrubs all
over the city, which fills the eve.
In such town when settled both by
French and by English. II is natural that
the difference should survive There are
many houses made in the shape of plain
box. set facing a garden. and with an end
to the street. Nerandas like decks are
added TO each story. perhaps enclosed by
shutters, and the roof may be covered
with old, hollow. red tiles. In the garden
will be a veritable crush of growing
things-bayonet, spiked and formidab bic
palmettos, shining evergreens, shapeless
bananas, and, with half dozen kinds of
December blooming flowers. roses growing
| as II wild. high wall or an iron fence
encloses, its gateway twice the height of
man.
There is the otner sort, the great house
built by the Englishman, and really con-
ceived for the high position of its owner
Built as for executive mansions with
| shed-like quarters for slaves, with mas
sive front of columns, from the shadow
| of which the plainest citizen might speak
with some authority, with rich and solid
| trees in regular lines inside imprisoning
walls. these places. since they lack the aid
of ruin, are all the more melancholy.
Of this one. three fourths of the shutters
of heavy board are closed. the outbuildings
| closed, the garden overrun; a row of mag
nolias stands at the front their clusters of
polished leaf rejecting light and, in the
wind. beating tattoo as if heavy rain
lives here alone, with two servants. cher
ishing the relics of her family.
Down at either end of the cross streets
you will come upon salt marshes; the way
cluster of negro cabins, daubed with
dirty whitewash. The smell of salt water
ooze meets you. Then the way struggles
off blindly into a place of wallow-Iike
holes and bitches. and of rank grass: a
| low dull line that is the river limits this
cloudy plain; and the white sky. against
which the shape of vessel with bare
masts seems vaguely placed, backs the
picture.