The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-16
.OLD CUSTOMS AND
 MANNERS PREVAIL Charleston Takes the Lead in
 ExcIuSiveneSS TWICE VISITED BY WAR Domestic Privacy Enjoyed By the Peo- ple-No Meal Complete With out the National Cereal
 Rice.
TWICE VISITED BY WAR
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKlN.

ltNiiAHNh
 said that Charleston is the most arsto-
 cratic city in America. In the sense
 that the city is dominated politically and
 socially by an arstocracy, this is un-
 doubtedly true. Back Bay may be as
 exclusive. the knickerbockers quite as
 selectve Philadelphia's Assembly as im-
 pregnable to the climbers but Bos-
 ton and New York and Philadelphia as cities heed not the wishes of their most l aristocralic circles. In Charleston it is
 different, for the old families retain their i power and prominence. The Mayor of she
 city is a Rhett. born of family which
 has given governors. counselors and sol-
 diers to South Carolina since long before
 there was United States The repre-
 sentative of Charleston in Congress is ai
 Legare, and Legares have been prominent 1 In public and social life in Charleston for
 a century one of that name having been l secretary of state and attorney general in | President Tylers cabinet.
 The St. Cecilia society is the keystone
 of the aristoeratlc social fabric of
 Charleston. As has been mentioned in these letters, South Carolina once had a l lll6u nODliLYf DuL II was 0Ol lTOHl licSc
 titles, which went with large land pur- l chases, that the aristocracy has come | down. The old families trace their line
 age to the rich English planters who came to South Carolina from the Barba- | does, and to the Huguenots. In the early | development of the thirteen colonies, l South Carolina devoted more attention to
 social life than any of the others. In | New England the Puritan conscience for l bade indulging in the frivolities 1t Is | to be doubted if the honest Dutch bur
 ghers, whose blood is now a patent to | Gotham nobility, concerned themselves l much with other diversions than pint or beer on the stoop. In Philadelphia there | was the quiet Quaker influence which al
 ways made against gaiety. In Virginia l the cavalier stock undoubtedly made
 much of the social life. but the Vir- | gininas were planters and lived on great estates widely separated. It was difficult 1 to go from one manor to another, and ex- | cept on special occasion, the people saw | little of each other
 In South Carolina the people were | planters, too, but they maintained their
 town houses in Charleston, the great
 families built themselves mansions with l in stones throw of each other, the | young people were together every day,
 there were servants galore, and nothing | for anybody to do but to have good | time. They had 1t. Travellers from Flu | rope before the revolution were loud in
 their praises of Charleston's social de-
 velopment. Josiah Quincy of Massachu- setts, declared that Inc found in Charles | town a social life on scale of magnifi- | canoe which he had not believed possible l outside of the capitals of Europe.
 The St. Cecilia society was begun Tn 1737. and is, therefore, ITO years old. It
 was originally amateur musical so- ciety, and its first concert was given when George Washington was but years old. and over thirty years before Ma poleon Bonaparte was born. The society was not formally organized until 1762
 when it took on the form to which 1t has | since adhered without material change. l The musical concerts were still the feat l ure, dancing merely an incident. Among l the amateur performers who delighted | Charlestonans with their musical shlj
 was Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, after | wards a major general In the revolution
 ary army, and the federalist candidate
 for President in 1900 against Thomas Jeff l ferson. Another was Ralph Izard the | good friend of Washington, a senator in | the early days of the republic, the man
 who before the revolution declined to be l presented at the court of George III be-
 cause etiquette compelled a subject tp | bow the knee, which he swore he would l never do to mortal man.
 The very first St. Cecilia concert was
 given on St. Cecilia's day, which was a | Thursday. From that time St. Cecilia ! l conce%ts and balls have been always
 held on a Thursday, with but one excep-
 ton. It is part of the law of the St. | Celia. whether written or unwritten, the
 outsider may not know, that the society
 does not pay especial honor to any one
 person. In Charleston a ball given by the | St. Cecilia society Is called merely n l St. Cecilia" It is recorded by Mrs. St.
 Julien Ravenel in her delightful book that | only once has St. Cecilia been given
 in honor of any individual, and only once
 has St. Cecilia been given on any night
 other than Thursday. James Monroe, l President of the United States was a
 visitor in Charleston in 1s19 and he was
 honored with a St Cecilia ball on a Sat
 urday night.
 The musical feature of the St Cecilia
 society was abandoned in 1922. With the
 exception of the years during the civil
 war when the city was being lombard
 ed, there have been always three balls
 a year, timed according to the arrival | of Lent. The president of the society
 always takes the latest bride to supper, | and it is a not improbable tale that | tells of more than one wedding date set | so that the bride might have that honor. l The St. Cecilia Is governed by presi- | dent and board or managers. Names pro-
 posed for membership are passed on by
 the board and sumbitted to the society. | once a name has been added, the ladies
 of the family of the new member are nut | on "the list" and are kept there for
 ever. They say in Charleston that the l punishment of being dropped from the I St. Cecilia" has been often heard, but | nobody has been dropped.
 l The aristocracy of Charleston is unique | t1A l1lI .s.. .,sl.
 American society Money will not buy | position. No family would be rejected | merely because of it's wealth. of course. 1 but the standards of social possibility according to the Charlestonlan view are ! rgidly applied alike to rich and poor. i There was time. "befo' de wah,' when | all these aristocratic families were ac-
 counted rich. Then there came an aw- 1 full time when all of them were poor,
 very, very poor St. Cecilia suppers were
 not magnificent in the late sixties, and
 men and women have danced at St. Ce- | clia balls who have known the bangs of | hunger. Young aristocrats went to work | after the war, and they learned how l to work too. But like other sons of l men they had to serve their apprentice l ships. So it was that the daughters of ! a wealthy family envied the social station | of the young man from whom the family groceries were ordered. Poverty and pe-
 nury are not accounted crimes by the | St. Cecilians
 The St. Cecilia is by no means the | only aristocratic society in Charleston. | The town is full of societies. There is
 the St Andrews society-Scotch, of | course-wel toward the completion of