The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-10
CHARLESTON, THE
 CITY BY THE SEA
The City Where History is
 Everything
STORY OF AN OLD STATUE
Has Not Single Office Building, and Residents Are Proud of lt-Al- ways Asserts Its Inde-
 pendence.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN.

BY rHEOERfC J. HASklN.
 Charleston, s. C., September 1o.- Charleston, more than any other Ameri- can city, bears the physical marks of the struggles through which the American people have passed to their enjoyment of the present peace and plenty. Gray age is held in great respect in Charleston, and therefore there are old buildings, old customs, old manners. Among the prioe- less possessions of the city is broken and battered bit of marble which Is in itself an epitome of the history of the country.
 It Is a marble statue of William Pitt, first earl of Chatham, one of the great est of English statesmen. When the American colonies protested against the injustice of the British stamp act South Carolina was earnest In its remonstrance, although 1t really suffered but little 1 from the stamp tax, and was highly favored by parliament which gave it a bounty for indigo. But the petted South Carolinlans abhorred the principle of taxation without representation" When the elder Pitt effected the repeal of the obnoxious stamp act in 17es, the South Carolina provincial assembly, on motion of Rawlins Lowndes, ordered the erec- l tion of the monument to Pitt, the truo friend of the Americans, who are the true sons of England"
 Four years later the statue came from Europe and was set up at the intersection of Broad and Meeting streets just in front of St. MichaePs church, then but nine years old The statue represents Pitt as speaking, clad in the toga of a Roman senator After William Pitt had become the Earl of Chatham and prime minister his activity in behalf of the Americans ceased, because Of his fast failing health. But even Pitt could not have stopped the headlong and head inspired by the King, which caused the revolt of the American colonies.
 The war came on, and Charleston, as l one of the principal ports, was the ob ject of mcse than one hostile demonstra- tion, finally falling into the hands of tho 1 British. cannon ball from an English 1 gun in 17S0 demolished the right arm of 1 William Pitt. The statue was taken down and stored away after the revolu- l tion, but after some years was again set 1 up in the grounds of the Orphan house. 1 Here the children always thought 1t was a statue of George Washington just get l ting out of bed
 Once again Charleston was a beleas- 1 ' set about by the army and navy of the | United States During that long bonn i bardment a shell fell in the Orphan house grounds, and the shock of It's ex- 1 plosion cracked the neck of the statue almost severlng Pitts head from Chat hams body. The whiteness of the marble | has been stained by the smoke of moro than one confagration. but the great l earthquake has left no mark. Eighteen l years ago the statue was again removed and>set up in the park surrounding the city hall, not a hundred yards from it's original position. It typifles the gratitude l of a once loyal British colony to a friend l in parliament, but it bears the scars of a successful struggle against British do- minion, and of an unsuccessful resistance 1 to the supremacy of the federal union l of American states.
 Other cities have monuments which re- mind a patriotic people of the events Of a glorious past, but in Charleston there i Is no need of marble and bronze me-
 norials. The revolution and the civil war, in one way or another, are still a part of the daily life of the people. Family histories are known and the deeds of the | members of each family for century or two are matters of common knowledge. l The descendants of him who was a Tory have already been able to restore them l dred years of devotion to Charleston. Yet all Charlestonians are proud of the rem | nants of the provincial era, and the coat of arms of George III has never been taken from above the door of Goose Creek church.
 South Carolina was first of the thir- teen colonies to carry resistance to Eng fish power to the extent of forming an
 independent provincial congress. New | England states at the Harvard convention
 may have expressed very independent opinions, but South Carolina was the first i state to actually attempt notification of a federal law When the break be- tween the north and south came, South | Carolina was the first state to secede, and it was at Charleston that the first fatal
 shot was fired at the Union flag. The l South Carolinians sometimes make mis- l takes but they cannot be accused of a lack of independence. What South Caro- lima is to the Union, so Charleston is to
 the state.
 The people of Charleston have been known to successfully nullify state laws, especially those relating to the liquor trar-
 fic When Ben Tillman was governor ana the new liquor laws caused rioting, some of the ancient and honorable militia com
 panies of Charleston with proud recorus antedating the Revolution, resigned rather than aid in enforcing the obnoxious Will l B in the law of South Carolina that intox- icatins liquors shall be sold from county
 ''dispensaries" The cheering cup must not be quaffed on the premises. Pur- chases must be made in original pack ages" In Charleston this statute Is nulli- fled. Liquors are sold through the me dium of that beast popularly known as a blind tiger" but that animal Is not :
 timid and shrinking creature here His lair is wide open and the strangest or
 strangers may go in and purchase a
 "package' of a variety original only with
 Noah. Leading citizens are attempting
 to stop this practice, and the Charleston
 News and Courier, newspaper or greai influence is urging that the blind tigers
 be closed. When a grand jury refuses
 to return true bills, however. and the
 public sentiment is largely with the "nul' lihers" little has been accomplished.
 | Charleston protests against the oft-re-
 peated statement that the city is dead.
 It does not pretend to the high relative
 importance which it once enjoyed as the
 second port city of America. but 1t right
 lv objects to the stories which tell that
 it's prosperity is all of the past. The
 cotton that used to go to England from
 the Charleston wharves is now being
 made into cloth in the Carolinas. The tur-
 pentine and other naval stores are not as