Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-14
LIKE A CITY
South Cardinals Capital Be-
ginning to Wake Up.
INITIATING IMPROVEMENTS
Sewers Laid and Water Works Es-
tablished.
STREETS WIDE AND SHADED
People Have Preferred Comfort to
Style-New Seven-Million-Dol-
lar Statehouse.
STREETS WIDE AND SHADED
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.

in Columbia during the last
five years and the capital of South Caro-
lima is beginning to look like city. con-
ditions have always been very primitive
here. Until recently there were no sewers
and no water supply, and the people did
not seem to care whether they had any
or not, but a few years ago they woke
up to the realization that other towns
without the natural advantages of Column
bia were attracting immigration, while
her population was standing practically
still. Since then a complete waterworks
plant. with a settling basin and filter
ing apparatus costing $425.CO0, has been
introduced. and there are hydrants in
every house. Thirtytwo miles of sewers
have been laid at a cost of S11S.OOO and
the old cesspools which bred typhoid
fever have been filled uD. Electric lights
have been hung along the streets and
several miles of macadamized pavement
have been laid, which was very much
needed. civic Improvement association.
composed of both women and men. has
been organized to promote the improve
ment and preserve the beauty of the place,
and landscape architect named Kelsey
from Boston has been employed to pre-
pare permanent plan to be followed in
future improvements. The chamber of
commerce, which was organized by the
progressive business men of 1902. has done
great deal of good work. and is pushing
things along. 1t is proposed to pave the
principal streets with vitrified brick and
to lay cement sidewalks. which are scarce
beyond the main business thoroughfares.
Wide, Shaded Streets.
Columbia has beautiful streets. shaded
with far-spreading magnolias, oaks. elms
and blackberry trees. Almost every house
in the resident portion has ample garden
room and is half-hidden by shade trees
and foliage plants. These natural beau
ties are now being looked after by tree
and park commission. which is trimming
the old trees and replacing with new ones
those that are dying. Every street in the
city is 100 feet wide. except six, which
are $50 feet wide, and almost all of them
have at least two rows of trees. But the
center of every roadway is INSTRUCTED by
rows of ugly telegraph and telephone
poles. which detract materially from the
beauty of the town. They ought to be
taken down and the wires placed under
ground as, l suppose, they will be some
time The roads and sidewalks are
sandy, and there Is seldom any mud, be-
cause the rainfall soaks in as soon as 1t
touches the soil. The country roads are
dreadful, but are being improved slowly
AS we went humping along in an automo-
bile the other day my host told me that
twelve miles of model roadway had been
laid, but he wasn't able to find 1t. we
did, however. discover place where a
gang of convicts were engaged in macad-
amizing a section of one of the main
thoroughfares leading out Of the city. and
a big man with a Winchester rifle hanging
over his arm stood by to shoot any poor
sinner who tried to run away.
Columbia is an old-fashioned town. and
ha
than for style. The residences are large
and some of them have considerable archi-
tectural pretensions They wear an air
of hospitality and home-lkeness although
many of them would be improved by
fresh coat of paint and pruning hook
among the shrubbery.
The most welcome innovation to the
travelling public Is a new hotel of Moorish
design. similar to those at St. Augustine;
which is owned by local company and
we'll kept by New York people. 1t IS
kept open from December to May for the
accommodation of tourists and depends
upon them for its patronage. commercial
travellers and the visitors from the rest
of the state prefer the ancient hotels
downtown. There has been an encourage
ing improvement in the hotels throughout
the south, and the good ones have not
only proven profitable to the proprietors.
but have been valuable advertisements
for the towns.
Indian Summer All Winter.
The climate here is aluring TO the
chilled north. The natives claim that
Indian summer prevails all through the
winter. The town lies high upon the
ridge of sand hills that runs parallel with
the coast from Virginia to Florida, and
which is covered with pine groves which
perfume the soft, dry air. Pinehurst,
Aiken, Augusta, Thomasville. Summer
vile and other popular winter resorts
have similar climate and a similar
temperature, which seldom falls below
A. or 46 degrees. The flowers are bloom
ing cheerfully in the door yards today,
and in the old cemetery beside the veneer
able Trinity Church many of the graves
are covered with vioIets. There isn't
much energy to spare down here, how
ever: there isn't much ozone to stimulate
the northern visitor to eXertion: he feels
more like sitting around on the gallery"
as they call piazza in the SOUTH and
letting some one else do the hustling but
the atmosphere is grateful to the throat
and lungs.
Church spires rise in every direction and
the means of grace appear to be ample
for the community. The city directory
gives a list of four white and one colored
Baptist churches. four white and one
cofored Episcopal, five white and one
colored Presbyterian, six white and one
cOlored Methodist, three white Lutheran.
one Christian, one Catholic. one Jewish
synagogue. and one Gospel Tabernacle,
which makes a total of thirty churches
for population of about $4,000 or 10000.
as is claimed by the boomers, an average
of about one church to | .2Oo people
Trinity Church. which fronts the Capitol
Park, is a stately sanctuary of Gothic
design. with a beautiful Interior which
reminds one of an English parish church.
and is surrounded by an old-f shioned
cemetery. where lie the noblest repre-
sentatives of South Carolina aristocracy,
sleeping peacefully under the shade of
magnificent oaks and magnolia trees.
The New Statehouse.
The greatest Improvement is in the APP
pearance of the statehouse. which has
finally been finished, at a total cost OF
nearly S1.0O0OO0. 1t was begun way
back in the forties, but work was stop
ped at the commencement of the civil
war; and finely carved columns and blocks
of marble lay about on the ground for a
generation waiting for some administra-
ton that had the patriotism and the en-
terprise to put them i'm place. You can
see where cannon balls from Union guns
Clipped off pieces of stone and bruised
the surface of the walls during the siege
of Columbia. Gen. Sherman is quoted as
having said that the building wouldn't
burn and he couldn't waste the powder
to blow it up. so that it remained prac-
tically uninjured, although l am told that
material which lay around the park was