Year: 1861

CHARLESTON, >. o., Jan. Is, 1861.


i The great number
of Africans in the city contribute to make its ap-
pearance peculiarly picturesque This class of the
community looks happy and contented, and dis.
plays none of that restlessness and sulkness which
frequently the countenances of other classes OF
aborers. With the exception Of the military ap-
pearance of many persons, there is nothing to indi-
cate, in the external aspect of the city, the baro-
meter of public matters; and there is nothing more
painful and ludicrous than to read the descriptions
which are given of affairs here in the newspapers
which are received from the North. ! would fan
believe that those descriptions proceed more from
ignorance than from malice; but the ignorance is
so colossal and preposterous that it borders upon
insanity Those papers speak of mObs, famine
pestience riots, Drunkenness and of caamities in.
Vulnerable. AS your paper advocates the princi-
Piles of religion, you will no doubt, be glad to have
an opportunity of doing homage to one of the most
sacred principles of eligion-truth. Let me- then,
implore you to let the truth be known, and to let
it be known that all those descriptions, so widely
circu lated in the North about this city. are false
from the beginning to the end false, false in every
particular. Far from the city being in the hands
of mObs, it is, in every respect under the control of
the gentlemen of the nation. Mobs exist where
hostile laboring classes exist. But there are no
such hostile classes here. The principal laborers
are the Africans, and they have displayed their de-
vOtOn to their masters from the very bepnning of
the movement.


Beyond a few knots of people gathered round the
newspaper offices and the hotels, there was not a
large assemblage of the populace in the streets
even during the episode of the Star of the West
All is quiet, orderly and gentlemanly; and so far
from anything like famine, the plenty of the good
things of this world is great here now as it ever
was during the most prosperous DAYS of general
peacefulness. The city has never been healthier
at this time OF the year than it has been during the
last three weeks, and the accounts about the pesti-
lence are not less silly than those in regard to
starvation and other calamities. | have never been
in any city of this continent in which found less
rioting and drunkenness than in Charleston; and
the sooner you remove from the mind of your
countrymen the prejudces and hallucinations with
which they have been taught to labor in regard to
this city, the beter for feel confident that kind


er feeling will arise, from the moment it is felt
here that a regard for truth is stronger in the
N0r'n 'han / the Di'teF suggestions OF the hour


The bravery of Major Anderson is as fully recog-
nzed here in other parts of the country and the
fact that the persons engaged in the conflict are
gentlemen of good family standing, surrounds the
atmosphere of war with rim of refinement, miti-
eating its ardor. No noble aim has ever been
achieved by falsehood, and you have it in your
power to render invaluable service to all honest
and virtuous people in the North by dispelling the
falsehoods which they have been induced to believe.


Gov. HoUsroN, OF TEXAS, ACCUSED OF FAvoRGYG
A BRITISH PRoTECToRATE OVER MExIco.-The New
Orleans Delta fears that Gov. Houston is opposed
to extending the area of the Southern Confederacy
into Mexico. 1t says:


We are informed, on authority which we cannot
presume to question, that, very short time SINCE
Gov. Houston was actually negotiating with the
British bond-hoders in reference to plan for the
invasion and conquest of Mexico; that he had offer
ed to head an expedition into that country, and
guaranteed to consumnate the project of conquest,
on condition that he should be supplied, by the
bond-holders, with the necessary means, and that
500, 900 should be deposited, for the use of his
family in one of the banks of this city. An enter
prise of this kind, if successful, must have been
extremely preudicia to the interests Of the South,
perhaps even to her safety. There is no love for
the institution of slavery among the British bond
holders, and no one knows that fact better than
Governor Houston. No is better informed of
the intrigues which originated in England, and in
which he himself played so important part, to
prevent the annexation of Texas in 1874. No one
is better aware that British Empire in Mexico
would be even more dangerous to the South than
a Northern Empire. Governor Houston, therefore,
owes it to his reputation as patriot, and as
statesman, to the State of which he is the Chief
Magistrate, to the people of the whole South, tC
explain away these strange appearances, to repe
these injurious suspicious. 1t would be useless tC
treat them with Indifference at moment when he
occupies a position of antagonism to the Southern
cause; at time when his own people have been
forced by him into revolutionary attitude as the
only escape from impending subugaton. The
statements we allude to will be made upon the floor
of the Austin Convention. If Governor Houston





recede from his opposition to the secession cause
and to show that he is not the willing instrument
ofNorthern ambition or British intrigue.


IMPROVED Cry RAGL.-A rail is now being brought
into extensive use which is thought to possess su-
perior merit for city railroads. This rail is of A
form known in Great Britain Seaton's rail. The
rail rests on a straddle, triangular timber or lon.
gitudinal sleeper which has one corner up and the
fat side down, in the position of ridge board on
the roof of a country house. The sleepers are
formed by splitting square stick diagonally, each
half forming a sleeper, and each sleeper having a
greater bearing the ballast than would any side
of the square stick from which it was cut The A
rail has considerable vertical stiffness, as well al
much side stiffness, both of which necessary fol
street uses, and it presents only narrow tread on
the surface, upon which horses will not slip. One
of the chief disadvantages of a rail which is a:
wide as the timber on which it rests, is, that the
continuity of the paving is broken-t stops square
and short at the timber. At other parts the stones
break joints, and the pressure on them Is paruahy
distributed among several of them, but when they
stop at a square line they are more likely to be
pounded down. Especially is this the case at the
side of a rail- for however slightly 1t projects up
ward il will catch and hold wheels of vehicles
which approach it at an acute angle, so that the
weakest part of the pavement is most travelled on
and most hammered down. The A rail with it!
larger A timber forms support for the stones
which are bevelled to fit them. So the weigh
coming on of the stones close to the rail is dis
tributed to the whole wide and long bearing sur
face of the timber, and the pavement is stronges
where most strength is required.


TRAINING FOR TRAMP TO WAsHINGToN.-E. P
Weston, the man who is to walk from Boston tC
Washington within ten days prior to Lincoln's in
L. l. hrv