Charleston's Birthday

TOWNS AND CITIES

Charleston's Birthday

To mayors of 5,000 U. S. cities throughout the land have gone letters from Charleston, S. C. Each letter asked each mayor to broadcast the news that Charleston was this week having a 250th birthday party, to advise all onetime Charlestonians to return to their ancient city to join the refined festivities. The U. S. Government helped Charleston celebrate by issuing a commemorative 2-c- postage stamp, by sending Secretary of War Patrick Jay Hurley and Chief of Staff Charles Pelot Summerall to stand with South Carolina's Governor John Gardiner Richards and North Carolina's Governor Oliver Max Gardner at official functions. Ready to chime out a welcome to all returning Charlestonians were the famed bells of St. Michael's.

Englishmen first settled along the Ashley River in 1670, ten years later moved their government to the rich peninsula between the Ashley and the Cooper. Rice and cotton gave prosperity. Cavalier second sons, high-born French Huguenots, gave aristocracy. Great names-- Pinckney, Rutledge, Lewis, Calhoun, Gadsden, Ravenel, Laurens, Petigru--rose and fell. The St. Cecilia society balls dazzled Northern visitors. To see the magnolia gardens, men crossed the sea. In St. Andrew's hall on Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina voted itself out of the Union. Last big Charleston event: the $5,000,000 earthquake of Aug. 31, 1886, which killed 27 persons.

Charleston, leisurely, unprogressive, socially high-headed, remains today an antique among U. S. cities. The Atlantic Coast Line's best Florida trains skip Charleston; likewise Clyde Steamship Co.'s New York-Florida express boats. Its business men lunch at 2:30, return to work at 4, if at all. Many contend, visitors as well as citizens, that it is the most civilized city in the U. S.

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