The picture presented was that of
an unruly set of children dictating their opinions to a hoary-headed
old daddy-accusing him of pragmatism, and threatening, if he was
twice as old, they'd whip him unless he did as they directed. The
knowledge of South Carolina's power and South Carolina's
difficulties with the Federal Government he found so universally set
forth as to form the atmosphere of conversation in the parlor, the
public-house, the school and the bar-room, the lecture-room and the
theatre.
The little man extended his invitation to a party of the bloods. The
Captain was taken by the arms in a kind of bond fellowship, and
escorted into Baker's eating-saloon, a place adjacent to the
theatre, and, to a man unaccustomed to the things that are in
Charleston, a very rowdy place. This is considered by Charlestonians
one of the finest places in the Southern country; where good suppers
and secession (the all-engrossing subjects with Charles-tonians)
form the only important element of conversation. It may be set down
as a fact, that among seven-tenths of the people of Charleston, the
standard of a gentleman is measured according to his knowledge of
secession and his ability to settle the question of hot suppers. We
say nothing of that vigorous patriotism so often manifested in a
long string of fulsome toasts that disgrace the columns of the
Mercury and Courier.
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