ntry, no less
than the fact that the city was, in its day, a great racing center,
contribute to an understanding of the spirit of the place. The present
Charleston Library is not the first public library started in the city.
Not by any means! For it was founded as late as 1748, and the original
public library of Charleston was the first one of the kind in the
country, having been started about the beginning of the 18th century.
Old records of this library still exist, showing that citizens voted so
many skins to its support. Probably the most valuable possession of the
present library are its files of Charleston newspapers, dating from 1732
to the present time, including three files covering the War of 1812, and
two covering the Civil War. These files are consulted by persons from
all over the United States, for historical material. The library has
recently moved into a good modern building. In the old building there
was a separate entrance at the back for ladies, and it is only lately
that ladies have been allowed full membership in the Library Society,
and have entered by the front door. The former custom, I suppose,
represented certain old-school sentiments as to "woman's place" such as
I find expressed in "Reminiscences of Charleston," by Charles Fraser,
published in 1854. Declares Mr. Fraser:

The ambition for literary distinction is now very prevalent with
the sex. But without any disposition to undervalue their claims,
whenever I hear of a female traveler clambering the Alps, or
describing the classic grounds of Greece and Italy, publishing her
musings in the holy land, or revealing the mysteries of the harem,
I cannot but think that for every success obtained some appropriate
duty has been neglected.

I except the poetess, for hers are the effusions of the heart and
the imagination, prompted by nature and uttered because they are
irrepressible. Many females travel for the purpose of writing and
publishing books--whilst Mrs. Heman's, Mrs. Osgood's, and Mrs.
Sigourney's volumes may be regarded as grateful offerings to the
muse in return for her inspiration.

It is hard not to be irritated, even now, with the man who wrote that,
especially in view of the fact that the two most interesting books to
come out of the Carolinas of recent years are both by women: one of them
being "Charleston--the Place and the People," by Mrs. St. Julien
Ravenel, a volu