ration, of
W.G. Simms. A trace of the early social organization of the brilliant
colonial town remains in the St Cecilia Society, first formed in 1737 as
an amateur concert society.

Charleston has an excellent system of public schools. Foremost among the
educational institutions is the college of Charleston, chartered in 1785
and again in 1791, and opened in 1790; it is supported by the city and
by funds of its own, ranks high within the state, and has a large and
well-equipped museum of natural history, probably founded as early as
1777 and transferred to the college in 1850. Here, too, are the Medical
College of the state of South Carolina, which includes a department of
pharmacy; the South Carolina Military Academy (opened in 1843), which is
a branch of the University of South Carolina; the Porter Military
Academy (Protestant Episcopal), the Confederate home school for young
women, the Charleston University School, and the Avery Normal Institute
(Congregationalist) for coloured students. In the Charleston library
(about 25,000 volumes), founded in 1748, are important collections of
rare books and manuscripts; the rooms of the South Carolina Historical
Society are in the same building. The Charleston _News and Courier_,
published first as the _Courier_ in 1803 and combined with the _Daily
News_ (1865) in 1873, is one of the most influential newspapers in the
South. The charitable institutions of the city include the Roper
hospital, the Charleston Orphan Asylum (founded in 1792), the William
Euston home for the aged, and a home for the widows of Confederate
soldiers.

In 1878 the United States government began the construction of jetties
to remove the bar at the entrance to Charleston harbour, which was
otherwise deep and spacious and well protected, and by means of these
jetties the bar has been so far removed as to admit vessels drawing
about 30 ft. of water. The result has been not only the promotion of the
city's commerce, but the removal of the United States naval station and
navy yard from Port Royal to what was formerly Chicora Park on the left
bank of the Cooper river, a short distance above the city limits. The
city's commerce consists largely in the export of cotton,[1] rice,
fertilizers, fruits, lumber and naval stores; the value of its exports,
$10,794,000 in 1897, decreased to $2,196,596 in 1907 ($3,164,089 in
1908), while that of the import trade ($1,255,483 in 1897) increased to
$3,840,585 in 1907 ($3