keeping these niggers here all night, Swizer-you
know I've done the clean thing with you several times," said Dunn,
pointing his finger at the Dutchman; who winked, and coming from behind
the counter, slipped something into his hand, and stepping to the door,
assumed some threatning language against the negroes, should they ever
came back to his store. A large portion of those who came for liquor
were negroes, who looked as if they were parting with their last cent
for stimulant, for they were ragged and dirty, and needed bread more
than liquor. Their condition seemed pitiful in the extreme, and yet the
Dutch "corner-shop keeper" actually got rich from their custom, and so
craving was he upon their patronage, that he treated them with much more
courtesy than his white customers.

These "Dutch corner-shops" are notorious places in Charleston, and
are discountenanced by respectable citizens, because they become the
rendezvous of "niggers," who get into bad habits and neglect their
masters' or mistresses' business. Yet the keepers exert such an
influence at elections, that the officials not only fear them, but in
order to secure their favors, leave their rascality unmolested. Well
might a writer in the Charleston Courier of August 31, 1852, say--

"We were astonished, with many others, at the sweeping charges made in
the resolutions passed at the HUTCHINSON meeting at Hatch's Hall,
and were ready to enlist at once to lend our voice to turn out an
'administration' that for two years permitted 'moral sentiment to
be abandoned,' 'truthfulness disregarded,' 'reverence for religion
obliterated,' 'protection to religious freedom refused,' 'licentiousness
allowed,' 'and a due administration for vice, neglected.'" These charges
stand unrefuted, and with but one or two exceptions, we have never
known one of those unlawful corner shops prosecuted by the present
administration. And those single instances only where they were driven
to notice the most flagrant abuses.

It is strictly "contrary to law in Charleston," to sell liquor to a
negro without an order from a white man; the penalty being fine
and imprisonment. Yet, so flagrant has become the abuse, that it
is notorious that hush-money is paid by a certain class of Dutch
liquor-sellers to the officers. In nearly all the streets of Charleston,
where there is a shanty or nook large enough to hold a counter and some
tumblers, these wretches may be found dealing out their poisonou