IN THE SHADOW
The "old house," so called to distinguish it from the present centenarian dwelling which was always known as the "new house," had been situated on another part of the plantation, since abandoned as a residential site, owing to its remoteness, and the higher and healthier land, which had come later into the estate as the dowry of a daughter of the Rutledge family and bride of one of the early Moultries, was chosen in its place.
Under the old régime the rice planters of South Carolina were surpassed by none in the new world in the magnificent style in which they lived. Even in the present era of extravagance it is doubtful if there is any one class that is able to enjoy the same independent ease and elegance as did these people. The peculiar conditions then extant, by which a household might live surrounded by all of the luxury which the arts of the epoch produced and enjoy the regal setting of a monarch, without his care and obligation, have passed away forever.
To these people belonged that ranking wealth which so few of our modern plutocrats can boast; their time was all their own. At any moment that might suit his inclination the planter could turn over the care of the estate to his steward, and with his wife or perhaps his entire family, depart to spend the season in London or in Paris, where he would doubtless find as many of his set as in the city of Charleston itself.
Little of this early grandeur survives the passing of the caste. Traveling to-day along the Carolina coast; winding among the bayous from Georgetown to Beaufort, one may see many sad relics of this golden era. While in threading up some little winding stream, oozing sluggishly from forest and primeval swamp, one will
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