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Conversation was the sauce of the meal, wit its preferred seasoning
This was the world which Scarlett O 'Hara, one-time belle of a rural
county in the raw red frontier earth of north Georgia, now intended to
conquer, armed only with energy, stubbornness, and a dreadful need
Her timing was terribleFor more than a century, Charlestonians had
been renowned for their hospitalityIt wasn't unusual to entertain a
hundred guests, fully half of whom were unknown to host and hostess
except through letters of introductionDuring Race Week-the climax
of
the city's social season-owners from England, France, Ireland, and
Spain often brought their horses months in advance to accustom them
to
the climate and waterThe owners stayed at the homes of their
Charleston competitors; their horses were stabled, as guests, next to
the horses the Charleston host would be running against themIt was
an open-handed, open-hearted city
Fittingly, christian dior china the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter,
in Charleston harborTo most of the world Charleston was the symbol
of the mysterious and magical, moss-hung, magnolia-scented South
To
Charlestonians as well"Proud and arrogant
Charleston" was the refrain in New York and Boston newspapers
Union
military officials were determined to destroy the flower-filled,
pastel-painted old cityThe harbor entrance was blockaded first;
later, gun emplacements on nearby islands fired shells into narrow
streets and houses in a siege that lasted for almost six hundred days;
finally Sherman's Army came with its torches to burn the plantation
houses on the riversWhen the Union troops marched in to occupy
their
prize, they faced a desolate ruinWild grasses grew in the streets
and choked the gardens of windowless, shell-scarred, broken-roofed
housesThey also faced a decimated population that had become as
proud and arrogant fendi handbag as their Northern reputationOutsiders were no
longer welcome in CharlestonPeople repaired their roofs and
windows
as best they could and locked their doorsAmong themselves, they
restored the cherished habits of gaietyThey met for dancing in
looted drawing rooms where they toasted the South in water from
cracked
and mended cups"Starvation parties," they called their gatherings,
and laughedThe days of French champagne in crystal flutes might be
gone, but they were still CharlestoniansThey had lost their
possessions but they had almost two centuries of shared tradition and
styleNo one could take that from themThe War was over, but they
weren't defeatedThey would never be defeated, no matter what the
damn Yankees didNot so long as they stuck togetherAnd kept
everyone else out of their closed circleThe military occupation and
the outrages of Reconstruction tested their mettle, but they held
fast
One by one the other fake chanel bag states of the Confederacy were readmitted to the
Union, their state governments restored to the state's populationBut
not South CarolinaAnd especially not CharlestonMore than nine
years after the end of the War, armed soldiers patrolled the old
streets, enforcing curfewConstantly changing regulations covered
everything from the price of paper to the licensing of marriages and
funerals
Charleston became more and more derelict outwardly, but ever
stronger
in its determination to preserve the old ways of lifeThe Bachelors'
Cotillion was reborn, with a new generation to fill the gaps caused by
the carnage of Bull Run, Antietam, and ChancellorsvilleAfter their
working hours as clerks or laborers, former plantation owners took the
streetcars or walked to the outskirts of the city to rebuild the
two-mile oval of the Charleston Race Course and to plant the
blood-soaked churned mud of the land around it with grass fake prada seed
bought
with combined widow's mitesLittle by little, by symbols and by
inches, Charlestonians were regaining the essence of their beloved lost
worldBut there was no room in it for anyone who didn't belong
there
couldn't hide her amazement at the orders Scarlett gave her when she
was unlacing for bed the first night in the Butler house"Take the
green walking-out costume I wore this morning and give it a good
brushingThen take off every speck of trimming, including the gold
buttons, and sew on some plain black buttons instead
"Where I going to find any black buttons, Miss Scarlett?"
"Don't bother me with fool questions like thatButler's
maid-what's her name? CelieAnd wake me up tomorrow at five
o'clock
"Five o'clock?"
"Are you deaf? You heard meI want that green outfit
ready to put on when I get up Scarlett sank gratefully into the
feather mattress and down pillows on the big bedIt had been an
over-full, over-emotional tiffany co bracelets d |
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