Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1886 — CHARLESTON. [ARTICLE]

CHARLESTON.

Patching Up the Shattered Houses— The Work of Relieving the Sufferers. ' -t--,.-[Charleaton special.] Strenuous efforts are being made to patch up the housek in a rude way to make them water-tight, and allow residences to be occupied and business to be resumed. Considerable excitement has been caused by the refusal of bricklayers to work for less than $5 a day. The objection, apparently, is not so much to the amount asked for as to the character of the work done, many of those claiming the advanced rate being inefficient. Under instructions from the Treasury Department Mr. Earl Sloan has visited the reported fissure on the Savannah and Charleston Railroad, and finds it due to the contiguity of a mill-pond, and not to the earthquake. Mr. Sloan will visit the fissures iu and about Summerville and traverse the whole line of the South Carolina railway, examining the phenomena reported and observing specially any changes in levels of the earth. At a special meeting of the City Council Mayor Courtenay reported that the amount of tbe relief fund to this time is about $100,009. He said further that with the large measure of relief necessary to reach the many sufferers it was hardly necessary to say to the Aldermen of Charleston, how small this sum would be when divided among the sufferers. “To show,” he said, “the grossest ignorance as to the amount received and the needs of the ,city, it bas been deliberately suggested that no taxes be levied next year, and the relief fund be used instead. ’ As the taxes in 1886 in Charleston reached nearly $900,000, it is easily seen how fallacious and misleading are such suggestions.