The Argosy — page 63: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

48 The Channel Islands. day, or in the evening. The shops seem to exist for their own sake, not for the sake of the community. We never saw anyone within them, and if we ourselves entered, those who served seemed to wake up from a trance. Of course things are not actually quite so bad as this, or the shops themselves would cease to exist ; but one old Frenchman, who shook his head sadly, and lamented in a torrent of eloquent words his ‘‘belle France,” did not hesitate to declare, in tones fitted to the sentiment: ‘‘ Ah, monsieur! c’est une ville morte!” Years ago, he declared that, comparatively speaking, they had done there a thriving trade. Four thousand workmen were upon the island, building the fortifications : they had brought life and ra eee Hohe Pan se tte Se ae wes Pi Pra = re =: = A — RNa faa See ey edt Wan Ts POTS 5 "ib a Feit f OK Whee Sp i wise \ y i, A AWG P iy Ne 17 Vs \\ | ‘ / Au, , 1G; , ' , Sst ‘ ALDERNEY. business with them. But, the works finished, the men had departed, and the place became more dead than if they had never been there. This accounted for the rows of shut-up houses one came across. They looked, indeed, as if the plague had swept away the inmates, or as if the Court of Chancery had thrown its stagnant and destruc- tive influence over them. They were abandoned to the rats; windows were broken, shutters closed, an atmosphere of death and decay hung about them. »Then, besides the two principal streets of Alderney—at right angles with each other—there are inferior streets, which might be called “the east end of the town. They are dirty, crooked, and ill- paved,.or not paved at all. The cottages looked old and decrepit ; they might be so many cow-sheds. One passes quickly along, glad to escape from their depressing influence. And all through the town, Gomicbooks.co