Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-02-06
JERSEY.



Few Men.
The grass grows green and rank and
the perfume rthe roses fills the air
even in the bleakest days Of the bleak
autumn in this little sea-cnriched par
adisc, says u letter from the island Of
Jersey There are hundreds of beau
tiful lanes winding among the valleys
and hillsdes with trees on either side
growing 50 close together that no
sunshine can ever penetrate through
the interlacing boughs to the hard,
smooth, beaten track beneath miles OF
te,shingly beach on which the sand
is as fine as siftel flour and is left by
the receding tides as hard as cement;
quaint little farm-housos embowered
in sweet smelling shrubbery and ilow|
er5, and acres of mOOr-land that is car
petel the year round with hcllotrope5,
petunias and marguerites. A blu9-
gray sea rises and falls around the is
land forty-two feet. sweet little Jer-
sey," "Dear old st. Helier's," is tho
aiIectiQnate way in which the peopls
here speak of their little island homo
and its chief town of $4,000 souls. st.
IIelier's is a queer old place. Its
streets are narrow and crowded. Mas
sive earthworks and miles Of masonry
crown the hills about and render the
place apparently impregnable against
the foe.
The Channel Islands, and particular
ly Jersey, possess much of interest for
the stranger, but the crowning glory,
of Jersey is the beauty of her women.
For general comeliness they would
readily be awarded a prize in any
competition of feminine grace Rare,
creamy compilations that would put
the bloom on the peach to blush, fig
ures made perfect and sinewy by bod
lily toll with rather strongly cut feat
ures, eyes like sloes and llStrous dark
hair, the girls met on the streets OF
st. Helier's seem, to the stranger, tho
personifcaton Of womanly indcpend-
ence, beauty and maidenly reserve.
The SOFT white mists that wrap the
island every night from sundown TO
sunrise give them their carnation
cheeks. The toll that brings with it
the active, healthy body is due to caus-.
es which will enlist on the side Of
these women the sympathies of true
manhood. 1t is because of the wo-
full dearth of men in Jersey that ths
women do all the work. Where you
meet one man in these tortuOus streets
of st. Heler's, you meet ten women.
Out among the green farms this dis
proportion Of the sexes is even more
painfully apparent. The heavy, un-
calmly carts on the country roads are
almost without exception driven by
women, and handsome women too.
Groups of chcrry-chceked girls may
be seen in the roadside orchards, some
picking apples from the trees, others
straining at the rude cider-presses.
The little fields, with their luXuriant
growth of turnips, caObages, rutaba-
bas, are all tended by women. while
the blooming flowers in the house
yards show in their rich variety the
evidence of womans care and atten-
ton, None but women are to be seen
in the big public market of ST. He'll
er's-women buying and women SELL
ing. What men you see are either too
young or too old and decrepit t-boys
who have not started out in life, or
old sea captains who have come home
to end their days, smelling Of salt cod
and full of "reminiscences Of stormy
voyages to Buenos Ayres, to Australia,
or through the China seas, lfyOu ask
where all the men are, the reply, with
shake of the head, is that jersey was
too small for them; that there wa; not
room enough on The island, hardly
thirty miles around, for the ambition
of its youth, 50 they left it and went to
seek their fortunes in foreign lands,
leaving their sisters at home to till tho
soil and look after the little Jersey
COWS. Some of them man the fishing
smacks that 60 to Newfoundland. Ev-
cry year they 60 to the Great Banks in
March, and return in October. When
they come back, with their little YES
sells laden with bales of salt cod, bar
rels of cOdfsh-roe, there is great re-
joicing among the women that they
have escaped the perils of the sea.
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