The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-19

The handsomest private residences square, two-storied briek-belongs to the director of the Falkland Islands Sheep Farming company. the corpora tion which has given to the archipela- go all the importance it possesses. The company's big warehouses. wherein are stored the island-farmer's wool, tallow and sheep-skins, are grouped along the jetties and form village by them selves. Besides several public piers and private jetties, there is a government pier, fronting the dock-yards, whose To- cation may be known by the hoisting of the British flag on the arrival of a vessel, and also by it's workshops, guard-house etc, within the same en- closure. Close behind the dock-yard is an immense reservoir for supplying fresh water to the shipping. The bar racks, occupied by a company of Brit ish marines, is a rather imposing struc- ture near the center of the town. The English governor occupies a distant cottage of gray stone, and both the barracks and the governors residence are defended by several nine-pounders.
 The only good road the country can boast-in fact the one read worth men tioning on all the islands, since the far mers prefer to travel on horseback, or by sea-is that running parallel with the harbor in front of the first row of houses, and is known as Ross road. It is two miles long, bounded at one end by the government house, and at the other by the cemetery; but it is the colonists' fashionable promenade. their only one, except when at rare intervals the weather is mild enough to permit a stroll upon the breezy hilltops. Even the Ross road is not always available to premenaders, for at high tide the spray sometimes dashes over it. Nevertheless it is the Fifth avenue, the Regent street, the Champs Elysees of the Falklands, and on bright afternoons all the "qual- ity'' of this little isolated community may be seen walking briskly up and down the long, dull street. Here mo- body slowly saunters, as pleasure-seek- CTS do in the fashionable resorts of oth- CT countries, for the weather is always so chilly that active exercise is neces- sary. The decidedly English atmos- phere of Stanley becomes intensified on closer acquaintance. The shop-signs for example; One reads Millinery. Drapery, Haberdashery Store, to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales" Another enormous sign board informs passers- by in large letters that within is a store" it being taken for granted that everybody understands the word to. mean a depot for all manner of com modities, from hams to hair switches, jewelry and cabbages, drugs and dress goods, molasses, hardware. etc. Among several inns of the good old English style-bar-maids and all-are the Stan ley Arms" the Red Bull" the "Glohe and the Rose Hotel" One of the most pronounced evidences of Brit ish loyalty is encountered the moment one steps on shore, where, at the end of the jetty, stands brick and stone mon- ument bearing a tablet upon which is carved the mysterious legend Alfred, 24th February, 1874" At least it ap- peared mysterious to us and excited our curiosity to the highest pitch, for we naturally supposed it to mark the grave of some hero who fell in one of the many battles that have taken place when foreign powers were contending for possession of the islands. Or was it really in memory of Alfred the Great? The mystery remained unsolved until we reached the hotel and asked the landlord; and what was our Yankee dis gust when that worthy individual of h's explained, with solemn air befitting the occasion, that Prince h Alfred, a real, live scion of English royalty, had once planted his h'august foot (and probably both his feetl some where near that very spot on the occa- sion of his visit to the islands in 1874!
 III 1851 company was formed in Lon- don and incorporated by royal charter (the present Falkland Island Sheep Farming Company, for the purpose of turning to greater account the herds of wild cattle that roamed the islands and the enormous extent of sheep-ranging. The company's headquarters were es- tablished at Stanley, while their grazing and boiling-down operations were car ried on in various places all over the The development of this necessitated the establish
 
 seat of colonial government; and now ships can be repaired and provided at Stanley at less cost and in much better shaps than at any other South Ameri- can port-a matter of great importance, that more injury is annually done to vessels that round Cape Horn than in any other part of the world. The average number of vessels that en- ter Stanley Harbor in a year is eighty, and of that number fully two-thirds ar rive in distress and remain for repairs. A novel industry in which many Falk- land Islanders find employment is the rescuing of wrecked vessels and their crews. Not that there is any regular ife-saving service maintained by the or by individuals, but-as in other out-of-the-way sections of stormy coasts, there are those who make a business of wrecking for plum der. Here parties keep schooners in constant readiness to go out at a mo- ment's notice whenever a vessel is sighted with broken mast and other ev- dences of a losing conflict with Cape Horn gales, with offers of assistance not from motives of unmixed philan- thropy, but for a good round rate of 1 compensation, which generally com- i pletes the ruin of the victim by wreck ng them financially.
 FANNIE B. WARD. THE GULF BETWEEN ENGLAND i
 AND INDIA.