The Republican journal., 1904-05-19


front and greenhouses in the rear, be
cause neither fruit, flowers nor vege
tables can be grown out of doors here
on account of cold winds eternally
blowing. Overhanging all are great
clouds of smoke, belched from chin.
neys, for peat and coal must be burned
every day in the year to keep people
tolerably comfortable. The most con-
spicuous building in Stanley is a very
odd one, of cut brown stone, with tall
clock-tower in the center and wings on
each side of it-one wing doing duty as
a church, the other as schoolhouse.
The handsomest private residences
square, two-storied brick-belongs to
the Director of the Falkland Islands
Sheep Farming Company, the corpora
tion which has given to the archipel-
ago ali the Importance it possesses.
The company's big warehouses, where
in are stored the island farmers wool,
tallow and sheep skins, are grouped
along the jetties and form. village by
themselves. Besides several public
piers and private jetties, there is a
government pier, fronting the dock
yards, whose location may be known by
the hosting of the British flag on the
arrival of vessel, and also by its
workshops, guard house, etc, within
the same enclosure. Close behind the
dock-yard is an immense reservoir for
supplying fresh water to the shipping.
The barracks, occupied by company
of British marines, is a rather imposing
structure near the center of the town.
The English Governor occupies a dis
tant cottage of gray stone, and both the
barracks and the Governors residence
are defended by several nine Founders.
The only good road the country can
boast-in fact the one road worth men,
tioning on all the islands, since the
farmers prefer to travel on horseback,
or by sea-js that running parallel with
the harbor in front of the first row of
houses, and is known as Ross road. 1t
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
stroll upon the breezy hilltops. Even
the Ross road is not always available
to promenaders, for at high tide the
spray sometimes dasheS over it. Never
theless it is the Fifth Avenue, the
Regent street, the Champs Elysees of
the Falklands, and on bright afternoons
all the quality of this little isolated
community may be seen walking brisk
ly up and down the long, dull street.
Here nobody slowly saunters, as pleas
ure-seekers do in the fashionable re-
sorts of other countries, for the weather
is always SO chilly that active exercise
is necessary. The decidedly English
atmosphere of Stanley becomes intensi-
fed on closer acquaintance. The shop
signs for example: One reads ''Millin-
cry, 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 every
body understands the word to mean
depot for all manner of commodities,
from hams to hair switches, jewelry
and cabbages, drugs and dress goods,
molasses, hardware, etc. Among sew
eral inns of the good old English style
-bar-maids and all-are the STANLEY
Arms" the "Red Bull" the Globe
Tavern" and the ''Rose HOTEL One
of the most pronounced evidences of
British loyalty is encountered the mo-
ment one steps on shore, where, at the
end of the jetty, stands brick and
stone monument bearing a tablet upon
which is carved the mysterious legend
Alfred, oath Feb. 1874" At least it
appeared 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
disgust when that worthy individual of
misplaced his explained, with solemn
air beftting the occasion, that Prince
b Alfred, real, live scion of English
royalty, had once planted his haugust
foot land probably both his feet some
where near that very spot on the occa-
sion of his visit to the islands in 1874!
In 1851 company was formed in
London and incorporated by royal
charter (the present Falkland Island
Sheep Farming Company, for the pur-
pose of turning to greater account the
herds of wild cattle that roamed the
islands and the enormous extent of
sheep-ranging. The company's head
quarters were established at Stanley,
while their grazing and boiling-do