Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/32

 LIKE THE RUE DE RIVOLI

for this cliff of masonry is not merely a monumental improvement intended to give dignity to the chief city of French Africa, it is a rent-producing construction. Within it are cavernous cellars, warerooms, storage vaults, and the offices of commission-merchants and shipping-agencies; and at the angle near the mosque a fish-market is held in huge halls of stone, damp and cool. Below on the broad quai we see acres of merchandise, crowded warehouses, railway tracks, and loaded cars, all suggestive of a nineteenth century activity. The boulevard above is almost a reproduction of the Rue de Rivoli of Paris. The buildings are nearly uniform in height and in design. There are the usual rows of balconies, the sidewalks run beneath continuous arcades, the windows of the shops are dressed with French daintiness, the restaurants, inside and out, recall those of the gay