Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/465

 The village "journal of Social Democracy," La Vigie, in its issue of June sixth, 1914, comments editorially that the colony of St. Pierre-Miquelon, "sole débris of our important possessions in New France," is to-day on the point of vanishing completely. Said a shop-keeper as he gazed at impoverished shelves, "We are only poor relations now, hanging to the skirts of France. Our flakes are bare, the wharves where vessels once ranged in a treble row stern to stem are nearly deserted. If our patrie contrives no new industries for us, then we must find occupation elsewhere, as hundreds of us have already done—some in Canadian mines and factories, some in Gloucester and Lynn. We Miquelonais do not like Canada, the land from which our ancestors were expelled by British usurpers. Nor do we forget that we owe all our misfortune to the vengeance of a British colony. Most of us, like the Acadians, will find our refuge in America. Our island will be left alone with its staring houses."

Despite predictions justified by the present state of commerce, new projects are being discussed for the sustenance of the colony, and beach and wharves still show activities fostered by the presence of an ever-changing fleet. Each year, many English vessels as well as French are placed under the economical and expert hands of St. Pierre workmen. As we walked one morning along the harbour road, the air was lively with the tapping