They are to be found in all directions--quaint
little places, planted down here and there, each with a small chapel
of its own, with moss-grown roofs and dingy walls, and doors that
open on to the uneven cobbles. Every stone of them spells pauperism.
The Church does much towards maintaining these shelters for the
poor--perhaps too much, if it is true that there are 10,000 paupers
in Bruges out of a population of about 55,000. There is a great deal
of begging in the streets, and a sad lack of sturdy self-respect
amongst the lower class, which many think is caused by the system
of doles, for which the Church is chiefly responsible. Bruges might
not have been so picturesque to-day if her commerce had survived;
but the beauty of a town is dearly purchased at the cost of such
degradation and loss of personal independence.
[Illustration: BRUGES. View of the Palais du Franc.]
It was not only the working class which suffered. Many rich families
sank into poverty, and their homes, some of which were more like
palaces than private houses, had to be dismantled. The fate of
one of these lordly mansions is connected with an episode which
carries us back into the social life of Bruges in the middle of
the seventeenth century.
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