Text IV

“Suddenly, it seemed that there WAS no gold left in the ground. The miners [TO PACK] their tools, their pans, and their bags, and [TO GO] off somewhere else, to try their luck again. There WERE no more emigrants either; as soon as the first transcontinental railroad had opened in 1869, the old emigrant trails had been completely abandoned. The hotels closed, the shops closed, the bars closed, the jail closed; and before long, Atlantic City WAS a ghost town, uninhabited except by the occasional rancher or hunter, and the wandering coyotes. I didn't expect to find much in Atlantic City. I knew that a few people lived there again now, some of the old houses had been restored, and others had been built. But I didn't expect much. We drove round a dusty bend, and there in front of us lay the town, a couple of dozen wooden buildings, some old, some new, and mostly pretty plain.”

(Linguapress)