The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-03-27
The Carthage Of To-day.

No one would think Of gong to Tunis
without visiting its ancient neighbor Car
thage-mighty Carthage, once mistress of
the seas and rival of Rome IN the DONNA
ton or the world; now but heap of
ruins. 1t was drive Of few hours over
sparsely inhabited country, end we were
we'll satisfied to accept the proffered COM
ranionship Of an elderly French gentle
man and his daughter, who, like ourselves
were pilgrims aud strangers. For the
gentleman was courteous and agreeable
as most French gentlemen are-and well
informed, and the daughter was young
and pretty and vivacIous. ''Safety lies
in numbers" he had said, half apologetic-
ally, after making the proposition as we
sat Mt breakfast that morning; land like
wiec, in this," and be drew cautiously
from his pocket silvormounted revolver,
accompanying the act with sundry hints
and mods aud low. voiced a.luslons to the
insecurity OF the country, and the necess-
ty of being we'll armed. Americus or D
duced Its fellow, and America made I'D
the complement with al old Glntlock pistol
that We had picked up some whcre IN Al
gcrla for lts antiquity and rare workman
ship. TO be sure, it wasn't loaded, and
probably wouldn't have gone off if 1t had
been but that was all the better for her.
Then we sailed proudly off, confident OF
being able to vanqnish my troop of marau-
ding aud murderous, Arabs that fortune
might send IN our way. In parenthesis l
may add that our doughty valor met with
no focman worthy Of Its powder. The
roads were ad, as one never finds in Alge-
ria, but they lay through wondero,lsly
fertile country OF olive orchards and lug
uriant fields Of wheat and barley and flax,
and were bordered with flowers of myriad
hucs the delicate, star shaped asphodel.
the crimson anemone, ground lilac and
purple Glover, and a thousand others. The,
most exciting incident Of the trip was the
stopping at II well.kept cafe where they
kept genuine lemonade; and the only
Arabs we encountered were The small boys
that followed lis perllnaciousIy among the
ruined temples Of Carthage with old coins
and hlts OF porphyry to sell. MIR. Fisk.
the U. s. Consul. General, may have moi
been so far wrong when he had SAID the
day before: "Why, 1 would far rather
trust myself IN the city or precincts of
Tunis after nghtfall than IN some of the
districts OF Detroit know Of. Pagan and
Christian, Roman, Vandal, B, zaDtine,
Arab and Turk have successlvely contrl-
buted to dcspoll tn once mighty city of
hor proud monuments and blot out her
anc,cht glory from the memory of man.
History assumes that Carthage was set
tied by band of Ptosnioiar navIgaters
some 3 600 years ago, more or less. N.Y.
thology goes more into the detail Of 70.
nance and tells how the beautiful princess
Dido. OF Tyre, tied from the wrath of her
brother PygmaliOn after ne had slain her
hnn nh0n tab ~, hnr
lowers how she stopped at the island of
Cyprus and carried of 80 maidens to fur
nlsh them with wives; how she landed on
the north coast of Africa, entered into
treaty with the natives, and bought from
them as much land as could he lncloscd
within bulls hide; and how she then
cut the hide into the thinnest of strips, and
80 lncloscd space Of % stadia, on which
she built her city and called it Byrsa, or
Bulls Hide, which afterward became
Carthage. A few vestiges remain of Queen
Dido's Palace, which occupied lofty
cmiuence overlooking the sea, whence she
watched the departure Of Aneas and his
Trojsns as she stabbed herself upon the
funeral pyre she had erected to the menl.
ory of her husband. The slto of the state
ly palace Is occupied now by q httlo chapel
erected by the french to the memory of
Louis TX, who died thereabouts when on
Ehls last crusadng expedition against The
Sbaraccn. Inc enclosure in which the
sohapcl stands is enclrcled with walls into
which have been built numerous fragments
l0t sculpture and Roman Inscriptions found
stn The vicinity, and a museum IN the same
sBnclosnre contains good many ancient
relics IN the form of rings, necklaces,
Slsslages, coinss and tho like. just below
'the chapel are few stones which mark
the site Of the temple OF Nsculapius,
which was the scene in the third Punio
var of the heroic conduct OF the wife OF
ttRsdrubal who, when her poltroon nus
'hand deserted his post and surrendered to
stna Romans, set fire to tho temple where
fthqy were btsieged, and with her children
sang It's little band OF defenders, perished
~ The flames. Where stood the amphi.
theetre, stained with the blood of Christian
smasyrs--it was thero that st. Perputua
snsh her companions were thrown to wild
slp,etasts-there l,t ls only an elliptlcal cxcava-
stiQn; and no relics remain to tell that
sSs2a5Isaasc was once the great stronghold of