The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-29
TUSINIA, A REGENCY.
IN QUARANTINE, UNDER THE
WALLS OF CARTHAGE.
Where Dido Lived and Hannibal
Fought and Scipio Conquered-Thc
CITY of TuntS

City of Tunis.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier.)
Tunis, Africa, June 20.-From AL
giers to Tunis you sail due east, almost
six hundred miles Again and again
the words of Doctor Johnson recur tc
mind: 1.-THE grand object of all travel
ing is to see the shores of the Mediter-
4 lanean. On these shores stood the four
great empires of the world-the Assyr-
ian, the Persian the Grecian and the
Roman. All our religion, almost all
our laws, almost all our arts, almost
all that sets us above savages, has
come to us from the shores of the Med
I lterranean." But in these latter days,
y the degenerate races that now inhabit
that classic region might learn a very
great deal from our infant republic of
the west.
The regency of Tunis-or Tunisia, as
1t has now become the fashion to call it
is really little more than a prolonga-
ton of Algeria, except that in it are
fewer forests and cultivated spaces
and the mountains gradually dwinde
to mole-hills. For nearly seven hun
dred miles in Algeria, the seward
slopes of the Atlas range are rich in
wheat, barley, cotton and tobacco; or
chards OF lemons, oranges, cherries and
peaches; groves of olives, almonds.
chestnuts and tamarisks; tangled
thickets of oleander, arbutus, myrtle
and juniper; alternated with sandy
stretches overgrown with dwarf palm
whose tender buds and leaf-staks fur
nish the staple food of the Arabs, and
whose f1bres make baskets, mats, cords
fans and other useful articles. Higher
up are dense forests of Carib and To-
Gust trees; and all the sunny hillsides
have peculiar scarlet glow, borrowed
from the flowers of the universal pome-
granate bush.
In Tunis less rain falls, owing to the
conf1guration of the country; and the
consequence Is that the land, though
not absolutely sterile, is cultivated with
so much difficulty and uncertainty, that
1t is mostly left to Mother Natures de-
sultory methods. There is decidedly
less difference in the political than the
physical features of the adjoining pro-
vinces. Until few years ago the gov
-0ernment Of Tunis was an hereditary
Beylick, whose ruler acknowledged the
suzerainty of the Porte, coined his
money in the name of the sultan, and
received investiture from him, but paid
no tribute Now, in all but name, the
regency of Tunis is as much French |
territory as Algeria, and though the |
government is still carried on in the !
name of the Bey, he is merely a figure |
head and scape-goat French influence |
is supreme. This fiction of a Beylick |
suits France admirably, being conven-
lent when mistakes occur, or acts COM
mitted that could not be count enanced |
under, the common law of the French |
republic. 1t also provides cheap and |
easy machinery for governing the ma
tive races and obviates the necessity
for the elaborate and expensive gov
eminent system that would have to be
established We're the country pro-
claimed an integral part of France.
It is huge joke, like that of the pot
calling the kettle hard names and the
tongs sending the poker to Coventry
for having meddled with the fire, to
find ourselves quarantined In Tunis be
cause we came from the cleaner and |
healthier region of Algeria! However,
the annoyance has been more than
made up by forty-eight hours at an
Choir under the breezy cliffs of Car
thage-the ancient Roman city on Its
superb promontory, pointing {! colossal
finger into the Gulf of Tunis from It's
westward shore. Carthage, you re-
member. was founded by a Phoenician
colony from Tyre, eight hundred and
fifty-two years before Christ was
born. Then it was called Kart-Hadact
meaning New City" in opposition to
Utica, the "Old." This name became
Carchedon in Greek and Carthage i'll [
Roman For upwards of seven hum
bred years 1t continued in uninterrupt- {
"a glory. till destroyed by Scipio, B. G. /
1916 A quarter of century or so later S
It was colonized by Caius Gracious, !
and rebuilt by Augustus. Long after t
wards 1t became the chief seat Of /
Christ anity In Africa, and many OF its I
rAst splendid edifices were demolished {
with the view Of roofing out Paganisn. c
rts inter destruction, however, did not f
,erin until the Arab invasion, CA. d. s
Ny. since which time generation af- I
Ter generation has continued the pious 6
vandalism with unremitting zeal All /
hat was movable has been long since {
carried off. either for the construction t
n the modern city of Tunis. or to en- a
,icb the public buildings and museums n
,f Europe OK to fence in barley fields +
nd cabbage patches round about. G
mss think of it. In this same old Gu ! {
scarcely less glorious than fl
2ume terself in magnificence and in 81
,eroes. Regulus, the Roman pat.ict, /
himself to certain fortunes n
n his return from his heroic mission. +,
in these plains both Scipio and Hanni h
,al proved their generous greatness Il
lore lido had her Dalace, and here the k
xilad tyrant, Marius wandered and a
ompared his fallen fortunes with the Il
uhlime wreck around him. A little lie
athcr along the western capes IS the h
he of "pent- up'' Utica, where Cato d.
he younger, who came to read phi.os- a,
nhy. surrendered himself to the reay hi
onine of Plato and selfishly committed re
,icide after the overthrow of Pomrav. ir
NE ancient cisterns constructed by The dt
more than eight centuries Nj
efore the Christian era are still cdDa- h,
Is rf holding water; and the ruins Of K
,e Lei fer Roman Forum the Templ2 Of h,