The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-06-11
A Quarry for the World.

n quarry lOf tie NuFfu.
Since then Carthage has been a
quarry for thu artistic building mate
rial Of all the palaces along the Medit-
sea. 8In the great mosque of
Santa Sophia, At Constantinople. I saw
marble columns which came from
here: many ct the wonders of archl-
t~ecturaI Rome8 originated in Carthage,
and shiplOads tof its ruins have gone
10 Palermo and other italian cities.
The palaces of the Bey of TuniS are
built Of Punt marble. and the bazaars
OF Tunis are thanked with marble
columns, which the Arabs have paint
ed over in red. yellow and green
stripes, so that they now look more
like barber poles than anything else.
Many OF the rouse OF Tunjs contain
the ruins here ave been furnishing
building stone of one kind or another
for more than 1000 years.
During recent centuries the various
museums Of the world have been
robbing this ancient city. and travellers
also nave been allowed to pick up and
carry away hat they pleased. This
is So today. although the french have
established two museums. one on the
site of cd Carthage and the other at
the Bardo, iii the palace of the bev.
and are trying to preserve what is
left.
Exploring the Ruins.
The books about Africa will tell you
that there is nothing of Carthage now
40 be seen EXCEPT a few brOken-dOwn
cisterns which once supplied the city
with water. This is not SO. The
french have been making excavations
ever since they have had unisia un-
der their control. This is so not
only here, out in all parts of the coun-
try, and they have unearthed ruins
watch will compare with those of
AthenS and Rome. They are anxious
/ f. increase their work alone thoe,
lines. and the remains are such that
1t might well pay our rich American
colleges to establish schools of eX-
Dloration here, as they have done III
old Greece.
Take this city of Carthage alone and
imagine h might be found. SUP
pose YOU could blot from the face of
the United States either Boston, Phil
a~delphia or st. Louis. Suppose YOU
could destroy all the buildings and
them lie for decades and build other
great cities on top. Then DESTROY
those cities. and let the storms and
dust of . thousand years settle upon
them, and you may aTe some idea
of the condition of the ruins of Car
thage tOdaN. You must add, how
ever, the tomhs in which the ancients
were accustomed to put jewelry and
other relics. and imagine that the des-
tructiOn was such that much of the
bSloIlSlnSS CT the people were lett N
the debris.
1t is now more thai twenty-seven
hundred years since the first buildings
of Carthage were erected. and many
of the objects saw today were more
than two thousand years old, As [
went over the ruins I observed the
Arab farmers blowing up bits of
pottery and pieces of marble, which
were parts of houses more than twenty
centuries ago, and I have been both
cred all day by dark-faced Mohamme-
dams begging me to buy Carthaginian
coins in use long before Christ and
canoes the size of my finger nail,
which were probably worn in the rings
of those Punic maidens when all the
world was Young.
l can't besin TO describe the extent
Of the ruins BY his [ do not mean
the remains of great temples and pal
aces. of theaters and tombs. These
are comparatively few, but there are
vast tracts covered with bits of pottery.
pieces of broken marble. half ground
up bricks and bits of mosaic. Such
remains cover the ground. The sheen
and goats feed among them, and they
are plowed and narrowed and pulver-
crops of the present.
In the Theaters.
My way to Carthage was over an ex-
Cetlent road which runs around the
bay. The scenery is beautiful and the
~flamingoeS fly over the water, showing
their pink plUlnGge as they probably
did IN n past. All along the roads