The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-31

NN F ASH1NGTON, May 30.-(Special)
 WNW Few cities have experienced
 w higher "ups'' and lower downs" in the tides of trade than the Spanish Venice, known in. atlases as Cadiz, which if reports from Madrid are authentic, Is now preening itself at the prospect of a renewal of prosperity at the close of the world war. If Germany should make this Andalusian seaport place of call for her transatlantic liners "a possibility hinging on the supposition that England and France will not again extend the Inequalities of Southampton and Cherbourg to the Hamburg and Ere men steamers-there will be written an- other striking chapter in the story or one of the most interesting cities of west ern Europe. In bulletin Issued from it's Washington headquarters the Ma tional Geographic society gives the fol- lowing historical sketch of Cadiz'
 "A hundred years before Solomon be- gan the erection of the temple In Jeru- salem the Phoenicians. who were to sup uly him with so much of tho building
  the present site of Cadiz and called II Agadir. Agadir was the great western center for Phoenicia's trade in amber and tin during the heyday of Tyres prosper ity. When the daring sea merchants from the eastern shores of the Mediter- ranean had sailed their last voyage they were followed at Agadir by the Cartha- o% ha al vt before tho Christian era. The subjects of the descendants of Queen Dido used the seaport as base for their conquest of southern Iberia and later as an out fitting station for Hannibars and Ham Hears expeditions against Rome In the second Punic war, however. the inhab- itants of the town sided with the Romans and aided in the equipment of an expe- dition against Carthage
 "When Agadir passed under the domi- nation of the Eternal City it became known as Gades. and soon rose to opu- lence and power. Its trade in dried fish, meats and the varied products of the rich valley now known as Guadalquivir was enormous and 'Gades the Joyous was the phrase applied to it by the Lat in historian Juvenal. who records the fame of its cooking and its beautiful dancing girls. Both Julius and Augustus Caesar bestowed special privileges on its citizens who came to rank next in power and privileges to the inhabitants of the imperial city itself.
 Scarcely trace remains of the Ro- !! man days, all the architectural features | of this period of the city's history having been swept away by the visigoths in the | fifth century of our era.
 "The oriental aspect of present-day I Cadiz Is the result of five and half cen- l turies of Moorish occupation. but in 1262 Alphonse x of Castle succeeded in wrest- | ing the town from the Mohammedans. Two hundred and fifty years later with l the discovery of America. the city en- l tered upon a third era of prosperity, riv- aling If not surpassing the glory of its Phoenician and of it's Roman days. The l silver galleons' bearing the treasures of the New World made this their home city
 and 1t soon became the wealthiest sea- port of Spain and therefore of western :! Europe, for the Dons were, in that age | the foremost power Of the Christian l world.
 "The reviving prosperity of Cadiz
 bsought In itn- tzain mary nilI1ortaneaI