HAM 



2673 



HAMBURG 



houses; a smoldering fire is built beneath the 

 floor, and the smoke ascends to the meat 

 through holes in the flooring. The smoking 

 lasts from 12 to 48 hours. The hams are then 

 cooled, wrapped up and, if intended for the 

 market, put in boxes for shipment. The large 

 packers usually have a brand burned in the 

 skin before wrapping. 



In the United States, the chief centers for 

 the preparation of ham are Chicago and Kan- 

 sas City. Large quantities are produced for 

 home consumption and for export; about 166,- 

 000,000 pounds of hams and shoulders are sent 

 annually to foreign countries, representing a 

 value of nearly $24,000,000. Of this amount, 

 Canada receives over 4,000,000 pounds, valued 

 in ordinary times at nearly $700,000. See MEAT 

 AND MEAT PACKING. 



HAM, one of the three sons of Noah who 

 went out with their father from the Ark after 

 the Flood (Genesis VIII, 18) to establish new 

 nations. Gradually the families of his two 

 brothers, Shem and Japheth, moved to distant 

 parts of Asia, while Ham settled in Canaan, and 

 is the reputed father of the African races. 

 Many of his descendants migrated into South- 

 ern Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt. The entire 

 group is called Hamites, for they still have 

 many characteristics in common, and there is 

 some similarity in their languages. See SHEM ; 

 JAPHETH; NOAH. 



HA 'MAN, a royal favorite at the court of 

 the despotic Persian king Ahasuerus, who pro- 

 moted him to high rank, where all the princes 

 bowed to his authority. His personal ambition 

 carried him to such an extreme that the king 

 ordered him hanged on the gallows which he 

 himself had prepared for Mordecai, a Jew. The 

 saying, "Hang as high as Haman," arose from 

 this act, for the gallows which Haman ordered 

 built for Mordecai was made unusually high, 

 since it was his intention that people all over 

 the city should see the death of the Jew. 



Being the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, 

 he was of lowly origin, so he felt very much 

 elated when the king, soon after marrying the 

 beautiful Jewess, Esther, raised him to an ex- 

 alted position. Mordecai, a cousin and the 

 former guardian of Esther, refused to bow to 

 Haman, which greatly angered the latter, so he 

 planned revenge by the massacre, not only of 

 Mordecai, but of all the Jews in the Empire 

 (Esther III, 8-9). Then Esther, who had kept 

 her nationality a secret, risked her life by re- 

 vealing it to the king and pleading for her 

 people. The monarch quickly saw the whole 

 168 



nefarious plot and ordered his servants to hang 

 Haman, while he raised Mordecai to high hon- 

 ors and allowed the Jews to go free. See 

 ESTHER. 



HAM 'BURG (in German, hahm'boorK), the 

 most important commercial center on the con- 

 tinent of Europe, and next to Berlin, the larg- 

 est city in the German republic. It is situated 

 seventy-five miles from the North Sea port of 



LOCATION OF HAMBURG 



Cuxhaven, on the northern branch of the River 

 Elbe, and 178 miles northwest of Berlin. The 

 value of its shipping and commerce in normal 

 times is exceeded only by London and New 

 York. The city is crossed in all directions by 

 canals, and is also intersected by the River Al- 

 ster, which forms two large lakes or basins 

 known as the Binnenalster and Aussenalster. 

 More than sixty bridges cross the canals, and 

 two splendid structures span the Elbe.' 



The commercial part of the town is old and 

 possesses little beauty. The canals are lined 

 by warehouses, to which lighters bring goods 

 from the harbor, which is one of the best 

 equipped in the world. The more modern por- 

 tion surrounds the two basins of the Alster and 

 contains many handsome buildings and beauti- 

 ful promenades. The church of Saint Nicholas, 

 a modern building erected at a cost of over 

 $1,000,000 as a memorial of the fire which de- 

 stroyed a great part of the city in 1842, is one 

 of the loftiest churches in the world, with a 

 spire 482 feet high. The city owns all public 

 utilities, which are operated by companies pay- 

 ing high rentals for the privileges. Hamburg 

 is one the largest of the world's coffee markets, 

 and is also among the foremost cities in money 

 exchange transactions. 



The principal exports are sugar, coffee, woolen 

 and cotton goods, ironware, machinery, tobacco 

 and paper. The imports consist chiefly of raw 

 products such as wool, hides, tobacco, iron, 

 grain and coffee. One- of the principal indus- 

 tries is shipbuilding; the largest vessels of the 



