No. 200.1 227 



has wrought out his fabrics by a magic whose quick and potent spells 

 would but a few years back in the history of the world have invoked 

 the ban of witchcraft ; and the genius of mechanical industry, warm- 

 ed into life and rendered strong and active by the demands which the 

 farmer and the loom have created — these all have worked for you, and 

 at your hands c aim encouragement, protection, patronage. 



There have existed commercial cities whose bright career has star- 

 tled the generations that beheld their growth, which have been made 

 great by foreign enterprise. About three thousand years ago Carthage 

 was built. A wandering queen landed with her retinue upon a small 

 isthmus, scarcely three miles broad, near a bold promontory which 

 divides the southern shore of the Mediterranean. Her Canaanitish 

 ancestors had left their homes when Joshua led his hosts through the 

 divided waters. She fled from the cruel oppression of her brother, to 

 fcund upon the African coast a nation that should rival Kome in great 

 possessions. For her first " real estate" Dido is said to have paid 

 even less than the sharpest white man of modern days allowed the In- 

 dian for his inheritance. For a small consideration she bargained for 

 as much land as the hide of an ox would compass. Her simple cus- 

 tomers, who deserved the cow-hide rather, readily agreed. But the 

 Tyrian exile, bringing to her aid the mechanic arts, caused the skin 

 to be cut into long strips, and so enclosed a territory whose breadth 

 satisfied her and quite astonished them. In this branch of business 

 no man has yet out Didoed the queen of Carthage. In commerce 

 Carthage had no rival. Her marine was placed by old historians 

 above that of the world beside. All the ports of the Mediterranean 

 were familiar to her, and were visited for purposes of traflSc. From 

 the farthest east then known, to regions in the west, beyond which no 

 Columbus had explored, her busy mariners traversed. The mercan- 

 tile skill and success of the Carthagenian extorted praise from the 

 father of history. But it was not to domestic agriculture that she 

 was indebted. Her merchants enjoyed the carrying trade of the 

 world. To her manufactures and her skill in the mechanical arts she 

 owed much, and from her Tyrian ancestry derived that genius which 

 compelled the Roman historians to designate as Punic the most remark- 

 able results of inventive skill. But although domestic agriculture 

 contributed so little to her growth, it would be difficult to estimate 

 the value to her of agricultural industry ; for she availed herself of 

 the produce of the world, and by consummate skill made other grana- 

 ries answer to her call. But for the successful prosecution of our 



