Page:LA2-NSRW-1-0216.jpg

BARBARY STATES triumph to Constantinople, where he died in 1546. Bar'bary States, a large region in northern Africa, comprising modern Barca, Tripoli Proper, Fezzan, Tunis, Algeria and Morocco. In ancient times the countries included in it were called Mauritania, Numidia, Africa Proper and Cyrenaica. It is divided by the Atlas Mountains, and stretches from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Desert of Sahara. The whole or parts of it have been conquered at different times by the Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Turks and French. Excepting the French and other Europeans, the inhabitants are mostly Mohammedans. Barca, known also as Benghazi, a Turkish vilayet in Tripoli-in-Barbary, projecting into the Mediterranean, opposite Greece and the island of Crete, and having to the south of it the Libyan Desert. It is flanked on the east by Egypt and the mouth of the Nile River, and on the west by Tripoli, the Gulf of Sidra and Algeria. In early days the region was the Dorian colony of Cyrene, subsequently captured and pillaged by the Persians. Later on it became a province of Greece, but, declaring itself independent, it was invaded and conquered in A. D. 641 by the Arabs. With Tripoli it fell under Turkish dominion, and in 1835 the entire region was proclaimed a Turkish vilayet; though, forty years subsequently it was placed under a separate administration directly responsible to the Porte. The country is in the main arid and sandy, with a few elevations, together with fringes of arable and pasture land, where barley and wheat are grown, cattle and sheep are bred, and fruits, including dates, olives, oranges and lemons, are grown. Sponges also are among its exports, besides goat-skins, ostrich-feathers, ivory and the produce brought by caravans from the Libyan Desert and the Sudan. Arabic is the tongue commonly spoken in the district, though the official language is Turkish. The population of Barca or Benghazi is 320,000 to 520,000, mostly Berber, though Jews are numerous. Barcelo'na, the most important manufacturing city in Spain, and next to Madrid in size, is situated on the Mediterranean Sea. It is divided into the old and new towns by a beautiful promenade called La Ramble. It has a Gothic cathedral 600 years old, a university, public libraries, museums and theaters. It is the most important port of Spain except Cadiz. Silk, lace,.woolen and cotton goods, shoes and firearms are its principal manufactures. It is a very old place, supposed to have been founded 400 years before the Romans, and rebuilt by Hamilcar Barca, the father of the great Carthaginian general, Hannibal. In 878 it became an independent city under the counts of Barcelona, but was joined to the kingdom of Aragon in the i2th century.

During the middle ages it was a flourishing seaport. Ferdinand and Isabella received Columbus here, in 1493, after his discovery of America. In 1714 it was captured by the Duke of Berwick for the French after a long siege, and the town pillaged. Napoleon got possession of it in 1804, and it was held by the French till the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Barcelona is also a province of Spain, area, 2,968 square miles, population, 1,133,883. The city's population is 560,000. Barebone's Parliament, a name applied in derision to an assembly of Roundheads summoned by Cromwell in 1653 to govern the then Puritan England after turning out the "Rump" of the Long Parliament. It was composed of about 140 members, and received from the Cavaliers its nickname of Barebone's Parliament from the name of an officious member, Praise-God Bare-bone, a leather merchant of Fleet Street, London. The assembly, though composed in part of many responsible and capable as well as godly men, proved rather unmanageable, and as it began to originate laws of a more or less radical order, which the Lord-Protector deemed beyond the legitimate province of the assembly, Cromwell ordered its dissolution after many of the body had personally surrendered their vested power into his hands. The Parliament lasted from July 4th to Dec. 12th, 1653, and in spite of its wittily applied name it enacted several wise measures of reform. Before resigning as a body, it named a new Council of State, and this council proceeded to draft a constitution, historically known as the Instrument of Government. Under this instrument Cromwell was made Lord-Protector of the commonwealth, and was given a council of twenty-one members, by whose advice he was to be guided in foreign and domestic affairs. Bar Harbor, a famous summer resort, is situated on Mt. Desert Island off the coast of Maine. This island, the largest on the New England coast, was discovered by Champlain who named it Ulsle des Monts Deserts or the isle of the desert mountains. In its area of 100 square miles there are fifteen mountains from 700 to 1,500 feet above the sea level, and as many beautiful lakes from a few acres to several square miles in area.

Bar Harbor has a permanent population of 5,000. In the summer this is increased to 12,000 or more. It contains several large hotels but is becoming more each year a city of magnificent summer residences which are popularly known as cottages. These are occupied during the summer by members of some of the wealthiest and best known families of the large cities. In addition to its natural attractions of mountain, lake and shore, Bar Harbor has many public improvements including fine roads, bridle paths, excellent drainage, an abundance of