"The tariff has killed our shipbuilding," said the professor. No one took
up this firebrand, and the professor added: "Your name is Greek, isn't it,
Mr. Homos?"
"Yes; we are of one of the early Hellenic families," said the Altrurian.
"And do you think," asked the lawyer, who, like most lawyers, was a lover
of romance, and was well read in legendary lore especially, "that there is
any reason for supposing that Altruria is identical with the fabled
Atlantis'?"
"No, I can't say that I do. We have no traditions of a submergence of the
continent, and there are only the usual evidences of a glacial epoch which
you find everywhere to support such a theory. Besides, our civilization is
strictly Christian, and dates back to no earlier period than that of the
first Christian commune after Christ. It is a matter of history with us
that one of these communists, when they were dispersed, brought the Gospel
to our continent; he was cast away on our eastern coast on his way to
Britain."
"Yes, we know that," the minister intervened, "but it is perfectly
astonishing that an island so large as Altruria should have been lost to
the knowledge of the rest of the world ever since the beginning of our
era.
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