Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-03-13
ATHENS

is as yet the most of Greece, so far as
culture and civilization are concerned,
and the city is a splendid testimonial of
the national love of learning and the lib
eral arts Wealthy Greeks found schools,
build art galleries and use their money for
the public good. One art museum has been
filed and another fine building is now
ready. The academy of Science was built
by Baron Sina at cost of 81, 900, 600 the
Polytechnic Institute was founded by liber-
al citizens, and the young ladies school is
a fine building occupying nearly a block.
The University of Athens has an attend
ance of over | 800 students, and the British
American, French and German schools Of
art here afford excellent opportunities for
the study of art in its different forms. es
pecially, of course, sculpture and architect
IRE There are but few railways as yet
and travel in the interior must be largely
by horseback, it requires much time and is
expensive, d courier being necessary for
most journeys Almost every one, though,
will wish to make the excursions to Eleusis
Salamis and Marathon from Athens, see
Pentelicus and the Attic plain, glance at
PaTnassas and visit Naupia, Argos, My
cen8. Corinth and Olympia. AT the latter
place, where so many fruitful excavations
have been made of late years, may be seen
the Mercury of Praxiteles. the most spleu
did relic of the golden days of sculpture vet
found in Greece, and a fit companion for
the Venus of Milo.
1t is difficult always TO bring magma
ton down from ITS youthful flights and
make it adapt tselfto the prosaic facts re-
vealed by the experience Of later years The
are when one reads Homer, Sophoeies and
.Eschylus is an impresssionable one. Tie
mind is in full sympathy with the exuber-
ant fancy of the wonder-loving old Greeks
the fountains, groves and hills are So Ieo-
pied with gods and 9oddesses; the deeds 5f
Jupiter. Apollo ana Minerva are SO ming
led with theacts Of ThemissOctes Alcibi-
AIDES and Epaminondas the wars seem so
mighty and the philosophers, poets and
statesmen so numerous and great, that the
reason refuses to recognize one small land
as tie theater Of all these great events.
But. once on the ground heights and dis
tances shrink; Mt Olympus becomes an
ordinary hill the plain of Marathon lit
tie field, and the Styx and Ilissus tiny
brooks that run dry each summer
THE GREEK LANGUAGE
has been for SO many centuries called a
dead language that il would be difficult to
convince people general, that it is still
alive and healthy, but modern Greece bears
lust about the same relation to ancient
Greek that our English Of to-day bears to
that Of Cbau,cr The letters and type
are the same, the general con truction un
changed. and one who Is reasonably famil
lar with ancient Greek can, after a little
parctice. read the Athenian papers Of to-
day. The pronunciation is quite different
from our fashion Of pronouncing Greek,
but the chances are that the modern
Greeks are at least al near the ancient
method al English or Americans, and a !
learned this method in college days. ! find
it much less confusing than most do on
arrival here A visit to Athens Is not com
plete without