Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-07-24
SIGHTS IN GREECE.
President Gilman, of JOHNS Hopkins. Tells
What Is Seen Where Olympian Ath-
leteS StrOye

made from AUlenS. 1nere Is the charm OF
beautiful scenery upon the entire route.
/ The railway, which is now completed as
! far as Pyrgos. first crosses the Hgalean
| hills by pass somewhat further inland
| than that of Daphne, through which went
the Sacred Way to Eleusis. On the left is
the bay, girt by the hills of Salamia and
the Peloponnesus, Eleusis and Megara-
which brief stops are made-ar among the
most famous of historic towns. Then
comes lofty piece of shelf-road, not unlike
| the Cornicbe road, where the traveller is re-
minded of the ancient Skron who used
| to kick travellers over the edge" After
little more than three hours from the
time of leaving Athens, the 1sthmus of
Corinth is reached. There rises the Aero
Corinthus, an isolated rock. 1856 feet high,
which is famous for its v1ew-the most in
structive, say many geographers. that can
be seen in Greece. The canal which unites
the Saronic Gulf with the Gulf of Corinth
| has been cut through, though it is not yet
ready to receive the waters, and as
the train passes over it on lofty bridge
a quick eye can see both the eastern and
| the western CULTS. Then the routes con-
tinues on the south side Of the bay from
! Corinth to Patras. Where can such blue
ness be seen as in this gulf? Toward the
north, on the mainland, the snow covered
SUBMITS of Mount Parnassus are continu-
ally in view, and the route may almost be
made out leading to Delphi, then ancient
shrine which Americans are now invited to
unearth. The fertile plains upon the south
ern shore of the bay are covered with the
luxurious vines, now brilliant in their
verdure, upon which grow the so-caled
'currants' that contribute not little to
| the commerce of Patras The student of
minded of the influence of English plum
pudding upon the wealth of nodern Greece
In the neighborhood of Corinth still grow
the Aleppo pines, which are doubtless, as
Sandys says, Gneal descendants of the trees
which once supplied the victor crown at
the lsthmian games. Patras is the sea-
port where returning tourists take the
steamer for Brindisi. Soon the railway
passes along the edge of forest of grand
oak trees on an estate that belongs to the
Crown Prince, and at length Zante and the
other lonian islands come In sight. Pyrgos,
the present terminus of the rails, is reach
ed In thirteen hours from Athens. and
every one of them, from daylight until
dark, has given some new and beautiful
landscape.
OLYMPIA Is SEVERAL MILES INWARD
from Pyrgos, with which it is now connect
ed by well-graded carriage road. Two
high ridges and an intervening valley are
crossed before the bed of the river Kldtleus
is reached and the hill Krones comes into
view. Soon the river Alpbeus is seen and
the broad, hill-encircled plain of Olympia.
No one with an iota of historical i'm
aglnatiOn can fail to be impressed with
that which lies scattered over this vast area
But few of the pillars are standing The
stadium, where the great races took place,
is still for the most part covered with the
earth. But the foundations of the great
temples are all visible, and the ground is
strewn with broken columns and arch
ieraves and pieces of sanitary which the
skill of Ernest Curtius and his able col
leagues first revealed to modern eyes by a
series of well planned excavations, begin
ming in 1874
As a guide to the ancient splendors of the
buildings of Olympus, Pausanias, who was
there some seventeen hundred years ago, and
who has wittily been called ''the Baedeher
of antiquity is still most serviceable and
with the minute details that he gives it is
interesting to compare the story that Boet-
ticher has admirably told of the German
arch@olog1sts. As the tourist wanders
through the Palaestra and enters the
temples of Hera and Zeus, as he stands
where the Hermes was so wonderfully pre-
served from destruction, and as he endeav-
ors to decipher the inscription on the
PEDESTAL where stood the statue of Nike, or
tries to form an idea of the dimensions of
the stadium his mind onders back to the
SPLENDID contests which for more than
thousand years were celebrated here No
where else, DIS an English geographer has
we'll said, could it be seen how conspicu-
ously Greek religion and Greek art acted as
States which formed the Hellenic com
munity.
But after all the chief attraction in
Olympia is the museum in which within
few months past all the most precious pieces
of statuary here discovered have been
brought together. The gift of an individ-
ual has provided for their reception an ex-
celent building, and the policy of the
Greek Government retains in stu all
the important remains of ancient art. So
the lover of the fine arts who would see the
most beautiful statue in the world must
come to Olympia. The Hermes of Prax-
iteles stands in hail by itself. 1t is we'll
lighted by window at the side. The legs
and one foot have been restored, otherwise
the figure stands just as it was found, with
the mould of time still clinging to its sur
face. Familiar as the eye may be with the
photographs and cast of this famous work,
or rather | may say the more familiar the
eye may be with the reproduction of this
majestic statue the more delight there
will be in seeing the original
In the LARGO Ontar hall of tho M1Saun
STANDS THE NIKE,
not mounted, as it originally was. upon
lofty pedestal to be seen from distance.
but slightly raised above the floor, so that
it may be carefully examined, Here also,
are the great groups of soul ptured figures
which filed the pediment of the Temple of
Zeus. In cases near by are multitudes of
smaller objects, and in adjacent rooms
many pieces of sculpture not yet arranged
and not yet described to the public. Copies
of the reproductions of the statues in the
pediments, exactly like those which have
decorated for several years Professor Gid
ersleeves's library In the Johns Hopkins
University, are placed at the side of the
great originals. AS we stood before the
Nike we were also reminded of home by
reading quotation from a poem of E. c,
Stedman (who is to be in Baltimore, the
Turnbull lecturer of 1891, that is made by
a Cambridge scholar. In News from
Olympia I'VE are reminded by M San
dys), the transatlantic poet thus refers to
1.-The first important discovery of the Ger
man expedition.
The herald Nike first,
| From the dim resting place unfettered burst
Il ]