Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-10-12
ExHUMlNG A POET.
Or the Most Important Part OF Him, His
Mtnu-Crlut.


Some time ago where was unearthed
in Egypt a ron IF papvrus. the hero
Tiyphir> on which having been dcci-
phc"cd We're found Ia give an account
Uf Il >trik" which took place among the
wOrkmcn on Il temple in the days of
the HtoicIni"S, which in many respects
bears "a strong resemblance to the labor
troubles IF to-day. As further proof
that there il nothing new under the
sun the british museum has just pub
li>hcd a volume containing the text of
Il number Of manuscripts of classical
authors which favc been uncarthcd in
Egypt. one of these is 4 collection of
poems written by lIrrodcs, 4 native of
Cos. III the eastern Egean, who lived
two hundred and fifty years before the
Christian era; and after reading the
verses the conclusion will he arrived at
that there was 4 great deal of human
nature i'll ancient Greece, and that the
people did not differ very much from
those of the nineteenth century.
1t is related of. Charles Lamb that
once, as he sat watching Coleridge de-
livering one of his metaphysical mono
logues to tired listener, the suffering
humorist said: Never mind Cole
ridge: it's only his fun" 1t would be
a very difficult task to extract amuse-
ment from the writings of philoso-
piers like Plato and Socrates, or dram
atists like Sophocles and Euripides; yet
there must have been some fun in those
old Greeks, opines the Philadelphia
Record. Aristophanes wrote comedies
and Theo compiled comic lexicon; and
ill-natured and censorious people have
been heard to say that the jokes some
times heard to-day at minstrel shows
and in farce comedies undoubtedly
served to cause laugh in the days Of
Scion and Lycurgus. ~
The discovered poems Of Herodes are
OF humorous character, and are chief
ly in the form Of dialogues. One Of
them, which is entitled 1.-THE Match
maker" shows how q young woman
whose husband was away on q long
journey was visited by an old woman
who endeavored to persuade her to So
cure sort of Dakota divorce and marry
a very nice young man whom sheehad
met that summer at the Egean sea-
shore. Then we have mother leading
her unwilling boy to the schoolmaster.
and explaining to that functionary how,
in spite of all that she could do. he
would persist in going of swimming.
tying melodious cans to dogs tails and
throwing Greek fireballs into the tub
occupied by the philosopher. Diogenes.
In another poem there is dialogue be-
tween two fashionable ladies living on
Mars Hill, which bears a strong resem.
blance to the feminine gossip heard in
parlors and drawing-rooms to-day.
The servant girl question was evil
IDENTIFY as burning an issue two thou.
sand years ago as it now is, for the two
Grecian danes began to compare nstes
and to tell how the housemaid would
persist in going off to the Olympian
games and how the cook burned the
roasts and got drunk just on the eve OF
a grand dinner to be given to the "a
nous painter, Apelles. Then, forget
ting their troubles, they take to discus
ing the fashions and the bargains to be
had on the Athenian Eighth street. and
how they intend to trim the fall dresses
and bonnets. l--- >.
In the next poem we find them in q
shoe store, turning over and trying on
the goods and endeavoring, just like
their modern sisters, to get No. 4 foot
into No. 2 shoe. How they succeeded
can only be conjectured. q convocation
of worms having eaten up the rest OF
the manuscript. AS pictures of ancient
life, and of an age which has generally
been considered one of ideal culture
and philosophy, these poems afford a
closer insight into everyday Greek life
than even the recently-discovered
treatise of Aristotle on the Athenian
constitution