The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-17
MISS VAN DYKE AT
THE RUSKIN CLUB

"In such a struggle for supremacy one
must win, the strongest the cleverest,
the least scrupulous; and that one was
Pisistratus. Eloquent with an eloquence
traditional in his family; brave, of court
eous, graceful manners; great beauty and
wealth; and with faculty of Stimulating
what virtues he had not, he endeavored,
once in power, to make his rule an easy,
a pleasant one by amusing and enter
tanning the people; by iattering their
vanity; by increasing their dominions,
and by diverting their minds from con-
sideration of the means by which he had
acquired power" said Miss Van Dyke.
He made his power more secure at the
same time, by increasing the breach be-
tween the rival leaders of the Eutrapid
tribes, weakening their power and pres
tige as a class; and identifying and build
ing up that quarter of the city inhabited
by the commercial class the bourgeoisie.
For SO long a time Athens has meant to
the world supremacy in the arts and in
literature, it is hard to realize it was not
always so, but up to the time of Scion had
neither. All Greece excelled her, but Pts
istratus, with the power and the means
acquired by 1.-THE laid upon the people,
had the ambition also to strengthen Ath-
/ ems extend her commerce, enlarge her bor-
ders, beautify her with noble buildings
and refine and cultivate the minds of her
people, andas the foundations of propri-
etary law and order, Solon's laws were
maintained.
The law against idleness was especially
enforced, and as the city became crowded.
citizens were established upon small farms
in the country, which Pisistratus stocked
with necessary cattle seeds and tools
He planted extensive groves of olives in
MANY directions, and in every way en-
raA In of bot
source of Attic wealth and to bring these
scattered settlements into close commune
cation with each other and the city. To
make those settled thereon realize that
they were all Athenians. Pisistratus butt
fine roads in every direction. These roads
were all accurately measured, and at GER
tain distances were erected marble pillars
with the head and shoulders of
Hermes. On the right shoulder was
cut a hexameter giving the names of
places connected by the road; on the left
shoulder, in pentameter form, short
proverb to give the. traveller wise and
profitable subject of meditation.
An allied work was the building of
acqueducts, by which water was brought
in closed conduits from the mountains
and was collected in reservoirs without
the citys walls, where it was purified be-
fore distribution through the city.
One of the first acts of Pisistratus on &C.
Temple of Apollo on the island of Delos
from sacrilege and PROCLAMATION. Apollo
was considered particularly kind and
suspicious to the Pisistratide, and they
therefore did much for his worship.
Miss Van Dyke then read from num-
Der of authorities the accounts of q temple
and altar to the Pythian Apollo com
menced during the reign of Pisistratus,
about $50 b. G, the vastness of the I'M
dertaking was likened to the Pyramids of
Egypt, and only the substructure was
nearly 400 years afterward Antiochus
Epiphanes carried it to half completion.
and the Emperor Hadrian completed it
in 100 A. ID.
A description of the Lyceum followed, a
garden without the walls, beautified by
fountains, shady walks and groves;
gymnasium, where Athenian youths eXer-
cised. This lyceum was the resort of
wise men later, Plato, Socrates, and
Athanasius Aristotle and his school.
Miss Van Dyke drew her very clever and
interesting paper to close by saying that
Pisstratus accomplished much that was
good during his tyrannous reign but that
a tyrant, no matter how benehcent, is
tyrant still, and his yoke, if but silken,
goads the neck of liberty-loving people.
Arts and letters did not flourish as they
did later, and one man, be he never so
mighty, cannot lift bound people to the
summit of greatness
To reach that position they must be free
and must struggle thither by their own
eXertionS.
But let history denounce Pisistratus as
it may and draw necessary lessons from
his career, it acknowledges one debt, his
great gift-which may balance accounts
in the gift of Homer.