Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
RUINS OF OLD CORINTR
THE SPLENDID AND WEALTHY
CITY OF ANCIENT GREECE.
Art in Doric Columns - Excavations
Made by American Institute
of Archaeology.

Frum the Chicago Record-Herald.
In the golden age. 800 years before
Christ. Old Corinth was the most splendid.
luxurious and wealthy and at the same
time the most frivolous and wicked OF all
the cities of Greece. 1t was a commercial
metropolis the Chicago OF that period. a
center and focus of financial affairs. and II
stood upon plateau about six miles from
the sea upon the side of the mountain CALI
ed Acro-Corinth. looking down upon a mar
row and beautiful inlet OF blue water, be-
tween two ranges Of mountains. The Gulf
of Corinth is often compared to the fjords
of Norway. but its surroundings are mild
and modest beside their rugged grandeur.
II bears a closer resemblance to the Bos-
porus and to the famous inland sea OF
Japan.
New and Old Corinth.
The road which leads from the railway
station at New Corinth 10 the ruins OF the
old is exceptionally good for Greece. 1t
rises with an almost imperceptible nrade
and draws gradually toward a group of
seven majestic columns. the earliest and
purest examples OF the Doric school OF
architecture extant. and one of the oldest
and most precious monuments of the art,
scholarship and religion of ancient Greece.
They are deeply fiuted monoliths, 23ia feet
II.
base and feet and 3 inches at the top,
with projecting capitals and heavy entab-
lature. and. Notwithstanding their hoary
antiquity. the grain OF the marble Is suh
very fine. They were once gilded OF cover
ed with enamel. Five of them are nearly
perfect. The other two have been broken
and the pieces are now held together by
iron bands. All have been gnawed more
or less by the tooth of time and show cur
ious wounds. which look If they had
been cut with a chiseL These pillars are
all that remain of the portico Of the FAM
Gus Temple of Minerva. the ideal of Doric
architecture. the noblest simplest and most
natural Of all the schools.
Flowing Classic Fields.
Unconscious Of their artistic and archaeo-
logical advantages, the Grecian peasants
continue TO plow the adjacent fields, and
the day that we rode through groups
of women with tucked-up skirts were
breaking the earth with heavy hoes and
heaping 1t around the roots of the currant
bushes. Fields Of winter wheat were vivid
with tender shoots of green. and a fodder
plant that resembles alfalfa was growing
bravely on the other side Of the formidable
fences that were built with stones stolen
from the ruins of the old METROPOLIS. Here
and there is an oid-fashoned thrashing
floor. almost venerable as the pillars of
the temple, circle thirty forty feet in
diameter paved with smooth stones. upon
which, after the harvest, the grain is sepa-
rated from the stalk by driving hoofed cat
tie over II. This reminds me that in his
Epistle to the Corinthians Paul recalled to
them that pious Injunction in Deuteronomy,
Thou shalt not muzZle the OK when he
treadeth out the corn" but he might have
appealed to them also in behalf of the
blindfolded donkeys that patiently follow
the treadmills to fill the reservoirs so that
the plants may live when the earth is dry.
Women were washing at the irrigation
reservoirs and spreading the garments out
upon the grass and cobble stones to dry.
and little children were amusing themselves
with the same simple games that absorb
the attention of childhood in America.