The Indianapolis journal., 1902-07-20

Z. Il
of glorious ecstacy and pent-up emotions
which 1 had reserved for such an occasion
as this oozing through my finger
tips, and a desire to take the
rascal who had dared breath forth
such villianies as business" and
consume him in a funeral pyre of his own
speculations. But so the march Of progress
goes on. Already Athens has become
heterogeneous anomaly; the Greeks in their
wild costumes are jostled in the streets by
Englishmen, Frenchmen. Italians. Dutch
men, Spaniards. Bavarians, Russians
Danes and even Americans. European
shops invite purchasers by the side of
Eastern bazars. coffee houses and billiard
rooms and French and German and Eng
lish restaurants are opened all over the
city; in a few years if the march Of i'm
provement continues the sentimental trav-
eler will be confronted mayhap by the
Temple of Theseus turned into a concert
hall, the Temple of the winds into riding
academy or the sacred Parthenon bearing
the display of some enterprising real-estate
agent that suitable apartments for small
families will be rented at low cost. with all
modern conveniences and yard or two of
sentimental past thrown in
AN UNSURPASSED LOCATION.
Athens is one of the very few cities of
the world TO which fortune has given a
happy disposition of location. But what
makes the old city sui generis is its re-
lation to the tempted rock which over
shadows it with a moral and physical
grandeur 10 which other city on the
face of the globe can aspire. From the
streets below the upper portion Of the
ruined Parthenon can be seen projecting
above the Fashioned walls of the Acropolis
asserting its hereditary claims over the in
novations of to-day. as if declaring in
majestic muteness to the restless city at
its feet: II, 1 am Athens" Nor can the
modern life below it be disassociated from
that stupendous throne of rock which up
holds the monuments of a past age, whose
glories all subsequent ages have but re-
flected or imperfectly copied. The silent
city on the hill, which can never be hid, is
linked 10 the bustling city at it's feet. which
is ever trying to be seen. 1t is live man
bound 10 a corpse; but the man is mortal,
and the corpse is immortal.
To dilate on these majestic monuments of
time one might go on forever, but it is Of
modern Athens that we now should speak,
the workaday city of the present that with
youthful footsteps, is essaying to keep
march with the giant strides OF time.
With the exception of the olive groves,
commonly regarded as the scene of Plato's
retirement, which stretch along the plain
a couple of miles from the city. and the
few acres Of trees in the Queens garden"
there is little foliage TO refresh the eye in
Athens or it's vicinity. Even the small out
Lula hot &c
but nebulous phantasy which does not
count in the same table as utility, for they
have long ere this been sacrificed to keep
aglow the exterior of the Greek body TO the
detriment of the patriotic fires within.
But while the new Athens cannot but
make one hes.ve a sigh OF regret at the
heeting of passing glory it is not
without a distinctive charm of its
own. The new streets and boule-
wards are endless scenes of life
and movement The native Greek, by ma
ture is bored by restraint, and this is most
shown by his disposition TO make his thor
oughfares serve as his natural abode; only
for a few hours of much-needed slumber
does he remain indoors.
PEOPLE OF LEISURE.
Greeks are never in a hurry. There is
charming lack of energy about them,
which from a purely artistic point of view
is delightful To one accustomed TO the
bustling streets of America, it is a real
pleasure TO mingle with a sauntering Greek
crowd, and watch the apparent indifference
with which they treat the affairs of the
world. The grand gentleman and the beg
gar walk with the same lettering step,
the same independent brigandish swagger,
their capes thrown about their shoulders,
their quaint turbans poised easily upon
their heads, a cigarette between their lips
Talk of the future! 1t is nothing to them
more than their past; they are but crea-
lures of the to-day.
Old things are passing away and all
things are becoming new. For little
while yet we may cling to the illusions
connected with the past, but the mystery
is fast dissolving, and Greece and Rome
and even Egypt herself. henceforth claim
our attention with objects and events of
the present hour. Already they have lost
much of deep and absorbing interest with
which men turned to them a generation
ago. All the hallowed associations of
these ancient regions are fading away. We
may regret it. we may mourn over 1t, but
we cannot help II.
On the second evening of our stay in
Athens we paid our first visit to the
Acropolis. Solitude, silence and sunset
are the nursery of sentiment. 1 sat down
on a broken capital of the Parthenon; the
owl was already fitting among the ruins
L looked up at the majestic temple and
down at the ruined and newly regenerated
| city, and said to myself, Lots must rise
in Athens" L traced the line of the
ancient walls, a railroad to the Piraeus
and calculated the increase on uptown
lots from building the kings palace near
the garden of Plato. 1 bought Qn imagina-
tion) a tract of good tillable land, laid it
out in streets; had my Plato, and Homer
avenue; built a row of houses to improve
| the neighborhood where nobody lived; got
right condition to ''go in" for 1 had moth
ing to lose; but unfortunately, the Greeks
were far behind the spirit of the age; knew
nothing of the beauties of the credit sys-
TEN, and could not be brought to dispose
of their consecrated soil on the usual
terms, 10 per cent. down, balance on bond
and mortgage, so giving up the idea we
bade farewell to the ruins of the Acropolis
] thoroughfares.
Everywhere in Athens there is life. and
color and picturesqueness, and you think
| that the Greek was born 10 be an artists
/ model Rut IL Won want to 600 If+bo ,,,;ol-