The Oskaloosa herald., 1903-08-13
ACROSS THE BIG POND
John Mccoy Writes Entertainingly
of Scenes in Europe.
Athens. Greece, July z, 1903.

T. T
evening Of July T. You know the
only way of reaching Greece is by
the sea, there being only few hun
bred miles Of railway in the whole
country and none connecting with
the lines of the north.
We stopped the next morning,
four hours at Corfu on the island of
the same name, and before reaching
Tatros the following morning passed
where the naval battle Of Lepento
was fought. The Bulgaria anchored
close to the main land behind a
breakwater and the letters on the
signs of the shops looked good to
me, Just like old friends of college
days that had not seen for many a
day. One of the Greek boatmen
who came up to the vessel came up
to us and desired to say that he
wanted us to go ashore in his boat
and said to us, Where the boat,
where the boat?" A fellow at Ma
pies tried to tell us his flowers were
very fragrant and said, "They are
very smell, very smell" I presume
we would do worse than that if we
tried to speak their language.
From Patron we went by train to
Corinth. 1t was lovely ride along
the Gulf of Corinth through the cur
rant, (raisin) fields and olive or
chards. The plain between the gulf
and the mountains is quite narrow
in some places. A Greek gentleman
on the train said there was much
excitement in politics here at this
time, the president or the prime
minister having been forced to re-
sign. The issue is the monopoly OF
one of their largest industries, the
currant industry. The majority be.
lieve in the monopoly, thinking it
will increase the price brought by
this crop.
I had the impression for some
time that the old Greek language
was practically dead, but he inform
ed us that any one who can read old
Greek can read a Greek newspaper
of today, that the tongue is practic'
ally the same as in the days of Soc
rates, same words and same pronun'
citation among the educated. Some
new words, however, have been add
ed with the lapse of years; but it is
still CIR ee tmkeo B
still Greek to me, except that many
of the characters in the words look
familiar So many people we meet
speak several languages. One fellow
in enumerating those he knew began
with English, mentioned French,
Italian, German and some others and
ended with UNITED States" French
is spoken to a great extent and
French money goes every place. A
Greek "drachma has the value of
about twelve and a half cents and is
divided into one hundred "up to-"
A silver "drachma' is worth quite a
little more than a paper "drachma'
and it goes to illustrate that it takes
more than a governments stamp to
give paper and silver its value.
Only a few ruins of the glorious
old city of Corinth remain. A viii
lage of few small huts now marks
the site. Its acropolis above,
magnificent rock almost two thous-
and feet high surely made a great
citadel in the olden days and now af-
fords a commanding view of the
country. A Greek came into the
village driving little donkey laden
with a heavy sack of grain on each
side of it. The Greek was dressed
in his national costume, consisting
of a peculiar white jacket to which
was attached a short kilt or skirt,
and he wore a sort of leggings. His
shoes turned up in front like snow
shoes. A woman was standing in a.
doorway spinning by hand in the
most primitive manner and in the
restaurant a sheep and goat were
making themselves at home. In
many places they were threshing
wheat as in Italy, by driving horses
and mules over the grain and after
wards cleaning out the chaff and
straw. The Corinth Of to-day is a.
town of about three or four thousand
people, three or four miles distant
from the ancient town. A man came
ND selling English bibles and turned
to the 'Epistle to the Corinthians"
and it then dawned on me that the
people of Corinth were the Corinthi-
ans of the Bible. About a mile Of
the ship canal across the isthmus OF
Corinth is cut through solid rock.
We arrived at Athens about seven
o'clock the same evening and have
found it rather a handsome city.
Athens of today has decidedly new
appearance and is becoming modern.
1t had only a few thousand inhabit-
ants in 1870, and now has over two
hundred thousand. 1t has some
pretty public squares and some nice
main streets, some of which are or
namented with rows Of pepper and
peone trees. We find cafes galore
as in Paris. Business buildings are
usually two or three stories high and
made OF manufactured stone, as also
are all dwelling places. No wooden
or frame structures are seen. The
street cars are similar to ours before