The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-23
OLYMPIAN GAMES
 BEGAN YESTERDAY Opening Ceremony by King
 George of Greece HUGE STADIUM PACKED Nine Hundred Picked Athletes of the World Were in the Grand Pro-
 cession at the Opening
 Exercises.
HUGE STADIUM PACKED

Athens, April 22.-Under glorious sun shine following a showery morning the opening ceremony Of the Olympic games was performed today by King George of Greece The huge stadium was already packed to it's utmost capacity when the royal procession arrived to the strains of the Greek and British anthems. First came d carriage containing King George and Queen Alexandra, then came a car riage with King Edward and Queen Olga. These were followed by carriages with Princess Victoria, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the members of the Greek royal family with their brilliant suites, and representatives of the various Hu- ropean courts.
 The procession traversed the whole length of the stadium amid voeiferous cheering, and the dignitaries took seats in a semi-cirele. Then Crown Prince Con- stantlne. Duke of Sparta. who is the president of the games moved from the center of the arena, saluting King George and read an address stating the objects of the meeting and expressing the hope that the victors whatever their national ity would remember that their victory had been acclaimed on the sacred soil of Athens by descendants of the ancient Hellenes. He concluded by begging King George to proclaim the opening.
 Games Declared Open.
 King George arose and briefly declared the games opened.
 All the participants in the games then moved in procession around the stadium headed by bands of music As the 900 picked athletes of the world moved past, presenting an imposing display, they were cheered to the echo Passing the royal personages the standard bearer of each team mpressively lowered the flag of his country King George grayely returning the salute.
 The games began with gymnastic dis plays and contests. No Americans par ticipated today. The members of the royal families remained to the finish.
 Tonight the acropols was brilliantly illuminated.
 Eli B. Parsons, New York Athletic club; Fay R. Moulton, Kansas CityAthletic as- sociation; James Mitchell and H. L. Hill man, New York Athletic club are steadily improving and probably will be able to compete in the games.
 History of Games.
 Olympia, in ancient geography was valley in Ellis. Pelopponnesus, Greece, celebrated as the sanctuary of Zeus (Jup- iter) and of the Olympic games, the most important of the great public games of classical antiquity and the greatest of the four TAanhelenic festivities of the ancient Greeks. They were celebrated at intervals of four years. in honor of Zeus, in a sacred enclosure called the Altis, in the plain of Olympia, containing many temples and other religious civic and symnastic structures, besides very many votive works of art The festival began with sacrifices, follow by contests and racing, wrestling, etc, and closed the fifth day with process1ons, sacrifices and banquets to the victors, who were crown ed with garlands of wild olive and on their return home were received with ex- traordinary demonstrations and were ae- corded numerous honors and distinctions. The period of four years intervening be- tween one celebration and the next, call ed an Olympiad, was the measure by which the Greeks computed time.
 The actual founding of the games is an- terior to history but Iphitus. King of Ellis, with Lycurgus the great legislator of Sparta, reorganized the games at the bid ding of the oracle of Delphis in the Ninth century, B. C. The regular chronicle of Oympan victors begins 716 B. c. The original and most important event in the games was the foot race in the stadium. at first the runners only went once around the course but later they made two and even three circuits The diauios, a more complicated foot-race, was added in the fourteenth Olympad: wrestling and the penthalon, or game of five exercises, at the eighteenth and boxing at the twenty third The chariot race was restored at the twenty-fifth, or hundred years after the institution of the festival and the horse race was added at the thirty-third. In the period after the Persian wars the Olympic games attained their zenith. In the Roman period champions from all parts of the world came to Olympia to take part in the games and the profess sional element made it's appearance. The Greeks themselves took less interest in it and the games slowly deterorated.
 Games Abolished.
 The Olympic games were abolished by the Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great in 394 B. C. and were renewed in Athens in 1896 after an interval of more than 1900 years. They were held in the Pana- thenian stadium, the old stadium of Herodus Atticus which was reconstructed in 1904 and 1905 at an expense of s600, 900, donated by rich Epirote, the late George Averoff. The stadium is entirely of pen- delic marble and can hold more than 60.- 900 spectators. The nautical contests and the Venetian festival, which will be or ganized during the games. will be held in the ports of the Piraeus and of Phalerum.
 The games of 1896, the success of which was largely due to the interest taken in them by the Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France. were not as largely attended as was expected, many of the best ath- letes not being attracted on the first oc- cason. They were held on April 6--the Greek national fete day. and on the five consecutive days. The jumping and run ming races were for the greater part, won by American competitors The Ger mans won the gymnastics, the Greeks the shooting, the swimming by Hungary. Great interest was taken in the Mara thon race from Marathon to Athens, distance of about twenty-four miles, A Greek peasant by the name of Loues won the race in two hours fifty-eight min utes fifty seconds. After the games King George crowned the victors with olive branches.
 The success of the games of 1896 assured their continuance and this year the par tcpation by different countries is ex- tremely large
 The Programme.
 The following is the programme of the