Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-02-24
BEAUTIFUL ATHENS.
Miss Uline Describes Her Visit
There On Her Way to
Erzroom, Turkey
Erzroom, Turkey-in-Asia

Erzroom, Turkey-in-Asia.
December 10th, 1910.
EDITOR TIMES TRIBUNE AMI
FRIENDS:
Times flies in Asia as we'll as ir
America, and here it is almost Christ
mas! However, there is one advant
age that we have in Turkey in re
gard to time. The Oriental people
never changed the date of the calen
dar, a couple of centuries ago, when
the Western world did. They still.
are two weeks behind, SO today it is
only November 18th with them, and
over a month until the new year be-
gins. Consequently, we shall not
have Jul holiday vacation for some
time yet. OF course, we shall cele.
brate Christmas on the 25th Of Dec
ember as we would in America, but
we shall also have a second Christ
mas. There is another thing about
the "times" to tell you about. 1t is
always II O'Clock when the sun sets,
no matter what the season is, SO we
have to keep two clocks going, one
Turkish time, the other "a la Franc
l should like to write about the
Turks today, but later ony | shall
tell yon about their customs, etc.
shall go back to Athens and write
from the point l left off in my last
letter.
remember having told you how
surprised I was to find Athens such a
modern city, but l do not recall hav.
ing given you any description Of the
city proper. II l repeat myself, please
pardon me. In the first place 1 mus,
describe the hotel where we spent the
week. 1t was not a regular hotel, but
sort of a private boarding house, a
Pension" which was centrally To-
Gated and convenient in every respect.
We met delightful people there, Eng
lish, French and German. 1t is not
the custom in Europe and the Orient
to serve much breakfast, SO we had
only a pot of chocolate, and a biscuit.
However, both were so good we re-
quired nothing more. We had lunch
at 1890, which was almost a regular
dinner, and at 8 O'Clock we had our
evening meal, which began with a
delicious soup and ended with a cup
of Turkish coffee. The roasts were
prepared with olive oil, rather than
butter, and were very, very good.
Oil is generally used in cooking In
this country. We had fresh vegetab-
les and fruit each day, oranges, grapes.
fresh figs, and plums, ounces served
as a vegetable, tomatoes, lettuce etc.
People in Athens live by night,
rather than by day. 1t is very hot
there during the middle part of the
day, so all stores are closed from II
o'clock until 3. About five, people be-
gin to drive around in their carriages
and machines, and the bands and
orchestras begin to play in the public
squares and parks.
The Grecian women are beautiful.
They dress very fashionably, and
''Show off their clothes" as they sit
by the little tables o~ut-of-doors drink
ing and eating. Every n who goes
into the park orders something to
eat or drink. Then one may sit
there all night if he wishes to and
most OF them do not think of leaving
for their homes until long after mid
night. We did not stay quite that
long, but long enough to appreciate
an evening in an Athenian park. The
music was beautiful, the moonlight
nights, perfect, and the conduct of
the ladies and gentleman always pro-
per. The atmosphere suggested re-
fnement. Most of the people sat
visiting with each other or quietly
listening to the music.
Our sight seeing began early in the
morning, on account of the heat. The
first place we visited was the Stadium.
We paid a small sum, then entered
the gate, and found ourselves in an
immense amphitheatre Of pure, white
marble. We walked all around it,
netting how perfectly it had been
reproduced. The Stadium was origin
ally built in $50 B. G. 1t was rebuilt
in A. D. 140 by Herodus Atticus and
again in 1896 for the Olympian games.
1t seats $4,000 people. From the Stad-
ium We walked along an avenue of
pepper trees, all in blossom. They
were SO pretty. We went on until we
reached the ruins of the temple of
the Olympian Jove, magnificent pill
lars, some Of which we're standing
while others had fallen to the ground
The columns that had fallen were
broken into pieces of equal size. We
examined them closely trying to figure
how they had been put together In
the first place, but our problem was
u%nsolvable. The columns we're of
the Corinthian order of architecture
and each was 100 feet high. This
temple was commenced in the 9Th