The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-03

compensation for the absence of pines, and the violet of Pen:elicus, noted of old for it's matchless marbles, while over all rests the living spell of Pludias, Percies, Socrates and Eurip- ides, for to him who Is in Athens these men are not dead.
 Modern Athens has been compared to the new portion of Munich and 1t has been aptly said if Ludwig failed in making Munich look like Athens. Otho. who was a Bavarian prince, succeeded in causing Athens to resemble Munich.
 It is a dream in stone and I do not believe that there Is a dingy or time worn building in the entire city. In fact the royal palace is the most shabby edifce there, for I noted several glasses missing from the windows of it's white facade, which negligence l was told was the result of a recent small confagration.
 It Is a land where marble speaks and every fragment of stone has a tongue. The citizens are fond of life al fresco and the visitor encounters them throng- ing the streets long ere he has time to inspect the classic ruins which are the object of his sojourn in the city. Here one sees many soldiers and is greatly amused at their effeminate uniform which consists of a white, stiff, 1aun- dered skirt reaching scarcely below the knees and known as the fustanella, and a clumsy pair of shoes adorned with q lump of fur at the toe as large as a rabbits tail. Were 1t not for these lat ter hobbies, his majesty's troops might be mistaken for ballet dancers. The women are living cameos, so clear cut are their features, especially in profile, and their gowns are of the latest Paris ian mode.
 Within a n a fpr nv prit al J had mounted the Acropolis, which has been termed an illustrated volume of Greek history bound in stone, but l am not vain enough to attempt a por- trayal of those polished glories which companion the Parthenon, the picturing of which marvel is akin to the recital of the story of love, ever old yet always new.
 1 spent two hours at a time, for my visits to the Acropolis were many, in studying the caryatldes in the maiden's portico of the Erectheum, and as many more in the Metropolitan museum. To me there has always seemed to exist an af- fnity betwixt women and marble and they are more appropriately delineate1 in polished stone than depicted upon canvas. The vlrginal parity of the one bespeaks the pristine chastity of the other; the calm attitude of immobility suggests the placidness of the female temperament, the lnlnutable pose Of line and limb hints of the dignity and grace of the feminine wind, while the steadfast eye and snowy brow are akin to, and dypify the purity of woman's soul. Even the atrocious Turk, in his work of devastation of the glories of the Acropolis, stayed his hand when he approached the portico of the maid ems and there they stand today by vir- tue of his grace It remained for an Englishman, Lord Elgin, to commit the first act of vandalism Ind those cary atides now mourn an absent sister.
 In the museum of the Acropolis hung as in spell before the Mosco- phorus, that archaic statue which marks the first step in the advancement of the chisel's art. Prior to its fash ioning all archaic carvings respected and presented the conventional attitude of the human figure with one leg siight-