Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-05-06
VISIT TO ATHENS
GREATLY ENJOYED

before witnessed. This mountain
desert of Greece only has about thir-
teen inches of rain and the soil is of
the poorest. Did thty have favorable
conditions with their ideas of pro-
gress they would be very prosper
Gus country.
We are driven through that terri
tory that once was the city now most
ly in field except few poor houses
and ruins. Ahead of us the Acropo
lis stands out in bold relief. One is
reminded of the many pictures that
adorn our homes of this wonderful
locality
The Acropolis is an immense
stone that rises perhaps two hun
dred feet above the general valley.
On the side facing the harbor it has
been walled up so as to build fully
out to the edge of the rock. AS we
approach this side we first come to
the great theater of Bacchus; we en-
ter and sit in some of the remaining
marble chairs as our guide describes
its once grandeur. 1t surely must
have been very attractive in it's
time, as it was all polished marble
as were all the grand buildings of
Athens. We drive on about quart
er of mile and here is the Odeon,
another beautiful theater. Our
reader can get a more perfect des-
cription of all these by a few hours
reading I'm any encyclopedia and space
would not admit of fully describing
We drive on a little farther and
winding up steep grade we are at
the landing place for all that desire
to climb to the top of the Acropolis.
We travel up a long flight of stairs,
the same stairs that $500 years ago
assembled the proud Athenian to make
laws of his then great and powerful
country, not powerful in numbers
but in it's intellectual attachments.
AS we reach the top, before us stands
the Parthenon. l say stands this
Immense marble palace built by
i PericIes about B. G. 400 years, the
place from which those great ora
tions of which are now used as text
books in our schools were delivered /;
this building has been the object of
the destroyer and vandal for years.
I First the boards of the north swept
4 down, tearing as much as could well
! be destroyed, then the Turk used 1t
as a powder magazine and whether
through accident or otherwise the
,, powder was ignited and leveled its
center to the ground, only leaving the
ends to show it's former grandeur
Lord Elgin, an EHgIishman, finding
the beautiful Greek statuary being
destroyed gathered together a great
amount of the best specimens from
all these Greek palaces and they
now are seen in the museum at Lon
don where we afterward saw them.
Lord Elgin has been much criti.
cized for this act, but the writer
thinks only patriotic motives prompt
ed him and without this effort much
would be ultimately lost.
!, To the right of the Parthenor
!. stands the ruins of the Erechtheion
once a magnificent pile of marble
and almost all the top of this great
rock carries the marble ruins bull
from 1900 B. c.. up to the christian
; era. Farther over and beyond the
Acropolis is the beautiful new sta
\ dunn where some Of our American
|, boys carried of the prizes during
, the Olympian games few years
, since. This is the finest modern sta
, dunn now in existance. 1t seats
, 10000 people; its entire architec
ture being white marble and in form
could hardly be improved on.
, Lying just beyond where we as
cended to the Acropolis lies Mars
: hill, the place where Paul addressed
4 the Athenians-a place familiar tt
: all bible students. The top OF this
: rock has a space of perhaps an acre
s and slopes off towards the modern
city; the rock stands about half as
{ high above the general level of the
d city as the Acropolis. This slope
: continues down to the modern city
0 of Athens, a beautiful modern city
q with modern improvements going vi
q on all sides. We drove through it,
0 many streets, saw the beautiful mar
e BILE schools which are being patron
v lied by many of our American stu
e dents, saw the marble palace Of the
v king, drove to it's ancient grave
I yards, to describe which would re
1 quire too much space, and aftel
: spending day and half here wen
9 away fully satisfied that here hat
| lived great people and that theil
! decendents would. again be heard
\ from.
4 At IL O'Clock Feby 81, we weigh
anchor and are on our way to Con