The Socialist press., 1914-06-20

of peninsula jutting into the Aegean sea- the mountain shoots up more than 5000 feet and it's peak of white limestone IS landmark for many miles out to sea. The old Greek legend that the giant Athos hurled this mountain at the gods upon Olympus, but that 1t dropped back and fell at the edge of the sea.
 The entire peninsula of which Mount Athos forms the southernmost point, is about 1orty miles long and from four to seven miles in width, cut by numerous ravines and by long arms of the sea. The narrow isthmus which connects the mountain with the main peninsula was cut py canal built by Xerxes when he came to invade Greece and traces of the canal are still visible, though 1t has long since become dry land.
 The slopes of Mount Athos have for many cen tures been the home of monks and hermits Of the Greek church. Most of the monasterles which cling to the steep slopes of the mountain were founded by Byzantine emperors; one of the oldest the monastery of St. Laura has been in existence since 968. There still several thousand monks living upon the mountain, sup porting themselves by tilling hillside farms and living very much their predecessors did thousand years ago.
 In 1,500 years woman has been allowed to set foot on Athos. Few travellers ever come to Athos: 1t lies out of the beaten track of travel and the monks would not welcome intruders.
 Since the fall of the Byzantine empire and Constantnople in 1453, Athos has been nomi- nally under Turkish rule The Turks however,
  Catholic monks, and have permitted them prac- tically to govern themselves. council com posed of representatives of the several monas- teres has maintained law and order in the col Ony.
 The comparatively few English and European travellers who have ever been to Athos unite in enthusiastic praise of the natural beauties of the Hplace. The steep sides of the mountains are heav . fly wooded with huge oak and chestnut trees, while here and there pine and cypress give rrh '1,fp F., out along the mountain side, frequently afording glimpses of the deep blue which frets at Athos' feet.
 Through the Middle Ages the Athos monas- teries were the treasure houses in which much of the learning and culture of the Greeks was preserved to the world The monks must have spent world of time patiently copying the works of the old masters, and the libraries of Athos even today, contain much that Is fascinat ing to the antiquarian and the booklover. But the monks themselves have fallen into sad igno rance the libraries of the monasteries are little used and some of them have been permitted to go completely to rack.
 At Mount Athos, according to legend, the Vir gin Mary and St. Thomas were wrecked and then miraculously saved; and since that day of grace no female foot has been allowed to tread the peninsula of Athos; indeed, since the eleventh century no female animals whatever have been permitted there. It Is said that the only excep tion ever made to this rule in the last five hun dred years in favor of Lady Stratford de Radcliffe, and 1t Is kept strictly that not only must the whole population be masculine, but hens even may not live on the rock. hence all the eggs, of which a great number consumed, are 4tnported. The population of the Holy Noun rn Garden of the Moth
 and seven thousand,
 usand monks and three
 others. Most of the
 here are also many Rus
 hs, and some Bulgarians,