Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-09-26

tor has taught the modern world as
being common to all Greeks of classic
time And this survival persists
chiefly among the children, because
incessant toll and scanty nourishment
soon deprive bith boys and girls of
their native grace and stamp them
with the ineradicable marks of a life
of labor.
"The Attic year is sharply divided
dramatically into two seasons, the rainy
and the dry, the latter beginning late
in May and extending to early Octo-
Der, and during which there is no
rainfall except a single thunder
shower, which comes with great reg
ularity during the second week in
August. Outside of Atticia climatic
conditions are somewhat better. In
the islands along the Gulf of Corinth
and in the Morea there is constant
greenery grass, vines, and many
trees. But for one who spent, as 1
did, four summers on and in Athens it
is not easy to learn that hills may nave
a beauty aside from forests, and that
colors, contour, and form can lend
enchantment to the naked rack. 1t was
long before my New England eyes ap-
preciated the wonderful tints which
the Athenian sunset throws upon
Lycabettus and Hymettu and that l
learned that Athens now, as ever,
should be hailed as the 'violet-crowned
city
Personally 1 found the Athenian
climate agreeable and 1 cannot now
recall single day of my stay there
when, even in the rainy season, the sun
dbl not shine at least part of the time
Cold winds there were to be sure, in
winter, blowing down from the snow
capped hills above the town or blowing
~ from the sea at Phaleron; but there
were no fronts; the roses bloomed dur
ing every month of the year in the
legation gardens; orange ripened in
the open air, and we picked our break
fast fruit from the trees outside of the
windows, While the palm flourishes
there as | have seen it nowhere else,
not even in the Rivera. The summer
heat is easily endurable despite a.
well-nigh constant temperature of
nearly 100, the absence of rain remov-
ing the humidity which makes Ameri-
can midsummer is intolerable.
Socially, too, the Athenian year
divides itself with the climate. At the
end of the rainy season the court the
diplomatic body and the rich flee
away, the latter going, as they say, to
Europe; and to take their places there
flock to Athens and to the seaside ho-
tells at Phaleron and to villas and re-
sorts at Kephisiain- in-the-hills num-
bers of rich Greeks from Asia Minor
and from Egypt and the whole city
reverses the order of its winter life,
turning night into day and spending
most of the hours between sunset and
sunrise out of doors.
"Athenian houses are built to resist
heat. The exterior and interior walls
are all of thick stone, and, with tightly
closed windows, one sleeps until the,
afternoon tea, when the level rays of
the setting sun permit adventure. Then
one strolls or drives, dimes wherever
the dinner hour may find him, and in
variably out of doors, journeys by,
tram to Phaleron for the boating and
the music or seeks the cool garden of
the Zappeion to see the movies, or
goes to -Alyssida for dinner and the
vaudeville, and never loses by return
ing home as late as o'clock in the
morning.
Everywhere about the town, on the
or on the terraces of restaurants, be-
meath the pepper trees or the park, and
even in the streets tables are spread