The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-01-06
ATHENS THE, AGED.
Modern Diplomatic Struggle in City
of Ancient StrifeS.

present Cdplld1 VI Stl euuouS uipAo1
cy. the uncertainty of whose future
course is now engaging. the breath
less interest of all belligerent ma
tions, is described in the following
statement issued to the press today
bv the National Geographic society.
Better fifty years of Athens than
a cycle of Cathay,' one writer phrases
it. and indeed, in respect to the great
ness of it's past, the capital OF the
Hellenes is queen among all the
earth's cities. In this marvellous
city. a civilization was born and
made perfect and complete in the
course of a few generations. 1t is
the foundation upon which rests the
(. modern culture of the West; for
classic Athens is still.the teacher OF
the world and the final arbiter in
things of taste.
.Out of Plato, says Emerson,
come all things that are still written
and debated among men of thought
IT is, at least, certain, that all OF the
germs of philosophic thought are to
be found in the teachings OF the
Greek philosophers who sought their
following in Athens, down to the time
of Aristotle. In poetry, Greek genius
created the forms and left models
for all ages. In sculpture and IN
architecture, Grecian achievements
still stand unsurpassed; and the ruins
upon the Acropolis suggest struc-
: tural beauties never since attained,
while innumerable sculptural master
pieces of the Greeks fill alcoves in all
I the more important museums OF the
world. Such was the wealth of sculp-
tured treasures in classic Athens,
that one ancient wag declared 1t was
easier to find god in the city OF
Z Pa1las than a man.
s;sTo Athenian Socrates, rather than
s. 10 any other savant before or after
him. belongs the honor of having
kcalled into being that inductive. op-
iimistic science, which today forms
he warp of our civilization. With
s homely, keen-witted and argu-
1entaaive Athenian began that habit
of thought which hopes, in time, to
discover the answer to all things in
the things themselves. So, too, the
dramas of the Greeks are still the
models of taste after more than twen-
ty-three centuries, and Sophocles'
greatest of tragic poets, is yet to be
oHtdone. Aeschylus, Euripides and
Aristophones all part of the genius OF
Athens. contributed to that limited
B inheritance which is common to all
the world. In truth, the age OF Peri
eles overshadows the French and
! italian Renaissance, the era OF Eliza
beth. and the golden age of the Moors
in Spain.
Athens today is shrine for the
preservation of the memories of the
debt which the modern world owes
Ito the ancient Greeks. Most of the
\ treasures of the ancient city have
been looted and destroyed by strang-
ers, but enough is left to aid the
visitor in crystalizing picture of the
city over whose destines the Goddess
3 Of Wisdom and Artifice presided.
Persian, Spartan, Macedonian, Ro-
! man, Venetian and Turk have plum
dered and ravaged her. Priceless art
works and costly marbles have been
carried away to beautify other coun-
tries, or have been wantonly destroy
/ ed, yet, so'rich was the classic COM
monwealth that the remains OF its
marble beauty and fragments of its
j embe elishments still thickly strew the
whole pleateau of the Acropolis and
much of the area upon its sides and
base.
Nov Athens has grown up around
the remains of the mother city. At
the end of the Greek war for inde-
pendence, it was little more than a
decayed Turkish village, a few crook
ed byways and poorly built houses.
! 1t is now a city of straight, regular
ly laid-out streets, of graceful boule-
wards, airy squares, with many splen-
did private and public buildings. The
museums of Athens are of first i'm
poNance to students of classic art,
s and Athens, before the war, was fast
becoming again an international seat
of learning. 1t has developed GER
4 tain trade Importance in recent years.
A great part of the Balkan import
passes through Athens, and, in Pierre
GUS, its port, are situated number
of large mills and factories. The
population of modern Athens is about
10000"
TRIED TO BLOW UP CAPITOL.