Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1916-05-26


~ pound their. way beyond the
Dardanelles, stir many legen-
dairy memories of this historic battle
region and bring to mind the oldest
contrasts. Here, where now mod
ern ordnance is hurting its messen-
gers of destruction, Homer's heroes
waged their spectacular, single-handed
combats, while admiring armies
grouped themselves around to watch.
1t is far cry from the romantic siege
of Troy to the terribly impersonal bat
tie of today. Yet the old walls OF
Troy must bring some sort of inspira-
ton to the soldiers fighting in their
shadows, soldiers of the allies or of
the Turks. Excavated Ilium, near
one of the present wars great bat
tlefields, is described in a communi-
cation to the National Geographic So
ciety by Jacob e. Conner.
The Trojan walls are still in evil
dence; those same walls that defied
the onslaught of Agamemnon and
Ulysses and Achilles, to fall at last
by stratagem. They remain as a
ruined and abandoned stage minus
its paraphernalia, whereon was played
so many centuries ago an insignificant
little drama compared with modern
events, but it was drama so big with
human interest divinely told that the
world has never known its equal.
Wars in these crowded times are
! for gain, but in the youth of the world,
If we take the Iliad literally, men
could afford to fight for an ideal.
Hence the Homeric warfare was a
beautiful, a poetic pastime, seriously
resulting to some happy few, who
we're thenceforth rewarded with i'm
mortality in song.
Troy Well Worth a Visit.
AS the theater of the worlds great
est epic poem, Troy deserves a visit
any year, every year. In the thoughts
and emotions it revives and stimulates
in the aroused sense of Indebtedness
of all subsequent literature and art II
richly repays a visit. The classical
student will leave it in daze o.
meditation upon things more real tt
him than the actual things he hal
seen and touched.
On the site where the German sa
want, Schliemann, unearthed Homeri
Troy, nine layers of old-time citiel
were found, one above the other
They were builded, destroyed. ant
forgotten here during the NOR
than 5000 years that civilization ha
lived upon the products of the fertil
valley. The topmost layer contained
the remains of the Roman city o
Ilium; two Hellenic villages wer
found directly beneath it, which flour
ished here between 1000 B. c. and tn
Christian era. The sixth city iron
the bottom was identified as Homer
Troy. The bottom layers ccntaine
the remains of prehistoric settlements
unimportant villages that have es
capped every memory except these few
uncovered, decaying stones. In tn
second, or burnt city, probably so
years before the time of Troy, wa
found a considerable mass of burie
treasure, silver Jars, gold daggers, an
wonderfully wrought diadems of golt
| Describing the country around Tro,
Mr.. Conner continues:
: Yonder is the summit of Mt. ida
where the gods in solemn conclave S
often sat, where "cloud-compelle
Zeus" sometimes thought two way
in his mind at once" or else ended a
debate with a nod that shook hig
. Olympus and caused the heavens t
; reverberate and glow with the fas
of his thunderbolt
5 Famous Rivers Only Greeks.
. Away over yonder, skirting the ridg
: of Ilium, is Simois stream, or shoul
l be; but the bridge across it show
I. upon our approach that modern Simoi
is no more than creek. Worse tina
that; following its attenuated cours
less than a mile downstream, we 'di
! cover that it ends in a morass instea
: Of the Scamander as of yore. An
t the latter stream is scarcely less di
I appointing, for 1t is no more dignifie
in size or appearance. In fact, the
sluggish currents united can scarcel
g boast of banks except at occasion;
e intervals, for both streams are no
nply broad curoloo r,,arUfr,O xtrffb fh