The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-06-08

prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington. ID. c.
Within 'the Zone of the Straits"-the
strip of land bordering the Darda-
nelles, the Bosphorus and the Aegean
sea, whose international control Is
likely to be altered somewhat by re-
vision of the treaty of Sevres-lies the
subject of one of the worlds greatest
epics: Troy, where two nations
fought for the fair Helen.
The Trojan walls, unvisited by the
idle tourist, are still in evidence;
those same walls that defied the on
slaughts of Agamemnan and Menelaus,
Of Ajax, Nestor, Diomed, Ulysses and
Achilles, to fall at last by stratagem.
They remained as a ruined and ADAM
doned stage minus it's paraphernalia,
whereon was played so many centuries
ago an insignificant little drama COM
pared with modern events but it was
a drama so big with human interest
dlviDely told that the world has never
known its equal.
To be sure, ii was all In the telling /;
aud what would Troy have been with
out it's Homer? Still, as the theater
OF the worlds greatest epic poem, 1t
deserves a visit any year, every year.
In the thoughts and emotions 1t re-
wives and stimulates, in the aroused
sense of Indebtedness of all subse-
quent literature and art. II richly re-
pays q visit. The classical student
will leave 1t In a daZe of meditation
upon things more real to him chan the
actual things he has seen and touched.
In visiting the ruins of Troy, one
sets ont from the village of Darda-
pelles for a FIVE hours hot and dusty
ride.
After a couple of hours travel
through the plain the road grows
rougher and begins to ascend into billy
country. The traveller realizes that he
should be nearing historic ground
now and he glances around the horizon
to see If he can identify Mt. Ida, and
toward the sea for a first sight of
Tenedos; but no, this is only common
soil. Rounding the summit of the next
rise one sees the road leading down
into Eren Koui, a Turkish village, a
convenient hating place for coffee.
Then the road begins TO wind through
the village In a gradual descent until
1t makes a sudden jerky little turn
into the open country, and behold the
plain Of Troy not the plain of the his
toric action, but the drainage area
which includes Troy.
To the Hin OF iiium.
The road leads straight toward a
ridge In the distance, "the Hill OF
nium," at the lower point of which
will presently appear the ruins. II
was down that identical ridge, OIL SO
one tells oneself thSt the angry god
Apollo, strobe toward vengeance
while the arrows In the CULVER on his
shoulder changed In ominous music.
Yonder the summit of Mt. Ida, where
the gods in solemn conclave so often
sat. Away over there, skirting the
ridge of Iiium, is Simois' stream. or
should be; but the bridge across II
shows upon approach that modern
Simois is no more than q creek. Verse
than that; following Its attenuated
course, less than a mile downstream,
one discovers that 1t ends In q morass
Instead OF joining the Scamander AS OF
gore. And the latter stream is scarce
" less disappointing, for 1t Is no more
dignified In size or appearance. In
fact, their sluggish currents united ear
scarcely boast Of banks except at oc'
casional intervals. for both streams
are now only broad swales merging
with the adjacent plain. with no CON
tinuous current toward the e except
In seasons Of high water. II such are
ever known.
Behold the ruins mt last A long,
low ridge. some four or Ave miles In
Length, ends abruptly like a promon,
tory projecting into the sea. above
which II rises about 80 feet. The ridge
Is the so-called AHin Of Hum" the
sea is the ficciplain Of the Ssmoss and
lScamander, historically ltnown AS the
plain OF Troy, and the promontory
with Its crown OF ruins, is Troy itself,
You walk around the rims and make
the surprisiilx discovery that II tn.
walking were good You could easily