GREECE OF TODAY 



307 



Within a few steps rise the green-clad 

 walls of the Stoa of Hadrian, which tell 

 of that distant day when the Roman Em- 

 peror ruled in Hellas. On the further 

 side of the Rock are still other remnants 

 of Roman rule and rulers in the graceful 

 arch of Hadrian — with its jealous in- 

 scriptions demarkirig the city of Theseus 

 from that of the Romans — and the giant 

 Corinthian columns of the huge Temple 

 of Olympian Zeus, which tower into the 

 clear blue of the Attic sky, while nearer 

 at hand, in the very shadow of the Par- 

 thenon and within the droppings of the 

 Sanctuary of .^Esculapius, is the theater 

 of Dionysus, Greek of the Greek, and 

 serving now in its proportions as the 

 model playhouse of the world. 



hadriax's aqueduct 



Another relic of Hadrian's day, and 

 still serving the purpose of its imperial 

 builder, dead these 1,900 years, is the 

 ancient aqueduct, dating from the year 

 146, which still brings the city's ordinary- 

 water supply, though among the ambi- 

 tious plans of betterment now in hand is 

 the construction of a pipe-line from the 

 Lake of Stymphale, in the Corinthian 

 hills, which shall also serve to irrigate 

 the plain of Attica, which has never lost 

 the "light soil" with which Thucydides 

 so long ago credited it. 



Against such a background it is easv 

 to project the ties of sentiment which 

 bind the life of the Greek of today to 

 that of the classic worthies from whom 

 he claims direct descent, and it was with 

 only a slight shock that I learned that the 

 man who brought me my morning coffee 

 at the legation bore the tremendous name 

 of Themistocles. And yet it is difficult 

 to visualize the modern Athenian with 

 those Avho once walked his streets. 



Thinking of Homer, of Praxiteles, and 

 of Phidias, one looks for Helen, for 

 Hermes, and for Athene ; but the only 

 Helen I ever saw in Athens was an 

 American girl, married to a member of 

 the Cabinet, and whose golden hair, blue 

 eyes, and classic features made her at 

 once the reigning hostess in the city. And 

 it is only in the islands or deep in the 

 country, where the Albanian flood which 

 swept across the Attic plain has never 



reached, that one finds the facial linea- 

 ments and the bodily grace which the 

 ancient sculptor has taught the modern 

 world as being common to all Greeks of 

 classic time. And this survival persists 

 chiefly among the children, because in- 

 cessant toil and scanty nourishment soon 

 deprive both boys and girls of their na- 

 tive grace and stamp them with the ine- 

 radicable marks of a life of labor. 



a land of agriculture: 



Greece is essentially a land of agricul- 

 ture, preeminently intended to be such ; 

 but, owing to the tremendous drain by 

 emigration from the rural districts, the 

 progress of agriculture has been painfully 

 deficient. In many places the land is 

 tilled only by women and girls ; and 

 ^Alegara, a charming village on the bay 

 of Eleusis, which boasts itself as a pure 

 Hellenic community rising above the Al- 

 banian flood, where the Easter dancing 

 was once rated as a famous marriage 

 mart, has lost that distinction because, as 

 the maidens sigh, so many of the men 

 have gone off to America. Time was 

 when these men, having accumulated the 

 10,000 drachmae ($2,000) with which 

 they might pass as rich at home, came 

 back to open a little shop and end their 

 days in the semi-indolence of fitful mer- 

 chandising. 



But at length so many had followed 

 this course that some of the villages in 

 southern Greece had come to be like that 

 island in the fable of our childhood, where 

 the inhabitants lived by taking in each 

 other's washing ; and so scanty indeed 

 had become these opportunities that I re- 

 member one occasion when the Themis- 

 tocles came in with 800 Greeks on board 

 who, having "made their pile" in the 

 States, had come back to sunny Hellas. 

 But after visiting their native villages and 

 seeing how meager were the rewards to 

 be gained, 400 of them promptly took 

 passage back to Xew York by the same 

 ship. 



THE TATE KING A FARMER 



The late king took a lively interest in 

 practical agriculture, and his farm prop- 

 erties at Tatoi, an attractive chateau in 

 the hills to the north of Athens, were 



