GREECE OF TODAY 



323 



terprises, and especially through the de- 

 mands of modern business life, new ave- 

 nues for employment and advancement 

 are opening for women, and in another 

 generation it is altogether likely that the 

 women of Greece will be found with 

 their sisters of the West, demanding as 

 rights what they now regard as great 

 privileges. 



Nevertheless the martial spirit yet re- 

 mains among Greek men, and the patri- 

 otic Greek regards himself as of greatest 

 value to the State when he can present 

 himself with many stalwart sons for 

 service in the army. Among the lower 

 classes — indeed, in most walks of life — 

 the birth of a man-child is regarded as a 

 supreme favor, and large families are the 

 rule in Hellas. Consul General George 

 Horton used to tell me with great amuse- 

 ment of an evening stroll which he took 

 near the Acropolis, when he was startled 

 by a leg of lamb which hurtled through 

 the open window of a cottage, dashed 

 against the wall of the house opposite in 

 the narrow street, and dropped at his 

 feet. It was followed by a volley of 

 angry words, and as he listened he heard 

 the irate husband berate his wife because 

 she had given him no sons which he 

 might give to the army. 



A SPLEXDID SOLDIERY 



Thanks to the labors of the French 

 mission, which, within recent years, has 

 reorganized the army, and to the splendid 

 example of the soldier-king, Constantine, 

 and to the magnificent victories of the 

 campaigns of the Balkan war, the Greek 

 troops find themselves the equal of any 

 body of fighting men in all the world. 



Education in Greece is overdeveloped 

 at the top The framework of the public- 

 school system is excellent, but the teach- 

 ers' profession is held in slight repute 

 and fails to attract either men or women 

 of commanding ability. Moreover, the 

 troublesome language problem, whereby 

 the child receives instruction in a tongue 

 which he does not hear at home, presents 

 an almost insuperable difficulty for effect- 

 ive training of the young. The university 

 at Athens, however, is a splendid institu- 

 tion. In its faculty are many rare schol- 

 ars and fine administrators. Its enrol- 



ment is large, and the work it does is ex- 

 cellent. 



Confining its work as it does, however, 

 chiefly to professional and philosophical 

 studies, it has resulted in an overproduc- 

 tion of lawyers, doctors, and engineers, 

 for whom the country can find no suffi- 

 cient employment, and who have there- 

 fore turned their attention to politics and 

 office-holding, with a disastrous reaction 

 upon the public life of the country. 



THEOLOGY NEGLECTED 



Of all the learned professions, theology 

 is the most neglected, the priesthood for 

 the most part being scantily educated and 

 in many cases actually illiterate. The 

 cause of this, probably, is that, except in 

 the higher orders — archimandrites, bish- 

 ops, and archbishops — the rewards of the 

 priesthood are very meager, it being no 

 uncommon thing for a priest to carry on 

 daily labor in competition with his parish- 

 ioners on week days, while he contents 

 himself with the mere recital of the of- 

 fices — frequently by rote, for often he 

 cannot read — on Sundays and saints' 

 days. 



This has always seemed to me a curious 

 situation, because in Greece the church is 

 held in deep and genuine veneration. 

 During the long centuries of the Turkish 

 subjugation, the Church and the Nation 

 were synonymous. It was in the cloisters 

 of the monasteries that the national spirit 

 was kept alive, that the Greek language 

 was preserved, and the Greek traditions 

 nurtured. It was an archbishop of the 

 church, Germanos, who, from his cell in 

 the monastery at Kalavrita, organized the 

 revolt which developed into the War for 

 Independence. A striking statue of Ger- 

 manos ornaments the ground of the uni- 

 versity in Athens, and at its feet on Inde- 

 pendence Day, the anniversary of that 

 fateful morning when he issued forth 

 from his cloisters bearing the sacred war 

 banner of Hellenism, are laid the laureled 

 tributes of the people whom he helped to 

 freedom. 



The Greeks, externally at least, are a 

 deeply religious people, and the feasts 

 and fasts are rigidly observed. When a 

 Greek fasts, he fasts in earnest, almost 

 his sole nourishment being a coarse soup 



