Show ce rk A w if W f fg M 4 I 1 A f 0 0 L athens ind the prepared by tho the national daog aphie society washington D C greece in it carrying on in asia minor against the turkish sli nationalists what rony may be called the only major war now in progress s attention anew to the prolonged pio longed presence ot of the greeks on the world stage there ore are few parallels to the striking in racial phenomenon of hellenic continuity throughout the icuss buds of 2000 years modern research has penetrated abe dark byways of medieval greek history lil story and we now know that the greeks whatever their temporary fate have pre cred unbroken the thread of thor their national existe existence twe tire the firmest bond unites the greek of today anih lh his illustrious forebears of the golden age Is tile greek language the essential e elements le of which remain as they nere mere in the days when the tongue served serve as the medium of the noblest poetry and the sublime st philosophy which the race has yet produced this tongue traces its unbroken lir lineage leage back through medieval and new testament greek to the classic speech of plato and of his contemporaries anil and yet with all this continuity I 1 of Ian language guage there exists now in greece a linguistic of affairs around which centers a controversy a at once comic or tragic for there are in greece two languages or rather the one TaD language guage in fit two forms one written by the newspapers spoken by the educated classes and used in parlin parliamentary debates trod and in public documents including the scriptures the circulation of which Is regulated by law and the oilier oher a vernacular enra erna cutar cular used by the masses of the people containing many words of foreign origin especially turkish and italian arising front from those periods of foreign om occupation with a much simplified grammar rarely reduced to ta writing excelia for vate communications the former Is the cultured tongue the latter the popular idlee and between lie he two there rages a merciless warfare in which fanatical students of the university aversit y ha have lost their lives ministers their portfolios follos and a metropolitan of athens ibis miter greece of today toda y almost new greece of today looks back only three genera ions if one places its origin in the war var for independence which was wais concluded brithe by the protocol of london in 1830 and witnessing the progress which in that brief span has been made in a land of such anet sparse resources one cannot see how praise can ie be withheld front from a people who have accomplished so much when the city of athens passed from turkish control and was designated as the capital of the new free kingdom of greece it was a mere inere handful of wrecked wre ched huts clustered about the acropolis today it Is a thoroughly modern city with splendid streets magnificent public buildings handsome residences attractive parks and most of the modern tin prove ments of which western cities boast boadt the building of this city alone sri in a land of such scanty resources Is fairl fairly y comparable to the development of four our own rich west and as meritorious when all the circumstances are considered indeed the greek of today nothing to his credit save the building of the attractive cantal of his notion nailon that wone woud be sufficient to rank him among the constructive tive agencies cles of the modern world in this city of old id memories and new hopes greek life centers now as to in its classic days and here ancient and modern greece are inextricably ining mingled led in a curious medley of modernity and antiquity which colors the lie most ordinary of ayery day affairs on every liand hand arise the aslia monuments of its splendid past and even the tiniest fragments which serve to unit link the life of the with the lays days that are gone tire tuot ibos t carefully pr arned guards its antiquities the greek government Is keenly alive to its responsibility for the safeguarding of its antiquities and tha tit department of archaeology under the charge of the ministry of education and religion Is painstakingly organized and prudently adi ninis cred the museums mus eurus at athens are D housed conveniently arranged accurately I 1 cura tely catalogued cataloguer catalo gued and andopen open to inspection ini fiti spec tion and study without fee this latter being a point of great eulth athenians in addition there tire now at various points in the kingdom where research is going on smaller museums devoted to the preservation of the lie treasures of the locality crowning the city ot of athens stands the sheer and maghy rock of the acropolis dominated by the parthenon matchless even in its ruins alik h projects the changeless purity of its lines against the background of the chun changing ing censures centimes cen times tures which chich have made of it in turn the shrine of the es al ai tile the church of 0 the christian tit the mosque of the moslem and now dow and ever the ideal of all stirs of the I 1 beautiful near at hand cluster the chief remnants of the glory hait was greece on the one side the tiny gem of the temple of the wingless victory so cha chaste S it e a and n d delicate in its proportions and outline and on the other the with its unique porch ot of the caryatides tides ilard hard by the stairs of the imposing aea rises tire the sturdy rock of the hill of mars whence st paul declared declare the unknown god and fact incidentally took the athenian measure for all intervening time at a little distance stands the roughhewn rough hewn bema where demosthenes and ct esipion strove in match matchless less phrase while just below rise the ivory tin tinted d columns of 0 lest the temple of the theseus best preserved of all the classic ren regains aIns 4 against such a background it la Is easy 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 with only a slight shock one will learn that the man who gives gives him hid his morning coffee bears the bremen dous dons name of and yet it Is difficult to visualize tile the modern modem athenian with those who once walked his streets it Is only in the islands or deep to la the country where the albanian flood which swept ackois across the attie attic plain has never reached that one finds the facial lineaments linea ments and the bodily grace which them the ancient sculptor has taught the modern world as being common to all greeks of classic time its agriculture backward greece Is essentially a land of agriculture preeminently eminently pre 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 many of the men have gone off to america many find the athenian Atlie nian climate agreeable cold winds there are arc to be sure in winter blowing down from the snow capped hills above the town or blowing up from the sea at phal eron but there are no frosts the roses bloom during every month of the year oranges ripen in the open air ocemay one may pick his breakfast fruit from the trees outside hla his window the summer heat beat Is easily endurable the absence of rain removing the humidity which makes american midsummer so 0 o intolerable one cannot truthfully say that midsummer nights in athens are really cool but there to Is a sensible difference from the heat of the day and a freshness which always makes sleep possible at the beginning of the hot season there Is usually an exodus of the court the diplomats and the wealthy from athens to take their places there flock to athens and to the seaside hotels at Pha leron and to villas and resorts resorts at ln in the hills numbers of rich greeks from asia minor and front from egypt and the whole city reverses the order older of Us its winter life turning night into day and spending most of the hours between sunset and sunrise out of doors everywhere about the town on the roofs of clubs or hotels in alip gardens or on tile the terraces of res au jants beneath the popper pepper trees of the alie parks and even in tire the streets tables are spread an and probably us its ninny us its people dine in fit the open air each night of an athenian summer throughout greece tind and indeed throughout the entire balkan region Is much heard because of tho great numbers of greeks who have returned home from america and few travelers in the will fall to recall at almost every railroad station the eager face thrust in at the carriage window and quivering crIng with the demand you fetters fellers fron from america 7 |