Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 266, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1916 — Life in Modern Athens [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Life in Modern Athens

AGAINST a background of crumbling but magnificent marble temples, of maSSlVengque* ducts, of extensive amphitheaters, it is easy to project the ties Of feentiment which bind the life of the Greek of today to that of the classic worthies from whom he claims direct descent, according to a communication addressed to the National Geographic society by GeOrge Higgins Moses, formerly United States ambassador to Greece. Mr. Moses in his graphic picture of the Athens of today and of the modern citizens of the city which reached the pinnacle of its greatness in the days of Pericles, says: “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 who 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 once swept across the Attic plain has never reached, that one finds the facial lineaments 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 incessant toil and scanty nourishment soon deprive both boys and girls of their native grace and stamp them with the ineradicable marks of a life of labor.

Climate Is Agreeable. “The Attic year is sharply divided climatically into two seasons, the rainy and the dry, the latter beginning late In May and extending to early October, and during which there is no rainfall except a single thunder shower, which comes with great regularity during the second week in August. Outside of Attica climatic conditions are somewhat batter. In the islands along the Gulf of Corinth, and in the Morea there is constant greenery—grass, vines and many trees. But for one who spent, as I did, four summers on and in Athens, it is not easy to learn that hills may have a beauty aside from fnrpata, and that colors, contour and form can lend enchantment to the naked rock. It was long before my New England eyes appreciated the wonderful tints which the Athenian sunset throws upon Lycabettus and Hymettu and that I learned that Athens now, as ever, should be hailed as the ‘violet-crowned city.’ “Personally, I found the Athenian climate agreeable, and I cannot now recall a single day of my stay there when, even in the rainy season, the sun did not shine at least part of the time. Cold winds there were, to be sure, irk winter, blowing down from the snow-capped hills* above the town or blowing., up from the sea at Phaleron; but there were no frosts; the roses bloomed during every month of the year in the legation gardens; oranges ripened in the open air, and we picked our breakfast fruit from the trees outside of the window, while the palm flourishes there as I have seen it nowhere else, not even in the Riviera. The summer heat is easily endurable, despite a well-nigh constant temperature of nearly 100, the absence of rain removing the humidity which makes American midsummer so intolerable. Social Year Is. Divided. “Socially, too, the Athenian year divides itself with the Climate. At the end of the rainy season the court, tjie dlpb matte body and the rich flee away, the latter going, as they say, *to Eu-

rope’; and to take their places there flock to Athens and to the seaside hotels at Phaleron and to villas and resorts at Kephisla-in-the-hills numbers of rich Greeks from Asia Minor and from Egypt; and the whole city reverses the order of its winter life, turning night into day and spending most of the hours between sunset and sunrise out-of-doors. “Athenian houses are built to resist heat. The exterior and interior walls are all of thick stone, and, with tightly closed windows, one stays indoors until the afternoon tea, when the level rays of the setting sun permit adventure. Then one strolls or drives, dines wherever the dinner hour may find him, and invariably out of doors, journeys by tram to Plmleron for the bathing and the music, or seeks the cool garden of the Zappeion to see the “movies,” or goes to Alysslda for dinner and the vaudeville, and never loses caste by returning home as late as two o’clock in the morning. * Athens Dines in the Open. “Everywhere about the town, on the roofs of clubs or hotels, in the gardens or on the terraces of restaurants, beneath the pepper trees of the parks, and even in the streets tables are spread, and I venture to say that more than 100,000 people dine in the open air each night of an Athenian summer. Greek cooking is more oriental than Indigenous. Lamb or kid, with chicken—which has always seemed to me to be the national bird of all Europe — are the principal meats, though from the shores of Eleusls come delicious wild duck, and other game birds are found near by, while pilau, a Turkish dish of rice with chicken’ or lamb, and giaourti, the Bulgarian ferment of milk, are standards in every Hellenic bill of fare. “With the renewal of the rains the brown fields and hillsides quickly clothe themselves in green. The royal family returns from its “cure,” the diplomats come back from leave, the great houses of the city open, and the winter season begins. “Entertaining in Athens travels a Somewhat' narrow circle. State dinners at the palaces, reciprocal entertainments at the legations, few receptions, and still fewer dinners at Greek houses form the backbone of the winter’s enjoyment. Greeks rarely invite a stranger to their board, although among themselves exists a society which the foreign colony knows of chiefly by rumor. “There is much conversation in Athenian salons, and always of a high or* der. In no capital of Europe, I believe, can be found a more cultured society, and In no drawing room that I have known does conversation flow so smoothly and at such a high level. Art, politics and the drama are all 1 well known in Athens, and the Greeks are such accomplished linguists that any foreigner may use his own speech without hesitation. French, of course, is the prevailing foreign tongue, with English pressing it hard for first place.”

ROYAL PALACE AND CONSTITUTION SQUARE