XVI MODERN ATHENS
Modern Athens is a city of marble. Many of the dwellings and business houses and nearly all the public edifices are of that material, and even the sidewalks on some of the streets are paved with it. Upon the bosom of Mount Pentelikos are two great gashes which can be seen for many miles. One of them is the quarry from which was hewn the marble for the Parthenon, the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Theseus and other famous structures of ancient Athens. The other wound was made in modern times, and shows the source of the material of which the present city of Athens was built. The authorities have protected the old quarry for historical and archeological reasons, and nothing has been taken from it for several centuries. The other quarry is just as good. The stone is easily cut and removed, and, although the grain is not so fine as the Parian marble from the quarries in southern Greece, it is equal to that from the famous Carrara quarries of Italy, and costs much less. I was wondering why some enterprising American did not build a railway to the quarry from Piræus, the seaport of Athens, so as to export the marble, for none is exported now. It need be only about eighteen miles long, not counting the curves necessary to make the grade, and it could be run on the gravity principle.
MODERN ATHENS Royal Palace
The use of marble and white stucco gives modern Athens an appearance of neatness and beauty which there is no soot to deface. The dust is very bad, however, when the wind blows. The streets are unpaved and the soil is a clay that moistens into mud or dries into dust very readily, and a waiter always stands at the door of the hotel with a feather duster to brush off your boots. One of the streets is named in honor of Æolus, the god of the winds, but he does not confine his attentions to that thoroughfare. In the old part of Athens is a well-preserved octagonal structure of marble called the Tower of the Winds, and one might suppose that it was the place where they originated, but the name seems to have been given merely because it was surmounted by a weather-vane. The tower was built about a hundred years before Christ by Andronicus of Syria, so an inscription tells us, as a compliment to the city of Athens, and was adorned with a sun-dial and a clock that was run by water-power in some ingenious manner; but the exact plan of its operation is not understood by modern mortals. An aqueduct supplied a cistern and the cistern fed machinery too complicated for modern horologists to comprehend.
The streets leading east from the Tower of the Winds enter a depression in the side of a hill, inclosed by a wall which was formerly the site of a school called the Diogeneion, supposed to have been founded by Diogenes, the famous cynic in the third century before Christ.
The palace of the king is an ugly modern structure, of which a nation with the taste of the Greeks ought to be ashamed. It looks like a factory, but the other public buildings are so imposing and appropriate, particularly a group of three—the university, the Academy of Sciences and the library—that they more than offset the atrocity in which the king resides. I doubt if there is a more beautiful combination of buildings in all the world. The academy, designed by a Vienna architect, is asserted to be the purest example of the classic school that has arisen in modern times. The surroundings are appropriate, and the entire street, called University Street, is worthy of the artistic traditions of the Athenians, as well as the spirit of modern enterprise.
A pretty park adjoins the palace grounds in the center of the city, and several of the residence streets are lined with pepper-trees, but there is no other shade in Athens—except the awnings stretched across the sidewalks in the business section to shelter show-windows and politicians who sit at little tables in front of the cafés. The gleam of the white marble is painful to the eyes. The architecture of most of the houses in the new quarter of the town is pure Greek; simple, dignified and stately; a striking contrast to the picturesque squalor and dilapidation of Constantinople and the ornate embellishment of the Italian cities. Some critics complain that the architecture of Athens is monotonous, but it is the monotony of pure and simple taste, and none can deny the beauty of the residences. Most of them are constructed upon modern plans, especially the interiors, to meet the demand for conveniences, and I am sure that the private buildings of Athens to-day are more comfortable and beautiful than in the days of Pericles and Phidias. The mountain Pentelikos can furnish all the marble that is necessary to meet the demands of the builders for twenty-five more centuries.
In the old part of the city the streets are narrow, dirty, and the odors rise to heaven. The modern Greek peasant is not a tidy person, nor is his wife, and the street that passes his dwelling, the house in which he lives and all his surroundings are repulsive to the eye, the nostrils and the sense of propriety.
MODERN ATHENIANS
There are three theaters in Athens, one of them a stately marble building of classic design, at which original plays in Greek are produced to encourage native literary genius. An opera company comes over from Italy for two or three weeks every winter, but otherwise there is very little music in Athens. Nor is there any modern art. The museum is not attractive to ordinary visitors, but it is a fountain of joy and never-ending bliss to archeologists, being filled with broken statuary and pottery, old bronzes and tablets bearing inscriptions that are half-effaced, leaving just enough to excite curiosity and controversy among students.
The classic spirit still prevails in Greece. It even pervades the common council of Athens, or whoever has the duty of naming the streets, for they are nearly all called in honor of the ancient gods, philosophers and poets of the golden age. The Boulevard of the University and the Boulevard of the Academy are the broadest and the finest avenues in the residence portion of the city, while the principal business street is named in honor of Mercury. Other streets are called after Solon, Æsculapius, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Thucydides, Pericles, Sophocles, Menander, Venus, Pan, Hebe, Apollo, Jupiter, Theseus, Philip, Constantine and most of the holy apostles. One of the principal hotels is the Minerva, and it is the fashion to christen shops in honor of the great men of the past. Classic names are also usual in baptizing children. You frequently hear of Hermes, Alcibiades and Homer, and the Athens city directory reads like the muster-roll of the army of Agamemnon, which you will find in the early part of Homer. Achilles, Ajax, Menelaus, Miltiades, Leonidas, Themistocles, and other names equally familiar to students of Greek, are in daily use among the people.
Greece is a true democracy. No other country in Europe, not even Norway, is so subject to the will of the people, and the democratic spirit is often shown in ways that are disagreeable. The feeling of equality is general, and there is an undisguised jealousy against one man rising above another. That is one of the great obstacles to progress—a sort of dead-line which no man can cross without being made the target of every selfish and dissatisfied citizen who construes the superiority of his neighbor as a personal grievance and an offense against the individual and the state. The king is a foreigner. Were he not a foreigner he might not be king. Those who know the Greek character best declare that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Greeks to permit one of their own citizens to rule over them. The king is democratic enough to suit their tastes. He mingles freely with the people, and while he maintains beyond criticism the dignity that becomes his position, he is nevertheless simple in his habits, unostentatious in his exercise of power and loves nothing so well as to be considered one of the Greeks. There have been no scandals or intrigues at his court. The scepter has not been wielded to the injury of any one. He treats everybody alike and perhaps goes a little too far that way, because the exercise of more severe discipline might do something to suppress crime. The king’s example is followed by his sons, his ministers and the attachés of the court, and therefore is imitated by the people. The children have inherited the spirit. The common schools of Athens are attended by boys and girls of all grades of society, the children of laborers sitting beside those of the ministers of state, reading from the same books and engaging in the same games.
Travelers in the country sometimes complain that the democratic spirit is offensive; that the “common people” sometimes are too aggressive and independent. I heard an English gentleman relate his experience with the villagers of the interior, which was evidence that they considered themselves quite as good as he, and he declared that such things could never have occurred in England, or in the United States, for that matter. A gentleman who has lived many years in Greece explained that the peasants did not intend to be impertinent, but were simply exercising what they believed to be their privileges, and demonstrating that a practical democracy was in working order. There is no lack of discipline among the servant class, but they assert their rights like the servant-girls of New England.
Athenian society is divided into sets, as it is everywhere; first, the court set, made up of the higher officials, members of the diplomatic corps, officers of the army and navy, rich residents both foreign and native who entertain extensively, and others who are honored with a personal acquaintance with the royal family. This set is more or less exclusive, and includes only a small fraction of those who are entitled to invitations to court functions. The king’s balls and receptions are very much like those at the White House in Washington, and people with shabby clothes and muddy boots are often present, because their political influence, if not their social position entitles them to invitations. There are no orders of nobility in Greece. There is only one order of knighthood—the Order of the Savior, which is conferred by the king for distinguished services of any character. About one-half of the honors go to the army and navy; the next in number are to those who have distinguished themselves in the service of the state, either as executives, legislators or members of the diplomatic corps, and after them come the scientists, who esteem the ribbon very highly. Some of the descendants of the ancient nobility try to retain their titles, but are laughed at. Men whose ancestors played a conspicuous part in patriotic movements are much more admired and envied, but even they have to give way to learning, for scholars stand higher in Greece to-day than any other class of the community, and learning is considered of more value than great riches.
The education of women is gradually reaching a level with that of men. There are still certain social restraints, due to tradition and the influence of the neighboring countries of Europe, and the old-fashioned method of contracting marriages between families still prevails; but, speaking generally, the women of Greece are to-day quite as independent, quite as influential and quite as well educated as any on the continent, south of Sweden, and it is gratifying to know that the queen herself has been one of the most active and influential agents in bringing about the emancipation of her sex.
Athens has more than her share of newspapers, dailies, weeklies and those of occasional publication, which are not intended for news purposes, but to express the opinions of the different owners or editors upon public affairs. Even these are not sufficient, however, and the politicians and the editors visit the cafés every evening, and often in the afternoon, in order to proclaim their views to whomsoever it may concern. Coffee-houses have taken the place of the ancient forums, and one of the largest in Athens is called “Public Opinion Coffee-house.” Instead of referring to a man as a demagogue or a pot-house politician, over here they call him a coffee-house politician, and nowhere in the country is there such an abundance of oratorical talent and public sentiment as in these institutions. They are the resort of would-be leaders who cannot afford to maintain newspapers and are reduced to the necessity of communicating their thoughts by word of mouth. The newspapers contain very little news—a few brief telegrams from London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Constantinople, relating to the most important events of the day; a report of the proceedings of parliament; a review of the decisions of the courts; a few paragraphs of local news; personal items concerning the royal family and prominent citizens; half a column of market quotations, an installment of a continued story, and a few miscellaneous items clipped from other European newspapers. The remainder of the sheet is filled with editorials and communications upon political topics, which are discussed with the greatest freedom, for in Greece the liberty of the press is not abridged. Both editors and correspondents seem to feel as much at liberty as in the United States to criticise or condemn the policy of the government, the extravagance of the officials, the inefficiency of the army, the corruption of parliament, and even the personal habits of public men.
Visitors to Greece are always amazed at the criminal statistics, particularly at the number of murders, and can scarcely believe them to be accurate, because the number seems to be so much in excess of that of any other country in Europe. Ordinary crimes—dishonesty and the vices that prevail in other countries—are not general, but murders occur almost daily, and the frequent attempts at murder and the number of mysterious deaths are shocking in the stage of civilization to which Greece has attained. In the province in which Athens is located homicides average annually almost one to 1,000 of population. It is not without significance that the province of Attica should be the scene of many homicides, for it is the center of learning and education, the seat of the government and the headquarters of the national police. The causes lie mostly in politics. The government has forbidden the carrying of concealed weapons, but the law is not enforced. A pouch or sheath for a knife and a revolver is a part of the national costume, and both are worn openly. You see them upon almost every Greek who wears the old-fashioned garments of his race, and those who have adopted the modern dress have hip pockets.
When two Greeks quarrel the first act is to draw their knives, and unless they are separated instantly there is either a homicide or a case for the hospital, and the hospitals of Athens, which are extensive and up-to-date, are abundantly supplied with patients, especially during periods of political excitement. If a man is killed in a controversy it usually begins a feud which does not end until several graves are filled, because the unwritten law requires a life for a life, and the Greeks adhere to the vendetta as do the Corsicans and the people of Sicily.
In the provinces of Arcadia, which is a synonym of peace and happiness, and in Laconia, the southernmost section of the Grecian peninsula, the vendetta is as strictly observed as it ever was in Corsica. One murder is usually followed by half a dozen, and sometimes they continue until families are extinct. If there are no sons to take revenge, the duty passes to the nearest relative, and the code is understood by children. Singularly enough the obligation to kill ceases when the offending person leaves the province. The code prohibits attacks upon enemies when they remove to another part of the country. The cause of this extraordinary condition can be traced to the days of Turkish domination, when murder and other crimes committed upon Christians were allowed to remain unpunished. The Turkish officials took no notice of injuries suffered by unbelievers and never attempted to punish the perpetrators.
The indifference of the government down to the present day has encouraged murder. Capital punishment is seldom inflicted, and the verdict of a court is generally acquittal. Those who happen to be convicted are soon pardoned through political influence.
Politics is the influential factor in this problem. When a man is arrested for murder, his friends and family naturally use every effort to secure his acquittal, and appeal to their representatives in the chamber of deputies and other officials of the government who are supposed to have a “pull” with the courts, and skill in convincing juries. If the defendants are convicted and sent to prison their confinement must be made as short and as easy as possible. Hence members of the Greek parliament are kept quite as busy looking after constituents who have committed homicides as the members of our Congress are in getting an increase of pensions for old soldiers.
Persons who have served a term for murder bear no stigma. On the contrary, as every man in Greece is likely to suffer a similar experience sooner or later, the contrary is the case. The prisons are generally dirty, uncomfortable and without ventilation or sanitary appliances, but they are no worse in these respects than the homes from which the prisoners come. No labor is required, and there is very little discipline. Except in a few cases, where solitary confinement is the penalty, the prisoners congregate in one room during the daytime, and the social enjoyment is almost as great as if they were in their village cafés instead. Friends are allowed to bring them delicacies and bedding and to see them frequently. Thus a lazy man is sometimes more comfortable and happy in prison than out, for in the latter case he would be compelled to support himself. As long as he is in prison for such a crime as homicide, public opinion requires his friends and family to support him. Hence he can loaf, gossip, argue, smoke cigarettes and drink coffee all day long, which is the Greek ideal of happiness. If the laws could be amended so as to require the prisoners to work and cut off their enjoyments entirely, no doubt it would go far to diminish crime.
Somebody has said that what Greece wants is not men of culture, but men of agriculture, and that is probably true. There are plenty of men to till the limited area between the mountains and the rocky plateaus if they would devote themselves to it, but it is the ambition of every Greek youth to obtain a classical education and to engage in one of the learned professions. No country in the world has so few children in the primary schools in proportion to the young men and women in the academies and universities. One class of the population is under-educated and the other over-educated. Intellectual culture therefore is not properly distributed. A compulsory education law is not enforced because of the interference of the politicians, and thousands of children of school age in the country districts who should attend school are assisting their parents on the farms and in the homes and adding a little to the family income.
There has been no census lately, but estimates based upon the young men who come into the army place the illiterates at thirty per cent of the population in the country and fifteen per cent in the towns. Those who go to school, however, show remarkable eagerness for learning, and when a boy has passed through the secondary schools nothing will stop him from going to the university, where education is free. Then it is necessary for him to select a professional career, because the labor of the farm is too arduous and the society of the peasants is uncongenial. The students in the University of Athens to-day number more than three thousand, and the larger part of them come from the peasant class. As a consequence, Greece is oversupplied with lawyers, doctors and other professional young men, who are compelled to get a living the best way they can, because there is no parental allowance to support them. Many of them go in for politics and seek offices under the government. Many go into the army, and more are engaged in humble clerical employment and are living upon crusts until something turns up. There are said to be more university graduates in Athens in proportion to the population than in any other city in the world, and the number of unemployed is very large. A few of them drift off into Turkey and other countries of the Orient, where the opportunities are greater, but so many remain and make a business of politics that they are the curse of Greece.
The traveler who comes to Greece from Italy or from Turkey or the Oriental countries is always gratified at the absence of beggars. You may live there for years and never see one, except a few cripples, blind and decrepit old crones, who sit at the doors of the churches and hold out their hands, pleading pitifully for alms. There are excellent hospitals and asylums for all the ills and woes that humankind suffer, and, although there are many poor and afflicted people and much misery and degradation in Greece, the pride and independence of the people will not permit them to beg, and the benevolent spirit of those who are more prosperous makes good provision for them. Philanthropy is a Greek word. In Greece children never run after strangers in the street and beg for pennies as they do in other countries of southern Europe. If a stranger stops on the sidewalk in Italy he is immediately surrounded by a crowd of urchins, ragged, dirty and impudent, who follow him for blocks with importunities. In Turkey and Egypt it is even worse. In Greece travelers are never troubled in that way.
A long time ago a hermit made his home upon the top of the columns of the temple of Jupiter at Athens, and lived there, exposed to the sun and the wind and the storms, until compelled to come down. He had an arrangement with a woman in the neighborhood to provide him with food, and she used to appear every morning with a basket of supplies, which he was accustomed to haul up to his eyrie with a clothes-line.
In the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, one of the loftiest and most conspicuous of the ruins at the base of the Acropolis, which was formerly a theater accommodating six thousand spectators, erected by an Athenian millionaire in memory of his wife, Appia Annia Regilla, a noble Roman lady, there is an enormous earthen wine-jar called a pithos. For several years a half-witted man named Demetrius lived in it, just as Diogenes lived in his jar. A kind woman in the neighborhood furnished him food whenever he called for it, and in stormy weather he covered the mouth of his curious dwelling with a curtain of canvas, which gave him adequate shelter.
The parliament of Greece occupies a conspicuous building in the center of the city of Athens, which is the scene of frequent exciting episodes and heated debates. After observing the behavior of the German, Austrian, Hungarian, French, Italian and Greek chambers of deputies, I have deliberately reached the conclusion that the House of Representatives at Washington is the most orderly, dignified and statesmanlike legislative body elected by popular suffrage—not excepting the House of Commons. This is a recent opinion, and is contrary to what I have often written. From the reporter’s gallery of the House of Representatives I have witnessed some very stormy scenes during the last quarter of a century, but they have been incidental. Confusion and boisterous behavior in the European parliaments are chronic. The Greeks are so fond of debate that they ought to have several legislative chambers instead of one, in order to give the eloquent members of that body a chance to express their views; but, failing to get a hearing in the house, they go to the nearest café immediately after adjournment, where they are able to discourse to their heart’s content without interruption.
Politics is the curse of Greece. The country is so small, its financial and other interests are so limited, and its influence in the affairs of nations so insignificant, that one would suppose the people would devote themselves to the development of their material resources and the encouragement of their industries instead of wasting their time in useless discussions and quarrels. But I have always noticed that the smaller the country the hotter the political contests. In Servia, Bulgaria, and certain American republics, where the population is less than in Greece, political agitation is even more bitter and a larger number of people give their exclusive time to it.
I have been trying to discover the political issues in Greece, but have given up in despair. They seem to be numerous, but are not well defined. The local complications are too intricate to be untangled by a stranger, and when you bore through into the pith of the thing you find that the ambition to hold office is the ruling motive, as it is almost everywhere else. There are few offices in Greece and many men who desire to fill them. Hence the outs are opposed to the ins and attempt to justify their demands for authority by proclaiming political principles and promising administrative reforms.
King George is a wise, liberal and tactful ruler. He has a turbulent population to deal with, but is discreet, judicious, generous, and never mixes in political affairs. He always selects his ministers from the party which has a majority in the parliament and is usually able to handle them without difficulty. He holds the confidence of the parliament and the people. Everybody trusts him as a safe man. The only criticism I heard in Greece was that he is too merciful with violators of the law, and perhaps it would be to the advantage of the country if the criminal courts were more severe in their penalties and the pardoning power were not so freely exercised.
The political riots in Athens in the spring of 1902 were due to an unusual cause. Greek scholars are very jealous of the language and are trying to restore ancient Greek to common use. Modern Greek is not taught at the university, and whether it shall be taught in the public schools is a political issue. The advocates of a return to the classic tongue insist that the only way to restore it is to teach it to the children in the primary schools. Their opponents argue that if the children are taught nothing but ancient Greek they can not read modern newspapers, magazines or books. Modern Greek is a corruption of the ancient language, which has become debased by common usage, as the modern Italian is a corruption of the ancient Latin. While it is possible for the native of one province to understand another in conversation, just as a man from New England can understand the lingo of the Arizona miner, very few of the common people are able to read the pure classic. Some of the literary men of the country and many politicians are so democratic in their notions that they would use nothing but the vulgar, modern Athenian dialect, and one man in particular has made himself conspicuous in support of that proposition. He has been bitterly denounced, however, by the university faculties and the serious scholars of the country, and is held up to students as an enemy of their language and their race. So he resides in England.
This controversy is hot and cold according as provocation occurs, and volumes have been written upon one side and the other. During the recent war with Turkey, Queen Olga, who is a noble woman, famous for her good works, and a niece of the late Czar of Russia, found that the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals she visited were not able to read the Bibles she gave them, which were printed only in the classic Greek. She was greatly grieved at this, and arranged with two eminent members of the theological faculty to translate the gospels into the modern Greek. They were hastily printed and circulated in large numbers in the army at the queen’s expense. She paid the translators handsomely for their work and bore all the cost of the enterprise from her private purse. Before the war with Turkey had ended every soldier in the Greek army had one of Queen Olga’s Testaments in his knapsack.
The excitement was so great in those days that the matter was overlooked and nothing was said about it until last spring, when somehow or other the students of the university provoked an agitation and held a series of meetings at which inflammatory speeches were made against the desecration of the Holy Scriptures and the words of the Redeemer by translating them into modern Greek. As is often the case, the police authorities used unwise measures to suppress the agitation, which only made it worse, and it culminated in a mass-meeting called at the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, near the base of the Acropolis and near the edge of the park which surrounds the palace. This is the usual place for public demonstrations. Political meetings of all kinds are held at the Olympieion, which Aristotle describes as a “work of despotic grandeur.” The ruins are the favorite place of promenade on summer evenings, and demagogues, fanatics and cranks take the opportunity to declaim their views there as they do at Hyde Park in London.
There were originally more than one hundred columns of Pentelic marble, fifty-six feet high and five and a half feet in diameter, of the second largest Greek temple known, being three hundred and fifty-three feet in length and one hundred and thirty-four feet in width, dimensions exceeded only by those of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. Only sixteen of the columns remain. Several of them are said to have been taken to Rome by the emperors; more have been broken up for building-material, and at least sixteen are now supporting the domes of mosques in Constantinople.
The meeting called to discuss the queen’s translations of the gospels was a very large one, many people attending purely out of curiosity. It was managed by the students of the university, who, to emphasize their objections, secured several copies of the book and burned them over a slow fire in a dramatic manner. The police attempted to disperse the crowd; stones were thrown, shots were fired, and an infuriated populace showed its resentment against the authorities by driving the policemen off the ground and using some of them very roughly. A general alarm was given, soldiers were called out and for two days it was a question whether the military or the mob would rule the city. The number of killed and wounded was quite large. At least seven students died in the streets or were fatally wounded, and their funerals were made occasions for political demonstrations. The result has been to strengthen the support of the classic language and to make the good queen very unpopular. Before this incident she was beloved and admired by everybody, and since no one except the demagogues has ever accused her of more than indiscretion. She was evidently unaware of the philological controversy, and the professors who made her translation should have advised her of it. Her translation, however, was never offered to the public; no copy was ever sold, and it was used simply for the purpose intended. Her Majesty’s critics, however, made the most of the fact that she is a foreigner and a Russian.
Queen Olga’s nobility of character, her pure life, her charitable works and her spotless dignity as a queen, wife and mother will outlive the criticisms upon her indiscretion, which would be soon forgotten if the demagogues would drop the subject. She is a member of the Greek Church, sincere and earnest in the performance of her religious duties, and a strong believer in the miraculous power of an image of the Holy Virgin which attracts many pilgrims to a little town in the southern part of Greece. She is actively interested in charitable work also and rarely fails to visit some hospital or asylum or other benevolent institution. She walks upon the streets like the wife of any ordinary citizen, is unassuming in her manners and democratic in her habits, and if a stranger should meet her upon an errand of mercy or when she is taking her constitutional he would never suspect her to be a queen. The court of Greece is said to be the purest in all Europe, for Queen Olga is even more critical than Queen Victoria used to be concerning the character and reputation of those who are presented to her. There are no adventurers, either men or women, about the palace at Athens. She has brought up her boys under her own eye and according to her own religion, and everybody agrees that they are young men of exemplary character and habits, very different from the ordinary prince.
The king is a Protestant. He is a son of old King Christian of Denmark, “the father-in-law of Europe;” a brother of Queen Alexandra of England, and of Dagmar, the empress mother of Russia. When he accepted the throne of Greece he agreed that his children should be brought up in the religion of the country, but declined to change his own faith. He does not try to proselyte the Greeks, however, but his Lutheran chaplain holds services on Sunday very quietly in a little chapel connected with the palace. Protestants connected with the court have an opportunity to attend, but outsiders are never admitted.
The wife of the crown prince and the future queen of Greece, is the Princess Sophia, a sister of the Kaiser of Germany. When the latter consented to her marriage it was with the understanding that she should not be required to renounce Protestantism, although it was stipulated that her children were to be educated in the Greek faith. Two years ago, however, she voluntarily left the Lutheran Church and was baptized in the Greek communion. Her august brother was furious and did not hesitate to censure his sister openly for renouncing the religion of her fathers. Nor has he forgiven her. She has not been in Germany since, and it is the general understanding that she has not been invited. No Protestant missionary work is now done in Greece, although there are several Protestant churches in different parts of the country, and two in Athens.
Everyone who knows the facts testifies that the priests of the Greek Church are useful, morally and spiritually, but there are altogether too many of them. According to the census of 1889 there were over eight thousand priests for a population of 2,187,208, and the number has rapidly increased since that date, so that the ratio is even larger. There are probably ten thousand priests and monks in Greece to-day, while the membership of the Greek church is 2,138,609. A slight calculation will show you that this is an average of about one priest to every two hundred souls, so that the clerical profession, like all others, is suffering from an oversupply, and the people are required to support it. There are one hundred and seventy monasteries with over nineteen hundred monks, and nine nunneries with two hundred and twenty nuns. The head of the church is called the Metropolitan, who is elected by the Holy Synod, composed of twenty-one archbishops and twenty-nine bishops; and all these have to be supported by the taxpayers. Nominally the church is under the care of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but while his jurisdiction is never questioned in theory, he does not attempt to exercise more than formal ecclesiastical authority. The compensation of the clergy is insignificant. The Metropolitan receives only $120 a month and the bishops only $50. In Athens the most prominent of the parish clergy do not receive more than $500 a year, while country parsons are obliged to subsist upon a mere pittance, many of them being paid only in the produce of the farms of their parishes. The monks belong to orders which own property, and are, therefore, much better off. For these reasons the regular clergy in the country are compelled to earn a living like their parishioners.
The priests in the Greek Church are allowed to marry. Most of them have large families, and according to the customs of the country it is the rule for the sons to follow in the profession of their father. As they cannot marry a second wife under the canon law, they imitate Dr. Primrose, and take good care of their first. It is the uniform testimony of people familiar with the facts that the country parsons of Greece as a rule are honorable, sincere and well-meaning men, living lives of self-sacrifice and comforting those who are worse off than themselves. The Greek priests wear their hair and beards long in imitation of the Saviour. The ecclesiastical dress is a frock similar to that of the Roman Catholic priests, which reaches to the heels, and a black chimney-pot hat without a brim. Sometimes a veil is worn, falling over the shoulders. They are generally men of fine appearance and excellent manners. There are even more chapels than priests, because every village must have a church or a chapel, and sometimes villages are deserted. The inhabitants, for some reason or another, remove to another location, but the chapel must stand. The peasants naturally have a deep religious sentiment, mingled with superstition, and, as in the days of St. Paul, worship unknown gods. They are strong believers in the miraculous also, and consequently there are several miracle-working images of the Holy Virgin and certain saints.
The patriotism of the Greeks is proverbial, and evidences of the munificence of the prosperous children of this classic country are on every side. I do not know of any other city or any other land of similar population which shows so many public buildings and benevolent institutions founded by private individuals. Most of the fortunes have been made abroad. Greece is not a money-making country. The opportunities for gaining wealth are limited. Agriculture is still in a primitive condition; there is comparatively little manufacturing; the mining resources are insignificant, and the commerce and mercantile trade can never amount to much because of the meager population. Therefore, Greeks who are ambitious for wealth go elsewhere. They are a migrating race. There are Greek communities in every important city of the world, and they use the same methods, practice the same economy and show the same skill in trade as the Jews. It is a proverb that one Greek is as good as two Jews in a bargain. They often begin in a small way, peddling fruit, knickknacks and other trifles, but gradually extend their commercial horizons until many of them become mercantile princes. You find them in London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna and especially in Constantinople, where nearly one-third of the population is Greek, and the richest residents belong to that race. Throughout Syria, Egypt and along the coast of Africa the larger share of the mercantile business is in the hands of Greeks. In the Black Sea country they monopolize the grain trade, and throughout the East, from Italy to Egypt and as far north as Budapest and Odessa they practically control commercial affairs.
Greece has no naturalization treaties. Like Russia, the government never releases its subjects from their obligations—once a Greek, always a Greek. Any naturalized Greek citizen of the United States who returns to his native country may be impressed into the army without ceremony if he did not serve his term before he left the country. The same rule applies to the Greek residents of England, France and all other countries. Hence the chief business of the United States minister at Athens is to help our naturalized Greeks out of trouble.
Many Greeks are found in South America also, and in the Transvaal and other parts of South Africa. During the Boer War several Greeks had important contracts for furnishing supplies to the British government and made more money during the troubles than they did while the country was at peace. In the Argentine Republic are several important Greek families. In fact wherever they go they make money, and it is the ambition of every Greek to return to Athens and live among his own people. The long streets of fine mansions and other evidences of wealth and luxury demonstrate that many have been able to do so.
There are many reasons for the working classes as well as the tradesmen to emigrate. Wages are low, although laborers are scarce, and particularly mechanics. The earnings of those who remain in the country have not improved since the war with Turkey, but are lower than before because wages are paid in a depreciated paper currency worth not more than sixty per cent of its former value. The wages of ordinary laborers run from twenty to fifty cents a day, and those of skilled mechanics from fifty to eighty cents a day. The law which requires military service of every citizen drives a good many young men from the country, for it compels them to waste the best years of their life. There is no reason why Greece should have an army. If she had none she would be much better off. Her military history is not at all flattering, and during the late war with Turkey it was clearly demonstrated that the people had neither military skill nor courage. If the parliament would abolish the army and navy, leaving just enough soldiers to preserve the peace, and rest entirely upon the protection of the great Powers of Europe, it would be a blessing to the people and relieve them from an enormous burden of taxation. Many thousand able-bodied young men would be released from a military servitude which not only keeps them from the fields and factories, but unfits them for labor after their term of duty has expired. It would also remove from the sons of the upper classes a temptation which often proves fatal to success in life. Opportunities are so few in Greece that educated young men must seek employment under the government or obtain commissions in the army. Under the present system of politics the former can only look forward to an uncertain and an unprofitable career, while there is even less to encourage the ambitious in the army. The number of officers is so much in excess of the requirements that there is nothing for them to do but to spend their time in the coffee-houses and in worse forms of dissipation. The streets of Athens and other cities of Greece are crowded with men in uniform, and if you will enter any café or stop at one of the many groups of idlers in public places you may notice that at least one-third and sometimes more than half of all those present wear the uniform of officers of high rank. I have been told that there is an officer for every three privates in the Greek army, and certainly that proportion exists in Athens, although it may not be so large in other parts of the country.
Most of the public institutions at Athens were founded and endowed by the private means of Greeks who have made fortunes abroad. Others have left large legacies directly to the government. That has occurred several times in the United States, but not often in other countries. Several men in their wills have left money to be applied toward the payment of the Greek national debt. One man, not long ago, who evidently feared that his money might be stolen, required his executors to purchase a stated amount of government bonds and burn them in the presence of a committee. Some years ago a man left two hotels to the Greek government. They stand on the Place de la Concorde, and yield a good rental, which goes into the public treasury.
One of the most notable acts of patriotism is told of a Greek barber in the city of New York, who, dying, left his entire estate to the University of Athens. He was not an educated man, but was proud of the classic traditions of his country, and gave more than Carnegie or Rockefeller to the cause of education. The amount was only $150, the proceeds of the sale of the equipment of his barber shop, his razors, and doubtless the bottles of hair-tonic that ornamented its shelves, but it was all that he had.
Somebody should give something for repairing the streets and roads. With the exception of the principal thoroughfares, they are very bad, and often impassable.
The University of Athens was founded about 1835. It is conducted on the German plan. Many of the professors are graduates of German universities, and the German language is heard about the building more frequently than any other except Greek. The institution has a large amount of property, from which it draws a considerable revenue, but several of the chairs have been handsomely endowed by private individuals.
The National Library, which has one of the most beautiful modern buildings in the world, is the legacy of the Vallianos brothers, grain-merchants doing business at Odessa and the ports of the Black Sea. A marble statue of one of them stands in front of the building.
The National Museum was given to the people by George Averof, a cotton-merchant in Egypt, who also founded a military school and established a model reformatory for children.
THE MUSEUM AT ATHENS
The exposition building, called the Zappeion, intended for temporary exhibitions of art and industry, is the gift of the Zappas brothers, grain-merchants in Roumania.
The building of the Academy of Sciences, which is the most beautiful modern structure in Europe, and the Royal Observatory were erected and endowed by Baron Sina, a Greek banker in Vienna.
The Arsakion, a college for young women, was founded and richly endowed by Mr. Arsakis, a Greek merchant in Vienna. The Varvakion, a manual training-school and gymnasium for boys, was founded by Mr. Varvakes, a raisin merchant. The Polytechnic Institute was the gift of Mr. Metzorios, a merchant of Epirus. The Aretesian, a surgical institute, was founded by Dr. Areteas, a poor boy, who became an eminent surgeon and left 1,000,000 francs for the institution. Dr. Anagnostokes, another eminent surgeon, founded a hospital for eye and ear diseases. George and Mathos Rhizares founded a theological seminary. The late Mr. Syngros, a banker, built an opera-house and gave it to the city; he also founded a model prison for first offenders, a house for impoverished women of rank, a home with a factory for light employment for poor working women, and also a home for the aged of both sexes. The Royal Theater was erected by a stock company, organized by King George, who owns three-fourths of the stock, and was intended to encourage native writers and actors.
Queen Olga built a prison for women. The Crown Princess Sophia built a hospital for children and reorganized and reëquipped in German style the military hospital. The ex-Queen Amalia of Bavaria founded a free dispensary, and Haji Costa, a Greek merchant in Russia, founded the orphan asylum.
The ancient Stadium, originally built three hundred and thirty years before Christ by Lycurgus, the famous Athenian statesman, and one of the noblest, ablest and most practical rulers of Greece, is now being restored in pure white marble after the old style, by the generosity of the late George Averof, who founded the National Museum. His motive was the same as that of Lycurgus, to encourage physical culture among the Greeks, who are very deficient in that important particular. This was demonstrated at the Olympian games, which took place here in 1896. Every event with one exception was captured by strangers. The one exception was the long distance race, twenty-five miles, from the mound at Marathon to the Stadium at Athens, which was won by a young Greek shepherd named Spiridon Louis, and as a reward, in addition to the prize, the government gave him a monopoly of the sale of water from the springs of Marousi, the favorite drinking-water of the Greeks. This spring is a popular resort on the side of the Pentelikos Mountain, near Tatoi, the summer residence of the king. There is a large sale of the water in Athens, and it is brought in fresh from the spring every morning in sheepskins and in large earthen jars. Louis, the runner, is doing a good business, and has increased the demand by representing that its use gave him the strength and speed which won the Marathon race.
The representatives of American colleges who appeared in the games of 1896 acquitted themselves with distinguished honor and carried off their share of the prizes. One of the remarkable incidents was the capture by Robert Garrett of Baltimore, then of Princeton University, of the prize for discus-throwing, a classic Greek game. Mr. Garrett had never seen a discus until his arrival in Athens, but outplayed the Greeks in their own game on their own field.
The new Stadium will be a beautiful structure of marble, six hundred and seventy feet long and one hundred and nine feet broad, with sixty rows of seats of pure white marble, rising one upon the other and accommodating thirty thousand spectators. It is an ideal place for football and similar athletics, and when finished will surpass every other field for sports in ancient or modern times. The cost is comparatively small in Greece, because the extensive quarries of Pentelikos yield their marble treasures for only the cost of cutting and transportation, and no doubt Mr. Averof’s munificence will inspire an ambition among his countrymen to develop their physical as well as their intellectual qualities.
A shrine of history in which all lovers of liberty feel an interest is the little town of Mesolongion, in the western part of the kingdom, where, during the revolution against the Turks in 1823, Marco Bozzaris gained immortality. He is buried under an insignificant monument near a military hospital, and near by is a tomb containing the heart of Lord Byron, who died there. His body was conveyed to England. A monument was erected to Byron at Mesolongion in 1881, and a beautiful group in marble, representing him protecting a beautiful female, symbolizing Greece, from a ferocious barbarian, signifying Turkey, has recently been placed in one of the parks of Athens.
The connection of Lord Byron with the emancipation of Greece was more sentimental than otherwise. It is true that during the war for liberty he offered his services to the Greek patriots and brought them several thousand dollars of his own money, which was sadly needed by the revolutionary leaders. He loaned £4,000 toward the equipment of a Greek fleet, and assisted the patriots to borrow money in London, where he did much to awaken sympathy for the gallant struggle they were making against the Turks. He enlisted a company of adventurers and drilled them at Mesolongion for several months, but they made endless trouble, and he was finally compelled to pay them large sums of money and send them away. It was a motley gang of desperadoes, composed of Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, Americans, Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Swiss, Belgians, Russians, Poles, Austrians, Hungarians, Danes, Italians, Frenchmen, Servians, Bulgarians and representatives of every other race and nation who were attracted to him by popular rumors that he had large sums of money to expend in the cause of Grecian liberty. But his plans were impracticable. It was a case of poetic genius and not military skill; but Byron died a hero. It redeemed his reputation, however, and there is no doubt that during the few weeks preceding his death he lived upon a sixpence a day, as his biographers claim, for he had stripped himself of every farthing and had forfeited all claims upon his friends in behalf of the Greek cause. His name will always be cherished by the Greeks.
“The Maid of Athens,” to whom Byron addressed the charming love-song with which we are all familiar, is said to have been Miss Theresa Macri, daughter of the English vice-consul, with whom he fell desperately in love while he was a guest of her father during his first visit to Greece in 1809. He was just twenty-one years old and was still unknown to fame, having published only his first volume of poems. He lived with the family for several months and wanted to marry the daughter, but her father seems to have been a sensible man and refused his consent. Byron returned to England, married Miss Milbanke, separated from her a few months later and left England forever. The next year he met the Countess Guicciolo at Venice and lived with her, without the formality of a marriage for seven years, until he went to Greece, where her father Count Gamba, accompanied him and remained with him until his death.
Some writers have asserted that ancient Greece had a population of at least 10,000,000, and certain antiquarians have estimated that the city of Athens, at the age of Pericles, had a population of 750,000. Now it has 117,000. But the best authorities believe that neither Athens nor Greece ever had a greater population than now. It is certainly true that the number of inhabitants gradually diminished during the Turkish tyranny until, at the outbreak of the revolution in 1821, there were only 766,747 people in Greece. After the revolution the population began to increase gradually until in 1890 it had passed two millions, more than three times the number when the present government was formed, notwithstanding the large emigration. The natural increase is about 2.4 per cent per year, very nearly the same as that of the United States. Seventy-eight per cent of the population live in the country and twenty-two per cent in the towns. A good many of the so-called towns are small villages of farmers. It is the custom in Greece for the people to live in communities and go to their farms every morning. This practice was necessary for mutual protection in the days of the Turks. You see few detached farmhouses, and few country-seats, although the number is rapidly increasing, now that brigandage is extinct. As a rule, however, even now, travelers find the farmhouses in clusters, and the farmers going out to their work every morning with a lunch of bread and olives in their pockets.
Nearly all the land that is capable of raising crops is under cultivation, but the methods are very primitive, and it does not produce anything like the crops that ought to come from such soil. The government has recently instituted a general movement for agricultural education, and has established schools in all the provinces, at which the science of farming is taught—only the rudiments at present, because the Greeks are very conservative, and the wise men who are at the head of this movement know better than to go too rapidly. The farms average about ten acres in extent, the great majority of them being less than two. They are cultivated entirely by hand, and with home-made implements. The soil is plowed with a crooked stick, similar to that used by the Egyptians in the days of Moses, and the grain is thrashed with the hoofs of animals trampling upon it. Near by every community can be seen a circular platform paved with stone, often with a post in the center. When the harvest comes the grain will be spread upon the surface, and three or four animals will be hitched to the post and driven round and round until they have trampled the kernels out of the husks. Greece does not grow enough food for her own consumption. At least sixty per cent of the meat, vegetables and grain consumed annually are imported, which is entirely unnecessary and a direct loss to the people, because the transportation has to be paid for, and so much more comes out of the pockets of the laboring classes.
On a few large estates the land is worked on shares, the peasants taking two-thirds of the produce, and giving the other third in lieu of the rental, the landlord sharing the losses, as well as the profits, when they occur. Olive groves are often managed on this plan, and it is generally satisfactory.
Although square miles of land are lying idle, it is a singular fact that the fields in the neighborhood of Athens do not produce enough vegetables to supply the local market. Nobody seems to know exactly why, although there is a general disposition to attribute the phenomenon to the natural characteristics of the people and to say that the Greeks are poor gardeners. The king sets a good example. He has an estate and country-house about fifteen miles from Athens, and several thousand acres of land under a high state of cultivation. It is a sort of experimental farm in more senses than one, at which he not only shows what can be done, but how to do it, and the advantages of intelligent farming. He has the best live stock in Greece, the most improved machinery, the best breeds of cattle, horses, sheep, swine and poultry, and he sells milk, vegetables and other farm-produce in the local market, as Victoria of England used to do on the Isle of Wight.
This example has done some good. It has made farming respectable, although the Greeks have not followed the fashion to any great extent. In fact, I could not learn of any native of wealth or influence who has imitated His Majesty and gone into the garden-truck business. In another direction the king has done great good. He furnishes seeds to all farmers who will apply for them, and applications are frequent. He has also done a good deal to improve the breeds of live stock and poultry, although the horses and cattle of Greece are comparatively poor. The sheep are much better.
Dairy farming is limited. More goat’s milk is sold than cow’s milk. The natives use comparatively little butter. The Greek butter must be used promptly, because it has a coarse grain and will not keep. It looks like “smear-kase” and tastes more like whipped cream than anything else. Cow’s milk cannot be obtained outside of the large cities, and even there it is scarce and expensive. Nearly all Greeks use goat’s milk. Both goats and cows are driven into town every morning and milked at the doors of the customers. This is not a new fashion, but, like nearly all the customs of the people, can be traced back through many centuries. The herdsman, shuffling through the streets with milk-measure in his hand, behind a herd of seven or eight solemn-looking goats, was probably as familiar to the ancients as he is to the Athenians of to-day, and, viewed in all its aspects, it is an excellent proposition, because all the customers along his route are sure to get their milk fresh and pure, and the goat-herd’s honesty is not tempted by the convenience of the pump. When he reaches the house of a customer he milks one of the goats into his measure and pours the contents into a bucket or the bowl that is brought for him. Some of the milkmen come in with a pair of cans strapped over the back of a donkey.
As in South America, you can buy turkeys and geese “on the hoof.” They are driven in from the country in flocks, so that customers may make selections as they pass through the streets. Everything else is peddled, not only food in the form of fruits, meats, cakes, bread, vegetables, fish, butter and cheese, but all sorts of dry goods and notions, shoes, stockings and even hats, tinware, hardware, stationery; sometimes on a tray suspended from the neck of a man, sometimes on a cart, but oftener upon the back of a donkey. You can frequently see in the streets show-cases with glass fronts containing all kinds of dry goods suspended from pack-saddles of donkeys and transported from house to house, while the owner or attendant bellows an inventory of his merchandise and describes its merits in a brazen voice. There are, however, several fine shops in Athens. Those in the new quarter of the city will compare with the best in our towns of the same size.
Other relics of ancient times are public cook-shops, found in the oldest quarter of the city, similar to those of Naples, where a variety of viands are prepared at the regular meal-hours and sold already cooked at the most extraordinarily low prices. Housewives go there for their supplies instead of to the market. It saves fuel and labor and nothing is wasted. This custom is said to have come down from the classic period before the Christian era, and then, as now, professional cooks used to go about the town with stoves on wheels, filled with bright fires of charcoal, over which persons who had no stoves or ranges in their houses could cook their meats or vegetables for a small fee. It is common to see a peripatetic cook standing in front of a prosperous-looking residence, while the soft and genial atmosphere is filled with the odor of frying fish or roasted rabbit.
Foreigners are always shocked at the sight of a Greek funeral. It is a spectacle which most people desire to avoid, because the body of the dead is exposed in an open hearse. The coffin is shallow, so that not only the face and head but the hands and much of the body can be distinctly seen from the sidewalk as the procession passes through the streets. The lid of the coffin, richly upholstered and often decorated with garlands and wreaths, is carried on the hearse by the undertaker. The priest, the relatives and other mourners follow, and as the ghastly spectacle passes it is customary for bystanders to remove their hats and cross themselves. Men sitting around the cafés always rise out of respect for the dead and stand bareheaded until the procession has passed. In case of an officer of the army, a horse with an empty saddle, heavily draped with crape, is led by an orderly in advance of the hearse.
When the body is lowered to the grave the coffin-lid is placed upon it, but does not close down, and the earth is allowed to come in direct contact, to hasten decay. The superstition in the popular mind is that the soul of the departed is in a state of suspense until the temple it formerly inhabited has turned to dust. Graves are rented in the Athens cemeteries for terms of years, just like the habitations of the living. None but the rich own burial lots. It is an evidence of wealth and aristocracy. The poor never think of buying a lot or a tomb. It would be considered an unnecessary luxury. At the end of the term for which a grave is rented the bones are dug up, put into a bag, labeled with the name and dates, and deposited in a general receptacle.
The custom of carrying the body to the grave in the full sight of the people is said to have originated during the Turkish occupation of Greece. The country was in a state of chronic revolution. The importation of arms and ammunition was forbidden, and the revolutionists were in the habit of importing them in coffins. Frequently people who were “wanted” by the police were assisted to escape in a similar manner, and revolutionary leaders who had been banished were brought back in coffins. Therefore, as a precaution, the Turks required that dead bodies should be exposed.
