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Schools, Colleges and Gymnasiums of the Modern Athenians
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(Copyright, 19tl, by Frank G. Carpenter.
T1IEXS (Special Correspondence of The
A
j)ee.) The shoes of Aruericu are now
largely blacked by young Greeks. Every
town of any size in our country has Its
Greek bootblack establishment, and the
work is done by boys who are, shipped
there by contract and whose wages are
sent back home to their parents. In talking with
these little fellows you will find them as bright as new
dollars, and If you can speak Greek you will discover
that alraost all ltave bad some education. Not a few
have gone to school at the night schools at Athens
and other Greek cities, and many have begun the
study of the classics at home. Athens swarms with
bootblacks and newsboys; they have come here from
ah over the country to earn their own living. I see
tbem working at their books on the streets during
their spare moments, and it is not an uncommon thing
for a newsboy to practice writing in a copybook while
waiting for the papers to come from the press.
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The Night Schools of Athens. -I
venture there Is no nation whose children are so
anxious for an education as this, and none where the
peopleare more ready to give it. There are three
night schools for poor boys in Athens alone, with
branch schools In other towns throughout Greece. I
went to a school last night which held 500 boys, rang
ing in ages from 10 to 14, and I saw one class of 150
going through gymnastic exercises and drill on the
street outside. They had an excellent director. They
were straight and well developed and they marched
well, their shoulders thrown back.
Entering the buildings, I was taken from room to,
room, finding each filled with thirty or forty boys
as brlgat as any to be found in America. My guide
Was a director of the Greek National bank, who de
votes his evenings to this work. Each class stood up
as wa entered and they rose again as we left. In
some rooms they were studying arithmetic, in others
geography and in others how to read and write Greek.
I was told that the school was attended by about 800
bootblacks each year.
Taught to Save Money.
These boys get an education at no cost to them
except what they pay for their books. They are
taught habits of thrift. Tbe teachers have a savings
bank and each boy can deposit and have his own bank
account. The other day one of them left for America,
taking along 1,200 francs, or $240, which he had
saved in this way.
I was surprised at the teaching and the high class
of some of the studies. ' The ordinary branches are
the same as those of our graded schools, but in addi
tion tbey read the classics and many of them can
quote Homer and Demosthenes. There is a map of
Greece in every school roonuand the children are
instructed In Greek history and they follow tbe news
papers more closely than our boys at borne.
The Greek Common School System.
The Greeks are now spending a great deal on mod
em education. According to law all boys between
tbe ages of 5 and 12 must attend school, and there
are now primary schools, secondary schools and col
leges almost everywhere. There are altogether 5,000
or 6,000 teachers, and the school children are num
. bered by the hundreds of thousands. There are pri
vate gymnasiums and commercial schools, normal
schools and agricultural schools. There are trade
schools at Athens and Patras run by tbe government,
and there is a university here which has more than
2,600 students.
No Civil Service for Teachers.
One of the political Jobs given out by the govern
ment is that of school teaching; this is not governed
by civil service rules, and a new set of instructors is
.usually brought In with each change of government.
The schools of each district are looked upon as a kind
of a political perquisite of the ministry and they are
farmed out for votes.
Another objection lies in the school books, which
are changed every year or so, new books being written.
There are annual competitions for the writing of
school books and the publication of such books Is so
profitable that there is talk of making the business a
state monopoly, the government fixing the price of
each book.
Teachers' Wages in Greece.
The salaries of the school teachers here are ex
ceedingly low, w hile the requirements as to their edu
cation are high. The director of a primary school
now receives about $30 a month, and if the director is
a woman -ibis sum is cut down to $24. Women are
not popular as school teachers, and the girl teacher
loses social easte, as some of the Greeks look down on
women who inujtt work for their bread. As the schools
rise the wages of teachers Increase. Some receive $40
and $50 a month and the directors of the gymnasiums
get from $40 to $70 a month. In the higher schools
the expenses of students are very low. In the univer
sity the tuition for the four-year course is only $128,
with an examination fee of $50 for tbe legal and medi
cal branches. A diploma costs $10, and one can, out
side bis living expenses, ga through college for a total
,of about $150. 1 am told that the education In the
higher schools it excellent, and that it compares fa
vorably with that of our own academies and colleges.
Schools for Girls.
At to the education of tut girls, it it not so gen-
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nrimETics
eral as that for boys. Only about one-sixth of the
primary schools are girls' schools, and the number
who frequent them is under 4 0,000. The girls do not.
as a rule, go to school with the boys, and each sex has
Its own school house. There are some advanced
schools for females. The best Is the Arsakeion. the
head of which Is here at Athens, with branches at
Patras. I.arissa and Corfu. The Arsakeion Is the
Smith, Vassar, Wellesley or Bryn Mawr of Greece. It
has altogether about 2,000 students, of whom 1,300
are In the branch here at Athens. The number In
cludes, however, the kindergarten and day scholars as
well as those of the college proper.
Durins my stay I have gone, through this Institu
tion. It is a training college for teachers as well, and
It has a three-year normal course. One of the compul
sory studies Is music, as are also sewing and house
work. The courses are so varied that a girl may go in
at 6 years and graduate at something like 20. having
a complete education according to the Greek standard.
I am surprised at the knowledge of the classics shown
by these girls. They are taught ancient Greek, and
they can read fluently Homer, Plato and Xenophon.
The older girls speak, read aful write French, and not
a few English.
As to the fees of the Arsakeion. they are low. Day
scholars pay from $1 to $5 a month, and boarders
only $20 a month, which includes everything, rooms,
meats snd even the books. I was taken through the
school by the daughter of a directress, a beautiful girl
of the GreeV type.
Thirteen Hundred Greek Maidens.
I wlBh I could Show you these 1,300 Grecian maid
ens whom I saw at this Vassar of Athens. Tbe girls
" of this country are notably handsome, and those of
the Arsakeion, coming out of the well-to-do classes of
the people, would be esteemed fine-looking in any part
of the world. They have fine forms, kept so by the
compulsory gymnastics, rosy cheeks from the pure air
of the Mediterranean, and features as classic as those
of the ancient Greek statues. The girls speak a Greek
which is more refined than the modern Greek heard
on the streets. They read the classics at sight, and
little ones of 12 and 13 mouth Herodotus and Homer.
Indeed, the way the modern Greek girl talks strikes
every stranger as somewhat uncanny. It makes one
think of the remark of the American woman as to the
precocity of the Parisian: "Why, in Paris, even the
smallest children talk French."
Tlte HiU School for Girls.
Another remarkable female school here at Athens
was founded by an American missionary just about
eighty years ago. This is the Hill School for Girls,
one of the most popular in Greece and now under
government regulations. It contains about 200 pupils,
of whom more than one-third are boarders. The ages
range from 6 to 17, and the students come from dif
ferent parts of the country. All are taught modern
Greek, French, and English, and also the regular
studies of our schools at home. The school does not
proselytize nor Interfere with the religion of the
Severe Punishment for Crime
N THESE merciful days, when a man who
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publishes a cruel 'and malevolent libel on
the king escapes with a few months' im
prisonment, it seems scarcely credible that
only forty-one years ago the punishment
ordained by the law for high treason was that the
offender should be drawn on a hurdle to the place of
execution, and there should be hanged by tbe neck
until he was dead; that than his head should be sev
ered from bis body; that the body be divided into four
quarters and that his head and quarters be at the dis
posal of the crown. '
Such waa the punishment of high treason within
the memory of the elderly man of today, says a Lon
don Tit-Bits. In earlier times the culprit did not es
cape so easily, for he waa taken down from the gal
lows while still alive, disemboweled and his entrails
burned before his eyes.
And this waa by no means the worst fate that
might befall a criminal In the so-called "good old
days," at one John Roose, a cook of Henry VII's day,
found to his cost. Roose was convicted of the heln
lous crime of putting poison in the broth Intended for
the family of no lest reverend a personage than the
bishop of Rochester. For such a crime hanging,
drawing and quartering was too merciful a punish
ment. "Something lingering, with boiling oil." or at
least water, was decided to be the punishment that
best fitted the crime; and with this object- special
act of Parliament was passed ordaining boiling ajlve
as the punishment for this felony. John Roose t
piated bis sins in a cauldron of hot water, and a few
years later, in 1542, one Margaret Davy met the same
terrible fate at SmitbQeld.
So gravely was the crime of poisoning regarded
in these days of old that, it is recorded, a Scotsman,
one Thomas Bellie, and his son were banished for life
for administering poison to a couple of noisy ht-us be
longing to a neighbor.
These were indeed days when the man of violent
temper or criminal tendencies must operate warily.
If by any evil chance he came to blows and drew blood
within the precincts of he. king's palace he was Inev
itably condemned to lose hit right hand; and a statute
of 33 Henry Henry VIII regulated the whole gruesome
ceremony, with all lta functionaries, from the surgeon
who was to amputate the offending member to the in
dividual who used the searing irons.lhe yeoman of
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pnptlfl. r has a. Greek church connected with It, where
a practical sermon Is preached every Sunday.
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An American Archaeological School.
It will surprise many to know that some of our
leading colleges have had an archaeological school
here for the last thirty years. Each of the colleges
sends students to the school-to spend a year In study
and research concerning ancient Greece and Greek his
tory. They make excavations and have certain terri
tories allotted to them, where they dig over the ruins,
finding statues, buildings and other relics of a time
when Greece was at the height of its glory.
The colleges which support this school are Har
vard, Yale. Brown, Amherst, Johns Hopkins, Colum
bia, the College of New Jersey, the College of the City
of New York and Wesleyan, to which have been added
Dartmouth and Cornell, and also the universities of
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and California.
The Greek-"Friendly to Americans.
This country has always been friendly to us, and
Americans have been studying Greek here since our
beginning as a nation. When Thomas Jefferson was
president Nicholas Biddle visited Greece, and there
was an American named Howe who was surgeon gen
eral of the Grecian fleet In the Greek war for inde
pendence. Henry M. Baird published a book on "Mod
ern Greece" as far back as 1852, and Prof. Felton of
Harvard, another American, wrote a volume entitled
"Greece, Ancient and Modern." Charles K. Tucker-
the scullery who made the irons red-hot at hls fire,
and the sergeant of the cellar, who was provided
"with a pot of red wine to "give the same party, after
his hand is so stricken off and the stump seared."
Mutilation was a favorite form of punishment In
those good old days, following, no doubt, the Scrip
tural penalty, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth." Thus the slanderer's tongue waa pulled out,
so that he could at least utter slander no more; the
Ireland's Population
BLUE BOOK dealing with the vital statis
tics of Ireland shows that during 1909 the
excess of births over deaths was 27,786,
and that the loss by emigration amounted
to 28,676, which waa greater by 5,381
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than in 1908 but less than the average number
37,141 for the previous ten years. There would,
acording to these figures, appear to have been a de
crease of 890 persons in the population on December
31, 1909. The population of Ireland to the middle
of the year was estimated at 4,371,570.
The marriages registered in Ireland during 19o!t
numbered 22,50, the births 102,739, and the deaths
74,973. The marriage rate was 5.18 a thousand of
the estimated population, showing a decrease of .02
as compared with mat ror dui an imreaae oi
06 as compared with the average rate for the previous
ten years; the birth rate was 23.5 a thousand, being
.2 above that for the preceding year and .3 above the
average for the pievious ten years, while the death
rate (17.2 a thousand) was .4 below the rate for the
previous year and .6 below the average rate for the
ten years ended 1908. Of the 22,650 men marrieti
during the year 379, or 1.67 per cent, were under age,
while of the women married 1,550, or 6.84 per cent,
were minors.
Of the 102.759 children whose births were regis
tered in Ireland during the year 1909 99,997. or 97.3
per cent, were legitimate and 2,762, or 2.7 per cent,
were illegitimate, the latter being .1 above the cor
responding average percentage for the preceding ten
years.
Thete results bore favorable comparison with the
returns for most other countries. London Post.
man, who wa our United States minister to Greece
before 1870, gave ua a work on "The Greeks of To
day," and Bayard Taylor and others have described
the country.
What the Americans Are Doing. ' 1 ' ' '
During my stay here I have called at the American
school. It is now carried on in a building belonging
to the institution, situated beyond the king's palace
on the slope of the hill, facing Mount Hymettus. The
house cost about $40,000 and is surrounded by a
beautiful garden. Entering a large hall, steps of
Pentelic marble lead"by easy flight to the second floor,
where are the library of the school and the offices of
the director. The library is one of the. best equipped
private ones of tbe klod In Athens, and it has, I should
say, about 2,000 volumes. Tne present director of the
school, Mr. Hill, is a graduate of the University of
Vermont, and later on of Columbia, and be has with
him eight other professors, who represent Dartmouth,
Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and
some other colleges. There is one woman among the
graduate students, a Miss Stone, who is making a
specialty of the topography of ancient Greece, and
who has traveled extensively throughout the interior.
The director of the school tells me that its allow
ance is not sufficient to carry on a great archaeological
work. It has something like $2,000 a year and with
this it is trying to excavate Old Corinth, which, when
In its prime, held half a million, and was the largest
city of Greece. The Americans have been working
in Old England
adulterer's nose was cut off, and he who destroyed the
sight of a one-eyed man lost both his own eyes.
By the Coventry act (22T and 23 Charles II, c.l)
any person who shall maliciously put out eye, silt tbe
nose or disable any limb of another, with intent to
maim or disfigure him, was to pay for the wrong with
his life. By another act the man who fought with
weapons in a church had one of his ears cut of; if he
had already lost both ears, as many a malefactor had,
ho was branded in the cheek with the lette "F."
By an act of Queen Elizabeth's reign the forger
was condemned to stand in the pillory, to have his
ears cut off by the common hangman, his nostrils slit
up and scared and to be Imprisoned for life; and by a
statute of 21 James I an unfortunate bankrupt was
nailed by an ear to the pillory for two hours and then
his ear was cut off.
If an enterprising farmer was foolish enough to
send any of his live sheep out of the country, he paid
a terrible price for hit rashness, for his goods were
forfeited, he was sent to Jail for twelve months, and
on recovering his liberty his left hand was cut off In
a public market and nailed up there as a warning
against the danger of illicit exports. If he offended a
second time he paid for his daring with his life. If
he ''Set covetous eyet on a neighbor's sheep and an
nexed one of tbem he was unceremoniously hanged by
the neck until he was dead. Indeed, thousands of
unfortunates paid with their lives for thefts much
more insignificant. '
In 1726 Edward Burnworth, a highwayman, re
fusing to plead, waa loaded with boards and weights. .
For more than an hour he bore a mass of metal
weighing nearly 400 weight, when human flesh could
bear the agony no more,. and he prayed to be put to
the bar again. He pleaded "Not guilty." but was,
nevertheless, found guilty, and ended hia days on the
scaffold. This cruel punishment survived to George
U s time.
There were many other barbarous punishments,
quaint and barbarous old-world punishments, from
the 40-shilllng fine inflicted in Scotland on the wicked
player of foot ball and golf, and the Imprisonment
for a year for a third offense of using Jhe Book of
Common Prayer, to the ordeal of fire, in which Queen
Emma, accused of a criminal intrigue with tbe bishop
of Winchester, walked with bandaged eyes over nine
red-hot plowshares to prove her innocence.
ther for more than ton ycRrs. After vl;i
1 hope to describe what they have done.'
in. addition to tlie'Anieikan bpIiohI.
ling the Kite
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oiner nations nave similar institutions. The ricutn
are spending eight or ten times as much as we are,
and their archaeologists have laid out over $1H0,ikh)
in their works at Delphi. The (ieriiiiina li.ivr an
archaeological institute which has spent Jjoii.ooo in
digging up old Olympia, and the Ausirians aihl Kus
sians have recently entered this held.
Mixlcrit AthletiiH in (ireece.
All the schools hero are now teaching athletics
They have their regular gymnastic exercises daily
and this is bo of those for both girls and boys. Ths
students are required to take long walks, and every
school must have a gymnasium, which is maintained
at the cost of the state. All the schools near the sea
teach swimming, and it is required that the inter
mediate schools practice rowing and shooting. During
the last weeks of every Lent gymnastic competitions
are held all over Greece, and the old sports are being
revived. V A school of gymnastics has been founded In
Athens to teach the training masters of the various
institutions, and female teachers are obliged to learn
ah about athletics.'
Athens has two gymnastic clubs, one of which has
a gymnasium to which any one fan bo admitted on
the payment of 20 cents a month, and there Is a spe
cial section for girls, who practice the Swedish move
ments under the direction of a committee of women.
There are forty or more other clubs scattered over
Greece, some of which are subsidized by the govern
ment, and every now and then games are held in the
great new stadium, which has been erected by an
Egyptian Greek named Averof.
Alliens' Great Athletic Field.
This structure is one of the finest athletic grounds
of the world. I went out to Bee it this afternoon. It
is situated between Mount Lykabettos and the Acropo
lis, on the very site where was the great stadlon of the
past. It is of the same size and probably of the same
character. Imagine a marble amphitheater which will
seat 65,000 spectators and has an arena 600 feet long.
The marble scats rise up the sides of a natural amphi
theater made by the hills, and over it shines the blue
sky of Greece. The arena itself is of the shape of a
great horseBhoe, with long ends. It is covered with
black sand, and this forms a striking contrast to the
silver white of the marble. --Jt was here that the
Olympic games of some years ago were run, and here
will be held Bomo of those of the future.
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A Talk With the Grand Chamberlain.
The crown princo of Greece is at the head of na
tional athletic matters. He Is absent from Athens at
this writing, but I have had a talk with his grand
chamberlain, Count Mercatl, as to what this country
expects to do in the Olympic games of the future. He
tells me that tho government is rather hard up for
money, but that it s anxious to have one of the great
international athletic contests of the near future held
here. Said he:
"Our people are liberal and without prejudice, and
some of the nations feel that they are more sure of
having a square deal at Athens than anywhere else.
This Is especially so of the Americans, who Justly
maintain that they were unfairly treated in London."
I asked as to the accommodations and as to
whether Athens could take care of the crowd that
would come to such a competition.
Count Mercatl replied:
"At our last Olympic games we used the exposition
ball in the palace grounds, almost adjoining the
stadlon, for the foreign athletes. This was made into
a great dormitory, and It could be so used again. The
hotels would take care of the strangers, and in addi
tion the people of Athens, who are very hospitable,
would open their houses to them. Yes, I think we can
take care of all who may come."
Can a Greek Win the. Marathon?
I asked the grand chamberlain some questions ss
to tho possibility of the modern Greek in tbe ring and
on tho track.
He replied:
"I think we have a fair chance at the Marathon
and that we can hold our own in all sorts of wrehtlint;.
We are not the equals of tbe Greeks of tbe past, and
we have not their harmonious physical development
nor their staying powers. On short runs we are dis
tanced by the athletes of some other na(inns. You
must remember that we art not old as an independent
government, and that for 400 years or mora we wore
under the rule of the Turks, who frowned on all phy
sical exercises and prohibited Kmnastic truiuing. To
day we make as much of athletics as any other nation
and we are especially rigid us to the athletic training
of our schools. In the Greek colleges every student
at the end of two years after admission undergoes a
physical examination, and if he cannot show evidences
of his gymnastic training he must remain where be Is.
I do not think that the case in any college Of other
countries. " FRANK G. CARPENTER.
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