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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1927-09-29, Page 2id I; 111 et ii. t1B el- nt` Greece pttpiecl by •the new temple, close to oar' . a t the wall, anti sine° it was secril•e,ge t , a Wants to cover a spot where the manifesta- ' W) tion of the g°d's will had Padden, the ' ar.•"h, t•ke^t frond htni,�rlf in • � .er, 1' � liui;t another portico cn t toReturn Art Tres, urea ertd ten°t' r.x `T"aksra by in ! c ecr.. arrangement, dill not Early in 1 9th Century lease him The but:•iing now had �1GN ex w ,tasks British, Nltiscl�utlro='" the north leaving a.hole in the roof •I les �'' the, hoer, to avoid Lord o r Elg " '' i atierz 1 still this ttrxang p By .Tamest C. Young ' two porticoes cr porchoe, and a cen- The recent append to the British traloaodly cedtc ano ag for its wieali. He l - Museum Ler the return el' at lest rt thet of Acropolis olisaxes F,lgia in At xei s marbles z hves too in a mood almost cf despair,nes on the west s•ide. li he consid- I noted discuesian. These marbles h eais the hpiblank southern meeandx ll aT1ire r1' were given to Britain by Lord Elgin, the .final and noblest touch, the porche .Before tiny of them con be returned h to Athens the ,sanction cf the British of the maidens—the Caryatids. This people through Parliament must be porch is only a small addition. Six marble maidens originally supported obtained,. ' the roof. Their exact significance is,. Forrave thanna cog the the mar• unknown, but it seems likely that Nes have been among th•2 proudest possessions of tho great museum in each of the stone figures had its arms bound behind, thus symbolizing the in - London To restore them now to frau,, of a Iielenie lead Greece would deprive that institution joined the Persians., city thatold scbld 'Of its incomparable Phiclian art, and torsn dere fond cf placing roofs on the the thought arouses eomething akin heads of captives. to consternation. cfnt e a I At the time Lord Elgin saw the Back °4o the arpeal is a movement' Erectheum it had •e•seap;ee the de- theaf world opinion. It may 'result is struction visited upon its larger nelgh- of the Ulnseuak Lo ering a bore the Parthenon. No shells had earlyast of the e., simile taken by Lard Elgin thrown down its walls •or defaced its in the., last century. Opinion Pentelican blocks,. Indeed, it had a ed.ciasr`.oul bolds itis is sir re- once served the Christians as a ed. One group holds that their re- storation would go far toward giving arch, and again had, been a Turkish the. Acrepclis important 23pects ofharem. its Lord Elgin took from the eaastern vanished perfection. OpI•o•-ing opiu- an colonnade the sixth column, at the ion be srenrini'L•ondon by m'that tile attucl:sles c of end and a block of the architrave above• Froin the porch of the maid- dpeople who never could visit Athena of and therefore the • cu`•'ur^1 value of en•s he took one figure, replaced lately the Phidian work is ge nte: in London by an ugly cement cast. with All together, these pieces, than it esr be in Athens,. other incidental fragments, make up The first group a ld e•ot that cut- the Elgin. marbles. And the move - thevalue alcne should not determine ment to bring about their restoration, the mntter. It laysha moral esoblige-ng is gathering a momentum that must tionthspoliation the• Brit of eoplc, p o iss can have soma reuslts Some of the sPe- nevjustified. f the Acropolis co can 1 sial pleaders would return part of the never L dniThe letter column l Elgin pieces and keep the reainder. of the London Times is well filled with Professor W. B. Dinsmoor •cf Colum - self nOt wholly The museum se bia University is prominent among fav it not retention on the he or thew those who would see the Erectheum H. T3. Walters, retention of the macbles,'1 restored and the Phidian sculpture H. B. cf the classical section, left in the British Museum. In a walk about the Acropolis, recently, Professor Dinemoor explained his In this discussion there is a ten- views to the. writer. dewy to brand Lord Elgin as a van- "We could in large measure restore dal, whose act, however, was based on the Erectheum if the museum return - a love of the things he carried away. ed the column, the block and the Whrtever the motive, his a ;. figure," he said. "After all, these foeuoed the attention of the vt orid•on pieces are not of such outstanding the beauty wasting upon the far -away value ta the nnis.eum as are the Phid- rock above the.Aegean. Lord Elgin tan sculptures. I should like to see flied the post of British Envoy to Con- I one missing Parthenon capital sent stantinople between 1799 and 1802. • back, but it seems to me we ought The Turks -had held Athens since' to leave the figures of the pediment 1456_ r-.nd the Acropolis under their i in their present secure place. To re - rule serves- its most ancient purpcs•e 1 store them would be a difficult and —that of a fortress They raised the hazardous undertaking. We should wall of Themistccles around its outer ; have no assurance that they would not fall. Taking .any risk of destruction is not to be thought of. "The case of the Erectheum is ti;f- built over the fragments of Athenian ferent The column really ie esse .- art. The Turks took what they needed for battlements. In this, way the Propylea or gateway of the Acro- polle Acro- pollwr s ruined and many of the caps- i sc tel.; were sawed from their columns.) After escaping all the dangers of so The ruin extended to other moms-' many centuries, it seams unnecessary ments. to break up that group when the Lord Elgin visited the Acropolis and world is beginning to understand noted its steady wastage. In 1687 something of the wealth we possess the Venetians had dropped a destruc- in the Hellenic fragments.. I think tive shell in the Parthenon and had of the figures undertaken to remove the wet:ern pediment, ,clumsily drop- ping several cf them. Other scul- ptures fell from their places. The history of the Acropolis in its for example, urges partial restoration. What Lord Elain Did D•g-� Mp�( N�,p S VE�� g �•R>w f'„ �l3 T O. leo merit. 4��A,��17'R�7�1�1;p7 � v li:,i„V b a.d,H'+.:..,a.J Behind The Curtain. Vesuvius is a Laboratory. Scientists Constantly Have edge to a new height and added heavy battlements at important points. Some of these battlements were tial to the building and restoration of the maiden would complete the largest nad finest group of ancient ulrture now in its. original place. Eruptions to Gain Data That Reduces Perils By Charles Fitzhugh Tatman in N.Y. Times. • Mount Vesuvius has been exhibiting greatly increased activity. Lava flow from the "Valley of Hell,” beneath the crater, set fire to trees a few days ago, and threatened to engulf villages, many of whose inhabitants fied to- ward Naples for safety. The follow- ing article shows how the volcano is serving science as well as terrifying those who dwell within the radius of its destructive power. Were Vesuvius located in the.es or on some isle of the SouthaSeas, its eruptions, frequent and•' spectacular as they are, would attract little notice from a busy- world. There are mare'( than 400 nominally active volcanoes on the face of the globe. Many of them have been in modern times the scene of outbreaks compared with which all modern eruptions of Vesu- vius were tame in the extreme. One of the most tremendous eruptions on record was that of Matavanu, in the Sainoan Islands, which was in pro- gress almost continuously from Aug- ust, 1905, until 1909, and which buried the country for miles around under an enormous outflow of lava. How many people have ever heard of Mata - the museum would win the approval explosive eruption that destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiatr in 79 A.D. was the earliest of which any record has been preserved. The last great outburst of this type occurred in 1631, when about 18,000 persons- lost ersonslost their lives. Since' then the character of the vol- vanic i'ctivity at Vesuvius has changed. Instead of producing great explosions at long intervals, the crater is more or less continuously but not • uniformly active. 'Small eruptions occur every few years and In. the intervening periods of repose there are generally some signs of mild activity. Tho years 1766-79, 1794, 1882, 1872 and 1906 were marked by relatively strong outbreaks. The volcano remained exceptionally quiet for seven years after the eruption of 1906. of scholars everywhere by giving up vauu? I i the pieces needed." Because Vesuvius is in the midst Present Work of Repair of a dense and civilized population it There the discussion. stands It is a notorious danger spot, and its has been under way for some years. doings are of universal interest. Along the shores of the Bay of Naples it has repeatedly spread ruin and terror. Naples itself is panic-stricken when- ever the wrath of the volcano is aroused. The city is but little further and the away from the crater than was i11 haunts of phenomena humanity, that occur there fated Pompeii. Moreover, Naples is hedged about with other volcanoes, are much less varied than are those some of which are dormant rather occurring at Va suvius. g centre of volcanic than dead. The Solfatara of Pozzuoli,' reThe othelh includes note only the c nearer to Naples than is Vesuvius, of . well - ter merely exhaling gases and vapors known Royal. Vesuvian Observatory, for centuries, has just given signs of'which has been. in operation for more 1 n eighty years, but `also certain. later toric:i might be written in terms I. fact the subject of restoring the ort accidents. It would have seemed i Acropolis, as far as modern ingenuity reaeenabls for the Venetians to try will permit, has come to have a broad, to dismantle the eastern end, having , appeal. The Parthenon is undergo- fail.etl at the western. But they aid T ing extensive repairs with funds pro - not. Thus the eastern peddnent re-, vid•ed by a group of men headed by rained intact until Lord Elgin came Dr. John H. Finley of New York. to Athens. He was impressed by the Theses funds have made it possible to beauty of this heroic group, depicting raise the fallen columns on either side the birth of Athena. Looking upon it, l of the building. Several of these Lord Elgin may be credited only with columns lay just as they had toppled the desire to preserve to mankind a ` over more than two centuries ago; • e of such noble genius. Further-' some were shattered and still others Volcanic Laboratories. The proximity of •Versuvius to a• civilized community, on which it oc- casionally wreaks its vengeance is an advantage as wel las a disadvant- age. Vesuvius is easy of 'access to scientific observers and has been un- der constant investigation for genera- tioins. Because of. its accessibility, it size, comparative freedom from it has walls r se the rich mineralogy, years lava " Every paroxysm of activity, How We Drown The follgwhxg,,ti sly observation en a near-dfoWnfii,g• .iecideut in New York is gaotoci front the New York World by The Erie Railroad Magazine (New York) W'e read; "Out cue Cal)` rel 'etielc lake the other clay Emmet•Iyicilel, international canoe chtinipioe, nearly drowned when he , fell :iii. the water, because the hun- dreas who were watching liim thought that his antics were only foolery, And surely this was !not an nuuOual state of affairs: .Eilinost all o1'f 'tis can recall tie aftermath. of some; aecieteet in the water, with everybody leaving the same ,:story ,to tell. '1 had no idea he was in trouble; .I thought he was only• fooling': 'I could have reached him easily; but I never knew he was reallyt going down"; and so on,' Why is it that this ghastly comedy secures au often„ In connection with swimming? "One reason. of course, is' that pranks are socommon on swimming parties• that the members are 'soon in a- gigglinge'frame of mind, interpret- ing every .gurgle and splash as a ruse' to,ptive: the way, for a ducking. But! another reason is that' an accident: itt the. water !Doors. in a way quite dif- ferent . from the way in which most of uaehave yhsualized'it/ "A , arotvning ,man, we have often been told, ;goes, down three times be- fore ,he finally sinks; furthermore, we somehow. hare t;ornied the: idea than he .does this in very leisurely fashion.; probablyholding up; one finger to in- dicate tliat he is , going down for tho first time, two fingers the second time. and three fingers to indicate that the. situation is really serious. Thus, wheii.we tee an actual droWning man, we are either so dumbfounded that all our co-ordinations are paralyzed or else we do not 'realize he is: drowning. who died in ,1854. His successor, Pal- I "For a man does not drown in tho mieri,• reineined:: athis post during the sway legend has it, with a' lusty call violent eruption of 1872. The next• for aid • and three distinct dives to - director, Matteucci, did likewise dur- ward bottom. The first sign he gives ing the outbreak of 1906, and his sttb:1 that he is in trouble is when he rides sequent death *as'hastened by the low in the water} he is having trouble breathing of volcanic ash at that time. 'keeping his nose out, and gives queer Control of Panic.lurches to get higher. His bobbing 'at this stage : is probably what has During their heroic vigil on the I given rise to.the belief that he goes, mountain the volcanologists sent daily i down three times. bulletins, by wire or courier, to Naples. fright. when his eyes roll and his mouth emits curious noises. It is his actions at this stage which strike his "His next sign is -a hysteria of and the other Vesuvian towns, which were printed in poster• form and pro- minently displayed. These reports from the front had a most reassuring ,frhenda as so comical. and steadyng effect upon the popula-s oe is when he g tion, who. argued that if men could "His next sign (down . nextnlie goes down he goes time on the volcano tech at such a I down and there is no X to . mark the time the danger could not be serious elsewhere, face And The eruption of 1906 blew off about 350 feet of the summit of Vesuvius and enlarged the crater. Immediately it,indeed, iswhat makes an accident after the outbreak the latter. had a in the'water 8o terrible; you look, you depth of about 2,300 feet, with very see a distorted, bobbing face, and then., teep walls,,' and was more than 2,350 you don't see it—that is all there Is to :it. • "If people knew the truth about the way things happen in the water, there might be fewer,. fatalities." spot so that heroic rescuers can dive and bring him to the sur all this takes place in the time it would take to count five. The rapidity of feet wide.' On account of subsequent falls of rock; the maximum.diameter is now 3,280 feet. I, ear the cenre of the crater rises the "eruptive cone - let," which marks ,the summit of the' volcanic vent. During the quiet year ern�a s z , following'tlee. 1906 .eruption avalan•, danger, diversity of eruptive phen- !cher of rock from the a ai d omens and. level of the crater floor, and in recent. earned', the nickname "cabinet vol- I flowing from the conelet Fire Losses cane. and from some secondary vents has With the general extension of rural such as the one just reported, pro- continued this process. power lines all through older Ontario vides opportunities for -substantial ad- ditions to the data of volcanology. The In the eruption of which telegraphic many farmers and villagers are using news has just come to hand, the lava ,;,his new satirco'of light and power. As eruption of 1906 was especially fruit- in the .now , shallow • crater overflowed a rule itis infinitely safer than the old- ful in this respect. con- the eastern rim into a depression er sources, ,but some care' must be The world possesses two great) called the Valle dell'Inferno (Valley of exercised in the • installation or the tres of volcanological research. One Hell), and some of it flowed through I fire hazard will be increased. is situated at the crater of Kilauea, in ravines in the outer wall of the big A great many fires each year are the Hawaiian Islands. Here the prehistoric crater (Monte Somme) lin- traced to faulty .electric wiring,.ac• waiian Volcano Observatory, nu-derto the acljaeent country, "threatening • cording to the Ontario Fire Marshal, Jagger, has been making for some the Village of Terzigno. - I In the country, where there.is so years the most intensive and con- mable material .like straw tinuous study of volcanism in the his- Pedilous Stedies• trued hay stomuch inflammd abled where the houses tory of science. The location' is, how• Back in the year 1911, when the have not the advantage of :'a city fire ver far remote from the familiar crater was still clearly 1,000 feet deep fighting force almost at their door, it a series of auda.- Its articularly essential that a com• volcanologists beganparticularly cious descents to the crater floor, petent man be employed in wiring the scrambling down the almost perpen- buildings for electricity. All wires walls with the aids of ropes. must be doubly insulated in the barn dialler The first descent was made in Sep- and cellars where they are liable to tember, 1911, by Dr. Corrado Cappello I comeinto contact with water pipes, with Andrea Varvazzo, an old 'ern' ( concrete floors, damp earth and other ployee of the observatory. in May, good ground connections. Especial 1912 Professor Alessandro Malladra, care must be paid to the installation r Here ra , more, i.olitical uuheavala might at any had missing drums, recently put to-, entering a more active phase. l • r. founded Vice Director of the observatorY, gather by means of concrete. When • is a land where Vulcan is very much institutions in Naples. In the ].atter as - moment destroy the existing vestiges 1 city is the Volcano Institute, made the first of the numerous of the glory that was the work is completed every known (at home! in 1914 by Dr. Immanuel I'riedlander i cents by which he .won high renown ' piece of the Parthenon columns will The last notable P IAt the University throughout t world. Stripping the, Parthenon be inplace again, except that capital vitrs began on April es of the Sec � Though So Lord Elgin determined to carry in the British Museum. the Phidian group, piece by Standing on the Acropolis, a visa away piece. He stripped the Parthenon tor beholds far and wide the scatter - of large sections of its frieze, of meta- ed remnants of temples and statues. p•es and triglyphs and a part of the Present investigators are endeavoring architrave. The yellowed, golden to fit every piece, however small, into marble went t into packing castes and its origllnal place. Professor Dins - The r the seas to England. moor has worked for months upon the The British envoy next tune• I Acropolis,, measuring 1 eruption of Vesu- of Naples are the he scientific 4,1906. Between 1 tion of Volcanology almost overcome at times by' that date and April 21 there took bf the International Goedetic and Geo the heat • and stifling gases, Malladra place one of its greatest outbreaks; physical Union. ' An extensive inter- •and his eompaniofls remained for remarkable especially for the destruc- library and museum of .vol- hours. at :a stretch Within the ;crater, nationalre. `tem - tion whought by the overwhelming °analogy is being assembled he taking photographs, Measuring" fall of ashes. Thera were also severe The Vesuvian Observatory; main` peratutes and collecting samples of earthquake shocks. The people of tained by the Italian Government, gases and minerals. In recent years, Naples were so terrified that more stands on a ridge west of the central with the gradual building 'up. of the satir,cl far over than 100,000 fled from the city, and cane, where it has escaped the lava crater Boor, access to it' has become t d his block by block,, processions r constantly filled the flows in the' adjacent valleys but has and it has been attention to .the Erectlreum, which marking pieces with ted chs lc con streets, imploring the intercession of been much shattered by the earth - a ori the northern side of the sidering probabilities, and often find the saints. The city was wrapped at quakes attending eruptions. Its first i volcano, stands piece be- 1 arkness and So q opposite the Parthenon. jug the exact place where a p times in profound d ; director was the 'celebrated Mellonl, greet rock, pl g .About Iit„ f a city block lies between longs. I heavily showered with ashes .,that the two. These buildings with the This process of :sorting and fitting i some roofs gave way under tlxe load. --`r partially restored Propylea and the has .shown that important restorations in that erupton there were eaten - temple of Nike Aptoros, are the only can be made at the outer gateway 1 sive lava flows from the southeast ext ming sirnctuxes of t.liose-perhaps Already the Propylea has benefited by I flank of the volcano, one of wheh part - existing in all •rvhi•ch once steed on the { reconstruction. All of the Turkish ; ly destroyed the ,village of Boscotro- .Ac.ropolis. I battlement masonry has disappeared case. Most o4 the other villages that The Parthenon has yielded •our`�best- ` and the northern wing Is eonst.lerab1Y I encircle the crater were cowered with known rentnant.s of Doric art, The restored. severs E.c.cilteum in turn gave up splendid ti pleees of Ionic art. This buildings in the hour of its perfection was un- I Nike Apteres. or \'4"iugless. Victory -- like anything that the land of the{ smallest and moat exquisite of the re-. l�'rlis nee has pre torved for modern tnaming Acropolis temples It was eyes. Erected after• the Parthenon, it I restored about the middle :of the last reaclted comp?etion about 404 B.C. century by German seholars. More 'The architect had difficulties. The l recent searching of the Acropolis has Acropolis then contained so nfany I also yielded some of its missing parts. Statues and temple's that it was hard 1 Thus, •in one way and another, the to add another one. The designer Acropolis, can be restored to a sena iof the Bireetheun considered his,plancg of ,its original perfection. space and built acentral chamber Should the British Museum act favor- iillhglr•tly longer than it was wide, At I ably upon the appeal now before it, the pastern end Ire .built a portico. the ,process of that realization would Ilvide'ntlry this- trade the building tool bye greatly 'quickened. s of: Fuses which act as safety valves for the system. "If these blow out and yeti are in doubt about the cattle," warns the Fire Marshal, "send for a competent electrician or the nearest inspector before turning the power on again. Don't ,attach -heaters, wash- ing machines, !portable motors or other apparatus indiscritninately to lamp sockets. It is dangerous to over- load the circuit." The Fire Marshal also advises caro with electric irons, stating rthat these easy, n visited by num- should only be placed ott,',ventilated erous investigators. Thus the most historic vo , which was once only a natural curios- ity to the. world at:large anti a paten- nial menace to its neighbors, is now a great sciettiflc laboratory. Its out- breaks still ruin villages and vine- yards. At..the same time, they yield slew knowledge which may eventually I. make the eruptionC o! 'V'ecuvius and other volcanoes comparatively harm- less to naukind. 1 feet of ashes, The collapse of A step from the Propylea, jutting a church cost tho lives of 200 persons. rd on a buttress, is the shrine or The cloud of ashes above the crater rose to a height of 12,000 feet, and clust'frorn'the erupton. fell'in Constan- hippie and Paris and oil the shores of the Baltic, Change in its Activity In ages past Vesuvius was vastly larger than it is to -day, and probably had many violently explosive out- breaks ut breaks at Intervals of several centum les. Part of the wall of the ancient crater still borders the depression in the centre of which rises the modern cone with its crater. This outer Well Outdone. pre-_ Zeus had thrown a thunder- ,-- :`1 r known as l,fonte Samnta. In Y r"I guess long, hsdcwice eaits thpr Volcano to w s rrob ,Have dto Headed take adbIlia le—t '' Dalt tri soiYtie i'ar�off time, which I 14i esti et us worry more over 'our r g, ably etrticit on a >ip+st jag- beyond flirt pc• "xigh•ts" than over being'wren. ,... we'll metal stands, and it is also well to have a red light which will come on when the iron is. in use on the circuit. Close fitting paper shades' about elec- tric light' globes May invite fire. Giddy Life "Dad," exeltyil'ned the fernier's eager young son, " a circus conies to the vit- lage to -day, Will you give rite a shill, ing to go and see it?" "I wilt not,,, replied the farmer. "A shilling to see the circus wheu.only a few pecks ago I let -you go in the pouring rain to the top o fthe hill to see the eclipse o fthe sun! Do You think, young man, that life IS one perpetual round of pleasure?" "Dumb animals" indeed! De . a. kited his a eH act to a dog, then took ire y and see how "dumb" he is. 4 • sounds Fishy. Partner—"Say! Douche, know that $ign,. wuS put, tier for, a purpose?" t(td— "Well hotly gee, Mister! Do t look like ti porpoise?