Long before the time of Christ, athletic meets used to be held in Greece once every four years. These were called Olympic Games, and champions in running and jumping and other sports from all over Greece used to compete for a prize, which was a simple crown made of laurel leaves. There is a huge stadium in Athens where such games and races were held, but it had fallen to ruins. Not so many years ago a Greek who had made a fortune and wanted to do something splendid for his home city repaired and recovered the old stadium with marble, and again the Olympic Games were held there.
Near Athens there is another hill called Mount Hymettus, where was found a very delicious kind of honey. It is said to taste like flowers and it was supposed to be the food the gods lived upon—they called it “ambrosia.” You can still get the same honey in the restaurants in Athens, but there are no more gods to feed on it.
Greece of to-day is famous for—what do you suppose? For poetry? No. For music? No. For sculpture? No. For beautiful buildings? No. My geography says it is famous for “currants.” Currants are little dried grapes that are used in cakes and puddings. Currants are named from Corinth, the stem that joins north and south Greece, or rather, I should say, the stem that used to join them, for the Greeks have cut a canal four miles long straight through the isthmus so that boats can now sail across Corinth without going all the way around Greece.
There is a lunch-room downtown kept by a young Greek who has come to America to make his fortune. He calls it the Delphi Restaurant. Last week I went in for luncheon, and just for fun I asked him if he had any ambrosia. “No,” said he, “we have corned beef and cabbage to-day.”