n my
public and private life, what I believe has never been the lot of
any other, I now extend my hand to the urn, and take without
reluctance or hesitation that which is the lot of all.

--_Pericles to Aspasia_

[Illustration: PERICLES]

Once upon a day there was a grocer who lived in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The grocer's name being Heinrich Schliemann, his nationality can be
inferred; and as for pedigree, it is enough to state that his ancestors
did not land at either Plymouth or Jamestown. However, he was an
American citizen.

Now this grocer made much moneys, for he sold groceries as were, and had
a feed-barn, a hay-scales, a sommer-garten and a lunch-counter. In fact,
his place of business was just the kind you would expect a strenuous man
by the name of Schliemann to keep.

Soon Schliemann had men on the road, and they sold groceries as far west
as Peoria and as far east as Xenia.

Schliemann grew rich, and the opening up of Schliemann's Division, where
town lots were sold at auction, and Anheuser-Busch played an important
part, helped his bank-balance not a little.

Schliemann grew rich: and the gentle reader being clairvoyant, now sees
Schliemann weighed on his own hay-scales--and wanting everything in
sight--tipping the beam at part of a ton. The expectation is that
Schliemann will evolve into a large oval satrap, grow beautifully
boastful and sublimely reminiscent, representing his Ward in the Common
Council until pudge plus prunes him off in his prime.

But this time the reader is wrong: Schliemann was tall, slender and
reserved, also taciturn. Groceries were not the goal. In fact, he had
interests outside of Indianapolis, that few knew anything about. When
Schliemann was thirty-eight years old he was worth half a million
dollars; and instead of making his big business still bigger, he was
studying Greek. It was a woman and Eros taught Schliemann Greek, and
this was so letters could be written--dictated by Eros, who they do say
is an awful dictator--that would not be easily construed by Hoosier "hoi
polloi." Together the woman and Schliemann studied the history of
Hellas.

About the year Eighteen Hundred Sixty-eight Schliemann turned all of his
Indiana property into cash; and in April, Eighteen Hundred Seventy, he
was digging in the hill of Hissarlik, Troad. The same faculty of
thoroughness, and the ability to captain a large business--managin