kulls and
bones of the various armies of defenders: its name is "Old Bones,"
which certainly bears out its character.

A whole lot might be written about how the Knights of Malta became very
great, then very small and degenerate, and finally were pushed into the
discard by the relentless hands of time and public opinion. Valetta
has quite a number of people living there besides the soldiers and
sailors, some 80,000 I believe, but most of them are tired of climbing
the steep streets, many of which contain stairs. Lord Byron, having a
game foot, got angry at them when he wrote:

"Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs,
How surely he who mounts you swears!"

We were shown the spot where St. Paul was ship-wrecked. The Maltese
erected a colossal statue to Paul on Selmoon Island about fifty years
ago. They hold an annual feast there on February 10th, the alleged
date of his shipwreck, and as they have two hundred additional feast
days they have just one hundred and sixty-four days left for their
regular business--loafing. They have novel names for their hotels and
saloons,--the "Sea and Land Hotel," "The Pirates' Roost" saloon, the
"Quick Fire" lunch-room, "The Englishers' Chop-House," and "The Camel's
Drink," are some examples. Not from greed, but purely out of
curiosity, mind you, we tested the latter, and it would have taken
three of what they gave us to make a regular "Waldorf highball." Thus
does the retributive principle of temperance put the rod in pickle for
those who would fool with its beneficent laws.

GREECE

We left Malta and had Greece before us, which we reached in two days.
Lord Byron aptly describes it in his famous poem which opens with:

"The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,--
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set."

ATHENS

The Acropolis, or rocky mountain on which the celebrated group of
buildings is found, was fortified more than a thousand years before
Christ. It is the central spot of all that is greatest in art,
letters, history, statecraft and philosophy since time began. This has
been the undisputed opinion of critics and historians for about three
thousand years and stands uncontradicted to-day as it did in the very
beginning of things learned and artistic.

[Illustration: MEHEMET V., THE NEW SULTAN, AFTER THE