¢ rithna Public Lbeare A FAIR BRIGAND : aera ; eee ‘OSEPH CHANDLER RROWN was an expert in Argive bronzes. Graduating at Harvard in the class of 1890, he took high honours in the classics, and succeeded in winning a fellowship given by that institution, which aliows the student to pass one year in study at the American Archeo- logical Institute at Athens. For this purpose he was given the munificene sum of six hundred dollars with which to pay his fare backward and forward and to defray the expenses of his year's sojourn. His dear old Greek professor, in bidding him good-bye, enjoined upon him not to waste a mo- ment of the precious time which he was about to enjoy on the sacred soil of Hellas. “Above all,” he said, “perfect yourself in to- pography. Visit alt the spots mentioned in the ancient authors. Climb the principal mountains, that you may see the various plains and islands spread out in panorama before you. Go to Sparta, . to Thebes, to Megara, Tanagra, Tyrins, Mycene, , 6 A FAIR BRIGAND Corinth, Take Pausanias with you always, and such of the other poets or. historians as refer to the place you are about to see. Re-read these authors on the spot. Take Herodotus and Zschylus to Saiamis, and try to imagine the Dattle as being fought again under your eyes, as actually taking place. You will not have a mo- ment to waste. It will be a year of lasting profit, of glorious refreshment. Learn modern Greek while you are over there. Learn to speak it; to think in it. You ought also to visit the Greek islands and the coast of Asia Minor. Perhaps, if you are economical, you will be able to return home by way of Rome and the Italian museums, and to put in a summer term at the University of Berlin.” Mr. Brown had not been able to do all these things in d school year, neither had he found the six hundred dollars so elastic as the dear, un- pfactical old professor had imagined. He was, indeed, so bewildered by the largeness of the field spread out before him that he was reduced almost to despair from the first. Finding deep learning on so many different subjects impossible, he at length decided to take up a speciality. “J wild become an authority,” he said. “Bayly of the British school is an authority on Acro- A FAIR BRIGAND 7 polis bronzes, No man living knows 80 much on that subject as he, Vou Griff of the German school is the greatest living authority on antique fibule or safety-pins. But perhaps the Germans specialize too much.- What shall it be? Epi- graphy, topography, bronzes, vases, clay figurines, grave stelaz, what?” He was nearly the whole of the first year de- ciding this question and making a few excursions. At the end of that time, however, he had become deeply interested in Argive bronzes. With the rest of the American Institute he participated in the excavation of the Herum at Argos, and thereby came into possession of a rare collection of rusty knife und sword blades, safety and hair- pins, mirrors, votive offerings, fragments of colan- ders, sieves, tools and other objects of use or ornament. ‘These he put to soak in a series of stone bowls ona fong table in a room of the National Museum. ‘The bowls contained diluted acid, which ate away athe incrustation and allowed the inscriptions to be seen and read. Mr. Brown went every morn- ing to this toom and locked himself in. Then he fished out the little fragments of bronze, one by one. Those that were sufficiently cleanet he painted with wax and put carefully away for