Phidias

3700

chapters. Membership in the fraternity is
given to honor men of the clasp and is some-
times conferred in after years upon scholar*
of distinction. Women were not admitted un-
til 1875, and Vassar College was the first
woman's college to institute a chapter (3898).
The symbol of the fraternity i? a gold panel
with the initials $ B K representing 4>i\o<n>0*a
Bt'ou Kvjfe/u^rqs, Philosophy the Guide of
Life.

Phidias (c. 490-432 B.C.) , the most famous
sculptor of ancient Greece was born in At-
tica. From 444 to 438 he was engaged in the
superintendence of the building of the Par-
thenon at Athens, and the production of the
statue of Athena for that temple. By the gen-
eral consent of antiquity Phidias was the
greatest of Greek sculptors. His chief char-
acteristics were largeness, dignity, magnifi-
cence, and a fine spirit of repose. His princi-
pal works were what are called chryselephan-
tine statues—that is, there was an inner core
of wood or stone, which was covered with
plates of polished ivory for the parts repre-
senting flesh, while gold was used for the
drapery. Only the remains of the external
sculpures of the Parthenon, especially the
frieze (of which the Elgin marbles are a
oart), survive to give us an idea of Phidias'
skill; and it is not certain that these are actu-
pdlly his own work.

Phigalia, town, in Southwestern Arcadia,
ancient Greece, celebrated for its temple of
Apollo (at Bassse), probably built about 430
B.C., after the design of Ictinus, the architect
of the Parthenon. The temple is of fine gray
limestone and white marble, and next to the
Theseion at Athens, is the most perfect archi-
tectural ruin in all Greece. The sculptures of
the frieze—the famous Phigalian marbles—
were discovered in I$IT, were bought by the
British government for £15,000, and placed
in the British Museum in 1824.

Philadelphia, the metropolis of Pennsyl-
vania, third city of the United States in pop-
ulation, is situated in the southeastern corner
of the State, at the confluence of the Dela-
ware and Schuylkill Rivers, about 120 miles
from the sea; p. 1,931,334. It occupies a cen-
tral position on the North Atlantic seaboard,
90 miles by rail from New York, 96 from
Baltimore, and 132 from Washington, and
this, with its proximity to the coal and iron
deposits of the State and its unexcelled rail
and water communications, has given it great
commercial and industrial importance. Phila-
delphia has a water frontage of 34 miles, 20
miles on the Delaware and 14 on the Schuyl-

PKHadelphia

kill. Along the rhcrs, in and just below the
dly, arc situated a nunihcr ol the largest oil
re fineries, and large shipments of nil for the
foreign trade, at» well as of grain, are made by
way of the Schii\lkill and Delaware. Phila-
delphia has a s'onuT/hal warmer climate than
the rest of the Slate, During the summer
months the heat is sometimes excessive, but
the winters arc generally mild.

The city does not occupy a level plain, al-
though the levelling processes of municipal
engineering have done much to eliminate the
original topography. The streets in the old
city proper rise with a steep grade from the
river to Front Street, and recall the bluff
which the founders of the city noted when
selecting the site. The center of the city prop-
er, that is, several blocks n. and s. of Market
Street and w. of the Delaware, is largely given
over to the wholesale and shipping trade of
the community. West of this is the fashion-
able retail shopping section, centering on
Walnut, Chestnut, Market, and Arch Streets
and the connecting numbered thoroughfares.

The ideal of William Penn to make of his
newly founded settlement 'a greene countrie
town,' has never been wholly departed from
Trees are in the streets, and the small parks
movement has in Philadelphia a strenuous
advocate. Penn's five open 'squares/ Inde-
pendence, Franklin, Logan, Washington, and
Rittcnhouse, at the corners and the center
have been multiplied in all directions, until
today there are upwards of 140 parks and
playgrounds, besides the city's chief pride,
Fairmount Park. Fairmount Park has long
been the approved site for various public
memorials and monuments, chief among
which is the Washington Monument. Other
memorials in the park perpetuate the memory
of Grant, Mcadr, Lincoln, and other prom-
inent men. There are also preserved on the
site of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 two
buildings used in that national celebration.
Memorial Hall shelters the collection of the
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Indus-
trial Art, and the Wilstach collection, which
contains notable examples of modern and
Renaissance paintings. Horticultural Hall
contains a fine display of exotic plants. Other
places of interest in the park arc the aquar-
ium, zoological gardens, William Penn cot-
tage and Grant cottage.

The $25,000,000 City Hall, a white marble
structure in the modern French Renaissance
style, with a 548 ft, tower, is the landmark
for the center of the city. On the n. is the
Masonic Temple, a notable example of pure