Morning journal and courier., 1880-09-06

counsel So may think the guileless, but not
 so the Greek. He detects at glance the hid
 den sheer at his country, and the suggestion
 of it's inferior rank henceforward in the
 worlds affairs. And from this point warm
 ing to the depths of his own ingenious mind,
 he begets there whole scheme of policy,
 which takes shape and arms itself faster than
 did the embryoof Pallas Athene in her fath-
 er's brain. With astonishment and some
 thing like awe one marks the rapid concep-
 tion of outline, the spirited filling in of de-
 tails, and the masterly rounding of the com
 pleted simasLtTc7uns all in one moment. Such
 columns of figures to a unit, such ready tabu-
 lation of events and dates, such copious pre-
 cision of geography, are calculated to make
 the foreigner despair. Depressed with a
 consciousness that his mind is unequal to the
 comprehension of Eastern politics, English
 men, after one of these coffee-house debates,
 withdraws to his own room and independently
 seeks bed. The flow of eager words and ve-
 hement interruptions has ceased to bewilder
 him. After some time a doubt recurs, first
 in this plausible statement, then in that. Dis
 trustful of himself, he rises to consult a map,
 then Blue Book; and when he goes to bed
 again it is with a feeling, treasured, but
 partly -contemptuous, that his voluble op-
 ponent has invented half his facts, and mis- applied the remainder. When, a, day or two afterward, he hears his own modest state ments-so thoroughly refuted at the time used as basis for fresh structures, all his self respect returns
 Very clever indeed are these Athenians in all that concerns political intrigue and opera tions of pure intellect. But nowhere is the Oriental slowness more irritating than in the ordinary commerce of life. One would not believe, for instance, that purchase of to- bacco could be heightened out to IA minut es. This afternoon I stood so long in the fierce sunshine, and the process is worth nothing. youth of careworn aspect sat behind his stall, absorbed in reflections on the Concert of Europe, the geography of Epirus, and the uniication of the Greek Debt-no less exten- sive variety of grave subjects could have re- generated an air so deeply meditative. The tobacco lay before him, the scales hung oyer head, the weights were ready to his hand. He cut from the roll quantity which suggest ed and put it in the series with an approxi- mate number of bits of brass clipped from sheet of metal This did not balance as might be expected, but he neither added nor sub tracted on either side. With glance at the Acropolis hanging above our heads, as if to invoke the 7l1tnae1o of his country in this dis tress, the youth pitched all his weights aside and threw in a fresh assortment equally mad equate. Trying now the other scale, he ex- hausted the four rules of arithmetic on my tobacco, multiplying and reducing it shred by shred. I expected to see him apply log arithms or differential calculus as the readiest method of settling the business At length
 
 thought our relations ended. By no means. The young pa1ikar put up warning hand to rebuke barbarian impatience. Emptying the tobacco out before him, he slowly pulled it to bits, like a remorseful convict picking oakum. In vain tried to hurry this operation. That son of Leonidas however, knew his duty, and did it. Had the legendary Bashi-Bazouk ap- peared, with his implements familiar to the eye of Dr. MacColl, he would have died at his task, murmuring an aphorism culled from Plutarch. It was done at length, my pur- chase enveloped in bag, and neatly folded. rendered 5f., and stretched out my hand. Once more the warning finger was upraised, while this conscientious youth recalled the salient points of MT. Ricardo's famous essay upon exchanges Abstracted was he in depths unfathomable, as he served a passing soldier with screw of tobacco and box of matches. This transaction completed, we stood face to face, as it were with a five franc note and packet of merchandise be- tween us. Slowly the great principles of ex- change took clear shape in his mind, and his troubled face softened into smile of blest relief. Handing me some 50 copper coins, he commended me to heaven with much politeness. With such hesitation and du1lness all affairs are conducted in Athens with such copper coinage, too. I have had Of. given me in sous, so great Is the lack of silver and small notes. The days of Lycur- gus seem to have returned
 What strikes me as still more strange is the want of education here. The grand claim of Greece above other Oriental nationalities is her intelligence and culture. But in the mat ter of foreign tongues the people of Athens are not greatly superior to the people of Tir- nova, and vastly beneath the people of Bueh- arest If you address man whose appear ance suggests that he may occupy responsi- ble position, the chances are ten to one that he speaks no language but his own. This mat ter of education has particular Importance in Greece. I am sure that in the towns of Thessaly and Epirus every well-dressed man speaks some Occidental tongue If that be SO, HelEGs irreGlentG is much more advanced than the free capital. Explain the fact how we may, it cannot be denied that the educa- tion of the bO1geoisie at Athens, in this mat ter at least ranks much below the level of Roumania, country which puts forward no claim to superior excellence. I have shrewd | suspicion, also, that in other branches of knowledge the Athenian Greek, who aspires to lead, stands below the average. Statistics of crushing weight may be advanced to prove me wrong in theory but can appeal to the evidence of my own eyes and ears. And the foreigner is not helped by any courteous at tention of the authorities. Neither at public offices at railways at places of amusement, nor anywhere else in this country, is infor- nation pasted up in French, English German, or Italian. The Turks themselves set lesson in this respect.
 One cannot help liking the Greeks. They have faults enough and their virtues are not of the attractive kind. But after experience of other Eastern races they seem hopeful and companionable A European feels that his ideas would be understood by this people, if only he and they had common means of inter change. Pecuiarities the Greek possesses, and has the right to possess, but at heart he is one of us, being affected by the same inn pulses, pursuing the same objects in much the same manner as Occidentals This is not the case with the Slavonic race. The Bulgar, the Serb, and the Turk are of different mould. Whithersoever their aspirations may tend, it is not toward Western model. They themselves profess higher aim; but, higher or lower, it diyerges from what we ac- cept. The Greek is one of us, and he alone amid the heirs of Turkey. The Greeks may or may not prove themselves in time to be worthy of their forefathers, but most certain ly they are the best, beyond all comparison, of those who claim a part of the Turkish Elm pire-the only race, indeed, who can urge their right upon us in the name of common civilization.