The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-26
A STRANGE CAREER.
REMARKABLE LIFE OF A GREEK
BOY BORN 81 YEARS AGO.


BOY BORN 80 YEARS AGO.
Gathering Figs in Smyrna Groves-A
Student in the New World - The
Friend of Presidents-Chaplai in the
Navy-Freethinker and PhiIanthro-
pist-His Vast Fortune Left to the
Poor.
From The Boston Herald
Once careless Greek boy, at work in the
fig fields of Smyrna, or at play in the arid
streets of Malta. at another time almost
called an adventurer in acting out the
phases of his romantic life, and again one
of Americas most noted abolitionists, and
the father Of the act that forever stopped
the dIsgraceful fiogging of seamen in tine
American navy, Photius Kavasales the
Greek, Photius Fisk the American. For
thirty years chaplain in the United States
navy, yet since 1860 one of tine foremost
freethinkers of the age, starting in life
two-thirds OF a century ago, he dies
leaving enormous wealth to Boston's
poor, after having distributed sey-
eral fortunes among them. His life
has been a succession of contrasts such
as few mems lives present. The contempo-
rary Of Garrison and Phillips, the esteemed
friend of John Quincy Adams, once presi-
dent OF the country, and OF Abraham Lin
coin; an intimate companion of John Brown
OF Harper's Ferry notoriety, and latterly
the favored guest of Otto, King of Greece,
the orbit of the social system of the subject
of this sketch touches almost every decade
of this century, and the most exciting and
interesting features of this cOuntry's his
inc ia into
in the webwork of this mans romantic
career.
Photius Fisk, whose ancestral name was
| kavasales, died at his home on Washington
street last Friday morning, aged about SO
years. He was full-blooded Greek, and
was born in one of the islands of the Grecian
| archipelago, either in 1907 or 1908 He was
removed ia infancy TO Smyrna, in Asia
Minor, where his father was employed as an
| accountant in a mercantile house, and the
Greek boy labored in the fig gathering and
fig drying industry. In 1914, during pes
thence, he lost the father aud mother who
loved him dearly, and was deprived of the
companionship of two brothers and two
sisters Himself infected with the plague, ne
found refuge in Grecian hospital, where he
was cared for by the people of his nation
An elder brother, Athanasius, residing at
Malta, and an uncle were his only relatives.
His uncle, desiring to give him the bene-
fit of as much education as could be had,
sent him to the only school of note at
| Malta, which was a Jesuit college, although
the boy belonged to the Greek church. The
| Rev. Pliny Fisk, an American missionary,
found young Photius at Malta, aud became
deeply interested in him. He sought his
family, and persuaded them to let him take
the boy to America, under the patronage of
the board of foreign missions, to be edu-
| Gated. Young Photlus is found after
while at the school at Cornwall, and then
for two years at the Hopkins Academy at
New Haven, Conn. From the latter place
he went to Amherst, but failed to complete
his term, and he was sent back to Greece
by the board of missions, leaving this
country on the brig Statesman,
Capt. Bates, bound for the Medi-
terranean with a cargo Of provisions for
the starving Greeks, thousands of whom,
at the close of their long and desperate
| struggle for Greek independence were left
destitute of even the necessaries of life.
| Photius landed at Malta few weeks before
the fierce and decisive battle of Navarino,
which gave a spectacular ending to the
| Greek revolution in 1927 After a series Of
adventures. in which the young HELENE
suffered many privations, and at times
hesltated between accepting commissions
under Russian authority to Cypress people
of his own classic land and going forth an
adventurer over the earth without any
| opcCidl ueSJluy, nc, having udSDoQ Oh Afnerl-
can independence, resolved to return to the
United States.
From Smyrna he sailed for New York in
French brig, and paid for his fare the last
dollar that he possessed in the world, which
he had borrowed from Russian officer.
The vessel encountered a series of severe
gales, and the captain had to throw over
board a part of the cargo She was
freighted with figs and raisins. The voyage
across the Atlantic had been 50 rough and
disastrous that the brig put in at Martin
lque island, one of the West Indies, the
balance of the cargo was discharged, and
the captain decided to head toward South
America, instead of continuing to New
York. She was only a tramp vessel. and
was Off, leaving Photius at Martinique
before he could look for any redress
While waiting at this port for an
opportunity to resume his Journey
to New York he was brought in
contact with chattel slavery This was
new experience to him, although in childhood
he had heard the horrors of the Turkish
system so often and SO forcibly recount cd
that the most intense hatred of even the
term slavery had become ingrained in his
mental and moral being. When he did
start for New York he stopped en- route at
Wilmington, where he saw the practical
operations of the American system of
slavery, which appeared to him worse even
|
he saw men and women unloading vessels
at the wharves under the terror of the lash.
His pity and his indignation were awakened
by the wrongs inflicted by the strong upon
the weak, and he declared in his own mind
an uncompromising warfare against the
whole system of slavery, and against the
use Of the lash upon human beings
On arriving in New York he secured q
place in a drug store through the aid of the
Rev. Girard Halleck, and while attending
revival meetings he became imbued with a
desire to study for the ministry. Willing
hands took him in charge, and he was ad-
United in 1928 into the full lowship of the
Congregational church, and began to pre-
pare himself for the pulpit. He afterward
graduated at the Auburn New York. Theo-
logical Seminary, and was ordained at
Halifax, Vermont He had charge of the
Halifax church for brief period, but he
could not stand the intense cold of the
Green Mountain state, and looked for
pastures in a more congenial cline.
In 1910 he went to Washington to
preach, and there met ex-President John
Quincy Adams, then me nber of congress.
whom he had met in Boston in 1923, after
his first arrival in this country, who had
been devoted friend to him from that
time. The ex-President took an active in
terest in having Photius made a chaplain of
H.. L.