The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-10-15
CABMEN OF OLD ATHENS.
THEY DIFFER FROM THEIR TRIBE IN
OUR YOUNG AMERICA.

THEY DIFFER FROM THEIR TRIBE IN
OUR YOUNG AMERICA.
Be Captured by One Of Them and You
Must Ride in His Hack-The Others
Will Not Serve You-Annoying Expert
ence of Tourists-Horse Cars in Athens.
We were landing at the Piraus. Just
as our gig was rowed up to the steps of
the landing place we saw sturdy look
ing little fellow running with all his
might to get at the top of the steps by
the time we should arrive there. He
was cabman. He of all the cabmen
had been the first to catch sight of us,
and as there were dozen other cabmen
on the spot, this was quite triumph on
his part. We surrendered ourselves into
his hands therefore with satisfaction,
for though he was not handsome, being
altogether most disreputable looking
little ragamuffin, he had shown the pos
session of qualities and we had need of a
cab. - -s,
But when. following him through
malodorous crowd. we arrived at his
vehicle, we Were discouraged, for the
vehicle itself was di1apidated, ram
shackle, unclean thing, and the two
nags, scarcely larger than goats, were
SO bony, NANCY and miserable looking
that it seemed cruelty to animals to con-
sent to an arrangement that involved
their dragging about three full grown
persons in addition to the little driver
We therefore decided, peremptorily, that
| as there was no contract made, we should
not get into that vehicle, but would
choose another to suit ourselves. We de-
cided this inside our own heads, but in
so doing we counted without the hosts
of cabmen
DISCOVERIES RIGHTS
Having selected good cab, with
decent pair of horses, and proposed a
bargain to the driver, without regard to
the shrill and continuous clamor of our
little ragamuffin, we found that his elo-
quence had more cogency than our offer,
for the driver of the vehicle chosen
would not accept us as his passengers
because we belonged" to the other man.
He had captured us; had acquired
right of property in us which all other
cabmen were bound to respect, and every
cabman to whom we successively ad-
dressed ourselves refused us in the same
way. We were boycotted. The cab
men of the Piraus were one and indi-
visible in their determination that we
should make our entry into Greece be-
hind the worst pair of horses ever seen,
or otherwise go afoot. IF the Greeks
had stood together half as well in their
dealings with the Turks and other foes
as they did ON this occasion against
three peaceful wayfarers, the famous
dream that Greece might still be free"
might have become dazzling and mag
ni6cent reality.
But we had read lopg before this in a
book by one Plato, called the Republic"
that Socrates and several other fellows
had one day walked down from Athens
to the Pir9us, and in fact that they had
there talked among themselves the whole
contents of that interesting book, and
we are reasonably sure that as to the
walks and talks of Socrates we are
equal to the walks, at least, and so we
would walk, either with Socrates or with
the melodious Irishman who, when he
did not walk, rode in chaises.' We
walked, therefore, with the Irishman's
alternative objurgation on our tongues
And as we walked along the awfully
dirty street, with the ships on one side
and the wretched little shops and vile
smelling restaurants on the other
wretched shops and vile smelling res
taurants having over their doors gran
eloquent signs in Greek, which, though
bad, was good enough to keep in ones
mind the ancient glories-as we did all
this, actually passing on the way monu-
ment with the head of Themistocles on a
Doric column, one little ragamuffin of a
driver followed us like pestilent horse
fly, tearing ahead at full speed and halt
ing in front of us and declaiming con-
stantly that we were his and that we
were cheating him by refusing to ride
With what immense energy he would
dash ahead, halt in front of us, get down
and open the door of his cab and appeal
to us to enter. But he appealed to hearts
hardened with silent rage. We We're
within a few miles of the spot where
Desmosthenes said savage things at the
roaring sea with pebble stones in his
mouth, and if this fellow could have said
all these things, even if he had practiced
with paving stones in his mouth, he could
not have convinced us.
THE FRIENDLY HORSE CAR
Suddenly there came an unlocked for
solution to this mean little drama. There
appeared upon the scene, here at the
very end of the long walls, that awfully
modern contrivance, q horse car. Now,
as a horse car is presumably the prop
erty of a corporation, and as the great
distinction of a corporation is that it has
no soul, one perceived that here we
might be free from the immediate con-
sequences of the boycott, and we enter
ed the horse car, which, by the way, was
certainly the cleanest vehicle in all that
part of Greece.
AS soon as we entered the. horse car
we were out of all our trouble, but we
were forced to reflect that we were not
following the great example of Socrates