The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-10-24
THEY DIFFER FROM THEIR TRIBE IN
OUR YOUNG AMERICA.

| altogether a most disreputable looking
| little ragamufin, he had shown the pos
session of qualities and We had need of
cab.
But when, following him through a
malodorous crowd, we arrived at his
vehicle, we were discouraged, for the
vehicle itself was dilapidated, 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 nc 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 10
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 a
right of property in US which all other
cabmen were bound to respect, and every
cabman to whom we successfully 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
nifcent reality.
But we had read long 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 Pir8us, 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 melodioas Irishman who, when he
did not walk, erode in chaises." We
walked, therefore, with the Irishman's
alternative obiutgation 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 gram
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 Tagamufin of a
driver followed us like a 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 were
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 pTacticed
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, a horse car. Now,
! as horse car is presumably the prop
erty of corporation, and as the great
distinction Of a corporation is that it has
DO 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
and to consider that if Socrates had been
able to return to Athens In horse car
this fact would have cut short all that
noble conversation under the trees, and
the world might have been without Its
first great idea Of an Utopisn state.
But it is evident that modern institu-
tons are having fair play IN Greece.
The boycott and the horse car are doing
what they may for civilization there,
and other fine things viii follow. Mean
while one sees enough to convince him
as he wauders on the AcrOpohs that the
very rubbish Of the Parthenon Is worth
all the rest OF Greece as II Is. and il De-
comes a comfort TO know that history
has pretty well proved that the so call
| ed modern Greeks are not Greeks az all
but only descendants of q horde Of
wretched Slavs VINO swarmed IN and
settled upon the land ike locusts when
war and peStilence together had annlhi-
/ lated the grsnder race