The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-12-19
THE LITERARY UNION.
Thy lire Entertained by Alice Free
man Palmer's Lecture.
AN ELOQUENT AND DISCRIMINAT.
ING DES' RiPTION OF THE MOD.
ERN CREEKS.

Their Roads are very POOR, bnt Tnelr
Schools Magniicent-The Greek Pride
-Tricoupis and His Sister-A Nation of
Politicians Very Small Farms Where
Farming Cannot Pay.
There is no danger of praising too highly
the delightful and instructive lecture
which MS. Alice Freeman Palmer deliv-
cred at Kotzschmar Hall last evening. The
hall was filled by an audience fully in SYM
pathy with the lecturer. and entirely APP
preciatiye of her subject, Modern Greece"
Mrs. Palmer was introduced pleasantly
by Mrs. George @. Frye. president of the
Union. Mrs, Palmer's appearance, as she
stepped forward to address her audience,
was entirely in keeping with her style as q
lecturer-mOdest and unassuming, but by
no means difident. She is an exact and
ready speaker. with keen sense of humor
and poetic imagination. This latter
quality, as may be imagined, found abund-
ant play in the subject.
Mrs. Palmer visited Greece few years
ago, in little company of New England
teachers VINO sought rest in a springtime
journey from Italy to and through Greece.
To US who are accustomed to the great ex-
tent and richness of the soil of the United
States, Greece would seem a very small
and poor country. Mrs. Palmer was able
at no time in her travels there TO set her
feet more than 40 miles from the sea or Ia
from the hills. The land is collection of
peninsulars, with arms of the sea running
among them in all directions. The land is
almost treeless and almost waterless. "Al-
though we were there in the springtime,"
said Mrs. Palmer, I'VE saw no pond and
no river" The great rivers of Greece
the rivers great in history-were found to
be merely the rocky beds of streams to be
waded by child. 1t is poor country,
most Of the people living by farming.
The larger portion of the farms
are about one-half acre large, and the larg-
est are rarely over 80 acres. One third of
the LAND is under control of the govern
ment. The two-thiTds That is left to indi-
vidual owners is under the poorest cultiva-
ti0n. The farmers are not progressive.
Mrs. Palmer saw the farmers blowing
with the same old plows that their fathers
used-queer wooden structures exactly
like SUCH as may be seen In the museums
on vases that date 800 years before Christ.
On one little farm In which Mrs. Palmer
became greatly interested, she saw an OK
goad exactly like those used In the time
Of Homer. The Greeks of today think
that what was good enough for the old
heroes is good enough for them. Shepherd
ing on the hills. making wine and collect
ing gall nuts for export, make up the sum
Of their doing.
Greece Is great place for ofice-holders.
Mrs. Palmer says that one nineteenth Of
the entire male population hold govern
ment offices. 1t is nation OF politicians.
1t has no capital, no coal. although little
mining is done by English and American
capitalists. There are but three railroads,
and each of them is very short.
When the modern kingdom was estab-
lisbed in 1880, the English said that two
things were needed for the advancement
of the nation, GOOD roa'is and good schools.
The roads are yet lacking but the schools
the Greeks have. No country in Europe
has worked so hard and accomplished so
much in this line In the last twenty five
years as Greece. There is great univer-
sity at Athens with two thousand students,
excellent poly tschnic schools that would
rival those of New England, and splendid
grammar schools. There are no laws to
secure attendance, as the Greek boys have
to be driven out Of the schools In order to
give place TO others. There Is a great
hungering for education and the oppor-
tunIties of professional life. opportunities
Of which the country can afford very few.
The education of the women has hardly
kept pace with that of the men, and the
results of this are plainly evident in the
appearance of the former. Although when
middle life they begin to show the effects
of life spent with too little to think OF.
Oae does not see those fine looking women
of from so to 80 years of age, who are the
finest products of the noble home life of
cultured English and Americans. The
men, on the other hand, are, generally
athletic, strong and OF princely bearing,
whether they be shepherds, farmers or
soldiers.
Mrs. Palmer took her hearers with her
first TO that island of the Phaeacians,
where Ulysses landed after Neptune had
wrecked his raft and nearly drowned the
old hero himself Even the little Greek
the American visitors where Ulysses swan
ashore and, was found by tue daughter of
the king, and other places made famous in
the Odyssey. The party reached the main
land at the northwest corner OF the PelOp-
Onessus, and started ON Seventy-five mile
drive TO the plain of Olympus. There is
not space TO reproduce here the entertain
ing description which Mrs. Palmer gave of
this journey. One anecdote, which won the
admiration of the audience for the Greek
character may be reproduced. The party
stopped for the first night at small inn
kept by a widow, whose property had been
raided the day before by brigands. In the
morning the little daughter of the widow,
beautiful child. dressed poorly in single
garment, brought to Mrs. Paine, an arm
full of beautiful flowers. Mrs. Palmer ac-
cepted them and attempted to hand to the
girl few piece, of money. but the mother
Indignantly prevented. Mrs. Palmer did
not fully understand, and did not appreci-
ate the spirit of the mother until the guide
interpreted the poor widows reply, which
was. "the little daughter gives you the as
phodel flower because she loves you. and
not for money and she only asks of you
that you will not make beggars of the
daughters of Greeks"
To accept gifts Of this sort is thought by
Of Turks.
The party remained at Athens six weeks,
ana were delighted as much with the peo-
pie as with the relics of antiquity and the
historic scenes continually present before
the eyes. OF the then Prime Minister Tri-
coupis, and his wonderful sister, Mrs. Pal
MGR 90 On a uovxJ oufhucioo&;o Aneo~,0a;u,n