The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-10-24
QUEEN OLGA.

demned to penal servitude for life, he
found IN the penitentiary his father,
who had been imprisoned for some con-
travention Of the bankruptcy laws. The
poor old man was in the last stages Of
consumption and died IN his son s arms,
Nasos thereupon IN the bitterness of his
grief swearing eternal vengeance against
society.
Three months later he, together with
nine Of his fellow convicts, took advan-
tage Of hurricane raging one dark De-
cember night to escape and to make
good their fight to the mountains,
where they organized themselves into a
band Of robbers As IN the story books,
their depredations were mainly confined
to the rich, and they were so generous
with their plumber that, far from being
either feared or hated, they We're be-
loved by the entire peasantry Of the
countryside, especially the bandit chief,
young Nasos, who was known through
out the province as s'The Boy. So
great a power did Nasos and his band
acquire that they were able even to in
fiuence the election of parliamentary
representatives of the district, and few
months ago the cor gress1nen from La
mia and the neighboring towns We're
actually forced by their constituents to
urge the minister Of the interior to alb
stain from the project Of sending troops
for the purpose of CT 2turing or killing
the bandits
Some years ago Lord and Lady Mum
caster, Hon. Edward Herbert, Mr.. Fred
Vyner, and Count Boyli of the Italian
legation We're seized by brigands while
picniclzing on the plain of Marathon and
hurried off to the mountains. Four days
later Lord Muncaster was released and
- a.
ing the ransom and the terms of immu-
nifty demanded by the brigands They
insisted upon 81 so, 600 in money, free
pardon for present and past outrages
and the Liberation OF certain brigands
then in custody The English minister
at Athens urged the Greek government
to procure the release Of the captives
even upon the terms of the brigands
and received a distinct promise that the
matter should be settled at no matter
what cost With characteristic lack Of
faith, the Greek authorities tried to
avoid the payment of the ransom BY
comprising the arrest of the banditti
and dispatched a body of troops to cap
ture the outlaws The latter through
their friends at Athens were at once APP
prised of thu scheme Enraged thereat,
the robbers carried the unfortunate trav-
elers farther into the interior, and after
subjecting them for several days to the
most distressing anxiety to what
their fate might be, murdered them in
cold blood The bodies when found bore,
besides a number of gunshot wounds, the
appearance of having been, in addition
thereto, stabbed in the back The
affair created an immense sensation at
the time. which was still further in
creased when several members of thepar-
liamentary opposition in Greece as well
as an Englishman named Noel, doml-
ciled at Negroponte, were arrested and
placed on trial along with the bIigands
for completely in the massacre, and most
of the accused paid the penalty of their
crime with their lives But, notwith-
standing this, brigandage continues to
remain as much of q curse in Greece as
it was In the days when the French
novelist, Edmond About, selected the
Greek brigand Hadji Stavros as the hero
of his popular tale, ''The King Of the
Mountains. - BARON SARToR