The San Francisco call., 1897-05-09

!, lures are not developed in anything like
proportion to the advancement OF the age,
yet her progress since she was relieved OF
| the Ottoman yoke has been in many ways
very creditable. The Turk left that
country sixty-seven years ago a smoE-
| ing, blood-soaked ruin. Since then
she has increased her revenue five
hundred fold, the acreage in currants
and vineyards is hundred times as
broad, 1000 miles of fine roads have been
built at cost of ten millions. big engi-
neering enterprises in the way of canal
cutting for commerce and for draining
wide areas to leave the alluvial soil cap
able of cultivation have been carried
through, eleven new cities have been
| founded on sites formerly deserted, forty
towns ruined by the war have been re-
| built and present the aspect of prosperous
cities, ten ports have been cleared and
| deepened. most prominent among them
being the Pireus, and the maritime power
| has expanded from 430 vessels to more
than 5O0O
In 1886 a Scotch college representative
sent home a report that the least ruined
| part of Athens were the old ruins them
selves. Now it is progressive city of la, 600
| population and is largely rebuilt in style
of architecture beautiful and classic many
| OF the finer structures being of white
marble. The wealthy Greeks scattered in
many lands contributed to this restora-
| ton. There is q romantic story connected
with the creation of the new library, which
is an architects dream of beauty solidified
in white marble. Vallianos, an opulent
%
Queen Olga had shielded his brother from
the fate usually accorded to detected
Russian anarchists.
Patras, next in size to Athens, is the
principal seaport. 1t was com pletely de-
stroyed by the Turks, but is now rebuilt
OF white marble and has $4,000 people.
1lliteracy, which was almost universal
among the Hellenes while under Turkish
rule, is now almost unfindable in the lit
tie kingdom. Education is compulsory.
fourteen years schooling is provided, and
the curriculum reaches from tho alphabet
to the university.
Since 1883 the interior of Greece has
been as safe from brigands as England.
The revived nation is very jealously
guarding it. art treasures and it is against
the laws for genuine antiquity to be sold
out OF the country-the penalty being five
years imprisonment and heavy fine.
Athens runs moro daily papers than the
city Of New York, and the Greek used is
nearly the same as that of Zenophon and
| the New Testament.
The Greek has maintained his language,
his ground and bis blood to the present
| day-thirty centuries in the same spot.
Cecrops ruled in Athens when Moses was
writing the decalogue on Mount Sinai,
and the same form of speech was used as
| that OF the state papers of the Hellas Of
| to-day.
| The debt of Greece is $75 per head of the
population and equals IA per cent of the
entire wealth OF the country. So wisely
| has the borrowed money been used the in.
curing of it is considered good invest.
| ment. There is q strict economy in all
| branches of the administration. The mem.
bers OF the Boule are paid but trifle, and
the highest salary of general or an ad-
miral does not exceed $1,000.
Only one-third of the Greeks live in
Greece. In European Turkey they out
number the Turks nearly three to one. In
Asia Minor they are one-fourth of the
Turks. All COlO the Greek race - TO the
Turks in the proportion of to IN. The
Ottoman empire numbers "a, ,5OO, 900, but
there are less than 10000 Osmaniis. To
whatever we may attribute their power of
domination. it is certainly not due to
overwhelming numbers
The population of Greece has trebled
| since freedom and is now 2, l87, 900.
The regular army of Greece is $4,000,
the reserve 104, 900 and the Landwehr adds
1850 moro. The navy has five armored
vessels, seventeen torpedo-boats and two
submarine torpedo-boats
The Greeks of to-day are considered By
ethnologists as not only lineal descend
ants of the famous Hellenes of old, but in
spite of many admixtures to be as like
as any race in Europe to their ancestors.
In the rapid progress of the human race,
confidently expected in the coming twen-
tieth century. 1t may be that the force of
atavism will bring again to the fore the
descendants OF that people of ancient
Hellas who by their philosophy, litera-
! ture and art have so profoundly affected
modern thought