The herald., 1897-05-23
GREEKS A PECULIAR PEOPLE
They Seldom Make Friendships Will
Foreigners Of Any Class

The Greeks are among the most curious
people Of the world, and the most dimcult
to understand. None of the chronological la
bells In common use can be said to descibe
or even imply their psychological charac-
teristics. They have been successfully
termed a people of lazy. lying and SPEND
thrift propensities, prone to quarrel and
reckless of life, and also nation Of labor
ious. truthful, thrifty men and women,
eager for peace and scrupulous respectors
of the property of their neighbors. Neither
statement is wholly In harmony with the
facts. The Russians say Of themselves
that you must eat forty pounds of salt
with them before you can know them. But,
then. the thing is impossible. With the
Greeks 1t is much more difficult to bect-ne
acquainted, for the excellent reason shat
you cannot eat any salt with them at all.
They will Hospitality entertain you at a ho-
tel. but not under their own roof tree. 1t
Is. of course, almost as easy to strike up an
acquaintance with a. Helene as with a
Frenchman, to exchange ideas with him
upon any topic he knows, or thinks he
knows. especially. however, on politics.
But this Is at most mere shop door ac-
quaintance. however long 1t may last He
never gives the most friendly stranger the
freedom Of his house, and very seldom In
vites him thither; and yet is by no means
inhospitable. An intimate friend of mine,
who has spent twenty years in one of the
chief cities of the kingdom, tells me that
neither he nor his wife has. ever made a
friend" in the genuine sense of the word,
among the natives, although they both
speak the language elegantly and fuently,
and have no end of friends" in the con-
ventional meaning of this much abused
term. The Greeks. like most orientals, are
extremely reserved toward the most
friendly foreigners, and. curiously enough.
among other reasons, because their ladies
have a mortal horror of inviting outsiders
to partake of food which might possibly
be open to criticism: The final outcome
of this state of things is that the Greeks
lose more than the foreigners by this ir-
rational shyness.
As a matter of fact, they are kindly.
warm-hearted people. frugal to a degree
that justifies their kinship with the ancient
Spartans of black broth fame. eloquent in a
way that reminds you of the Demosthenes
of your school days, whose long-winded
orations seem endless, and they are pas
sionate just to the extent required by this
eloquence. Having but lately emerged from
barbarism and slavery they have not yet
succeeded in obliterating all its traces. but
In very many cases they have covered them
up with veneer of modern culture. which,
like average English ice will not bear much
pressure The curious mixture of naivete
and shrewdness which results is unparal-
leled among the people of Europe or the
world. To hear an educated HELENE talk
like Nestor and act like naughty child at
one and the same time is not an uncommon
experience. During the present troubles in
Crete 1 have over and over again listened
to very clever apercu of the political situ-
alton given by the Athenians of the upper
ten. who would then wind up with threat
to spite the great powers by doing some
incredible act which a schoolboy of would
unhesitatingly characterize as folly. No
doubt, the feverlsh excitement Of the mo-
ment and the provocation they received are
in some measure responsible for this loss Of
mental equilibrium, but only in part. To a
great extent 1t is characteristic and abid)-
ing.-London Telegraph.