The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-28
GREEKS OF THE PRESENT DHY.

stump speakers as their forefathers
we're. There is much shrewd cleo
tioneering done, and the wives of the
Grecian candidates help their husbands
quite as much as our American wives
do theirs. Some of the women even
electioneer for their husbands, and 1
was told of one Greek woman who. see-
ing that her husband would probably
be defeated went to some Of the VIII
lagos in the district and said that every
one who voted the right way would
have a free railroad ticket to Athens
and a ticket to the theater The Greeks
are crazy for amusements. and this bid
gave her husband a seat in the parlia-
ment Every man in Greece has the
right to vote The members Of parlla-
ment are elected much like our con-
gressmen. Their terms are for four
years, and they receive salaries Of
about four hundred dollars a session.
They have more power than our men,
bers of congress. and it is they in
reality who govern Greece. 1t is they
who will decide as to wars with Tur-
key, and it is from them that the ap-
IropriatiOns must come. The king has
the right to veto. but he would not
dare to exercise 1T against large ma
jority He is just as anxious to be
popular with his people as the presi-
dent is anxious to be popular here. and
he is pretty sure to do as the people
want.
HOW THE GREEKS VOTE.
A political campaign in Greece is very much
like political campaign in America. The
Greeks are fond of good speakers, and the
man who can make a good stump speech
stands a chance of an election. There is
much bumcombe,- of course, but the modern
Greeks are intelligent, and the poorest Of
them consider themselves an equality with
the richest. The walters at the cafe and the
drivers on the street cars will talk politics
with you, and the politician has to do the
same Misunderstanding in Greece that he has to
do in the United States. All of the elections
are held upon Sunday and curiously enough
the polls are In the churches. In Athens you
have to go to the cathedral to do your voting.
The voters are al registered and the elections
are watched much more carefully in Greece
than they are here Every candidate watches
his own box, for there is a ballot box for each
candidate. He does not do 1t in person, but
has a judge appointed in each district to take
his place. The ballot boxes are arranged in
a row along one side of the church. They
through at one time. Each box Is about a
foot square. In it's top there is a pipe, the
hole in which is just large enough to admit
the arm of a man. This pipe runs down
through the middle Of the box until it meets
a partition which divides the box in half
One side of the box is for affirmative ballots
and the other fer negative. The ballots are
buckshot, and the voter having put his hand
down into the pipe drops his ballot for or
against the candidate, as he pieases, without
the possibility of any one knowing how he
voted Each voter is given only as many
buckshot as there are candidates, and each
Judge can see that he has but one ballot in
his hand before he puts it in the box There
are few election frauds in Greece. 1t is almost
impossible to stuff ballot box, and in case
the bullets in the boxes do not correspond
with the registration at the entrances the
whole vote is thrown cut
ENTERPRISING ATHENIANS.
When 1 started for Greece expected to
find there a nation gone to seed. l changed
my mind when l reached Athens. The
Athens of today is modern city. 1t has
wide streets paved with cobblestones, and
its houses are much like the three and
four-story fats Of some parts of Paris. It's
people dress as we do There are carriages
with liveried ceachmen and there is as
much style in Athens as in any part of
Europe. The better classes of the modern
Greeks have as good homes as people of the
same class in the United States. They are
well dressed and well educated. The most
of them speak half a dozen different Ian
guagcs, though French is the society language
of the Greek capital. l had cab drivers who
could speak English, French and Greek, and
at one of the theaters during my stay they
were playing an Italian play. There is an
Athens university which has nearly 1900
students and which has 98 professors. Here
the young Greek gets thorough classical
education, and he can If he wishes, add to