The Florence tribune., 1897-05-22
THE ISLE OF CRETE.
Now tho Bone Of Contention Be.
 tween Greece and Turkey.
Something About the Cradle of Glass; Ic Ciyiiixntion--Its Past His- tory and It's Present
 Standing.

In a political view the addition of Crete to the small kingdom of Greece would not be very considerable, though that island is three-fourths as large as Connecticut and is capable of support .Eg 1,500,o00 people, as it may once have done. It now has perhaps 30o,000, or about oEc-tenth of the present popula- ton of King Georges domain-which, by the late census, reached nearly 3,0O0,- eco. It is a mountainous land, and it's highest peak, Ida, is nearly 7,700 feet h.gh-but 400 feet lower than Par nassus.
 h the later period of ancient Greece, ard when first controlled by the Ro- mans, Crete xas a species of maritime Switzerland, furnishing arcihers and sailors and other mercenaries to the powerful sovereigns around it. The right of instruction was recognized there by law, if the rulers were unjust and usually they were. From mercenary soldiery to piracy was but one step, and the Cretans took 1t. They were the worst pirates in Pompey's day with whom the Romans had to deal. Even earlier, in the time of Polybius, they had bad name, for Ee says: 'Crete is the only country in the world where money-mal0ing. no matter how, passes for honest and legitimate. If you look at ,sle individual Cretans, few men are more Inavish. If you examine the gov ernment, there is none which cherishes more unjust designs.r This is what most nations have to hear about them selves from their enemies; but there $ a singular agreement of opinion con- eegning the Cretans. To lie was to play inc Cretan.'
 And yet the cradle of classic ciyiliza- ton w-es in that mountain land; and it's fertility has always been famous. Aristotle said that no position Gin the narrow Mediterranean world) was ever more favorable for the establishment of great empire; and Plato drew from Cretan sources his ideal laws, as Lycur- gus was said to have done when he re- formed Sparta. Ainos, the mythical lawgiver, and Daedalus, the mythical artist, were both Cretans, and Zeus himself is fabledto have been born upon Mount Ida, named for the Phrygian mountain that overlooks Troy. The worship of several of the Grecian dei- ties came from Crete-the Eleusinian Ceres, for instance; Epimenides was q Cretan, and the Delphic Apollo got his Pythian priests from the same holy isle. St. Paul established a church in Crete, and it was for centuries an orthodox island. Venice did what she could to make if Roman Catholic, and when the Turks finally held it, but little over two centuries ago, they did their best to make it Mohammedan. The fierce orthodoxy of the islanders resisted it: and now but fifth part of the resi- dents follow the crescent, and most of those are of Greek descent-renegade for the sake of gain and power.
 For the interests of learning and archaeological research, the control of Crete by the Greek government would be all-important. The Turks have Iatterly allowed excavations there, and many discoveries have been made; but the difficulties of such work in Turk ish dependency are always great. Twelve years ago Halbherr and Fab ricius discovered the antique laws of Gortyna, carved in marble, and lying in the bed of a mill stream; and for the past four years Arthur Evans, the Eng glish archaeologist, has been finding gvondrous Mycenean remains, which add much to our theoretical knowledge of that prehistoric period which Prof Manatt, of Brown, has described so clearly in his new work But all this research would go forward faster if Kavadias and Tsountas, and the other learned Greeks who have done SO much on the mainland, would extend their inquiries over Crete, and open it's treas- ures to the American, the British, the German, and the French schools, now so busy digging in Greece.--Springfeld (AIass.) Republican.