The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-03-18
YANKEES OF THE EAST
Chattanooga Times.

/
East. They are shrewd spectators. and
are the money makers Of the Mediter.
ranean. The biggest business houses oil
Egypt are owned by Greeks. found Greeks
| selling goods In Jerusalem and they have
large establishments in Smyrna and Con-
| stantinople. They are 80 much brightel
than the Turks that a common saying
among the latter Is:
From the Greeks Of Athens. from the
Jews OF Saonioa and from the Armenians
everywhere, good Lord. deliver U.S."
1t is said that In the far East that one
Greek 10 equal to at least two Jews, and
the Jews have long since given up coming
to Athens, as they can make no money
there The Greeks pride themselves on
their democracy. They respect the king,
but they don't think he is any better than
themselves, and they say they believe so
much In quality among Greeks that they
prefer have foreigner to rule over them
The kings rule however, is only limited
one. Every Greek thinks himself u states
man. and to hear him talk you would mag
Inc they were running all Europe. Their
country. is. as you know. only about as
large as West Virginia. or about half as
large as the State Of New York, and its
population Is not more than 100000
though there are as many more Greeks
scattered throughout the other countries Of
the Mediterranean.
There is more political discussion in Ath-
ems than there Is in Washington. While
this trouble with Crete goes on business
will probably be given up for the time, and
the people Will do little else than talk
about the situation The chief places for
such gossip are the cafes of which there
are hundreds in Athens. Here every after
noon and evening thousands OF people come
together to drink coffee and talk politics.
The newsboys bring around the political
papers, OF which there are half dozen In
Athens. and each man has his paper and
MS coffee. These papers are printed in the
same characters which YOU find In the
Greek classics. and the modern Greek Ian
guage is much the same as the old Greek.
found that | could get along with a little
phrase book. and could oven read some Of
the jokes in the Greek comic papers.
The Greeks Of today are as great stump
speakers as their forefathers were. There
Is much shrewd electloneering done, and
the wives of the Grecian candidates help
their husbands quito as much as our Amer
lean wives do theirs. Some of the women
even electioneer for their husbands, and
was told OF one Greek woman who. seeing
that her husband would probably be de-
feated, went to some OF the villagers 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 thea
ter. The Greeks are crazy for amusements,
and this bid gave her husband scat In
the parliament.
Every man In Greece has the right to
vote. The members OF parliament are elec.
ed much like our congressman. Their
terms are for four years and they receiva
salaries OF about $500 session. They have
more power than our members OF congress
and 1t Is they in reality who govern Greece
II is they who will decide as to war with
turkey, and 1t Is from them that the appro-
priations must come. The king has the
right to veto, but he would not dare to ex
ercise 1t against a large majority. He is
Just as anxious 10 be popular with his peo-
PIE as the president is anxious to be popu-
lar here, and he is pretty sure to do as the
people want.
political campaign in Greece Is very
much like political campaign in America.
me Greeks are fond of good speakers and
the man who can make a good stl,mp
speech stands chance Of an election,
There Is much buncombe, OF course. but
the modern Greeks are intelligent. and the
poorest OF them consider themselves on an
equality with the richest. The walters at
the cafes and the drivers on the street cars
will talk politics with you. and the politi |
clan has to do the same handshakng In
Greece that he does In the United States. |
All of the elections are held upon Saturday. |
and. curious enough, the polls are Ia the
One side OF the box is for affirmative bal |
lots and the other for negative. The ballots
arc ou'Nsno'' anu 'ne VOTER having put his
hand down into the pipe. drops the ballot
without tho no,srh,,i,, =, -,
.,o,.. my o"e N"oNi"s
nv" no 'oteu' Eacn voter is given only as
many buckshot as there are candidates.
and each Judge can see that no has hint ann
ballot In III, h.rdxho,o,o ~ i. y. -
,au.,, - Us, no po's u III 'he
'"''o' III LIS hanu oelore ne puts In the
COX There are few election frauds in
Greece. 1t is almost impossible to stuff
ballot hoy and IN oo.. a..
'N 80 0"'o 'Ao 'ui'e's III tue
'oNoS no not correspond with the registra-
I,oh DIT inc entrances the whole vote Is
Ia,o"n Out.