The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-31
IN A CONQUERED CITY.
Life in Larissa with the Inhabitants
Conc Is TiresOme.
z. Stevens. in London Mail.

G. w. Stevens, in London Mail.
You get sick of the sun beating merci-
leSsly down on the emptiness of Lar1ssa.
You get sick of the sun, seriously angry
with the flies, moths, bugs, beetles and
mosqultoes Wnen you are e on t id5o tSet
magnify themselves into plague. You get
sick of the orderly soldiers tramping,
round-eyed, but contented, up and down
the parched streets, till you could almost
pray for a mutiny or a massacre. L sup
pose it is the revulsion from eXcltement
that makes all tame; else why should not
an Englishman be able TO spend placid
week in one of the first cities OF Creece-
even a city without inhabitants! NO doubt
the excitement of war may be exaggerated
especially in an Eastern campaign, where
leisurely. all-day fights tend TO degenerate
into picnics. But you do not realize the
you get a spell of war without it.
Yet, after ALL l think that what really
bores, what really kills energy and intelh-
gence-kills everything except time-is the
dead emptiness of the place. l4ariSsa is a
dead city-a city with the skeleton or
houses without the flesh and blood of men
and business. 1t is the curse of this cam
paign that it is not really war, but po-
litical demonstration. 1t began as the serV-
ant of diplomacy instead of its master. as
war should be; SO it goes on. Everybody
has his eye on the concert of Europe and
the terms of peace. And II was "a a move IN
Larssa should bolt out of 1t as the Turks
approached. 1t always looks well TO be
afraid of massacre. As a matter of TACT,
the move has failed utterly; not only has
nobody been massacred but hardly any
body has been even robbed. Yet Larissa
remains dead.
1t is not dead now exactly for want of
people. There are very many MussuImans
in Larissa, who all remained; Most OF the
Jews remained and those who He'd mostly
came back within a couple or days. Even
of the poorer Greeks many have returned,
not being able to afford the luxury of fic-
titious martyrdom. Even on the second
day of the occupation / found one of these.
My gude-a Jew-unearthed him from
y h cpn a4Va1
a locked gate. He unlocked the gate and
leaned in the gateway to taxa young man
with hair like new clothes brush and a
beard like an old tooth brush, dressed In
a shirt, trousers and slippers smiling
smile of mingled Standardization and nerv-
BUSINESS. He had been to a village two
hours to the south. but hearing that the
Turks did nothing to anybody he had come
back again. He swore he had not been a
soldier, but from his age / inferred that
he had; 1 drew the same conclusion from
his condemnation of the Greek officers
They are no use except 10 drink mastik
and talk big in the cafes, he said, but
the soldiers are brave"
About the officers he may have been
right. But considering how the roads out
of Larissa were Uttered with arms, ammu-
milton and accoutrements, / rather doubt
him about the soldiers. But from this con-
VerSatlon and others l gather that the
Greeks as a nation are pretty well disgust
ed with each other just now.
The uniforms which the Greeks left about
Not the very least in the world do they
care whose uniform it is, or whether it
fits or how it looks so long as it holds
together and they can get ii on 1t will do
well enough. One dark-green uniform APP
pears to be especially popular; l don't
know in the least what it is, and no more
do the present owners of ii, but infantry
cavalry and artillery now wear 1t quite i'm
partially.
For few days Larissa accordingly
turned dark-green. but now dark-blue and
white are the prevailing cclors. Huge
swarms of Albanian irregulars have ar
rived. and, much as ! admire the Albanians
| must own that they are very irregular