The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-07-01
A A THRIFTY FRUIT MAN
BOSTON GREEK LEAVES MIL
LIONS FOR GOOD CAUSE. Il; 4 I.
=, All Greece q Consequently Mourning
e ahl, Death I Is Of Its Great Benef.ctor
i Sine Since the Days of Timon Of Athena:
MI a Friend of tho Poor. a*' ~ #4s8 . Z 4

Thirty million drachmas, in Amer
lean III money $6,0O0,0O0, has been be-
queathed to philanthropy by man
VINO, so rumor says, was once engaged
In the fruit business in Boston. The
sum represents the largest amount ever
given at one time to philanthropic
purposes in the history Of the world.
The benefactor is Andreas Sygros of
Athens, Greece, who died February IA.
The benefactor had other relations
with American interests, notably with
the Chicopee mills at Chfcopee, Mass,
whose goods for many years have been
exported to Constantinople and in east
ern Europe have grown to be the COM
mon articles of use. In that part Of
the world American cotton goods long
ago supplanted those of English make
In favor. 1t was in that line of bust
ness that Andreas Sygros amassed the
fortune, which, following the Greek
custom, he now leaves to his nation.
The money has been left for building
and maintaining schools, court houses,
churches, hospitals and dispensaries,
orphan and infant asylums, homes for
soldiers and sailors, kitchens for the
poor of Athens, insane asylums and
for the maintenance of the musical and
athletic clubs of Athens. In Constan-
tlnople, also, similar philanthropic in
Sstitutions are benefited. by his will. To
his servants he gives sums varying
from 100000 to his favorite to $4,000
for each person who had been in his
service five years, and $4,000 to those
who had been employed by him less
than five years. His greatest gift is to
the Greek nation. It is 100000 for
the erection of public schools and court
houses, especially in the provinces out
side of Athens. The interest of bonds,
the total sum of which is not yet
known, is given for the maintenance OF
the schools. The sum of 100000 is
left for the amelioration Of the prisons
of Athens. In the will the testator
makes magnificent requests to the
royal family Of Greece, but these are
revoked in the codicil, and there are
some Greeks in Boston who think that
~
king during the recent war with Tur-
key. The death of the philanthropist
turned the whole Greek nation into
mourning. The king and queen were
personal callers at the house of VICE.
The public offices of Athens were
closed. The royal families Of Europe
were notified of the calamity by the
ministers and ambassadors in Athens
The newspapers inverted the column
rules on the day of publishing the
news. There was universal mourning.
The newspapers spoke of him as the
greatest man modern Greece has pro-
duced. The City, daily newspaper,
said: "He had a gigantic mania for
ameliorating the poor of the nation
yet he was always of a practical mind.
No one ever went away from him
empty-handed." He was born in the
island of Syros in 1928, and after at
tending the public schools Of his ma
tive island he went to Constantinople,
where he became connected with a
commercial house having large deal
irgs with American mercantile COM
panies. It is before his connection
with the Constantinople houses that
rumor locates him in America in the
fruit business in Boston. In 1889 he
returned to Syros and was elected to
the Greek parliament. He was the
acknowledged benefactor of all the
public philanthropies of Greece. In
1890 he gave Thessaly the sum of $780,
900 to improve the condition of it's
poor. 1t is estimated that altogether
during his lifetime he gave about
100000. The will is voluminous
document, written in his own hand,
and containing many practical sugges-
tons for the direction of the executors
of the will in carrying out his wishes.
-..f~ MAGNITUDE