Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-10-21

Of seeing service once more. He was q
great f~avourite among the students,
some hundreds Of whom had formed
themselves into a sort of corps under
his command, which had paraded from
time to time in front of the Palace. He
had devised a flag Of his own, combin-
ing the D%annebrog. the flag of Den
mark, with the Greek ensign, and this
flag he proposed to carry into battle
a the head of his corps. But he SEEM
ed to meet with but little encourage
ment from his Royal fellow-country-
men, and after a time he silently drop
ped his command and proposed to
Vaughn that they should go together
to Crete and join the insurgents there,
where there was some real fighting to
be done.
BY this time, indeed, Vaughan had
almost come round to the conclusion
that it was to Crete he must turn his
steps If he meant to strike a blow for
the cause. He contemplated forming
an expedition of his own, and no SOON
er did this intention Of his become
known than he was overwhelmed with
offers of support. Major Cheriton was
prepared to come and act as military
commandant Of the expedition. The
old Danish colonel placed his sword at
Vaughan's disposal-with an almost
pathetic resignation of his own claims
to the command. The students were
all prepared to come, provided the diff
ficulty of expense could be gotten over,
and numbers of strange characters from
Smyrna and other places in the Levant,
speaking with a strong Greek accent,
who described themselves as English
men on the faith of a grant of natural
ization from the British consul, were
anxious to join themselves with him.
All this was gratifying evidence to
Vaughan that he commanded the con-
| idence of those around him. He be-
/ gan to feel himself strongly attracted
by the mingled simplicity and enthu-
siasm of the Greek character. Free
from the natural prejudices of the
average Briton, he was able to under
stand and enter into the foreign nature
in a way in which most Englishmen
fail to do; and while young Smith was
betraying his insular prejudices at
every turn, to Vaughan's secret dis
may, he was gradually Identifying
himself with the Greek feeling.
He was greatly fiattered soon after
his arrival at the Hotel de Grande Bre-
tagne by a distinction which was
drawn between him and his compan-
ion. When Smith asked for his bath
he was taken to an ordinary bath room
on the landing of the hotel, but Waugh
an was conducted down stairs to a
species of clubhouse in the hotel yard,
where he found a marble tank let into
the floor, the true bath of Athens. In
this gorgeous receptacle he lay like an
alligator, and reflected that in just
such a bath perhaps Agamemnon had
met his fate at the hands of Aegisthus
three thousand years ago.
To Vaughan, indeed, even the pleas
ure and excitement derived from his
experiences as a volunteer on the eve
of a war were no greater than the en-
joyment derived from the classical ira
ditions which met him at every turn.
Athens is not one city, but three.
There is classical Athens, which CEN
tiers in the Acropolis, with its M
les of the golden age of Greek an
tiquity. There is medieval Athens,
clustered round the foot of the Aero
polls. the Athens of the Crusades.
Here the streets are devoted to a single
trade, the street of leather workers re-
%splendent among the rest with long
rows of booths bright with crimson
shoes, which are the popular wear of
the country. The whole street is one
bright blaze of red almost as though a
cash had been cut through the city.
Then there Is modern Athens, the
Athens formed upon the model of Paris
with its white buildings and its green
blinds, its formal squares and its
Boulevards with their stunted trees.
1t vas in the medieval Athens that
Vaughan loved chiefly to haunt. Here he
found queer little corners, similar to mar
ket places, in which the country people
sold their produce, and tiny stalls on
which old battered coins were to be had
by the handful for a few pence. The bar
gaining which went on in this quarter was
a revelation of national life. Armed with
scarcely a Greek word 1t was vaughan's
delight to plunge into this region and en-
gage in controversy with some vendor of
old coins or misshapen relics, whose knowi-
edge of English was greater than his w
of Greek.
| The Greek is a finished actor. He has a
| pantomime of his own. When Vaughan
had offered about double its value for
some triae for which the seller had de-
manded quadruple the amount, he would
make a gesture of cynical distress, a ges-
ture which seemed TO say: Since you are
cruel enough to force these hard terms
upon me. 1 must accept them for the AXE
of my starving wife and family, but you