Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-11-30
Personal Experiences With Bandits
Like Miss Stones Abductors.
POWERFUL MEN AND DEAD SHOTS
Loved and Admired by the Peas
antry, Who Spy for Them.
ONE WEEK IN THEIR CAMP
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

cptttai SorEespouucucS VI lbe EttniHs Stdr.
PARIS, November II.
The affair of Miss Stone, whose fate as
1 write. still hangs in the balance. recalls
to mind some personal experiences of bril-
gands of the type of her captors, CLEANED
| and jotted down instanter in a far-off cor
| ner of Europe.
They are far-wandering fellows, these
bandits; now prowling among the noun
tain Businesses of Bulgaria. again summing
themselves in the soft air of southern
Greece. Of many bloods are they; but
wherever one finds them or of whatever ma
tionality or mixture of nationalities they
may be, essentially the bands are much
alike.
1t was in the northeast end of Greece
in the smiling valley that marks the
Greco-Turkish frontier, by the sacred spot
famous for the memory of Leonidas and
his gallant Spartan ladies, that l had my
first confidential talk with band of genu-
Inc brigands of the brave old school, They
were nearly ninety in number; magnificent
(most of them in costume, splendidly
armed with the richly chased weapons that
the eastern races love; handsome, too, in
appearance, for the greater part, and all
charming companions. In qualification of
this last statement l must mention that l
did not meet them in their professional ca
pacity. l was a guest, not victim, and
they were off duty for the nonce, or rather,
they had temporarily changed their ale
glance, instead of plying their daily BUSH
ness of forcible abduction of moneyed trav-
elers. They were enrolled as irregular COM
batants under the Greek flag in the war
then raging against Turkey.
Twenty Picked Men.
AS soon as the war broke out their chief,
Mavroyenis, who had for years covered"
the mountainous district between LAMA
xx-it1 dic-
guise to Athens, and offered the minister
of war the services of his band of twenty
picked 'Klephts," the terror of the rich
Turks, who still ride camels and pray in
mosques in that border territory. The min
lister accepted gladly. These men knew the
ground-wild regions of mountain and for
est, and deserted plain, where no map
makers have yet penetrated. They were
hardy and enduring beyond belief. Clad in
the traditional fustaneile like the kits of
the Scots, carrying slung loosely over their
shoulders an uncured sheepskin, they could
march for days without tents or other shell
ter, without any of the cumbrous baggage
and commissariat which regular troops re-
quire, and of which the Greek war office
was so entirely destitute
They were splendid marksmen and won
derfully deft in welding the formidable
yataghan: "a very distinct acquisition
said the minister; and so, with the assent
of Gen. Smolenski Mavroyenis received full
plenary absolution of all his peccadilloes
and warrant emitting him to the title of
kapetanoS, with authority to form flying
brigade of Klephts to harry the enemy's
TANKS. To him were Joined two Cretans,
chiefs of similar NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
and Christopoulos-wh had just arrived
with their bands in Athens on the same pa
triotic mission The three Kapetanoi were
stripped Of the too melodramatic items of
/ their costume, clad somewhat after the
semblance of the regulars Of the Hellenic
army, and sent by boat to Agia Marina,
the nearest port to their chosen region. In,
week they had formed g. corps Of splendid
patriotic rufiians, numbering some days
two hundred or three hundred, falling off
sometimes to fifty or sixty, as the chances
of spoil or the whim Of the moment die
tated.
1t was curious to notice in their CONVEX
sation, in the long evening talks round the
camp fires, how absolutely they blended the
two apparently contradictory sentiments,
burning love of country and an intense de-
sire of booty. They were as proud Of being
Greeks, or, as they preferred to say, Hell
lenes," as an American is Of his proud cit
izenship Of the great republic; yet they
were equally proud Of being "Klephts''-
/. e., thieves for the word means nothing
else, as witness our deriyative kleptoma-
Mac"
Greece or Thieves.
"Zeto Hellas!' Gong live GreeceD they
would cry, with superb enthusiasm, waving
their terrible yataghans In the red light of
the fires; and 'Zeto hoi Klephtoi!" Gong
live the thievesD they would yell with the
same fervor, making the mountains echo
with the reports of their rifles the crack
ing of their jeweled pistols. And they saw
no difference.
When I remarked this inconsistency of
sentiment in a laughing way to Mavroy-
EMS he smiled charmingly over the little
cup of coffee he held in his hand and said:
What do you wish, my brother? 1t Is our
life, our trade. We ennoble 1t by glorying
in it. If we were ashamed of it it would
he haSp - He further pYnla inpd that q
looked on himeslf as kind of prince with
out a definite throne or capital, and the
people that fell into the hands of his men
were simply kind of taxpayers; he never
took more than they or their families could
afford for little passing hospitality, which
he said was gladly given. His band, he
begged me to believe, was much esteemed
in the district.
This remarkable statement strange
though it may seem, is literally true. The
Chorikoi, or small peasants in the valleys
mire the Klephtoi. looking upon their life as
entirely dignified and as proving great
courage and romantic spirit of adj
venture greatly to the credit Of the
possessors. This it is that makes any at
tempt to capture these bandits SO difficult.
Wherever they may be, they are among
friends. When the Arehon of Larissa was
captured some six years ago by the terri
carried away with his secretary to Mount
Othrys, the whole peasantry of the district
became spies in the interests Of the bril-
gands, carrying information by night of the
movements of the small army sent to rescue
the officials. The fate Of the Archon BODIES
i'll for Miss Stone, for, although the Archon
himself sent a written request that the SOL
diers cease to attempt his rescue, they per-
sisted and did finally surprise the camp,
only to find the two captives dead, stabbed
by the ferocious chief himself just as the
Greek soldiers swarmed into the brigands'
fastness. The victims were amply re-
venged for every single one of the Klephts
was killed in the dreadful struggle that fol-
lowed
Hard to Criticise.
Mavroyenis himself is not, believe, guilt
less of blood. 1t Is rather hard to put so
delicate a question to a generous and
charming host, whose tobacco and lambs
flesh one has shared. and with whom one
has taken the risks of war time on the en-
emy's border for many days. But once
when we lay on our sheepskins at the rocky
foot of Olympus watching the Klephtoi
dancing hand in hand the solemn grave
Romaik, to the accompaniment of the Gu
rious waiiing eastern chant that from time
immemorial goes with the dance. ventured