Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-05

Antony. It was in Levkas also that
Sappho lived. and they show you the
she plunged into the water when Phaon
failed to reciprocate her love.
Cephaionia, the largest of the Ionian
Islands, larger than Corfu. has bee1
known since The eighth &c tu~y before
Christ. 1t. is filled with classic assccia-
tions and ruins that date back TO the
days OF mythology. ithaca is even more
famous because of the Homeric epic OF
and adventures OF Ull sses, its king, have
been described. He was the first great
sailor that we ever heard about, and to
this day the 1thacans are famous for
their bold seamanship.
StavroS, where the palace of Ulysses
ssocd, is pointed cut t. 'ourfsts and is
reached by q staircase cut in the rock.
Nearby two rectangular inches or seats,
hewn in the face of the cliff are said to
have been Cnce used by Homer from
which to teach his students and reclte
his poems. 1t is known as 'IIomers
School y few miles away You are
shown little rocky isle in the mid
sea- where the sutors of Penelope
waited for the return of Tel9machos from
the Pelopornesus. Homer must have been
very familiar with the top granny OF
the odyssey can be distinctly identified.
Corfu has had her ups and downs like
other countries. but they began little
earlier than with those We
British know best. Her anthem
~, tic history begins with
S"Ao' 734 3. c., and every
years events can be traced down to this
year of our Lord. But we are not par
ticularly interested in occurrences before
1907. when Napoleon Bonaparte attempted
to establish himself here, and the British
drove him out. From 1914 to 1853 Corfu
belonged to England and was governed
by a commissioner who IN 1858 was the
late Mr.. Gladstone, and in 1865. upon his
recommendation, the. Ionian Isles were
turned back to Greece.
The effects of the beneficent British
rule are still apparent in the good roads.
ard particularly in the olive groves
which cover the entire surface and have
been the source of great wealth to the
people It is asserted that there are
nearly five million bearing olive trees
in Corfu, and the groves are divided up
into small patches and distributed among
the peasants, who have become rich. COM
pared with those of other parts Of Greece
and other countries, from oil ana WINE
and oranges Last year S6ooO.0t0 worth
of olive oil was shipped from Corfu and
the mos: of the money went into the pock-
cts of the peasants. This has been re-
peated year after year. They do not
deposit in the bank, but hide their saw
ings away somewhere until they get
enough to pay for another piece of land.
In this way they have been increasing
their holdings until the peasant farmers
own practically the entire island
Land is cheap, and labor is cheap, but
everything is done after primitive meth
DDS. The volume and
Trolley the value of the products
might be considerably en-
1AoJee'' hahced by the adoption
of labor-saving methods. and a German
American citizen OF New York is here
now. representing a Hamburg syndicate,
seeking a concession for an electric troll
ley line of forty miles, reaching every
part of the island, to give better trans
portation for the people and to ehdpIe
them to bring their produce to the city
in better way than in carts or on the
backs of donkeys.
Several rich citizens of Corfu live in
Athens and Paris on their rents. There
are many rich men here also, as you
can Judge from the villas that may be
seen on both sides of every road, natives
as well as foreigners. Real estate is
cheap in the city as well as the country,
and villa sites several acres IN extent,
fronting one OF the most beautiful bays
in the world may be bought for few
dol arS.
Upon the esplanade, just beyond the
old twin citadel, which crown the summit
of twin hills. is beautiful marble Vliia
of the purest classic Greek architecture
erected by a German company three years
ago for a casino. \ concession for main
tanning a gambling house was obtained
from the municipality, extending over
period of ten years and it was expected
that Il second Monte Carlo would be es-
here. But the games were run
only two months when they closed down
and the place has been closed ever since.
The manager, the same German-Amerl-
can from New York already referred to-
told me that the reason they closed was
because the business did not pay The
local population did not patroniZe 1t, ne
said and it was necessary to import
sports from foreign countries, the same
class that go to Monte Carlo, which can
not be done until there are better hotels
His syndicate has already purchased
site and is now organizing company IN
London to build a half million-dollar
hotel. which he said would be as good as
the hest in the world. ard ne hoped to
have it finished and the casino running
in full blast within the next three years.
y x
Ri. there is another version OF the sit
nation. King George is stubbornly OPP
posed to the scheme and
The Kings many people consider
Opposition. closing Of the gambling
bouse While the national government
has nothing to do with such local affairs,
and has no authority over the municipal
ity. the king declared that he would never
come 20 Corfu again if the casino was
tolerated, and the local officials were thus
compelled to decide between the gamblers
and the king. King George took the
ground that it would destroy the reputa-
ton OF Corfu as Il resort; that it would
prevent respectable people from coming
here; that the tradesmen OF the city
would lose most of the profit they are
now making from tourists and other
winter visitors, and could much better
afford to pay into the treasury the roy
atty promised by the gamblers than sac
rifice all this.
The Greeks are inveterate gamblers. 1t
is asserted that there is more gambling
in Athens than in Paris and it is demon