Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-04
THE WAR PRIMER
 By National Geographic Society

The Greeks-"What manner of man is the modern Greek?" is a question of paramount interest in view of re- cent developments on the Salonih front where King Constantine's sub- jeets are hourly expected to bG drawn into the all-Europe conflict. A strik. ing pen picture of the habits of | thought and life of the modern FIol- lene is given in a war geography bull letin of the National Geographic So- ciety, based on communication to the Society from George Higgins Moses, formerly United States minis ter to Greece. MT. Moses says: ''The ancient Athenian democracy has projected itself we1l-ni9ht intact into the life of Greece as it is to- day. Class distinctions are unknown. Titles of nobility are forbidden by the constitution, even though every na- tive of Corfu claims to be a Venetian count. The Crown Prince is known only as the Dladochos, or Successor. Neither wealth nor education flinders the association Of all upon terms of the most absolute equality,
 While the great ladies of Athens have an active social career, Greek women, generally speaking, have no individuality. At parties the women generally sit apart, while in the COun- lIy they SlIG tlIlOEoL uGNeL u Oc lObI4u at table if guests are present, and upon them falls the greater portion of the labor of the household. Following the blow, harvesting, and working up- on the roads are common emplOynentS for the Greek peasant woman. Un- married. her parents and her brothers control her conduct, and a husband means merely a change of masters for whom she tolls while he sits at l ease. An improvement, however, is l gradually developing. Tine Greek, much more than some of his Balk- l an neighbOrs has oUtSraWn7 the notion l that the sole occupation fit for 9 man i is warfare. Through schools endow- ed and under royal patronage; through other enterprises, and especially through the demands of modern busi- | ness life. new avenues for employ ment and advancement are opening for women, and in another generation it is altogether likely that the women | of Greece will be found with their sisters of the West, demanding as
 rights what they now regard as great 1 privileges.
 "Education in Greece is overdeveI- 1 oped at the top. The framework of | the public school system is excellent, 1 but the teachers profession is held in l slight repute and fails to attract eith- CT men or women of commanding ability.
 "The Greeks, externally at least, are a deeply religious people, and the l feasts and lasts are rigidly observed. | When a Greek lasts he lasts in earn ] est, almost his sole nourishnent be- | ing a coarse soup of black beans, pal l atable and nutritious, but likely to | prove most mUnotonous after 40 days. | Greek labor though extremely well | organized, IS mea3crly paid, day lab
 orers receiving no more than three
 drachmae a day Ca little less than 60 ] cents), while skilled labor in the 1 trades will average hardly more than i twice as much. Carpenters, masons, ] and mechanics generally use the most 1 primitive of implements; yet the amount of work which they perform ] in a day is astonishing. The guilds, i or corporations, which correspond to our labor unions, embrace practically | all the manual pursuits.
 | '"The Greek of today, especially in | the country, is the most hospitable of l moderns. The best room in the house, | the choicest tidbits at the table; all 1 the resources of the family, indeed, | are freely at the disposal of the pass 1 ing stranger, without thought or de- | sire of payment; and it is only by means of some subterfuge, such as l asking the whole family to drink ones l health, that one is able with difficulty 1 to press money upon a host who has l denied himself Sto make his guest | comfortable.
 . Because of the great number of | Greeks who have returned from Amer 1 ica, English is often heard, and few l travellers in the Peloponnesus will fail 1 to recall at almost every railroad sta | tion the eager face thrust in at the 4 carriage window and quiverine with | the demand, "You fellers from Amer | ico?' The curiosity thus manifest, in
 a friendly spirit is typical of the mod 1 ern Greek, and one traveller recounts i an experience at the provincial capi- I tai of Amhissa where 29 people gath l cred and hung with eager interest up | on the bargaining as ne haggled for i three lemons for 10 lepta, a little less | than two cents.
 | "The extent to which emigration
 | has affected life in the smaller towns
 | is shown in the typical case of the 1 village of Niagara, on the bay of 1 Eleusis, where the Easter dancing was l once rated as famous marriage
 mart, but which has lost that dfstinc- ] tion for, so many of the young men
 have gone off to America that the | maidens now sigh alone. Time was l when these men, having accumulated
 the 10000 drachmae ($2,000) with
 which they might pass as rich at ! home, came back to open a little shop
 l and end their days in the semi
 incidence of ftful merchandising. | "But at length so many had follow. ] ed in this course that some of the
 villages in southern Greece had come | LO OS l4hS tIiiI III luS 1dbl0 OI
 our childhood, where the inhabitants lived by taking in each others wash ing. So scanty indeed have become 1 these opportunities that I remember
 l one occasion when a steamer came in 1 with 80 Greeks on board who, hay
 ing made their pile in the States had | come back to sunny Hellas, but after visiting their native villages and see- 1 ing how meager were the rewards to l be gained, 4U0 of them promptly took