Evening Star Newspaper, February 27, 1897, Page 20

20 . THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1897-24 PAGES. MAXIMO GOMEZ A Character Sketch of the Famous Cuban General. MILITARY TACTICS OF A STRATEGIST His Discipline is Felt Throughout the Insurgent Forces. A MAN WITH TENDER HEART I (Copyright, 1897 SS. MeClure €o.) tten for The Even - T HAS BEEN MY privilege and pleas- ure during the last ear to study in the camp and on the field of battle the leaders of the Cuban revolu- tion. As to which > greatest commander: disgraced and degraded. Quit my signtene- fcre | hang you for a cur. Go to the gov- ernment: let it deal with you, you will get bo mercy from me.” No Pay for Services. General Gomez is loyal in his likes, but bitter and relentless in his hatred. That which most excites his ire Is to discover a man trying to profit by Cuba's distress. Heaven help the officer found disposing of ary privilege for private gain. No matter how insignificant the offense might be in the eyes of the world, with Gomez it is matter of principle, and there is no forgive- ness for such a crime. For this reason he has forbidden all loyal Cubans to accept money for any service rendered or any commodity furnished during the revolution. While traveling throngh the interior with an escort of seven men, I once offered a Poor “‘pacifico” (non-combatant) 50 cents for a cheese. The man smiled his thanks, but refused the money, saying, “If I were to accept that silver, ‘sir, General Gomez would send me to the salt mines for six Cuban, American, soldier or may travel from one end of Cuba to another without « cent. He will recelve food, shelter and whatever courtesy may be in the power of his host to ex- tend, but ke will find no one who will ac- cept pay for service rendered. Scattered through the central and eastern portions of the island are insurgent factories, where hats, shoes, saddles and even clothes are If a friend of “Cuba Libre” you are welcome to fit yourself out, but no money will be taken in payment. I will never forget the rebuke admin- istered to a certain brigadier in southern Camaguey. It is not necessary to mention for he has since redeemed him- ¥ courage displayed In battle. Heed- ss of General Gomez’ s, he had been not only permitting in his district to sell “raspadura” (brown sugar in cakes) to some of the Spanish garrisons, but it was proved that he had received $400 for allowing the forbidden traffic. General Gomez sent for him. As the of- ared the bugler sounded the Turning to his force, General Gomez said: “You see before you a man who has been known as Brigadier ——-. He is brigadier no more, but Brigadier ‘Raspadura’ (sugar cake). From this time forth I want no today the center of ir thi d d are wat Suffering Cuha is looking to him to free her from her oppres His staff adores and swears by hi » rank and of the army admire, fear and worship him. On every hand you hear: “Maximo Gomez never yet been defeated in battle.” he has often retreated before the if followed, he has invariably sharpshooters in ambush, di- 4d countermarched his column, out- confident Spaniards, and edly on their rear turn- victory. Time and wonderful march from the nar del Rio, this stratagem practiced until Campos, fficers, once said: “Look by falling unexp ed apparent de int er more completely enjoyed of his followers than does nderful strategist. Even raw re- cht well under Gomez. It 1s said Oo Iman ever flinched, no matter how the bullets flew, while Gomez's eye im & Remarkable Victory. © wattle of Saratoga he hastily gath- 0) men to meet the advanc- of Castellanos on its way to the ymaro. When the commander- ived in Camaguey he had with only his personal escort of 60 men, his ar having left in the west with Meceo. This le body of 560 men met, defeated and drove back the 2,600 Spanish nder ammunition in the The fight lasted four )» rounds, the hundred and ular force were d_the city of ns lost 65 killed the Cubans had always n. Go- nder fire, almly and mez was nd personal Ww revruits auolio Pena and the colonel,” failure to ‘The Pighting Colonel. f the secdnd day's fight d his escort of 30 men, rode into you use me and my men, the panting colonel. rorn out,” remarked Gen. our guns are in good plied the You had be solonel Ket a bite to eat before .” suggested Gomez. will be better after we powder,” pleaded Pena. ridden all night,” urged we have this bat ere. W ridden seventy have used up © tired and - been listening to the h cannon since day- ived for the last fifteen of taking part in this sake, general, don’t stop we are in sight of the enemy!” replied Gomez. “Take pos- r hill to the ieft and hold to send an orderly twice,” General afterward told me, “before I could ra and his men off that hill. The almost surrounded it when he had barely time to and ret <The Disgraced General. arez met his overthrow at the The day after the battle he z's camp with 5) men. He six miles away during the nad failed to put in an appear- oked at him for a moment contempt, and then com- iy the surrounding forest omez finally asked. answered Suarez. * asked Gomez. 2 you sooner.” ither cross nor go around quired Gome: » (guide) could not find the the guide who stood man?” asked the t up,” answered “T do, general.” “You could have conducted that man to me, could you not?” “I could have led his column to you two hours after the battle began, but General Bvarez seemed to prefer ways other than the most direct, and— Enough! He ts General Suarez no lon; er.” Turning fercely upon the latter, continued. ou needed no guide to Lorie | you here. The sound of battle is sufficier! to lead any soldier to the front. Six miles only .eparated your command from mine. No true Cubsn would have slept until he had joined his comrades. You are not a 1 ~you are a coward. Your men bow heads in shame fer you. You are man in Cuba to either address him or speak of other than as Brigadier ‘Raspa- dura Then, turning to the culprit, he continued: “Take off those stars! Give them to me, quick. You disgrace them. You have sold yourself for $400. You can be bought for a cake of brown sugar. You are not a patriot; you are a common ped- dler of privileges. You are not fit to com- mand men. Down to the ranks, afoot where you belong, and be grateful if my soldiers condescend to march alongside of you.” Exacting but Generous. General Gomez is a disciple of the old French cardinal in many respects. With him there is no such word as fail. For the man who falls he has no further use. Nor will he listen to excuses from any one. “If you have not succeeded, make ex- cuses to yourself; I have no time to listen to them. He seldom invites counsel: he may listen to opinions, but he invariably acts upon his own judgment, and no man living knows his plans for the morrow. He is erratic in his marches, an@may order a halt or an advance at any hour of day or night. General Gomez is exacting in his re- quirements of younger officers, but most generous in his praise when it is merited. Although known to the world as a man of iron, beneath his mask of sternness beats a heart as tender as a woman's. He worshiped Marti as one inspired. The trust placed in his hands by the dead martyr ts to him more sacred than any- thing else on earth. Maceo and Garcia. Not less did he love Antonio Maceo. Maceo was his right hand. Maceo could comprehend Gomez's plans and execute his orders through a kind of military tel- epathy which never failed. Those two lead- ers never misunderstood each other. The shadow of a personal jealousy never cross- ed their lives. Gomez derived far more pleasure from Maceo'’s successes than did the victor himself. Ore of the saddest hours of his life was when the news was brought him of the death of this patriot brother, who knew no fear, and of the son whom he loved better than life. The old commander-in-chief 1s equally fond of Calixto Garcia. On my return from the “Oriente,” where I had accompanied General Garcia in his triumphal march through the Holguin district, I met Gen- eral Gomez at Santa Ana, in the province of Camaguey. He questioned me closely in regard to Garcia's strength and vigor, and when assured of the latter's health and de- sire to once more embrace him in “Cuba Libre,” a tear of pleasure stole into Go- mez’s eyes. “Ah,” he sighed, “with Calixto and plenty of cartridges we could soon free Cuba.” These two old veterans of the “ten years’ war” are the exact opposites in appearance and in temperament, but they are one In thorght, soul and desire. They both live for one purpose alone, the freedom of their beloved country, and the future of Cuba is tocay in their hands. Love for His Son. General Gomez's weakness, if such it_ would be called, was his love for his son Francisco. To his father and friends he was known as “Panchito.” A dozen times a day General Gomez would turn the topic ef conversation to his beloved boy. The possible recognition of belligerency did not interest him half so much as whether “Panchito” enjoyed his visit in New York. “Did he go with you to the theaters? Did he tell you of the paper he is editing in Monte Cristo? Are his eyes as bright and his face as brown as of old? He has not forgotten his English? Tell me of him and you are my friend.” And when I told the general of his son’s one great desire to Join his father and help Night for Cuba, the old man grew sad and silert “I am not a coward,” he said, “but I have not sufficient courage to go into battle knowirg that my boy's breast is exposed to the bullets of the Spaniards. If he should fall In my sight it might unnerve me. If ‘Penckito" must come to this unhappy is- land, let it be to fight with General Maceo cr some other force than mire.” Fate de- sacos that the boy should fall beside that here. * Personal Characteristics. Although General Gomez confesses to seventy-two years, it {s hard to believe him more than sixty. He is about five feet seven Inches In height and straight as an arrow, with a slender, strongly knit frame. The ball which passed through his leg a yeur ago has caused him but very little trcuble. The glance from his keen, pene- trating eyes will mae a guilty man feel very encomfortabie. General Gomez is sel- dom seen in repose or absorbed in deep thought. The restless, wary look of the eagle is always present, no matter how quiet or peaceful may be the surroundings. His bearing is seldom impressive, but a strange, unaccountable magnetism seems emanate from this remarkable little man at all times. No one can escape its in- fluence. It puts courage into the hearts of cowards, and makes the culprit tremble in spite of himself. He ts a man of moods. When in a happy frame of mind he will look you straight in the face, and Usten quietly to what you may have to say. But if annoyed his glance is to one side and down. His brows knit and the point of his atly trimmed, fron-gray beard receives a. pect liar petulant beating from his restless right hand. “Go on; I hear you,” he will say. But when encountered in this mood it is policy not to “go on,” but to retire with as little delay as courtesy will per: Expect Only Death. Upon the possible recognition of Cuban belligerency by the United States govern- ment he ts most sensitive. “I have forbid- den the discussion of that topic in my camp,” he once sald to me. “At one time we all hoped, with reason, we thought, that your great and glorious republic would show a little consideration, if not absolute Justice, to a people struggling for that most precious of all boons, liberty. But we have long ago abandoned the hope. We realize fully that no matter how uneven the contest, we must fight it out alone. I want my officers to understand the situa- tion, to | aes only death, and to rely on nothing but our own individual efforts to free this unfortunate island from the cruel grip of Spain. “adventurer or Soro iat ec Sectee ever 2 BR Sr = cause sacredly at danger which he does “not the The occasioual to Gomes 2 allusions as ah coat alone indicate that he is commander- in-chief of the “army of liberation.” His gray trousers are much the worse for wear, and a vest minus two or three buttons tially covers a flannel neglige shirt, Faced at the neck with a small blue silk cord. Some one’s fair fingers, perhaps the mother of the martyr boy, “Panchito,”” have worked a little tracing of autumn leaves down the front of the faun-colored shirt. Perhaps this vest, the only one I've seen in the insurgent army, is worn to protect the embroidery, and thus preserve a link between cruel war and the peaceful fireside in San Domingo. Twelve years of this man’s life have been given to free an oppressed people. If fate spares him to witness the independence of Cuba, Gomez will ask for no greater re- ward. RENO. ——— THE STRUGGLING YOUNG AUTHOR. By Means of a Very Simple Expedient He Invests Sameness With Variety. From the New York Sun. “I send out with my manuscripts now,” said the struggling young author, “not the conventional note requesting the return of the manuscript if not used, and stamp, but a stamped and addressed envelope. Para- doxical as it may seem, I find in the uni- formity of the addresses of the envelopes I now receive a variety that the previous variety of inclosures did not possess. I had come to know familiarly the envelopes of the several publishers to whom I have the honor to send; I could tell them as far as I could see them. I didn’t need to open one to know whence it came or what it brought back; I Just got the manuscript back and that was the end of it. “But now there is some uncertainty about it. It ts not, in its impression upon me, just simply a bald refusal of the manuscript. I don’t know until I have opened the en- velope just what it does contain; there is ill room for hope that it does not contain some article that I had really thought good and worth printing. And then, as a matter of fact, I don’t open them, at all until I get a whole batch back. Say I send out five manuscripts. In the course of the next three or four days I get back four of them; but, as I don’t open the envelopes, I don’t know which they are; and so I can't even guess which one it is that still lingers, I hope with some chance of acceptance. But at last that one flies home, too. And then I open them all together; but even then I don't know which one I get at first. “You see, even this measure of uncer- tainty is a relief; it gives a little variety to the work; we all need more variety, and it is astonishing how much good one may find in even the slightest diversion from his daily routine. “It_is some weeks now since I began sendIng out the self-addressed envelopes, but I still find variety in their sameness. I am still interested in the gentle, easily solved problems which they present.” a AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. Close Figuring on the Wear of the Various Parts of a Locomotive. From the Albany Express. A peculiar scientific experiment has been made with the famous engine 870 of the New York Central railroad at the shops at West Albany. Some months ago this large ergine, which in the opinion of many well- informed railroad men excels even the fa- mous 999, was taken into the shops and completely overhauled. It was taken apart completely, and every part of the engine, from the massive driving wheels to the very smallest bolt and nut, was separately veighed. The heavy portions were weighed in the shops and the small parts were taken to a Watervliet avenue pharmacy, where they were weighed on the pharmacist’s scales. The greatest care was taken by the ma- chinists under th> direction of Master Me- chanic Buchanan to see that the weighing Was accurate. When every part of the en- gine had been weighed a force of the best- skilled mechanics was put at work to re- assemble the engine. When it was com- plete again it was put into active service. A short time ago the engine was taken back to the shops and mechanics were put to work dissecting it again. Once more every part was weighed. The scales of the pharmacist was brought into service again. When every portion had been weighed the record was compared with the former one. Then Master Mechanic Buchanan knew just how much the engine had lost in weight through the wear of a known amount of work. The records of the weights of the separate parts also showed which Parts were subjected to the most wear. The test cost many hundreds of dollars, but the New York Central was willing to spend the money in order that it might be able to know what parts of an engine wear out most quickly and in what ratio the sev- eral parts wear out. The exact figures havo not been made public. There is no doubt that they wil: be interesting to mechanics and scientists. +22 —_____ Fun on the Old Clipper Ships. From the New York Sun. “One of the youngsters asked me the other day,” sald the Old Skipper, “if I had ever been to Europe on a record-breaking lirer. I told him I hadn't, and never want- €d to go there that way. It is just a ques- ticn of engineers and stokers, mere lands- men, on a big liner, and I'd rather ship be- fore the mast, even on one of your lubberly forty-day steel square-riggers with bows like a canal boat, than go on a steamship. It would be just about as interesting to me as a trip on a railroad train. “The kind of sailing I like it will never be the privilege of you young fellows to in- aulge in. You will never know the fun of Eaving a clipper craft as sharp as a steam- boat under your feet jumping across the seas under a press of canvas never seen on ocean-going sailing vessels nowadays, with her rigging as taut as iron bars, and your shipmates holding your hair on your head. “**What she can’t carry she may lug’ was the text at sea then. I remember when I was in the clipper Northern Light we car- ried stu'n’sails slap into Boston harbor, making the famous passage of seventy-six days and four hours from San Francisco. Our ship worked like a basket; but we had shipped a double crew for the run, and one crew did nothing but pump ship. There was some cracking on of sail when ships of 2,000 tons or more had all their top hamper whisked over the lee side while the skipper was turning to spit over the taff- rail. Even after that some of the ships made good passages. It’s a funeral nowa- days to lose a topgallantmas' No Shopping for Him. From the Detroit Free Press. See here, Robert, you've been lecturing me about causing the clerks so much trou- ble when I go shopping, and telling how much better men manage these things,” said one of Detroit’s matrons, “now I’m gcing to trust you to get a few things and have them sent up.” “I'm not like the man that couldn't do it. This thing of making five or six trips to do ten minutes’ business is mighty near crim- inal. Just tell me what you want, dear.!” Then the pretty mcuth of the wife went like a talking machine run by a forty-horse engine. “Get me some embroidery, lace and passementerle, some bretelle attach- ments, three paradise aigrettes, some white moire, embroidered in gold; willow feat! ers, gold galloons, jeweled trimmings; a chamois leather cape, lined with dogskin; cream brocade, changeable lilac sil’’—— “For heaven's sake, woman, stop that tongue of yours before it gets away from you. Are you giving me the invoice of a combination dry goods, millinery and jew- elry store? You don’t want all this truck.” “Every bit of it. Have to have it and a. gooé deal more for the girls and mgself. I'm so glad that you can attend to the whole thing in a quarter of an hour or so. T also require?— “Let me make a lst,’ interrupted the husband, as_he desperately seized u piece of paper. “‘How do you spell that pas- sem—something?” After he had struggled for twenty minutes and written a lot of-| things that would set the most intelligent clerk crazy, he crumpled the paper vicious- ly, went'to the little cay, filled out a gen- erous check with the rapidity of an actor, and, as he delivered it, said he never again wanted to tackle such # nightmare. She must look after all such matters. THEGREEKSOF TODAY The Brightest, Bravest and: Nation ‘of the Orient, WHY THE KING PAVORS THE ROSSANS The Modern Greeks and Their Po- - litical; Ambitions. Busiest HOW ATHENS LOOKS TODAY Seats agree Written for The Evening Star. (Copyrighted, 1897, by Frank G. Carpenter.) The trouble between the Greeks and Turks may end in the dismemberment of the Turkish empire. The loss of Crete, it has again and again been prophesied, would be the beginning of the end. Crete is the key to the Dardenelles and the Bosphorus. Fortifications here could easily command the entrance to the Black sea, and if the Greeks hold Crete it is a question whether they will not hold it for the Russians. This is what the English feared when they pre- vented Greece from taking the island in 1869. This was shortly after the marriage of King George to a Russian princess, and the English were afraid that his wife would turn his feelings toward Russia. This danger exists today. Queen Olga Is a Rus- sian of the Russians. She is, you know, the cousin of the present czar. She was the nfece of Alexander II,and her daugh- ter not long since married a Russian prince. I spent some time in Athens just before the Princess Alexandra was arried, and during my stay had a ‘chance to learn much about the royal family. I had an interview with the king, through our min- ister to Athens, and met many friends of Queen Olga. She has practically Russian- ized the king, I am told. He has not adopt- ed the Russian religion himself, but by law his sons have to belong to the Greek Church, which is the church of Russia. I was in Greece on the king’s birthday. This is a national holiday, and at such times the king and queen appear at church together. They sit upon chairs of gold, cushioned In red velvet, while all the rest of the people in the church must stand up. Queen Olga is very fine looking. She is a blonde, with brown hair, regular features and a beautiful neck and shoulders. She is tall and stately, and is every inch a queen. The Greeks are very proud of her. They admire her when she appears at her receptions in gorgeous dresses, wearing many pearls and diamonds. They love her also because she does not put on airs, often going about the city of Athens without even a maid with her. The Greeks are democrats, rather than royalists, and they like the queen’s democratic ways. They admire her also on account of her char- acter. She is a woman of culture, speak- ing nearly every European language. As soon as she became queen she took up the study of Greek, and she is now the patron of a number of schools for girls which she has founded. It was in an industrial school that the wedding dress of the Princess Alexandra was made, and the work was done by young Greek’ girls, A Chat With the King of Greece. I found that the king was very popular among the people.’ My audience with him arranged by our minister to Greece. His majesty receiyed me in his palace, and from the democratic way in which he treated me I could sce why he is so much liked by the Greeks, He shook my hand as I was presented with a good deal more cordially than I have ever got from a President of the United States. He looked, however, much more dignified than any President ever did. He was dressed in/a uniform not unlike the undress uni- form of one of our army generals, His coat was buttoned up ‘to the neck and there was a little gold braid on hig collar. He is, I believe, aout five feet ten inches tall, but he stood go straight that he seem- ed to me to be over six. He is a very handsome. man. His face is blonde; his hair is of a light color anda blonde mus- tache shcws out over a strong, well-cut mouth. I was surprised when he greeted me in the best of English. He spoke it as well as I did and our conversation was carried on in that language. He asked me a number of questions about things in America and grew enhusiastic as he talked of the future of Greece. He told me that the Greeks were a very patriotic people, and eaid that they had all the bravery and force of the Greeks of the past. He referred to the railroad development which was going on in the country, and said that Athens would be a much greater city than it had ever been in the past. Throughout the whole interview I could see that he was very proud of the Greeks. He has a right to be so, for it is largely due to him that Greece is in such a good condition today. The Greek’s of 1897. Very little is kncwn about the modern Greeks. They are the Yankees of the far east. They are shrewd speculators and are the money makers of the Mediter- ranean. The biggest business houses of Egypt are owned by _ Greeks. I found Greeks selling goods in Jerusalem and they have large establish- ments in Smyrna and Constantinople. They are so much brighter than the Turks that a_common saying among the latter is: “From the Greeks of Athens, from the Jews of Salonika and from the Armenians everywhere’ good Lord deliver us.” The Greeks ‘pride themselves on their democ- racy. They respect the king, but they don’t think he is any better than themselves, and they say that they believe so much in equality among Greeks that they prefer to have a foreigner rule over them, The King’s rule, however, is only a limited one. Every Greek thinks himself a states- man, and to hear them talk you would im- agine they were running all Europe. Their country is, you know, only about as large as West Virginia, or about half the size of the state of New York, and its popu- Jation is not more than 2,000,000, though there are about as many more Greeks scattered througheut the other countries of the Mediterranean. A Nation of Politicians. There is mere political discussion in Athens than there is In Washington. While this trouble with Crete goes on business will probably be given up for the time, and the people will do Hittle else than talk about the situation. The chief places for such gossip are the cafes, of which there are hundreds in Athens. Here every after- noon and evening thousands of people come together to drink coffee and talk politics. The newsboys bring round the political papers, of which there are half a dozen in Athens, and each man has his paper and his coffee. These papers are printed in the same characters which you find in the Greek classics, and the modern Greek language ig much thé same as the old Greek. I found that X could get along with a lttle phr. and could even bg} read some of the es,in the Greek comic papers, re ; Political Booms: in Greece. ‘The Greeks of toilay are as great stump speakers gs. their forefathers were. There is much Shrewa electioneering done, and the wives of the Grecfan candidates help their husbands qiiite #s much as our American wives theirs. Some of the women even eélectjonegy, for their hus- bands, and I was told of one Greek woman who, seeing that her husband would prob- ably be defeated, went to some of the vil- lages in the district ahd said that every one who voted the right way would have a free railroad tisketyto Athens and a ticket to the theateg. aig Greoks are crazy for amusements, and is bid gave her husband a -weat’in the parliament. Hvery man in Greece has the right to vote. The members” of* parliament are elected much es our conereasmen Their terms are for outers fi receive salaries of about undred dollars & session. Bye 4 ease more power than our members 0: - rere, 208 is fa Shey tm realty Whe. wov- Greece. It is they who will decide as , and it is from them ifions mi ica. The Greeks are fond of good speakers and the man who can make a good stump speech stands a chance of an elec- tion. There is much buncombe, of course, but the modern Greeks are intelligent, and the poorest of them consider themselves on an equality with the richest. The wait- ers at the cafes and the drivers on the street cars will talk politics with you, and the politician has to do the same hand- shaking in Greece that he does in the United States. All of the elections are held upon Sunday, and curiously enough the polls are in the churches. In Athens you have to go to the Cathedral to do your vot- ing. The voters are all registered, and the elections are watched much more care- fully in Greece than they are here. Every cardidate watches his cwn box, for there is a ballot box for each candidate. He does not do {t in person, but has a judge appointed in each district to take his place. The ballot boxes are arranged in a row along one side of the church. They are so fixed that only one man can pass through at one time. Each box is about a foot square. In its top there is a Pipe, the hole in which is just large enovgh to admit the arm of a man. This pipe runs down though the middle of the box until it meets a partition which di- vides the box in half. One side of the box is for affirmative ballots and the other for negative. The ballots are buckshot, and the voter having put his hand down into the pipe drops his ballot for or against the candidate as he pleases without the Porsibility of any one knowing how he Voted. Each voter is given only as many buckshot as there are candidates, and each judge can see that he has but one ballot in bis hand before he plits it in the box. There are few election frauds in Greece. It is almost impossible to stuff a ballot box, and in case the bullets in the box2s do not correspond with the registration at the entrances the whole vote Is thrown out. Enterprising Athenians. When I started for Greece I expected to find there a nation gone to seed. I changed my mind when I reached Athens. The Athens of today is a modern city. It has wide streets paved with cobblestones, and its houses are much like the three and four-story flats of some parts of Paris. people dress as we do. There are carriage: with liveried coachmen and there is as much style in Athens as in any part of Europe. The better classes of the modern Greeks have as good homes as people of the same class in the United States. They are well dressed and well educated. The most of them speak half a dozen different languages, though French 1s the society language of the Greek capital. I had cab drivers who could speak English, French and Gregk, and at one of the theaters dur- ing my stay they were presenting an Italian play. There is an Athens University which has nearly 2,000 students and which has 98 professors. Here the young Greek gets a thorough classical education, and he can, if he wishes, add to it a course in law, Medicine, tneology or philoscphy. There are, in addition to this, thirty-three other colleges in Greece, containing nearly 4,000 students. The kingdom has a system of common schools at which attendance is compulsory. There are also a number of private schools, and in Athens I found a fine polytechnic institute and an academy of science, seyeral good libraries and a large national museum. There was also a girls’ college, which contained 800 studenis, and there are girls’ schools in many parts of Greece. ° Land of Railroads and Telephones. I rode from Athens down to the seacoast on a steam tramway, and I took excursions out into the country on street cars. It seemed strange to me in coming to Athens by carriage from the sea, passing over the road upon which Solon and Aesop perhaps walked, to be turned out of the way by a steam stone crusher, which was macadam- izing the road. I telephoned a number of times during my stay in Athéns, and at night as I walked about under the electric lights I wondered how Diogenes would look if with his lantern he should again here seek for an honest man. The Greeks have as good a postal service as you will find anywhere. There are many book stores, and the displays of goods in the store windows are quite as fine as those of any American city of the same size. Don’t Like Farming. As for the business of the people, the pure Greek does not take to agriculture. There are fewer farmers among the Greek nation than among any other. The most of the people are in mercantile business, in the professions, or in shipping. They are natural sailors, and Greece probably has more ships in proportion to its size than any other nation in the world. They Lave quite a good little navy, some of the vessels being armed with Krupp guns. ‘They have seventeen torpedo boats, each over eighty- six feet in length; a dézen gunboats, three first-class cruisers, and other vessels enough to mak? them quie a formidable enemy for Turkey. In addition to these, Greece has about three thousand sailing vessels and six thousand coasting vessels, which trade with all parts of the Mediter- ranean. Prince George, the second son of the King, has shown remarkable skill asa sailor. He has frightened his men a number of times by his dar- ing ways of moving naval vessels about. Not long ago he was in command of a gunboat which was coming into the Piraeus. As the boat neared the harbor, it was found that there was a large fleet of fishing vessels at anchor there. It is usual, under such circumstances, to slow down to half speed, but Prince George insisted on going ahead as fast as the ship would go. He took the wheel himself, and with the utmost dexterity guided’ the gunboat through the narrow passages between the vessels without even fouling a cable, while the officers and men looked on with min- gled alarm and admiration. Prince George is now twenty-seven years old. He is more than six feet in height, and is brave to the extreme. It is probable that he would like nothing better than a naval battle with the Turks, and the probability 1s that he would come out ahead. The Repairing of the Parthenon. King George has done a great deal to re- store the old ruins of Greece. Some ex- cavations were made at the Parthenon during my visit and the king himself washed -off some of the marble stat- ues .which were fcund. He is interested now in having the Parthenon repaired, and the day may yet come when we will be able to look upon this great structure as it was in the time of Socrates. It seemed to me, however, most impressive in its ruins. It stands on the top of the Acropolis, which is on the very edge of the new Athens. The modern houses of the city climb up from the base of its sides. It is a steep rocky hill, which rises straight up from the plain on which Athens is built to a height of about 200 feet. It looks much like a great rock of rosy red marble with here and there a bit of grass or a blood red poppy peeping out of its crevices. The plateau upon the top of the Acropolis contains, I judge, about ten acres, and upon it is the Parthenon. You have seen pictures of it. ‘They do not give you much idea of its beauty. Im- agine a forest of great marble columns standing upon a round marble floor the area of which is almost an acre. Let each column be as big around as the largest cart wheel you have ever seen and let it rise upwards for thirty-three feet in a beautifully symmetrical form. Let it be fluted and let its capital rich in its plain Doric grace uphold a wall of marble around which runs a frieze of the most wonderful sculpture of the world, and you have the skeleton of the building. The interior con- tains other columns and even in its ruins the building as a whole has a wonderful beauty. You see it for miles around Athens and It stands out before you as you come into the harbor at the Piraeus. At present the wall at one end is almost intact save the frieze, which was carried off by Lord Elgin, and which is now to be seen in the British Museum in London. The Parthenon looks best in the evening. All of its ruins have the rich color of age and the columns turn to silver and gold under the rays of the setting sun. ‘They Care More for New Things. ‘The Greeks of today are proud of it as they are of all their old ruins, but as far not the artistic tastes of their fathers and when epoken to about Greece they will fort ee eS ee been in the past, but to the wonderful advancement that has made within the status it once held as teicleion of the world. 2 5 Hi a added had he visited them in these days, “they are not afraid to seize hold of it when they find it.” If Turkey is to be divided you may. be sure that the Greeks will get something out of the leavings. FRANK G. CARPENTER. ———— HIS PHENOMENAL PULL. Wonderful ence With Police Board Exerted by C. M. Dechew. From the New York Herald. Chauncey M. Dechew smiled affably as the old sergeant with uncovered head ap- preached him. “It 1s all right, my good man,” said the eminent railrcad magnate, ‘although you have reached the age when you should be retired, I have interceded for you. Your services at this station entitle you to con- sideration.” “Thank you, kindly, sir,” said the old po- liceman. His face was radiant with hope. “I am happy to say,” said the Human Peach, “that upon my recommendation the police commissioners have concluded not to retire you as long as you are able to attend to your duties. In short, you will not be retired any sooner than any other police- man on the force.” As he slowly turned away the venerable sergeant lowered his head and great salt tears welled up from his eyes. “What a blessing,” he said, “to know man with a pull like that! ICA°S MONGOOSE TRIAL. JAMS To Free the Island From Rats—The Pest Exterminated by Ticks. From the Academy The introduction of the mongoose into Jamaica marks one of the standard in- stances of unexpected results following upon an attempt to artificialize the process of natural selection, and takes rank as a warning with the plague of rabbits and les in Australia. The mongoose was roduced from India, in 1872, in order to abate the pest of rats, which infested the sugar canes, and after performing the salu- tary duty it increased and multiplied to such an extent that not only the rats and mice but most of the ving species of the island were threatened with extinction. Poultry suffered first, but the depredations extended to young pigs, kids, lambs, newly dropped calves, puppies ‘and kittens. Game of all kinds was attacked, both living and in the egg. The marauder ate even fish, and made such a specialty of snakes, ground lizards, frogs, turtles and land crabs that many kinds of these entirely disappeared. Finally the mongoose devel- oped a ravenous desire for bananas, pine- apples, young corn, avocado pcars, cocoas, yams and the sugar canes which it had been called in to protect, winding up its tastes with an appetite for salt meat. The result was a wholesale disappear- ance of species. A few birds, like the ground dove had the sense to shift their breeding places to the tops of the prickly cacti, where they were safe: but other ani mals, and the reptiles in particular, suffer- ed so severely that many kinds were be- lieved for years to be extinct. As a con- sequence, there arcse yet another plague. Insects, like the ticks and “jiggers” (or chigors), which used to be kept down by the snakes, increased so overpoweringly that men and cattle were grievously in- fested. One could not walk without being covered with them. The victory over the island remained with the tick and the mongoose, until, within the past year or two, a fresh stage set in. The mongoose suddenly began to be less plentiful, and it was found that he had failen victim to the tick. The re- sults of the diminution are shown in a gradual reappearance of other beasts, birds and rep Among the snakes there is a very marked increase, and even the ground lizard, supposed to be quite extinct, has be- come common again. The balance of life has begun to reassert itself and naturalists will watch with curiosity for a complete reinstatement of the previous fauna. The renewed depredations of rats are hailed as an advent of salvation, and, odd as it may sound, the increase in numbers of the crocodile is taken as a happy omen. The Jamaicans are not likely to fake further experiments in this interesting domain of natural history, but will adhere in future to such present evils es they have. For them, at any rate, it has been no “imag- inary mongoose.” —— Your Health., Frem the Baltimore American. Olives, as a food, are considered very strengthening for those with lung troubles. Hot pastry and iced drinks of this coun- try have much to do with the thinness of its people. Disordered digestion in adults is often the outcome of being compelled or allowed to eat rich food in childhood. ‘A stooping position, maintained for any length of time, tends more to undermine the health than is generally supposed. Equal parts of honey, olive ofl and pure home-made wine, made from grape juice or currants, is both soothing and strength- ening for a bad cough. Physicians are advocating the use of olive oil, which comes from California, for weak lungs. It bids fair to take the place of cod liver oil, and it is thought by many pleasanter to take. The toothache caused by a cold in the facial nerves may often be relieved by wringing a soft cloth out of cold water and sprinkling it with strong vinegar. This should be laid on the face like a poultice, and will often be followed by refreshing sleep. As It Seemed to Him. From the Boston Courier. “Doctah, I gwine ax yo’ fo’ annudder of dem ermetic powdars dat yo’ gib me las’ week w’en I done be'n sick wid de’ spepsy.” “Then you have another attack, have you, Jasper?” “Not, "zackly, sah, but I done drap mer pipe down de well, sah, an’ f'om de way Gat powdah pufform in de case er merse’f, I got der right ter t'ink dat ef I drap it down de well hit gwine bring dat pipe ter de sufface in erbout fo’ seconds, sah.” eS The Lady's Age. From the Lady’s Pictorial. The Prince of Wales, about five years ago, met a charming lady well known in London society, at Homburg. “You are young enough,” he said, in the course of conversation, “for me to be able to ask your age.” “Twenty-five,” was the ready reply. This summer his royal high- ness met the lady again. “What,” he ask- ed again, with a humorous smile, “is your age, I wonder?” “Twenty-five,” again said the lady. “But you said that the last time I met you,” remarked the prince, with a smile. “Well, sir,” laughed the lady, “and would you have me contradict my- sé] q IMPERIAL HAIR RECENERATOR aS No matter what, the color or condition of your HAIR streaky, BLEACHED or GRAY. It be made beautiful, glossy and natural by one ayy! cation of Imperial Hair Regenerator. It is clean. colorless. lasting, does not atom of poisonons matter. Kathe do. tw peitber does curling nor crimping. Incomparable for the BEARD ot account of its cleauliness and durability. o. 1 Black, 4-Chestnut No. 2- Dark “Rrown, & Light Chestnat. No. 3—Medium Brown. No. 6 Gold Blonde. Ne. T—Ash Blonde. Price, $1.50 and $3.60. Imperial Chemical Mfg. Uo., 292 Fifth awe, N In Washington, sold by: PALAIS ROYAL. APPLICATIONS MADE AT MARLBOROUGH 1110 G ST. NW, x. From the Chi noord. In order to realize the terrible strain im- posed by Sir William Harcourt’s so-called “death du * which excited so much sentmert among the land-owing class Great Britain last year, it may be men- tioned that most of the territorial max- nates who, through the death of their father, or other near relatives, recently liave come into possession of the family property, have been compelled by the bur- den thus imposed upon them to close up their country houses, and to let their shoot- ing to the high bidder. Thus, when a few months ago. quis of Bath tates of his father, h death duties which he had to pay on his father's estate to close up Longlat, and to lease all the sporting privileges of the es- tate to a city merchan', and now it is nounced that the new Lord Saville (h band of that pretty Mrs, Hora who, with her first husband, nected with the English embassy at Wa ington in the days of Lord Sackville) will have to adose Rufford abbey, one of the most beautiful country seats in “the duk- eries,” the duties In this case amoun to nearly $1,000,000, The duties are exceptionally heavy in this instar, in the first plac new Lord Saville is mer stead of the son of the testator ondly, because of the immense and ex- tremely valuable art collection gathered to- gether by the late lord, who was a famous connoisseur. Each of his pictures, each of his pieces of bric-a-brac, has been val- ued by experts, and on every separate piece succession duty has to be patd It will readily be seen what a heavy charge this is upon any inheritance, and one cannot help pitying, to a certain ex tent, the great owners and county families. They are debarred by the laws of entail from getting rid of any of ther treasures, in which they have only a lite interest, and yet at their death their esta is charged with succession duties there If the property happens to change han: more than once in a year the estate is, course, charged with just double the amou of duty, and the Duke of Devonshire other opponents of the death duties can not be accused of any g tion in th: they declared in par! nd from t platform that the dut tion, unle altered, will ultimately in the ruin of every old family in England. It is understood that during the for‘h- coming session the isbury government will bring forward a measure modifying the death duties as now constitute will restrict them merely to the s “personal estate,” exempting all enta property and such things as art treasures = ena The Polar Snow From Nature. We have received the following in tion from America: “A telegram received at Harvard Observatory on January 11 from Lowell Observatory, now located near the City of Mexico, says that a rift has been observed since January 7 in the north polar cap of Mars in longitude 40." This “rift is probably similar to those observed at the opposition of 184, in the southern ca) Prof. W. H. Pickering, with a six-inch tel- escope, found one in May 22, crossing the cap from longitude 330 to 170. This grew considerable in size, measurements made on June 6 and 15 indic ting a width of 100 anc 350 miles respectively. Mr. Douglass also during the same month, June 10, detected a second and third rift, the latter running from longitude 170 to The sequence of phenomena observed seems to indicate that they are due to the lower levels at the pole being uncovered; in this way, as the 5) melts, the bare ground is exposed, ap; ing dark in contrast to the snow still lying on the more elevated heights, Their broac ering is then a natural result of the de- parting snow, and indicates that the polar cap 1s at that time in a far advanged state of disintegration. ‘ap of Mars. ma- > — The Microbe of Rinderpest. From Invention (London). Prof. E. Symes-Thompson recently deliv- ered at Gresham College a course of four lectures on “Bacteria and Disease.” Re- ferring to the Investigations now being made into the cause of the rinderpest in South Africa, he expressed his belfef that the microbe discovered by Dr. Eddington at Grahamstown might be regardéd as the microbe of rinderpest. Professor Koch ay 1 to have ascertained that the or) pear isms could be animal, but that in the case of some antelope, for instance—the disease produ was much milder than in the case of 0 transferred from animal to the ed ers. It would probably be found that the inoculation of the less virulent form of rinderpest would render cattle immune to the more virulent form, exactly as vaccina- tion rendered us immune to smallpox. —s Dull in Pampkinville. From the A ita Evening Jour é Hodge—“Hello, old man, what's goin’ in Pumpkinville?” Podge—“Nuthin’. W'y, it's got jest sa blamed dull house rent has stopped, an’ the interest on what a feller owes has plum quit. =f Entangled. From the Chicago Record. “Husband, I think Mr. Woozle ts very much in love with our Clara.” “Has he proposed to her?" “No, but he stole her photograph—taken at three weaks—out of the family album.” Little G. W. could not tell @ Me, nor could any one else under the clroumstances.