Taking Freight at Vathy, Samos
Taking Freight at Vathy, Samos Samos is an island of the Ægean Sea. It is eighty-seven miles in circumference and is noted as being the birthplace of Pythagoras. When Xerxes invaded Europe the people of Samos assisted the Greeks, and were finally brought themselves under the power of Athens, after a revolt in the days of Pericles, B. C. 441. Vathy itself is an important shipping town. Its wine is widely celebrated and is very cheap. The city is well built and clean, and the people are thrifty. Greek ideas and influence predominate. The language of the majority of the people is Greek. The writer was sitting under one of the store awnings near the landing, when two bright boys passed by on their way from school. They stopped for a moment to look at the stranger. I asked one of the boys what book he was studying. He did not quite understand me, but handed a book to me. I found that the book was half English and half Greek, arranged in parallel columns. The boys asked me in broke...