GREEK LOVE ROMANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1923, Page 1

GREEK LOVE ROMANCE.

AUSTRALIAN AND N-Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. J IOXROX. July 23. ’The "Daily Express” Athens correspondent reports that a. man and a girl, refugees from Smyrna, are the central figures in a poignant love romance, width has moved all Greece. Aristide Yassilacopnulas was found unconscious in a home-made coffin, with a poison bottle at his side. He was taken to the hospital. An hour later, a girl, Athena, Tantailides, was found unconseioues in the same coffin. It has since been revealed that, when Mustapha Kemnl Pasha's troops appeared at Smyrna. Aristide was preparing for his wedding. He ran to Athena’s house, and found her in her wedding dross. He hurried her to the waterfront. and as he was unable to find a place on a ship, he plunged with his sweetheart into the sea. They swam for half nit hour until a ship took them altoatd. The collide reached Athens penniless. Weeks of privation followed. until Athena found work at weaving. Aristide, broken in spirit, could not find employment. Athena paid the rent of his room, as well as her own. Aristide began drinking heavily, and became very jealous. One night, „ he tried to break the door of Athena's room. Next day, she departed from her lodgings, leaving a letter saying that she still loved him, but only if he honoured and respected her and himself. Aristide, brooding over his troubles, conceived the idea- of punishing the girl by making a. coffin, and decorating it with, a carving. He spent several days thus. Then lie traced die girl to her home, and took the coffin there, when she was away at work. He lay down in it. to drink bichloride of mercury. When Athena returned, she found her lover. Her cries brought in neighbours, and Aristide was sent to the hospital. Athena was left alone, and sue lay down in the coffin, apparently believing that Aristide was dead, and (hat he expected her to fellow him, and tnal she would die of a broken heart. When her friends returned, she was unconscious. Both are now in the hospital, but the doctors hope they will recover. Thou-

sands of people in Athens are praying daily for their recovery, when efforts will be made to enable the lovers to get back their lost happiness.