GREEK LOVE ROMANCE

Grey River Argus, 24 July 1923, Page 5

GREEK LOVE ROMANCE

Man Takes Poison AFTER STRANGE VICISSITUDES. WHOLE COUNTY INTERESTED. (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received July 23, 7.10 p.m.) LONDON, July 23. The “Daily Express” Athens correspondent reports that a man and a girl, refugees from Smyrna, are the central figure in a poignant love romaine, which moved all Greece. Aristide Yassilacopoulas 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 unconscious in the same coffin. In has •ince been revealed that, when Afustapha Kemal Pasha’s troops appeared at Smyrna, Aristide was preparing for liis wedding. Ho ran to Athena’s house, and found her in her wedding I dress.. He hurried her to the waterfront, and as he was unable to find a place on a ship, he plunged with his >wvetheart into the sen. They swam for half an hour, until a ship took them aboard. The couple 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 he traced the girl to her new 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 L.u Athena was left alone, and she lay in the coffin, apparently believing that Aristide was dead, and that he expected her to follow him, and that she would die of a broken heart. When her friends returned, she was unconscious. Roth are now in the hospital, but the lectors hope they will recover. Thousands of people in Athens are praying daily for their recovery, when efforts will be made to enable the lovers to ;et back their lost happiness.