The Assassin Lived Here.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 20, 1913:
Worked in a New York Hotel — Well Educated and an Anarchist.
Special to The New York Times.
    BALTIMORE, March 19.— "Aleko Schinas, who assassinated King George of Greece, was a personal friend of mine when we worked together in the pantry of the old Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York," said Eratosthemus Charrns, a waiter at the Hotel Belvedere here, to-night. "For more than a year we worked side by side, and he told me many of his secrets." said Charrns, who appeared much affected by the death of the King. "I always quarreled with him because of his atheistic and Socialistic ideas. One of his favorite expressions, which caused several scraps in the pantry, was 'To h—— with King George.' "
    "Schinas had no use for Kings and members of the aristocracy. He was always saying that the poor, uneducated man was as good as the wealthy and learned aristocrat. He was a persistent reader, and there was nothing, it seemed, on the subject of Socialism that he did not read.
    "He spent his leisure nights on the east side making friends with radical and fervid thinkers, who fairly swarmed there. He was never so happy as when seated in one of the coffee houses among a number of his associates, denouncing Kings and Governments.
    "He stated a number of times that it was a shame that 3,000,000 of his enlightened countrymen in Greece, with the noble and glorious history that the country possessed, should permit themselves to be ruled by a King. He also said that some day he would return to his native country and convert the people to his ideas.
    "One day Schinas told me he had made application at the Hotel Plaza for a position. He advised me to do likewise, but I informed him that I was satisfied with my job. A week later he came to me and wished me good-bye. I was informed that he had become a confirmed anarchist, and some of the employes at our hotel often jokingly remarked that Schinas would surely get his name in the papers some day by killing a President or King."
    Aleko Schinas was a man of education and a confirmed anarchist, according to information obtained by Demetrios N. Botassi, the Greek Consul in this city. That the man nursed a grudge against the King was told to M. Botassi yesterday by Greeks in this city who knew Schinas well. They said his animosity was due to the fact that the Government closed a school of anarchism which Schinas established at Volo, Thessaly.
    "Schinas, I have been told by Greeks who knew him well, was a much more intelligent type of man than is indicated by the news dispatches," said the Consul. "The man was well educated, an anarchist, and an atheist. Recently he established a school in Volo and began teaching anti-governmental ideas. The school was closed by the Government. The man announced himself some time ago as a candidate for the office of Deputy from Volo to the Greek legislative body, and was defeated. It is easy to see why he nursed a grudge against the King."
    The school of which Schinas is said to have been a leader was known as the Ergatikon Kentron, or Centre for Workmen, according to M. Parthanis, a Greek merchant, who comes from Volo. The institution had not flourished long when it was raided by the Government authorities and at least two of its leaders, a doctor and a lawyer, were thrown into prison under three months' sentences. Schinas escaped, M. Parthanis thought. The authorities seized a number of books and pamphlets published by the school which contained anarchistic doctrines and denounced the King.