Greeks Off To War Desert Hotel Jobs.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 22, 1912:
Dining-Room Station as Captain Has No Lure Against the Same Rank in Army.
ELEVATOR BOY GOES, TOO
The Wolcott Management Learns the Reality of the War Against the Turks, as Employes Depart.
    From the moment that the war broke out on the Balkan frontier, Angelo Vasilatz kept his eyes on the newsstand at the Wolcott. Angelo was an elevator boy. The moment his car would touch the ground floor Angelo would shoot the door open and look over to see if an "extra" had come in. He would run over, whenever traffic was slack, to ask for the latest news. Then he would get back to his station and whisper to his brother Petros:
    "Not yet. To-morrow — perhaps in an hour."
    When the news came that Greece had aligned itself with the Balkan States Angelo thrilled with excitement. Whenever a Greek ship sailed with reservists or volunteers, if Angelo could get another to "take his watch," he would go to the dock to cheer. Then he would come back to the hotel and work the lever of his elevator as if it were a machine gun. Most of last week Angelo was in a state which approached exaltation. He had handed in his name to the proper agent as one ready to go back and fight the Turk.
    Yesterday morning Angelo handed in his resignation and quit. The ship was not ready to sail, but Angelo wanted to prepare to become a fighting man. When he left the management of the hotel suddenly realized that since the war broke out seven Greeks had quit, with the avowed intention of joining the ten thousand already on their way across the ocean, and that more had given notice.
    For instance, there was Nicholas, one of the captains in the restaurant. Nobody ever suspected Nicholas of being warlike until hostilities began. After that he used to go about humming something under his breath. He was careful to stop when he came within range of a patron's ear, but he didn't mind chanting within sound of his fellow-waiters while they were laying the tables. It was not a disagreeable sound, but those who heard say it made them think of fierce looking men clad in union suits and long shirts, belted at the waist, with fierce moustaches and with curved swords in their mouths, and long pistols in their hands. Two other Greek waiters in the restaurant kept near Nicholas when their duties would permit, and the three conversed much in a tongue that the German and Italian waiters could not understand, but which they knew was modern Hellenic.
    On Saturday the management had a surprise. Nicholas and the two others had given notice during the week, so it was expected that they would leave on Saturday. But they had the news that the Greek force was investing Elassona, at the foot of Mount Olympus, and while they were getting the tables ready for lunch they hummed something that Nicholas explained was a paean. He knew, he added, that the Greeks were going to take Elassona. When he took his leave Nicholas explained that he was more than Nicholas, a dining-room captain. He was Captain Nicholas Skokas, of the Greek reserves.
    It was the victory of the Greeks at Elassona, reported in Sunday's dispatches and confirmed yesterday, that hurried Angelo's decision. He read yesterday that another decisive battle was imminent. Then he made up his mind. His brother Peter wanted to quit, too. Peter said,when seen later yesterday, that he was going to go this week.
    A census taken at the hotel showed that besides Captain Nicholas Skokas and the other two waiters, and Angelo, up to date the man in charge of the yard down stairs, the man who looks after the lace curtains and two other employes had left, to go to the war.
    Reports of defections at other hotels were not numerous yesterday. Few Greeks are now in these establishments, it was said. It is explained that while it is the habit of many Greeks to take menial positions when they first come here, owing to the fact that their unfamílíaríty with the language makes it difficult for them to get better jobs, they seek something else as soon as they have acquired a fair vocabulary.
    A Greek waiter was found still on the job at the Imperial. He said three of his compatriots who had been working there had left to go home to fight, but as for himself, his stomach was not for war, or words to that effect.
    "You see," he explained, "there are many Greeks now over here who left home before they had done their military service. Not all Greeks want to fight. There probably will be some left in New York."

SAY RUSSIA PAYS FARES.
Montenegrin Reservists Looking to Consul Here for Transportation.
    Four hundred Montenegrin reservists, who had arrived in this city from all parts of the country during the past few days, were provided with temporary quarters yesterday in tenements in Eleventh Avenue, between Forty-second and Forty-fifth Streets. Throughout the afternoon and evening they discussed excitedly the prospects of their speedy journey to the seat of war in the Balkans.
    In the course of interviews with a score of those who spoke English a Times reporter was assured again and again that the reservists would sail on Wednesday in a Russian ship and that the cost of their passage would be defrayed by the Russian Consul. Later the editor of a Serb paper, who is hostile to Prof. M. L Pupin, the Servian Consul to the Port of New York, imparted the information that Mr. Pupin was referring Servian reservists to the same source to secure passage.
    When Prof. Pupin was seen last night at the University Club he denied indignantly and emphatically that he had referred any Servian to the Russian Consulate for advice or assistance.
    Prof. Pupin declared that all the Servian reservists were defraying the cost of their own passage, except in a few instances, where the amount necessary was advanced — by personal friends and fellow-countrymen. He was absolutely certain that the same conditions existed also as far as the Montenegrins were concerned.

Witnesses Gone to the War.
    Because so many of his witnesses had gone to the Balkan war, A. C. Vandiver of 32 Nassau Street, counsel for Demetiues Vlasti, a Greek, who brought a suit in the Supreme Court against Paukellenic and Socrates, a society which publishes a Grecian newspaper, asked Justice Hendrick to adjourn the trial. The lawyer requested that the case be held over three months, so that he could use the testimony of several Greeks who, he said, had gone home to take up arms for their country against Turkey. The Justice said the case must remain on the calendar.