Salvation appeared in the form of Giannis Vlachogiannis. Vlachogiannis met Alexander when he was working as a proof-reader in the "Efimerida," where his desk stood opposite those of Palamas and Papadiamantis. In the spring of 1906 Vlachogiannis removed Alexander from his shabby room in Psirri and installed him in his own room, in Dexameni (Kolonaki). There, at the foot of Mount Lycabettus, Papadiamantis will become a magnet for writers and intellectuals of the time who, shocked by the shameful defeat in the war of 1897, looked for the new elements that could help Greece overcome the defeat and the degradation.