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Karageorges — Liberator of Serbia 
 
SERBIA: A MCrTCIf 
 
 BY 
 
 HELEN LEAH REED 
 
 AUTHOR OF "naPOLE< I'S VOUNC NEIGHBOR' 
 "miss THEODORA," ETC. 
 
 
 
 writ; EN AND PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE 
 
 SI ri'.i • X 1)1' ri;i ^s f I \: , 
 
 555 BoYLSTON Street, Boston 
 1917 
 
Copyright, 1916 
 By Helen Leah Reed 
 
 THE • FtlllPTON • PKESS 
 NORWOOD M«SS'i;-S'A 
 
SERBIA, valiant daughter oj the Ages, 
 Happiness and light should be thy portion! 
 Yet thy day is dimmed, thine heart is heavy; 
 Long bast thou endured — a little longer 
 Bear thy burden, Jor a Jair tomorrow 
 Soon will gleam upon thy flower-spread valleys, 
 Soon will brighten all thy shadowy mountains; 
 Soon will sparkle on thy Joaming torrents 
 Rushing toward the world beyond thy rivers. 
 Bulgar, Turk and Magyar long assailed thee. 
 Now the Teuton s cruel hand is on thee. 
 Though he break thy heart and rack thy body, 
 'Tis not bis to crush thy lofty spirit. 
 Serbia cannot die. She lives immortal, 
 Serbia — all thy loyal men bring comfort 
 Fighting, fighting, and thy far-flung banner 
 Blazons to the world tby high endeavor, 
 — This thy strife for brotherhood and freedom — 
 Like an air-free bird unknowing bondage. 
 Soaring far from carnage, smoke and tumult, 
 Serbia — thy soul shall live forever! 
 Serbia, undaunted, is immortal! 
 
 m 
 
Among comparatively recent books in English 
 accessible to the general reader are: 
 
 Servia and the Servians 
 
 Mijatovicb — L. C. Page Co. 
 The Servian People 
 
 Lazarovicb-Hrebelianovicb, 2 vols. — Scribners 
 Servia by the Servians 
 
 Aljred Stead — Heinemann 
 The Slav Nations 
 
 Tucic — Hodder and Stoughton 
 Serbia, her People, History and Aspirations 
 
 Petrovitcb — Stokes 
 The Story of Servia 
 
 Cburcb — Kelly 
 Hero -Tales and Legends of the Serbians 
 
 PetToiiub — Harrap and Co. 
 With Serbia into Exile 
 
 Fortier Jones — The Century Company 
 The spelling of names follows "Servia by the Servians," except "Serb." 
 
 The author is indebted to some of these books 
 for facts embodied in this Httle sketch — as well 
 as to several persons famihar with Serbia. 
 
 She gives warm thanks to Madame Slavko 
 Grouitch, wife of the Serbian Secretary for 
 Foreign affairs, who first interested her in Serbia. 
 
SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 I. SERBIA: STARTING 
 
 ERBIA, younger sister of the Nations, 
 has indeed had a younger sister's 
 portion. In her early years she grew 
 up with little guidance from older 
 and wiser members of the family. She did not 
 have the advice that she needed. Perhaps she 
 would not have followed it, though on occasion 
 she has shown more docihty than many of the 
 family. 
 
 It took her a long time to find herself; she had 
 troubles in her household, and it was her first 
 endeavor to get the factions to unite and let her 
 be the acknowledged head of the house. She 
 beheved it was her ultimate destiny to govern 
 them all — that this was for their good. 
 
 When she had made herself mistress of her 
 own house, she tried to stand alone — to be inde- 
 pendent of her neighbors. She had no wish to 
 dominate them. She did not try to aggrandize 
 herself at their expense, nor did she take up 
 weapons against them. But she wished them to 
 acknowledge her head of her own household, 
 just as those within her house had done. She 
 even was willing to be called a Princess 
 
 3 
 I 
 
SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 — providing she governed her household well. 
 But almost hidden from the rest of Europe by 
 her mountains, kept by barriers from easy ac- 
 ross to the rest cf the world, the other Nations 
 paid little attention to her. She grew up almost 
 unnoticed by the world — proud and strong, 
 simple in her tastes, pious in her own way (for 
 her church was not the church of most of her 
 neighbors), and thoughtful, if ill educated. 
 
 She was not bookish in those early days; she 
 was too 'ndifferent, perhaps, to letters. Had 
 she kept journal, we could now embroider L-^r 
 story with more brilliant thread? Her lack of 
 education was jjerhaps rather her misfortune 
 than her fault. Those who knew her realized 
 her many fine qualities, yet she made few friends 
 beyond her own borders, — and because she was 
 independent and poor, her richer neighbors were 
 suspicious of her and jealous. This one and that 
 one set upon her. They were jealous when she 
 first put on regal robes. They were afraid hat 
 she wished to enlarge her possessions at t.ieir 
 expense, and one of them, who iiad assumed 
 complete lordship over Serbia and all her sisters, 
 was constantly threatening her, pretending at 
 times that if she could help him against the foe 
 from Asia who was threatening them both, she 
 should be acknowledged of royal -'nk. This 
 did not wholly satisfy her. ller t .tions had 
 gro'.vn. She herself was reaching out for the 
 Imperial purple. She felt that if she wore it. 
 
Serbia: starting 3 
 
 she might better defend herself and her relatives 
 beyond the mountains from the Asiatic hordes. 
 Then came the great test — and from then 
 ahnost until to-day Kossovo has been a day of 
 mourning 1 
 
 
HEN the fair, gray-eyed an- 
 cestors of the modern Serb 
 canie south from their home 
 in Galicia, moving westward 
 from the shores ot the Black Sea, along 
 the left bank of the Danube, they crossed 
 the river and occupied the northwest 
 corner of the Balkan Peninsula. How 
 long they had lived in Gahcia we need 
 not ask, but they bore with them tradi- 
 tions of a catastrophe in India that was 
 probably the cause of their remote fathers' 
 leaving that c ;untry. 
 
 Pliny and Ptolemy mention the Serbs, 
 and we know that for one hundred years 
 at least previous to 625 a.d. they were 
 at war with the Empire. The Roman 
 Empire was then slowly disintegrating, 
 and in the Balkans there was rio power 
 to protect the Romanized Illyria from 
 the northern invaders who in prehistoric 
 times had driven away the aboriginal 
 inhabitants. 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 5 
 
 It matters little whether the Emperor 
 Heraclius invited the Serbs to settle 
 down in the northwest Byzantine prov- 
 inces lately devastated by barbar''ins, on 
 condition that they would defend the 
 Empire against the Tartar Avars, or 
 whether he merely accepted the fact 
 that they had entered these provinces 
 and must stay there. He made an agree- 
 ment of peace with the Serbs — and this 
 marks the beginning of their known his- 
 tory. He desired a buffer State, as the 
 neighbors of the Serbs so often have 
 desired in later times. The lands the 
 newcomers then occupied are the Serb 
 lands of to-day — Serbia, Montenegro, 
 Bosnia, Herzegovina, Old Serbia, Mace- 
 donia, Dalmatia, the Banat, and to an 
 extent Croatia and Western Bulgaria — 
 practically the ideal Pan-Serbia, but in 
 this Httic sketch, so far as it is possible, 
 by "Serbia" is meant the Kingdom of 
 Serbia, at the north of the Balkan 
 Peninsula. 
 The Kingdom of Serbia is bounded by 
 
 ■i 
 
 -» 
 
 
6 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 Bosnia, Old Serbia, Bulgaria, Roumania, 
 the Banat, and Slavonia. The boundary 
 rivers are the Danube, on the north 
 separating it from Hungary and on the 
 northeast from Roumania; the Drina, 
 on the northwest from Bosnia; the 
 Save, on the northwest from Croatia 
 and Slavonia; the Timok, on the north- 
 east from Bulgaria. Various mountain 
 ranges on the west separate it from 
 Bosnia, on the south and southwest from 
 Turkey, and on the south and southeast 
 from Bulgaria. 
 
 Until the tenth century, except Pliny 
 and Ptolemy, the ♦.".mperor Constantine 
 Porphyrogenites is the only historian to 
 speak of the Serbs, and he but briefly; yet 
 their history in those three centuries after 
 their arrival was an epitome of their his- 
 tory in later years in the Balkan Penin- 
 sula. The general movement was the 
 same. First, a constant struggle on the 
 one side to establish a union of the ju- 
 panias and on the other side a constant 
 resistance to such centralization. A ju- 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 7 
 
 pania may be roughly defined as a county 
 withii whose limits lived clans more or 
 less related to one another. The ruler 
 was a lupan, and it was not strange that 
 the more powerful Jupans should tend 
 to absorb their weaker neighbors. The 
 successful man took the title of Grand 
 Jupan. Jealousy of the Grand Jupan 
 would lead to assassination, dethrone- 
 ment, and decentralization — and then 
 would come a repetition of the violent 
 and bloody story. 
 
 Another element of disorder in Serbia 
 was the ancient Slavonic rule that a 
 Jupan might be succeeded, not by his 
 son but by the oldest member of his 
 family. It was hardly to be counted 
 against a strong Jupan that he should 
 try to arrange for his son to succeed him 
 — yet this added to the troubles of the 
 Sei^bs. 
 
 A third and later cause of Serb trouble 
 was the Church. The Greek Emperor 
 and the Greek Church on the one side, 
 and the Roman Catholic Chuich repre- 
 
 I 
 
8 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 scnted by Venice and Hungary on the 
 other, were continually warring, not only 
 for territory but for influence in the Serb 
 provinces. Yet in spite of apparent 
 wavering, the Serbs from the time they 
 adopted Christianity have been constant 
 to the Church of their early choice. 
 
 Finally, the founding in the seventh 
 century of the Bulgarian kingdom, on 
 the eastern and southeastern frontiers of 
 Serbia, added to the dangers of this 
 tempestuous little nation. After the 
 Frank and Bulgarian Emperors in the 
 first quarter of the ninth century had for 
 some time wrangled over the Serbian 
 tribes, the Bulgarians at last succeeded 
 in placing a garrison in Belgrade. The 
 Bulgarians ruled Rascia for seven years, 
 but it was like ruling an uninhabited 
 land, as the larger part of the Serbians 
 had run away to Croatia. 
 
 Almost two hundred years after the 
 agreement with Heraclius the Serbs had 
 a strong Jupan who carried out the prin- 
 ciples of concentration. This Vishe- 
 
SERBIA: TARTING 
 
 slav was probably a descendant of that 
 Visheslav who had s ^ned the agreement 
 with the Greek Emp^.ror. His descend- 
 ants, of whom the reatest was Vlas- 
 timir, for three generations contributed 
 to the unity of Serbia by defending it 
 against Bulp;ar and F ank, who were 
 
 constantly 
 rectly attai 
 the ninth ( 
 the Macedi 
 again the si 
 and accept 
 the reign o 
 
 cinp; e^ ri when not di- 
 ImNu is the end of 
 y, n 8 , unH^r Basil 
 'he xrbs icknowledged 
 ty af the urcek Empire 
 L-nr .tianity his was in 
 lert" hut after his death 
 almost all A th* tireck i>erb provinces 
 were lost t T'^.n xmeon of Bulgaria. 
 
 Though be;' ret?ovi red part of her 
 lost pre nces aid not hold them. 
 
 The po! tical ci ol the Serbs had 
 
 moved to Zet negro) and the 
 
 mystic Prince j i Vladimir in the 
 latter part of iHt tenth century, some- 
 times called Kin^ of Zct , tried in vain 
 to stop the triumphal narch of Tsar 
 Samuel of Bulgaria th.uugh the Serb 
 
to 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 provinces. He himself was taken a 
 prisoner to Samuel's court, where he 
 married the Tsar's daughter, Kossara. 
 He returned to Zeta as rcigni. g Prince 
 under the suzerainty of Bulgaria, but 
 in 1 015 he was murdered by Samuel's 
 heir, anti he now is venerated as a saint 
 in Serbia. The first Serb novel, "Vladi- 
 mir and Kossara," published in the 
 thirteenth century, is founded on the 
 life of this Prince. 
 
 Zeta was too far from the racial center 
 of Serbia to be a good political center and 
 soon the disintegration of the first Serb 
 kingdom began. Although Serbia re- 
 covered the provinces Bulgaria had taken, 
 she was unable to stand alone, and grudg- 
 ingly accepte . Greek suzerainty until 
 Prince Voislav — cousin of Vladimir of 
 Zeta — stai ted a successful revolt against 
 the Greeks and united under his own rule 
 Zeta, Trebinje, and Zahumle. His son, 
 Michel Voislavich, annexed the Jupania 
 of Rascia. In 1072 he proclaimed him- 
 self King and received the crown from 
 
It * 
 
 Serbia: starting 
 
 II 
 
 Gregory VII. This was an effort to free 
 Serbia from the Greek overlordship, 
 as expressed in the Greek Church. In 
 the next reign Serbia became better 
 known to the world when she welcomed 
 the Crusaders under Raymond of Toi-- 
 louse, passing through on their way to 
 the Holy Land. Then came brighter 
 days for Serbia. Stephen Nemanya, 
 Grand Jupan of Rascia, who lived near 
 Novi Bazar (ii 22-1 199), planned the 
 union of all the jupanias in one kingdom 
 under one king. This he practically ac- 
 complished, for though unable to include 
 Bosnia, within ten years of his acces- 
 sion he had almost doubled his territory. 
 Later, when Stephen's ambition grew, 
 he received Frederick Barbarossa, pass- 
 ing through with his Crusaders, and gcve 
 him every honor due the Empire when he 
 visited Nish in 11 88, and treated him so 
 liberally that Barbarossa — at least this 
 is something more than rumor — was 
 considering a marriage between his son 
 and Stephen's daughter when death put 
 
12 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 an end to the alliance. In the next reign 
 the Emperor Henry VI planned, with 
 the help of the Serbs, to conquer the 
 Byzantine Empire. But again death 
 took the Emperor before the plans were 
 completed. 
 
 Another notable act of Stephen's was 
 his attack on the Greek provinces as an 
 ally of the King of Hungary. Stephen 
 Nemanya assumed the double-eagle as 
 the insignia of his dignity, but though 
 he founded the first real Kingdom of 
 Serbia, and was called King, he was 
 never crowned. 
 
 Toward the close of his distinguished 
 career, in 1196, weary of the world, he 
 withdrew to the Monastery Hclinder on 
 Mt. Athos, where years before his 
 youngest son Rastko had retired. 
 Stephen died after three years of mo- 
 nastic life. The historic records of 
 Serbia begin with his reign. 
 
 Rastko, known in the Church as Sava 
 and afterwards canonized, was a man of 
 active temperament — a statesman as 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 
 
 13 
 
 well as a churchman. He used his wis- 
 dom and his learning to benefit his 
 country. 
 
 Stephen, son of Nemanya, was the 
 first crowned King of Serbia. He kept 
 off f - -ign enemies, and Serbia, no longer 
 dreading attacks, began to develop some 
 of her mineral resources. She made a 
 beginning, too, of educating her people. 
 In the next two or three generations of 
 rulers there were quarrels among mem- 
 bers of the ruling family. Outside, too, 
 the Magyars began to press upon the 
 little kingdom. But on the whole Serbia 
 was united, — mindful, perhaps, of St. 
 Sava's motto: "Only Union is Serbia's 
 Salvation." 
 
 Stephen the Sixth, or "The Great," 
 won victories over the Greek Emperors, 
 the Tartars, and the Bulgarians. He 
 helped the Greek Emperor against the 
 Turks, now becoming formidable, and 
 as part of his reward had the Emperor's 
 daughter given him in marriage. But 
 this led to domestic unhappiness in his 
 
14 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 later years and some loss of territory. 
 For his wife tried to keep his son Stephen 
 from his inheritance. In turn, Stephen's 
 party set upon the King and choked 
 him to death. Though Stephen Dushan 
 may have had no hand in it, this murder 
 clouds his reputation. Stephen Dushan 
 is a contradictory character — by some 
 regarded as the murderer of his father, 
 by others an idealist to be compared 
 with King Arthur or with Roland. 
 Stephen Dushan (Dctchanski), great- 
 grandson of Stephen Nemanya, came to 
 the throne in 1331 and in ten years had 
 gained Albania and Epirus and finally 
 all Macedonia except Salonika. He was 
 practically suzerain of Bulgaria. He 
 freed the Church, which long since had 
 drifted from Rome back to Byzance. 
 Now he made it independent of the 
 Greek Emperor, constituting the Arch- 
 bishop of Fetch, Archbishop, or rather 
 Patriarch, of Serbia. 
 
 Noted both as a soldier and a states- 
 man, Stephen had wider plans than Vlasi- 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 
 
 15 
 
 mir or Nemanya. The Turks were now 
 looming dangerously in the East, The 
 Greek Empire was tottering. With it, 
 the rest of Eastern Europe might fall, 
 including little Serbia — one of the 
 smallest of all the little principalities. 
 But Serbia, if small, was brave, and 
 Dushan hoped to proclaim a Serbo-Greek 
 Empire to head off the Asiatic hordes. 
 To accomplish this he took certain terri- 
 tory from the Greek Empire and, pro- 
 claiming himself Emperor of the Serbs 
 and Greeks, was solemnly crowned at 
 Ukslib at Easter, 1346. Nine years 
 later he tried to unite Bulgars and Serbs 
 and Greeks against the Turks. With a 
 large army of about one hundred thou- 
 sand trained soldiers he ^vas almost at 
 the gates of Constantinople when a 
 sudden illness overtook him and he died. 
 Under Dushan Serbia had very nearly 
 reached her highest ambition — complete 
 dominion over the Balkan Peninsula. 
 Dushan ruled also a large part of the 
 former Byzantine lands in Europe. 
 
i6 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 * .: 
 
 
 Of farther-reaching good for Serbia 
 than his territorial conque^tci was the 
 Zakonik or Code of Laws, completed in 
 1354 under Dushan's direction. It con- 
 tained not only the best of the old, but 
 many new, laws resulting from Dushan's 
 knowledge of his country's needs. It 
 ranks high among medieval codes of 
 law. After his death, his empire sepa- 
 rated itself into its elements — a number 
 of small states whose rulers were fighting 
 one another while the Turks were sub- 
 duing Thrace. 
 
 With the death of Dushan in 1355 the 
 greatness of Serbia also passed away. 
 His son, Urosh, could not hold what his 
 father had gained, and little by little 
 parts of his Empire fell off from the 
 cent^T, until but a small fragment re- 
 in r i. Yet there were sti!' many stout- 
 he. d Serbs — many who wished to 
 do tlieir utmost to throw off the Turks 
 now pressing upon them. When Urosh 
 died childless, the direct Nemanya 
 dynasty came to an end, but in 1371 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 Lazcir Grebclyanovitch of the Ncmanya 
 family was elected ruler of the Serbs. 
 Though called Tsar, he would not formally 
 take the title. Devoted to his country, 
 he thr-ew all his energy into forming a 
 Christian League against the Turks. 
 
 But tlic wily Oriental circumvented 
 him by attacking the members of the 
 League one by one. For nearly twenty 
 years after that there were many en- 
 counters between Turks and Serbians. 
 At the first attack on Nish, Serbia so 
 humbled herself as to agree to pay 
 tribute in gold and in soldiers for the 
 Sultan's armies on condition the Turks 
 would leave her alone. 
 
 Later Lazar did his utmost to save 
 poor Serbia from further disgrace. He 
 united with the Ban of Bosnia, also a 
 descendant of Stephen Nemanya, and 
 together they gained many small vic- 
 tories. After once defeating the invadinc^ 
 Turks under Murat I the Serbs had to 
 stand a second time opposed to Murat 
 and a well-trained force of Turkish 
 
i8 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 soldiers. Against the Turks were drawn 
 up tiie full strength of Serbia, Albania, 
 and Bosnia. 
 
 There on the field of Kossovo, the 
 •'field of blackbirds," June 15, 1389, was 
 fought one of the decisive battles of 
 history. It was a bitter defeat for Serbia, 
 though as many Turks as Serbs perished 
 on the field. On the eve of the battle 
 Murat I had been assassinated. The 
 brave Lazar with the flower of the 
 Serb nation lay dead — Lazar first made 
 prisoner, then beheaded. Of all Serbian 
 rulers, the memory of Lazar was held the 
 dearest. "A pious and generous prince, 
 a brave but unsuccessful general." 
 
 There was no longer any question as 
 to supremacy in t'.j BaLan Peninsula. 
 The independence of Serbia and the 
 liberties of all the smaller states were 
 now the property of the unspeakable 
 Turk. 
 
 Lazar, it is said, was warned of his fate 
 by a letter from Heaven even before the 
 battle, but he still went forward to fight 
 
1 
 
 ?^erbia: starting 19 
 
 for his country. Bowring's translation 
 of the heroic pesma (Battle of Kossovo) 
 gives an idea of this event. Before the 
 battle Lazar receives the mysterious letter: 
 
 "Tzar Lasar! thou tzar of noble lineage! 
 
 Tell me now, what kingdom hast thou chosen? 
 
 Wilt thou have heaven's kingdom for thy 
 
 portion, 
 Or an earthly kingdom? If an earthly. 
 Saddle thy good steed — and gird him tightly; 
 Let thy heroes buckle on their sabres. 
 Smite the Turkish legions like a tempest. 
 And these legions all will fly before thee. 
 But if thou wilt have heaven's kingdom rather. 
 Speedily erect upon Kossova, 
 Speedily erect a church of marble; 
 Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet; 
 That the army, to its vespers going. 
 May from sin be purged — for death be ready; 
 For thy warriors all are doomed to stumble; 
 Thou, too, prince, wilt perish with thy army!" 
 
 When the Tzar Lasar had read the writing. 
 Many were his thoughts and long his musings. 
 "Lord, my God! what — which shall be my 
 port!' 
 
 Whic! ^ choice of these two profFer'd king- 
 doms? 
 Shall I choose heaven's kingdom? shall I rather 
 
20 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 Choose an earthly one? for what is earthly 
 Is as fleeting, vain, anc! unsubstantial; 
 Heavenly thinf!;s arc lasting, firm, eternal." 
 
 So the Tzar prcforr'cl a heavenly kingdom 
 Rat'ier than an eartlil On Kossova 
 Straight he built a church, but not of marble; 
 Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet. 
 Tlien lie calls the patriarch of Scrvia, 
 Calls around him all the twelve archbishops, 
 Bids them make the holy supper ready, 
 Purify the warriors from their errors, 
 And for death's last conflict make them ready. 
 
 So the warriors were prepared for battle. 
 And the Turkish hosts approach Kossova. 
 Bogdan leads his valiant heroes forward. 
 With his sons — nine sons — the Jugocichi, 
 Sharp and keen — nine gray and noble falcons. 
 Each led on nine thousand Servian warriors; 
 And the aged Jug led twenty thousand. 
 
 With the Turks began the bloody battle. 
 Seven pashas were overcome and scatter'd. 
 But the eighth pasha came onward boldly. 
 And the aged Jug Bogdan has fallen. 
 
 Then Lasar, the noble lord of Servia, 
 Seeks Kossova with his mighty army; 
 Seven and seventy thousand Servian warriors. 
 How the infidels retire before him, 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 21 
 
 Dare not look upon his awful visage! 
 
 Now indeed begins the glorious battle. 
 
 He had triumph'd then, had triumph'd proudly. 
 
 But that Vuk — the curse of God be on him! 
 
 Me betrays his father at Kossova. 
 
 So the Turks the Servian monarch vanquish'd, 
 So Lasar fell — the Tzar of Scrvia — 
 With Lasar fell all the Servian army. 
 But they have been honor'd, and are holy. 
 In the keeping of the God of heaven. 
 
 All that the Nemanyas, all that the 
 Serbian people had done toward national 
 unity was destroyed at Kossovo. 
 Throughout Serb lands, the anniversary 
 of Kossovo is still kept as a memorial 
 day for all Serbian heroes, both for those 
 who fell then and those who have since 
 fallen in defense of their country. 
 
 For seventy years after Kossovo, Serbia, 
 though nominally ruled by despots, was 
 really subsidiary to the Sultan. George 
 Brankovitch, one of the despots, worked 
 for an alliance between Serbia and 
 Hungary to overthrow the Turks. The 
 TurV were defeated at Ku no vista, and 
 
 n 
 
22 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 lands previously taken were restored to 
 him. This brave man died at the age 
 of ninety of wounds received in a duel 
 with a Hung.arian nobleman. But in 
 spite of the efforts of Brankovitch, the 
 days of Serbia were numbered. In 1459 
 she became a Pashilik under the direct 
 government of the Porte — and this was 
 her condition for nearly three hundred 
 and fifty years. 
 
 If in her darkest hour rDme strong 
 nation had sympathized with Serbia, her 
 future might have been different. The 
 nations of Europe were now having a 
 revival of life — a renaissance — but 
 they had no thought of Serbia, their 
 young sister. She was hidden among 
 her mountains and she made no outcry. 
 She had tried to do what she could for 
 herself. She had had her moments of 
 power and happiness. Now came a long, 
 long night. 
 
 In the darker days many Serbs fled to 
 the mountains, sometimes to carry on 
 their occupation of farmer so far as they 
 
«'. 
 
tx^*. 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 
 
 23 
 
 could, unmolested by the Turk; some- 
 times to become Haiduks — the Robin 
 Hoods of the mountains and forests — 
 to steal from the Moslem when it was 
 possible, to give to the poor Serb; al- 
 ^^ays to keep up an unceasing guerrilla 
 warfare. 
 
 Serbians were sold as slaves by the ten 
 thousands to Constantinople and to 
 Egypt. Whenever they could, they fled 
 their country to Venice, to Dalmatia, to 
 Hungary. Those who stayed in Serbia 
 were not meek and so far as tV v ould 
 they resisted their oppressor, 'i -< Cn rch 
 was the mainstay of the natio . * v ■ i, 
 even to-day, the Serbian Churc.'- .. a 
 national rather than a religious organi- 
 zation. Before the end of Serb power 
 came, southern HunTary had begun to 
 receive many at.' la,' immigrants; by 
 the middle of the SL\ucnth century they 
 were numerous alona the borders of 
 Croatia and Slavonia. Although to a 
 large extent farm laborers, they were 
 soldiers as well, and fought in many bat- 
 
 I- 
 
 I;! 
 
*^;^'i'.^ jM^^^.'M^mm 
 
 24 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 ties for Austria. In the latter part of 
 the fifteenth and the early part of the 
 sixteenth century, the Serbs in the Hun- 
 garian army formed the famous "Black 
 Legion" and won great fame. In the 
 latter part of the seventeenth century 
 thirty-seven thous. ad Serbians went in 
 a body to South Hungary, and fifty years 
 later one hundred thousand, migrating 
 to Russia, formed a colony by themselves. 
 In 1690 the Emperor Leopold had 
 granted a fair amount of hberty, civil as 
 well as rchgious, to the large organized 
 body of Serbs who had settled in South 
 Hungary. Their privileges were from 
 time to time confirmed, especially when 
 the Emperor needed help from the Serbs 
 against some one of his numerous ene- 
 mies. At other times the Serbs in Hun- 
 gary had no flowery path. Austria was 
 always playing fast and loose with them, 
 and at last, toward the end of the eigh- 
 teenth century, though Austria was treat- 
 ing them well, they saw they had little 
 cause to hope that she would free them 
 
SERBIA: STARTING 
 
 25 
 
 from the Turkish yoke. The ancient ill 
 will of Hungary against Serbia persisted, 
 and sometimes laws passed in her favor 
 by Austria were in the end suppressed 
 or nullified by Hungarian efforts. 
 
k'«9t... 
 
 ^^.:^* .#-i'vr». ^■■:ii^:^'L*l?5^,,% 
 
 '^ 
 
 II. SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 ERBIA, in the hands of a cruel 
 conqueror, stripped of most of her 
 possessions, bereft of happiness, for- 
 gotten by her sister nations, had little 
 left but hope. Slie still clung to her ideals of 
 brotherhood and freedom, and she held close her 
 great treasure, a gift inherited from her remote 
 northern ancestors — her gift of song. Her 
 songs — virile, yet somewhat softened by con- 
 tact with her southern neighbors — cheered and 
 strengthened her. She sang and sang, in a 
 minor key, and her mountains reechoed with the 
 deeds of her happier tiays, with the stories of her 
 heroes, now seeming more splendid because she 
 herself had become so poor and unhappy. For 
 centuries she was like one stunned; she had 
 never been aggressive — now she could not 
 fight against the aggressor who had all the 
 weapons in his own hands. 
 
 A younger sister — and poor at that! — a 
 younger sister, who had set out to be perfectly 
 independent — what could she expect? She 
 must work out her own salvation. Besides, she 
 lived so far away from the centers of culture 
 she was almost a barbarian. Yet she was not 
 
^SL^LM'jm.. 
 
 .UjimH^Sib. 
 
 Serbia: singing 
 
 27 
 
 wholly uncouth. She had been courteous to the 
 Crusaders traversing Europe to crush their com- 
 mon enemy — the Turk; and now the Turk had 
 captured her! Of course it was a pity! It was 
 a busy time in Europe in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries; the nations had enou;_^n to 
 do to keep their own houses in order, — and 
 when they had leisure they must keep in touch 
 with new iife, with the renaissance of Art and 
 Learning. They were enchanted with the dis- 
 covery that they were not mere parvenus hke 
 distant Serbia, but descendants of that grand 
 old house that had once conquered the world. 
 The beauty of Paganism — all, that was some- 
 thing worth contemplating! But Serbia — well, 
 the Crusades were over, and the Turk was no 
 longer threatening Western Europe; besides, 
 Serbia had not even belonged to their Church — 
 so what matter if the Turk cruslied her? 
 
 But Serbia was not crushed. Had the nations 
 hstened, they could have hearc^ her singing. 
 There was little else she could do, except wait 
 and hope — wait like her Marko for the signal 
 to rise. 
 
riTT^^ 
 
 UROUGH five centuries of 
 subjection to the Turks, the 
 guslars, singing the heroic 
 pesmas, were hardly second in 
 influence to th( priests in fortifying the 
 spirits of the sufi"ering Serbs. The in- 
 tense patriotism of the Serb was kept 
 alive, indeed was often kindled, by the 
 folk songs he had heard even in his cra- 
 dle. Through all his troubles he has 
 cherished the divine fire of Nationahty, 
 even as the Vestals conserved the sacred 
 flame. 
 
 The Serb, belonging to the most poeti- 
 cal of nations, has the most melodious 
 of afl Slav tongues — identical with that 
 of the Croats and ^ et used as the lan- 
 guage of Hterature a comparatively short 
 time. Even httle more than a hundred 
 years ago people were still arguing 
 whether ancient Slavonic or the Serbian 
 vernacular should be the language of 
 
SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 29 
 
 literature. But for Dossitie Obradovitch 
 this result might have been reached less 
 quickly. He, " the great sower," a notable 
 educator, applied the language of the 
 people to literature, pubHshing an auto- 
 biography, besides poems and treatises, 
 in the common tongue. Before his death, 
 in 18 II, the "Write as you speak" party 
 had won, and hterature became the 
 property of the masses. Yet a further 
 improvement in the language was under- 
 taken by Vuk Karadgitch, a self-taught 
 cripple, whose grammar, published in 
 1 8 1 4, was epochal. He it was who devised 
 *he alphabet of thirty letters, each one 
 representing a complete sound, and he 
 published a dictionary and a collection 
 of the pcsmas which he took down from 
 the mouths of the guslars who sang them. 
 Then, when various translations appeared, 
 Europe remembered vaguely that diplo- 
 mats and travelers generations before had 
 brought back accounts of Serbian poetry 
 heard ahnost as often in those days 'n 
 foreign countries as in Serbia itself. 
 
30 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 GoPthc was one of the first to translate 
 them and call attention to those pesmas. 
 He praised their humor and philosophy, 
 their high heroism mingled with certain 
 spiritual qualities. Soon Sir John Bow- 
 ring, a skilled linguist, made a translation 
 into English verse which is nearer the 
 original in spirit and letter than any 
 that has been made since. 
 
 There have also been many fine prose 
 translations of the Kossovo cycle and 
 of other pesmas, and all readers agree 
 that in them is, as one critic says, "a 
 clear and inborn poetry, such as can 
 scarcely be found in any other modern 
 people." 
 
 "Serbian song," wrote Schafferik, 
 "resembles the tone of the violin; old 
 Slavonian, that of the organ; Polish, that 
 of the guitar. The old Slavonian in the 
 Psalms sounds like the loud rush of 
 the mountain stream; the Polish like 
 the sparkling and bubbling of a foun- 
 tain; and the Serbian like the quiet 
 murmuring of a streamlet in a valley." 
 
■OH 
 
 SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 31 
 
 The Serb loves to sing; every young 
 countryman carries his gusle, and is 
 ready to use it — a one-stringed violin, 
 shaped something like a mandolin, played 
 on the knee with a bow, like a violoncello. 
 Men and w omen — peasants and towns- 
 men — all sing. When two or more sing 
 together, it is unison and not part-singing. 
 The national Serb music is rich in melo- 
 dies. The traveler to-day hears the Serb 
 singing a ballad of the days of Stephen 
 Dushan of Kossovo, of the Bulgar War, 
 of Karagcorges (the William Tell of the 
 mountains). The gusle wails monoto- 
 nously, with an occasional trill on one or 
 two minor notes. Some find its music 
 plaintive, others call it tiresome, and 
 travelers as long ago as the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century have written of 
 seeing numbers of people in a crowd 
 silently wTcping as they Hstened to an 
 old blind man chanting the national 
 songs. 
 
 There are two great epic cycles — one 
 centering around Tsar Lazar, the other 
 
 
 ^ 
 
32 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 6*1 .' 1 
 
 1 
 
 "W 
 
 ^ 
 
 around Marko — and both have to do 
 with the Battle of Kossovo. Fragments 
 of other cycles show that Dushan, Milos 
 Obihch, and other heroes have been each 
 a chief figure in them. 
 
 No matter how unlearned, from one 
 point of view, a Serb may be, he can 
 always talk about Stephen Nemanya, or 
 St. Sava, or Alarko, and the other great 
 men of his race. Moreover, he is con- 
 tinually creating new songs, new folk 
 lore. In the great mills of this country 
 he hghtens his work with his simple 
 melodies. Sometimes the words of his 
 song form a clear narration of the events 
 that brought him to America, even of 
 happenings since his arrival. His own 
 sorrows, his own joys, are woven in his 
 epic. After their recent war with Bul- 
 garia, everywhere at village festivals, 
 the Serbs began to sing of their victories, 
 and to-day they are undoubtedly singing 
 of the sorrows of the past two years. 
 
 Mr. Miatovich says that when as 
 Cabinet Minister he had been defeated. 
 
SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 33 
 
 forty years ago, the next day he heard 
 the people singing this event in the 
 streets. 
 
 Whatever the subject — whether it 
 deals with ancient times or with the 
 present; whether it is an epic or one of 
 the so-called women's songs — the Ser- 
 bian pesma is anonymous. No single 
 writer or composer claims it. It is the 
 work of the people, all of whom have 
 had a chance to modify it as it has 
 passed through the ages. 
 
 Among all the heroes of the gusic rs 
 the favorite has always been Prince 
 Marko. Although much of the career 
 of the Marko of the pesmas was fabulous, 
 this prince had a real existence in the 
 latter part of the fourteenth century — 
 the son of Vukashin, who tried to usurp 
 the throne of young Urosh after the 
 deatii of Stephen Dushan, and Queen 
 Helen, unless one prefers to account for 
 Marko's glittering qualities by making 
 him the offspring of a dragon and a fairy 
 queen. The real Marko was not a great 
 
 A. 
 
34 SERBIA: A hIETCH 
 
 man, as the world counts greatness. 
 He ruled a small territory in Mr.cedonia, 
 and Prilip was his capital. He is said 
 to have been friendly with the Turks 
 and to have died fighting for the Sultan. 
 This was after Kossovo, when Serbia 
 was sleeping. Yet he must have had 
 qualities that made him rise above this 
 in popular estimation, for his local reputa- 
 tion grew with rime and became national. 
 Certainly for five centuries he has been 
 a living personality, not only in Serbian 
 but in Croatian, Bulgarian, and Rou- 
 manian tradition. 
 
 It is worth considering — this theory 
 that in Prince Marko the Serbian nation 
 projects itself; that his sufTerings and 
 successes are the sufferings and successes 
 of the whole nation; that it beholds its 
 own virtues and weaknesses in his; its 
 own individuality in his popular person- 
 ality; its own doom in his tragic fate. 
 
 Athletic, keen-minded, quickly reading 
 the designs of his foes, he, as an individ- 
 ual, was what Serbia would like to have 
 
m'm, tjkj.^ 
 
 SERBIA: SINGING 35 
 
 been as a political entity. Even as he 
 triumphed over Magyar, Venetian or 
 Turk, so would the Serb have tri- 
 umphed. When Serbia was sunk in 
 poverty the guslar brought before his 
 hearers visions of splendid things hey 
 could never hope to see, but whose 
 beauties satisfied their imagination. 
 
 Ma.ko is the knight without fear, 
 without reproach — the lover of justice, 
 the hater of all oppression. He is kind 
 and dutiful, the protector of the poor 
 and abused. His pity extends even to 
 animals, who in turn often helped him. 
 "He feared no one but God." Courteous 
 to all women, tender and dutiful to his 
 mother, Marko could be savage and 
 cruel beyond belief toward the Turks. 
 
 Human weapons never harmed him, 
 and he wielded a war club weighing one 
 hundred pounds, composed of sixty 
 pounds of steel, thirty pounds of silver, 
 and ten pounds of gold. One touch of 
 this mace beheaded a foe, as one stroke 
 of his saber ripped him open. 
 
A SKETCH 
 
 36 SERBIA 
 
 Markn's horso, Shara/, his constant 
 
 companion and Ih'I|xt, was the slron<;cst 
 
 and swiftest horse ever known. He 
 
 knew just when to kneel down and save 
 
 his master from the adversary's lance. 
 
 He knew how to rear and strike the 
 
 enemy's charger with his forefeet. When 
 
 roused he would spring uj) three lance 
 
 lengths forward. Chttering sparks 
 
 flashed from ix'nealh his hoof, blue 
 
 flame from his nostrils. Ife lias been 
 
 known to bite ofl" the cars cl the enemy's 
 
 horse; sometimes he trampled Turkish 
 
 soldiers to death. Marko fed him bread 
 
 and wine from his own dishes. Sharaz 
 
 kept guard over Marko while he slept. 
 
 He always shared the glory of victory. 
 
 Yet, whether or not Marko personilies 
 Serbia, in the life of Marko the current 
 of Serbian medieval life is reflected as 
 in a mirror. 
 
 In these poems Turks arc always un- 
 reliable and cruel; Venetians are crafty; 
 tlip faithless wife is usuafly lured away 
 by a Turk. In one vivid tale, Marko's 
 
SERBIA: S I N (; I N (, 
 
 57 
 
 own bricio, as In- is taking her home Irom 
 Bulgaria, is stolen by a Doge of V' 'icr, 
 who, with three hundred attei ' 
 had been invited by her father to bt ,>. 
 of her bridal procession. His designs 
 do not succeed, and when Marko com- 
 prehends this treachery he does not 
 hesitate. "He cleft the Doge's head in 
 twain," and he struck another traitor 
 with his saix'r "so neatly" that he fell 
 to earth in two pieces. 
 
 The touch of exaggeration in all the 
 stories is not one .-nerely of incident but 
 of detail — thi ' '' d of exaggeration a 
 child lovos. For c.vainple, when Marko 
 was brought from the cell where the 
 Sultan had imprisoned him for three 
 years, his nails were so long that he could 
 plow with them. The Serbs of those 
 days, having few splendid things in tiieir 
 own surroundings, loved to endow Marko 
 with grandeur. On his tent, for instance, 
 was fixed a golden apple. "In the apple 
 arc fixed two large diamonds which shed a 
 light so far and wide that the neighboring 
 
A SKETCH 
 
 38 SERBIA; 
 
 tents need no candle at night." In another 
 instance a magnificent ring is described, 
 "so richly studded with precious stones 
 that the whole room was lighted up." 
 
 The ransom demanded by Marko and 
 his friend Milosh from the Magyar 
 General Voutchka was more than mag- 
 nificent. He was to give three tovars 
 of gold for each (a tovar was as much 
 as a horse could carry on his back), and, 
 among other things, a gilded coach 
 harnessed with twelve Arabian coursers 
 used by General Voutchka when visit- 
 ing the Empress at Vienna. Voutchka's 
 wife not only agrees to this, but adds 
 one thousand ducats for each of the 
 two. Even in a poem, it delighted the 
 Serbs to have a Magyar in their power. 
 
 Sometimes Marko's adversary is a 
 Moor — for example, the Moor who 
 wishes to marry the Sultan's daughter 
 and the other Moor who demanded a 
 wedding tax from the maidens of Kossovo. 
 He cut off the head of this Moor with one 
 touch of his mace. At another time he is 
 
 ^^T^^^^^^!? 
 
SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 39 
 
 imprisoned by a Sultan whose daughter 
 releases him. He has promised to marry 
 her. But when they have started on their 
 elopement, and she lifts her veil, he is 
 horrified to see how black she is. There 
 seemed nothing for him to do but to run 
 away. Yet he knows that he has com- 
 mitted a sin in breaking his promise — 
 and he confesses this sin to his mother: 
 
 "Then I sprang upon the back of Sharaz, 
 And I heard the maiden's lips address me — 
 'Thou in God my brother — thou — oh, Markol 
 Leave me not I thus wretched do not leave me!' 
 
 Therefore, mother! wretched do I lowly penance: 
 Thus, my mother! have I gold o'erflowing, 
 Therefore seek I righteous deeds unceasing." 
 
 In these pesmas one has glimpses not 
 only of all the neighbors who warred 
 upon the Serbians, but of Christian mal- 
 contents going over to the Church of 
 Rome or sowing dissensions at home. 
 A careful reader can get an almost 
 complete picture of the Serbian life after 
 the Conquest, painted, to be sure, in high 
 colors. 
 
 I 
 
 d 
 
40 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 In most of the Serbiiin heroic pesmas 
 there is little of that superstitious cle- 
 ment that marks the ordinary life of the 
 Serb to-day, except in the almost constant 
 presence of the Vila. Marko's Vila never 
 loses an opportunity to help him, to 
 warn him, and even to scold him. 
 
 The Serbian Vila, so conspicuous in 
 Serbian song and story, may be roughly 
 defined as a guardian angel. She is a 
 vaguely beautiful maiden born of the 
 dew and nurtured in a mysterious moun- 
 tain and seems to combine qualities of 
 both classic and northern mythologies. 
 She has quahties which are even essen- 
 tially Christian, Tor sometimes she ex- 
 presses her bcHef in God and St. John, 
 and ahvays she has a deadly hatred for 
 the Turk. No higher compliment can 
 be paid a lady than to say, "as fair as 
 the mountain Vila," and a steed "swift 
 as a Vila" means one of great value. 
 Occasionally Marko reproves his Vila 
 Rayviola and once when she has shot 
 an arrow through the throat and another 
 
SERBIA: SINGING 4I 
 
 through the head of his friend Milosh, he 
 pursues her among the clouds on his horse 
 Sharaz and brings her to earth with his 
 chib, ungallantly adding: "Thou hadst 
 better give him healing herbs lest thou 
 shalt not carry longer thy head upon thy 
 shoulders." But generally Marko's atti- 
 tude is more affectionate: "Where art 
 thou now, my sister-in-God, thou Vila?" 
 There are in existence about thirty- 
 eight poems and tw^ice as many prose 
 legends detailing the thrilling exploits 
 of Marko. In spite of certain accounts 
 of his death, it is generally thought that 
 he never died, but withdrew to a cave 
 near the castle of Prilip and is still 
 asleep there. At times he awakes and 
 looks to see if a sword has come out of a 
 rock where he thrust it to the hilt. 
 When it is out of the rock, he will know 
 that the time has come for him to appear 
 among the Serbians once more to re- 
 establish the Empire destroyed at Kos- 
 sovo. Even now, on occasions, he may 
 appear to help his disheartened country- 
 
 m 
 
 
 •^f 
 
 TtvS^^ 
 
42 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 men. An interesting story of the War 
 of 191 2-1 3 is told that bears directly on 
 this belief. The Serbian forces were 
 storming the fort at Prilip when their 
 general ordered a delay. In spite of 
 this, they pushed on and ran straight to 
 the castle of the royal prince, Marko. 
 The general trembled, believing that 
 without the help of his artillery, for 
 which he was waiting, these men of the 
 infantry would be wholly destroyed. 
 But even while dreading this, he saw the 
 Serbian national colors flying from the 
 donjon of Marko's castle. His Serbs 
 had driven the Turks away and were 
 victorious, as it proved, with little loss 
 of life. When he reproved them for 
 risking so much: "But we were ordered 
 by Prince Marko, did you not see him 
 on his Sharaz? Prince Marko com- 
 manded us afl the time — 'Forward! 
 forward!'" They really believed that 
 they had seen their hero. 
 
 Two passages from the heroic pesmas 
 may serve to show Marko under different 
 
SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 43 
 
 aspects. In the first he has been invited 
 by the Grand Vizier to go hunting, in 
 company with twelve Turks. He has 
 obeyed the Vizier's command and has 
 loosed his falcon. 
 
 Then the princely Marko loosed his falcon; 
 To the clouds of heaven aloft he mounted; 
 Then he sprung uf>on the f^old-wing'd swimmer — 
 Seized him — rose, and down they fell together. 
 When the bird of Amurath sees the struggle, 
 He becomes indignant with vexation: 
 'Twas of old his custom to play falsely — 
 For himself alone to gripe his booty: 
 So he pounces down on Marko's falcon. 
 To deprive him of his well-earn'd trophy. 
 But the bird was valiant as his master; 
 Marko's falcon has the mind of Marko: 
 And his gold-wing'd prey he wil. not yield him. 
 Sharply turns he round on Amurath's falcon. 
 And he tears away his proudest feathers. 
 
 Soon as the Visir observes the contest, 
 He is fill'd with sorrow and with anger; 
 Rushes on the falcon of Prince Marko, 
 Flinps him fiercely 'gainst a verdant fir-tree. 
 And he breaks the falcon's dexter pinion. 
 Marko's noble falcon groans in suffering. 
 As the serpent hisses from the cavern. 
 Marko flies to help his favourite falcon. 
 
44 
 
 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 Binds with tenderness the wounded pinion, 
 And with stifled rage the bird addresses: 
 "Woe for thee, and woe for me, my falcon! 
 I ha\ e left my Servians — I have hunted 
 With the Turks — and all these wrongs have 
 sufi'er'd." 
 
 But Marko did not content himself 
 with words and the Grand Vizier had 
 hardly time to warn his companions 
 when Marko cleft his head asunder and 
 proceeded to cut each of his twelve 
 companions in two. After deliberation 
 he went to the Sultan and told what he 
 had done. The Sultan laughed, for he 
 was afraid of the light in Marko's eyes 
 and chose to dissemble: "If thou hadst 
 not behaved thus I would no longer have 
 called thee my son. Any Turk may 
 become Grand Vizier, but there is no 
 hero to equal Marko," and he dismissed 
 Marko with presents. 
 
 In the second, "The Death of Marko," 
 he has been warned by the Vila that his 
 death is near, and he obeys her commands. 
 
SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 45 
 
 4 
 
 Marko did as counsell'd by the Vila. 
 When he came upon the mountain summit, 
 To the right and left he look'd around him; 
 Then he saw two tall and slender fir-trees; 
 Fir-trees towering high above the forest, 
 Covered all with verdant leaves and branches. 
 Then he rein'd his faithful Sharaz backwards. 
 Then dismounted — tied him to the fir-tree; 
 Bent him down, and looked into the fountain, 
 Saw his face upon the water mirror'd, 
 Saw his death-day written on the water. 
 
 Tears rush'd down the visage of the hero: 
 "O thou faithless world! — thou lovely flow'ret! 
 Thou wert lovely — a short pilgrim's journey — 
 Short — though I have seen three centuries 
 
 over — 
 And 'tis time that I should end my journey! 
 
 Then he drew his sharp and shining sabre, 
 Drew it forth — and loosed the sabre-girdle; 
 And he hasten'd to his faithful Sharaz: 
 With one stroke he cleft his head asunder, 
 That he never should by Turk be mounted, 
 Never be disgraced in Turkisii service. 
 Water draw, or drag a Moslem's Jugum. 
 Soon as he had cleaved his head asunder, 
 Graced a grave he for his faithful Sharaz, 
 Nobler grave thf n that which held his brother. 
 Then he broke in four his trusty sabre, 
 That it might not be a Moslem's portion. 
 That it might not be a Moslem's triumph, 
 
 it: 
 
 ii 
 
46 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 That it might not be a wreck of Marko, 
 Which the curse of Christendom should follow. 
 Soon as he in four had broke his sabre, 
 Next he broke his trusty lance in seven; 
 Threw the fragments to the fir-trees' branches. 
 Then he took his club, so terror-striking, 
 In his strong right hand, and swiftly flung it, 
 Flung it from the mountain of Urvina, 
 Far into the azure, gloomy ocean. 
 To his club thus spake the hero Marko: 
 "When my club returneth from the ocean, 
 Shall a hero come to equal Marko." 
 
 When he thus had scatter'd all his weapons. 
 From his breast he drew a golden tablet; 
 From his pocket drew unwritten paper. 
 And the princely Marko thus inscribed it: 
 "He who visits the Urvina mountain, 
 He who seeks the fountai. 'neath the fir-trees. 
 And there finds the hero Marko's body. 
 Let him know that Marko is departed. 
 When he died, he had three well-fill'd purses: 
 
 How well fill'd? Well fill'd with golden ducats. 
 One shall be his portion, and my blessing. 
 Who shall dig a grave for Marko's body: 
 Let the second be the church's portion; 
 Let the third be given to blind and maim'd ones. 
 That the blind through earth in peace may 
 
 wander. 
 And with hymns laud Marko's deeds of glory." 
 
4^ 
 
 ! 
 
 SERBIA: SINGING 
 
 47 
 
 And when Marko had inscribed the letter, 
 Lo! he stuck it on the fir-tree's branches, 
 That it might be seen by passing travellers. 
 In the front he threw his golden tablets, 
 DofF'd his vest of green, and spread it calmly 
 On the grass, beneath a sheltering fir-tree; 
 Cross'd him, and lay down upon his garment; 
 O'er his eyes he drew his samur-kalpak, 
 Laid him down, — yes! laid him down for ever. 
 
 By the fountain lay the clay-cold Marko 
 
 Day and night; a long, long week he lay there. 
 
 Many travellers pass'd, and saw the hero, — 
 
 Saw him lying by the public path-way; 
 
 And while passing said, "The hero slumbers!" 
 
 Then they kept a more than common distance, 
 
 Fearing that they might disturb the hero. 
 
 • ■■}'■: 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 il 
 
III. SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 HE Nations of Eurof>e that had over- 
 looked Serbia in her days of strength 
 — she was so young, and so far away, 
 half hidden in her wilderness of moun- 
 tains — the Nations of Europe that had turned 
 deaf ears to her cries when the Turk attacked 
 her, began to make inquiries about the little 
 sister. She had been asleep so long that some 
 of them really imagined her dead. But they 
 heard some plaintive music: they recognized 
 her voice as she sang. They saw that she was 
 not only alive, but awake, thoroughly wide awake, 
 and that she was asking for help. But they 
 had troubles enough of their own — revolutions 
 and things of that kind. 1 he people were alto- 
 gether too troublesome — so at least the rulers 
 said — and the p>eople, who ought to have heeded 
 poor Serbia's cries, did not take time to find 
 out just who she was, and what she desired. 
 All might have been different had they known 
 that Serbia was one of themselves, acknowledg- 
 ing no privileged classes and desiring little but 
 a chance to get on her feet and walk alone. For 
 this she needed space to expand in, space in which 
 to exhale the spirit of freedom that filled her. 
 
 ■A 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 49 
 
 The Turk, her master, was growing weaker. 
 She could almost strike off her own shackles 
 when suddenly a deliverer came — one of her 
 own people, a son of her mountains. 
 
 When her master was driven away, Serbia 
 bt't^an to look abtut her, a little humbly at first, 
 for she was trying to understand herself. She saw 
 that she needed education before she could take 
 her proper place in the world. So she set herself 
 bravely to learn from books. She noticed that 
 the stronger Nations were governed by rules, 
 and she gave herself a Constitution patterned on 
 theirs. Regular work was hard for her, but she 
 worked diligently and saved a little, though dis- 
 inclined to hoard. She had rich treasures hidden 
 away but she had never thought about tiiem, 
 even as playthings. What does a child care for 
 diamonds? But when it was made clear to her 
 that wealth is jwwcr, she worked more heartily. 
 
 The other Nations began to admit that Serbia 
 was no longer Nobody. Indeed she was so 
 near being Somebody that many thought it 
 would be wise to win her friendship, and wiser 
 to put her under obligations. So when she asked 
 for an Hereditary Prince, presto! the thing was 
 accomplished! though once she had hardly 
 dared ask more than the privilege of naming 
 her own chief. 
 
 In outward aspect Serbia began to be more 
 like other people, although some of her neighbors 
 remembered too well her hoydenish days and her 
 
 
50 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 years of poverty. Still, they could flatter her 
 sometimes, for she held the key to certain things 
 that several of them needed — trade routes, 
 fertile lands, and other things that no ambitious 
 Nation should li\c without. Soon some of her 
 neighbors desired to control the sale of things 
 tl.at modest! enough she had begun to ofi'er to 
 the world. She had heard that money was power, 
 and she hoped to send htr good^ to market in 
 the best way. She noticed that every one who 
 made a success o hi mhcss had a place by the sea. 
 In liic whole fan: K of Nations she was the only 
 oni who had not a place by he sea, except the 
 littl-r-t one perched up in tlie high mount.i ns. 
 But this little one makes a success by tradir in 
 beauty. Ye* beauty is an 'ntangible thing to 
 carry to any market and ib best disposet' of in 
 the mountains themselves. 
 
 Whe: Serbi; first expresst her longing for 
 the sea eve,, one frownt "Impossil le!" 
 
 The. were otlKi things that ought to please her 
 as well- opportu! es to help them a tlieir 
 wars, litt.e snips territory here and there 
 
 if she help (1 ther ;ain anything. But a sea- 
 P'.rt— if' ulou-' Why, the Imperial cousin 
 Oh one ide of (icr ^ )uld be Insulted! What 
 better ^uJd little Serbia wish than to market 
 hei Ml" vis to him, or at least send them over 
 rou' s ac had picked out? 
 
 Th'-n Serbia said less and thought more. 
 She sang iess, but she composed more songs, and 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 51 
 
 she listened n> the people talking, not singing. 
 She found sin- could not live by poetry alotic. 
 The Young Scrl)^ and the Piuiblavs told her their 
 plans and she looked hopefully at her big fur- 
 clad Cousin. But though with him it wasn't 
 a question of trade, fie had ambitions of his own. 
 He wasn't sure but that Serbia with a seat by 
 the sea might watch him too closely. Th< 1 
 all the others in the great family of Nations 
 took sides with one or the other. 
 
 Serbia was restless, l)ut she knew she could 
 wait. Her household was now much more closel 
 united than in the days of her youth, and she had 
 realized what had once seemed a vain dream — 
 comparative independence. So she could wait' 
 
 l^;i 
 
HO would look at pictures of 
 massacres extending through- 
 out Serbia! at plundered vil- 
 lages! at tortured women and 
 fatherless children shrieking in agony! 
 All the horrors inflicted by the Turks on 
 the Serbs in the early nineteenth century 
 were the convulsive movements of one 
 near his end. The Turk himself was 
 growing weaker and weaker, and his 
 weakness was Serbia's opportunity. But 
 where was the man to lead her out of 
 bondage? There was now no heir to 
 her throne, the throne of what had once 
 been a proud kingdom. Assassination 
 and exile had led also to the passing of 
 the old nobility. Although the family 
 of the ancient kings was no more, the 
 old racial stock had little changed. The 
 Serbs were still of the same indomitable 
 race, still breathing the spirit of freedom, 
 still bound to one another in a true 
 brotherhood. Yet, loyal though they 
 
 \hm 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 53 
 
 were, ready to die for Serbia, where could 
 they look for a leader? 
 
 In the early part of 1804, Mustapha 
 Pasha, the Turkish Governor of Belgrade, 
 was much too kind and benign a man to 
 suit the Janissaries and the Dahias, their 
 leaders. They had dealt slaughter right 
 and left, and at last had killed Mustapha 
 himself because he had opposed their 
 cruelty. While they were planning a 
 general massacre of the most eminent 
 Serbs in the country, all Serbs who 
 could were fleeing to the mountains. 
 The rumored massacre was the last 
 straw, and a silent cry arose, "Oh, for 
 the right man!" Then came the whisper 
 that a leader had been found — Kara- 
 georges. Black George, a prosperous 
 raiser of swine, at this time about forty 
 years old. He had served in the Aus- 
 trian armies nearly twenty years before 
 under Joseph I, that Emperor who, of all 
 the Austrian monarchs, is said to have 
 meant the most and to have done the 
 least. 
 
 i i-S: 
 
 
 ii; 
 
 u? 
 
 mmmmm 
 
 mrmmt 
 
54 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 Karageorges, Black George, so called 
 either on account of his dark complexion 
 or his moody disposition, a brave man 
 and a man of character, had fled to 
 the Sumadia for safety. He had great 
 influence among the large body of refugees 
 in that beautiful forest region of secure 
 mountain fastnesses. Karageorges was 
 a blunt, plain man, and honest. He had 
 a strong sense of justice, though notably 
 hot tempered. At the meeting, when he 
 was chosen leader, there were about five 
 hundred Serbs, men afl under arms. In 
 responding to their request that he would 
 lead them against the Turks, he said: 
 "Again, brothers, I cannot accept, for 
 if I accepted I certainly would do much 
 not to your liking. If one of you were 
 taken in the smaflest treachery, the least 
 faltering, I would punish him in the 
 most fearful manner." "We want it 
 so, we want it sol" they cried. When 
 he saw that they were in earnest, Kara- 
 georges accepted the office they conferred 
 on him and the Archpriest of Bonvokik 
 
SERBIA: SEAV'.. RD 
 
 55 
 
 received and consecrated hi.^ aln. Upon 
 this Karageorges took supreme contr >! 
 of the insurrection. 
 
 At this same meeting, in the Iit^lc 
 village of Oorshats, they organized a 
 National Assembly. At first the Serbs 
 with tactics worthy an Oriental man- 
 aged to keep the Sultan's attention 
 from their insurrection by protesting 
 that they were 'n arms not against the 
 Sultan himself but against the Dahias, 
 who, by disobeying him, were the real 
 rebels. Deceived, or wilHng to seem 
 deceived, the Porte let them work out 
 their own plans. But the battle of 
 Ivaukovitz awoke The Subhme Porte. 
 Turks defeated by Serbs! The world 
 had never heard of such a thing! In 
 vain Napoleon advised The Porte to 
 take no notice of the Serb insurrection. 
 It was merely part of a Russian plot! 
 Soon the army of Karageorges vas before 
 Shabaz, where the Turks were intrenched. 
 The Turkish commander shouted from 
 the heights, ordering Karageorges and 
 
 {N'- 
 
$6 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 his men to give up their weapons. " Come 
 and get them!" cried Karageorges. In 
 a short time the Serb leader and his 
 army were in Shabaz, from which the 
 enemy had fled in great disorder. Aus- 
 tria was now too intent upon her own 
 war with Napoleon to give the Serbs 
 the help they sought. She merely ad- 
 vised them to make peace with The 
 Porte. In accordance with her usual 
 policy, she wished to cramp the little 
 State within small limits, subject to her 
 interests. Russia, though more sym- 
 pathetic, had little thought to spare for 
 Serbia. At this moment she herself was 
 trying to make an alliance with Turkey 
 against Napoleon, but she did advise 
 Serbia not to accept the recent ofi'er of 
 The Porte to give her srif-government 
 itnd to recognize Karagec ^es. 
 
 Pathetic enough was the vacillation of 
 Serbia between Austria and Russia. Had 
 Austria been more responsive, Kara- 
 georges would have preferred closer rela- 
 tions with her. But while Austria was 
 
ill 
 
 SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 51 
 
 indifferent to Serbia's advances the Tsar, 
 showing more interest in Serbia's affairs, 
 agreed to send his agent to h.r. He 
 promised help also if the Serbians would 
 agree to all things initiated by the Rus- 
 sian government. Austria was disturbed. 
 Serbia was too bold ; she must be watched ! 
 Like most really great men Kara- 
 georges, even when first acclaimed his 
 country's deliverer, had enemies. The 
 old question of centralization and de- 
 centralization had come up. Many 
 thought him too autocratic. The enemies 
 of Serbia encouraged decentralization. 
 Divided, she would be easier to subdue. 
 Russia disapproved of many things done 
 by Karageorges. But he had the strong 
 support of the Sumadia in whatever he 
 did. When the Turks again tried to 
 invade Serbia, Russian and Serbian 
 troops, fighting side by side, drove them 
 away. But for the party troubles, but 
 for the loudly expressed ill will of leaders 
 of the opposition, Karageorges might 
 have been happy. 
 
 i! 
 
 4 
 
 l! 
 
 ll 
 
58 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 Though Serbs fought side by side 
 with Russians until 181 2, it happened 
 that no important battles took place on 
 Serbian territory. During these years 
 Serbia not only had self-government, but 
 she somewhat increased her boundaries 
 by lands taken from neighboring Pashi- 
 liks. Yet she had her disappointments. 
 Turkey, when Russia's war with Na- 
 poleon began, disregarded the few con- 
 cessions made to Serbia by the Peace of 
 Bucharest. At last, the Grand Vizier 
 led his army against Serbia, and although 
 her men fought bravely, they had to draw 
 back from the frontier. Then a strange 
 thing happened! With no obvious rea- 
 son, Karageorges went back to Belgrade 
 with the army reserves. Without stay- 
 ing there even for a day, he and part of 
 his officers practically deserted the army. 
 Crossing the Danube into Austria, they 
 forsook their country in her day of trial. 
 With them went the Russian consul and 
 the Metropolitan and many leading Ser- 
 bians with their families. 
 
 mmm 
 
!li! 
 
 SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 59 
 
 The downfall of Karageorges was due 
 to no fault of his. No one ever doubted 
 his courage, and could he have had his 
 own way, when he saw the impossibility 
 of pushing back the enemy, he would 
 have gone again to his stronghold in the 
 Sumadia, there to fight to the last. But 
 there was a frontier to be defended, and 
 Serbs ownin^^ property along the rivers 
 begged for protection. The army was 
 not large enough to accomplish all that 
 was demanded of it. The Turks were 
 victorious and with their victory there 
 began again a series of acts of unspeak- 
 able cruelty. 
 
 Among the Serbs who remained in 
 Serbia when Karageorges and his friends 
 crossed over into Austria was Milosh 
 Obrenovitch. He had not only served 
 with Karageorges in the Austrian armies, 
 but he had worked for him as a keeper 
 of swine on his Sumadia estate. During 
 the recent revolution he had helped his 
 great leader by watching the Balkan passes 
 for unfriendly Bosnians and Albanians. 
 
 
 ! SI 
 
6o 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 When Milosh saw that the Turks 
 were, for the time at least, masters, he 
 offered to help them reconquer the Serbs. 
 In reality, faithful to his own people, he 
 was only waiting a chance to aid them. 
 The time came and one memorable 
 Palm Sunday, 1817, he appeared near 
 the church at Tokova and the people 
 called upon him to lead them against 
 the Turks. He told them that this 
 would be a difficult undertaking. "We 
 know that, but we are ready for any- 
 thing. Dost thou not see that we perish 
 as it is?" "Here am I," he replied. 
 "There stand you!" "War to the 
 Turks! With us is God and the right." 
 Then arms were brought out from under- 
 ground hiding places. His men were 
 ready and Milosh led them on to victory 
 over the Turks. When later the Turks 
 came to treat with him, they made him 
 tribute collector. Many of the Serb 
 chiefs were therefore displeased and 
 wished to fight openly. They suspected 
 Milosh of double-dealing. Among these 
 
 i. 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 6l 
 
 was Karagcorges who had landed unex- 
 pectedly in Serbia. Karagcorges and 
 Milosh were no longer friends. One 
 explanation of this was that Milosh 
 suspected Karagcorges of poisoning his 
 brother Milan, who had died suddenly, 
 but no one who really knew Karagcorges 
 could suspect him of using poison to 
 rid himself of an enemy. 
 
 But the world does believe that Milosh 
 betrayed Karagcorges to the Turks. Cer- 
 tainly the latter was murdered by the 
 Turkish Governor's men — beheaded in 
 the lonely house where he was sleeping. 
 This was a pathetic end for a great life 
 that had held as many melodramatic as 
 tragic events. Karagcorges was a true 
 patriot. He was neither cruel nor blood- 
 thirsty, though circumstances often com- 
 pelled severity. A glance at his portrait 
 shows his nobility of character. That 
 he was a lover of law and justice was 
 evident by his promptly establishing a 
 system of law-courts for Serbia. He 
 reduced taxation, and though he could 
 
 ^P^Pq^i^PP^aanSMVI 
 
 H»W 
 
62 
 
 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 
 neither read nor write — or because of 
 this — he zealously supported education. 
 He hoped that the time would come when 
 Serbia need no longer send outside to 
 get the trained men whose help she 
 needed. He established many good pub- 
 lic schools, among them the High School 
 at Belgrade, which later grew into the 
 University. 
 
 Among his tragic moments was that 
 one when he had to shoot his father in 
 order to prevent his torture by the Turks, 
 and that other when he refused to save 
 his brother from execution when he 
 found he deserved the death penalty. 
 More melodramatic than tragic was a 
 critical moment in the National Assembly 
 when members sat with pistols held at 
 their heads that they might not act 
 foolishly. 
 
 Though not a crowned King, \ name, 
 Karageorges had all the power ot a mon- 
 arch. Yet with so much at his command 
 he retained his taste for the simplest 
 life. His dress was that of the peasant 
 

 SERBIA: SEAWARD 63 
 
 and, even when Chief Executive of 
 Serbia, he often cooked his own meals in 
 the kitchen of his dwelling. 
 
 After the death of Karageorges the 
 efforts of Serbia to have Turkey recog- 
 nize her dragged on. At last, in 1820, 
 the Sultan by a special berat made 
 Serbia a hereditary princedom. This 
 was a long step in the right direction. 
 
 Milosh, feeling secure in his seat, did 
 well by his country, and better by him- 
 self. Years after his death, Serbs in gos- 
 siping groups would recount the divers 
 ways in which Milosh had filled his 
 coffers. His keenness for the main 
 chance, and his general canniness, all 
 his subjects admired hugely. But the 
 burly neighbor looking on was less 
 pleased. Why did a little struggling 
 State trouble herself so about education, 
 and economical housekeeping? Why 
 should she try to attain the impossible? 
 Then, to show poor Serbia how impos- 
 sible her ambitions were, Russia frowned 
 and agreed with those who thought the 
 
 i 
 
1 1 
 
 r t 
 
 64 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 hcrcc'tary Pr nee too autocratic. In 
 eastern Europe there was room for only 
 one Autocrat. "Moreover," muttered 
 Russia, "why shoul 1 an Autocrat give 
 a Constiti.tion to Serbia?" A threat 
 was mingled with the muttering- ana 
 Milosh Withdrew the Con-^titution. 
 
 Yet Russia used her influence so 
 strongly with Turkey that Great Brit- 
 lin bt gan 10 take an interest a Serbia. 
 Hie youiig State was growing too fast, 
 there was no telling where she might 
 wander. She needed a guardian — some 
 one to watch her, to note where she was 
 going and tell her she must not. So 
 Great Britain sent Co!o». ■ H. dges to 
 Serbia as her General Coiisul, and he 
 whispered — for Russia must not hear 
 him — that in case Serbia had trouble 
 with Russia, Great Britain and France 
 would stand by her. Next, the Porte, 
 never before known as a constitution 
 maker, invited Milosh to send deputies 
 to Constantinople to plan a new Con- 
 stitution for Serbia. But Milosh found 
 
 i i 
 
S F R B A S E V W R f 65 
 
 this new Con? ituti ti no ix^ttcr than the 
 one Russia ha* mack him withdraw. 
 Alas for Milosh. al i-i for Serbia! Al- 
 thou2;h the nc\\ Con titution was to 
 haw the guarantee (»f the Great Powc 
 the r.)nstitution itself wuilcJ no. hoid 
 vvat< i. A few months lat-r, the ai ihor- 
 ity of *he I'rincc of S< rbia -\as modttied 
 It Wis ordered that he should ha c a 
 Council of sevcii.y .Ife members. He 
 had desired Councillors whom he could 
 appoint and dismiss at will, but Turkey, 
 forgetting a promise to Great Britain, 
 had yielded to Russia. As the Consti- 
 tution required Milosh to appoint the 
 most distinguished men in his realm as 
 Councillors, and as at this time Serbia's 
 men of influence were chiefly his enemies, 
 he was disturbed. Although the British 
 Ambassador counseled patience, Milosh 
 plotted to do away with this Constitu- 
 tion by a military vote. When his plans 
 fell through, he abdicated, in June, 1839, 
 and retired to his home in Wallachia. 
 Before abdicating, however, Milosh had 
 
 m 
 
66 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 to sign the Constitution imposed upon 
 him at the instigation of Russia, and this 
 limiting of the power of the hereditary 
 Prince was a good thing for Serbia. 
 
 Milan, the eldest son of Milosh, sur- 
 vived but three weeks after his father's 
 abdication. Michel, the younger son, 
 succeeded him. While he was wrangling 
 with the Porte and Russia, Vuychitch, 
 a Councillor, started a rebellion and 
 Michel, not knowing what else to do, 
 left Serbia. This suited Vuychitch and 
 soon the National Parliament elected 
 the son of Karageorges Prince of Serbia. 
 Serbia vva^i quiet and prosperous during 
 his reign, but Alexander himself was of a 
 timid and wavering temperament, not 
 even bold enough to summons a National 
 Assembly. Friendly to Turkey and to 
 Austria, rather than to Russia, he pleased 
 no one of them, and finally, when he did 
 call a National Assembly, the Council de- 
 throned him. Old Milosh was now asked 
 to return and the change of rulers was 
 made without excitement or disorder. 
 
 .vTSI 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 67 
 
 At the death of Milosh after three 
 short years, his son, the exiled Michel, 
 returned to the throne. In his exile he 
 had grown wiser and he was ready with 
 a definite program for Serbia's good. 
 He saw that if his country was to be 
 respected, her independence must be 
 guarded. First among his many reforms 
 was a new Constitution to replace the 
 one Russia had imposed on Serbia. 
 Michel was a good diplomatist and, in 
 1862, when the Turkish Government at 
 Belgrade bombarded Belgrade, he de- 
 manded the evacuation of all the forts, 
 and some of them complied. Next he 
 sent his wife to London — the beautiful 
 Julia, Countess Hunyadi. She interested 
 Gladstone, Bright, and other influential 
 Englishmen in little Serbia. He armed 
 and drilled a national army and had an 
 understanding with Greece and other 
 Balkan states for a general uprising 
 against the Turks. Finally he requested 
 the Sultan to remove all Turkish garrisons 
 in Serbia, and when Great Britain sup- 
 
 Mi 
 
68 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 ported the advice the other Great Powers 
 gave the Sultan, the later, at last, gave 
 up the forts to Michael. Michael did 
 much for Serbia, He built good high- 
 ways, laid out parks, and gave her many 
 fine public buildings, including an opera 
 house. He was among the first to em- 
 phasize Serbia's need of a seaport, and 
 he was equally far-sighted in many other 
 matters. 
 
 Michel had no children and when the 
 Karageorges exiles heard that he meant 
 to divorce his wife and remarry, their 
 own hopes of power in Serbia faded. 
 Poor Michel, their victim, was assassi- 
 nated in the spring of 1868. No change 
 of dynasty followed Michel's death. 
 Serbia proclaimed as Prince, Milan, 
 son of a first cousin of Milosh the 
 elder. 
 
 Milan's early years had been spent in 
 Paris, and the kind of education he re- 
 ceived there left its bad impress on his 
 whole life. When confirmed by the 
 Skupchtina he was barely thirteen, and 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 69 
 
 little more than of age when, five years 
 later, urged by Panslavists, he had a 
 war with Turkey. Although Serbia was 
 defeated, this war forced the Balkan 
 situation, and the attention of Europe 
 was turned toward the little Nation 
 that held the key to the Balkans. Milan 
 had made strategic mistakes, and when 
 the vast Turkish army was invading 
 Serbia, he called on the Great Powers 
 for help. While they hesitated, Russia 
 ordered Abdul Hamid to sign an imme- 
 diate truce. When Russia within a few 
 weeks of this went to war with Turkey, 
 Serbia, in spite of her recent losses, was 
 able to help her. After capturing Vrania, 
 Pirot, and Nish, Serbia had the joy of 
 celebrating Mass on the Field of Kossovo 
 where five hundred years before she had 
 lost everything. 
 
 Yet at the Peace of Stefano Serbia 
 did not get a fair reward. Her welfare 
 was but a shuttlecock, beaten back and 
 forth between great nations. She could 
 secure, at the Berlin Congress, neither 
 
 n 
 
«i 
 
 70 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 complete independence nor the annexa- 
 tion of certain territories she hoped for. 
 But at this Congress Austria gained her 
 own ends by giving Serbia two strong 
 neighbors for watchdogs, Bulgaria and 
 East Roumelia. She also imposed a 
 barrier between Serbia and her strongly 
 desired goal — the sea. 
 
 When Milan saw that he could not 
 depend on Russia, whom he had been 
 brought up to regard as a friend, he 
 turned to Austria. He began to pay 
 long visits to Vienna. Thus he angered 
 both his own people and the Tsar, but 
 Austria was always ready to give him 
 the money his manner of life required. 
 The building of new railways threw the 
 Nation into debt, and between the ad- 
 vice given first by Progressives, then by 
 Radicals, Milan the ne'er-do-well could 
 barely enjoy a life devoted to pleasure. 
 At the beginning of his reign the Porte 
 had acknowledged him hereditary Prince 
 of Serbia, but Milan, aiming higher, in 
 1882 had himself proclaimed King. Not 
 
 rrrsi 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 71 
 
 long after this, in a war with Bulgaria, 
 he had to retreat ingloriously before 
 Prince Alexander of Battenberg. Indeed, 
 now, as on other occasions throughout 
 his reign, Milan behaved like the pro- 
 verbial spoiled child. Sometimes, fear- 
 ing his people might use a rod made of 
 something more stinging than words, he 
 would completely disarm them in a bril- 
 liant speech. When things were at their 
 very worst his statesmen would extri- 
 cate him. Yet gradually he lost influ- 
 ence with the Nation in spite of the new 
 Constitution which gave them most 
 things that enlightened nations seek. 
 But various happenings were tending to 
 estrange him from his people, not the 
 least of which was his undignified quarrel 
 with his wife, with whom, even after 
 their divorce, he continued to bicker 
 about their son. Milan was rather a 
 blunderer than a villain, and as he had 
 managed to hold the affection of his 
 people through all his misdeeds, political 
 or domestic, his abdication was a great 
 
n 
 
 ! ; 
 
 72 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 surprise. He went away suddenly to 
 live in Paris the life he preferred, after 
 making provision that Alexander, his son, 
 should succeed him. 
 
 Alexander was but a boy of fourteen 
 when he came to the throne — a sub- 
 normal boy, and wilful, too. As an 
 Autocrat he had no rival among modern 
 Serbian rulers. No one unmade and 
 made so many Constitutions. No Prince 
 or King of Serbia surprised his people 
 with so many coups d'etat. But the 
 time had passed when the misdoings of 
 a ruler could make the people of Serbia 
 very unhappy. Although the King never 
 failed to show that he despised not only 
 statesmen and scholars but even dis- 
 tinguished army officers, he could ter- 
 rorize neither individuals nor the Nation. 
 The three great parties. Liberal, Radical, 
 and Progressive, were not afraid to ex- 
 press opinions, and many reforms were 
 projected and carried out. Serbs as a 
 whole were anxious to be counted among 
 the people of the world of intelligence 
 
 ih 
 
SERBIA: SEAWARD 
 
 73 
 
 and culture. Alexander and Draga mor- 
 tified them; but the assassination of 
 the wretched pair lowered the Nation 
 in the estimation of humanity. 
 
 Less than a week had passed since the 
 killing of the King and Queen, in the 
 spring of 1903, when the Skupchtina 
 elected Peter Karageorgevitch to the 
 throne. This grandson of Karageorges 
 had been an exile for forty-five of his 
 fifty-seven years of life. Austria and 
 Russia alone among the Great Powers 
 were willing now to recognize him. Great 
 Britain waited three years before sending 
 back her Minister to Serbia. This was 
 after the regicides had gone from the 
 country. 
 
IV. SERBIANS 
 
 w 
 
 *iy 
 
 i 
 
 t 
 
 Serbia was no longer a child, and she 
 wore a royal crov/n She even bad to 
 be considered by the l.;rni'y of Nations 
 when makinp plans. Soinemcinbersof 
 the family, indeed, would like to !ja,c mavic i!J 
 her plans for Serbia, without intimating that In 
 so doing they would profit themselves. Serbia 
 realized that there were things she could ru>t do 
 without the consent of some, or even all oi thcrn; 
 but she did not wonder why — for Serbia herself 
 had grown up, and it wasn't merely a physical 
 development. She understood a great many 
 things that in her more primitive days she could 
 not have comprehended. 
 
 Sometimes they fought among themselves, 
 with an occasional black eye for one or the other, 
 because they found it hard to decide, not what 
 they could do for Serbia — the youngest and most 
 inexperienced — but what they could get from 
 her without her discovering their motives, with- 
 out the others objecting. They forgot that Serbia 
 was no longer a child; l;hcy did not know that 
 she could spy self-interest in the proffers they 
 made her. So she was .-oldly distan* with them 
 at times, though she leaned most towaid the big, 
 fur-clad Cousin from the North. He was closer 
 of kin, a double relation, and he seemed less mer- 
 
S L R B I A NS 
 
 75 
 
 cenary than some of them. But even he could 
 not get her a home facing the sea. She longed 
 so ardently for this! Why did every one hinder 
 her? The Imperial Cousin on the West was de- 
 termined to stop her. Had he not given refuge to 
 her exiled children in the days of darkness? Had 
 he not let them win victories for him when she 
 had hardly a friend in the woric' Was it likely 
 — as human nature goes — that he had done this 
 without expecting a reward? No, she must be 
 reasonable and must let him have the first choice 
 of all that she had to sell, and at his own price. 
 Should she reach the sea, others would tempt 
 her. She would find all sorts of jjeople there 
 anxious to trade with her — new jjeople whom 
 she herself had never yet had a chance to help. 
 No! he, the Imperial Cousin, knew what was 
 best for her. The only trade route for her was 
 the one through his land. She must send her 
 things that way and, after he had looked them 
 over, if there was anything he did not wish, she 
 might sell it to some one else. Moreover, of 
 course, she must pay whatever he charged for 
 transportation and customs as s'le passed through 
 his country. 
 
 But Serbia had grown more sophisticated. 
 Her costume of red and gold still followed the 
 old lines; indeed, only a close observer could see 
 any chai.*;es in it. But the ma^ rial v as richer 
 than formerly, and she had thrown aside the 
 little veil — symbol, as it seemed to her, of the 
 
 11 
 
76 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 darkening oppression of the Ottoman. Her 
 people were clamoring around her. They as- 
 sured her they were not lazy, though p>erhaps 
 a little slower than some of their neighbors. 
 Their fields yielded abundantly. They dis- 
 covered that by digging they could get much 
 wealth, not only from the surface but from their 
 rock;> far below. They must be able to exchange 
 it — to send it readily where they wished. Why, 
 why, since they were willing to pay for it, could 
 they not have a seajjort of their own? 
 
 But there was another who was determined to 
 hold Serbia back. She did not know him well; 
 for though he bore the Imperial eagle, he had 
 appropriated a title that belonged to the old 
 house that for a time had held the world in its 
 grasp. She would not call him a parvenu — not 
 wholly a parvenu — yet why should he trouble 
 her? She was not really in his way. Could it 
 be that he was trying to curry favor with the 
 turbancd Turk, and hoped to ingratiate himself 
 the more thoroughly by tormenting her? What 
 had the Turk to give him? Ah! Serbia had now 
 grown so worldly that she suspected motives in 
 every action, even in those sometimes that were 
 really guileless. 
 
ERBIA, in the same latitude 
 as France and Italy, has a 
 similar climate, though with 
 greater extremes of heat and 
 cold; and its average of one hundred 
 rainy days yearly prevents its being 
 called a land of sunshine. With an area 
 about equal to that of the State of New 
 York, its population of four millions is 
 much smaller — nearer, indeed, that of 
 Massachusetts. About fifteen thousand 
 of its nearly thirty-four thousand square 
 miles of area is territory added since the 
 Balkan wars. The rivers of Serbia flow 
 toward the north into the Danube. Its 
 boundary rivers, the Danube, Save, 
 Drina, and Timok are navigable, but of 
 those within Serbia, only the Morava is 
 navigable, and that for but sixty miles. 
 Serbia is not only protected by the 
 ranges on her boundaries, but four-fifths 
 of the surface is covered with mountains, 
 
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 1653 East Mam Street 
 
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78 
 
 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 a "chaos of mountains," a fact both 
 helping and hindering her progress 
 through the centuries. The general as- 
 pect of Serbia is one of beauty, with 
 high and rugged mountains, mysterious 
 forests, and long narrow river valleys 
 as picturesque as fertile. Even the 
 Sumadia, called the rallying point of the 
 Nation, is now well cultivated and enter- 
 prising. Many medieval buildings add 
 to the picturesqueness of the country, 
 forts and churches perched on rocky 
 heights or half screened in the \^ ods. 
 
 Serbian towns resemble one another, 
 with their wide, clean streets, and 
 red-roofed houses built of stone, with 
 suburbs that show many attractive 
 dwellings surrounded by shrubbery. Even 
 if the churches are not very graceful, 
 there are many modern school buildings 
 throughout the country. The five larg- 
 est towns have — or, alas! had — from 
 fifteen thousand to about one hundred 
 thousand inhabitants each, from Passav- 
 owitz to Belgrade; in order, Leskovatz, 
 
 i ; 
 
SERBIANS 
 
 79 
 
 Kraguievatz, and Nish, but Belgrade is 
 by far the largest. 
 
 Although the original Serb type was 
 probably blonde, the minghng of the 
 Slav with the other races in the Balkans 
 has brought it about that most Serbs are 
 now dark-skinned and dark-haired and of 
 only average stature. The tall blonde 
 peasant of the Sumadia is an exception 
 to this type, though the Serb generally 
 has a clear gray eye. 
 
 The Serb is excitable and volatile. 
 While holding to old things he is ready 
 to grasp new ideas, but his new ideas 
 he cannot always make practical. It is 
 probably for this reason that Serbia is 
 behind many countries in agricultural 
 and industrial development. The Serb 
 is not of a jealous disposition. He is 
 ready to praise what others have done, 
 and though tenacious of purpose he is 
 neither dogged nor blunt like his neighbor 
 the Bulgarian. The modern Serb desires 
 to be well thought of. He is anxious to 
 be measured by Western standards, yet 
 
 fi 
 
 1 "^i^ 
 
8o 
 
 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 in his heart he still cherishes many old 
 customs. If he is less straightforward, 
 especially in poHtics, than one might 
 wish, his love of strategy may be as- 
 cribed to the many years when it took 
 something besides physical courage to 
 save him from the brutality of the Turk. 
 Even his enemies admit his bravery. 
 In general character, the Serb may be 
 compared to the Scotch Highlander, 
 "brave in battle, with much canniness 
 in prosecuting material interests." All 
 visitors to Serbia rote the great hos- 
 pitality of the Serb, and he shows a 
 marked courtesy in dealing with others. 
 He is fond of fun and laughter, as any 
 one reahzes who sees him at a festival, 
 dancing the national dance — the kolo 
 — to the sound of the flute and the bag- 
 pipe, and often, afterwards, listening to 
 the heroic verse of the guslar as he 
 accompanies them on the gusle. 
 
 The Serb's religion is alm-jst the same 
 as patriotism with him. The Orthodox 
 Church of Serbia to-day has a strong 
 
SERBIANS 
 
 8l 
 
 resemblance to the early Christian Church 
 of the eighth century. "Here we know 
 the English very well, and your Church 
 is not unlike our own," said a Serb to 
 an English traveler recently. The inde- 
 pendence of the Serbian Church is largely 
 due to the fact that the Turks did not 
 interfere with the religious faith of the 
 Serbs in the long dark night of oppres- 
 sion. Though this may have been merely 
 from their contempt for the conquered 
 and their Church, the result was to the 
 advantage of the Serb. 
 
 Many Serbian traditions are contrary 
 to the spirit of the Christian Church, but 
 the Church early found that the only 
 v/ay to hold the Serb was to be patient 
 in the hope that Christianity would 
 eventually modify his Pagan beliefs. In 
 few nations is there such a minghng of 
 heathen traditions and piety. The tradi- 
 tions, yes, even the superstitions of the 
 Serb helped him bear the hardships of 
 the Turkish reign. While the Serb has 
 held fast to Christianity for more than 
 
 ■ m 
 
 
82 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 a thousand years and while bigotry and 
 atheism are almost unknown in Serbia, 
 the Serb does not attend Church de- 
 votedly. He is, however, very faithful 
 to religious customs, though many of 
 these originated in heathendom. The 
 Saints are very real to him and each 
 one has duties, yet some of them are very 
 like the gods of mythology. 
 
 The Serb is a great observer of signs 
 and they deeply affect his daily life. 
 His manner of getting up, of dressing, 
 the person whom he first meets in the 
 day, the way the dog barks or the moon 
 shines — all these things have some 
 influence on his actions. Many of his 
 superstitions naturally relate to birth, 
 death, and marriage. Most youths and 
 maidens know just what to do to dis- 
 cover their future husband or wife. 
 
 There is poetry in many Serb beliefs 
 about death, notably that death can be 
 foretold by the person himself or by 
 some of his family. Very beautiful is 
 the idea that there is a star for every 
 
I f 
 
 SERBIANS 83 
 
 person, that disappears when that person 
 dies. The Serb has a stronnc faith in 
 'mmortality. He believes in both good 
 and bad spirits, and in witches and en 
 chanters, as well as in the poetic Vili. 
 He occasionally hunted and killed witches 
 in the olden times. Vampires, too, have 
 had an existence in his imagination. To 
 protect himself from ail these evil things, 
 the Serb of old had various superstitious 
 practi-:-'^!, and it is surprising sometimes 
 to-ciw^ to find him cherishing primitive 
 beliefs. As cattle raising for example is 
 certainly one of his chief occupations, 
 many superstitions exist and are put 
 into prac;xe for making the cattle healthy 
 and fat, and for protecting them from 
 wild beasts. The Serb also knows what 
 charm to use to make his wheatfields 
 grow, to prevent droughts and other 
 things that might injure his crops or his 
 fruit trees. 
 
 Among all their festivals, the Serbs 
 celebrate Christmas the most elabo- 
 rately, with feasts and ceremonies, many 
 
84 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 of which come down from Pagan days. 
 After supper, on Christmas eve, seeds 
 and crumbs are scattered outside as a 
 treat for the birds, which, they say, 
 are also God's creatures. A young oak 
 or baidnak always plays a conspicuous 
 part in the Christmas festival and the 
 ceremonies attending it are most pic- 
 turesque. The Slava is also a most im- 
 portant festival. It is a family celebration 
 and generally falls on the Feast Day of 
 some great Saint. After a man's death, 
 the same Slava is kept by his son. In 
 some regions, people with the same Slava 
 do not marry, for having the same Slava 
 may mean thp^ tSy are of the same 
 stock. Of all .he Serbs are most 
 
 scrupulous noi ,.rry those who are 
 
 nearly related to cnem. 
 
 While religion is so strongly a part of 
 his daily life, the Serb is yet disinclined 
 to engage in abstract religious discus- 
 sions. This is strange since he is very 
 fond of long political and historical argu- 
 ments. An English traveler came upon 
 
SERBIANS 85 
 
 two men engaged in a fisticuff fight. 
 When he inquired the cause, he was 
 told that the two had a disagreement 
 about something that had happened at 
 the Battle of Kossovo, five hundred years 
 before. 
 
 Although there is less now than in 
 former times of the unique and formal 
 swearing of brotherhood between Serb 
 and Serb, the feeUng of brotherhood is 
 still very strong. Travelers through the 
 country sometimes come upon rude stones 
 erected to soldiers who have died "for 
 the glory and freedom of his brother 
 
 Serbs." 
 
 What has been said about the men 
 applies to a great extent to the women 
 of Serbia. It must be admitted, however, 
 that in the interior of the country woman 
 is still reckoned inferior to man — the 
 plaything of youth, the nurse of old age. 
 But the modern Serbian woman is com- 
 ing to the front. She is not strong- 
 minded in the Hmited sense, not anxious, 
 like her Russian kinswoman, to mix in 
 
86 
 
 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 politics, yet she is deeply interested in 
 national affairs and in crises she i a'ways 
 ready to help. If she does not work as 
 hard as the Montenegrin woman she still 
 performs much heavy labor. The men 
 of Serbia encourage her higher ambition. 
 Of late years, many Serb women have 
 gone abroad for training as teachers, or 
 to engage in technical work. Not infre- 
 quently, their expenses have been paid 
 wholly or in part by some brother or 
 cousin whose own earnings were small. 
 
 To tell what Serb women have done 
 in the many wars of their country would 
 be a long story. N^t content with pro- 
 vio ng food and cIo' ing for the soldiers 
 and nursing the wounded, time and 
 . again they have carried guns and have 
 fought by the side of the men of their 
 families. This was notably the case in 
 the late war with Bulgaria, and in the 
 present war also many of them have 
 served as soldiers. 
 
 The Serb woman is not willing " 3 go 
 out as a domestic. She prefers to earn 
 
SERBIANS 87 
 
 money, If she lias to, as a teacher, secre- 
 tary, or nurse, or in a profession; but 
 in her own home the SerL) woman does 
 no end of work. She is the first to rise, 
 the last to go to bed, and seems never to 
 rest, for she does all the housework. She 
 spins, weaves, and embroiders; cooks, 
 washes, milks the cows, makes cheese; 
 she takes care of the children and the 
 sick; she makes the family pottery and 
 sometimes the opanke or shoes. 
 
 But the condition of her country the 
 past few years has to a g'-eat extent de- 
 stroyed the home life of the Serb women. 
 Very remarkable was the "Lc igue of 
 Death" the women formed In the war 
 before the present. Your ^ and Id o» 
 all social conditions became gooa shoi 
 and stood side by side, rides on i;u'ir 
 shoulders, like men. They made t' 
 men wear the medal of the League. 
 that war women did not join the fightiUt 
 troops, as in the present. But they often 
 accompanied them on the march, carry- 
 ing on notched sticks their heavy bun- 
 
88 
 
 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 dies with clothes and domestic utensils, 
 and set up their little households wher- 
 ever the men happened to halt. 
 
 In the present war, Serbia has a three- 
 fold claim on Americans: Because of the 
 democracy of its institutions and people; 
 because of the simplicity of life as it is 
 lived there; and because of its jenturies 
 of struggle for political independence. 
 
 Serbia is one of the most democratic 
 corntries in the world. It has no titles, 
 except those of the King and his next 
 of kin. All other Serbians are "gos- 
 podin" and "gospoja," our "Mr." and 
 "Mrs." The farmer is the real aristo- 
 crat and eighty per cent of the Serbians 
 are farmers. 
 
 The farmer has many things in h*= 
 favor. Even the peasant has five acres 
 of land allotted him by the government; 
 and in his home garden he raises car- 
 rots and turnips and pumpkins and 
 melons. The larger farmers raise wheat 
 and corn and sugar beets, oats and all 
 the cereals; and cattle in large numbers. 
 
k^iLji 
 
 SERBIANS 
 
 8q 
 
 They raise their own food and j^ .^re 
 chiefly vegetarians; and they carry ihcir 
 surplus in ox-teams to the nearest market. 
 Prices are regulated by the Agricultural 
 Society. Ever irmer gives one or two 
 days a year . ,he State and pays his 
 taxes in kind. When crops fail, the 
 Cooperative Agricultural Society lends 
 him money. It also advances money 
 ibr implements and buildings, and offers 
 prizes for cattle and improved stock. 
 
 Living a simple Hfe, the average Ser- 
 bian needs little money. One dollar in 
 Serbia is equal to five dollars here. If 
 
 farmer enters trade, he is thought to 
 ^^ going down in the world. He may 
 enter banking or life insurance with no 
 discredit, but the shopkeepers of the 
 country are largely foreigners. In all 
 Serbia there are hardly two-score mil- 
 lionaires. Serbian women are good house- 
 wives and do much of their own work. 
 Serbians, in general, are too independent 
 to be servants; and the latter are largely 
 Austrians. Government ( nployees in 
 
90 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 Serbia are natives. Young Serbians also 
 are educated for the church, the army, 
 for law, and for school teaching. Young 
 men intended for the army generally 
 study in France, for scientific work in 
 Germany, for the church in Russia. 
 Many young Serbians, too, have studied 
 in Switzerland and in Belgium. Thus, 
 Serbian society as a whole is sympa- 
 thetic with foreign countries. 
 
 Of the four million inhabitants of Ser- 
 bia proper, the larger number belong to 
 the Orthodox Greek Church, but there 
 are also a good many Roman Catholics 
 and some Moslems. Though their life 
 is in general very simple, Serbians are 
 not wholly untouched by modern prog- 
 ress. Many towns have electric hghts 
 and telephones, and electric trams are 
 by no means unknown. Serbia has rich 
 mineral resources, which the State is 
 undertaking to develop. Among their 
 manufactures is a remarkable wool car- 
 pet and a certain kind of coarse hnen. 
 Though they have a fairly large output 
 
SERBIANS 
 
 91 
 
 of silk, silk fabrics as well as finer tex- 
 tiles are imported. A man who has a 
 salary of three thousand dollars is an ex- 
 ception, and considered very prosperous. 
 Salaries of cabinet ministers hardly ex- 
 ceed this sum, and court life does not 
 tend to any magnificence. 
 
 Serbians marry young. There is little 
 illegitimacy in the country and infre- 
 quent divorce. They have been called 
 automatically eugenic — on account of 
 their strict marriage laws forbidding 
 marriage under certain degrees of rela- 
 tionship. The Serbians are a domestic 
 people, devoted to their children; hence, 
 the present condition of the country is 
 especially tragic. 
 
 The people of Serbia have the great- 
 est admiration for Americans, and for 
 the independence and political ideas of 
 America. 
 
 The valorous struggle of little Serbia 
 against Austria, its tireless enemy, as- 
 tonished the world at the beginning of 
 the present war. It accomplished hardly 
 
92 Serbia: a sketch 
 
 less for the cause of the Allies In the East 
 than the resistance of Belgium in the 
 West. Yet, at first, the sufferings of 
 the more distant Serbians attracted less 
 attention than the case demanded. Their 
 agony continues acute and terrible. 
 
V. SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 HEN, at last, Serbia reached the sea. 
 Unexpectedly, it is true, and not at 
 the point that she had long had in 
 mind. Sad and bereft, was she de- 
 serted by God as well as by man? As she sat 
 there alone she heard a confused murmur of 
 voices, and she vaguely distinguished the cries 
 of children for their fathers, and wives for their 
 husbands — and tales echoed in her ears that 
 were sadder, more horrible, than the most hor- 
 rible tales of the Turkish night. Poor Serbia! 
 Her garments were torn and stained with snow 
 and mud, her face was bruised. Gone, gone her 
 aspect of happy prosperity. Yet in spite of all 
 she had suffered there was a light in her eyes 
 — the light of her soul shining through the sad- 
 ness. She was not bowed down, though her at- 
 titude spoke of sorrow. She was disturbed not 
 for herself, but for her people. How they had 
 suffered! She did not try to shut her ears to the 
 murmurs that still came to her — children cry- 
 ing faintly and oh, so pitifully! and strong 
 men, yes, she heard the moaning of strong 
 men. Then as she looked in the direction of 
 the sound, she saw a mother bowed in grief beside 
 a long snowy road, yet uttering no word as old 
 
94 
 
 SERBIA.- A SKETCH 
 
 men, strangers to her, found a place for the 
 little frozen body under the hard ground. She 
 saw a long, long line winding up the narrow, 
 shelving road, where a false step at any moment 
 might send a man to death into the river five 
 hundred feet below. "The best fighters in the 
 world!" It had made her proud to hear this, 
 but now how could they fight the savage winter? 
 Worst place of all, Kossovo, where not so long 
 before she had celebrated Mass triumphantly, 
 Kossovo, again to be as when it was first named 
 "The Field of Black Birds," "The Field of 
 Vultures." Now the stricken lay never to rise 
 again and for a moment Serbia could look no 
 longer. 
 
 There were other things along the road — 
 rifles, and cartridge belts, burdens too heavy to 
 carry far, and she wished that all such things 
 might lie on the ground forever, never to be used 
 by young or old. 
 
 Alas, the little boys! the little boys who had 
 never been away from their mothers — the hope 
 of Serbia — dying by thousands along that 
 dreary road; dying, dying on the plain of Kossovo. 
 War, for them, a kind of holiday! They wei^ 
 soldiers now; they would be real men when they 
 reached the sea! The little boys, the hope of the 
 future! Of the thirty thousand who trod that 
 dreary road, only a half lived to reach the sea. 
 Not one-half of these reached the island where 
 they were to have their training as soldiers. 
 
 y_ 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 95 
 
 The soul of Serbia was in agony as a ghostlike 
 army, pale, pinched, and starved, crept over the 
 snowy mountains, over the soggy roads - - men, 
 women, and poor dumb animals sinking in to 
 their death. Of those who came to the edge of 
 the sea some could hold out no longer, but died 
 when comfort was near. 
 
lESPITE the circumstances 
 under which he came to the 
 throne, no one believed that 
 King Peter had planned or 
 had anything to do with the murder of 
 Alexander and Draga; he, the direct 
 descendant of the honest Karageorges. 
 Yet it could not be denied that he had 
 profited by this murder and, conse- 
 quently, even when the horror of the 
 whole thing had faded from the minds of 
 other Europeans, he had a certain amount 
 of prejudice to overcome. Yet in the 
 first ten years of his reign, Serbia had 
 prospered. Her nearly one thousand 
 miles of railways had brought her in 
 closer connection with the world. Though 
 the debt incurred for these railways and 
 other improvements were large she had 
 no trouble in borrowing money. Her 
 loans were readily take . by outside capi- 
 talists. 
 
 4BIEISHIPMI 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 97 
 
 In the hundred years since she had 
 been freed from Turkish rule, Serbia 
 had made constant advance in culture, in 
 all that may be called economic life. Her 
 peasant farmers not only produced all 
 that the Serbians themselves needed — 
 wheat, barley, maize, fruits of various 
 kinds, cattl< , and pigs — but there 
 was a demand for iome of their staples 
 in other countries, and more and more 
 they required a larger market; more 
 and more they chafed under the re- 
 strictions made by Austria. The whole 
 country realized, as outsiders had real- 
 ized, that Austria was slowly squeezing 
 her; that Austria would be ready to 
 devour her when the right time came. 
 The King had a difficult task in keeping 
 his people contented. 
 
 Politically, however, Serbia in the 
 nineteenth century had made great ad- 
 vances, and PCing Peter's domain was a 
 well-organized limited monarchy. After 
 many vicissitudes Serbia at last has an 
 excellent Constitution, well meeting all 
 
 ^u 
 
98 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 the needs of the Nation. In the King 
 and the Skupchtina is vested all the 
 legislative power. The Skupchtina, an 
 assembly elected by proportional repre- 
 sentation, has complete control of the 
 national finances. Serbia has good Courts 
 of Justice and a humane prison system, 
 and her standing army not only has to 
 be taken into account by the Great 
 Po>vers, but has spoken loudly for itself 
 in the present war. Serbia has also 
 good local government; the scheme for 
 which includes two public bodies, a 
 municipal council and a communal tri- 
 bunal. 
 
 Serbia, after many years of backward- 
 ness, has been paying great attention to 
 education. The Minister of Education 
 is a man of great prestige and influence. 
 Teachers are well trained and well paid. 
 It is not strange, perhaps, that a people 
 with the Serbians* deep poetic sensibility 
 should in the past have given little atten- 
 tion to technical training, but a change 
 has of late been coming, a change of atti- 
 
.■^' 
 
 * ,- ~:'^ 1.1:-" J - ,,- r'l.-T- v^ ■ '-v -• 
 
 ^ 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 99 
 
 tude that after the war will undoubterilv 
 produce important results. From the 
 earliest days the Serb has had a marked 
 aptitude for handicraft. In medieval 
 documents, certain Serbian blacksmiths 
 arc named as expert makers of penknives, 
 and to-day Serbian metal work has high 
 rank. Unlike the Greek, the Serb has 
 little aptitude for trade, and unlike the 
 Bulgar, he is rather sluggish in working 
 his farm, slow to use improved methods 
 or new implements. Yet, in spite of the 
 many upheavals at home, he has been 
 constantly progressing, and since he threw 
 off Turkish rule has each year become 
 sturdier and more self-reliant. Indeed, he 
 can be called to-day efficient in both the 
 economic and the military sense. 
 
 In the Middle Ages Serbia was one 
 of the largest silver-producing countries 
 in Europe. Her mountains have as yet 
 given up but little of their treasure. The 
 Romans knew the mines and brought 
 out of them much gold, silver, iron, and 
 lead and, during the later Middle Ages, 
 
 I 
 
100 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 the merchants of Ragusa obtained no 
 small portion of their wealth from the 
 same source, but about the middle of the 
 fifteenth century the Turks put an end 
 to all enterprises of this kind. In the 
 first half of the last century, mining 
 was revived. Belgian capital had a 
 large part in this, especially in producing 
 copper and iron. 
 
 The copper mines south of Passa- 
 rowitz ""ere said to be among the rich- 
 est, if not the richest; in the world. But 
 as yet Serbia herself hardly appreciated 
 the value of her own resources. Her less 
 than one thousand miles of railways had 
 loaded her with a heavy debt. Austria 
 had improved the Danube — largely, 
 however, for Austria's advantage. But 
 Serbia began to look about. She was 
 determined to gain, if possible, the eco- 
 nomic independence she longed for. With 
 a resourceful King, wdth a competent 
 Ministry headed by the eminent Pachich, 
 this ought not to be difficult, she thought, 
 ought to be much less difficult than her 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 lOI 
 
 long, hard struggle for political inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 The spirit of the Serb has been shown 
 in the remarkable development of co- 
 operation in industry, especially in the 
 twentieth century. "Only Union is Ser- 
 bia's Salvation" — this was f Sava's 
 famous saying in the di''* cwelfth 
 
 century. Politically, his vvords had 
 proved true for Serbia, and economically 
 they had begun to show their value, 
 especially in King Peter's reign. 
 
 One reason for the success of nine- 
 teenth century cooperation in Serbia may 
 be found in the Zadruga of ancient 
 
 mes. This was a large family associa- 
 tion including male kinship to the second 
 and the third degree. It often numbered 
 more than a hundred individuals; each 
 member had a fixed duty and the reve- 
 nues were divided among all the mem- 
 bers. The Zadruga was ruled by an elder 
 or Stareschina. Sometimes the Stares- 
 china was a woman. The Stareschina 
 kept the money-box and attended to the 
 
 m 
 
?! ! 
 
 102 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 1 
 
 payment of taxes. The women of the 
 Zadruga obeyed the Stareschina's wife. 
 This kind of community life was so 
 familiar to the Serbs that it was no 
 unusual thing when some one asked, 
 "Whose is that drove of sheep?" to 
 hear the reply "Ours," never "Mine." 
 
 In Literature, in Science, in Art, the 
 Serb had begun to take his rightful place 
 in Europe, encouraged by the example of 
 a large-minded, cultured monarch. 
 
 Serbia had long reahzed that within 
 her boundaries lived hardly half of the 
 Serb race in Europe. The feeling of 
 brotherhood with all his kin which is so 
 powerful a characteristic of the individual 
 Serb is even more marked in the Serbian 
 Nation. A generation ago Serbia was 
 willing to go to war with Turkey to help 
 her downtrodden kindred in Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina. "The saving of Old Serbia 
 and the Union of the Serb peoples is the 
 star by which the Serb steers," said a 
 traveler in the early part of King Peter's 
 reign, and certainly to the liberty-loving 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 103 
 
 Serb this was a beautiful vision — that 
 he was sometime to liberate from Turkish 
 and from Austrian control all his op- 
 pressed brothers, the four and a half 
 millions whom the twentieth century 
 found so restive under Turkish, Teutonic, 
 or Magyar control. 
 
 For Serbia, then, her entrance into 
 The Balkan League in 191 2 was a natural 
 sequence of many of her previous as- 
 pirations and efforts. In presence of a 
 common danger — the Teuton working 
 through the Turk — the Balkan States 
 put aside their own particular rivalries 
 and formed a Union. This was effective, 
 and the Turks were defeated. But when 
 Turkey was defeated, Bulgaria and Ser- 
 bia were again at sword's points. It 
 was not a question of jealousies between 
 small kingdoms, but rather a larger issue 
 — Pan-Slavism as against Pan-Teuton- 
 ism. Serbs, wherever found, were out- 
 spoken, and Austria saw that she might 
 have to give up not only her hope of 
 adding Serbia to her dominions but be- 
 
 i." 
 
104 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 sides this lose her dominion over the Serbs 
 within the dual monarchy. From that 
 time she hardly tried to hide her inten- 
 tion of punishing Serbia for her ambition. 
 Serbia, meanwhile, was growing bolder, 
 stronger. Though her successes in recent 
 wars had not given her her coveted sea- 
 port, she had fouiid ways of getting a 
 considerable proportion of her products 
 to market without sending them through 
 Austria. Her imports from Austria fell 
 off largely. Austria and Germany saw 
 that they would have difficulty in mak- 
 ing Serbia a docile ward, especially as 
 M. Pachich in 191 2 had made it plain to 
 the other Powers that it would be to 
 their advantage to give Serbia r. chance 
 to expand. 
 
 It was eleven years almost to a day 
 from the time he came to the throne, 
 when Peter's security was shattered by 
 an explosion. The Archduke Ferdinand, 
 heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, 
 while making a tour through Bosnia, were 
 killed at Sarajevo by a Serb, not one of 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 105 
 
 the kingdom of Serbia but a Serb of 
 Greater Serbia. Austria, that had been 
 for so long watching Serbia as a cat 
 watches a mouse, quickly pounced on 
 the little kingdom. She made demands 
 such as no civihzed country could comply 
 with, and at last gave an ultimatum on 
 the twenty-seventh of July which had 
 far-reaching consequences. It was a 
 stone thrown into a quiet pool and the 
 ripples and eddies reached unthought-of 
 shores, as the whole world now knows. 
 
 There are many strange circumstances 
 connected with this murder. Those who 
 have followed out the various ckies have 
 seen evidence that the Serb government 
 had no knowledge of the proposed murder, 
 but there is much that tends to show that 
 the assr».ssination was not a great surprise 
 to Austria — that Ferdinand, even at 
 home, wa > in fear of his life. He always 
 slept in a room without furniture and 
 not long before the assassination he had 
 taken out a life insurance, the largest life 
 insurance known. In case of his death, it 
 
io6 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 was necessary to make provision for his 
 consort who could hope nothing from 
 the house of which he had long been the 
 heir. When Ferdinand's heir had a son 
 born to him, the Austrians turned against 
 Ferdinand and wished him out of the 
 way. His removal, indeed, was a greater 
 object to Austria-Hungary than to Ser- 
 bia, for It was generally known that he 
 was hberal in his ideas regarding the 
 Serbs in the dual monarchy, and had 
 even formed a plan for giving them Home 
 Rule. 
 
 From the beginning Austria-Hungary 
 tried to impr ss on the world that the 
 shooting of Archduke Ferdinand was part 
 of a revolt of the southern Slav provinces 
 of Austria instigated by the Serbian gov- 
 ernment. On the twenty-third of July, 
 Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia de- 
 manding that she use every means in 
 her power to punish the assassins and 
 stop all further anti-Austrian propa- 
 ganda. The next day, Russia asked Tor 
 delay, and on July twenty-fifth, ten min- 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 107 
 
 utes before the time of the ultimatum 
 expired, Serbia made due apologies and 
 agreed to all the conditions imposed by 
 Austria except the one that Austria 
 should have official representatives in 
 the work of investigation. Two days 
 later, the Austrian foreign office issued 
 a statement with these words: "Serbia's 
 note is filled with the spirit of dishonesty." 
 Austria was determined on war. She 
 had not accepted Serbia's apologies. 
 
 Then the Great Slav came to the rescue 
 of the smaller. Russia immediately noti- 
 fied Austria that she would not allow 
 Serbian territory to be invaded. Now 
 it was Germany's turn. She let it be 
 known semi-officially that she stood ready 
 to back Austria. No one, she said, must 
 interfere between Austria-Hunga^-y and 
 Serbia. On this twenty-seventh of July 
 Sir Edvnrd Gray, Great Britain's For- 
 eign Secretary, proposed a London con- 
 ference of the Ambassadors of all the 
 Great Powers. France and Italy at once 
 accepted but Austria and Germany de- 
 
"H- 
 
 io8 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 dined this invitation. On the twenty- 
 eighth of July came the fateful call to 
 war. "Austria-Hungary considers itself 
 in a state of war with Serbia." The 
 reason given for this was that Serbia 
 had not rephed satisfactorily to Austria's 
 note of the twenty-third of July. Events 
 followed in quick succession. Russia's 
 mobilization was followed by a request 
 from Germany that she stop this move- 
 ment of the troops and make a reply 
 within twenty-four hours. Whereupon 
 England notified Germany that she could 
 not stand aloof from a general conflict; 
 that the balance of power could not be 
 destroyed. Russia made no reply to 
 Germany's ultimatum but instead sent 
 out a manifesto: "Russia is determined 
 not to allow Serbia to be crushed and 
 will fulfil its duty in regard to that 
 small kingdom." Next, the German 
 Ambassador at the French foreign office 
 expressed fear of friction between the 
 Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente 
 unless the impending conflict between 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 09 
 
 Austria and Serbia should be strictly 
 localized. 
 
 On August first, the German Ambassa- 
 dor handed a declaration of war to the 
 Russian Foreign Minister. This meant 
 war with France, and hardly had the 
 French Government issued general mo- 
 bihzation orders when the invasion of 
 France began. A day later, Germany 
 demanded of Belgium free passage for 
 her troops, and the French Government 
 proclaimed martial law in France and 
 Algiers. All Continental Europe was now 
 adame. The German Ambassador had 
 made a strong bid for British neu- 
 trality ^ '.nd Great Britain's reply was 
 noble. After speaking of its friendship 
 with France it concluded with the words: 
 "Whether that friendship involves obli- 
 gations, let every man look into his own 
 heart and construe that obligation for 
 himself." 
 
 On the fourth of August, after Italy 
 had proclaimed her neutrality, England's 
 ulvimatum was sent to Germany. When 
 
no 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 no reply came, the Sritish foreign office 
 announced that a state of war existed 
 between the two countries and Germany 
 gave the British Ambassador his passport. 
 A day later, President Wilson offered the 
 good offices of the United States to bring 
 about a settlement between the warring 
 powers. On the seventh of August, a 
 day after Austria-Hungary had declared 
 war on Russia, Germany announced that 
 jealousy of Germany was the real cause 
 of the war. On the ninth of August, 
 Serbia, in order to get rid of the German 
 Ambassador, declared war on Germany 
 and, finally, war was declared between 
 France and Austria, and Austria and 
 Great Britain. Portugal reported that 
 she was on the side of Great Britain. 
 
 Soon Austrian troops were invading 
 Serbia, three to one. On the twenty- 
 seventh of July, the Serbian army had 
 mobilized. It had barely recuperated 
 from the recent war with Bulgaria and, 
 while men were in trim for fighting, the 
 army was ill equipped and to an extent 
 
 ■Lvr* 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 III 
 
 unprepared for a new war. This in itself 
 shows the folly of the accusation that 
 the Serbian Government had encouraged 
 the mard r of the Archduke in order to 
 precipitate a war with Austria. An addi- 
 tional bit of evidence in Serbia's favor, 
 if more were needed, was the fact that 
 when the Archduke was murdered, many- 
 Serbian officials and other men of im- 
 portance were at German or Austrian 
 watering-places and had difficulty in 
 getting back to their homes and their 
 duties. 
 
 Little of the war material destroyed in 
 the recent conflict with Bulgaria had 
 been replaced and even when the Serbs 
 took the field they had not sufficient 
 ammunition, for much of their ammuni- 
 tion was French and, owing to conditions 
 in France, the latter country could no 
 longer supply Serbia with what she needed. 
 Yet by the middle of August the armies 
 of the Crown Prince in a five days' en- 
 gagement, the Battle of Jadar, sent the 
 Austrians across the river, and out of 
 
112 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 Serbia. In dead and %vounded the in- 
 vaders had lost about tvice as many as 
 the Serbs, as well as a large amount of 
 ordnance and stores. They returned in 
 September, but after inflicting much 
 damage on the country v/ere again de- 
 feated and again dri-en out of Serbia 
 about the middle of December. 
 
 Serbia, invaded by an army three 
 times as large as her own, fought valiantly 
 and drove the Austrians outside her 
 kingdom, not, however, until much 
 damage had been done. Not only had she 
 many wourded but the invader destroyed 
 everything, even the property of non- 
 combatants who had remained passive on 
 their farms. So viciously had the Aus- 
 trians treated the non-combatants that 
 all who could fled the country toward 
 Macedonia. Crops were seized; cattle 
 were killed or taken away; farms and 
 implements destroyed, and in fact the 
 whole country was laid v aste. 
 
 Per^^aps in no better way can the bar- 
 barous methods of the Austrian invader 
 
(/> 
 
SERBIA: SIGHING 1 13 
 
 be understood than from a quotation 
 from an appeal made by the Serbian 
 Archbishop. 
 
 "The barbarous methods of warfare of the 
 German Allies, the object of which is to annihilate 
 other nations and their culture, have inflicted 
 on us. as well as on the Belgians, bloody and 
 incurable wounds. Whole crowds of our best and 
 noblest Serbs, who as non-combatants peacefully 
 received the Austrian army, have been killed 
 with a cruelty of which even savages would be 
 ashamed. Men and women, old men and inno- 
 cent children have been murdered by terrible 
 tortures, by arms, and by fire. Many have been 
 locked up in school buildings and other houses 
 and burnt alive. All the churches to which the 
 Austrians got access have been desecrated, 
 robbed, and destroyed. The schools and the 
 best houses have fared in the same way. Bel- 
 grade, the beautiful capital of Serbia, its churches, 
 its educational and humanitarian institutions, 
 have been destroyed. The university, the national 
 library, the museum, and scientific collections, 
 have been ruined. For those who have escaped, 
 and for the orphans of the fallen, speedy help is 
 most necessary." 
 
 Said Madame Grouitch an eye witness 
 of these depredations, "Imagine the farm- 
 ing districts of our Middle States charred 
 
114 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 and trampled, and everything killed. 
 This would give you a faint idea of Ss bia 
 after the Austrians first entered it." V h< n 
 they approached Belgrade at the vci;- 
 beginning of the war, within six hours 
 they were shelling the city and killing 
 women and children. In other cities, 
 as at Shabats, for example, they did 
 many things from what seemed a mere 
 spirit of wantonness, emptying the con- 
 tents of shops into the streets and carry- 
 ing away property that could hardly 
 have been of use to them. But while 
 they devastated the country they had 
 entered and terrified the non-combat- 
 ants, they had few engagements with the 
 Serbian soldiers worthy the name of 
 battle. 
 
 It was during this second invasion that 
 King Peter especially endeared himself to 
 his men. In one instance where they 
 were growing disheartened, he entered 
 the trenches and discharging his rifle 
 as a signal, led them to victory. The 
 Serbs from the beginning of the war felt 
 
 'v: '^ 
 
»li 
 
 t=^: 
 
 SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 115 
 
 confidence in their leaders — the Crown 
 Prince, Putnik, Misich, Pasich, the king. 
 The Serbian soldiers were gathering 
 strength. The world knew before this 
 that they were brave fighters; since that 
 autumn of 1914 they have known that 
 they are unsurpassed. Facing an enemy 
 that outnumbered them three to one, 
 they did not flinch, and by the 20th of 
 December the Austrians were driven out 
 of Serbia — not to return for nearly a 
 year. During that year, however, the 
 Austrians from the other side of the 
 Danube were constantly bombarding Bel- 
 grade, while the inhabitants for the most 
 part went about their business as usual. 
 The army, which had early been ordered 
 out of the city in a vain effort to save 
 Belgrade from bombardment, was now 
 putting itself in good condition. The 
 return of the invaders was certain, the 
 time less sure. All that Serbia could 
 do was to spare no effort to put herself 
 in the best condition to meet the inevi- 
 table attacks of the foe. The hospitals 
 
wm 
 
 ii6 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 were full of wounded and Serbian women 
 and nurses from outside were doing their 
 best for the Serbian soldiers and for the 
 many sick Austrian soldiers, when the 
 dreadful typhus broke out. 
 
 But for famine and disease during their 
 fatal six months Serbia might still be 
 on her feet. Her tragic condition inter- 
 ested the whole world, unwilling to see 
 the women relatives of a million fighters 
 suffering, aye, even dying. The first 
 invasion resulted in taking away from 
 their home the majority of the peasants 
 who had remained behind to p-"- ide 
 food. The Invaders did not even , t 
 
 the hospitals — they cut off the .. ater 
 supplies so that the nurses could not even 
 provide for the sick. 
 
 During those months of disease the 
 black flag hung over hundreds of houses 
 in every Serbian town. The whole coun- 
 try was demoralized, ibr many officials 
 had lost their fives. The fever was so 
 virulent that it may be said that no 
 country has ever suffered so severely. 
 
2gJ 
 
 mm^^^m.' 
 
 'rKi'5<V,-?*74r5 
 
 SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 117 
 
 The typhus that broke ou' in the early 
 part of 191 5 came from the bad sanitary 
 condition of the Austrian prison camps, 
 and Serbia, weakened by war, was in no 
 condition to resist. Several thousands a 
 day died in the early months of that year. 
 In six of the most fertile districts, more 
 than half of the children died — of hun- 
 ger, cold, and exposure as well as of dis- 
 ease — and it was not until the Red 
 Cross physicians and others from various 
 countries took hold, that the disease 
 abated. 
 
 Meanwhile, men of Serbia were fight- 
 ing bravely and hopefully until an ad- 
 vancing wave of Teutons swept over 
 the country and the populace fled. It 
 had been wiser, perhaps, if non-combat- 
 ants had stayed in their homes, but so 
 fearful were the atrocities reported, the 
 atrocities committed by the German 
 armies in Belgium and elsewhere, that 
 retreat seemed wisest. Many Serbian 
 soldiers, however, wished to stay and 
 face the invader until they could fight 
 
Ar;4t 
 
 ii8 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 no longer. But they would have had to 
 fight with three against their one. The 
 hordes rushing on were beyond belief — 
 Germans, Austrians, and Bulgarians. 
 The humbler people might with less 
 danger have stayed behind, but the Gov- 
 ernment, naturally, could not remain in 
 its capital and there were many others 
 upon whom a price was set. When once 
 the retreat began it rolled up by tens of 
 thousands, and this human flood could 
 not be stopped. It was a spectacular 
 flight. AH the private vehicles that the 
 Government could get together; afl the 
 motor trucks which could be collected; 
 all in one great procession, peasants carry- 
 ing their household goods in bundles over 
 their shoulders — chiefly old men and 
 women, for the young men w^re in the 
 army; young women carrying babies in 
 their arms with little children clinging to 
 their skirts were following close behind. 
 Those in motor vehicles did not have 
 a painless journey. Often their cars broke 
 down; they were thrown into the mud 
 
f V* 
 
 SERBIA: SIGHING 
 
 119 
 
 from which they were with difficulty 
 rescued. Sometimes a car and its occu- 
 pants fell from the precipice into the 
 foaming river below. They went over 
 mountains as high as our Alleghanies 
 and as wild as our Rockies. Sometimes 
 they passed feudal castles on steep 
 rocks; sometimes they went through 
 dangerous passes and slept in the open, 
 fearing attacks from the murderous 
 Albanians, who were certainly to be 
 dreaded. For not a few of the poor 
 pilgrims met death at the hands of these 
 cut-throats. For days and days, they 
 moved on in the drenching rain, cold 
 and starving! And it was not only the 
 animals that succumbed to the horror 
 of the march; old men and women, 
 children, and soldiers who once had 
 been strong at last had to give up and 
 lie down in death. Constantly they 
 were in dread of the approaching enemy, 
 whose guns after a while they could 
 hear rumbhng in the distance. But 
 they kept moving on toward the sea, 
 
120 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 where they expected ships to take them 
 to a safer country. 
 
 The wraith of an army reached the 
 sea and the wraith of an army ot non- 
 combatants, — all of this suffering merely 
 to find a haven from the advancing Teu- 
 tonic armies! Perhaps those men were 
 right who had refused to retreat, who had 
 begged for death by a comrade's gun 
 rather than have the dishonor of turning 
 backs to the enemy. Though they saw 
 that the conquest of Serbia was inevi- 
 table, it was hard to admit that they were 
 beaten. At last, after all this hardship, 
 when the poor Serbians reached the 
 Adriatic, they found no food! Trans- 
 ports loaded with food had been sunk 
 in the harbors! Weary, starving, they 
 must wait a httle longer. 
 
 Was there ever before such a flight? 
 The retreat of one civilized Nation before 
 another; the flight of a whole people. 
 Government, soldiers, non-combatants, 
 and all because of the rumors of the 
 terrors the pursuer would inflict if he 
 
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 ML 1 
 
Serbia: sighing 
 
 121 
 
 caught his prey! At the sea they 
 breathed more freely — they could look 
 across the water and there, far, far be- 
 yond, lay the lands where for centuries 
 the weaker had not been sorely oppressed. 
 Then the wraith of an army began 
 to hope; and on the island the soldiers 
 were recuperating, and the Uttle boys — 
 a quarter of those who had poured into 
 the great procession from all the roads, 
 from every little village, from every 
 to^vn — the dead, would not swell the 
 triumph of the victors. Those by the 
 sea rested and grew stronger; and after 
 a while the world began to hear that 
 Serbia, deprived of her country, a Nation 
 living in exile, was getting ready to 
 claim her own. She was now one of the 
 Allies. Her army could give an account 
 of itself. "Poor Serbia!" they had said. 
 "Plucky Serbia!" they were now say- 
 ing, and it was even possible to imagine 
 the world crying, "Lucky Serbia!" The 
 soldiers recuperating at Corfu; the 
 women working at Corsica making the 
 
122 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 wonderful embroideries that had given 
 Serbia fame the world over; the down- 
 trodden under the feet of the Conqueror, 
 living in shattered dwellings in Serbian 
 town and village, and praying, praying 
 for the restoration of their homes, hiding 
 their tears while they worked or prayed 
 or nursed tlie sick — all, all working 
 for Serbia. 
 
 Then those people who recognize 
 heroism, those people v/ho admire pa- 
 tience and silent bravery, those people 
 who long had cried, "Plucky berbia!" 
 who had long been working for Serbia, 
 now worked the harder, and other workers 
 joined them, until there were few sec- 
 tions of the globe where there was not 
 a group working for Serbia. The rem- 
 nant of the army, too, worked harder 
 than ever, training, gathering strength, 
 adding to its numbers, — and at last 
 it was ready. 
 
 JL 
 
flHEN Serbia had a vision of the men 
 who had made her great — Vladimir, 
 who first showed that union is 
 strength; Michael, her earliest King, 
 and Stephen Nenianya, who gave her a real king- 
 dom, and Stephen Dushan, whose dreams of a Serb 
 Empire had given her glory; then Lazar Grebely- 
 anovitch, her brave and generous defender at 
 Kossovo. Again, after her long sleep, Karageorges, 
 heroic and just, grandsire of King Peter; and last, 
 Milos Obrenovitch, whose cleverness had laid the 
 foundation for much ol her present good. 
 
 Had she changed too quickly from the old 
 patriarchal system before she could rightly re- 
 place it? All this time, she now realized too 
 well, she had been only half-educated. It was 
 easy enough for the great Nations to criticize her, 
 forgetful of the long past years when they were 
 in her condition, yet none of them could deny 
 her her heroic past. 
 
 Then Serbia looked toward the sea. She no 
 longer felt the pain of her grief and her bruises; 
 she was no longer alone. Friendly hands reached 
 out to her on every side, and beyond the sea lay 
 noble England, and strong Canada, and heroic 
 France — Allies fighting for her, for her who 
 
124 
 
 SERBIA: A SKETCH 
 
 m 
 
 might never be able to reward them; and, nearer 
 to her, she could see fair Italy. niap;ni(icent 
 Russia, and brave Montenegro and Roumania. 
 All, all had been fighting for her, for in fight- 
 ing for liberty, they fought for the oppressed 
 of the whole world. They had been fighting 
 her battles — the battles of the days of her 
 strength. And there, farther off, was friendly 
 America. For the moment she saw her ideal 
 State — the union of Serb countries into on 
 independent National State — a Serbian or 
 Croato-Serb monarchy. 
 
 Then, a shout, a clamor of voices, "ivlonastir! 
 Monastirl Serbia! Serbia!" Not a year since that 
 awful retreat, and now the long exile was nearing 
 its end. King Peter, and tht Cr >wn Prince, 
 the Government, the whole Nation were hurrying 
 home! 
 
 "There is no death without the appointed day," 
 chants the old pesma. Serbia will live! 
 
 
^t-^/^ 
 
 A Sketch 
 
^ 
 
 •naf^^ 
 
 » ■ 
 
 I5v Helen Leah Rfed 
 
 Author of 
 Napoleon's Young Neighbor, Miss Theodora, etc. 
 
 Published for the benefit of the Serbian Distress 
 Fund, Boston , 128 pages, five illustrations. Of this 
 new book Basil King, the novelist, who is deeply 
 interested in Serbia, writes : 
 
 "Of all liistoiies, tliat of Serbia is least known to 
 the majiirity of American students. None however 
 is more interest in},', toucliin^r, or dramatic. It reads 
 like an epic poem. In it tliere i.s an Homeric qual- 
 ity. It is a history to he sung, as sung it was and is. 
 .All tills and much more is ably given in Helen 
 Leah Reed's admirable monograph on this noble, 
 patient people. She has condensed their story into 
 a fnrin which he who runs may easily read, and yet 
 has given the gist of it to such a degree that no 
 important character or event is missed. From the 
 early migration out of Cialicia to the tragic flight in 
 I'M.S she unfolds a tale as engrossing as Treasure 
 island. One admires, one |)ities, one almost weeps, 
 iliat so splendid a race should always have been 
 beaten and buffetted and oppressed, defeated and 
 frustrated, kept ignorant and poor, and knocked 
 down at their every effort to rise, is in its way a 
 criticism on all human kind. To the average reader 
 .Miss Keed's profoundly striking sketch will come 
 as a revelation." 
 
 For sale a l iii h i fi ii b i t i H D « »tl i ■ / thu AHW T l a- 
 -1-i r ind ir th niiii n in ii f i ln ' i u \ \\''^" n;cf,,,c |r„p^ 
 555 Hoylston Street, f ati.i) ul all -book-stores. 
 Price, 7<S^^^atM> 
 
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