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1653 Cost Main Strtet
Rochesltr, New York 14609 USA
(716) 482 - 0300 - Phone
(716) 288 - 5989 - Fax
"^^^SffT
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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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.
<,
a
Id
"!.. W-r
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
/f u
Wi
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