What the "Balkan
MACEDONIAN REBEL DEAUTY.
I tiilkrJ'of tbe Balkan queitlon al-
I it- rw
mull tuunmuiijt i u buuui
currencn of tbe rumor of "trouble
Ic tba Balkans" la so regular tbat
it baa become a subject for world- wld Jest,
erloui and ever-threatening aa It ia. '
And yet to alracat tbe whole world tbe
Balkan question ia little more t&an a
muddle of obscure geography, tangled his
tory and still more tangled Intrigue.
BrlePy expressed, tbe Balkan .question
la tbe keystone of tbit tenderly polsetf
arcb, tbe balance of power tbe Mot roe '
doctrine of Europe.
And aa tbe Monroe doctrine of tbe United
States was susceptible to the meanest out
break of Insurrection In Cuba, so Europe'
doctrine Is shaken every time a handful
of patriots or brigands raises a revolt In
Turkey's Cuba of Macedonia.
At any day a horde of mountain robbers
with no aim higher than to pillage a poor
Tillage, or a band of devoted liberators
with the mere aim of freeing their ob
scure province from tbe Turk, may strike
tbe spark thai will blow up tbe whole
balance of power and bury the peace of all
Europe In the wreck.
Aa a concert, the powers are bent on
keeping tbe keystone of the Balkans In Its
place. Jealousy and fear are tbe powerful
motives tbat make them gealoua In the
ndeavor.
Individually, each power is studying to
see how It tan asaure Itself of advantage
nough to pay to pull It oOt.
The two nations most openly concerned
In the Balkan question today are Englanl
and Russia. England'a, Interest Just now
lies In keeping the question as It has been.
Russl cannot, and will not, be .content In
the nature of the case till -It controls the
Balkans or has been so signally defeated
la trying that It will not be In position
to try again.
To Russia, the ownership of the Balkans
would mean the ownership of an empire
covering the entire eastern portion of the
European continent.
' That would mean the control of the Med
iterranean' In the east and the movement
toward England's Oriental empire would
be advanced by a mighty atop.
To Austria the acquisition of Balkan ter
ritory would mean a free way to the Ori
ent, and Austria la doing an Immense busi
ness with the far east. Its Interest is far
more Important than the world guesses.
To Turkey a collapse of the present con
dition means almost certainly that there
will be no Turkey in Europe after tbe
snToke clears away, whatever other nation
Is defeated or victorious.
It Is written that Turkey must go out of
Europe.
It la barely possible that It will go finally
without war, aqueeied out by the alow and
fatal process of diplomatic coercion.
It It does not go peacefully. It la certain
that there will be war in Europe sooner or
later.
It la this tbat mikes the Balkan ques
tion no mere academic question, but one
rife with constant probabilities for mis
chief tbat may Involve the whole world.
Now that the United States Is a world
power, with a thousand foreign Interests
In places where twenty years ago -It bad
none, the Balkana may bo said truly to be
of vital concern to this country aa well as
to Europe. No man can guess at how
many ends the world might catch fire la
case of a general European war.
So It Is to the present Interest of all civ
ilised communities that the Balkan buffer
Wm:- ; , ... v J .
1 'Wft'SX
be kept Inviolate and undisturbed as long
as possible.
Tbat buffer of mountain and plain, peo
pled largely by' scmi-savsge and balf-clv-lllied
tr.bes, la no small territory valuable
merely on account of Its strategic position.
It Is big enough lo make a formidable
empire, If ever, another Boris or Czar
Simeon could arise to subdue tbe tribes
and hold them togethtr. . Tbe Balkan
states Servla, .Bulgaria, ...Mooteocgro, , Al
bania, Macedonia and other. Turkish prov- ..
Inces on the peninsula form a territory
bigger thau England, Sco:land, Ireland and
Wales put together; bigger than Italy or
Norway; almcst as large as Sweden, and
three-quarters of the size of the German
empire. ,y .
The states of New. York, Pennsylvania,
Maine, . New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa
chusetts and Connecticut If put together
In one Jumbled mass,' would make a coun
try of almost the exact else of the land
of tbe Balkan Question. .
It Jumbled together hard enough, the
states would make a land something like
the Balkan peninsula, too, in conditions.
Throw In . the Maine winters and the
rocks of Vermont. Tumble the mixture
down toward the sea. Throw the Pennsyl
vania oil wells into the middle. Stir them
up, throw the Adirondack and Alleghany
mountains Indiscriminately Into the pud
ding, and you would have a hint of the
Balkans. The Adtrondacks and the Bal
kans have about the same average height.
The forbidding aspecta of some of tbe Al
leghany mountain scenery Is duplicated In
the Balkans. Throw In, furthermore, vast
tracts of land denuded of lumber and
blackened; throw In a smiling sea; throw
In villages and towns ranging in appear
ance from the charm of thriving New Eng
land vjllagea to the desolate uglineas of
a Pennsylvania coal mining totm; mix in
' the grotesque architecture of tbe Ameri
can seashore; stir In. sulphur wells, mag
nificent scenery, earthquakea and blood
red mud, and you have the Balkans.
There are many ways of entering the
Balkan peninsula; but there are . not ao
many of getting out. Too often one goes
In by railroad and comes out by ransom, a
method too expensive for any except large
purses.
The most comfortable way of entering the
land Is by way of Hungary Into Servla.
Tbe Servians bave advanced beyond the
old and simple life of throat slitting and
revolution, and are building up a fine land
rich with agriculture and mines. Austria
Hungary Is pushing her feelers of railroad
through it In all directions. Immense tun
nels burrow' under the mountains. All the
Hungarian railroads lead toward the
Balkans. Her constant stream of freight
and passengers turns either into the Adri
atic sea across Bosnia or through Belgrade,
both by land and by Danube ports, Into
Bervia, Roumanla and Bulgaria and so
finally reaches the Black sea, the Aegean
aea and the ancient highways leading to
the far east.
One of the last places to be touched by
the railroad before it leaves Hungary to
cross Into the Servian boundary, is the
Austrian Gibraltar the mighty and ancient
fortress of Peterwardeln.
Then the train steams Into Belgrade, a
city with one of tbe most romantic records
of history. It la a magnificent city lo ap
proach, for its site on the Danube is so
beautiful thtU travelers give It fourth rank
in rolnt of site among the capitals of Eu
rope Constantinople, Lisbon, Stockholm
and Belgrade.
Almost everywhere la Belgrade are monu
Question" Really Is
MACEDONIAN MOUNTAIN GATE TO SECRET FASTNESSES.
ments and memorials. They arc to martyrs
of the Turkish wars, murdered statesmen
and assassinated patriots, . , , .
Ntarly every paving stone Is pregnant
with a bloody story . that . reaches almost
from the .time the first stone was laid to
tbe beginning of the present generation.
The last Turkish garrison did not move
out of Belgrade, until 1867, .and until 'then
the entire eastern portion of the town was
populated by Turks. ., The, Turk's ,hand Is
still to be seen everywhee :in minarets
and other architecture, in costumes and in
manners.
On Friday, when the week'y market,, is
held in the city, the streets are full of red
feszes. The Ib-'rvlan peasants still wear
the Turkish trousers gathered at tbe ankles.
Often he wraps a towel-like maaa of linen
around , hla high fes. Often h4 wears a
high sheepskin cap.
Every peasant wears a . long, , sharply
pointed andxkeenly ground knife on his
right side In a wooden scabbird.
From .Belgrade the train roara through
a land which only a few years ago was a
land of brigands, whole villages being held
as openly by them as If their occupation
were the most commonplace. One particu
larly famoua and strong home of the brig
ands was tbe village of Domuspotek (tbe
brook of pigs). ,
Now the mopt unurusl occupation of most
of those villages is to boll down plums in
great caldrons in tbe open air in the sea
son. .
If a man wishes to see all the tribes of
the Balkans, he need merely continue on
the train to the town of Nlsche.
Nlsche will be the great object of man
uvers it ever there is a Balkan war.
Its strong fortress commands the key to
tbo road into Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Christian churches and Turkish moafues
stand there almost side by side. Tbe cry
of the imaam from the minaret mingles
with the bells that call the Catholic wor
shipers. '
Armed like arsenals, with long pistols,
long rifles, long knives, Macedonians, A1-.
ban I ana and Arnaus shuffle along with the
walk of the mountaineer. Servian pc-asant
women in gaudily striped frocks, Bulgarian
women dressed In black .nd looking like
priests,' mountaineers from Montenegro In
fustanellaa with long-beaked yellow and red
shoos and brilliant scarlet cloaks, grave
Hodschas in silken caftans and green tur
bans, mingle on the streets with Spanish
Jewesses with . brlllint gold and silver
headdresses, and Montenegrin women . In
white skirts and sleeveless waists, and lit
tle red caps with a rising sun embroid
ered on their fronts in gold.
Near Nlsche is a square tower. Tell Its
story and you tell tbe story of the Balkans.
The tower is known as the Tschelekula,
meaning "skull tower." In 1808 the Turks
advanced toward Nlsche. The Servian
Wolwode, Stefan Slndjelitsch, intrenched
himself with S,000 Scrvlana In the vlllaga
of Kamenltza. They were overcome. When
the Janissaries rushed among them, Slnd
jelitsch fired tbe powder magazine and
blew bis own men and the Turks into
pieces.
The Turkish army ravened like a band
of wolves and killed all Servians wk3 were
left alive by any chance. After they had
killed and burned till there was nothing
left to kill snd burn, they chopped tbe
heads off the dead Servian patriots. Then
they began the erection of a great square
tower. After It had risen to some height
t;iey began to alternate the ro.s of stones
with rows of Servian heads. Altogether
T H
they set fifty-six rows of. seventeen heads
each in alternate rows cf stones.
This memorial of the Tamerlaoes of the
nineteenth century .was left untouched,
- with the skulls grinning out upon the lsnd.
until 1878, when the Servians took them
out reverently and burled them, with the
exception of one that still looks out from
the east side of the tower.
. Farther on, near the 'Bulgarian boundary,
Is another strategic place ' that will be '
heard from In' case of war. It is the
. fortress of Bela. Palenka, snd Moltko pro
nounced it one of the Important points of
the Balkans.. It was the old Roman city
of Remeslana. It Is guarded still by an
. ancient' castle-fort built in 1600 by the
.Grand Vizier MusUpha Pasha. He built it
by the pleasant expedient of tearing down
. Servian churches and using their stones for
it. He also took, the stones rom ancient
, Roman ruins.
This town. Is close to Piost, which stands
, on the Bulgarian boundary and has a true
Balkan history. It has been occupied at
.various times by Turks, Bulgarians, Ser
vians, Russians and Austrians. Almost
every time it was taken only after bloody
fighting.
From Servla to Bulgaria Is a leap Into
. different manners, different costumes, dif
ferent architecture.
Tbe Bulgarian does not love the Servian
unduly. Luckily for the peace between
them, the Bulgarians are kept so busy
plotting and counter-plotting about Mace
. donla that their somewhat embarrassing
attentions are directed almost entirely
southward Just now.
- As the Cuban junta made Its headquart
ers in tbe United States, so the Macedonian
junta makes its headquarters in Bulgaria.
But unlike the Cuban revolutionists, the
. Macedonian committee has not merely en
listed Bulgarian sympathies and aid. It
has risen to a great Bulgarian political
power.
It keeps the pitch hot all the time.
- Dive out of Bulgaria and into the moun
tain districts of Macedonia and you dive
into a land of Alexander the Great, of
Roman generals, and of czars who were
Mars long before Russia had sny. Time
has jumped over this land and touched
"it only in leaps ages apart.
Go only a short distance from Salontca,
ancient, storied Saionica (very dirty now
and Inhabited by flea-bitten Turkish sol
diers who do not like life, apparently),
and you will find a country marked with
the tumuli of the Macedonian kings, 'big
stone piles Just within sighting distance
of each other, that served as the stations
for the. wireless telegraphy of those days.
You may find a fine old gentleman, dressed
In a long skirt that falls below the knees
and with pretty weapons fastened to all
available protuberances. He will talk to
you (if he trusts you and you are 'for
tunately so poor that you. are nor worth
capturing) of his system of levying tribute
' as unconcernedly as if he lived in the day
of Ulysses, earning his living with his
good sword and shield.
Turkish soldiers gr.ze with respect at
the very brigands whom they are, tech
nically, sworn to kill. Those brigands
. swagger through the villages beloved by
all tbe women, envied and admired by all
the meq, afraid of nobody. Impossible
though 11 seems, they wear even more arms
than the other citizens. They sirut by the
Turks superciliously, mockingly.
Sometimes tbe Macedonian brigand sits
on a rock just out of gunshot from a gar-
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