The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-08-10
A War.Scene at Belgrade.
rcorresnondepoe Of tbe London Times.


and there lies the camp. The first view
of it was startling; the widest dreams
of the most skillfUl arranger OF
masquerades never approached this
varied and lively picture. AT the ex,
treme left were a number OF covered
carts, drawn by animals which in size
resembled dogs, when compared with
our draw horses. These carts were
most of them driven by boys, old men,
or Young girls, and contained the bag
gage of the division; some of them had
also casks of rakieh (spirits), and a
crowd Of thirsty militiamen surrounded
these. The men, when not exercising
in companies, were either lying down
or standing about in little groups. All
of them-almost without exception be-
tween the ages Of 40 and 50-wore
THE DRESS OF THE sERyIAN PEASANTS,
a short jacket of gray linen or coarse
brown cloth, wide trousers reaching to
the knee, looking like sack behind,
some thick colored material, bound
round the leg from the knee downwards,
and their feet enEeloped in all sorts OF
rags, thrust into sandals made of red
dish brown untannedleaJher, and bound
by straps very practical covering
for the feet, but often of colossal dimen
sions. A leathern girdle or red shawl
OF great length is worn round the
waist. Many have revolvers stuck in the
former, from which number OF straps
hang down, and to these are attached
knives, finder for striking a light, and
IL -, - ;olo, ,c,,g;Iorod ipdicnapco Ia 10
by the Servians. Instead of a KNAPP
sack, they have only the ordinary thick
wooden sacks so often to be seen hang
ing on the backs of the horses; these
had been well filled by the wives of the
men with bread, mutton, cheese, and
plenty of onions and leeks, the latter q
choice delicacy among the SerVians, the
dreadful odor of which makes the me-
haneS (inns) almost uninhabitable to
European travellers. Finally, every one
had the national drinking vessel hang
ing at his side--a gourd followed out
in the shape of two cylinders, united by
a ball. The gourd bears a great deal
of knocking about, is light, and keeps
the fluids it contains fresh. A few of
the men were in European dress, ex-
cept that sandals were worn instead of
boots, and there were also Roumani-
ans and Zingaris in long shirts of coarse
linen, worn outside the trousers, and
Bulgarians (Roumanians and Bulgari-
ans come from East Servia) in, the
thick wooden coats, which years ago
had been white.
THE GYPSIES WERE VERY NUMEROUS,
all in the Servian dress, but easily to be
recognized by their dark skins, the doz-
ems of gold rings on their fingers, and
the large families that surrounded them.
The State supplies each of the militia
men with a new gray military cloak of
Austrian cut, manufactured in that coun-
try; a blue cap, also copied from the
Austrians; an ammunition pouch, and
another little one for percussion caps,
both attached to a black strap round
the waist, and an old Russian musket,
with a three-eged bayonet. Some COM
panies, as | have said, were exercising,
but after the first ten or twenty steps
they invariably fell into confusion, like
a body of recruits in the first week of
their training. To form an attacking
column of such troops would be almost
impossible, or to wheel right or left, or
throw out skirmishers. The officers
are likewise peasants, and wear
linen jackets, trousers, sandals, ETC., like
the soldiers, being only distinguished
from their men by long sword trailing
on the ground instead of musket.
Most of the men were unemployed,
without cloak or even jackets, their legs
bare, and INDUCING freely in rdbieh.
Their prOvisiOn-bags served them as
pillows. Some had improvised tents
by sticking the hoops of casks in the
ground and spreading a covering over
them. Their arms were piled, or more
frequently lay, on the grass, wherever
their owners chose to place them. Close
to them lay a mountain of boxes from
a Vienna firm, filled with percussion
caps, and about a dozen little cooking
apparatuses, also from Vienna manu-
factory Each company had besides a
few large cauldrons. At the extreme
left was the artillery, ten old Russian
guns. The weak division of cavalry
does not seem intended for offensive
operations.
All that / have described was only as
the uniform green grass of the Alpine
meadow; the flowers, rivaling in color
the hues of the rainbow, were formed
by the
FEMALE-BELONGINGs OF THE MEN.
Most of them wore long chemises, with
an apron behind and before Of at least
ten different colors, and on their heads
fezes or handkerchiefs of the most va
ried colors and dimensions. Only the
gypsies, who lay smoking on the grass,
had flowers in their hair. Close
to the camp, fires of brushwooa were
lighted, and here coffee and most I'M
inviting mess of meat were being cook
ed. Girls in peasant costume, or more
modern dresses, sat in groups round the
fires, or crowded round band of Boz
hemian musicians, who drew the most
frightful dissonances from their instru-
ments. 1t was getting dark, the long
line of Topchider formed dark back
ground, on which one bright speck af-
ter anOther-the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
The singing of the Servians, which re-
sembles the bowling of wolves, drown
ed the whining of the clarionets, the
grunting of the trombones, and the
noise of the trumpets. Soldiers,
some of them in their cloaks,
others with not much on, seized the
hands of the women and girls, and the
kOIO, the national Sclavic dance, which
consists in alternate stamping with the
feet and turning round, began. The
ratieb gourd circled more freely, the
song became more screeching, the
dance more animated, when suddenly
two old Russian drums, which had ac-
quired a lamentable hoarseness by ly-
ing for years in some Old Jewry, sound
ed the retreat. The partings then be-
gan; the women kissed the hands of
the men and left on foot, or in carts
drawn by buffaloes, though some few
remained; the gypsies sobbed and
shrieked, tore out their hair, and threw
themselves on the ground. Another
draught from the great gourd, and it
became more and more quiet; some of
the watch-fires were extinguished, and
only the tread of the sentinels, and the
sound of a horse ridden by some order
IL on his way to or from the town, broke
the stiffness of the camp under the blue
and star-lit canopy of heaven.