Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-06-09
JUNE Q. 1877
MONTENEGRO.

make us regret the very limited space and
small working force of the MORNING APPEAL,
A proper consideration of the bIect ndlca
ted in the heading is one of these emergencies.
Before us lie the conflicting reports of the re
suit of the recent engagements between the
Montenegrin forces and their old enemies the
Turks. Also before us lies Mr. Gladstone S
admirable paper in the Nineteenth Century
entitled Montenegro. We ind the facts
shadowed forth in the following, in that paper.
The Ottoman Empire began its course of west
ward conquest in the XIVth century. 1t was
checked by the unparalleled herolsm of the
Slavic mountaineeis The ncOnquered and
uncomfortable element of this resisting force
was and is the men of Montenegro. These
people lived for seven hundred years until
1884, on the plain lands south of their present
mountain Businesses. Then, determined to
be free or die any death rather than submit to
the Turk, they undertook their life of cold,
want hardship and perpetual peril. As Glad
stone says, before them lay the alternatives
of death, slavery or the Koran They were
not to die for they had work to do" Ivan
Tchernoievitch was their Chief At that early
day he took with him into the mountains
printing press This was only seven years
after CaxtOn. They voted, did these devoted
people, as their fundamental law, that in time
of war no son of Tsernagora Cor Montenegro
could quit the field without the order of his
chief that a runaway should be forever dis
graced and bsnished from his people that he
should be dressed III woman clothes and pre-
scented with distati ; and that the women,
striking him with their distatfs, should hunt
the coward away from the sanctuary of free
dom. . And now says Gladstone, " for
four centuries wanting only seven years, they
have maintained in full force the covenant Of
that awful day, through an mbroben series of
trials, of dangers and of exploits, to which 1t
is hard to find parallel in the annals Of Eu-
rope, perhaps even of mankind. In an evil
hour younger brother of one of their chosen
chiefs deserted them, went to Constantinople
and made terms of betrayal with Bajazet the
Second He and his force of men, were over
come and captured. Strange to say they were
forgiven and permitted to resume their fellow .
ship and their religion. When treachery of
their country again made its appearance, the |
mountaineers rose in their might and put !
them all to the sword Since then they have .
been united people, Their condition of
warfare with the Turk has never abated. The
territory is seventy miles the
longest way and twenty in It's narrowest part.
There is scarcely a mountain county of Cali
fOrnia which has not a larger acreage. In
1900 there were :, 800 houses and s ,O00 fight
ing men. About 1900 the population had
risen to about 30 900; in 1925 to - 900: and
N 1865 it numbered 1916, 900 1t is the nu-
cleus for the free and the seekers for freedom.
Again We quote few lines frem Gladstone.
Says he: while the gross population of
Montenegro, in men women and children was
slowly growing through three centuries from
thirty to fifty thousand, we must inquire with
what amount of Turkish force has
,een deemed by the Porte equal to the enter ;
rise of attacking the mountain And here,
TRANCE as it may seem, history proves it to
ave been the general rule not to attack Mon
enegro except with armies equalling or ex- !
eeding, sometimes doubling or more, in
umbers, all the men, women and children
hat it contained In 1712, under the Via L
ika Danilo, 80 900 men crossed the Ieta be S
ween Podgoritza and Spuz. Some accounts I
aise this force beyond 900. Danilo as II
eiled their camp before the dawn of the Doth n
July, with an army, in three divisions, C.
hch could hardly have reached $4,000 men ,
With a loss of 31S men, he slew, at the lowest II
,timate, 1000 And in these alone, so far
| know, of all modern wars, it seems not -
ncommOn to find the slain among the Turks II
lceedng the gross number of the highland al
eroes arrayed against them. In 1922 IA
lie Turks assailed them with 10000 men. IT
he thousand Montenegrins took their gen n
al prisoner and utterly discounted his tc
my In 1882 Oman Pasha marched against be
EN- with 10000 men. He had to fly with o'
e loss of his camp and baggage In 1868, fl
hen they were out of powder and every car tn
dge was worth a ducat they were invaded w
a Turkish force estimated all the way from q
900 to $50, 900 men. Five hundred noun ~
neers attacked one of their divisions and
cured what powder was wanted When
ey assailed the invader they slew 10000
rks and 5000 horses. Their booty in arms, Dt