Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-03-22
THE HER A L D.
A PECULIAR PEOPLE.
olaastOnes Account Of Montenegro and
nhahifania.

a
oIaa.tones Account of Montenegro and Its
Inhabitants.
In q popular lecture, delivered re-
Gently, Gladstone, the ex-premier OF
England, gave the following terse &C.
count of Montenegro:
The history of Montenegro was
briefly this. A portion of the inhab-
itants of the northern part OF the
Adriatic Sea were conquered by the
Turks in the fifteenth century. A
certain portion of them did not &C.
cede to any of the three alternatives
which, as he had told them before,
were proposed, but went up to the
mountains, which were very hign
and very difficult of access, and
there remained. This occurred In
the year 1885. For the sake OF their
religion and freedom, and everything
else that made life happy or des'r-
able, they abandoned their property
and went to an inhospital cline with
very limited means of existence TO
main tain desperate struggle against
the whole power Of the Ottoman
race, which struggle they have no"
carried on almost entirely without
intermission for about 400 years.
Those remarkable people were there
still. and it would be observed that
ir the course of the last six months,
while the Turks boasted they had
beaten the Servians, with the aid
they bad of three or four thousand
volunteers from the Russian army,
The Montenegrins with population
OF 10000 to 14O, 600 people, had on
every occasion they had met them
boat the Turks, [Applause.] They
had nothing to fight with, for the
most part, except oId.fashioned wea-
pons that none Of them would like to
asa they had no cavalry or artil-
Iery, aud any cannon thsy used
were those taken from the Turks.
With all these difficulties and the
vast number brought against them,
they had beaten the Turkish forces.
Now, the Turkish military are good
soldiers and brave men, and, as
we are aware at the present time,
they had blockaded one of the Turk
ish towns (NIksich) because there
vas a question raised about it In con-
nection with the armistice. In 1861,
when the lay sovereign of Monten"
egro retired, he made over the gov
eminent of the country to bishop,
and succession OF bishops had
since governed the country and led
the people iu the desperate struggle
between life and death, almost with
out intermissior, from 1916 up to
1912. Those bishops were warriors;
indeed, every priest in the country
was warrior. 1t was confi,ct IN
that country between life and death,
for from dsy to day and year to year,
and during that long time have the
people not been permitted to lay
aside the terrible aims they used In
the constant struggle with their en-
emies, and have maintained their
system of religion up to the present
time. When they went up to the
mountains, their leader summoned
them and made them take a solemn
oath on the New Testament TO abide
true to their faith and nation, and
whoever broke this should be inVes>
Ted with woman's apron and boot
cd from the ranks of men. Having
referred to the his b esteem
in which women are held IN the
country, and almost saVagery with
which the Montenegrins treated the
Turks they slew in battle, the Right
Honorable Gentleman said that they
should try to understand the cIrcum-
stances under which the Monten-
egrins, when they went into battle
together, and one of them was
wounded that could not be removed,
it was the duty of the other, espec-
if he was his brother, or his friend to
cut off his head and why? To save
him from the horror and Insult and
disgrace to which, while alive, his
body would be exposed. Of course,
a savage state of manners came 10
and that was one OF the points he
held, that when the oppressed were
driven to this state of things their
Oppressors were responsible for 1T.
He was glad to say. however, that
in recent times great efforts had been
made to get rid of that ferocity OF
character, and for two generations
past great pains had been taken by
their Sovereigns. and, he believed,
with great success, to establish peace
and order and good government
among them. Their history, though
it had drawn very little attention
and though he was very far from
denying that it had lis dark spots, be-
cause the spirit of ferOcity still pre-
vailed to some extent-still, the hero
ism of the people. their sanctities
and their noble constancy would, in
his opinion, secure to them to latest
ages name more enduring then that
which would be given to Other
nations, states, and peoples who ap'
peared gaester in the eyes OF tht
world.
What Thomas Carlyle Thinks
nr 10