Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-09-08
IN CETTINJg.
INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF VERY PRII-
TIVE PEOPLE.
Zone of their Habits and customs-The
Government and Royal Author
iiy-The Women-Etc.

| L
paled in the days gone by. To his right h'
will see the hospital. Except these build
ings all in Cettinje ia squalid and unpictur
esque And yet to this village Ministers
are accredited from the leading courts oi
Europe, and the diplomatic communication
between Vienna or st. Petersburg and Get.
TIME is even more vigilant and frequent
than that between those capitals and Lon
don. II you entered one of these legations
you would not find the comforts of an Eng.
lish cottage. You will perhaps, be fortu.
nate enough to receive an invitation to dine
at the legation of one of the great powers.
The dinner will be served on an unopened
whist table, and so close will be our quar-
ters that the four soup plates touch. The
only other pieces of furniture in the room
besides the chair you sit on are sofa and
bed.
II am asked what is the present form
of government in Montenegro, would an
swer that it is at once the most despotic
and the most popular in Europe-despotic,
because the will of the Prince is the law of
the land, and popular because the personal
rule of the Prince meets all the wants and
wishes of his people. No sovereign in Eu-
rope sits so firmly on his throne as the
Prince of this little State, and no sovereign
is so absolute. The Montenegrins have no
army: they are themselves a standing
army. They go to war with the same zest
that ar. English schoolboy takes to cricket
We should have to 90 back to times before
the Norman conquest to find an Englishmsn
of the same stamp as the modern Montene-
grin. Iu the late war, the Prince found a
Monteneerin OF so years of age in the
ranks. The Prince told him he was too
old to fight the man said, NO." and
when the Prince insisted, the octogenarian
drew a pistol from his belt and shot him
self The Prince is naturally proud of his
subjects, and often speaks of his capital as
being more secure than either Belgrade or
Bucharest.
The women of Csttinjs are not beauti-
full, except the Princess, and her highness
confirms me in an opinion l have long
formed, that feminine beauty is the prod
uct of civilization. But how can you ex.
pecs beauty from women who are used as
beasts of burden by the men? From such
treatment you can only expect premature
age and preternatural ugliness. The we'll
grown handsome men who are playing st
ball before the palace of the Prince are the
husbands and brothers of the poor Great
ures who are carrying wood and water to
their homes. This jovial-looking man that
so ciyllly accosts us is Navica Cerovio, the
father of the Minister of Finance, and
famous warrior who has slaughtered l do
not know how many Turks. 1t seems fit
ting to Montenegrins that heroes should
rest in peace and leave the work to wives
and daughters. Montenegro is not
wealthy country. A Montenegrin who is
worth $40, all told, would pass here for
well.to-do. The are not ashamed of their
poverty. They have too much sense for
that. A relation of the Prince will frankly
admit that he is poor bat unfortunately,
from the highest downward, the Montene
grins expect and accept gifts from the
stranger. They have not yet reached that
point of civilization when man disiikes
to receive favors which he can not re-
turn.
The Montenegrins are the flower and ar
istocracy of the Slav race. They are the
antithesis of the Bulgarian. Place Mon
tenegrin and a Bulgarian in London
drawing. room, the Bulgarian would appear
what he is-a peasant the Montenegrin
gentleman. Montenegro no more possesses
a peasantry than it possesses a standing
army. All the Montenegrin peasants are
gentlemen quite as much they are
soldiers. But place this same Blontenegrin
and Bulgarian in field, and the Bulgarian
will convert the field into garden, while
the Nlontenegrins will saunter like a gen.
tleman. The Montenegrins have always
paid particular attention to their weapons,
but they are satisfied with the same plow
that their ancestors used thousand years
ago. It is hard for Montsnegrin to be-
come a man of peace. The present Post
master of Cettinje lost his leg in the late
war. The poor man preferred dying ss
a soldier to living as civilian with one
leg, and it was at the request Of the Prin-
cess that he submitted to amputation. OF
this lady it is difficult to speak too highly.
During the war she used-in order to give
courage to the sufferers-to be present at
operations which drove every other woman
from the ward. In peace, and az all times
she is the cultivated lady and the mother
of her people.
There are two newspapers published in
Montenegro-one of them the official jour.
nal and the other popular medical paper
Sixty copies of the latter are sold in Mon
tenegro. When you read the paper and
find that its articles are on the way to live
in health throughout the year, the evil
consequences Of wearing earrings, the
proper treatment of infants, ETC., you are
surprised, not that so few, but 30 many
copies of such paper should be bought
by Montenegrins. It is earnestly to be
hoped that the laudations upon soap,
which this paper (HeaIh) contains may
have some influence on those wSo read it.
l regret to state that after their baptism
the majority of Montenegrins do not often
come in contact with water, except when
it rains.
Perhaps the most interesting institution
in Cettinje is the tree of justice. Here
the Prince sits, and to him come the mean.
est of his subjects. Our English law has
maxim" De minimis non curat lex. "
The present Prince of Montenegro said
eff you suffer injustice to the value of one
plain to me, you are not yourself worth
farthing" Justice is well administered in
Montenegro, but all who have, or think
they have, suffered wrong can go direct to
the Prince, and the Prince will either de.
eide the case himself or will direct new
trial The expression "new trial' is one
of such ll-omen in English ears that may
at once state that Montenegro law is cheap
and speedy. 1t is needless to add there are
no lawyers in Montenegro. From this
patriarchial tree you see on your right the
palace of the Prince, and on the left
grass plot, on which several Montenegrins
ara lazily lounging These persons are the
criminals of the State. They are self
guarded. Should any of these prisoners
think fit to return to his native village be-
fore his term of imprisonment has expired,
he can do so, but he will at once be recog-
nized and reincarcerated. 1t is extremely
rare for them to attempt to escape from
the house and grass-plot which has been
allotted to them by their Prince. Most of
these men are homioides, and rarely thieves.
There are few female prisoners. l am
told the majority are in prison for murder.
ing their husbands. As beauty is flower
that blooms but in civilized climes, SO are
marriages for love product of civilization.
An affair of the heart, eliminating in mar
risge, is almost unknown among southern
Slavs. In Bulgaria, in Servia, in Bosnia,
in Montenegro, the parents arrange these
matters, and often maid has not seen her
future husband until she meeta him at The