St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-17

l.
He was then about twenty-five years
old. One day, many years after, when
there was festivity at court, and
Andria was on guard at the door of the
ballroom, fine lady passed on the arm
of gentleman. and by some accident
dropped her bracelet. Andria picked
il up. and, even in its setting OF jewels,
recognized the coin; then, raising his
eyes as much as he dared, he recognized
the girl he had once loved. She had
married, 1t seems, an officer who had
become great general, and she was
then fine lady. The gentleman who
was with her admired the coin. which
seemed curious and rare, and had an in
scription in an unknown language; and
the king, sending for the director of
such piece existed in his cabinet. The
director replied that he had recently
bought similar one at Venice.
1t must be remarked here that Venice
had in the Middle Ages an active COM
merce with the whole Balkan peninsula,
and that the Venetian coins served as
models for the old Serbian money.
About all this August Boyne knew moth
ing, and wien he first told the story to
the minister had never seen any old
Serbian gold coins, which are extremely
rare.
AS time went on Andria prospered;
the king, who had taken fancy to him,
helped him; and he was able to build a
house with the right to convert it into
an mn. This he did when he had grown
too old to be of use in active service;
and, as he often told his guests stories
about fights in Serbia. to which
he gave the name of boyne or vOyne lin
Serbian boy or vOy means fight, and
voyna war;, they came to call the house
the BoYne inn-Gasthaus yum Boyne-
and he and his descendants adopted it
as surname. The De Lazar was evil
IDENTIFY an attempt at translating Lazar-
evitch, the son of LaZar, the patronymic
which Andria had from his father-An-
drla LaZarevitch Obilitch - and had
nothing to do with the old King LaZar.
About the life of Andria's son and
grandson l know nothing, nor why one
OF them went to SaXOny; nor did the
minister rember that August Boyne had
told him anything in particular about
his life up to the age of thirty, when he
emlgrated to America. | must return
to his appearance in Belgrade.
As have said, the minister at first
tried to diSSuade Boyne from what he
considered a useless and absurd under
taking; and, when he found this of no
avail, advised him to search especially
near ShabatZ and in that region; where
he knew, as a historian, that the Obi
Itch famll had possessed lands. Boyne
spent whole year in that part of the
country, and then began to explore the
districts of MOrava and Kraguyevatz.
He occasionally returned to Belgrade:
and the minister, who had become more
and more Interested in him and had
been greatly impressed by his straight
fOrwardness, his earnestness, and his
simple piety. assisted him from time to
time with food, linen. clothes, and even
money. Boyne had gradually learned a
little Serbian, and wherever he went
tried to do good to the people about him,
leaving most favorable opinion of him
on all with whom he had to do. What
particularly struck my friend the mill
lister was that he generally prayed
aloud. and that his prayers were extern
poriZed and suited to particular clrcum-
stances. II was deeply touched" the
minister said, "when he prayed for Ser
bia, the prince, the whole Serbian ma
ton, and specially for the children of
upon whom he implored the Almighty's
blessing. At the time when he asked
for the concession, and permission to
search for the treas ure. he said that he
would spend it entirely on the
construction of a Serbian railway.
and that he would not carry
out of the country single farthing.
But later he changed his mind and said:
1T is nearly two years that | live in this
country among the Serbians: and see
that the nation is not pious and has for
gotten God and His goodness to men;
and so, if l find my treasure, l wish
with the money to build many good
schools to teach children the fear of the
Lord, and to educate them in the love
of their neighbors.'"
In May, 1876, sBoyne was full of hope,
and said that he had found certain signs
on an old ruined castle not far from
KraguyevatZ. He came again to Bel
grade in June during period of great
heat. on foot and utterly destitute; and
was almost Immediately taken ill. The
minister was absent at the time: but
lady went TO see him in the Wretched
cottage where he had found a lodging,
and provided him with linen and other
necessaries. This friend on later visit
found that everything had been stolen
from him in the weak state in
which he was: and therefore had him
transferred to the hospital. He was ac-
companied at this time by an Unlocking
man, whose acquaintance he had some
where made and whom he had engaged
to help him in his work. When the
minister returned to Belgrade he went
to see poor Boyne and found him dy-
ing. He expired on the morning of
Aug. 3, 1876, and was buried among
the poor In the highest spot of the
cemetery of Belgrade. whence there is
a lovely view over the Danube. The
body of this unknown and friendless
American, the possible descendant-and
the last-of the hero King LaZar, was
followed to the grave by one mourner
only-the Serbian prime minister. The
face OF the poor man after death took
on such Serbian type that the minister
took the trouble of having him photo
graphed. His death was doubtless due
to fever brought on by overwork and
exhaustion, but the lady, with whom /
have talked, felt sure that he had been
poisoned. What supported her in this
theory was that the man whom he had
taken as his assistant had disappeared,
carrying with him most of the papers,
notes, and the various small objects
that belonged to him.
Seven or eight years after this l met
in Athens Mr.. Arthur j. Evans, now
keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford, with his wife-a daughter of
Mr.. E. A. Freeman. the historian-who
had come from journey in Macedonia.
At Prishtina, or somewhere near there,
Mr.. Evans had bought some fine old Ser
bian gold coins from man who, al
though he seemed to have large guam
tity of them, would Ouly show them one
by one, behaved very mysteriously and
suspiciously, and then disappeared.
Some of these coins were unique; of
others only one or two specimens are
known to exist. | told HIM the story of
poor August Boyne, and he agreed with
me in thinking that possibly at least a
part of the Obilitch treasure had been
found