The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-05-24

of the yoke of her Turkish suzerain and
10 attempt to assert her independence by
force OF arms. But for very irregularly
paid tribute. she was virtually independent
already. and probably In all Servia there
were not 200 Turks. But she am
bitiously desired to have the name
of, as well as the actuallty of,
being independ emit; the Russians
helped her with arms, officers and volun-
tser soldiers, and when reached Belgrade,
In May Of the year named, there had al
ready been fighting. in which the Servians
had by no means got the worst of it. No
word of the Servian tongue hsd l. and it
was the reverse OF pleasant for a war cor
respondent in such plight to learn that
outside of Belgrade nobody, or, at least
hardly anybody, knew a word of any
other language than the native
servian. AS 1 ate l was being at
tended by a very assiduous waiter,
whose alertness and anxiety to please
were very conspicuous. He was smart
with quite unoriental smartness; he
whIsked about the tables with deftness ;;
he spoke to me in German, to the Russian
officers over against me in what / assumed
was Russian, to the Servians dining be-
bind me in what / took to be Servian. 1
liked the look OF the man; there was In
telii0ence in his aspect. One could not
FALL him handsome, but there was char
Rcter in the keen black eve, the high
features and the pronounced chin, fringed
on either side by bushy black whiskers.
had brought no servant with me; the
average British servant Is worse than USE
Jess in foreign country, and the dubl-
Dusly polYglot courier is a snare and de-
ception on campaign. l had my eye on
Andress fora couple of DAYS. during which
he was of immense service TO me. lie
Ieemed to know and stand well with every
Dne in Belgrade it was he. indeed. who
presented me in the restaurant to the
prime minister and the minister OF war,
who got together for me my field nsces-
saries, who helped 10 buy my horses. and
who narrated to me the progress OF the
rampsign so far as II had gone.
On the third day l had him in
INV room and asked whether he
would ike to come with me into the field
rs my servant He accepted the offer with
effusiOn we struck hands on the com pact;
he rendered me credentials which | ascer-
tanned TO be extremely satisfactory, and
then he gave me little sketch of him
self 1t was somewhat mixed. as, indeed,
was his origin. Primarily he was Serylan,
but his paternal grandmother had been
BOsniak, an earlier ancestress in Turkish
harem, there was a strain in his blood of
Hungarian zinganee-the gypsy of eastern
Europe-and one could not look at his
profile without 4 suspicion that there wes
L. -. IL - 4
purs mongrel" was what gentleman of
the British legation termed Andreas. and
this self-contradictory epithet was scarcely
out of place.
Andreas turned out we'll He was as
hardy as a hill goat. careless how and
when he ate. or where he slept, which,
indeed. was mostly in the open. 1t
seemed to me that he had cousins all
over Servia, chiefly of the female persua-
sion, and / am morally certain that the
Turkish strain in his blood had in species
OF hn-de-siecle polygsmy. Sherman's
prize hummer" was not In il with
Andreas as a forager At first. indeed. L
suspected him OF actual plundering so
copiously did he bring IN supplies and 40
little had i 10 paw for them; but was not
long In discovering that all kinds of prod
uce were dirt cheep in Ssrvis,
and that as l could myself by a
lamb for a quarter it was not surprising
that Andreas, to the manner born, could
easily obtain one for half the money. He
was an excellent horsemaster, and the
stern vigor with which be chastised the
occasional neglect OF the cousin whom he
had brought into nov service az groom,
was borne in upon me by the frequent
howls which were audible from the rear
OF nv tent. There was not q road in all
Servia with whose every winding Andreas
was not conyersant, and this extensive
and peculiar" knowledge OF his was often
of great service to me. He was light
weight aud an excellent rider; have
sent him Off to Belgrade with telegram
at dusk, and he was back again at break
fast time the next morning, after gallop
of quite hundred miles.
No exertion fatigued him; / never saw
the man out of humor there was but one
matter in regard to which / ever had to
chide him, and in that had perforce to
let him have his own way, because / do
not believe he could restrain himself. He
had served the term in the army which il,
or was then, obligatory on all SerYians.
and on the road or in camp he was rather
more OF "peace-at-any-p price" man than
ever was the late Mr.. John Bright him.
self. When the first fight occurred An
dreas claimed to be allowed TO witness il
along with me. / demurred; he might
get hit. and if anything should happen to
him what should DO for a servant2 AT
length / gave him the firm order TO remain
In camp, and started myself with the groom
behind me on my second horse. The fight
ing occurred eight miles from camp, and
In the course Of IL, leaving the groom in
the rear, had accompanied the Russian
Gen. Dochtouron into a most unpleasant.
" hot place. where a storm of Turkish
shells were falling in the effort to hinder
the withdrawal of a disabled Servian bat
terry. i happened 10 glance over my
shoulder. and. 10 Andreas on foot was at
my horses tail, obviously in q state OF &C.
static enjoyment OF the situation. per-
parted sullenly, calmly strolling along
the line OF Turkish fire. Just then
Tchernaief, the Servian commAndor-in-
chisf. had, IL seemed, ordered detach-
ment OF infantry 10 take in flank
the Turkish guns. From where we
stood could discern the Servian soldiers
hurrying forward close under the fringe
Of q wood near the line OF retirement
along which Andreas was sulking. An
dreas saw them too, and rstreated no step
further. but cut across them, snatching up
a gun as he ran. and the last / saw of him
was while he was waving on the MALTA
men with his billycock and loosing of an
occasional bullet, while be emitted yelIs
OF dheance against the Turks which might
we'll have struck tsrror into their very