The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-06

A
negro, still it is the centre of that prin-
| cipality by long custom and right, an6
| has been for many centuries the focus OF
| the national life and the last stronghold
OF the people in their Ionk warfareS
| against the Turks. Under tree in FROM
| of the modest palace at Cettinje, Prince
| Nicholas may be seen any day surround
| ed by his Ministers and the dignataries
| of his court, deciding the affairs of state
Here the Prince himself. ike Kink Solo
mon, delivers judgements on the differ
| ences of his subjects-judgmnent from
| which Their is no appeal and which cannot
! be questioned. But the Prince not only
makes his country's laws, but he makes
its songs as well-at least, he has writ
ten a great number of them, and two
of his palys are the favorite stock pro-
ductions at the little theatre of the little
| capital. For the Prince is a poet as well
as an autocrat, and doubtless his sub
! jects reverence his songs as they do his
laws.
There is no written law in Montene-
gro, with the exception Of a civil code
| published some years ago, which is very
incomplete, dealing only with questions Of
property. But copies of this code are ex-
trenlely rare and have not been distribu-
ted except to a chosen few. Consequent
", the general public has hardly any
menas of ascertaining what the new code
enjoins. There is no penal code, all cases
being tried according to the established
custom or. rather, the judges discretion.
AS to Montenegrin finance, the dis
trict captains collect the taxes and bring
them to Cettinje. They come to the cap
ital on horseback, accompanied by a few
armed attendants, a second horse carry
ing sacks containing the taxes. During
the tax season the Minister Of Finance
is kept busy for he has to count the tax
es. made up of infinite huber of very
small coins, and he has to zap the State
officials. These dignitaries have some
times to wait five or six months for their
money. The ghost walks only occasion
ally in Montenegro
The total revenue amounts to about
S200,000 The pay Of a Minister varies
from $1,000 to $1,000 per annum, while
that of State does not exceed $500. The
Prince has no civil list After the gov
eminent employees have been paid, the re-
mainder goes to him. WhateYer1kg Tx
mainder goes TO him. When the Prince
went to St. Petersburg to assist at the
marriage of his daughter. Princess Nj
litza, to the Grand Duke Peter Nicolaie-
witch, he took with him all the money in
the state Golfers with the exception of
two hundred forms. The consequence
was that all the dignitaries had to wait
for their salaries until His Highness re-
turned it to the treasury. At rough es-
innate about half the national revenues
goes to the support of the Prince and
his court
The revenues being small, and as Mon
tenegro does not raise enough produce
to support itself, and as it has no man
ufactories or commerce worth mention
ing it is no wonder the country finds it
exceedingly difficult to raise loan in
these practical days.
The country has had remarkable his
tory, long heritage of glory, but this
does no tseem to count when the prin-
cipality tries 10 borrow from it's richer
neighbors. This small spot of earth has
maintained its freedom against the most
fearful odds-tilis home of a handful of
men who wfthstood the assaults of a
mighty empire. Few nations have had
such stirring and eventful history-a
nation which, though so few in numbers,
repealed the all conquering Turk, and
maintained his liberty at time when
every other partt of the Balkan Peninsu-
la had fallen under the sway of the OF
toman
Gladstone said that the traditions of
Montenegro exceed in glory those of
Marathon ard Thermoplae, and all the
war traditions of the world"
Although the present dynasty of which
Prince Nicholas is the seventh has ex-
listed little over two slndred years,
Montenegro dates its independence three
centuries earlier. When the old realm of
the Servian Cars was shattered by the
Turks on the fatal field of Kossovo in
1889, those Serbs who preferred liebrty to
the Ottoman yoke fed to the impreg-
nable limestone cliffs Of the Black Noun
tains. Nature has been the ally of the
hardy mountaineers. The stones. which.
according to the legend fell out of the
bag which God was carrying over Mon
tenegro at the creation of the world,
have been their strongest bulwark
against invasion.
Onward swept the tide of the Ottoman
conquest. Servia, Bosnia. Herzegovina,
Greece and Bulgaria fell under the Turk
ish yoke, Montenegro was surrounded on
all sides, an island of liberty, against
whose rocky shores the waves of Islam
beat necessarily. but in vain.
War with the Turks is the very essence
Of Montenegrin history, a battle of dwarf
against giant, but the dwarf was finally
victorious.
Early in the sixteenth century Monte
negro was deserted by its sovereign,
Prince George who married a Venetian
wife and took up his residence in her
more comfortable city. The people chose
their bishop as their cheif. and prince
bishops, muscular Christians. continued
u lead them with success against the
Turks.
Finally IN 1851 Daniio, nephew and
nominee of the previous pr:nse-bishop.
Peter II, succeeded in having Montenegro
declared a secular state, with the hered
ita-y government Of a prince. His neph
ew. the present Prince Nicholas. succeed
ed to the throne. and at the close Of the
war of Is76-1S7S Montenegro was declared
sovereign principality. With long
history of almost continuous and success /
fnl warfare behind them. II is no wonder
that the MontenegTins find it difficult 70
adapt themselves to the changed eondi-
lions Of peace. once during the late war,
when Prince Nicholas attempted % dis