The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-01

decreed a separation from bed and board.
Petrovitch got a lump sum and emigrated
to Constantinople. while the Queen pro-
ceeded to put her sisters menage on a
royal footing. renting a great house for
her and supplying her with servants, equip
ages and horses galore. Next she provided
her sisters boys. among them the heuten-
ant mentioned. with suitable situations and
allowances, while the nieces were sent to
high-priced foreign schools and academies
and clothed like princesses.
AS all Belgrade knew the Petrovitchs
past, the airs and graces they assumed
with their present luxurious mode OF liv-
ing could not fail to attract widespread
comment, and as it leaked out that the
King was footing the bills, his Majesty's
creditors became anxious and very press
ing in their demands upon the ~civilist,
whose administrator had been unable to
pay current expenses for some time. The
worthy officials protests were unheeded
and drafts upon the royal exchequer multi
piled, as Draga's relatives increased their
demands, or new cousins and aunts bobbed
Up.
Nicodem squeezed several thousand francs
a week from his sister before he got an
official allowance, and his adjutant, Lieut..
Petrovitch, Jared nearly as well. Then
there are Draga's unmarried sisters, three
Of them, who had to be provided with es-
Establishments and means for travelling
abroad. This item, too, made a consid-
cradle hole in the royal revenues. Draga
is also credited with having started a sink
ing fund intended to provide her sisters
with marriage portions at some future
time. OF course she expects to marry them
to princes of royal blood.
DID HE KILL MILAN?
As to small-fry relatives OF hers VINO
regard the c~ivilists as their legitimate
quarry, there is no end CT them, Mika Popo-
vitsch and Paia Marinkovitsch, two client
less shysters of evil reputation, being loud
est In their demands, and as they were
implicated in the plot to foist a bogus
baby On Alexander, their royal cousin is
entirely at their mercy. But there are still
other blackmailers, persons intimately ac-
quainted with Queen Draga's past. One
of them, a woman of her age, recently mar
ried one Of the high officials Of the palace,
Draga giving her a dot Of forty thou
sand francs, which is a great deal of money
in Servia. Add to this that all members OF
the Lunjevitza family who are at all able
to make a bluff at filing any kind of a
position were provided with paying sine
cures at the state expense, and you have
a somewhat complete picture Of the situa-
ton confronting the kingdom. Leading
Servian statesmen are of the opinion that
a general uprising is imminent, the Kings
arbitrary rule, his persecution of all per-
sons opposed to Draga and her family,
financial depression and the stability Of
things generally, tending that way.
At the same time it is openly charged
that the King and Queen were jointly re-
sponsible for the attempt on the life OF
the late King Milan, that, indeed, they
nired the murderers sent TO assassinate
their father and father-in-law. Whether
this horrible accusation is true or not, your
correspondent is unable to decide, but the
evidence produced seems to point that way.
The .plotters could a never have gone
to work as they did If it hadn't been for
the Kings protection and concurrence, and
that those caught r~ed-handed were after
wards ~suffocated in prison, or tortured to
death, seems to indicate that Alexander
feared their testimony. Among the con-
spirators foully murdered in their cells
were Zivko Angelitch, Governor of Shabatz,
| and another high official named Knezevitch,
both of whom used to belong to Alexander's
circle of intimates.
MIKO PRISTOF.
Copyright