The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-12-20
WAYS OF THE BRIGAND.
HIS MANNERS HAVE NOT CHANGED
MUCH IN A CENTURY.

carly Practical m His choaen Profess
sion-Why He Plunders-H0w Napo-
leon Conquered.
The following article was written
for the Washington Evening Star by
william Elliot Griffis, LID: A new
Macedonian cry-"come over and help
us'-rings In our ears. This time 1t is
a woman's. At the opening of the
twentieth century the same situation
confronts us as that in 1901. Then
collections were taken in the churches
to ransom American captiyes held in
the prisons Of Tripoli. In Mohamme-
dan countries the name of the young
United States was the synonym for
poverty and impotence. To-day in the
same region the United States means
wealth and weakness.
On the Sd of September, in the
Turkish province of Macedonia, on
road frequently travelled, our country
woman, Miss Ellen M. Stone, and a
party of eleven other persons were
surrounded in a mountain defile by
thirty or forty Bulgarian brigands,
who spoke broken Turkish, wore Turk
ish clothes and had their faces masked
or blackened. The Bulgarian brigands
Tor were they TurksD were politely
careful to dismiss the English clergy
man, his wife and his wife's father,
but, in hope of large ransom ($110,-
OOO) they kept the American lady.
The brigand is a preancient charac-
ter. Long before the days of Barab-
bas he was in old Greece and Rome.
Indeed, without him much of their fas-
cinating mythology would lose point.
Every land has known him, and after
he has been properly hanged, broken
on the wheel, or boiled in oil, his ex-
ploits form the staple Of nursery lore
ever, after. The folk lore of China,
Japan and India is as full Of him as is
the England Of Robin Hood, Jack
Shepard or Dick Turpin. In Japan
csc inn one bathes in tub named af-
ter a knight of the road, who was duly
cooked according to law. Burma has
It Dacoits; Syria knew its patriot
spoilers of the Roman, whom Herod
rooted out Of their lairs only by lower
ing down the face of the cliffs great
boxes filed with warriors. Even yet
the way to Jericho offers work for
good Samaritans. To travel from
Athens to Marathon the student must
go armed to the teeth. Italy is the
classic home of the brigands, with
Spain as a near rival. Who does not
remember the brilliant picture of Hor-
ace Vernet, in which the French dra-
gon in Calabria pistols the patriotic
and picturesque robber? Along the
Rhine Schinderhannes is tenderly cher
ished. The Spanish Jose Maria, the
French Cartouche, the italian Pezza
are still the fascinating theme of fire.
side story.
Indeed, what would art, fiction and
the operate stage do without the bri-
gand, with his peaked and befeathered
hat, his chromatic jacket and famboy
ant sash, and whole latticework of
black ribbons on his leggins? Who
does not remember the ditty, son yon-
der rocks reclining?" Is not that gen
tleman, ever on the decline, none other
than Brother Devil, or Fra Diavolo?
1t is the brigand's business to recline
on the rocks and wait for his prey.
He lives with the sportive goats. The
high hills are a refuge for him, as well
as for the coney. Indeed, so much is
this chronic loftiness affected by the
brigand that popular etymologists. liv-
ing in England, who remember Roder-
lex Dhu and the general tendency of
the Highlander to lift cattle, would de-
rive the word from brigant, a High
lander, and this from brig, hilltop.
But, no! Our friend, ever personally
rich in decorative elements, inhabits
more genial climes to, the, southwark.
His name, in its true derivation, ex-
plains why he Is often so popular, con-
sidered a patriot, the alleged cham
pion of the poor and the terror of the
unjust rich. Down at the root, the
italian word means to be ambitious,
to be busy and strive, to achieve grand
things. Only as the gentleman on the
hilltop interprets these terms to the
disadvantage of the travelling public
does his name have a bad sense, and
mean robber or pirate. Next to cap
ture, his business is ransom. Indeed,
brigands in the Middle Ages were ba-
rons, and the later feudal system was
a sort of licensed brigandage. In the
days when soldiers had to get their
pay in the best way they could-which
is largely the situation of the Turkish
army officers and soldiers to-day
ransom was a regular business. To
day it may seem terribly large sum
to pay ($110,O00) for an unmarried
American lady in middle life. We ask,
where are the knights Grant? Yet
think Of the fat hauls which were
made in the past by kidnapers or alb
ductors of some sort-of Richard /.
released on payment lin values of to-
day. of 100000. or of King John of
France, ransomed for $10,000,000-
paid in installments.
Do we associate the origand with
vulgar thieves and pickpockets? How
do we injure innocence! Our COM
mercial ideas vary from those of the
kidnapers themselves, or of those who
look back tenderly upon them. Usu-
ally the brigand is a gentleman of
property, as he certainly is of standing
in the local community. He exists
only where government is weak, and
where anarchy prevails more or less,
as it has long prevailed in Macedonia
and Bulgaria. Usually he is in collu-
sion with tho outhorifioo ond hic nl,,u