Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-03-21
Armed like arsenals, with long pis-

Armed like arsenals, with long pis
tolls long rifles, long knives, Macedo.
mans, Albanians and Arnauts shuttle
along with the walk Of the mountain.
eer. Servian peasant women in gaud.
lily striped frocks, Bulgarian women
dressed in black like priests, mountain
eers from Montenegro, in fustanellas
with long -beaked yellow and red shoes
and brilliant scarlet cloaks, grave Hod-
schas in silken caftans and green tur.
bans, mingle on the streets with Span
ish Jewesses with brilliant gold and
silver headdresses and Montenegrin
women in white skirts and sleeveless
waists, and little red caps with rising
sun embroidered on their fronts in
gold.
Near Nisch Is a square tower. Tell
its story and you tell the story Of the
Balkans.
The tower Is known as the Tschele-
kula, meaning "Skull Tower" In 1905
the Turks advanced toward Nisch.
The Servian Woiwode, Stefan Sindjel5
itsch, intrenched himself with 5000
Servians in the village Of Kamenitza.
They were overcome. When the ia
nissaries rushed among them, Sindjel-
itsch fired the powder magazine and
blew his own men and the Turks into
pieces.
The Turkish army ravened fike q
band Of wolves and killed all Servians
who were left alive by any chance
After they had killed and burned un-
til there was nothing left to kill and
burn they chopped the heads Off the
dead Servian patriots. Then they be-
gan the erection Of a great square
tower.
After it had risen to some height
they began to alternate the rows OF
stones with rows Of Servian heads
Altogether they set fifty-six rows OF
seventeen heads each In alternate rows
of stones.
This memorial Of the Tamerlanes OF
the nineteenth century was left un-
touched, with the skulls grinning out
upon the land, until 1878, when the
Servians took them out reverently and
buried them, with the exception Of one
that still looks out from the east side
Of the tower.
Farther on, near the Bulgarian boun-
dary, Is another strategic place that
will be heard from In case Of war. II
is the fortress Of Bella Palenka, and
Moltke pronounced 1t one Of the most
important points in the Balkans.
It was the old Roman city Of Rene
siana. It Is guarded still by an ancient
castle-fort built in 1900 by the Grand
Vizier Mustapha Pasha. He built II
by the pleasant expedient Of tearing
down Servian churches and using their
stones for it. He also took the stones
from ancient Roman ruins.
This town Is close to Piost, which
stands on the Bulgarian boundary and
has true Balkan history. It has been
occupied at various times by Turks,
Bulgarians, Servians, Russians and
Austrians. Almost every time 1t was
taken only after bloody fighting.
From Servia to Bulgaria is leap
into different manners, different cos
tunes, different architecture.
The Bulgarian does not love the Ser
Wan unduly. Luckily for the peace be-
tween them, the Bulgarians are kept
80 busy plotting and counter plotting
about Macedonia, that their somewhat
embarrassing attentions are directed
almost entirely southwark just now.
AS the Cuban Junta made its head
quarters in the United State,, so the
Macedonian Junta makes its head
quarters in Bulgaria. But unlike the
Cuban revolutionists, the Macedonian
committee has not merely enlisted Bull
garian sympathies and aid, 1t has risen
1xrov II
It keeps the pitch hot all the time.
Dive out Of Bulgaria and into the
mountain districts Of Macedonia and
you dive into a land Of Alexander the
Great, Of Roman generals, and Of czars
who ruled long before Russia had any.
Time has jumped over this land and
touched it only in leaps ages apart.
Go only short distance from Salon.
ica ancient, storied Salonica (very dir
ty now and inhabited by flea-bitten
Turkish soldiers who do not like life,
apparently, and you will find a coun-
try marked with the tumuli Of the
Macedonian kings. big stone piles Just
within sighting distance Of each 9th
er, that served as the stations for the
wireless telegraphy stations OF those
days.
You may find g. fine old gentleman,
low the knees and with pretty weapons
fastened to all available protuberances.
He will talk to you (if he trusts you
and you are fortunately so poor that
you are not worth capturing) of his
system Of levying tribute as uncon-
cernedly as If he lived in the day OF
Ulysses, earning his living with his
good sword and shield.
Turkish soldiers gaze with respect at
the very brigands whom they are
sworn to kill. Those brigands swagger
through the villages, beloved by all the
women, envied and admired by all the
men, afraid Of nobody. Impossible
though it seems, they wear more arms
than the other citizens. They strut by
the Turks superciliously, mockingly.
Sometimes the Macedonian brigand
sits on a rock just out Of gunshot from
garrison Of Turks and sings little
songs carefully calculated to. embitter
even the most stolid souls.
Everybody lives in the past. The
Balkans were the portals into Europe
of all the strange tribes in early times.
The traces Of the Dacians, the Marco
manni, the Quadi the Goths, the Huns,
all are to be found In survival In the
Balkans. It is as If all those irrupting
tribes and races had left their flotsam
and jetsam there, to remain unchang-
ed in those undelectable mountains.
Their songs are songs Of the Car
Simeon and the Gear Boris and the
Gear Dushan, who ruled more than a
thousand years ago, when there was no
such thing as a czar Of Russia. All
throughout the Balkans today the ia
vorite dance Is the kolo, which Is
nothing more or less than the ancient
Roman dance of horo, without par
ticle of change.
Bagpipers go around everywhere, and
everywhere the inhabitants are prone
to drop their work suddenly and dance
and sing as if every one Of those queer
villages were a stage village and all
the peasants were members Of the bal
let.
The land has been described by one
traveller as a land that still lives In
the days Of the troubadours. The Mon
teneerin. IL he Is truly patriotic, still