Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-07-15
servIa and Her People.

Balkan peninsula, is compact terri
tory, with an area of over l8, 900 miles,
and the surface is, on the whole,
mountainous. Mountain groups are
mostly clothed with fine forest. 1t is
essentially an agricultural country, the
principal crops being wheat, maize
.und others cereals, and for wine.
Fruit trees, especially plums, abound
and from the plums the brandy of the
Seryians is made. Great numbers of
cattle and sheep are kept and there
are flour mills, breweries, cooperages
and similar works in operation.
Clothing and carpets are made by the
women in their own homes.
The Servians are well-built, stall
Wart race, proud and martial by
temperament with warm love of
home and country, of dance and song,
hospitable, brave and energetic, but
at the same time quick-tempered
and prone to violence. They are a
primitive people, and cling to old GUS
toms and beliefs, and are thoroughly
democratic in their institutions.
The most striking feature of the social
life is the family community, for
zadruga. There are no paupers, no
asylums, no "homes" in Seryia.
The capital is Belgrade, city of
nearly 10000 inhabitants. The
country was formerly an autonomous
dependency of Turkey, but since
the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, it
has been an independent constitu-
tional monarchy. The population in
1884 was 1901, ,736; in 1890 it was
2,162,759, including 100000 Rou-
manians, $4,000 gypsies and $4,000
of other nationalities. Besides there
are about 25O,OOO Servians in
Herzegovina, and 1850, 900 in Austro-
Hungary.
The people of Servia belong to the
Greek Catholic Church. The highest
authority of the Servian Church
is the National Synod, consist
ing of the Archbishop of Belgrade and
the Bishops of Nisch and Zica.
Education does. not reach very high
standard and is not generally diffused,
although attendance at the primary
schools is free and compulsory.
Besides university at Belgrade,
with less than 800 students, there are
military academy, theological sem
mary, an agricultural, commercial
and some technical schools. The
elementary school number nearly 700
and are attended by about $4,000 chill
dren.
Servia is constitutional and
hereditary monarchy. The King
acts as sole executive through eight
ministers-foreign affairs, war,
finance, justice, interior, political
economy, public works, religion
and education. The legislative
power is vested in the King
and the National Assembly. The dep
uties of the latter are elected every
third year-one for every 4,5OO votes
in each province. Besides this body
there is Senate of sixteen members
eight chosen by the King and eight
by the National Assembly. The body
acts as permanent State council
The army embraces all men capable
of bearing arms beween the ages OF
20 and SO, divided into three classes
the standing army, with peace total
of $4,000, and war total OF
$4,000; the second and third
class each numbers $4,000. The
metrical system of weights and
measures is in use and the coinage
system of the Latin union, though the
franc is called dinar and is divided
into 100 paras.
The language of the Servians be-
long to the Southern division of the
Slav tongues and has for its nearest
congeners Bulgarian, Slavonian and
Russian. Although somewhat in
fuenced by the Turkish it is the
softest tongue Of all in the southern
division, has complete grammar
and readily lends itself to poetic com
position. Some of the native litera-
ture has been translated into En-.
glish.