The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-07
THE AMUSING
PEOPLE OF BOSNIA
They Watch the Trains Dash by Unmoved- Wood
en- PloWs, Bride Paths, Bottomess Roads and
Wonderful Carts Are Beloved Of Them.
BY JULIAN MILLER.
Copyright, 1904, by T. c. Mcclure


Austria-Hungary is talking again
about putting more railroad into Bos-
mia. Bosnia doesn't care.
The Bosnian prefers to plod over
the Kaldermas which pretty word de-
scrbes long lines Of deep holes and
high boulders. optimistically supposed
to form road in this interesting land.
BOSNIA used to be wakeful enough.
a quarter of a century ago it occupied
as much space regularly in the news
as the other Balkan states do to-day.
In those days, trouble in the Balkans"
was not complete without a massacre
or revolution in Bosnia.
sometimes it was at the expense of
the Christians: sometimes the Turks
maid the fiddler. The bill was always
large and red.
After Bosnia was turned over to
Austria Hungary, it became inglori-
ously quiet; and to-day it is probably
mentioned less in the worlds history
than most native states of interior
Africa.
If Bosnia is ever shaken out of it's
Rip Van Wrinkle sleep under the shad-
ow of it's Dinaric Alp wall, now is the
time: for the new Banus, who has been
named to govern Croatia, Slavonia and
Dalmatia, which squeeze Bosnia be-
tween them, is a lineal descendant of
the old Bosnian Kings. His name is
Theodor, Count Pejacsevich Won We
roecz. This is mentioned merely for
local color.
The old Kings or Bans of Bosnia
were great folk. They lived in palaces
hidden in the dark mountains. 1t would
be hard to build palaces or huts in
Bosnia without having them in noun
tains. A Bosnian calls a place that is
1000 feet above the level of the sea
lowland, and views it as a highway Of
commerce.
The old Bosnian Bans never failed
to pick up a good fight if it lay before
their doors. They fought the Turks
and the Hungarians and the Dalma-
tians alternately. BY the Treaty of
Berlin in 1878, after the Russo-Turkish
War, when all the nations, small and
big, that were engaged in the fight were
presented with diplomatic gold bricks.
Austria Hungary, that didn't fight at
all, got Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Bosnians tell a story to account
for the formation of their land. 1t ac-
counts for that and other things,
among them why Bosnia is not
threatening the worlds markets sufti-
GENTLY to brighten anybody.
The story is that one day the devil
was hurrying across the Balkan PEN
insula to see a man. He bore on his
back a few arguments in the shape
of bag full of boulders. AS is well
known to all who are at all acquainted
with him, the devil favors his left
foot, owing to a little family matter
in the shape of a hoof. This made
him stub his toe against Montenegro
and he stumbled and fell headlong.
His bag flew over his head and the
contents went heller SHELTER over the
place that is now Bosnia. The devil
was so annoyed that he left the OUT
fit just where it dropped, and went off
swearing, kicking great holes into the
place with his hoof.
The general and specific aspect of
Bosnia to-day shows that the only
part of the mess that has been cleared
away since this happened is the bag.
Bosnia is black with mountains.
There isn't such a thing as a bee line
there. Travelling through it is a mat
ter of lodging between mountains
from one end of the country to the
other. The rivers all fall down hill,
and a Bosnian considers a river that
flows without waterfall for ten miles
an important and wonderful navigable
stream, and calls the village in that
favored district a port.
On the Mediterranean or Adriatlc
side stand the Dinaric Alps, as virgin
as they were when the forgotten Da-
clans first swarmed into Europe
through their defiles. Toward the
Danube are half a dozen ranges of
mountains. The towns in the inte-
rior sit at the bases of mountains. The
railroad runs over grades that make
it impossible to haul heavy trains. 1t
goes over passes so dangerous that
the rails have had to be made so mar
row in gauge that the road is toylike.
Yet Bosnia, although it is hardly
ever heard of, is the key to an i'm
naense commerce. and Austria Hun
gary is determined some day to turn
that key and unlock a door that shall
lead her merchants out into the Med
iterranean.
Austria Hungary is not the discov-
erer of the fact that Bosnia is a key.
The old Romans knew 1T, and they
hewed mighty roads through Bosnia,
over the mountains, to connect the