The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-07

Adriatic sea with the Danube river.
Venice knew it when she was the
Queen of the Mediterranean; and she
intrigued for the possession of Bosnia
as if it were an empire.
So to-day Bosnia's old roads are be-
set with the ruins of ancient Roman
forts, and the greatest roads are those
that were made originally by the Ro-
man road builders.
When Turkey seized Bosnia, those
roads were permitted to go to ruin,
which is one of the Turkish fads. Other
roads, that led from Hungary and
Croatia southeast into Turkey were
kept in somewhat better repair, that is,
a horse could get through and over
them if Allah was good to it. BY the
time the Turkish occupation was ended
about the only things that could be
called roads were those leading south
east, while the roads to the Adriatic,
which should, some day, furnish a new
portal for the commerce of all Europe
with the Orient, had almost vanished
| beneath the mud of mountain torrents
in flood, the debris of falling rocks and
| landslides.
Austria has done much to improve
| matters, but there is mighty little bus
mess in Bosnia, and the government
| couldn't educate the electors of the en-
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financering to build hundred thousand
| dollar roads to transport thousand
dollars worth of prunes, which are one
of the chief staples of the province
So to-day the Bosnian travels mostly
a-foot. After this popular mode comes
the Bosnian horse, wonderfully ugly,
wonderfully crowbait-like and wonder
fully strong.
The deterioration of the roads under
I10 trvlr 80 =
traffic out of existence. There are wag-
ons in Bosnia, but they are not trium-
phal chariots. A wagon is a good deal
of a white elephant in most districts,
and the traveller who has ever tried to
negotiate a mountain pass in one will
| never use another.
A Bosnian wagon would be a rare
and valuable addition to a modern mu-
scum, if it could possibly be trans
ported out of the country. 1t can't. 1t
would surely get stuck in the blood
red mud, or sink in the coal-b black bog,
or fall down a slippery mountain, or
sink in a torrential river before it
reached a seaport.
1t is based on the ancient Asiatic
form of ox-cart. There is hardly a
piece of metal work in the typical
Bosnian wheeled vehicle. The parts
are made of heavy timbers, held to-
! gether with wooden lemons and with
withes of willow woven back and
forth like basket work The wheels are
hewn out with a sharp AK, the favo-
rite, and almost the only, tool of the
| Bosnian carpenter. The tongue is i'm
mensely long and sticks out in front
of the oxen or the horses like spear.
Wicked as the roads are as a whole,
Austria has built some fine ones where
wheeled traffic would be comfortable,
but the Bosnian has not adapted him
self to them. He will take the traV-
eler by preference, through the old
trails.
1t is more than twenty-five years
| now since the Turkish occupation, and
d the enterprising and wide-awake Aus
trian and Magyar are clamoring at
the doors of the Bosnian with their
goods.
They have pushed more than seven
hundred miles of railroad into his
land. They are tearing open new and
old highways. But the Bosnian
ploughs in sight of the railroad trains
with a wooden plough made by his an
! cestors. In sight of freight cars and
| railroad stations full of modern sup
plies, he plods over his red roads with
his feet covered by immense pouch
like shoes made of pigs skin with the
i bristles left on. Under Christian rule
| he wears mis- red tez ana linen trouS-
ers of Turkish cut, gathered at the
angles. :
And he looks at the wide, new roads
and then mounts his shaggy, thin lit
tie horse and goes pounding and
stumbling and jouncing over the trail
of his daddies.
The Bosnian horse is a patient
beast, forgiving under insult and in
| jury 1t looks equally happy, whether
mired or stabbed. 1t is never seen by
any chance without a wonderful arti-
Gle of furniture on it's back, occupying
the place reserved for a saddle in
other and happier lands.
This piece of horse furniture looks
most nearly like a small table with
stubby legs. The legs are spars to
which are fastened all the articles that
are to be transported.
The limit of the Bosnian horse-load
| is defined only by the capacity of the
! table-legs and the available amount
of rope.
Bags, boxes, baskets, lumber, hay,
| household utensils, travelling necessa-
ries-all are tied on till there isn't an
inch of room left. There aren't any
zwm n q IN MN