The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-01-26
S[RV|A UNDER KING PETER
Present Ruler Slave of Tyrants
and MurdererS.
NO PUBLIC SECURITY
The Unhappy Country Has Only Ex.
changed a Benevolent Autocrat
for a Timorous Tyrant-vowed
to Establish Liberal Govern
ment for His Subjects.

Nations, like individuals, must suf.
fer the consequences of their sins,
and few will be found to lament the
swift retribution which has overtaken
Servia since she acquiesced in the
murder of her sovereign.
While the mangled corpses Of Alex
ander and Draga lay gaping in the
Konak garden, drunken lieutenants
branishing dripping swords in the
streets and cried aloud: "The tyrant
has fallen!" When Red Peter took
the Orient express, he carried with
him translations of Mill's Liberty"
for distribution among his new sub
jects and vowed to establish all Mills
counsels of perfection.
But Servia has only exchanged a
benevolent autocrat for a timorous
tyrant, who is himself the abject slave
of murderers and towards. Not only
are electors coerced, parliaments init
Undated, judges overawed, newspapers
suppressed, correspondents expelled,
but there Is no longer even liberty Of
conscience; private judgment and pub
lie opinion have been equally dis
trained.
Public security Is quickly passing
into a memory. Petty tyrants have
arisen in every village and lay hands
suddenly on private enemies, exac-
tions are committed by favor Of MUIR
derers in Office, mysterious crimes
pass by unpublished. The best men
in the land are hurrying across the
Save to penury and exile; others take
to the hills as their forefathers did
in bad old times, which after all were
no worse than the new.
National. even municipal credit has
passed away, though the country's po-
tential wealth is as great as ever.
Public contractors refuse, to deliver
their wares except for cash. The
cuckoo king himself cannot obtain
credit for the new crown, to wear
for which he sold his honor.
From this chaos her miserable King
is incapable of retrieving her. He
began with light heart distributing
volumes of Liberty" talking plati-
tudes about freedom and progress and
strolling about the streets incognito,
a Haroun-al-Raschid in plaster of
Paris. Now a change has come over
the spirit of his nightmare and he
hugs himself in terror shivering in
his bedroom among Swiss guards and
keeping a rope ladder outside of his
window to facilitate the expected
fight.
Our only surprise is that Red Peter
has lasted so long.
The usual refuge of discredited
monarchs is to provoke an unjust
war, and no doubt his Majesty has
considered the propriety of raid
upon his neighbors.
With an empty treasury, with no
arms or ammunition, declaration of
war by Servia would only precipitate
the inevitable catastrophe. The termi-
nation of Peters melancholy reign
would disturb nobody in or outside
Servia. So Peter has now bethought
himself of an expedient which is only
hour of need he Is prepared to sacri-
flee all the aspirations, all the dignity,
all the hereditary claims of his coun-
try and humbly sue for the protection
of her historic foe. He has met
Prince Ferdinand at Nish and all the
quidnuncs are agog with rumors of
an alliance.
1t is even asserted that the shrewd-
est statesman in Europe consents to
treaty whereby Servia is to help
Bulgaria in the event of Turkish
invasion, and Bulgaria is to support
Servia if Austria takes advantage of
certain clauses in the Treaty of Ber-
lin. AS, however, Burgaria has al
ready made her own arrangements
with Turkey and an invasion is prac-
tically out of the question, whereas
Austria has obviously made up her
mind to advance in the immediate
future In the direction of Salonica, the
suggested arrangement is, to say the
least, one sided.
We should not welcome an Austrian
occupation, because we have no great
belief in the administrative method of
the dual Empire, but as the lesser of
two evils we should applaud any in
vader who removed from the regicide
kingdom the stigma of the great
crime and enabled her to hold up her
head once more among her fellows
London Saturday Review.