Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-07-06
IMPRESSIONS OF BELGRADE.
Not Belgrade, Maine, but Belgrade the
Capital of Servia.

De gathered INTO tnS LlOdU DOSOIll VI
the Danube, which sweeps. in a splen-
did curve, round the high banks on
which the city is builded. AS you look
out from the Kalem esdan. the shaded
gardens of the old Turkish fortress in
the spring or early summer. when tn"
rivers are in flood from the melting
SHOWS of their tributary mountain
streams, you might almost think your
self by the sea; for a waste of waters
spreads before you. dotted with islands
about which the waterfowl glide and
hover like sea-gulls. Beyond the rivers
and the flooded land the eye travels
over mile after mile o: the level Hun
garian plain, the European steppe,
across which the Huns and Avars
poured in disOrderly horIe:, upon Bel
grade. and into which. tr"m Belgrade
itself. the Turk swept down to Buda-
pest, and even to the walls of Vienna.
1t WIS only the other day that the otto
man troops were finally cleared out of
the White City" by the Danube: and
up to 1867 the Hungarian shepherds
could see the crescent banner fluttering
above the fortress, and make out senti-
For a town of it's associations, Bel
grade at the first aspact is little dis
appointing, not merely I" those who
are thinking of PRICE Eugene and the
old Illyrian Empire, bat to those who
recall the turbulent recent past in the
capital where the luckle:'s Alexander
and his wife were reigping just two
years ago. Belgrade seems Obtrusively
un-Oriental, especially If you come to
it either from the real East which lies
bubbling beyond the southern border of
Servia, or from that tanned and deodor-
lZed. but curiOusly picturesque. frag-
ment of the Eastern world, which
Austria keeps in being in Bosnia and
the Herzegovina. You miss the
mosques and minarets, the traders sit
ting crosslegged on the ground before
their open booths, the Albanians, gOr-
geous with silver trappings, the veiled
Turkish women, and the trains of laden
donkeys and jack-ponies. The shops
in Belgrade are poor and common. but
not very different from the shops in
any third provincial town in
France or England. full Of cheap ready
made clothes, bowler hats. sham jewel
ry. and timed provisions.
The town itself is rather pleasant. on
the German. or Central European,
model: a town of wide white streets.
cobble- paved, over which the fiacres
rattle noisily. with shoutings. ard
along which the alI-pervading Belgian
company runs neat. convenient, little
tram-cars such as we have not Yet ac-
linn in ri 80 q
town in which rows of whitewashed
cottages are broken by many new
square buildings. with latticed shutters
to the windows. and the succeed.
much h-decorated facades. which prevail
everywhere from Trieste to Cnpenha-
gen. There are cafes, any number of
them, whare people sit on chairs by
the side of the pavement, and drink
beer or coffee, and smoke cigarettes all
day; there are shady public gardens,
beautiful just now with the chrstnuts
in blossom. where a band plays in the
cool Of the evening You might be in
the "Anlagen" of any minor German
capital. And the military element is
more in evidence than even in the
cities Of the Fatherland itself. Every
fourth man you meet in Belgrade is an
officer. YCu see soldiers occa sionally
on guard at the ministries and the pal
ace. or slouching along the streets ic
GERS everywhere.
King Peters army would seem to con
sist mainly of the commissioned ranks
They are amazingly smart and decorative
these officers. in the best Geramn man
ner; with beautiful blue and gray uni
forms nat oil m
like silver; square-shOuldered. and well
set up with pride in their port. defiance
i'm their eye and a naughty conscious
the mere civilian. Many bear medals on
their breasts: either as memorials of their
prowess at SlivnitZa. when the Servian
dy Bulgars. or else to signify that they
took part in the revolution which culmi-
mated In the midnight assassination of the
King and Queen. About tWO-thirds Of the
Servian officers insisted on receiving med
ment. When one looks at all these we'll
tailored military gentlemen. and remem-
bers that the population of Servia con
sists of some 4O 600 families. mostly peas
ants. one understands why taxes are 50
heavy, why prices in the little. One-story
shops rule as high as in Sloane Sire ct and
why common leather goods are at least
place OF their origin. You understand
too. the hints you hear that the country
hot III itdSt ietoucIIeu u
the change. and that II it We're not for the
officers. there would be counter revolu-
tion. Perhaps the real check Is the fear
of Austria. which would assuredly put an
army corps across the Save. and set about
restoring order" if there We're serious
internal disturbances in King Peters lit
tie realm.
The fallen family has some who remem-
Der II with affection. even In Belgrade it
self. My cabman. who drives me about in
Il fiacre, is one of these. When I ask him
to show me the sights Of the city. 1 find
that he always takes me to some place
associated with the murdered King and
Queen. He drew up one morning opposite
the little railedin-garden. under the win
dOws of the new palace. where a military
band plays daily. yard or two from the
very patch of turf upon which the dead
or perhaps still breathing-bodies were
thrown. But the old palace. which was
the scene of the midnight terror. has dis
appeared; every vestige of it has been
cleared away. Servian Officialism is not
anxious to perpetrate memorials of its
late rulers. The cabman asked me If I
would like to see the tOmbs of "Alexan-
der and "Draga." as he called them He
took me t6 the little mortuary chapel of
the orthodox cemetery. now superseded
by the larger graveyard outside the town
The bodies were quietly buried under th.
floor OF the chapel: a couple of common
metal crosses lean against the wall with
the names of Alexander Obrenovitch''
and "Draga Obrenovitch cut into them
That is all. The Is no other inscription
a Ia