Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-10
LIFE IN BELGRADE, WHERE
TURK NO LONGER RULES.
Memories of the Days Not So Long
Gone, When the Otton1ite
Was Supreme.

emerging from the boundless plain Of
| Hungary, and in one nightly flood the
| united waters sweep on down the other
side. On the right hand and on the left
the city trails her skirts in a river-no
| mere figure of speech when winter SHOWS
melt with the return OF spring.
BY treaty Servia is denied the right to
rebuild her fortress. and there it stands.
huge and dominating. with the authentic
air OF an historic past clinging about its
| molderinS walls. Only forty years have
passed since the Turk withdrew from the
capital but it is hard to grasp the fact
even with the living testimony of this one
| who saw the fight at the fountain or Of
! that other who was chased through the
/ streets by Turkish officers with drawn
| swords. But. indeed. every person over
| middle age is a mine Of interesting rem
walking in the deer park with Prince
Michael when he was assassinated is still
alive.
The Complex Serb.
| Twenty years ago an unhappy English
man sailed forth into the streets wearing
| a we'll groomed topper He was pursued
by hilarious throng. All that is changed
now. Top-hats have grown and multiplied
exceedingly. bringing in their train q
plentiful following of "bowlers,'' soft Ger
Belgrade, in fact, has made haste to be
off with the old and on with the new; she
| has performed remarkable quick-change
variety turn. and the very quickness of 1t
has filled the town with the most astonish-
ing and fascinating contrasts. Contrast
violent glaring Contrasts Belgrade
| most obvious characteristic.
The sober clothing of the west and the
brilliant colors of the east serve as a
| mutual foil. The American boot beats
time on the pavement with the native
opanka: the frock coat rubs shoulders
with the sheepskin: the topper" cleaves
the upper air with the fn- whilst correct
ly creased trousers share the lower levels
with the white kits of the peasantry. In
the country the orient closes over the
traveller at once When the girl pours
water from an earthen pot over his dusty
hands he is back in the Old Testament
and. If he is so minded, he may converse
with patriarchs. When one has lived
in Servia long enough to cease to be de-
ceived by the silk hat from Vienna and
the other accessories of modern ciVfliZa-
the permanent character underlying these
accidentals Is in its essence oriental. md
that the heart beneath the frock coat
beats the same rhythm as the heart
beneath the sheepskin.
No man has ever obtained deeper In
sight into the workings of the eastern
MIND than Lafcadio Hearn, yet he has
left on record his overwhelming sense OF
the impossible gulf between his adopted
countrymen and himself Something OF
the same feeling Is apt to steal over the
sympathetic student of the simplicity and
complexity. the frankness and the inscru-
liability of the Serb character Throw your
eyes up the River Sava, and there glitter
that looks like a thread of gossamer 1t
is the railway bridge. and the slenderness
Of it symbolizes truly the nature of Ser
Was connection with the great western
world.
A Democratic People.
In keeping with the prevailing spirit of
contrast is the fact that the university
overlooks the market place. Professors
and students in the dngy garments Of CIV
iiZation are housed not ten PAGES from the
kaleidoscope variety and color of the
peasant people. You may say, II you will
that a great gulf lies between them. and
intellectually, Of course. this Is true, but
In the things that count, in the qualities
Of heart and not Of head, the difference
between professor and peasant Is no
broader than the width Of the street that
separates them. This Is a compliment TO
the professor. for the countryman is one
of the finest natural men in Europe, and
the instructed Serb would be a credit to
any society.
Although Servians are far and away the
most democratic of peoples the estab-
other countries and the rise of wealthy
business houses has introduced the thin
end of the wedge, but there is still free
and-easy, hail-fellow well-metness about
the Serb which has much in common with
the attitude of our own colonists. Even
ministers, important personageS as they are,
have not quite succeeded yet in cultivat-
ing that filmy. unseeing eye which Eng
lish tradition demands. One can still rec
ognize them for human beings. An anus
ing instance is that of well known
charge d'affaires. whose brother prose-
cutes the honorable profession of itinerant
cheese vendor. well. brother" the great
man will exclaim when he runs up against
cheese doing today. eh?"
You must be prepared to be greeted as
friend and brother by butcher. baker and
candlestickmaker; you even run the risk
incredible to the insular mind-of finding
yourself dining with one or all of these
worthless. 1t Is revealed to you that all
men are members of the human family.
The sorry thing is that relatives should
oftt:mes one another despitefully-
for the Servan is born gossip Every
body knows everybody else. not a soul
but is stepped in politics, and the five
political parties represent personal loves
and hates much more than different pol
icies. There are a score Of rewspa pers-
this in town of 10000 inha bitants-and
as the press is absolutely free and en-
tirely unscrupulous. you may imagine. II
the air Is thick with scandals and back
billings.
Cafe and Church.
The atmosphere that obtains in the
cafes and restaurants must be breathed
to be believed. and 1t is as much as your
life is worth to attempt the opening of a
window. The scribe has tried and he
knows. There are compensations, how
ever. for In these dense. malodorous re-
treats are to be found all sorts of ex-
traordinary human beings-fugitives and
fighting men fresh from Macedonian hor-
rors, impecunious Montenegrins. spies
from Bosnia, and hundred others Not
so long ago the student Nastitch sat
here, a shifty. bespectacled creature-and
who so Servian as he? He was gra-
ciously pleased to accept meat and drink,
and was prepared, for a consideration, to
give details Of an Austro- ontenegrin
plot to blow up King Peter In his palace
The consideration not being Forthcoming,
Nastitch. an Austrian subject, returned
to his taskmasters, and the world learned
with stupefaction that the Crown Prince
of Servia had conspired to blow up
Prince Nicholas of Montenegro.
In Servia the church Is an extremely
curious institution and, spiritually, Is as
dead as a door nail. The people are proud
of it in much the same way that an Eng
lshman is proud of Trafalgar Square.
and they think they have done their drtv
when they put their hands into their
pockets. 1t is no exaGgeration to saw