The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-04-16
TEE LAND OF STONES.
Herzegovina and the Balkan Dead
lock.

the mountains lighted by the sun you
Will have some notion Of Montenegro
and Herzegovina. Of both these coun-
tries is told the legend that the devil,
flying over the earth with a sack Of
stones, dropped his burden on this
corner Of the Adriatic.
Mountains may inspire poetry and
patriotism, but these indigenous prod
ucts do not satisfy the hunger Of man.
And this is the root of the matter in
Herzegovina people ask for
bread and are given stone. Of course
the government is the unnatural faith
er-and the last is always the worst.
Fo,>tv wears ag5 it was the Turk who
made the government and the stone;
and now the Austrian has taken his
place-and his blame.
Poverty mated to fanaticism-
whether Christian or Moslem-are a
hard couple to lead OF to drive. And
Bosnia and herzegovina have more
than their share Of both as history
shows from that fateful day when Old
Servia was slain by the sword Of Ma
hommed on the field Of Kossovo, and
the Slavs, disdaining the help Of
Rome, accepted the sultan in prefer
ence to the pope. The inveterate hate
for centuries has divided the Roman
and Greek churches gave the Balkans
to the Turk, and the rich families
became Moslems in order to keep
their estates; while the poor, having
nothing to lose, were under no neces-
sity to lose their faith. Thus are the
landowners Moslem beys, while the
peasants are Orthodox Greek in Bos-
MIA and Roman Catholic in Herzegov-
ina.
The Turk having no zeal for re-
forming himself, is never insistent on
reforming others, and these divisions
Of religion and riches remained un-
disturbed for centuries. But the
strain proved too great, and Bosnia
and Herzegovina strove to throw OF
the Mahammedan yoke. Russia, ev-
er sympathetic with Slavs, came to
their aid, and was rewarded by see
ing the two provinces rescued from
the Turk-and consigned to the Aus
trian. The united wisdom of Europe,
subtly guided by Prince Bismack, so
decided and enshrined its resolve in
the famous treaty Of Berlin.
And now history is performing one
of those somersaults by which she
shows her contempt for statecraft.
Greek, Christian and Moslem having
fought and separated thirty-fve years
ago, are uniting and TO demand the
return Of the sultan s suzerainty.
Thus-as you see~poverty and re-
igion are the secrets Of the woes OF
Bosnia and Herzegovina-and Of these
poverty is the greatest. Of the peo-
pie less than one half belong to the
Greek church, and of the remainder
the Mohammedans are twice as many
as the Catholics. And nearly 80 per
cent of the population is dependent
on the soil. What this means in
Herzegovina you may see without
travelling far from the railway. In
the wilderness of rock and stone the
oases are few, and the people live
on the razor edge Of starvation.
To adopt the peasants opinion Of
the Austrian rule would be as foolish
as to Judge the social and economic
conditions of Great Britain by the
midnight assembly Of the hungry on
the Thames embankment. From his
hovel and his crop Of stones, where
a goat would have to be busy to grow
fat, he would point to the places Of
the Roman Catholic archbishop in
Mastar and to the wine cellars ad-
Joining, which show that mis- emln-
ence has interest in commerce as we'll
as in souls. This natural antagonlsm
Of poverty is intensified by impending
famine, owing to the failure of crops
last autumn, by Slav agitation reused
by the Austrian annexation Oh the
provinces, and by Austrian suspicion
as manifested through the agricul-
tural banks established some years
ago to help the needy cultivator. But
gratitude for benevolence is never an
asset Of governments, and is not like
" to be exuberant under military
pressure and political agitation.
Not for a moment are people allow
ed to forget that Austrian rule means
armed occupations. Towns and VII
lapes are earrisoned, railways are