The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-08
STRANGER SHOWN
 MUCH KINDNESS And Unusual Hospitality By
 People of Montenegro SCENES ARE STRANGE Prevalent Idea of Counfry's Savagery Is an Error-TraveIers Are Treated ss With Much Courtesy By the Peasants
SCENES ARE STRANGE
From the Pail Mall Gazette.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
 | An Englishwoman chanced to remark | 70 Turkish official one day that she | was going to Montenegro. He was a high official, quite an important per sonage, indeed, In his way; and he had the most beautiful manners in the world. Had he been the Sultan In the east, and she the Empress of the west, | he could not have received her with more kindly courtesy or have shown | her greater difference. None the less when he heard that she was going to
 Montenegro he glanced at her curious | ly. Is the Englishwoman quite mad? was evidently the first thought in his
 mind.
 "But are you not afraid?" he be-
 gan in tone that betokened, surprise
 as well as dismay. Then he paused
 for a moment and scanned her over
 carefully from tip to toe Mon, non,
 madame, cest impossible!' he ex- claimed at length, with impressive
 gravity, although there was the ghost
 of q smile In his eyes. You must not |
 fierce, wild, savage people. In Tur-
 key, now, you would be safe any
 where; but in Montenegro! Non, non.
 c'est impossible"
 This Turk might perhaps know his own country, but evidently he did not know Montenegro. Had he ever spent even a day within her frontier he would have been the first to acknowl edge, for he was very intelligent, that | to apply such epithets as wild, fierce and savage to her people was absurd;
 while, had he stayed there week. his | own suggestions that woman could not sojourn there in safety would have caused him infinite amusement.
 For if ever there were a country | when even the most timid of aged sp'nsters might sojourn alone, not only | n safety, but with a feeling of perfect security, 1t is Montenegro. If robbers
 there are, they steal from men, not | from women; if murderers, 1t Is only
 men they kill. An attack of any sort
 on woman in Prince Nicholas domain Is an unknown thing: 1t would be re- garded, indeed, as quite heinous of fense, one that the Ikons would as-
 suredly punish. Any woman. no mat | ter how old or young, how diabolically | | through the land from end to end,
 quite alone and on foot without ever | a cingle unpleasant experience. She | would be just as safe-as free not only | from danger but from ever the chance | of annoyance-at midnight as at mid
 day, on lonely mountain track as in the streets of the capital. If she were | a foreigner every man she met would
 greet her respectfully, and would place
 his services at her disposal should she
 seem to need them. He would go miles
 out of his way to put her on the right path, and if she were so i'll advised
 as to offer him money for so doing his
 feeling would be seriously wounded. Even if she sought adventure it is
 vory doubtful whether she would find
 them; and, let her be as rash as she
 might, certainly no real harm would
 befall her.
 The Real Obstacles
 Why 1t should be thus 1t would be | hard to say precisely It must, how
 ever. be remembered that all the Mon | tenegrin men. even the most poverty
 stricken of the peasants, pride them
 selves on ping nobles by birth, soldiers | by training and knights errant by vo- | cation, and that they hold the Mother
 of God in quite special reverence. | So far as safety is concerned, any woman-any man, of course, either-who
  | start off for Montenegro tomorrow with
 an easy mind. She would be more secure there even than in Cumberland and she would be treated with more kindness, more courtesy As to whether she-or | he-would be more comfortable there | that is another question, for comfort 1t | must be confessed, is not Montenegro's S | strong point. There are practically only | two hotels in the country-one at Get tinje, the other at Njegus-and these are far from being luxurious a Sybarite would certainly find life quite intolerabla even in the Princes own palace. Still | in most of the towns and some of the | villages there are inns where 1t is pos
 sible to stay. providing one Is willing to Trough 1t, and where there are no inns there are private houses or cottages where visitors are made welcome. To
 pass a night in a Montenegrin cottage is a trial, however, for Serb peasants seem | to be able to live without air, and have | none of that horror of the insect creation | that prevails further west. As a matter of taste most English people would prob- | ably rather sleep out of doors, even on
 gravestone, than in any cottage in the | Balkans.
 Then there are difficulties sometimes about obtaining food. An Austrian envoy | extraordinary was once sent to Monte-
 negro, where he was invited to an official banquet, at which some half-dozen courses were served and every course, he swore, on his return, was mutton under | some disguise or other. In towns mutton I is always to be, had; goat-milk cheese, too, and bread; but. excepting at Cettnje, not very much besides. As for the Nun- try, one might wander about for days without finding even mutton-without find- ing anything whatever to eat. indeed, but eggs and rye bread Every ounce of butter is imported, and even at Get tinje not an ounce can be bought for love or money anywhere but at the hotel. On the other hand curiously enough, really excellent coffee Is to be had at every little wayside inn, and a concoc- tion that Is by no means bad substi- tute for coffee in even the poorest of the cottages.
 A Delightful Country
 In spite of there being dearth of solid comforts in Montenegro. and of the fare there being somewhat hard, 1t is de- lightful country to sojourn in, none the less. For one thing, it is singularly beautiful country and there Is endless variety in it's beauty. Montenegro proper. the district that lies at the top of the old Black mountain, Is quite arctic in its mournful grandeur It's sad impressive ness. No matter how brightly the sun may shine, the heights above Cettinje are always grim and cold. The whole region indeed Is dark. wild and barren; noth- ing will grow there, not even the hardi- est of dwarf shrubs. excepting on certain sheltered patches, and even there only rye and potatoes. Yet only few hours drive away is the Zeta valley, where one