The Holbrook news., 1912-03-01


 frontier of Montenegro if one were
 not on the lookout for it. It. is
 marked by a row of paving stones
 set obliquely across the road and post painted with the Austrian black and yellow. Then We turned inland and covered the level mile to Njegush. This important village is the cradle of the present dynasty and the birth place of King Nicholas I. It is cer- tile spot and like all the cultivable land of Montenegro appears to be the basin of long dry lake. We were too high now for the vine, the olive and the orange.
 Not even the wild pomegranate, so plentiful in Dalmatia, could follow us here. There were fields of rye and potatoes, or earth pears. We lunched lightly at the inn on excellent rye bread and coffee-one can generally rely upon these and the wine being good-and when the horses were rested drove on through the valley, over a pass and then down zigzags to Cettinje, which with It's 2.00O inhabi- tants Is the smallest capital in Flu rope.
 The streets are wide and well met alled. The houses are small, but they looked we'll built and comfortable, and there are wells at various corners, where the people draw water in the evening. None of the Montenegrins is greatly rich or greatly poor. The in- dependence of the individual is as re- markable as that of the nation. We only saw two beggars' in Cettinje, 8 crippled woman in 8 wheeled chair and blind man who sang to the gusla. This is the national instrument, one stringed fiddle carved with a horses head.
 There are villalike palaces for the royal family and various father impos- Ing legations, but in the main both houses and churches are very modest In appearance and do not lay claim to any great antiquity. It was the people who interested us chiefly.
 The Dalmatian slouches. He is all ways ready for rest, and though he falls into the most graceful positions upon a doorstep, against a tree or down upon his mother earth one gets tired of his picturesque idleness. The Montenegrin has squarer shoulders and a stiffer back. He walks as If he wishes to arrive somewhere and looks upward and outward like an eagle.
 Peasant Life in Montenegro.
 The peasants wear long coats of white feltlike cloth with bright sashes and all have the "torba" or pouch com mon throughout Dalmatia. It is a big leather contrivance, handy receptacle for pistol, knives, pipe and tobacco. The women are very comedy, quiet eyed, dark haired. They wear hand kerchiefs or lace veils over their heads and long, sleeveless coats of a pale color, just touched with embroidery, becoming dress for old and young. The Montenegrin wife does not have a very easy time. She does nearly all the work and soon grows old.
 On the night of our arrival in Get tinje khaki coats were being expert mented with for the first time, with view to their being worn by the army. We wondered why they should be con- necessary, for the rough peas ant coat falls in with the landscape sven better. One streak of grime upon him and the wearer is a stone among the stones, a tree stump in the woods, one sheep of his flock a bit of broken under a wall. No khaki can hide him better than his own home spun and in his native mountains he can defy the eye and the spyglass.
 The man of means does not wear this undyed material. He has a green, wide skirted coat. with sleeves slit near the shoulder, so that he may wear the coat without them when 1t Is warm. And this gives him a strange though very dignified appearance as he walks down the Katunska Ulica, a spare pair of sleeves hanging behind him and his ''struka," a brown car pety plaid, with snicks of color, folded over his shoulder, it's long frings swinging at every step.
 All alike wear the poetic headdress of their country, little round cap, which is at once a dirge, a lyric and 3 song of victory. It has a red top and a brim of padded black silk, which Is used as a purse. The black Is for the lost country; the red Is in memory of the blood which has been shed. On the crown are five lines of gold arranged like a rising sun-they are for five centuries of glorious independence-and below them. in the Russian character, are the initials of the beloved ruler who haa lately been made king.