Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-07-10

he has written several poetic dramas, including
The Empress of the Balkans and Prince Ar
banit" all dealing with Serb history, and de-
clared to possess unusual merit
He not quite nineteen when he called
to take his uncle's place Two months later he
married Nilena Voukovich, daughter of one of
the principal voivodes, who had been a brother
in-arms of his father, Mirko. The Czarina Mil
is still of the handsomest women in Eu
rope. She stood shoulder to shoulder with her
husband throughout all the trials and Universities
of his eyentful reign, at times when he was
driven from pillar to post by the Moslem hordes
that poured through the defiles OF the
Lovchen range in after wave so that even
the brave Black Mountain men quailed under the
attack and sought safety the impossible noun
tain heights.
They had peace of a kind for year. and then
war broke out with redoubed violence. The in
surrecton of the rayahs, Christian peasants of
the Herzegovina, aroused the sympathies of the
MOntenegrins and young Prince Nicholas found
his hands full trying to obey the iEjunctions of
the great powers to refrain from hOstilities and
keep his fiery subjects in check.
For some months he held out against the
wishes of the nation, with somewhat dubious sue
cess. He honestly did his best to remain neu-
trail; he even consented to allow the Turks to
send their conveys across Monteneg~in territory.
series OF frontier incidents frontier Incl
dent is the designation for any fra along the
Montenegrin border which results in fatalities
followed close upon one anothers hels. The
Turks grasped eagerly at the chance they had
been looking for Omar Pasha viceroy Of the
western provinces, of the bitterest foes of
Montenegro threw a huge army across the from
tier, undeterred by his previous defeats at the
hands of Mrko 1t reasoned in CONSTANT
nople that young Nicholas had earned the dis
like of his subjects by his peace policy, and that
now, while there turmoil in the Christian
camp, Turkey might find it easy to crack the nut
which had resisted so many efforts for so many
hundreds of years.
But things did not turn out exactly Turkey
had anticipated. A great part OF the principality
was overrun, most of the villages were destroyed
and ruin stared every in the face. Omars
army had entered the country in three divisions,
aiming to comb it from side to SIDE and making
their principal effort against the valley of the
Zeta which might be called the hghroad of
Montenegro. the main artery of It's life. But, led
by the giant fighter Mrko and their boy prince
in whom they trusted implicitly, he had
sanctioned war-the Montenegrins took up
flinchingly the struggle of their fathers. The
Turks were assaulted from every height, from the
sides OF every pass.
True the valley of the zeta fell into the in
vaders' hands, but on little else could they keep
their grip for long. The was fought with
fierce unrelenting fanaticism which is all but in
comprehensive to the western mind After sixty
battles the Montenegrins were clad to meet their
foes halfway.
They conceded some unimportant points and
q breathing spell
Cholera followed in the wake of famine, and
despite the assistance of France. which sent
shiploads of corn to arrest the ravages of hun
ger. many who had survived the bullet and steel
of the Turkish armies were carried off by the
scourge of disease among them Mirko. the
Sword"
The loss of his father great blow to