Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-01
scuTARis ONE OF
 THE HISTORIC sIEGEs.
About the Fortress That Has Vexed
 Europe For Six Months.

Two Scutaris are known to Ameri- cans: one on the Bosphorus, the seat of the American College for Girls at Constantinople, the other much less familiar on the northern border of Albania, upon the lake of Scutarl, one-half of which is Albanian or Turkish while the other half belongs to ythe plucky little kingdom of Mcnte- negro, writes Prof. w. T. SedgWIck before the fall of the Turkish fortress in The Boston Transcript. Up to last October this Albanian Scutari was all most unknown except to occasional tourists and to students of history, for whom it was formerly Skodra, one of the most important towns of ancient IlIyria and until recently the principal place of entry for imports bound to central Albania and even to Belgrade, capital of Servia, and Sofia, capital of Bulgaia Of late years, since the open ing of the Danube. and with the build ing of railways farther north, Scutari has sadly degenerated in importance although it still contains population variously estimated at 30,000 to 50,0O9 Walking through it's neglected streets, witnessing it's inconvenient port and studying it's mongrel population, pict- uresque in costume, but otherwise un- promising few visitors would have predicted that it's fortress could pos sibly withstand the six months siege to which it has now been subjected.
 A Cosmopolitan Village.
 F Scutari is the ultimate point reached by most tourists after doing the Da1- matian coast, unless indeed these omit the remainder of Albania and travel farther to Corfu and Greece. It is the point where they touch the "mysteri- ous unknown" On the other hand, to those who come from the mountains of the Albanian interior Scutart is the gateway that leads to Europe. It is the city where one finds conSuls, banks, hotels, and equippages, where one hears French, German and above all, Italian, where the traveller meets men of the Westrn world, and where he enabarks for Montenegro and the country fthe Christian. Were it not for its lake of brilliant water and its entertaining procession of people Of the most varied sort. Scutari would be of little, interest, for it is 8 city of mis- erable houses, mosques destitute of beauty, and only a lively bazaar where imported wares are sold Its streets are badly neglected: it possesses neither lovely gardens nor venerable trees, little or nothing of the beauty to be found in some other Albanian towns. The"agglomeration, 5 as a recent French writer, M. Louts- Jarnay, characteriZes the city of Scu- tari, is some distance from the lake, whose waters neither lend 1t life nor reflect it in it's mirror. Still the eye Of the idler is vastly pleased by the ra- cia1 contrasts and by the cOlor6 of the costume. On a market day one sees more specimens of various races, more varieties of costume than in any other spot accessible to tourists. The ba- zaar unites the citadel and the town and is composed of sa lot of poor shops whose tnetlik roofs overhang them and almost touch the ground. lire kneel the merchants selling cheap wares brought from a. distance to the poor AIbdnianE of the interior, and before them streams an endless flow of people in multicolored dress, among them Turk ish soldiers of every height, of evry sort of human face, and of every 1ang= uage-m military importations from Asia Minor.
 In a Dying State.
 And yet. says M. Louis Jarnay, Scutari is a city of the past; its dead ness is felt in every way. Formerly its bazaars constituted an immense depot for Oriental merchandise, which awaited distribution through the in- terior. It was what we call 8. distrfb
 uting point. But today it is a market where almost all transactions are local Commerce with distant regions of the Balkan peninsula is no longer a com merce of imports as of old, but rather what little there is of it-of exports so that Servian pigs. for example, are exported from here to Italy and France. Again the silkworm disease has destroyed the local industry of silk | manufacture, and in this and every other way Scutari is a dying city. The
 growth and development of it's neigh l bor Antivarl will soon complete its death if the Turkish Government which takes absolutely no care of 1t, is allowed to prolong its occupation. Or the other hand a Montenegrin victory 1 and Montenegrin or Servian owner 1 might perhaps be the salvation of Scu- 1 tari.
 1 And now has come a most dramatic l moment Surrounded, ffercely at l tackled, and fiercely defended, Scutar l still claims our eager attention as the l last of the Turkish fortresseS to hold ! out against all the conquering Balkan Ploneb MntmaeV
 Allies. But as all the word is breath
 lessly watching Scutari, attention is i diverted by the arrival off Antivari 1 the one little seaport of little Monte negro, of the menacing Warships o1
 the Powers which have anchored there
 in a semi circle as if to form on the
 Adriatic a Turkish crescent" witf
 which to threaten, If not to thorW
 down. the 'cross'' of Christian Monte negro Until 1878 Antivari was like | Scutari, Turkish territory, and by the l treaty of San Stefano both were to gt
 to Montenegro. But in that raw deaf
 of the San Stefano cards during the 1 great diplomatic game-in which Bis
 marck and DisraeH were the princl- pal play ers-which resulted in the l Treaty of Berlin, Ant1vari only was 1 thrown like bone to a dog to Monte i negro,
 l And under Montenegro it has pros pered. To be sure its docks are un- l finished but 1t has gone forward not i backward, and from 1t has been built a winding narrow gauge railway run
 mig among the hills and climbing
 slowly up to Bazaar, the one poor
 railway, and that only some eighteen
 miles long. in Montenegro, And even
 yet most of the western trade of Scu-
 tari comes and goes through Antivari
 passing by the railroad to Vir- Bazaar
 it's terminus on the lake, and thence
 to or fro by boat
 ] The Fort Itself
 The fortress of Scutari dates from 1 the days of the Venetian occupation and stands on high hill or cliff And
 apparently this cliff, girdled as it has 1 been with barbed wire entanglements
 became almost inpFegnable. Probably