The Elbert County tribune., 1913-07-11

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 was not quite nineteen when he was called
to take his uncle's place. Two months later he
married Milena Voukovich. daughter of one of
the principal voivodes. who had been brother
in-arms of his father. Mrko. The Czarina Mil
ena is still one of the handsomest women in Eu-
rope. She stood shoulder to shoulder with her
husband throughout all the trials and adversties
OF his eventful reign. at times when he was
driven from pillar to post by the Moslem hordes
that were poured through the defles of the
Lovchen range in after wave so that even
the brave Black Mountain quailed under the
attack and sought safety the impossible noun
tain heights
They had peace OF kind for year and then
war broke out with redoubled violence. The in
surrecion of the rayahs, Christian peasants of
the Herzegovina, aroused the sympathies of the
Montenegrtns. and young Prince Nicholas found
his hands full trying to obey the injunctions 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 Montenegrin territory
A series of frontier incidents'-'frontier incl
dent is the designation for any fracas along the
Montenegrin border which results in fatalities
followed close upon another's hels The
Turks grasped eagerly at the chance they had
Deen looking Tor omar Pass1a, viceroy of the
western provinces. one of the bitterest foes of
Montenegro. threw huge army across the from
tier. undeterred by his previous defeats at the
hands of Mrko It reasoned in Constanti
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 1t easy to crack the nut
which had resisted many efforts for SO many
hundreds OF years.
But things did not turn out exactly as Turkey
had anticipated great part of the principally
was oyerrun. most of the villages were DESTROYED
and ruin stared every in the face Omar's
army had entered the country in three divisions
aiming to comb 1t from side to side and making
their principal effort against the valley of the
Zeta, which might be called the highroad of
Montenegro, the main artery of its life But led
by the giant fighter, Mirko and their boy prince
in whom they trusted implicitly once he had
sanctioned war-the Montenegrins took up un.
fnchingly the struggle of their fathers The
Turks were assaed from every height from the
sides of every pass.
True. the valley Of the Zeta fell into the in.
vaders hands. but little else could they keep
their grip for long The fought with a
fierce. unrelenting fanaticism which is all but in.
comprehensive to the western mind After sixty
battles, the Montenegrins were glad to meet their
foes halfway
They conceded some unimportant points and
breathing spell
Cholera followed In the wake OF famine and
despite the assistance of France which sent
shiploads OF to arrest the ravages of hun
ger, many who had survived the bullet and steel
OF the Turkish armies were carried of by the
scourge of disease among them Mirko the
Sword
The loss of his father a great blow to