Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1914-08-13
Time When Little Country Was
Mistress Of the World.
conquests Of Alexander the Great Re
called by the Sad Fate Which
Now Seems TO Await
the Land.


Washington.-The American reader
OF the breathless war dispatches from
eastern Europe can hardly realize that
the little country Of Servia, now over
run by the legions of Austria, was
once mistress of the world; that it
was from the hills into which the
Serbs are now falling back to make
a life-stand against the Austrian adj
vance there once marched forth an
army that conquered the whole civil
lized world.
Yet such is the fact; from the rug
ged mountain range that runs between
the meadows of the Danube and the
shores of the Mediterranean there
sprung forth a hardy race of warriors
that conquered the world in an all-too-
bewildering short time.
II was In the year $40 before Christ.
King Philip of Macedon, that ancient
ruler who held sway over the land
now called Servia, had welded into a
marvelously wonderful mass the union
of the keen-witted, imaginative, light
footed Greeks and the sturdy, tough
hided Thracian. To his son, Alexan-
der the Great, he delivered fighting
force of 10000 fighting men, who COM
bined all the best qualities OF both
races-q1alities necessary to subdue
the world of that time.
The young Servian, Alexander, start
ed forth, when but a few years more
than twenty-one, with these 10000
husky Servians-Macedon as they
were then known-at his back He
crossed the Hellespont into Asia,
fought the battle OF Granicus and sub
dued Asia Minor Thence, after con-
quering by a few brisf battles, the
whole coast of the eastern MediteTra-
mean, he halted a year to turn off and
conquer the hoary-headed country OF
Egypt. He not only conquered it, this
young Servian, but he persuaded the
big men of the district that he was
the son of the ruling god. That was
the way the Servians of that day in
troduced themselves into country.
Thence the young Servian started
AOl III illO ASld- AT AL UGld uC ONtl-
threw the century-old empire of the
Persian-C haldean rulers. He was about
twenty-seven years old at that time
quite a feat for a youth.
From the conquest of this ancient
nation he marched forth to the con-
quest of Cathay, now China, and adj
vanced into the interior of the present
domain of Thibet.
From his far eastern conquest the
young Servian turned back and direct.
ed his energies toward India. Into
that country he headed these faithful
Servians-for, throughout the whole
of his triumphant course, his 10000
native soldiers had been his mainstay.
Into the heart of hoary India they
plunged, these war-worn but still fresh
and eager Servians. They seized the
land. manned it, and planted a Mace
DOMAIN government there. They were
farther from home than a Washington
man would be in New Zealand, but it
didn't bother them. They we're used
to conquering worlds.
Back from the conquering of the
whole vast Asiatc realm came this |
young Servian, even then but thirty |
years of age. He met his death soon !
after he reached the coast of the Med |
and among the Servian
generals of his army the whole civil |
lized world was divided up. Ptolemy
ruled Egypt; Lysander governed the I
whole country now known as the Bal
kans; Seleucus took possession of all
Asia Mlnor-in short, the Servian SOL
diers of his staff divided up the world
among themselves.
And they were citizens of the little
Servia that Austria is overcoming to-
dayl