The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-12-17
STATES
A C0NFUS|ONOF
MANY CUSTOMS
Interpreter Needed by Any Or
binary Master Of Tongues"
Says Society.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Dec. IT.
Some OF the leading characteristics
OF the Balkan region, that part OF
the world which confusion OF races.
languages. customs, nations, relig-
IONS and traditions has caused to be
the centuries-long theater OF seathing
incessant religious and racial strug-
giles are described in a statement
given to the press today by the Ma
ttonal Geographic Society. 1t says.
Many peoples OF many minds
meet on the fringe between the East
and the West. the Balkan peninsula,
and each Of these people clinss te.
naciously to its language, its ira
lions, its religion, and to the man
ners and ways of its kind. Several
families Of the Slayonic people. each
with Its own tongue and patriotism,
are there. The Turks, the Greeks
and a. sprlnkling OF Germans. to-
gether with many fragmentary types
OF people, from West and East, SUR
vivals Of nations and tribes are a
Babel through which no ordinary
master Of tongues may hope to go
without the aid Of an occasional in
terpreter and much use Of sign
In the hearts OF most Of these
peoples, no matter how small their
land or how little the world may
know of them there Is Kept alive o
fiery consciousness Of their national
ity. The Montenegrin is as devoted
native OF his small bowls Of a coun-
try among the mountains as is the
citizen of our own United States, the
difference being, where any, that the
Montenegrin reminds himself much
more often OF his nationality and It's
advantages than does the average
American. With the sharp racial
trbual and lingual divisions Of the
Balkan peoples. religious divisions
exert a far more powerful distinctive
influence there, than Is the case with
us. Greek Orthodox, Roman Cath
Ollie, various Protestant confessions.
and the Mohammedan faith have
served to segregate these people from
one another.
All the energy, destruction ana
clamor which the friction between its
many contrary types of people and
ideals has occasioned, has retarded
the development OF the Balkan PEN
insula SO that It is some generations
behind the achievements of the
West: and the traveller in the by
ways of this country has had to put
up with those same Inconvenience
which he would encounter in unde-I
veloped Asia. The roads in the Bal
kans are bad, in most casea mere cat
tie and foothpaths. The villages are
squalid. ill-kept, without improve
ments, without comforts, without
conyeniences. The means of trans
portation are uncertain; the mules
are indispensable. the railway trains
are capricious, boats move accord
ing to the fempers of their captains
and the moods OF their engineers,
while the treacherous roads make
horse and cart risky adventure.
Furthermore the law and order OF
much of the Balkan lands is at best
a matter of considerable uncertainty.
THE Balkan peninsula has been
war-torn for nineteen hundred years
or more. War became continuous
experience OF It's people with the
coming of the Romans. and, under
the 1000 years of the rule of By
zantium, when this east Roman en-
pire did yearly outpost duty for
Christendom until its destruction by
the Turks, the Balkan peoples def
nitely took the place which they hold
today, that OF being buffer people
between an upper and neither mill
stone. An outpost OF the West IN
the East, they have been everlasting
" employed with fighting both the
East and the West or among them
selves, which has helped to make
the Balkan peninsula the poorest
stretch Of land in Europe"