The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1914-12-17
N|SH, THE new
SERYIAN CAPITAL
(By United Press,

Bordeaux of Servia, the provisional
capital, the seat of government and
the center well protected and far
away from the roar Of battle.
Nish contains today three times its
normal population. Thousands of fu-
gitives have arrived here from Bel
grade, Semendria and Sabaz with all
of the worldly possessions they were
able to carry.
Only a month ago, people were
obliged to sleep in the streets, and
the hotels and lodging houses let out
their beds to clients turn about for
day and night. Those who had the
good fortune to have been able to en-
gage the beds for the night would not
be out of them long enough in the
morning for the sheets to cool of be-
fore those whose turn was for the day
slipped in and fell asleep. Never
less than three persons occupied q
room. Servia prefers that no one
outside her borders know what the
largest number was.
All cafes, the railway stations and
the shops transformed themselves in
to dormitories. The moment the
dirty dishes were removed from the
tables they were turned into double
decker beds. The luckiest individuals
slept on top; the less fortunate ones
underneath.
Little by little, however, this SUR
plus population began to spread out
a bit, first into nearby villages then
even to the summer resorts until to-
day Nish, while still staggering under
the weight of population enormous,
is able to accommodate all without at
least making them sleep in the strets.
Just at present the propulation Of
the city is burdened by the presence
of between 5000 and 5000 Austrian
r lion These have lodgings in the
fortress. They include representa-
tives of practically every race that
goes to make up the Austrian empire
with the exception of Italians OF
them there is not one.
Every day these prisoners are seen
to march out, under heavy escort of
soldiers to the fields near the city
where they are made to help get in
the crops and carry ON other import
ant public works. They receive the
same rations daily as the Servian sol
diers, and are treated with all the
humanity permitted by the conditions
eyisting in Servia after three wars.
Those who are known to be Of Slav
origin, that is, the same race as the
Servians, are allowed to go out per-
fectly free, wearing merely on their
Austrian uniform little ribbon Of
the Servian colors.
The banks, which were obliged to
move hastily from Belgrade when the
capital was transferred at the be-
ginning of the war, are now all estab-
lished in rooms of some kind. They
lack only safes for their money. In
each room there is large table COW
cred with green cloth, over which all
banking and commercial affairs are
transacted. The employees are oblig-
ed to sleep in the same room and 60
to bed at night with a revolver under
the pillow and the bank 8 funds under
the bed.
All of the foreign embassies and
legations have also been equally as
successful in finding some rooms in
which to establish themselves. just
at the present moment they are fur
nishing the most amusement to be
had in the city. Bitter rivalry is on
between all of these representatives
of the world s greatest powers for the
possession of an italian cook. He is
native of Rome by the name Of
Spagnoletti, and is no only the best
cook to be had in Servia, but tenor
OF rare ability and even an impress
ario.
He was chef at the Hotel Bristol at
Belgrade when the war broke out. He
IS declared to have been bodily kid
mapped by the French ambassador
wher the latter was forced to leave
for Nish. The French kitchen at
Nish, however, was hardly we'll es-
tablished, when the cook one night
disappeared Later it became known
from the quality Of food served by
| the Turkish ambassador that the cook
was in the latter's employ At din
ner given to the entire diplomatic
corps, the Turkish ambassador even
exhibited his "steal' to his fellow
ambassadors, the exhibition of the
cook, however taking place under
lock and key, and the cook ever re-
naming under lock and key until
Servia declared war against Turkey
and the ambassador had to leave.
When the bloody diplomatic battle
which followed was over, the spoils of
war--or rather Cook Sagnoletti-
found his somewhat battered self in
the hands-or rather in the kitchen
of the English ambassador. 1t is said
tht if the same state of feeling now
existed between the French, English
and Russian ambassadors at Nish over
this Italian cook, existed instead be-
tween the powers themselves repre-
sented by these three diplomats-that
Germany would long ago have had a
walk-away and Cook Spagnoletti
would have been given the Iron Cross
Of the First Glass.