The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1915-02-24

= Niah, (By Mail. Nish, normally
: town of some twenty thousand, ha
been transformed by the war into
city of more than one hundred thou
sand souls. The stranger within tn,
city gates wonders where all tn,
!. ipeople seen on the streets sleep a
might. The small public park, as vel
as the two principal shopping streets
are as crowded during the dayligh,
hours, as Broadway and Fifth avenue
ON late afternoon. The problem OF
caring for the thousands who fled
here from Belgrade and the northern
communities of the country when war
was declared has been difficult one
Every house with vacant rooms was
communicated by the government but
even this action failed to provide
shelter for hundreds of fugitiyes from
the battle districts. In the dilemma in
(which the Serbian people found them
selves the American Red Cross mis-
sion came as veritable God-send
Everywhere The Associated Press
correspondent has travelled he has en-
countered evidences Oh good work
done by American citizens and has
Everywhere found grateful apprecia-
Ition on the part Of the Serbian people.
This appreciation was officially ex-
pressed by M. Milosh Petronievitch,
one of the administrators of the dip
lomatic press bureau, who speaks
English perfectly,
"Our construction, said M. Petro-
nievitch, 'and all of our institutions
are really modelled from those of the
United States of America, and some
day we hope to be really an American
state here at the end of Europe and
the beginning or Asia. That, as we'll
as the sympathy and aid for our
wounded sent us by the American Red
Cross during all three Of our recent
wars, accounts for the very warm
welcome we shall always give to any
American who cares to come out and
study us at closer range.
1--WE are not so hospitable to all
Serbia is more accustcm-
ed to having enemies than friends. |
From the time the Serbian empire I
came under the Turks in the four
teenth century, until it's liberation in
the early part of the nineteenth cen
Lury, Serbia was cut off as state
from all the rest of the world. Her
Turkish tyrants had but one idea, to
iestroy the soul of tho race, the mem
)ry of its glorious and martial past, of
is aristocratic traditions and of it's
'acial unity with tho other Slav peo-
lies. Its cl.:yalry perished in the
great battle Of Kossova in1SS9. Kos
iowa is a vast plain about 100 miles
southwest of Nish, where the battle
# Turkish conquest between the
orces of the Sultan Murad |. and the
Serbian Emperor Lazar was fought in
he fourteenth century. This great
'attle NEEDED with the complete over
hrow of the Serbian empire and the
i've hundred year domination of the
Whole of southwest Europe by the
'urks. This domination included all
he peoples now comprising the Bal
an states. All the sons of the noble
;erbian families we're carried off to
,onstantinople to form the famous
uard of the Janissaries. They we're
cared in complete ignorance Of their
and with but one ideal, the
ultan. A certain number of the I
reat Serbian families escaped into
.ussia. Austria and Montenegro. .
rom these and subsequent emigra- {
ons have sprung the members of the :
ace who are today outside the king
ON OF Serbia. Bosnia, Herzegovina