Norwich bulletin., 1915-02-02
THE WAR PRIMER
By National Geographic SociNty

Montenegro is one of the smallest members of the family of nations, and Freedom has made her sturdiest stands among it's dreary crags end unproduc- tive roclz-strewn, gravel slopes. Now, true to traditions of centuries of in cessant warning, she has joined in the world-war, with eagerness to expand in the tobacco-and grazing lands of Herzegovina. 4 picture of the strong ly individual characteristics of this nation, nurtured and contained upon q mountain, whose entrace into the war scales caused hardly Q trenlor of the balance, has been prepared for the National Geographic Society by George Higgins Moses, United States Minister to Greece and Montenegro during 1909-19l2. Surveying the his tory of the miniature country. against which powerful Islamic waves broke in vain for centuries, the writer says:
 For 900 years they have main ta5ned freedom, which of old has sat upon the heights; and, with suffer ings indescribable, with courage illin- itable, won frem the great English apostle of Balkan freedom those words ot Undying praise, in which he gave 1t as his deliberate opinion that the traditions Of Montenegro exceed i'll glory those of Marathon and ThemOpy- lac and all the war traditions of the world Everywhere within the little kingdom, the writer says. one can sec memorials of the grim. unbroken struggle of AIontenegTo's people against the power of the Turk, a struggle in which the Turk, master through the Balkans. battered against the noun tain heights to no avail.
 Montenegro has little to invite eX- cept the jesty of the yistas from it's higher CreSts. and the little band of SIavs who fled hirher had freedom more than Luxury and ease in mind. At the creation, so runs a. Mcntene- grin legend given by MT Moses, an angel was sent forth 10 gather the superauous stones on the eaTth's sur face. He placed these stones in a bag which burst as he was flying over CernaSora, and Montenegro's richest dover is still the rocks which the an gel spilled upon it.
 The approach to the kingdom, q winding way all 11p hiIl is spoken of bE the writer as a splendid piece Of engineering. which wedTeS up the gaunt, gray cliffs, finally threading a marrow. easily defended dedIe and crossing over a pass mostly swathed in clouds. Montenegro, NT. Moses continues. is weObed with fine roads, the expression of the present kings restless spirit for improvement. The capital itself. Cetinje is hardly more than a knot of crOSS-streetS in two broad roads of this system. There are no pretentiOus buildings in the city, only two heinz of more than two stor- ies in height, the Russian and the Aus trian legations. The external life of the capital is simple in the extreme.
 AIontenegins, according to the writ CT. are mostly of greater than average stature, and the men have come to feel their principal calling 10 be that of war. The women of Montenegro are it's economic producers, and, to quote King Nicholas, who has mar Tied his delightful daughters to some of EIurope's leading houses. the wO- men are the lands most important export. The men, Mir. Moses says, are good workers when put to fl, and whenever a AToutenegrin applying for 2 job is asked what he can do he in N2riably answers 'SUDerint tend.'
 There js little commerce and almost no manufactures in the kingdom, whose lands are barely rich enough to support the needs Of the people in the most simple manner. Good tobacco is raised in tine country, and a few coarse stGffs are woven in Podgoritza. Nearly everything in use. however, is imported. and duties and prices are very high.
 King Nicholas. a democratic mon arch. more q patriarch than 9 king, Is an aStute politician and q capable ad- ministra,cr. Throughout his long reign Of more than fifty years. he has accomplished much in the develop ment of his land. He has increased his territory many times: adding two Adriatic ports to his possessions. and thoroughly organizing all departments of his government.