The Dickinson press., 1915-03-27

| minister from Belgrade, declaring
the reply unsatisfactory. On July
18th Austria-Hungary made formal
declaration of war against Servia,
and the deadly maelstrom was on,
drawing into it's vortex nation after
nation. ***
The people are largely an agricul-
tural folk. Their principle products
are corn, wheat and fruits. One
tenth of the land is covered by for
ests. The climate is mild, ranging
from 106 degrees above to 20 degrees
below zero. 1t is said that relatively
to it's population, Servia possesses a
greater number of sheep and pigs
than any country in Europe" The
export of swine is the principal
branch of Servian commerce.
The agriculture is primitive in it's
methods, modern progress so far as it
has been made, dating from 1890.
"More than four-fifths of the Serv-
ians are peasant farmers; and the
great majority Of these cultivate the
land belonging to their own families"
not averaging over twenty acres for
each household. Their laws prevent
the land from passing out of the
families entirely, either by sale or
mortgage: i. e., a certain amount
must be held, and only possessions
above that are subject to transfer.
Traces of an old form of COM
munity life still remain and seem to
date from prehistoric times. This
provided for a small group of people
with their little houses, which were
really only sleeping places, grouped
about the homestead, where all ate
together, and worked and played as
a community under the guidance of a
house-father and house-mother. This
has almost entirely disappeared in
the last fifteen years under the en-
enlargement of rural cooperative as
sociations.
There is very little in the way of
manufactures IS there is no artisan
class of people. Except in very
rare cases, the people value their in
dependence too highly to work in
factories, o even to enter domestic
service" So most of this class of
mechanics are Acknowledgements or
gipsies. Notwithstanding special
concessions made in 1898 by the gov
eminent, for foreign capital to open
mines and factories, in 1910, there
were not over go large industrial
plants with less than 5000 hands
employed.
In 1910 the population of Servia
was about 2,750,O00. Of these four
ffths were of the Serbo- Croatian
branch of the Slavonic race. The
Serbs and Croats are the same race
and of the same language, although
they use different alphabets. The
Croats are Roman Catholics and use
the latin alphabet; the Serbs belong
to the Greek church and use the
Cyrillic alphabet. *****
"Servia is a land without aristoc-
racy or middle class. Instead, it
possesses an army of placemen and
officials; but these being mainly re-
cruited from the %peasantry, do not
disturb the prevailing social equality.
In 1900 there was neither pauper
nor workhouse in the country"
The Serbs are a sober race. They
may spend their evenings in the
wine-rooms, but to talk politics in
stead of to drink. They are fond of
music. Their national instrument is
the gusle (gusla), a single-stringed
fiddle, often roughly fashioned out of
wood and OK hide. They never tire
of r%ecounting the feats of the heroes
of the past. They are strict in keep
ing fasts and festivals of the Ortho-
dox church. Even the Mohammedans
join them in keeping the festivals.
"Few countries are richer than Ser
via in myth and folklore. The peas
ants believe in charms and omens,
in vampires, were-wolves, ghosts, the
evil eye and vile or white robed spir-
it's of the earth, air, stream and
mountain, with hoofs like a goat and
henna dyed nails and hair"
Government
Gin 1903, after the murder of King
Alexander Obrenovich, and the acces-
sion of Peter Karageorgevich, the
constitution of 1889 was revived. By
this instrument the government of
Servia is an independent constitu-
tional monarchy, hereditary in the
male line, and in the order of primo
geniture. The executive power is
vested in the king, advised by a cabi.
net of eight members, who are col
~lectively and individually responsible
to the nation and represent the min.
listers of foreign affairs, war, the in
terror, finance, public works, com
merce, religion and education and
justice"
The king and the national assemb.
ly (Narodna Skupshtina) together
form the legislature. The genera,
election for this national assembly
is held every four years and one
member is elected for every 4,50(
electors. Besides this assembly
there is a state council of 16 members
half chosen by the king and half by
the assembly, which deals with vari.
Gus legal and financial matters
There is also a grand assembly
(Velika S%kupshtina) which has twice
the number of members as the regu'
lar assembly which is convened only
to consider the most serious nationa
En11ostionc such &C chanuas in thf