Evening star., 1917-01-07
'|DY' IS MAGIC WORD
THAT MOVES ARMIES
Admonition That Makes Trans
portation in Macedonian
Mountains Possible.
ONE MEANING TO ALL RACES
BY HERBERT COREY.

BY HERBERT COREY.
Copyright 1916 by Herbert Coreyo
WITH THE SERBIAN ARMIES IN
THE BALKANS, November 1--Come
on, you," said the little British corporal
TIDY"
He was a snappy figure Of soldier,
this corporal Five feet and little more.
he cracked his heels like Prussian when
he spoke to an officer, and waved his
stick like a field marshal when any one
of the items Of transport he was bossins
up the Kaymakchalan trail got snarled
in the stream.
do you like it," we asked.
Hi don't mind it," said he, IF these
beggars would only idy.'
"Idy" is the word that makes noun
tain transportation in Macedonia possible
| 1t means hurry. move on, hustle. start
anything which conveys the idea or
separation from fixed position or an in
crease of speed. 1t may be Greek or
Turkish or Slav or come from some one
of the dead tongues that were once
spoken around here The colonel says it
to his orderly and the colonel's wife says
it to the colonel, and the A. S. c. cor
poral said it to the automobiles. jack
asses. horses, mules, oxen. cows, soldiers
and peasants over which he has @ au-
complement to "idy" is Johnny Finish.
That is, despair-ruin-a complete alb
sence Of everything, from coffee to
shells. When Macedonian says
Johnny may abuse the Macedonian,
but whatever 1t is he wants he does
not get.
This Kaymakchalan TRAIL up which
the little corporal was showing things
along, is such a perfect specimen of
a particularly rotten road in Mace
.donia that 1t deserves description. 1t
is a picture of military transport
movie in no end of reels-which Is be-
ing repeated in some degree and with
The day we saw it impossibilities
were being performed in provisioning
one of the Serbian armies Five days
rain had fallen and all the upper trails
on Kaymakchalan were ditctes of
greasy mud. in which the horses found
q stumbling bottom on rolling stones.
The bright side of the shield is that
this ground dries almost as quickly as
it goes bad. A road that is bottomless
in the morning can be negotiated easily
after three hours of sun.
Serbians Win by Pluck.
The Serbian army in this case is the
one that took Kaymakchalan away
from the Bulgars in defiance of every
military probability. This is the high
est peak on the Serbian front. and from
it the Monastir plain can be overlooked.
The Bulgars had drawn three lines of
defensive positions about 1t. making
use of every advantage of high ground.
t,. DO, Nha
hill. Now the Serbian lines are good
ten kilometers on the Bulgarian side of
the mountains, but as the railroad is on
the Macedonian side the army base per-
force clings to the rails. The Serbians
are in the most unpleasant position of
having a mountain 10000 feet high in
tervening between their lines and their
base. Every shell and every ounce Of
food must be transported and every
wounded man must be brought back to
the hospitals over this mountain.
When the Serbs took Kaymakchalan
there was nothing on this mountain
that even remotely resembled a wagon
road. The mountain is really series
higher than the last. and without ex-
ception unwooded, although here and
there Is bit of thicket in the deep
bends of the creek. During peace times
1t Is a cattle and goat range for the
peasants of the village of Vertigin.
three kilometers up the toe of the
mountain. Nc doubt they had trail to
the summit-one of those roads which
run or a pack mule gradient-in which
the line corkscrews along the hillsides
at the extreme tilt at which mule can
tote his load. 1t is this trail which the
Serbs have beaten into a wagon road.
1t twists and turns in the effort to gain
few feet of height, just as mountain
packhorse does.
On the first section Of this trail-as
far as Vertigin-little American motor
cars are being used. Here the road
is bitten into the hillside so deeply
that in most places the cars cannot
pass. Even at the turn-outs there is
but four inches clearance between hub
and hub. The cars that would hum
under half a ton on a good road climb
the tonneau. The road surface is hard
and firm. but the angle of ascent is
murderous. Now and then one encoun-
tiers hairpin curve. The day we were
burying q little English driver. He
had forgotten the kink at the foot of
hill. The day before two horses and
the loaded wagon a,i;n had fallen bodiiy @ into
shown a series Of deep dents in the
soft mud of a hillside. An obstinate
mule had pulled his halter. and had
gone heels over mead down the slide
mule was none the worse for 1t phy-
sically. Morally he is immensely Inn
proved.
Bulgar Dead on Hillside.
From vertigin on motor cars are not
used. although road building is pro-
crossing rapidly. By the time the win
ter strain comes on the greater part
Of this road may be in fair workable
condition for motor transport. But on
the day we saw it the road from ver-
tigin had ceased to be a road Bear
in mind that 1t was after five days of
rain. and that days sunshine cleaned
eight-fo ot wide ditch OF rolling mud,
bottomed on loose stones. Time after
time our horses came to their knees
and thrust patient noses into the
liquid mud. to struggle back to all