White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-17
D, NARY aEATos WORSE

IAN y"
Belgrade 10 slowly coming back 10
life. IL the streets which were lined
with closed shops every day 6 New
shutter ls pulled up. The peasant
women come IL again as they did be-
fore the war 10 buy cloth and 3 six
handkerchief with long fringe for
heir heads.
To the people Who have been here
from the fzt. IL Is q place fun Of
life. . normal town. Bur II Z ar
rves a. d stranger and Is ferrted
across from Semlin in q steauer fuu
o. soldiers. peasants and poultry &
boat piled mast-high ~sh variesaied
luggage. Belgrade seems a wounded
place
IL sts up Oh a high proDontory-
Below IL In . great curve sweeps the
ssvs pour its waters into those OF
the Danube on its reach down 10 the
s<s. There sss never q finer place
for an imperial city to place itself
With the two great rivers drciing
more than half way around II and the
vide fields and the level valley lands
stretched oct to the horizon. So vide
Ia the river that when II oyerfows and
foods the meadows % has the IND
preston Of overlooking the sea
But Belgrade Was never an imperial
city. II wanted 70 be however and
put ~ big ministries Of war and build
ed Itself e palace for It's kings. There
vas perhaps a time when the sfucco
wss new and the paint and ornamen-
fation fresh. When Austria sent
across her diplomats 10 intrigue and
there vas gsyety Il Belgrade Il may
have given the Illusion Of q city q
the western world. Bur n gives no
such Illusion today.
Idle for si1 Years
War showed il W. Wa swept over
the country and FOR sLT years nothing
has been done. For six years no
hand has been lifted 20 complete the
~pretentious Dew hotels which hen
were being built. 70 make repairs or
70 plaster up the spots where shells
have cracked the sfGcco OF the walls.
For nearly four OF those six years Bel
grade was In the hands Of the enemy.
For weeks IL was under shell fire.
Here and there is q small house with
a crushed roof, a building with a wall
Knocked In and buildings that have no
glass In the windows.
Throughout the whole city there 10
a sense Of disloeation Life 10 out u
joint. The hotels are full and when
one finally locates a room IL Is miles
from the place where q meal can be
gotten. Water IL brought up sting1ly
TO ones room In a small enamel pitch
or. The Austrians In leaving destroyed
all of the plumbing Of Belgrade-de
stroyed II systematically. They
wrenehed the pipes and threw cement
and bricks into the drains.
And az the plumbing is so IL all Of
he existence little out Of plumb.
slightly askew. All over the city
there IL a general air of dilspidatlon
as though the people were still dazed
and tired from the repeated war;
What might be called Main street
sweeps up through the center of the
town with a grand gesture. II passes
by the ministry OF war, an ostentatious
orange colored building, and the
guarded palace where the last Of the
Obrenovitch. the king and queen, were
stabbed to death by their officers. II
In a wide street nsnked with cream
colored buildings. On a side II
passes two pretentious hotels vaguely
oriental In architecture and In color.
They never have been finished. Wa
came and put an end to building In
Belgrade. The street Is well paved
and unused car tracks run down II.
II Belgrade did not achieve a Paris
ian air, as II evidently wished TO
achieve, at least IL must have given
the Illusion before the war. OF a
French provincial town of magnitude.
But now the illusion is vanished. In
these buildings, and In this street es
pecially, the people of the Serbian
capital merely betrayed themselves
They confessed that they wished to
be of the western world. Here vas
no expression OF the national life. They
builded in the image of France as
much as they knew. but In transit
Germany spoiled the purity OF the
French outline.
Door TO the East.
However, everywhere are the old
buildings of a former generation, 1T
tie one-story or story-and-a-half stuc-
coed houses with high pitched red
tile roofs. There are rows OF them,
humble and appealing. One comes
upon them even In Main street. At
present all Of the sights Of the streets
contradict the idea that the West was
always here. Here In the door to the
East. Russia has breathed here, and
the Orient. II is written In the peo-
pies faces. They betray themselves
by the music they sing, the colors they
wear.
It has been years since the street
cars have been running In Belgrade.
wvx> ~nIv cn~ncs - ~~NttuU apnuuH