The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-01-21

aboard the halted train and rifled the
baggage
The train rapidly gained full speed,
and my companion and l sat down on
the lower bunk of the compartment
and waited for the comitadjis to come
and search us. In a hoarse whisper
he said: ''They are terrible men!
They may kill us! There came a
knock on the door. The merchant
was speechless with fright. Yes!
What is it?" petit dejeuner est servi,"
came back the reply. The dining car
porter was announcing breakfast.
Smoke Room Gossip Not FancifuI.
Out in the corridor was a dapper
Serbian lieutenant with monocle and
riding stock. He greeted me with a
pleasant Bon jour- and said he was
commanding the detachment of Ser
bian soldiers which had just boarded
the train and would accompany it to
the Bulgarian frontier. The govern
ment at Belgrade had taken this pre-
CdulIOl GSdIIlSI dlIdIhS eNSl
since the express had been held up
two weeks before.
On hearing this the Armenian mer-
chant, smiling sheepishly, took his
wallet from under the mattress and
put it back in his pocket, and removed
the packet of papers, slightly damp
but otherwise uninjured, from the
waste pan. His mistake was natural,
as the roles of comitadji and soldier
in this corner of Europe are often in
terchangeable.
During the remainder of the journey
to Constantinople the passengers
talked of nothing but bandits bandits
who had become generals, provincial
governors, and even prime ministers,
and Serb boosted that his king was
the descendant of famous brigand
of the early Nineteenth century whose
name was Kara (Black) George, from
whom the ruling family of Yugoslavia
takes its name of Karageorgavic.
Kara George fought the Turks with
much the same tactics as the Bull
Sttl IAN Np4ilittlhJlS use GillloJ ltiC
Serbs in Macedonia today. Every pas
senger seemed to have had, at least
one experience with bandits
All had been shot at, some had been
wounded, abducted, ransomed. Not
to be outdOne, I told them of the eX-
ploits of the gunner Of my native
New York and let them believe that 1
was personally acquainted with the
most notorious. All this talk, instead
of making the bandits seem more real,
made me feel as if they were of the
same nature as ghosts. On arriving at
STEAMBOAT, however, news that two
Near East relief workers whom l was
to visit in Cilicia had been murdered
few days before by Turkish Chef
tabs (brigands in peace and irregulars
in wary made the bandits again real
istic.
Kingdoms for Strong Arms.
It is only a few months ago that the
Greek island of Samos, off the west
coast of Asia Minor, fell into the hands
of two notorious brigands, the Gaga-
DIES brothers, and their followers. This
exploit brought to mind the days when
any daring adventurer could have had
kingdom in the Aegean for the cour-
age and skill to seize it.
In the Fifteenth century, before the
Turks won control of the whole east
ern Mediterranean, all the islands in
this corner of the world, as well as
the greater part of what is now
Greece, We're ruled by so-called barons,
counts, dukes and princes, who usual
ly were nothing but glorified brigands,
often fugitives from justice in their
native lands in western Europe.
Still earlier many a farm lad who
had come to the Levant as a Crusader
remained to rule over an opal isle or
rocky peninsula. And even under
the Turk a few intrepid souls sue
ceeded in maintaining their suprem-
acy in remote places where the sultan
ruled nominally, but where his Off
Gals never penetrated to return alive
This tradition of banditry, built up
through centuries, still lives in the
Aegean, although the modern bandit
is seldom able to carry out an exploit
in the grand manner. The GagadeS
brothers succeeded in holding SamoS
for only few days. Two Greek bat
tleships were sent from Piraeus to
GUST them. Faced with ten-inch guns,
the brigands were forced to take to
the mountains with all the occupants
of the local Jail, whom they had lib
Grated on their first day in power
New York Times.
M o.