The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-01-21
BALKANS under
BANDIT spell.
Daring Of These Outlaws Is
Celebrated in Song
and Story.

Carnlclu, q young MACEDONIAN girl,
who, at the opera last May, killed To-
dor PeniZza, notorious Balkan ban
dit chief, when news issued from
Greece that the Brabanis and YagOu-
lis, brigand bands that for years ter
rorized the inhabitants of Mount
Olympus lad been wiped out. The
heads of the leaders, on which a total
of 100000 drachmas had been set,
were taken to Katerini, a provincial
capital, and exhibited to the public.
Reports of Balkan outlawry appear
so frequently in the newspapers that
a casual reader might conclude that
southeastern Europe was largely pop
ulated by brigands He would not be
far wrong, for in that part of the
&srld banditry is an ancient 'institu
tioHAwith firm roots in the customs Of
the people, and if every one is not
bandit, all are at least potential ban
dts.
"Once upon a time there was ban
dit" 1t is with this phrase that most
of the bedtime stories in the Balkans
begins. The-bandit is also the hero
of innumerable folk-songs. At the
village feasts, when the wine starts
flowing, tales of his strength and
bravery are chanted to the monoto-
nous tones of reed pipe and drum.
The boys of Sofia, Monastir, Saloniki
and Athens do not enviously read of
superdetectives like Nick Carter or
superathletes like Dick Merriwell.
The thin, paper-backed volumes which
they cleverly hide in their Biographies
and readers and ravenously devour
while an unsuspecting teacher thinks
they are following the lesson contain
stories of superbandits. Athletes like
Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Jack Demp-
sey and Paavo Nurmi would mean
nothing to the Balkan youth who
dreams of emulating the exploits of
Condylis or Todor AleXandrOff. Condy-
lis rose from a comitadji chief, fight
ing the Turks and Bulgars in Mace
donia to minister of war in Greece,
and Todor AleXandroff, although only
a bandit leader, made and unmade
prime ministers in Bulgaria.
Some Are Political Reelers.
In truth, banditry ranks high as
profession in the Balkans. Its prac-
titioners win power, wealth, fame and
sometimes death. They are ubiquitous
and of two distinct types-political
and nonpolitical. The former are
!, usually members of revolutionary COM
q mittees and are called cOmitadjiS.
which means committeeman. They are
especially active in border provinces
and usually receive secret support
from the various Balkan governments.
There are different groups with diff
ferent political ends, but all plumber
numerically the native peasants,
shepherds and merchants.
In many parts of Macedonia they
carry on an underground government,
levying taxes, dispensing justice and
conscripting recruits. Those who re-
fuse to submit to their dictates are
punished by instant death. Therefore
they inspire fear in the hearts of the
populace. An experience l had on my
way across the Balkans to Turkey
wildly demonstrates lis fact.
At Trieste in the spring of 1920
boarded the Orient Express for Con-
stantinople. The country we rode
= through still bore the signs of war.
The bridges were blown up and tenn
porary structures of wood had been
70 fIa ,,lo Of tho CT
Or stone. Passengers were ordered to
get out and walk across these, as
there was doubt that the trestles
would bear up the loaded train.
On the second day out of Trieste,
when we had left Nish behind and
were passing through the heart of
Macedonia, the passengers were just
rising from their berths when the train
suddenly stopped. My companion, an
Armenian merchant of Salonili,
looked out the window and gazed
down along the track ahead. He i'm
mediately drew in his head, and, great
ly excited, shouted, "Comitadjis"
Hurriedly he took a wallet from his
coat pocket and hid it under the mat
tress of his berth, and opening suit
case he removed a packet of papers
which he threw into the wastepan of
the wash basin.
A Knock on the Door.
Wondering what had so terrified my
fellow-traveler, l looked out myself
and saw massed before the locomotive
a group of men in ragged uniforms
and armed with rifles-unshaven and
fierce looking fellows. recalled read
ing only a few weeks before that the
Orient Express had been held up in
Macedonia by band of Bulgarian
comitadjis, the passengers robbed and
a number of Serbs taken off and held
for ransom; and was silently thank
full that, except for few French
francs to pay for meals in the dining
! car, all my funds were in letter Of
credit negotiable only by myself; that
my watch was Of the dollar sort, and
that was not promising candidate
for ransom.
The train began to move, the conf
tadjis scrambled aboard. Train-rob-
bling tactics in Macedonia, I decided,
differ from those in vogue in America.
Dim memories of Jesse James and the
more recent impression of the movies
ala mo tbof tha ctopdor6 Ap1oripon