Birdseye Views of Far Lands Part 7

CHAPTER XIV

THE COUNTRY WHERE THE WAR STARTED--SERVIA

It was a Servian lad who started the war, or rather the fire was all ready to start and he lit the match. Whether he was hired to do this or not as has been reported may never be known as he died before the investigation had been completed. Nevertheless, this deed aroused the interest of the world in a country that was almost unknown before the war.

Servia is not quite as large as the state of Indiana. The population is about double that of Indiana and the climate about the same as this state. The northern boundary is, or was at the outbreak of the war, the Danube river, on the east Bulgaria, on the south Greece, while on the west were Albania, Montenegro and Austria. She was shut away from any seaports all the years, and most of the time surrounded by enemies, the greatest of these being Austria on the west and Turkey to the east.

In natural resources Servia is one of the richest countries in Europe, being productive of soil, good climate, well watered and having large mineral wealth. The Moravia river runs across the great plain in middle Servia and is to the country much the same as the Nile is to Egypt. Corn is cultivated everywhere in the country and is perhaps the greatest crop, while wheat also is largely raised. While various fruits are widely grown the plum orchards are the most numerous. Grapes also are grown extensively. Gold, silver, copper, iron and coal are found in many parts of the country. It is interesting to know that a Belgian company has perhaps the largest anthracite coal mine in Servia. Also, there are three and one-half million acres of forests in this small country.

The Servians are a race of peasant farmers, eighty per cent of the people being tillers of the soil. Most of the farms, however, are very small. The average farm is less than twenty acres. Servia perhaps leads the world in home owners according to population. Nine-tenths of the farmers own their farms. This is largely due to laws and old customs.

The law allows a man a minimum farm of five acres with a team of oxen and farming implements and no one can take these from him for debt no matter how just may be his claim. Another law requires everyone to contribute a certain quant.i.ty of corn or wheat each year to a munic.i.p.al inst.i.tution to be lent in time of need or for seed to anyone and at a very moderate rate of interest.

Another old custom among the Servians is for the entire community to go and help any man, who may be unfortunate, harvest his grain. This is made a great day and singing and laughing can be heard all day long in the fields, and in the evening they have certain religious ceremonies which end in a feast with music and dancing. These are great events for the young folks. It is a custom among the girls for those who are open for engagement to wear a red feather in their hair. Of late years the farmers have an organization that is not unlike the grange that we used to have in this country. Through this they get better markets for what they have to sell and lower prices for what they have to buy. Many who read these lines can call to mind some of the great times that people used to have in the meetings and great days in granger times.

The Servians have some queer customs in regard to death and funerals.

Almost every Servian prepares boards with which to make his own coffin and keeps them in a dry place ready for use when he dies. Old women save up money and sew it in their dresses, to be used to pay their funeral expenses. If a farmer is able to afford it he generally keeps a barrel of whisky in his cellar, to be drunk at his funeral.

When the body of a dead person is in the house no one eats anything and the floors are not swept. After the funeral the floors are swept and the broom thrown away. For a day after one dies a little bread and a gla.s.s of wine are kept in the room with the dead body. They believe the soul tarries awhile and might want to eat and drink. They also believe that the soul lingers on earth forty days after death, visiting old familiar places and on the fortieth day ascends to heaven.

On the day of a funeral an animal, likely a sheep, but never a goat, is killed at the grave in the presence of one holding a wax candle. This animal is then roasted and those attending the funeral have a feast, the guests each bringing something to eat with the roast. Women never sing or wear flowers or jewelry during the first year of mourning.

European civilization owes much to the Servians. For hundreds of years these people have fought to save Europe from invasion. They have been the bulwark of Christendom against the unspeakable Turk and his religion. The bitter trials and hards.h.i.+ps of the Servians have made them brave, heroic and self-sacrificing. This is especially true of the women as the following incident among many will show.

After all the hards.h.i.+ps of the Balkan War, when diseases and suffering were everywhere; when the land had been left uncultivated and hunger stalked across the country and the women in both town and country had toiled unceasingly; after all these days of misery, when Austria was mentioned to a peasant woman she declared that she was ready for fresh sacrifices. Being reminded of what it would mean to have war again she said: "What matters the leaves and twigs that fall, provided the tree remains standing."

There has been a very bitter feeling in Servia against the Austrians since 1908. In that year Austria had trampled under foot her sacred treaties and by brute force annexed Bosnia and Herzegovnia, Servia's neighbors, and had threatened the very existence of Servia herself. In the streets of Belgrade, their capital city, on that occasion there was a vast demonstration held almost in silence and every Servian pledged to do or die at his country's call. They well knew that a conflict was coming. In that war they had done a n.o.ble part but when it came to the settlement Austria practically refused to allow Servia an Adriatic port and other advantages she had justly earned.

From that day until the world war broke out, Austria backed and a.s.sisted by German secret agents, tried to stir up Albania and Bulgaria against Servia. Turkey too was only waiting for a chance to plunder this country. But worst of all and greatest of all, Servia had the audacity to block the Kaiser's Berlin to Bagdad railway scheme which was to go through Belgrade.

Now the time had arrived when something must be done to provoke a war with Servia and annihilate her. The self-appointed world ruler of Germany had decreed it. As he was dictating the policy of Austria she must find some excuse to do the job. Then came the fateful day, July 29, 1914. On that day the Crown Prince of Austria and his wife were a.s.sa.s.sinated at Sarajevo by a Servian youth.

Not a thing was done openly for twenty-four days. At once on the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Austrian Grown Prince, the Kaiser called in his war lords and financiers and other great men of his coterie. He asked if all were ready for war. The army and navy men said they were ready instantly. The financiers said they could be ready in two weeks. They were told to get ready. While this was being done the Kaiser with the Austrian war lords worked out a plan by which the act of this Servian youth could be laid upon the nation and be made an excuse for war. So on the twenty-fourth day after the a.s.sa.s.sination came the ultimatum from Austria. It came as a thunderclap out of a clear sky.

The little country was only allowed forty-eight hours to concede the unheardof demands. Diplomats tried to get Austria to extend the time, but she refused to do so. Sir Edward Grey of England led in an effort to bring about arbitration after Austria had declared war, and he all but succeeded for Austria and Servia both agreed to submit their differences to arbitration and Russia agreed to this. But just here Germany openly b.u.t.ted in and declared that she would not arbitrate anything and thus the war went on until it had involved nation after nation and practically the whole world was into it either directly or indirectly.

When the declaration of war came to Servia, their old king was in bad health and was at a sanitarium. He had appointed his son to the regency.

But at the word of war, old King Peter left the watering-place and started for the front. With flag in hand he came to the troops and addressed the men saying: "Soldiers, your old king has come to die with you; if there be any who are afraid let him turn back." It is easy to imagine the result. Not one of them turned back, and they easily routed the enemy and swept all before them. But the story of these terrible years can only be mentioned. The year 1914 was a year of victory for the Servians. But later on came the tremendous reverses, the awful typhus fever and the heroic retreat over the mountains. This retreat is one of the saddest and yet one of the most heroic pages of history. Finally France was able to come to the rescue and the Servians found a refuge on the island of Corfu. Had it not been for France the Servian nation would have been all but annihilated.

While Servia has never made a contribution to civilization as has Belgium, she has played such a n.o.ble part that she will always have a large place in the heart of mankind. She has kept the Turk from invading Europe for centuries and it is hard to realize just what that means. The Turk has always been a plunderer and has cursed everything he touched.

But his cup of iniquity has been filled to overflowing and the death rattle is in his throat.

Providence has thus used Servia in a most wonderful way. Her great vision has been a united country with all the Servians included, where they can work out their own problems and live in peace and harmony.

These people are devoutly religious, most of them belonging to the Greek Orthodox church. They have great respect for learning. They are a most hospitable people and any foreigner is always made a welcome guest. They are well read in history but have never been favorably inclined toward either German education or language. They admire and love the French and invited the French Government to open a school in Belgrade. They have their own literature and folklore, their own popular music and national songs. The following are some of their bright proverbs of which they have a great many:

"It is better to serve a good man than to give orders to a bad man.

"It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it.

"It is better to die honestly than to live dishonestly.

"It is better to have a good reputation than a golden belt.

"As long as a man does not dishonor himself no one can dishonor him.

"Debt is a bad companion.

"He who wishes to rest when he is old must work when he is young.

"The lie has short legs.

"An earnest work is never lost.

"The unjustly acquired wealth never reaches the third generation.

"A kind word opens the iron door.

"G.o.d sometimes shuts one door that he may open a hundred other doors.

"It is better to weep with the wise than to sing with the fool.

"In the forest a tree leans upon tree, in a nation a man leans on man.

"Where there is no fear of G.o.d there is no shame of man.

"Where there is no wife there is no home.

"Where the devil cannot cause mischief he sends an old woman and she does it.

"Work as if you are to live a hundred years, pray to G.o.d as if you were to die tomorrow."

CHAPTER XV

A WORLD-FAMOUS LAND--PALESTINE

The most fascinating and lureful land on the globe is the little country we call Palestine. Since it was wrested from the unspeakable Turk during the world war, the eyes of the world have been focused upon it to a greater degree than ever. It is the dearest spot to civilization. From it have gone the greatest and most powerful influences for good that ever affected humanity. It produced the one great character which is today the great center of history. The date of his birth is the recognized beginning of the greatest era in the history of mankind. The calendars of the world have been changed by the Galilean carpenter.

Palestine is less than one-eighth as large as Wisconsin. Smaller than Greece or Italy or England or even Belgium, it has a greater history perhaps than all these combined. The book it produced is the foundation of history, literature and law. The hills and valleys, mountains and rivers are hallowed by the memory of him who wore the crown of thorns.

The writer of these lines will never forget the tender memories aroused when standing on the sacred spots in this world-famous land.

The man who said: "Palestine is the world in a nutsh.e.l.l," told the exact truth. Between snow-capped Mount Herman on the north, which is ten thousand feet above the ocean, and the Dead Sea on the south, which is thirteen hundred feet below the level of the ocean, are found all the zones and climates that can be found on the globe. The geologist finds here not only all the formations of rock found on the earth, but all the geological periods and ages. The botanist finds here about all the plants, shrubs and flowers; the zoologist finds most all the animals and the ornithologist finds most all the birds, while the ichthyologist finds all the fishes.

It used to be thought that there was at least one exception to the above named rule: that there was at least one type of fish that could not be found in Palestine. The exception was a type of fish found by David Livingstone in an inland lake in tropical Africa. Nature has provided the male of this peculiar fish with a large head and made him the protector of the school of little fishes when they are first hatched out so that in time of danger he opens his gills and the little ones swim into his mouth where they will be safe. The habit is unheard of and unparalleled among any fish in the world, so it is said. While for years it was supposed that this family of fish was found only in tropical Africa, yet some years ago one of this very type of fish was caught in the sea of Galilee.

It was the privilege of the writer to visit Palestine some years ago with a converted Jew as a guide. We fell in together on an Italian steams.h.i.+p on the way from Italy to Egypt. On account of the bubonic plague which was raging in Egypt at the time we were thrown together again unexpectedly, leaving Egypt on the same s.h.i.+p bound for Syria. We were quarantined together on a s.h.i.+p in a Syrian harbor and became so well acquainted that he was persuaded to act as my guide through Palestine.