THE LATE QUEEN DRAGA OF SERVIA. Copyright, 1910 , By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED) All rights reserved First Impression, September, 1910 Electrotyped and Printed by THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A. TO E. McC. J....

Because of their pivotal positions, politically and geographically; because of their tempting adaptation to colonization; because of their vast proven and hidden resources; because of their divers other advantages, too numerous to mention, the Balkan States have been, are and will continue to be, as once a certain writer so aptly put it, the “Powder Box of Europe.” Constant conflict, however, has stunted their progress, and it has only been within the past few years that these lands—conspicuousl

That seemingly insignificant little interrogation cut short our evening convocations in London as abruptly as one would snuff the wick of a candle, for inside of forty-eight hours we had purchased our “Rundreise” and “Hapag” tickets and were speeding Vienna-ward. To the seasoned traveller the following brief explanation may seem a trifle superfluous but, at the same time, it may be the means of saving a world of bother and inconvenience, no small item of expense and an incalculable loss of tempe

One delightful evening I summoned my courage and ventured into a trolley-car, hoping that it might eventually take me near the Casino of the principal park. It did, mirabile dictu , and I alighted. But a week in Buda-Pesth had not passed without many and varied experiences. In order to be doubly cautious and not mistake my car to return to the hotel—for, luckily, this one made the park its terminus and returned by the same route—I unsheathed my note book and copied then and there the name of the

To the student the Servians are a nation of types; as a race they are gifted by nature with unusual powers of observation, shrewdness and strength of character, but from the fact of their having been so long oppressed has arisen a disposition to concealment and even absolute distrust. They are patriotic and loyal to a marked degree, which may account, in part, for their emotional proclivities. They are absolutely fearless, but this fearlessness assumes at times a tinge of the opera bouffe , as i

“The end of the year 1801 saw Servia a prey to systematized vandalism. It was a reign of unexampled tyranny and cruelty. The bloodthirstiness of the Sultan’s janizaries increased like the strength of a torrent. The Dahis, in obedience to the Sultan’s firmans, commissioned murderers to proceed through Servia and kill all the mayors of towns and villages, chiefs of cantons, priests and monks. A wave of terror swept over the land, spreading panic in every direction. Mothers hugged their children to

In due course of time Draga became fired with the hope of future social distinction. She had been dragged through the mire of ill-repute and was now determined to attain the coveted recognition of society, not as an adventuress, but as a lady of wealth and rank. To this end she even sought the influence in her behalf of a minister of the Servian court, and through him the unsophisticated Natalie resolved to help her, pensioned her, and finally made Draga one of her ladies-in-waiting at Biarritz.

A SIDEWALK CAFÉ, BELGRADE. During this preliminary meeting of the regicides at the café it was announced that everything had been arranged satisfactorily: the co-operation of the servants and soldiers, within the palace and without, was assured by none other than Colonel Maschine, the brother-in-law of the Queen, who personally had made arrangements to thus afford the least possible difficulty in entering the konak ; the doors of the palace would even be left unlocked; a regiment of soldiers had

The cry was taken up by all with whom he came in contact, repeated broadcast and, in an incredibly short space of time, it was upon the lips of every one in Belgrade. The peasant of Cremna was seized and thrown into prison, charged with being a fanatical disturber, but hardly before the verification of the tragedy had reached the capital. The facts of this case are now preserved in the minutes of the national assembly. The second instance of occultism occurred in 1897 while Draga was in the serv

But eight hours’ travel in the local train so anæsthetized our desires to continue the journey, on such a train, at least, that the little vine-clad station at Nisch appealed to us most invitingly. We also determined then and there to explore the town behind it. A two-mile drive over even rougher cobbles than Belgrade can boast of, connects the station with the centre of the town, and I might add that it is the longest two miles I have ever driven. As we rattled along, the diminutive one-story d

But to fully appreciate and feel this miraculous development we must delve, briefly, into Bulgaria’s past. The ancient Roman name of Thrace was the one generally applied to the entire territory lying between the Macedonian frontier and the Danube River, while the territory to the north of the Balkans was then called Moesia. Savage tribes, known as the Thraco-Dacians, the Thraco-Illyrians and the Thraco-Macedonians, held sway over the whole of the Balkan Peninsula until, historians tell us, Phili

The market is opened officially at seven o’clock, but long before that hour the peasants, representing many square miles of surrounding territory, begin to arrive on foot, on horseback and in bullock carts. That time-worn adage about the early bird holds true even in Bulgaria, for those who dispose of their produce the quickest and who, consequently, return home with the greatest number of shekels jingling in their leathern money pouches, are the ones who obtain the most desirable stands along t

THE AUSTRIAN ARMY BARRACKS AT SARAJEVO. To-day all this is changed. The fields are cultivated; mines have been prospected and developed; public schools are everywhere and education is compulsory; the Austrian army has put an end to the maraudings of the Mohammedans and polices the country, having its headquarters in great garrisons in Mostar and Sarajevo. An admirably operated railway line eats its way throughout the entire length of the province, the proposed extension of this railway through t

Farther along at Jablaniča—where, although a village of but two hundred souls, the accommodations of a good hotel beckon to the traveller to spend some time in this vicinity, should the grandeur of the surrounding mountain scenery appeal to him as it did to us—a gorge of the Narenta is crossed and from this point the line follows the defile of the river as far as Mostar. A military road of stone foundation, which would tempt the most apprehensive of automobile tourists, twines itself, like a whi

On approaching nearer to Ragusa a greater profusion of semi-tropical verdure lends a charming background to the numerous white-walled, red-roofed villas which top the rocky shore line, while a modern hotel, up to date in all its appointments, looks out from behind its gardens over the battlements and fortresses of the old city. In the evening a military band plays near the wall, which skirts the edge of one of the cliffs just outside the city gates; crowds of care-free visitors occupy seats at t

The molo itself was a scene of animation. It was crowded with people, peasants, sailors and tradesmen, for the steamer Codolo from up the coast had just been made fast, and the arrival of any passenger steamer is an event of no little import at Gravosa. But what of unusual interest did the Codolo have in store to occasion such wholesale manifestation of inquisitiveness among the natives of the town? Even our driver confessed he had never seen such a gathering on the molo . The arrival of an offi

To delve briefly into the beginning of things, this Land of the Black Mountain was settled by a dauntless band of Servian refugees who, after the battle of Kossovo, when Tzar Lazar, Emperor of Servia, was defeated by the Turks, preferred liberty in some wild country of their own at any price, rather than live under the domination of the Mohammedans. They fled, accordingly, into the Black Mountains and there commenced the story of the Montenegrins and their strenuous existence. This story has bee

A SECTION OF THE ROAD ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS. This being the shortest and easiest route for trade between the outside world and the Montenegrin capital, quantities of provisions, household furniture, lumber and other materials for building purposes, and what not are freighted by four, five and six-horse teams over these twenty-eight miles of mountains, from Cattaro to Cettinje. There is also a passenger stage that operates daily between the two towns. We had passed the little stone half-way house,

Once the Petka had negotiated the many consecutive mouths of the Bocche and had finally passed the grim walls of the fortresses on Punta d’Ostro, close on the starboard, she set her course almost due west with her ultimate destination Fiume, her home port; but she was due to call en voyage at almost all of the towns along the coast. Her main deck was an odd and interesting sight. It was crowded, so crowded that one could see scarcely one square inch of planking, with a rare galaxy of Montenegrin

At daybreak, had there been in the distance a few scattered palm trees and a stretch of sandy beach, we might easily have imagined ourselves in equatorial latitudes. The rays of the sun tinted the mainland and the islands in hues of saffron; there was scarcely a ripple on the deep turquoise-coloured water. We steamed up through the Canal di Zara, a channel three miles in width, between the mainland and the mountainous island of Ugliano, and at five in the morning the lines of the Graf Wurmbrand