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About Weekly constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.) 185?-1877 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1875)
The Weekly Constitutionalist. WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 25, 1878 The “Bloody Shirt"—Morton & Cos. On the War rath—Pin-Back De mocracy. The speech of Senator Morton, the other day, in Ohio, was no doubt a key note of the Republican campaign for 1876. He “went back” upon his former utterances about the currency question with the same facility that he turned up, in 1861, as a renegade from De mocracy. The staple of his harangue was denunciation of the South and her sympathizers in the struggle for Con stitutional Liberty against Radical des potism and consolidation. He exhibit ed the “bloody shirt,” recently packed away in ex-Attorney. General Williams’ trunk, and is manifestly in favor of galvanizing the “Southern Outrage Committee” and all the rusty machinery of slander and lies, which worked so badly just before the “tidal wave” Democratic triumphs. Take from Mobton his malice and faculty of misstatement and he has no more attractiveness than a plucked Shang hai rooster. But armed with these weapons, and backed by a Re publican press that insists upon put ting Jefferson Davis forward as a can didate for the Presidency and re-open ing the dead issue of secession, he has much power for mischief with ignorant rustics and the Grand Army of the Re public. Morton’s main effort is to demonstrate that the surrender of the Confederacy was not in good faith; that a return of the Democracy to power in 1876 means another “rebel lion;” and that life is so insecure in the South that a Republican can not go there without being in constant danger of death. Hon. A. H. Stephens is set up as the principal target of this man’s vengeful diatribes against the Southern people. What has Mr. Ste phens over said or done, since the war, that was not in a line with the Consti tution of the country? When has he ever advised the people against the laws of the United States? When has ho ceased warning his hearers that “ tlie price of liberty is obedience to the law ?” Some of the so-called De mocratic papers in the Middle States are begging the question by repudiat ing Mr. Stephens as a representative Southern man, and therefore not a fair example of the temper of his people. It is true that Mr. Stephens, like all positive men, has not always been in accord with many of the people of the South; but, to his dying day, ho will be recognized, oven by his hottest and most unrelenting enemy, as the em bodiment of true conservatism and the uncompromising foe of violence of every kind and character. If the weak kneed, temporizing and pin-back press of the Border States were half as true to Democracy, to Constitutional liberty and to the best interests of the whole country as Alexander H. Stephens, they would not have to make apologies to Morton, and thus encourage him and his followers to press their slau derous programme. These pin-back Democrats should remember that the only utterances any of the party at the South ever “repudiated” were those deprecating a war on Grant, instead of on Congress, and, in some quarters, his earnest and enthusiastic appeals for a general reconciliation of the sections at the grand Centennial of the 4th of July, 1876, at Philadelphia. We can very well understand why Morton should be so savage in attacking Mr. Stephens, be cause it is by our following the plan of the Sago of Liberty Hall that the Rad ical monster will be brought low. If there is anything a Radical like Mor ton abominates and fears, it Is a recon ciliation of tho sections on principles of justice and fraternity. If there is one thing he specially abhors it is that this reconciliation may tuke place on the 4th of July next at Philadelphia, Hence he begins to cast his firebrands in ad vance, and proclaims that the Centen nial shall be under Republican auspices. We repeat, then, tiiat Morton’s abuse of Mr. Stephens, and through him the whole South, is not difficult of compre hension ; but of all tho gigantic absurdities in tho world, commend us to that committed by the so-called Democratic presses whose con ductors are unintentionally seeking to strengthen Morton by depreciating Mr. Stephens. This is on a par with the Baltimore Gazette, which, mounted on a currency hobby, not ouly strives for the demoralization of the Ohio Democ racy, but fraukly confesses that Al len’s overthrow will be a sweet morsel to roll under a hard money theorist’s tongue. *We advise our “Conservative” con temporaries to omit their onslaughts upon Mr. Stephens while attacking Morton. The grand principle insisted upon by Mr. Stephens is that the cam paign of 1876 shall turn upon whether a State of this Union has not some re served rights not under the control of the Federal Government, or, in 1 plain terms, whether this is a Government founded upon the Federa tive principle or upon the Oriental policy of centralized power. In that view the overwhelming voice of the South backs him up, however differ- ing upon minor issues ; and if the Democracy of the Border States can not endorse this utterance, but re pudiate it and its apostle, woe to them and to their posterity! Such a betrayal of trust will recoil upon them, and the Grants and Mortons, instead of being at the end of their reign have just commenced to flourish. Crimes at the North and South—A Hint to Hypocrites. The “ bloody shirt ” speech of Sena tor Morton will be followed by the echoing yelp of Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart of the Radical press and party. The Cincinnati Gazette has al ready come to tho front and thus speaks : Democratic and Greeleyite papers, the New York Tribune among the number, have been very prompt to assert that Senator Morton's “ bloody shirt” utterances—that is his exposure of the very unsettled con dition of the South— had no effect on the listeners to his recent speech. Southern outrages, they would have their readers be lieve, are so thoroughly things of the past that even a bugaboo cry can not be raised over them. It would be gratifying to all lovers of peace if this wore the fact, but, unfortunately, the Southern papers come to us with abundant records of crime. There is too much crime unfortu nately in all the land, but the South is not the only or chief offender. Our ex changes from the East and West come laden with accounts of bloody and shocking atrocities, many of them too indecent to print. In Williamson coun ty, Illinois, a reign of terror exists, and murders are so frequent that families are fleeing from that accursed spot. The New York papers are calling at tention to another reign of terror in the mining districts of Pennsylvania. Massachusetts and other Eastern jour nals are fairly stuffed with records of robbery and outrage. The Herald says: In somo parts of Massachusetts this evil has become so serious that the town and county authorities are forced to uso extra ordinary means for tho protection of tire people. For somo weeks past the shores of the Hudson river have also been infested by tramps, and the country roads on both sides of the river, especially about Pough keepsie, Hudson and Peeksk'il, are report ed to abound with such vagabonds, most of thorn stout, able-bodied men, who pretend to beg, but are, iu a majority of cases, ruf fians, and often burglars, spying out fa vorable places for robbery and midnight ent' y. About Poughkeepsie, if wo may believe the telegraphic reports, there exists a band of such creatures, who have begun brigand age as a business; and one of them, who calls himself “the Captain," has even writ* ton a letter to a citizen, demanding a contri bution of five hundred dollars, threatening that if this sum wore not laid—in a whito paper parcel—in a certain place at a speci fied time his house would bo robbed. It would not be difficult to fill our paper from day to day with details of Northern wickedness and sins crying to heaven for vengeance. Against this unhallowed and tremendous record, the list of Southern crimes would be dwarfed almost into nothingness, de spite tho fact that our brethren of the East and West havo forced upon us a state of society which is little less than one of their own champions de termined it should be—“an organized hell!” So much for Morton and his bloody shirt followers! Protection.— One of the great New England manufacturers, Mr. Edward Atkinson, writes to Harper’s Magazine that those special branohes of indus try which are now the most depressed are the most protected by the Govern ment. The Chicago Tribune, alluding to this statement, says : “Senator Mor riil, of Vermont, tho father of the ex isting ultra tariff, admitted on the floor of Congress since tho close of the re bellion that in the years 1859 and 1860 the manufacturing industry of this country enjoyed its greatest degree of prosperity, which shows that a high tariff is not necessary to tho prosperity of domestic manufactures. Morrill voted for the reduction of the tariff of 1846. He said that ‘any bill which would have the effect to reduce the then excessive revenues would receive his vote.’ * * * If a high tariff is conducive and requisite to the pros perity of the country, it is not a little singular that we had the terrible finan cial panic of 1873, after twelve years of ultra tariff, and in the midst of the highest protective duties of any civil ized nation in the world. As to the effect of the panic on the protected branches of manufacture, Pig-Iron Kelley’s speeches draw a more fright ful picture than anything we are able to write. He demonstrates very clearly that ‘protection’ does not protect.” Colored Odd Fellows.— The Char lotte Observer waxes very wroth over the growth of negro Masonic and Odd Fellow Lodges. The editor says : “As the writer is not an Odd Fellow, we do not know what the law of that organiza tion is inregard to emancipated slaves; but we know that it is against Masonic law to admit an emancipated slave whatever his color, into the Order. Yet, hypocritical Yankee and meddlesome English fanatical Masons have, for par tisan purposes, organized Masonic Lodges of emancipated slaves in defi ance of Masonic law, and we should not be surprised if the same is being done as regards the Odd Fellows-” Our Beloved Brethren—A Blue Mass Pill for the Centennial. We fear, we very much fear, that the pretense of “shaking hands over the bloody chasm” is a mastodonic sham and hypocrisy among large numbers of people in this country. Whether Jef ferson Davis shall or shall not accept finally the invitation to address the Rockford (111.) Fair Association, we have small care ; but the thanks of the “nation” are due him for exposing one of the holiowest pretenses ever palmed off upon a confiding people. No doubt the Committee of Invitation were sin cere in their desire to have Mr. Davis among them, and listen curiously to a dissertation on prize pigs and grass hopper ravages ; and no doubt there is a small element, not in sympathy w ith the Grand Army of the Republic, very eager indeed for the pleasant ways of peace and good will— but, from all appearances, the majority among the Winnebago savages may be set down as inimical to the South as when the land was deluged with blood, and passion ran riot to the disgust of reason. We read that Mr. Davis’ letter to the Rockford bucolics has set the hornets in motion, and that “the ex citement occasioned by the announce ment has been growing since Monday, and now assumes an indignation that will not be easily allayed, unless he cancels his engagement.” It is also said that “a number of the Winnebago county towns are already up in arms, and resolutions of the most threaten ing character are being passed. A cor respondent from Roscoe writes to the Rockford Gazette: * Our people are unanimous in condemnation of the in sult, and have not been so stirred up by any event since the close of the war. The farmers declare they will bolt the fair if Jeff Davis comes.’ The manufacturers of Rockford declare they will send nothing to the fair.” The position of Mr. Davis is peculiar and delicate. He has one of two courses to pursue: Either to withdraw from the unequal contest and the rage of bigots and blockheads, or else stand firm and compel the committee of in vitation to write him a second letter reluctantly confessing that they cannot endure the outside pressure and must ask him to stay at home. In either event, what a pitiful plight must these farmers submit to! They will be held up to the country as men who prate of free speech and fail to practice what they preach; they will be unmasked as men who are over-anxious to sell the South their provision crops, but hate with an undying hatred the men who purchase their commodi ties ; they will be self-branded as hyp ocrites who sing Centennial hymns while their hearts belie their voices ; they will bo luggod to the front as in dividuals who profess to “shake hands over the bloody chasm,” while, in real ity, they would be delighted to oross that abyss upon the corpses of Southern men and women. Thauk God, we know thorn at last, and we will be the most sodden and contemptible of fools, if we do not profit by our experience. Not by uncharitable words, however, must those Western farmers be an swered, but by deeds that tell It is in the power of Southern planters or far mers, as well as Southern com mission merchants, to give those bar barians a check they will not easily forget, and one, too, that cannot fail to take the wiud out of their bravado, if it should fail to exorcise the devil from their souls. Our merchants may as well mark these Winnebago farmers, and refuse to trade with them or with those who buy their produce to sell again. Our farmers or planters, heark ening to the sound counsel of Gov. Smith, should make, as far as may be, their own provisions, and let the West dispose of her hogs and corn else where. That is the way to treat them so as to do some good. But if the merchants and planters of the South are so unpatriotic or unmanly as not only to accept the curses of these fel lows, but help them to curse all the more effectually, low indeed have they sunk into degradation, and, as Gen. Preston mournfully observed of his own State, after having made his University of Virginia address, “the mistake is in not conceiving into what a gulf of humilia tion and abjectness the once proud peo ple of the South have fallen.” But, be this as it may, we thank the Rockford Com mittee and Jefjerson Davis for pene trating a gigantic imposture and punc turing a bloated lie. Now that Ben. Butler has conceded the hideous civil ization of the original Puritans, and their descendants in Rockford, 111., have illustrated the truth of their en during and pestilent theories, the Fac ulty of the University of Virginia should hang their heads in shame, and General Preston may give his true words to the world with a sublime im punity. The Atlanta Constitution is satisfied that Governor Smith is in the hands of the people, and will run a second time, if they say so. We have very little doubt that this is true, and His Excel lency’s speech at Dalton was a much better trump card than Mr. James’ let ler on finance. Sun umbrellas and parasols are no longer hung by a chain to the side. Winnebago War-Whoops —A Gentle Reminder to the Savages. The Philadelphia Times, a Conserva tive paper of eminent ability, regards the war-dance of the Winnebagoes, of Illinois, with feelings akin to pity and contempt, not to speak of ridicule. It says: The general disposition seems to be not to learn what Jeff. D .vis knows about farming. If General Lee were alive, the Winnebago people, very probably, would [ tolerate him as an agricultural lecturer, or i Stonewall Jackson, and General Long j steet, orMoeBY, the guerilla, both of whom the President recognizes as friends, would i be welcome; and so, no doubt, would Mr. Stephens, who was Vice-President of the Confederacy, or Mr Lamar, of Mississipi'i, | or even General Gordon, of Georgia, Frrz- I Hugh Lee, of Virginia; but not JiFFRSon | Davis. And yet what is the legal or moral i difference between Davis and the other em ; inent secessionists above named ? True he was placed at the head of the Confederate ! secession movement, but the others, also, ! did all in their power to make secession and treason successful and triumphant; and why should the North favor them, or any of them, more than Davis— or, in other words, why make him a special object of hatred ? Somehow Davis has made him self more odious to the North than has any other of the leading Secessionists, not excepting even the irascible and erratic Toombs, and it may be what he has done since rather than during the war that has so embittered the people of the North against him. Doubtless the secret of this ill feeling may be found In the fact that he still shows a disposition to cling to Seces sion doctrines and to justify his position and conduct during the rebellion. Perhaps, if he had “caved" as readily and thoroughly as Longbtbeet and some others of his Con federate confederates, Davis would have been less unpopular in the North and might have been welcomed to the strongly Re publican county of Winnebago, in Illinois, as a lecturer on farming. At all events the opposition to his coming manifested in that county and State is not commendable. It is time that all such enmities were buried. If Jefferson Davis consents to visit the North to perform a proper act, ho should be encouraged. There is not necessarily any treason in an agricultural address, and since the Agricultural Society of Winnebago has invited the Confederate President to address them, the laws of hospitality and social decency require the people of that county to receive him and treat him res pectfully. His past political sins have nothing to do with this matter, and if his address should be perti ent and unobjec tionable in itself, he should be allowed to come and go as quietly as any other man. If the Winnebago people persist in their opposition they will do greater dishonor to themselves than to the object of their hatred, who will gain rather than lose pub lic favor by their action. The people of this country are tired of this business of perpetuating the sectional and personal animosities of the rebellion, and would rather pardon even Jeff Davis than do any thing more to keep alive the old war feel ing. The Times evidently perceives that the Illinois barbarians are damaging the Centennial, aud hence, like a wise doctor, prescribes a soothing syrup for its colicky brethren. Mr. Davis has not had such a lift Into the popular estimation of sensible men, North and South, since the loss of Richmond, and tho Western Republicans have not been so thoroughly exposed and dis graced. It might not be a bad idea for somo Southern Agricultural Society to Invite Senator Morton to address them on the proper way to cultivate corn, cotton, rico, sugar cane, or anything else. Should he accept, we guarantee him a reception at once tolerant and genteel; and yet he is a greater enemy to this country than Mr. Davis is sup posed to have been. The fact is “free speech” in many parts of the North is just what “free religion” was among the early Puritans—“a barren ideality.” North Carolina.— One of the best edited papers in the South is the Winnsboro, S. 0., News. We have been much impressed with an article in that excellent journal relative to the recent North Carolina election. Re viewing the situation in that State and the antagonistic theories of the Con vention question, the News thus con cludes : “ Zeal on the part of the Republi cans, added to Democratic apathy, came near ruining the Democratic party. As it is, they have just escaped by the skin of their teeth ; and their majority is so small they cannot effect any radical change in the constitution. The result of the election will make it more difficult for the Democrats to carry the State in the general election, when every Democratic vote will be needed. The Democrats of North Car olina showed a great want of political sagacity in calling a convention and risking all they had gained. They must blame themselves for the bad scare they received. We hope they will learn a lesson. It would appear pre sumptuous in us to lecture North Car olinans upon their local affairs were it not that we are deeply interested in the success of the National Democra cy, and we think its chances of success are lessened by every local blunder.” As the Montenegrins are to take a prominent part in the war against Tur key in Herzegovina, the description of them and their country, which we give in our news columns, will prove inter esting. The article is a brilliant one, and the people alluded to in it are among the most singular in the world. ] Really, now, ought not the girls to | get some clothes to wear over those j dresses ? 1 MONTENEGRO. A RIDE IN AN ILL-KNOWN LAND. The Handsomest Prince in Europe— National Traits—Public Opinion- Singular Customs of the Women— The Sons Educated in Paris. A special correspondent of the Lon don Standard writes to that journal from Spizza as follows : “Prince Nikita is a fine looking man. probably the handsomest reigning Prince in Europe. His tall, slender figure, his marked features, (though their, expression is too fierce,) his dark complexion, his flashing eyes, the splen dor of his fantastic costume, and his inimitable loftiness of demeanor, have struck every one who has entered the throne-room. The latter is a moderate ly large, elegantly furnished apartment, with red hangings, carved arm-chairs, velvet ottomans, chandeliers, and a pianofort. The walls of the room are almost covered with the portraits of European sovereigns, mostly gifts from the latter, but those of the Czars Nicholas and Alexander occur most frequently. None have any artistical merit, however, except those of the reigning Prince and Princess and that of the interesting Princess Darinka, widow of the deceased Dantlo. They were painted by JaroslawCzermak, the only Sclavonian except Matejko, the Pole, who has attained to eminence in painting. Czermak, a fanatical Sclave, presented the pictures to the Prince. That of the Princess Darinka produces an irresistible effect on the beholder ; in her countenance there is the wild Oiiental beauty of Byron’s Haidee or Medora, refined by cultivation of mind and heart. Princess Milena is now about twenty-seven years old, a beau tiful woman, with a true Tizian com plexion, the only beautiful Montene grin, and the only one addicted to wash ing. These of your readers who have traveled in Spain have certainly re marked the dirty stripes on the necks of the lovely senoras. This aversion |to cleanliness has come down , from the time of the anchorites I Sabinus, Pachomins, Besarionand other | saints of the desert, and indeed whole sects of that epoch condemned all ab lutions as heathenish, and were lauded j because they wore their clothes so long | that they rotted to pieces and fell off | them, or because their skin became as I ‘pumice-stone’ from the crust of dirt on j it. The superstition that cleansing the j body soils the soul exists this day I among the women of those Christian nations who have long carried on con flicts with the Mohammedans, on whom | tho Koran enjoins frequent ablutions. | A female Bulgarian is permitted to j wash only once in her life—on the day before her wedding; and in most South ! Sclavonian families the girls are rarely j allowed to bathe, the women never. I j recall with a shudder the interior of the | Montenegrin huts. When a woman I offered.me wine she always dipped her Ungers into it, the same Augers which had just been engaged in the chase on her children’s heads, or which had been gently scratching the pig, the pet of the family, which Is always addressed by endearing names. The adults squat or lio down, the children tumble about | in the liquid manure which covers the floor of the hut, and many women are blear-eyed, in consequence of the creo j sofe caused by the smoke, which can | only escape through the door. The | Princess Milena, as I have said, forms an exception. The President of the Senate, M. Bozo | Petrovich, has lived eleven years in Paris, and has become a perfect Frenchman. This Parisian education 1 is the bane of these sons of the East, | for the continual contrasts between | their pretensions and their resources, their desire for mental aud physical I enjoyment, and their rough, inhospita | ble, and uncivilized country, robs them | of their mental equilibrium and is the principal cause of the uninterrupted social and political convulsions on the Balkan Peninsula. The direct oppo site of M. Boze Petrovich is his father, Drago. On my first visit I came across him in the bush, felling wood, which he loaded on the back of the maid servant to be carried to Cattaro for sate. Almost all the Montenegrins are tall, powerful men ; they would be hand some if their massive jaws did not give them a fierce, half-brutish appearance. Their dress is identical with that of the i Crivoscians, except that on their black caps—black as mourning for the defeat at Kossovo—they have instead of the Austrian the Montenegrin arms in tin. These closely resemble the Russian.— The Montenegrins of the better class wear a peculiar and costly ornament on their breast. This consists of silver half-balls called “Tocche.’ They are closely strung together, and form a sort of cuirass, which resists musket balls. With the poorer class this orna ment is of pewter. War with the Turks Expected. The whole nation, not a single Mon tenegrin excepted, is possessed by the conviction that war against Turkey will soon begin, and end with the expulsion of the Turks from Europe. Although the love of boasting is one of the na tional characteristics of the Montene grins, yet the importance of this con viction should not be underrated.— These gigantic mountaineers, who first refused to pay the “ haradsh ” or trib ute to the Turks, possess great vital power, and they are gifted with quali ties necessary to the formation of a State. They are regarded by all Sclaves as the nucleus of the future South Slavonian Empire. At the end of the seventeenth century Montenegro still consisted only of the small district from the Austrian frontier to the little plain of Cetinje ; it afterward won, step by step, the Beda Grahowo, in the Northwest. In the year 1858 a Turkish brigade invaded that district from the Herzegovina. They were surrounded, and capitulated on condition of a safe retreat. Exhausted, almost starved, the Turks, in single file, crawled up the steep mountains to ward the frontier. Then the Montene grins crept after them, and cut off the noses of 800 of the poor wretches. The northern and eastern districts of the Moracha were also incorporated into the little State, so that it is now sepa rated from Servia only by a narrow strip of land; it was the same with part of the shore and a part of the islands of Lake Scutari. To be sure, they lost the eastern shore by the se cession of the district of Kutska, near the town of Podgoritza, which has been so frequently named of late, for this district preferred the Turkish rule to that of the Vladika, and the Islands of Yranjina and Lesandrija were taken by the Arnauts. This loss is a sore one to all Montenegrins to this day, the more so as the fortress Zabijak, on the Malo Blato (lake), is regarded as the ances tral home of the Montenegrin Princes, and because the most fruitful and best cultivated Montenegrin district,situated on the western shore of Lake Scutari, the Crmnicha, is also suspected of desiring to be annexed to Turkey. It may rea dily be conceived that the Montene grins, so isolated by their mountains from all the rest of the world, are anxious to possess a port, and indeed almost all their legends prophesy the conquest of the White Kotov,’ Cattaro. The adjective ‘white’ is used to express everything brilliant, and signifies beau tiful, rich, lofty, &c. Russia supports their efforts to obtain a harbor, for it would be her port also. Once even the germ of a Montenegrin fleet existed.— The Sultan presented the Prince with an old man-of-war, the Silistria, which was towed into the harbor of Cattaro, and for the first time hoisted the Monte negrin flag. An English marine engi neer was engaged, at a considerable salary, and came, with wife and child, to Cattaro. The Prince, surrounded by his Montenegrin grandees, well furnished with provisions, but above all wine, made an excursion to Trieste in the most cheerful moods. But as the ex penses of his voyage came to several thousand guldens the excursions ceased as did the pay of the engineer, so that the latter left the ship in the lurch and departed. In the summer of 1868 came the order from Vienna to remove the vessel from the Beeche, otherwise the flag would be struck. As this was re fused with indignation, an Austrian engineer was obliged to drag the old i tub out of the Beeche into the Bojana river, and so on to Lake Scutari. Here : this Danaean gift came to an end, and with it for seven years the proud Mon tenegrin armada. The Emperor of Russia has just sent the Prince a little steamer, which is anchored where the Bojana flows out of the lake. The efforts of the Prince to place i himself at the head of the South Sclaves, and to play the part of Pied mont in the Balkan Peninsula, might be more successful. Russia, secretly ! encourages the aspirations of the Prince to the Servian throne. The j Golos has only lately discussed this idea, and in Servia there is a strong Montenegrin party. But even should ; Montenegro continue isolated she will | cause Turkey great trouble. The j country has made much progress since the last struggles. Her political organization is excellent—in the coun try itself the laws are strictly observed. Foreigners—of course excepting Turks, can travel on foot in the remotest mountains; theft and robbery have been quite exterminated by the energy of the Princes Danilo and Nikita; sixty nine schools already exist, and the country has for some years possessed a newspaper, which was formerly the Turtledove, and published scarcely anything but poems, but which has now become a political journal, under the title of the Montenegrin Gazette. The army has acquired the rudiments of discipline, without at the same time losing by its skill in guerrilla warfare, and is well armed. But the influence of schools on the character of the people has been exaggerated; the j blood that flows in their veins tells more upon them. For if Motenegro had j 690 instead of 69 schools the Montene j grins would still be only cunning, bloodthirsty tigers. Montenegrins With Russian Orders, i Few people are aware that there are Montenegrins living afar from Monte negro. Even the best statistical and ; ethnographical works on Austria ig nore the village of Peroi, close by Pola, i opposite the Brionian Isles, on the Con- I tinent of Istria. This little village is I inhabited exclusively by Montenegrins, who fled from the plague in the year 1658, and who have faithfully preserved the language and the customs of their native land. Even the marriages on | trial, so common among all South Sclaves—the living together without being married for some months till the priest or the police put an end to this state of things by forcing upon them the blessing of the church, or till the parties separate—are frequently found in Peroi. The Montenegrin of whom I hired a horse for the continuation of my jour ney, another who saddled the horse, a third who held my stirrup and the fourth who served me as guide,all wore Russian ; orders. Among the 100,000 inhabitants there are perhaps 5,000 who wore Rus sian or Austrian orders. The bridle path led over a moderately high moun tain into the valley of the Rjecka river; which affords some pleasant scenery. Near the village Rjecka I left the valley and rode along a path which only native horses could manage, in a south ern direction to ‘the land of the sun.’ The district Crmnicha.which descends in terraces to Lake Scutari, enjoys the cli mate of Southern Italy, is fertile, and in some places well cultivated. Sometimes I could almost fancy myself in a civil ized country. The inhabitants are, therefore, looked down upon by the rough mountaineers, and are, as I have said, even suspected of Turkish sym pathies. The sun set just as my horse had climbed the mountain ridge which forms the frontier between Montenegro and Austria, and from which I de scended to Spizza, the most nothern port of Albania. To the north and northeast the gray rocks, which for centuries have harbored no seed, were flooded by an unnatural light which struck terror into the soul. But as the sun dipped into the sea the chalk mountains shone like an aurora bore alis, and the clouds hovered over them in a fiery glow, a foreboding of the Dies Tree, the conflagration of the uni verse, and Lake Scutari and the Adri atic threw back the blood-red light, re minding me of the streams of gore which, during centuries, the national hatred had poured down from the Montenegrin plateau through all its valleys and ravines, down to the Amse fleld and to Lake Scutari.” Providence, August 18.—The Presi dent left at six o’clock for New York.
