IN PRAISE OF THE MONTENEGRINS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11508, 5 November 1912, Page 4

IN PRAISE OF THE MONTENEGRINS.

! The late Mr W. E. Gladstone is credited with paying a very high tribute to the character of the Montenegrins, likening them to the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylae. In after years he had something to say about .the Bulgarians —at least, so says the late Christie Murray, novelist, lecturer, correspondent, journalist and wanderer. Mr Murray had occasion to call upon Mr Gladstone at Harwarden. In honour of the occasion he donned what he admits was an extraordinary specimen of an overcoat. He was received kindly, and at his departure the G.O.M. accompanied him to the door, and so saw him in his coat. It attracted the statesman's eye. '' Dear mo, Mr Murray, may I ask where you obtained that remarkable coat?" ''From Bulgaria, sir," was the reply. ' ' The gift of a chief." " Well, well,'' mused the great man, "I have read and written and spoken a great deal about Bulgarian atrocities, but this is the first tinio I have ever seen one." The Montenegrins have another tradition which recalls that of the days of the Saxon Alfred, when it is said a ma* might leave his purse on the King's highway with the certainty of finding it on returning to look for it after discovering the loss. So, too, Avith Montenegro. One remarkable law of the Black Mountain Kingdom, as it is called, directs that any man finding a purse or jewellery' upon the road shall place the same upon the nearest stone, so that the loser will only have to retrace his steps to recover his property. The law ia never violated. A Montenegrin thinks nothing of shooting a man with whom he disagrees, but would shrink in horror from the idea of stealing the veriest trifle. Montenegrin law is more severe on the thief than the homicide. A famous war correspondent of the seventies of the last century, one of the men who proclaimed the wrongs of the Balkan Christians to the world (Mr W, Stillman), has left on record many striking examples of this national trait. He says: "It was notorious that he was carrying several hundred pounds in gold, Russian subsidies for the families of the killed and wounded, but in the wildest and loneliest parts, with only one man for escort, he was never molested. During two campaigns his despatch bag witli his store of small money hung on the pole of his ungarded tent, but not a coin disappeared. The entire free male population being away at the front, the sum of 3000 florins, to be paid to the banker at Cattaro, in Austrian territory, was entrusted to a prisoner in the Cettinje gaol; and. the man duly delivered it and reported at tho prison before night." The King of the Montenegrins is worthy of his people. He is one of themselves. He is said to be a splendid shot and a fearless rider. as becomes the king of a race of mountaineers, and ho is also a poet, having found time to write two tragedies— "The Empress of the Balkans" and "Prince Arbanit"—in addition to a volume of Serb poetry.