SERVIA. 



SKATE. 



733 



come to a compromise with the Progressists, 

 but on the 16th of February resigned. 



Reform of Taxation. A new system of taxa- 

 tion was enacted by the Skuptschina in June. 

 The former system pressed more severely upon 

 the poor than upon the wealthy. The new law 

 does away with the poll-tax, and makes lands, 

 houses, and other property liable to an income- 

 tax. It is expected to increase the revenue 

 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 francs and yield in 1885 

 40,000,090 francs. To cover the deficit, a new 

 loan of 40,000,000 francs was effected. The 

 various loans it was proposed to consolidate at 

 5 per cent, interest. A Servian National Bank 

 of credit and issue began business in June. 



The new system of taxes divides landmarks 

 into five classes, taxed 1 , 2, 3, 4, and 8 francs 

 per hectare respectively. Buildings are taxed 

 from 3 to 5 per cent, of the rent. Capital, 

 trade, and personal taxes are calculated on the 

 net annual income. The tax on invested capi- 

 tal is 6, 5, or 3 per cent, on the interest, divi- 

 dends, or profits, according to the percentage 

 of the returns. Capital employed in trade or 

 speculation is taxed at the rate of 10 francs for 

 2,500 francs or less, 15 francs for from 2,500 

 to 5,000 francs, and 3 francs for every addi- 

 tional thousand. 



Dispute with Bulgaria. Both Servians and 

 Bulgarians were dissatisfied with the boundary 

 established by the Treaty of Berlin, the former 

 having expected Widdin and the latter Nish 

 and Pirot. The development of Austrian sym- 

 pathies in Servia was an additional cause of 

 alienation. The Bulgarian dissatisfaction with 

 the award of the Berlin Congress was aggra- 

 vated by the military precautions taken to 

 guard the frontier from the Servian insurgents 

 who had taken refuge in Bulgaria. Pashich 

 and the other exiled leaders of the late revolu- 

 tionary attempt were settled in Sofia, where 

 the ex-Metropolitan Michael also took up his 

 residence. Two guerrilla bands appeared in the 

 Timok district and committed various depre- 

 dations directed against witnesses for the state 

 in the treason trials. A local magistrate and 

 three other persons were killed. The leader 

 of one of the bands was captured, with revolu- 

 tionary manifestoes of Pashich on his person. 

 He proved to be Lazarevich, who had been 

 convicted of high treason in contumaciam. 

 About the same time a band of Montenegrins, 

 led by the priest Luka Dshurich, another fugi- 

 tive leader of the insurrection, made an attempt 

 to enter Servia, of which warning was received 

 from the Montenegrin Government. Suspect- 

 ing a concerted design to rekindle the rebel- 

 lion, the Servian Government demanded the 

 removal of the Servian Radicals to a distant 

 part of Bulgaria. The Bulgarian ministry, 

 while promising to investigate the matter, made 

 a counter-demand for the evacuation of the 

 Servian sentry-post on the island of Bregovain 

 the Timok. Although the island is on the Bul- 

 garian side of the river, a Servian guard has 

 always been stationed there. A paling run- 



ning across the island marked the boundary. 

 When, at the time of Servian independence, 

 the Timok was first established as the bound- 

 ary between Servia and Turkey, the island was 

 a part of the mainland on the Servian side, 

 nearly inclosed by a loop in the river. The 

 Timok washed out a new channel across the 

 peninsula, converting it into an island between 

 the new bed and the marsh that marks the 

 ancient bed. The Bulgarians followed up their 

 claim with the forcible occupation of the dis- 

 puted position (see BULGARIA). Diplomatic 

 relations between the two countries were in- 

 terrupted, and an angry spirit prevailed, espe- 

 cially in Servia. Through the mediation of the 

 Cabinets of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, 

 which put a veto upon any hostile proceeding?', 

 the normal diplomatic condition was restored 

 in the winter. 



SKATE. (Dutch, scliaats ; French, echasse ; 

 Low German, schake ; Anglo-Saxon, sceacan, 

 scacan.) Skating in its modern acceptation 

 originated so long ago, probably among the 

 nations of northern Europe, that it may be 

 accounted of prehistoric antiquity. Refer- 

 ences to it are of frequent occurrence in the 

 runes and sagas of Scandinavian mythology. 

 The derivative meaning of the word, accord- 

 ing to Prof. Skeat, the English philologist, is 

 " shank " : from the same root other words are 

 cited, meaning to go swiftly. Hence, Prof. 

 Skeat thinks that skate originally meant some- 

 thing to lengthen the shank or leg, and thus 

 facilitate swift motion. It does not appear 

 from his etymology that he noted the fact 

 that bones and specifically shank-bones were 

 used by the earliest skaters of whom any 

 record exists. Bits of bone or wood were, 

 no doubt, the first ckates, and the Dutch are 

 credited with having first used iron. From 

 the Netherlands the improved patterns were 

 brought over to England as early as the 

 twelfth or thirteenth century, and about that 

 time skate-history begins. 



James Eccleston, in his "Introduction to 

 English Antiquities," states, but without giv- 

 ing his authorities, that Londoners used to 

 skate on the Thames as early as A. D. 1216 to 

 1483. In a Latin work entitled " Vita Lyd- 

 wine," by one Johannes Brugman (1478), there 

 is a woodcut representing the heroine of the 

 tale as fallen on the ice while skating. This 

 is the earliest Dutch skating-cut known to Mr. 

 W. M. Conway, an expert in this line. 



William Carr (1688), in a work on the Gov- 

 ernment of "Germanic Sweedland and Han- 

 siatique Towns," etc., says: "At the time 

 when the French came to invade the territory 

 of the States- General, such a sudden thaw (set 

 in) as was never seen before, . . . that the 

 French were fain to beat a disorderly retreat, 

 . and the nimble Dutchmen on their scatses 

 so long as the ice would bear them did shoot 

 down the French." Here is an obvious refer- 

 ence to soldiers drilled to take the field on 

 skates as the Swedes and Norwegians certainly 



