Photo by ! I < ' ' ' 1 1 J I )amon. 

 A GROUP OF REBFlv ALBANIAN CHIEFS AND AN ALBANIAN FROM THF COLONY IN ITALY 



Albania whose Italian — as well as Aus- 

 trian — trained leaders should be united 

 by a common language and a common 

 alphabet. Accordingly a lengthy, labori- 

 ous alphabet was invented and saddled 

 upon the school children of the Austrian 

 missions. This would help to open dis- 

 sention for the future, when Austria 

 mayhap should inherit the land and 

 should find it necessary to use her wiliest 

 tyranny in Austrianizing the Albanian. 



The Elbassan Normal School, with its 

 sensible Latin alphabet and its freedom 

 from outside propaganda, was, there- 

 fore, a beacon light in the darkness of 

 Albania. It had no religious bias — Mos- 

 lem and Christian were brothers without 

 distinction. The founders had but one 

 aim, the uplifting of the Albanian race. 

 They were not revolutionists in the po- 

 litical sense of the word. They wanted 

 to cooperate with the new Young Turk 

 government, and only demanded that the 

 application of the newly granted consti- 

 tution should have something in common 

 with its fundamental promises. 



But when the Turkish soldiers arrived 

 in Elbassan in the summer of 19 lo mar- 

 tial law was proclaimed ; all persons con- 

 nected with the normal school or sympa- 



thizing with its progress were hunted 

 down, led'before the military authorities, 

 and beaten in a manner too repulsive to 

 detail. The bastinado and the lash were 

 applied to many of the most enlightened 

 people of Elbassan ; the treasurer of the 

 normal school was flogged beyond be- 

 lief ; the director and several of the 

 teachers effected their escape. The mili- 

 tary authorities searched out and flogged 

 the persons who were responsible for a 

 telegram previously sent to Constanti- 

 nople, asking that instruction in Albanian 

 schools should be given in the Albanian 

 language and in the Latin characters. 

 Then the soldiers were marched off for 

 other similar deeds, having "shut up that 

 school and given those Albanians a lesson 

 they would remember." 



UPRISINGS BY THF ALBANIANS 



As the year 1910 wore on trouble be- 

 gan to arise for the Turks in the chan- 

 celleries of Europe over the scandal of 

 the military orgies in Albania and of the 

 closing of the normal school ; likewise 

 over the scandal of the equally brutal 

 and, if possible, still more uncalled-for 

 "disarmament" of the Christians in 

 JVIacedonia. Some parties always exist 



