GREECE AND -MOXTEXEGRO 



293 



a capable administrator, and a thought- 

 ful reformer. Again and again he has 

 repressed the war-hke ardor of his 

 mountaineers, and has led them to battle 

 only when no other course was possible. 



But whether he has fought or remained 

 tranquil he has always profited. Like 

 his royal cousin at Sofia. Nicholas of 

 Montenegro is a skillful international 

 trader ; and as I have seen him in stormy 

 times negotiating now with the revolu- 

 tionary Albanians and now with the 

 Turks, I have often wondered if his in- 

 tellectual inheritance was not as much of 

 the White as of the Black Mountain. 



He was but yet a boy when the as- 

 sassin's bullet brought him to his uncle's 

 place, to the place of that uncle who 

 had launched the nolo c pise o pari at the 

 heads of his astonished people, but whose 

 marriage remaining childless has seen the 

 crown pass in its usual succession from 

 uncle to nephew, so that if Nicholas shall 

 give place to Danilo it will be the first 

 time m Montenegrin history that a son 

 has followed a tather upon the throne. 



WHAT NICHOLAS HAS DONE; FOR HIS LAND 



N^icholas was then a little lacking of 

 19 years, but his education in Paris and 

 his experiences at home had given him 

 wisdom beyond his years, and his tiny 

 land has profited by it mightily. 



He has already doubled his territory, 

 and now expects to gain much more. 

 He has added two Adriatic ports to his 

 possessions. He has organized minis- 

 tries, the courts, finance, and all the de- 

 partments of government. Where, when 

 he came to the throne, only a few diffi- 

 cult trails threaded the hills, today a 

 splendid network of roads connects all 

 the principal points of the kingdom, and 

 it may be said of Montenegro alone 

 among nations, I hazard, that wherever 

 one may go at all in a wheeled convey- 

 ance one may go in an automobile. 



He has established posts and tele- 

 graphs, so that whereas once a Monte- 

 negrin mobilization was effected by sten- 

 torian hallooing from peak to peak, 

 Cetinje is now constantly in touch with 

 all parts of the country and with the 

 outside world. 



He has codified the laws, a task already 



begun by his predecessor ; and while he 

 has modernized procedure in a degree, 

 there yet remain many quaint survivals 

 of the days when the Vladikas made law 

 by whim or wrote into the statutes the 

 superstitions of the people. For exam- 

 ple, by law in Montenegro the eating of 

 a hedgehog is regarded as an offense 

 against nature, and not long since a peas- 

 ant was imprisoned for it. 



Respect for age is enjoined by law,^ 

 and in the articles regulating public con- 

 veyances it is provided that the traveler 

 may have the seat indicated by his ticket, 

 but it is added, "The deference due by 

 youth to age requires that the former 

 yield the better place to their seniors." 

 Another article declares the equality of 

 all before the law. and lays down the 

 democratic principle of the universal 

 ownership of land and equal right of all 

 to hold office. 



Another allows a man who is struck 

 to kill the striker, provided it be done 

 at once. If he delays, it is murder. In 

 short, the Montenegrin code aims to be 

 the embodiment of that "civil and re- 

 ligious liberty" which, it avows, is "the 

 reward of valor." 



THE PRINCE BECOMES A KING 



Probably Nicholas himself would 

 count the chief among his achievements 

 the assumption of a kingly title upon 

 the com.pletion of 50 years of rule. The 

 jubilee, the royal honor, and the king's 

 golden wedding were coincidently and 

 joyfully celebrated at Cetinje. 



Those were splendid days for the 

 Petrovitches, who gathered in force. Pre- 

 eminent among them, of course, was the 

 beautiful queen of Italy. With her were 

 the two stately grand duchesses of Rus- 

 sia and the Princess of Battenberg. 

 whose marriage had led the King to re- 

 tort to one who had taunted him that 

 Alontenegro had no exports, "Sir, you 

 forget my daughters." There, too. was 

 the son of the King's dead daughter, the 

 Crown Prince of Servia, and the three 

 princes and two charming princesses 

 who make up the royal group at home. 



Thither came the Tsar of the I'ulgars 

 and the Crown Prince of Greece. The 

 Sultan sent a special embassy, but other 



