794 The National Geographic Magazine 



Photo from "The Balkan Trail," by Frederick Moore (Macmillan) 

 GRF,F,K ORTHODOX PRIESTS OF MONASTIR, MACEDONIA 



jealousies, fed by five hundred years of 

 fitter feuds, have been forgotten over 

 night. Greeks and Bulgarians, Arme- 

 nians and Turks, Jews, Christians and 

 Mohammedans are publicly embracing 

 each other. It seems that the leaders of 

 the different Macedonian parties sud- 

 denly realized during the last year that 

 their chance of liberty was hopeless so 

 long as they fought each other. They 

 agreed to try the experiment of uniting 

 with the "Young Turks" of the empire, 

 who had for a long time been plotting 

 against the Sultan. The basis of the 

 union was that all parties, irrespective 

 of race or creed, should share alike in 

 the constitution. 



It was the Macedonians who took the 

 lead in the recent revolution, and it is to 

 them principally that the rest of the 

 Ottoman Empire owes the opportunity 

 •of self-government now to be enjoyed.* 



* An article on the Turkish Constitution will 

 •be published in the December number. 



So great is their delight at having ob- 

 tained a parliament and constitution 

 that the populace have compelled Greek 

 and Mohammedan priests to kiss each 

 other on the town square. 



The propagandas which have been 

 conducted by the different parties for 

 several generations have greatly bene- 

 fited the people. The Bulgarian, Greek, 

 Servian, and Rumanian schools — toler- 

 ated by the government because they 

 divided the Macedonians — gave the peas- 

 ants an education which they would not 

 have acquired at the hands of the Turk- 

 ish government. In the large centers 

 the "gymnasiums" offer the inducements 

 of higher education, and in some cases 

 music and art, for which professors are 

 brought from Budapest and Vienna. 

 Children are often supplied with clothes, 

 boarded, and lodged without charge. 



Macedonia is noted for the pictur- 

 esqueness and beauty of its scenery. 



