10 
LAND & WATER 
October 4, 1917 
lie gasprd brokenlv. " My broth'r there "-jerking Ins head 
toward the bodv of the man on tlie barrow—" was %yith me. 
.Made plenty money. Came back here an' bought big farm. 
We—rich men here- plenty corn an' sheep— much land - 
all we want. This year good crop— fine prospect. Ihen 
Constantino send soldier— take all- cow, sheep, goat, corn- 
not pay nothing. Three months just little corn an roots to 
cat My mother die— then my wife— then my boy and girl. 
Vest 'day 'Talian come -bring plenty bread, plenty rice. 
But we' eat too much. Stomach no good. Last night my 
l)rotlier an' his wife— both die. I yery sick— very weak. 
Von tell 'iMericans— we— 1— Oh. God damn Cons'tino— . 
He slid dow n into a limp heap at my feet. We put hirn in 
the car un<l carried him to the little hospital the Italians had 
reopened in Ali Pasha s old lurt, where, though we managed 
to get him attention ahead of the hundred or more similar 
cases that were waiting, they told us there was little hope 
of pulling him thiuiigli. 
Nothing could have thrown a bctt(*r light on the circum- 
scribed political outlook of the Halkan pfoi)ks than the fact 
that not only the inhabitants uf the primitive villages, but also 
many of llios*- who had spent a number of years in America 
or I'ingland, invariably seemed to take it for granted that 
the entrv of the United States into the war would imme- 
diately be followea by the despatch of troops to help to attain 
whatever happened to loom in the mind of this or that in- 
dividual as the most necessary end. 
An Albanian I encountered in Koritsa, who had 'earned 
enough driving an express waggon in Brooklyn to return and 
stt up a knick-knack shop in his native town, was cohvinced 
an American army should be landed at Valona for tin- purpose 
of pushing tlie Aiistrians out of all of Albania and settihg up 
a National Crovernment at Scutari. Similarly, a Macedonian 
\'lah, whom I chanced upon in the course of an evening walk 
in the hills above h"lorina,suiDerintending the milking of the 
flock of sheep he had bought with money saved from the 
profits of his coffee-cart in Baltimore, felt that the first thing 
an American force should do would be to drive the Bulgars so 
far north that there could not bt> any repetition of such air 
raids as the one which wrecked his house and killed his best 
(log the previous week. A Serb, who did my washing ^at 
Scochivir, had no doubt that the American Balkan army 
should fight its way north from the Cerna Bend, while one that 
cut my hair at Banitsia was equally certain the Yankee 
advance had best be made up the Vardar. The reason for 
the " strategy " of each I understood when I discovered that 
the home of the first had been in Preleip and of the second in 
(ihevgelli. 
The Bulgar 
If the truth were known I thinly it might well turn 01 1 
that, of all the Balkan peoples, the Bulgar was the one most 
impressed by the entry of America into the war. Of all 
Bulgarian overseas emigrants ten went to the United States 
to one to any other country, and in the exaggerated imagina- 
tions of these and their friends, America constituted just 
about all there was of importance in the whole outside world. 
The actual significance of President Wilson's action could not 
possibly have spread very rapidly in Bulgaria, and yet even 
l>y the iniddK- of May there had been a noticeable increase in 
the number of Bulgars deserting to the British armies on the 
Struma and Vardar, an increase which the Intelligence Oflficers 
had traced directly to the entrance of America. 
" It is a remarkable fact," a British otficer engaged in 
interrogating prisoners said to me, " that of recent Bulgar 
deserters, fully fifteen per cent, have been in the United States 
at one time or another, and the number of the latter is on the 
increase. These ignore completely the technical fact that 
their country is not at war with the United States, and say 
simply that they do not want to fight against America, and 
that they laid down their aims just as soon as they had a 
chance." 
The Trencli, Serlis and Italians were also reporting in- 
creased Bulgar desertions at this time, and it was at a prison 
camp of the latter near the Cerna that 1 had the opportunity 
to talk with a genial cobbler who had once worked in h'all 
River, and who, with his shoe-making tools under his arm, 
had sauntered over from the Bulgar lines the week before. 
He had come home, he said, to fight Serbs, not Jinglishmen, 
Frenchmen and Italians. He had been trying to screw up 
his nen'e to desert for some time, but hadn't got it to tlie 
sticking point until a friend another returned Americanskv- - 
had pii ked up a pajx r dropped from an aeroplane saying that 
America had joined" the Allies. Shortly afterwards, taking 
advantage of the confusion following the sniping of an officer, 
he slipped out of a sap and over to the wire in front of the 
Italian trenches without being missed. He was in hopes, 
he said, of being turned over to " the American Army," and 
being sent to a prison camp in the United States," adding 
naively that, while the Italians were very kind to their 
prisoners, he did not feel it was right to keep them there 
where it w'as so exposed to air raids. 
•• What air raids ? " 1 asked. " Bulgar," he replied, adding 
that onlv two nights before bombs intended for the " dump " 
and hospital had struck right in the midst of the prison-camp, 
and that if he hadn't been in the big dug-out he would have 
been killed. 
American Flags 
In all Salonika at the time of my visit there were only 
three American flags, one belonging to the Consulate, one to 
the Standard Oil Company, and one to a Mission School 
about five miles out in the country. Naturally, the starry 
trio were in great demand for all international functions where 
it w-as desirable that honour should be done to all of the 
Allies, and there was usually a considerable waiting list for 
each of them. Still more in demand was the lone cop3' of 
the music of the " Star Spangled Banner," which they never 
did, I believe, succeed in expanding sufficiently to make it go 
all the way round a full band. " America," to the air of 
" Cod Save the King," was the commonest substitute ; but 
I also heard " Yankee Doodle," " Dixie," and once— by the 
Serbian band, on an especially formal occasion — " My Home 
in Tenessee." 
The Jewish tailors in Salonika began turning out some very 
fearful and wonderful substitutes for the " Stars and Stripes " 
before long, the, cheapest of these being made by painting red 
the light blue stripes of the old Creek flag and stitching a 
starry rectangle — likely to be of any colour — in one (and not 
necessarily any particular) corner. As an " improvisation," 
however, I am confident that no American flag since the 
first patch-work original has been worthy of mention in the 
same breath with the amazing banner which was thrown to 
the breeze of Mount Athos on the occasion of my visit to one 
of the monasteries of that strange mediaival community. 
As the first American to go to Mount Athbs after the entry 
of the United States into the war, the kindly but simple Monks 
saw no absurdity in arranging another of just the same sort 
of " triumphal tours " with which they had been welcoming 
French and British Admirals and denerals. This included 
a Te Deum for my soul in the ancient church of a monastery, 
a reception by the House of Parliament, and a series of formal 
banquets in various parts of the Peninsula. There were 
Allied flags in abundance on all occasions, but it was not until 
the concluding feast at the rich and beautiful monastery of 
Layra that the resourcefulness of the monks succeeded in 
supplying the much-lamented lack of an American flag. 
The banner which greeted me at the little spray-wet quay 
and was carried at the head of the procession up the winding 
road to the monastery gate was a most imposing (me, and 1 
was especially struck with the bas-relief effect of the tlu-ee or 
four snowy stars which peeped out between its ample folds. 
There was only one fault to find with it — it would persist in 
drooping and only wriggling snakily in the breez-e that was 
snoring up from (iallipoli-way at a pace to s<^-t the other flags 
in the procession whipping to tatters. Why this was I did 
not understand until after it had been brought up to the 
banquet haU and spread proudly out— with a monk at each 
corner— for my inspection. Then it transpired that the red 
stripes had been stained with raspberry jam, the cerulean 
background of the stars with gooseberry" jam, while the stars 
themselves were nothing more nor less than 'starfish, gathered 
at low tide, baked stiff in an oven, and whitewashed ! 
When tlie German Keichstag was opened yesterday wcclc, its 
President, Dr. Kampf, delivered a vigorous speech attacking 
Pi^sident Wil.son lor his letter to the Pope. " President Wilson,' ' 
he said, "repeats the old assertions of the ambitions and intri- 
guing attitude of our Kmperor and our Government-, which 
nevertheless, as is known to us all, maintained the peace of the 
world for forty-three years in spite of all provocations." 
Dr. Kampf conchided his speech thus: "To the German 
people, for whom President Wilson feigns to cherisli so mucli 
Iriendshij) and .so great .syinpalliv, he has flung into their faces 
the worst insults which have ever been inflicted on any people 
We are speaking in the name of the whole people when we decline 
such interference. We repulse in the strongest manner the 
attempts to create dissension, because Gerinanv is sufficientlv 
capable of ordering her affairs lierself, and, indeed, to order tiieni 
in such a manner as corresponds with (;ern]an needs and the 
character of the (ierman people. At the fronts, whence a large 
number of our members have just returned, we ha\-e been able 
to admire the heroism of our incomparable soldiers, officers, and 
generals, who with iron stubbornness and unbroken spirit ot 
attack have daily accomplished the superlumian for more than 
the past three years. We were able to observe the magnificent 
order accomplished by the Cermaii C;eneral Staff. We were 
amazed again and again at the magnificent accomplisliinents of 
our Chief Army Adniini.stration, who, eVen in battles of defence, 
)S never found wanting." The phrase "even in battles of de- 
fence 15 illuminative. The speech was received wilh applause. 
