Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1920 — BLEAK ANO BARREN COUNTRY [ARTICLE]

BLEAK ANO BARREN COUNTRY

„ . ■ -uMontenegro Surely Seeme a Fitting Cradle for the Bold , and Warlike Race Living There. —— From Podgorltza we retraced our steps to Riyeka, on the uppermost arm of Lake Scutari, and then followed the road up the bold face of a mountain, . with splendid views back over the lake, writes William Warfield in the Century. Before we reached the path over whlJh our road was leading we were In several Inches of know, for March was only half over. Even here In this seemingly inhospitable region is a scattered village, with a few terraced fields, looking down toward Scutari, whence the ancestors of the builders were driven to take refuge in the hills.- The view here is broader than any other I have yet described. From snow-covered heights one looks to right and left over serrated ranks of peaks, cold in their bey garb. Directly in front there is a bold sweep of snowless hills, warm by comparison despite the barren bowlder-strewn slopes, and beyond Iles a lake, violet in the fardistance. Once over the pass there is a drop of only a few hundred feet to Cettinje, which Ues 2,000 feet above the lake. It is in another flat-bottomed basin, irregularly walled by a steep slope, the center of Montenegrin resistance to the Turk for five centuries, occasionally taken, but never held for long. Here the deposed Nicholas had his palace and was surrounded by the politicians of his little state. It is more pretentious as a town than Podgorltza Tnd wealthier as a community. .The palace Is uninteresting, but the monastery, over against the mountain, is a fascinating place. It is the Vatican of Montenegro, the seat of the metropolitan, the orthodox archbishop who rules this little flock.