THE MONTENEGRINS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3071, 16 December 1908, Page 4

THE MONTENEGRINS.

The Montenegrins are poor and few in number, but they are perhaps the most warlike race in Europe, and if Austria tried to conquer the little principality, her task would not be so easy as it might be thought. The Montenegrins are a nation under arms. Every man of military age is given a rifle and ammunition by the Government, and even in time of peace, always carries a loaded revolver. With a ferocious temperament he combines an unimpeachable integrity. Throughout the Levant his servic«3 as a Consular guard or bank messenger are in great request, because ( his employers know that he will lay down his life Having given his word to be faithful, he much prefers to die to breaking faith. There have been Montenegrins who have gone back on their pledge, but they have been killed by their indignant fellow-countrymen on their return to Montenegro. The ruler of these fierce people, who have been so much in the public eye lately, is considered by even the severest critics to be the ablest of the Balkan sovereigns. "My country is a wilderness of stones," he said once, "but I adore it! And if I were offered the

whole of the Balkan Peninsula in exchange, why, I would not hear one

word !" In his character are united a poetic vein and strong common-sense. Finding that farriery was despised among his subjects, he caused a smithy to be set up out&ide his palace, and there hammered out shoes with his own hands. Nicholas of Montenegro is so indifferent to etiquette that he has been known, in the course of a Court procession, to hail postman for. his letters and newspapers. He is father-in-law to the King of Italy and the King of Servia, and is related by to half the reigning houses of Europe.