One who visits that country to-day can scarcely believe that such conditions could have existed only a short time ago—the people are so peaceful, contented and prosperous. Crime is almost unknown. Railroads reach every corner of the province, and the freighthouses are fed by long caravans of carts hauled over excellent highways. The towns are filled with new and handsome houses, factories have been built to utilize the water power, a university, colleges, academies, training-schools and other institutions have been established to qualify the people to make the most intelligent use of their opportunities. Members of the different religious faiths mix with each other on amicable terms and show mutual respect and mutual toleration; the courts are wisely and honestly administered, justice is awarded to every citizen regardless of his religion or social position, taxes are low and honestly collected and disbursed. There has been little corruption in office and whenever it has been discovered it has been severely punished. The people have learned for the first time in their history that honest complaints will be patiently listened to and that wrongs will be redressed. The introduction of free education has enabled them to appreciate the value of such a government, and, although the older peasants are still ignorant, backward and distrustful, the younger generation show ambition and enterprise, and are conducting their affairs with intelligence and order.
The most convincing proof of the change in the condition of affairs is furnished by the statistics of crime and violence and the increase in population. Thirty years ago brigandage was a recognized profession. There were no railways, and few wagon roads. When people were compelled to travel they went in large parties, fully armed, or were accompanied by an escort of soldiers. Murder was not considered a crime and the number of people killed by the soldiers or by each other was not recorded. Robbery was as common as lying. To-day human life is as safe in Bosnia as in Illinois. Travel is safer there because there has never been a train robbery in that country. During the last ten years, out of a total population of nearly 2,000,000, the homicides have averaged six a year, and in 1900 there were only two. There has been no case of highway robbery since 1895. Which of the states in the American Union can show a better record?
Under Turkish rule the population was not counted but in 1879, one year after Austrian authority was recognized, the census showed 1,111,216 people. In 1885 this total had increased to 1,336,097, in 1895 to 1,568,092, and in 1900 to 1,879,978, of which 548,632 were Turks, 673,246 Greek orthodox, 494,124 Roman Catholics, 9,311 Jews, 4,695 Protestants and representatives of nearly every religion. This change has been accomplished by the exercise of a strong, firm, honest and benevolent government. The proclamation announcing the occupation of the country by Austria promised that all the people in the land should enjoy equal rights before the law and should be protected in life, property and worship. That promise has been kept. Order has been brought out of anarchy; all races and religions are not only tolerated, but are encouraged, and the immigration from other Turkish provinces has been large.
Whatever has been done in Bosnia might also be done in Macedonia but for the jealousy of the Powers.
Bosnia and Herzegovina are situated in the northwest corner of the Balkan Peninsula, bounded on the north by the Slavonian province of Austro-Hungary, on the east by Servia, Turkey and Montenegro, and on the south and west by Dalmatia and the Adriatic Sea. The country is mountainous, being broken by high peaks, deep glens, ridges, beautifully wooded hills, winding streams, and rich alluvial basins, which yield large crops of grain—wheat, barley, rye, oats and other cereals—and are especially adapted to fruit. The landscape is a series of terraces which slope gradually in a southwestward direction and finally disappear in the Adriatic, whose coast is broken into an archipelago of lovely islands. The Dalmatian coast is one of the most enchanting pictures in the universe, and its attractions have been the theme of poets since the days of Homer.
A curious phenomenon is the abrupt and unreasonable behavior of the rivers and streams in that region, which, like the North Platte of Nebraska, disappear from the surface of the earth and lose themselves in underground passages called ponars, reappearing in the most eccentric and surprising manner. The Narenta is the only river that finds its way to the sea entirely above ground.
Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, a city of 60,000 inhabitants, almost in the geographical center of the country, is reached by railway from Belgrade or from Budapest. You change from the trunk-line of the Austrian state railway at a town called Bosna-brod on the Save River, which is the boundary of the province, and there you take a narrow-gauge line belonging to the Bosnian government, which winds through narrow defiles in the mountains until it reaches the Adriatic at Metcovic, the port of Bosnia, although within Dalmatian territory. Along the railway villages and villas cling to the mountain sides like swallow-nests and are very picturesque, the older ones being of oriental architecture with towers and minarets, and roofs of red tiles. There are several medieval castles, more or less in ruins, interspersed with modern paper mills, tanneries, cigarette factories and other industrial enterprises introduced by the Austrians. One of those old castles has been converted into a prison, and is managed on the Pennsylvania plan, with the most enlightened methods for correction, reformation and education. Under the Turks prisons were more common, but were used to satisfy vengeance, to extort money from unwilling pockets and to torture political suspects and offenders. They were similar to the prisons of Cuba, perhaps worse; but under the present system of government the prevention of crime and the reformation of criminals have been the subject of great solicitude and scientific study.
Looking from the car windows between villages you would think the train was running through the Rocky Mountains. The fantastic crags and peaks of granite, the deep cuttings, the many tunnels, the chasms spanned by steel bridges and the “right of way” carved out of the sides of precipices, with the roaring, foaming streams, would remind you of Colorado. The train is hauled over the grand divide, 2,667 feet high, by what is called the “rack-and-pinion process,” which, however, must remain a mystery, because it does not stop for passengers to inspect; but it is some description of a cable-and-cog-wheel arrangement. The longest tunnel is 700 yards. The trains run very slowly and carefully, as if afraid of accidents, and it is a long journey to cover comparatively a few miles. As a bird flies, the distance between Bosna-brod and Sarajevo is less than a hundred miles, but winding in and out among the gorges and following the long curves made necessary to regulate the grade, you get an all-day’s ride, but finally reach a vast garden of vineyards, olive groves, foliage plants and truck farms in an amphitheater surrounded by snow-clad peaks.
Near Sarajevo is a mountain called Trebevic, 5,100 feet high, which furnishes a sublime view of the surrounding country for a radius of fifty miles within the circle of the mountain. There is a pavilion at the summit, reached by a good bridle path, which was built, like everything else, by the Austrian officials.
Approaching the city of Sarajevo the railway runs through a famous gorge. The rails cling to the granite walls that inclose the Narenta River in a way that reminds you of the Black Cañon of Utah. The gorge is twelve miles long, peaks 6,000 and 7,000 feet high rise on either side, and the precipices are almost perpendicular to the height of 1,000 feet above the riverbed.