The Turk and his lost provinces

by William Eleroy Curtis

The government has also taken great pains to improve the breeds of horses, cattle and sheep and to induce the peasants to take proper care of their stock. It has established farms and studs at convenient locations and holds cattle and horse shows at the provincial capitals every year, at which considerable sums are given as prizes to stimulate competition. There are at least a dozen poultry farms belonging to the government, where a large variety of game birds and domestic fowls are kept. Eggs of the best breeds of poultry, ducks, geese and turkeys are furnished free to farmers who will agree to observe the printed rules for hatching them, and so successful has this policy been that poultry is now plenty throughout the entire province. An ordinary chicken can be bought in the market for ten or fifteen cents and a goose or a turkey for twenty-five cents. The turkey is so common that we might properly call it the national bird.

Not only in agriculture but in the other industries has the paternal policy of the government brought happiness and prosperity to the people. It has established factories and training-schools in all the principal towns in order to produce artisans and mechanics, who are very scarce in that country. Students are educated in the simpler sciences, such as electricity, chemistry, mechanics, engineering, architecture and house-building, designing, the construction, repair and operation of machinery, carpentering, masonry, stone-cutting, molding, iron-working and the other useful trades. It will not be the fault of the officials if the next generation of Bosnians is not thoroughly skilled in the useful arts and trades.

A woolen mill and a carpet factory have recently been established under government supervision. The former produces fabrics for ordinary clothing of a low grade, similar to the homespun generally used by the people. The carpet factory buys the raw wool from the farmers and turns it into Turkish rugs, which are shipped to Austria and Hungary, and are sold at good prices. In connection with the factory is a training school for spinners and weavers, a school of design to develop the artistic talent of young men and women, and a laboratory for the manufacture of dyes.

All this is done under official supervision with capital from the public treasury, and the proceeds add considerably to the public revenues, although that is not the object aimed at. Under Turkish rule the Bosnians lived from hand to mouth. They were prevented from accumulating wealth or acquiring homes or providing themselves with comforts by the rapacity of their rulers, and hence there was no incentive for them to labor or save or to improve their condition. They even hid their houses as far as possible behind clumps of trees or in the valleys some distance away from the road, hoping that they might escape the observation of Turkish officials and soldiers. Now there is no longer any danger, and they are building comfortable cabins and surrounding them with stables and pens for their poultry and live stock. It is now safe for women to live or to travel alone in any part of Bosnia, whereas a few years ago they dared not show themselves in the fields or on the public highway. More than 200,000 people fled from Bosnia during the ten years preceding the Russo-Turkish war to escape the cruelties and extortions of the Turks. They took with them only what they could carry on their backs, and, leading their little children by the hand, abandoned their homes and harvests and crept through the thickets and the forests of the mountains until they reached the Austrian boundary, where they could live in safety and were protected, not from their enemies, but from the officials that were appointed to rule over them.

The cruelties committed by the Turks in their efforts to keep the people in subjection are indescribable. Centuries of horrors compose the history of the Bosnian people, and, although almost incredible, it is officially asserted by the British consul that from 8,000 to 10,000 people were annually murdered by the officials and military guards. The same conditions prevailed in Bulgaria. They prevail in Macedonia or Eastern Rumelia to-day, and will continue so long as the Powers of Europe permit the Turks to govern that country.

The Scheriatschule is a peculiar local institution, in which is taught Moslem, Christian and Jewish law. In fact, the instruction covers the laws of all races and religions which is necessary to that mixed population, where the government endeavors to respect the religious scruples of every citizen and to adjust its requirements to the ordinances of the different churches. The Austrian statesmen who were required to solve the Bosnian problem recognized the importance of a fact which many rulers in all parts of the world and in all times have forgotten or overlooked—that religious sentiment and conscience lie deeper than any other influences that affect human action. Hence, in Bosnia, each individual is not only allowed to worship in his own way, but is excused from the observance of laws which conflict with his religious duties. For that reason different courts are provided for the trial of different races. Speaking generally, the laws of Turkey still prevail in Bosnia, because that country is nominally a Turkish province still, although it never again will come under Turkish power. There is much that is good in the Turkish statutes, and when honestly administered they are peculiarly suitable for the government of that race. It has been necessary, however, to supplement them with local statutes, which are enacted by an assembly chosen by the tax-payers of the country. This legislature also assesses taxes and makes appropriations for public purposes to be disbursed by the executives.

To instruct and qualify natives for the bar, the bench, the legislature and positions in the executive department of the government, the Scheriatschule was established, and it now has about 200 pupils who pay a small entrance fee and a moderate price for their rooms and board. It occupies a large rectangular building of the oriental style, built of horizontal rows of black and white stone that suggest a prison garb. It is approached by broad stone stairs with parterres of flowers on either side, and the entrance is a lofty arch which leads into a central court decorated with a fountain and flowers. Upon this court open lecture-rooms, libraries and recitation-rooms, a dormitory, a refectory and a chapel, well constructed and fitted up with modern conveniences. Great care has been taken by the Austrians to make the Bosnian schools models.

There is a fine national museum. Bosnia is unusually rich in ethnology, and practically an unexplored field for ethnographic research. An international congress of archeologists and ethnologists met here several years ago, and the members were handsomely entertained by the government with the hope of stimulating scientific interest. Its reports attracted considerable attention, but I cannot learn that the United States was represented. Prehistoric remains are numerous and have been practically undisturbed except by the ignorant populace, who have searched some of them for treasure and dismantled others for building material. The country has seen successive civilizations from century to century, and at several periods reached a high degree of culture under the Romans and the Greeks, which in turn were engulfed or destroyed by barbaric invasions only to spring up again in another form. Its art and architecture are largely buried under the soil and are represented by ruins in the valleys of the mountains. In addition to Roman and Greek remains there are traces of Germanic, Gothic, Saracenic and Turkish occupations; but the field, as I have said, is practically unexplored and should tempt the learned societies to undertake systematic investigations such as have been carried on in Greece.

There are good hotels in every part of the province, most of them having been established by the government either directly or indirectly by the payment of subsidies, as an inducement to travelers, and they have proved to be valuable investments. The policy pursued here has been very different from that adopted by the United States Congress in our new possessions. We passed a law forbidding the introduction of new capital and the organization of new enterprises to develop the industry and material resources of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands, because our legislators were afraid that somebody would derive a profit from the application of money, energy or brains. The granting of franchises was forbidden. Austria has taken the opposite course in Bosnia, and not only invited capital and enterprise, but erected hotels in order to entertain their representatives in a comfortable manner and give them pleasant impressions of the country.

When the Austrians first assumed control everything in Bosnia was extremely primitive and old-fashioned. There were no conveniences nor comforts; no modern improvements whatever; but filth, disorder and discomfort prevailed everywhere, so much so that decent people avoided Bosnia. The description which Francis Bacon applied to Turkey centuries ago was true of Bosnia in 1876: “Without morality, without letters, arts or sciences; a people that can scarce measure an acre of land or an hour of the day; base and sluttish in building, diet and the like; and, in a word, a very reproach to human society; and yet this nation hath made the garden of the world a wilderness, for it is truly said concerning the Turk—where the Ottoman’s horse sets his foot people will come up very thin.”