The Turk and his lost provinces : Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia . inner room,where he weighed them, and collected a few coppersin duty. Hot with indignation the owner searched hispockets, slammed the duty down upon the benchand hurled about a bushel of Servian oaths at theinspector, who took it as coolly as possible and wenton examining the luggage of other people. The indig-nant man then began to collect his scattered effects;but between every three or four handfuls he wouldexplode again. I do not know who he was, but if heever catches that customs inspector in a dark alleythere will be a
The Turk and his lost provinces : Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia . inner room,where he weighed them, and collected a few coppersin duty. Hot with indignation the owner searched hispockets, slammed the duty down upon the benchand hurled about a bushel of Servian oaths at theinspector, who took it as coolly as possible and wenton examining the luggage of other people. The indig-nant man then began to collect his scattered effects;but between every three or four handfuls he wouldexplode again. I do not know who he was, but if heever catches that customs inspector in a dark alleythere will be a homicide reported in the Servian news-papers. Our trunks were loaded upon the box of an ancientcab drawn by a pair of diminutive animals, which hadmore spirit than flesh, and whirled around the cornerof the station to a brilliantly lighted ofifice, which thedriver told us was the police headquarters, where ourpassports could be recovered. The officers were verypolite, but they wanted to know my profession. Thereare often reasons why one does not care to advertise. THE CAPITAL OF SERVIA 259 himself as a newspaper reporter. It sometimes inter-feres with the success of a mission. I told them I wasa traveler, but they desired something a little moredefinite. So, for the time being, I concluded to be agentleman of leisure, and was visiting Servia in pursuitof the picturesque. The chief was extremely deferen-tial and hoped he had not put me to any insisted upon shaking hands, and bowed us to thedoor with the grace of a dancing-master. The big cafe of the hotel to which we were drivenwas filled with blue smoke. Underneath the cloud wecould discern a crowd of men earnestly engaged in adiscussion which they kept up until an early hour inthe morning, and we learned that the chief occupationof a large portion of the inhabitants was drinkingbeer, talking politics and smoking cigarettes. Thenext morning was Sunday, and the cafe was againfilled at an early hour, with women a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecteastern, bookyear1903
