Macedonian tongue

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  • Stevce
    Member
    • Jan 2016
    • 200

    Macedonian tongue

    Hi guys,
    I been searching newspapers for mentions of the Macedonian tongue from the 19th century. Here are some links.



  • Risto the Great
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 15658

    #2
    The second article gave me rage. Spared the son because of USA citizenship but killed the mother. Filthy animals.
    Risto the Great
    MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
    "Holding my breath for the revolution."

    Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

    Comment

    • vicsinad
      Senior Member
      • May 2011
      • 2337

      #3
      Shumkoff was indeed an interesting character (in that second article). He was a member of the SMAC, but educated in the US (he had his degrees from University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania, where he got his PHD). I've written quite a bit about him. He was the editor of the largest Macedonian newspaper in Granite City, Illinois during the 1900s and 1910s and often acted as representation and an interpreter for Macedonians in legal/civil issues in Illinois and other states during those two decades. Often, he would end up in verbal/legal clashes with left-wing IMRO Macedonians. He was in the Sarafov/Matov camp, and frequently clashed with those in the Sandanski camp in the US.

      Still, although evidently supportive of Sarafov and occasionally Prince Ferdinand's positions on Macedonia, he often distinguished between Macedonians and Bulgarians. For example, take his defense in February of 1907 against accusations by Greeks in Illinois that Macedonians were operating a Black Hand in the US that killed hundreds of Greeks, Macedonians and Bulgarians in order to extort money for the Macedonian Cause:

      Roumaneff was active in a strike of Bulgarians and Macedonians at
      Granite City, Illinois, last summer. The Greeks took the places of the
      strikers, but their work was found to be unsatisfactory and the
      Macedonians and Bulgarians were returned to their jobs at an advance
      over what they had received before the strike. The Greeks swore
      vengeance, and seven days after Roumaneff came to Indianapolis he was
      arrested at the instance of the Greek persecuting committee, which sent a
      messenger here to inform the local committee of the order that he was in
      the city.

      As to the Vassily brothers, one of them a mere boy, a Greek tried to compel
      them to pay him $2 every pay day in order to hold their jobs as laborers
      with the Vandalia Railroad Company. Other Macedonians were forced to
      pay the same amount, but the Vassilys refused. The foreman of the gang
      heard of the extortion and discharged the Greek. The charge of conspiracy
      against the Vassilys was trumped up as revenge for the discharge of the
      Greeks, and because the Macedonians would not pay the money demanded
      of them.

      Unfortunately for the Greeks, they did not figure that Macedonians who
      are American citizens
      would become interested in the cases, and come to
      the aid of the Bulgarians and the Macedonians. We are ready for the
      continuance of the trial and have the evidence to prove that our men are
      innocent and that it is the Greeks who are blackmailing. They extort money
      from our people with threats and our men are entirely innocent of any
      crime.
      Last edited by vicsinad; 05-10-2020, 11:11 AM.

      Comment

      • vicsinad
        Senior Member
        • May 2011
        • 2337

        #4
        Regarding the first article, here is what I wrote about Constantine Stephanove in my Macedonians in America book:

        For Tsilka’s younger brother, Constantine
        Stephanove, the outlook was different – perhaps his
        life story did not generate as much of a spectacle as
        his sister’s six months with brigands, but it was
        certainly interesting. Around the same time that
        Sandanski’s rebels were bartering Tsilka and her baby
        for money, holding them in caves or shacks in the
        mountains far from the sight of Turkish soldiers,
        Stephanove was basking with pride, having just
        recently secured his Master’s degree from Yale
        University in New Haven. He came to America as a
        teenager and in those initial years he worked at a dairy
        farm in Canterbury, Connecticut, where in addition to
        working 16-hour days, he learned the English
        language. He then enrolled into the Monson Academy
        in Massachusetts and after graduating in 1895, Yale
        accepted him as an undergraduate student. He
        completed his Bachelor’s degree in 1899 and then
        received his graduate degree in the summer of 1901,
        just a couple of months before his sister was
        kidnapped in Macedonia.24

        Stephanove had experienced his own hardships,
        even if they did not compare in severity and
        uneasiness as his sister’s hardships as a pregnant
        hostage. Graduating from the nation’s top university
        was no walk in the park and Stephanove did so with a
        persistent work ethic. He would attend classes and
        study from 7:30 a.m. until the late afternoon, sleep
        from six in the evening to midnight, and then work
        the graveyard shift as a trolley car conductor (a job he
        begged to be given)25 to pay for his schooling.26
        According to Stephanove, however, working his way
        through school was easy compared to his early
        farming days in Connecticut, where he started work at
        four in the morning and only finished his day when
        the sun would set.27

        But his hardships were soon to rival his sister’s.
        After Yale, he trekked to Germany and enrolled in
        Berlin University to pursue doctoral studies in
        philosophy. In early 1903, he decided to visit his
        family in Macedonia, who he had not seen for nearly
        a decade. While there, Stephanove served as a guide
        and interpreter for John MacDonald, a news
        correspondent with the London News, showing him
        the devastated and rebellious regions of Macedonia.
        The Turkish authorities then used that activity as
        pretense to throw Stephanove into prison for
        collaborating with the Macedonian rebels. The
        authorities refused to set a trial date and for six
        months he rotted in a Turkish prison.28 The English
        and American consuls eventually helped secure his
        release in the summer,29 but not before he adopted a
        version of the Yale fight song of his 1899 graduating
        class as a national song of freedom for the
        Macedonians.30

        After the failure of the Macedonian uprising, he
        returned to America in October 1903 as a Macedonian
        delegate for the Macedonian revolutionary
        organization. His aim was to convince President
        Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hay “to intervene in
        the Balkans, or at least to remonstrate with the
        sultan.”31 “We want this government to cooperate
        with the other powers,” said Stephanove. “We want
        all the powers to demand the appointments of a
        Christian governor [in Macedonia], who shall be
        responsible to the powers and not to Turkey.”32 To
        American officials and the press, he insisted that the
        Macedonian rebellion would continue until their goals
        were achieved. “We could easily put 100,000 men in
        the field if we had the arms and ammunition.”33 But
        the Assistant Secretary of the State Department,
        Francis Loomis, told Stephanove that the U.S. would
        favorably support only peaceful movements to relieve
        the Macedonians’ suffering.34

        Stephanove had more success with religious and
        charitable organizations after demonstrating how
        Turkish brutalities resulted in a great need of aid for
        the 100,000 homeless Macedonian women, children
        and elderly.35 Miss Clara Barton, head of the American
        Red Cross, responded to Stephanove’s appeal by
        saying “it would be a humane and noble thing for the
        American people to undertake to relieve the suffering
        in Macedonia” and that “the situation would seem to
        require a systematic, substantial and immediate effort
        on the part of the people generally.”36 Stephanove
        additionally traveled to all of the major East Coast
        cities, managing to gather the support of several
        Americans for the Macedonian Cause, such as
        Reverend Joseph H. Twitchell and Bishop Brewster in
        Hartford,37 as well as Seth Low, a former mayor of
        New York City, and John S. Kennedy, a well-known
        and respected millionaire in New York.38 Partly
        because of Stephanove’s relentless efforts,
        humanitarian aid did indeed find its way into
        Macedonia as the harsh winter stormed down on the
        Macedonian refugees.

        His exemplary academic pursuits, his tenacious
        work effort, and his dedication to his Macedonian
        homeland was an example set for all Macedonians
        coming to America. In a time when Turks were
        slaughtering Macedonians, and when Bulgarians,
        Greeks and Serbians were struggling to conquest
        Macedonia, confusion and ignorance flourished
        among Western writers, who were bombarded with
        propaganda suggesting that the Macedonians were
        really Bulgarians, Greeks or Serbians. Stephanove
        refuted this in the only way a modest but intelligent
        and proud Macedonian could: “I am proud to be
        known as a Greek, but in truth I am not one. I am a
        Macedonian.”39

        Stephanove eventually temporarily settled in
        Macedonia, but upon Macedonia’s division in 1913, he
        became a Professor of English at the University of
        Sofia in Bulgaria,40 where he slowly became
        incorporated into the Bulgarian propaganda machine,
        serving as an international news correspondent in the
        Balkans during the 1920s.41 During this era of his life,
        he would often switch between pro-Macedonian and
        pro-Bulgarian views on the Macedonian situation,
        such as with publications like “We, the Macedonians”,
        “The Bulgarians and Anglo-Saxondom”, and “The
        Question of Thrace.” He even published the first
        Bulgarian-English dictionary.42 However, this was a
        period when Macedonia had been divided into three
        pieces, and most Macedonians felt they had no choice
        but to choose a side that they thought could offer the
        most protection for the Macedonians’ interests.

        Unlike most Macedonians, Stephanove was not an
        Orthodox Christian. His family had converted to
        Protestantism by the American missionaries (such as
        Ellen Stone) who had been in Macedonia for several
        decades. Not many Macedonians left their Orthodox
        faith and identity. For Stephanove’s family, however,
        it was not a radical step – his great-grandfather had
        been a priest and the American Missionary had a
        station in his town.43 Their devotion to Christ and the
        Bible made missionary work seem a suitable endeavor
        for them.

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