during the last three or four hundred years, settling the vast
continents of America, another, but smaller, portion has been doing
frontier work in the Old World, protecting the rear by beating back
the "unspeakable Turk" and reclaiming gradually the fair lands that
endure the curse of Mohammedan rule. For a long time the Slav
people--who, after the battle of Kosovopjolje, in which the Turks
defeated the Servians, retired to the confines of the present
Montenegro, Dalmatia, Herzegovina and Bosnia, and "Borderland" of
Austria--knew what it was to deal, as our Western pioneers did, with
foes ceaselessly fretting against their frontier; and the races of
these countries, through their strenuous struggle against the armies
of the Crescent, have developed notable qualities of bravery and
sagacity, while maintaining a patriotism and independence unsurpassed
in any other nation.
It was in this interesting border region, and from among these valiant
Eastern folk, that Nikola Tesla was born in the year 1857, and the
fact that he, to-day, finds himself in America and one of our foremost
electricians, is striking evidence of the extraordinary attractiveness
alike of electrical pursuits and of the country where electricity
enjoys its widest application. Mr. Tesla's native place was Smiljan,
Lika, where his father was an eloquent clergyman of the Greek Church,
in which, by the way, his family is still prominently represented. His
mother enjoyed great fame throughout the countryside for her skill and
originality in needlework, and doubtless transmitted her ingenuity to
Nikola; though it naturally took another and more masculine direction.
The boy was early put to his books, and upon his father's removal to
Gospic he spent four years in the public school, and later, three
years in the Real School, as it is called. His escapades were such as
most quick witted boys go through, although he varied the programme on
one occasion by getting imprisoned in a remote mountain chapel rarely
visited for service; and on another occasion by falling headlong into
a huge kettle of boiling milk, just drawn from the paternal herds. A
third curious episode was that connected with his efforts to fly when,
attempting to navigate the air with the aid of an old umbrella, he
had, as might be expected, a very bad fall, and was laid up for six
weeks.
About this period he began to take delight in arithmetic and physics.
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