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from The Davenport Daily Times,
Iowa, USA (1897-12-18) p07

   Nikola Tesla does not often speak at length about himself or his wonderful electrical inventions, but he sat and talked for an hour or two the other day with a friend about Christmas in the province of Lika, which is a part of the Austria-Hungarian empire and lies close to the Adriatic sea, near Herzigovina, Dalmatia, and Bosina. Tesla passed much of his boyhood in Smiljan, a town of Lika, where his father was pastor of a Greek church, but went from there while yet only a boy.

   "Christmas festivities in my country," said Mr. Tesla, "differ much from Christmas festivities here; yet there are many similarities, too. We begin the celebration on the day before Christmas by fasting. We do not altogether abstain, being privileged to eat freely of fish, and all vegetable foods, but we may partake of no flesh meats, nor milk, nor eggs. This day is devoted largely to reflection, and its observance lasts until late on Christmas eve.

   "We rise very early in my country on Christmas morning — as early as three o'clock at latest — to go to church and hear mass. All the morning until 11 o'clock is given over to religious services of one sort or another, and but little if any food is taken until that hour. By that time, however, everyone is hungry and a liberal luncheon is eaten, no discrimination being made against the hardiest food.

   "Everyone in my country is fond of coffee, which is generally drunk in large cups with cream or milk. We may drink coffee on the day before Christmas, but without milk only, and as we are allowed to resume the use of milk in coffee on the day itself, you may be sure we then indulge freely in the delicious drink. After this breakfast, the gentlemen, are served with liquors and little cakes.

   "The Christmas dinner comes later in the day, and I assure you it is always a meal to remember. No, we do not serve turkey there as the chief dish, and I am not sure that I can name any dish that may properly be said to take the turkey's place — unless it be roasted pig.

   "I do not remember a Christmas dinner without a roasted pig in my country. The pig selected is always very young and small, and is roasted entire after dressing, the cooking being attended to with great care and prolonged until the skin is crisp and crackling. Besides the Christmas pig there are many other dishes served on the great Christmas festival — all the good things, in fact, that can be devised, the same as in America; and everyone eats as heartily as possible — another point in which the people of my country and Americans are alike.

   "After the dinner, exercise of some sort is in order, that all may be bright and fresh for the continued festivities. Driving, riding, and sometimes athletic games, but athletic games are not so common in Lika on Christmas day as in some parts of the United States, since, as you must know, it is very cold, stinging cold, there in midwinter.

   "There is always a Christmas tree wherever there are children in my country, and the good house-mothers and fathers prepare and decorate them with much loving care, to the great delight of the little ones. There are always presents a plenty on the trees, of course; but, even so, gift giving is not so much a feature of the holiday time there as here.

   "The stockings are not hung up on Christmas eve, as here, in my country, but on St. Nicholas day, which falls some days earlier than Christmas. In America the festival of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, and Christmas seem to be combined, but there they are kept separate, and the children have two days of holiday rejoicing and frolic in place of one.

   "As a matter of fact, they have more than that, since the observance of Christmas itself lasts two or three days after the day itself, during all which time the greatest jollity prevails, and family reunions are held. There is much visiting back and forth, and seasonable greetings fill the air.

   "But sometimes," continued the electrician, musingly, as if thinking of other days, "the reunions are not held, and the visiting exists in the wishes of the people only. That is when the deep snows come.

   "For you must know," he went on, "that my country is not only cold in the winter, but subject at times to great snowfalls, the like of which I have never seen in the new world — snowfalls so deep that a man's head would be far below the level of the light and feathery substance in many places; snowfalls that are often accompanied by wild, fierce winds, piling the flakes up into enormous drifts in some places and sweeping the rock-bound soil clean in others; snowfalls that it is not well to encounter unless shelter is near, and that have buried many a human victim beneath a milk-white death mantle.

   "Not all these terrible storms come in the winter season, either, as I have excellent cause to remember. My country is high above the sea level; my home was 2,000 feet and more, straight up, from the tide, and many there be who live one, two, almost three thousand feet higher.

   "My experience with a summer storm came when I was quite a young man. There is a day in August, near the end of the month, that we devote to feasting and rejoicing, on which men often go out shooting. On that day, one year, I went out alone with my gun. I started early in the morning, and I walked fast, climbing mountains and crossing valleys until I was a good distance from my father's home. The home of an uncle whom I had not visited in a long time, was, in fact, much nearer than my own; and I determined that having gone so far, I would continue further, and take my dinner there.

   "I had one more high, steep hill to climb; then I would be at the edge of the plain. I was hot and moist from my exertion and the rays of the sun which bent down fiercely upon me.

   "As I stepped upon the level hill top I noticed a chill blast, such as I had never before experienced, save in winter. Soon the blast grew fiercer, and in a little time it was terrifically cold and raw. Then the sky clouded over, and the sunlight was blotted out. Then came great heavy raindrops, thick and fast, and then hail. The hailstones pelted me mercilessly, the rain drenched me through and through, and I hastened with all possible speed in the direction of my uncle's house.

   "Before I reached it a new feature of the storm was upon me. The rain and hail changed suddenly to snow, fine, dry and light, that seemed to come from every direction, almost blinding me, so that it was with difficulty that I could keep the path, and clogging my feet as I walked. Had my way been much longer, I am not sure that I would have reached my uncle's house at all; as it was, I managed to stumble along, and in due time was safely under shelter.

   "Of course I was warmly received, and a plentiful dinner was soon set out. While we were dining we forgot all about the storm and everything else disagreeable. But after an hour or more my uncle opened the outer door and looked out over the plateau.

   "'Come quickly, my children!' he cried, 'and see! There are two feet of snow!'

   "And so there were; but that was only the beginning, for the storm raged a full week and more, and when it ceased most of the cattle, the fowl and the sheep on the plateau, on the mountains round about, and in the valleys between, were buried deep in the snow, frozen or smothered to death. And more than one poor fellow, who, like myself, was far from home when the snowfall began, was wrapped close in its winding sheet, and so breathed his last.

   "As for me, I did not reach home for a good ten days. My uncle's losses were very severe. Later in the year, the emperor of Austria himself paid Lika a visit, and much needed relief was sent from the imperial treasury to the storm sufferers.