IN THE LAND OF THE MAGYAR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2181, 20 June 1914, Page 3

IN THE LAND OF THE MAGYAR

[By Malcolm Ross, F.R.G.S.] 6 No. 3. Travelling from Innsbruck to Verona, en route to Venice, one gathered' that there was )io Jovo lost between the ■Austrians and the Italians; Indeed, on tho borderland south of tho Tirol there is a part of Austria that is mofo Italian ' than Austrian. In Fiume, too, wo found .that tho Italians'wcro not very content under Hungarian rule.. Italy is not in tho Triplo-Alliance out of pure love and affection. Indeed, ho.w could she be ex-pected-to bo enthusiastic over an alliance with her . hereditary, enomy? "Why"do you go on building battleships and spending money on tho fortifications of Venice when 'you are. in thp .Alliance?" said a friend'of mino to an Italian. Admiral. And the reply was: "Do you think-we are,going.to stand idly by -when Austria is building Dreadnoughts? It would never do to let Austria, become stronger than • we." Similarly we found that many Austrians preferred tho English to the Germans, and'that the Hungarians were not at 'all enamoured of their German allies. Indeed it would seem as if the Triple Alliance is. based almost altogether upon ■fear, and very little upon friendship. Italy is in it because of her resentment against France, and Austria-Hungary because of' their fear of Hussia. j An alliance or an entente in these Eastern countries may bo a thing_ of a generation or of a year. There is no saying what sudden changes may be made. Tho anti-Austrian demonstrations in Venice tho other day may amouldfer or be fanned into flame. Ho would be a bold man who would undertake accurately to forecast tho happenings of .the nest' decade in these parts. We-loft Fiuine for Kcszthely by train one evening after dinner.' There wero no sleeping cars, but liberal k tips to tho guards enabled us to got a- pompartment to ourselves, and wo drew tho blinds, pushed tho door_ to, and endeavoured to assume an air of possession that was perhaps not wholly warranted. Ono man did endeavour to carry our domicile by assault, but Stefan assured him that a family of ,ioung children was soon coming 'in with üb. and he fled. Wo stretched ourselves along the seats in somuolenco, but presently a guard, other than .tho ono wo had tipped, came in, tapped me on the leg, and in Hungarian asked me to ".make place"; but I remained mute. Stefan, however, turned on him. "I i have," he said, "given five krona for this compartment for ourselves —whafBort of fairness is it that you now come and ask us to make place for ethers?" Thereupon the guard went away, seme-' what crestfallen, and we settled down to sleep again. Soon after, this guard with another guard came back, and tbo third one' spoke and said that be had aot received any part of tho five krona. Apparently the other fellow had r« no to him for a share of the spoil, and had not' been satisfied with tho divifion thereof, but that, was the last we heard of it. It was "very beautiful going out of Fiume in the nighttime. As the train mounted tho grades ivo saw tho lights of the city n-flccted in tho placid harbour. Then we pissed a great illumination —tho flares of tho night shift working on tho battle cruiser —and the clatter of a hundred hammers camo up to us from the depths-below, Higher up still, through Trees that fringed the railway,.wo saw -le lights of Abbazia sparkling like diamonds in their dark forest setting/ arid sending gleaming lines across the blacker depths of the bayaAsldaWiLwas BrbSkirfg, I drew the. blinds and found, that we wero ; running across a well-cultivat-ed upland plain, with lines of. tall poplars, but no fences marking the boundaries of the fields. In tlie chill dawn women were already tracking along the roads to work in the fields, and men were driving their oxen toward the plough. ' A Hungarian Village, We steamed into the town of Keszthely in the early morn, engaged roonis at ail inn that was none too clean, peyfornied our morning toilet, and strolled off into ,the village, where we breakfasted in a.cafe. Wo had mixed up with a bush fungus, raw bacon (smoked and fat, but quite tasty), and excellent coffee and bread The'pigs hero iiro fattened on maize, and get very fat. In other districts they have the loan kind. In these restaurants you are charged for each itemi so you have to remember what you eat. "How many breads'have you eaten?" is ono :of the usual questions put to me by Stefan, after a meal, or a morning or afternoon coffee. You can get tea, but it is Weak and' flavourless, and thoy servo it with hot'milk, which makes it taste still worse. Some of the villagers were-very" quaintly'dressed, and tho women wore many petticoats, pleated anu\ starched, so that they seemed to have bulbous hips, very much like the Dutch women one sees on the Isle of Markon. They liavo an erect carriage and a peculiar swaying walk owing to their habit of carrying baskets on their heads. Though it was a cold morning, several wero walking barefooted in the streets and along-the country roads. Some individuals wearing hard black hats and white woollen petticoats came down a side street chatting gaily. I wondered at their peculiar gait until they camo nearer, and I found they were Premonter college men, a worldly order, mostly the sons of gentlorjien with landed'estates, who devote their lives to teaching. Following in their wake came n typical Hungarian smoking his lonerstemmed pipe, and carrying a .primitive distilling apparatus, by means of which, under Government supervision and tax, lie makes a variety of brandy from plums. A State School. . '■•■■. Strolliug' through the town; .we came ; >ipon one of the Stato schools,. and>, 'being curious-to see-the inside oE.it and tho manner of teaching/ wo entered, and.Were most kindly received by the head of - the school, who took us all 'over it- Jews, Catholics, and Protestants attended it, 'and ..the pasters of each denomination give religious instruction to, the .children of their ' own sect. In one classroom, as we entered, 'a pleasant young priest was engaged in his teaching. At our entry, the whole class of small'boys stood up, and said together, "God brought you." , As wo Hhook hands with tho young priest, and left the classroom, they said altogether, I'God bo with you." They remained standing'all the time we were in the room. . That'is tho formula for worldly people, but if a priest should come in they would sny, "Praised be tho Lord Jesus Christ," If they were Protestnut or Jewish children, they would say, "Praised be the Lord." In.each classroom thorn was prominently'displayed a large sheet, with the printed words and music of the National Anthem.An Agricultural Collogo. From the school we went to an up-to-date Agricultural College where we Wero also most warmly welcomed and shown every attention. There are five such colleges ill the country, so that tho Hungarians quite put New Zealand in the' shade in this matter of scientific agricultural education. As .we left the train in tho early morning Stefan had said to me: "I'll defy you twopenco half-penny that you won't hear English snoken in this town." I took the wager, but, so Far,- there seemed little elTanee of my winning it. I won it at the colleen for the professor, mi learning that I came from New Zealand, promptly addressed mo in Euglisb. He had learnt it from one of . his own countrymen who had been in America,

and was quite delighted when lie found that tho first Englishman he bad met could understand liini quito well. For some years he had had no practice in it, except by reading, and ho had more difficulty in' understanding mo than I him, for as lie, himself, very quaintly put it: "With my eyes I understand: with my cars I do not understand." Ho had'great difficulty in thinking in English, so had to think in Hungarian and then retran.sb.to his thoughts to give them English expression. We went all over the school, and finally camo into his own room where was a library. Ho opened a section of tho bookcase, and, diving into a lower shelf, produced bottles and some small glasses, remarking as ho did so, with a merry twinkle in his eye, "the mysteries of tho Bibliotique. Various liquors containing spirit. Good for you, but I do not take, because of a headache." However, wo bad no headaches, aud so we drank his health in a liquor that ho himself had distilled—from coffee! (To bo Continued.)