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VOLTTMB 6, NUMBER 34
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HDNGART AND HER NEIGHBORS
MR. BRYAN'S THIRTY-FOURTH LETTER
Southeastern Europe Is out of the lino of
travol and llttlo known to us, if I can measure
the knowledge of others by my own. In order to
learn something of this section we came north
west from Constantinople through Bulgaria, Servia
and Hungary. We passed through European
Turkey in the night, and morning found us-, in
Bulgaria whore nothing but an occasional mina
ret remained to remind us of the Orient. Strange
that so great a difference exists between two
populations separated for centuries by nothing but
an imaginary lino. No more the Turk with his
wealth of leisure, his baggy trousers and his gay
head gear, but the sturdy peasant working in
the field with his unveiled wife or trudging along
the road carrying his produce to market; no more
begging for baksheesh by lame and halt and
blind, but a busy, industrious throng, each labor
ing apparently with a purpose and a hope. All
day long we rode past well cultivated fields and
watched tidy villages. The Bulgarians, judged
by appearance, might be thought a mixture of
German and Italian, but they are really Slavic in
their origin. I had the good fortune to meet a
former minister, a very intelligent man with a
good command of English, and learned from himi
that there is a"strong democratic sentiment in
that country and that the people are making
constant progress in the matter of education and
political int Uigence.
He said that during his ministry he had in
troduced into Bulgaria the American homestead
law and that it had resulted In an increase in
the number of peasant proprietors. It was grati
fying to know that American example had been
helpful to people so remote from us, He also
spoke of the establishment in his country of state
insurance against hail, that being one of the
greatest perils the farmer has to meet. He said
that the system had worked well. The railroads
and telegraph lines are also owned by the state
fin Bulgaria and are operated very successfully.
The capital, Sofia, is a prosperous looking
city, viewed from the railroad, and has an eleva
tion of some fifteen hundred feet. .,-
We crossed the Balkan mountains and; the
second morning reached Belgrade, the capital of
Servia. The city has a fine location on a bluff
at the junction of the Save with the Danube. A
day's visit hero gave an opportunity to see some
thing of the population as it waa Sunday and the
streets and parks were filled with well-drepsed,
-well-behaved and intelligent looking people. The
Servians, who are also Slavic in origin, are mem
bers of the Greek church, and at the principal
church of this denomination there was that day
a large congregation and an impressive service.
King Peter, it will be remembered, is the present
ruler, having been called to the throne three
years ago when his predecessor was assassinated.
The brutalities attending the murder of King
Alexander and his wife were widely discussed
at thetime, the bodies of the king and queen
being thrown from the window of the palace into
the park. While the new sovereign was recog
nized by most of the powers of Europe, England
refused to send a representative to his court
because the king retained some high officials who
participated in the assassination. As Servia has
a parliament which controls the ministry, and as
this parliament was hostile to the former kintr.
King Peter waa powerless to comply with the
conditions imposed by England at least this was
the explanation given me. I heard next day at
Budapest, however, that some satisfactory settle
ment nau been reached and that England would
soon be represented at Bolgrade. King Peter is
not of humble ancestry, as I had supposed, but
is a grandson of a former king who was con
spicuous in the war for independence. Peter
himself was in exile in Switzerland at the time
of his elevation to the throne, and having during
his- 'residence there imbibed something of the
spirit of constitutional liberty, Is much more pop
ular than was his predecessor. There is quite
a close connection between -Servia, Roumania,
Bulgaria and European Turkey, and it will not
be surprising if the last remnant of Turkish ter
ritory In Europe is, before many years, released
from the sultan's rule and a federation of Balkan
states created. A majority of the sultan's Euro
pean subjects belong to different branches of the
Christian church, and but for their quarrels among
themselves they would long before this have been
able to imitate Servia and Bulgaria in emanci
pating themselves. , '
The ride up the Danube valley from Belgrade
to Budapest and from Budapest to the Austrian
boundary gives ono a view of one' of the richest
sections of Hungary. While the Danube hatdly
justifies the poetic praise that has described its
waters as blue, it is a majestic stream,, and its
broad valley supports a large agricultural popu
lation, i
No American can visit Hungary without hav
ing his sympathies enlisted in behalf of its, peo
ple, for theirs is a fascinating history. Their
country is one of the most favored in Europe so
far as nature's blessings go. The Carpathian
mountains which form a wall around it on the
north and east, shut out the cold winds and by
turning back the warmer winds from he south,
give to Hungary a more temperate climate than
other European countries in the same. . latitude,
and in few countries has agriculture been more
fostered by the state, ,'
The present minister of agriculture, Dr. Ig
matius Daramyi, has been at the head of this
department for ten years, and being an enthu
siast on the subject, he has introduced many
new features and -brought his department into
close contact with the people. During his ad
ministration the annual appropriations for agri
culture have increased from about eight million
dollars to about thirteen millions, and the income
from his department has risen from six million
dollars to nine millions leaving the net post to
the state at present some four million dollars per
Tear.
Hungary believes, in furnishing technical
training to those who intend to farm; she has
twenty-two industrial schools with about six hun
dred pupils and these schools are so distributed
as to make them convenient for the siriall farm
ers. She has four secondary schools of agricul
ture with a total attendance of over five hundred,
and to complete her system she has an agricul
tural academy with a student body of one hundred
and fifty. In order to accommodate adults who
have .; not had the advantage of these schpols she
has short winter terms and traveling instructors.
By systematic, effort the agricultural department
is hot only increasing the efficiency ot the Hunga
rian as a tiller of the soil, but it is increasing
his general intelligence and raising the standard
of citizenship.
The experiment station is also a prominent
feature of the work of the department of agri
culture. All the new agricultural implements are
tested and reports, are furnished upon their
merits; there are 'several seed-testing stations
where farmers can secure at cost price, not only
selected seeds, but seed shown by experiment to
be suited to the climate and soil of their locality.
Then there are a number of model farms located
at convenient points which are intended to be
object lessons to the neighborhoods in which
they are situated. At these model farms and at
other centers breeding establishments are con
ducted where horses, cattle, hogs and sheep of
the best breeds are kept and loaned to the ,farn
era about. Those breeding farms have resulted
in a marked improvement in the quality and value
of the stock.
Nor does the agricultural department con
fine its attention to stock raising and ordinary
farming; it is equally interested In horticulture,
vine dressing, forestry, and even bee culture.
Government . nurseries furnish the hardiest va
rieties of young trees and vines and train those
who desire to give special attention to these
branches of industry. Instruction in the pruning
of trees and the training of vines :as an artistic
as well as a utilitarion side, and taste is de
veloped in the ornamentation of the arbors and
gardens. Here, as elsewhere in Europe, much
attention is given to forestry, and under the direc
tion of the department of agriculture the work
of preserving the old forests and of planting new
groves is being intelligently and systematically
done.
In addition to the work above outlined, the
agricultural department has taken in hand the
matter of furnishing general information to the
farmers and farm- laborers. It encourages the
formation of workingmen's clubs, co-operative
societies and parochial relief funds. It has es
tablished more than one thousand free libraries
and publishes a weekly paper with a circulation
of about sixty thousand. More than half of the
copies are published in the Hungarian language,
the rest being divided between five oth r lan
guages, the Slavic coming next to the Hungarian
. and the German following although less than ten
per cent are printed in the latter language. To
strengthen the ties between employers and em
ployes harvest feasts have been inaugurated and
' the attendance at these '' feasts is yearly in
creasing; ' ' ' ' "',''.
I haVe gone into detail somewhat in describ
ing the scope of the wor-fr undertaken by the ag
ricultural department 6f Hungary because I think
that wef might, with advantajge, adohtsome of its
features. Our national 'appropriation for agricul
tural purposes bears' a smalt proportion, not only
1 fo the amount of taxes paid by the farmer, but to
the appropriations made for other departments.
4 , Budapest;, the capital of Hungary., is one of
the most attractive, cities: in Europe. In 1896 I
'received a cablegram of congratulation and en
cburagement from a farmers' congress which was
at that' time in session in that city; I remembered
this because it was thetfniy cablegram received
from any body of Europeans during the campaign.
Originally there if ere' two cities, Buda on the
south bank and Festh oh the north', bank, but
they were united under one municipal govern-
ihent gome years ago; the nahies of the old towns
heing preserved in the new. The foothills of the
Alps extend to the very bank of' the Danube and
furnish magnificent sites: for villas, forts, public
buildings and the royar palace, while on the op
posite bank there is a broad plain which affords
ample room for the rapidly extending limits of
the commercial and manufacturing sections of
the city. Several bridges connect Buda and
Pesth so that the river, w,h,ile a great thorough
fare, ho longer divides the business and the offi
cial sections. The streets of Budapest are wide,
well paved, clean and lined with buildings quite
uniform in height, one of the avenues rivalling
the Champs-Elyses in Paris and TJnter den Linden
in Berlin; the parlra are large and near the city;
the business blocks are imposing and the public
buildings- models, in design and construction.
The parliament building, only recently completed,
js one of the handsomest in the, world.
The Hungarian people are distinct in lan
guage and history from all their neighbors. In
fact, the Hungarians differ in many respects from
all the other people of Europe, the inhabitants
of Finland being, their nearest kins people. Their
early history is unknown, but they came from
western Asia where the Mongolians, the Turks
and the Finn-lfgrians struggled for mastery about
the beginning of the Christian era. They were
first known as Huns and claim Attila as one of
their race. They have more often, however, used
the word Magyars to describe their people, that
name being a popular one at present. Their oc
cupation of their present territory dates from
?ibout the ninth century, since -which time they
have figured prominently in the history of Europe.
About the beginning of the eleverith century
Hungary, under the leadership of King Stephen
' (later known at St. Stephen) became a Christian
nation, and since that time Bhe has been con
spicuous in all the religious wars of Europe. In
the fifteenth century she furnished the leader of
the Christian army in the person of John Huny
adl, one of the greatest military geniuses of that
period. ,His prominence in war brought his son
Matthias to the throneof Hungary, a king who
when warned of a plot against his life, exclaimed:
"Let no king, ruling justly and lawfully, fear the
'poison and assassin's dagger of his subjects."
As early as the thirteenth century Hungary
' began to inaugurate political reforms, and in 1222
her nobility ended a struggle of a hundred years
by securing a concession which is regarded by
her people as equal in importance to England's
Magna Charta of 1215. It was in the form of
a royal letter, issued by Andrew II. and called
the Golden Bull, owing to the fact that the seal
attached to it by a silk string rests in a box of
gold. This document contained certain promises
to the nobles and admitted the binding force of
certain restrictions upon the king. The Gplden
Bull was the beginning of constitutional govern
ment in Hungary, and while it has not always
been strictly observed by her rulers, it has served
as a basis for subsequent negotiations. For sev
eral centuries they elected their kings.
During the nearly seven hundred years which
have elapsed since 1222 Hungary has had a check
ered career. Rival aspirants for the throne have
fought over the succession and been aided in
their ambition by neighboring nations; kings
and nobles have fought over their respective au
thority; the nobility and the peasants have fought
over their rights; different branches of the Chris-
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