Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-11-24
A PRIMITIVE CONSTITUENCY.
An Arcadian Community i'm TransyI


An Arcadian Community in TransyI-
vania.
correspondent of the London Times
writes from Klausenburg, in Pennsylvania:
! ''H you look at the map, Seek is not 20
miles from the capital, but if you want to
| go there you must reckon half day in
summer, when the direct road is passable,
and IN winter or spring, when you have to
make agreat round, you may deem yourself
lucky if you get there without accident to-
wards evening. Where roads in general are
as good as they are in Transylvania, this
seems surprising, but it finds its explana-
ton IN the natural features of the district
The interior of Pennsylvania forms one
great basin, evidently once the bed of the
sea. In the very centre of the country, be-
tween the course of the rivers Maros and
Szamos, there rises an undulating plateau
Of late tertiary sandstone and shale, soft
and friable. To Judge from single old
| trees and small patches of forest still re-
manning scattered, the greatest part of the
district was wooded but now it is sue
cession of naked DOWNS harboring small
lakes in every depression.
''Ihe whole district, known under the
name Of the Pasture, is considered the
most productive of Pennsylvania. It was
the great grazing district of the country be-
| fore 1S48. when most of the large herds of
| fine cattle and horses were dispersed -
Every proprietor in the surrounding dis
tricts considered it almost as a necessary
portion of his farming to have some land
in the district, for it was above all through
this part that he made his farming pay.
Since the great herds of cattle have been
dispersed, much of the land has been
broken up. 1t strikes you that it has
been done Systematically, for while the
slopes facing south have been left in
tact the slopes facing north have been
plowed up and bear luxuriant crops of
wheat, rape and Indian corn. This is ow-
ing to peculiarly which you have no
trouble in discovering, for while on the
northern slopes you see fat black soil, on
the southern slopes, through the scanty
grass, you see yellow sand mixed with mari.
AS in the large alluvial plains of Hungary,
the material for roads is wanting on the
''pasture," the stone which is used decom-
posing SO soon that it is dust almost before
it is laid on the road. With the exception,
therefore, of the parts of the road living
close to the river, where gravel may be got,
they can, even with the great labor bestow-
ed upon them, scarcely be kept up, and
have to be relaid almost every spring.
! ''Althou9h it boasts of charter by King
Matthias Corvinvs of sthe fifteenth CEN
tury, which insures to it all those rights and
privileges which had been granted to Buda
the capital of Hungary the noble town of
Seek, as it is called in diplomatic language,
is little different in appearance from vii
| lage You see the same low, one-storied
houses, with their gable-ends turned to-
wards the streets, and separated from each
other by the courtyard, merging into the
| hah A n !,
along the side of the building turned to-
wards the court yard, and under the
thatched roofs you see the heads of yellow
Indian corn and tobacco leaves strung up
| in a row, forming sort of festoon.
| f'To judge by the similarity of the
| houses you seem to have realized in your
! journey the land of equality, nor are you,
indeed, far off here seeing the dream of the
enthusiasts realized, for if there is not
much wealth there is no great poverty
either III SEEK; proletarians or beggars are
unknown.
ssWhere no one is in absolute want, and
all are more or less on the same level the
greatest Indictment to crime is gone;
and so it is in this Transylvanian Arcadia.
Except now and then row on Sunday
evening, there is but little for justice and
/ police to do, and even these rows can only
of five thousand souls only halfa dozen are
known as drunkards. Theft is unheard of;
nota house has lock, agricultural imple-
ments are kept in the fields, household
property IN the open court-yards, where
not even watch-dogs are kept. There is,
indeed, prison remaining, but it has been
used for years as lumber-room.
SIN the midst of all the political and re-
| ligious agitations through which Transyl-
vania has gone in ol1en as well as in more
recent times, the place has not been dis
turbed. There Hungarian and Rouman
have been and are living in the best har-
mony, the best proof of which is that the
mayor is Kouman, although by far the
greater number of the inhabitants are Hun.
garian. AS with politics SO it is with reli-
gion. The place might pass as model of
tolerance, for there Protestants, Roman
Greek are living in the best possible un-
derstanding with each other, and what is,
perhaps, even more their clergy are on the
best terms with each other.
"Yet from all this, or from the isolated,
secluded position of the place, you must
not imagine that the people are sunk in
apathy, and do not endeavor to better
themselves. They are not content with
tilling their native soil, but have their COM
meree in cattle and wood. They 60 away
with their carts and oxen or horses to fetch
the wood, which they bring down and sell
in the more prosperous towns.
"When one sees this simplicity and prim-
itiveness, one almost begins to doubtwheth-
er the railway which is projected in the val
ley of the Szamos, few miles off, will be a
boon or not, for it will necessarily modify
all this, and gradually efface the originali-
ty which is so interesting. But this will be
the fate of many of these small communi-
ties in Pennsylvania, of which the town OF
Seek is one, and perhaps the most curious
! 1rr-,