Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-06-03
ties, and would leave his bed and board

ties, and would leave his bed and board
on the ground that he was not person
of sufficient spirit to entitle him to pos
sess such a treasure as herself. In the
same way it is declared that the husband
would not be long in severing the bond
which bound him TO wife who did not
get drunk at least once a week. She
would, in his opinion, be entirely too
eccentric and "high. flown" for the COM
partnership of ordinary humanity; and
he would probably regard her very
much as the far-Western hotel
waiter is said TO do those "pertik'Ler kind
o. fellers from the East who actually
raise objections to having the dinner
knives cleaned, for dessert, by being
rubbed on the walters bootleg!
But, in spite of these drawbacks, the
Wallachian peasants are not without
good qualities and are certainly suscep-
tible of mental and moral elevation. They
are, in the main, good-hearted and even
affectionate, though wife-beating is, un-
questionably, not the best proof of the
existence Of those qualities. They are
not apt to be very revengeful, even after
fragrant injustice Their passion for
music is most surprising in such
an apparently degraded race. They
will listen silently and in tremor
of delight to any kind OF melody,
and will even make certain amount of
physical exertion to obtain such pleas
ure. Any music, they seem to think, is
worth hearing, and they will often 60
out of their way to listen to the very
wild and primitive musical performances
of the wandering gypsies. 1t would be
hard to find one of them who does not
possess a rude sort of flute which he has
made for himself out of reed from the
marshes; and on these homemade in
struments they quickly teach themselves
to play number of sad-toned but by NO
means unpleasant Wallachian airs.
But the best proof that these peasants
are capable of better things lies in the
fact that from among them has arisen
that new middle class which alone has
as yet given any promise of redemption
Before 1S48 there was positively NO
middle class of native Wallachians To.
day that class numbers more than 80, 00C
and includes many families of wealth
intelligence and fair degree of culture.
In Bucharest and the other larger towns
their houses are among the most com
Portable and handsome that are to be
seen, and there is every reason to believe
that, as they increase in numbers and
wealth, those dull, struggling, ugly towns
will become really worthy the name OF
cities.
The principle of aoork has thus been es.
tablished and the old-time traditions,
with their attendant misery and degra.
dalton, must eventually go down before
it. The boyars will, of course, re-
sist the innovations; but the pres
ent Hospodar of the Roumanian prin.
cipalities (Wallachia and Moldavia) is an
enlightened German prince who has al
ready acquired great popularity, and
will, at least, place no distractions in the
way of the revolution.
1t can hardly be doubted, then, that
the salvation of that great country, SC
full of magnificent opportunities of vari.
Gus kinds, is now close at hand, and that
in a few decades of years, wild Walla-
CHA" will have become thing of the
past.-W. W. Crane, an ADpletons' Journal