The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-06-27
ROnInania.-.Scryi

IN the fall Of the Turkish Empire two
new nations have already come into ex-
istencS and both seem prepared to main
tain their reedom by the desperate re-
sort Of war. One Of them has had a
history so remarkable that it may yet
form the theme of some native Macau-
lay or Motley. Roumania, which stands
on the brink of a great conflict with
Russia, surrounded by all the iiercest
elements OF the eastern strife. with Ser
via, forms the most recent of those new
powers that have joined the European
| family of nations. 1t stretches a broad
extent of fertile territory i~nclosed by
the Danube and the Carpathian mount
aims, and bounded on the east by the
Pruth. 1t has a small coast-line, Bessa-
rabia, north of its great river on the
Black Sea, its only outlet for navigation.
The new kingdom has a surface of about
5000 square miles, a little less than
England, and a population Of perhaps
5000, 600. A strange blending of dis
c0rdant races appears upon this inland
| region, 30 shut in by its encircling range
of mountains, and by the vast river that
bounds it on the south, The ROuma-
mans claim q descent from the
| Romans, who under Trojan first
planted a colony in the midst of
Dacia, and whose cities, roads, bridges,
| once covered it with the first traces OF
civilization. After a century or more Of
dangerous occupation it was found that
the mountains and the rivers failed to
protect the exposed province. A Roman
EN- withdrew his garrison, Dacia
was abandoned, and the Danube, dill
gently fortified, became the upper
boundary of the Roman power.
But Roumania has been ever the
refuge of the wandering races. Among
it's remarkable inhabitants are 100000
gypsies--wild, half savage, who were
long held in slavery by the Turkish rul-
| ers, but who seem to have clung with
tenacity to a land which offered them
only q miserable oppression. Why these
wanderers have fixed Themselves in this
inland and inhospitable region can
scarcely be imagined. But since Rou>
mania has become a nation the gypsies
have been set free they were purchaaed
from their masters by government aid and
it is said are now employed as servants
and in various useful pursuits. a still
more unfortunate classol the population
are the Jews. They too seem to have
thriven in the midst of persecution and
tyranny, and have refused to fly from a
land of bondage. They number almost
one-tenth of the people. They are often
of light complexion and hair, of Spanish
descent. Their activity in trade excites
the jealousy Of the ruling class.
They are still exposed to various
disabilities. But it is stated that
since its erection into a separate
state, and its freedom from Turkish con-
troll, Roumania has made some progress
toward liberation, and that equal rights
will be awarded at last to all its people.
A new nation has been formed; Jassy
and Bucharest are the centres of a rising
civilization; and the ROumanians have
proved on many q bloody field their
resolution to be free. A large export
and import trade has sprung up on the
Danube, and the flag of almost every
European nation is seen in the harborS
of the towns snd cities that line its
shores.
Still more remarkable is the sudden
rise of Seryia to freedom and prosperity,
The Servian3 were Sclayes who settled in
ancient MR3ia; a famous King Stephen
Dushan, in the fourteenth CenSury, de-
feated the Turks, B~yzantines, Hunga-
rians, and created a powerful state. But
when he died, the Turks, at the battle of
KossovO 1880, aided by ~treachery, de-
stroyed the might of Servia; Milos, the
! Servian Leonidas, stabbed his conqueror,
Murad, on the battlefield, but the miser-
able country sank into a lasting s%ubjec-
ton. Its rising literature was sup
pressed, its children were snatched away
TO fill the armies or the harems of the
Turks; the people sank into intense
ignorance oppression checked their
progress for nearly five hundred years.
During all the five centuries that have
witnessed the rapid progress of France
and England, Servis has slumbered in
this medieval decay. Within the present
century it has sprung into new
life. Through all its period of miser-
able subsection Servia still re-
tanned the memory of its earlier
freedom, and expressed in mourniul
songs and ballads the pains and shame of
present decay, Or celebrated the glory of
its early heroes and kings. These touchs
ing songs, written in unrhymed verse,
may be called the tears of Servia. But
since 1915 Servia has been, in a measure,
free in 1856 it received a recognition
from Europe, and in 1878 it has become
an independent state. Its modern princes
have assumed the historical names of its
early heroes; and the first of the line,
the uncle of the present prince, was
known as Milos l., 80 intense are the
national traditions of these subject races.
The two kingdoms of Servia and Rou-
mania are democratic communities,
founded upon universal suffrage. Every
male citizen over twenty-one, except the
eipsies and servants, can vote in Servia
in Roumania the voter must be twenty
five and know how to read and write.
One of the striking traits of the progress
of the past twenty years is the adoption
everywhere of the republican principle
of manhood suffrage; it would be i'm.
proved il the Roumanian restriction
should be initiated, and the only qualif-
cation demanded for a voter should be
an educational one Germany, and in
part Austria, have already adopted uni
versal suffrage and a general federation;
the cruel treatment Of the Jews in Rou-
mania is one of the lasting blots upon its
fame; humanity should be the leading
trait Of every new nation. and every act
OF cruelty or murder tends to destroy its
hopes of progress. The Roumanians
promise improvement in these matters.
y EUGENE LAWRENCE,