The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-06-06

LEON. IOWA, THURS
The New Buda colony is not to be
confounded with the slavonic Hun
garians that now flock to our shores
to work in the coal and iron indus
tries. The elder colony was COM
posed as a rule of men who were edu-
Gated in the schools, had held office,
military, and civic, under the pro-
visional government and who now
were in a new country and under
strange conditions. The colony was a
failure measured by our standards.
Thirty or forty, at high-water mark,
would complete the census and at the
breaking out of our civil war and soon
thereafter few remained
Ujhazi was the man of affairs and
some means and founder of the colony.
PomutZ the diplomat and soldier in
the civil war, Madaraz and Ignace
Hainer were trained to the law, giving
fourteen years to latin In preparation
for the work. Madaraz was Secretary
OF State to the Kossuth government
and Halner was a lawyer to Hun
garian magnate, later he held the
professorship of modern languages at
Columbia, Mo-, and had the honor of
teaching German to Senator Elkins,
of West Virginia.
These men, Madaraz and Hainer,
were accustomed to write one another
in latin and this language was at that
time to them easier and surer than
English.
Before 1S4S the Hungarian laws
were written in latin and the as
pirant for legal honors must be we'll
grounded in that tongue.
10 give you an idea of the mettle
and fibre of that little colony l will
quote from an eye witness. sit was
the custom of these colonists to meet
at least once week at the home of
one or another and to discuss current
economic questions and political
events; it was my good fortune to at
tend these with my father, and though
but a small boy, became greatly In
terested in their discussions. | recall
distinctly that the correspondence
between Secretary Chase and Mr..
Madaraz was gone over at these meet
ings and very fully discussed. These
men also corresponded regularly with
such men as Horace Greeley, Edward
Everett and the class of men who
were at that time in the fore front
OF public and advanced thought.
During the Hungarian Revolution,
he, Madaraz, devised the plan of issu-
ing currency which was used by the
Revolutionists, and which on his re-
commendation was made the basis by
Secretary Chase, of our greenback
system, upon which we. fought the
Civil war and which is still part of
our currency system"
1t is asserted that the unprecedent-
ed legislation of congress in respect to
the Hungarians gave Galusha A.
Grow thought upon which he built
the homestead law.
Only one other occasion can be COM
pared with the enthusiasm of our
people in the reception of Kossuth
and his compatriots, and that was the
Greek earnestness of an earlier day
when Fitz Green Halleck wrote a
stirring war song and Lord Byron
journeyed to Missalonghi and died.
When statesman in the Congress
was thought to have failed of his
duty if he did not interlard his speech
with wealth of classical quotation
and die metaphorically in the last
ditch at Thermopolae. 1t is no where
recorded that our statesmen went
about wearing sandals or helmets
carrying short swords, or declaiming
IN the original tongue of the gems of
Greek oratory, but we know that hats
with plumes, called Kossuth hats,
were affected by some and the custom
of wearing short military cloaks was
prevalent.
These past incidents were of the
impressionable era of our national
life and they are as foreign to the
genius of these latter days as are the
legends of Arthur's Court or the
Sages of Scandinavia. We are dealing
in material things now, and it must
needs be long cry. wall of anguish
to arrest the attention of our pre-
occupied people who sit in Congress.
Rather are the Hague Congresses
in the hands of the Camagies Barons
d. Estrounselles and Steads for well
Wishers and promoters.
Another, Francis Varga, was long
connected with the affairs of the
county and is remembered by hun
dreds of citizens; he was intimately
connected with the Kossuth Govern
ment and after the fall and surrender,
flight was imperative. Disguise and
the greatest secrecy was necessary to
elude the minions of Austria; at last
the free city of Hamburg was reached
and thence to England and America;
following the footsteps of Ujhazi he
came to Decatur county.
Long and favorably known as an
upright citizen and honored with the
suffrages of his fellow citizens time and
again, Francis Varga was one of the
few colonists who lived and died in
the land of his adoption. Unlike
Kossuth, in the fullness of time and
in the ripeness of manhood he revisit
ed the scenes of his youth, but there
was no magnet to attract him from
the home of his choice.
Francis Joseph was king of Hun
gary, having proclaimed, upon a hill
formed of the earth from each prov
ince, with drawn sword, that he
would defend the integrity of the
ancient kingdom, now part of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
This was not the dream of 1S4S to
either Kossuth or Varga, but was the
actuality of 1866 that has continued
intact to this time.