New-York tribune., 1907-11-09
an UNSPOILT COUNTRY.
Historical and Descriptive Sketches
an Dalmatid.

DALTMfAAT1ATTHE TfAT IT Elan LAND WHERE EAST MEETS
4zIho' pp 256 John Lane Company
This cheerful and enthusiastic book about
country dwelling apart. somewhat off tho
highway of the worlds traffic" and still full of
quaint medi9valisn, will draw many a traveller
to those beautiful shores of the Adriatic. Here
at least is land whose roads are not yet black
with motor cars. whose peasants still wear the
costumes of centuries past whose soil is a
treasury Of ancient things. OF Croatian, Ser
Wan. Austrian. Italian, Hungarian and Polish
stocks arc the people of Damatia-a picturesque
people whose men in their richly colored dress
look like stage brigands. They are fishermen
and farmers ana makers of wine these de-
scendants Of a race that of old furnished the
lest soldiers of the legions Of the Caesars" and
in the Middle Ages the pick of the navy of
Venice and the trusted bodyguard of the Doge.
Ancient walls and crumbling ruins lead the
happy possessor Of an imagination into strange
scenes of far off days-days of Roman rule, of
Venetian lordship, of Turkish rapine. Still be-
side the sea at Spalato the walls of Diocletian's
palace surround the dwelling places Of three
thousand people The Golden Gate its prin-
cipal entrance remains practically as II was
when the Emperor in the fourth century passed
IN below its arch returning from his visits to
the neighboring city of Salona. Some of the
most interesting days OF the authors tour were
spent among the excavations of this old Roman
city. whose vaults. broken by Goth and Avar
in search of treasure. are typical of the de-
struction which overwhelmed its palaces and
churches. Ragusa. "a dream city by the sea"
is another place of which Mrs. Holbach writes
with explanatory delight:
Picture yourself one Of the walled Etruscan
towns OF Northern Italy. only with more massive,
fsterner walls and towers; and set Il down by the
as,nnd ana towering aoes Of giant size growing wild
right down to the edge of the sea together with
cacti and old lhders Of every shade from purest
more than half Oriental with knives stuck in their
belts. and cloaks rivalng in color the crimson OF
proud little republic of yore which never yielded
power. the half Eastern. halfWestern, yet unspoit
Ragusa OF to-day!
The author is at her best in her historical
sketch OF the sturdy republic. which offered a
refuge throughout tho Middle Ages 20 those
who fed before Mahometan cruelty. and which
preserved her independence as we'll as her chv-
alrous ideal until the all conquering Napoleon
chose to declare that her existence as state
at end. The city is full of the fascna-
tion OF the past; it seizes upon the visitor the
very entrance under the bastion and watch
tower that. save for the missing drawbridge,
are Just as they were nine hundred years ago.
BE 1t remembered that this is but one town out
of many offering material of keenest interest TO
the students OF history. A land OF rich sugges-
tiveness so far as its traditions and its archI-
lecture surviving and in ruins are concerned;
and in certain parts a land of glorious beauty
such is Dalmatia. Mrs. Holbachs descriptions
of the islands OF the archipelago are tantaliz-
ing TO the reader who has no immediate pros
pect of seeing them for himself. II her en-
thusiastic recitals have drawback 1t is that
they may lead to a wholesale invasion Of the
region by a horde of the modern touring van
dals who deface and vugarize every land they
touch, even as the barbarians of old trampled
down the civilization and the artistic achieve
nents of Greek and Roman on the Dalmatian
shores