Norwich bulletin., 1915-05-18

merchant trust of the Middle Ages.
With Hamburg. Bremen, Lubbock,
Stralsund, and scores of its fellow
banded cities, Riga grew in wealth and
of the world ran in and out OF its
river harbor, and it enjoyed the proud
development of a German free city,
Near the middle of the sixteenth
century, Riga passed into the power of
thes King of Poland. The headlong
Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden,
brought up in his course Of conquest
with a shock before it's walls in 1901,
and, only after long hard siege. was
he able to take the city. Riga passed
to the control of the Russian in ITO,
and has since played an important
part in the development of the mighty
northern empire.
Riga has the appearance OF Ger
man port. The older part of the port
looks like a medieval German town,
While new Riga might be Bremen 1t
has none of the happy -go-lucky Sla-
vonic air about it, and, so, for the
tourist it is disappointing. Before the
war, German was the language of its
business, and German wa the idtoa of
it's streets and homes Official Riga
was Russian, and, as Riga is the seat
of the Governor-General of the Baltic
Provinces, this official element was of
much significance.
For the most part, Riga is a very
modern city. Its older buildings have
been torn down to make way for struc-
lures more up-to- date, more suited to
the prosperity of a business city. 1t is
situated on the River Duena, ten miles
above the mouth of the Gulf of Riga,
and it is bound to the Baltic by canals.
Riga has princes of finance and trade,
and they have lined many of its
avenues with modern villas and PAL
aces AS an example of the city
v1yfff7 hG ms
erected more than fifteen hundred new
business and apartment buildings dur
ing a recent year and that most of
these buildings were equipped with
elevators, open plumbing, vacuum
cleaning, central refrigerating and
steam heating plants.
"a strong and varied industry has
grown up in the port city. Machinery
railway cars, lumber, leather. candles,
tiles, glass tobacco and other products
are turned out in it's numerous fac
tories. The annual value of the arti-
cles manufactured in Riga exceeds
100000 900. AS an industrial center,
it has been becoming more and more
prominent year by year, and its tu-
ture seems to be one Of an almost I'M
limited promise.
THE average value of Riga's exports
is we'll over S35,O00,001. Its imports
total about $30,00o,000 each year. The
exports include cereals, flax, haXSeed,
eggs, lumber and butter. Its chief i'm
ports are machinery, cotton, coal and
groceries. 1t has a thrifty, well-to-do
population of more than 100000"
Agram-It is to the vigorous Slav-
onic movement conferred in Agram,
where many believe that the heart and
mind of the Serbo -Croat nationalist
propa ganda as its home, that one may
look to find as many causes for the
present worldwar, as might be dis
coverable in Belgrade, Vienna OF Per-
rograde. Revolutionary Agram, intel
lecual Agram, fervently national
Agram, the capital city and rallying
point for all of the Dual Monarchy S
Slavs, has caused the statesmen in
Vienna and Budapest more worried
thought than even a Belgrade flushed
with victories over Ottoman and Bull
gar. The National Geographic Soci-
ETY. has issued the following descrip-
ton of the capital of Croatia-Slav-
onia:
"Agram, the seat of the ban, or vice
roy of Croatia-slavonia, is one OF the
main schools of the revival OF the
South Slavs. 1t is a far more beauti-
full, more up-to-date and more keenly
intellectual city than Belgrade. Agram
has been recognized as the center of
the Serbo- Croat movement rather than
Belgrade by all of the Slavs of Croatia
Slavonia and Dalmatia. The people OF
these Slavonia provinces of Austria
Hungary have felt themselves super
Tor in education and in outlook to the
Servians and have planned and work
ed for the future of their people in
Agram, rather than sought it in the
Servian capital.
SITUATED between the north bank
Of the Save and the Agram mountains,