Norwich bulletin., 1915-02-20
POLAND OF THE
 PAST AND PRESENT Despite Its Experiences It Has Not Abandoned Hope of Reestabish- ment
Special to The Bulletin )


 Washington, D. C., Feb. 18.-Ameri- can sympathy can be given without re- serve to spartitioned Poland, the magnificent. znuch-promising Empire of yesterday, the kean suffering battle field of tpday, whose farms and in- dustIy, Villages and cities are being made war offerings and whose people are lighting one another under three different fiags; for Poland is the least concerned sacrifice in the European struggle. Polish lands comprise al most the entire eastern war -theater This people, their chequered, turbulent history, their proud boasts and dear est hopes, and their peculiar charac- teriEtics are carefully explained to Americans in a historico -geogra pl1ical study made for the National Geogra- phic Society by William Joseph Sho- walter.
 MT. Showalter says of the brilliant 1liddle-European kingdom of yester- day:
 Tn size she outranked nearly every nation of the continent. Even now Russia alone of the European nations is larger than Poland was at her great est. In population she stood at the forefront of Europe; only Russia and Germany today have greater popula- tlons than are to be found in the lands that once were Poland; for unparti- toned Poland had an area of 2S2 ,O00 square miles, and the lands that once lay within her boundaries now support population of 50 million. In area she was as large as the German Empire Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Denmark together; and within what were her borders there dwells d pres- ent population larger than those of France, Belgium and Holland com bined."
 Though IT years have gone by since the final partition of Poland among Russia Austria and Germany, and though the conQuerors have made the most vigorous efforts to assimiIate the Polish people, the Pole today, if any way changed, is more intensely nation al, AIr Showalter points out, more pasSlonately devoted to an ideal of a re-established Poland than ever be- fore. The Pole has a fervent love for all things Polish, this writer continues: ::
 He will tell you that their cooking IS better than that of Paris; that their scenery is more beautiful than that of any other country; that their language Is the most meiodious that falls from human lips: that there is no dance in the world to be compared with the lnaZurkat; that the most beautiful women on the face of the earth and the bray est men who ever lived are to be found among them; that the Poles are cheerful, hQspitable easily pleased and an imaginative race: and I that vet. in spite of and notwithstand- ing all this, they are the most unhappy people and theirs the most hapIess na- ton i'll history"
 Poland was three times partitioned The final aport:onment was made at the Congress of Vienna in 1915, which left to Russia 220, 800, Prussia. 26. 600. and Austria, S5.000 square miles. After this distribution, the conquerors sought to blot out ali memories of the king dom, Poland, and Mir. ShowaIter enurrl- crates among the repressiye measures employed to this end those forbiddiue. the use Of the Polish language, the use of the national dress-even at car nivals-the singing of national songs and the displaying of national coat-of- arms.
 The Poles lost their place among the family of nations because they were the victims of an unrestrained indi- Vidualisnl. Yet. where the Poles are willing to surrender some part of their individualisn in the service of an idea. --eiS in the case in the United States they make the best of citizens. America is 8 decided gainer by the host of Poles who have sought her shores, is the conclusion of the Wr.1eE>