The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-13

, mania, wandering through the coun- 1 try, in village, town and city, playing l in the streets and before the doors of cafes.
 As a National institution the Zin- gari orchestras rivaled the German | bands. It was to their music that | the countryfolk danced their queer
 National dances, and they were also
 vate assemblies.
 The gypsies, as in this country, liv- ed a wandering life. Hard work nev-
 CT appealed to them, and so they are found in all the easier occupations.
 They sit about the streets of Bu- charest selling flowers or vending fruits in the markets-picturesq
 even where everything is picturesque.
 In the markets are also to be seen the groups of carriers, waiting pa- tiently to be commissioned to trot home with milady's bundles. One
 half suspects they are hoping against hope that milady will stay at home and leave them undisturbed. Familiar figures in the streets are
 the Russian cabmen, nearly all of the
 Skopti sect, banished from Russia
 because of their religious belief in- volving the practice of birth control as religious ceremony. Only one
 male child is allowed in each family. These men have practically a mo- nopoly of the cab transportation in Bucharest. In their distinctive Rus sian dress, with a gay wide sash twisted around their waists, the ends
 hanging down at the back, they are
 readily distinguished, even when not
 associated with their vehicles and horses.
 The sashes serve a very useful pur-
 pose in their calling, for the passen-
 ger sitting behind the driver, if un- able to speak the languages, directs
 his course by pulls at the flowing sash
 ends, exactly as the driver himself
 guides his horse. A tug at the sash end on the right means a turn into the next street on that side, etc. One
 merely has to drive the driver. And a drive about this great city is certain to be an enjoyable one. Be- sides the pathways and busy thor oughfares there are many beautiful buildings to be visited-the National bank. the Athenaeum, with it's col lection of rare antiques dating back to the days of the Roman conquest:
 
 strange architecture of the Russian Orthodox church always predominant ing; the National Library and Thea tre; the University of Bucharest, founded in 1864; the many other
 schools and academies: the great home for the blind established by the late Queen Elizabeth, better known by her pen name Carmen Sylvia;
 a hundred-and-one otherp laces that
 go to make the city notable as a cen ter of learning, culture and modern progress.
 Nearly all of these institutions have
 homes that are masterpieces of ar chitecture. The Treasury Building and the postoffice are notable ex-
 ampfes. It is said that the Ruman- ian government had the finest home for its foreign ministry of any coun- ttry in Europe.
 It was doubtless to save these buildings from destruction that no at- tempt has been made by the Ruman Armies to hold Bucharest, once the forces of the Central Powers got within striking distance of it. Whether this Bucharest of before the war-this City of Joy, as it is sometimes called, on the assumption that it's name has come from an AL banian word "bubur,'. meaning joy
 whether this great city will be the
 same after the war as before is a question that many persons are to- | day pondering over.
 For travellers have always loved it. They have found it one of the unique places or travel-worn and convention alized Europe, and have always re- turned, or wished to return, after a | first visit.