The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-07-17
LEAST KNOWN NATION.
Story of Liechtenstein Would be In
teresting.

forsake mythical Graustarks anu
write the bald facts about Liechten-
stein, what fascinating, swash buck
ling bizarre romance he could COM
pose," says a bulletin from the
National Geographic Society concern
ing the tiny principality that dellv-
cred an "ultimatum' to the peace
conference the other day. demanding
a place in the league Of nations.
"Liechtenstein is about the size OF
the District of Columbia. The last
of it's princes, who ruled 1t until
ahont a wear ago, owned estates out
right taht almost cqualed the area OF
Delaware. He sat in the upper mouse
of Austria and ruled his miniature
domain principally by long distance
telephone. When the citizens asked
for a constitutional government ne
created a parliament of 10 MEMBERS
appointed a governor with caolnet
and granted suffrage to all males.
sLong the princes have paid for
the upkeep of Leichtenstein largely
from the enormous incomes of their
private property. The inhabitants
petitioned for an entertainment fund
and Johann II, who abdicated last
year, granted a subsidy, perhaps with
a smile. 1t was used thereafter to
decorate Vaduz, the Paris of LEIGH
tenstein, and to set the fountains
playing and the fireworks going when
he visited there.
ssIn the Austro-Prussian war LEIGH
tenstein cast her lot with her ally,
Austria. Her entire population brave
" said goodbye to her soldier boys,
and the entire standing army of four
score men marched off to battle. But
they arrived after the war was over.
"When it came to making peace
terms Bismark nodded, for once, and
little Leichtenstein was completely
forgotten. 1t was just as we'll; or she
might not have retained her freedom.
But, apparently she is determined
not to be ignored again.
"Her army marched home again,
stacked their muskets and hung their
leather helmets, the bugler's trumpet
and the captains sword in the anci-
ent castle of Vaduz, where they re-
main today. The citizenry Informed
the prince they wanted no more of
war. He abolished military service,
and since then there has been no
standing army, though, technically,
Liechtenstein has been at war with
Prussia since 1866.
Moreover Liechtenstein paid vir-
tually no taxes nor did she have a
public debt so long as her princes
ruled. A small levy was made for
keeping up the dikes lest the Rhine
overflow her fields in springtime.
Customs and the ready generosity OF
her monarchs kept her treasury filled.
s'This quaint, but electric lighted
and hot-water-heated nation, with its
roadside shrines and modern type
writer's, lies in the eastern Alps,
south of lake Constance, scene of
Count Zeppelin's early aerial ven
lures, with the Rhine for it's western
. border. 1t is elongated, as if by the
pressure of its neighbor nations, Aus
tria and Switzerland, suggesting
. Mark Twain's complaint about anoth-
er land where, he said, people had
to sleep with their knees pulled up
because they couldn't stretch out
without a passport
''Two iefs of the Roman empire,
Schellenberg and Vaduz, make up the
latter day Liechtenstein. Both came
into possession of the Liechtenstein
family while their previous overlords
"Ol uuouSldlly OluUoI -hoAy
travellers passed through the little
state within a sight of the Vaduz
state within sight of the Vaduz
pedestal, for the route from Paris to
Vienna lies that way. That is why
Liechtenstein's threat to stop COM
munication might be annoying. But
none of the travellers ever stopped.
1 When Robert Shackleton visited there
not many years ago he was welcomed
as the first American to set foot in
the country.
"Yet Liechtenstein, small as it is, is
larger than the oft visited Monaco or
the much written about Marino. Its
peasants are simpley sturdy, shrewd
folk, intensely proud of the bright
stone of the Alps which, they love to
recall, has not been captured for a
thousand years. There are good
schools even tn kinderparton ond