New-York tribune., 1920-08-23
Spirit of Poland
Becomes Synonym
For lndomitable
No Other People i'm History
Have BorneOpprcssion So
Bravely and Cloriously AS
Poles, Except the Jews

WASHINGTON, Aug. ,19.--"No other
people, in all the worlds history, has
borne oppression so bravely and glori-
ously as the Poles, except the Jews !;
and Warsaw, where the Russians had
to keep a garrison of 100000 troops
to overawe a city of 900 people,
is to Poland what Paris is to France"
says a bulletin of the National Geo
graphic Society concerning the present
focal center of world attention.
Indeed, the vivacity, the gayety and
the quick wit of Warsaw's people is
constant reminder of Paris, as we'll
as those deeper lkenesses which spring
from Warsaw's ascendency in the let
ters, the arts and the social graces.
"All this, too, in city where the
most gruesome tragedies have stalked
AS recently as the years Of our Civil
War the Russian army moved down
thousands of men and women as they
knelt IN the snow, singing their ma
tlonal anthem. Deportations are an old
story in Warsaw; every effort at ma
tionalization was followed by slaughter,
and hundreds marched the long trail to
Siberian exile.
"But Poland's spirit, meanwhile, be-
came synonym for the ndomitablo
The success of the classification of Po-
land has been described as the process
of keeping $4,000, 900 Poles pinned to
Russia by bayonets.
Warsaw Home of Scientists
Politically non-exstent, for even Po-
lands name was cxpurged from all Off
cial Russian records, the pre-war War
saw view with world capitals in science
particularly medicine, in manufacture
ing, in trade and in literature.
"Though Warsaw betrayed none of
the grimness characteristic of Russian
ciN"s, reminders of her bygone glories
and tragedies were to be found even be-
4cre tne World War restored her au-
tocracy.
"ln the Lazienk Gardens is a monu-
ment to John Sobieski, who stemmed
the advance of the Turks in Europe,
figure as picturesque as Paderewski.
who now sees his land barrier to Boil
1858 that a Turkish force had thrown
itself in crescent formation around
Vienna. The encampment was no less
threatening, because it resembled a
circus rather than siege, with it's
herds Of camels and luxurious tents
with baths and parrots within and foun-
tains without.
"Mighty events often hings on slen-
der circumstances. Sobeski hestated
because Leopold, Austria's Emperor,
first declined to address him as His
Majesty.' But Sobieski's hesitation is
said to have vanished when he learned
~, l.. A l.. L i
ten to Louis XIV, who rather hoped
for the worst for Austria, Don't trou-
bic yourself, Sobieski is too fat to
sit on a horse and fight
Origin of Vienna Roll
"The 'fat man rode his charger into
the thick of the fight, helping hew his
way to where the Turkish Grand Vizier
stood. and after the battle handed one
Of that dlgnltary's stirrups to an aide,
with the command, Take it to the
Queen and tell her that he to whom
it belonged is defeated and slain
"The sublime often is strongly
blended with the inconsequential They
will tell you this story, with much de-
tail, in Warsaw:
Importance and held their heads high
because of a proud past, but Warsaw,
prosecuted as it was. has highly i'm
portant economic present. In normal
times it was the geographical center
of Europe, the focal point for rail ship
ments from Russia and Asia to west
ern Europe, even though the actual
western terminus of the Trans Siberian
Railway was at Moscow, and its loca-
ton on the Vstula gave it place on
Europe's inland waterways comparable
to that of st. Louis on the Mississippi.
Its output of shoes, metal articles and
cotton makes it's product sound like
that of busy New England city, and
its long commercial arm even reached
out to drop $50000o worth of beet
sugar into America in those different
days before 1914
"Numerous castles of the old Polish
nobility were converted into municipal
offices by the Russians. Warsaw takes
pride in its theate ers-that for the Po-
lish drama and ballet being an espe
cially beautiful building with two thea
ters under one roof In artistic dane
ing Warsaw is preeminent, the ma
zurka and the polonaise being two
characteristic steps. Its university has
notable book collection and many
scientific specimens"