The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-04-08
Lithuania: Where
Autumn-Tide is
Courting Time

Courti11g Time
Lithuania, the southernrnost OF
the Baltic countries carved out of
}.re-war Russia, seated herself At
!. the family table Of world nations
by accepting Jurisdiction OF tho
Permanent Cour1 of Internatioaaz
Justice, but. has declined to jein
a conference of Baltic States to
settle upon policy at Genoa.
Though the United States has
not recognized the Lithuanian
! government, as have most OF the
nations OF Earope, maRy OF me
1 principles of IT'S republican govern
.llcnt were borrowed from ,lSIner..-
ca. X recent incident IN this con-
nection was the presentation by
! Lithuanians in America of a elih-
erty bell to the mother country IN
Icormemoration Of the fourthsanni-
INerSary Of its independence. The
bell is to be rung on all national
:, holidays and days of important his
torical significance to the coua
try. says a bulletin Of the National
! Geographic Society issued from its
Washington, D. c., headquarters.
cover the present country OF
Lithuania. once, the largest state in
Europe extending from the Black
Sea to the Baltic, the armies OF
Germany and Russia crossed and
recrossed,, during the World War.
Germans. often raided the country
to capture cattle and the Russians
counter-attacked to gain 5mmedl-s
ate results for the, moral effect
elsewhere.
Is Their Language the oIdest2
These fair-haired and iblIe-eyed
people, who claim that there are
more than one million lereign-born
Americans of Lithuanian extrac-
ton in our country, speak q, largu-
age which is said by some philolo-
! gists to be the Oldest living langu-
age today. 1t resembles the
primitive Sanskrit and is distinctly
different from the Slavonic family,
the Teutonic and the Latin. The
conquering nations who ruled the
territory from time to time hare
attempted to STAN. ont the ma
i tive tongue by requiring the chill
; dren to use textbooks and prayer
books written in the Cyrillic alphe-
bet, but they, have never been en-
tire1y successful.
The ancient capital of this
. area, which now is slightly in ex-
cess Of the combined areas Of Neg
Hampshire, Vermont, Massa-
chusetts and Rhode Island, was
Wilma, whose narrow and winding
streets, stony pavements and horse.
cars give it a. quaint and almost
medieval atmosphere. Though the
seat OF government now is Kevno
many of the great events in Litha-.
anian history center around Yjlna.
An Epic in Two Sentences
Wilma was founded at the juno.
,; ton OF the Wilma and Filayka ny-
ers by Gedimin in 1922, and is con-
nected by railway lines with: Petro-
grad and through Warsaw with
most Of the capitals Of Europe.
When Napoleon passed through the
city IL 1912 on his way To Moscow
the Lithuanian mobiles crowded
around him, as it was believed he
would restore the cid Lithuanian
state. Near the city today there
stands stone which tells the tragic
story simply: On one side it bears
the words, Napoleon Bonaparte
passed this way in 1912 with 40.-
coo men On the other Sire there
is engraved these words: tNapol-
con Bonaparte passed this way in
1882 with 5000 men, '@N>
The three former Russian pro-
vinces, Wilma, Kovno, and Suvalki
out of which most Of the present
state has been formed are net very
prosperous looking country, when
compared with that in the neigh
boring German and Polish lands
farther south. Much Of it is
itie'4 slItt1 So'SlSo Will 4O1CStS.,5
Indeed the forests are so extensive
that they constitute. one Of the
country's greatest. natural re-
sources. Agriculture is the Chief
industry, and surplus OF some
products, such as timber, hides.
and flax that her neighbors need,
is produced.
The. swain in Lithuania, despite
the tendencies which balmy spring
is supposed TO inspire, makes the
iall OF the year his courting season,
because he must be, married in the
winter time. More than 80 per
cent OF Lithuanian weddings take
place during the cold weather, for
the wedding lasts for a week or
more and time cannot be spared
from the fields and farms when the
planting and harvesting seasons
come Winter time is the time Of
festivities in this little country
when Jack Frost turns every lake
ard marsh into y h away
Farm stills seem to he growing
popular, judging from the report