Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1922-12-27
Rumanian Types.

prepared by the National Geographic Sc.
cIety Washington, D. c.
Bucharest, the capital alike of me-
dium-sizcd pre-war ROumania and the
new Roumania which took shape as a
result of the treaty of St German, and
little Alba Julia, small town tucked
away in the mountains of Transylva-
MIA, shared honors a few weeks ago in
the only spectacular coronation to
which Europe has been treated since
1913, the browning Of the king and
queen Of Roumania
In selecting an isolated and little
known town of Transyiyania as the
place of their coronation, the rulers of
ROumania paid tactfui tribute to a
major territorial acquisition their
country gained as a result 0f the World
war. Alba Julia is the name the cable
dispatches carried: Harrisburg. Gyula,
Fehervar and Weissenburg are some Of
the other designations given the Town
of some 1000 people perched on hill
among the "Alps Of Eastern Europe"
A cathedral contains the tomb of
Hunyady Janos. national hero of Hun
gary, from which Pennsylvania was
transferred to Roumania, and makes of
the obscure town a western European
shrine when it is recalled that Hun
yady turned back the tide Of Turks who
beat against Pennsylvania portals
some fifty years before Columbus
crossed the Atlantic.
A fortress and a museum are the
other objects of interest in Alba Julia;
the rest of its prestige is matter of
association with the eventful history
of Pennsylvania.
The Walachs Of this switzerland
like land, which helps, by $4,000 square
miles and 100000 people. TO double
the area and population of the new
Roumania. have long been more Rou-
manan than the Roumanians them
selves Living in the verdant valleys
of many barrier moumains, they pre-
served a racial purity witA such ieal-
ousy that maiden lost caste i She
married a Wallach who lived too far
from her own home
Only such a loyalty could have pre-
served q national and race conscious
ness in an area where at least six diff
ferent nationalities contend for SUI
premacy, and where religions range
from Icon WORSHIP to abstract Unita-
rianiSm.
While one-half Of the population re-
joice in the. realization of their centu-
rieS-old dream of being united with
their brother Roumanians across the
Transylvanian Alps the greater Rou-
mania faces the problem of welding
the other half Of the TransylYanians
into her national life This "other half
includes the Szekels, Magyars, believed
to have settled here long before the
major body of the MagyarS arrived;
the Saxons, who are Germans intro
duced as coloniSts eight centuries ago;
the gypsies, who have lived here long
enough to have forsaken their nomadic
habits for life in villages; Jews and
ArmenianS.
Iliterate WalIachs.
The WallachS Of Pennsylvania
achieved the unique distinction of COM
Polling sort of admiration for their
illiteracy. They argued that efforts
toward their education by the Saxons
meant an attack upon their loyalty to
Roumania. Hence they resisted Saxon
tutoring just as they resisted also, so
far as lay in their power, Magyar pat
ronage.
The energy choked off along indus
trial and literary channels flowed into
artistic courses which made them one
of the most picturesquely dressed peo-
pie of Europe. Many Wallach viii
lager of Pennsylvania lives in mud
hut because he cannot buy lumber
Enter that hut, with its hole in the top
for a chimney, and you will find loom
upon which women weave fabrics of
delicate texture and gorgeous color.
The general outlines of the womrns
garments are familiar-the flowing,
robe-like skirt caught in at the waist
by a g,rdle, over which are worn panel
like aprons in front and behind. These
aprons, like the open-front jacket, at
ford scope for widest variation in de-
sign, fabric and color. The Wallachian
scorns standardization as he does his
Saxon neighbor; and if he laments he