The Denver Jewish news., 1923-02-07

PREPARED by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. d CT
Bucharest, the capital alike of me-
dium-sized pre-war Roumania and the
new Roumania which took shape as II
result of the treaty of st. German, and
little Alba Julia, a 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 crowning of the king and
queen of Roumania.
In selecting an isolated and little
known town of Pennsylvania as the
place of their coronation, the rulers of
Roumania paid a tactful tribute to n
major territorial acquisition their
country gained as a result of 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 Transylvania was
transferred to Rouinania. and makes Of
the obscure town a western European
shrine when it is recalled TINT Hun
yady turned back the tide of Turks who
beat against Transylvania's portals
some fifty years before Columbus
crossed the Atlantic.
a fortress and museum are the
ntbar hfn.tS nf inf n Albn Jnlin
the rest of its prestige is a matter OF
association with the eventful history
Of Pennsylvania.
The Wallachs of this Switzerland
like land. which helps, by 22.0OO square
miles and 3,OOO,OOO people. to double
the area and population of the new
Roumanin. have long been more Rou-
manian than the Roumanians them
selves. Living in the verdant valleys
of many barrier mountains, they pre-
served racial purity with such jeal-
ousy that maiden lost caste If she
married Wallach who lived too far
from her own home.
Only such loyalty could have pre-
served national and race conscious
ness in an area where Mt least six diff
ferent nationalities contend for su-
premncy, 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
Transylvanan Alps, the greater Rou-
mania faces the problem of welding
the other half of the Transylvanians
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.
iIIiterate WaIIachs.
The Wallachs of Transylvania
achieved the unique distinction of COM
pelling "A 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 Int
artistic courses which made them one
of the most plcturesquely dressed peo-
pie of Europe. Many Wallach vii
lager of Pennsylvania lives in mud
hut because lie cannot buy lumber
Enter that hut, with its hole in the top
for n chimney. and you will find loom
upon which women weave fabrics of
delicate texture and gorgeous color
The general outlines of the women
garments are familiar-the flowing
robe-like skirt cnught in at the waist
by girdle, over which are worn panel
like aprons in front and behind. These
aprons, like the open-front jacket, af-
ford scope for widest variation in de-
sign, fabric and color. The Wallachtan
scorns standardization as he does his
Saxon neighbor; and if he laments he