Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-05-02
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Market Place and Bridge in Warsaw

Prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington. D. c.
Polish map or handbook would tell
you that the land of the Poles is
RzeczpospOlita Polska, and that it's
capital is Warszawa-a fact which
goes to show that there is sometimes
justification for our habit of clubbing
other countries place names by our
OWN pseudonyms.
Warsaw is forever being compared
to Paris, and rightly. The somberness
and heaviness and nIatter-of-factness
often found in the great cities of Ger
many and Russia and England have
always been lacking in Warsaw. Even
century of oppression could not en-
tirely break the Polish spirit of gayety
and optimism nor alter greatly the re-
suits this spirit had wrought in fash
A0ning the Polish capital.
80 carry the comparison further, the
Parisians are lovers of beauty, and so
are the people of Warsaw. 1t is sig
niticant that the Polish President who
recently was assassinated was at
tackled at an art exhibition. The
presence of the Polish chief executive
on such an occasion makes as true a
picture as French president at a new
theater, a British king at board of
trade or financial congress, or a
President Of the United States dedicat-
Ing a great engineering work
Finally Warsaw may be compared
to Paris in some ways upon the score
of physical arrangement and appear
ance. The city is filed with impress
sive old cathedrals, churches and pal
aces, and has numerous stately public
buildings. Wide, tree-lined boulevards
radiate from the old city center, some
leading to beautiful and most elabo-
rately developed parks. But Warsaw
Is not wholly a city of wide avenues
and open spaces. 1t has its ancient
portion of narrow, tortuous streets,
whose darkness and quietness take
one back to the Middle ages.
Warsaw's history is both long and
turbulent. 1t had it's beginnings in
the Ninth century; and it's start, like
that of many other great cities of
Europe, was around the castle Of
feudal lord. In 1850 it became the
capital of the then powerful Polish
kingdom, and has since played a role
Of Importance in European history. In
evitably it. grew to be a great city and
inevitably It felt the hand of numer-
Gus conquerOrs. For geographical po-
sition marked 1t as one of the great
est Of European centers.
Has Strategic Trade Position.
One feels that, like the lines of
force about a magnet, Warsaw's lines
Of trade must have existed from the
first, though invisible. Now they
have taken shape in steel and wood;
railroads extending from the city like
spokes Of a great wheel, off toward
Petrograd, Moscow, Odessa, Vienna,
Prague, Berlin and Danzig. In a Eu-
cope at peace it would occupy much
ghe position of st. Louis in the United
States, though reversed as to direc-
tons, lying in a strategic position be-
tween the raw materials and food
stuffs of the East and the factories and
consumers of the West; and at the
same time helping to exchange prod
ucts between the North and the South.
In addition Warsaw Is itself an impor-
tant manufacturing center. It's trade
and industry and politics together have
built up population close to the mil
lion mark, making it one of the half
dozen greatest cities of the European
mainland.
The country Of which Warsaw is the
capital must not be looked upon as
one of the little lands" that sprang
into existence after the World war. 1t
Is more than half as large as Texas,
and has a population six times as
great. To put it more emphatically,
Poland's population Is practically a
quarter that of the United States.
Situated halfway between Petro-
grad, which may be taken as represent
Ing the north, and Venice on the warm
Mediterranean, Warsaw is probably
itudes. 1t is in reality as far north
as the southern shore of Hudson bay
or the northern coast of Newfound-
land. Its winter, however, Is not so
severe as the location might sug-
gest, but 1t is more nearly comparable
to that Of New England.
He who wanders about the streets
of Warsaw cannot remain IN ignorance
Of the glorious past of Poland or the