The Coolidge examiner., 1932-12-16

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, d. C.-WNU Service.
~ UDAPEST twin city of the
n Danube river, has been des-
- ignated holy city for all Mos
lens by the Pan-Islamic congress
which recently met in Jerusalem.
In the last decade the Moslem
population of Budapest has greatly
increased and it is planned to es-
tablish there great Mohammedan
university and mosque.
Budapest Is a city where, from
two hotel windows, provided they
are on opposite banks of the Dan
ube. the visitor may gaze on mag
nificent views that epitomize the ge-
ography and the history of an entire
nation
A riverside window from the Pest
bank frames a mighty illumination
as brilliant as a magnified Luna
park, dignifed by the background
of a thousand years of vivid his
/ tory.
In the immediate foreground is
the famed promenade, the Francis
Joseph quay, where, from Parlia-
ment house toward the slaughter
house-a cattle country shows no
sQueamishness at mentioning the
latter-a nightly parade passes the
scores of sidewalk cafe. No wheeled
traffic obstructs the thousands of
strollers, and, on the river side,
clumps of trees shelter benches
where, for a few filler, the pedes-
trian may sit for an hour before the
feminine collector punches his ticket
again.
The waters of the Danube, which
are chalky or chocolate by day
never blue-have an inky shellac
sheen by night, rejecting thousands
of dancing lights. On the opposite
banks rise ghostly cliffs to support
falrylike curtain of starry lights,
with occasional splotches of gleam-
ing flood lights etching in bold re-
lief the headline places of ten GEN.
turies.
One white splash marks the mod
ern citadel, mounted on the hill be-
meath which Roman galleys found
port, where Christian maidens
were held captive until they were
needed for a pasha's harem.
Another illumined span in the i'm
posing Royal palace of $50 rooms,
built by Maria Theresa, and scene
of Hungary's last ball for the ven-
cradle Francis Joseph before his dual
monarchy was sundered. The first
royal residence was planted on that
central Buda hill in the Thirteenth
century by Bella ", whose fateful
reign saw first a migration, then an
invasion. of Mongol hordes. The
marauders took all the grain and
other food stores they could find, a
plague Of locusts ate the crops, and
| when survivors emerged from their
hiding places after the retreat of
invaders, it is recorded that ''the
starving people in their frenzy,
killed each other, and it happened
that the men would bring to market
human flesh for sale"
Beautiful Coronation Church.
Most beautiful high light Of all,
perhaps, is the Gothic spire of the
Coronation church, dating back to
the great and good King Matthias,
son of the renowned Hunyadi, so
bold that he personally spied out
the Notifications of Vienna, in dis
guise, and so scrupulous that when
plan was proposed to poison an
enemy king he retorted, 1--WE fight
with arms, not with poison" In
luxury of his court, though not in
character, he was the Louis XIV Of
Hungary.
In no other city in the world does
night let down a curtain which, cleo
trically lighted, becomes a pageant
Of such amazing history.
Six ghostly bridges span the river
that once split venerable, rocky
Buda from modern Pest, low-lying
and fiat as becomes the commercial
focus of the vast plain that pours
it's grain and wines, it's cattle and
wool, into the warehouses and fac
tories to be shipped or fabricated
for the Danube trade.
1t is hard to imagine the placid
summer Danube raging with winter
ice foes or spring floods. Less than
hundred years ago, in 1888, an ice
jam flooded Pest. swept away a
fourth of the 1000 dwellings then
location Of the newer city.
The neat quays. extending for
more than three miles along the
Pest shores, prevent another such
disaster. Unloading platforms are
concealed from the riverside prom