The Coolidge examiner., 1933-01-27
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Va .Ll l.c..n-. u Z. - W III sar.Lca

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C.-WNU Service.
A LBANIA, which recently cele-
a brated the twentieth ami
Il versary of it's freedom. is Eu-
ropes newest kingdom. During the
first Balkan war, on November %,
1912, Albania notified the world
that il no longer was a Turkish
province. The Turkish flag was
furled after waving over the Al
banians for 400 years. Since its in
dependence Albania has been. sue
cessively. prOtectorate, repub-
lie and a kingdom. The king was
crowned in 1928.
Not long ago Albania's 1874
square miles were without modern
highways and railroads. Even III
rama. the capital, could be reached
only by traversing almost impassa-
BILE roads. Then came the war.
RuinOus war creates, at least
roads. When In 1918 the big guns
thunder died away Albania, which
had been at once a battlefield and
a military corridor. found that she
had accumulated the nucleus of a
well-engineered road system and a
knowledge OF motor transport.
Thus. instead of having slowly
evolved through the steam age and
into the gasoline era, like the rest
of Europe, In little more than
decade she leaped from medieval
ism to modernism. from horses to
horsepower.
Today the Albanian government
spends $200.000 annually In aug
menting those war-born highways.
The Albanian lowlander Is being
stirred TO road-consciOusness by a
law which makes him personally
responsible. either in labor or
money. for the upkeep of 20 feet.
Profound social changes confront
him-him and the traveller. II
refined In my horse" is by way OF
being junked In favor OF 81 shut off
the motor"
Picture of Transition.
Korea. which falls with Scutari,
Tirana, and Gjinokastra (Argyo-
Castro) into the first-line category
of native towns numbering from
1900 10 $4,000 people, presents an
interesting picture of Albania in
transition. Modern buildings rise
over ancient. cobblcd alleys, and
fortress.ike property walls which
guard occasionally glimpsed flower
gardens, charming family retreats.
somewhat in the Eastern style.
The Moslem quarter Is orientally
decorous with black-velled women.
The Christian quarter is decorative
with Europe's knee-high skirts.
fiesh-tint stockings, and bobbed
heads.
Here is progressiveness in the
form of an athletic instructor, the
local representative of a country
wide system. And here Is hide
hound conservatism in the form OF
Albanian mammas who regard any
sport played in running shorts and
followed by cold shower as a
sure road to early death.
Then there is the story of the
draining of Lake Maliqi. A nascent
and ambitious government. wishing
To reclaim thousands of acres of
ftx-.. .f.,H 10 nj SAl1 hA
sion to a company. Its foreign en-
gineers cut sluices, and the first
dredging machine ever seen in AL
bania was set up.
Now. some generations before,
the lake had been created by tor
rents which had rushed down the
hills. suhmerging several Tosk vii
iageS. One of these days. so said
local Tosk tradition. Lake Maliqi
would recede, yielding back to
rrandsons the sublacustrine acres
of their grandsires.
Miraculously. as it were, Lake
Maliqi receded, revealing TO the as
toniShed Tosk peasants gaze their
long-lost chimney pots and ances-
trail lands. With cries of thanks
giving. they rushed upon the scene
and started agriculture.
II is superfuous to depict their
confusion upon learning that prog
ress and not Providence had
worked the miracle: that the lake
bottom now belonged To a company
whatever that might be-and that
they were actually trespassing on
their own ancestral acres.
Market Day in Korea.
Korea becomes transfigured every
market day. Thither troop several
thousand peasants. each attired in
the colorful costume of his native
village. They have ridden or walked
for n day over the mountains. hop
ing TO sell few measures of grain.
a sheep, a horse. at the busy mart.