Show O I y 1 i 7 ii w aa 7 S l S T a p pl iy 1 C t n t y Wedding Procession In Rural Rumania Pre Prepared b P Society letY Washington gl t D C WN Service N RUMANIA cast and lest cst are so IN Interwoven that It is difficult to determine shere here one leaves oj off and the other begins Some historians the strange blending of the OrIent and the OccIdent Occident dent within the Rumanian borders to countless invasIOns Each Invader whether Roman Hun or Turk left his strong ImprInt on the nature of the people Though Paris may be France Bucharest is hardly Rumania This capital has almost nothing In common with the country It Is a gay cosmo city often orten It not aptly called the LIttle Paris of the Balkans Its streets are crowded wIth smartly dressed women officers resplendent In their colorful uniforms and gold braId and men and women of the foreIgn col onles who contrast strikIngly with peasants In native dresses and gypsies In rags and tatters Its restaurants and coffee houses always famous for good food food are abuzz with the latest political rumors and gossip The opening in the autumn of par par- parliament parliament by the king Is a brillIant For se eral blocks and for hours th the palace guards in their brIght uniforms high patent leather jack jach boots shin shinIng lag Ing helmets with white horsehaIr plumes stand smartly at attention until the members ot of parliament the diplo- diplo diplomatic diplomatic matic corps the army generals and the king hate ha passed The great gred moments are the arrIval and the departure of the king in an open landeau Footmen In satin breeches long coats of brocade and three cornered three cornered hats and a ferocious coachman cracking Ins his whIp at six milk white or coal black stallions on whose backs bachs rIde In brIght red hunting costumes add to the lag Ing medIeval picture Sleigh rIde In Bucharest It Is fun in wInter to hire an open sleigh drawn by horses bedecked WIth bells and red ribbons and driven by a coachman in a high fur a tall astrakhan cap long velvet coat and wide girdle of metal There are still a few coachmen liv Hv- lag Ing in Bucharest who belong to a curious cu- cu rious dous alien nUen sect called now al al- al almost most extinct The men nien were allowed to marry but at the birth of the first child chUd they were made sterile One sees lees them often drIving open car car- carriages carriages They are fat and their sUn skin Is like yellow parchment The wIde avenue leading up to the Arc de past a pretty little race course and the golf links of the Country club Is a miniature Lion of the Champs Elyseos In the French capital Many stately palaces and homes line Une Its streets Rumania has gone modern In her new houses and apartments There Is much music other than In Inthe inthe the cafes Bucharest boasts ot of rather good opera during the winter and a realty really fine symphony plays modern music The National temple Is well patronized and plays by Ru Rumanian manian and foreign authors are given Once ornate the building is now shab- shab shabby shabby by although an air ot of faded elegance still pervades the place The parliament buildings and the Rumanian Orthodox church stand on the summIt of the only hm hill in Bucha- Bucha Bucharest Bucharest rest Bucharest is a city ot of churches From ITom everywhere can be seen rising the rounded domes of the Rumanian Orthodox church The people are re- re religIous but matter of fact about It it De Despite Despite spite the Slavic Influence there Is no mysticism here Religion Is simply a part of everyday life The church Is like a protective protect father and they respond with simple faith Down by the banks ot of the tho vIta which Eddie Cantor made famous In one ot of hIs songs Is the great mar market market ket where flowers fruit fruit food house household household hold goods and Rumanian handiwork are sold In the open booths ot of peasants and petty Because so many peasants are unable to read signs on many stores and shops are U 11 with pictures of the articles for sale within Among the Peasants Around Bucharest the country Is not unlike the agricultural state ot of Ran Kan Kanus us bas Here Is a tremendous wheat and corn re region lon Visitors enjoy going through the villages es In this ferUle fertile Crazy little Rube Goldberg houses whose white washed walls are painted in soft pastel shades and dec decorated decorated orated wIth borders of flowers or an animals present an amusingly shaky as- as aspect aspect along the streets sheets Rumania is one ot of the few countries now left In Eu- Eu Europe Europe rope whose peasants usually dress In native costume The Rumanian peasant Is 18 lovable Always gracIous courteous and good good- natured ho Is industrious yet some some- what inefficient He works hard In his fields and forest but always In a prim prim- primitive manner using the crude tools ot of othIs hIs tot tOl Many l resIdents of Bucharest spend their summers In at the top of the Carpathian Pass on the boun boun- boundary dary lIne between the Old Kingdom and Tl During theIr halt holl days they have many opportunities to e the ancient methods method of work followed by the peasants One Is particularly impressed with the thc natIve manner of washing clothes The laundress builds a fire in the yard ard beneath a large iron pot In which she puts the clothes to boll boil Then In a 8 large wooden trou trough h hewn from a log she rubs and washes the garments with her hands without even the aid of n a washboard Neat Ne t she wrings out the heavy y linen wIth her own hands Back Bach breaking work it Is but the clothes emerge spotlessly white Gypsies Are Numerous In the Danube Delta country during the sprIng and summer many gypsy camps are found The gypsies carve out of wood huge water troughs aU all varIety and manner m ot of cooking men sits washing equipment etc With their wild anImal eyes scraggly black blach locks wretchedly dirty and clad In rags g gypsies are n a proof of the dIsillusion dIsillusionment meat ment of reality Who has not conjured up some gay romantic picture of gypsy life Ufe from afar Yet how distressing when one meets It at close quarters l f But gypsy musIc Is beautifuL Almost at ery e street corner In Bucharest one encounters encounters an urchin with Ith his violIn ready to play for a few let lei Winters in Bucharest are bitterly cold Often one Is distressed to 8 sea I gypsy boys halt half naked and shivering beggIng at the street corners The delta country covers a tremendous dons dous area spreading between the three branches branches- ot of the Danube Most Important important tant of Danube channels is the SulIna which carries most of the rIver traffic coming down from far off of Germany AustrIa Hungary and The European commission of the Danube whIch assures free navIgation of the rn riser er struggles es constantly to keep heep the silt washed down from half balf of Europe from clogging up this artery to the tho Black sea seaOn seaOn On the Danube's banks are two im important ports Galati and which receIve vessels ot of ocean draft Prin Principal cipal exports are wheat corn barley lumber and some oU oil Is Interesting Rumania Is more RussIan than Russia The men aU all wear full beards and are dressed In long velvet coats buttoned very smartly up the front while the women In their full skirts and heads covered with bright carrs mal make e a gay picture Children are everywhere chewing sunflower seeds se-eds the Russian substitute for gum and peanuts is like a tiny Venice with its canals sen serving as main thoroughfares through the town Both In the fisher fisher- fishermen's mens men's houses and In the market places the tra trat eler always finds at least one lovely Entering first an Immense storage building one sees where here the fish are cleaned sorted packed in ice for ship meat ment to Bucharest t and other consumIng consuming Ing centers and smoked or salted for export There Is a great variety ot of salt and fresh water fish Including some strange species At Atthe Atthe the back of the storage house Is a adeep adeep deep cave topped by an ear eal then mound where hundreds ot of tons ot of Ice cut from the rIver and canals In winter are arc stored against the summer heat Crossing the main canal by an arched wooden bridge which recalls the Rialto the traveler arrives at the large open market Here the fisher fishermen fishermen men bring their dally daily catch to be sold under the supervision of the state fish fisheries erles eries They go out In groups of fi five fie fior e or six to each sturdy boat made water watertight tight and blackened by tar The boats set out In time to reach the grounds by daylight the fishermen sat Sll they must catch the wary sturgeon while she Is still asleep The fishing ground varIes with the seasons sometimes it Is the Black se sea and sometimes the Danube and the channels of the delta where the sturgeon sturgeon geon come to spawn The boats about noon noon are unloaded the fish weighed and the caviar extracted The Sturgeon are put up for auction and the buyers must be very expert to judge the amount of caviar In the fish fishi before It Is opened The These e were the most famous and rIchest ot of RussIa caviar fisheries before became be became came Ii a component part of Rumania ii 11 1918 1418 |