Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 175, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1915 — CRACOW and Types of Polish Peasantry [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CRACOW and Types of Polish Peasantry

FOR months war dispatches from Galicia —where vast armies have swayed back and forth, locked in one of the outstanding, titanic struggles of history to decide the fate of empires and of two mighty races —have gripped the popular attention more than the news from any other battle theater. On Galicia’s fields during the past few months have been done such feats at arms as the modern world could not have dreamed of; the strength of great Russia swept over this Austrian crownland, driving its powerful armies over the plain in the North, over the central bills, up the southern slopes of the ragged Carpathians, on their lofty, icy crests, beyond these crests, and hovered over the fertile prairie land of Hungary. Here the wave spent its to then irresistible force, and upon the dreary mountain rocks, above the clouds, amid the ice and snow and chill cold of early spring, the flower of Russian and Austro-German strength began rolling backward toward the north, still locked in continuous, grinding battle, until the foothills were left behind and the terrific contest surged in the direction of Lemberg and the northern plain. The nature of this war theater that has beheld among earth’s sternest, most bitter scenes is Intimately described by William Joseph Showalter in a statement prepared for the National Geographic society. This writer says: Densely Populated Land. “Austrian Poland is practically embraced by the crownland of Galicia. This crownland is almost exactly the size of the state of South Carolina, but it has a population six times as great. If continental United States, exclusive of Alaska, were as densely populated as Galicia we would boast of a population four times as great as that of Russia. And yet Galicia is the poorest of all the provinces of Austria. It lies outside the ramparts of the Carpathians, which rob it of the warm winds that otherwise would come to it from the south, and also

turn back upon it the cold winds of the north. Thus these mountains give Galicia long, cold winters; short, wet springs; hot, blistering summers, and dreary, chilly autumns. “The glory of Poland’s past and the hope of her future are Cracow and Lemberg, for it was the former that was her capital in the yesterday of history and the latter that is her capital today and which would be her capital tomorrow were Polish dreams to come true. In Cracc v, the great city of Poland's past, the royal palace still stands; but it is used as a barracks and not as tho home of a king. The cathedral is now the Valhalla of its departed greatness; for there sleep the kings and the heroes from the Jagellons to Kcsciuszko. Not far away is the Kcsciuszkoberg, one of the most remarkable memorials ever reared by the hand of man —a huge mound cf earth brought by loyal Poles from every battlefield in the world consecrated with Polish blood. “The country around Cracow is flat and is devoted almost wholly to small farming and trucking. The peasants dress in white jackets and blue breeches, and wear jackboots; their womenfolk, with large bright shawls and picturesque headdress, brighten and give spirit to the countryside. Primitive Agriculture. “From Cracow to Lemberg the traveler encounters good land; It is fairly level and entirely innocent of fences, boundary stones marking party lines, and tethers or herdsmen keeping

live stock where it belongs. The same methods of agriculture that we used in the United States before the days of the self-binder and the grain drill are still in force in that region. “It is in Lemberg that the only Polish-dominated legislative assembly in existence holds Its sessions, for Lemberg is the capital of Galicia, and the Poles, both because of their shrewd political ability and their numerical weight, control the Galician legislature in the face of their rivals, the Ruthenians of East Galicia. The city of Lemberg is largely modern —a compact nucleus surrounded by scattering suburbs. “While Galicia is almost wholly an agricultural region, and while a large percentage of that agriculture is carried on in the old-time way, there are some few manufacturing neighborhoods and industrial districts. Distilleries occupy first place among the industries, and there are many beetsugar and tobacco factories. Petroleum springs abound along the Carpathians, and some of the towns in this region grow from small villages to modern Beaumonts between New Year and Christmas. “Galicia has many of the world’s most famous salt mines. Those at Wieliczka have been worked for nearly seven centuries, at one time being a principal source of revenue for the Polish kings. Railroads are not permitted to run near them lest their vibrations result in cave-ins. Within these mines are a labyrinth of salthewn streets and alleys, lined with pillared churches, staircases, restaurants, shrines, and monuments. Austrian Poles Fairly Well Treated. “Austria has never treated her Poles as the Russians and the Prussians have treated theirs. The Poles of Austria are as free to sing their national songs as the people of our own South are free to sing “Dixie.” They are as much at liberty to glorify their past and to speak their native tongue as though they were free and independent. Except that they must pay their taxes to Austria and serve

in Austria’s army they are practically self-governing. “As western Galicia ia the stronghold of the Austrian Pole, so eastern Galicia is the main dwelling place of the Ruthenian. The two races never get along very well together. The peasant population of Austrian Poland eke out a hard existence. In many parts of the country the peasant lives in a log hut covered with straw; he breakfasts, dines, . and makes his supper of porridge, washing it down with bad brandy; and in general lives a life full of want and empty of pleasure. The peasants who farm for the nobles receive no money in payment, but only a share of the crop, often as low a share as one-twelfth, a wage of slow starvar tion.”