THE CROATS - eVols at University of Hawaii at Manoa: Homeevols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/32671/1/... ·  · 2013-03-01346 THE XXth CENTURY NOT BALKA.NS! For very many

THE CROATS

By CAUL HEINZ EICKERT

Croalio, l!ie youn{lUI independ nl 8101 in f;urope, u'ot! foullded 071 April 10,19-11, ,,.h(l' }'ugo I"t'io broke up lIfl r h"l'ill!/ bUll driv n illll} Ihe w"r by EIIOI<lIld,0" JIlIl 15, 19-11. roolin j'JillcJI Ihe Triparlil I 'lid ; 011 Dec mlJer 14 ahe elared!l'llr 011 (lr lit liril"ill a",i. Ih 'niled 1:)1"le8.

Duri·ng Ihe first two yc"rN of it.Y e;rislp/If'C, Ihe Gront .•/l/Ic wo/! fnced ",ith err,lain problelll~ "'ilh regard 10 il"ly. A Savo!llL/l prillce, the /Juke of Spolcln. hllCibU,1 dec/flre({ I\illg of Croalia. .HureOl'a. Ilal!! h"d be Il !Iwcn part.• of DaLlllalill,inc/",li"!J Ihe 10ll'n" oj ,""pl,1 "ntl f{olor, '1'he Ir (l80,t of Ihe /lOUilC oj . '''''Oy 1"..1(I/It'lnl7l rdiel'cd tl" Croat" uf IhOiC condili"".,, On ;';CplcmlJ r 9, 1913, u·ilh Ihr aidof Ocrmall IrOO/M. th Cront.• ocrll/,i,d all of /Jnllt,"t;" and Iii ('routiall part uf Jlllri".The Duke uf ' '110/dO lost hi.. ('r""liou Ihrull which. a a maltcr of f(l,'l. he had 'l('/'cruccupied.

1I'e haue oul/ined thcile polilical e/' nl8 befflll..e Ihe f,}l/ulI'i.,.!! article-Ihe firsloj ita kind in f~·".'ft ...Ie iii-i." Hoi f'o,u'crJled with thr politiclIl RI/llatropt of pr 4~"t#da!l

'TO<ltia but 11'i/h the 'To(lli£l1& prr,plc. T)'~ (luthflr. PlIJU' '111 ulloirur/.(Jr of (;rnnallui the: • I'll Foulldalion I',"/'craily oj H.~1I1hll!l, ilp lit ti, 11 tlr~ IY38 to 1910 ,It usimikIr wpaclly al Zngrcb. Ih "cnmd 1/Iu81 i'"/Kirlllllt tOU'1I "f 'I'/Wl u'as Ih " }'ugo.81',,·;a. A Ilhollgh .Wl a h i<!lor;lItl by proje,~,~'ioll. he Iw inc/lui I a ,lintere<lting pie:tureoj the Lilli ,kllu",,, hislorrl oj Ihe Croats,-J\.JIt.

At:: mUoN TRADITIO:S

To th minds of many of Ule in­habitants of . ntral Europe, theword 'Croat" C~11J up a viBion of

wild bands of borStJl1Ien ill t.b ThirtyYears' \\'ar. And in c rtain distri t· of'outh Germany, tho expre."sion "KIo­

wHttl)" i!' titill ill ed t fright n childrenwith. Th word" 'ravat" al 0 seemst.racC'ahlo to the ncckcloths of Croatoldier in olden day'.

Except. for expert, t.h only r opl!' inEuroJ ' \\'ho hay mom than 0. I'upcrficialknowlcdg about the Croats f today aretbe inlllluitant' of old Au, tria; fur the~oa w re one of th people included

in th \u tro-Hungarian monarchy. E"enwh n the 'raats b ·Ionged to tbe Y ugo­'lavian federation, t.ho .·\ustrian trn.rlitiollilamong tbem remained very much alive,and na urally thcti tradition' have notdiminish d in the fi w :hort \'('IIrl; sincetbe cst blishment of a 'r at'l'wt.('. AUthe older generation speak German. sincetbe men served ~ I:loldiers under theAu tro-Hul1 rarlan Jl1 narchy. For t.bewom n of Zagreb, \'ienna has remained

the i y of glamour and of fashion.,'om of tb members of th nobility81 fLk bett r G rJllAIl than ~ atian, andit is by no meaJlS rar to hear roatsociety peopl onversing in German.

Among the ounger g aeration, tbknowledge of German is far J wid­spreflcl. During the years I spent inZagreb, a daily newspaper, the .Morgen­blatt, was published in German, alt-hougha 'omewhat artificial German, Amongt.he common people, one ften finds (\curious jargon which employ Germs,1Iwords in a t:jlavio form. On the Zagrebstage, one can ee scene ill which theclialogue jumps back and forth betw n

h two lauguu.g .; a quarrel b tw nmarri d cou pi , for in tan , ain inhumorous eff ct, by tbe fuel. that th wilish ut. at her hll band in Cro(~tian at nmorn nt and in Cerman at the n xLThe Croat. u!' a. whole ha\'e an xtraor­dinnr..... gift fur mimicry, while th j' U

lei'S able to expre: drnmati' cmoti lLc.;,

A' 11. result, t.h 'ir quite highly develop' Imodern socilll plays are not ~o muchdrll.llI/1S as 'eric' f 'ccn

346 THE XXth CENTURY

NOT BALKA.NS!

For very many Europeans, t.he "Bal­kans" begin southeast of Austria. Butanyone expressing this opinion in Croatterritory would. oon brin er down Croatian,n:ath {Ipon himself and would be givento tmderstand that the Croats are notBalkans but that the Serbs are! Incontrast to the Ort,hodox Serb:::, theRoman Catholic Croats rega.rd themselvesvery definitely a.s Occidentals, as belong­ing to the cultlu'e of Western Europe.While they use the Latin alphabet, theSerbs-like the Russians-write with theCyrillic alphabet. The fact that, unlil,;:ethe Croats, the Serbs were for fourhundred vears under Turkish rule, widelvseparates· the Serbs and C'roats from eachother while, on the other hand, an almostentirely homogenous language unitesthem.

In the Yugoslavic state the officiallaneruage was called "Serbo-Croat." TheCroats called it "Croato-Serb." TheSlovene , the third people formerly be­longing to the Yugoslavic federation,speak their own idiom, which is relateclto the "Serbo-Croat" language but closerto the Hussian in sound.

The population of the former state ofYugoslavia was composed of Serbs,Croats, Slovenes, Germans, ~'lacedonians,

Albanians, and :Moutenegrins. It can­not be denied that the contrast betweenthe Serbs and the Croats was a sharp onein several respects. It led to such ex­tI'emes that, to return to the language, itwas possible for the author to meet anotherwise educated maD who claimed thatSerbian and Croatian were two entirelydifferent languages. In composing thegroups of students at the German Acado­my in Zagreb we had always to bear inmind this cleft between the Croats andSerbs, just as in social life much tact wasrequired in bringing Croats and Serbstogether.

NEIGHDORLY CONFLIC'l'S

On the ,,;'hole, both are very sensitive,often irritable and excitable. Thesetraits doubtlessly point to a southern as

well as a Slavic origin; but they revealjust as muoh a long ..eries of ups anddowns in the history of the two peoples.Foreigners livi.ng in small countries oftenobserve a nat.ional pride which inclinestoward hypersensitiveness as well as moreemotionalism than rationalism. Especial­ly in such countries in which an agricul­tural form of life gradually come. intocontact with industrial and city life,natural confidence gives way to an un­certainty which is expressed emotionallyin an increased touchiness and intellec­tually in an increased receptivity forideologioal slogans.

A good example of remaining what oneis by exploiting one's natural environ­ment, or at least of letting oneRel f bedrawn into modern evolution at one'sown pace, is offered by the Montel1egrins,who were included in the Yugo~lavian

federation in 1918. The country of Mon­tenegro is mountainous and inaccessible,except for a level area around LakeScutari. The population, of mi.:.;:ed Ser­bian and Albanian origin, is a tribe ofwarlike lllolmtaineers. The followinganecdote told among their neighbor~

shows the Montenegrins to be a ;;pecialtype, reckless and proud, that has rc­mained loyal to its old mountain-warriortraditions. A unit of Montenegrin sol­diers is ordered to number off: one, two,three, etc. The first man yells One!"The second does not call out "Two!" but"I'm be ide him!" The pride of a :Mon­tenegrin would never allow him to admitthat he was Number Two.

On the whole, it can be said that allthe peoples of the Balkan Peninsula­where the most varied racial mixtureshave taken place and where the Illostamazing questions of nationality possessmore than purely theoretical significance-have remained more or less primitiveto this day. This is true at least in thatno thorough civilizing or industrial processin the sense of Central European urbanculture has so far been able to evolvethere. This may ttu'Jl out to be a greatadvantage for the future of Europe'svitality. For an inhabitant of CentralEurope it seems amazing tbat all these

THE CROAT. 347

peopl ~hould actually bearth ir indi,-i Illal traits. 'lleruer,who ideas did much t{) awakenth p oples of Europo to u. ~ense

of tho value f their OWII cui·tur ' Ilt. the b 'inning of thela t· century, sc ms to 1~1l" beenright wll('n he :-;uid: "J\() mUll,no (·oulltr.,·. IIlI p<:ople, no hisloryof II p ople, 110 ,.tate. i," idrntical\\'jth Hnuth I" nor, con~eqll ntly,is the t,rue, Ihe beau t iful, andt.he foud in thelll alike, If t.hepeople do 110 • e k for thi". ifthe.,' hlindJy Hk ana her nationas th ·jr exampl<:, nil thC'i'e ljunli­tics will be ·tille I."

~ ,. rthele,·". th Balkan Pen­in"ula l'an with ju;;tifiC'ution berl'j.!/lrded a,.; a IInit, and notonly liS a w'ographieal IIniL. TIJ('re Ilrc\'oi("'s like Ihat of thC' BulgHrian \'nnkoYam·!I II'hi('h "lH'ak or a l"l.n-Bnlkansen,;C' <If unity. J II ordl'l' the bl,t terto !,l'l'cei,'o I,hi,; ha~i(' Balkan physi­oC'nolllr, which unduubtcdll' exi,.;t;.:. itwould' be neeC;;:-larv tu TIl t1~e more dc·­t~'l,il 'd . udi f prehj,,,tori and nrlytim, in th 'IIt,hea·t of Europ. Thea,l'chllcologist and tIle historia.n walkthr ugh the wurk,.;hop uf life iL-:elf whenth·y "'e resident· ':< and ;.:hops buil intothe \"lIst palH('e of the Homan EnlJlf'rorl>iorlC't in,n in thC' DaJmutian port oj'Split,ur "Ia'il in the sume town or in thocoa,lal fortI' . ~ of ()ubro"nik the\' \\'itncill the street" and squlln-;.: n ~OIlth('rn­lll'ball life in the or n which corrc!;pOlldseXllct Iy to our ideu' of the ancient cit.yrepuoli ~.

RU:'lAK E~lrEROUS FU M DAL:llATJA

The Dalmatia n c a" t of the Adriatiwhich, n.ft r twellly-nin month of Ital­ian rule. wa. nnnexerl to Croatia a' ll.

r suIt of last autumn's e\'cnts in Ita Iy­is on of the Jl10.-;t intcJw:tillg part,' of thewh I Hlllkan l'enit ula. Originally in­habited by the Ind -Cermllnie llh-rian:<and Ie. tre'wn with ('eltic, Ph enicia;1. andGreek fragmentl'l f<ince the fOllrth ccnt,uryB.C, DnJrnatia finallv becallle an area ofRoman colonization ~nder Emperor 'Jibe-

riw-: in the lirf;t ccnt.llr,v ..-\.lJ. JII t,hnorth it rea 'hC'd a, fill' ill" !stria; in thnorthe;.:t up to th Hin'r ~a\'n: in thsUllt h te thC' .\lbnnian Hi\'Cr Drin; Hnd itlthe ;.:uuthC'lI.',t, A,.; far :tS the interim fBO";llia. Tlte l'uin~ of Salona, one of themo,;t importllllt itie.. f that lim, which1I'1l": de"tru"cd in (j'l!I, can still b' :<een.I.i\·ing trac'·C';.l or the Homan pn.c.;t arp tobe found ill Ileur-hy Split in tho Palaceof Diocletian which II'C mentioncd IH"foreand the Temple f ,Jupiter, ~C\'(,l'aJ

Jllyrian militnlT lea I r. beeam Homanen; PNOI'S. amo;lf! tllem Claudius II andProbus. lJioeletian himself 11'[\' a 1>al­li tian.

:-lome hundred and fifty y aI's aftertlte I{olllan Em pire had been dividNI intoits lI'e ·tern and ca. t I'n huh'e". l)ulnlHtil1lI'a:- illc1u 1 d ill the exar 'hate of Ran'nn ,In the "ixth And !>('\'en It centurie.. theimmigration of the Slavs took placr. TheHOlllan patriC'iun.· of the l'itie' latel' inter­married ,,-it h nuble ~I \'ic farnilie', thuin 2adur (2111'l\) wh r t 11 Y in tcrmllrriedwilh the Crcmtillllllobilit \', and in Dubrov­nik IIl1d Kotur, \\'h('I'(' ihev intcrmn.rriedwit h the Serbilln nobilit\,. 'The in '1' asin'Tgranting uf l'i\'ic right··to . 'Ia,'ie famili ~.

a" \I' II as \\'id('~rread cpidemi 'on­tribut d tOll'lIrd tlte absorption of theHoman element. In th vente nth cen·tury, the patri ian famiJie of Dul rov-

348 THE XXth CENTURY

nik openly professed themselves to beSlavs.

'rHE RULE OF VENLCE

The period of Roman colonization wasfollowed from the ninth up to the eight­eenth century by the appearance of theVenetians in Dalmatia, which was ac­companied by much bitter fighting. VeLl­i e gradua.lIy occupied the entire easterncoaRt of the Adriatic, which she neededfor her Levantine trade as well as forprotection c~ga,inst the Turks. To thisuay one can -till see stone replicas of theVenetit"tn lion in the former city republics·of Dalmatia.

Tbe antique atmosphere of the townswhich we mentioned above can be tracedto the fomler presence of the RomanEm pire Il.no of half-Occidcntal, half­Oriental Venice. On the ot.her band, oneIII ust not di. regard the fact that Rome ofthe buildings which the traveler seeswere erected not by Roman hut bySlavic architects, although Homan tradi­tions in style stood godfather. Thisapplies, [or example. to the Cathed.ral ofSibenik and the Rector's Palace ofDubrovnik.

The Venctian~ ,eem to have done very·little colonizing ill I)almH h<~. Accordingto a census made in IHIO by Voinovie,there \Verc UI0,669 Slavs in Dalmatia andollly 18,028 Halia.ns. The largest pro­portion of Italian' was to be found inthe urban community of Zaclar: Ml,915•'Itl'\"R alld J 1,:J74 Ita-lians, followed bySplit (Spalato) with 50,514 Slavs andonly ~,O!}O Italians. It is significant thatthe city state of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), withall it." island posse~siolls, a.s 'leU [l,S partof the connty of Split-altogether acoast line of about 2;j() kilometers-werene\'cr under Venetian rule. Dubrovnikbad its own diplomatic corps and its ownfleet. It also bad it~ own literature, oneof the most interesting representatives ofwhich, the poet Gundulic, L'3 unfortunatelyas good as unknown in Cent,ral Em'ope.Moreover, Dubrovnik remained in con-tant <:ont~"tct ,\-ith the Slavic regions of

it, environment.

In the sixteenth century Dalmatia re­ceived new Slavic blood, Serbs and Croatswho had fled from the Turks in Bosnia.Incidentally, tbere is a strong Slavicliturgical movement in the R.oman Catho­lic Church of Dalmatia, the strength ofwhich may be gauged by the centuries­old stubborn fight of especially the lowerclerics ag~1inst the Latin liturgy. Inspite of being under Venetian rule, Splitwas one of the ,trongholds of this re­ligious Slavism. There exists a breviarywritten in the old Slavic church scriptknown a t,ile '·Glagolica." It is said thatthe Glagolica is older than the Cyrillicalphabet of the Orthodox Church. Oueof the squares of Zagreb is named afterBishop Strossmayer, one of the championsof tbe SI.avic litmgy in the last century;and the contemporary Croa.tian sculptorMestrovic has i.mmortalized one of themost famous medieval Slavic bishops ina giant statue.

THE CROA'l'TAN KfXGDOM:

Dalmatia is the cradle of the Croatiankingdom, which stills forms the b(l.'3i~ ofCroatian h~<;tory as ,:een through Croatianeyes. Toward the end of the ninth cen­tury there were three South Sill vic ~tat.es.

(By "Sonth Slavs" we mea.n the formerYugo;;;ln.vs, YI/;) meaning "sollth.") The. ethree stat&! were: Dalmatiall Croatia;Serbia, which was divided up into severalprincipalities; and Croatian Parulonia onthe bankfi of the Sava. and Drava Hivers,where the pre, ent ca.pit.al of Croatia,Zagreb, ~'3 situated. One of the successorsof the first Dalmatian king Tomislav tookon the title of Rex Croatiae et Dall1w.t-iae.But the 1.1:oa.tian royal bouse came to anend a.fter it had existed for about twohundred years, the last king, L:vonimir,being assassinated. A Hungari.an, thebrother of Zvonimir's widow, became hisSllcceSi;Or. It is amazing to see thetenacity with which many present-dayCroats cling to the idea of their nowalmost mythical old kingdom. ~uruerousstreets of Zagreb recaU this ancient king­dom by their name .

Ll the days of the Hapsburgs, Croatiawas part of Hungary. In 1848 a serious

CROATIA WHERE HISTORY LIVES 0:-\

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XX~

CENTURYThe Croatian

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THE CROATS aSl

revolt broke out against the Hungarians;it was led by Jelaci~, the Banus (highestofficial) of Dalmatia, a monument towhom now stands in the main square ofZagreb. It must be emphasized, how­ever, that t,his Croatian-Hungarian enmitydid not arise until comparatively moderntime. und can be traced to the minoritypolicy of th )fagyars, which aroused thewrath of the Slavs. For the ab orptionof the old Croat royal house by theHungarian one, which had taken place inthe eleventh century, had been sano­tioned in 1102 by a reciprocal treaty.The way ill which the Croats interpretedtheir medieval status under the Hungar­ia,ll Crown i typical of the pride of theCroatR. It is contained i.n a documentaddres ed in 1712 by the Croat Diet to}".:mperor Charles VI. "We are free," thopassag runs, "not slaves! Although webelong to Hungary, we are not her sub­ject.!"; we ha\"o had our national kings,who were not Hungarians. It was notforce, not enslavement, that subjugatedU8 to the R ungarians; on the contrary,wo vohll1ta,rily subjected oll1'selves, not tothe kingdom, but to the king."

D"LYRlA.N PATRIOT

A large share in promoting the Croatian(Dalmatian and Central Croatian) feelin cr

of independence is to be conceded to theIlly-riun movpment of the thirties of theI~t century which t.ook its name fromthe ol'igin;tt uUll1bitants of Dalmatia.The Rhort Napoleonic rule Ul Dalmatia.(I '06/1·1) ha.d recognized the Slavic char­adeI' of that country and used Serbo­Croatian as the language of its adminis­tration and schools. Ludovic Gaj, thefather of the IIlyrian Movement, wasborn in the Croatian region of Zagorjebetwe n t.he 1i)mva and Sava Rivers. In1 41 Nicolas Tommaseo, a native of thetown of Sibenik and a curious mixturoof Italian and Slay, wTote thirty-threeprose poems entitled lskrice (Sparks).To use his own word,>, they were "Titten"in ou I' sweet tonguc," and they contaulolle of the most emphatic credos oflllyrian intellectualism, although as anauthor Tommaseo actually made hi nameby Italian literary and philological works.

As a young man he settled in Italy,where he remained until his death inFlorence.

Let us quote from the 1skrice::\Iy poor poopl! You know not your hUitory.

You are liko 0. child who knowlI not the nameand tbe deeds of his parenUl....

Tho people tbnt surround you. my little Dalma.tia. ha\'e nOLhing in common with you ....

My Dalmatia, you are amnII amonR your Sout.hSluvic si- 1'-111: but a \'oic tolls me that one dayyou will not be th mallost or the ugliest amongthom....

Buried for centurios in ignomnce. we still havea livtoly good rult'. n frank way of spcakin~. clear,hought. ~imple ond dignified rn e. peaceful andveh,·ment. ~'ou rO\'l~nl your Al'irit in your physicalforms: puwerful. you lire yot refinod and brilliant.and your mu cles Me supple: your brow is darkbut your smile is s\\ eel. •••.

'romlna. eo was an autonomist and didnot join the Slavic rebel of 1 48, amongwhom there were also many Serbs, led byJelacic and whom the poet-prince PeterII of Montenegro offered tho support ofhimself and his warriors. But Tom­maseo's fiery spirit had a. deep effectupon the lavic mov('ment.

CROAT INTELLECT AND PHYSIQUE

The mtdleetual endeavors of the Croats-which a.re just ILS hanl for the outsiderto foUow as the politiCJ~1 history of theCroats-show variou. tr nd. during theninoteenth century. Cledca,) currents, aswell as ourrents originating in methodand form from Germa.n and Austrianoulture, a.re two among many. During

Croat wOlllan and boy(From u Crout primer)

352 THE XXth CENTURY

the period that Croatia belonged toAu tria-Hungary, Zagreb ("behind t,hemountains," also known as Agram), whichis situated not far from Vienna, was apoint of contact of German and Slavicculture. There Hre st.iH many Germanbooks to be found in Croatian hookst.ores,e 'pecially in second-hand bookshops. Asa result of their training in German univer­sit.ies and their studies in German litera­ture, Croatian authors and scientists fre­quently wrote books in German. Themodern authoress Paula von Preradovic,for in tance, published a volume of Ger­man poems about the Adriatic.

As long as Croatia belonged t,o theAustro-Hungarian monarchy, t.here wasalways a Croat detachment garrisoned inVienna. General Boroevic, who was thecommander of tho Fifth Austrian Armyduring the Great 'Yar and held theIsonzo f1'ont against the Italians for threeyears, had Croats, Hungarians, 'lovenes,and Germans under his command. Bo­roe,ic, who ,ya extremely popular amonghis soldiers, was soft of heart but ofutmo 't severit.y in ca."es of military neces­sity. Men of a similar type are to befound among the Croats quite often.

Physically, the Croats how great dif­ferences in typ from the tall Alpinetype to the dark-skinned Ba.lkan mixture.Tempera.mentally one often finds, espe­cially among the women, that combina­tion of extreme warmth and coldness socommon to the Slavs.

801'0 AND DANCE

Modern Zagreb has all the attributes ofa rapidly developing city: modernisticutility buildings, luxurious residences witha lot of glass and chromium, automat res­taurants, and a tabloid press. We havealready seen that Croatia possesses avirile intellectual life. The names ofsuch Croatian artists as, for instance, thecomposer Gotovac or the dancer MercedesGoric-Pavelic, are known beyond theborders of their own cOlmtry. Someyears ago, during the days of the Yugo­slavian state, a special tax was levied onmovie tickets to support the stage, whichwas declining in popularity. This, togeth-

er with the fact that the beautifulnational costumes of the peasants in theinterior must now be protected by specialinstitutions, are regrettable phenomena.But these trends are to be observedthroughout the civilized world.

However, the Croats, who are a verymusioal people, still love to dance theKolo, a Slavio round dance. One oftennotices young people sitting in the eve­ning on a bench under a tree, singing to­gether. Or it may happen that in a cafe,after the professional singer has finished,someone, perhaps a student, gets up andsings a song which is enthusiastioallyapplauded by the guests. The com­munity singing which begins when theconversation threatens to peter out at aparty or when the first indications ofdrwlkermess become apparent is amongthe foreigner's most memorable impres­sions. The vocal and dance performancesof peasants which sometimes take placein one of the parks of Zagreb reveal thatthe old spirit of the peasant is still alive,in spite of all modem influences. Thechildren's primer is ued by the officialschoolbook-publishing house of tho Croa­tian government shows all t.he people inCroatian na.tional dress. The men wearwhite trou 'ers and a white shirt ,vith ablue sleeveless jacket and soft wovenleather shoes or high boots; the womenwear full-skirted white dresses, charming­ly embroidered, mostly in- red. Theyalso wear woven shoes, and on theirheads little embroidered caps.

L~ AND AROUND ZAGREB

Every day one could see in Zagreb thepea ant \yomen in their white dre~se,

who had come from their villages carryinghuge bundles of laundry on their heads,walking through the streets with theirrhythmic gait: they were bringing backZagreb's laundry which they had washedat home. Men in national costume droveflocks of turkeys through the cit,y; theycarried one or two switches with whichthey directed the birds through the noisystreets as with magic wands. Sometimesthey would sit down on the curb for arest, and the turkeys would then placidly

promenade in their fezze. The police­men, often 'erb, were picked, broad­shouldered giant wearing ulliforms l'limi­lar t.o the English "bobbi '," \\ith thesame type of helmet.

Dr. ~lacek the leader of the CroatianPea ants Party, endeavored to realizeth aim of the roats within th Yugo­slav Uite. The Croat. accu d the . rbof oppr ..; ing and exploiting them, on oft.he many points being tho neglect. ofpubli on ·tru tion work in the <"''roll.1 ianparts of the country, Dr. Macek waadmired by many and repudiated byother, in whose opinion he wa. notradical enough. Public opinion in Croatiawa, ind cd, thoroughly worked up.Every onceivable political maxim wachampioned a.nd fought over. Above nil,the cultural individuality of nil peoplewas stre sed, an attitude characteri tic ofthe Croat. ,feanwhile, the even of thepres nt war have led to the formation ofthe ·tato of Croatia.

Croat contingents are now fighting onthe ea torn front against the Sovi ts andwere mentioned for their bravery duringthe heroic I'truggl at talingrad. Onceagain, the Croats bear arm as they cl.idunder their own kings, in the armie. ofVenice, during the Thirty Years "aI',and under the Hap burgs. :r\ow andagain one hears reports of their tra­ditional courage. It is to be hoped thatthe Croats ma,y in a Illore peaceful futurebecome stabilized as a nation in accord­nn e with their historical and culturaltracl.ition und within the European COIU­

mWlity of .Balkan nations.

TIlE CROATS

gath r &round t.heir master with theutmo. t discipline. ow and aga.in a manwould ride past on lL peasant' cart play­ing the violin; or a ick person \\'ould becarried across the street by bis friend.

On the roads to the village nearMount Slj m there wer nunlcrous beg­gars on Sunday; sometim their eyesWeI' gone and on wa tared at by theempty red 0 ket. A one walked alongon beard the incessant chant of thebeggars. Littl girls stood next to bab,vca,rrirl.ges on which a homemad placardiudi 'atcd the disease from which thebaby w supposed to be suffering.

The wom n and girls of Zagreb fr ­quently made troet collections for thepoor. In addition to u h public oeialcampaign, ther wa a "mobilizati n'ag in t illiteracy, \.,.hich wa till fairlywide prea.d and t.o combat which school­teach rs off red their free time. On thewhol , it can be said that public life wasreally more public, t.ook phc m reopenly, than is the case no\mdaYH in thehighly organized tat of Central Europe.

To this is added the olorfulne of allBalkan cities. There are Turkish I' ­t-aurants, where one can obtain friedTurki h cakes. Turkish coffee, preparedin mall bra vessels, i dnmk every­where. Dalma.tian wine shops offer sweetdark-golden wine which, more often thannot, was grown by the owner in his ownvineyard. An appetizing smell a ..ailsone a one passes by shops where meat isgrilled in the open. Paprikas cut inali are rved as alad. Men from themountainou region of Lika wear Batlittle cap, Mohammedans from Bo nia

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353

.9Imerican (/Je/ense cftafi.stics

It costs about US 5800 to take a woman visitor through thebig Dougla.s anta Monica aircraft factory, a company official esti­mated-she distracts so many of their young mcn workers. Asimilar factory barred a proposed vi it from mo\"ie actress usanHaywa.rd, estimating that the time lost for ogling would in this casecost USS20,OOO.