Underrepresented

I said before that Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians and the like as well as actual African nationalities are painfully underrepresented in American ACG media until recently, but even then it’s kind of hard naming an Estonian character in either DC or Marvel who’s not a background extra. If because there’s really none at all, and there still isn’t one to this day. Senegalese characters are in short supply in DC and Marvel, but they might as well be similarly nonexistent. The same can be said of Latvians, Georgians (as in those coming from Georgia the country), Lithuanians, Armenians, Kazakhs, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Tajiks, Krygyz, Ghanaians, Zimbabweans, Ugandans, Liberians, Angolans, Gabonese, Congolese (and Kinois), Mozambicans, Ivorians, Rwandans and so on.

It’s kind of hard naming any prominent Czech, Hungarian or Slovak DC or Marvel character because there’s really none at all, none to begin with and still none today, like if you want real Czech, Hungarian or Slovak representation you might as well persue and peruse Czech, Hungarian and Slovak media instead. Romanians might as well be vampires and not ordinary people like everybody else, Estonians could easily be mistaken for Russians, and many Americans would think of Georgia as a US state, not a separate country somewhere in the Caucasus. So whatever Georgian mutant that shows up in the X-Men canon will mostly probably come from Atlanta, not somewhere like Tbilisi for instance. Who cares about Moldovans, they might as well be Romanians all along.

Ditto Croatians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Bosnians and Slovenes unless if they appear in Joe Sacco’s comics, and unfortunately Joe Sacco seems to be one of the few US cartoonists who do bother putting Yugoslavs in his comics. It’s even odder still to think that despite DC rebooting its canon every now and then, Slovaks and Latvians have yet to show up there even when it’s now possible to do so, or for another matter making existing characters like Terra and Vixen belong to actual nationalities this time. Terra being a Slovak woman and Vixen a Zimbabwean woman, DC writers could be free to grandfather a Congolese nationality onto Bwana Beast. Marvel’s no different to some extent, yet not a single Marvel writer bothered to retcon both Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver into being Romani Slovenes.

Making Victor von Doom Croatian would be nice but it destroys the illusion of plausible deniability if he actually came from somewhere in Croatia himself, who knows what would happen if somebody like Shuri were to be retconned into being a Bamileke Cameroonian herself. It’s even wilder to think there are practically no Namibians, Botswanans and Nigeriens in Marvel, there is some Botswanan representation in DC but he’s just a bitplayer. Just a character to be saved by Superman and nothing more, Superman being the resident All-American hero at DC Comics. There are really no Botswanan superheroes in either the DC or Marvel canon, not even a recurring Botswanan supporting character like what Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are to the Superman canon.

Botswanans are cannon fodder to DC and Marvel writers alike if they ever show up at all, Storm is pretty much alone in the entire US comics canon as the best known African character there. One would be hard-pressed to find any Kazakh characters in DC and Marvel, because they’re practically nonexistent there. You’d have to find Armenians in DC and Marvel in vain, even when Armenia’s no longer part of the Soviet Union at this point. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all part of the European Union now, but there’s not a single Baltic superhero to this day at either DC or Marvel. Not even a Baltic supervillain at that. Supposing if someone made a story involving an Estonian man named Ilmar Tuglas. He doesn’t just generate and manipulate strings, but also emeralds.

He also works as a financial adviser, despite having harbouring pro-socialist sentiments every now and then, come from a family of communists and fur farmers and lives somewhere in Ahja, Estonia, with family somewhere in Saaremaa (an Estonian island). He’s based on Kakyoin Noriaki from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure right down to his fashion sense and personality to a large extent, JJBA being a Japanese comic involving superpowers by the way. Let’s say that his author isn’t from Estonia themselves, and this character shows up in a North American comic or video game, he may not be a Marvel or DC character. But it does speak volumes about how strangely underrepresented Estonians are, despite Estonia being an EU member at this point in time, but I guess US writers could rather pay more mind to America’s longer-standing allies instead.

Estonia might not be that poor either, compared to say Georgia for instance, but it’ll often be overlooked by DC and Marvel. Especially when it comes to having a particularly prominent superhero of its own or more, compared to long-standing US allies like South Korea, to the point where Estonia might essentially serve as cannon fodder to US superheroes instead. Estonia had been thoroughly influenced by Russia before, around the time South Korea was created to contain the spread of socialism throughout the Korean peninsula, Russian influence was already years deep in Estonian culture. South Korea kind of inherited the showbiz culture from America, both K-Pop and K-Rap are evidently derivative of American popular music. It’s not that a showbiz culture is nonexistent in Estonia, but that it would’ve resembled Russia’s own instead.

It’s kind of astonishing to think that Russia was at some point the only other major superpower in the Cold War, but it never got its own Hollywood even when it had all the other communist allies around, or at least nowhere near the scale Hollywood does for America. As South Korea is a longer-standing US ally than Estonia is, it would’ve inevitably inherited the American showbiz culture. To the extent that US publishers are more willing to represent South Koreans than Estonians, because of the residual feeling that South Korea is really on its side, despite Estonia being a western country itself and it was a US ally for quite a while in recent memory. You could also say that South Korea has K-Pop, but then again K-Pop is derivative of American popular music in many ways, so it’s going to be more palatable to US and US ally tastes.

That’s why Marvel has Luna Snow, a K-Pop musician who moonlights as a superheroine, even if Estonia’s currently capitalistic at this point but it’s still going to have the suspicion of being a Russian ally despite appearances to the contrary at this point. That’s why Netflix, a US streaming service, has KPop Demon Hunters. Even if Estonia was for a long time a Swedish colony, then a Russia colony and now a ceritified member of the European Union, South Korea is a US ally from the get-go and its exports are going to be more compatible with American and US ally tastes, than with their Estonian counterparts (if they exist at all). So Estonians as well as Latvians, Lithuanians, Georgians, Armenians and Moldovans are going to be this underrepresented in DC and Marvel, or for another matter Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Bulgarians.

A common thread with many of these countries is that they’re all former socialist countries, as to be conflated with Russia especially if they’re European countries at that. I suppose if somebody were to substitute Latveria, Transia/Trasnia and Sokovia for Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary, it could still run into problems but if they got represented in Cold War era stories, their characters would either serve as antagonistic foils to US heroes or join US teams if they’re heroic, which Natalia Romanova is both of these things and she’s Russian. From my personal experience reading US comic books and the like, the only times actual Yugoslavs get any representation at all in is Joe Sacco’s nonfiction works. But these highlight a strong disparity between Yugoslavs and their fictionalised proxies, because Joe Sacco’s a journalist who uses cartooning to talk about social issues in other countries.

Similar things can be said of the differences between the way actual African countries are portrayed in nonfiction as opposed to say the DC and Marvel canon, where in the former they actually show up and sometimes realistically so. But in the DC and Marvel stories, most actual African countries are nonexistent. There are practically no Angolans, Cameroonians, Ugandans, Namibians and Rwandans in either the DC or Marvel canon, which gets really weird because these two are no strangers to retcons and reboots that at any point where a writer could’ve grandfathered a Cameroonian nationality onto Black Panther and Shuri, this never came to pass. DC’s no stranger to reboots and the opportunity to make Vixen Zimbabwean never came to pass either, you might as well tell me to make my own characters so I did.

Fabrice Tientcheu is a Cameroonian forensic scientist who has the ability to soften things, is very high-culture himself (he likes reading books on sciences like astronomy and chemistry, as well as books by Jean Baudrillard, Umberto Eco, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus), owns cats because his father’s afraid of dogs (Cameroonian rapper Mink’s is afraid of dogs himself as well) and is actually based on another Jojo character, Trish Una who also has the same ability herself. He lives somewhere in Cameroon, whether if it’s Bamendjou or Bafang. But these are real places in Cameroon and also Africa, you could go there if you want to. He has a twin sister named Yvette, a seamstress who’s in love with his colleague and the resident detective Jean-Louis Lumiere.

Nigerians do get some representation in Marvel, via the character of Temper. But she’s not as well-known as Storm is, so Storm’s practically alone in the entire US comics canon as the best known fictional African to come from a real African country. If the adage the more, the merrier works; then it serves to have another Nigerian character around in the form of Tifeoluwa Babatunde Olatunji. He works as a lawyer and lives somewhere in Lagos, he sometimes gets into joking banter with Fabrice over rice and other foodstuffs. Even odder still over at DC is how and why there’ll never be an Elseworlds or Imaginary Story featuring an Icelandic Fire and a Chilean Ice, but I feel it kind of ties into stereotypes about Latin Americans and Scandinavians. Not just in terms of ability, but also personality.

From what I’ve read, Beatriz da Costa (Fire) is shown to be brash and flamboyant but Tora Olafsdotter (Ice) is more mild-mannered. That’s not to say there aren’t any Brazilians who act like Beatriz nor are there any Norwegians who act like Tora, but it still wouldn’t fit into the way they actually see themselves as. Supposing if there are characters with abilities similar to these two, but Fire is Scandinavian and Ice is Latin American this time. Sometime as early as 2010, I came up with an Icelandic male character who is Fire and manipulates volcanism himself, and Ice is a Japanese woman. This time both characters are female, thus further paralleling their DC counterparts. Linhildur Solveig Arnleifsdottir is analogised to Beatriz da Costa, though she has red hair and often at the receiving end of her husband’s affairs.

(She’s also a natural redhead to boot.) She comes from somewhere in Iceland, more specifically Reykjavik and she works as a government official. That’s not to say there aren’t any Scandinavian redheads out there in American ACG media, but it seems Age Of Mythology’s the rare instance of this unless if Jimmy Olsen counts (he’s obviously of Scandinavian descent himself). Dark-haired Scandinavians in DC do exist, but particularly in the form of Pieter Cross. Marvel’s Loki could also count in a way, because he’s based on Norse mythology. That’s not to say all Scandinavians are dark-haired (or red-haired or blond-haired either), but it still wouldn’t reflect the way they see themselves. Linhildur being a redhead reflects on the fact that Iceland does have a good number of redheads itself, then come Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

It seems within the Marvel canon, if foreign redheads do exist they’re usually more likely to come from either Scotland or Ireland. Not that redheads are nonexistent in both places, but it still wouldn’t be how they see themselves as. Quite frankly, I’m unable to name a famous Scottish or Irish redhead in music. People like Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, Ronan Keating and Nicola Cloaghan are all Irish blonds, though with the last one you wouldn’t guess this until she stops dyeing her hair red for Bridgerton. The rest of Boyzone and Altan all have dark hair themselves, everybody in Clannad has natural dark hair (until lately as they’re getting older) and the same can be said of everybody in the band Capercaillie. Sinead O’Connor had natural dark hair. Nightcrawlers’ John Reid had natural blond hair when he was younger, Kevin McKidd’s also blond.

Karen Gillen are Moira Shearer are both the only natural Scottish redheads that I can think of, but since natural red hair’s rare so it’s to be expected that it would be easier naming blond and dark-haired Irish and Scottish celebrities instead, especially in my case. Moving over to England, I could name some natural redheads there. You have Mick Hucknall, Patricia Hodge when she was younger, Newton Faulkner, Ed Sheeran, arguably David J from Bauhaus when he was younger and Jess Glynne, even if red hair’s not stereotypically considered to be an English trait. Marvel’s Elsa Bloodstone could count, but in her earlier appearances she had blonde hair. Betsy Braddock’s also a natural blonde and so is her brother, though you could say that I’m very much wrong in here.

But it still reinforces a message that rufosity’s the domain of Irish and Scottish people, especially in the Marvel canon. Even if not all redheads are Scottish or Irish themselves within Marvel itself, it still reinforces a particular view about these people. A view that some Irish and Scottish people internalise themselves, not that they’re any less red-haired either. It’s likely why outside of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic media, redheads are rarely ever Scandinavian in American media. I’m thinking in the lines of things like Age Of Mythology being the rare instances where you can find Scandinavian redheads in any way, the other one being God Of War when it comes to its own version of Thor. Ditto Latin American blonds, even when Cameron Diaz is a thing in real life.

Despite Cameron Diaz’s prominence and moreso when she was younger, given her father was Cuban himself, whenever Latin Americans show up in American media they usually tend to have dark hair. Beatriz da Costa might be the only instance that I can think of in American fiction who’s not dark-haired herself, one would wonder why there are so little to no natural Latin American blonds and redheads within DC and Marvel. They do show up in Latin American media, both nonfiction and fiction, but they’re very rare in DC and Marvel, if they show up at all. I do know that white Latinos exist and characters like Julio from X-Factor reflect on this in a way, even if natural blond and red hair aren’t necessarily common in Latin America either, but the fact that these two traits show up in Latin American comics among fictional characters acknowledges their existence.

The character I came up with is Piedad Franulic Kristof, a Chilean woman of Croatian and Hungarian descent. She’s analogised to Tora Olafsdotter in that both of them are light-haired women who manipulate the cold, but she’s also based on Nijimura Kei in that they’re resentful towards the people they serve (the Orvilles in Piedad’s case) and Kei also manipulates the cold herself. Piedad more specifically has mousy blonde hair which can also be regarded as light brown hair just the same, though it’s lighter than that of Colin Sallow. I feel it’s easier to think of Latin Americans as not only commonly dark-haired, but also somewhat darker than that of white Americans is the way the latter views the former and vice versa at times, when it comes to othering one another. Like if the prototypical American’s of either Western or Northern European descent, then the prototypical Latino’s of indigenous descent.

Blond hair’s more commonly found among countries like Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, even if not all Britons, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Norwegians and Danes are necessarily natural blonds, let alone for life. Like I said John Reid had blond hair when he was younger, Liam Howlett had blond hair when he was a young boy. But this is also where most white Americans come from, so to the prototypical white American resembles the prototypical Northern European. The prototypical Latin American is someone who’s either of indigenous or Spanish descent, and the Spanish are often assumed to be dark-haired themselves. Not that the Spanish are any less dark-haired in reality, but the way Americans conceptualise both Latinidad and Spanishness is different from how these people view it in themselves.

It should be noted that there are Latin Americans of Polish, German, Dutch, Croatian, Hungarian and Ukrainian descent, Piedad is a Chilean woman of both Croatian and Hungarian descent. So it reflects on this in a way but perhaps outside of Latin American fictions, this is very nearly nonexistent in US media. There’s a version of the Babysitters Club where one of the blonde characters got made into a dark-haired Latina, but I feel this is one of the few instances that kind of reflects on it in their own respective ways. But I feel when Latin Americans are in the US themselves, whether in real life or in fiction, they will be othered in a way they aren’t back in Latin America. Even if not all Latinos are practising Catholics or even Catholics in general, if being American means being Protestant, then the othering’s bound to happen anyways.

It wouldn’t be the case in countries like Ireland, Poland, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and France, where Catholicism’s part of the cultural mainstream there. Not so much in countries like America, Britain, Canada and Finland where Protestantism’s part of the cultural mainstream there instead, so even white Latin Americans would be really othered in those places. It may not always be the case within DC and Marvel, but being American institutions, it’s going to play a role in some way. It’s not hard to see how and why Latin Americans, real or not, are going to be othered in American culture. It’s not that the Baptist church, Methodism, Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism are nonexistent in Britain, Finland, Latvia, Canada, Sweden and Norway, but America has been the hotbed of world Protestantism until recently.

If because due to Christianisation, the African countries are catching up real quickly here. Especially places like Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya, though they’re not without considerable Catholic populations to boot. But even if denominations don’t always get factored into the equation, Latin Americans are still going to be othered in America in other ways. So that’s why Latin American superheroes like Beatriz and others are portrayed the way they are in American ACG media, the portrayal’s not always racist but there’s a kind of implicit othering in some cases. Central Asians are weirdly very underrepresented in US fictional media in any capacity, given they don’t neatly fit into American boxes regarding not only both East Asia and West Asia, but also Eastern Europe.

This becomes particularly the case with both Kazakhs and Krygyz, because although many of them look East Asian, they also aren’t from somewhere further east like in both Indonesia and Malaysia, speak Turkic languages and actually have a degree of Western Eurasian DNA themselves, so they don’t neatly fit American prototypes for what Muslims ought to be. Both Uzbeks, Tajiks and Turkmens may fit American conceptions of Islam in many regards, but sadly they remain underrepresented in the American imaginary. Instead of actually representing Uzbeks, Tajiks and Turkmens this time around in both DC and Marvel, DC creatives like James Gunn and Greg Weisman would rather use proxies like Jarhunpurians and those from Qurac instead. Ditto Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians and even Palestinians to my knowledge.

There are Marvel writers who do kind of represent those coming from Lebanon in a way as it is with Sina Grace, but then again a good number of Marvel writers like Chris Claremont are Zionist, to the point of portraying even the worst Jewish character like Magneto more sympathetically than he would with an Arab like the Shadow King. David Haller, when he initially appeared, was the illegitimate teenage son of Charles Xavier and an Israeli national, who got possessed by the Shadow King. So with the combined efforts of Xavier and somebody else, David Haller finally got exorcised. But I don’t read comics that often, much less the DC and Marvel variety at this point, so I’m going by what I recall reading. But it kind of insinuates a message that Arabs are ought to corrupt minors like David Haller, well at the time so.

And more recently in Absolute Superman, West Asians Ra’s Al-Ghul and his daughter Talia have invaded the US. Even as a Christian it’s kind of telling that it plays into a kind of xenophobic sentiment, but aimed specifically at West Asians regarding their supposed ability to ruin and undermine western civilisation (as represented by DC’s quintessentially Midwestern town Smallville). Palestinians are very underrepresented in US fictional media, especially when the US itself has a strong Zionist streak, that it’s this easy to demonise them. Even weirder still is that Palestine actually houses the world’s oldest Christian community, coupled with that there are some Israelis like Paul Wexler suspecting them to be the actual direct descendants of the ancient Israelities in a way Ashkenazi Jews aren’t.

Arthur Koestler, a Jew, was one of the earliest to point out that Ashkenazis aren’t related to the ancient Israelites as much as they are to the Khazars, a long-lost Turkic people. Even studies pointing out that Ashkenazis are the descendants of Judaised Caucasians, Slavs, Greeks, Turks, Iranians and East Asians (who may be Mongols, the folks who were close to the Turkic tribes) would still bring up the Khazar ghost in some way, given the Zionist insistence on the idea that Ashkenazis are the direct descendants of the Israelites. Actually Ashkenazis being more closely related to Slavs seems more plausible, not only because their folkways are more Slavic than West Asian, but also because they lived in Slavic lands far longer than they do in West Asia, as to be Slavicised over time. Mr Wexler even said that Yiddish really is a Slavic language with a heavy Germanic influence.

Not helped by that Ashkenazi Jews lived in Slavic countries like Slovakia, Poland, Belarus and Russia for so long, that they’d inevitably be fluent in Russian, Polish, Slovak and Belarusian which would’ve further Slavicised Yiddish despite having Germanic influence too. And Yiddish sounds like a Polish speaker trying to speak German themselves, or sing in my case since I listened to a duo singing the song ‘Tumbalalaika’ which seems like a German song with a Polish accent. (This is what you get for finally listening to something in Polish.) The profound Zionist streak that a number of DC and Marvel writers exhibit is likely why there are practically no Palestinian superheroes in both the DC and Marvel canons, why somebody like Kitty Pryde gets away with the very thing that got a Native American like John Proudstar into trouble and so on.

It’s as if being Jewish is enough to automatically absolve somebody of their wrongdoings, which reflects in the way the western world continues to support Zionist Israel at any time. It’s kind of also like this in something like Power Mark, where a number of characters who aren’t Biblical characters who get to be flawed are a Russian boy, a Chinese woman (Power Mark’s sister) and a Latin American girl, but the Jewish boy’s portrayed as rather flawless. I feel as if western countries readily support Zionism is partly because Jews are a kind of model minority’s model minority, if you know what I mean, as opposed to the way the Chinese, Indians and others are regarded as such, especially if they’re not only Gentile but also significantly more numerous and oppose western values themselves in some manner.

This might explain the orientalist othering these people often get in western fictions, where a westernised East Asian like Jubilee is considered a good guy but not the Mandarin. Or for another matter, characters coming from former European colonies like Vietnam (Karma) and the Philippines (Galura, Wave), which kind of insinuates the message that western countries are the gold standard for what’s good and progressive. Even when both China and India were far ahead of the west when it comes to women wearing trousers, West Asian countries and Russia having more women in STEM, China having had women play ball games in ancient history, Japan continuing to have a solid tradition of and industry for female readers of comics and so on.

Or even the odd fact that Japan’s ahead of the west when it comes to publishing professional M/M fiction out in the open, Patalliro being an old anime that features a sympathetic gay couple at the front. I’m getting off-topic but when it comes to media like DC and Marvel as well as their writers, being westerners they often promote western worldviews, sympathies and preferences, sometimes deliberately but more often than not unconsciously because of what they’re socialised and exposed to for years. The underrepresentation of other former communist western nationalities like Estonians and Latvians has to do with conflating them with Russians proper, even when at this point Estonia and Latvia are currently capitalist, that it shouldn’t be a stretch to actually introduce Estonian and Latvian superheroes right now.

Maybe not as America ended up alienating these two, them being staunch European Union members at this point, but I feel it’s possible to create an international media franchise that features actually Estonian and Latvian characters at the front and centre this time. It’s kind of obvious that as a lot of DC and Marvel writers are Americans, they’ll inevitably and usually have pro-US sympathies, sentiments, mindsets and sensibilities that get reflected in the stories they write about. Whether if it’s the othering of nonwesterners like Africans, West Asians and East Asians, the continued underrepresentation of certain nationalities and ethnicities (Latvians, Estonians, Georgians, Kazakhs, Slovaks, etc), or the propagation of western values and sensibilities, it’s there with many DC and Marvel writers for years.

Although the character of Linhildur might play into the redhead with fire powers stereotype in a way, she also represents a kind of Scandinavian character not commonly represented in US fiction stories. So far the only Scandinavian character with a fire ability is Karl Hansen from the Wildcats stories, whereas Norwegians like Sigrid Nansen and Tora Olafsdotter both have ice-based abilities. And even if Norway has glaciers, so does Chile and Chile’s close to Antarctica. It’s not a coincidence that both DC and Marvel writers habitually give fire-based abilities to Latin Americans, as if they’re so hot-tempered they’ll burst into flames anyways, when it comes to characters like Dante Pertuz, Firebird, that tattooed guy and Beatriz da Costa, even if it’s not true for all of them. Magma could also count in a way, as she has power over volcanism herself.

And she’s also a Brazilian citizen by the way, though similar things can be said of Iceland too. But it still plays into a kind of American conceptualisation of Latin American nationalities and countries, regardless if countries like Argentina and Chile both beg to differ as they’re closer to the South Pole as to get cold and dark around June and July, that Chile has glaciers says a lot about the missed opportunity to have a Chilean version of Ice this time. Sunspot being able to manipulate solar energy himself plays into the American belief of countries like Brazil having nearly constant unlimited daylight hours, but even if it were true and the same can be said of a certain Peruvian Overwatch character (I think), one would wonder why there’s no Argentinian character at either DC or Marvel who manipulates darkness themselves because it gets dark in Argentina every June and July.

It’s kind of depressing to think that in 2025 there are still no Namibian, Uzbek, Tajik, Kazakh, Armenian and Georgian superheroes and even supervillains at either DC or Marvel, when it comes to Georgians these characters come from somewhere in Batumi, Tbilisi or Gori. Not somewhere in Savannah, Atlanta or Douglasville, Georgia here is a country in the Caucasus. Latveria is real but not Slovakia, Transia is real but not Slovenia. So logically Wakanda is real, but not Cameroon. Qurac is real, but not Syria. What I’m saying is that Latveria, Transia, Qurac and Wakanda are treated as if they’re real countries in Marvel and DC, but for some reason their real-life doppelgangers are nonexistent in their place. You could actually travel to Ljubljana and even stay there for long after acquiring EU citizenship, but Transia will take its place in Marvel stories instead.

Singapore is so nonexistent in the Marvel canon that Madripoor takes its place instead, even when you could actually go there to Singapore yourself. Some of my relatives have done this more than a decade ago, you can even access to Singaporean websites too. Singaporeans speak English like Americans, but Madripoor is used in its place in Marvel. You should get an idea of how underrepresented Singaporeans are in Marvel, or for another matter Malaysians and Burmese since I can’t name a single character from either Malaysia or Myanmar in both DC and Marvel. Ditto Laotians, Cambodians get some representation in the forms of Rose Wilson and Sweet Lili. But I suppose no such equivalent exists for those from Kazakhstan, even to this day that Kazakhstan might as well belong in the world of Elseworlds and What If.

But countries like Qurac are serious business, despite being technically nonexistent in the real world.

It’s still there

From my experience perusing and discovering both devotionals and Bible reading websites from countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Britain, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Romania, Finland and Russia, whilst it’s true that Europe is less religious than America but I’d argue Europe seems less religious than America is because it doesn’t have a particularly substantial Christian right wing bloc comparable to the United States. It could vary between countries but even then I don’t think many of them have this much of a substantial Christian media industry the way America does, like how practically none of them have their equivalents to things like DC Talk, Veggie Tales, so on and so forth, let alone be famous outside of their borders.

The Chronicles of Narnia, Divine Comedy and the like may count, but they’re from the past and it’s kind of hard coming up with what amounts to the European equivalents to Veggie Tales and DC Talk, and even if European countries do have their own Christian media industries they still wouldn’t be on par with their United States counterpart in terms of quantity, scope and scale. Thus contributing to the perception that Europe is very secular compared to America, even though by going to online Bible readings and devotionals from these places reveals something to the contrary. In the same way that China might be less anti-Christian than one realises, especially from going to its own online Bible readings and devotionals, or for another matter India, Vietnam and Indonesia. And even if they have their own issues with Christianity, this hasn’t stopped Christian ministries from being operational in any way.

This hasn’t stopped Christian ministries from growing and popping up whenever one discovers or finds them at all, to the point where they seem to be this way due to something like media illiteracy. Media literacy is when somebody critically analyses the way media communicates messages and portrays or conveys ideas and sentiments to people, which may reveal certain biases that may not be found in media coming from said country this nation’s talking about (i.e. China, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland and etc). Countries like India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and China have more of a Christian presence than one realises, so logically countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still have more of a Christian presence than one realises. They seem less Christian because they don’t fit American expectations of Christian religiosity/fidelity.

Not just in terms of numbers/quantity (though in China, Vietnam and Indonesia it is growing), but also the apparent lack of a substantial Christian socioeconomic bloc that contributes to the perception of being less Christian than America is with the odd exception of Israel. I could be wrong about countries like Germany, Ireland and Italy, but as it stands I don’t think all three of them have a substantial right wing Christian subculture the way America does. That doesn’t mean they’re this irreligious as they do have Christian ministries putting out online devotionals and Bible readings, as much as they don’t have a substantial insular Christian subculture the way America does. They do have Christian media industries but it’s not as large as the one in America, I don’t think European Christians have their own versions of people like Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson and James Dobson, let alone enjoy the same scale of influence these three have outside of their borders.

A Christian media industry exists in each respective European country, but it’s not particularly substantial compared to the US counterpart, thus contributing to the assumption (or perhaps presumption) that Europe is less religious than America. Or for another matter, China, Vietnam, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. If God keeps a remnant of his in Europe, then they will persist and go on for long.

Beyond the dichotomy

When it comes to nonwestern attitudes to dogs (and for another matter, cats), when it comes to places like say Iran and Vietnam or even China, it’s easy to apply Orientalist logic to it. Regardless of how the way dogs are used is sometimes pretty similar to what goes in the west, sort of like how West Asians do have a habit of hunting game with dogs. It’s even permitted in Islam, and some Muslim sects have a higher opinion of dogs, most notably Sufism. Conversely speaking, among East Asians (including Southeast Asians), the attitude towards dogs isn’t necessarily always this bad. Actually in both Vietnam and Indonesia, it’s pretty common to find news reports of people using dogs to hunt rodents.

It was even like this in China before the introduction and still is so to some intermittent extent, which is helpful for those with allergies to cats. I remember this book by Sima Qian about people using dogs to scare away mice or something like that, so this was there before and even in tombs where you have an image of a dog gobbling up a rat. It’s even like this in the Philippines as well really, so East and West Asian attitudes towards dogs aren’t necessarily antagonistic. But it’s kind of easy to other and malign them for things like finding dogs dirty, or dog meat even if dog poisoning and dogs getting shot by hunters is a problem in continental European countries like Hungary and Germany.

Not to mention the issue of dogs hunting wildlife is also present in western countries, so it’s not a problem unique to Asia and Africa really. But it’s kind of easy to malign Asia and also Africa to some extent, due to the nature of Orientalism, even if western countries aren’t really any better too. I feel when it comes to Orientalism, it’s kind of easy to other nonwestern countries. Regardless of the fact that you could pretty much find some of the same problems in the west suggests at a form of racism that ignores whatever the west does that’s not always right, not just for the environment but also for dog owners too. Though I suspect that in the west, it’s kind of taboo to point out that it’s a dog that kills animals.

For another matter, not all Asians and Africans aren’t necessarily this negligent towards their dogs. But given the nature of Orientalism that it’s very easy to point a finger at the east, when the west itself’s not any better either.

Clap for the Wolfwoman

Elizabeth Bathory was a rather infamous figure in Hungarian history, mostly because she killed so many women. Not only that, she was even suspected of being a werewolf herself. There was a document or book stating that whoever called her a werewolf was probably misinformed or something like that, but when it comes to Eva Pocs’s study Between the Living and the Dead having a section on werewolf witches in the Hungarian witch trials that it’s likely to be true. That book mentions why werewolf witches have a tail and are in the habit of turning into not only wolves but also dogs, another study remarked how dogs were one of the animals commonly suspected of being the witches’ favourite guises.

So it’s quite likely that whatever accusation of being a werewolf got flung at Elizabeth Bathory is supported in local folkloric beliefs and superstitions, though it’s also possible that the actual reason why vampirism and lycanthropy are connected together is because they’re both linked to witchcraft. There’s even a study* that regards lycanthropy as a form witchcraft, which makes sense whenever you have witches being reported to turn into animals themselves. These are often predatory animals such as cats and dogs (though they also served as their familiars), that wolves were also witches’ familiars and guises in some European countries like Switzerland at one point makes it not much of a stretch if Bathory was regarded as such.

When you have superstitions linking bloodsucking and shapeshifting to witchcraft, so it starts to make sense that both vampirism and lycanthropy are forms of witchcraft themselves.

*Magic, explanations, and evil: On the origins and design of witches and sorcerers

Canine Witchcraft

A rather odd association to make, yet it was the case in the popular imagination before and still is so in some places like the Democratic Republic of Congo for instance. According to two sources, dogs were actually the most common shape taken by witches’ familiars and fairies alike. This also occurred in France to some extent. Perhaps William Shakespeare’s supposed mistrust of dogs doesn’t seem so unique anymore in this light, since there’s another play in his day that had a dog familiar. Dogs were also the shape witches themselves took in places like France, the Channel Islands, Norway, Spain and Hungary.

Even today, you have some people who believe that witches can make themselves appear as dogs as well as use dogs themselves as in the case of one Ghanaian witchdoctor. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are cases of children accused of witchcraft when they were purported to appear as dogs and owls. The association is still there in one study on hyper-religiosity in Kinshasa, the national capital. In one study on aswangs, they were said to appear as cats and dogs. Seems like the association of dogs with witchcraft isn’t so far off, as it’s still believed in places like Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda.

Of course, dogs aren’t the only canids to be associated with witchcraft. Their closest relatives wolves are also linked to witchcraft, in fact in Switzerland at one point they were linked to witchcraft whenever witches rode on them. This is reflected in this translated document, which goes to show you how prevalent and deep the association of wolves with witchcraft was. Another canid associated with witchcraft is the red fox, in fact they were associated with a form of sorcery in China where they got accused of cutting people’s hair. Though in some parts of China, dogs would be linked to witchcraft especially when it involved poison.

The poison spirit would appear as a dog, frog or pig (this association with witchcraft also exists in Russia). While it is strange to associate dogs with witchcraft, it certainly was the case before.

Bibliography (the ones that aren’t linked):

Les enfants accusés de sorcellerie au Katanga by Edoardo Quaretta

Witches of the North by Liv Helene Willumsen

Demons of Urban Reform by Laura Stokes

Hyperreligiosité et Vie Familiale à Kinshasa by ZIMANGO NGAMA Romain

Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits by Emma Wilby

Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland by Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller

Alien Kind: Foxes and Late Imperial Chinese Narrative by Rania Huntington

Cebuano Sorcery: Malign Magic in the Philippines by Richard W. Lieban

Graded Missionary Education in the Church School: Progressive Plans of Social Service and Missionary Instruction for Training Pupils from Four to Eighteen Years of Age

Graded Missionary Education in the Church School: Progressive Plans of Social Service and Missionary Instruction for Training Pupils from Four to Eighteen Years of Age

Mr . Miller says : “ On the highest point of the moun tain pass that leaves Martigny in the valley of the Rhone across the Great Bernard into Italy , there stands in a dreary solitude , shut in by wild , rugged mountains covered with eternal snow , the most elevated dwelling – place in the Old World — the Hospice of Saint Bernard . Ten or twelve monks reside here in the midst of the most complete wilderness , where winter reigns eight or nine months . . . . The Hospice offers to every one a refuge , with kindly help and care . The monks are especially busy in winter time , when they go forth to seek and rescue the lost wanderer . Every year many lives ate saved through their endeavors . Specially trained dogs accompany the monks , or are sent out alone to search for those in danger . ”

The rest of the story of the brave dog is substantially this : It seems that two travelers were lost in the Alps in a blinding snow – storm . One of them in his extremity insisted that , as a last resort , he should have recourse to the brandy flask . His comrade urged upon him the folly of this , inasmuch as after a brief period of exhilaration , the reaction would leave him in a worse condition than before . Refusing the advice of his friend , he drank heavily , and after forging ahead for a short distance , became utterly exhausted and sank in the snow . His companion struggled on , and at last was able to reach the friendly shelter of the Hospice . Here he told the story of his lost fellow traveler .

Barry was called by the monks and told to take the traveler ‘ s trail , which he did , finding at length the man who had been left behind , unconscious in the snow . Barry finally , by various methods , roused him from his stupor , only to be mistaken by the more or less dazed man for a wild beast . With what remaining strength he had , the traveler managed to get his knife out of his pocket and

In the Church School 53

plunge it into Barry ‘ s neck . In spite of this , the faith ful dog kept at his task until the traveler realized that he had evidently been found by one of the dogs of the Hospice . He struggled to his feet , and half leaning on the dog , whose strength was rapidly failing from loss of blood , finally reached the Hospice . On its threshold this noble creature , who had stained every step of the way with his own life – blood , fell exhausted , having given to all humanity a lesson in fidelity to a trust as great as could well be taught .

On the monument in the cemetery in Paris is the fol lowing inscription : ” He saved the lives of forty persons , and was killed by the forty – first . ”

2 . The above is fundamental for considering “ simple community service in home , school , and church ” ; this “ second line of approach ” only sug gests more definite work . That of messenger in either place may be linked to the knighthood idea . Cultivate a pride in being chosen to be a messenger of the church . “ Who can be trusted ? ” may arouse ambition in the right direction . Provide some defi nite errands for the benefit of the whole school or the church : it may be for each child to carry six invitations to as many homes ( if there is reason to doubt the faithfulness of the messenger , trust him with only one , but do not let him know of the doubt ) ; it may be to carry flowers to a sick pupil or friend ; it may be to carry a note to the minister or to the superintendent . Make errands for the good of the children , by which they can serve the church .

54 Graded Missionary Education

In an article on “ Relating the Child to the Com munity Through the Home ” 3 Nannie Lee Frayser shows that an opportunity is open to parents and teachers for forming standards and leading to help fulness in the community . She says :

It was interesting in talking informally with a group of about thirty boys and girls who came from normal American homes , to gather the ideas which they had formed regarding community life and the duties which they , their parents , and their companions owed to it . It was equally interesting to hear them state quite frankly their ideas regarding the relative positions of men , women , and children in a community life , and to find out in what ways they felt the community as a group force had con tributed to their welfare .

Strange to say , the majority of them seemed to feel that a woman had no civic duty whatever beyond the confines of her own front door . They did not even carry her so far as the front lawn , for here , they considered , the opportunities of boys and girls began . One little girl did permit her mother to perform the function of seeing that the front porch was kept spotlessly clean in order that the neighborhood ideal should be kept up to the standard , but the majority of the children decided that a woman ‘ s place was in the house , preferably ” to see that it is kept clean . ”

One enterprising and quite revolutionary boy of eleven stated emphatically that he thought women ought to belong to women ‘ s clubs in order to learn better how to help their community , and one long – headed little fellow suggested that they ought to vote , especially on school matters because they had the most to say about the education of the chil

: See “ The Pilgrim Teacher , ” December , 1913 .

In the Church School 55

dren . One suggested that they might be on boards of control for the management of philanthropic and public institutions because they knew so much about housekeep ing . But in the main their ideas regarding the contributions which women should make to the community were rather hazy .

As to the men , they seemed to have quite a flood of illuminating ideas . They thought “ making speeches ” was quite a necessary civic duty for men . That they should vote for the people who would enforce good laws and maintain a moral standard in the community seemed a perfectly natural conclusion . One girl even went so far as to say that she thought a man could show real public spirit by paying his tax bills promptly as well as giving the same righteous attention to the licenses for his animals and automobile .

One boy said he thought a man ought always to cast his vote for that candidate whose platform stood for the good of the community if he wanted truly to serve his fellow citizens .

One boy stated his thought in these exact words , “ A man can give subscriptions to movements for civic good , and let the police know if any one has done wrong , as well as vote for the right person . ” This boy was eleven years old .

As to what the community had done for others they were quick to mention the agencies that had been estab lished by the city for the benefit of those who needed the city ‘ s parental care , and chief among these agencies they regarded the “ Babies ‘ Milk Fund ” and the “ Industrial Home . ”

When it came to the question of what the community had done for them individually , the library came first every time , and after that the parks and the playgrounds . As they thought it out , however , they included fire depart ments , police protection , street cleaning and lighting , pub

52 Graded Missionary Education

life , and makes no mention of the monument in his memory set up in the Dog Cemetery in Paris :

Mr . Miller says : “ On the highest point of the moun tain pass that leaves Martigny in the valley of the Rhone across the Great Bernard into Italy , there stands in a dreary solitude , shut in by wild , rugged mountains covered with eternal snow , the most elevated dwelling – place in the Old World — the Hospice of Saint Bernard . Ten or twelve monks reside here in the midst of the most complete wilderness , where winter reigns eight or nine months . . . . The Hospice offers to every one a refuge , with kindly help and care . The monks are especially busy in winter time , when they go forth to seek and rescue the lost wanderer . Every year many lives ate saved through their endeavors . Specially trained dogs accompany the monks , or are sent out alone to search for those in danger . ”

The rest of the story of the brave dog is substantially this : It seems that two travelers were lost in the Alps in a blinding snow – storm . One of them in his extremity insisted that , as a last resort , he should have recourse to the brandy flask . His comrade urged upon him the folly of this , inasmuch as after a brief period of exhilaration , the reaction would leave him in a worse condition than before . Refusing the advice of his friend , he drank heavily , and after forging ahead for a short distance , became utterly exhausted and sank in the snow . His companion struggled on , and at last was able to reach the friendly shelter of the Hospice . Here he told the story of his lost fellow traveler .

Barry was called by the monks and told to take the traveler ‘ s trail , which he did , finding at length the man who had been left behind , unconscious in the snow . Barry finally , by various methods , roused him from his stupor , only to be mistaken by the more or less dazed man for a wild beast . With what remaining strength he had , the traveler managed to get his knife out of his pocket and

In the Church School 53

plunge it into Barry ‘ s neck . In spite of this , the faith ful dog kept at his task until the traveler realized that he had evidently been found by one of the dogs of the Hospice . He struggled to his feet , and half leaning on the dog , whose strength was rapidly failing from loss of blood , finally reached the Hospice . On its threshold this noble creature , who had stained every step of the way with his own life – blood , fell exhausted , having given to all humanity a lesson in fidelity to a trust as great as could well be taught .

On the monument in the cemetery in Paris is the fol lowing inscription : ” He saved the lives of forty persons , and was killed by the forty – first . ”

2 . The above is fundamental for considering “ simple community service in home , school , and church ” ; this “ second line of approach ” only sug gests more definite work . That of messenger in either place may be linked to the knighthood idea . Cultivate a pride in being chosen to be a messenger of the church . “ Who can be trusted ? ” may arouse ambition in the right direction . Provide some defi nite errands for the benefit of the whole school or the church : it may be for each child to carry six invitations to as many homes ( if there is reason to doubt the faithfulness of the messenger , trust him with only one , but do not let him know of the doubt ) ; it may be to carry flowers to a sick pupil or friend ; it may be to carry a note to the minister or to the superintendent . Make errands for the good of the children , by which they can serve the church .

54 Graded Missionary Education

In an article on “ Relating the Child to the Com munity Through the Home ” 3 Nannie Lee Frayser shows that an opportunity is open to parents and teachers for forming standards and leading to help fulness in the community . She says :

It was interesting in talking informally with a group of about thirty boys and girls who came from normal American homes , to gather the ideas which they had formed regarding community life and the duties which they , their parents , and their companions owed to it . It was equally interesting to hear them state quite frankly their ideas regarding the relative positions of men , women , and children in a community life , and to find out in what ways they felt the community as a group force had con tributed to their welfare .

Strange to say , the majority of them seemed to feel that a woman had no civic duty whatever beyond the confines of her own front door . They did not even carry her so far as the front lawn , for here , they considered , the opportunities of boys and girls began . One little girl did permit her mother to perform the function of seeing that the front porch was kept spotlessly clean in order that the neighborhood ideal should be kept up to the standard , but the majority of the children decided that a woman ‘ s place was in the house , preferably ” to see that it is kept clean . ”

One enterprising and quite revolutionary boy of eleven stated emphatically that he thought women ought to belong to women ‘ s clubs in order to learn better how to help their community , and one long – headed little fellow suggested that they ought to vote , especially on school matters because they had the most to say about the education of the chil

: See “ The Pilgrim Teacher , ” December , 1913 .

In the Church School 55

dren . One suggested that they might be on boards of control for the management of philanthropic and public institutions because they knew so much about housekeep ing . But in the main their ideas regarding the contributions which women should make to the community were rather hazy .

As to the men , they seemed to have quite a flood of illuminating ideas . They thought “ making speeches ” was quite a necessary civic duty for men . That they should vote for the people who would enforce good laws and maintain a moral standard in the community seemed a perfectly natural conclusion . One girl even went so far as to say that she thought a man could show real public spirit by paying his tax bills promptly as well as giving the same righteous attention to the licenses for his animals and automobile .

One boy said he thought a man ought always to cast his vote for that candidate whose platform stood for the good of the community if he wanted truly to serve his fellow citizens .

One boy stated his thought in these exact words , “ A man can give subscriptions to movements for civic good , and let the police know if any one has done wrong , as well as vote for the right person . ” This boy was eleven years old .

As to what the community had done for others they were quick to mention the agencies that had been estab lished by the city for the benefit of those who needed the city ‘ s parental care , and chief among these agencies they regarded the “ Babies ‘ Milk Fund ” and the “ Industrial Home . ”

When it came to the question of what the community had done for them individually , the library came first every time , and after that the parks and the playgrounds . As they thought it out , however , they included fire depart ments , police protection , street cleaning and lighting , pub

56 Graded Missionary Education

lic schools , art exhibitions , free concerts , the laws which safeguard life , street paving , swimming – pools , and all the things which make life in a city delightful .

It was very easy to lead this group of boys and girls to feel that as people think together for the benefit of the community good laws are the result of that thinking , and that all good citizens obey good laws .

But when it came down to what they individually had done for their community in return for its expendi ture of social thought on them , they seemed lost for a while . Finally , one timidly ventured that he had “ kited ” banana peelings off the sidewalk , another that she had never thrown any trash on the public highway , one that he had not defaced any public property , another that he had directed people to the correct street when they were not familiar with the locality , another that he had shoveled the snow off his own front pavement as quickly as possible after it had fallen , another that he had tried not to yell so loudly that he would disturb his neighbors , one that his family tried to burn only such coal as would send out no smoke to his neighbors and he liked to take care of such a fire , and one that she had planted flowers in her front and back yard where she thought her neighbors could enjoy them , and on and on it went through a gamut of simple and homely things .

Does this subject seem far afield from Sunday School teaching ? Has it not in it the spirit of the Ten Commandments for to – day ? Does it seem far afield from missions ? Has it not in it the missionary spirit of sacrifice and effort for another ‘ s good ? Such a spirit will tend to a life spent to save men from sin .

3 . The study of foreign missions , and work for these , may grow naturally from :

In the Church School

a . Reference to children of other races in school or community . ( See page 47 . )

b . Study of Bible heroes leading to Chris tian heroes of a later time . • c . Study of the Bible as a book , leading to

the work of the Bible Society and its distribu tion to peoples of the whole world .

( a . and c . ) Stories of immigrants coming from their far – distant homes will be of value . Informa tion as to the distribution of Bibles at the harbor of New York by the Bible Society , of the gladness of the people in receiving a book in their home tongue , and of how some , through reading it , have gone back to tell the gospel to their friends , may do a double good : arouse the pupil ‘ s interest in helping forward this good work , and develop a greater rever ence for the Bible and eagerness on their own part to know the book .

The pamphlets of the New York Bible Society give facts and incidents of which the following are samples :

It does home and foreign missionary work at the same time , by supplying the Bible in different languages to the

+ “ Immigration Picture Stories , ” by Fanny L . Kollock , include five pictures , 12 x 15 inches each , and a story to be used by the teacher with each picture . “ Old Country Hero Stories , ” by Florence M . Brown , gives heroic incidents from the lives of the national heroes of the countries whose peoples are in America in large numbers . These could be read in a week – day class gathering rather than on Sunday , or by the children to themselves . They might also be adapted for special occasions on Sunday .

· 58 Graded Missionary Education

immigrants landing at Ellis Island , by furnishing the Bible to sailors on vessels in the harbor , by placing the Bible in hotels , hospitals , and prisons . It distributes the Bible free to those who cannot afford to pay anything , and to all others at cost . It has circulated in one year 338 , 404 volumes of the Bible in forty – one languages in the city and harbor of New York .

Three years ago an educated young Russian on landing at Ellis Island was presented with a New Testament in his own language , by a missionary of the New York Bible Society . It was the first time he had ever seen any portion of God ‘ s word . The village in Russia from which he came had not a single Christian living within its boundaries .

One Sunday , some time after , a young Russian was baptized in one of the churches of New York City . He was the same man who had landed at Ellis Island and had received the Testament . He had been converted through reading the little book , and had decided to return to his own country as a missionary . He delayed sailing in order that he might be baptized in the country where he had found the true light . His parents had disowned him because of his conversion , and he will be the only Christian in his village , yet he has gone back to tell the people there the story of salvation .

A poor woman who will not accept the Bible free , pays a few cents each for New Testaments . One of these she gave to a girl who is employed in a down – town office . The girl began reading it during her lunch hour . Some of her companions inquired what she was reading ; she replied that she would read to them , and for a considerable time she has been reading the New Testament to a company of girls employed in that office .

A prisoner in Sing Sing , to whom a Hungarian Bible had been given , said , “ The happiest day I ever had was the Sunday you gave me the Bible . ”

In the Church School 59

Opportunities for service will come in this con nection . One Sunday School group , who were familiar with the coming and going at New York harbor , gave scrap – books and kindergarten occu pations for children detained on Ellis Island . With such things an offering of money might be given for Bibles for the fathers and mothers .

Pupils will be interested in seeing “ Specimen Verses ” of the fifty – three languages in which the Bible has been distributed ( Bible Society Leaflet ) . · When Sunday School lessons are on the Bible , as in one part of the Junior Series of the International Graded Lessons , or in “ The Introduction to the Bible ” of “ the Constructive Bible Studies , ” these missionary plans will fit well .

( a . and b . ) In turning to foreign mission studies , the particular country chosen to begin with should depend on one of several things : the foreign children familiar to the pupil , the heroes studied in the Sun day School lessons , or the missionaries connected with the local church of which the school is a part . It may be , therefore , China , Africa , or some other country , and each of these might be taken in turn in the four years for one part of the school year , depending on conditions . If China or Japan were the special interest in the primary department from which these children were promoted , it would be wise to take a fresh topic .

According to the particular approach , whether it is to be by way of the immigrant , say , a Chinaman

60 Graded Missionary Education

in the home vicinity , or by way of some hero , such as Livingstone , or by some live missionary familiar to the pupils , the following materials and methods will fit on occasion .

Stories of missionary heroes , such as Carey , Mor rison , Judson , Whitman , Evans , Livingstone , and Paton , are included in the Sunday School lessons of the Junior Series of the International Graded Course , and form an excellent basis for interest in and service for the countries where these men labored . At this age of interest in the exciting in cident and the heroic act , there is especial oppor tunity for arousing desire and effort to continue the brave work these men began . What do these countries need now ? What can we do to help ? are good questions to raise . Have some plan of work to propose ; the plan should not be a predetermined one , at least in its form of presentation . Let the children cooperate in deciding what and how to do . If their interest has been awakened , they will be generally eager to accept a plan . To create an enthusiasm is the teacher ‘ s part .

A glance at the list of stories under the title “ Christian Apostles and Missionaries , ” in the Junior Bible , Part IV , of ” the Completely Graded Series ” of Sunday School lessons , will show the emphasis placed on missionary training in that plan .

“ A Hero of Macedonia , ” in “ Here a

Hungary

Not necessarily entirely overlooked. But I guess Hungary’s very much at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. (Though the same can be said of Turkey and Russia too.) The Mongols even went there and left with a persistent idiom: long hair, short intellect or something to the lines of that. And that Hungarians have 4% Mongol DNA. They were even part of the Ottoman Empire (I think) though the same can be said of Albania, Greece and perhaps Bulgaria.

(I might be wrong about the last.)

Also for a substantial time, Hungary used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Admittedly I don’t know the full extent of that influence. But I’m under the impression that it’s going to be there to some extent. (Some parts of Italy were also under Austrian influence and thus speak German. Especially in Bolzano and if you will, Montefalcone’s singer Modo.)

As for famous Hungarians, though not always the case Hungary does have a vampiric reputation. Romania could only claim Vlad Tepes (who, in reality, was a little like Donald Trump in terms of disdain for outsiders and being nationalistic), Hungary claims Elizabeth Bathory and the actor Bela Lugosi. The former was rumoured to be a witch and werewolf in her life, the latter played a vampire onscreen.

(He also moved to the US.)

But that’s all I know about it.

Mankind at the crossroads / by Edward M. East. East, Edward M. (Edward Murray), 1879-1938.

Hathitrust.org:

THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE 261
The age at marriage has also remained remarkably con-
stant, despite the common belief that it has increased. In
nearly all the countries making up the former German Em-
pire, in France, and in the Scandinavian countries the aver-
age age has actually decreased from a fraction of a year to
nearly two years in hoth sexes during the passage of the last
half-century. A rough weighted average of the decrease for
these nations is .9 of a year for males and 1.3 years for fe-
males between the years 1870 and 1910. In England, in
Australia and New Zealand, and in the United States, on
the contrary, there has been a slight advance in age in both
sexes, although on the average it appears to be less than a
year.
The prevalency of divorce affects the age at marriage as
usually registered, because of the large number of remar-
riages of elderly divorced persons. And there has been such
a great increase in the number of divorces during the past
generation among the peoples of western Europe and
among their descendants in the recently colonized terri-
tories, it seems fair to conclude that if there has been any
change whatever in the average age of bachelors and spin-
sters at marriage it has been a small decline. At any rate,
there has been no increase in the age at marriage which
would affect the birth-rate significantly.
Nor is it probable that there has been much change in the
proportion of sterile women or sterile men. Rubin and
Westergaard1 found that 15.9 per cent of the women of the
professional and middle classes of Copenhagen were barren
after marriages enduring 15 years or more, but there are
many reasons for believing this ratio to be extraordinarily
high. Pearson found a ratio of 5.7 per cent in more rep-
resentative Danish statistics; and Powys determined the
proportion among women of New South Wales as 5.6 per
cent. Powys believes that 2.5 per cent probably represents
a fair average rate for Anglo-Saxon women who are married
1 Holmes, S. J., op. at.

262 MANKIND AT THE CROSSROADS
between the ages of 20 and 30. Of course no one can say
whether the rate is going up or going down on the basis of
such studies; but it would take a very rapid change in such
a low rate as this to produce a marked difference in the
birth-rate. Various physicians attribute from one-third to
two-thirds of the childless marriages to functional sterility
of the wife. The remainder is charged to sterility of the
male, which in over 50 per cent of the cases is due to gonor-
rhoea. It has been much the fashion to say that venereal
diseases are on the increase, but I have been unable to find
that the story has any basis of fact whatever. The state-
ment would seem to be part of the fairy-tale spread by cer-
tain vice-crusaders which attributes venereal infection to
every fourth man—a particularly mean and detestable kind
of neurotic cynicism. The first real data for the United
States on the subject, the army medical examinations, showed
the true figure to be about 5 per cent instead of 25 per cent
for the general male population. Since many of the causes
of functional sterility in women are controllable, and since
gonorrhoea is not only controllable but is being controlled
more and more because of a wider knowledge of its serious
consequences, it is fairly safe to say that any future change
in the proportion of childless marriages will be for the better.
The fact that there are no statistics on the subject paves
the way for the same sort of harrowing exaggerations in re-
gard to the number of foeticides, or artificial abortions. Max
Hirsch places the number at 2 million annually in the United
States. The estimate of W. J. Robinson is 1 million, and
the estimate of J. W. Williams of Johns Hopkins is half a
million. The last guess is undoubtedly the most reasonable;
but it is still a guess, and probably too high a guess. I make
this statement because the fairly accurate investigations on
the subject made in England and Germany lead one to be-
lieve that in these countries the annual abortion rate is not
over 3 per thousand of the population. Since ethical stand-
ards are certainly as high in the United States as in the other

THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE 263
two countries, and since economic conditions are better, it
should follow that the abortion rate here is lower, for it rises
with the economic pressure when other things are equal.
Whatever the rate in any country it is too high. Leaving
moral considerations aside, the physical consequences of in-
duced abortion are so distressing as to make it an economic
crime. Whether it is increasing or decreasing in Europe
and America no one can say with any definiteness. There
are eminent authorities taking both stands. My own opin-
ion is that it is decreasing inJEngland, Holland, France,
Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, due to the
spread of the knowledge of birth-control methods. In most
of the rest of the white world, where there is comparative
absence of the use of contraceptives, it is probably increasing
temporarily owing to the particularly depressing economic
conditions existing during the past few years. It may be
pointed out, however, that a rise or fall of 1 per thousand in
the birth-rate means a change of between 3 and 4 per cent,
while a shift of 1 per thousand in the abortion rate means a
change of between 25 and 35 per cent. It therefore takes a
relatively large change in the abortion rate materially to
affect the birth-rate.
It is conceivable that these minor factors affecting the
birth-rate adversely have a cumulative effect which in the
aggregate is considerable. But in seeking the causes of the
birth-rate decline in the immediate past, one must distin-
guish between their previous effect and their possible rise in
effectiveness. In other words, one must ask how much
greater their effect is to-day than it was half a century ago.
Our answer to the question can lay no claim to demonstra-
ble accuracy; but an estimate made after careful reflection
attributes 85 o*-90 per cent of the decline to artificial re-
striction of the family. The effect of the other factors is
relatively small.
The indirect causes of birth decline, the causes which have
induced the limiting of families, have been discussed fre-

264 MANKIND AT THE CROSSROADS
quently behind the pulpit and in the public press, where the
vigor of the words does not always measure the intensity of
the intellectual fire which moulds them. Much capital has
been made of the woman who prefers a lap-dog to a baby, the
woman who will not forego luxury for the sake of children,
the woman who fears the loss of beauty. Every sin in the
decalogue, and several new ones invented for the special
purpose, have been laid at the door of childless women and
of women who see fit to limit the number of their offspring.
I was interested at one time in trying to find out how much
of this criticism of the childless woman was sincere in its
nature—without regard as to whether the premises were
correct—and how much of it was a subjective emotional re-
action due to causes that will readily occur to any psycholo-
gist. Among 25 individuals who were very outspoken on
the subject and whose histories were readily available, 7
were bachelors, 5 were celibate clergymen, 3 were childless
married women, 3 were persons with 1 or 2 children, 2 had
3 children, 2 had 4 children, 1 had 5 children, and 2 had 7
children. The result of this brief inquiry shows that a great
part of this criticism is an insincere attack at an obviously
vulnerable point. Personally, I believe that it is about as
baseless as a political cartoon. People who do not desire
children form a negligible fraction of the population. The
parental instinct is too ancient to be changed easily, and it
is seldom satisfied with the advent of a single child. The
poor little lady riding around in a solitary grandeur would
rarely hesitate a moment if she could exchange her jewels
and her limousine for a child of her own to fondle; and it is
a shame to cause her further heartaches by holding her
childlessness up to ridicule. Her exuberant solicitude for
her lap-dog, so much decried by her accusers, is clear evi-
dence in her favor, if only they would be honest and admit it.
Deliberate childlessness in marriage is too unnatural ever
to become common. Even the glorification of celibacy as
taught by Saint Paul and approved by the n- Virch

THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE 265
has had no great influence on the rank and file of those pro-
fessing the Christian faith. To be sure, the Church has been
placed in a rather difficult position in this regard, as Have-
lock Ellis has remarked. It enjoins celibacy on its priests
and forbids the practice of neo-Malthusianism by the con-
gregation. No families is the command for the one, large
families for the other. As Ellis says, “it is not easy, while
preaching practical Malthusianism to the clergy, to spend
too much fervour in preaching against neo-Malthusianism
to the laity.”» And, as a matter of fact, the fall in the birth-
rate is as marked in Catholic countries as it is in Protestant
countries, except where Catholic communities have been
blessed with exceptionally favorable conditions.
Considering the birth-rate in its broad relation to other
phenomena, one finds economic conditions to be the chief
effective cause of its restriction. People limit fecundity for
reasons connected with the family income, although re-
striction is by no means inversely proportional to the size of
the bank-account. They persist in denying this, but their
denials are not convincing. For example, 285 replies to
CatteU’s2 inquiries among restricted families of American
men of science elicited the information that ill health was
the cause in 133 cases, expense in 98 cases, and other scat-
tering causes in 54 cases. No one can look at these figures
and believe them to be frank, unbiassed statements. They
came mostly from college professors, notoriously underpaid
for the requirements of their positions. Does any one fa-
miliar with the fact that college professors and their wives
are considered particularly good risks by life-insurance ex-
aminers believe that half of them—somewhere around three
times the proportion in the fertile part of the general popu-
lation—are too weak and sickly to have more than one or
two children? No, it seems to me more reasonable to draw
* Ellis, Havelock, Essays in War-Time. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1917.
1 Cattell, J. McK., “Families of American Men of Science,” Pop. Sci. Mon.,
86:504-515, 1915. Sci. Mon., 4:248-262; 5:368-377, 1917.
/””

266 MANKIND AT THE CROSSROADS
conclusions from the trend of the birth-rate in whole coun-
tries. When one compares different countries, or different
periods in the same country, the truth stands out. The main
cause for family limitation is the economic cause; other causes
are of minor importance.
Perhaps in part there is a desire in the parental mind to
have a few children, together with comfort and an occasional
luxury for themselves. But this is not the chief impelling
cause for smaller families among the educated classes of
Europe and the United States. Parents take their course for
the sake of their children. They want their children to fare
better than they themselves fared. They plan to usher
them out into the world armored for its conflicts by a good
education. They hope to leave them enough property to
prevent a losing struggle in the economic competition which
must come. In a word, their aim is to insure happiness, so
far as lies in their power, for their own flesh and blood.
In the classes toward the lower end of the social scale to
which birth-control is spreading in England, Australia, Hol-
land, and a few other countries, the reasons are virtually the
same in that they are economic. In part they are actually
the same; but mainly they are due to the fact that children
are no longer economic assets. So long as children cost
little to raise until they were six or seven years old, and could
then be put to work, the families were large. When child-
labor laws came into being, the families became smaller.
Indeed, Karl Pearson finds this to be the major reason for
family limitation among the proletariat of England. And
Arsene Dumont, who certainly could not be accused of any
radical Malthusianism, comes to practically the same con-
clusion for France. Large families, he says, are only possi-
ble where there is no progress and no expectation of prog-
ress; small families become possible when the way has been
opened, and there is hope of realizing natural aspirations
toward betterment. Thus, as Havelock Ellis notes, the out-
ory against the falling birth-rate on the grounds that it de-

THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE
267
notes a new selfishness replacing an old altruism is without
foundation. It was a poor altruism which sent children when
little more than babies to factories and mines where their
souls were blighted and their bodies crushed, merely to in-
crease the earnings of the family. And it was a bad govern-
ment and a vicious system which made such an altruism
more or less excusable by the conditions it maintained.
The birth-rate trend in the more important countries of
Europe between 1870 and the beginning of the war in 1914
is shown in the following table/ In every country it has
dropped, no matter whether the particular country con-
cerned started with a high birth-rate or a low birth-rate;
and the decrease is probably somewhat greater than the
figures actually show, because of greater accuracy in regis-
tering births as time goes on. The first quinquennium
cited, 1871-1876, shows Russia leading with a birth-rate of
THE
BIRTH-RATE TREND IN EUROPE
Per thousand of population annually
5*
•a
a
•0
8
.2
E
cfl
a
<S
|
«3
O
a
1
•4

E
i
a
1
Years
I
9
a
I
Li
-5
s
D
tn
0
«
a
•j.
©
0
a
‘A
tn
a
a
1871-76…
35.5
35.0
27.4
25.5
38.9
39.3
42.8
36.9
30.2
30.7
50.3
32.6
36.1
1876-80…
35.4
34.8
25.7
25.3
39.2
38.7
44.1
37.0
31.7
30.3
48.4
32.0
36.4
1881-85…
33.5
33.3
24.0
24.7
37.0
38.1
44.6
37.8
31.2
29.4
49.2
36.7
30.9
34.8
1886-90…
31.4
31.4
22.8
23.1
36.5
37.6
43.7
37.3
30.8
28.8
48.7
36.2
29.4
33.6
1891-95…
30.5
30.5
22.9
22.4
30.3
37.3
42.0
35.9
30.3
27.4
48.2
35.8
29.1
32.9
1896-1900.
29.2
30.0
23.1
22.0
36.0
37.0
39.7
33.9
30.3
26.9
49.4
34.6
29.0
32.2
1901-5
28.2
29.2
23.3
21.5
34.3
35.7
37.5
32.7
28.6
26.1
47.7
35.2
27.7
31.6
1906-10…
26.3
27.4
23.3
19.9
31.7
33.7
36.7
32.7
26.4
25.4
45.5*
33.6
24.7
29.6
1911-15…
23.6
:>.->.4
22.7
18.5
27.5*
30.0»
34.0*
31.4
25.2
23.1
30.8
27,7
• Approximately.
50.3 per thousand of the population; next in order one finds
Hungary, with a birth-rate of 42.8, Austria with 39.3, and
Germany with 38.9; then comes a group consisting of Hol-
land, Italy, England, Wales, and Scotland, each with
slightly more than 35; then there are the Scandinavian
countries, Sweden and Norway, with about 30; and finally
1 Holmes, S. J., op. tit. Checked with registrar-general’s figures.

268
MANKIND AT THE CROSSROADS
France with 25.5. When the period just before the war is
reached the activity of the stork is much diminished. The
order of the countries is about the same, but the percentage
decrease among them is quite different. Russia still leads
THE NETHERLANDS
BIRTH AMD D£ATH MOt
to
,,,
**.
if*
-*
t^
X
£-*«

,”–,
s-
N
10
£
<*r-
«-*«
VM
*,
‘–
s
0
e
rf
a
V
a
v
a
0
a
s
Fio. 10.
THE NETHERLANDS: MEDIUM BIRTH-RATE, FALLING;
MEDIUM DEATH-RATE. FALLING.
Compare with Rumania and Australia.
with a figure approximately 44, though no complete returns
are available after 1909. Only Hungary, Austria, Italy, and
Spain have kept the birth-rate above 30. In the remaining
countries it has dropped to about 25 or less, with France
bringing up the rear with a figure of 18.5.
The United States shows the same course of events, though
unfortunately no birth-rates comparable with those of the

THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE
269
above table can be cited. The trend can be seen, however,
in the census data compiled by Wilcox,1 which show the
number of children under 5 years of age for every 1,000
women between the ages of 16 and 44.
RATIO OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OP AGE PER 1,000
WOMEN AGED 16 TO 44 YEARS IN THE UNITED STATES
Date
Ratio
Date
Ratio
1800
976
928
835
714
1880
635
541
467
1820
1900
1840
1920
I860
Such figures as these have been the tangible material for
the use of the croaker. By assuming a continuous future
decrease in the relative number of births at about the same
rate, he is able to set the date when there will be no more
children. But birth-rates mean little by themselves. The
excess of births over deaths is what counts; and when one
studies such figures he finds that falling birth-rates have as
yet made no material change in the rapidity of population
growth in the white world. The war produced a temporary
depression in European growth, it is true; but the returns
for 1920 and 1921, incomplete though they are, show that
with the exception of Russia, Austria, and possibly France,
growth is now back on the old basis. Indeed, German in-
crease in the last two years appears to be greater than it
was in 1912 and 1913.
Let me emphasize again the fact that the researches of
Knibbs and of Thompson, as well as my own investigations,
show the growth of world population for the generation previ-
ous to the World War to have been greater than for any
similar period in former times, unless one allows for unre-
corded catastrophes of extreme magnitude. If one studies
1 Wilcox, W. F., “The Change in the Proportion of Children in the United
States,” Amur. Stat. Ann., 12 : 490-199, 1909-1911.

270
MANKIND AT THE CROSSROADS
the rate of growth in various countries during this genera-
tion, therefore, he is in a position to draw some very inter-
esting conclusions regarding population prospects in the im-
mediate future, despite the admitted deficiencies in the vital
AUSTRALIA
mm am math urn
Via. 17. AUSTRALIA: LOW BIRTH-RATE, CONSTANT; LOW DEATH-
RATE, DIMINISHING SLOWLY.
Natural increase approximately same as in Rumania, where high birth-rate persists.
statistics used and despite the errors which arise from ac-
cepting uncorrected birth-rates and death-rates.
The following table1 gives the average annual excess of
births over deaths for 15 countries during the last pre-war
quarter-century divided into 5-year periods. The data cited
include those for nearly all the countries of Europe, and in
1 Compiled from the registrar-general’a figures.

‘Magyerland’; the narrative of our travels through Hungary, by a fellow of … (Google Books)

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE MODERN BABEL.

TT is Fair-day in the Hungarian capital, and the hotels are as full as they can cram. There is not an inch of space left anywhere. The restaurants, as we pass them, are so choked with human life, half savage, half civilised, that not even an eel, were it ever so hungry, could manage to insinuate itself, suppose it had the courage to face so polyglot an assemblage. In the streets the traveller is jostled not only by Hungarians of each nationality, Magyars, Slovaks, Euthenians, Szeklers, Wallachs, Croatians, Serbs, and Illyrians— a ” mosaic of nations” which, constituting the inhabitants of the entire Austro-Hungarian dominions, numbers upwards of 150,000— but Germans, Poles, Muscovites, Bohemians, Frenchmen, Italians, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels. There are Jews and gipsies by the thousand, German Jews, Hungarian Jews in the costume of the Magyar-orsag, Polish Jews, in black toga and corkscrew curls, from the province of Gallicia, Transylvanian Jews, in greasy brown cloth dressing-gown and sandalled feet, looking like dissipated Capuchin friars out for a holiday, and who evidently ignore the maxim concerning the proximity of cleanliness to godliness no less than their Christian brethren.

There are men in hats made of rushes, others with conicalshaped hats of fur, the precise pattern of that worn by Robinson Crusoe; others again wearing large broad ones like Spanish sombreros. There are men whose pale olive complexions proclaim them to be Greeks. There are Turks and Bosnians wearing the becoming fez, and here and there an Arab in a turban, besides whom there are also men from Upp-er Hungary whose long hair hanging to the waist is plaited in four tails, and who wear immense leather belts and sandals, and such wonderful garments, that they must bo seen even to be believed in; men, too, from the country of Soinogy clad in blanket-like cloaks, like those of Bedouins, whilst working their way in and out amongst the crowd, their looks bold and defiant, are numerous Magyars in snow-white petticoats fringed or embroidered at the edges. There are women. too, with coloured scarves coiled gracefully round the head; women—beautiful women, whose raven hair is covered with gold coins, flashing and quivering in the sunlight! Women again—natives of Pest— wearing dark-blue kerchiefs so disposed as to conceal the whole face. with the exception of eyes, nose, and mouth, and who only need the addition of a yashmak to give them the appearance of veritable daughters of the Prophet. What a medley! and what a Babel of tongues greets the ear of the stranger as he stands in the thick of the fair. At these fairs. four of which take place annually, no fewer than twenty-eight thousand strangers pour into Pest.

Xo wonder that mW» Herr Dnlovic shook his head and intimated that he could not take us in as we dashed up to the door of his hotel one morning in a drosxky and pair, some Armenians having previously engaged the room we had occupied for two days at the “Koniginn von England” a circumstance that compelled us to seek shelter in some other hotel.

The little old man was well-nigh beside himself; his tow-coloured wig almost stood on end, and his countenance was suffused by a warm dew as he endeavoured to withstand the importunities of three other “parties,” who had arrived at the same moment, on the same errand as ourselves.

We however, as may be remembered, had stayed at this small but well-ordered hotel once before, and, as old acquaintances, had no intention of being turned away. Moreover we were Angolok, and just at that time the English nation happened to be at an unusual premium in the estimation of the Hungarains.

“Stay! Yes! No! Yes!” exclaimed Herr Dulovic, hesitatingly—” If you do not mind”

“Mind?” broke in F., descending from the carriage. “We don’t mind anything at such a time as this,” adding, as we follow mein Herr up the stairs and into a chamber of such limited dimensions that to have swung even a cat in it one must have taken that animal by the head and not by the tail, “Si on ne petit pas avoir ce qu’on veux, il faut prendre ce qu’on pent”

After a hurried repast we stroll out to have a peep at the fair, which, save in the matter of costumes and diversity of peoples and tongues, differs little from that of other countries. There are the same long avenues of booths, containing every conceivable article for man or beast. Stands of juicy melons, pomegranates and oranges from Croatia, presided over by girls and stately women, looking like Druidical priestesses in their long white robes; booths of klesseyck (sweet-meats); booths of imitation jewellery much frequented by the Magyar girls; booths of hard-ware. and wooden utensils, belonging to nut-brown specimens of the wandering tribe; Slovak cheese, carpets from Servia, bacon from Slavonia, booths of ready-made under-clothing, sheepskin bundas, pelz-rockeJ, and beautifully embroidered cloaks; high boots for men, and others for women and girls, with scarlet and yellow sides, trimmed with coquettish little rosettes, not to speak of Turkish-looking slippers worn by the women of Szegedin. There are Jews in the characters of money-lenders and sellers of bijouterie; gipsies in that of horse-dealers. cunning-looking men with long whips ornamented with bows of many-coloured ribbons, and gourds hanging from their girdles; there are shepherds. too, splendid looking fellows with forms like those of Roman athletes; besides which are men in coarse gabardines directing games of chance, acrobats by the dozen, and the offscourings of the four winds of heaven. What a hurly-burly! Along the banks of the Danube, however, an entirely novel scene presents itself to our gaze. For the space of half a mile boats and barges are moored together in close proximity; some of them are heavy, flat-bottomed craft, whilst others, gaudily painted in red, white, and green, look like miniature Chinese junks. These boats and barges. in conjunction with the y*«”, form a market-place of thouxsolves for articles consisting chiefly of the produce of tho com.try; wines. badacsony. from the Platten-See; the white wines of Transylvania. and the more delicious ones of Tokay; Mi’tvi-iA and /r.«.« rii. a spirit made from juniperWrrios; tobacvo. wool. hides?. and other commodities ” far too numerous to mention.”

Beyond, there are the usual vast herds of sheep, pigs, and cattle, guarded by wild, top-booted graziers and strange, fierce-looking shepherds; whilst outside the fair the road is lined with vehicles of every description.

Opposite is a booth where a sheep is being roasted whole, while on stands arranged in front are savoury “gipsy roasts,” consisting of small pieces of hot meat for the refection of the hungry. Hard by is a seller of macaroni soup, ladling out her steaming esculent to numerous comers; and near her a stout Magyar Frau vending ” Tisch-wein.”

It is when the fires of sunset have faded in the west, and the curtain of night has dropped upon the most beautiful scene in the world—the Blocksberg and the Danube and the rock-built citadel of Buda—that the real fun begins. By that time the stern business of the day is over, the bargaining has come to an end till the morrow, and the whole twenty-eight thousand visitors give themselves up to pleasure. In the warm shadow of the booths merry groups stand idly chatting. Managers of theatres shout and scream and yell. Marionettes whirl and twirl and curtsey, and move their heads up and down with sudden jerks, and go through their little antics with the same melancholy precision as elsewhere. Acrobats climb poles and perform juggling tricks to the astonished multitude. In the eating-booths the fires gleam like “mad Sarabands,” and the people cooking the gipsy roasts stand out against them like black imps.

Passing the Jagerhorn on our way back to our hotel, we find the Czigdnok are sawing away there as usual, whilst the people sitting beside the snowy tables pave the way for night-mares as they devour their “gehratene Ente” and “gesehmortes Liimmerchcn.” It is worth while entering to see the costumes and various physiognomies of the visitors: the soft, caressing. and almost effeminate features of the Slav from the South, and the pale, olive-complexioned Greek, contrasting forcibly with the robust and majestic Magyars— off-shoots of a kingly race —with their frank and manly countenances.

On reaching the hotel, we find ourselves unexpectedly plunged in the lap of luxury, a Hungarian gentleman having offered to exchange our little chamber au quatrieme all amongst the chimneys and the cats, for his own handsome and commodious room on the first floor, one of the thousand acts of kindness we received whilst travelling in this country. There is no city where there is greater amusement and gaiety than Pest, particularly in the winter. when the “nobles ” bring their families to the Capital from their country chateaux. At this season there is a perpetual round of balls and entertainments, skating being the favourite occupation during the hours of day. In May the beau motide return to their country seats, and the traveller may then look in vain for the beautiful horses and handsome equipages, which in the winter months brighten the streets of the city.

Pest, too, is the seat of the National Government. Accompanied by a member of the Diet, to whom we had a letter of introduction, we visited the Lower House at the time when the Delegates were sitting. Deceived at the entrance hall by a number of lackeys, dressed in a handsome Hussar uniform of black and scarlet, we were at once shown to the visitors’ gallery. Many of the members wore the black cloth attila, and embroidered waistcoat, but by far the greater number the severe garments of Western Europe, even the

nobles having relinquished the brilliant costumes with which they formerly sat in Assembly.

There are 441 Delegates, all of whom are chosen irrrespective of religious sects. Of this number 39 are Croatians, who speak in their native language—Slavonian.

The Magyars, as a rule, evince great calmness in council. Their warm and impulsive natures, however, and susceptibility to excitement, render them victims to the most violent and rapid changes of temperament, and, even in the midst of the calmest deliberation, they not unfrequently manifest the wildest outbursts of feeling.

On the occasion of our visit, the debate was rather a noisy one, and the President’s bell was in frequent requisition, but the very instant Baron Sennyei rose to speak, the most perfect silence reigned, and the eyes of every Delegate in the Huuse were steadily fixed upon him. He is a great politician and the present leader of the Conservative party, or what is called Mersekett ellcmek (moderate adverse party), and is spoken of as the one who will, in all probability, be chosen President of the Council at the next election.

The Magyar language, which is spoken by almost 64. millions of inhabitants, or 40 per cent. of the entire population, is forcible, energetic, and capable of the most impassioned eloquence, and although pathetic in its tones when spoken in conversation, when declaimed it becomes bold and emphatic. It is copious in idiomatic expressions, and rich in its vocabulary of words. Although the Magyar language possesses no auxiliary verb ” to have,” no primitive possessive pronouns, no gender for the distinction of sexes, and scarcely any true declension for objective terms, yet it is said to surpass every Teutonic, Slavonic, Italic, and IndoEuropean language in the richness of its verbal formations. Of all the letters in the alphabet, h is the one most conspicuously heard, and all the more so from the fact of its coming at the end of so many words, being generally used to denote the plural.

The Magyar language, if for no other reason, would be deeply interesting to the stranger from the fact of its being the only non-Aryan tongue throughout Europe (if we except that of the Finns) in which Christian rites are performed and Parliamentary debates carried on, and also from its having been established in Europe and subjected to Aryan influences for nearly a thousand years, without having lost its ossential Turanian features, its etymology and syntax still preserving their ancient characteristics.

Until forty-live years ago, Latin was the language universally used throughout Hungary in all proceedings connected with law and diplomacy. The country having at one period been under thodominion of two foreign powers, viz., the Austrian and Mahomedan, a common language was necessary for these deliberations. By mutual consent, therefore, the mediaeval Latin was adopted, and but for this the three languages spoken in the country, viz., Magyar, German, and Turkish, would necessarily have created great confusion.

In fact. so commonly was it in use until twenty or thirty years ago. that it was called ” Staturia,” whilst Magyar itself was even taught by the means of Latin, the grammar being designated “J/mm.mii’oi.”

Iu some parts of Hungary. even in comparatively recent times. Latiu was used by the peasantry to converse with persons belonging U» uatioualities other than their own, whiWl the Huns. whose language was a harsh and barren idiom, likewise strove to make Latin—which was spoken in Pannonia in the time of Augustus—the medium of communication with their fellows.

After we had remained listening some time to the expressive utterances of Baron Sennyei, Herr Franz Pulszky—a man of considerable note, not only in his own country, but in many European circles—conducted us to the Upper House, situated over tho National Museum. where sit the nobles. The gallery surrounding the grand staircase by which the room and its antechambers are approached is adorned with fresco-paintings—very creditably executed by Hungarian artists—representing the history of the civilisation of Hungary and, beginning with the entry of the Huns into the country, portraying the various epochs of history, and ending with the revolutionary period of 1848.

Our cicerone was one whose features proclaimed that nature had destined him for no ordinary career. Pointing to a fresco situated in one of the most conspicuous places, viz., close to the entrance of the Chamber of Debate, ho exclaims:

“You see there the great leader of our Patriotic party.”

“What, Kossuth here, and Louis Batthyani ?” we cried as we observed a figure bearing the palm branch of martyrdom, and knew at once for whom it was intended.

“Yes, and Jam here,” he added significantly. “The Austrian Government made a great fuss about it at first, but was obliged to give in at last.” And as I looked up at the commanding figure of the revolutionary leader haranguing the populace, I must say I could not help wondering it hat done so.

The picture in question besides Kossuth represented Deak, Szechcnyi, Louis Batthyani, who was executed at Temesvar, and Petofy, the poet of the Revolution.

It was pleasant to hear the very grateful terms in which Herr Pulszky alluded to the Emperor of Austria for having spared his life. He was condemned to death on two occasions, once to be shot and the other to be hanged. He had, however, the honour of being burnt in effigy.

The Hall of Assembly, though small, is a very handsomely decorated apartment. On the lowest tier stand the chairs of crimson and gold, where sit the Cardinals, whilst on the desks in front of the seats above we recognised the familiar names of Graf Festitics and Prince Windishgraitz, which, on those gentlemen paying a visit to England some years ago, were, as might have been anticipated, converted into the more intelligible, if not euphemistic ones, of ” Count Fiddlesticks,” and ” Prince Windowscratch.”

It is singular that Count Andrassy—the correct pronunciation of whoso name is Andraashy—though a Magyar and also condemned to death for the part he took in the insurrection under Kossuth, should until recently have tilled the post of Prime Minister to the Austrian Government, an anomalous position one can scarcely understand any Hungarian patriot occupying with their very natural repugnance to the Austrian supremacy.

The Ladies’ Repository, Volume 11 (Google Books Pt 2)

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THE MIDNIGHT SURPRISE. arr resctro Ex. T OF Tag Roxto arran c1″Wr L. War. THE clock of the little town of Gonyo had just sounded midnight. At this moment a young Austrian officer, sheltered behind the parapet of a long terrace which skirted the castle garden, seemed plunged in a depth of thought unusual for the military man to indulge in; though it must be confessed that the situation and the hour were strongly provocative of contemplation. The beautiful sky of Hungary stretched its azure dome above his head. The sparkling of the stars, and the mellow light of the moon, revealed the outlines of a delicious valley which stretched away far as the eye could reach. About a hundred yards beneath him lay the quiet town of Gonyo, at the foot of the rock on the summit of which the castle was built. Far along the valley rolled the broad Danube, its winding waters reflecting here and there the moon’s silver light. The castle was lit up. The glad sounds of dancing, music, and mirth reached the young officer’s ear, mingled with the ripple of the river as it washed along the northern base of the castle rock. The castle belonged to an old Hungarian noble, who now lived there with all his family. The flames of civil war had for some time ravaged this extensive country toward the east; Kossuth and his compatriots had rolled back the tide toward the frontiers of the Austrian Archduchy, till, on the approach of the immense allied forces of Russia and Austria, Georgy and Dembinski had retired again toward the heart of their wild land, fighting their way desperately, and leaving Klapka with a strong force in the impregnable castle of Komorn. The entire country in the neighborhood was now occupied by the Austrian troops, a detachment of which was posted in the town of Gonyo, over which our young officer was the chief in command. News had that day arrived in the castle, unknown to the Austrians—for the whole population detested them—of a brilliant victory won by the Hungarians in the east over the Russian army of Luders, and the garrison of Komorn had made another brilliant and successful sally, inflicting tremendous loss on their adversaries. A new hope sprung up in Hungarian bosoms, and the “dear old country” seemed still destined to survive as an independent state. The old Count Pfalsky was one of those Hungarian nobles who had not yet openly declared himself, but he was strongly suspected by the Austrian government, and it was thought that he only “bided his time.” Such was the period at which the castle ball was held. During the whole of the evening in question, the eldest of the noble daughters of the family had regarded the young Austrian officer with an interest full of such marked sadness, that the sentiment of pity expressed by the maiden might well excite that reverie in which we have found him plunged. Liese was beautiful, and though she had three brothers and a sister, the possessions of the Count Pfalsky were sufficiently large to afford a rich dowry to Ludwig Richter. But how dared he to hope that the daughter of this old Count, so full as he was of all the pride of the Hungarian noble, could ever condescend to bestow his daughter on an Austrian soldier! The Austrians were hated; they were so, not merely Vol. XI.-9

as interlopers and intruders, but as the agents of a tyranny against which all Hungary was in arms, and whose object it was to crush the independence and ancient liberties of their cherished country. Kossuth’s energetic proclamation had fired the general bosom, and there were few homes throughout the wide extent of Hungary in which his patriotic utterances had not met with an ardent response. The district in this neighborhood was very unsettled, and a general rising of the Hungarian population lying along the western frontier of Hungary might suddenly take place, by which the Austrian capital would be placed in serious jeopardy. Richter had accordingly been cantoned at Gonyo, to watch the neighborhood, with a strong body of Austrian troops. His orders were to be wakeful and vigilant; and despite the manifest interest which the young Hungarian beauty displayed in himself and his soldiers, the young officer kept himself constantly on the alert. Walking along the terrace, and turning his eyes toward the quiet town and the surrounding country bathed in sleep, he puzzled himself by endeavoring to account for the friendship which the Count himself had seemed to display for him, and also for the anxious directions which he had that day received from the commanding officer of the district, urging him to increased watchfulness and discipline; when, in a moment, his thoughts were dispelled, and all his curiosity was aroused by the sudden appearance of an immense number of lights in the town beneath him. True, this was the eve of the festival of the patron saint of the place; but strict orders had been given, that very morning, that the fires were only to be lighted at the usual hour, according to rule. The castle alone had been excepted. He saw the gleaming bayonets of his sentries at their appointed posts; but the silence was fearful, and there was no sound to indicate that the Hungarian townsfolks were giving themselves up to the usual jollity and festivity of their annual fête. In vain he endeavored to account for this infraction of orders by the townspeople, and he hastened to the quarters of his men to ascertain that all was right. He sprung through a breach in the wall, in order to descend the rock, and reach the nearest picket by the shortest route, when he fancied he heard the light steps of a female treading the gravel-walk above him. He looked round, but saw nothing. Turning his eyes in the direction of the river, he was struck by the sight that presented itself. A little fleet of boats, the sound of their sweeping oars already audible, had crossed from the opposite bank, and were fast approaching the landingplace. A hoarse voice behind him whispered his name from the breach through which he had just passed, and on looking up he recognized the soldier who had accompanied him to the castle. “Is it you, Herr Captain?” asked the soldier. “Yes. Well?” said the young officer, in a low voice, for his mind was now thoroughly roused to a sense of danger, and the necessity of acting with caution. “Those beggars there are stirring about like so many maggots! I have run to tell you what I have just seen.” “Say on!” replied Richter. “I have just followed a man out of the castle, who came hereabouts with a lantern in his hand. A lantern is terribly suspicious; and I didn’t see how this Christian could need to light his tapers at this time of night. They would eat us, if they could, said I to myself; and so I put myself on his track. And what do you think, Herr Captain? here have I just discovered, three paces off, in a corner of the rocks, a certain pile of faggots”— A terrible cry rose up from the town, and interrupted the soldier. A sudden flash at the same moment gleamed before the eyes of the commandant. The poor grenadier at that instant received a bullet in his brain, and fell dead. A bundle of straw and faggots suddenly blazed up, not more than ten paces from where the young man stood. The sound of instruments and laughter at once ceased in the ball-room. The silence of death, broken by a few occasional groans, suddenly succeeded the fête. A cold sweat broke upon the young officer. He was without his sword. He comprehended at once that his soldiers were all butchered. He saw himself dishonored, and he lived! He fancied himself brought before a court-martial; and then he glanced again into the depths of the valley. He was rushing forward, when the hand of Liese grasped his. “Fly!” she said, “my brothers follow me. At the base of the rocks you will find a swift horse. Go!” She pushed him away. The young man, stupefied, regarded her for one moment; then, obedient to the strong instinct of self-preservation, which, in times of even the greatest peril, the brave man never loses, he fled in the direction pointed out, clambering down rocks, which, till then, perhaps, only goats had scaled. He heard the low cries of the pursuers close behind him, and the whistling of the bullets fired at him, as he leaped from rock to rock; but he reached the valley in safety, found the horse, mounted, and disappeared with the rapidity of lightning. In less than an hour he reached Raad, the headquarters of the division, and at once presented himself to General Beckstein, the commanding officer. He was admitted, and at once related the details of his horrible adventure. An hour after, a whole regiment, accompanied by a strong cavalry detachment, and a convoy of artillery, were en route for Gonyo. The General himself marched at the head of the column. He was a man well known in the war of the Hungarian revolution for his relentless cruelty. The soldiers had been informed of the supposed massacre of their comrades by the Hungarian townspeople, and were eager to support him in any act of vengeance. The road was quickly traversed. Along the line of march numerous villagers were found hastily assembling in arms. Their houses were fired, and the incipient rebels were shot and sabered on the spot, without mercy. By some singular mishap, the invasion of the town by the fleet of boats from the opposite bank of the river had been abandoned. Some alarm had arisen among those on board, and the sounds of firing in the town were supposed to proceed from the sudden and unforeseen approach of a strong body of Austrian troops. They feared they might be cut off to a man, by some ambush lying in wait for them along the banks of the river. From some such cause of alarm, the boats’ heads were turned down stream, and they soon disappeared in the darkness of the night. The town was therefore again taken possession of by the Austrian force, almost without resistance, for the townspeople were very imperfectly armed, and the greater part of the adult population was with the revolutionary army. Summary vengeance was of course inflicted upon those who were taken with arms in their hands. They were tried by

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drum-head court-martial, and shot in the market-place. Having encamped a large body of his men in the open square, the General then proceeded with the remainder to the castle, and took military possession of it. All the members of the family were at once seized, bound with cords, and placed under a guard. In the mean time the General ordered a repast to be prepared, and proceeded to consult with his Major as to the manner in which the castle prisoners—the leaders in this futile insurrection— were to be dispatched. The result of their short deliberations was, that the hangman was ordered up! Taking advantage of the time that elapsed before the serving of the repast, Ludwig Richter went to see the prisoners. He shortly returned into the presence of the General. “I come,’ mercy” “You!” replied the General, in a tone of bitter irony. “Alas!” said Ludwig, “it is but a poor mercy. The old Count, having seen the gibbet erecting, hopes that you will change the method of execution. He entreats that, as nobles, they may be beheaded.” “Well, be it so!” said the General; and it was an act of mercy from him, for he was not always so yielding. “They ask further, that they may be allowed the last consolations of religion, and that they may be freed from their bonds. They promise not to attempt to escape”— “I consent,” replied the General; “but remember, you are answerable for them!” “The old man offers you his entire fortune, if you will but pardon his youngest son.” “Indeed!” said the General; “but all his estates are already confiscated to the Emperor”— He stopped. A thought of some sublime act of cruelty passed across his features, and he added, “I will even more than comply with their wishes. I see the importance of this last request. Well! That he may secure eternal fame, and that Hungary may forever remember her treason and her punishment, I give all the Count’s property, with a free pardon, to that son who will perform the part of executioner upon the rest. Go! not another word!” Ludwig was overwhelmed with horror. Refreshments were served, and all the officers sat down to satisfy an appetite whetted by exercise and fasting. Only Ludwig was absent. After hesitating for some time, he entered the room where the proud Pfalskys were trembling in suspense. He cast a sad look on the scene which presented itself in the hall, where only the last night he had seen circling round in the mazes of the fascinating waltz, the jeweled and beautiful heads of those two young girls and their three brothers. He shuddered to think that in a short while they would roll in the dust, severed by the executioner’s ax. The father and the mother, the three young men, and the two girls, were bound to gilded elbow-chairs, and sat there motionless. Eight serving men were standing near, their hands tied behind their backs. A strong guard of soldiers, with loaded muskets, watched every action of the prisoners. A movement of curiosity stirred the group when Ludwig made his appearance. He gave orders that the prisoners should be unbound, and he himself unloosed the ropes which tied Liese to her chair. She smiled sadly. The young officer could scarcely help glancing at the beautiful sculpturesque arms of the young lady. He admired her floating black hair, her elastic, handsome figure; for she was a true Magyar, with the clear

Hungarian tint, rather brunette—as we call it—with long, black eyelashes, and a pupil blacker than the raven’s wing. “Have you succeeded?” she falteringly asked of the young officer. Ludwig could hardly speak. He glanced from her to the other members of the family. The eldest brother, Stanislaus, looked about thirty years old; he was small in size, not well made, of proud and disdainful air, but not without a certain nobility of manner, such as distinguishes the higher order of Hungarian nobility. The second, Maximus, was almost twenty; he strongly resembled Liese: the youngest son, Wentzel, about eight years old. He was a beautiful, well-formed boy, with an air of Roman constancy and bravery, such as painters have delighted to embody in their most famous works. At sight of him the young officer sunk his head, despairing of hope that any of these would dare to execute the commission of the General. He ventured, however, to whisper the nature of his message to Liese. She shivered at first, but she soon resumed her collected manner, and calmly walked up to her father’s chair, and knelt at his feet. “O!” said she, earnestly, “make Stanislaus swear that he will faithfully obey the orders which you give him. We shall be satisfied.” The old mother trembled with hope; but when, drawing nigh to her husband, she heard the horrible relation of Liese, she at once swooned away. Stanislaus soon learned all, and he fumed like a lion in his cage. Ludwig took upon him to dismiss the soldiers, after having obtained from the Count an assurance of his perfect submission. The domestics were taken away, one by one, and hanged. When all had gone, except the family and Ludwig, the father rose up“Stanislaus!” said he. Stanislaus, understanding the meaning of his father, replied only by an inclination of his head, tantamount to a refusal. He fell back in his chair, and looked at his parents with a fixed and terrible look. Liese sat herself down at his knees, and spoke to him in a cheerful manner. “My dear Stanislaus,” said she, passing her arms round him, and kissing his cheek, “you do not know how sweet death would be to me, inflicted by thee. I would not for worlds be given over to the horrid handling of the executioner. Thou wilt surely spare me those horrors—. You will, then, my kind Stanislaus?” “Take courage,” next said his brother Maximus, “otherwise the family of the Pfalskys is extinct.” Liese raised herself, and the group which had formed itself round Stanislaus made way for the old father himself, who now came forward. “Stanislaus, I command you,” he said, in a solemn and urgent voice. The young Count remained unmoved. His father fell on his knees before him. Involuntarily Liese, Maximus, and the little Wentzel imitated his example, and all stretching their hands toward Stanislaus, implored him to rescue the family from utter ruin and oblivion. “My son, are you wanting in the devotion and bravery of the true Magyar? Wouldst thou see me at thy knees? And is it thy duty, at such a time, to think of thy feelings and sufferings?”

“Is this my son, Madam?” the old man added, turning to the Countess. “He consents!” cried the mother, in despair, for she caught the inclination of the brow, implying consent, which Stanislaus had just made. At this moment the chaplain of the castle entered. He was soon surrounded by all the family. They led Stanislaus toward him. Ludwig, unable any longer to bear this trying scene, hastened to the General, to venture a last effort to save the family. He found him in capital humor, in the midst of high festivity, drinking delicious wine with his officers, who seemed already considerably under its influence. An hour after, a hundred of the principal inhabitants of the town were arranged on the terrace, by the order of the General, to witness the execution of the family of the Pfalskys. A detachment of Austrian infantry was drawn up, to hold the inhabitants in check, in case of any outbreak; and they stood almost under the gallows on which the domestics of the castle had just been suspended, their bayonet-points almost touching the feet of these martyrs. Thirty paces off there was placed a block, beside which stood the executioner, in case Stanislaus should shrink from his task. The Hungarians soon heard, through the profound stillness of the scene, the steps of many persons approaching, and the measured tramp of a picket of soldiers. Mingled with these sounds were heard the joyous laughter of the officers carousing over their wine, the windows of the room in which they sat being open to the terrace. The noble family advanced with an air of stoical firmness. Their countenances were calm and serene. One man only, pale and haggard, leant heavily upon the priest, who poured forth all the consolations of religion on this person—the only member of the family who was not to die. The executioner understood at a glance that Stanislaus had taken his place for the day. The old Count and his wife, Liese and her younger sister, with their two brothers, came and knelt down a few steps from the fatal spot. Stanislaus was led forward by the priest. When he arrived at the block, the executioner, taking his hand, drew him on one side, perhaps to give him some necessary instructions. The confessor placed the victims in such a position that they should not witness the sad spectacle. But they were true Magyars: they stood up without shrinking. Liese first approached her brother. “Stanislaus,” said she, “have pity on my want of courage; begin with me.” At this moment the hasty steps of some one approaching were heard, and Ludwig rushed forward. Liese had already knelt, and her white neck waited the stroke of the scimitar. “The General,” he cried, “offers thee life, on condition that thou marry me.” Every feature of the young Magyar lady looked scorn and pride at the proposal, and her only reply was, “Come, Stanislaus!” Her head rolled at Ludwig’s feet, and the old Count could not suppress a brief convulsive groan on hearing the heavy fall of the scimitar. But this was the only sound of grief. “Pray Heaven, my fate be as happy as hers, my good Stanislaus!” said the little Wentzel to his brother. “Ah, thou weepest, Mathilde!” said Stanislaus to his surviving sister.

108 T H E L A DIES.” “Yes, yes!” replied the girl. “I think of you, my poor Stanislaus: how miserable thou wilt be, without us!” Now the grand figure of the old Count advanced. He glanced at the blood of his children, and turning his pallid face toward the mute and horror-struck spectators, he stretched his raised hands toward Stanislaus, and said, in a firm voice, “Magyars! I give to my son my paternal benediction! May it ever attend him! And God bless the old country!” “Now, Count,” said he, turning to his son, “strike without fear, as thou art without reproach.” But when Stanislaus’ mother drew near, almost borne in the arms of the confessor“She has nursed me!” he shrieked, and his voice drew a loud cry of horror from the spectators. Even the noise of the festival and the loud laughter of the officers were suddenly suspended by the frightful sound. The Countess, seeing that the courage of Stanislaus had at last forsaken him, leaped upon the balustrade, and in an instant precipitated herself upon the rocks, a hundred yards beneath. A cry of admiration broke forth. Stanislaus had swooned. “My General,” said an officer, half drunk, “Ludwig has been telling me something about this execution here. I bet that you haven’t ordered ** “Do you forget, sir,” said the General, “that within a month many hundreds of Austrian families will be in tears, and that we are in Hungary? Would you have us leave our bones here?” After this outburst not one was observed to raise his glass again—not even a sub-lieutenant. The melancholy which pursued the miserable Stanislaus may well be imagined. He lives the life of a solitary, is never seen, and longs to die to rejoin the members of his family, by whose spirits he fancies himself to be constantly haunted.