Life and Society in Eastern Europe

Preface

In offering these experiences of social life in a principality of Eastern Europe to the public, I would make a brief pre liminary statement. It has been my endeavour, to the best of my power, to delineate the various heterogeneous races which go to form the population of Transylvania. I have had some thing to say of their customs and habits, their appearance, their costumes, their religion, opinions, political aspirations, &c. ; and though I cannot flatter myself that my picture is complete, I hope little will be discovered which is misleading or exaggerated. Uninfluenced by party spirit or personal animosity, I have wished to find something admirable in each race. In the Magyar and Szekler, chivalric generosity and warm-hearted friendship ; in the Daco-Roumanian, much noble self-reliance, and an increasing desire of culture and improvement; in the Saxon, sturdy worth and industry, and a hospitality genuine and hearty, if less lavish than that of tribes whose Oriental origin lingers in their prodigal entertainment of the stranger.

The Jew remains. To him, who can deny the ingenuity and perseverance which entail success ? He is, however, as is well-known, maligned, despised, and ill-treated by his fellow subjects of alien race. But if, as is declared, he be the enemy of society, has not society, by her long injustice, created the foe she dreads, even amidst her professed contempt ? As he cannot be got rid of, — as the money-lender is an inevitable figure, where habits are spendthrift and bankruptcy imminent, does not practical good sense (let alone humanity and religion) dictate that he should be permitted to enjoy the position Preface VIII he has acquired, without that molestation which a certain party, represented by the Anti-Semitic League, is so anxious to organize ? Surely a conciliatory policy, which is really the only solu tion of the question, would come with a better grace, whilst it can be spontaneous, than at a later date, when European public opinion will no longer permit its postponement. Graz, Styria, 1886. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. My Relative

I am a roving linguist ! Austria I had tried, tried it for years and had failed. It was a dead failure ! As dead as dead could be ! Professors of languages thronged it innumerable, from the sunny olive groved, vine-trellised south, across the pine-clad heights and Alpine, snow-capped peaks of its more northern climes, far away, beyond its brilliant Kaiserstadt, beyond its Danubian waters. To traverse a vast empire in search of bread in return for linguistic instruction, in search of a competency adequate to the daily wants of one so impoverished as myself, and to meet with but little encouragement and much less success, and to be check-mated after all, and driven off the board, is by no means an enviable fate. But such was mine ! Was I to be daunted and baffled, with indomitable persistency as my motto ?

Oh, no ! I determined therefore to wander further east, to visit scenes more remote, where intelligence was less ripe, and competition scarcer. Having thus resolved, it was to the land of the Magyar I determined to go to try my luck next. To the land of the Magyar, the land of the Hun, I came, and here I am. These pages, extracts from my diary, set down at random, B will testify how I fared, and may, perchance, catch a sinilo of sympathy, even though the tear of pity be withheld. I am a gentleman, in my thread-bare coat, in the shoes I never paid for — by birth a gentleman ! As such, wherever I roam, I do s6 possessed of letters addressed to the influential, to the wealthy, and to the great. Aristocrat and plebeian, Jew and Gentile, inhabiting the towns I have bidden farewell to in despair, supply me with introductions to their varied coteries, relatives, and connections inhabiting the towns I, once again buoyant in hope and sanguine in expectation, have decided for a while to sojourn in, in search of pupils, in search of bread.

Luckily, on reaching Budapest, the capital of Hungary, I came across a long-lost, yet dearly cherished relative of mine, teaching, as I myself had hoped to teach there, and English, too. " There's no opening for you here, old fellow, for I've got the best sets, and those I haven't got, some one else has," was his welcoming speech. " Upwards of seventy thorough-bred British women teaching at low prices, in return for a cup of tea per lesson, or a bed in an attic for three hours' instruction daily. Try the provinces ! I would strongly advise you to try the provinces. I can get you letters to everybody, everywhere ; and the country swarms with quiet, retired, remote, cheap, and un-get-at-able towns, where you'll be all alone in your line of business, and every chance of prime success. Try them !

" " All alone in un-get-at-able towns, and prime success ! Swear to the truth of your assertion, oh, swear, for I've been yearning for years for such localities with passionate intensity ! Now do swear ! " " I swear ! " He swore, and how readily, too ! " And the letters ? " "You shall have them," he drew a time-table from his pocket, cast up a rough calculation, and added, "yes, say seventeen by to-morrow, and quite another dozen sent after you. There now, won't that do ? " " They won't be all from one set to one set ? " inquired I beseechingly. " No. Counts, priests, professors, and cheesemongers the friends and relations of the families I teach in." '' And get me some Jews. Jews pay best, I find." " And learn longest, the study of languages being a safe investment with them, which, when brought to perfection, becomes a capital bearing high percentage.

Ta, ta." He held out two fingers patronizingly, an over-dressed magnate, driving a four-in-hand, chancing to pass. Evidently a pupil of his. The swell drew up, beckoning my successful relative to the vacant seat at his side, who, all aglow with the condescension extended him, was soon lost to sight. " A stationary linguist, and I a roving one ! " I soliloquized. " Oh, that I could once become stationary, too." The next day twelve of the promised seventeen epistles were forthcoming, and with them a by no means despicable loan, and these somewhat perplexing lines of counsel : — " My dear old Bot, — Forgive my so abruptly leaving you yesterday. That fellow was Count F — , at three florins a lesson, and to be seen seated at his side, driving down the Waitzner Gasse, is all the world to me; beauty, wealth, and fashion resorting there, and just at midday too.

That drive alone was productive of two fresh acquisitions, a jeweller's son, whose father espied me through his shop window, and a Hebrew dandy, proud of the patronage bestowed on his cousin's English teacher, and righteously resolving then and there to learn. " More I can't do for you than I have done. I chanced to find most of the fellows I looked up on your account at home, and the majority are in favour of your trying Kolozsvar,i the Transylvanian capital. There's not an Englishman in the place. The aristocracy is large, though not rich, and hospit able to a degree. There's a university there, and a Unitarian college. The letters I send you are addressed to folks of all classes. " Bear in mind that on presenting Baron F — 's letter to Princess Y — , you've given him lessons for upwards of two years, he having stated as much in the inclosed, intimating to me, as a plausible cause for his so doing, the necessity of a warm introduction to her Highness.

"As to Mademoiselle G — 's note to her cousin Sandor L — , a fashionable dentist, she states that she finds you a 1 Or Klausenburg. b Life and Socn in 4 delightful companion, aud was enraptured witli your pirouettes at skating. As you never saw her, I ought to add that she's a great beauty, subject to fainting-fits, which you can enlargo upon, and her brother a bicyclist. "The Chevalier de M — sends you a letter to his wife's father, supposed to be written by her, but she chances to be absent with her singing-master, the handsome Coronini, at their Tokay vineyards, superintending the vintage. The chevalier says it's no matter, his father-in-law being a widower affected with total blindness, and that you will have to read him the introduction yourself. (N.B. They had you to supper, you understand, the eve of your departure, which will ensure the old man's heartiest welcome.)

"The inclosed consider as a loan until brighter times come. Let me hear from you as soon as you arrive, and mind and put up at the ' Hungaria,' the swellest hotel here. I'll send you the old dress-suit I mentioned, which, thoroughly benzolined, will prove presentable, you being just about the size of your very devoted well-wisher and relative, " J. P. " Budapest, October, 1880. I resolved at once to act upon my relative's advice, and the day following the receipt of his letter, I left Budapest for Kolozsv;ir.

Chapter II. My First Adventure

To keep a diary recording daily adventures, has become second nature to me, and before retiring to rest of a night, I habitually chronicle the most momentous occurrences of the day. Extracts of these occurrences, curtailed and abridged, I purpose now to present to the public. I forthwith record my first experiences of life in the Transylvanian capital. The intoxicating strains of the gipsy band playing on my arrival here, in the restauration below, enticed me to enter the locality to supper. The door being swung open by a waiter, the most obsequious, I was ushered across the threshold, and found myself in the midst of a somewhat tumultuous scene. An empty champagne bottle chancing, at the moment of my entry, to be hurled across the room, accidentally came in contact with my head and felled me senseless to the ground.

So much for intoxicating Magyar strains ! I bled profusely. Regaining consciousness, I found myself prostrate on a divan, the object of much tender attention, surrounded by a crowd of anxious and pitying sympathizers, a medical personage holding my pulse, and a handsome woman in evening attire, with tears careering down her cheeks, her lips quivering with intense agitation, as she administered iced bandages to my temples. " Where am I ? " I muttered in my native tongue. " He is raving," whispered some one in Hungarian, behind me. " Or speaking French," suggested the waiter. " No, Italian," interposed a Roumanian pope. " That's Dutch, every bit of it," affirmed a tall, stern, aristocratic individual with a glass in his eye. " Where am I ! " I repeated, rousing myself. "An ' Angol ur' ! " (English gentleman) exclaimed the lady at my side, " for I know so much of the language ; he asks if he will die, and, good God, it is I who flung the bottle and have killed him !

" "You won't die, 'baratom'" (my friend), said a voice behind me, " but live to know us better, and you'll have all our love and regard, if it's really a live ' Angol ' and no Prussian that you are." " Indeed, I am Angol." " And you'll be our guest at Castle Poprad, and forgive my wife the harm she has done you; so unintentionally, too; besides, it was past midnight, you see, 'baratom,' when it happened, and it was Etelka's birthday, and if one can't fling bottles, when exalting over the juice of the Transylva nian grape after midnight without censure, things have come to a pretty pass." " We thought you past recovery," said the doctor apolo getically, as he handed me what had been the contents of my pocket, " and, in search of yonr identity, we were about to look through your documents, when you fortunately regained consciousness."

"And we admire, we love, we cherish, we adore you, ' Angol ' that you are ! " hiccoughed a handsome youth, as he raised a glass of wine to his lips ; "and this to you and your constitution, your queen, your plum-pudding, your Gladstone, and your beef-steaks ! " " Am I forgiven ? Oh, say I am ! " whispered the lady. " I am glad I'm alive to tell you how heartily I forgive," said I, lifting her fair jewelled hand to my lips. " How well he speaks Hungarian ! " exclaimed one. " Borszaszto ! " cried another. " Gyonyorii szep ! " exclaimed a third (the foregoing being popular exclamations). "I must get him up to bed," said the doctor; "a good night's rest will restore our friend." " Would that Castle Poprad were next door ! " " Or that my mother were in Kolozsvar to nurse him ; he won't be comfortable here !

" " Anyhow, here he must remain for the present," said the doctor, offering me his arm, whereat the gipsy band struck up a csardas, and the hiccoughing youth, out of sheer ecstasy at my speedy recovery, smashed a splendid mirror with his gold-knobbed cane.

Chapter III. Tit- Hits

of gossip. I awoke next morning at a late hour for an early riser, tho clock in the steeple standing in the centre of the spacious square, within a stone's-throw of the hotel, having struck nine. Jumping from my bed, I hurried to a glass, all eager ness to discover what traces the night's adventure had left behind. A closed gash above the temple — a disfigurement a few days would doubtless erase — and nothing more. With a smile of satisfaction I set about my toilet, going through such ablutions as the diminutive size of the pie-dish shaped basin would permit, the flimsy rag representing the towel being drenched in partially drying my face. " This will never do ! " I soliloquized. " These are Austrian provincial nuisances over again ! " I pulled the bell. Towels were forthcoming, but hot water for shaving there was none to be had, the kitchen fire being out, breakfast over, and dinner-cooking not commenced.

"If the ' nagysagos ur ' (a title of courtesy) will wait till ten o'clock, or perhaps to-morrow morning will do as well, he shall then have no cause for complaint. Besides, I take the liberty to find him as clean as ever a 'nagysagos ur' could wish to be, a Foispan (lord lieutenant) included," explained the chambermaid, aud retired. Thus reconciled, I sallied forth to spy out the Transylvanian capital, and, being in visiting attire, determined to make my first attack on the most intelligent portion of the population by disburdening myself of some of the introductions I was furnished with. The first object that attracted my attention on entering the Fo ter (principal square) was a funeral pro cession advancing towards me. I uncovered my head reverentially, and paused for it to pass. I soon saw, however, that such an outward show of respect was not paid the dead as is the case in strictly Catholic countries, the priest heading the hearse being of a Protestant denomination.

To my great surprise, the pastor saluted, with a jovial smile, an elderly man in a wig, standing at my side, and, stepping out of the procession, embraced him with a fraternal kiss, as he exclaimed, " You here, ' baratom ' ? Well, I've no time now, but there's a ' tarok partie ' at S — , to-night, at nine, with a good chance of pocketing a net fifty ; be there, and I'll show you the trick ! " with which, and a cordial shake of the hand, he hurried after the hearse, and in his eagerness to regain his position, dropped his prayer-book into the mud. So much for convivial fellowship — so little for the sacred respect due to his solemn office ! Moralizing thus, my eye fell upon a bookseller's shop on the opposite side of the square. Now, booksellers, wherever I roam, I not unfrequently find of assistance to me, either in procuring me pupils or in supplying me with addresses to the houses of the wealthy and the great.

To cross the square and introduce myself, was the work of a moment. The polite vendor of literature listened attentively to all I had to say. I showed him my packet of letters and my passport, and then, after brightening his spectacles on the sleeve of his coat, and giving a meditative scratch to his head, he passed the following awful sentence, blighting my most sanguine hopes at a blow. " Lessons ! English ! Here ! Never ! Do you dance ? " "No." "Fence?" " No ; and what if I did ? " " You could teach those arts ! " There was a long pause. " Lecture ? " suggested he, after pacing the shop awhile. " Yes, if needs be, but of what earthly use would English lecturing be with no one here to understand English ? " "They pretend to do so." " And they don't ? " " A make-believe ! A dozen lectures would pay.

Countess 2 would go. She's the leader of fashion, and the rest would follow suit to see her there. She bought Byron's and Dickens' works last year for the drawing-room table, and now I can't supply the demand." " Then none of them converse in the language ? " " A few may." "And you don't think they would care to learn? It is much taught now-a-days." " Pay vour visits, and try." " And otherwise you can be of no service to me ? " " A card in the window, if you like." " Would that be likely to attract? " " It may. Then there's the club." " What club ? " " The English club." "Here?" "Here!" "Where?" " There ! " "What, at the 'Hungaria'?" said I, as he pointed in the direction of that hotel. " Yes, at the ' Hungaria.' " "Who attends the club ? " " Professors mostly." "And they speak English?" " They think they do.

I'm a member. I don't profess to speak. Stay, here are our rules." With which he produced from a drawer, a pamphlet setting forth the statutes, rules and regulations of that institution, in most questionable English. " You can take it with yon and look through it ! " " Thanks," I replied in English. " Ah, please don't speak English to me ; I shall not under stand you. The club meets two evenings a week. I shall expect you there to-morrow." "Good day!" " Good day ! " " Pray, what are your conditions ? " " Two florins a lesson." "Unheard of!" " You consider that high ? " " Unquestionably 1 do." "What price would you advise ? " " Half a dozen lessons for that price." " Good day," said I disdainfully. He conducted me to the door, and, holding my hand in his, these were his parting words, — "Are you a card-player ?

" "Not much of one." " Now, if you could teach a set of new games, you might gain a livelihood, for the time being at least, in that way. We are sick, heartily sick, of the old games, and we always pounce upon a foreigner for anything new." I left him with a heavy heart. My dearly cherished relative at Pesth, had led me to believe, that in this un-get-at-able, out-of-the-world town, there was every chance of prime success, and see, on the very first onslaught, the discourage ment met with ! Well, there were the twelve letters to deliver yet, so why despair ? I drew, thereupon, letter number one from my pocket, addressed to her highness, Princess Y — . To find her dwelling was an easy task ; every one I accosted seemed to know it, and a strong characteristic of the Magyar being loquacity, every one I accosted had his own delicious tit-bit of gossip regarding her.

I stepped into a barber's shop and, whilst undergoing the process of hair-clipping, I inquired where Princess Y — 's residence was to be found. The reply I received was by no means satisfactory. "At the end of this street : the gentleman must turn to the right, and then after a while to the left, and then any one you meet will be able to point out her palace. The ' nagysagos ur ' is a friend of her highness ? " " No ! " " She was, in her day, a charming woman, but she is old ;> now. " Indeed ! " " The ' nagysagos ur ' is certain to find her at home, she never quits her house, excepting of an evening for the theatre, or a party, or a ball. She is not what she used to be." " In what way ? " "Why, in every imaginable way. She was once very rich, and now she is poor. In my father's time, peace be to his poor old soul, she paid him for the dressing of her hair, ten times the price any one else ever did, no Austrian archduchess even gave such a fee.

I now dress her hair gratis ; all she ever offers me, is her protection. She has no money." " And I hope her protection is of use to you." " Well, it is and it isn't, as the case may be. Our aristocracy is impoverished, and many a lady whose hair I dress, takes advantage of her position, and offers mo her protection instead of money. Too much patronage is extended now-a-days towards folks in my station of life, and, if it were not for the rich Jews, the dogs, hang me, if I know where wo barbers, tailors, and grocers would be ! " " Then the Jew pays ? " " The dog, of course he does ! None better, it's the only way he can get our respect. The ' nagysagos' ' hair is done. I am your obedient servant." At the end of the street, turning abruptly to the right, I knocked up against a servant in buttons, each button engraved with a count's coronet.

Unfortunately I trod on the poor fellow's toes, which caused him to howl out vociferously, and to give vent, in language anything but choice, to the male dictory phraseology in which the language of the Magyar is particularly rich. "I'm very sorry to have hurt you," I modestly remarked, " but now that you have cursed me quite sufficiently for this occasion, perhaps you will kindly tell me where Princess Y — lives ? " " Princess Y — ? " cried he interrupting me, " what do you want with her ? " " That is my business, not yours." "But I shall make it mine," and, stamping his foot he affirmed his intention with a good volley of oaths. "Get out of my way, fellow, and let me pass!" I cried angrily. " Then go," said he, stepping aside, " but know that she's a beast, yes, a beast ! " "A beast . . . and why?"

" Was I not in her service for upwards of ten years, and never a kreuzer did she pay me ? And then, when I left, and wanted to marry and set up a wine-shop over the way with my Irma, a thing we had talked over and dreamt of for years upon years, there is not a kreuzer of my hard-earned wages to be had. Her factotum simply said, ' The money her highness has all these years been saving for you is quite safe in her hands, and she does you now the honour to express her willingness to allow you five per cent, annually on the sum.' Do what I would, I, a poor miserable groom, couldn't get anything out of her. And Irma, — why she wouldn't wait, and married the sausage-vendor round the corner. Curse the Princess ! " Moved by this sad injustice, I continued my way, until I had reached the end of the street, where a friar, with a money box hung to his girdle, and an extended crucifix in his hand, petitioned of me an alms.

I turned no deaf ear to this call for charity, and then interrogated him as to the whereabouts of the mansion I was in search of. " My son, I will conduct you thither," was his urbane reply. " My noble daughter, her highness the Princess Y — , is a good friend to the poor ; her donations are liberal. I have just left her." We walked on side by side, he enlarging on the benevolent virtues of her highness and on the sanctity of her late husband's death. " He was a man of the world, alas ! " added he, " but found repentance on his death-bed." " Has the Princess been long a widow ? " " Upwards of thirty years." " Then the Prince died young ? " " Very young." " Of what, may I ask ? " "He died from injuries received in a duel. He killed his adversary, being jealous of his adversary's wife, — a man of the world, of society, my son ! But he repented. His sins are forgiven him. He endowed a chapel, where mass is said daily for his soul, and— but here we are."

Introduction

.

— 1. A PRINCESS. We stood before a ground-floor edifice on the threshold of a spacious doorway. The windows opening on to the street were many, and, judging from their size and height, the apartments within lofty. Whatever may have been the colour the pristine coating of the house had presented, it was, at this date, difficult to discern, seeing that, weather-beaten and time-stained, it possessed none of the attraction it may once have boasted of. Even the stucco ornamentations which, at an early period, had adorned the window-frames, had crumbled away, and many a yawning creak and crevice iu the mildewed mortar disclosed the red brick and wooden framework. The appearance of things, on crossing the threshold after the ponderous iron door had been slammed behind us, was far more pleasing to the eye ; the spacious court facing us being tastefully laid out in parterres well stocked with flowers, backed by an emerald grass-plot studded with weeping willows and dwarf acacia-trees, whilst centring all was a fountain at play, intermingling its musical splashings with the many-toned song of birds in an adjoining aviary.

The contrast between the exterior and the interior of the building was great indeed. Nor could I refrain from giving full vent to my surprise by exclaiming, — " Quite a paradise in miniature ! " " Who is it that passes so complimentary an opinion, holy father ? " said a female voice, whereupon there emerged from a secluded retreat in a shrubbery a tall and stately lady beyond the prime of life, who advanced towards us. "The gentleman is the bearer of a letter to your Highness," said the friar, bowing low, "and he being a stranger to Kolozsvar, I take the liberty once again to intrude on your ladyship's privacy, in escorting him hither." " You did well, father. The gentleman, if I am not mistaken, is an Englishman. You see, I have been apprised of your visit," said she, extending her hand, " for this morning's post brought me a letter from Baron F — .

Pray be seated ; and welcome to our capital. Baron F — tells me you are in search of pupils, being desirous of instructing them in your noble language." "Noble, indeed," vouchsafed the friar. "And its literature the noblest in the history of nations," said she. " True, too true ! They are a great people, the English ! " exclaimed the friar. " Your Highness is acquainted with our language ? " asked I, taking the seat she motioned me to. " Thoroughly, I flatter myself, as far as reading it is concerned. Want of practice prevents my conversing in it. I should blush, even at my age, much as I love and have studied your poets, to utter a syllable before you. But take a cigarette," added she, drawing a gold case from her pocket ; " or perhaps you, reverend sir, knowing well the ins and outs of my little home, will go in search of the cigar-box, and thereby save an old woman's enfeebled steps.

On the piano in the drawing-room you will find it. And now tell me how you left our good friend the Baron." " In very good health," said I timidly, recalling my relative's injunctions. "In very good health ! That surprises me. He states here that the last operation he went through aged him in one night ten years." " Well, but since the operation," I said rather nervously. " Oh, I see, you think, all things considered, in his present state his health is good." " As far as his digestion goes, I believe it is," said I, smiling, yet heartily ashamed of this enforced deception. " He does not mention his digestive organs, although, when we were together at Meran, he was suffering acutely from dyspepsia, and the doctors then sent him to Carinthia to try the Worther-See baths. And, I see, the note you have handed me states that you have known him for two years."

"And upwards, and I have always entertained a sincere regard for him, both as an accomplished man and a — a — " (how I cursed my relative). " A scholar ! " " Yes, a scholar ! " " Tell me, is he grey ? " " Almost," I ventured in my despair, still inwardly anathe matizing that relative of mine for not supplying me with the fellow's biography, or a portrait, at least. "Almost ! " she exclaimed. " Why, he was that ten years ago, when we met at Portschach, near Klagenfurt, and I remember Ilona, Countess Ilona, a niece of mine, telling me last year, after her return from the Budapest carnival, that she found he had aged considerably, so I pictured him quite white." "Well, they say ho dyes his hair occasionally." " Who are they ? " " Well, gossiping people," I said, dreading her next query. " Oh, I see.