HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1928-01-05, Page 3Danger Lights From Little Europe
Garden -Wall Quarrel That Might Involve Millions of
English Lives
By j'ames Maynard
The Soviet's Note to Poland with-such•are the demands of the Liths•
respect to Lithuania'; aspirations anians.of all parties."
lends Interest to this article by Mr. They were not destined to. obtain
James Maynard, "who is one• of our what they regarded as "the entire na-
foremost authorities on Lithuania. tional "territory"; but they did obtain
Once upon a time there was a Lith their independefree during the war,
nania which extended •from the Baltic and have since kept it, In the midst
to the .Black Sea. Chaucer, in his of the War—towards tho,end of 1917
"Canterbury Tales," sends a brave —they elected a National Council,
English knight to visit it, and its i This National Council proclaimed the
rulers are said to have signed a com- independence. of Lithuania. The Ger
merciai treaty with Englandin the , mans, who were beginning to want
fourteenth cntury. The Lithuanians friends badly, einnounced themselves
of those days—no Slays, be it noted, as "liberators," and gave them de jure
but men of Aryan origin, speaking a recognition. Subsequent attempts to
language Which has many affinities I go back on this recognition and create
with Latin—smashed up the Teutonic some sort of "personal union". be-
Knights and stemmed the tide of Tar. .tween Lithuania and Prussia were
tar invasion. successfully resisted; and the victory
of the Allies made Lithuania safe for
Biding Their' Time. democracy.
Later, when Russia rose; Lithuania Even so, however, it has not enjoy
fell into decadence, and was removed, ed the happy. state o fa country; which
like Poland, and at the same time as has no history. Its relations with both
Poland, from the map. , Tho partition Poland and Russia have been stormy.
of Poland was also a partition of It has been engaged in hostilities with
Lithuania. Most of it went to Russia; both countries, It is still nominally
a small fraction to Prussia; but
neithele, Russia nor Prussia absorbed
its portion. The Lithuanians kept
their language and;' their individuality,
and bided their. time. The War
brought ihem their opportunity, and
they • grasped it. A new Lithuania
was set up; and the best book in
which to read the story of its rise is
"Lithuania Past and Present," by D.
J. Harrison, sometime British Vice -
Consul at Vilna and Kovno.
at war with Poland, though years have
passed since there was any fighting.
The League of Nations has tried in
vain to compose the quarrel caused
by the so-called "coup of General
Ze'ligowski"—an alleged "mutinous
soldier whose unauthorized seizure 'of
Vilna; necessitating the transference
of the Lithuanian seat of Government
to Kovno, was afterwards endorsed by
his Government, and is believed to
have been planned, in concert with
It is, of course, a much - diminished Marshal Pilsudski.
Lithuania. The extension of its boun- First Flower of the Balkans.
daries towards the Black Sea never Still,' in spite of these trouble%
had any ethnical warrant. Its peeper., pased lightly over here because they
place is in the North, with an outlet belong to current controversial poli -
to the sea at Memel. According to tics, Lithuania has done,., and is doing,
the Russo -Lithuanian Peace Treaty, well, and may reasonably hope to do
signed on July 12, 1920, it had an -area better. "Of ail the Baltic States,"
of 32,000 square miles and a popula- Mr. Harrison says, she "enjoys the
tion of 4,200,000. Part of this terri- most favord economic and financial
• tory, however, was seized by Poland, position," being predominantly an ag
in circumstances of -which more shall ricultural country, and • producing
Sae said in a Moment, .and its present within her ownborders everything
population is said to bo little more necessary •to a self-contained indepen
than two millions'. dent existence. Her soil is fertile..
Her staple crops are rye, wheat, bar
Between Hammer and Anvil. ley, oats, peas, potatoes and flax. Af-
The war, as a glance at the • map ter agriculture, her most important
will show, found the Litifuanians be- 'source of national wealth is timber, of
-tween the hammer and the anvil, and which th principal species are pine,
engaged them in a conflict in which which the principal species are pine,
they would much have preferred to oak, fir, birch, maple and lime. Her
remain neutral They suffered hor- amber industry is also` important, for
ribly—much more than the Belgians, the Baltic coast is the only area in the
though much less has been said about world where the collecting and menu -
their sufferings—first from requisi- facture 'of amber is carried.eon on. a
tions and then from deportation. A. sufficiently large scale to be spoken of
few sentences taken from Mr. Barri- as an industry.
son's book will give a faint idea of the Nor are the art; ignored. Some of
'extent of the trouble. • the artists have a European repute -
"During their retreat the Russians tion—T. P.'s Weekly.
destroyed everything which they were
unable to remove. , Villages and
,farms were given to tb,,e flames, :ma:
' chinery and implements were carried
off, and unspeakable miseries began
for the inhabitants of these desolated
areas . Unlike Belgium, Lithuania
did not benefit from the liberal aid ex-.
tended by the United States and
Spahr. .
"When in accordance with the in-
human Russian policy, thousands of.
Lithuanian adults had to leave the
country, entire families were broken
up. The peasants first sought refuge
In the towns, but were moved on far-
ther by the Russian soldiery. Parents
had thus to' abandon their children,
and were themselves transported in-
to Russia in cattle trucks. At Vilna,
for example, thousands of children
ran about the streets vainly seeking
their parents. The Central Lithuanian
Committee subsequently placed them
In orphanages. But these institutions
were without funds necessary to pro-
vide 'proper nourishment for the child-
ren, meat and milk being particularly
scarce.
The Cause of Self -Determination.
Wasted Millions
Strange Custer(' In Rumania
FUNERAL. CORTEGE, OF LATE PREMIER BORATIANU
Buried on his own estate, the casket was drawn on a cart by six oxen led by old retainers,
BRIDE OF 63 CONFESSES
I Asked Him to Marry Me! • For I Fell in Love With My Boy
Husband Sister of the Ex -Kaiser, Who Recently Mar-
ried a Russian Many Years Her Junior, Gave this
Exclusive 'Article at a Special Interview in the
Palace at Bonn to London Tit -Bits
Should sixty .' marry twentysix?
Should ninety marry nineteen? Can
parties of such widely different ages
really love each other? Are -such
marriages immoral? All these ques-
tions hae been put to me since it was
announced to the world that I, a wo-
man of sixty-one, was engaged to
marry a young man many years
younger than myself. I have .been
derided, ridiculed, censured, and the
object of gross newspaper attacks,
which have said that old age is a bar.
Experts have been busy showing us
how much money we 'waste In a year.
Starting with cigarettes ,th'ey tell us
that out of a population of forty mil-
lions, at least ten million men and
women • smoke on an average ten
cigarettes a day, and waste not less
than one-fifth of each cigarette. Thus
an equialent of twenty million cigar-
ettes is wasted daily. At a cost of
one shilling for twenty, the yearly
waste is nearly £13,000,000.
The habit of putting salt on the
side of the plate instead of sgriuk1Ing
it on food moans that one spoonful in
two is wasted. As practically all the
inhabitants of the British Isles use
table salt- there is a yearly loss of
50,000 tons, worth £ 3,000,000.
Waste in matches is amazing. Quite
three-quarters of the wood used in
the manufacture remains unburnt.
.Assuming that no more than ten mil-
lion people each use two boxes a
week, approximately 1,000 tons are
scrapped every year. .If the wood
were collected, it might prove invalu-
able in the manufacture of useful pro-
ducts such es oxalic acid and paper
pulp.
Amateur photographers throw away
used hypo containing silver. One plc
tune -malting firm saves £ 875 a week
on waste hypo. • What must be the
amount wasted in hundreds of dark
rooms in Britain every year?
During the German . occupation
things gradually got better. The Ger-
mans had no motivator damaging a
countrywhich they hoped' ,to ,annex
or for persecuting those whom they
regarded as their future subjects.
Just as the Russians had tried to
Russianize the Lithuanians, sothey
tried to Germanize thein. They were
more successful than the Russians
had been because their methods' were
less brutal; but the success did not
• • amount to much. It was resisted, not
only by Lithuanian ithuanian patriots ,patriott s
but also by
abroad.
The latter were active from the
first. As early. as October, 1014, the
Lithuanians in the `United States call-
ed a nations !congress, which met at
Chicago and declared itself in `favor
of the reorganization of the Lithuani-
an State in conformity with the prin.,
dole df self-determination." A Lithe-
anian Bureau of Information in Parts
was entrusted with th task of diffus-
ing knowledge of Lithuania among
tho general public - A commisbioner
J. Cgabrys-was appointed to treat
with the belligerents on behalf of
Lithuania, A series of Lithuanian
conferences were held in Europe, at
Berne, at Lausanne, at the Hague, at
Stockholm. Demands were formulated,
Here is a typical deolaration issued at.
Lausanne: "The issue of the war Is
ttiieortain. Whatever it may be,
Lithuania does not wish to return to
politicatenorVitude or to revert to a
situation which would permit 1tussia
or Germany to impose their 'yoke up-
on the country... tree Lithuanian peo-
ple occupying the entire national tor-
ritory, and having free Political, in-
tellectual and edottomiC developilient
you are happy. I don't care if I am
the laughing -stock of this and the
next world, I am going through with
it. You will admit that I am, per-
haps, old enough to know, my own
mind!"
My brother was silenced, and has
since refused to have anything to do
with me, and up to my.wedding day
retained his disapproval of my mar-
riage. I do not look 'my age—only
the other day I was told that I look
twenty-five, but I must admit that
to marriage when one of the parties this was flattery. One thing I will
is still in his or her youth. , say, and that is that I have kept my
But I contend that love` is no se- looks and figure—not by artificial aids
spector of age and that the fire of and cosmetics, but by exercise and a
true love can burn as clearly and as healthy life. I consider myself to be
purely in the heart of a woman—or a on a par with a woman thirty years
man—at the ag of eighty os eighteen! younger, and I think that my husband
If two persons find- that they are soul has not married an old woman, ex-
mates—that they are consumed with cept'in the matter of age, but a well
the grand passion for each other— preserved wife that will do her duty.
then they have every right to marry. to him as stanchly as if she were
Age' has nothing to do with it at all tNenty-five.
—it is sufficient that the all-pervading Forkedtongues have }said all sorts
emotion; love, is present. There al- of unkind, things about us. It a fact
ways enters, of course, the question that I am a Princess . of the Blood
of children—but in this age marriage Royal and that I am a wealthy wo-
is not considered declasse or'immoral man, and these two facts have been
because the parties do not have child- used in order that my husband may
ren but live alone together in unin be termed adventurer. This is a gross
terrupted bliss. e libel. Firstly, he did not seek my
He Would Be Unhappy Without Me.- .hand. I asked him to marry me.
Children may be a blessing to mari- Secondly, during the first days of his
tal happiness, but they are not essen- courtship -he wasunaware of my posi-
tial, and because the two contracting tion or wealth, and thought that I was
patties do not—or cannot—increase an ordinary German woman of per -
the human race is no reason why they haps moderate means. No one was
should not marry. Marriage is an in- more surprised than he when he
divfdual estate—it is personal, and it found out that I was Princess of
has greatly annoyed me that so many Schaumburg -Lippe. It is therefore
people have concerned themselves in certain and obvious that he loves me
my love idyll and my fulfilled deter- for myself alone, and not for that
mination to marry the man I love, which it was my pleasure to bestow
even though he is many years young- on him on our wedding day.
er than myself. I think' that we are going to be the
There can be no wrong present
where true love rides paramount, and
I submit that if I had refused to mar-
ry the man I love because I am so
much older than he, then I should not
have been doing him a kindness, but
a wrong—for I know that his love for
me is .such that the rest of his life
would be barren and unhappy without
me by his side. There is little doubt
that in the course of years we shall
be separated, because I am likely to
be called into the Great Unknown
many years before my husband„ but
I shall have had those few years of
unutterable happiness and bliss with
the man who possesses all my heart.
And does not every woman agree with
me? It one loves, then one has a
right to snatch all the happiness that
love brings. And if the object of one's
affection loves also, then, the world
has no right to deny either happiness.
The question of their respective ages
does not enter into the matter.
Old Age Is No Bar.
I am quite in agreement that youth
should marry youth -that it is, per-
haps, better :but I am not prepared
to admit that old age is a bar to mar-
riage or real love. Rather two per-
sons of widly different ages marry be
cause they really love each other than
two young things who aro entering
matrimony for reasons other than af-
fection, and who, although perhaps
not disliking each other, yet are not
in love.
The marriage 'between my brother,
the I(aiserr and Princess Hermine
was a love -match ---yet both are no
chiokens, to !nit it rather vulgarly.
Trite, they are not so very different
hi ago, but they had every right to
.tarry because they loved. That was
"If yens pick on hubby Yeti's apt the answer I gave to my brother, the
to purl a bunch of harms„ blue Kaiser) when he remonstrated with
vernacular."
The Art of
Keeping a Diary
All the .Mental Faculties De-
pend on it
Memory is the faculty possessed by
the mind of preserving what has once
been present in consciousness so That
it may again be recalled. Thus it
consists of both retention and recol-
lection, retention representing the
power of storing up for future use,
and recollection the power of bring-
ing back into consciousness.
Ofteu impressions are- received by
•t a various senses, sight, hearing,
sinell and taste, without our being
conscious of ahem; for this .reason
ideas are sometimes believed to be or-
iginal when they are not really so,
and on this basis may bo explained
some cases of involuntary plagiarism.
No idea that has ever been in the
mind can be entirely forgotten. In
abnormal states, such as fever and
detirium, memories are revived which
have not risen into actual conscious-
ness for many years. The dying often
revert to experiences which they have
shad in childhood and have apparently
long ago forgotten and there Is a
widespread and popular belief that
a =man on the polut of drowning re-
views in a flash all the minute events
me on my marriage.
"Victoria,' he said, "you aro acting
And now a worm has crashed into madly. If you marry this man you
politics; according of a leading Ohio will be the laughing•stoclt of Ger-
Democrat, however, he refers to the ntanyl"
corn -borer, not the taxpayer: Ch ca -
i "Wilhelm" I replied, "yon married nouticere be allowed to itse only. -such
,
go Daily NeW 1. when you were nearly ,my age, and words as they can pronounce.
of his past life.
Progress Without Memory.
Of all the facilities possessed by
man memory is the most vital to im-
The "Visual" and the "Auditory."
But it is best of all to cultivate tine
third and highest form of memory,,
the "imaginative," or "representa-.
tive." The fortunate individuals who,
have naturally a large share of this;
useful faculty of recalling vividly past
events, belong to the world of poets,
painters, and all creative artists. Thep
may be divided in respect to the kind
of imaginative memory thy passess,,
into two classes, the visual and the
auditory,
The "visual" remember by ' form,
and the "auditory" by sound, and in
Order to bring representative memory
to its highest perfection, both varie-
ties must be cultivated.
Those who find that they remem-
ber a page of a bookeby seeing men-
tally the shape of the letters should
try to hear in their minds the sound
of the syllables, while the "auditory"
(who are usually good linguists)
should try to visualize the printed
words -
But, above all, a good memory can
be formed by the habit of concentra-
tion. Clearness of recollection do -
pends entirely upon clearness of re-
tention, and unless an impression en-
ters the mind firmly and lucidly it will
be remembered vaguely and confused-
ly. .
The Will as an Adjunct.
It is natural for the mind to fly off
at A tangent when it tries to fix itself
upon some particular idea, and 'lack
or attentiion is a ,habit which geows
apace unless corrected. From this
point of view the will can be made a
valuable adjunct to a good memory,
provoment and progress. Tho way of for it can be called in to bring back
experience is the one way through the wandering thoughts when they
life; without experience there can be stray from the subject in mind.
no progres, and without memory ex- But the mind must desire to attend,
perlence is of no use. A human being and for this reason too severe an ef-
without memory would be at the end fort, causing intense fatigue, is to be
of the longest life no further advanced avoided, since lack of concentration
than at the beginning. is one of the first signs of nervous ex-
t?.1l the mental faculties depend up haustion. Interest and novelty tend
on memory. Neither sensation nor to stimulate this mental desire for
voluntary movement could exist with concentration, and therefore menet-
out the guidance of former recollec- ere(is apt to make it difficult and
tions; we cannot voluntarily perform tedious.
any action unless we know before -Repetition Is a great aid in memor-
hand what we are going to do, and the izirg. The more often a thing is re -
1y from remem- peated the more deeply is it impress -
happiest couple in all Europe, and far know iedgn cuuav-
from . making -any difference to our baring that we have done it before. ed upon the mind, and each repetition
means easier execution, greater speed
love, the difference in age between us
will rather cement it, There is only
0110 thing that mars my husband's de-
lirious happiness at our marriage, and
that is the fact that I may be taken
front him before many years are pass-
ed; That was the only consideration
which has kept us back in any way in
our desire to become man and wife.
Love .'will not be denied, however, and
after considering the matter fully we
decided that we would snatch our few
moments of happiness no matter what
it cost in heartbreak later, when it be-
comes necessary for us to be parted
across the bridge that separates this
life from the next,
Love Knows No Locksmiths.
In conclusion, I would exhort all
those who are denying themselves
happiness because of the age bar to
marriage to take courage into both
bands and stand before an altar and
not to have happiness stolen from
them by public opinion. Age is no
bar whatever to marriage, , Love
knows. no locksmiths—not even the
bars of old age.
Cupid is a wily rascal. Perhaps it
is rather tragic when he shoots his
arrows In persons very far' removed
in age, but when he does so let your
heart dictate ton you. .If your heart
';aye "yes," then have courage and go
through with it, and if true love Is in-
deed present, then I do not think you
will live to regret it.
The jolly, old readers seem to be
in enthusiastic agreement with out
plea ter much Iess talk by radio-an-
itoencers, bet the consensus is that
we are toe severe in advocating a
rule that an announcer must centime
himself to siibjects 7:e knoWs some-
thing about. lit. S. C. for lnstance,
engage a Milder measure: that any
Since memory is of such inestimable
importance it be hooves mankind to and dexterity. Even when a thing
use and strengthen it to its full ex- once learnt seems to have been forgot -
tent, for that habit is to the individual ton, it is found that on a second at
what heredity is to the race. Memory I tempt it is mastered much more easily
can be greatly cultivated,' and the 'and quickly.
power of recalling minute incidents I Trusting the memory serves to
strengthen It. It is not always a good
plan to depend entirely upon volumin-
ous notes, for just as a limb that is
not only acquired but marvellously in-
creased.
150,000 Words by Memory. never used will waste and become
The Brahmins of India do not de- useless, so the memory will become
pend upon tho written word for tm- weak and undependable from lack of
parting their sacred teachings. They development.
learn prodigious quanitites by heart; Finally, in the words of Quintilian,
some of them can repeat as many as "If anyone ask me what is the only
150,000 words without hesitation.
The faculty of repeating and great art of memory, I shall say
long lists that it is exercise and labor. To learn
of names and dates is not necessarily much by heart, to meditate much and
a sign of great intelect; people of no- if possible daily, is the most efficacious
torious stupidity and weak mentality of all methods.' Ethel Browning.
have been known to be able to per-
form such feats of memory. It is a
power that depends upon the lowest
form of memory, that which is known
as "memory by contiguity."
A higher form is "memory by as-
sociation" or "rational memory," and
this is a more useful fount to culti-
vate. In searching for past ideas and,
sensations that have "escaped our
memory" for the moment, we try to
remember something that occurred at
the same time, or we turn over in our
minds similar ideas, trying to fix the
particular time by comparing . then
with, other things that we know to
have happened at a certain moment
This kind of metnory is made up
mainly of association of ideas and the
Ancients, notably Simonides, in 500
.B.C., invented systems known as
"mnemonics,' which depended ttpon
symbols and places. Mnemonics are
still in vogue, especially in the per-
nicious practice of 'cramming;' which
is like a porntanetit crutch to a Weak-
ened limb --a heli at first, but a hind fl
-
ranee when the limb could grow
to s or
THE WORST THINGne.ou' HER
"What Is the worst thing about
her?"
"That insigxiifieant littley
Se.lpp who is always at her side.*
The companionate marriage id
naneed by the parent; of the sena-
ratting parties, 'just as, are the less'
;role Measures in the education or,
strong if allowed to develop It ig h
tlsai' young. ,
incl power. -