LEADING ARTICLES. 



269 



constant craving for more land. Essen- 

 tially simple in character, the richest 

 peasant wears the same rough homespun 

 as his poorer neighbour, and partakes of 

 the same homely fare. The Servian 

 people are remarkable for their hos- 

 pitality, and strangers are always enter- 

 tamed most lavishly. Costumes vary in 

 different parts of the country, but the 

 national garb, like some other customs, 

 is passing away. Fond of simple plea- 

 sures, the Servians are always ready for 

 a dance to the measures of the kolo. 

 QUAINT CUSTOMS. 

 The writer was surprised to find that 



the Servians were not deeply imbued 

 with the religious spirit. Feast-days are 

 universally observed, but a Servian d&n- 

 siders it enough to stand outside the 

 church during divine service. Fasts, 

 however, are very strictly kept. A curi- 

 ous superstition is that connected with 

 the laying of the foundations of a ntsm 

 house, when it is considered necessary 

 to immure the shadow of a human 

 being. All sorts of tricks are resorted 

 to by builders to induce someone to 

 walk down the road in the sunshine, so 

 that his shadow may be caught and 

 walled in. 



EUROPE-AN ARMED CAMP. 



The peaceful citizen who fondly 

 imagines that Europe is a safe refuge 

 from the perils of war, revolution and 

 general disaster must quickly accustom 

 himself to the fact that he is actually 

 resident in the world's danger zone. 



Vlk.'] [Berlin. 



ATLAS: ■' Donnerwetter, what a mad world — in 

 the midst of the ball season!" 



Too much good government, too close 

 an affection for peace and money-mak- 

 ing, are evidently the inevitable precur- 

 sors of war. That is the only moral 

 the reader can extract from Guglielmo 

 Ferrero's contribution to the Atlantic 

 Monthly on " The Dangers of War in 

 Europe." The writer is saturated with 

 pessimism, and works upon our feelings 

 with his first sentences : — 



If one among the many Liberal statesmen 

 and thinkers who, during the first half of 

 the nineteenth century, suffered and strug- 

 gled for the destruction of the absolutism 

 which ruled the old world were to-day per- 

 mitted to revisit tlie earth, what a surprise 

 would be in store for him ! 



The writer makes out a case for 

 cynics when he says: — 



It is noiw about fifty years since all the 

 European States, Russia excepted, came of 

 age and acquired the right to express their 

 will and criticise the policy of their Govern- 

 ments. For better or worse, representative 

 in.stitut<ions, in one form or another, have 

 taken root in nearly all the countries of 

 Europe, and carry forward their work, even 

 if slowly. Peace, therefore, according to 

 tlie prophecies of the doctrinaire Liberals of 

 1848, should reign throughout Europe by the 

 will and authority of the people and in de- 

 spite of bellicose Governments and rulers, 

 ceaselessly in search of adventure, both by 

 virtue of ancient tradition, and on account 

 of their education and their inheritance. 



Such was th(> expectation. What of the 

 realisation? On every hand we see govern- 

 ments and kings struggling against their 

 people and against public opinion. It is the 

 people who are fire<l with a desire for war, 

 while tlieir Governments, together with their 

 sovereigns, devotetl to tiie preserx-^tion of 

 peace, resist as long as they can the pressure 



