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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



bitter toward their Austrian compatriots, 

 claiming that they are neglectful of their 

 brethren who are less fortunately cir- 

 cumstanced than they are. Some one 

 has observed that the Poles of Austria 

 are like the French in Canada ; that their 

 nationalism is religious and literary and 

 not anti-governmental. 



RElvATlONS WITH THi; RUTH^NIANS 



As western Galicia is the stronghold of 

 the Austrian Pole, so eastern Galicia is 

 the main dwelling-place of the Austrian 

 Ruthenian. The two races never get 

 along very well together. About 45 per 

 cent of the population of Galicia is Po- 

 lish and about 42 per cent is Ruthenian. 

 Outside races hold the balance of power, 

 and it is only by playing good politics 

 that the Poles dominate Galicia. Since 

 the Ruthenians got universal suffrage 

 they have been sending large numbers of 

 their representatives to the Galician Diet. 

 The conflict is a racial one, and the Poles 

 are probably not as considerate of Ru- 

 thenian rights as they would like Austria, 

 Russia, and Prussia to be of theirs. 



P:eASANT LIFE IN GALICIA 



The peasant population of Austrian 

 Poland eke out a hard existence. In 

 many parts of the country the peasant 

 lives in a log hut covered with straw ; he 

 breakfasts, dines, and makes his supper 

 of porridge, washing it down with bad 

 brandy ; and in general leads a life full 

 of want and empty of pleasure. The 

 peasants who farm for the nobles receive 

 no money in payment, but only a share 

 of the crop. 



The usual division, all over Europe, 

 ranges between a half and a fourth, and 

 even in Russian Poland it never goes be- 

 low the latter proportion. In Galicia the 

 peasant now receives no such proportion. 

 The nobles' estates are either owned out- 

 right by absentees or are controlled by 

 them through full-value mortgages, and 

 they have combined to force down the 

 peasant-farmer's share, Avith the result 

 that it now frequently goes down to one- 

 twelfth, a wage of slow starvation and 

 a wage largelv responsible for a disease 

 known as "Plica Polonica" among the 

 peasants, which arises from a lack of 

 nourishment. 



THE GERMAN POLES 



In the partition of Poland, Prussia got 

 the smallest share when the redivision 

 was made by the Congress of Vienna, 

 although she had participated in the three 

 partitions and had drawn 56,000 square 

 miles of territory in those partitions. The 

 Congress of Vienna reduced this to 26,000 

 square miles, taking the other 30,000 

 square miles and adding it, along with a 

 part of Austria's holdings, to the King- 

 dom of Poland, which was to be ruled by 

 the Russian Tsar, but was to be inde- 

 pendent of and on a parity with Russia. 



The 26,000 square miles of Prussian 

 territory which once belonged to Poland 

 is made up of Posen, most of West 

 Prussia, and several districts in East 

 Prussia. Posen is slightly smaller than 

 Mar3dand, but has a population of ap- 

 proximately two million. West Prussia 

 is a little larger than New Hampshire, 

 but has a population nearly four times 

 as great. East Prussia is about one-third 

 as large as Virginia, but it possesses a 

 population approximately equal to that 

 of the Old Dominion. 



Posen is largely Polish, the Poles con- 

 stituting more than half of the population, 

 of the province, in spite of the large Ger- 

 man immigration, aided and encouraged 

 by the government. It is largely devoted 

 to agriculture, though there are many im- 

 portant manufacturing industries. For 

 a long time it was one of the worst edu- 

 cated provinces of Germany, but that 

 time is now past. In 1901 the percentage 

 of illiterate recruits in Posen was nearly 

 one out of every ten ; toda}^ it is only one 

 out of four hundred. Posen is a part of 

 the north German plain, and 61 per cent 

 of its acreage is under tillage. 



GERMANIZING THE POLE 



West Prussia and East Prussia are the 

 coldest provinces of Germany. They are 

 cold and bleak in winter and hot in sum- 

 mer. East Prussia is the Kentucky of 

 Germany in many ways. It contains the 

 great government stud of Trakehnen, 

 where some of the best horses in Europe 

 are to be found. Both of the Prussias 

 are famous for their great estates, many 

 of them held by men prominent in the 

 affairs of the Empire. 



