yars, number very little 

 more than half the total 

 population, yet in wealth, 

 position, and influence 

 they enjoy the first place 

 in the "realm of the crown 

 of St. Stephen," as the 

 country is officially known. 



In addition to Hungary 

 proper, St. Stephen's 

 realm includes Croatia, 

 Slavonia, and Transyl- 

 vania, countries formerly 

 independent, but now- 

 through intermarriage, con- 

 quest, and inheritance, all 

 possessions of the Apos- 

 tolic King of Hungary, 

 who happens by a purely 

 historic chance to be also 

 sovereign of the Empire 

 of Austria. 



The possession of a uni- 

 fying link in the person 

 of their common ruler has 

 led to the Ausgleich, or 

 "Compromise," whereby 

 the two countries, for mu- 

 tual convenience, have 

 agreed to join forces in 

 maintaining joint diplo- 

 matic and naval and mili- 

 tary services. Beyond this 

 the two countries are en- 

 tirely independent, each 

 having its own constitu- 

 tion, legislature, and ad- 

 ministration. 



The Magyar is perhaps 

 the keenest patriot in Eu- 

 rope, and he manifests his 

 enthusiasm by seeking to 

 impose his language and 

 customs upon his Slavonic fellow-citizens 

 with a persistence that neither opposition 

 nor passive resistance can diminish. The 

 ideal of the Hungarian statesman is the 

 "Magyarization" of the entire country, 

 and, while a certain measure of success is 

 undoubtedly being obtained, the land is 

 losing the flower of its young manhood 

 by the constant drain of emigration, usu- 

 ally to the United States. In an agri- 

 cultural State, as is Hungary, where 

 three-fifths of its inhabitants gain their 

 living from the soil, this constitutes a 

 grave danger ; but the Slovaks, Rutheni- 



I'liMio iiy Marie Helms 



the costume of a man from steiermark, austria 



(gray and grken) 



Notice the chamois tail in his hat 



ans, Croatians, and Poles, with the stolid 

 obstinancy of the Slav, prefer exile to 

 the loss of their language and national 

 sentiment. 



In these lands, so mixed in nationality 

 and language, there is, naturally, no less 

 a variety in religion ; Roman Catholics 

 preponderate, but Greek Orthodox, 

 Uniat Greeks, Lutherans, Calvinists, 

 Jews, and even Armenian Gregorians, 

 are found within their borders. It is 

 not too much to say that Austria-Hun- 

 gary is a frontier Christian State. Be- 

 yond her confines in her little Balkan 



1 189 



