the Black Sea at the top of the 

 heel. Along the seacoast lies a 

 great sandy plain, interspersed 

 with lagoons and marshes, called 

 the Dobrudja; further inland is a 

 rich incHned plain, stretching 

 gradually upward to the moun- 

 tains, and on this plain grows the 

 wheat and maize that have made 

 Rumania one of the great grain- 

 producing countries of the world. 

 Here, too, grow valuable crops 

 of tobacco, beans, and potatoes, 

 while pleasant orchards of plum, 

 damson, and apricot trees are 

 found on every hand, the produce 

 of which is distilled into a mild 

 spirit known as tsuica, highly es- 

 teemed throughout the kingdom. 

 In the foothills of the mountains 

 are mile after mile of vineyards, 

 which have raised Rumania to the 

 rank of the fifth wine-producing 

 country in Europe. Higher up in 

 the mountains are vast forests, 

 all carefully conservated — King 

 Charles is an ardent forester — 

 and their timber forms a valuable 

 item in the country's exports. The 

 coast fisheries are a source of 

 considerable wealth, quantities of 

 caviar being dispatched to Berlin, 

 which is the distributary center of 

 this industry, while the choicer 

 fish are sent to Russia, Hungary, 

 and Turkey to such an extent that coarse 

 fish is actually imported from Russia. 



The backbone of the kingdom is a 

 race of sturdy peasant proprietors, most 

 of them owning 12 to 25 acres of free- 

 hold land, most of it being worked on a 

 cooperative system. Most of these peas- 

 ants are Vlachs, a race which is Latin in 

 its language, culture, and descent. Their 

 original progenitors were a colony of 

 Roman soldiers, established on the banks 

 of the Danube by the Emperor Trajan in 

 A. D. 106. Their language descends from 

 the rustic Latin of these soldiers, and, in 

 spite of a long isolation, surrounded by 

 Slavonic tongues, it retains its Latin 

 characteristics to a remarkable extent, so 

 much so that any one reasonably fa- 

 miliar with Latin will be able to read a 

 Rumanian newspaper with but little diffi- 

 culty, as many words are found which 

 remain unaltered, just as they appear in 

 the orations of Cicero. 



RIDING MASTER 0? THE RUMANIAN KING 



While the Rumanian is intensely proud 

 of his Roman language and descent, he 

 gives his allegiance to the orthodox 

 church. The State church is national 

 and independent, but recognizes the Pa- 

 triarch at Constantinople as the chief dig- 

 nitary of the Greek Orthodox Church. 

 Religious liberty is accorded to all, but 

 the great bulk of the people belong to the 

 national church. It must, however, be 

 admitted that a great deal of anti-Semi- 

 tism exists throughout the kingdom, due 

 not to religious intolerance, but to a va- 

 riety of other causes. 



Rumania has a Jewish population 

 amounting to one-twentieth of the entire 

 inhabitants, a larger ratio than any other 

 country in the world. These Jews are all 

 of foreign origin, mainly from Poland 

 and Russia, wear a distinctive dress, and 

 speak a foreign language. 



The country folks cling tenaciously to 

 the national costume ; for the men, white 



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