Photo by Frederick Moore 



ON A BUCHAREST BOUIvEVARD 



Next to the fine Renaissance building, which contains the general post-office, stands 

 a characteristic little Rumanian church. The Orthodox (Greek) churches are almost all 

 small and built in the traditional Byzantine style, with very narrow windows and surmounted 

 by a dome or central tower, with four attendant turrets. 



recognized the feeble political position of 

 the Ottoman Empire. 



Rumanians, whose argument was dif- 

 ferent prior to their emancipation, would 

 contend in recent 3^ears that the Turk 

 was a good ruler, and that it would not 

 be well for civilization if his possessions 

 in Europe should be further curtailed. 

 It is true that the Bulgarians are a vigor- 

 ous people and undoubtedly a potentially 

 dangerous neighbor, who might, as the 

 Rumanians fear, attempt at some future 

 date to unite all Bulgars by taking the 

 Dobrudja from Rumania. But there* 

 seems to have been no sufficient, tangible 

 reason for the Rumanians permitting 

 their hostility to develop before it was 

 really due. Such, however, is the way 

 antipathies come to exist between nations 

 in this day. 



After the Russo-Turkish war the Ru- 

 manians seem to have realized suddenly 

 the grave dangers they had run by giving 

 Russia the privilege of marching through 

 their country. Seriously conscious, then, 

 of their grave geographical position, they 

 began to prepare their defenses, so that 

 they should be formidable allies, at least, 

 of the powers hostile to the Slavs. 



THi: wondp;rfui. progri:ss o^ Rumania 



Universal military service was insti- 

 tuted, frontier defenses constructed, and 

 a network of railways laid down with 

 strategical as well as economical design. 

 It is significant that but one line of rail- 

 way forms a junction with Russia, 

 though roads to Hungary are connected 

 wherever commerce warrants. The nu- 

 cleus of a navy has been established also 

 on the Danube and the Black Sea. 



1078 



