140 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Dr. V. Sixta and Son 



WHERE ANCIENT NATIONAL COSTUMES AND FOEK-ART HAVE RESISTED THE RAVAGES 



OE MODERNISM 



The kitchen, the parlor, the pottery, the furniture, and even the exterior of the houses in 

 many wSlovak villages are decorated in gay but harmonious colors and ornaments that have 

 characterized them for centuries. 



scores of grain-clad hills and with sturdy 

 peasants rafting logs down the turbulent 

 stream to the little factories, which would 

 shape them into furniture destined for 

 France and England and even for 

 America. 



I thought of the pleasant riverside vil- 

 lages overflowing with playing children ; 

 long, regular rows of lowly huts with 

 steep shingled roofs and fantail gables 

 and flowers in every window ; and I 

 thought of the riot of color of the native 

 cost times constantly reshaping themselves 

 into new combinations and harmonized 

 through the necromancy of a kindly sun. 



So. to re-acquaint myself with the 

 homely charm of Slovakia, 1 slipped away 

 from Golden Prague to chase away for a 

 while the memories of Rumania, with its 

 gayety and awful trains; Vienna, wear- 

 ing a painted smile to cover a starving 

 body and soul : Budapest, where food and 

 room arc cheap and everything else is 

 dear; Serbia, with its new station build- 



ings and bridges taking the place of the 

 wreckage of war ; Croatia, the cultural 

 and lovely, which already feels the pres- 

 sure of Serb supremacy; and German 

 Austria, whose charm exceeds that of 

 Slovakia itself, but whose people do not 

 measure up to the majesty of the land- 

 scape. 



PREPARING EOR A EESTIVAE 



Turciansky Sv. Martin was a different 

 place. Up and down the streets one 

 could see the citizens digging the sod out 

 from between the cobbles and sweeping 

 the whole town until it was commonplace 

 in its cleanliness. 



Every train was bringing in its quota 

 of visitors, many of whom were forced 

 to sleep in barns throughout their stay, 

 if they were peasants, they had disguised 

 the fact under frock coats, ill-fitting 

 derbies, white dresses, and white hats. 



The gathering was not the festival 

 which I had expected to find, but a con- 



