29 
Of the Polish towns, the lecturer spoke at some length of 
Cracow and Warsaw. In Cracow the whole history of 
Poland may be said to be centred although many of the 
relics of the country’s past greatness have been removed to 
Russia. In Cracow the first university established in Europe 
was to be found and the Cloth Hall in the market place was, 
in the middle ages, one of the great marts of the western 
world. The town possesses no less than thirty-nine impor- 
tant churches, of which the Cathedral with its lavish display 
of wealth and magnificance is especially noteworthy. 
Warsaw is an important centre of trade and fashion not- 
withstanding the fact that the authorities have permitted 
no new buildings to be erected since 1863. Mr. Wells spoke 
enthusiastically of the pleasure-park at Praga, near Warsaw, 
where public entertainment on a lavish scale is provided all 
the year round at a very moderate charge for entrance. He 
referred also to the Polish Jew who, in Warsaw, is of quite dis- 
tinct type and still wears the corkscrew curls so reminiscent 
of jewry in the middle ages. Warsaw has, in one of its 
public squares, a fine example of the caravanserai where 
the empty and unfurnished rooms for the temporary accom- 
modation of travellers startle the unwary pilgrim who expects 
in a capital city the luxurious service of the modern hotel. 
The lecturer’s remarks upon the people of Poland were 
especially interesting. Originally there existed a true Polish 
type, belonging to one of the branches of the great Slav 
family of peoples. But in the middle ages vast emigrations 
took place and a mixed stock representing many of the con- 
tiguous races gained a footing in the country. Not infre- 
quently it may be found that a Polish village to-day contains 
three distinctly “ foreign ” types — Hungarian, Saxon, and 
Gypsy. The peasantry of Poland are the poorest people in 
Europe ; in the rocky region many of the people are merely 
cave-dwellers and the children in all parts of the country 
are scantily clad and poorly tended. Not only are they 
the poorest of European peoples, but they are also the 
laziest. Inured for centuries to serfdom, they were unfitted 
for the responsibilities of freedom when freedom came. 
Mr. Wells recounted how, in 1861, forty million Poles were 
set free and assigned twelve acres of land per man. In 
twenty years the twelve acres had become five and this 
proved totally insufficient to provide for family needs. Nor 
in the meantime had the people paid any appreciable pro- 
portion of the very moderate sum settled upon as the price 
of the land under the original agreement. 
