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DUCHY OF CARNIOLA

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DR K. DOBIDA
LJUBLJANA

Central Office of the Association for the Travelling
of Strangers.

Gratis lnquiry-Office in ali Matters concerning the
Travelling of Strangers.

Permanent Exhibition of Views, Paintings, Pictures
of Costumes etc.

Reading-rooms with Carniolan and Foreign Tra¬
velling Literature.

Publication and Šale of Albums, Photographies,
Guides and Picture-cards.

Gratis Correspondence and Agency concerning the
Accomodation of Strangers.

Gratis Inquir-y-Office for Mountaineering, Winter-
Sport, Excursions, Visits to the Grottoes.

Laybach, Miklošičeva cesta 6
(Austria)
opposite the Grand Hotel “Union**.

Carniolan

Tourist-Office

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0 Aviso for Strangers

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M. RUPPE: CASTLE OF VELDES.

M Alpine Province of Carniola. M

T he duchy of Carniola the country of wonders, as

Sir Humphry Davy has called it, is situated in
the high Alps of Austria near the Adriatic Sea. It is
the only Slavish country in the Alps. Mountains to-
wering toward the sky and covered with eternal
snow, lakes of crystal purity, green alpine pastures,
fragrant forests, the ‘healthy and bracing air that
blows from the Alps, ali these entice every year
thousands and thousands of strangers to this country.
It is well provided for the tourists by summer re-
treats and winter sports. Direct express trains with

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dining and sleeping cars, modern hotels, alpine huts
and societies for the Information of strangers are
aiding the traveller.

The duchy is Slovene (South Slavish), her inhabi-
tants have a pretty high degree of culture and instruc-
tion and take much interest in the welfare of strangers.

The Capital of the province, Laybach (Sl. Ljubljana)
has 45.000 inhabitants and is a charming modern town.

Her principal mountains are: the Julian Alps, the
Karawanken and the Alps of Kamnik (Stein) or of
the Sanntal, the Karst (Kras).

High tours to the summits of the Triglav (2865 m),
the Mangart (2678 m), the Grintavec (2559 m) and the
Stol (2239 m).

Lakes: the Wocheiner See (Slov. Bohinjsko jezero),
Veldeser See (Slov. Blejsko jezero), the two lakes of
Weigenfels and the seven lakes of the Triglav.

The chief bathing-places and summer resorts are
at Bled (Veldes), Bohinjska Bistrica (Wocheiner
Feistritz) on the Wocheiner lake, at Kranjska Gora
(Kronau), Mojstrana, Kamnik (Stein). Except these there
are many summer resorts and smaller bathing-places.

A wonder of the world is the Grotto of Adelsberg
(Postojna), the finest grotto of Europe.

The principal river is the Save which arises in
two sources out of the waterfalls in Upper Carniola,
the two branches meet again at Radovljica (German:
Radmannsdorf) in one single impetuous clear course
of emerald green flowing towards the South.

Laybach is 3 hours distant from Triest, 3^2 hours
from Fiume (Reka), 9 hours from Vienna, 16 hours
from Prague, 9’/ 2  hours from Budapest, 26 hours
from Pariš and 35 hours from London.

2

TRIGLAV

Information, prospectuses and pictures are sent
gratis by the Tourist Office of the Provincial Asso-
ciation for the circulation of strangers and tourists,
Miklošičeva cesta 6’, opposite the Grand Hotel
Union, Laybach.

i*

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g National costumes - the Carniolans. 1
§ s

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In Carniola the national costumes are partially
stili in use and they are worn on holydays. In these
later days patriots have taken pains to revive the
national dress, and thanks to their encouragement,
you may, at the present time, on holy-days and on
the national holidays, see the beautiful native costumes
of the country. The national dress of Upper Carniola
is of a dark shade, but rich, that of the women is
adorned with embroidery in gold or silk. The frocks
in Lower Carniola are of showy shades and very
picturesque.

What a treat for the eyes to see the well-built
and strong Slovene people in their Sunday suits of
by-gone days which show forth so well their self-
possession and national pride.

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| Laybach (Ljubljana), |

  

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The Capital Laybach (Ljubljana), called by the
people “the white town” (Bela Ljubljana) is about
297 m above the level of the sea; it is connected
with the express train of the Sudbahn Triest-Vienna-
Abbazia; junction of the lines towards North Carniola

OF. A. WAGNER: BEFORE THE CITY-HALL AT LATBACH.

5

to Veldes, Bistrica, the Wocheiner See, Mojstrana,
Kronan and beyond the bounderies to Villach and
Klagenfurt; starting-point of the branch lines to
Kamnik (Stein), Novomesto (Rudolfswert), Gottschee
and Vrhnika (Oberlaibach). The town has 45.000 in-
habitants, is the seat of the provincial government
of a bishop and ali the central authorities. It is also
the centre of culture and commerce of the Slovene
nation which, except Carniola, inhabits also Carinthia,
the South of Styria and the Litoral.

Laybach is beautifully situated on the Ljubljanica
at the foot of a hill crovvned by an old castle. It is
a thouroughly modern town with broad streets, an
electric tramway, excellent waterworks, model sewers,
gas and electric light; interurban telephone Vienna-
Triest; modern provincial hospital, infant hospital,
sanatorium Leoninum, Emona, hydrotherapic sana-
torium Hygiea, river, pool and warm baths. —
Laybach has a view of rare beauty. The town itself
has numerous parks and squares. Among these is
the one in the middle of the town laid out in the
form of a star, the “Zvezda” (Sternallee). Lattennann-
avenue leads to the big gardens, groves and forests
of old trees of the town round the Castle of Tivoli.

The ancient public monuments, the great churches
with beautiful entrances and architecture, recall the
surroundings of artistic Italy. Especially worthy of
notice is the tovvnhall with a massive marble foun-
tain, the monument of the Emperor Francis Joseph,
the statues of the Slovene poets, Prešeren and Vodnik,
of the founder of the literary Slovene language,
Trubar, and that of the historian Valvasor; comme-
morative columns and so on.

6

Scientific and literary institutions “Slovenska
Matica”, the renowned singing society “Glasbena
Matica”, the association of singers “Ljubljana” and
others; military and civil bands in summer and on
popular holidays; highly remarkable is also the pro-
vincial museum “Rudolfinum”, especially tor its
celebrated collections of palafittes from the antique
city Lacustre, which was discovered at the Marsh
of Laybach, and the numerous objects of the bronze
period from the excavations at Watsch and elsewhere;
then the national costumes and the national works
of art.

But what gives the most characteristic features
to the town is the fine view in the proper acceptation
of the word that one enjoys from the Grad (Schlog-
berg); according to many travellers there is no
equal in any other town of the realm. On a fine
sunny day it is worth while to make the easy ascent.
From the esplanade belonging to the old castle a
view of great extent and unforgotten variety opens
before the enchanted visitor. To the north, the eye
soars above a fertile plain, dotted with villages,
towards the lower Alps, and the peaked summits
of the Steiner Alps (Kamniške Planine); farther to
the West mount the characteristic pinnacles of the
Karawanken and terminate in the majestic Mount
Triglav (Three Heads) in the Julian Alps. Then the
gray coloring of the rhountains begins to shade with
the verdure, the elevation little by little descends,
and ends in an enormous circle surrounding the
whole of Lower Carniola, and forming a succession
of hills and green mountains with the two most
characteristic summits of the Austrian Karst, the

7

Nanos and the Snežnik (Schneeberg, Snow-Mountain),
bordering the south of the horizon. The panorama
of this grand basin is formed by the vast plain
through which, like a silver ribbon winds the river
Laybach.

Because of its parks and beautiful environs,
Laybach is very advantageously situated for a
summer resort, and by its accessibility, as a tourisfs
destination; after a two hour’s drive the traveller
may be in the centre of Upper-Carniola and in a
few hours he reaches the Adriatic Sea.

Hotels: Grand Hotel Union, Elephant, Parkhotel
Tivoli.

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| Bathing piace of Veldes (Bled). §

  

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501 m above the level of the sea; the express train
of the Staatsbahn stops at the station Lesce (Lees)
between Tarvis and Laybach. Veldes is a real little
alpine paradise. In the center of a basin, towered
by an old, well-preserved castle, glitters the clear
water of a charming lake forming a big shield from
which rises a beautiful high island crowned with a
white church, which mirrors itself in the smooth
surface at its base. The lake is circled by many
comfortable hotels, charming villas, interspersed with
magnificent summer residences and charming cottages
harmonizing with the surroundings. And farther on
is the splendid amphitheatre of verdant mountains
forming the bounderies of the giant Julian Alps. —
Hotels: Imperial Park-hotel late Mallner, Luisenbad.

8

M.RUPPE: VELDES-ISLE.

The temperature of the lake is, in sutnmer, 26° C.
and invites bathing. .. Luisenbad possesses streng-
thening, hot, mineral waters. — Veldes is a very
renowned summer resort which is, from year to year,
more frequented; it has an elegant Curhouse, mušic,
sporting grounds, beautiful promenades; trips into
the high mountains are much recommended.

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Summer resort and winter sporting plače



VVocheiner Feistritz - Wocheiner See |

(Bohinjska Bistrica-Bohinjsko jezero). |

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You enter it by the defile of the Save which
broadens at theWocheiner Feistritz (railway-station of
the Staatsbahn)
and ends at the
Wocheiner lake
that sleeps in
grand stillness
guardedbyhigh
rocky walls and
fed by the Sa¬
vica waters
which, higher
up, break from
their rocks, and
form a very
high and abun-
dant waterfall,
the finest of the
country. The
Wochein valley
offers a grand
panorama
which is almost
solely formed
by the formi-

dable Julian Alps. Half an hour’s drive or an hour’s
walk will take you to the lake.

SAVICA AVATERFALL.

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The lakes of the Wochein as well as the river
Save and its tributaries abound in trout and fish of
ali sorts and are therefore warmly recommended to
people liking the fishing šport.

Places on the shore: Hotels: St. Johann
(Sv. Janez, St. John), Heiliger Geist (Sv. Duh, Holy
Ghost) and Zlatorog near the Savica waterfall.

Since the opening of the new alpine railway line
Tauern-Adria the Wochein has become a very fre-
quented summer retreat, and later in the year the
winter sports are much enjoyed.

  

ES I Kronati (Kranjska gora) | ES
  

  

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842 m above the level of the sea, a very fine alpine
plače surrounded by the grand landscape of the Save,
the valley of which extends between the high summits
of the Karawanken and the Julian Alps. Noted for
its invigorating air, pure water, good taverns, baths,
magnificent promenades, especially in the Pišenca
valley (pron. Pechentza). — Dovje (Lengenfeld)-
Mojstrana, 705 m, summer resort with very salu-
brious alpine climate starting point for the Triglav.

£3

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  o

i Kamnik (Stein) I

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is situated on the branch line Laybach-Kamnik and
lies immediately at the foot of the Steiner Alps. On
the Bistrica a brook rich in trout Stein is a charming
summer retreat with a hydrotherapic establishment,
shady promenades, salubrious alpine climate, Cur-
house; starting point for ascents.

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M. RUPPE: “KLEINFESTE” AT STEIN.

CAJ

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The vallev of the Save, i


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CA]

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The railway of the Staatsbahn extends along the
valley as far as Kronan and offers many summer
resorts: Medvode (Zwischenwassern), Škofja Loka

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(Bischoflack), Kranj (Krainburg), Tržič (Neumarktl),
Lesce (Lees), Vigaun, Polič, Žerovnica, Ratschach
and Weigenfels; near this plače are the two Weigen-
fels lakes with the Mangart in the background.

Siidbahn railway: Steinbriick - Laybach-Triest,
resp. Fiume-Abbazia, offer likewise a good number
of hot thermal waters and summer retreats: hot
thermal springs at Čatež and Gallenegg (Media).

Summer resorts: Vrhnika (Oberlaibach), Borov¬
nica, Loitsch, Planina, Rakek, Zirknitz with its cele-
brated intermittent lake where according to the
season you may alternately walk, drive, go boating,
fish, hunt, mow and reap in the same year and on
the same plače. Adelsberg (Postojna), Ilirska Bistrica
(Illyrisch Feistritz).

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[<3 | The Grotto of Adelsberg | E3

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553 m above the level of the sea; the Siidbahn
express train stops on its way to Triest 8 minutes
at the station. Carmen Sylva, queen of Roumania,
calls the grotto a Fairy land extending underground;
its splendour is indeed awe-inspiring. Beneath high
domes and passages you see the most fantastic sta-
lactites and stalagmites in countless shapes and odd
configurations, first forming extraordinary and strange,
dark groups, then again shining in the electric light
like the brightest diamonds. A well kept path leads
the visitor through the big dome along “the pulpit”,
“the waterfall”, “the lion’s head”, “the curtain”, “the
sword of Damocles”, “the Gothic column” and other
phenomna which nature had the fancy to create;
large and more spacious places such as the “dancing

13

THE GROTTO OF ADELSBERG: TARTAR.

hali” and the “Tartarus” will strike the visitor with
awe by their grandeur. More than 60.000 persons
visit the grotto every year. On Whit-monday a great
festivity with mušic and dancing is held there.

Adelsberg is also a very commendable summer
resort with many good hotes.

14

STEINER FBISTRITZ, ISSUE OF THE VALLEY.

The Carniolans at Home. - Their Manners
and Customs. - Legends of Carniola.

The Austrian province of Carniola is the only Slavish
country in the Alps, that great chain of mountains which
traverses Europe from the French coast of the Mediter-
ranean to the countries of the Balkans. The particular
Alps of Carniola are called the Julian Alps, to comme-
morate the conquest of our country by the Romans
under Julius Caesar on their march against the barbarians
to the north and east df Italy.

Sir Humphrey Davy, the great and much travelled
Englishman, made Carniola his home for many years
and described it as the most beautiful country which he
had ever seen in Europe. Here the great but sometimes
forbidding scenery of Svvitzerland and the Tyrol begins

15

M. RUPPE: MITTERDORF, WOCHEIN.

M. RUPPE: CHAPEL OF THE CASTLE AT VELDES.

to give way to the soft and charming lines of the
Italian landscape. “It seemed to me like an undiscovered
paradise,” says an American, Francis E. Clark, in his
book on “Old Homes of New Americans, “for compara-
tively few tourists disturb these lovely solitudes. The
city of Laibach, the Capital of the Slovenians in Carniola,
štručk me as a peculiarly beautiful town, where I would
like to settle down for a long summer holiday.”

But lately the tourists are arriving fast enough to
change the aspect of our country and the ideas of our
people. The Canadian Pacific Railway company, who have
established a steamship line between Austria and Canada,
are also running observation cars on the trains from
Vienna to the Adriatic sea, past my home, the Lake of
Veldes.

Even now I am missing the strawcovered roofs of
the peasant homes, bricks and slate and other new in-
ventions having taken their plače, under the influence
of progress and insurance rates.

The people are getting more and more interested
in politics and consequently in liquor. This, I suppose,
is ali as it should be, but I am afraid the home which
I have known and loved in my childhood will soon only
exist in my memory. When I visited home the last time,
I noticed that the beli of our village church had changed
its tone, and was informed that it had been broken and
had to be recast. It nearly broke my heart.

The people inhabiting Carniola and also the adjoining
countries of Carinthia, Styria and the maritime provinces
of Austria belong to the Slovenian branch of the gret
Slav race, forming with the Croatians, Serbs and Bulgars,
from the Alps to Constantinople, the solid unity of the
Southern Slavs, half of whom live under Austrian-
Hungarian rule, while the others inhabit the independent
kingdoms of Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria, the recent
victors over Turkey.

18

The river Sava, which originates in the Carniolan
mountains, connects ali these nations. On its banks resound
the melancholy songs of our always suffering, always
hoping race, as it flows on through Croatia, past the
white city of Belgrade and along the borders of Bulgaria
into the Black Sea, to the Russian nations, whose racial
and linguistic likeness with ours thousands of years of
separation have not been able to erase.

How different from America, where our Slovenian
nation of a million and a half is emigrating in ever
increasing numbers, so that now one Slovenian out of
fifteen lives in this country, and where they so quickly
assimilate that, with the new language, the later genera-
tions soon lose the consciousness of their origin, of
their physical and national characteristics. I have relatives
in the States of Washington and Minnesota, where our
people are settled as farmers; others by the hundred
thousands live in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Montana,
and prominently, also, in Colorado, where 3,000 Sloven-
ians are prospering in Pueblo alone.

Clark thinks it is not too much to believe that before
the end of this century the United States will harbor
“a majority of these hardy, enterprising sons of the soil.”
And to illustrate their character, he goes on to relate
an ancient custom of the Slovenians which is stili to this
day vivid in our memory.

When a new prince was inaugurated, a peasant
mounted a rock to await the coming of the prince, who
was dressed like a peasant. As the prince advanced, the
peasant called: “Who is it who approaches?” The people
answered: “It is the prince of this land.” The peasant
then said: “Is he a good judge ? Is he the friend of
truth?” On receiving a reply in the affirmative, the
peasant yielded his plače to the newcomer, who mounted
the rock, and, brandishing his sword, vowed to defend
the country of the Slovenians.

19

BENESCH: ROTHWEIN-FALLS.

Well may the Americans believe that people with
such a record in their past will be a credit to the country
of their adoption; and I hope that my references to the
Slavonian nation will be of some interest to the Ame¬
rican readers in the Rocky Mountain states where they
form, especially in the mining districts, the chief foreign

20

element, as they may be welcome to my own countrymen
who, like myself, have stili retained those sentiments
which, at this time of the year more than e ver, turn
our thoughts to the land of our nativity.

Christmas, the night when our Savior was born in
the humble hut of Bethlehem, is the time of great rejoic-
ing among the people of Carniola. The country and
villages are deeply buried in snow, which contrast with
the dark green color of the surrounding pine and spruce
forests, over which tower the mountains, eternally white
through summer and winter. With the exception of the
himber business, which furnishes the chief occupation
of the poorer classes, the winter is a very quiet season
for the peasants.

Evenings they sit in the lov wooden panelled rooms
of their houses, around the big table under the crucifix.

21

At Christmastide in that corner universally appears a
scenic representation of the birth of the Savior. Simple
paper figures are stuck up in moss. On Jan. 6 the
images of the three kings join the company. The walls
of the room are adorned with pictures of saints.

These portraits, formerly crude and naive paintings
on glass, have lately become replaced by cheap prints.
There is usually to be seen the portrait of Emperor
Francis Joseph, sometimes one dating back to his
ascension to the throne sixty-five years ago. And pro-
bably you will observe some more recent photographs,
representing friends or relatives in Minnesota or Leadville.
Forks, knives and spoons show themselves sticking out
from straps along the wall or under the ceiling, as
every servant of the house has his special and recognized
plače where he places his eating utensils. One corner
of the room is taken up by a large stove, around which
runs a bench, and above which are characteristically
built shelves upon which the young folks lie during the
evenings, throwing jokes at the old people underneath.
Under the stove lie the dog and the cat enjoying the
warmth, forgetting their quarrels of last summer.

Birds, robins and others, who of their own accord have
arrived with the cold to spend the winter in the house, are
jumping around the room and upon the table, friends to
ali members of the family. They will take their leave with
the arrival of the warmer weather and will come again
with the winter. Sometimes the same bird will return
for ten years, anxiously awaited by the family. And then
comes a winter when the little fellow remains away.

It is difficult to describe or for strangers to imagine
the sorrow of the family when they finally are convinced
that the bird must be dead. Perhaps he was killed in
a storm, perhaps he was the prey of some animal; no
one will know the particulars of the tragedy which
ended the little life in this world of continuous murder.

22

WOCHEINER LAKE.

The women and maids of the house are sitting in
one corner, piling off corn or knitting or spinning the
home-grown wool and linen and “talking personalities,”
as we would say in America. In the meantime, in the
open hearth kitchen the old grandmother sets a light
to burn over night, that the spirits of the dead family
members, when they come to visit during the night,
may find a plače where to warm their cold hands.

One after one the men come in from their work,
and as they step into the room they dip their fingers
into the holy water by the door and cross themselves.

I do not deny that sometimes these men can be very
loud and heated in their conversations. But not so to night,
when the solemnity of the holy occasion impresses them
and turns their thoughts towards the questions of eternity,
which, in their simple but clear way of thinking, they
can settle as well as any philosopher. Their life in the
mountains is hard and dangerous (nearly as dangerous
as in some Colorado coal mineš!), and they are at any
time prepared to leave it.

Ali over the roads and mountain paths you will fing
inscriptions, crosses or wood paintings commemorating
the untimely and unnatural death of one of these hardy
men of the mountains. “The road to eternity is not
long,” it reads under a little picture describing the
death of a lumberman. “At 1 o’clock he left home, and
at 3 o’clock he was already in heaven.”

It is interesting to notice how many pagan customs
and recollections stili linger in the memory of this po-
pulation, which more than 1,000 years ago, in the wars
against the Germans under Emperor Charlemagne, was
converted to Christianity and ever since, with a short
interval during the Protestant reformation, have remained
staunch Catholics.

The folk lores and tales stili date back into the
times when their successors worshipped the three-headed
24

A. ZOFF: MOUNT STEINER IN THE VRATA VALLEY. (MORNING IN THE ALPES.)

god, whose memory is preserved in the name of the
highest mountain of Carniola, the Triglav. Its craggy
precipices and white snow fields are the domain of the
chamois hunters. They were the beloved huntingground
of my youth, when, during my summer vacations in the
pursuance of a more gentle profession, I used to know
and to collect ali the specimens of the Alpine flora of
our mountains.

These flowers, small and insignificant, to better be
able to hide among the rocks for their protection, but
wonderful in variety and color, are ali that remains now
of the garden of Zlatorog. In lonely winter evenings
the hunters will teli the story. The better the wine you
offer them the better the story.

Many thousand years ago, the rising walls, the
windswept ridges and the glaciers of the Triglav were
a beautiful garden belonging to a god, the wonderful,
white, golden-horned chamois, Zlatorog. His anger caused
the thunder, when out of his golden horns flashed the
lightning. When he hurt himself, out of his red blood
grew the famous Triglav roses. He was kind to ali
hunters and allowed them ali the game they wanted,
provided they refrained from molesting him. So every-
thing went well for centuries.

Then came the usual trouble — woman. One of the
hunters had a sweetheart, whom he used to present
with a bunch of flowers each time he returned from
the mountains. One day she said they were not good
enough for her, just as an American girl might look
upon a dozen of cheap carnations and feel that she
wanted long-stemmed American beauties.

“If you čare to be my sweetheart, go and bring me
Triglav roses.” The hunter went. For days he trailed
the golden-horned bučk. Finally he saw him, peacefully
grazing in his garden. He aimed, shot, but the wounded
animal flew as if unhurt, leaving behind himself roses

26

VELDES WITH THE ISLAND CHURCH.

from every drop of his blood. But at the same time a
terrible earthquake occurred, burying forever Zlatorog’s
garden. In vain the young girl cried and waited for her
hunter. After the storm was over, the turbulent waters
brought a man’s body to the valley. Young Jerica knew
him. She jumped from the bridge and joined her
sweetheart in death.

The sound of the church beliš, like the hunter’s shot,
at once brings the people back from Zlatorog’s garden
and turns their thoughts to the great event to which
they are going to pay tribute. One by one they rise to
go to church, where high mass will be read at midnight,
the hour when the Divine Child, announced by the star,
was born in the stable of Bethlehem.

Though the winter is cold and the roads are bad,
only the infant children and the oldest people (who soon
expect to meet the Savior anyway) remain at home. No
one stays to guard the houses.

It would be impossible to think of theft on Christmas
night. The church stands on a little island in the midst
of the Lake of Veldes. From some places the way is
long and tiresome. It winds up and down the hills and
through the forest—the deep, dark forest.

The branches of the trees are laden with snow. Not
a sound. Have you ever heard that silent voice of the
forest ? Where we come to an opening affording a wide
view stands a large cross. They say that over 300 years
ago, during the advance of the Turks in Europe, this
was the furthest point their horsemen reached in an
effort to penetrate our mountains, which they probably
gave up as useless. On the shore of the lake, on a rock
falling abruptly into the water, stands the castle of the
Bishops, who, until the Napoleonic wars, were the
sovereigns of our country.

The great housecleaning that then followed in Europe
also changed the political conditions of Carniola, and

28

M. RUPPE: VALLEY OF THE VRATA.

after a short occupation by the French returned it
under the direct sovereignty of Austria. The influence
of the Bishops’ reign is stili noticeable in the many little
churches which crown the hilltops, even where there are no
houses in the neighborhood. Some were built infulfillment of
vows, others as burial places of once prominent families.
Most of the churches are now deserted and only used once
a year, as the people prefer to go to the parish church.

As I pass by, the clock from the church on the hill
strikes the hour. A voice from heaven, from my uncle
and aunt’s only daughter, who, after a short illness,
left them in the sixth year of her life! As young as
she was she had already learned the lesson of economy,
and her little savings were devoted to the purchase of
a clock for our church tower, and the Bishop of Carniola
ordered that her portrait be hung in the church in beloved
memory of Mary, Baroness Schwegel.

There the lovely painting hangs, among other saints
as they appear, crucified or skinned or boiled, and when
I look up, the little path leading to the church through
the snow, reminds me of her life—short and pure. And
the striking of the clock is heard far toward the villages
in the neighborhood. It reminds us also that one of
these hours will some day summon us away. It admonishes
us, in the meantime, to make the best use of our time.
Sixty minutes has the hour, and more than a thousand
has the day, said Goethe to his son. Think of it. How
much you could accomplish in that time!

At this season of the year the lake is solidly frozen,
and the people cross it on foot. From the island which,
as the story goes, more than thousand years ago, was
a temple or plače of pagan worship, the songs from
hundred voices now begin to rise in praise of the Father
who let His own son die that this world may be redeemed.

Woodsmen and charcoal-burners who live so far
away in the forest that they cannot come down, have
30

climbed some mountain top, and from there look down
upon the plače which is clearly distinguishable by the
dim light emanating from the church, like the light
which the shepherds saw glowing in the stable of
Bethlehem.

The mass which is being read is very solemn and
long. I remember that as a boy I often felt so tired that
I thought I would have to faint or fall asleep, but my
father kept me up, saying: “This is no night to sleep.”
It is already morning when one can see the people
return to their homes in a long serpentine line across
the lake.

The sun, when the first rays of the day touch the
mountains, illuminates but does not warm their icy
summits. In their immovable, philosophic attitude they
have looked down upon many nations praising God in
their different ways.

The people have now gone to celebrate Christmas
day at their homes, but the beli of the island church
stili rings and rings. There is a saying that whoever
tolls this beli whatever he may wish when the beli
sounds, will be fulfilled. I remember when I was a boy
that once my uncle suggested to Emperor Francis Joseph,
who was visiting our country, to ring that beli—day
and night you can hear it; it never seems to stop, like
wishes never rest. The sound of the beli has followed
me everywhere, through ali countries I have visited. I
heard it out of the endless forests of Ontario, and the
roaring breakers of the Afričan coast. Perhaps some of
my countrymen, suffering and freezing in the camps at
Ludlow and Starkville, will listen for its sound through
a Colorado blizzard.

Like our conscience, it sounds sometimes louder,
sometimes fainter, till some day with mightier and
mightier growing voice it will lead us home to our
eternal fatherland.

31

A. ZOFF: LAKE OF WEISSENFELS

NARODNA IN UNIUERZITETNA

KNJIŽNICA

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Circular tour Alps-Adria.

o o o o

We recommend the following tour: Laybach-
Agling-Veldes-Wocheiner See-Triest-Miramare-
Adelsberg-Laybach. This tour includes the Capital
with its magnificent panorama, the high moun-
tains with their lakes and waterfalls, the deep
and steep valley of the Isonzo (Soča) with its
blue waves. Triest with its Austrian azure coast
and the celebrated grotto of Adelsberg. The
quickest journey with the shortest stops in the
above mentioned places takes about 60 hours.

Dir, madifger Triglav, gilt mein Lied, mein
Griifien!

Dr el Haupter hebst du trotzig in die H oh’

Mie jener Golt, nadi dem sie einst dich
hiefien,

Und j e de s trdgt e in Diadem von Schnee.

Idi bin nmstarrt von hundert Bergesriesen,
Wenn sdiwindelnd idi atif delnem Scheitel
st eh’,

Es ladit ein griin Geland zn meinen Fiifien,
Midi griifit Italien und die blatte See.

Baumbach, »Zlatorog 11 .

Froni Baumbach’s “Zlatorog 11
a native epic poem from the
mountainous country of
Upper Carniola so rich in
legends.

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PRINTED BY IG. v. KLEINMAYR & FED. BAMBERG, LAYBACH