Europe - Whither Bound?: (Quo Vadis Europa?)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ...ready for that. LETTERS OF TRAVEL IX. From Prague CZECHO-SLOVAKIA is the watchdog of the new peace in Central Europe. She is the strongest new power, and is manifestly the best governed State which has arisen out of the ruins of the old. The new Bohemia (for Czecho-Slovakia is truly Bohemia) is a much more credible resurrection than the new Poland. One London daily refused to believe in the existence of Czecho-Slovakia for a long while. "Unless I see it," said the editor, "I will not be convinced." But Czecho-Slovakia is quite convincing--and is much less of a Frankenstein than Jugoslavia. The Czechs are no doubt obscurely placed in Europe, but the traveller when he gets to their country--not the "seacoast of Bohemia"--will find that they make good showing. Prague is a fine old city on the rolling Moldau--what a fine name, suggestive of rolling boulders down from the hills! Ancient Prague has this river for its moat. It rises on heights from old bridges to the royal palace and cathedral of the old kings of Bohemia. The new city has yet to be built. It will be on the level ground below, where there is to-day an agglomeration of shops and hotels as yet unworthy of the capital of a great new State. Here up above is all that is worth while, though seen from the battlements, the new below, especially on a cloudy day with lowering skies, is a very fine view. Here lie the old kings of Bohemia--one of them apparently "Good King Wenceslas." Here at a little distance are the mysterious walls with sentries posted at the gates--walls curiously and accidentally associated in the minds of thousands of children with Longfellow's lines: I have read in some old, marvellous tale That a midnight host of spectres pale...