The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

POLAND. 251by the peasantry themselves is another proof of progress, though the obligation ofimparting instruction in Eussian is a great obstacle to their development. Clinics,also, of every kind, and especially those committed against property, have fallenoff by one-third, one-half, and even two-thirds, while the population has increasedby 1,500,000.Speaking generally, the land has been thrown open to the peasantry under farmore favourable auspices in Russian than in Prussian and Austrian Poland. Allowners of 3 morg (from the German Morgen), or about 4 acres, may discussagricultural matters in the gmina (from the German Gemeindc, commune), whereasin Poznania the peasantry have remained under the magistracy and police surveillanceof their former masters, and in Galicia they are still worse off, theirlands passing rapidly into the hands of the usurers.The work of " Russification," conducted without system or perseverance, hasutterly failed, and the nation remains more Polish than ever. Already severedfrom Russia by their patriotic traditions, customs, and religion, they continue tobe divided in speech. Doubtless the students in the gymnasia learn Russian,while the Polish schools are everywhere closed ; but Polish still remains themother tongue. Its literature is diligently cultivated, and yearly enriched withoriginal works, and especially with numerous translations.Topography.In Poland towns are numerous, especially in the industrial region bordering onUpper Silesia and its coal and iron basins. In this district nearly all the riversflow to the Oder, except a few rivulets draining southwards to the Upper Vistulaabove Cracow. On one of these stands Bcdzin, centre of a large manufacturingindustry. The upper valley of the Warta is commanded by the proud and ancientcity of CzcstocJiowa, west of which a new town is springing up beyond the railway.To the east rises the Jasna Gora, or " Clear Mount," crowned by a famous conventpresenting the appearance of a castle, and formerly one of the great strongholds ofthe kingdom. It contains a Byzantine image of the Madonna, to which the Dietot 1G56 dedicated the commonwealth, and which the people still regard as the" Queen of Poland." Enriched by continual offerings, this convent formerlyowned nearly 13,000,000 acres, or about one-fifteenth of the entire area of thestate, and is still yearly visited by 50,000 or 60,000 pilgrims from all parts of thethree empires. West of Kiev it is the most popular shrine in the Slav world.Like all holy cities largely frequented by strangers, Czestochowa is also a considerabletrading place, dealing largely in cattle, cloth, linens, and silks.In the province of Kalisz, and also on the Warta, lies the town of Sicradz, alittle to the east of which is the more populous Zdunska Wola. Farther down isWarta, and near the Prussian frontier Konin, above the junction of the Prosna.On the latter stream stands Kalisz, capital of the province, said to be the oldesttown in Poland, and possibly the Kalisia of Ptolemy. It has some cloth factories,and the surrounding district abounds in prehistoric burial-places, which haveyielded numerous archaeological treasures.