mic conditions, the supersession of the wooden
plough by the steam plough--in fact, the advent of a new European spirit
need scarcely be enlarged upon. In Serbian Macedonia, or South Serbia as
it is now officially called, more than seven million acres of good soil
are as yet not being used.

FRENZY AT RIEKA

As the months rolled on at Rieka the Italianists became more frantic.
Their telegrams to Rome, in which they begged for instant annexation,
were in vain, and after all, what was the use of adopting the system of
Lieut.-Colonel Stadler, their energetic podesta at Abbazia, who would go
into the hills, accost the peasants and instruct them that they must not
say: "It will be settled by the Paris Conference," but rather--"It has
been settled by the Paris Conference." All the world was learning what
was the position of affairs at Rieka; one of the most important of these
plaguy Allied officers had said that when he first came to the town he
thought it was Italian, but he had soon perceived that it was all a
comedy, and the Italianists were dreadfully afraid that memoranda and
statistics and what not had been dispatched to Paris and that there was
the faintest, awful possibility that one could say: "It has been
settled by the Paris Conference." Everyone, alas! was studying the
case--one heard that Cardinal Bourne, in the course of being feted at
Zagreb, was reported to have shown himself quite intimate with Croatian
history and to have discussed especially the story of Rieka. But by far
the shrewdest blow to the Italianists was Wilson's Declaration. What had
his emissaries, who had listened with such care to everybody, told him?
One must have a grand procession through the town to show the whole
world what the people wanted! As for Wilson, it was good to hear the
lusty shouts of the "Giovani Fiumani": "Down with Wilson! down with
redskins!" Some of the demonstrators, after shouting that Wilson was a
donkey, a horse, a ruffian, would acclaim the new suggestion, that their
enemy was not Wilson at all but Rudolf of Austria, who was still alive.
Another very good idea would be to have great posters made with Wilson's
head crowned by a German helmet, and now, of course, the Hotel Wilson
must become the Hotel Orlando. Let them put a large black cross on all
the Croat houses of Rieka--well, on second thoughts, next morning, that
was not a very brilliant idea, because the crosses were too numerous; so
let the soldiers rub them