e from the village, while those of the Croats come from the nobles."
The humbler Croat, one may say, was an employee in a big store, while
the Serb was a small trader. The Croat would naturally like to introduce
the big-store system into Yugoslavia, but this the Serb does not
understand. He has a greater sense of responsibility and is more careful
with regard to the expenses. To the Croat, in the old Empire, it was
immaterial whether the officials were more or less costly. The bill was
paid by Austria, who was the foe. For some time the Croat found himself
forgetting that he was in Yugoslavia. When Cardinal Bourne came to
Zagreb in the spring of 1919 and the town-hall was decorated with the
British, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene and the town flag, some one asked
the mayor why the State flag had been omitted. He was horrified. "The
State flag!" he cried. Then it dawned upon him.... Numbers of Croats
have belonged to the governing class and--impelled by the Catholic
religion--have displayed more devotion to the arts than to the freedom
of their country. On the other hand the Serbs, a race of practical
peasants, have a highly developed national consciousness. This they owe
partly to their inborn political gifts and largely to their Church, for
the Orthodox religion--one may say, I think, without injustice--has more
frequently shown itself, so closely is it connected with the idea of the
State, to be rather of this world than of another. One should say the
Orthodox religion as it flourishes in the Balkans, for when the Russian
General Bobrikoff, who was attached to the person of King Milan, came
back with him to Belgrade after the Peace of San Stefano, he was
scandalized to see that religion had no greater share in the national
rejoicings. "Accustomed as I was in my own country," he said, "to see
nothing done without prayers and the blessing of the Church, I was
indeed astounded to observe that the priests played the part of
officials even in the cathedral, and often were altogether absent." This
reminds one of von Baernreiter, who wished to learn the Serbian
language, so that he would be more eligible for the governorship of
Bosnia. He asked his teacher at Vienna when one could hear sermons in
the Serbian church, and was informed that these occurred but twice a
year and that on those occasions everybody left the church. The Serb and
the Bulgar have come to neglect our distinctions between that which is
spiritual and that which