1892 HELMUTH v MOLTKE DENMARK ROME BALKANS TURKEY SPAIN

Moltke : His Life and Character

Journey to Constantinople

November 5th.—Not till twelve o'clock did we suc­ceed in continuing our journey. We had our carriage covered with a roof of mats, the sun was shining again. The roads were better than we could have expected after the heavy snowstorm, and we were able to make good progress. On our left we soon caught sight of the snow-covered Carpathian Mountains.

The road through Great Wallachia crosses a wide free plain. The rivers cut from thirty to fifty feet into the table-land. The soil is mixed with more sand than in Little Wallachia. There are no stones any­where, nor any trees, though bushes grow in some places. Most of the land is uncultivated; there is nothing worthy of the name of " house" to be seen, except a few Greek convents. There are but few villages, and these are small and miserable, very few of them having a church. The extraordinary width of the road is a sign of the small value that the soil has. The bridges look as if they had been built by the hand of primeval man.

Towards evening we reached the neighbourhood of the Aluta.   Its valley is broad, the right-hand side quite low, and rises almost imperceptibly, the left-hand side is a precipitous rock about forty to fifty feet high, skirting the river. The stream was swollen and very violent, we crossed it by means of a ferry in a very short time. As we bad provided ourselves with food at Crajova, as if starting for a North Pole expedition, we were able to make tea in the little house of the postmaster of Hipotesti. After all we had seen hitherto, this house seemed to us quite homely. There was a stove in the room, windows pasted up with paper, and a bard mattress, The postmaster's correspondence was kept in little paper bags hanging on the wall. What would be the thoughts of one of those English "poor" who annually consume twenty-four pounds of sugar and six of tea per head, and collectively more khan the whole revenue of Prussia, if he were suddenly transported to the dwelling of a Wallachian post-master.

The night was very cold, the soil was frozen and very rough, but there was nothing for it but to drive on over the uneven ground. In the morning we had to cross the Tehjorman river and its tributaries, little brooks which had quite flooded the valley; the bridges over these rivulets were like islands in the midst of the flood, nothing was to be seen but some triumphal arches which stood out like gibbets. They bad been erected for the reception of a prince, but not very happily placed before a bridge, on which this high personage might easily have broken his neck, or the wheels of his carriage. Before we reached Vadulod, matters became worse. Here the bridges were entirely swept away, our horses could only keep their footing with an effort, and the water entered the carriage. It would have been impossible to continue our journey in the little post-chaise.

It became dark and the full moon rose before we reached Bucharest.   The country was still as waste and desolate as before. Outside the gates the road is al­most worse. Though the streets are paved, there is no drainage, and the consequence is that they are covered with mud. We found a good room in the hotel of Herr Breit in "French Street," a good supper and beds. We were so covered with dirt when we arrived, that we looked like rare fossils; we might have been peeled like potatoes.

We had been thirty hours on the road to Crajova, and in order to convey us to Bucharest 144 horses had been needed, 4 oxen, 36 postillions, 18 grooms, as many postmasters and fifty-four hours' driving.   On a good high road we should have done it with twelve horses. Sometimes the horses were allowed to graze, and had to be put in again, then we often stopped because the miserable harness was out of order, and another occa­sion of delay was when the coachman lit his chibook, which was hardly as large as a nutshell, and which does not keep alight for more than two minutes.   No sooner have the postillions put their feet in the Turkish stirrups than they drive off, shouting all the way.    Though (hey make use of their terribly thick leather whips, they seem convinced that the horses would not go on without their urgent shouts.   As soon as they approach a post-station this howling is increased.   The groom at the next station, being thus warned of their approach, gets the carriage ready and puts the horses in the harness, which consists of a halter instead of a collar, a thin Hungarian rope-halter round the head of the saddle-horse and the near horse.    Only the leaders have a light iron snaffle fastened to the ropes, to guide them;   these and the bell which the saddle-horse carries are the only metal parts of the whole harness. Just as little iron and steel is wasted on the coaches ; they are built entirely of wood, and neither the axle nor the hubs are bushed.   Such a carriage measures not more than 2¾ feet from the ground to the highest point of the back, and the axle is scarcely 1½ feet above the ground. The consequence of this is that it often drags in the mud. With floods such as we saw it would be quite impossible to perform a journey with vehicles like these, the wafer being higher than the highest part of the carriage.

There were about forty or fifty horses in every stable ; the diligence between Bucharest and Tchernetz requires nearly a thousand. They are small and insignificant, as they are everywhere where they are put into harness so early, but they have their peculiar advantages. The stables are made of woven branches, and are provided with a low rack also of wicker work, which bold their food, consisting during the unfavour­able season of nothing but hay. There is no grain, no horsecloth no lifter ; nobody thinks of grooming them, looking after them, or giving them drink when they are in the stable. I have seen them being taken to the river for a swim, when, after a sharp run, they arrived at a station covered with foam.

The Wallachian horse is extremely sure-footed. The roads were very bad indeed, rough and frozen, the crust of the ice broke under the feet of the poor little animals, and yet they galloped away at full speed carrying the heavy postillion, and I never saw one of them fall or stumble.

The princes journey to the estate of Pojana, belonging to Milosh, requires 2000 horses. The prince undertakes this troublesome journey to show politeness to the offended Servian prince, who is well received at Constantinople, and who is in quarantine on his estate. He is escorted by a squadron of cavalry.

The villagers' houses are miserable. The greater part of each hut is underground, the roof is covered with branches, grass and reeds. Slanting stairs in a little entry lead down to them. In the back gable is a little hole through which the light enters.   Usually the dwellings consist of two rooms; the back room for the women, who begin here to be less visible, and who flee from the stranger. In the front room is the hearth, with a wide pyramid-shaped chimney made of branches cemented with mud. This hearth is the meeting-place of the family; a wooden bench serves as bed. If there are mats on it, it is a sign of wealth; in the better houses there are windows, and then they are not covered with oiled paper. The post-houses are exactly like the mud huts I have just described; the stables and the coach-house lie opposite them, and the whole is surrounded by a square hedge of thorns.

November 7th.—In the morning we went to see the Austrian Consul Timoni, to whom we had letters of of induction. We also found our consul, Baron Sakelario. We did not see much of the town, the streets were too muddy. In the evening we went to our Consul, who came for us later on at eight o'clock to take us to a ball at the Bojar Philippesko, The room was very bad, the ladies beautifully dressed; the bands consisted of ragged gipsies in dirty boots and Opanken in uniform. The dancing was very good. Madame Michelaque Ghika was the belle of the evening. The prince was there, but it was not etiquette to be introduced to him in this place. His elder brother, the Minister of the Interior, and his younger brother, the Generalissimo, were also present. Very interesting was it to me to make the acquaintance of Baron Rieckmann, he is only the Russian consul, but is nevertheless the man of most significance in the whole country, not even the prince excepted. We stayed till midnight.

November 8th.—Baron Sakelario called for us in the morning to pay some visits.   It was snowing hard and we were in an open carriage.   First we drove to the prince.    The palace looks like a fine building from outside.   We had to get out in the open air without any covering overhead, and no servant came to receive us.   We proceeded to the throne-room, where we were met by the officers who announced us.   The prince received us very politely.  We then sat down, and so did the lord treasurer (he was in Wallachian costume with a fez on his head); one of the officers stood at the door. The prince speaks French, but not fluently.    The review winch be bad arranged for us could not beheld on account of the atrocious weather.   He asked about Kalish and praised the constitution of the Prussian Landwehr.   We then drove to the Generalissimo, who occupies a fine but poorly furnished palace.   Minister Ghika was not at home, we therefore visited another minister, Philippesko, who was the prince's rival at the time of his accession.   He was a handsome man with a long,  while heard, in Wallachian national costume. He speaks a Little French.

The revenue of the principality of Wallachia amounts to sixteen million piastres, not as much as two-and-a-half million thalers in our money. This sum is raised by a of about forty piastres, or four thalers, from every family, two-and-a-half millions by the custom, and three-and-a-half million piastres by a duty on salt. The Sultan receives two-and-a-half millions of it; the budget of the prince is one-and-a-half million, the administration costs four-and-a-half million, and the militia two-and-a-half million piastres. The whole aristocracy, the towns and the foreigners under the protectorate of the consuls are exempt from taxes.