Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/16

at the time of the freeze up at the end of October, but some part of the potato crop was lost. Banks are still increasing their capital; Živnostenská Bank, the largest Bohemian bank, increased its shares from 160 to 240 million crowns, and its reserve funds amount to 65 mill. additional; Central Bank of Bohemian Savings banks raised its capital from 35 to 70 mill., Land Bank from 25 to 40, Slovak Bank of Ružomberk from 20 to 30, Czech Bank from 20 to 30, Economic Credit Bank from 14 to 20, Bank of Brno from 10 to 20; even the socialist party is opening a bank of its own. The state, too, plans the formation of a governmental bank, like the banks of issue of England, France and Germany, and in the meantime has established a consortium of the principal Prague banks to act as the fiscal agent of the government.

It is easy to know when you are nearing Slanice, because the train shoots through a tunnel and then emerges at the base of a wide sloping meadow which goes up and up until it melts into the sky. On the other side of the track is a tall cleanly pine grove which used to be part of the estate of a German noble. There are deer on his lands and rabbits and, I think, a good many wild fowl. An old chateau is hidden somewhere in the recesses of the park, but it is closed and no one ever goes there now.

It takes three minutes to pass the great meadow and the evergreen forest and then, as the engine puffs feebly and painfully around a long up-grade curve, the little station of Slanice comes into view.

There is a great throng of people waiting to take the train. At every stop the platforms seem to be crowded. The increase of passenger traffic now-a-days in Bohemia is a little puzzling. Railway service is slow and uncertain, and the cars are often unheated and unlighted, with windows broken out and tattered upholstery. Yet the people come and go. Whence they come from, whither they travel, and why—these things are hard to explain. Most of them ride third-class, which means that they carry tremendous knapsacks on their backs and huge shapeless bundless of clothing. They are always lunching. As soon as the train starts they begin to eat. They unwrap from newspapers prodigious slabs of black bread, crack their hardboiled eggs against the wooden scats, and consider themselves lucky, if they have a piece of cheese or a scrap of meat. They talk and laugh and stare out of the windows in solid enjoyment. After all, life has its compensations, and it is vastly diverting to ride on a train.

At Slanice there is a tussle. It is necessary to wriggle and elbow one’s way past a mob of eager persons who are trying to board the car before the passengers for Slanice have alighted. Of course they would like to find seats, but they will certainly be disappointed, for there are already people standing in the corridors. A high-capped official roars at those who seem to be shoving and orders them back, but they ignore him with great good humor, for they know it is merely part of his business to be loud-mouthed and authoritative.

At last I am free of the melée and here is my good friend, the marmalade-maker, who has come to the train to meet me. He grasps my hand in hearty welcome and inquires, whether I am not half-frozen after my journey. I tell him that I am not, that my circulation is good, and the cold air in the Bohemian railway cars only stimulates me. The marmalade-maker shrugs his shoulders, smiles doubtfully and introduces me to his wife’s brother, who has just come up with a long pair of skis. I walk between them through the station gate and out into the street.

There are three streets in Slanice. One is the street of the tavern, another is the street where the marmalade-maker lives and has his factory, and the third is nothing but a long row of low orange-colored houses allotted to the workers in his establishment. Each of the streets sustains an independent existence. They lie somewhat apart, point in divergent directions and seem to have nothing to do with one another, like three brothers who have quar-