Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/265



PEOPLE who tax their prince. A country, almost unknown, in the very heart of central Europe. An independent and whimsical principality, of sixty-eight square miles. It is in the eastern Alps, bordering the Upper Rhine. Hemmed in by Switzerland and Austria, and but a few miles from the German frontier, it has been independent for over two centuries, and was forgotten by Bismarck, so runs the local pleasantry, at the reorganizations following the Prussian wars with Austria and France.

The principality is Liechtenstein; and I found no trace of any American having preceded me there. The Governor personally assured me that, so far as he knew, I was the first to visit there from the United States.

Yet it is not tucked inaccessibly away. Thousands of Americans, on their way to Innsbruck, have seen from the train the towering mountains of the little state. Others, on their way to Davos-Platz, have glanced at a distant little town, at the foot of a castled rock, without suspecting that they were looking at one of the capitals of Europe.

"Ah! it is a happy land!" an old man said to me. There is no military service. There is no national debt. There is a nominal tax, only a tenth as large as that of Austria. The ruling Prince gives freely for the good of the people out of his huge private fortune. So far from deriving any revenue from his principality, he pays heavily for the pleasure of holding it. There is universal cheer-