Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/115



To an American, or for the matter of that to anyone unacquainted with Roumania, the existence and particularly the origins of a Roumanian market town is hardly comprehensible without some explanation from the geographer and historian.

In America a new settlement is due to the discovery of fresh sources of wealth and the initiative of enterprising men. In a few months, its importance and character begin to become apparent. In its externals it is like other groupings of inhabitants. The types of social life are merely repeated yet once more.

Far different from this, however, was the old Roumanian town. Sometimes it originated from the necessities of trade routes, from the need of bringing the products of a valley to a central market, from the fame, noised abroad, of a celebrated holy image, or from the presence of a stronghold. It has been a general European occurrence. But the manner in which its concretion was slowly established is quite different from the neighbouring countries inhabited by other races.

The small locality of 5,000 inhabitants, Vălenii de Munte, where I spend the summer months and where I have sought to spread what I consider the true ideal of practical culture demanded by the changed conditions of my country, may serve to demontrate well