Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/123



An institution for young girls, newly-graduated village school mistresses of Greater Roumania, brings together a happy and laughing crowd which this year numbers forty five. They come from all parts of the country, Roumanians as well as Russians, several Saxons from Transylvania, Swabians from the Banat, often Magyars. They live like sisters, friendly and ready to help each other. I lecture there on World History, Roumanian History, the History of Literature and Art, and university professors aid us. One lecture a day in the summer and once a week in the winter, for two hours and more, and with what warm interest they all listen! No desks, no distinctions, no rewards and no punishments. A sound curiosity, true love for the subject in hand are the sole binding links. The students compare notes taken at their assembly and seek to reconstruct the text as to ideas and form. After a year they are wholly transformed: instead of the shy pupils formed and deformed in the State schools, they are now strong, proud, sincere souls, prepared for all the struggles and disappointments of life: « national and moral missionaries » is what I call them. What tears at their departure, what touching promises for the future!

In a spacious garden a small house has been thrown open for similar girls of other nationalities, who would learn better Roumanian because they are convinced that it will be useful to them. No constraint is placed upon them, nor is the language forced upon them. The pupils may follow the courses given for the « missionaries » — and they all attend regularly.

For overworked women students of the universities, the benevolence of the Princess-Mother has provided a small property as a shelter for the summer months. During this session (July 15th to August 15th) hundreds of students of both sexes and of all ages, conditions and culture