o give any lengthened
account of it, however, would be a mistake; for such a description would
certainly be inaccurate a few years hence, as the city is undergoing
great change and improvement from day to day. Still it is the heart of
Roumania, the centre from which all progress emanates; and whilst we
shall refer to some of its more valuable institutions when we come to
deal with national and social questions of general importance, we
propose to dwell upon it for a brief space.

Some of the questions that are asked concerning Bucarest, even by
persons who believe themselves well-informed, are highly amusing. One
friend, who is really a well-read man, asked us shortly after our visit
whether it was not a great continuous 'Mabille,' and he looked very
incredulous when we told him that, although we had walked through and
through it, and had carefully looked at all the posters announcing
amusements in various places, we had no recollection of seeing a
dancing-garden amongst them, and that we believed none existed. Another
friend, a highly educated professional man, was not quite sure whether
Bucarest was north or south of the Danube; but it was a place, he knew,
where the chief occupation was gambling. There may be some little truth
in the latter statement, but gaming-tables are forbidden, and he need
not go so far from home as that to see the law evaded.

But it is no wonder that strangers are puzzled to form a correct
conception of Bucarest, and their perplexity is not likely to be
relieved if they read the descriptions that have been given of the city
and its inhabitants from time to time. Some writers have described it as
an assemblage of dilapidated houses standing in unpaved streets. Its
upper classes are represented as very polite depraved ladies and
gentlemen, including a large proportion of the former who have been
divorced three or four times, and are in the habit of entertaining
simultaneously all their _ci-devant_ husbands in the presence and with
the sanction of the 'man in possession.' The lower classes comprise
half-naked gipsies of both sexes, with a considerable sprinkling of
priests or 'popes,' eating bread and onions or mamaliga (the maize
pudding of the masses), or lounging on the doorsteps of the houses, or
sauntering along the unpaved streets in charge of a lean pig. According
to such writers the chief occupation of the Bucarester is getting
divorced or being buried in state. Then there is the romant