Riding one day with a Hungarian friend, I asked what would be
the probable cost of a wooden house then building on the verge of the
forest. My friend replied, laughing, "That depends on whether the
builder stole the wood himself, or only bought it of some one else who
had stolen it; he might possibly have purchased the wood from the real
owner, but that is not very probable. So you see I really cannot tell
you what the house will cost."
Incendiary fires are very common in Hungary. Here, again, the Wallacks
do their share of mischief. If they have a grudge against an active
magistrate or a thriving neighbour, his farmstead is set on fire, not
once, but many times probably. Added to this, the Wallack takes an
actual pleasure in wanton destruction. As an instance, an English
company who are working coal mines in the neighbourhood of Orsova have
been obliged within the last two years to relay their railway from the
mines to the Danube no less than three times, in consequence of the
Wallacks persistently destroying the permanent way and stealing the
rails.
Notwithstanding all this the Wallacks are not without their good points.
They become capital workmen under certain circumstances, and they
possess an amount of natural intelligence which promises better things
as the result of education. "Barring his weakness for tobacco and
spirits, the much-abused Wallack is a useful fellow to the sportsman and
the traveller," said a sporting friend of mine who visits Transylvania
nearly every autumn.
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