Progressing in National Geographic Magazines to February, 1931, the next article is "Europe's Newest Kingdom: After Centuries of Struggle, Albania at Last Enjoys an Era of Peace and Stability" by Melville Chater. He began this trip planning on traveling by horseback, but quickly discovered that following the World War, "Albania leaped from Medievalism to Modernism, from horses to horsepower, in a decade" (p. 131) with a system of 700 miles of government roads.
Albania has a long coast on the Adriatic Sea, west of Italy. It shares its southeast border with Greece, and northeast border with Yugoslavia. It is a mountainous country yet has areas of wide, fertile plains. In 1931 it would be considered a small country with 17,000 square miles, "not as large as the U.S. States of New Hampshire and Vermont together" (p. 139) and 830,000 citizens. More than two-thirds are Mohammedans while the balance adheres to the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic communions" (p. 142).
There are the ever-present ruins of ancient countries, the hillside fortresses from Roman, Byzantine, Norman, and Turkish invaders. Natives still wore their traditional costumes in 1931, and the men's "fustanellas," or pleated kilts, looked nearly identical to those of their neighbors to the south, Greece.
One night, the author and his Albanian chauffeur/translator, Pete, stayed overnight in a Muslim monastery. They felt very welcome, and "Next morning we found that no remuneration was expected. Hospitality and tolerance center the Bektashites' code of simple pieties. "It is evil to be full when others are empty" runs one of their sayings" (p. 151).
In one of their encounters, the pair met a workman who told them he had just been released from six years in jail "for being rude." When the author was incredulous, the man explained, "Yes, for being rude with a knife. And, now that I'm out, his widow's brother wants to get rude with me!" (p. 151).
On another occasion, the two were stopped in the road by a youth demanding transport in their car to a town four hours away. The youth touted, "I'm the son of a bey (military leader)." Pete, the chauffeur, laughed, stomped on the gas and left, shouting something in Albanian which, translated, said, "I just told that fresh guy how you are the son of President of U.S.A.!" Thus, the author was introduced to the "social caste, privileged and powerful, which has survived the centuries of Turkish rule" (p. 151).
The capital city, "Tivana, reveals a picture of Albania Westernizing herself. Broad, electric-lit streets neighbor fascinatingly hodgepodege bazaar alleys. A line of brand-new taxis, a row of pack mules, and a string of modern lorries throng the same square" (p. 159). In 1928 the republic became a monarchy, with King Zog the leader. If there were mineral or oil resources in Albania in 1931, they were not explored. "Albanian manufactures are almost exclusively homemade and for home consumption" (photo caption, p. 167). On the farms are olive and fruit tree groves, sheep and cattle, and pine forests.
In 1931, women's political rights were a big item in America. "For centuries the Albanian woman has enjoyed by immemorial custom a legal status such as Western womanhood has battled for in modern times" (photo caption, p. 169).
Albania is the first country I've read of that endeavored to preserve its distinctive classic native costumes by "making them the correct dress at official functions" (p. 172).
Mr. Chater mentioned that years before, his chauffeur, Pete, had lived in Kentucky, U.S.A., my home state. At journey's end, "Pete gave us the cheek-to-cheek greeting as tenderly as a woman, then turned his face to the wall - our good old ever-grinning Gunga Din - and fairly sobbed his heart out; and thereat we Americans knew that he discerned in us some vague tie with his happy, hash-slinging past in old Kentucky" (p. 183). And thus the wandering through Albania ended.
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