| Show it ° 9PITAti OF AUSTRIA I b I n 4 Vienna the Acknowledged Paradise of Europe I Ii I AS VIEWED t BY A SIGHTSEER t A Descriptive Letter from a Herald Correspondent on the 1 Continent 1 t VIENNA February 61885 t To the Editor of THE HEKALD f J l Salt Lake City in Utah Territory is J c considered to be a veritable paradise > r and itistny purpose to give the readers i of THE HEBALD a picture of another city also praised as the paradise of s Europe especially by many Americans jr j who visit the city on the fly and mere l L f particularly by staunch Roman 1 f Catholics who dwell in this city of Jesuitism i When I left Salt Lake City for a stain sta-in Germany I little thought that IiI I-iI should bend my steps towards Vienna and that I should remain here for so 1 I I l long a time as I have done Indeed to I sec Vienna the residence of the Roman II I I j I Emperors for more than sir centuries I r must really involve a feeling of inexpressible t Ii inexpres-sible joy so I thought and when I art j ar-t I I rived on a Monday morning at the Western railway station and drove i If + i tl 1 into the city proper in an open carriage f through clouds of white mealy dust r f and many waving of handkerchiefs out 1 li I of the windows along the route I j i il l remembered that an old prophet had I lJ t also rode in a fiery carriage amidst a fj I drenching rain and like him J t expect II t to land in heaven instead of which I r landed in a hotel withhigh pricesand on Inquiry learned that the wind and 1 dust had encountered were proverbial 1 and eternal as the hills and that I to those ovations which I thought I I were intended for me were simply a j S 11 1 I process of shaking dusters through the I I 1 b windows on to the passers by Vienna is the fourth largest town in I I Europe and numbers nearly 900000 inhabitants I J If I in-habitants The city is divided into ten i1 II wards or districts the first ward being I j the city proper formerly encircled with I a wall which proved of great value during l1 dur-ing the seige of the town by the Turks i in 1683 but now encircled with the so called Ringstrasse Ring Ayenue studded with palaces belonging to f t the aristocracy and wealthy Jews The streets in the First ward are as a rule < narrow and winding in short irregularity h irregu-larity itself and are likely to remain so with some little exception for generations to come The other wards are more t built of late and had the i regularly prosperity i pros-perity of the years prior to 1873 when the crisis came and thousands of once wealthy men were made beggars con tinned Vienna would certainly in point I Ii r V of buildings by this time have eclipsed London or New York although in intelligence s r in-telligence they could not very well cope with the average Irish t The immediate neighborhood on l ii every side for miles around is really delightful 1 de-lightful but only in spring and summer I At that time of the year the better situated I I situ-ated Viennese rents a cottage over summer 4 Ii sum-mer time for his family where they retire re-tire for the summer vacation to enjoy i I the fresh cooling breezes and pictur e esque scenery eSt I There are some fine public buildings I here especially the new town hall which I alone will cost when completed 1 j more than 18000000 florins and the 1i i new museums the Roval opera and I University whilst the Imperial Court tl I which will be completed if all goes well i before the advent of the twentieth century cen-tury it will also be a costly piece of I I architecture On an average the houses t are three or four stories high and are C 1 built by speculators and let out to fam ilis The houses from the street L view look as though they had i been built to captivate and refresh the r weary sightseer instead of being i j occupied but the interiors are also very i a nicely arranged and inviting and are p I i generally decorated with paintings and J sculpture I y Like any other respectable city 1 Vienna possesses the fourth highest I cathedral the Stephens Dome This I is one of the many sights of Vienna e 1 it is supposed to have been erected between dofb t tween 13001510 Its form is that of a i I Latin cross but the tower was not f a > l I built until the year 1851 to replace the y I i t I former structure which was torn down r twice on account of its unsafe condition i condi-tion It is 453 feet high and affords a splendid view of the surrounding country i 4 a coun-try comprising the battlefields of Lo Lo t There is also the Imperial Park I with different animals and the Prater given for public use by Austrias grandest I grand-est son Joseph II 100 years ago It may be that one or i 4 j 1 another your readers has heard of the I i soodnaturedness of the burghers of Vi1 t enna which consists in their sociability t displayed in the beer houses for home I e i life in Austria and more especially in r J Ja Vienna is a thing unheard of and I I night after night after business or work L hours are over the thousands of t i j restaurants beer houses and gin hovels r li are thronged with men with a sprink1 ling of women orladies as the case may r Y be for Viennese delight in their lager beer pipes and a jolly goodnatured talk with neighbors speak here of those whose pocket allows them to enjoy J en-joy this kind of pleasure but who as a roe leave their wives > at home During f the hours from 3 to 9 pm the coffeehouses s Y coffee-houses are well visited here The > Viennese drinks his Schwartzer i IJ and reads the newspapers which are plentiful and of all sorts including I English American French Italian Russian etc Every coffee house a I > has from two to four large glass front windows facing if 1 the street It is here where Austrias i valorous officers who have never f i 1 + r fought battle excepting on the parade 1 ground kill time but they are too cuter r f with laced waists very carefully curled moustaches tight pants and legs like a ° f i fl I bullfrogzum kuessen An American F drummer left far in the shade for r r d they are in short words regular heartbreakers j < heart-breakers 1 11 i 1 The female sex is to be praised in i st I Ij i many instances The young girls are l 1 obliged to study until 15 years of age 1 r i and learn to speak one to two languages is i 1 French and English A person would i naturally think that a woman would be contented with one tongue but the i I t I Yiennesean enjoys the luxury and speaks i t three so you can well imagine the position iU fl 1 po-sition in which one is placed while conversing con-versing with one They are however f dresses quite simple and neat and are s t rarely seen in silk dresses before eth schoolroom is abandoned after I which they are taught the art of cooking and housekeeping and even prepare a splendid dinner if put to the test and when married make good wives and mothers It is the general saying they are as good and practical a housekeeper as a Germans as witty and jolly in company as a Parisian as passionate 1 pas-sionate as an Italian and as pretty as an American and this is no doubt one of the principal reasons why Vienna makes so good an impression upon visitors rideis customary here for the bride to furnish the house but however bridegroom is consulted as to its arrangements Like the Germans both elderly and young ladies are seldom seen without some kind of hand work and generally knitting knit-ting stockings j it is true even in company com-pany this maY be seen the only exception excep-tion perhaps being a ball The principal business which yields any income at all is done by Jews who although only 70000 strong are on an average wealthy and have of late displaced many a respectable firm of socalled Christians Here are scores of Catholic churches several Jewish synagogues and three Protestant chapels but religion here is merely a trade like joinering or tailoring whereby thousands of idle priests monks and nuns make a sumptuous living whilst thousands know not where to get a crust of bread to eat or a place to rest For lovers of variety no European Eu-ropean town is better fitted than Vienna and especially I Americans who are more or less brought up in the nurture and admonition admoni-tion of the Christian religion will be astonished to find so much opposition to the teachings of that great Jewish reformer whose disciples are numbered by the hundreds of thousands i have seen a great many American and European cities but Vienna excels them all in wanton cruely Ihorses and dogs to be witnessed daily on the streets of this imperial city against which no law exists and therefore no efforts of the police nor of the members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will be of any avail Here you will find a very efficient and at the same time meanest paid police force in the civilized civil-ized world the best of drinking water in Europe and meanest adulterated beverages bev-erages the best granitepaved streets ana the most penetrating eternal dust imaginable j the largest princely mansions man-sions and meanest hovels unfit for beasts much less for human beings j richly ornamented carriages with the first nobility of the country pass swiftly along the Ring Strasse whilst at the corners cor-ners of the streets you meet onearmed and onelegged and often armless men who have fought the countrys battles and who by a grateful country are permitted per-mitted to beg their bread from good hearted passersby On any pleasant afternoon you will meet crowds of richly dressed people officers oL the army priests in procession pilgrims wayworn coming from a distant village of Bohemia Croatia or Slavonia the homes of Catholic i ignorance and fanaticism marchIng i march-Ing to some shrine of the Holy Virgin and neglecting their work at home you will meet private soldiers squalidly dressed as nowhere else In no city are the means of transit so inadequate in-adequate as here J E J |
