Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-01-30 | Page 15 | Scene in Vienna Dazes Visitor

SCENE IN VIENNA DAZES VISITOR VIENNA; Jan. 3. (Correspondence) One American business man who has I just revisited this city was so surprised m the changes that had taken place in the oncegay Austrian capital that ho declared that "the panorama of misery," he witnessed lu re was the ! greatest shock of his life. iienrv Barna, of 81 Paul; Minn., .last visited Vienna ten years ago. when, as 'he said there was 'great fun" here Xow he has returned and spent about two woeka long enough, he says, to I know what he Is talking about. I never dreamed." said Mr. Barna to an American Red Cross representative represent-ative In rc. 'th:jf Vienna would show I such truKb effects of the war. 1 have : been m nearly every capital of Europe since t be armistice, bill now bore have i seen such wholesale misery. Everything, Every-thing, is out of loim Everything is uncertain. Eood Is scarce: and fuel still more difficult to obtain. I don't suppose anvonw can be happy in a sea of misery like this. "Why," he went on. "there isn't a smile, much less ;i laugh in that ! crowd." referring to ihe people pass- ing the hp'tel in the RIngstrasse. "They seem so sad and dull-dyed, these-'en- nose, who were so gay when 1 was here before. "Evervbody seems to be carrying something. Those little bundles are ai raps of food which .they have been give, nbv some more fortunate neighbor neigh-bor or relief agencies. There's a man in a fur oat. carrying a handkerchief full of food He wouldn't be seen doing do-ing that when I was here last. He would tie too proud." Mr. Barna told of a visit he had made a few days before tu the n m r-wald, r-wald, a great forest, an hour's street car rido from tho center of Vienna, whore ho saw a sight which he likened to a nightmare The people were aK lowed to v there fur wood and were emerging from the forest, their ba. s heavily laden with the packs of fuel. 'There were hundreds of men women wom-en and ' hiblren," he said "their clothing cloth-ing sonkid with the cold rain, and they were filing along the roadside In an almost al-most unbroken line, all headed for Vienna. Vi-enna. Stooped from tho weiKhl of sixty or seventy pounds of wet wood Sixty pounds was tholr allowance, but 1 was . told that many slipped by the. lnspec- tots with more than that. j "There were manj sorts of people I in that line which ti ts been stretched j along that road for more than a year. 1 saw a woman of evident gentlu birth, j In a fur coat, probably the last vestige of her wealth, bent over the weight of , her pack, trudging along beside a for-mer for-mer officer in the Austrian army, who still wore ins great gray coat and cap. Then came children of the very poor, with their little feet protruding from their worn shoes. It was wet under-toot under-toot and at their every step one could bear the water oozing from thcli shoes." l