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R
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—
tility of American life, its hurry,
bustie, money-making. In six months
I told myself I would be transformed
into à Joyous looker-on in Vienna,
quite oblivious,to the ambitions of the
Western world.
Oh, hor mistaken I was! No one
works barder than the Vienna busi¬
ness man and woman; their hours
are at least a third longer than the
hours of an American, yet they con¬
trive to so space them that they ap¬
pear to have limitless leisure. How;
do they do it? The climate is soft,
which allows of open-air life; the wo¬
men work more than the men; the
piety of the people at large is pro¬
nounced—the churches Sunday mörn¬
ing are as crowded as are the cafés
Sunday afternocn-there is unmistak¬
able poverty, nevertheless the mer¬
curial spirit prevails everywhere.
A Paradise for Musicians.
It gives Vienna its primal charm, it
hums in the alr. No wonder Johann
Strauss composed his music; no won¬
der the otherwise ponderous Johannes
Brahms preferred this spot to his
birthplace, Hamburg; no wonder
Beethoven wrotenthe scherzi of his
symphonies. Vienna inspired these
composers, as it inspired Mozart and
Schubert. Somc of these musicians
cursed the frivolity offthe capital, but
her deep, ablding charm held them
close to her.
The obverse of the medal is this
same frivolity. But there is also an
earnest intellectual and artistie life.
In one weck last Winter I attended
conferences by Gerhart Hauptmann,
Georg Brandes-the latter dealt with
Goethe and Strindberg—and I heard
Mortz Rosenthal, Eugen d’Albert,
Godowsky, and the Rose quartet, and
attended a performance by the great¬
est of orchestras, the Vienna Phil¬
harmonic, under the leadership of
Felix Weingärtner, who gave a read¬
ing of the Brahms fourth symphony
(in E minor) which, according to the
Interpretations of most conductors, Is
a gray-In-gray crabbed pattern, in¬
stead of the glowing, luminous and
eloquently expressive masterplece it
became under the hands of Wein¬
gärtner. Not a bad record, is it, fer
the city on Sthe brown and turbid
Danube?
Then there is the opera, there are
the theatres, and, to Jump to the other
side of the scale, there are the med¬
ical schools, and surgeons and physl¬
clans who have not their equal any¬
where. And the university life.
I only know Vienna superficially,
the inner social life not at all, but to
my inexperienced masculine eyes the
Vienna woman is the best dressed in
the world after the Amerlcan. (Paris
is, of course, hors concours.) There,
again, thertöuch is Gallic. The beauty
of.the Vienneze women is proverbial.
That gypsy-lke coloring, hair and
Wien, a glorified Coney Island, At¬ tnoseh. Prom uid #
mark, the most venerable of Austrian
lantie Citg. Crystal Palace, and Vin¬
composers, to the precocions com¬
cennes gingerbread fair, without
poser, Erich Korngold, the chain of
either ocean or boardwalk. But gay¬
active musical effort is unbroken.
ety prevails, If you are in the mood
Vienna is very musical, although I
historical vou have a field to work
care less for its opera house than I did
that is practically inexhaustible.
in the days ihen Mahler and Wein¬
Aesthetie cravings are satisfied by
gärtner reigned.
the superb architecture, the ceaseless
Instead of beginning a chant royal
musie-making, the round of theatri¬
of admiration for the Cathedral,
cal novelties—not to mention tho
which Is the“star“ of the sacerdotal
artistic acting—and the royal mu¬
architecture in Vienna, 1 prefer to
Souni, Which houses so many ole
speak of the Karlskirche on the
masters.
Karlsplatz, possibly because its pom¬
Viennese Art and Literature.
pous splendor and commanding posi¬
tion impresses one more than the Ca¬
Of modern Viennese painting I can't
thedral, too closely besieged by sur¬
say so much; however tastes differ.
rounding buildings. There can be no
I prefer the simplicities of Franz
comparisons as to interiors—the
Defregger, or the gorgeous arabesques
miraculous altars and pulpits of the
cf Hans Makart. The mixture of
Cathedral bear off all honors, and
Kelt, Roman, Slavic, and German in
while the lace-like spires of the Votive
her veins, has made Austria singu¬
Church are more attractive than the
larly sensitive to foreign influence.
Karl’s Church, the latter has an
Under the Babenbergera she boasted
exotic semi-Asiatic exterlor that fair¬
a Walther von der Vogelweide, and
ly rivets the eye. It is named after
such a dramatie poet as, Grillparzer
its donor, the Emperor Charles VI.,
or Anzengruber can hardly be passed
and is a notable example of German
by. She almost starved Beethoven,
baroque. It was erected 1721-26 in
and by her neglect helped Hugo Wolf,
commemoration of the extermination
the composer, into madness. If yon
of the plague of 1716. There 18 an
are interested in the modern there is
oval cupola; spiral-shaped columns
a gallery of young talent, largely
flank the main fagade. They are
derivative, I admit, hut interesting.
ornamented with bas reliefs and lan¬
Arthur Schnitzler—whose work has
tern-crowned. A lunar-shaped portico.
thus far not been adequately inter¬
The reliefs on the Trojan pillars show
preted in English—Hermann Bahr,
scenes from the life of St. Carlo Bor¬
Richard Beer-Hoffman, the author of
romeo by Mader and Mattielll. An
the drama Der Graf von Charolais“;
imperial cirele crowns them. Low beli
the clever novelist, Felix Salten, Hugo
towers terminate on either side of the
von Hofmannsthal, (“ Loris,“) the
façade, which form a vaulted en¬
poet and librettist of several Richard
trance to the interlor. There is a
Strauss operas; Stefan George, poet,
great marble altar with a statue of
are a few names I recall; and then
Borromeo. The frescoes are distin¬
there are the poet J. J. David, the
guished.
poet and dramatist Karl Glücksmann
T am not in the least tempted by the
of the Volkstheatre, Karl Schoenherr,
desire to tell you that Vienna was
a Tyrolese, whose drama stirred all
founded before the Christian era and
Austria, (" Glaube und Helmat,*)
was known during the first century
and many others. The special gra¬
A. D. as Vindobona, or that Marcus
clousness and charm that are char¬
Aurelius is sald to have died there—
acteristic of Vienna may be found
Ahl these wise old guide books!—
Abest reflected in the writings of Ar¬
may dare to intimate that the present
Thur Schnitzler.
Vienna owes most of its munfclpal
* For the sake of curiosity, I made a
magnificence to the present Habs¬
domputation of the number of foun¬
burg, the beloved Kalser, who mounted
tains, parks, churches, &c., in Vienna.
the throne in 1848, Franz Joseph I.
I discovered 38 fountains, imposing
(He at the present writing still smokes
ones, I need hardly remind you. The
the long rattall clgars with a strong
same figures cover the churches of
tang and drinks his glass of Pilsner
every creed, and of monuments there
daily.) He practically rebuilt the clty.
are 80, public parks 39, and I forget
how many palaces. It is the gigantie
Some of the Sights.
scale on which the city is planned that
In the Neuen Markt stands the old
impresses. London and Paris are at
church of the Capuchins, Maria zu
times stuffy, but the light and alr of
den Engeln, and its mortuary vaults
Vienna are so abundant that stuffi¬
hold much that is dear to the old Em¬
ness is never experlenced. I don't
peror; his murdered Empress, Eliza¬
particularly admire the architecture
beth, his ill-fated son, the Crown
of the residences; banal is the word
Prince Rodolph; the unfortunate Max¬
that best describes these edifices, not
Imilian, once Emperor of Mexico, be¬
always cheerful to gaze upon. There
trayed by the Emperor of the French,
are too few first-class hotels: Berlin
Napoleon III.—in whose veins no
beats all Europe in its modern hotels,
Bonaparte blood flowed—also the tomb
and Vienna is far behind Berlin in the
of the Duke of Reichstadt, a tablet
matter of apartments. In the suburbs
to the memory of Peter Marcus Ave¬
they are beginning to erect them.
narlus, and the sarcophagus of the
They are not as comfortable, as com¬
Empress Maria Theresa. But tombs
modious, nor so cheap as in Berlin.
sadden; I prefer the light, and let us
In one I found that the steam heat
go out into the anlmated highways;
never sent the thermometer above 50
let us go through the thriving Graben,
degrees Fahrenheit, and despite the
the high-water mark of Viennese busi¬
remonstrances of the tenants the land¬
ness streets, and if I pause before
lord was obdurate in his refusal of
some brilliantly lighted café, arrested
more steam pressure. But chilly
by the vision of pretty girls, the ma¬
rooms, illy-lighted, are not confined
Jority smoking innocuous cigarettes,
to Vienna: London is as bad as Paris,
don't blame me. All sald and done, I
and again Berlin is the most comfort¬
am only an American avid of new
able in this respect. No doubt Vienna
sights and sounds, not to speak of
will march in the procession later.
new faces.
In the parks and on public squares
IV.
you see staties erected to the mem¬
And how about that famous walk?
ory of celebrated men: Beethoven, (2,)
Isn't time to take it. Well, you
Brahms, Schubert, Bruckner, Anzen¬
start from the Stephanplatz and
gruber, Gocthe, Grillparzer, Guten¬
you see the Stock in Eisen, (a trunk
berg, inventor of printing; Robert
of a tree studded with nails,) sald to
Hamerling, the poet; Josef Haydn,
Körner. Lenau, poets. Ma- mark the epot to which onco upon a
ple. Wescethe Rathhaus, the mn¬
scums, the House of Parliament; #e
go tothe Maximilianplatz and ad¬
mire the Votive Church; look at the
monment and the Stock Exchange
and the university; then we stand
amnzed before the majestie propor¬
tions of the Hofburg Theater, whose
entrance and stairway are the finest
in Europe; admirethe spacious
Volksgarten, note the monument to
the Empress Elizabeth, past tna
Volkstheater to the Burgring, with
pair ei Imperial Museums, 7n6
Maria Theresa memorial, as far as
the Opernring, on the right the
Schillerplatz, (Academy of Fine Arts,
full of canvases;) opposite the Goethe
statue, a stont, mature gentieman in
a badly fitting frock cont, and the
opera house, a very imposing struct¬
ure. Continuing along the Kärntner¬
ring through the Künstlergasse we
pass the home of the Musikverein
and the Künstlerhaus on the Karls¬
platz, which also holds the Polytech¬
nic School; the Brahms monument 18
worth while studying; th# you go
across the Schwarzenberg##tz, where
stands the palace of that name, to
the Kolowratring—Vienna topograph¬
ically is like a circular saw—to the
eity park, with its numerous monu¬
ments, handsome Kursalon, and well
laid out walks, back to the Kalser
Wilkelmring, where there ire pal¬
aces, and on the Stubenring, a mu¬
seum of art and industry. As forthe
Post Office, the Chamber of Com¬
merce, the bridges crossing the arm
of the Danube, the Tegetthoff monu¬
ment, the R tunda in the Prater, and
the pleasant trip to the imperial pal¬
ace of Schönbrunn—thesé are sub¬
jects that cannot be seen, much less
discussed in a day.
The Beautiful Suburbs.
One thing is certain—the surround¬
ings of Vienna are particularly beau¬
tiful, whether at Semmering or Baden,
the Klosternburg or Grinzing, the
Kahlenburg, Leopoldsburg, Mödling,
Laxenburg at Franzenberg, or Ma¬
riazell. And how the town mice do
visit their kinsmen in the country
when the weather is fair! And the
Prater has only one rival in Europe
as a driving resort, the Bois de Bou¬
logne. Among the private art collec¬
tions, that of the Prince Liechtensteln
is the most celebrated. There 18
great Frans Hals, the portralt of Wil¬
lem van Huythuysen, and Rubens,
Rembrandt, Van Dyck of prime qual¬
ity. Count Harrach has an excellent
collection; also Count Schöbern, and
in Count Czernius’s palace Ifeund#
remarkable Vermeer, the painter's
ateller with the portrait of his wife
and himself.
In ihe Albertina, the Ubrary of Arch¬
duke Albert, there are 50,000 volumes,
an extraordinary collection of draw¬
ings and engravings, (autograph draw¬
ings by Dürer and Raphael,the
" Green Passion“ by the Nuremberg
master,) and 200,000 copperplates, in
which is the finest work of Mare An¬
tonio Raimondi. T only mention these
treasures, not to emulate the cata¬
logues but because I saw them and
admired. In the modern gallery
didn't find much that I liked, except
a grand Van Gogh. There are com¬
plete collections of Egyptian antiqui¬
ties and the Imperial Art History
Museum. They must detain us. Also
a Museum of Weapons and Armor.-
In the picture galléry of the Im¬
perial Museum there are nine authen¬
tic canvases by Velasquez, a" Ma¬
donna“ by Raphael, (his Florentine
period,) numerous earlv Italian mas¬

Geometriclans,

ters, Giorgione’s
Dürer’s masterpiece“ The Trinity,
and some of the best Holbeins I ever
saw (portraft of Derick Tybls); the
Cranachs are distingulshed, while
Rubens and Van Dyck are abun¬
dantly represented. The old masters
of the Netherlands, Italy, and eise¬
where are of the best quality, If yon
made a tripto Vienna only to see its
art treasures you would not be wast¬
Ing your time. For me Count Czer¬
nin's“ Vermeer“ will ever prove a
lodestone.
I have only skimmed the surface.
Instead of spending all your vacation
in Berlin or Parls or London, #ke
tho Oriental express to Vienna and
enjoy that glorious city. Besides,
Rudapest is but five hours down the
Danube, and while I never met a
Tiennese who was enthusiastlc over
Hungary, its capital deserves a visit.
Of all the European cittes (after New
Terk, if 1 may be permitted to perpe¬
trate a mild Celtie bull, for New Tork
is becoming more Europenn than Eu¬
rose) I best like Vienna the Maz¬
—
mtien