The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-10 00:00:00

THE OPENING OF THE VIENNA
EXHIBITION.

The following are extracts from the graphic letter of the
correspondent of the Daily AVelay, describing the ueremony
of opening the Vienna iiiahatrition

lam disappointed in the Viennese. They know how
to make a pageant, but they do not stem to know the
meaning of a real holiday. Now, a pageant is one of
the easiest things in the world to manufacture, and one
of the most artificial. The elements are brilliant uni-
forms, gay court dresses, plumes, clanking sword scab-
bards, mar-dials, chamberlains, and heralds gorgeously
bedeck, d and pi galore, full bands, and the more
of them the better; ladies in the latest fashions,
an effectively designed procession, and an all-pervading
flavour of ceremonial. A genuine holiday is another
kind of thing altogether. In it the people must share,
and show that they have given themselves wholly over
to the enjoyment of it. A holiday, at least according
to our notions, means miscellaneous throngs, universal
jollity, matrons witn babies in arms and children
hanging on to their skirts, good, hearty, perhaps a
little rough chaff, and any quantity of noise. It
means closed shops, labour lull aside; the trowel, the
plane, the hammer, every tool whereby men earn
bread, left untouched for this day of busy ioleness.
If ever there was a fitting time for a grand gene-
ral holiday, that time, surely, had come to Vienna
today A great untied eking, that reflected honour
on the country and was sure to bring emolument to
the city, had been completed so far as to be ready for
inauguration, and that inauguration was to be cells-
, bested with all state and pomp. The Emperor of
Austria had gathered to his Court for the occasion the
Princes of other lands, personages who all, in virtue of
their high position and important destiny, some by
reason of deeds done and fame won, might have been
held calculated to attract a natural and rational in.
trete. In every sense of the word morally,
Intellectually, nationally, financially the OCCIV
sion of the day had in it the significance
of a mighty triumph for Austria. Was it be-
cause the sense of the triumph was Flo weighty;
or was it because it did not come home to the
heart of the common people; or was it because
holiday making, as we know it, does not consist
with their idiosyncrasy ; or was it because with the
beat will in the world they did not know, for want I
of experience, hiw to go about it; oe was it by '
reason of greater love for filthy lucre than for
participating in • grand general holiday, that the
mass of the people of Vienna stuck to their busi-
ness, whatever that might be, for the day, instead
of throwing down the tools or pitting up the
shutters, and bidding a ife and family to come
along, make for the Prater Allee, and there under
the delicate young leaves and wax-like flower
spikes of the horse chestnuts. see what of the show
was to be seen there, and coins home at night cheerful
In the consciousness of having seen mighty Princes,
lavish displays of cocks' feathers of many coloure,
uniforms tif astounding splendour, and very many
pereons of great note, the spectacle of whom would
have been considerably more satisfactory if they had
only labelled themselves with sufficient distinctness to I
admit of their easy recognition! Let what might be
the reason, the ceremony of the opening of the Exhibi-
tion bromilit for Vienna no general holiday. All day
long men and women—they use the women here
as bricklayers' labourers toiled on steadily on
scaffold and !wider in the house-bnilding work of
which so moch is just now in progress in Vienna. All
the shops were open from the money changes to the
rag dealers. By the middle of the afternoon the streets
were not more thronged than usual, and by the time
evening had come, the opening of the Exhibition had
almost ceased to lien topic of conversation. Altogether,
it was the flattest, dreariest, most wooden, least social
and spontaneous festal day that ever it has fallen to me
to attempt a description of. To the magnific-nce of
the interior pageant, and the superbly impreeeive aspect
of the Rotunda, while the ceremonial was in progress,
the fullest justice may readily be rendered; but I come
back to toy firet proposition that a pageant is not a holi-
day, anti I say further that it is not a pleasant sign of
a people that they do not, for whatever reason, make
holiday on such an occart.on as that of to-day.

- - - -
Spite of the fragmentary manner in which it per-
force struck one, the scene, as we waited for the arrival
of tee Emperor and his guests, had in it a splendour
and grandeur which none who looked upon it will
readily forget. The vastness of the e iifice was very
impressive. The variety of glittering uniforms and
striking c *times was so great as to be bewildering.
Hungarian magnates in plumes, velvet tassels, and
gold lace, mingled with glittering groups of offi ;ere
of half the armies in Europe, under the great
'nronze lion, whose aspect WAR aggres-ively comic.
Reneiniscen es of the armies, of which the re-
presentatives were here gathered together in
amity, could not well be avoided. But a few
short years ago this Danish colonel in the light blue—
he has the medals on his breast now—faced in Sleirwig-
Holetein this weather-beaten Austrian general in the
white tunic and red breeches, and this other burly
Prussian in Ve dark blue and crimson stripes of the
staff corps. Give the wheel a turn, and the Austrian
and Prussian confront each other in the terrible fight
of Koniggratz, the Prussian battling his way with the
Guard Corps into ('blurs, the Austrian standing among
the shower of missiles which swept through the
Blaslowed Wood. Close by stand • Wuftemberger
general in cocks' feathers and short brown tunic, a
Sax in lieutenant in the quiet dark blue of the 12th
Corps, and a Bavarian Count in light blue and
Phrygian helmet. Each of these three fought with
Austria, against Prussia in 18Gfl. See the Prussian
staff officer in bowing to ',medalled and starred general,
who, clad in dark Nan tunic and wide red trousers,
saunters up with a bow and A cold formal greeting.
He is a French soldier, and against the army in which
he held no !WAD position the Prusdan f.oddit in the
let of September on the hei Ade id 1. mg, and of
his old enemisa, then his companions in arms, tie
Bavarian led his men into the hellah turmoil of Ba-
zefiles, the Saxon struggled up the slopes above
Givenne, and the Wnrtemberger repelled the sortie from
Mezieres. In the Austrian, too, the Frenchman might
recognise an, ithen old foe' for the two fought on oppo-
site sides at Magenta andSolferino. Amid the light
blue and the dal k blue, the white and gold, the hut.
loned slung jackets, the fleecy dolmen., the waving
plumes and corks' feathers of the ofti ers of (In I.
nental armies, there are to be recognised a few British
uniforms, plainer it may be in the simple scarlet and
narrow each, yet associated with memories not less
hononrab.e than the most historic uniform of any Con-
tinental army. Where is the Continental regiment
that can boast the motto so worthily borne by the gal-
lant corps of which Colonel Goodenough and 'denten
ant Anntey are the repreeentatives? Was the defence
of Dunne' a more resolute deed than that long despe-
rate, neverignaling cceapaney of the Reeiciency or
Luoiccow ? Can the laurels of the Spichern over-
shadow threw, that encircle the brows of Britons, who,
with teeir French allies., fought at the Alma ? In all
the wide range of medals that glitter here, are there
any more worthily earned than those that adorn Arthur
Ellia's breast, and renlind the Briton how the Guards-
men of his native land kept the heights of Inkerwan in
the grey mist of the November morning, and how they
kept their league round Sehastepol through the long
dreary winter that brought death to so many?
Gorgeous marshals come and go along the broad
clear central place, or clustering under the
azaleas that deck the flower-bed basin of the foun-
tain, comb their hair raminai ively. It is nearly
twelve o'clock, and all privileged to enter have
long since arrived, ex,ept the great personages
whose place is on the dais. The choirs and orches-
tras who, under Strauss and other noted conductors
of Vienna, are ms-red in the north-eastern section of
the colonnade, emit DOW an I then • tentative half
bar. We cm hear no cheering, no national strains
from the bands outside, no craeli of artillery among
the beech-treec of the Prater. While we wait in ex-
pectancy, the salt of the earth is a cumulating. The
first to arrive was the Duke of Coharg ; then followed
in quick succession the Archdukes Rainer, William,
Louis Victor, Charles Louis, Ernest Siegmund,
Henry Albrecht, and Charles Ferdinand.

There was no previous gathering at the Imperial
Pavilion, as had been laid down in the programme,
for the excellent reason that the Imperial Pavilion was
not ready. A few minutea before twelve o'clock the
Emperor and Empress drove up to the south portal in
• state carriage drawn by six grey horses. As they
passed up the Prater Allee there had, I am told, and
from what I saw of the impassiveness of the people I
can believe it, but very little cheering. Their Majesties
were followed by a carriage containing the Crown
Prince Itadolph, the young heir apparent to the Aus-
trian Imperial Crown. They were received by Archduke
Charles Loins, the Patron, and Baron Schwartz, the
Vice-President of the Exhibition Commission, the latter
preeenting to her Majesty a beautiful bouquet. E
with the Prussian punctuality, there had arrived from
Iletseridosli the Imperial Crown Prince and Princess
of Germany, with their eldest boy, youog Prince
Frederick William, but they had turned aside and not
alighted until the arrival of their hosts, immediately
alter which their carriage and six drew up to the south
portal. The Emperor descended the eteps. and received
with cordial salutation the Imperial Crown Prince
and Princess, the former of whom kissed the hand of
the Edirne-F.. Princess Viethria ahook hence with
Prince Rudolph, and smilingly refuted to allow
the gallant lad to kite her hand; and the two
youths, both heirs to destinies so high, fraternised
more after the manner of boys than according to
the etlquette of Princes. The subsequent arrioals fol-
lowed in quick succession, the last to arrive being the
Prince of Wales and Prince Arthur.

At twelve o'clock to the moment the hand inside the
building struck up the Austrian National Anthem,
and all eyes turned toward the south portal, by this
time wide open. The procession, slowly passing under
the painted glass above the portal that depicts Austria
receiving the tribute of Nature and of Art, proceeled
along the vestibule, acmes the colonnade, and so by
the broad passage down the steps into the arena.
The music of the National Anthem swelled
high, hut the cheering all but drowned the Ger-
man " hochs " competing, not too successfully, with
the ringing British "hip, hip, hurrah !" Preceded
by two marshals, the Archduke Louis, as patron
ot the Exhibition, led the procession. Some paces
behind him walked the Emperor of Austria in the
white and red uniform of an Austrian Field-Marshal,
with his Ineast and shoulders dec dated by medals,
orders, and ribbons. On his arm was the im_erial
Crown Pi incess of Ger osny —our Princess Viut ria—
wearing a dress if blue silk, wi:h • %bite polonaise
over it, and a white bonnet. There was a considerab'e
Interval, and then followed the second couple, the lm.
pedal Crown Prince of Germany, his commanding
figure attired in the "all white" of a Prussian
cuirassier uniform, and the beautiful Empress of
Austria, wearing a lilac dress with whits polonaise.
The Prince of Wales followed, having on his arm a
lady. Who that lady was I confess I do not know.
0 onion is divided. Some say it wile the Conntess of
Flan are, other.; the oran4 Doehees Elizabeth.
There followed the Crown Princo If Denmark. Plaice
Artunr, the 'fount of Flanders, the Duke of Nosssu,
end the Duke of Oldenburg, eel with a lady of hie
arm ; then CAMO the two boys at Germany and
Austria: and then followed, In no apparent qeifir, the
members, male mei fen'ale, of the Imperial
As the procession crossed the arena and wound
by the fountain, the bands cram d the National
Anthem, and after a short pause struck up the
strain. so well known in Britain of "See the Cone
queriag Hero Comes," The steps of the dais were