The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-07-11 00:00:00

though the 'Viennese, id mars*, have not web advan-
tages ef climate. Vienna is especially favoured in the
beauty of its suburbs; and exeursions to some pretty
outlying territory Sr ether are constant. Of a Sunday
or en any summer evening the frier halls Sr bier garter'
of those places is threngeri, and here some net only
lovers, friends, Sr solitary loungers, but whole families,
who dearly love to take their family dinner in the
apron air, under the shade of trees, amid the perfume
of flowers, and to the sound of music. We English
cannot understand such a thing; and a picnic party,
perhaps once in the summer, is our nearest approach
,to it. At these summer gardens there is no attempt
at the amusements with which we always connect the
idea of a popular pleasure-garden in England. We
all know that the Germans are the Lest educated
people in the world, and that they are a music-losing
people; and so a little good music and a great deal
of conversation suffice, with the adjuncts of a pleasant
garden, for the wherewithal to spend an agreeable
evening. Even an extraordinary fife, where there is a
concert, or a ball, or both, and a display of fireworks,
would be voted dull, perhaps, by people used to the snore
sensational amusements of the large towns of England.
The Viennese, in fact, take their pleasure in smaller
doses than we do, but take it oftener. And, though it
is not pleasant to say it, yet it should be said, that the
Viennese favourably contrast with the Londoners
I will not go farther afield and make any other odious
comparison— in the behaviour of their lower classes.
The Germans of the working class, and of the class
below it, may be less polished, perhaps, than the cor-
responding classes of the French; but see them under
whatever circumstances you may—in the crowded
street or market, at the garden fete, or in the thronged
railway carriage coming home from their day's outing
—the Viennese of even the poorest class are well
behaved. In spite of the enormous consumption of
beer—Vienna beer, Strasburg Leer, Bavarian beer, and
beer of the locality where the pleasure-taking may
have been enjoyed—it is very rare indeed to see a man
intoxicated, and rarer still a woman. And there is
another thing in which 'Vienna contrasts with London,
to our disadvantage. Poverty there is enough and to
spare in the former, but there is nowhere in the
Austrian capital that mass of squalor and wretched-
ness which can be discovered with so little trouble in
the metropolis of England. A more intimate ac-
quaintance with the Viennese would, no doubt, bring
out many facts in relation to which the comparison
would be to the Englishman's advantage; but on the
surface and in the summer time the comparison is in
favour of Vienna.

- --
But that this city is so far off, and that even with all
the facilities of railway travelling one is forced to have
rather too much railway during a short trip, Vienna
would be as favourite a resort as Paris. Pour mai, I
can but regret that my stay will be BO short. I should
have liked another trip or two on the Danube, and
more views of its beautiful islands; a few more days'
wandering about Leopuldstailt, Jusefstadt, and
Wieden ; another gaze at the great city from St.
Stephen's Cathedral, or from the hill-side restaurant
at Ober St. Veil ; and another stroll on the
Bastei. But I must wend my way to a greater and
richer capital—the great world of London. If I have
had a pleasant change from the monotonous round of
life in that great world, and especially if I have been
able to interest my readers for a few minutes, I must
be content, though the pleasures of memory are
mingled with the pleasures of hole; and—
. -

Sweeter tar Is memory's chain
When hope can paint such joys again.