The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-05 00:00:00

SUNSHINE IN VIENNA.

How beautiful is early summer-time in Vienna ! The
city " swims in verdure, beautiful ;" every street is a pic-
ture, every chestnut-alley blooms with children's faces and
ladies' silks, every park and garden resounds with the
mazy waltz and inspiriting march. No one seems busy
except on pleasure ; no one needs other stimulants to
pleasure than the intoxicating softness of the southern air
and the full voluptuousness of the southern sky. At sun-
rise, luxurious sleepers aro awakened by processions of
peasants, who chant litanies to the Virgin and all good
saints, imploring blessings on the crops. There is never a
cloud in the heavens and never a hush in the bright,
sparkling stream of human life. Tho Lichtenstein Gar-
dens are crowded till one hardly distinguishes the rich
blossoms of exotics from the skirts of the ladies. On the
broad smooth glacis the children of the poor and the con-
templative priests have it all to themselves ; but the lovely
park of Schonbrunn, with its clipped avenues and white
and green pavilion, is thronged with family parties of the
middle classes. Every one dines at three o'clock, and goes
into the gardens or the country till the theatres open. You
see gay streams of omnibuses and carriages issue from
each of the city gates towards the Prater or the wooded
hills of the Wiener Wald or Schonbrunn. You cannot
possibly stay at home when all the world is amusing itself,
and feel an indescribable longing for lilac boughs and
linden-trees, iced coffee and Strauss's band. No one seems
of use in the world but the omnibus driver and fiacre pro-
prietor. You hardly care for the quiet, cool intellectuality
of Prince Eugene's Picture Gallery, or the Imperial Library,
or the delightful art-treasures of the Archduke Karl. You
go into no churches but at mass-time, and then to dream
rather than pray. You feel hardly a need of prayers where
life and the world seem so delicious, are, willing to drink
both like a draught of sparkling wine, and content to wait
for deeper passions and feelings. Then at night to wander
amid the sweet-scented boscage of the Prater ; to see the
pine-torches light up fairy dells, and dark-eyed, bright-
cheeked ladies ; to catch glimpses of the gleaming city be-
yond, and think of all the witching influences that await
there ; to lounge upon the Graben, that sparkles and
smiles with a thousand welcomes ; to choose between
" Faust," at the Imperial Theatre, or " Der Frieschutz"
at the Grand Opera; to find friendly faces and kindly
greetings wherever you go ; to feel that you are but one
wave of a joyous current of human life ; to indulge in the
temperate yet sufficing enjoyment of the hour—all this is
part of Vienna, and of the mood that Vienna calls forth.
Perforce you must be Austrian whilst in Vienna. Whether
you will or no, you become Epicurean for the nonce.

Dr. Zillner, the court physician, his son Albin,
and his daughter Adelheid, and the youthful Carl,
who " could never grow grey or grave or graceless,"
are a pleasant group of acquaintances, and poor old
Versette, the violinist of Vienna, the unhappy
father of ill-fated Bertha and the devoted grand-
father of the imperious Minchen, is a melancholy pic-
ture vividly portrayed. These, with old Babele,
whose imagination is so powerful that she
never can speak the truth, and the cowardly,
vindictive, melo-dramatic Kurt, are the prin-
cipal characters which surround the hero in
his " home in Vienna." More attractive is the
fair group of William Plumtree's daughters in
the pleasant gardens of Nettlestead, and so thinks
Arthur Leebridge on his first introduction to them.
Greta is fair and Cissy is charming, and Mabel is
dovelike ; but, fairest and gentlest and most charm-
ing of all, is Lisabee, as she is described in the fol-
lowing somewhat extravagant terms :