Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1873-05-10
our VIENNA LETTER-Ne.i. 4.
,sIsl Correspondence Of the Dallas Herald.

spcsisi Correspondence Of the Dallas Herald.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA, April 10, 1873.
II would seem that winter and spriR
have both q personal interest in the grea
Worlds Fair, and have manifested II
winter by not "puttipg In an appearance
until February, and remaining but thre
weeks, and then vacating his ihron,
without n protest or a backward glance
spring in coming early and going vigor
ously to work, dressing the trees in green
spreading through the forests carly IL
March carpet Of primroses and violets
and giving the sager builders Of the Ex
position buildings every incentive to hav,
their work completed by the lst Of May
according to contract.
Every enc says The winter has been ex.
oeptiosal, and in truth we find now th,
season as far advanced as it was in Rome
last spring at this time. The Viennese
are employing the favorable opportunity
thus granted them in improving the ap.
psarance Of the city, and the visitors to
the Exposition will find Vienna every.
where more than usually attractive. Every
effort is being made TO have comfortable
accommodations for the thousands of ex-
pected strangers, and houses and hotels
are being rushed to completion. To charm
the eye, the gardens and parks are receiv-
ing additions IF trees and shrubs, new
fences are being put up and old ones re-
painted in fact, everything is being
rubbed and scrubbed and polished until
one can we'll imagine that with the great
influx of foreigners, and the more than
usual activity and cleanliness of the city,
Vienna will, during the next six months,
of!en sxclaim, "CaH this be 2"
The first impressions on entering q
strange place are difficult to eifsee, but
am sure no one will want TO forget the
impression made upon them by the splen-
did railroad depots in Vienna, equal in
size to any in Europe, and artistically su-
psrior to American depols.
"Thc City" as it is termed, was former
ly surrounded by q wall, which iu 1858
was levelled by an imperial decree, and
in the place of the wall, the broad Ring
Strasse, with its rows Of trees and lamps,
its bride paths and magnificent buildings,
now encirclss the city. Outside OF this
circuit lies the larger part of Vienna, di-
yided into suburbs called Torstddts, and
always thus spoken of, as Joseph Vorstadt,
Leopold Vorstadt, only the inner town be-
ing called "the city,"
The city shows its ancient origin in
crooked, narrow streets, which open at in
tsrvals into broad paved squares or courts,
which arc called Places (Platz) or Markets.
Ia the centre of these Places is usually
found fountain. metimes very artistic
in design, around which are gathered the
serving women, awaiting their turn, each
one with the big wooden butte, or tub, BY
means of which they carry on their backs
all the water that is used for household
purposes. In these places are also held
open arkets all the year round. In sum-
mer, the market frau sits under her big
umbrella and drives the flies from her
stock in trade in winter she wraps herself
in shawls aud sips hot coffee while she
waitg for customers. The VorStadt, which
are eight in number, present more mod
ern appeara nee, with broader streets and
more new buildings. Outside Of these sub
urbs was formerly an external fortifca-
ton, which is now the boundary of the city
limits, and is spoken of n, the Lines, each
Line being designated by the Porstadh
which lies within it. From this descriP-
tion .ou will see that Vienna is really a
city within city. Omnibuses run from
the ceatre of the city through all the sub
srbs, and street railway is laid through
the Ring Strasse, thus eucircling the city,
and at various points branching off into
the Vorstadt; thus ready communication
with all parts of Vienna is established.
This division of the city into suburbs is
not without advantages, for once knowing
the relative position of each, you have but
10 know in which Vorsta3t the place you
desire 10 reach is situated, and you have
st otce a telerably clear idea q its where
about, The Ring Strasse is one Of the
most magnificent streets in Europe, being
ia lis awhole extent nearly three miles in
length. The Boulevards at Paris is three
miles. and the Linden at Berlin, Que mile.
The opera house, grand hotel and numer-
Gus lslaces and parks lay alons
this street, and 1t il the fashionable prom
onade on pleasant Sunday afternoons
When The throng of finely dressed people
is so great that il Is difficult 10 force oae's
way through il. One peculiarly Of 'isn-
ma is found in The vast edifces called hofe,
the property of the great ecclesiastical
foundations and Abbeys of Austria, which
are used as dwellings, and which contain
Inmates enough to constitute small town.
They are in external appearances often
very lonesome, being from four to SIX sto-
ries in height, and containing numerous
courts. One of them contains Ten courts
and shelters about fourteen hundred peo-
pie, while another accommodates two
thousand.
1t is difficult for Americans to under
stand the European mede of living. in
European cities ahOuss' docs not mean
a dwelling for one family, but building
divided into many dwellings, Of different
sizes, to suit different families, and o'
different prices, to suit different purses
declining in price as they ascend in aiti'
iude, so that the poorer one is, the more
elevated position will he take. HOW
- Z, .o,,c of fhese marpificont houses