The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-11-02
OLD VIENNA,

If there is anything of the past that one
may be excused for regretting, it is the
Vienna that we used to know down to some
dozen of years back. The citizens were
cribbed and confined, and the citv was
mean in some of its aspects. Though the
Notifications had been dismantled, they
had not been removed; the Inhabitants
were cramped within an enceinte that re-
minded them of days comparatively re-
cent, when the Turk came periodically to
beleaguer their walls, and the Marchfeld
was the habitual battle-ground of the
Eastern question. The proudest aristocra.
cy of Europe lived in the very centre of
the commercial quarter looking out from
the windows of their salons of state on
rookeries that were crowded by the hard
working artisans. There was literally no
elbow room to be had for love or money.
There was no throwing out a wing or
altering gable without interfering with
the lights or rights of neighbor; and you
had to pick your way along the most fash
ionable street on the narrow border of
flags that was the merest pretense for a
pavement. The wheels of the carriages,
when the weather was wet, cast showers
of mud on the unfortunate passengers as
ON the windows of the court shopkeepers.
When the wealthiest mobiles were so in
differently housed according to our Vest
ern notions, of course their interiors were
by no means particular. We have inhabit-
ed the gloomy interior of rather expensive
lodgings in the Kurnthner Strasse, and
could judge by their internal appointments
of the dwellings of the well-to-do middle
classes. In short, light and air were not
to be had upon any terms; and The tenants
set small store by such modern convenience
as water and drainage. You had some
idea of the habits of the Viennese in their
homes when you groped your way into one
of restaurants they frequented. These
restaurants still exist and thrive ON the
strength of their time-honored repu-
tations side by side with more snowy
rivals. Apopular chop-house in the City
of London was palace of ease compared
to one of those old-fashioned Vienna eat
ing houses at MONDAY. Packed together
like a consignment of swine in railway
truck, these worthy Viennese could be
;rtip irl,nl thro,1rb tho
columns of vapor that rose from their
savory food, or rolled up through dark
subtenanean passages from the vaulted
kitchens below. The ceaseless clatter of
knives and the clink of beer glasses made
the horrors of the hazy pandemonium
more intense. And if these things were
done in the green tree, what was done in
the dry? If that was the way of life Of
we'll l-to-do people, who patronized estab-
lishments in the most frequented Streets
one may imagine what it was when you
penetrated into the labyrinth of lanes
where the industrial and dangerous classes
were huddled together, or when you made
your way into the qnarter of the Jews,
that slopes down toward the arm of the
Danube. The decrepit houses, piled stage
over stage, threatened to topple over into
each others arms; the open cutters came
with rush after rain down the rugged ac-
clivties of ill-paved casses, to flood the
pools that were stagnating at the bottom.
There was no trapping or covering of
sewers; it was seldom, indeed, that the
scavenger penetrated thither; and as for
the odors that tainted the air, the scents
of the City of the Virgins were trife to
them Blackwoods Magazine