The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-21

look prosperous and appear to be good
customers. The military element seems,
on perhaps insufficient observation. to be
less prominent in Austria than in Italy or
northern Germany. The streets are not
as perfectly clean as | described those OF
Genoa and Pisa, and not as neat as those
OF Rome, but the dirt is, in fact, evidence
of a great traffic. There is q certain
amount of smoke and dust associated with
activity. The pavements are excel
lent, and the street hoIsecar adj
ministration admirable. The car tracks
do not obstruct carriages, the wheels run
in grooves, and you go on smoothly and
with very little noise. The cars are large
and wholesome in condition. There are
no better public conveyances. l wanted
to see one great river in Europe, and the
Rhine had not fully supplied the want. l
had seen the blue tinge of water from the
Alps in the Rhine, and had marveed that
the forests existed to furnish the RATS;
but l needed a full view of the Danube.
As had not been able TO get the north in
the right place we of course drove the
wrong way to find the Danube, but "got
there all the same" after about forty min
utes. The Danube was low, but not a
disappointment. 1t is a majestic river,
and If could only have turned it about so
as to run toward the Black sea instead of
the North sea, 1 should have been salts
he'd; but it would not go my way. Shall
be forgiven for saying the Danube seemed
TO me as large at Vienna as the Missis-
sippi at st. Louis? 1t does not run as
much water as the Mississippi, but it is a
giant, and bears all the marks of one, in
Guiding naked space for rise; and it had
steamboats, on it burning soft coal, and
boats loaded with coal. The water would
not have warranted the use of the word
blue. 1t was of the gray, melancholy tint
of 8 dull December sky.
1t was near Vienna, in 1905 and 1909, that
there was tremendous fighting between
the French and their allies, under Napo-
leon, and the Austrians with their allies
The Western world has accepted the
theory that Napoleon made tolerably short
work with the Austrians in the several
wars which he led against them, but there
IS evidently another view held on the
Danube. Here, for instance in Vienna, is
the bridge of Aspern, combat in which
Napoleon was repulsed in attempting to
make good his passage of the Danube. He
and bring up all his strength fin
ally to force his way and hight the
destructive battle of Wagram, which
would have been indecisive if the
statesmen of Austria had just then been
equal to her soldiers. Napoleon won the
battle OF Marengo by scratch and con-
quered northern Italy, but when he had
squandered his resources from Madrid to
MOSCOW, the Austrians calmly resumed
their sway in Italy. While the Austrians
have been beaten more than once by the
French and Prussians, their record as
military nation stands high and their mill
ltary honor is safe in history. You have
only to see the monuments and hear the
names of bridges and streets and look
upon the historical paintings TO note that
the Austrians held their own stoutly and
scored several points against Frederick the
Great and Napoleon. Their naval victory
over the Italians in the latest war with
them Is conspicuously commemorated in
Vienna; but the Italians and Austrians are
good friends now. While Austria has lost
Yenetia, she holds both Bohemia and
Bosnia. 1t is wonderful, though, how
many interests center in Franz Joseph,
the Austrian emperor, who has in his
forty-three years reign seen dire mis-
fortune, from Solferino to Sadowa, and
lost his son in wretched tragedy, but
who has, in good and evil report, dis
charged his great responsibilities with adj
mirabie courage and judgment. Under
the personal and political conditions of
the empire and of Europe. the life of the
Austrian emperor has become the most
important in the world. There was a report
in the English papers just before my arrival
in Vienna that the emperor was i'll, had
been ordered to keep Fis bed for few
days, and / asked an Austrian about that,
to receive the reply: No, the emperor is
always well and always good; you may be
certain he Is not sick. To be sure, he
grows old, but there is nothing the matter
with him." This story was confirmed. 1t
would take severe illness to shake the
faith of the Austrians in the good health
OF their emperor. There is less uneasi-
ness about Russia than / had expected to
find. The opinion is that the famine
in Russia is quite enough to employ her
energies. The unofficial news from that
country, and that is about all there is, does
not reassure those friendly. There is deep
suffering, widespread privation-famine.
1t is not unlikely, too, that the multitudes
involved in the misfortune are so excited
as to be irrational and desperate, and
blame the car for their calamitles. 1t is
one of the drawbacks of a paternal form of
government to be subject to the peril of
such childish infatuations. If man,
however, usurps the functions of God he
may expect to be held accountable
by the ignorant and superstitious as
a providence that in evil times be-
comes a scourge. 1t does not appear
that the government of Russia has
managed unwisely in regard to the grain
questions. As case in point, the order
prohibiting the shipment of rye did not at
once and peremptorily stop it, but gave
time to fill contracts. Advantage was
taken to throw vast quantities beyond the
frontier, where it could not be cared for.
and there was no demand for il abroad.
Great quantities of it, sorely needed in
Russia, are thus misplaced and rotting. 1t
takes very wise men to NEEDLE with the
currents of commerce, and the efforts OF
individuals, however gifted, to repeal the
higher laws are usually futile, and add to
the illustrations of disastrous good inten-
tons.
The grandeur of Vienna as great CITY
on the great river of Western Europe, and
her place in history as the central city of
the Continent, from whose walls the
Turkish invasion was rolled backward.
are of universal knowledge. The vital
forces OF the Austrian people are very
great. The Hungarian kingdom is a
concession. and less than half the people
who dwell in fertile Hungary are of
the Magyar blood. Buda-Pesth has had a
surprising growth. and is rising to splen-
dor that rivals Vienna, while, strange to
say, it has rather the most interesting and
fiourishing newspaper press on the Cont
nent, if We omit the leading journals of
Brussels. Paris and Cologne. We of Amer
lea must not think that We are alone in
the development of cities. At least the
four great capitals of Europe-Vienna.
Berlin, Paris and London-are competi
tors with US in progress, and everything
in Vienna tells of her soIidity as well as
brilliancy.
I A@ ~