Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-01-22
THE WURSTEL fRATER.
A Description of a Popular Pleasure
Ground in the City of Vienna.

Ground in the City of Vienna.
The Nobel Prater, in spite of its Viennese
character, bears the stamp peculiar to the
gathering place of the classes dirigeantes
in all large cities. Characteristic of Vienna
in far higher degree is the Wurstel Prater,
the gathering place Of those whom Richard
Wagner would call the less cultured, and
unhappily also the less prosperous classes.
We will pass by the buxom servant maids
who here, upon the green grass under the
old trees, receive the court of military Don
Juans from the corporal DOWN, while the
children with noisy laughter play their in
nocent games. Such scenes are to be found
in all cities
Neither will we linger in the company of
the flea trainers, bearded women, red nosed
prophets, faded somnambulists, female
serpent charmers and lion tanners in
threadbare velvet, women with fish tails,
ladies with hairy necks and a mustache
which would not ill become drum major
ali these belong to the international
brotherhood of rowing jugglers who are
distributed over the entire earth. Nor are
we inclined to place the theater in the
Wurstel Prater in the first rank of Wen
nese "specialties," although plays are there
performed which deal in a language per
fectly well adapted to the mode Of thought
of the lower strata of the Viennese popu-
lation.
What particularly deserves considera
ton as distinctly Viennese feature is, for
instance, the swings in which girls with
glowing cheeks and a wild grace of motion
shout and scream merrily, while stalwart
fellows in shirt sleeves, urged on by their
encouraging cries, hurl them high into
the air. The spirited, feet footed dance
on the green, under the open sky, deserves
to be seen, for here all types, in all sorts of
costumes (only none that are elegantly,
form a picturesque tout ensemble. So
also it is entertaining to hear the ladies'
bands in the restaurants play Viennese
tunes It is advisable, however, in order to
gain an insight into the harmless and
genial manifestations of the Viennese pop
ular character to take seat under the
leafy roof of the chestnuts in certain parts
of the park, and participate in the lively
drama which is there being enacted. To
be sure, one must. in order to comprehend
the pleasure of an old Viennese in these
scenes, try to share alphabetically his
old Viennese sentiment.
A stranger is not unlikely to find fault
with the large, lowered and not always
immaculate tablecloths, the not altogether
stainless napkins, the plain and often bent
forks and spoons, ascribing all their short
comings to defective sense of comfort.
He will conclude, perhaps, that a little
sausage and cheese from dealer in deli
catessen,'' or Dreaded veal outlet (wiener
schnitzeD procured from the waiter, or
couple of small sausages with vinegar (of
the kind which in Vienna are called Frank
furters, and in Frankfurt wieners), consti-
tute too frugal meal according to his no
ton. He may insinuate, too, that the
dishes presented excel more by the gener
Gus abundance of their quantity than by
the fineness of art displayed in their prepar
alton. Granted.
But just in this simplicity there is an in
expressible charm to the native, who has
brought with him as spice generous dose
of health, good cheer, pleasure in living,
and above all, good appetite, and has the
faculty to laugh heartily at a stupid witt
cism. He bravely admires the jugglers on
the stage in their faded tights, and he is
particularly well disposed toward the mu-
sicians who perform the Viennese yodel, or
melodious Viennese ballads in soft and
soothing strains. If the old Viennese, to
boot, has consumed his fair share of excel
lent beer, then he is filled with blissful
sense of oblivion of all the world, which
finds vent in the saying: ''Sell my coat. l
am in heaven. William Singer in Har-
per's.