The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-09-01

| busy places in their Scarlet-and greer
robes, their lamps all dusty, their shrine.
unnoted in the throng of passing people
Street cars, great wagons loaded witt
meat, farmers carts overfowing witt
well-filled bags and stout farm wives
wagons loaded to the ground with swing
ing beer kegs, all go rafting by. There is
never Il bend of the knee nor sign of the
cross from the busy people. and careless
children are not nudged to SalutatiOns a.
the holy place.
NATIONAL COURTESY.
The Austrian has the greatest show Of
polite phrases that we have yet en-
c0untered. We 20 into a little shop and
the proprietor, his wife and baby, his
clerk, and everyone connected with the
establishment, grectS us. There is a
shower of "Guten Tags" and "Ich habe
ehre s." We make our purchase and are
chorussed out with, "Adieu," Kiss d
hand, !" "Empfehle mich" "Guten Tag, -
Itch habe d'ehre, and others as yet in
distinguishable. This many we have
sorted out and translated, and every few
days we discover new ones.
When a gentleman greets a lady he
bows big bow, lifts his hat very high
and says: Gracious lady, l have the
honor" When he takes leave of her he
bows tremendously again and says
Gracious lady, | kiss thy hand" He
Sertion.
The little folks always greet their elders
cautiously, and to US it seems very
quaint to see them come up with a funny
little bend of the body at the waist, a
backward scrape OF the foot and the
'Guten Tag" and they always take leave
OF the ladies with another courtesy and
Kiss d'hand." Ladies and gentlemen
and the polite youngsters content them
selves with the phrase, but servants and
shopkeepers often really kiss ones hand,
but 1t Is not nearly so EN- bauaSSing now
as it was at first, and we hardly blush a
bit over 1t any more. IL is only polite to
address an envelope to "Hochwohl Gebon
Herr SO-and-so, and the letter you must
begin Very respected Sir" nothing less
is polite here.
One can be fined very easily in this
town. Throw pear stem out of the
window, and il policeman catch you at it
or a citizen complain-two gulden; let a
hOuSemaid shake her duStcloth out of the
windOw-twO gulden; If the maid be wash
ing the windows and be not secured by a
stout rope fastened to q strong belt about
her waist, her mistress is fined two gulden.
This Is not to secure the safety of the
maid, but to keep her from tumbling on
the head OF some pasSer-by, and to also
secure peace of mind for him that he may
not worry over the possibility OF her de-
scending unceremoniously.
One OF our great Joys here Is the gallery
the Rembrants, Van .Dycks, the Raphael
Carlo Dolci. and Andrea del Sarto AIadon-
mas, the Rubens, the Paolo VerOnese,
Guido REM, Coreggio, pictures-aIl that
were only great names to us, or at most
but vague imaginings after reading some
enthusiastic descriptions. Now we see
with our own eyes, and the beauty of
some oil them can never be told, but, with
out anything else, is worth trip across
the wide seas to behold The old masters
are in no way disappointing. Some fool
ish travellers who try to do Europe in a
Summer holiday complain of the very
wealth of art-of the WEAKNESS of seeing
miles of pictures, but that is only a sort
of mental indigestion.