The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-11
A COLLEGE FOR WATERS.
An Austrian Idea Which Will Readi-
 ly Bear Imitation in America.


 ly Bear Imitation in America. Brooklyn Eagle.
 Julian Ralph writes as follows in the Brooklyn Eagle:
 Tn the dining room of the best hotel in Vienna, one day last week, the prin- ciple table bore an eagle cut out Of ice and many American flags In honor of the presence of a man who looked like Uncle Sam himself, but who was only the commissioner of the coming St. Lotus exposition. I noticed that the walters upon this table and my own waiter as well, spoke fairly good English. Such an experience had never happened to me in either a German or an Austrian hotel, where, as rule. you may get little English out Of the porter and the head waiter, and with that you have to be satisfied. But here a half 8 dozen walters were talk ing freely to us Americans and mine, for one, was giving a good deal of valuable information which 1 should not like to have missed. I said to my old friend, the Herr Fuchs. stadt re- dacteur (which means city sditor) of The Neue Freie Presse, that this was remarkable corps of walters. Naturally" said the Herr Fuchs-he always says naturally" when you praise anything in Vienna-''naturally; are they not from the walters col iege?" Come, now" said l. you have been asociating too much with George Starr and Tody Hamilton of Barnum's circus and you have learned something of their art of keeping the world amused but even they would not try to pull my leg and why should you?"
 IA leg," sand the Herr Feauchs, for we do not have that phrase in the Ger man language. I suppose 1t is some thing like your way of saying of every pretty girl that "she may pack her clothes in my trunk I have tried once or twice to introduce that picture ful expression in Viennese society, but 1t Is attended with too much danger of having to fight a duel with the lady's brother, who thinks evil where only sport is intended. But as to the existence of our walters college, 1t is no George Starr sort of story at all, but is the veritable truth. We have here the only large and complete school for the fabrication of skilled walters which is known in the world. In that school the young men are taught how to lay the table cloth, how to arrange
 
 the manner of the most refined society how to bestow the various wine and water and liqueur glasses and how to make decorations, comme il faut, with the flowers and trailing leaves upon the table cloths. Though they do not learn to De cooks, they nevertheless must master the methods of the Ritch- en so as to be able to explain how each dish Is made and in order to be able to recommend this or that dish to customers with jaded palates or with illnesses requiring special diet.
 There would seem to be very little that they are not taught. They must know the history of each mineral water that is offered to the public-where 1t comes from. what are its properties. for what persons it is best The same is true of all wines. They must know the years of the best vintages of all sorts of wines and the best vineyards and best exporting houses. Even down to the manner of opening a table napkin to hand 1t to lady in way to give her the least trouble-the mode of putting on Iady's shawl and of hold ing her jacket for her to slip her arms in. and the polite way of offering a match. always lighted, ito a gentleman when he would smoke (after first hay ing proffered the cigar cutter to re- move the hub of his cigar). all these things are taught in the Vienna walters college. When the students are graduated into the service of the public they are advised to travel-now to Paris then to London and to Rome and to New York and St. Petersburg. so that they may acquire the polite and the useful languages. At the end of a few years they are finished and