The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-18

d
ride in a sleeper brought me to the
say and attractive capital of Austria,
Vienna, where | spent week most
pleasantly Vienna has population
of over 100000 people and not
building in 1t over seven stories hlgh.
The city owns It's waterworks and
street car lines and the general gov
eminent in Austria owns and operates
the railroads. telegraph and telephone
lines and deals exclusively In salt, to-
hacco and gunpowder
The Emperor, Francis Joseph, is now
SO years of age and ascended the throne
in 1S4S. He has made a wise ruler
and is much beloved. | secured per-
mission to inspect the royal stables,
which was a treat. l saw over 400
horses. coo carriages, including the
coronation and carriages Of state, and
two automobiles, which the Emperor
calls "rib breakers lie cares moth
ing for the auto, but is devoted to his
beautiful horses. He has over 200 men
employed to look after his stables. The
Hofburg theatre is another one of Vi
enna's sights 1t cost $S,000,000; was
built by the city, and is supported by
the crown as a matter of education for
the people. We were permitted to
visit it in the daytime and sat in the
Emperor's private box and listened to
a rehearsal of a play that was to come
rificence and beauty of this theatre is
overwhelming. It is said to be the
handsomest in the world. The univer-
sity of Vienna is noted as one of its
great institutions. 1t Is a real univer-
sity and has over 5000 students, many
of whom are men 40 to so years of
age.
No one who has been in Vienna can
ever forget the "Ringstrasse," mean
ing literally Ring street 1t is in the
shape of a ring and goes around the
heart of the city. 1t was bold scheme
conceived by the present Emperor and
at great cost. 1t is about 300 feet
wide with all kinds Of walks, bride
raths for horseback riders. street car
tracks and carriage drives and shaded
by avenues of trees and ornamented
with flowers. 1t has Justly the reputa-
tion of being the most beautiful street
in the world
We went one night to the opera.
Vienna, you know, Is the home of grand
opera. All of your readers will re-
member that it was here the Merry
Widow" came to light. Monuments in
bronze and marble can be seen all over
the city to Beethoven. Mozart, Wag-
uer. HAYDN Strauss, Schubert and many
other old masters, which shows the
love these people have for music. We
also visited the Emperor's palace both
his summer home. "Schoenbrunn' pal
ace contains 1441 rooms. We also went
to the royal treasury and by permit
saw the imperial crown and royal
jowels priceless in value. Armed
guards attend these precious articles
day and night. Its art galleries,
churches and museums, all attest the
high civilization of it's people.
The Viennese are a gentle pleasure
loving people, and with politeness
that is genuine and from the heart the
traveller does not hurry on his journey.
They take life easy, ask many ques-
tons about the Americans who seem
to them to be in too much of a hurry.
They are refined in their manners,
stylish in their dress and many are
educated far beyond our ideas.
Beauties of Budapest
Leaving Vienna with regret, a ride
of six hours through the best farm
| ing lands in Europe, brought us to
Budapest. Budapest is the capital of
Hungary, and is really two cities-Buda
on one side of the beautiful blue Dam
ube, and Pest on the other. 1t has
| population of over a million people.
| Hungary is ruled over by Francis Jo-
| seph the King of Austria, and the two
countries are bound together in some
way, but the Hungarians all stoutly
deny IndI IDey Dc1oUS u AuSlIld. puc-
apest, as I said, is on the Danube river
and beautifully located. It's house of
parliament cost over s10,000,000 and
| is by far the handsomest in Europe.
The Emperor has a castle here admir-
ably located on the Danube and in the
heart of the city. 1t is, however, used
but little as his majesty. as they all
call him, is getting too old to leave his
home in Vienna. Like Vienna, Bub-
apest has it's art galleries, museums
and great churches.
discovered some very curious GUS
toms here For instance, / went in
dry goods store to make purchase and
while waiting / noticed the men who
had come in all removed their hats and
soon saw / was being stared at, hay
ing mine on Going out, l walked along
the streets and saw each man as he
entered a store Immediately take off
his hat On inquiry. l discovered this
served as is our custom to uncover
when we go into church services.
was told also that each building had
to be repaired, painted and gone over
generally every six years. If the owner
does not do it the city has 1t done
at the owners expense. When farmer
raises tobacco crop he must get q
special permit from the government
and is allowed only to plant certain
amount and can sell 1t to no one eX-
oept the state, which fixes the price
/ learned that good farming lands
brought from $500 to $500 per acre