The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-02-07
II Was a Village Before the Christian
Era, an Outpost Of Civilization
and the Charm OF
Ages.
BEAUTIFULLY LOCATED
Vienna is City Of Pleasure, City
Of Music, Rich With the Mem
cries of Mozart, Beethoven,
Wagner and Others.

WASHNGION,f u. O., tF'eD. DE
scribing Vienna and it's people, 4
statement prepared by the National
Geographic society today says:
When Petrograd was swamp, and
Berlin was struggling procession Of
huts in the midst of a hopelessly
melancholy sand waste, Vienna was
an age-old defensive out-work Of west
ern civilization. Vienna was village
before the christian era; was an ou|-
post of Roman civilization, and within
its walls one of the noblest of the
Roman emperors died-Marcus Aurel-
ius, in the year $50, and the password
which he gave from his deatnbed
was 'Aequanimitas.' When Europe,
readjusted to renewed efforts of civ
tlization after an infusion of Ger
manic blood, started again with
freshened strength upon its destiny,
Vienna became the guarantee of its
security toward the east.
Vienna has the charms of age. of
beautiful situation, and of delightful
folk-character It lies some two miles
distant from the Blue Danube upon
the river Wien, which gives the city
its name. 1t is builoed in two concen-
trio circles; within, the old town, with
its public buildings and private resi-
dences, still the aristocratic heart of
the empire; and without, the resident
ial and manufacturing suburbs. Where
the old Notifications once stood, now
runs one of the most impressive boule-
wards to be found the world around
the Ringstrasse.
"In massive lengths, there stretches
around this street such an array OF
structures as have probably never
been equaled upon single thorough
fare before. There are vistas of I'M
surpassed architectural splendor along
this demarkation Of old and new
Vienna, and the solid stone and ma
sonry piles are brought into friend
ly relief by the broad avenue, hanl-
some parks, and large, airy squares.
IA city with such avenues as the
Ringstrasse must perforce react upon
its people, accustomed to daily asso-
Citations with its chaste beauty, to in
spire in them the elegance which is
its own.
Vienna, the city of pleasure. is
properly city of music and the home
of incompatible waltz meiodies-the
city Of which the last haunting mem
ory is that of some waltz dream 1t
has been the home of Mozart, Beetho-
ven, Wagner, Haydn, Schubert,
Brahms, Suppe and the Strausses, be-
sides whom there have been countless
thousands of lesser musicians in each
generation of Vienese.
Among the war capitals of Europe,
Vienna, Franz Josefs Kaiserstadt,
the home Of pleasure and Of the most
sorrowing of emperors; product of
tho east and the west, with the one
Hssome and dreamy, with the other
hopeful and sentimental; gray-wise,
gracious. Hght-hearted, brilliant
Vienna-according to the wondering
reports Of the correspondents the
least inclined to break with gayety,
to sink into the heavy lethargy and
depression of the stern business Of
war. The Vienese have spent CEN
turtles In practicing under all condi-
lions the arts of happiness. They
have learned to mock at over-earn-
estness, at fearfulness, at the serious
counting of dreariness in the guise OF
duty
"Friendliness, sentiment, beauty,
grace and music on every hand con-
spire to make Vienna the Lotus
flower city of the earth. There is
only one imperial city the Vienese
say, and that city is Vienna