Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1915-06-03
SCENES IN VIENNA
Contrast Between Germany and
Austria Is Marked.
Little War Talk Is Heard-cIty 10
Flooded With Jewish Refugees
From 6ukowina and Galicia-
No Fear Of Famine.

Vienna.-There is considerable Sc
crecy about the military preparations
all around Vienna. Excursions are en-
ttrely suspended to the forests and to
the popular Kahlenberg and Leopolds-
berg, two hills rising about 1900 feet
and slipping down pfecipitously to the.
Danube. The guns mounted in and
around the old monastery on the sum-
NIT Of the Leopoldsberg could hurl
down death into the broad valley of
the Danube and the approaches of
Vienna. So far they merely frown.
The tone here is very unlike the
Berlin note. From optimistic Germany
the transition to an almost phlegmat-
lie Austria is most marked. In Ger
many some war conversation was al
ways going on loud enough to be heard
by everybody in the compartment, but
in Austria / travelled at least four
consecutive hours without hearing a
single serious reference to the war.
In Passau, at the frontier, we all
bought Austrian papers. The "Neue
Freie Presse," Austria's leading jour
nal, made itself the echo of little COM
plants about excessive exports OF
foodstuffs to Germany. My vis-a-vis,
a lady, assured me that flour was at
SO hellers, about Is cents, instead of
46 hellers in peace time.
The other day was chatting with
a surgeon in the landsturm. He had
been stationed in Moravia in a little
town of $4,000 inhabitants. Many
hundreds of wounded and sick at
tended at his hospital, and most pitt
able being the cases Of frozen limbs.
Most of our soldiers" said he,
"enjoy hard frozen snow. Even our
Viennese boys speak well Of it. Their
horror is the slush OF the Galician
roads. Austrian prisoners sent to
Siberia were insuficiently equipped
to meet the cold. The mortality among
them is enormous.
With him strolled down the Maria
hilferstrasse, which the Viennese claim
to be the finest shopping street in the
world. 1t was sunny, and everything
seemed smiling. There were hardly
any men about, but the Viennese
ladies' came out in great numbers:
Many society people have dismissed
their servants, and the housewives
shop themselves.
A court equipage passed, and i
noticed the men taking off their hats
Archduke Eugene, perhaps the most
- wfa1
coming from Schoenbrunn, the emper-
prs residence. &
The best hotels here are filled with
.ich Galician landowners and Jewish
from Bukowina and
Ialicia. The minor hotels are crowd
ID with midd4e-class refugees. but
,hese latter are being drafted into
smaller towns in the other crown
ands.
When l loked down from my win
dow on that beautiful Ringstrasse, !
he Vienna grand boulevard, I could
hardly believe my eyes. Where in
Usual times the smart corso of cen
raj Europe moves, one long and sad
of Polish, Jewish, and other
'efugees passed necessarily. Just I'M
Ter our window were the most ex-
pensive shops Of Vienna, and it was
! strange sight to see Polish Jews
with their long coats and side curls
gazing into the most extravaganza art
md florist shops Vienna possesses.
Famine? / do not believe there
will be such a thing You have read
If riots in the foreign press! Well,
hey were scrambles Of housewives In
'front.' Of two or three bakers shops.
The pinch is undoubtedly felt in the
over middle class, the professional
class. We Viennese are not a saving
people, and love our amusements and
our fine pastry. When the latter
came to be scarce terrible stories
we're circulated by the Viennese con-
cierge and our housewives got bit
nervous. They are calming down now
and recovering their humor.'
AS to feeling in general, find there
Is no great ill-will towards England,
and none towards France.
"Our war is with Russia, not with
France or England" they say.