Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-06
On the way to the Orient.

We owe to a popular writer, says
Mr.. Sidney Whitman in Turkish
Memories" the assertion that there is
something fundamentally different in
character between the East and the
West, which makes mutual under
standing difficult and assimilation i'm
possible. The English traveller who is
inclined to accept this axiom may be-
gin to detect the Eastern flavor of
things as soon as he leaves the from
tier of the German Empire behind
him and passes throuh the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy on his way to
Constantinople.
Should you arrive at Vienna on a
Saturday. you will have to wait there
"a hours if you intend to take the
Orient Express to Constantinople, for
1t leaves Vienna on Sunday evening"
and even in that short time you may
feel subtle change in the atmos-
phere of life. You ask a look
ing official in the bureau of your hotel
up to What o'clock on Sunday morn
ing the shops in the town remain
open, as you want to purchase a few
travelling necessarieS. Until midday.
sir is the decisive reply Instinc-
lively, warned by past experience, you
turn to the hall porter, who usually
embodies the brain power of a Vien-
nese hotel, and in order to- make sure.
you put the same question to him.
THE shops are not open at all on
Sundays" is his reply, and SO indeed
1t turns out to be.
You stroll toward the Leopoldstadt
with the intention of taking luncheon
at the old "Goldnes Lamm, now called
the Hotel National, long renowned as
the hosiery patronized by European
crowned heads as far back as the
Vienna Congress in 1915. You grip
the brass handle Of a glass door on
which the inviting word "Entree" is
aHlxed IN large white enameled let
tiers. You tug at it in vain, and are
ultimately warned off by a man SAG
mailing frantically from the inside tint
IL IS not door at all, but only tn
WINDOW OF an apartment-and TIL
the real entrance to the hotel is
few yards to the left. You now recol1
ieot that when you were there last
some seven years previously-that
word "Entree" was already there
| and that you-and doubtless MANY
others ever since-were warned off.
but the proprietor has not apparently
thought 1T worth while to erase the
misleading letters.
1t IS still Sunday, and you wish to
post registered letter. That can he
done only at the Central Post Office
during certain hours Of the afternoon
You drive there, holding the letter in
readiness. together with krone to
pay the registration fee, and wait YOUR
turn patiently. For without patience
that supposedly Christian virtue
(which by the way l subsequently, ac-
| CURED myself and discovered to be az
Mohammedan origin), it is OF little
use starting on a journey to the East.
AT last your turn comes, and Won m
tlently watch the registering clerhs
after slowly copying the address, ~
your letter into a book, retire IN ffs4
| back OF his capacious office. Yon Y,s5&
tlce tnat ne is in earnest consultafffSf
| with colleague. At last he Co.,
forward with an air of embarras sriS7
and explains alphabetically that ~
| IN a difficulty" as to proyidin0
| change out Of the small coin Won
handed him. Finally he asks VIII
you would mind accepting a 70
| stamp Of the value Of ten heller
| penny in part discharge OF the
| due you.
All this happens within "a
| you know now that you are @
| way to the East, where a nfa
| vaiue OF time and an elemenf
tlon mixed up with every
statement OF fact CONSTITUTES &
many differences between n
going East and the maffa