New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-28


Vienna, the Rghtest-hearted Of all the En-
ropean capitals. Vienna has suffered Cutlery
from the 1cdr. But amid all ats Tragedy the
Viennese still Keep their buoyancy OF spirit
their indomitable gdyety Of outlook. OtheT~lse
such a story agould be inerplicable One can
hardin iaaqine It being lciitten IN Berlin or
IN Paris. uhere q sterner and more son'brs
temper prevails.
The author Raoul AuernAeumer IS a iceH-
knoton journalist and man Of letters lie has
been a regular contributor for many gears
past to the columns Of the Vienna "Neue'
Frcic Pressc."
EFT WAS only three days since Sehoolmaster
Reinhold Schuberth had made the acquaint-
Il ance of Christian Wild, coffee house pro-
nrietor and vice-president of the Society for the
Improvement Of the Breed Of Carrier Pigeons.
Yet they were already good friends In ad-
dressing each other they used the intimate
"Dup instead of the formal Isle" and each
had reached the point Of burning to coniide to
the other his deepest secrets, which until now
had not been possible because Of the obstructive
presence Of third parties
This rapid growth Of friendship was all the
more remarkable from the fact that both of
them were of an age at which people usually
do not form sudden attachments, especially
when travelling. Schuberth was over thirty
Wild was already forty. and as vice-president
AZ a society Of which be was pretty certain
xome day to be president, he would be taking
ssmc risks in burdcning himself with an &C
ouaintance which might possibly turn out to
he an embarrassment in the future.
Yet these natural considerations weighed
hut little because of the peculiar circumstances
under which the friendship had developed.
II came about, as one might say, en- tour; at
least in foreign country-pretty far away
from their common home, which was Vienna.
tn tell the truth about it, the place of meet
ING was Porto Ferrajo, the Austrian prison
camp on the Island of Elba. That explains
a good deal.
The two Vicnnese had reached the former
Mace Of Punishment of the great Napoleon by
different routes. Schuberth, severely wounded
at Yalievo, fell as "a prisoner into the hands
of the Serbians. He was compelled by fate
TO make a very roundabout journey First by
wav Of Nish. where he lay for nearly half a
year in hospital. Then, hardly recovered,
he was taken along with the retreating Ser
bian army through Montenegro and inhos-
pitable Albania TO Corfu. There, on the island
Of Corfu, he caught typhus fever, came
through it safely however, and was then
shipped with some other conyalescents to
Eliza by way Of Livorno.
The coffee house proprietor had come to
Porto Ferrajo ria Genoa shorter and
easier route. AS patrol leader in the Tyrol
a snow slide swept him unwounded into the
hands of an Italian outpost, and he found him
self among the twenty-seven prisoners boosted
Of by General Cadorna in bulletin the follow
ing day. He was sent TO the rear and trav-
clled through cities which he had known be-
fore only through the pastors on the baggage
of guests coming back from their homogeneous
After some week-long interruptions in transit
he reached Genoa and took ship for Porto
Ferrajo.
Arriving on the island, he was assigned to
the barracks in which Schoolmaster Schuberth
had already spent several months. 1t was a
burning hot summer day, and the schoolmaster
sat on his straw bag, porting over book