Evening star., 1919-05-03
PRE-WAR GAYET|ES
IN BUDAPEST, TOPIC
Geographic Society Writer
Depicts City's ''Incompara-
BILE Night Life"

manian advance into Hungary, famed
! for it's incompatible night life before
F., i Suffered the rigors of war. it's out
/ bursts cf anarchy, and infection by
: bolshevism, is the subject of a bull
! letin from the National Geographic
: Society
! c. Townley- Fullam in a communica-
! tion to the society. wildly describes
the pre-war gayeties of the Magyars
and tells something of their tempera-
ment as follows:
1T is 10 o'clock in Budapest.
Theaters and opera, music halls and
cafes. restaurants and casinos are
packed. for the serious business of
the day has begun. To find an empty
place one must go into the brilliantly
lighted streets or go home. From
now until long after the dawn has
broken over Buda fortress, on the
other side. the easy-going, IMPROVE
dent Magyar OF the city is immersed
in affairs which will not wait.
Never Has Money; Spends Royalty
He who never goes to bed and
gets up [ ! o'clock in the morning
never has money and spends it
royalty; never puts off till tomorrow
what he hopes some one may be
induced to do fos' him nest ~es.<-
whose ideas Of time are rather
oriental than central f.uronean $50
makes haste. in other matters. with
caution and forebodings. is guilty of
much, but never of neglecting his
urgent private affairs
Budapest is after all. what nature
and the Magyar have made her But
to comprehend her. to come into i'll
innate touch with the wonder cf
things Magyar. it is net enough to
understand the architec., and all for
which he stands. The city of the
Magyars has her own secret; she nay
be experienced, but not described
Never was people more addicted
to philosophy than this people,
philosophy frankly Teutonic Never
was a people more prone to appeal
to the sedative properties of half
bricks. 1t would be difficult to find
a race more fitted to govern. and i'm
possible to name one less able.
The true Magyar would scorn to
bear false witness against his neigh
Dor; he does not steal: he cannot
CURSE nor does he work on the
seventh day. nor. indeed. on any other.
The other commandments take their
chance.
Question of "I1ibute.''
These things may not be quite con-
vincing. But when we approach the
question of tribute, the rendering
unto Caesar of things which are not
Caesars. the pure oriental emerges
from his purely accidental western,
environment and is again in the tents
of Shem.
Take a typical. concrete. everyday
instance Go into cafe and order a
glass of milk. the nominal value of
which may be Is kreuzers. Perhaps the
waiter will bring 1t. perhaps he will for
get
For the sake of the argument he
brings it. The waiter, also the boy
who loads your table with yesterdays
papers, also the man who swoops upon
your hat, also the gypsy who pours
out his soul in alleged music for his
own satisfaction-and he is easily
atisfied-also the disguised marquis
direction, all must be appeased. Under
Happy-Go-Lucky Magyar.
This. then. is the happy-go-I lucky
Magyar of the City Beautiful, the
mercurial citizen who lives by chance,
who will stake his all and much or
yours on the turn of card or the
speed of a horse, to whom life is a
masquerade Of the gods and suicide
no crime, whose business is pleasure.
who will one day infallib1y be rich
by the turn of a lottery wheel. This
is the strange anomaly who would
fight for a woman in this world or
for heaven in the next. but who
would work for neither in any world
or any circumstances whatever.