The Washington times., 1920-12-31
SAYS VIENNA IS
BEGGARS' CITY.
Dorothy Thompson Describes
Once Lovely City's Motley
Mendicant Swarm.
BY DOROTHY THOMPSON,
International News Service.

VIENNA, Dec. 3l.-ln Vienna they
say politely to strangers: "Oh, have
you come to study our misery?
1t has become quite a task-taking
visitors TO make the rounds or the
great relief organizations, TO see the
thousa nds OF pallid, listless children
who stand every noon, cup in mana,
before the palace that once housed
the Austrian Emperor, and is now a
food kitchen of the American RELIEF
committee. or to visit the hospitals
and see the gruesome sight OF chill
dren with bent legs, protruding ap-
domens, and huge heads-the victims
of "rikitis," that horrible disease or
malnutrition.
But / was not in Vienna to STUDY
IT'S misery" / was only casual WIS.,
itor, and though l saw much of this
wretchedness en- masse under the
chaperonage of the American Red
Cross, the joint distribution commit
tee and the Friends, those things
which made the misery or vienna
most real to me were the small OBJ
servations WHICH one Is able to make
every day.
For instance, In regard to beggars,
In it's haIcyon days Vienna was sin
gularly free from mendicants. Com
ing into Austria from Italy one of the
nrst things which one missed were
the "lazzaroni," who whine at every
corner in Venice and Rome.
BEGGARS EVERYWHERE.
But now Vienna is crowded with
beggars and street vendors. and from
a study of their faces it Is poss BILE
TO make u very interesting observa-
lion about them. They are unques-
,onably the most Intelligent beggars
IA the world. They are worth study
ing. for their history is one with the
history of the city.
Every day on the famous Viennese
promenade the Karntnerring, you
~lay meet the wreck OF what was
once a mani There are great dark
rockets where once his eyes looked
out. Empty sleeves hang at his sides,
and dog leads him by leash
around his waist Pitiful people who
PASS by drop few kronen into his
pocket. So he lives.
But his face, you will notice,
wrecked and marred as it is, is no
ordinary face. And If you inquire
about him, perhaps you may learn his
story. This is how it was told to
ne by the maitre dhotel where !
stopped.
ZACH, yes. know him we'll five
years ago. Then he was captain
from a wcll-known family. Very
handsome. He used TO come here
often for dinner with his pretty wife.
lie lost his arms and his eyes in the
last year of the war. When his wife
saw him in the hospital she went
home and shot herself Probably he
would have gone the same way, but
he had a child. His pension is only
4 few kronen a month. He has friends
Of influence, but what are they in
Vienna? No one except the profiteers
has money enough to help their
friends. So he begs to support his
child. It is well he is blind, per-
haps. I should hate to have him see
mc--who used to take his coat in the
old days"
ONCE A BEAU BRUMMEI
Beside the Grand Hotel man sits.
selling newspapers. \ newspaper in
Vienna costs one kronen eighty he
lars. II you buy from him and offer
him two kronen I hope yin will not
take the change, because il is from
that twenty helars that he manages
to live. l got his story from his
former coiffeur. For in the days be-
fore the war he was the Eeau Rrum-
cafes knew him, and the young bloods
copied his wsistcoasts and cravatrs
and every week he came TO the Golf
feur's to have his beard dressed and
his hair marcellcd.
what can one do" asked the Golf
feur. "Vienna is full of these people
who used to live on their incomes,
who have no profession or trade, and
whose friends are as Impoverished as
themselves"
The man who sells shoCstrings on
the opera ring was once n professor.
Before you judge the sacrifice of his
self-respcct too harshiy. rccollcct that
an eminent Niennose scientist starved
to death not so long ago.
LOSING SEI.T-RESPECT.
I talked about these bcggars to
Wax Winter, the vice mayor OF vi
emma. His eyes took fire.
"Oh, yes he said. THAT is the
most terrible tragedy OF my country.
We are losing our self-rcspect. Tho
things which our present condition
is doing to our bodies is nothing
compared with what it is doing to
our souls. We are finding that the
best commodity which we have to
offer in the worlds market is our
wretchedness. SO we display il for
sale. Vienna is still great centre.
Every hotel is crowded. for the man
from Constantinople, who wants to
bargain with man from Norway,
still meets him in Vienna. These men
who come to Vienna for trade and a
good time do not like to see misery
Haunted in their faces. They will not
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