Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-06
AUSTRIAN CAPITAL
PREY TO FAMINE
ANDGR|M DESPAIR
Exterior Atmosphere oil
Vienna Gay, But Real
Spirit Is Depressed.
by PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.
By Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News. Copyright, 1920.

BY Cable to The Star and Chicago
i Daily News. Copyright, 1920.
i VIENNA. June 5.-Vienna is prey
to famine and despair more acute
than that in any other capital of CEN
trail Europe, yet outwardly this city
of 100000 inhabitants, with its fine
|avenues and it's multitudes of beau
Il tiful buildings, has changed less than
might be expected.
i In the afternoon and evening the
Il cafes are thronged with people. sip
ping beer, raspberry soda or straw
4 berry ice and reading newspapers and
Il humorous weeklies. The hotels and
restaurants are doing a thriving bust
ness. In the shop windows are hand
some displays. The museums. with
again open. as are the theaters and
Il cabarets. Everywhere are orchestras
playing light opera airs or American
ragtime. and citizens affect sunburn
to the point that some women even
tan themselves with cosmetics to ap-
4 pear deceptively healthy.
/ But as one studies the city more
| closely. one realizes that the automo-
biles which dart about belong to for
eign military, diplomatic or relief
missions; that the people who .patro-
nize the taxicabs are also foreigners;
that many of those who crowd the
street cars have been in the country
foraging and have brought back small
gunnysacks filed with vegetables;
that the beer served in the cafes is
| insipid and that the humor in the fun
| ny papers is terribly grim.
Foreigners Living Well.
Here. for example, is a cartoon of
a mother exclaiming to her boy:
What? You have brought three
bowls of rabbit soup from the relief
kitchen? Now 1 shall have enough
hot water to do my washing"
are depleted stocks and few Gus
toners. The art treasures Of the
| museums are pledged to the repara-
| tions commission. The foreigners
who fill the hotels and restaurants,
profiting by the depreciation of the
Austrian crown are living we'll. but
| to most of the Viennese meal in a
| restaurant would cost a weeks sal
airy and a pair of shoes a months
| wages. The people have been cut
that they hardly realize they are
starving. Many have lost their appe-
tite for meat, which they can never
afford.
| The government supplies inadequate
| rations at a low price to all citizens
and practically all the children are
being fed one meal a day by the
American relief administration, but
! even this is insufficient. People who
have jobs are managing to get along
in one way or another. The ma
jority of the rich people succeeded
in transferring parts of their for
tunes to neutral countries after the
armistice.
Some Selling House Goods.
AS for the middle classes, they are
living on their small capital, gradu-
ally selling pictures. rugs and furni-
ture and descending steadily toward
ruin. The governments efforts at
regulation have stimulated every sort
Of corruption and underhand in the
dealing.
More terrible even than the sight
OF the miserable beggars in the
featured, overdressed men, who have
descended on Vienna from every cor
ner of Europe to fatten on its pow
erty, to sell it food at a premium and
buy its goods at discount. They
every hotel lobby, Haunting their
plenty in the face Of Vienna's want.
| They step up smilingly and offer
to sell you rug, set of silver
scissors or a suggestive painting.
offering to help you evade the i'm
port and export restrictions.
The Viennese hate these carrion
crows, these "schiebers' as they are
l called, but see no alternative. They
have to deal with them.
People Unaggressive.
/ The present state of mind of the
people is pitiful. Amiable, easygo-
ing, unaggressive by nature, weak
ened by the war. ruined by peace.
without faith in themselves and with
out hope for the future, they seem
utterly dazed and unable to under
stand what has happened They be-
| lieve that a heavier punishment has
been inflicted on them than on any
other defeated people and cannot see
| why. Vaguely they feel that the en-
tente peace terms are short-sighted.
impossible and cannot last, but thew
have no program of their own and
seem incapable of making an effort.
Their country. their fortune, their
4 spirit seem lost.
! Il had thought" said a cultured
Viennese woman to me, that there
was one thing they could never take
away from us-the beauty Of nature
but last winter when there was no
fuel and wood was selling at one
crown GO cents) a pound, they even
cut down the trees in one Of the love-
+, Hest places around Vienna. can
InaVpr there again.