Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-23
Geographic News
Bulletins By the
National Geographic Society
COFFEE HOUSE STRIKE

COFFEE HOUSE STRIKE
Deprive the people Of n big
American city of their daily news
! papers for a week, or a month, and
imagine what would happen. Yet
such deprivation Is the real signifi-
canoe of what the coffe house strike
means to Vienna" says a bulletin
from the Washington, d. c., head
quarters of the National Geographic
Society.
I'm Vienna's present economic
plight, newspapers are not only ex-
ceedingly costly, but they f%iuctuate
in price from day to day with the
gyrations Of exchange rate.
while the American citizen has
faced such emergencies as food ra-
tioning, railroad and Goa strikes, he
never has had it brought home to
him, by actual deprivation, the loss
to buy his daily newspaper for a
fixed or negligible sum.
THE closing of England's tea
houses, or the sudden cessation of
Partisan sidewalk cafes would be a
shock, yet such calamities could
hardly be considered as much of a
wrench to the daily lives of the aver
citizen as q temporary luli in
the wen tenor OF Viennese coffee
| houses
Even the city-dwe.ling American
Is accustomed to look upon his home
as his evening headquarters for rest
and recreation. In Vienna the coffee
house is the social rendezvous for
entire groups of folk who regard
their abodes. as places to sleep.
Members of the intelligensia, a for
midable segment of q continental
city's populace, of the literary n
artistic set. of the political and In
dustrial agitators, and of the young
| clerks from Office and bank--all
have their favorite coffee houses.
Coffee, ice cream and buns are
the xcuse for the coffee house
hungry American who suspects a
coffee house of being q place to ap-
pease hunger. Its major fascina-
ton is conversation and another
function Is that Of a library reading
room. Not only the newspapers,
which r much in demand during
the high price period, but current
magazines will be brought you by
your waiter upon request. II o
rive, you read your time away,
knowing sooner or later some ac-
quaintance will drop in.
AFTER dinner, too, the Viennese
family goes to a coffee house. Din
ner at home nowadays is an event
in the life of Viennese family, and
to break a dinner invitation is a
| grave social offense. II your hostess
has invited you 1t is probable that
she has made such extraordinary
preparations as ordering a bit OF
meat, or some pastry delicacy, which
the American takes for granted.
But, in Vienna, a good meal is an
eve~t which the well-to-do indulge
in once a week and which, alas, the
poorer classes only dream about and
yearn for, for grim starvation itself
is a commonplace among thousands.
Sitting comfortably in a coffee
house, with a party Of young stu
dents upon you right engaged in
earnest conversation, anT a grour o
alien visitors gayly chatting to your
left. while in front Of you is a schol-
arly Austrian buried deep in a mag
azine-you experience the illusion
that YOU are in a city OF content.
"Your illusion vanishes when you
pay the waiter. Your cup of coffee
cost you 500 kronin. In ordinary
times, you recall, that would be 500
in American money. But today's ex-
change rates make this 500 kronin
cup Of coffee cost you just one cent
or less in coin of the United States"
Save your steps. Look for the house
you want in the Classified Ad Section, In
stead of walking the streets watching for
signs.