Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1924-01-03
STUDYING HARP IN VIENNA
WRITES TO MALTA FRIENDS


letter this afternoon. I'm so glad
to hear you're getting along so we'll
keep the good work up!
I'm having great time in the
conservatory. The Viennese are
famous for their sociability. When
foreigners here make half an effort
to be friendly, the people go out of
their way to make them feel at ease
I have noticed it so much in the
conservatory. The professors are so
gracious and the pupils are so
friendly. There are ten peop. :
studying harp We have our class
from ! to 4 on Monday and Friday
afternoons. The professors arrives
about Is minutes late (thev're all
late, the Profs. / mean.) When he
comes in the room everybody stands
until he gives the high sign to be
seated. When you talk to him YOU
must say Herr professor other
wise you're not at all polite We
sit around the room and talk while
the others play The -rrof. smokes,
which is typically European, In the
offices the air is blue with smok>
there are more smoking than non
smoking cars on trains, and every
street car has two smoking ana one
r1on-smoking car coupled together.
But TO return to the conservatory,
on Wednesday afternoon there is a
SIGHT reading class for the four
"Ausbildungs" people. | managed
to be one of the four (by the skin
of my teeth) We have to play the
harp orchestration for the operas I
start with Faust" the week after
next There | have harmony or
chestra practice, and some elemen-
tary theory, besides one piano lesson
a week. | have enough to keep me
busy
Mrs. Seidlmann is the best cook
imaginable I'll have to make
some "goulasch" and 'gougel-
hupf" for you I'm learning a few
cooking wrinkles on the side. I
never saw such extravagant people
in the cooking line. They're posi-
lively reckless with eggs and butter
and everything else that's expensive.
Bread costs 1000 kr. a loaf, (the
rate of exchange is 10000 kronen
for a dollar,) butter 35 ,000 4 Eoun-,
meat from 10000 10 $4,000 II
pound. sugar 1000 a pound, eggs
1900 each. milk 500 o. liter (abont
quart, flour 5000 pound, cab
hage 600 a pound, potatoes 500 a
pound ,plums 2,200 q pound, apples
about the same, pears 1000 a
pound They sell coal by the kilO
kilo, and wood 500 kilo. The best
costs 81, 900 lr. a month,
the single editions cost 1900 kr, in
the morning and 600 for the evening
edition which is much smaller. -
street car fare casts LOO kr. A
good seat in the opera costs from
30 900 to 10000. O. course the
boxes and crcheefaGsf-a~ IS are much
more expensive. Clothes are con-
siderably cheaper here; shoes cost
from 100000 to 100000 a pair and
they're mighty good looking too.
Dresses run from 100000 to D.
100000, winter coats are about the
same price. A stenographer has a
SdIdIN Vi one 10 lNO uilllOiS
month, a man in a factory receives
from one to three million month.
Last Sunday they had the city
election. The lasr month the whO,e
city has been literally covered with
election propaganda. They don't
use such very polite language in re-
ferrins to their opponents. They
call them liars and frauds and such
pleasant things Only usually it is
expressed in much stronger terms.
The chief bone of contention seems
to have been about raising the
house rents Since 1914 practically
no houses have been built here and
there are now $4,000 families who
are on the city lists waiting to re-
ceive apartments. Foreigners have
no possible chance to rent house
or apartment. They have to take
furnished rooms or live in hotel.
Lots of Viennese people are able to
live from the rent they receive for
their two or three furnished rooms.
During the war they regulated the
rents by law and also made it impOa-
sible for a landlord to put the
renter cut" as long as he paid his
rent The law is a great protection
to the renter. but the houses are n
total loss to their owners. The rent
is fixed at so times the rent in
1914. while the actual difference
should be Is, 900 times the 1914
rent to make up for the kronen
which is now 10000 instead of 5
FOR dollar! Mrs. Seidlmann pays
1000 kr month for an apart /
ment which would cost SIS in Co !
umbus The landlord can't buy a /.
neal in q restaurant for less than I
hree months rent In addition 20 /
he 1000 kr. the renter must also |
)ay the repair bills, the electric light /
1ill for the entrance. and the jani-
or. These items cost a good deal /
more than the rent. In spite OF this ,
he houses are badly in need of re-
)air. Something will have to be
lone soon or they'll fall together.
)ne party, the Christ Itch social"
Promised TO raise the rents to b.
100 times as much as in 1914, the
,ther big party, the Social demo-
,rat," promised to leave the present
arrangements intact, and of course
he latter won! AS long as the
ents aren't raised there is no incen-
i've to build houses, and they'll
lave the same problem to face. But
# course the people here are not
,een about having their rents raised
ither.
I'm just as busy as | can be (and
m having a good time as well.)