Year: 1873

An Austrian View OF the Vienna


Exhibition.


Since the 1st OF May, the day on which the
doors of the mammoth building in the Prater
were formally opened to the expectant thou
sands of the DonaAstadt, the HERALD has
closely watched and duly chronicled the prog
ress of the Worlds Fair. The gorgeousness
OF the opening ceremonies and the presence
of imperial and royal personages could not
atone for the incompleteness Of the building
and the lack Of discipline and promptness in
the general management and we unhesitatingly
declared 80 at the time. The disgraceful con-
dition Of affairs at the headquarters of the
American department in due course re-
ceived the attention and condemnation it
deserved, not only in the United States, but
throughout the entire Continent of Europe.
As the work Of completion and arrangement
went on, and when the Emperor paid his
official visit and dispensed his congratulations
and "well dones,' we kept our readers fully
informed, praising where praise was due and
pointing out whenever occasion required the
deficiencies and omissions.


But the American scandal and the want of
energy on the part of manager, contractors
and exhibitors do not complete the list of
complaints. There are evidences Of rapacity
and deception in the Mosaic city, daily becom-
ing stronger, that may well appal the visitor
and lead him to ask who the Fair was intended
to benefit most-the exhibitors and the world
Of science and industry, or the avaricious
politicians, court funkies and dishonest hotel
and boarding house keepers. 1t is these home
subjects that our Austrian correspondent
breaches in his letter, printed elsewhere to-
day in the German Language. Here is wide
field for reflection. To read the cleverly
worded paragraphs of the Austrian journals
it might be supposed that the outside world
had been treating them after the manner
of the schoolboy whose jealousy leads him to
calumniate those above him in his class that,
instead of being practically failure, it was
grand, glorious success, and that the self
abnegnation and generosity Of their citizens
would leave halo never to be effaced in the
history Of the Empire. How far these things
are true our correspondent shows. He says
that the Exhibition, SO far as concerned the
general visitor from abroad, has brought to
light threefold swindle. Splendid and
abundant accommodations were promised the
visitor at rates that could not interfere with
the most economical. He shows that never
were apartments so badly fitted nor prices so
exorbitant and unjustifable. Amusements were
to be on the same ample and luxurious scale,
yet he gives instances where two hundred and
fifty dollars in gold was charged for seat at
the opera Clothing and outfits suddenly
became extraordinarily expensive. Every
one-the housekeeper, the manufacturer, the
hotel ''tout,' the milliner, the railroads, and
even the inevitable cab driver-considered
the visitor his special prey. In vain the City
Council called for moderation. Travellers
must eat and drink and lodge wear clothes
and ride in carriages, and occasionally re-
quire q chair to rest q while at the Exhibition.
and all who had the necessary commodities
determined to rob and have robbed to the
fullest extent. Next came the cholera.
Perhaps no one was responsible for
the arrival of this terrible scourge.
But the same spirit of deception
and dishonesty seems to have been
apparent here. For weeks the official local
papers absolutely denied its existence, although
the Board of Health had possession of GER
tifcates showing where the cholera had car
ried off its victims within the city limits The
visitor was told not to notice the sensational
reports, but to come. Eventually visitors
came. When the cholera could no longer be
smothered, Prince Auersperg and the city
authorities, in the face of previous protesta-
tions, went to work to disinfect the city. Is it
wonderful that after this visitors left, or that
they advised their friends to avoid the metro
polls on the beautiful blue Danube? Had the
people and the authorities been wise medium
course would have been adopted and the SUBJ
sequent vexations and failure avoided.


Baron Schwarz has, doubtless, committed
grievous blunders, but he is not responsible
for the wholesale system of swindling that is
practised in the city of Vienna


SIR SAMUEL. BAKER EN- ROUTE TO CAIRO
By telegram from Egypt, through London,
we are specially informed that Sir Samuel and
Lady Baker, with their companions and
attendants, will leave Suez for Cairo to-day
an interesting event in the more modern his
tory of African exploration, and, it may be,
quite important as regards the future Of the
East.