A ROOM OF SALT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2482, 24 May 1909, Page 7

A ROOM OF SALT.

In a ballroom cut out of solid salt rock, adorned with salt statutes and lighted with candelabra which, though looking like work of the finest crystal, are made of the same saline material, the flower of the Austrian aristocracy have just held a memorable ball. The affair took place in the biggest and richest salt mine in the world, situated in the hamlet of Vieliczka, in.Austrian Poland, some eleven miles fi’om here. Similar festivities often take place there, because the seven hundred miners engaged in the mine are fond of dancing, but the guests in this case were not miner's, but member’s of some of the great families of Austria, who thought it a good idea to follow the miners’ example and give a ball underground instead of in one of their own palaces. The mine consists of seven floors or stopping places and the ballroom is on the third floor, approached by lifts and several flights of steps cut out of the solid salt rock. The guests were lighted down the stairs by means of torches and Bengal lights held by miners standing on tho steps at frequent intervals. The red and yellow lights thus produced fell upon the rocky sides, which are of a green colour, producing a most weird and mysterious effect, the more weird because of the utter darkness within a yard of the staircase. The effect was still further enhanced by groups of minere who, hidden in the grottoes, sang songs as old as the mine itself, which was first worked in the year 1334 by slaves. Once in the ballroom the dim lights gave way to dazzling brilliance because the salt found there is of the so-called “glass” quality. The result was that everything, from the walls to the candlesticks, looked like crystal, producing the effect of countless diamonds where the light fell on it. Again the impression conveyed may bo compared to that of a .gigantic ice palace, brilliantly lighted up and sprinkled with a thin layer of the whitest snow. The salt floor forms an ideal one for dancing, so brilliantly is it polished. But the mine of Vieliczka contains something more than an unique ballroom It is a busy, underground human hive, all the busier in contrast with the sleepy hamlet above. In fact, all the life of the settlement is concentraed below ground. The air is clean and the temperature, down to the first three “floors," keeps at an average of 12 degrees Reamur, which is that of a warm spring day. The centre of the mine is situated practically in the so-called “Count Goluchowski’s Court,” which forms a railway station. Here all tho railway lines which intersect this huge mine meet. Here people come to gossip, and, at 2 o’clock, when work is over, or at 6 o’clock in the morning, when work begins, all the gossip of the mine is to be had. The little locomotives come steaming up, leaving their passengers and taking on new ones. Women, who have been above ground to do their marketing, come and show their bargains, children play about in the shade of the grottoes and sail boats in the gutters, running with salt water.

In this -underground town, which measures no less than four kilometers long and -a kilometer wide, over eight hundred men with their families spend their days. Here children are born and old men die. Some of them dislike going above ground even for a few days. Those who habitually refuse to do so pay the penalty of blindness. After living for some months in this strange mixture of brilliance and gloom they can see nothing when they go above ground, though their sight still serves them in the mine. Otherwise, their health is good and accidents are exceedingly rare. Those who are too old to work with the pick make candlesticks, trays, and statues out of the salt, which they sell to tourists. The souvenirs last for years in a mild climate and can only he distinguished, from marble by the salt taste they have when licked. They are, of course, made from the so-called glass layer, perfectly carved and strong.

A performance of the “Merry Widow'’ operetta at the Theatre of Varieties in Pera (Constantinople) by an Austrian troupe caused a riot. Among the occupants of the boxes were Sir Gerard Lowther, the British Ambassador, and Lady Lowther. A group of Montenegrins, <xmsidering that the references, in the piece to Balkan personages wounded their national sentiments, created a great disturbance, tiring pistols, whistling, hooting, and forcing the abrupt conclusion of the performance. Most of the audience precipitately quitted the theatre, and several women fainted. The demonstrators were finally arrested after continuing their demonstration in the Grande Rue, the chief street of Pera.

the Alail of that city remarks, can now have a “telewriter” attached, so that, on ringing up another person similarly equipped. he can transmit a written message or draw a sketch or write figures while speaking, his writing being instantaneously reproduced by an electric pen at the other end. The first telewriter exchange was opened 1 the other day in London Wall Buildings, E.C., and already about two hundred subscribers have applied. If the subscriber who is rung up happens to be out or unable to answer the call, a message can be written automatically on his telewriter pad by writing it with the special pen on the pad of the instrument by which the call is made. Telephone attendants will thus be unnecessary.