AUSTRIA'S NEW POOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18234, 30 October 1922, Page 9

AUSTRIA'S NEW POOR.

FORMER COLONEL AS BARMAN Many Austrian aristocrats of the old regime are making pathetic efforts to earn a living, writes a correspondent of the London Times. In the bar of a picturesque hotel in one of - tho mountain villages near Salzburg there is an immensely tall young man who wears a monocle and acts as bar attendant and waiter. With his eye-glass screwed into his left eye, he serves drinks to the guests as though ho had never known any other occupation. His identity remained a mystery until one night a Russian ex-officer recognised him. The waiter had been a colonel in one of tho "crack" 1 Austrian regiments and a rich landowner before the war.

In Vienna, it is said, barristers, ruined financiers, and retired generals readily responded pome months ago to an appeal for workers to sweep the streets at a weekly wage of 7COO kronen (then worth less than 7s in purchasing value), and on river banks in various parts of the country I have seon stone-breaking gangs which included unemployed professional men who commanded substantial salaries before the war and are now compelled to exist on a starvation wage. To watch these men wearily breaking stones, their limbs still unaccustomed to tho strain, and their faces lined with despair, is one of the most heartrending sights in Austria to-

day. There is a brighter side to all this distress, and it is diverting to observe the ingenuity of the more fortunate well-bred Austrians who still possess sufficient means to pay their hotel bills, and yet are ever looking' for some innocent method of augmenting their incomes without compromising their dignity. A charming middle-aged Viennese lady of this type lives in a Salzburg hotel and sells home-made toys, tea cosies, and other household articles to visitors. Carefully noting the arrival of prosperouslooking foreigners, she makes friends with them, especially if they happen" to be Englishwomen. Two or three days later she brings down to the lounge a number of striking tea cosies and toys and displays them inconspicuously- The English ladies invariably approach her table and remark on the beauty of the tea cosies. Then the Austrian woman smiles modestly and says in broken Englisn: "I am glad you think them beautiful I made them myself as a hobby, and I have many more upstairs." An invitation to tea in the Austrian lady's room follows, and afterwards the,guests are conducted to an adjoining room, where a large assortment of toys and fancy goods he on a bed. Beside each article is a ticket clearly showing its price, and few of the English visitors-are brave enough to leave without'buying.