THE GAYEST CITY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10765, 13 May 1911, Page 6

THE GAYEST CITY.

VIENNA'S CLAIM TO THE TITLE

(By An Englishman iii' Vienna.)

The Parisian has: abandoned the amusements of. what.was. once-'the world's fairvlaiid of jpleasure to be exas tourist-catcliiiig-'eoiiuiVercial. : enterprises.- The Prussian, puts on hisJV heliotrope evening "waistcoat,' and ' sits all night-at a table covered with tin buckets, bulging with -hunches of goldpapered bottles of bad champagne in a gaudy "pleasure-palace" in Berlin iriereh-beear.se he believes that this line of conduct is "korrekt" and "tiptop." The Viennese alone knows how to enjoy himself in an unaffected way, without boredom aiid without pose. In their pleasures Paris is vulgarised and Berlin is vulgar. Vienna is still unsophisticated and consequently still amusing. It is -a question of civic temperament. The Parisians are losing the eapacity for gaiety. Their favorite mood is one of sedentary and cyucially humorous contemplation of themselves. The Berline.rs have made money top quickiy. Their amusements provide them with a congenial opportunity of gratifying the taste for lavish display and costly ostentation, which is the quality which Nature not infrequently combines with a keen commercial instinct. But the Viennese are simply people who'by nature- are say and fond of pleasure. They throw themselves into their amusements wholeheartedly and unaffectedly, escaping both the self-con-scious superiority of the Parisian and the self-conscious snobbishness of the Berliner. , --, - 4.1 No one who bar once shared-m tlic unconstrained pleasure-seeking ipf the Viennese will turn again for amusement to -'the show-places of Paris or Ihe garish resorts of what the Berlmer calls '"das rlighlilV." Just now Vienna s revels are 111 full swing, for wo are still, in the reason or Fase'hing', the carnival time-which begins with the Emperor's ball at the Hofburg in January and lasts till the beginning of Spoilt. The. young people of' Austrian societv have come up to town from their lonely castle-homes awav in the mountains, arid every night the quaint streets rattle till, dawn with the fast trot of well-horsed Zwoispannor bearing home tired but still merry parties of dance-loving Viennese. But Fasehing is far from being only a societv . season. Tt .is a- time of j "aietv for evervnne, from the young archduchess down to ..the little chambermaid at the hotel where I live, who at midnight, like Cinderella reversed quickiv changes her black frock and white'apron for a wonderfully stitched and embroidered costume—the dress of a Steirmark peasant-girl —made Jvith her own hands, and scurries off to danc" till davlight at some Maskenball or other, with the result that two or three times a week in Fasehing she onlv wts back in "time to change again before starting on another long day s work. But what doe's rest matter m Fasehing to a Wienerin who is young and lebenshist-ig? ! The Tyrolean balls of Vienna are ideal expressions of the city's taste in pleasure. Everyone is in peasant dress. The men have bare knees and roivii worsted stockings, with green embroidered cloth braces over white shirts, and the longest pheasant s feather obtainable in their hats, lhe women's dress is white, with an embroidered green- stomacher and a becoming peasant-girVs hat. Sometimes the band—real Tyrolean peasants these—plays a peasant dance, and then amid the wild "Ju-hu" of the lookers the wildest exercise begins. The girls pirouette with hands on hips, while the men leap into the air, beating time to.the fast music by slapping their thighs or even their feet as they bound about. There is scrambling and romping and shunting, but nothing all the time but- fun and high spirits and the best of good humor. People who leave Vienna without visiting a Nacht-caharet have missed on<> of the institutions of the town. •'Max and Moritz," "Susses Mabel," "bummer Kerl" —they stand ,-almost first among one's associations with Vienna, and'if the streets at night seem emotv after the seething pavements of the Frkdrichstrasso, it is because the Viennese find a cabaret more amusing than the Berliner's nightly promenade from one "Bierhaus" to another for the contemplative consumption of a series of half-litres of beer.

Von will agree with tln'.s preference if yon turn into the Bal Tabarin, for insti'.noe— the newest and therefore perhaps the most frequented of Vienna's cabarets —at 1 a.m. The evening there lias just begun, and you find a bright, white-painted hail with a verandah running round it, fenced off into little boxes. "The boxes and the floor of the room, except for a space in the middle, are filied with small tables, crowded with throngs of light-hearted people, clinking their wineglasses, laughing and watching the dancing going on in tho cleared space in their midst. Conspicuous among the "young bloods" who form a great part of the patrons is a large sprinkling of officers, who in picturesqucness of appearance can give points to any .except the Italians, in Europe. Their uniforms — sky blue with dark green facings; chocolate, with'• brown velvet collars, black relieved by bright canary yellow—are cut to lit their slender, athletic figures' with simple perfection. Their manner is a combination of indolence, grace, and good humor, and you miss the assertive abruptness with which their Gorman brothers-in-arms often deem it necessary to uphold the prestige, of the "colored coat."" Here, too, are plenty of the beautiful women for whom Vienna is famous in Europe, with lustrous eyes and clear, delicate eompelxion. The programme of dancing that is being carried, out in the middle of the. room is • excellent. Vienna, the home, and sanctuary of the art, would be content with nothing below the standard of the best. "Scarcely a number that would not be a ' star ' turn in London," was a remark made to me by an English theatrical manager who had visited one of the big cabarets. For people who like earlier hours than the. cabarets allow there are excellent variety theatres, where, instead of sitting with cramped legs in crowded rows of sandwiched stalls, you take your ease at a table with a big Krugel of I'ilsener beer before you. For the still more soberly-minded. ; f course, there are the Opera and the Hofburg Theatre of. Vienna, which stand in the first rank of the homes of music and drama in the world. In early summer, before the beat has emptied the city, Vienna is full of openair movement. The long procession of carriages filled with fair women that rolls down the shady Hauptallee of the Prater in the -afternoon is a review of the beauty and wealth of Austria. And at night everywhere there are beer and wine gardens, with strings of tiny hanging lamps bejewelling the soft, cool -shadows under the overhanging trees, and away at the end of the garden a string band playing a hypnotic melody of a Fall or Lehai; waltz.

It is the simple, kindly, unffecterl love of enjoyment in the Viennese that makes a stay in their city so pleasant :i recollection for the traveller. They like to be happy themselves and to see other people happv abont them. Go to the great Rathhauskeller, where two or three thousand Viennese dine every night, and watch the family parties all around yon. It is their natural'goodbreeding. their spontaneous yairty and kindliness, that strike you before everything, and these are the qualities in her peonle which make Vienna the brightest 3nd most lighthearted among the capitals of Enroix".