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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 1908)
Bsyaus j as W7l A dienstman is a- messenger or guide licensed by the city. He wears his number on his coat and has a regular station on the. street. The society of dienstmen is responsible for the conduct of its members. BY ALMA A. ROGERS. SPUING is at hand. This discovery was not made from our fifth-flour court wohuung (dwelling), where all that is visible of the outside world is a gray patch of sky and the top of a church steeple. Though one must regard only the. upward vision, nor ever voluntarilv look below into the brick-paved courtyaid that is like a prison well and whose win dows arc stuffed with the bedding of the tenants airing, it was not the mess age of a scudding cloud or a greenlier hue ori the old church steeple that told xne. It was the babies. They arc coming cut simultaneously with the young leaves on the trees'. All Winter long they have been stowed away heaven knows how in the dark and comfortless wohnungs in which the true Viennese are born, live und begin their funerals. At intervals I had observed a white bundle, stiff as a papoose board, in the arms of a gaily arrayed maid, and sup posed it was a baby. But the bundles were always so silent and motionless 1 was never quite sure if babies could survive the conditions of life in Vienna until one sunny afternoon about two weeks ago, when walking along the Stadt I'ark. Then they burst upon me as sud denly as the sight of the yellowing cat kins on the trees and the swelling buds of lilacs. Quantities of them, on the wide pavement, and the graveled park jaths; mewling infants in carts with fuzzy little curls sticking out from cap borders and eyes wide open to a new world; past the creeping stage, these be ing proud to go on their own legs;" others who would soon be out of arms alto gether, having attained to the dignity if trousers and other sexrd garments. And all of them, irrespective of age or flignity. in charge ol the omnipresent nursemaid. In America a nursemaid is just a nurse maid, being nothing particular to look at unless endowed with the good looks which heaven, for reasons of its own, dispenses irrespective of station. But here she is not only a nursemaid, she is a picturesque figure. So picturesque, in fact, that she appeals to the artist eye, and hence one must be excused for turn ing back to look at her. Not for her face she is nearly always old and unbeautiful but for her costume. Vpnn her head a gorgeous handkerchief is folded with caplike effect in front, the tnds free In the back. A bright green, led or bine embroidered jacket is worn over a white bodice. The skirt is tjhort und usually dark, made yards and yards wide and plaited in accordion fashion. Strips of rainbow hued embroidery, about two Inches wide, hang down behind from tho waist for garniture. Stockings of orange colored yarn, knit on old-fashioned needles, cover her legs. She wears nlmcs now oftener than the high boots of the true peasant, which shows the in Pidlousness of the modern spirit. Next to the bizarre and yet pleasing combination of color, the most astonish ing thing about her is her hip measure. It is truly Falstaffian. Yet not so, for it is artificial. Black bread, not h,cing conducive to girth, she acquires It by petticoats, accordion pleated and piled on until In her own native Hungary she looks, on slato occasions, like a ballet dancer. A wealthy peasant girl there will wear as many as a hundred such. of the finest silk, and her toilet will cost to much as a modern gown that disposes Us superfluous material lengthwise in- itead of horizontally. But such a one ttoes not come to take care of babies in Wien. The nursemaids are more mod trato in their devotion to the mode, half a dozen petticoats, as I should judge, being sufficient. Of course, it was a very orderly com nanv, this of the babies and the maids. i:crvthinK ' is orderly here, as orderly as if poured into an iron mold and con gealed. I have wondered sometimes if little boys here never feel yells in their throats that they want to let loose. In vwd 1 have longed for the sight of whooping, howling: little Americans, tear ing along from school, and would be quite willing to be pushed into the street in tho melee. They are so much alive, po free, so spontaneous. While here everybody, big and little, is clipped into orm l"pon several occasions I have watched the children pouring out of the schools. There was as little demonstration as if soldiers marched in ranks. It Ic i fact that I have not In nine months' lcsldence heard a child yell on the streets, or seen a bean shooter or any other immature engine of destruction in the hands of incipient Tom Saw vers or IMggy Penningtous. Games there surely must be o keep the youth fill ap flowing, but what they are or where performed is beyond present knowledge. Perhaps the order and si lence are fruition of the wohnungs, where there are no grassy lawns to play in. Or perhaps the fact that school begins at 8 A. M. has something to do with It. Anyhow, the babies are quiet, the children are quiet, every thing but the cobblestones and fiacree and cartwheels, and they make a never ceasing roar. As I walked back to the patch of sky and the top of the- church steeple on that sunny afternoon when I saw the new leaves and the babies, other signs of Spring were at hand. The big bunch of toy balloons, red and blue as in America, but here in the grip, of a stout peasant woman, was one. Fur ther on it pleased me to note that the old gray-whiskered dienstmann whom we pass on our way downtown had changed his station to the opposite side of the street, and was fairly soaking in the sunbeams. Doubtless they brought more warmth, being charged with hope, than the bowl of hot soup I have often observed him eating about noonday, when we were returning from the harmony lesson. An old woman, as gray as he, was the bearer, and stood by patiently while the meal lasted. Since this preludium to 'Spring, vari ous things have happened. A moving for one. But that is not such a great matter when a few trunks and a piano comprise all your worldly gear. We said good-bye to the five , flights of stairs, the brick-paved courtyard that always made us feel like the frog who lived at the bottom of a well, except that we had climbed to the top, and to the mattress-filled windows in red ticks the mattresses, I mean, were in the red tick. Such a sweet color note in the general happy scheme. And there was the necessary dissonance on this particular morning, for one had fallen to the bottom of the court and lay there in the grime of a score or less of chimneys, waiting for rescue by the careless maid. . - Good-bye also, though without speech, to the tout hausbesorgerln, her false front and black bottle, and to waiting at night at her particular door (though we may wait longer at some other one). All the above, and several items not mentioned, including the church steeple and the gray patch, without regrets. The only feeling that could be classed under this head was bestowed on our Pup, that most faithful member of the household. Hereby should hang a little tall. But It doesn't. It's only a t-a-l-e, for our pup was not a baby dog on four legs, but a tiny stove on three. We got it when we froze out with the Swedish oven. It was so ridiculously tiny, being not half the length of a fur nace pipe in size, and it looked so dwarfish on its three spindle legs that one of us christened it the Brownie. But the name wouldn't stick after Francis Richter began calling it the Pup, and said he hoped it would soon grow up to be a comfort to us. Which in truth It was from the first quarter hour after it was connected with the oven by a pipe the size of my arm. With a few small lumps of coal we could warm the room, though the strenuous little creature turned red all over in the effort. After tho Pup was satisfactorily christened, we fell into a prolonged de bate as to Its gender. Now I know that ordinarily this matter is just the other way about and decides the naming. But in a household with a repertoire of seven languages such a question in volves hair-splitting labors and a speaking acquaintance at least with idioms and other vague things that philologists have to wrestle with. Why table should be masculine in German, feminine in French, Italian and Span ish, and next whisked into complete neutrality In Hungarian and English is surely a proper puzzle for philological experts. That milk should be "she' makes the German appear a shade more reasonable, but next -moment the cue is lost, for the Latin offshoots gender ixe it as "he." When I demand a reason for such vagaries, the German member of our household pronounces that fine-sound ing phrase, "for euphony." Turning to the linguist, he assures me with truly European superiority that what the makers of the languages didn't choose to consider masculine was left to the feminine and neuter, distinctions as to the two latter being somewhat indis criminate. Well, I always knew there waa only one proper tongue on earth, which doesn't bestow sex on Inanimate ob'jects and gives ladies the right of suffrage. And now see. In the end, after all THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX,' rOKTLAXI), MAT evidence Alma Rogers Writes From Vienna About Them, Tog-ether With Stories of Francis Richter, Vagaries of Language, and Russian Music V: 1 ipi Vc1. the ebb and flow of argument over the i coffee cups, a form of diversion to which the two budding geniuses under my rare are much given. It fell to the j COMEDIES LIFE in the parsonage differs cssen- , tially from that in every other j house, for. inasmuch as the pastor ! Is a public character, he and bis are the property of the congregation; and woe betide the unhappy wight who hugs the fond illusion that his wife married him instead of the parish or that his children can be secluded from the electric dazzle beating around the manse! Vneasy lies the head which wears a ministerial stove pipe? Well, no; there's so wide a love behind so wide an Interest! lf the door bell dangles all day long It opens on faces beaming or hungry for help; if the pastoral meals must be left smoking on the table day after day while husband and . wife hurry to the parlor to enter tain by the hour, the visitor often as not leaves something behind to smoke pleas antly at another noontide meal. . But of all these public comings and goings none are quite so full of laughter, joy and finance as the weddings. The parish wedding is a tame affair, re hearsed beforehand, rounded smoothly off by trained performers. The grooms do drop the ring in ecstatic moments a fine time did I have poking one from un der a bookcase once while the groom and his best man leered sheepishly at my crimson countenance; do forget to clasp hands, and often step on the bridal train at that crucial second when the turn Is made aisleward. One unhappy creature pulled my face all askew for one mis erable moment by an answer "Yes, sir, tITank you!" to the query, "Do you take this woman?" A later bridegroom added, at a private performance in my own house, "And Mighty glad to get 'er, yer bet!" But the parish wedding is a tame affair. The stranger in a strange town and a strange ceremony furnishes the comedy. The clergyman soon learns the faltering step on his porch, the fumble at his bell, the nervously twisted hat, the shy .pre tense at some other and indifferent busi ness; soon turns confidently and immedi ately to the nearest streetcar post to discover the half-hid flutter of bridal skirts. Still such wisdom takes time; and madame, during the first year of our own wedded life, turned three promising $5 couples from our door. Then came the day of her eye-opening. I was out of town and when Hat tie Parsons, a demure, beau-less, domesti cated variety of damsel, appeared a 5 o'clock in the company of a young man and asked for me, madame assured her that the minister's wife "always does just as well;" a conviction whicfl Hattie failed to share, and even at 6, despite some added vehemence, desperately de nied. At 7 I burst through the front door, glanced Into the parlor, beheld a new brown silk never yet seen at church, iV 7 woman to settle the question. Quite as usual. When hasn't intuition triumphed over mere, learning? The first time I made a fire in the Pup I knew it be- OF A MARRIAGE PARSON Curious ?:riFmm gloves and hat, to match, seated close to i a youth very black as to coat, white as to tie and radiant as to patent leather. "Why," I cried, into madame's aston- j ished ear, "I didn't know Hattie Parsons was getting married or ever thought of 1 it!" "How did you know?" she gasped. j Since that day every youthful book- j agent with the slightest trepidation of manner is bidden "Come back at 2 j o'clock, do! The minister will surely be in." Some conversions are uncom fortably thorough. As to these out-of-towners, the city of my abiding is full of them. Situated at the corner of two other states, it proves a Gretna Green for all love sick ones. They run to it away from angered parents, suspicious offspring, conventionalities of church weddings the glory and the splendor and the dear delight is. they run to us. It adds materially .to our meager incomes. Out of the whole kaleidoscopic pass ing of them, the half-remembered laughter and pathos of their stories, arises the conviction that about nothing else does the ordinary human being take so little trouble to gather information as matrimony. Even ex perience seems no teacher; they all "have a plentiful lack of wit." The couples who took any thought for the morrow, let alone the bridal day, were scarce. An English pair from a neighboring village decided on a marriage "to parsons,' followed by a jollification in their own newly-furnished cottage. Unfortunately they failed to confide in "parson" and found him away at conference. With horse and team they flew to the city while the wedding guests voted the game amusing, even with Hamlet left out and Mrs. Hamlet left along with him. The Universalist pastor was "not at home, the Adventist ditto, the Baptist ditto, the Quaker never married strangers, the Methodist was holding a reception, and those gleaming windows, those gayly trooping guests sent the timid seekers for sanctification of their love into wilder flight. The rectory opened a hospitable door on a beautiful and cordial face. "Yes." de clared the rectoress, "Mr. Brown has just stepped over to the parish -ho use." At the parish-house a finally unearthed janitor was sure he was at the church; but the choir, just shelving the anthem, though the manly voice of their clergyman yet echoed in their ears, sent the pilgrims to a new-made widow at the south end' of the city. She stilled her weeping a mo ment to whisper that, though his foot steps still lay damp along her porch, Mr- Brown was at the north end. He wasn t. At 11:30 a kind policeman assured a 17, IOOS. of jpmngtimb feu SHE? VZAS CVT V7TTI THE longed to the masculine, cause it smoked. Why? Now that the concert season is prac tically over, it occurred to us one day to wonder how many musical events Francis Richter had attended in the last nine months. The statistics proved so astonishing that we regretted not having kept the count accurately. How ever, this young man's memory is a very good calendar, and the sum total js about right, though a few may have been overlooked. lie has heard concerts and 20 operas. . In addition are 10 operas and concerts in Dresden, making an aggregate for his first year in Europe of 120 musical" events." Quite enough to satisfy even an omniverous appetite, though Francis Richter's mind, with the avidity of the true composer's, has known no weari ness. On" the other hand, his friend, Marcel de Bouzon, who has divided with me the labor of attendance, is longing for a circus for a change. By the way, this young person, in whom the spirit of youth is quite irrepressible, has ideas on music as a health course, which he formulates as follows: For little headaches take Mozart pow ders. For palpitation of the ' heart take Wag ner King syrup. A bad case ol nerves take Hayden water cure. Foe influenza epidemic Richard Strauss drops. For that tired feeling the modern pre scription consisting of: r parts Iehar (Merry "Widow). 2 parts Oscar Strauss (Waltz Dream), ft parts Mahler symphony, 1 part Dbusy. Q.M parts Max Reifter. Try all of these and if you are not yet discouraged and bedraggled pair of lovers that I "sat up to all sorts of onairthly times o' nights." The bell jangled angrily above my head, and I. jumping out of my first whiff of sleep, growled, "There., my landlord" this was In my pre-nuptial days "has forgotten his key again! I do wish there, what a cross-grained sinner I am!" So I threw up the shade and stood revealed, amid the blaze of the street light opposite, in a robe perfectly appropriate for an Episcopal clergyman! "Rev. Bassiliky Rev. RassUlky!" wailed a voice behind the smudge of the swift-descending shade. "Won't yer ple-e-es-e marry a pore young feller as can't git spliced nohow anyway?" Ten minutes later the lady, a wife at last, moaned gratefully. "Thank God, the worst of it is over!" The fees are a source of constant pal pitations, sometimes of laughter, some times of chagrin, for the minister finds in them all the unexpectedness and something of the excitement of a gam bler's days. One pastoral brother ad vised me to keep in stock two vai leties of certificates and discriminate. I did. I handed over the dollar kind to a 50 cent couple and bestowed paternally the 12-cents variety on a youth who grac iously presented me in return a $10 bill. I don't discriminate any more. O, no I fling the whole collection across the par lor table and they take their choice. But the fees! I have been paid 50 cents, a quarter, nothing but a promise to "kum round Sat'd'y when pay h'en velop kums h'in" which it apparently never did and from a dollar up, yet not so far up as to be unendurable. But the strangest case arrived from a hilltop town in Massachusetts. She confessed to 30 Summers. She told the truth, but not all the truth, while his assertion of 21 was palpably an exaggeration, though there could be no question as to his uncouth beauty. After the ceremony be inquired, "Wal, mister, what's th' damage?" "I hope," cried I politely, 'no damage has been done; but If you refer to the expected fee. that's as you deem the service worth." "Wal." asked he. "will a dollar and a half about kiver't?" "If that suits you it suits me," I re sponded. He turned to the lady of his choice. "Say, Jane, I didn't fetch no cash along; yer pay 'im." Jane thought it worth $2. Somehow, at the beginning, the min ister expects weddings to be all light and laughter and love's sweet dream, and then, out from the cloistered student life, he is dumped down into depths of tragedies dark, wild, heartrending. And after he has expostulated with the boy's family only to be assured of their entire approbation; with the gill's and met 7 . R7Z AZZ jSX&S' cured lake a, bath in Beethoven and you will feel like a bird in Paradise. (Signed) rE BOUZON". A most interesting late event was the Slaviesky d'Agreneff concert, when a com pany of Russians sang the folk songs of five centuries ago; also their modern church music. The patriarchal dignity of the leader, who, though old, still has a voice, seemed to transfuse itself through out the company, from the dozen or so children up to twice that number of adults. There was a peculiar, quaint for mality about all they did that seemed to suit their stately robes of red and blue velvets, heavy with jewels and richest embroideries. Slowly pacing, the children entered first, clad in long Russian blouses, also of vel vet jewel-embroidered, and with the dear est little red boots. I wished at once that all little Americans would wear them. However, not possessing the precocious dignity of these children, which is surely a preservatice of leather, they would have the toes kicked out in no time. ' Next came the men, in larger editions of the same garments, except that their high boots were tan color, lavishly em broidered as to the tops. They wore rich caps. The ladies, of whom there were 12 in all, entered and seated themselves in front of the children, behind which the men stood. They swept In In long robes of rose and blue satin and velvet, the entire front of each gown being covered with gold and silver embroidery. With their high, crown-like headdresses, from which white, filmy veils floated to the floor, they seemed? like a procession of princesses come to do honor to the Queen of Beauty. She appeared, walking alone merely chilling rebuff; with both" the children they are so often only that and heard only protestations of romantic affection, the lad himself turns from his bride, slips back into the parlor with the fee, and a minute later, because of one kind word, is sobbing his shame and hl fright out on the young pastor's breast. These tragedies grow stern and stark across my happy memories. There was the youth such a gracious, well-bred, well groomed youth who waited at my door with funeral visage and later, at the agreed-on hour, helped from the carriage a painted creature, her eyebrows smudged black even in mid-afternoon, her hair a glistening, metallic copper, her dress scarcely fit for an evening ball. The license read "Occupation, Actress." The lad didn't sob on my breast, but one more sympathetic phrase would have brought him there. And there was the respectable woman of 30 who, in reply to the nup tial question, lifted up a voice of uncon trollable despair and wept then first did I notice how the room was soaked in liquor. And those gray-hatred grandpar ents, the only proof of whose marriage had been devoured by a fire in a city hall, who came to me blushing like mis behaved school children that I might make secretly possible her retention of his soldier's pension. The preacher longs often to say, "I THE CIRCUS FROM THE INSIDE Harper's Weekly. OST performers," said the Pink Lemonade Man, "soak away their spare change in sparklers, so as to have somethin' to hock If they go broke. 1 flash mine mostly for business rea sons, though I ain't denyin' I've con verted it at times. Diamonds add dig nity, especially in small towns, where they can only recognize a gentleman be cause he wears a high hat, patent leather shoes and swell clothes. Besides, it makes 'em feel easier to let 'em see you trustin a fine sparkler like that in the liquids you're selling 'em." Here a shower of sawdust fell about us. Two boys were fighting in front of the stand, rolling on the ground and pelting each other with sawdust. "Well. I'll be " began the Pink Lem onade, Man, as a quantity of it landed in one of the tubs. Then he smiled philosophically. "It'll draw a crowd, and maybe I'll land some of 'era. Here, Jimmy," he called loudly to his assistant, "take this tub over to the dressing tent and empty it." He turned to us. "What be'll do." be confided, "is strain J 'A 6ZZ -AND in state. In the person of the prim, donna, youngest daugh'ter of Slaviensky d'Agreneff, and looking a veritable queen arrayed in blue and silver. She was. so wondrously beautiful that at the end of two hours, when the concert was over, I had not tired of gazing at her. I fancied she must be a Circassian beauty, such as we read about as the favorite of an Orien tal harem, until we visited the company behind the scenes and got some history. At close range the exquisite fairness of the women proved to ba but paint, and powder, even of the lovely Olga herself. who quickly disappeared from view, and the jewels so lavishly used in decorating the robes were seen to be only colored stones. But there was a sort of bizarre Oriental . magnificence about the scene that was striking to alien eyes. The men wearing embroidered caps lounged about smoking cigarettes, and the women looked at us curiously, while we eyed the many necklaces that literally composed the up per part of their costumes. No doubt they thought our plain clothes hideous. I am sure no thought of emancipation had ever troubled the waters of their souls, or any of Herbert Spencer's philosophy about the relation of ornaments to femi nine slavery. We were privileged to examine the splendid robe of the leader, which was a gift from the present Empress of Rus sia. It is of dark crimson velvet, heavily embroidered in designs of gold and silver thread, and lined with costly furs. Us value was said to be up in the thousands of dollars. During the programme the venerable leader stood on a dais and beat 'time statelily with his hand only, while a small boy, jeweled like a butterfly, held his cap, also jeweled. The long,, slow movement of the songs, which had much singing in unison, was reminiscent of mu sic in its infancy, touched with a tradition of the antique Greek modes frozen into the deadness of the Russian ritual. It was all very interesting and much of it very pleasing, particularly a boating song, the rocking motion of which was done with really fine art, though the voices were what modern systems of cul ture call untrained. To me there is a charm in such singing, if good, akin to that of birds in the wild wood. The stiff magnificence of the costumes, the extraordinary dignity of manner, and the antique mode of the music, combined to leave an impression of having had a glimpse into a civilization both remote and strange. It was brought up to the modern notch by one of the ladies of our party, who has been over here six years, re marking that all the occasion lacked of being truly Russian was a bomb. Vienna, April 30. won't. Whom thoughtlessness has joined together let common sense put asunder, ere it be too late." Sometimes he does. Indeed, one middle-aged sinner left ine vowing vengeance, and next day pilloried my cruelty "to hearts that love" to the extent of half a column in a Boston daily. She was illiterate 18, he cultured .52. Yet, after all, the experience is one of sweetness and light, brings -out the noblest, dlvinest side of human nature, shows the men and women, too, at their tenderest and bravest, and the pastoral sigh slipping after some of the retreating forms is ollowed by a smile ere the door is fully closed. It is so good to be young, blind to the dull, sordid facts, to trust that a pair of vigorous arms can twist the worst cross loomisg blackly athwart the foreground into a crown of joy. As Farmer Lydden laughs out of "Chil dren of the Mist," "There be folks and fules"; and these are the adorable kind, ready to "give all for love" even more abundantly than Emerson contemplated. Because of the beauty of it I stand smiling at my open door, stretching my hands out over one and all in benediction, dropping a winged prayer down the long walk as they turn from the manse out into life. Its duties, its joys, its Infinite wonder of blessed human love, for the greatest thing on earth is love. God keep them, every one! Rev. Jacobs Basllicanus in the Congrexationalist. it through a cheesecloth, we keep on purpose. He'll bring it back in a minute, that Is, unless Mademoiselle Fleurette is hanging 'round." The Serious Student beamed. "Are there many little romances around the circus?" he asked eagerly. "I pre sume she g his sweetheart T The Pink Lemonade Man threw back his head and gave up to such explosive and sprinkling mirth that I shuddered for the lemonade. "If Jimmy heard you," he finally man aged to splutter, "he'd probably try to beat your face in. Mademoiselle Fleu rette's a young man. Him an' Jimmy uster be pals, but now most every time they meet there's a scrap. Fleurette's got a swelled head an puts on airs. Jimmy gets back at him by insinuations concerning him . passin for a perfec' lady." Wall Flowers? That fishes cannot dance Is true, Thy cannot dance at all. The question Is, What do they do When they get Invitations to A stylish codfish ball?