OUR EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURS NOW READY French Life in Town and Country German Life in Town and Country Russian Life in Town and Country Dutch Life in Town and Country Swiss Life in Town and Country Spanish Life in Town and Country Italian Life in Town and Country Danish Life in Town and Country Austro'Hungarian Life IN PREPARATION Turkish Life in Town and Country OUR EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURS EDITED BY WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY uLLl w I < N < U z HI co O I > cc H Z O o vnasA % & % AUSTRO- HUNGARIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By FRANCIS H. E. PALMER ILLUSTRATED G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Gbe Ifcntcfterbocfcet jprees 1903 COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Published, November, 1903 Ube ftnfcfeerbocfecr pre?e, 'Hew Jt?or?! CONTENTS CHAPTER I page Land and People; i CHAPTER II The Austrian Nobieity 10 CHAPTER HI The Austrian Bauer 26 CHAPTER IV Rurae Life in Hungary 45 CHAPTER V The Northern Seavs 65 CHAPTER VI The Southern Seavs 83 CHAPTER VII The Minor NaTionaeiTies 99 CHAPTER VIII Life in Austrian Provinciae Towns . 130 CHAPTER IX Town Life in Hungary 157 V VI Contents CHAPTER X PAGE Vienna and Buda-Pest . 179 CHAPTER XI Political and Official Life 206 CHAPTER XII The Industrial Classes 240 CHAPTER XIII Intellectual and Religious Life 264 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Country House near Zell-am-Zee Frontispiece An Austrian Country House . .18 A Road Scene 48 A View of Prague 66 A Golden-Roofed House — Innsbruck . 100 View of Trieste from the North . .144 Carlsbad, from Camera Obscura . .152 The Public Gardens — Vienna . .180 The Quay — Vienna 188 The Opera-House — Vienna .... 190 — New Houses of Parliament Buda-Pest . 198 Igls, a Favourite Summer Resort of the Imperial Family 208 A View of Ischl 216 A View of Pola 224 A Street Scene at Ischl 228 A Vdsw of Ragusa 292 Vll AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY CHAPTER I LAND AND PEOPLE; it be true that there is always a close analogy IF between the life of a people and the physical characteristics of the country in which they dwell, a journey through the Austro-Hungarian mon- archy would alone suffice to show that the history of its inhabitants, if it accorded with the scenery of their land, must indeed have been thrilling and romantic. Vast Alpine regions, rivalling in their grandeur the mountain monarchs of Switzerland, contrast with wide-spreading plains that, from their very immensity, are almost equally awe- inspiring. Majestic rivers, rock-bound lakes and mountain torrents, boundless forests and treeless 2 Austro-Hungarian Life wastes, picturesque hills and verdant, flower-filled valleys, luxuriant meadows, laughing cornland, and heavily loaded vineyards, all pass before us in review. Nothing is wanting to recall to the mind almost every phase of human life and human pas- sion, —the heroic daring of the mountaineer, the love of liberty and impatience of external control among the races that so long ranged at will over the wide-spread plains, the laborious life of the cultivator of those endless tracts of cornland, and, above all, the element of romance, the very breath of music and poetry that seems in Austria-Hun- gary to float around the stupendous mountains and penetrate the recesses of the densest forests. It seems, indeed, as if Nature herself had pro- vided, in the physical characteristics of the coun- try, a fitting arena for the romantic and too often tragic drama that forms the history of the Aus- tro-Hungarian peoples during the last thousand years. Through those mountain gorges, over those wide plains, or along the silent highway of the Danube, for many centuries tribe after tribe of Asiatic races poured into this corner of South- eastern Europe. Through Austria- Hungary, too, passed many of the armies of the Crusaders, men from almost every land in Christendom, march- ing eastward for the liberation of Palestine. Austria was the meeting-place of East and West, and upon its plains, and among its mountains and forests, was fought out the long life-and-death Land and People 3 struggle that saved Europe from the horrors of an Asiatic invasion. That contest is over. The Mongol hordes were driven back and the armies of the dreaded Ottoman Empire no • longer threaten the east of Europe; but the actors in that long tragedy still remain. And, perhaps, when we think of the part they had to play, we can understand more easily how it came to pass that the keynote of Austro-Hungarian history has always been essentially dramatic, and how this peculiar characteristic seems now to have become an inseparable element in the character of the people themselves. But Austria-Hungary is also the meeting-place of long-past ages and modern times. Side by side with all the scientific marvels of the present day, we meet at every step traces of the life of by-gone centuries. Time-worn cities, towns, and castles, picturesque costumes and curious national cus- toms, all combine to carry us back from the prose of the twentieth century to the romance and poetry of an earlier age. But it is not only the romantic beauty of the country, its troubled past, and the survival of modes of existence that have disappeared else- where, that render the life of the Austro-Hun- garian peoples exceptionally interesting. Not less striking than the contrasting physical features of their land is the strange assemblage of races that inhabit the Dual Monarchy. And here it will be well to remind the reader that the expression 4 Austro-Hungarian Life "Austro-Hungarian," though it is the only, name we can give to the dominions of the Emperor Francis Joseph, is apt to be somewhat misleading. The Germanic Austrians and the Hungarians, or Magyars, taken together, form less than half the total population. The majority of the Austro- Hungarian peoples, therefore, belong to races which are neither "Austrian" nor "Hungarian," properly so called. Most of them are of Slavonic origin; but they, too, are broken up into numer- ous races, more or less distinct from one another in language, religion, and habits of life. Czechs, Croatians and Servians, Ruthenes, Poles, Slo- vaks, and Austrian-Bulgarians are all Slavonic races, nearly akin to, and sometimes identical with, others who dwell beyond the frontiers of Austria-Hungary. Quite separate from all these are races more nearly allied to the Latin group, such as the Roumanians or Wallachians and Italians in part of the Austrian Tyrol and the Coast-lands. Nor are these all. There are, be- sides, over two million Jews, and considerable fragments of other races—Greeks, Turks, and Gipsies. The influences which in our own country converted the Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Celtic, and other races into the homogeneous English people are, and have almost always been, entirely want- ing in the Austro-Hungarian dominions. Among these numerous races local patriotism is a far stronger passion than that which unites them to Land and People the Empire as a whole. From the Middle Ages until the eighteenth century the strongest bond of union for most of the nationalities was the dread of absorption by their Asiatic foes. It is, indeed, but little more than two centuries since Vienna itself was besieged for the last time by the Turks. Grouped together upon the very threshold of the Eastern world, the full fury of the Mongol and subsequently of the Ottoman invasions burst first of all upon the hapless peoples who inhabited what is now the eastern half of the Austro-Hun- garian monarchy. We must bear this fact in mind, or we shall fail to grasp the real origin and the significance of many of the picturesque customs, the traditional modes of life, and the national and religious feelings which are so deeply rooted among the people. It was not love for their Teu- tonic neighbours that led the Magyar and Slav- onic races to place themselves under the protection of the German rulers of the Austrian dominions. The Austrian rule in those days seemed to them but a shade better than that of the Turks, and hatred both for their Moslem enemies and their Teutonic protectors intensified yet more strongly their devotion to their own respective national- ities, religions, and customs. The danger of absorption by Turkey has long passed away, but another has arisen in the grow- ing power of the Russian and German Empires— " " the heirs-presumptive to the Austrian domin- ions, should that strange agglomeration of states 6 Austro-Hungarian Life ever fall to pieces. The great popularity of the Emperor, due to the wise policy he has adopted, is unquestionably a powerful bond of union, but it in no way diminishes the mutual hostility and jealousy of these diverse races. Their local pa- triotism lies at the root even of their loyalty to their Sovereign. If Francis Joseph is beloved by his people, their loyal devotion is not felt for the " " Emperor," but for the Sovereign of the King- " dom," or Duchy," to which they belong. From yet another point of view the position of Austria-Hungary is altogether exceptional. In an Empire the inhabitants of which are not a nation, but a group of many different races, patriotically devoted to the interests of their own particular provinces, but profoundly jealous of one another, the ordinary difficulties of govern- ment are increased a hundredfold. In Austria- Hungary, however, they are rendered greater still by the fact that there is no race that so greatly outnumbers the others as to draw smaller nation- alities to itself by the force of natural attraction, or by so evidently occupying the foremost place in wealth and power as England, for example, does in its relations with Wales, Ireland, or even Scotland.