CHAPTER I.
LOTTE SPINEDER TO LEO STRAKOSCH, 22 RUE FOCH, PARIS
“Just a year has passed, darling, since I stood in the West Station waving good-bye to you with my tear-soaked handkerchief. And the first Christmas that I have had to spend without you as your betrothed is over. It was very sad again, and Papa, quite worried, said that I would be sick and wretched if I continued giving way to my grief so much. I’m always very pale these days, sleep poorly, suffer much from headaches, and tire so easily. Our family physician thinks it’s anæmia, and prescribed Guber water for me, but I know that it’s only my longing for you that makes me weak and ill.
“I can’t tell you how happy I was over your wonderful album, which came in just on Christmas Eve. As anyone can see from these marvellous etchings, you’re a great artist now; Papa, who understands these things so well, says that you already are one of the great masters, and railed against our government, which drives such men out of the country instead of honoring them. Of course your letter, in which you tell of your great success, made me very happy, and Papa calculated that the thirty thousand francs which you got for this album amount to hundreds of millions of Austrian kronen. For the krone has again fallen very low. But when I read that you attend so many social functions, and can hardly manage your innumerable invitations to the best houses, my heart missed a beat. Won’t you forget your poor little Lotte, surrounded as you are by beautiful Parisian girls? Oh, what will become of us, Leo? When will I be able to put my head on your shoulder again? You know, Leo, the other day a big aeroplane flew westward over the Kahlenberg, and then I thought that if I only could I’d fly straight to Paris to you, whether my parents would consent or no. I’ll tell you--if I knew how to get a passport without anyone’s finding out about it, I’d let you send me the money, and would run away to you. I know that would hurt Papa and Mama terribly, but my longing for you is so great that I’ve become very wicked and cruel.
“You ask me to outline for you the state of affairs since the Jews are gone, as the colorless and boring Viennese papers don’t give you a real picture of conditions here. Well, I’ll try to tell you everything I see myself or hear from others; but you mustn’t laugh at me if it sounds silly.
“I suppose you read in the papers all about the great rejoicing and the many parades on last New Year’s Eve, after all the Jews had left Vienna and Austria. Well, this mood continued throughout January, everybody was cheerful, there was celebration after celebration, and again and again the people paraded before the City Hall or the Chancellor’s palace, to pay homage to Mayor Laberl or Dr. Schwertfeger. I noticed myself that the people in the tramway were much more pleasant and courteous than before, and Hofrat Tumpel, who comes to see us--you know, the one with the blond beard, whom you never liked--said triumphantly:
“‘You see, the sunny Viennese temperament, which was so long overshadowed by all the foreign elements, is coming to the fore again.’
“‘Fiddlesticks,’ growled Papa. ‘That’s only because the whole thing is a big picnic for the Viennese, and because victuals are cheaper and it’s possible to get apartments again.’ But Tumpel retorted: ‘Oh, no, my friend, that’s not all--the Indo-Germanic naíveté of our people is venturing out in the open again!’
“Food really had become much cheaper, for at that time our krone was very high. I remember Mama coming home very happily one day last winter, and telling us that it was possible to live again, as a pound of lard cost only about twenty thousand kronen. And the apartments brought much joy to the Viennese. Just imagine, suddenly almost every house displayed a sign offering apartments or furnished rooms for rent. People used to go from house to house looking at apartments merely to pass the time. And moving vans were rolling through the streets all day long.
“This lasted till Lent, but then the high spirits subsided. Suddenly there was much unemployment. The clothing industry was at a standstill--we’d hear of a new failure every minute. The papers said that the honest Christian merchants who had taken over the old Jewish concerns but were unable to cope with their task, should be subsidized by the state. But the unemployed raised a rumpus, paraded on the Ring, demolished a couple of stores, broke windows, and finally forced the state to pay them ten thousand kronen a day for the support of their families. Then the krone began to fall, for, as Papa explained, there was a tremendous increase in the circulation of bank-notes. Say what they would, the krone soon was lower than ever, and victuals became as expensive as before, if not more so. Today Mama told me, with much agitation, that butter has gone up to a hundred and fifty kronen. Since spring people have been sulky again, and there is much grumbling on the tram. Especially about the profiteers, who are pushing up all the prices--only, they don’t talk about Jewish profiteers, but in general.
“You want to know whether I go to the theatre often? Oh, no, dear Leo! Except for the opera there’s nothing whatever going on in the theatre. All the houses are continually playing Ganghofer and Anzengruber, for they’re not allowed to produce anything written by a Jew, and the classics don’t draw the crowds. For a while they played a good deal of Shaw; but since he declared in an English paper that Vienna has become an international exhibition of asininity, he is taboo. Especially because he also said that he prefers one intelligent Jew to ten stupid Christians. The musical comedy houses are all high and dry. (Do you remember how I laughed when I first heard you use that expression?) It developed, you see, that all of our musical comedies, old and new, were either written or composed by Jews, if not both. Besides, they are short of singers, as practically all the tenors had to emigrate. Of course a few one hundred per cent Aryan musical comedies were quickly manufactured, but the audience hissed them, for they were fearful trash. Hofrat Tumpel declared that it was because Christian art is suited only for serious things, not for such frivolous stuff. Whereupon Papa smiled and said that people would soon realize how well the Jews and Christians complemented each other in Austria.
“When I was in the Graben at noon the other day it struck me that one does not see nearly as many well-dressed men and women this year as formerly. People simply don’t indulge in fashions any more. I must admit, however, that I don’t at all miss the repulsive faces of the Jewish profiteers, which used to make you so angry, too. Their place is taken by a great many young fops who look like peasants and wear impossible clothes, and who infest the Drive with their enormous watch-chains and fat diamond-ringed fingers. Altogether it seems to me that nowadays all our transient visitors are peasants. Recently the owner of the Hotel Imperial complained in one of the papers that the guests he has these days go to bed without removing their hobnailed shoes, and wash their woolen underwear in the bathtubs. If you’d walk through the Kärtnerstrasse you’d be amazed at the lack of elegance in the stores today!--Now I must close, for it’s one o’clock in the morning, and I have nothing more of importance to say besides. Good-bye, my beloved, and invent some way of bringing us together soon--for otherwise I can’t live any more. Thousands and thousands of kisses from your disconsolate LOTTE.”