564
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
their highest relaxation in the " Höchster Henriger.” What mast he the morals of children habituated to such scenes ! Again, an unexpected fact attracts attention. You see no one drunk upon the floor. Nobody is wrangling with his companions. Uproarious hilarity pervades all the people present. As the clocks «trike twelve a policeman puts his head in and announces that the festivities of the evening are over. . Such extravagant hugging and kissing as then goes on is a sight to see; but each gets hold of his or her companion, and they wander off, all quite unsteady, but yet well able to proceed.
Such are some of the places where the Viennese obtain their liquors, and their customary ways of drinking.
Some Effects upon the People.
The constant and free use of beer and wine must have some influence upon the physical well-being of the Vienna people. You notice, as men and women sit drinking in the gardens in company, that their eyes become red and full of tears; the face flushes and often gets purple, and a certain stupidity or sleepiness comes over all. Often one is irresistibly inclined to sleep after two or three glasses. Everywhere throughout the city are evidences of this sleepiness. Hack- men drop off to sleep on their coaches, and commissaires are curled up on the door-steps of churches. Examining photographs of Vienna people there is easily recognized a universal thick look about the eyes, as if the brain was doing its work under a clog. Not that all cases display such strong effects.
Taking the mass of the people together, one seems safe in saying that the mental acumen and celerity of action among these beer-drinkers does not equal our own. Yet the beer satisfies a want of the system. The water is unfit to drink, and the cooking full of grease and onions. The pleasant bitter of the beer corrects this unpleasant feature of their food. Where the beer is made an article of food more than the means for the gratification of an appetite, it has scarcely any unfavorable effects. Many classes of the city do not taste of meat by the month together. To them a few cents worth of beer is a positive addition to their food.
It is well known that German women are often large and stout. Many influences conduce to bring about this result.