Honey dear: -
And we are sweeping down the Danube from Linz to Vienna with a boat full of folks going to the Sängerbund fest in Vienna. Every few minutes we hear a group of men sing a German song! You would be crazy about it. They sing so well. The river seems not so much wider than the Conn. but with a current like that in flood. I understand the river music so much better after hearing the river under my window all night. There is a noble sweep about it like nothing in my experience. It seems so much more powerful than the Rhine. Color, a pale grey brown, very muddy, as folks have said. We go at a swift pace, part of the time without engines - motion like coasting - like shooting Woods Hole in a little boat. You feel the current, and the boat is so quiet you hear the birds sing on shore. Oh, we're glad we're here!
The weather has been frightfully hot since Dresden - hot for the U.S.A. But we both survived very well. My last letter took us part way through Praha, didn't it? I put on all the stamps I could - but we didn't see a ghost of a stamp shop! I'll put in this either Danube postcards or stamps! - We're about to make a landing and I'm on the crowded side. It's no joke making landings in this current. No - no landing, but everybody shouts at us for we are all dressed up with flags. The men have a special cheer, too.
Sunday was a great day. Mrs. Purkinje took us to mass at big church in her family square, not renamed. The family is an important one - with a physiologist (died 1872) who named various nerve cells. He insisted on writing in Czech at a time when medical education was in Latin, perhaps some German. Latin was used in Bohemia until 1905 as a vehicle for med. thought, perhaps for other, too. How much this was due to Czech aversion to the language of their Austrian rulers I don't know, but anyhow, 'twas so. This great-grandfather was a patriot and out-of-favor with the rulers. He could not stay in Prague, but was invited to many European universities, being a great man - Odessa, Kief, St. Petersburg, several German ones, England, Amsterdam, Paris. His wife spent too much money and held back his work. This Mrs. P- plans not to do so - "My husband is really intelligent" - She is a dear. There is an aunt Purkinje now in Parliament and a powerful woman. She, single handed at first, got the country to match a Rockefeller gift for a big Hygiene Institute now being erected. The country is so poor, it was a great achievement, but hygiene is needed. The young husband is still in America as a Rock. fellow, but will be head of a division of the Inst. on his return, water engineering, I believe.
In the afternoon we went to a most unusual performance of the thing we wanted most to hear, Smetana's Bartered Bride, given as a 10th anniversary performance of the Republic, at an out-of-door theatre in the suburbs, with a cast mostly of guest artists! Now wasn't it remarkable that it was given that day? We sat in the front row, with Mrs. P- telling us the story all along. We didn't miss anything. I hope the snaps come out well - we get them done in Vienna, we expect. The theatre was a natural depression in a grove of big birch trees, giving gentle shade. The stage looked like a square in a real little village. The orchestra was in a pit behind the rail which was in front of our row - in shirt sleeves, as were half the audience. 'Twas a 90°+ day but not bad in this grove. The costumes were peasant and so gay! Just like what we saw in the museums. We drank beer between the acts - oh 'twas all so interesting, and I've seldom heard a better opera performance, so full of spirit, and no poor parts. The heroine was lovely, looked like Ruth Douglas [sic], but didn't sing off pitch. Mrs. Purkinje got so excited she shouted "Brava, Marenka!" quite un-American.
Monday we transacted our travel business and shoped! I hope you'll like my Prague etching, by the celebrated Simon (=Sheemon). I couldn't ever have bought it in the U.S.A. - but everything except taxis seemed very cheap in Prague. The Krone = 3.2 cents and even 30 kr is only a dollar. I only wished there were more kinds of things I wanted to buy. And what do you suppose Mrs. P- gave us? And we'd rather have them than anything Czech, too - 4 eggs apiece[.] And we hope they'll get to the U.S.A. safely. They have such lovely patterns on them. But the idea of taking egg shells from Praha to South Hadley has an element of absurdity!
We've now been on the Danube some five hours and the current still sweeps! At times it has been like rapids. The mountains seem to me higher than the Rhine ones, the castles not as many or as "picture-castly" in the main though some are fine. But the whole thing is more varied and interesting - river traffic fighting upstream with heavy bargest, flocks of canoes with ruddy bathers in them dashing out to get over wake, flags and cheering everywhere and the addition of several more singing bands to our ship. Of late we have had terraces with grapes. And all along the engine slows while we take the curves. It is like steering an auto in a Cape Breton twisting road. We fold down the smoke stack for the ferry cables - bridges are very few, perhaps four thus far. 'Tis a gala trip.
One thing on Monday I must not forget. Margaret Porter took us to her pleasant apartment where her landlord who was in America long enough to make some money took us through his glass collection - all Bohemian except a few pieces. "All handwork. And see the bottom, carved where it doesn't show. He was honest, ain't it?" He stuck in "ain't it" with great frequency & absurdity and his accent came from the Bowery, I think. But all the same he had glass which made Mrs. P- ask to bring her husband, and she knows old Prague! To me 'twas wonderful - such ruby color - and the cutting of one layer off to give white figures. Cabinets of blue, red, pink, green, and milky styles and some Bohemian china vases &c &c. 'Twas a big room, and in the rest of the house were many other cabinets somewhat less choice. The man was so fond of it - but not a scholar. He didn't know the history of a piece, though all were "antics", i.e. more than 80 yrs. old. He selected by color, form and excellence of workmanship. And they were lovely. I had thought of buying a bit - but his spoiled everything I saw. We didn't look much. Alice has a doll - for her niece - the beads looked just like those we buy in Boston - cheaper, but not enough to pay for carrying home.
Oh - I bought you a garnet pin in Dresden the last minute I was there - went back to a store where I saw them first. The glass-man has a collection of garnets, but put away for the summer. So far I've bought very little of anything. And I grieve to hear Vienna is expensive.
We've just passed a castle which seems to me finer than any Rhine one - on such perilous heights and with an interesting town at the base, Dürustein. It has been a historic river all right.
We came from Praha to Linz yesterday through such fair country, grain fields, and always big patches of poppies, mostly the big, pale, single ones, for poppy seeds for the rolls! The layer is thick! We eat them day by day with glee. Alice has some to take home. Linz is delightful in location, with much Tyrolese in costume & scenery, capes, hats, feathers & all that. A native sat with us on the train, a stylish young thing who adored using her English and who gave us much help about both Linz and Vienna. She told us what hotel to stay at in Linz and 'twas charming, windows with balconies over the "Donau," and good food - also English ad lib. We were very cheerful, also, because of a good hair-wash, and thus time saved in Vienna. The water is all frightfully hard! Then we went up on Pöstlingberg, a height near the tower, perhaps 600-800 feet up, with an old white church with two pointed spires against the sky. A heavenly view, though a thudershower obscured it somewhat. The snow mts. were advertised but naturally failed to appear. However, the cloud effects were great - and we saw one fire from lightning. It rained, but we sat on, and ate in a leisurely way on the covered terrace. We sat with an elderly woman and her mature son. She was staying at the hotel quite a while - had a black pin in her napkin to tell it from her son's. And he took us to the car with an umbrella! The world is a kind place.
We're now on a broad, smooth, flowing river with low banks, and only one huge castle on the last range of hills in the background. I suspect the real excitement is over, and now [that] the "conductor" has sent to the back the folks who didn't belong front, the place is less crowded. We got a nice little state-room which has been most convenient for parking our things. I'll go down now and eat cherries and gooseberries.
Things to eat - fruit soup, cold, in Germany, good & poor. Lots of veal everywhere. Czech cooking better than German. None as good as the Danes. Coffee ice-cream in Praha. Alice specializes in markets, and they are fun. This morning in Linz we bought a little bouquet of for-get-me-nots with tiny spruce twigs for green around them. We had lovely pinks and mignonette in Praha from the market in front of the hotel. The meat market next [to] the hotel was a fine one - the hotel built to cooperate, 'tis said.
We'll soon be in Vienna and I'll send this on - and also hope to hear from you. Very little mail reached us in Praha, though enough to make us think the Am. Exp. in Berlin was O.K. We have lodgings through Munich, a pension there highly recommended by those nice Mulhollands in Copenhagen.
Oh - Dorothy Corcoran and 3 others are on this boat - the first time we've met anyone unexpectedly. Several Americans in Praha, good & poor. One awful Am. Jew gang in Linz, but they took the earlier boat, thanks be.
I see another hill - Good-bye - it might have a castle on it.
Much, much love - and I'd like to see you -
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See Mozart card
Aug. 4 Dear Jessee :- This is the little village where we are instead of at Cortina. Couldn't get in there. This is up in a valley leading to the moutains where you see the glaciers, 11,000 feet high. There are beautiful mountains and innumerable lovely paths on them, all about. We're at a nice English pension and are very comfortable. The church is white, its steeple red - the one across the river is green. Tonight the clustered electric lights in the little towns are most delightful to see. Tomorrow we expect a lot of costumes to appear at church. Lots of love - Abby | |
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Jessee, dear - We got in for one performance of the Wagner-Mozart celebration in Munich. Miss Smith will probably send you the letter that tells about it. 'Twas exciting and funny and very grand, that episode! If she doesn't send that letter I'll tell you about it. There were many Mozart things prepared at Salzburg for the festival there. The house in Vienna where he wrote "Magic Flute" has been moved to a garden in Salzburg and there is also a Mozart Museum as well as two houses, one where he lived, one where he was born. The organ he played on in the cathedral we heard - a grand one, too. |