We keep it and they
spend it.
I am given to understand that Vienna night life is the most alluring,
the most abandoned, the most wicked and the wildest of all night
life. Probably this is so--certainly it is the most cloistered
and the most inaccessible. The Viennese does not deliberately
exploit his night life to prove to all the world that he is a gay
dog and will not go home until morning though it kill him--as the
German does. Neither does he maintain it for the sake of the coin
to be extracted from the pockets of the tourist, as do the Parisians.
With him his night life is a thing he has created and which he
supports for his own enjoyment.
And so it goes on--not out in the open; not press-agented; not
advertised; but behind closed doors. He does not care for the
stranger's presence, nor does he suffer it either--unless the
stranger is properly vouched for. The best theaters in Vienna are
small, exclusive affairs, privately supported, and with seating
capacity for a few chosen patrons. Once he has quit the public
cafe with its fine music and its bad waiters the uninitiated
traveler has a pretty lonesome time of it in Vienna. Until all
hours he may roam the principal streets seeking that fillip of
wickedness which will give zest to life and provide him with
something to brag about when he gets back among the home folks
again.
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