Frederic Shoberl

“ Thus industry, ease and domestic enjoyments are more highly valued in Austria than elsewhere: there every thing is done rather out of duty than for fame; and no man looks for the reward of his actions in the empty popularity which merely flatters pride and vanity, without ever gratifying the heart.
A nation which has no other motive than a love of its duties must be essentially a generous and an upright nation. What nation displays, on the whole, more integrity and generosity than the Austrians? ”

“ Never is the chaste damsel of the Tyrol known to repent the acknowledgment of her secret sentiments to him to whom she has avowed them, nor the latter to take an improper advantage of this confession.
When once engaged by mutual vows, the young people have nothing more to do than to acquaint their parents with the object of their choice. It is seldom that the latter throw any impediment in the way of the happiness of their children. ”

“ Such are the services owed by the peasant, and happy would he be were he subject to no other claims. Unfortunately, however, the peasant of Hungary has scarcely any political rights, and is considered by the government much more than by the landlord, in the light of a slave. By an unlimited extension of the aristocratical privilege, the noble is free from every burden, and the whole is accumulated on the peasant. The noble pays no tribute, and goes freely through the country, subject to neither tolls nor duties ”

“ The Jews, as in the other countries of Europe, live insulated amidst the nation to which they belong; and continue to form a separate people, who never will mingle with any other race. Self is their ruling principle, and private interest their sole study. Without love to their sovereign, without concern for their country, they are indifferent to every thing excepting money, which is the god of their idolatry. Leading, wherever they are found, a wandering life, they consider themselves rather as travellers than as citizens, whose fortunes are dependent on the prosperity of their native land. ”

“ From the coronet of feathers which adorn the head of the bride, and reminds us of the natives of Guinea and Mexico, to the neat slipper of fish-skin which covers the foot, all is of native material and workmanship. The women spin, weave, dye, and make all their apparel and personal ornaments with peculiar neatness. They attend with truly commendable assiduity to the household concerns, while the men till the ground. Distinguished by purer morals, and therefore more highly respected, they consider it beneath them to mingle their blood with that of the other inhabitants of the frontiers ”

“ The Tyrolese girls, equally modest and affectionate, can, it is said, rarely find words to answer this flattering question, so that their mothers are almost always obliged to be the interpreters of their sentiments. The lover is then introduced by a young companion: he enters, bringing the fruits of his industry and constancy, which he deposits at the feet of his new mother, whose affection he solicits. The kiss of peace assures him of the kindness of the parents by whom he is adopted, and the first salute granted by his mistress bespeaks the ardour of her love. ”

“ Temperate in its climate, fertile from the nature of its soil, and happy in its institutions, it remains invariably in a monotonous state of well-being, which is prejudicial to the activity of the mind alone, not to the happiness of the citizens. The inhabitants of this peaceful and fertile country have but one wish, that is, to live to-morrow as they lived yesterday. This tranquillity which in Austria pervades all classes of society is surely preferable to that agitation and thirst of wealth which torment almost all ranks in other countries. ”

“ Without having visited Poland, and had ocular demonstration of the filth and abominable uncleanliness of the inhabitants, it seems difficult to believe the accounts which have been given of them. The floors of the houses of the lower classes consists of clay or earth always damp, and from which the heat of the stove draws up a perpetual vapour of the most offensive odour, which, as their windows are never opened, circulates continually. Both sexes sleep together like pigs on the straw or furs, upon the sides and tops of their ovens, without undressing themselves. ”

“ Agriculture is honoured in Austria, and the most illustrious of its princes, as well as the sovereign himself, are fully sensible of its importance to an empire possessing so fertile a soil.
The Austrian nation is perhaps the most upright and the most moral of any in Europe. There is not an Austrian, with the exception of the higher class of society, but feels that morality is the genuine source of domestic happiness and the guarantee of the peace of families. ”

“ A woman who had two children, the one about twenty years of age, the other much younger, had just quitted her cottage in the morning, when a wolf rushed upon her and tore her face dreadfully: then leaving the first object of its rage, the animal fixed upon the child, and in an instant lacerated its head and deprived it of both eyes. ”

“ The national songs of the Tyrolese likewise prove the violence of their passions. Always lively and gay, they frequently pass from low natural tones to the highest sharps. From the expressions of these songs, you may know that they belong to men wandering in vast solitudes, and whose strains, crossing deep valleys, excite the voices of the herdsmen on the opposite hills. It is to this wildness and irregularity that the national airs of the Tyrol owe the celebrity which they have acquired. What traveller, who has ever witnessed the sensations they produce, could hear them without emotion! ”

“ All the apparel worn by herself, her husband, and her children, is, with some trifling exceptions, her own work. She spins, dyes, and weaves the linen and woollen stuffs for this purpose, and makes them up into garments, besides washing and attending to her house and kitchen. The shoes alone, made of untanned hide, are the work of the man. Hard labour and early marriages cause the women to lose all the charms of youth much sooner than in many other countries. ”

“ In consequence of this love of order the Austrians are remarkably neat in their dress, so that you seldom see among them, as in other countries, wretches in rags by the side of elegance and luxury. There is not an Austrian peasant but possesses a decent suit of clothes, boots, and a furred great coat for winter. Enter their habitations and you will find the same neatness and cleanliness which are conspicuous in their habiliments. ”

“ Cultivating a fertile soil, and not having, like the Styrians and the Tyrolese, to struggle incessantly against an inclement climate, they are happy in their geographical position; and they are in general deserving of it by the excellence of their disposition. Harbouring none but the milder sentiments, they have more gentleness than energy, and more good nature than elevation. The Austrians are a simple and a hospitable nation; and the same observation applies to their nobles, who never assume the German or rather the Austrian pride, unless when they would enforce the prerogatives of birth. ”

“ There the bride would be deemed guilty of an act of unpardonable indecorum, if she were to appear in a white dress, or to give additional splendour to her apparel by pearls, jewels, or laces. Marriage, being considered in this country as the most important and solemn act of life, is celebrated with the utmost gravity. Every thing, therefore, that bears the resemblance of ostentation is avoided: the bride is attired in her usual black dress, to which is added a cloak of the same colour, reaching to the knees and not unlike that used in the rest of Europe at funerals. ”

“ Should, however, the lord or his agents have too strong a sense of justice to transgress the strictness of the law, still they can at any time call upon the peasants to serve for pay, and that not at the usual wages of a servant, but about one-third as much. Add to all this the services due to the government; the cases in which a peasant is obliged to be six weeks together from his home, with his horses and cart, carrying imperial stores to the frontier, and it will be evident how dearly he pays for the land which he holds as the only return for his labour. ”

“ The hunting of the chamois, which is indisputably the most arduous and difficult species of sport, since that animal frequents only the highest mountains, is what the Tyrolese takes most delight in. Lightly clad, having a large green hat to screen him from the sun, his gun slung at his back or in his hand, and equipped in the manner represented in the opposite plate, he traverses the deepest valleys and climbs the most rugged mountains. ”

“ The life of a peasant was held of no greater value than that of one of his horned cattle; and if his lord killed him he was merely fined a hundred Polish florins, or two pounds sixteen shillings of our money. If, on the contrary, a man of low birth presumed to raise his hand against a nobleman, death was the inevitable punishment. ”

“ One day perhaps a furious north or north-east wind brings snow, covers all the roads and freezes every limb: the next an equally tempestuous south-east, produces a thaw and suddenly inundates the country. ”

“ It is very rarely that a man is seen by himself disposing of his commodities. They have not failed to observe that the costume of their women excites the curiosity of strangers, and they judiciously avail themselves of it that they may find a better market for their merchandise. When they settle at Vienna, almost all of them adopt the trades of carpenter or mason.
A singular fact, and which serves to show the natural bent of this nation, is, that there is scarcely a Tyrolese peasant but has his library, however small. ”

“ The enjoyment of liberty and civil rights seems to have produced a strong effect on the physical constitution and physiognomy of the Hebrew race, and to have bestowed on them a dignity and energy of character, which we may look for in vain in the Jews of other countries. The men, clothed in long black robes reaching to their ankles, and sometimes adorned in front with silver agraffes, their heads covered with fur caps, their chesnut or auburn locks parted in front, and falling gracefully on their shoulders in spiral curls, display much manly beauty. ”

“ In considering a Hungarian property, says Dr. Bright, we must figure to ourselves a landed proprietor possessing ten, twenty or forty estates, distributed in different parts of the kingdom, reckoning his acres by hundreds of thousands, and the peasants upon his estates by numbers almost as great; we must remember that all this extent of land is cultivated, not by farmers, but by his own stewards and officers, who have not only to attend to the agricultural management of the land, but to direct to a certain extent the administration of justice among the people ”

“ Their hair, almost always of a light colour, falls in graceful locks over their shoulders. A certain air of dignity, which admirably becomes their masculine features, and their elegant costume, heighten the expression of their faces, and set off the beauty of their forms. ”

“ The same man whom we have seen pursuing with such ardour, the innocent pleasure of a rustic dance, listens to the truths of religion with such profound respect, that in the attitude of devotion you would not know him again, or be tempted to believe that he is animated alternately by two different spirits. But that you may be able to appreciate his sensibility, follow him when at the decline of day, he leads his family from his humble abode to the tombs of his forefathers. ”

“ When these stockings are not plaited, they load them with embroidery and all sorts of whimsical figures. With the women, the stockings, corset and girdle, are the articles in which finery is particularly studied, as the hat, the waistcoat, and the braces are with the men.
The manners of the women of the Tyrol are gentle and sedate. Equally chaste wives and tender mothers, they devote themselves entirely to their household affairs and to the care of their children. Constant in their sentiments, the man whom they once love is the object of their everlasting affection. ”

“ When once introduced into the cottage, the whole family throngs around him; the most delicious milk assuages his thirst, while a dish of smoked meat is prepared to appease the hunger excited by the keen air of the mountains. ”

“ No man can possess land who is not a noble of Hungary: but as all the family of a nobleman are also noble, it is calculated that one out of every twenty-one individuals in the nation is of this class. The lands descend either entire to the eldest son, or are equally divided among the sons, or in some cases among the children of both sexes: so that many of the nobles become by these divisions extremely poor, and are obliged to discharge all the duties of the meanest peasant. ”

“ It is not uncommon to see a widow wear mourning all her life for her husband, or a daughter for a mother. If this practice attests the excellence of their hearts, the mourning assumed by them on account of the misfortunes which befall their country equally proves the ardour of their patriotism. ”

“ The industry of the Tyrolese does not suffer them to be content with these migrations occasioned by the inclemency of the climate. They travel all over Germany with aromatic and medicinal plants, carpets, gloves, chamois-skins, steel trinkets, or wooden wares carved with the utmost delicacy. These commodities they carry chiefly to Vienna, being encouraged by the favourable reception given to them by the inhabitants, who are delighted with their frankness and good humour. The Tyrolese always speak what they think without reserve or disguise. ”

“ The greatest decorum prevails during the representation, the police-military, that is police-officers, in a particular kind of livery and wearing swords, being stationed in all the avenues. Thus a person going with a wish to hear the play is not disappointed by those brawls which scarcely ever fail to interrupt the performance in our English theatres; nor is there any part of the house to which a party of the most delicate females might not resort with the greatest propriety. ”

“ One day in every week is devoted to this sacred duty; when the emperor, with the first dawning of the morning, attends in a private apartment to receive petitions and complaints from the mouths of even the poorest of his subjects. He listens to them freely, and though he seldom judges finally at the moment, shows his sympathy and declares his feeling in their behalf.
The known frankness and intrepidity of the Tyrolese induced Austria to grant them great liberty. ”

“ In fact the grandees of Vienna, who are the most magnificent and wealthy in Europe, are so far from abusing the advantages they possess, that in the streets they suffer the meanest vehicles to stop their brilliant equipages. The emperor himself, and his brothers, when they go abroad drive quietly along in the file of hackney-coaches, and take delight to appear in their amusements as private individuals. ”

“ Rarely unarmed, they are scarcely ever seen without a gun slung at their shoulder and a goat-skin knapsack. At once a military and an agricultural people, the Tyrolese are always ready to relinquish the plough and the herdsman’s staff for the musket. To give a more masculine character to the countenance, they shade the lips with long and thick mustaches; and in some districts let part of the beard grow, which gives a degree of fierceness and wildness to their look. ”

“ In general the mortality is as one to fifteen annually, which is nearly three times as great as that of the British metropolis. Though this effect may be partly owing to the attachment to the pleasures of the table for which the people of Vienna are proverbial, yet, it must also be in part ascribed to the climate, which is extremely variable, frequently changing in the course of few hours from the extreme of heat to that of cold, and the air, unless ventilated daily by a breeze about two hours before noon is said to become pestilential. ”

“ The quantity of land appropriated to the peasant is enormous: still he labours unwillingly, and of course ineffectually, under the idea that he works from compulsion and not for pay. In order to do all the farming work upon a given estate by the peasants, nearly one-half of the land capable of cultivation is portioned out among the labourers; nay there are estates every acre of which is occupied by the peasants, the landlord receiving nothing but the tenths and other casual services, unless he has occasion to send them to labour on some other of his estates. ”

“ Being thus left to themselves, the ladies of Vienna can do no other than seek the company of the foreigners whom they find possessed of amiable manners and information. Flattered by their attentions, and tired of the society of men, which is generally monotonous enough in Austria, the stranger exerts himself still more to please. ”

“ The Hungarians, the Bohemians and the Tyrolese, people extremely jealous of their independence, do not consider themselves as being of the same nation as the Austrians, whom most of them in fact deem beneath them, because in general they possess greater vivacity and a more strongly marked character. There is no spirit of unity among them, though all are subject to the same sceptre.
The principal nations distributed over the spacious dominions of Austria are the Germans, the Slavonians, and the Magyares or Hungarians properly so called. ”