As horses and motor fuel became scarce the street traction systems were
given over part of each day to transporting merchandise.]
Men and women of means came to the rescue of that class in the very nick
of time. But a great deal of tact had to be used before these war
sufferers could be induced to accept help. It was not even easy to
succor them privately, as Mrs. Frederick C. Penfield, wife of the
American ambassador at Vienna, had occasion enough to learn. To
alleviate their condition en masse, as would have to be done if the
means available were to be given their greatest value, was almost
impossible. Shabby gentility is nine-tenths false pride, and nothing is
so hard to get rid of as the things that are false.
But there were those who understand the class. Among them I must name
Frau Doctor Schwarzwald, of Vienna, whose co-operative dining-room was a
great success, so long as she could get the necessary victuals,
something that was not always easy.
I had taken a mild interest in the charities and institutions of Frau
Schwarzwald, and once came _near_ getting a barrel of flour and a
hundred pounds of sugar for the co-operative dining-room and its frayed
patrons. I announced the fact prematurely at a gathering of the patron
angels of the dining-room, among whom was Frau Cary-Michaelis, the
Danish novelist and poetess. Before I knew what was going on the
enthusiastic patron angels had each kissed me--on the cheek, of course.
Then they danced for joy, and next day I was forced to announce that,
after all, there would be no flour and no sugar. The owner of the
goods--not a food shark, but an American diplomatist--had disposed of
them to another American diplomatist. I thought it best to do penance
for this. So I visited a friend of mine and held him up for one thousand
crowns for the co-operative dining-room. That saved me. I was very
careful thereafter not to make rash promises. After all, I was sure of
the flour and sugar, and so happy over my capture that I had a hard time
keeping to myself the glad news as long as I did, which was one whole
day. In that dining-room ate a good percentage of Vienna's true
intellectuals--painters, sculptors, architects, poets, and writers all
unable just then to earn a living.
I was not always so unsuccessful, however. For another circle of
down-at-the-heels I smuggled out of the food zone of the Ninth German
Army in Roumania the smoked half of a pig, fifty pounds of real wheat
flour, and thirty pounds of lard. Falkenhayn might command that army at
the front, but for several days I was its only hero, nevertheless. But
in food matters I had proved a good _buscalero_ before.
The food craze was on. Women who never before in their lives had talked
of food now spoke of that instead of fashions. The gossip of the _salon_
was abandoned in favor of the dining-room scandals. So-and-so had eaten
meat on a meatless day, and this or that person was having wheat bread
and rolls baked by the cook. The interesting part of it was that usually
the very people who found fault with such trespass did the same thing,
but were careful enough not to have guests on that day.
In the same winter I was to see at Budapest an incident that fitted well
into the times.
I was one of the few non-Magyars who attended the coronation dinner of
King Charles and Queen Zita.
The lord chief steward brought in a huge fish on a golden platter and
set it down before the royal couple. The King and Queen bowed to the
gorgeously attired functionary, who thereupon withdrew, taking the fish
with him.
We all got the smell of it. I had eaten breakfast at four in the
morning. Now it was two in the afternoon and a morsel of something would
have been very much in order. Since seven I had been in the coronation
church. It was none too well heated and I remember how the cold went
through my dress shirt. But the fish disappeared--to be given to the
poor, as King Stefan had ordained in the year A.D. 1001.
In a few minutes the lord chief steward--I think that is the man's
title--reappeared. This time he carried before him a huge roast.
(Business as before.) For a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time the
high functionary paraded enticing victuals through the hall without
coming down to business. It was a lonesome affair, that dinner, and
everybody was glad when the King had taken a sip of wine and the cries
of, "_Eljen a kiralyi_," put a period to that phase of the coronation.
How well that ceremony fitted into the times!
King Charles wanted to be impartial, and a few days later he inspected
the dining-car attached to the train that was to take his brother
Maximilian to Constantinople. In the kitchen of the car he found some
rolls and some wheat flour. He had them removed.
"I know, Max, that you didn't order these things," he said to his
brother. "The dining-car management has not yet come to understand that
no favors must be shown anybody. If the steward of the car should by any
chance buy flour in Bulgaria or Turkey, do me the favor to pitch him out
of the window when the car is running, so that he will fall real hard.
That is the only way in which we can make a dent into special eating
privileges."
By the way, there was a time when the present Emperor-King of
Austria-Hungary and his Empress-Queen had to live on a sort of sandwich
income, and were glad when the monthly allowance from the archducal
exchequer was increased a little when the present crown-prince was born.
But that is another story.