BATHS OF TÖPLITZ, BOHEMIA, _Aug. 21, 1858_.
From the baths of Baden, in Austria, I came to the old capital,
Vienna, which I found dull as usual at this season of the year, as
all who can get into the country make their escape. A grand work
of improvement is in progress here. The old Bastei, or walls which
fortified and surrounded the city, are being torn away and levelled.
The concentration of business and residences in the city had increased
the average occupancy of houses to seventy persons each, or double the
number of any city in Europe, and the want of room for extension had
caused the building up of some twenty-five suburbs, towns and villages.
The admission of light and air will lessen the mortality, which was
in greater proportion to the population than in other well-regulated
cities.
We came from Vienna to Prague in one day, by rail. Having visited this
city repeatedly, and, I think, described the same, I will not hazard a
repetition.
Four hours by rail brought me to this celebrated watering-place, which
has been used for the last thousand years. The distance now traversed
by the locomotive within a day, cost me more than five days’ travel, by
the posts of the country, before these conveyances were introduced.
I found Töplitz much changed since my last visit, years ago. The
railroad now connects it with Dresden, the Saxon capital, within
a few hours. The town has about six thousand inhabitants, and the
number of guests throughout the season equals that amount. Besides
numerous hotels, almost every private house furnishes lodgings, and
has a particular name, which one would suppose would exhaust the whole
vocabulary of words. There are some eighty bathing establishments of
all kinds, capable of accommodating four thousand four hundred persons
daily with warm baths.
The many romantic walks and drives, the park grounds of the chateau
of Prince Clary, to whom the buildings, bath, and spacious garden
where I have taken up my abode belong, all afford an infinite variety
for the stranger. The majority of the visitors, however, being here
ostensibly for health, there is less life and animation than at the
watering-places on the Rhine. The character of the guests is less
varied. Russians, Germans, and Poles predominate. Only a few French,
Italians, English, or Americans are here this season. Indeed the baths
generally are less frequented since the late crisis, and the complaint
is general in cities as well as places of summer resort, of the falling
off of travel.
In the Austrian dominions gaming is not allowed, which pays all the
expenses of the great bathing establishments in the little German
Duchies, and attracts a different class of society. Here a tax is
levied upon every visitor, called Kur-und Musik Taxe, which I hold
the receipt for in Baden and here, and as I design visiting Karlsbad
and Marienbad, I shall not be forgotten by the collector or by
the Barmherzige Brüder, who presents himself as soon as one gets
comfortably quartered in his hotel, for a subscription for the infirm
poor of all nations, who are received and treated gratis.
We rise at six A.M.; drink of the mineral waters agreeably to
medical advice; walk until eight; partake of coffee, milk, and plain
bread, without the accompaniment of fresh butter; bathe at ten; repose,
without sleeping, in warm clothing, and avoid stimulants, fruits,
acids, and fat or greasy food, as long as under treatment.
This place is indebted to Frederick William III., king of Prussia,
who visited it annually for nearly a quarter of a century, thereby
prolonging his life, and expended yearly about the same sum our
President receives for his full term. Consequently the citizens, as
well they could, have erected a monument upon what is called King’s
Hill, to the memory of their lamented guest.
There is, as usual, a theatre, concert rooms, a shooting house for
target exercise, coffee saloons, and music in the open air, all
calculated to sustain the drooping spirits of sufferers. I find more
persons in little wagons, and chairs upon wheels, drawn or pushed
about by servants, than at other baths. I have met with many paralytic
cases, but the waters are used for such a variety of diseases, that
it would be difficult to enumerate them. Many finish the cure here,
after making use of other springs in the early part of the season. It
is interesting to hear the counting up of so many more baths, and so
much more water to be drunk, before they can escape the exactions of
the physicians, and can set their faces towards home, or upon intended
travels.
For now nearly a month the friends of monarchy have been expecting the
birth of a prince or princess to the crown of Austria. If the former,
one hundred and one guns would announce the happy event; but if the
latter, the news will fall upon them like a cold shower bath, as I
observed two years since in Milan, where the authorities had the great
cathedral decorations prepared for the occasion; when the tidings came
of another female heir, twenty-one guns only hailed the news, and the
celebration was a failure. Amid the expectations of the interested, I
notice in the public journal that the empress’s health continues good.
I also translate literally an article of court news from the same
journal, as follows:
“_The Little Wagon of Princess Gisella._--In Laxenburg the little
Princess rides often in a little wagon, to which is attached a little
donkey. The governess rides upon a similar animal by her side. The
sight is extremely delightful, and excites the most intense interest
among the park visitors.” Comment is unnecessary.
The birthday of the emperor has just been celebrated by the firing of
cannon, ringing of bells, high mass in the church, and music by the
band, all of which it is incumbent upon the officials and employees
to perform. In order to be conversant with the affair, I attended the
dinner given in commemoration, but it struck me that it went off with
little enthusiasm, and without that spontaneous effusion of patriotism
so marked on public occasions in our country.
Since my last visit, two years since, I find the currency somewhat
better. The shinplasters for ten kreutzers, or eight cents, are
supplanted by an alloy, and the national bank, on the 13th of October,
will make an effort to resume specie payments. It has three hundred
and eighty millions of paper guilders afloat, equal to one hundred and
ninety millions of dollars. The government of Austria has a debt of
two billions of guilders, or one billion dollars, and it is every year
increasing the debt. The interest is equal to fifty millions of dollars
yearly. What would we think in our country of such a load upon its
shoulders? The resources of the country, it is true, are great; but the
whole territory does not equal in superficial area the state of Texas.
Every source of income is squeezed and pressed out, while the farm
laborer obtains only twenty-four kreutzers, or twenty cents per day,
not enough to keep body and soul together.