Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921Graham, Stephen
History
Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921
Graham, Stephen
Europe -- Description and travel
Budapest is a handsome city with grand bridges spanning the bending
Danube. The fashionable part climbs upwards on crags to the higher
light, and the Danube flashes upward. The modern city is a first-class
aggregation of business houses, cafes, and places of pleasure. There
is pavement comfort. The people are well dressed, despite losses and
troubles. The smooth pates of business men abound, and the knobbly
skulls of the Balkans are fewer. The women are in fashion, and as in
the rest of Central and Western Europe, wear bunches of artificial
grapes hanging from one side of their hats. You see no grapes and
hanging ribbons in Belgrade and Sofia. They will come there next year
or in 1923. The Hungarian women are broad-faced and broad-bosomed, and
talk more than they smile. City madam in elegant attire with
languorous half-shut eyes and Hungarian drawl is a man's darling.
Flesh-coloured stockings greatly abound. One is, however, strongly
advised not to judge of Hungary by the people who spend four or five
hours of the day sitting in the cafes of Budapest. The poor parts of
the city present a different spectacle. Here there are great numbers
of crooked-legged spindly children, war-products evidently. The slums
are nothing like so bad as those of London or Chicago--only the
children are less boisterous, less vital, and seem to have been
underfed all their lives. The new babies look much better than the
children of four or five. Food is more abundant now, and a great deal
of relief work is done at the schools. But it is doubtful if any
philanthropic efforts can restore the war-children. Budapest has a bad
streak left in her town-population by the war, and it is visible.
Cotton goods are very expensive, and many of the poor children seem
inadequately dressed. The price of cotton is dependent upon much
speculation and bad business between the American cotton plantation and
the obscure worker in Hungary. It is a curious anomaly that Americans
should burn cotton-bales in the Southern States to keep up the price,
and that the American Red Cross on the other hand should in Europe
distribute free garments to those who cannot pay the world-price thus
attained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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