Botanists -- United States -- Correspondence; Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 -- Correspondence
In this region, as in the retired parts of Styria, through which I
passed to Vienna, you are charmed with the kind-hearted simplicity of
the people. If you meet them in walking, they always give you some word
of greeting, and commonly take off their hats and bow to you; yet there
seems to be nothing servile or cringing in it. You get a porter to carry
your baggage, who, instead of asking for more when you have given him
already more than he expected to receive, takes off his hat, makes you a
low bow, and thanks you most heartily, though without any palaver. So
with the servants, who never ask anything, and I suppose would not if
you were to forget them altogether; I doubt if they would ever remind
you; you give them about a third part of what an English servant would
expect, and you have them all most heartily wishing you bon voyage or
glückliche reise, according to the language they speak. In some places
they say the chambermaid kisses your hand, but this has not happened to
me yet. The women, when not rendered wholly masculine in appearance by
performing the labor of men, which is very common, are almost
universally good-looking, and in such vigorous health. I do not admire
their head-dress, which is ordinarily a black silk thing tied closely
around the head and tied in rather fantastic bows behind. The women of
Linz and all this part of the Danube wear, when in full dress, a cap of
tinsel or gold lace, shaped exactly like the Roman helmet, which fits
close to the top of the head. But fashions never leave this world; when
you ladies throw aside some mode, it is picked up and perpetuated in
some out-of-the-way part of the world. Thus, for example, all the young
fraus of Ischl wear balloon sleeves, after the most approved fashion
some three or four years ago. I assure you it looked quite natural to
see them again, even upon the buxom damsels of the Salzkammergut
(there’s a name for you).
It is now half past seven; and it is still raining most obstinately, so
ascending the Mönchsberg is not to be thought of; and I must make up my
mind to leave Salzburg without this view. My trunk is sent to the office
of the brief-post-eilwagen, all ready for starting at six o’clock in the
morning, and to-morrow evening at eleven I hope (D. V.) to be in Munich,
seventy-eight miles. I owe Bentham a letter, and have not written him or
any one else since I left Paris. I will take this convenient opportunity
and write forthwith.
MUNICH, 12th June.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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