For three or four days these “revelations” served as topics of conversation--for three or four days the starving, desperate, jobless people stopped before the posters and shook their fists. Then they began to shrug their shoulders and to call the whole business nonsense. For the simple reason that even the most stupid of them could see that Austria was absolutely powerless against such a “plot” of international Jewry. In the old days they could have marched from a _Hakenkreuzler_ meeting to Leopoldstadt, drunk with enthusiasm, and secretly hoping to plunder and burglarize a little on the way, to thrash a few Jews and break some windows. But now, when there were no more Jews in Leopoldstadt, such a demonstration would have been entirely senseless, and the formerly so tolerant and kindly police now would surely have cut down the looting demonstrants without much ado. Thus it happened that one day the principal organ of the _Hakenkreuzler_ made the melancholy and yet defiant announcement that it would suspend publication; incidentally, it revealed the heart-rending fact that at the last great assembly of the _Hakenkreuzler_ there had gathered only twenty persons in addition to the officers and the waiters. Dr. Schwertfeger had been right: Political opposition was becoming less vivid, was disappearing almost completely. But for an entirely different reason than he had believed. It was because of a total lack of motive power, and because the Jews had taken with them all the dash and spirit of politics. CHAPTER X. CHEAP SUMMER-RESORTS On a glorious June day Leo Strakosch, _alias_ Dufresne, went to the City Park, to gather further impressions of the new Vienna. As a rule he seldom left the Nineteenth District, where he was always either working in his studio or taking long walks in the Wienerwald with Lotte. Now, strolling about among the crowded tables of the inn, he felt so amused that he laughed aloud. “For heaven’s sake--what has become of my beautiful, elegant Vienna!” There seemed to be a general craze for Alpine costume and tourist dress; as far as he could see there were men, old and young, in rough wool coats, knickerbockers, and green Alpine hats. And the women! Most of them wore peasant costume, which, while it might have been very charming and graceful in the open country, here looked like a caricature or a bad joke. People had become very unassuming; besides, now they were all one big family, and there were no strangers around for whom it might be necessary to “dress up.” Occasionally one did see elegantly dressed men and women; but they were so few as to be conspicuous, and sneering remarks about them issued from the Alpine tables. Strakosch felt highly uncomfortable whenever he noticed a “peasant girl” staring at him through her lorgnette--probably only because his dark blue suit, patent leather shoes, and costly silk tie attracted attention.