It is the middle class which is said to be suffering most under these conditions, for they have no money in the bank, they hardly manage to make any money at all at the present moment, and, at the same time, they don't want to admit that they are in need of anything. Vienna has, at the present moment, scores of families--well-dressed and well-connected--who are starving at home, families which, before the war, used to live up to their full income and generally above it, and which, now the father is unemployed or at the front, are absolutely penniless and too proud to accept anything from public charity. But the Viennese is certainly one of the most light-hearted persons on earth--the war is going badly, the town is full of starving people, the empire is engaged in a dangerous adventure, the end of which he does not take the trouble to prognosticate; but what does it matter? He talks about the war to crack a joke on the subject; he sees and laughs at the faults of his allies; he manages to have a good time as far as possible. The few theatres left open are crowded, as well as the cafés, the cabarets, and all other places of amusement. About politics, or the conduct of the war, he does not care to talk. The argument is sad and it is not even very safe to say exactly what one thinks on the subject. If anybody is heard talking pessimistically about the war he is denounced to the authorities. A case is made against him, and the imprudent chatterer is almost certain to be condemned. I know of a man who got two months' imprisonment for having said that he did not believe the newspapers. * * * Besides the hospitals fixed up in numerous picture-galleries, theatres, university buildings and private houses, the Prater's constructions given up to depôts, magazines, and aeroplane sheds, and the complicated system arranged for the collection of money and comforts for the troops, all of which have altered considerably the general appearance of the city, the thing which astonished me most was the activity of a society which bears the harmonious name of "K. u. K. Oesterreich-Ungarischer-National-Sprachen-Gebrauchs-Verein," the nearest translation of which I can think of is "Society for the exclusive use of the national language in the Austro-Hungarian Empire." Vienna is certainly one of the towns outside France which shows a strong French character, and the language, as well as the life of the whole city, bears evident marks of it. Well, this society wants to rid the Viennese slang of French words, as well as of all words not in the German dictionary. The first effects of this movement have been to make numerous hotels, cafés, and cabarets change names, and the publication of pamphlets, distributed freely all over the town, in which are full lists of the _taboo_ words, as well as of the numerous French and English Christian names which are quite usual in Vienna, and which, it is requested, should now be given up.