A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France. William Duthie
vaulted chamber half under ground, very ill lighted, and provided only with a few rude tables and benches. We called for beer, being weary and thirsty, (the Praguer beer is especially good) and requested a private room for our party. The hostess, a fat, vulgar woman, being called by the astonished servant maid, sneered at our presumption, and said we must content ourselves with common tramps’ lodging. We submitted; but the Viennese, who had a visit of some importance to pay in the city, and wished to remove some of the stains of travel, and make himself generally presentable, having requested some simple means of making his toilet, was, after considerable delay, presented with water in a pint mug, and a soiled neckcloth as a towel. This was too much for the Austrian’s proud stomach; a storm of abuse in the richest Viennese dialect was poured forth upon the landlady, her maid, and the whole establishment, which being liberally responded to, there resulted an uproar of foul language, such as was seldom heard, even in those regions. The hostess threatened us with the vengeance of the police, should we attempt to leave our authorised herberge, to which we replied by tossing the beer into the kennel, buckling on our knapsacks, and stalking into the street. We soon found a decent hotel, with the accommodation of a large room containing five beds, and at so reasonable a price that my whole expenses of entertainment during the two days and three nights of our stay in Prague, amounted only to one florin and forty kreutzers (schein), or one shilling and sixpence. We heard no more of our Bohemian herberge and its landlady. I may mention as a further proof of the different treatment which awaits the holder of the workman’s wander-book, as compared with the bearer of a passport, that on attending at the police office, Alcibiade and myself were at once called into the bureau, and our duly viséd passports handed to us with great politeness, while our companions were left to cool their heels in a stone paved hall, till the officials could find time to attend to them. We soon left Prague, and were assisted on our journey towards Brünn by a lift in a country cart, which brought us fifty English miles forward on our road. We did not sleep in a bed during four consecutive nights; not, indeed, till we reached the village of Goldentraum, on the Moravian frontier. This was not the result of any wish of our own, but from an apparent deficiency of beds in that part of the country. On one occasion a heap of hay was delicately covered with a clean white cloth, lest the stubbly ends should trouble our slumbers—a woman’s attention you may be sure—while on another, we slept on the bare boards, with no other pillows than our knapsacks, in a room, the air of which was at fever heat from recent bread-baking, and where the fierce flies made circular sweeps at our ears, and droned about our nostrils. But we did sleep in spite of that, for we had tramped more than thirty miles during the day.
From Goldentraum there were still twenty English miles to Brünn, the capital of Moravia, and thence thirty-eight German stunden, or about eighty English miles, to Vienna. My funds were now reduced to about four shillings, and we had still one hundred miles before us. One of our Lübecker silversmiths, who had been ailing throughout the whole journey, was unable to proceed further on foot, and we left him at Goldenstraun to take a place in the eilwagen later in the day. We had, however, scarcely made half our journey, when Alcibiade and the Viennese also gave in—their feet were fearfully blistered—and seated themselves by the road-side to await the expected conveyance. The remaining Lübecker, whom we had called Hannibal, and myself tramped on to Brünn. On the morrow we traced out our three friends, but found them still so lame that they were resolved to take the railway to Vienna at an expense of three guldens (müntz), about six shillings each. As my own resources were reduced to less than half that sum, and those of Hannibal were in much the same condition, there remained to us two only a choice of evils: either to borrow the requisite amount, or to tramp the remaining distance on our diminished finances. We chose the latter course. We walked the eighty miles between Brünn and Vienna in two days and a half, subsisting chiefly on bread and fruit—pears and plums, which were very plentiful—and long pulls at the pumps. We were once induced to indulge in a half seidle (pint) of wine, which was offered at a temptingly low price, but found it of such a muddy and sour quality, that we bitterly repented of our bargain.
When within a few miles of Vienna, having been on the march since five in the morning, we laid down on the road-side to sleep. It was with something like grief that I felt myself forced to abandon one pair of boots, a few miles before Vienna. I had brought them from London, and they had done me good service; but now, with split and ragged fronts, and scarcely a sole, they were only a torture to my feet, and a long way past repair. I perched them on a little hillock with their toes pointing towards Vienna, and turned round more than once as we advanced, to give another farewell look to such faithful and long companions.
After a refreshing sleep on the road-side, we entered Vienna early in the afternoon. Hannibal was no richer than I was, and my whole stock consisted of six groschens, a sum equal to threepence.
VIENNA.
My first notes in Vienna must undoubtedly be devoted to the police. As Hannibal and I arrived at the guard-house of the Tabor Linie, or barrier, we were ordered by the sentinel to halt and hand over our papers; and, upon doing so, received a slip of very little better than sugar paper in return, with printed directions in German, French, and Italian, commanding our attendance at the chief police office within twenty-four hours. We knew better than to disobey. On the following morning we presented ourselves and handed in our tickets, when mine was returned to me with the words: “Three days’ residence,” written on the back.
“And should I not obtain employment in three days?” I inquired. “Then you must leave Vienna.”
Hannibal was permitted greater licence, being a native of one of the states of the Bund; but both he and his fellow-townsmen of Lübeck were taken into fictitious employment, in order to obtain the necessary residence-card. Alcibiade, as a Frenchman, and, moreover, as being still possessed of a certain amount of hard cash, was also more leniently dealt with. Not having found work on the fourth day I waited again upon the police, and was at first peremptorily ordered to depart; but, upon explaining that I had friends in the city, a further stay of fourteen days was promised, on the production of a written recommendation. On the following day, through the friendship of our Viennese companion of the road, I found work at a small shop-keeper’s in the suburb of Maria-hilf. Mark the routine. From my new employer I received a written attestation of my engagement; with this I waited upon the police commissioner of the district for his signature, and thence to the magistrate of the suburb to obtain the authority of his name to the act. This done, I was in a position to face the head police authorities in the city, and they, to my astonishment, doled out a six weeks’ permission of residence only, and charged me a gulden, two shillings, for the document. I pleaded my position as a workman, but was answered that my passport was that of a merchant. This was disproved by every entry on its broad sheet, more especially by a written description by the magistrate of Perleberg, Prussia. All remonstrances were, however, in vain: while unemployed they had dealt with me as a workman without resources; now that I was under engagement, they taxed me like a proprietor. Alcibiade at once furnished the means of meeting this new difficulty, as, indeed, of every other connected with our finances at this period, and we consoled ourselves with the assurance that one of us at least was in employment. Our disgust was only equalled by our despondency when, upon reaching home, we were met with the news that my new Herr refused to complete his engagement, having met with an old workman whom he preferred to a stranger. By law he was bound to furnish me with a fortnight’s work, and I threatened him with an enforcement of my claim; but I knew I should come off the worse in the struggle, and submitted to the injustice.
In the meantime two of our silversmiths were under fictitious engagements—a common occurrence, and almost excusable under the circumstances—and were dining upon credit. The times were bad. I did not really commence work till the fourth week, and Alcibiade a week later. But, these first difficulties overcome, our condition improved daily; and for myself I can say with gratitude, that nowhere in Germany was I more happy than in Vienna. Our position was this: Alcibiade was engaged as a diamond jeweller at a weekly sum of six guldens, or twelve shillings, a little more than half the sum he had earned in Berlin; but no doubt, had he remained longer in the Austrian capital, he would have increased his rate of pay. Unfortunately,