HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1928-02-02, Page 3Revolutionary. •Plots and- Wars
Kindled in Cafe Imperial
Political Conspirators
s I�ende�voExil I. of Eastern
am �s as pe Gather at
' Inter-
national Barometer for Balkan Conditions
TROUBLE'S HOME
By H. A., Diezt Office whoa they heard of the impend-
Vienna. ----A week ago ri certain Pros- Ing journey of the :heir to the throne,
hev, native .of Macedonia, was` sen- Archduke' Francis, Ferdinand, -to Bso-
tenced to three years and a half in ilia, The warning was not Heeded,
Jail by a Vienne ee court because he and the assassination of the arehducal
fired pistol 'shots at another Mace- couple in Sarajevo gave the signal for'
donian, seriously. wounding the lat- the most sanguinary war in the his-
ter's housekeeper. About a year ago tory of the world. The trouble with
a young woman, Mee.cia Carnictu, also the Imperial is that one •cannot rely
of Macedonian extraction, • shot - and on its stories. Many a plot or revolu-
lcilled the Macedonian leader, Tudor tion predicted as an unavoidable cer-
Panizza, in a ' box of the 'Burg- tainty did not come off. In a certain
theatre during a performance --of 1?ercentage of cases there may have
'Peet' Gyrit" because, she said, Panlz- been a hitch in the last moment, but
za was a traitor to the .national cause others have been freely invented.
of the Bulgarians in Macedonia. Sone • Emigrants and• political refugees al -
while ago a Bulgarian emissary shot, ways dream of unexpected turns like -
down a former • Bulgarian minister in jay to improve their situation.
Prague for. similar reasons, and in , Called "Omniscient" Cafe
the Balkans there, hardly passes a Half jokingly and half in earnest,
week without political murder. • people eall . the Imperial the "omnis-
Trains are blown up, bombing, plots tient cafe." None of the other politi-
revealed and the world is told that cal cafes has gained the same univer
this or that Macedonian committee or sal reputation.. But the funniest story
political faction is waging war against -of post-war politics in Viennese •cafes
another faction or against the Serbs is told of the Casa' Piccola, in the
or Greeks. The intricacies of this Mariahilferstrasse, and although it
guerrilla warfare are not easy to un- sounds queer it is vouched for as true.
derstand, nor would they much mat- When the Sovigts seized the Ukraine
ter to the outside world, if it were not the governments of West Ukraine and
an established fact that shots in the . East Ukraine removed to Vienna and
Balkans sometimes kiriclle wars. I settled down in the respective lega-
In the Macedonian districts of the tions.
Balkan peninsula• live 1,000,000 Buba- a They took over some funds and
rians under Greek and Serbian rule 'made an additional income by the sale
-and foreign rule in these regions is of passports and visas. Everybody
tantamount to the worst forms of sup- who could not obtain t regular pass -
pression. Just at present the revolu- port or visa used to travel with
tionary Macedonian committee dis- Ukrainian documents. Another source
plays a lively bombing and band ac- of income was the printing -of stamps,
tion in Jugoslavia and. Greece because whcih were bought by stamp dealers
it regards the peaceful rapprochement and collectors. But when after a
of Jugoslavia and Bulgaria as a dan- !while the .Ukrainian passports . lost
get to the national aspirations of the .their validity and nobody cared any
unredeemed Bulgarians in Macedonia. longer for the stamps the funds of the
By disturbing this pacification move ! exiled governments melted a "ay and
meat the Macedonians or, rather, one they ha dto give up their offices and
party of the Macedonians, `.ltepe to•
.:gain a respite until the time is rape
• for their liberation.
Long a Balkan' Rendezvous.
For decades Vienna has. been: au im-
. portant rendezvous for Iiaikattites,
mostly emigrants, whom the mael- 'or vice versa to raise small loans. Or
there would be lengthy debates of
both governments over urgent probe
lems, how to get now fund for the
treasuries and the Cabinet. members.
This sort of thing went on until the
prime ministers could no lohger come,
because -they had accepted jobs as
office clerks, and the Minister of Fin-
ance failed to, turn -up because he had
opened a candy store, while the Trade
"Minister had found that it was better
to -.Work as a chauffeur •than• to sit in
council not knowing who would pay
for the black coffee. So this romantic
chapter ended and the Casa Piccola.
ceased to be a factor in international
politics.
,settled. down .in the Casa Piccola at
two big tables.
There they presided from •2 to -6
every,:afternoon, and the Foreign Min-
ister of ene -government• would .Gall on
the Minister or . Finance of the other
strom of politics hurled into exile.
And the true home of the Easterner,
living room, office and debating club
all intone, is the cafe. Many a cafe
in Vienna could reveal dramatic
stories if the mute walls would speak..
Among these political gathering
places in which plots and years are
discussed is the Cafe Imperial, on the
Kaerntnerring, in the palatial building
of the hotel of the sante name. Here
meet since time immemorial the cor-
respondents of foreign p�tpers, exiled
politicians from Bulgaria and other
Balkan states and, since the World
. War, emigrants from Hungary and
Czechoslovakia who dare not return
home. Bolshevist Russians and others
that are against. the Soviet regime, a
motley crowd congregating on neutral
ground.
Fantastic stories 'circulate in the
Cafe Imperial, but if one learns to dis-
criminate one can also get valuable
information now, and then, for hidden
threads lead from here to official chan-
celleries and conspiring circles alike.
When last spring Marty people be -
lived that au Albanian war was near
at hand the war odds in the Imperial.
stood at zero, a sure sign against en-
tanglements. The complement oC the
Imperial would not be complete with-
out Albanians, and they knew better.
R is a good oinen for the maintenance
of peace in Southeastern Europe that
the barometer of the Imperial has
pointed at peace for many months, but.
at the sa•.ne time this makes the place
less interesting for the moment, for
the great days of the cafe are those
when something is happening. It
need not necessarily be a war; scan -
'dais like the bogus francs swindle in
.Hungary also are discounted at a high.
:rate and throw big waves.
Cafe Sensitive to Politics.
The ups and downs of the Imperial
depend entirely on the political weath-
er. When something is on, let us say
government overturned or an impor-
tant Balkan leader assassinated, the
event is sure to be reflected n the
:guests. Either there turns up a new
Mau, who has just been sentenced to
death and sips his black coffee placid-
: ly, for in the Imperial he is safe, or
there comes somebody who is chased
by ntaflia somewhere, and his appear-
ance le less reassuring, for much more.
dangerous than governmental death
sentences aro the unoftlbial ones of
'secret committees, whose execution
ers may turn up when the victim' least
• expects them.
Since the World War the Cafe Int•
peria.l has extended its sphere of Ac-
tivities, but prior to 1914 its domain
was the Balkans. Theheadwaiter;
still recounts a ghastly experience ho
had in 1903. He used to serve some
..Sinbiau guests who looked very peace-
l'ttl.:and were most obliging. When
;,cone day they told hint smilingly that
k there would be bloodshed en the
�"ltonaltrst;lof :Belgrade, ' as the royal
pestle o°'1!"�`,tJio Sorbian capital is called,
11e took as a bad joke. But he al-
rnowla fainted when, looking into the
spooling papers two flays later,, he
found the report of . the ,assassination
seof; Icing Alexander Obrenovitclt and
ivyQueen. Drage, The Balkan war in
r'1912 was no surprise for the habitues
Faster and Faster
What is the safe speed at which to
drive an automobile? - The answer is
the same as the answer to most ques- plan
t
etre ..,. ,.-, • ,,.,,«, !.m ...e .n.,.w«a..te
Youth in. Gamble With Death,
To Win Career on Mrricaan Coast
Quinine is Price of Life "foil White Colonists Who Work ori
Beach; Where One Succeds Many Others Face
Years of Broken Health in Homeland
HELL'S ,PLAYGROUND
Accra Beach lePa sight for all devo, With equally good luck he mai bo
tees of tropical romance and African
adventure, Working there, month af;
ter month, •under the burning sun, in
able to rest for an hour. But when;
the cocoa season is on, when there'
are many ships in the bay, he may not
the hot monsoon wind, is a different get to the mese at all, A sandwich in;
matter. . theshed, which hag by now become!
In West Africa white m'en and wo- intolerably hot, will have to satisfy,
I
Hien can live only within the armor of him. Leisurely "chop" during the day'
their daily quinine. Eery one wears is a rare experience for the "first!
;:F.. ,. a„ > ., Y , „• the strained look that is the price of timer" in West Africa.
rr• ...r��. �:`F -�•':::<. life in the tropics I talked to an. Eng- Work goes on unceasingly uzitil< 9
lash public school boy checking cargo. in the •evening --often later. The
alpngside the surfboats on Accra beach -master's head aches, his eyes'
Beach. There was no, pink bloom on ate tired and• dazzled in the blinding,
his cheeks. His face was sallow, and gun glare. No tennis at sundown for;
lined with illness and worry. • him. Just time for a hasty shower,
"People in England think that we before dinner. Sunday is eters the'
live easily on the coast—that the doe- most feverishly busy day -of the week t
tors have wiped out all disease," he So much vital work has.to be done'
told me 'wearily, pushing back his that the conscientious man dare not
heavy helmet. "That idea hurts us even go down with malaria until• the
out here—it's all wrong. We certain fever forces him.
ly are riot overpaid, and our home Salaries Paid for }lard Work.
leave every few years is not a luxury - I return for this unpleasant life the
—it i.e, death to stay much longer. young man learning to be a West
Some men don't stick it for a year." Coast trader may expect a salary of
He told me the facts for the benefit $125 a month, possibly a little more.
of those who feel the lure of this At the end of two years he will red
coast that a novelist once called ceive four months' .leave on half pay)
"Hull's Playground." If he is invalided home before his coni
"Beachmaster" Is First Job. tract has expired he is almost certain
The newcomer to a trading firm any- to lose his job. If ho works hard for
where in West Africa usually finds two years he may be lucky enough to
himself at work as a "beachmaster." secure an eighteen months' contract
He goes down to the beach at six for the next spell of duty, and a high -
o'clock in the morning, and his boy er salary. A well educated young
follows him soon afterward with man, ambitious and with the essential
breakfast. Cold eggs and bacon in a physical endurance, will be making
very hot shed. His main duty is to more at the end of five years than he
check cargo as the surfboats come in would receive after twenty years in,
from the freighters in the roadstead. England. Or he may still be sellingt
He must have a quick eye for break- cotton print to hot and odorous
ages and shortages —for the ingenuity humanity behind the counter in the
is of the thief is more Oriental than Afri- store.
New York is puttng th•e finishing touches. It will be placed either in New can. A career in West Africa is a gamble.
York or in Detroit next spring. Dozens of natives arrive during the You back your character and your
day with, palm kernels. Some of them body against the most insidious c1i-
Will Rogers Praises Chicago's Where Stray
carry petrol tins and calabashes of mate in the wend. The agents and
Overc�►ats Go
Handling of Crooks "Hank" Dudley, social secretary for palm oil. The "beachmaster" must supervisors, with their $5,000 -a -year
see everything weighed out and mete salaries and their trips to England
To the Editor of the New York •the Omaha Post of .the American Le- sured. He must supervise the labor- every , nice or twelve moittlts,. are the
ers •.bagging• kernels and pourjag oil risen wlto have: won. Tho .losers., some
into casks. ' Always he roust Have -an of them, are dragging themselve1
eye in the back of his head for the in- along slum , ,pavements .in English
coming surfboats, towns. I doubt whether any land in
At noon, if he is fortunate, he may the world 'breaks men more surely
stagger up to the mess for lunch. and completely than "the Coast."
"LOSTPIONEERS OF AVIATION"
the title of this mass work to be cast in bronze, upon which Victor Frisch of
Garrett, Ind.—Just passed throTimes: ugh gion, said to a gathering bonsisting
Chico go to -day. Wanted to go up of Mr. Isaacson and myself: "It's .won -
and see my old friend Mayor Thomp-
son, but had had English breakfast
tea for -luncheon and was afraid he
would smell it on my breath.
You can kid about Chicago and its
crooks, but they have the smartest
way of handling their crooks of any
city. They get the rival gangs to kill
off each other and all the police have
to do 1s just referee and count up the
bodies. They won't have a crook in
Chicago unless he will agree to shoot
at another crook. So viva C41,1cagol
Yours unhit, /
WILL ROGERS.
derful what the, railroads have done
for this country."
'But the. reason I like them bestest,"
he added, "is because they give us the
unclaimed overcoats that are left on
the trains. See, here are forty of
them, and they are going to keep a
lot of poor fellows—at least forty poor
fellows—warm."
This is the end of the story—except
thee 1f you have an unclaimed over-
coat that you wish to leave anywhere
ani; cad£'t bring it to the legion .office,
leave it on the trains running into
Omaha.—Omaha World -Herald.
Tura Now Have Pork
Provided By the State
The New Government of Angora Thus Sets Aside Another
Old Law of Islam
.pan
ions:It depends. Having got rid of the dervishes and and drink liquor manufactured and :The present •expedrttoa will probably
a cinematographer, and assistant,
legislated her citizens ou
Mr. Paul S. Hoffman, vice-president t of many sold by the Government. At present ""?nils time we aregoing to study result' in a more advanced work.
of the Studebaker Corporation, pre -
Moslem practices, republican Turkey, these pork products are.imperted from animals to try anti find out what they"It is my ambition to establish a
diets that within a few years all speed whose Constitution declares that Is the Balkan States. But Adana and era thinking about anti how they talk , large station in the African hush,"
limit laws and ordinances will have 1 the St t religion,has gone into other places in Anatolia have herds to each other" said M. Hubbard. I said 14T.r. Iiubbard; "soma Place to
disappears Michigan ' 11 i ttific ar o
In t is badly needed
Man to Study What Wild Beasts
Think About and How They Talk
Investigator to Go "Trapping" With Phonograph and Catch
Jungle "Remarks" on Records --Seeks to
Found Study Center in Bush
Cape Town W. D. Hubbard, Amari -.young elephants and found that chic.
can author and natural scientist, 1 dren could ride on them and play
formerly •connected with the zoos of , with them.
New York and Boston, has returned 1 Seeks Comparing of Nctes
to the African buses•• with the object! Mr. Hubbard belongs to many learn -
of ex lading more fallacies about wild ed societies, including the Zoological
animals. With him are his wife, 1 Societe Or London. After his last
their sou, and their baby girl. The : visit to Africa he publishe;l a book ae""
party also includes Miss Elizabeth entitled "Wild Animals," dealing with
York, a secretary, and his research work In a popular way.
d Mi h an has no speed am is e a e , lt'
law and punishes- only what is called the Poll. industry, and
'reckless driving." There is much to
be said for this course, but how are
we ever going to' establish standards
of "recklessness" when it is already
impossible for aanotorcycle cop and a
car -driving citizen to agree on a mat-
ter of simple arithmetic?
Mr. Hoffmann goes a little too fast
for us when he says that day after to-
morrow automobiles will be "expect-
ed" to go at a rate of sixty-five utiles
an hour. "We are living in a rapid
age," he adds, "and must keep going
more rapidly all the time."
, Why? In spite of the increase of
automobile speeds, people still miss
trains, are late for lunch, Ile in bed
after the alarm clock has gone off and
tell long stories during business hours.
The rapid age has given us mole time
to loaf and rest from the weariness of
trying to be rapid. And `that's about
all. .
the Government of wild pigs which ruin the farmers his outfit he has a gramophone ; w los' a se
set p
having previously taken over the grain crops. These pigs have, as inpreserving
compare notes
recording machine for Presert I At present if I wish to •compare re -
!sults monopoly from a Polish syndi- India and other Oriental countries animal noises. !sults with other research workers,
Cate. where pork is taboo, steadily increase Going to Take Beasts Alive and Study
ed through the centuries. • Hence a "So many myths about African ane• ;have to write to them and send a few
Both pork and liquor were pro- g pickled specimens, There ought to be
scribed by Mohammed when he found- park factory is to be started at Adana mals have recently been. exploded ;
ed his religion in the seventh century which will crus the wild pigs, shot by that wo think there will be a rich a laboratory in the bean t of the
phunters,into ham and bacon for domHeid for this kind of research. Rhodesian big game country whore
A.D., based, as it was upon what henatural sclontists could work to
knew of Judaism and Christianity, estic use and' export. The farmers'„During our last stay in Northern
1 thus d rt as well as gether Tor the benefit or Lropfcal pro•
took f 1 too much to •..,e�
ties cauId •
;of the Imperial. ,
" In Jutte, 1914, friends from the Ian,
Aerial warned the .Austrian T"ot�eign
A quiet evening at
is the one when the
away being charged.
home nowadays
radio battery is
The taboo against pork Mohammed pest will. t us provr •e sport
loin. While the raisin of pigs as Rhodesia, for instance, we yoked but”- gress.'
from the Jews. But^how many P' g (aloes to a wagon and drove them
a commercial is ess Hubbards headquarters for the
of Turkey's great Sultans were wine about. 1 believe that every wild -
bibbers? Pork, however, is a post- be expected at present by Anatdhian ural in Africa is "L•armtess unless first "
which he considers to be one of tee
t'bl en Ttukish bonds o newly emancipated from the
bonds of their religion, yet if is not f
unlikely in the future, when the wild
herds of pigs are reduced.
As ' yet the Anatolian retains a
strong orthodox strain in his remote
provoked by man• i am going to guest spots in Africa for his work.
catch young ikons, buffaloes o•es and
republican comes i e
tables.
As for the State religion being that
of Islam, _ the President, Mustapha
Kemal, whose title of Ghazi or Gon-
querer to -day spells "Father of the
Country" to Turkish school children,
has declared that Islam will not be
allowed to interfere in any way .with
the development of Turkey along ad-
vanced - Western lines. Moreover, the
deserted mosques in large cities may
possibly be turned' into school build-
ings, of which there is a shortage.
To -day Turks eat ham and bacon
sectors. Ile has been reluetiintly trained to work ltko the Indian eke- car proceeding by inches in the dense
caught tip into the breathless whorl- plaint The Belgians have recently ;traffic• Finally they came within sight
ante-
lope, specimens of every possible
type, and watch thein grow up." 1 Sweet Marital Interchange
It has always been ntalutainod •
1 A young man with his wife were on
that the African elephant cannot bei their way to a football game in their
wind .of • progress legislated from An-
gora. While Turks in Constantinople
restaurants eat their ham and bacon
and -,pork •with relish, and wash it
downwith beer and iitwines, a done in Northern to light the not be Rhodesia,
t
a,
established an elephant training 'or the field just as the game was start-
seeool at Api, in the Congo, wait frig. "I wish," the wife said smiling -
goad results. Mr. Hubbard is going
ly. "that I had our piano here." "And
, to see whether the satisel titlug can- why," asked the husband roguishly, ""do you wish you had our piano
Anatolian is content to being up the During his last visit he captured here?" "Because," giggled the wife,
rearguard of progress in Turkey. our tickets to the game on top
1 off it."—R•. H, lt.'s "Line -Book"),
Airplane manufacttuors, hope to gel
no oicar uiazlseis Tuttei•ested in than
Industry that they may impart to it
some of the stimulus they injected
into the automotive business when
bringing it up to where it is to -day.
No doubt they hope thus. to bring sky
high prices down to earth.
,'s movement has been started to
provide a t *servation for gorillas to
\Vest Africa. Late dispatches inch- •
•,-
cath that United States marines are
at' onipting,71.c do something like that.
for guerillas itt Nicaragua.
_-
H. R. Highness Loves His Canadian Hcros
•
":Cite rainbling, comfortable buildings of the "bl.P.' Ranch, At the 'right rho old chinked log cabin that
was the original rants heuser carefully preserved. -
My dear, remarked Bra'ggs, who had
just finished reading a book on "'That
Wonders of Nature," 1± -Is is a re•
markable work. Naitire is marvel
Ions; Stupendous! When I read a
book like this it a ikes ire think bots x,
puerile, how insigniileartt Is rnan',
Huh: s•ald his wife, A ventan doesn't',
have to wade through five huttdretl"
pages to discover that, --7 .