doctors have healed, talking of the time when there was great strife and bitterness between their country and Japan, will tell their children of a great spirit of reconciliation which spread through the land, sowing the seeds of peace and happiness wherever it went. Through tribulation, nations, like men, sometimes come to great prosperity. If I am right in thinking The Nineteenth Century and After.

that there are very many Coreans whom that spirit has touched. who mourn with Japan as for a friend, looking on his death as a common loss, then the murderer of Kharbin will have invested the Ito legend with such renewed vitality that the Prince himself would not have wished it otherwise.

F. T. Piggott.

"I am better off now than I ever was in my life before," an old man, with keen eyes and a much bewrinkled little face, informed me cheerily, in his broad Vienna dialect, the first time I was at Lainz.

"Ja, es geht uns ganz gut hier," another old fellow remarked, and there was not a man in the room but repeated his words, "Ja, ja, es geht uns ganz gut."

"Is your food to your liking?" I inquired; and again there was a chorus of "Ja, ja," accompanied this time by much chuckling; for it would be odd, as they told me, were it not to their liking, seeing that they had the choosing of it themselves.

A more contented little company I have never seen, nor a little company on better terms with themselves and the world at large. They welcomed me in the most friendly fashion, as hosts welcoming a guest; and when they heard that I had come all the way from England to see what their new home was like, they beamed with delight. For they are, as I soon discovered, immensely proud of this new home of theirs: there is not such another home in all Europe they are firmly convinced; not so beautiful a home, not a home in which the indwellers are so well cared for; and, above all, not a home in which they are so

well fed. One of them drew my attention to the comfortable chairs they have to sit on; another to the warm, well-fitting clothes they were wearing: "Were we burghers we could not be better dressed"; while they all seemed anxious I should note how well the room was heated, and what a beautiful view they had from their windows. “That is our Emperor's Thiergarten," they told me proudly, pointing to the great park that lies just beyond their own garden. "The Emperor is a near neighbor of ours, you see."

These old men were not only well clothed, but spick and span: their hair was well brushed, their collars were clean, and not a button was missing anywhere. Sitting' there in their pretty green and white room, with its great balcony which catches every sun-ray, they might have been barons, so far as appearances went, if only they could have kept their poor battered old hands out of sight. Not but that most of them had on their faces those lines that tell of moiling and toiling and burdenbearing; just here and there among them, indeed, was a man with the look in his eyes that a close tussle with starvation leaves behind. For, notwithstanding their dignified appearance, notwithstanding, too, their cheerfulness and genial good manners, they were only poor old paupers, although

all Vienna would rise up in wrath were it to hear the word "pauper" applied to its old people at Lainz. These old people, by the way, cost the town only 18. 5d, a day each, or 7d. a day less than our old workhouse inmates in London cost us. Yet both food and clothing are, if anything, dearer in Vienna than here.

Lainz is the old-age home the city of Vienna has built on land presented to it for the purpose by the Emperor Franz Josef. There nearly 3400 of its worn-out workers are not only well housed, well fed, well clothed, and well tended, but they are, so far as in them lies, made happy. It is a huge place; still there is nothing oppressive about its size; for it consists, not of one building, but of a series of buildings, detached pavilions, each one of which is a separate home, its inmates forming

a

separate community. There are homes for old men and homes for old women and homes for old married couples. There are homes for the sorely afflicted, too, for the very feeble. for those who are just waiting for the end to come; and there will soon be a hospital quite near at hand for those who need special treatment. There are no homes, however, it must be noted, for the drunken, the vicious, or the degraded: for Lainz was built as a refuge solely for respectable old folk; and if by mischance folk who are not respectable are admitted, they must conceal the fact that they are not on a par morally with those around them, and demean themselves as if they were. Otherwise they are speedily transferred to Mauerbach, the old-age home that is specially reserved for the less worthy of the town's protégés, its goats as apart from its sheep. All Viennese, it must be remembered, who being above sixty years of age and in poverty, are too feeble to live alone, and have no relatives with whom they can live,

have the right to claim admission to an old-age home.

In addition to the pavilions in which the old people live there are other pavilions, of course; one in which the administration is carried on; another in which the nursing sisters live; another that serves as a laundry; another. again and this the most interesting of all-that serves as a kitchen and res taurant combined. The pavilions are ranged on either side of a beautiful church on which money and thought have been lavished without stint. So gorgeous is it, indeed, with its purple and gold and dazzling white, its richly stained windows, embroidery and delicate tracery, that one would be inclined to look on it askance were it not that everything about it that smacks of luxury was a present, and did not cost the rate-payers one penny.

Before the church and the first row of pavilions there are two long ter races. parallel with each other: and there such of the inmates as can walk, but are too feeble to go further afield, totter about from seat to seat. Below the terraces is a large garden where in summer many of these old people spend a good deal of their time. Not but that they are for the most part free to go elsewhere if they choose. From seven o'clock in the morning until nine at night they may betake themselves just where they will, even to Vienna, always providing that they have in their pockets the three pennies wherewith to pay their fare, and that they have dressed themselves as neatly as the old gate-keeper, whose standard is a high one, thinks they ought to be dressed when on visiting bent. Some among them, it is true, are not allowed to go beyond the garden-those, for instance. whose names are on the doctor's special list, and those who, as the Director has learnt by experience, cannot safely be trusted to pass unscathed through

the temptations of the outside world— who might, perhaps, return from their excursion in a condition to cause scandal through yielding good-naturedly to the importunity of hospitable friends. Even these, however, although they may not pay visits, may receive them, every day, too, providing their visitors conduct themselves with propriety, and do not attempt to smuggle into the institution anything stronger than elderberry syrup. On Sunday afternoons, in summer, "at homes" by the dozen are held in the garden at Lainz; and the tramcar that goes there is thronged with men, women, and children on their way to see "wie es geht mit den Alten." as they say. And the poorest who go-those to whom buying a tramticket

means leaving a dinner unbought rarely go empty-handed. Most of them contrive to take with them some little offering-a new pipe, perhaps a book, a picture, a flower, just something to prove to those at Lainz that, out of sight though they be sometimes, they are never quite out of mind. And the old people thoroughly enjoy these little attentions: it is one of the prettiest sights in Austria, indeed, to see them entertaining their friends, so beamingly happy do they look. Little wonder even stingy ratepayers cannot find it in their hearts to grudge the money spent at Lainz, especially as they have only to use their eyes to know that for every penny spent a good return is obtained.

In the married couples' homes each man and wife have a little room of their own; while in the other homes two, three, or more of the inmates share a room. These rooms are regarded as the private property of those who are lodged there; and no one, excepting the caretaker, has the right to enter them without permission. On every floor, however, there are a large room and a long corridor which are fitted up as parlors, and these are the LIVING AGE. VOL. XLVI. 2418

joint property of all who live on that floor. In the room such of the inmates as are en pension have their dinner, tea, and supper; and in the corridor they all smoke or knit, as the case may be, read their newspapers or chat. The inmates who are not en pension have their meals, as a rule, at the kitchen restaurant; although they may, if they choose, have them elsewhere. For Vienna is keenly alive to the fact that if old people are to be made happy they must be allowed, so far as possible, to go their own way; and being determined that they shall be made happy, it insists on their being allowed to go their own way, even to the extent of buying their dinners where they choose and paying for them themselves. It provides them of course with the money wherewith to pay. It does more, indeed, for not only does it provide some of them with pocket-money, but it gives to all of them, excepting those on the special lists, opportunities of earning money for themselves. All who are able and willing to work are provided with work, and are paid for doing it. Some help with the house cleaning; others work in the garden; others, again, in the kitchen; while many of the old women knit, or sew, or give a helping hand with the mending. Their earnings are of course meagre, as meagre as is their strength: they range from 1d. a day to Sd., the average being only some 2d. Still even 2d. a day is enough to secure many a little comfort, while the mere fact of being able to earn anything gives to them a pleasant feeling of independence, and makes them think they are of use in the world.

When an old man-or an old woman -arrives at Lainz, he is allowed, unless he be on the invalid list, to choose whether he will have his food provided for him, or have a money allowance wherewith to provide it for himself. If he decide to have the food, every morn

ing at seven o'clock a roll with coffee, cocoa, milk, or soup is brought to him in his own room. At eleven dinner is served, and this consists of soup, meat, vegetables, and a sweet. At half-past two he has his afternoon tea, or rather coffee, with cakes, and at half-past five -six in summer-he has supper, soup with either vegetables or a pudding. He receives in addition two-fifths of a penny a day as pocket-money.

If he decides to cater for himself he may do so either entirely or in part. If he provide all his own meals, he receives an allowance of 5 1-5d. a day. If he prefers to have his breakfast and dinner provided for him, and to buy his own afternoon coffee and supper, he receives 1 3-5d. a day, while if he provides only his own supper he receives 1 1-10d. A sharp watch is kept over the inmates who cater for themselves, and if it is found that they spend their money unwisely-too much of it on coffee, beer, or tobacco, and too little on wholesome food-they forfeit their allowance and are placed on rations. The very feeble are always on rations, their menu being drawn up for them by their doctor.

The inmates who are on full rations -and they are the great majorityhave all their meals, excepting breakfast, sent in air-tight boxes direct from the kitchen to their own parlor. There their meals are served to them by their own attendant and an assistant from the kitchen. These officials have strict orders to treat the old people, not only with kindness, but with deference, to study their tastes and wishes, and to try in all ways to gratify them. And woe betide them if they fail to do so; for the fact is sure to be reported by some one or other to the Burgomaster, and then they are soon packed off. As for those who buy their own food, they as a rule go for their meals to the restaurant attached to the kitchen; for it does not take them long to discover

that they can obtain considerably more for their money there than elsewhere, no matter where the elsewhere may be. Were it otherwise they would cer tainly not fare so extremely well as they do on their 5 1-5d. a day.

This Lainz restaurant is a proof of the wonders that may be done by a skilful economical caterer with the help of a good cook. It is worked together with the kitchen by a manager under the close surveillance of the Director and the doctors, one of whom must taste the food every day before it is served. All the materials used are of the best quality, and every dish is carefully prepared and flavored to a nicety. I have seen as dainty a little luncheon served there as one need wish to eatserved, too, at a price that made one wonder more than ever what can become of the money spent on food in some of our English workhouses and workhouse infirmaries. For, although at the Lainz restaurant the price of every dish is exactly what it coststhe cost of the materials it contains, plus five per cent. of that cost for kitchen expenses-so low are the prices that these old people, for whose benefit the place is maintained, are able to buy there as much wholesome, appetiz ing food as they can eat. Yet their allowances are only 5 1-5d. a day each, it must be remembered, and out of that they have to provide themselves with pocket-money as well as with food. Then not only can they obtain good food and plenty of it, in spite of their having only such a pittance, but they can vary it from day to day, if such be their desire; for they have, as their bill of fare shows, dishes innumerable to choose from in ordering their dinner. Although of course every dish on the list is not provided every day, an extraordinarily large number of them are always to be had.

Of all the official documents issued in Vienna from time to time this Lainz

To think of poor old paupers sitting in a pretty dining-room, at neatly laid little tables, pondering as to whether they will have soup or fish, veal cutlet, roast hare, liver, kidney, calf's head, or brain sausage; and taking counsel together as to which is the better worth having, a salad, or રી sweet, curds and whey, or a cup of coffee. To think, too, that all these little luxuries, in which the Lainz old people revel, cost less than the solid hunches of beef which in certain of our London work houses the poor old inmates are reduced to gnawing. If an old man has soup, calf's head, vegetables, nodel pudding, and bread for his dinner, all that it costs him is 3 7-10d.; while if he be content to have brain sausage-a favorite dish-instead of calf's head, it costs him only 22-5d. And in the one case as in the other he dines well, on food that he can eat, even though he has not a tooth in his head; on food, too, that is cooked by an expert, and