Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/362

 AT THE APPETITE CURE

THIS establishment s name is Hochberghaus. It is in Bohemia, a short day s journey from Vienna, and being in the Austrian Empire is, of course, a health resort. The empire is made up of health resorts; it distributes health to the whole world. Its waters are all medicinal. They are bottled and sent throughout the earth; the natives themselves drink beer. This is self-sacrifice, appar ently but outlanders who have drunk Vienna beer have another idea about it. Particularly the Pilse- ner which one gets in a small cellar up an obscure back lane in the First Bezirk the name has escaped me, but the place is easily found: You inquire for the Greek church; and when you get to it, go right along by the next house is that little beer-mill. It is remote from all traffic and all noise; it is always Sunday there. There are two small rooms, with low ceilings supported by massive arches ; the arches and ceilings are whitewashed, otherwise the rooms would pass for cells in the dungeons of a bastile. The furniture is plain and cheap, there is no ornamen tation anywhere; yet it is a heaven for the self- sacrificers, for the beer there is incomparable; there is nothing like it elsewhere in the world. In the first room you will find twelve or fifteen ladies and gentle-

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