Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/156

 And it was as if the water had closed above their heads; nothing more was spoken or known about them, and if we met with them during exercise, they lokedlooked [sic] at us either as strangers or else angrily,—number 60 had obviously become a cell which could not be forgotten, and which was looked up to as a seat of the elect.

And so we were joined by a gentleman in a black suit, a white waistcoat and patent leather boots,—with a crooked nose and cunning eyes. As soon as he had entered the room and looked around, he announced loudly: "There are too many Jews here for me." Our native Hebrews burst out laughing, surrounded him and plied him with questions. A Magyar Jew. They had brought him direct from a sanatorium at Purkersdorf. He had been unwilling to take an active part in the war, especially so as regards life in the trenches, and he had devised a disease of the nerves, a method of treatment and had travelled from Hungary to Purkersdorf. There he had lived for several weeks in undisturbed happiness, no longer needed even hydropathy, until—heaven alone knows what official it occurred to—the gendarmes arrived one night at half past one, went from room to room, asked for certain papers, and the consequence was that twelve gentlemen had to get dressed and accompany the gendarmes to the station. The train did not go until the morning, so they waited till the morning and were now in Vienna. Some at the police headquarters, others here, he with us. He enquired after the prevailing customs and usages, and when he heard that it really was a prison and not a hotel, he began to prepare for action in coping with such a superintendent and giving him a piece of his mind. In Magyar, he said. In Hungary, he said, things were quite different. He had not got his papers with him, they would have to look for them in Budapest, but he would not remain where he was for another twenty-four hours. That he would warrant us.