92 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



discontent and final rupture from the limits of their narrow 

 lives. 



Again, many among the nobility are themselves simplify- 

 ing their own lives, especially those faithful Catholics who 

 may be classed as holding socialistic tendencies, their object 

 being to lessen the space between the very high and the very 

 lowly born. The simplicity of the home-life of these titled 

 families of Austria, compared with the reckless extravagance 

 of our own property-holding classes, would bring the blush 

 of shame to the reflective American, who believes himself in- 

 ferior to none. I do not accept this remedy, good in its intent, 

 as sufficient to relieve this cancerous growth sapping the pro- 

 gress of humanity. 



Not the architecturally favored gem of a Tyrolese town, 

 nor the Ampezzo mountains with their natural rock- summit 

 cities, all outlined as really against a blank blue sky as the 

 purple coloring and tawny shades of their steep and precipi- 

 tous foundations, nor yet the valley of Heiligenblut with its 

 marvel of a church overshadowed by the snow-heights of the 

 Glocknerwand ; all of these, beautiful, pure and inspiring, 

 fail to move the heart so strongly as the scene of a sordidly 

 laid table for the toilers in and about the village inn. 



The sounds of the evening Ave rang through the valley as 

 these tireless toilers assembled for their repast, a break in the 

 monotony of their hours. The table stood beyond the kitchen 

 door in the open air, in full view of my window. Amidst this 

 wondrous natural setting, these men and women had gathered 

 to sup. One small tureen of some meagre soup, scarcely suffi- 

 cient to fill the plates of the twelve or fourteen workers who 

 had come to the table, comprised the menu; neither bread, 

 drink, nor a second course supplemented the soup. I shall 

 never forget the hungry-eyed glance of a woman, herself the 

 expression of what her life had b*een, as she looked into the 

 unreplenished tureen, and then to the tables in the dining- 

 room, at whose boards sat those who scarce had known in their 

 lives what hunger meant. 



I will not detain you by repeating the gist of many conver- 

 sations with the people that dwell in those valleys. Your sym- 



