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 fives, 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 fife had been, 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 
fives 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- 
