MISS HOBY DESCRIBES HER INTERESTING CONTINENTAL TRAVELS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 175, 11 August 1937, Page 8

MISS HOBY DESCRIBES HER INTERESTING CONTINENTAL TRAVELS

A most enjoyablo evening was spent recently by tbe members of the instrumental grou'p of the Brnisk Musie Society, when Mrs A. Ckr. ^.tie invited them to her liome at Ha*, ,lock Nortli to listen to a talk by Miss, E. Hoby on some of her recent travels abroad. Miss Hoby, wlio said that ber friends tbougbt lier very rasli, crossed from Dover to ■ Ostend witb ber new car lashed to tlie sbip's side. She and Miss McHardy tben drove to Bruges, and revelled in its old-world quaintness. Tbe carillons tbey heard at Bruges and neighbouring villages greatly deligbted tbem, tbere beiiig oome ^quality in tbe sound wbicb was perbaps refiected from fclie stone cobbles of tbe streets. From Bruges tbe travellers passed through Brussels and then to tlie German frontier, wbere all tbeir money liad to be produced and shovvn to tbe ratlier stern officials, to wbom, Miss Hoby felt she must confess slie "bad some "chequemoney" far down in a suitcase in the car. Tbis money bad to be produced, too. Tbe Customs House was vcry dimly lit, tbe streets were dark, and tbe Bavarian trienas' to wbose bome tlie traveLers niade tbeir. way burried them mside to a dark^ned bduso. Wliy all this darkness? Tbere was to be an airraid practice tbat night. Miss Hoby's care 111 draping tbe window aud rcading by a'.very dini ligbt was not sulhcient, for presently a linock came at tlie door and a German- policeman strode m to cover tbe win'doW- from wiiicb a cbink of liglit escaped. "in the morning we beard the strains of a German foik song," said tbe speaner, "and numpers or young JNazi boys mitrclied by. Tbe N'azi boys looked very spruce, but tlie Niizi gifls did not equaf them in smartnes^. Hitler's word is law every wbere, and tbe older^folii feel rather sadly that tbeir autbority rs completely undermined and tbat ad tbe standai-ds to wbicb thgy bave beld iast count no longer. If Hitler says a, boy need not do sometliing, tbat is the end of it. If a imrent does not give lns boy to the Nazis, however, tbat parent's business would quietly •docline within a year. A good tbihg about this regnuentation of youth, however, is tbe labour camps, wbere every. youth is required to do six montbs' usefui labour, and by jvliich some magnificent roaos bave been made.« Pictures of Hitler were everywbere,- even in station wait-mg-rooms, and once in Municli we saw Hitler bimself, or his double. The ycung Nazi witb. wbom we bad madc contact did not himself know who it was, but it is well-known tbat tbere is an ofbcial double."

Miss Hoby and ber friend journeycd down tlie Kbine Valley,. wbicb sbe tbougbt ratlier over-rated as t'ar as olu castles went. Vineyards lie on tbe slopes of the hills, with tbe Dracbcnfels in tbe background. Vintage metliods are very primitive, pressing hcing still done witb the feet. Beetlioven was born at Bonn on tbe.Rbine, and although be lived for most- of liis lii'e in Vienna, tbe bouse in wbicb be was born has been kept as a museum. Tliere vfe re bis pianoforte, oue of tbe early ones, wliieb Miss Hoby was allowed to try, and various mecbanical aids wbicb Beethov'en used as bis deafness increased. Municb was tbe nest tcwn of interest. Here was a magnilicent museum, most comprehensive in its scope. You could study tbe bdstory of agriculture, for instance, clioosing, say, India, and study the metbods adopted tbere from earliest times. Or you could study mining by actually going down and through the museum mine, a journey on wbich tbere was no turning back. Models of miners at work quickened tlie interest, and tlie journey took une and a quarter bours. •

"Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace, we visited next," -said Miss Hoby, "but unfortunately it w.as not possible to enter tbe Festespiellians. We made a detour under tbe. guidance of a young Austrian, to visit the latter's people. Tbougb of good birth, tbis family had to live very poorly- in fact the quantities of sweet Turkish coffee consumed after meals .were apparently designed to fill up tbe cracks. "It was very difficult travelling to Vienna after this detour. It was snowing, and late in evening added to tbis tbere was sometliing wrong witb tbe car-ligbts according to the continental view, and nobody we ever met in Austria or Germany was hesitant in pointing this out. Vienna was ratber a disappointment. We beard tbe Viennese Boy's Choir at St. Stephen's, but Schubert's liourse was difficult to find, and concerts were hard to track down. Everywhere on tlie con'tinent it was difficult to get information about concerts, and instead of having a bewildering cboice of things to go to in one evening, as in London, it was often days before anything was being performed. In fact, ruy companion said that slie toured Europe looking for milk (for m'aking tea) and concerts." Leipzig was visited, and here workmen were destroying a statuei of Mendelssohn because hewas a Jew. In this

'town- was- tbe .cburch of St. Tliomas, -wbicb bad an organ used by Jobn iSebastian Bacb. Through Prague Miss Hoby went to La Hague and Amsterdam. Walter '-Bruno was conducting at Airsterdam, but it was impossible to buy seats. Finally IMiss Hoby and lier friend went on complimentary tickets, as the personal friends of Walter Bruno. Miss Hoby mentioned having beard Myra Hcsse, Irene Scbarrcr, Gieseking and Orloff in London, tlie concerts for children that are given t-ltere, aud tlie Philharmqnic Orchestra, wbicb, undor Sir Tliomas Beauchamp, is now tbo Joading orcbcstra in Britain. Miss Hoby was wnrmly tbauked for lier most inte'rcsting talk.