A COMIC OPERA CITY.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1921, Page 4

A COMIC OPERA CITY.

VIENNA. Vienna lias long been regarded as the home of comic opera, and a week’s residence in this city has supplied me with the reason.

It is a comic opera city. Less than a month ago there was a great judicial uproar in Vienna because a. certain play named "Reigen Roundel” had been banned by the State. It was a comic play and! it- had a. comic result.

Professing to be shocked at the morals of the play, some of the citizens asked the Minister of the Interior to stop its production. The Minister of the interior, who is a Catholic, issued an order to tlio Mayor of Vienna, the head of the censorship of the city. The Mayor, being n Social Democrat, coolly ignored it.

Thereupon the Minister charged the Mayor with a breach of the Constitution in not obeying an order from such a high official of the State. The en.se came Before the courts. Twenty-four judges tried it, assisted by a score of lawyers, and a legal battle raged for two days. Then the ease was laughed out of court. The order of the Minister had not been signed. It had taken the court two days to find that the document was useless.

Another amusing instance occurred a

few weeks ago. The premiere danseuse at the famous Opera House, after sixteen years’ experience of the light fantastic toe, derided to retire and open a school for dancing. To do this she must have a license from the municipality. Accordingly she lodged an application and a certificate showing that for 1G years she had been the principal dancer at the Opera House. This was not enough for the City Fathers. She must supply a certificate that she could give lessons in dancing.

The lady offered to exhibit her accomplishments on the Opera House stage, but that would not do. She then consulted the director of the, Opera House, but be happened to bo a new broom and declared that be had never seen her dance.

The next move was to find her old dancing master. Alas 1 bo was dead. So tho former premiere danseuse of the famous Opera House is still waiting for a license entitling her to open a dancing school! Vienna is full of policemen, and to impress the State that there is plenty of work for them to do they carry out occasional raids on the peaceable citizens.

They call them “razzias.” ‘Without warning they descend upon a. coffee-house just when it happens to be full and arrest all the customers. “Have you paid your taxes?” is the chief question addressed to them. TI you have a lot of money on you, you must prove that you have paid taxes in accordance with the wealth in your possession. Tt does not matter whether you have much money or little, you must go to the police-station, and it may bo five or six o’clock next morning before you get borne. Three hundred men were arrested in one cafe recently by 215 policemen. Among them was a oount from Jugoslavia who had 25,000 crowns on him. He had to go to the police station along with the rest and explain why lie had so much monev on him—roughly £l*.