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13

In the watershed between the Rhine and the Danube the mountains are rounded and densely wooded--it suggested western Maryland, along the B. & O. ------I get a breakfast of bread and coffee on the train this morning, paying for it in French money. This evening I got dinner (in Austria) and the bill was between 4 and 5 [[underlined]] thousand [[/underlined]] kronen. I was scared, but began to get out American money. The waiter took one dol [[dollar]] and brought me back a lot of paper money. I was so relieved I gave h [[him]] a hundred kronen. When I tried to figure out the problem afterward I was chagrined to find I had tipped him less than a cent! As near as I can make out my dinner was about 60 or 70 cents, and some 10 cents of that was for water.-------- At the Schneider's, Thursday. The train was over two hours late in reaching Wien. There was no one at the station with an American flag, so I concluded that Frau Scnneider, learning the train was late, had gone home like a sensible woman. I took a cab to a hotel, cold as Greenland, of course, and saw my first evidence of poverty, the clean sheets were a mass of patches and darns. You do not see poverty on first-class trains. The fat-faced men were drinking and smoking as they do everywhere. I got my trunk in the morning (there was no trouble about examin[[insertion]]in[[/insertion]]g it. I repeated my "Ich gehe nach Wien," etc.) I took a taxi to Frau Schneider' I never had so hearty a welcome in my life. The dienst-mächen [[service-girl]] gave a joyous squeal when I said I was Frau Chase, and she poured forth a volume of German from which I gathered that they thought something had gone amiss. The telegram I wrote in English had been put into German and the p. m. left off, also March 22. I dated the telegram March 21, so that is the date they thought I was to arrive, though it came on the 22nd. Frau Schneider went to the station (as if I would be left there until called for) and was apparently very anxious to know what had become of me. She is ever so kind and nice. You would laugh to hear the double-barrelled lecture I got (while I was having