In a nutshell. Once proud Austria, largest of European Empires, now has a land area of but 32,375 square miles and a population of about seven million. She compares with Maine or Indiana in size and her total population is less than that of New York City.

But although the Austro-Hungarian Empire is no longer the gigantic hodge-podge of nations it once was, Austria herself still lives and there is a unique feeling, in this little land, of glories of the past that never leaves you.

Vienna, for instance, once the capital of the empire, still retains the charms of yesteryear and there are few cities in the world more charming, more beautiful, more gay. And Vienna, despite the smallness of the country today is the 22nd largest city in the world with a population pushing two million. It is the great metropolis of Central Europe.

But Vienna isn't Austria, no matter how proud the Austrians may be of their capital. Austria, despite size, packs a great deal of wallop into her countryside. In the western provinces such as Vorarlberg and the Tyrol, we have Alpine grandeur equal to that of Switzerland, and the winter sports enthusiasts are as keen about this area as they are any place in the world. Salzburg, on the German border, noted for its music festivals and as the birthplace of Mozart, is proclaimed by many to be the most beautiful example of Germanic medieval city remaining in Europe. And Innsbruck, another age-old town, is in the most striking mountain setting I have ever seen.

But listing interesting and lovely Austrian cities could take several pages and we have space limitation. We should also touch on the Austrian countryside, because if the Austrians themselves are to be considered judges of the outstanding qualities of their land, it is the countryside that is above all appealing. I have never seen a people so prone to take off at the least sign of a gleam of sunshine and go hiking, driving, picnicking, bicycling, canoeing, and mountain climbing as the Austrians. I seriously estimate that at least one million people stream out of the city and head for the forests, rivers, mountains and fields. You've never seen anything like it. Hundreds of thousands of them will be wearing lederhosen (short leather pants) and carrying knapsacks on their backs.

They are a people devoted to the outdoors and there is no wonder in this since the Austrian outdoors are surpassed nowhere. I believe that one of the strongest memories I shall always have was a picnic I went on with an Austrian couple one unblemished July day. We drove from Vienna to Mariazell, a small town to which yearly are made pilgrimages. Nearby a towering mountain's peak can be reached by a cable-lift (a startling experience in itself). On the very top we spread our lunch and ate and drank our Gumpoldskirchner wine, while looking out over what must have been the greater part of Austria.

This book is by no means a travel guide, but in dealing with Austria I must certainly mention the fact that if you are a good food fan, then Austria is a land you will love and Vienna a city you will adore. Austrian restaurant prices are a fraction of those of France or Italy and by the very cosmopolitan nature of Austria's capital, the variety of dishes is endless. The specialties of those lands once contained within the Austro-Hungarian Empire are also specialties of Austria so you can run the gamut from Germanic sausages to Italian pastas, from Hungarian goulash to Czech roast goose, or Yugoslav brodet. And I must add a personal note; as a beer drinker from way back, I have never found a beer I liked better than the Viennese Schwechater dunkle (dark).

If retirement on a shoestring is your desire, if you wish to find a beauty spot in which to settle down, permanently or semi-per-manently, you have few better bets than Austria. If I were to list in order the cheapest countries in Europe it would probably go: Spain, Greece, Austria, Portugal, Ireland, Norway. But if I had to list them by compatibility of the people it would be: Austria, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Greece, Portugal. Because there is one important thing Austria has which the other economical countries haven't to nearly as great a degree. She has a people that you will get to know, who will be your equals (if not superiors) in education, culture and progressiveness. In short, you will love the Austrians. Everyone does.

There is just one word of warning. Personally, I like to follow the sun and I haven't spent a winter in a northern climate for some years. Summers, yes, winters, no. Austria is a country as famed for its winters as it is for its summers. If you like the change in season, wonderful. If you like winter weather, swell. But if you don't, stay out of Austria because she has winter and lots of it. The warm months are from the middle of May to the middle of September.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. Americans need only a passport to enter Austria. Theoretically, if you wish to stay more than three months, you should have an Austrian visa which you can pick up at any Austrian Embassy or Consulate, either in the States or abroad. I say theoretically because a few years ago I spent six months living near Vienna without knowing about this regulation. When I left, nobody blinked an eye. In fact, one of the great charms about Austria is this easy going slackness of her officials. At the border, when you enter the country, customs inspection usually amounts to a natty, green garbed customs officer sticking his head into your train compartment, saying happily, "Welcome to Austria!" and then leaving.

TRANSPORTATION. Austria has no seacoast so reaching her is a matter of travel by land or air. In either case you'll have no difficulty.

From New York to Vienna the following airlines have direct flights: Air France, BO AC (British Overseas Airways), KLM (Royal Dutch), Pan American, SABENA (Belgian), Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss Airways, and Linee Aeree Italiane. Or from our west coast you can take a Scandinavian Airlines or KLM plane over the pole. On the New York to Vienna run all airlines charge the same; $472.70 first class, $354.80 tourist class, one way.

You could beat this price by coming by sea at a rockbottom low of $155 on a student ship and then taking a British European Airways (BEA) flight from London to Vienna for $70.60.

Cheaper still would be to take a student ship to Rotterdam, or one of the French ports and taking a train to Austria. The train from London to Vienna costs $42.88, first class, or $30.35 second class. Nothing, of course, is wrong about taking second class on a European train. Only millionaires, movie stars, and suckers ride first class. From Cherbourg to Vienna is $28.05 second class. From Rotterdam to Vienna is $19.91. If you come up from the south the cost of train fare from Rome to Vienna is $13.08 second class.

Driving your own car, scooter or motorcycle in Austria couldn't be simpler. Your American (or Canadian) driver's license is good and your regular registration papers are all that is needed to take your car across the border. On top of this, Austria has the cheapest gasoline in Europe. Which still isn't cheap by our standards, about 5(H a gallon.

As I write this the Austrians are nearing completion of a super-highway which will run from Vienna to Salzburg and even­tually to the Swiss border, so I understand. But even without this super-dooper highway, the roads aren't too bad in Austria if you don't get off the main highways. If you are driving an American type car, I can't recommend that you take the narrow, winding, mountain roads. They were built for European sized vehicles. Service stations are plentiful and you can get free road maps through the Austrian State Tourist Dept, 11 East 52nd Street, N.Y.C.

THE AUSTRIANS. Theoretically the Austrians are a branch of the Germans. The name of their country means "Eastern Ger­many." However, in spite of the fact that the language has no differences, Austrians and Germans are nearly as different as Greeks and Norwegians.

It's a matter of gemuetlichkeit. It's a matter of an easy going, kindly, friendly, gay approach to life. You find little grimness among the Austrians. They love life, nature, good food, good drink, good companionship. They're in no hurry, either to get rich or to get to whatever destination they might have at the time. An Austrian from Vienna, in short, would drive a good Prussian resident of Berlin, stark raving; and vice versa.

Just one thing. Tipping. I have never seen such a tip-conscious people. Everybody tips everybody. I have a theory that in the old days, the Emperor used to tip the kings and princes under him. They in turn tipped the dukes, barons, counts (and no-accounts) under them. Who in turn tipped the businessmen and shopkeepers. Who in turn tipped the waiters, hotel employees and such. Who in turn tipped everyone with whom they dealt. But whether or not this was the way it was in the old days, that's the way it is today. Perhaps it all works out the same in the end for the Austrians. You tip and get tipped. At the end of the day you're even. But for a foreigner in the country all I can say is keep a big pocketful of change and don't forget such folk as streetcar conductors, the mail man, the shop girl, the service station attendant and the theatre usher.

MONEY. The Austrian shilling is now quite hard. The official rate is 25.44 to the dollar while on the free markets of New York or Switzerland you can get 25.90 at this writing. This advantage is hardly enough to bother with unless you are dealing in rather large amounts. That is, if you decided to buy a five thousand dollar home in Austria it would be well worth your while to stop off in Switzerland where you would get an extra 46 grochen for each dollar, or, on $5,000 an extra $92.

It is now quite legal to bring unlimited amounts of shillings into the country so no law would be broken by such importation. You are also allowed to bring as much foreign money into the country as you wish, but are only allowed to take 10,000 shillings out of Austria on your departure.

One hundred grochen makes one shilling and one shilling is worth just about 44 in American money. Coins come in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 grochen denominations and 1, 2, 5, and 25 shillings. Paper money starts with a 10 shillings note and there are 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 notes as well.

WORK PERMISSION. It is fairly easy to get permission to work in Austria. Tens of thousands of the Hungarians who fled Budapest during the revolt against the Russians are now working. However, a permit is needed and there is a special government agency that handles them and also acts as an employment bureau of sorts. At the time this is being written changes are being made in this govern­mental department and whatever I might say in the way of details will probably be antiquated by the time you read this book. Con­sequently, I suggest you get in touch with the new bureau either through the American Embassy in Vienna or through the Austrian Embassy, Washington, D.C.

PRICES. Just a few years ago, Austria boasted itself to be the cheapest country in Europe. Whether it was so then, I don't know, but today she is still economical but higher priced than Spain and Greece. Austria has always been one of the most popular tourist countries of Europe but for a time she fell behind due to the long occupation. When the peace treaty was finally signed in 1955, there were no longer any restrictions to travel anywhere throughout the country and the tourist hordes began to pour over her borders.

Overnight, almost, you could no longer find the $1 a day full pension, the groaning meals for .50, the gay night life for a pittance. The hotel and restaurant keepers found that tourists who had refrained from Austria for ten years were now so keen to enjoy her charms once again that they would stand for tremendous rises in prices.

However, this book is not particularly interested in tourists and the scalping they get almost everywhere they go. Except for a few days during which you get orientated, you should be able to avoid this way of life. Austria is still cheap, off the tourist routes. Even Spain is expensive if you stick to them.

I have, for instance, before me the summer 1958 hotel price list for Austria. I find that the Bristol Hotel in down town Vienna prices a single room with bath at from 180 to 250 shillings a night ($7.20 to $10). Plus fifteen percent service charge, plus a 4 shilling tax. However, I also find that in some of the resort towns in Burgenland, a few miles south of Vienna, you can still get full pension for as low as 35 shillings a day. That is, room and three meals, for $1.40.

Burgenland is the cheapest section of Austria and comparatively untouched by the tourists. But even in such swank tourist cities as Innsbruck the Gashof Zum schwarzen Adler offers full pension for 60 shillings a day ($2.40). And right in Vienna the Strandheltel Alte Donau has full pension for $2.80 a day.

Actually, living in a pension might be your best bet in Austria. For one thing there is no land where the pension is so comfortably established an institution. In fact, there is a certain amount of social prestige connected with such life—the only place I know of that this is true. Certainly pension and hotel food in Austria are about as good as you will discover. In city after city you will find that the best restaurants in town are in the hotels.

Rents in general are high. Austria suffered in the war and par­ticularly Vienna which was bombed badly by the Americans and British and then shelled during the Russian conquest of the city. Besides that, Austria accepted many refugees from Germany, Yugoslavia and now Hungary, more than her poor economy could really afford.

Nevertheless, my wife and I stayed in the Vienna area in early 1957 and when the heat of the summer came on decided to take a small place right on the Danube River. We found one 18 miles north of the city in the picturesque town of Langenlebarn, near Tulln. We had two rooms, one very large, one smallish, and an extensive garden and shared the bath. The price was $20 a month. We probably could have beaten this price had we taken the little apartment out of season, or if we had located in a town more remote from the desirable swimming.

To get a rather nice apartment in Vienna itself will cost you about $75. They are available through the usual real estate agencies. You pay the agent his commission, by the way, not the landlord. In the country or in the smaller towns and cities you should be able to find a small house for from $40 a month and up. Food prices are lower than in the States but not as greatly so as in Spain or Greece. Fruits are high, especially those imported from Italy and other more southern nations. Venison, surprisingly enough, is one of the cheaper meats, cheaper than beef. Vegetables are low in price, in season, however, in the winter months you are more or less limited to cabbage, onions and potatoes unless you want to pay scandulous prices. A maid will cost you about $16 to $20 a month. Public transportation is cheap, either train or bus; when last I was in Vienna street car fares were but .04.

PARTICULARLY RECOMMENDED LOCALITIES. Largely, Austria can be divided into the mountainous west and south and the plains near Vienna to the east. And you'd have to be a hardened traveler indeed not to love both sections.

I'm hard put, actually, to point out one of the myriad cities of the western part of the country and claim it as my favorite. There are so many. But if I had to settle in one town in this region I suppose it would be Salzburg. This "City of salt" is so old that its origins are lost in the mists of antiquity. It is known that in the 4th Century B.C. the Celts settled down in the region to work the salt mines but it was not until the coming of the Romans in 16 B.C. that we have historical records. Under the Romans the town grew, since it is a crossroads.

There are still Roman ruins to be seen in the vicinity but Salz­burg as we know it today was built in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. In the second half of the 13th century the area was constituted an independent ecclesiastical state and the bishops of Salzburg became so powerful that often they even tried to in­fluence the election of Emperor and Pope.

Today the old town is one of the best examples of German Medieval architecture to be found in Europe. The Fortress Hohensalzburg which dominates the hill around which the town is built, is probably the best example of fortress-castle remaining intact. An enormous building, a small town in itself, hundreds of thousands of visitors enter it yearly. Within its walls is an art school and scores of students work and live there.

One of the great advantages of Salzburg is that is is so easily available to the west Austrian centers and even to such German centers as Munich and Berchtesgaden, Hitler's former home, which is only a few miles away. Italy is about a hundred miles to the south. If you choose Salzburg as your town in which to sojourn, I would suggest that if you're on a budget that you first locate some pension such as the Park-Pension Kasern where full pension starts at $2.80 a day. This price can be beaten if you shop around. In fact, the Weismayr (Ignaz-Hartl Sta. 2) charges about half that amount and there are others just as cheap. If there is any question about finding a place, go to the room service booth at the railroad station and state your wants, and the amount of money you wish to pay. If you are on a real shoestring, they will even find you a room in a private home.

Once so located, you can embark on an apartment search, pref­erably in the Old Town for the sake of its atmosphere. A single person, living with care, could do very well on a hundred a month in Salzburg, a couple on $150. These prices could be beaten. I've met young Americans who were doing it on about $60 but they were admittedly cutting all possible corners.

But actually, my favorite section of Austria is that area im­mediately above Vienna on the Danube. There are a series of towns and small cities between Vienna and the German border that have an old-Austria charm that must be seen to be fully appreciated. Krems, Durnstein, Melk, Pochlarn, Ybbs, and finally Linz, and then after a spectacular stretch into hills and mountains, Passau, right across the German frontier.

A trip through this area by river boat is one of the outstanding experiences to be enjoyed in Europe. The Rhine is noted for its castles, perched up on the hill tops, but the Rhine is so com­mercialized that much of the enjoyment is lost. The Danube, on the other hand, has as many castles on its hilltops and the only industrial town is Linz. Otherwise, it is a matter of vineyards and ancient villages, complete with their walls, their cobblestoned streets, their Middle-Ages churches and palaces.

I think I shall never forget going to the old-old town of Durn­stein which produces one of the most famous Austrian wines, in harvest season. I spent two nights wandering around the old town and up to the ruins of the castle, perched on the hilltop. It was in this castle that Richard the Lion Hearted was imprisoned for a year on his way home from the Holy Land. It was here that his faithful retainer, Blondel, disguised as a troubadour, finally located his king and made arrangements for the ransom.

In the early morning I left Durnstein and started off on foot for Krems, a larger city a few miles along the river in the direction of Vienna. The workers were already out in the fields, picking the grapes that would be squeezed to produce the area's white wine. They carried great wooden containers of them on their shoulders to the gigantic wine presses and the smell of grapes and fermenta­tion were everywhere in the air.

One of the great advantages of retiring or sojourning in this area is the nearness of Vienna. Fast trains dash to the capital city so that many Austrians live as far away as Krems and commute. You, of course, would be able to go into the larger city for the sake of shopping and the cultural and entertainment facilities whenever you wished, but live in the quieter atmosphere of the smaller towns and enjoy the economy of living.

If you consider this area, the Wachau, they call it, I would recommend Krems as a large town, Durnstein as a smaller one. If you wished to be still nearer to Vienna, Tulln is about 20 miles out and Klosterneuburg, so close to Vienna proper that you can take Vienna buses into city center.

CASE HISTORY NO. 1. This case history is such a good one that it can be applied to any section of the world where tourists come in large numbers. No work permit is needed and practically no capital expenditure is required. Of all the "schemes" listed in this volume to make a good income with a minimum of effort, I think this one of the best. Age, sex, special training, schooling— none of these are needed. In short, anybody could do this one. Nor need you be abroad, any tourist town such as New Orleans, San Francisco or Taos would do. And as of this writing you have no competition except Ferdinand Ziegler who dreamed it up.

I met Ferd in Vienna. I had just pulled into town the day before and was staying at the Kaiserin Elisabeth Hotel until I could find a less expensive, more permanent arrangement.

One of the problems I always have in checking into a hotel is met when I'm confronted with the line asking for my "home" address. I have had so many homes in so many towns that I always pause. But in Vienna I put Taos, New Mexico, the last place I had owned property.

In the morning the phone rang and a strange voice said, "Mr. Belmont?"

"That's me," I said.

"My name in Ziegler, I represent a news photo service and would like to take your picture for the Taos, El Crepusculo."

Now the Taos weekly is not exactly the size newspaper you would expect to have a photographer representing in a city as far away as Vienna. I was intrigued. We made an appointment to meet in the gardens of the Hofburg, the palace of the Hapsburgs, at one o'clock. I certainly had nothing to lose.

When I arrived to keep the date, I found Ferd Ziegler photo­graphing two obvious American tourists. I stood there for a time while he snapped them, using the palace entrance as a background. Then he stepped closer and got the correct spelling of their names, the address of their home, and the gentleman's profession. Thanked them, shook their hands, told the woman that, no, he was sorry but he had no way of getting some prints to her, even at a price, and then they were gone.

I stepped up and introduced myself. He looked at his notebook. Oh, yes.

He posed me, snapped two shots with his Rolleicord, and then asked me the same questions he had asked the tourists. I became more intrigued by the minute and suggested we go to a coffee house and have a cup of the famous Viennese Kaffee mit Schlag (coffee with whipped cream). He checked his notebook, evidently to see when his next appointment came up, and agreed.

This was what he told me.

When Ferd was getting ready to make a tourist trip to Europe he ran into an old friend in his home town of Cincinnati who worked on the Cincinnati Enquirer. In fact, was one of the editors. They shot the breeze for a time and the editor told Ferd that if he wanted to pick up a few bucks he might do them a favor. If Ferd ran into anyone in Europe from Cincinnati and snapped their picture and sent it to the newspaper, the paper would gladly pay five dollars per photograph which they would run on the society page. Ferd said, sure, it sounded like a good idea, but then forgot about it.

But Ferd liked Europe, liked being away from the grind of his old job, and when he began to run short of money, started search­ing around for a means of making a living abroad. It was then that the editor's suggestion came back to him.

The trouble was, how did one go about finding tourists from Cincinnati? But then he realized that the situation applied not only to Cincinnati but to every city or town of America that sup­ported a newspaper large enough to be able to afford to buy photo­graphs. He amended that idea later, to exclude the ten largest cities of the country which have so many people abroad at any one time that it no longer is news.

But any city the size of Cincinnati or smaller is anxious to get photos of their citizens in far places. And Ferd found that they will pay anywhere from two to fifteen dollars for such shots, with an average of about five dollars.

It took him awhile to work out the details, but not long. He got a list of every daily and weekly newspaper in the United States from one of the press associations, bought a supply of film for his Rollei-cord, a camera that takes a 21/2 by 21/2 size negative, and started out.

He started, actually, in Paris, worked there for a time and then went to Munich. I forget the other cities in which he spent time, but the routine was always the same. He would find out which were the most popular American tourist hotels and each morning check with them on what new Americans had registered. The hotels were glad to cooperate because he let them know that he always in­cluded the name of the hotel in his captions for the newspapers. This, of course, was free advertising which no hotel spurns.

He would get a complete list of the new Americans and then get on the phone. Actually, in the larger cities there were more names than he could possibly contact, he just didn't have the time. He would look up the town from which the prospect came, get the name of the local newspaper and then phone asking for an appoint­ment to take a photo for the tourist's home town newspaper. Few tourists will refuse such a request. Very few.

He would make appointments at some locally famous spot such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Hofbrauhaus in Munich and ask all his tourists to come there. He would snap their photos, tak­ing two shots to be sure at least one came out nicely, and then get the correct spelling of their names, their business, and their home address.

When the negatives were developed he would send them with a short covering letter to the newspaper. The letter would say simply:

"Enclosed, please find a photograph of Dr. and Mrs. John Jones, of 125 Doe Street, your city, who are now enjoying a European vacation. They're pictured standing before the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. Dr. and Mrs. Jones are staying at the Ritz Hotel. Upon leaving Paris they intend to go to Rome."

"I submit these negatives at your standard rates for photographs. In payment your regular check will be sufficient.—signed, Ferdinand Zeigler."

Ferd said his average was five dollars for a photo and he sold approximately two out of every three submitted. On the days he worked, he took between ten and twenty photos. His expenses were negligible: the film, cost of phone calls, stationery and postage. At first he had sent finished photos but these were so expensive that he hit upon sending the negative instead. News­papers have facilities to print negatives the proper size for their needs.

On the days he worked he netted from $30 to $65 on an average. If he wanted he could work seven days a week. He couldn't re­member how much he made on his best day but estimated it was probably about $200. On quite a few occasions he had made over $100 in one day.

Ferd was not particularly interested in making a great deal of money and wasn't even thinking of this as a full time proposition. He was merely using it until he had seen as much of Europe as he wanted, and then he intended to return home. He had once con­sidered hiring a couple of photographers and branching out. In this manner he would have spent more time on the telephone making contacts, and let his local men do the leg work. But he decided that such tactics would wind up with him in a rut as bad as the one he had left at home. Besides he didn't want to settle down for a long time in any one city.

I asked him if after a time he wouldn't so flood the American market that the editors wouldn't want his photos any longer but he shook his head and laughed. They begged for them. There are thousands of daily and large weekly newspapers in the smaller towns that have a difficult time getting photos of any news sig­nificance and in a small town or city one of the local citizens going abroad is always news, especially for papers large enough to have a society section.

Could you do this? If you couldn't, male or female, 21 years of age, or 71 years of age, you might as well close this book and go down to the local super-market and apply for a job putting cans on the shelves, because I can think of nothing easier, nothing need­ing less capital, less training, and even less ability than this.

CASE HISTORY No. 2. On a trip I took into Czechoslavakia several years ago I ran into a young American from Boston who was rapidly getting rich in spite of himself.

1*11 call him David Johnson, which isn't his name but he's still practicing the following system of taking advantage of communism, Czech style, and if this got back to the Prague authorities they might attempt to put a damper on Dave's activities.

Dave was spending some time in Vienna, enjoying the opera and devoting a large part of his days to such famous museums as the Kunsthistorisches. Between these activities he was also not ad­verse to spending an evening in Grinzing at a heuriger drinking the new wine; at least so I suppose from his activities in Prague in the beer halls drinking Pilsen beer. Dave was no long hair.

As a change he decided to go up to Prague and made arrange­ment through one of the tourist agencies. It was a bit complicated because to get into Czechoslavakia you have to buy in advance with dollars, your hotel and restaurant tickets as well as all of your transportation. Through Cedok, the State tourist office, you are then allowed to buy Czech crowns to the amount of twice the amount of dollars you spent on your hotel and restaurants tickets.

That is, suppose you make a trip to Prague and intend to stay three days. Your hotel and restaurant tickets, second class, will cost you $5 per day, or a total of $15. You can then go to Cedok and buy $30 worth of crowns (the Czech currency) at the tourist rate. With crowns bought at this rate some of the shopping bargains in Prague are amazing.

So Dave signed up for a five day trip to Prague and took off. When he arrived he did the usual tourist tours and then began wandering around in the smaller shops. Now Dave's mother had once operated an antique shop in New England and some of her knowledge, not a great deal, had worn off on Dave. He began with even this scanty knowledge to realize that he was seeing some impossible bargains.

He had planned to stay five days, which meant he was allowed to buy $50 worth of tourist rate crowns. He took this amount and purchased all he could, including a Rembrandt etching although he couldn't believe in the authenticity of this.

He was nervous about getting his loot back into Austria but it turned out he had no cause to be. The crack Vindobona Express, which plies between East Berlin and Vienna, touching at Prague on the way, was filled with tourists, Iron Curtain Army officers and bureaucrats, and the border inspection was brief. (In fact, on some trips his bags were not even opened). This time they were, however, and Dave felt his heart sink when the customs inspector looked over his recently purchased treasures. However, the Czechs are currently pleased to have American dollars spent within their borders and there was no comment.

Back in Vienna, Dave took his purchases to art dealers, keeping one or two which he wished to take back home with him when his vacation was over. The Rembrandt print went for 5,000 shillings (about $200) which still makes Dave mad when he thinks about it, because he was robbed.

This was too good to be true. Dave applied for another visa to go back to Prague and then began to bone up on antiques, first edition books and etchings. He also tried to find out a way in which he could get more money into Prague for his purchases. One of the antique dealers came to his assistance here. Dave could buy antique gold in Vienna and take it into Czechoslavakia with him. Then in Prague he could sell the old gold for from two to three times what he'd paid for it in Austria. No laws, either Austrian or Czech, were broken by this bit of international financial gobbledygook.

On his next trip to Prague Dave took some of his books along. He had had his mother send him some from Massachusetts. He also took a couple of hundred dollars worth of second hand gold jewelry. Sure enough, he was able to sell it for old gold at a jewelry shop.

This time he made a cleaning, finding several books of consider able value back home, quite a few prints at rock bottom prices and even an oil by one of the minor Flemish painters. The profit he realized when he returned to Vienna astounded him.

Dave had figured out why he was able to find these fabulous bargains. Many, many of the formerly wealthy in Czechoslovakia had found themselves displaced when the communists took over. Some of them fled the country, some adapted themselves as best they could. Few of them could afford to retain the family art pos­sessions. As a result these things were sold for the best they would bring which wasn't much since everyone else in the country was in the same position. First edition books, old prints, ceramics, an­tiques, all of considerable value, were going for a pittance. Dave even found a small statue by Rodin in a Prague shop and was able to buy it for peanuts.

After a time he stopped selling his findings to the Vienna art dealers and began marketing them himself through the various publications in the States specializing in the arts and antiquities and sometimes through personal contacts in Vienna among Americans and other tourists. In fact, Dave was rapidly getting a name among art collectors as a man to contact upon arriving in Vienna.

When I met Dave, in Prague, he told me that he currently had a stock worth somewhere more than $50,000. He was considering opening a shop of his own and employing some art conscious Austrian to work for him while he continued to study up on such art fields as he must know to recognize a bargain when he saw one. He was looking forward to extending his tours behind the Iron Curtain into whatever other lands would allow him to acquire local arts and antiquities. Russia, he understood, was out since they wouldn't allow you to take art objects from the country, but he was investigating Rumania and Bulgaria.

CASE HISTORY No. 3. The best local guide of its type I have seen in Europe is that of Dorothy McGuigan who puts out a hard cover book entitled Vienna Today and sells it for about $1.75 on every newsstand and in every book shop of Vienna. It's a beautiful job and a new edition is published each year. A tourist in Vienna would be foolish not to buy a copy his first day in town. I have covered other guides in this book so will not go into detail with Miss McGuigan's other than to mention the items in which she differs from Trimm's Guide to Majorca and Art Buchwald's Paris After Dark.

For one thing, this is a book rather than a pamphlet and the charge is consequently higher. It is also more thorough than any of the others, containing in all 225 pages of text and illustrations and then, in the back, a supplement of more than fifty pages of ads. Yes, I said fifty pages. Every tourist business in town seems anxious to get into Dorothy McGuigan's book, some of them even run full page ads in color.

There's no mystery why they want into the ad section of her book since it makes no bones about writing up in the text those restaurants, hotels, shops, nightclubs and other businesses that advertise with her. I have a sneaking suspicion that the rates she charges aren't particularly low. Certainly they shouldn't be because she really delivers in circulation among the high spending American tourists.

I would estimate that it costs Dorothy McGuigan something less than .25 to print Vienna Today. And the ads alone must total up to several thousand dollars. She had been bringing out new editions yearly since 1951, and each year, of course, the advertisers must renew.

It looks like a gold mine to me and why this isn't being done in more tourist cities is a mystery. Athens for one, Madrid for another, Lisbon for another, Copenhagen for another, Amsterdam, Brussels, Nice, Monte Carlo. There are a multitude of tourist cities where it would go over with a bang.

For further information check what I've said on guides under the chapters devoted to Spain and France.

CASE HISTORY No. 4. Somewhere in these chapters devoted to Europe I've wanted to touch upon the growth of the motel in Europe. I've heard of several Americans who have opened these establishments but know none personally so I'll have to treat the subject in a general way.

As an example I might as well mention Austria's first motel which was opened in 1955 on Austrian Federal Highway No. 1 at Kilometer Stone No. 599 which is near Frastanz, which is near Feldkirch, which is in the province of Vorarlberg and right near the Swiss and Liechenstein borders. Highway No. 1 is the best road crossing Austria east and west.

The Motel Galina is rated as an "A" type hotel, just one grade below DeLuxe. It has 86 beds, in all, and 28 private baths and you pay 90 to 120 shillings for a single with bath, or 120 to 150 shillings for a double with bath. Service charge is 15% but there are no other extras.

I use the Galina just as an example. The motel is coming to Europe. You begin to see them in all countries which have a con­siderable automobile traffic, and that includes all of Western Europe, with the possible exception of Portugal. I don't recall ever seeing a motel in Portugal.

But they are being built slowly because the idea is new to Europeans. Actually, even auto transport is new to Europe to any real extent. It has only been since the end of the Second World War that the average man has even dreamed of owning a car. But now every year that passes sees new hordes of tourists in automo­biles. Parking problems are as real today in many European cities as they are in New York or Los Angeles. Service stations are going up everywhere and even in comparatively backward coun­tries such as Spain, a drive-in movie house is being built near Madrid.

One great advantage in building a motel in Europe is the rela­tive cheapness of labor. Motels in the States now cost a fortune to erect. But in Europe? Ah, that's another matter.

Nor need the project be as swank as American tourists now demand. Housing is short in Europe and the tourist is often hard pressed to find a place at night. A motel could be fairly simple by American standards and still find itself filled each night.

An American with a bit of capital, say as little as ten or twenty thousand dollars, could probably go into the motel business in various European countries. As I've already said, I'm not really up on the requirements, not having been able to talk to any of the various Americans who have opened such establishments. Further information on national laws could be obtained from the consulates of whatever nations interest you.

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