A Viennese Railway Station.

The Palace Of Justice.

Viennese Shops.

One practical result of making streets beautiful and artistic is that they become places of enjoyment for the citizen. It is not altogether a difference of temperament that causes Europeans to spend so much time seated on spacious sidewalks, under the awnings of cafes. If our streets were made as attractive as theirs, we would, also, spend more time in them.

The Interior Of The Opera House.

To the Parisians and the Viennese their sidewalks are, like the foyers of their theatres, places in which to meet their friends, chat with them for an hour, and view, meantime, the passing life and gaiety of the town. We, on the contrary, stay almost altogether in our offices or houses, and often regard our streets as disagreeable thoroughfares to hurry through as fast as possible, going from one place to the other. Impressed with the array of stately edifices in Vienna, the tourist naturally asks at first, " Where are the private houses of its citizens?"

The Grand Hotel.

But, with very rare exceptions, there are no private houses in Vienna. One sees no blocks of single residences, as in New York or Philadelphia; nor pretty separate dwellings, each with its private lot of land, such as we find in most of our large western cities. The grand residential structures, in Vienna, are neither more nor less than apartment houses; and, instead of being the exception as in America, they here form the rule. Many of them are furnished much more elegantly than our own, and are adorned with paintings, statuary, and frescos; but in such points of comfort as steam-heat, electric lights, attractive bath-rooms, abundant hot and cold water, and other features of our best apartments, those of Vienna are inferior.

Another superb edifice on the Ringstrasse is the Grand Opera House, which yields in splendor only to its Paris rival.

The Opera House.

In fact, if one has never seen the latter, the Austrian temple of music will seem unsurpassed in the sumptuous decorations of its staircase, portico and foyer; while the auditorium, which has a seating capacity for two thousand five hundred, is decorated far more pleasantly and with less ostentatious gilding than that of Paris.

Late comers to a performance in this opera house are not allowed to disturb the audience already assembled. No one is permitted to take his seat during the overture; and in Wagner's operas, where there is no intermission between the overture and the first act, those who come late are not allowed to go to their seats until the curtain falls. In the case of the " Gotterdam-merung," where the first act lasts nearly an hour and a half, this rule must cause considerable inconvenience ; but, after all, it is well to insist on punctuality, and such heroic measures are, no doubt, necessary to enforce it. There is no good reason why several thousand spectators should have their attention diverted from an opera, which they have paid a high price to hear, by the arrival of persons who are care-lessor thoughtless enough to come late. Sometimes, of course, a ticket-holder may be unavoidably detained ; but in that case it is better that he should suffer than all the rest of the audience. It is needless to add that, at the Vienna opera, no woman is allowed to annoy people by wearing a large hat. The structures which have been already mentioned would of themselves be sufficient to make the Ringstrasse architecturally famous, but these by no means constitute all the wonderful buildings on this promenade. Thus, opposite the entrance to the Palace Garden, are two imperial museums - gigantic structures, which correspond to each other perfectly in size and ornamentation. One is devoted to Natural History, while the other contains the immensely valuable art collections of the imperial family, which were formerly distributed in various localities, but are now gathered under one roof.