Meran as a Health Resort

Feuilleton.

Meran als Kurort.

Meran, 20 Sept. You recently invited me to recount the life and bustle unfolding at present in Meran, and in order to comply with your wish, I shall gladly communicate my observations on the matter as they occur to me. It was not long ago, perhaps not even a decade, when the great world took just as little notice of Meran as it still does today of our neighbouring, charming Non Valley. Chance endeared it to a tourist's heart, and now it has already become such an article of fashion that from afar its name is mentioned alongside those of the most brilliant spas and health resorts. As far as air and climate are concerned, its reputation may endure any test; the region itself is decidedly beautiful, the grapes sweet and the fruit excellent; but that does not yet satisfy the requirements of that society which, sated with metropolitan pleasures, seeks new charms without being able to dispense with the old. Meran suffers from its exaggerated reputation, for it brings in its train thousands of expectations and demands whose fulfilment still lies far beyond the realm of possibility. Modest demands could formerly be satisfied, but amid the excessive influx even these, so it appears, do not always find contentment.

Above all, one misses a splendid hotel, a bathhouse and Kurhaus; pensions are lacking, such as the society accustomed to comfort and luxury finds so excellently and for relatively little money in Switzerland. Everywhere complaints are heard regarding the cuisine; not about its scarcity—on the contrary, one would gladly forgo a large part of the profusion offered if only the selection and preparation corresponded more closely to refined taste. "Paradise-like" Meran, which viewed as a whole lies in one continuous garden, is—ironically enough—poorer in gardens than the first village one might encounter on northern soil, and where such gardens exist, they generally betray anything but an understanding and feeling for cultivation. Hence it is comprehensible that vegetables, which elsewhere are found in abundance of every variety, receive such subordinate care that the excellent kinds, especially those suited for winter, are not even known by name; of any tasteful grounds, one discovers, with very few exceptions, scarcely a trace. With regard to the supply of the most necessary daily staples, so little competition has hitherto emerged that even with money in hand one is hardly able to acquire what is necessary, and only few farmers have risen to the comprehension of their advantage, which, as befits proper monopolists, they do not fail to exploit to the utmost. In all things competition is lacking, and grievances will not cease until demand finds a sufficient supply, that is, until a regulated market is formed. There was a time, indeed we have not even left it behind us, when the common peasant condemned the sale of grapes as a detrimental, even dishonourable trade, while he squandered and caroused away the grape juice—the wine; and with equal obstinacy he resists taking up the far more lucrative cultivation of fruit trees and gardens, even if only partially alongside viticulture. So deeply has he run into his prejudices; so little knowledge and receptivity to improvements are instilled in him in his youth.

The promenades and excursion spots with which the surrounding area is endowed so richly and charmingly by nature that it could well compete with the first health resorts, bear the impress of their original condition so heavily that at every step one yearns for the assistance of careful human hands. To be sure, this would require a large fund, larger than the already ailing municipal coffers are capable of providing. All the more gratefully, one would think, should the efforts of the town's Foreigners' Commission be received, regarding whose purpose and activity a few words may be fitting here.

At the beginning of this spring, several citizens of the small town banded together, constituted themselves with the approval of the higher authorities as a Foreigners' Commission, and made it their task to render the stay of Meran's guests as comfortable and pleasant as possible. In particular, they created an accommodation registry, maintain a visitors' list, offer oral and written information of all kinds, and will in future undertake the supervision of the whey preparation as well as oversight of the catering in the shooting house and the premises designated there for the gathering of guests. They founded a municipal brass band and will endeavour to give the best support to the undertakings of respectable troupes of singers or actors. Finally, to return to our starting point, it is they who take active care of the preparation of walkways and the erection of resting benches and signposts. There was, as stated, no fund available; hence, as elsewhere, they sought to raise the means by a visitors' tax, likewise approved from above, which was fixed at 1 fl. for a spa visitor or pleasure traveller staying longer than three days, at 3 fl. for families of more than three but fewer than six persons, and at 5 fl. CM beyond that, children and domestic servants not being taken into account. That our rural population, in its peculiar view of "gentlemanly things," takes pleasure in tearing down and destroying what its neighbours from the "town" erect, will be fairly comprehensible to anyone who has had occasion to know them more thoroughly through personal observation; less comprehensible is it when certain philistines take great credit merely for tolerating the "foreign element" with apathetic calm; and no less surprising is it when—as has occurred—guests cannot comprehend that a small contribution is required where people are labouring with the best will solely for their benefit. Certainly, what has been achieved so far has not yet matured to the point where the fruits beckon enjoyment on every side; on the other hand, it seems to us that he who merely wishes to reap without consenting to sow demands the impossible, or expects from his fellow man precisely that warm spirit of sacrifice which he himself least displays.

Accommodations are perhaps the only branch that has recently enjoyed general attention. Visible efforts are being made to bring them into a more habitable condition, walls are covered with wallpaper, and decent furnishings are acquired. This is, if one permits the comparison with the ways of the world, a reform endeavour, a first beginning towards progress; but, like every reform, it offers merely a small palliative and no remedy for the actual evils. The houses are too narrow and too small, yet so lavish in their layout that the staircase and other unusable spaces not infrequently consume half of them. For erecting new buildings, space in the town is at present completely lacking; such space, and indeed a significant amount in the finest and healthiest position, could be gained if the large timber depot were moved from the right bank of the Passer to the left, a plan that with time, God willing, will surely commend itself. That would be the most fortunate way out. The only one to avert a "radical upheaval," which could consist in nothing less than tearing down individual houses and building a larger one in their place; whereby, however, aside from the unprofitable expense, the very delicate question would still remain whether a sense of cleanliness in the alleys would simultaneously emerge—a question for whose favorable solution no roses will bloom as long as people erupt as if against an assault on their "ancestral" rights whenever it occurs to anyone to remark that tanners' tan and Graukäse do not smell balsamic to everyone, or if someone preached the dangerous heresy that it is improper for grunting and lowing beasts to stroll through the Laubengasse, just as it contributes little to Christian edification when pagan hecatombs are occasionally celebrated under the arcades. On the site of the timber yard, however, all these delicate considerations would fortunately vanish of themselves, and the worshippers of old patriarchal custom would thereby gain the touching satisfaction of seeing many of their cherished pleasures preserved.

A dispatch to the Innsbrucker Zeitung from Steinach, a quarter of Meran, recently endowed these guardians of stability with a wealth of irony from a horn of overflowing praise; only, incautiously, instead of hitting the target, it struck its own comrades in arms and furthermore allowed the inaccuracy to slip in of having a non-existent "Beautification Committee" perform all manner of heroic deeds for the amusement of the public. Moreover, the irony was hidden in so loyal a garb that even a full-blooded Meranese who happened to have made a small excursion might have believed that the pious wishes of Mr. "+" were tangible truth; all the less explainable is what purpose such a style of writing was intended to serve with respect to harmless strangers.

As regards location, space, and buildings, Obermais enjoys incomparably more favourable conditions than Meran, which is why it is preferentially chosen by pleasure travellers for their stay. There, even on the hottest summer days, a fresh cooling breeze blows constantly from the Passeier and Naif valleys, and the thermometer stands as a rule several degrees lower than in the town sheltered from north winds. Especially in the morning and evening, this difference in temperature makes itself felt, and it is a true delight to walk in such an air bath. Observing physicians maintain, however, that precisely because of these air currents and temperature changes, a stay in Obermais, particularly toward the Naif valley, is not to be recommended for those suffering from chest ailments. For the same reason, more delicate guests spend the winter in the town, where it is indeed so mild that travellers sometimes coming up from the south are entirely astonished to have moved from a harsher climate into a milder one. One drawback in Obermais, which is felt very keenly by many, is the absence of an inn or at least an adequate table d'hôte, so that those who do not keep their own kitchen are obliged to walk down into the town or have their meals brought up from there. It appears, however, that Mr. Dr. Mazegger's cold-water establishment, which is rising steadily and, incidentally, commands the most favourable vantage point of Obermais, will not only remedy this defect, but gradually develop into the gathering place for the guests of Obermais.

Whoever was accustomed to living in cities and asks for entertainment should not wander to Meran. Nature must be playhouse and opera, ballet and circus; she must write poetry and paint, deliver speeches and cook, play whist and arrange teas; she must do everything alone, and therefore all is very often lacking. We Meran town children, to be sure, leap for joy if by chance a band of Bohemian musicians plays a tune for us, and from the age-grey walls of the hall a couple of little candles twinkle more than by St. Notburga in the mortuary chapel; and if perhaps Demoiselle Irir danced on the tightrope today and appeared tomorrow as St. John in the Passion of Christ *), we could hardly contain our joy. In recent times, radical sentiment has unfortunately surfaced here as well, which does not surprise us since people have been looking at the handsome shop window on the Rennweg, in which a certain Mr. Pfaundler from the capital Innsbruck displays quills, pictures, and printed books. You will hardly believe how perniciously that has worked, for—in confidence—a terrible conspiracy is being hatched: they want to establish a casino, and the Innsbrucker Zeitung is to have entry there too, and they want to dance and play parlour games and even sing!—perhaps even as in the taproom at Mannes-Raffl, from where "the German Fatherland" is sometimes heard ten houses away, and where they collected funds for the Schleswig-Holstein rebels. But enough of jesting. You see, the first conditions for any comfortable stay were lacking everywhere, let alone for satisfying such demands as went beyond the most ordinary bodily needs. The narrowest unfamiliarity with everything lying outside the garden fence and the most consummate apathy, but from a certain quarter also the anxious dread that Germanic sense and spirit and practical industriousness might sweep away old Tyrolean dogmas, formed a loyal picket guard to do everything possible to show the guests out the way they came in. The finest testimony to this philistine conception of things was given by the manifold difficulties created everywhere for all reformers, and above all for our valiant Dr. J. F. Lentner, a man to whom Meran owes for the most part what it has become. And so the younger generation now grafts new scions onto all branches, and may God grant that the young forces push forth stronger and stronger, and the tree of life turn green, blossom, and bear fruit in fresh vigour!

Our basis, however, and our starting point for awakening and enlivening the sense of sociability and concord, and for gathering the guests and the locals, shall, we hope, be the new shooting stand. How long and how much did people babble and speak of building a Kursaal; the site was already chosen, two plans by a deceased spa guest whom we all hold in high honour and vivid memory, the talented Ottmar Kramer, were at hand, shares were being collected; yet the funds could not be found. The project disappeared from the agenda and matters remained as before. That was the time when the benevolent Emperor Ferdinand, in remembrance that the town of Meran represents the heart of Tyrol, bestowed upon it a central shooting stand. It was Kramer again who designed a new shooting stand, and in its layout also took careful precautions for a gathering place for Meran's guests. The plan lay ready, it was found beautiful, indeed people raved about it; but the money, the prosaic money, was awaited in vain as ever. Then, last spring, a man stepped forward all at once, a valiant, a complete man, and as is his forceful manner, declared outright: "If there is no one who will help me, I will build you the shooting house alone, even if my last Heller should be spent on it!" And behold, the word, scarcely spoken, became deed. Land was painstakingly negotiated, and soon pick and shovel were already digging. Malice of people and weather, lack of materials and hands, in short every imaginable obstacle stormed against him, but his self-sacrificing will remained firm, a rock in the surging waves. And if you ask us who this remarkable, brave man is, a thousand voices answer you: "Putz Anton, the rifle captain, the lawyer!" The house was brought under roof a few days ago, and although the work is to be sure only roughly finished, we nevertheless hope that the esteemed riflemen and friends of shooting, whose kind visit from all districts near and far to celebrate the great Imperial Shoot we anticipate with such joy, will bring with them the forbearance not to take the "unfinished" work as the measure of our will.

*) In Innsbruck, too, we have seen this summer similar productions, not particularly edifying to us, by a travelling company of performers. Ed. note.