vent. The building is said to be the
finest ambassadorial residence in the world of any nationality. I can
easily believe it. In the very heart of Vienna the house has behind it
a garden of some two acres with many fine hothouses. Seven gardeners
are required. On the other side, the Embassy faces on a large public
garden and thus every one of the sixty big windows which the mansion
possesses faces on one garden or the other. The house is adorned with
Meissoniers, Van Dykes, Chinese rugs, and other things of a like
value. The house was shown to me from top to bottom by Mr. Penfield.

* * * * *

At present there is great excitement in Vienna over the fall of Count
Berchtold, the Prime Minister, announced publicly this morning.

* * * * *

I am to leave for Berlin, London, and Paris, and then home as soon as
possible.

* * * * *

_Vienna, Friday, January 15th._ I am doing my best to see Vienna so
thoroughly in an architectural and artistic way that I shall not find
it necessary to return for purposes of study.

* * * * *

At the Jockey Club last night I played bridge with Mr. O'Shaughnessy,
Attache Cardeza, and His Serene Highness, Prince Lichtenstein, the
fortunate possessor of the Lichtenstein Galleries in Vienna. I am to
visit his collection on Sunday morning with the Countess Colloredo.

Captain Briggs is at the front with Colonel Biddle but is expected to
return soon and I am awaiting his arrival before departing for Berlin.

* * * * *

_Sunday, January 17th._ I suppose it is useless to say that all the
reports in the Allied press about revolutions, despair, and cholera in
Austria-Hungary are absolutely false.

* * * * *

_Monday, January 18th._ I now plan to leave for Berlin on Wednesday
and hope, unless I strike something of very great importance in
Belgium, to reach London about January 31st.

* * * * *

_Wednesday, January 20th._ A party of neutral diplomats who last week
went by train into the country for a picnic were arrested on their
return to the railroad station at Vienna, beaten up, and insulted by
police and soldiers in spite of their identification papers. The
affair went to such lengths that several of the diplomats came out of
the fracas with bruised faces and torn clothes