The bottom million
The bottom million. Shapes and Stories from the Danube Beach is a volume of short stories by the Austrian writer Fritz Stüber-Gunther (1872–1922), which was published in 1910.
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This is a typical example of Stüber-Gunther's short stories, many of which he has written over the years. They first appeared in newspapers and magazines and were then successfully published in book form. In it he describes the fates and characters of the common people and officials very aptly (preface of the volume: We already know the upper ten thousand, much less still the lower million .) The tone is humorous, but often also skeptical and pessimistic, the language popular and provided with numerous inserts in the Viennese dialect.
- Part I. Work, money, debt and other trivialities
Work . Juxtaposition of an old, hard-working, not complaining simple woman and complaining, lazy bourgeois women.
Money . Conversations about money and money worries.
Debt . The chairman of a loan association makes house calls to get an idea of the needs of the applicants. He comes across a wide variety of fates.
The pattern pair . The new cooperator of a small community in the Vienna Woods collects signatures against the divorce and gets to know a couple who appear to him as a true model couple, with whom there is no quarrel and unrest and who has good Catholic views. When he learns that this couple has been living together unmarried for decades, he has to revise his opinions.
The splinter in the eye . The reckless behavior of a fine lady in a crowded tram and the ungrateful help of a poor woman who stood by the lady when something struck her.
Petition . During a hot period, the pastor of a small community refuses to undertake an arduous procession of prayer for rain on a pilgrimage site on the mountain out of comfort. When the residents went to petition on their own and it actually rained, the pastor's fields also received their water undeservedly.
Eternal love . The brief "eternal love" of a young couple who ran away from home only lasts the train ride from Vienna to Salzburg.
The Schwaig . A mountain hike by a Viennese house owner to a secluded alpine hut in Styria does not end, as hoped, with an amorous adventure with the beautiful dairymaid, but with a painful misstep in the dark.
Deceptions . An obedient civil servant with a quarrelsome, ailing wife at home spends all his time in office and postpones his retirement by all means. When he finally retires and no one hears anything from the man, everyone is convinced that it was heartbreaking for him. In truth, however, his wife had soon died and the former officer was literally revived.
A servant '. The story of a country girl who was sent to work in the city, where she began to suffer from an enigmatic disease before coming home to miraculously recovered.
The rebel . The talk of a village rebel about all kinds of actual evils and abuses suddenly ceases when he can do good business with the criticized village superiors.
The brave pretzel woman . When the Viennese pretzel women were to be revoked at the instigation of the bakers to sell pretzels, a delegation of three women came to the minister. One of the women bravely brings her concern up. When the minister recognized her as a former lover from a young age, whom he left behind at the time, he, contrary to expectations, advocated permission for the women to sell the pretzels.
- Part II. Between Prater and Schönbrunn
Prater pictures . Three short episodes observed in the Prater amusement park in Vienna: The cyclist. The ship cannon. The bench.
Apartment hunting . A feisty wife gets her husband to quit her beautiful apartment and look for a bigger, better-located one. Despite the man's concerns about the considerable risk involved, she does not allow herself to be dissuaded. But she fails to find a better apartment and in the end has to accept a more expensive and poorly located apartment.
Once upon a time ... The chairman of a charity meets a poor family whose members talk about how well they would have been in the past. But this supposedly good time soon turns out to be nothing but the possession of a tiny, poorly located shop.
Andreas the lucky one . The fate of a penniless boy who has been released from prison and is in danger of slipping into crime, who suffers an accident with the tram, loses a few fingers and receives a nice pension for life.
Gratitude . The expectation of an unrefunded doctor who had long taken care of a wealthy hypochondriac widow in order to obtain an inheritance promised by her after her death is shamefully disappointed. On the other hand, he receives a self-embroidered wallet from a poor family and their child for his services.
May devotion . All visitors to the May service in the church actually come because they can meet here inconspicuously for love affairs.
The foolish one . The fate of a poor worker who loves her husband, is beaten by him while he is intoxicated, so that she can no longer hear well, forgives him, has one eye knocked out by him, and against the broken man who is returning from prison nevertheless resumes the resistance of the house residents.
The unsympathetic one . An unknown, unsympathetic man whom a poet repeatedly meets by chance on the street, turns out to be the one who, with his applause, encourages the uninterested audience to enthusiastically follow the lecture.
Innovations . Senseless innovations in an office, which are revised by every new official, ultimately lead to more money being spent rather than being saved.
The Meidling Passion . Children of a house, who mysteriously lock themselves up in a shed and missing objects in the various apartments, lead to the worst suspicions of the house parties. But the events turn out to be rehearsals for a passion play that the children wanted to perform.
The crib . A girl secretly observes her father as he tinkers with a beautiful nativity scene and expects that she will be given this nativity scene for Christmas. She is very disappointed when she does not receive the crib on Christmas Day, but later discovers it in the rich owner's apartment.
The glasses . A dry official buys glasses, suddenly sees the world anew and falls in love with a young girl. When he realizes that he has made a fool of himself, he returns to his previous sane life.
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- The bottom million. Figures and stories from the Danube beach. Publishing house of the Association of Book Friends, Berlin undated (1910)