Mr. Kosztovitz, who lived some time in England, and
was president of a bicycle club there, had the honor
of bringing the first wheel into the Austro-Hungarian
empire, in the autumn of 1879, and now Budapest alone
has three clubs, aggregating nearly a hundred riders,
and a still greater number of non-riding members.
Cyclers have far more liberty accorded them in Budapest
than in Vienna, being permitted to roam the city almost
as untrammelled as in London, this happy condition
of affairs being partly the result of Mr. Kosztovitz’s
diplomacy in presenting a ready drawn-up set of rules
and regulations for the government of wheelmen to
the police authorities when the first bicycle was
introduced, and partly to the police magistrate, being
himself an enthusiastic all-’round sportsman,
inclined to patronize anything in the way of athletics.
They are even experimenting in the Hungarian army
with the view of organizing a bicycle despatch service;
and I am told that they already have a bicycle despatch
in successful operation in the Bavarian army.
In the evening I am the club’s guest at a supper
under the shade-trees in the exhibition grounds.
Mr. Kosztovitz and another gentleman who can speak
English act as interpreters, and here, amid the merry
clinking of champagne-glasses, the glare of electric
lights, with the ravishing music of an Hungarian gypsy
band on our right, and a band of swarthy Servians
playing their sweet native melodies on our left, we,
among other toasts, drink to the success of my tour.
There is a cosmopolitan and exceedingly interesting
crowd of visitors at the international exhibition:
natives from Bulgaria, Servia, Roumania, and Turkey,
in their national costumes; and mingled among them
are Hungarian peasants from various provinces, some
of them in a remarkably picturesque dress, that I
afterward learn is Croatian. A noticeable feature
of Budapest, besides a predilection for sport among
the citizens, is a larger proportion of handsome ladies
than one sees in most European cities, and there is,
moreover, a certain atmosphere about them that makes
them rather agreeable company. If one is travelling
around the world with a bicycle, it is not at all
inconsistent with Budapest propriety for the wife of
the wheelman sitting opposite you to remark that she
wishes she were a rose, that you might wear her for
a button-hole bouquet on your journey, and to ask
whether or not, in that case, you would throw the rose
away when it faded. Compliments, pleasant, yet
withal as meaningless as the coquettish glances and
fan-play that accompany them, are given with a freedom
and liberality that put the sterner native of more
western countries at his wits’ end to return
them. But the most delightful thing in all Hungary
is its gypsy music. As it is played here beneath
its own sunny skies, methinks there is nothing in
the wide world to compare with it. The music
does not suit the taste of some people, however; it
is too wild and thrilling. Budapest is a place
of many languages, one of the waiters in the exhibition
cafe claiming the ability to speak and understand no
less than fourteen different languages and dialects.