So long as the sun is in the sky it is fine weather to a Municher, no
matter what wind may blow or what evil the earth may be bringing
forth. Thus, on Christmas Day of 1873, when the weather, though
unusually mild for the season, was still windy and chilly, and utterly
unfit for any open-air enjoyment other than a brisk walk, every
beer-garden in the city was filled with an eating and drinking
multitude; and this, too, when a cold was especially to be
deprecated, as the cholera was increasing every hour. And so on all
Sundays and feast-days and fast-days and fairs there is a general
pouring out of the population into places of amusement near and
remote, no matter what may be the state of the weather or what the
condition of the public health.
But, though the people of Munich are extremely fond of staying out of
doors, they are by no means lovers of fresh air in their houses. With
the dread of fever always before their eyes, they make all close when
they go to bed, forgetting that "the only air at night is night air;"
and, hardened by habit, they spend long winter evenings in
concert-rooms and tavern beer-halls, made stifling with tobacco smoke
and foul with accumulated breaths; while at home, especially among the
poorer classes, the air is purposely unchanged in order to economize
heat.
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