Affront

At Vienna, Doktor Michael Hainisch, President of the Austrian Republic, recently presented a gold medal of the newly established Order of the Austrian Republic to the head of the local Chamber of Commerce.

Last week he sent Minister of Commerce, Doktor Hans Schuerff, out to Graz, second largest city of Austria, to bestow a silver medal of the same order upon the head of its Chamber of Commerce.

Not until the moment of conferring the decoration did the babbittry of Graz become aware of what metal it was composed. Then pandemonium broke loose at "this tinsel insult to Graz!" Leaping to his feet, the Herr Professor Doktor Guertler, former Minister of Finance, loyal citizen of Graz, roundly scored and cursed President Hainisch as a "jackass." While local patriots cheered him to the echo, he recited a noted expurgated verse from Goethe's "Knight with Mailed Fist," which is usually regarded as a model of obscene revilement.

Affronted to the quick, Herr Schuerff caught the first train back to Vienna. There news of the event was received in Parliament "with laughter." President Hainisch, however, was with difficulty restrained from challenging Professor Guertler to a duel. Instead he decided to demand a personal retraction.