Chapter 12 - Burgher Life in Brussels

CHAPTER XII

BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS

THE typical life of the Belgian people is perhaps to be found best revealed in the household of the Brussels citizen. Leaving aside the very small stratum of what may be called Society, the mode of life among the great body of citizens, above the working classes, is very much the same, notwithstanding the differences of income, occupation, and education. Whether the head of the household be a lawyer or a trader, a manufacturer or a shopkeeper, who is well enough off to live away from his shop, there is less class difference, so far as the daily routine of life goes, than would be found in any other European community - in fact, middle-class life in Belgium very much resembles that of America. The explanation is that at heart the Belgians are a simple people, whose chief characteristic, strengthened by hard experience for many years, is thrift. There is a complete absence of all ostentatious display. It would be as impossible to estimate a man's income from the exterior of his house as it would be to assign his profession or business from his appearance in the street. This appearance of equality is very largely due to the two not disconnected facts, that the first object with every Brussels citizen is to become proprietor of his own house and that the houses of Brussels are built very much after the same pattern. This, of course, does not apply to the fashionable boulevards or the Avenue Louise, but in all the by-streets and suburbs now spreading out in every direction, houses are being run up, lofty and narrow, all seemingly fashioned by the same architect. The Beligans have an aversion to being mere tenants, regarding the payment of rent as so much loss of money; and a house or the money to purchase one, is considered the best kind of a dot that a young woman can bring to her husband. The price of a house containing seven rooms, besides kitchen, runs from $5,000 in the fashionable suburbs like St. Giles, to $2,500 in the outer suburbs like Etterbeck. There is, in addition, a tax of ten per cent payable to the commune, with a share to the State, on the conclusion of the purchase. Having paid the price, the proprietor is practically relieved from all annual payments for the taxes to the commune are exceedingly low, and do not amount to more than six per cent on the estimated rent, which is about one-eleventh of the purhcase sum. Ten per cent will pay the commune, the supply water, and that of gas as well, and for this reason Brussels has been called the paradise of the small householder. There is no doubt that the free possession of a house lies at the root of the Belgian citizen's comfort, and explains how, with a very small income, he can occupy a decent house which externally does not differ materially from one the occupant of which may have ten times his income.

It is only on entering these houses that some idea can be formed of the status of the occupant. Among those families whose income is not in proportion to the exterior of their residence, the interior will reveal the fact by its bareness and absence of decoration, whereas those who are comfortably well off will spend large sums on painting and gilding. The Belgians are noted for their good taste in the way they decorate the inside of their houses, and as the house is really theirs, they do not mind spending very considerable sums in this way. It is the same with the furniture, which is always as good as the owner can afford in the reception rooms. Every Belgian house has what may be called its show-rooms, and their contents will give the clue at once to the degree of prosperity the family has attained. There may be $5,000 worth of furniture and objets d'art in the room, or there may be only $50 worth. In either case it is the best that the owner can show.

There is one thing that these rooms have in common, no matter what the position of the occupant, and that is the air of being rarely used. It is more like the model room into which the furniture merchant invites his customer for the purpose of deciding the style in which he proposes to furnish, than an actual living-room. The Belgian's first investment is to buy his house, and his second is to lay in a stock of furniture. As both are intended not merely to last a lifetime, but to be handed down in the family, the most scrupulous care is taken in selecting every article. A shade of anxiety may be traced on the worthy owner's face if a visitor moves in a chair or brushes past a table. Sometimes these good people let off a floor, often to English visitors, with the view of saving something for a holiday, or through some needed economy; and if the rooms are well-furnished, the urgent request is made not to spoil the furniture ('il ne faut pas abimer les meubles'). I knew of a case where the iteration of this injunction became so irksome that the English tenants left twenty-four hours after the entry, because they were afraid to sit on the chairs.

Into the regular living-rooms no stranger is allowed to penetrate, but the casual opportunities afforded during long residence in the country enables one to see that they are very bare and plain. As a rule, the dining-room is in close proximity to the kitchen, so that the necessary domestic service is reduced to a minimum. There is, of course, in most houses a dining-room upstairs, but this is only used on the very rare occasions when an entertainment of some sort is given. The Belgians are not prone to the display of much hospitality among themselves. They do not dine often at one another's houses. The members of the same family meet occasionally, but, as a rule, their dinners in common are to celebrate some family event, such as a marriage, or an engagement, or a first communion. The case is practically unknown of taking a friend home to have "pot-luck." To do so would seriously disconcert the lady of the house, who is probably in neglige until she goes for her afternoon promenade.

The life of the house, like the life of the whole country, begins at an early hour. By eight o'clock probably every family in Brussels will have finished their breakfast, and if they are near the markets in the lower town or in the communes, each of which has its market, they will have purchased their provisions as well. This early rising is indispensable, as all the offices, and in fact the whole business of the city, commence work at nine punctually. This means that the person engaged must leave his house between eight and half-past eight, in accordance with the distance he has to travel ; but as there are electric trams now in all directions, the journey, from even the outer suburbs, can generally be accomplished with much rapidity. The Belgians take only a light breakfast, which is almost universally cafe au hit, rolls and butter; but of late years the doctors have been recommending a more substantial meal after the English fashion. Those who are not too pressed in the morning by their occupations are now adding to their breakfast one or two dishes, but such luxuries, as they are called, are taken by but a very small number of persons.

The offices close at twelve, and all business is stopped at that hour for the purpose of dining. The men who have rushed off in the morning to be at their posts in good time, rush back to their houses at a still greater speed to enjoy the chief meal of the day. By this time the stimulating effect of the morning coffee has long worn off, and the bread-winners are simply faint and famishing. It is perilous to protract an interview with a Belgian official when the clock hand points to ten minutes to twelve. Politeness will scarcely prevent his displaying the anxiety and displeasure with which he begins to apprehend that some minutes of his cherished two hours are going to be poached from him. The best business in the country is done before eleven o'clock in the morning. After that hour it is no exaggeration to say that the needs of exhausted nature begin to assert themselves.

The midday meal, which commences, as a general rule, at half-past twelve, is the most substantial of the whole day. It is always a hot repast and always opens with soup. The Belgians are hearty, not to say great, eaters, and it takes a good hour to allay their hunger. The general drink is beer - wine is drunk rarely and sparingly - and a cup of black coffee is taken at the end as a digestive rather than as a stimulant, and then the journey is made back to the office or business, which resumes work at two o'clock. The work of the afternoon is done more leisurely than that of the morning, and chiefly consists of the correspondence resulting out of the transactions of the morning. The offices work late, always till six, and often till seven or after. Then the more or less weary toiler returns home to his supper, which is a simple meal, probably the remains of the dinner, assisted with something purchased on the way back from a charcutier. Having to get up so early, the Brussels citizen always goes to bed in good time. Very soon after nine o'clock all the lights are out in the ordinary household five nights out of seven. The Belgian is not a reader; the morning and evening newspapers satisfy all his wants in that direction; hence there is nothing to keep him from his wellearned repose.

The life an restaurant is a far less marked feature in Brussels than in Paris. It is rather expensive, even at the cheapest restaurants, and the family man will only indulge in it occasionally. Those whose work lies in the lower town, where the bourse and business offices are, sometimes are obliged to take their dinner in one of the numerous second-class restaurants off the Boulevard Anspach. In any of these a hot plat, with beer and coffee afterwards, can be obtained for thirty cents. In the same quarter of the town, but chiefly round the Grand Place and the square of the Monnaie theater, are some of the first restaurants

of the city: the Filet de Sole, the Riche, the Etoile, no longer what it was in the reign of M. Dot, the Gigot de M out on, etc. Fashion and excellence vary, suddenly and without aparent reason ; but perhaps the best cooking in Brussels is now to be had at the Filet de Sole and the Provencaux, while at the Globe, which is far less expensive than either, the cuisine is surprisingly good. But if the Brussels paterfamilias does not habitually patronize the restaurant, he makes a great effort to dine out on Sunday evening, and to take the grown-up members of his family with him. He may not, in the majority of cases, be able to do this more than once a month, but during the summer he will probably patronize every week one or the other of the cafes encircling the Bois de la Cambre, and take his Sunday supper with his family al fresco. Even if the repast is limited to one dish for himself and his wife, tartines or gauffres for the children, he will sit there the whole evening drink ' .g not immoderately light beer. It is a significant indication of the prevalence of the same views of life throughout the nation, that while the humble citizen is enjoying himself in the less pretentious cafes, Society is doing very much the same thing on the terrace of the fashionable Laiterie in the Bois, or farther off at Groenendael, which is reached by a delightful drive through part of the old forest of Soignies. Then the concerts given in the Vauxhall Gardens by the orchestra of the opera are an additional attraction, and on Sundays in particular bring together a large audience outside the enclosure. To get an idea of the real life of Brussels, one must go about the Boulevards and to the popular resorts on Sunday evenings. Then the people can be seen enjoying themselves in their own quiet, undemonstrative way, and if there is some music going on their contentment is complete. A band is maintained by the municipality, and plays daily in the park fronting the palace. Military bands also play there occasionally, and in the Bois. The band of the regiment of Guides is first-rate and has been heard in London and Paris.

One of the most marked predilections of the Belgian character is his enthusiasm for music. Most nations are ruled by laws, but it would be easier to govern the Belgians by music. Every commune, not merely in Brussels but throughout Belgium, has its band or symphonic, and most of those of any size or importance have two, for politics come into question. There will be the Catholic Band and the Liberal Band, and even the Socialists - with a program destructive of everything else that is national - conform to the popular feeling and march to the sound of drums and trumpets. The chief, or at least the most frequent, occasion for the public appearance of these bands is for the funeral of some old or prominent resident, when the symphonie commttnale will attend and lead the procession to the strains of the Dead March. But in their own halls they always give one or two concerts in the course of a year.

Bearing in mind this trait, it is not surprising that the opera is exceedingly popular. The Theatre de la Monnaie is an opera house, not a theater, and is noted for the excellence of its orchestra and general management. It has a remarkably long season, beginning in October and going on without interruption to May. A very fair company is attached to the theater, and occasionally singers with a European reputation are engaged for a time. This is especially the case after Easter. Formerly, debutantes of exceptional promise rather inclined to the Monnaie as the scene for their first appearance, because they might feel sure that, if they had the least claim to merit, the appreciative Brussels audience would give them a cordial greeting; and in the event of failure none would be more indulgent.

Brussels is well known in the musical world for its excellent College of Music, and, indeed, the facilities for studying music in all its branches are great, and to be enjoyed at a very reasonable charge, any Belgian student of promise paying nothing at all. For this reason many English and other foreign families take up their residence in Brussels and send their sons or daughters to the Conservatoire, in the Rue de la Regence, where they have to pay only $40 a year. This institution enjoys a State subsidy, and is more or less under State direction, showing that the Government recognizes the importance music has in the estimation of the public. The concerts given by the students at the end of each term, in connection with the distribution of prizes, are attended by great crowds. Owing to the large number of persons interested, tickets are only distributed to the relatives of the students attending the college. A large number of Conservatoire certificate-holders have become subsequently famous in the ranks of musicians and singers. Concerts are given occasionally by well-known performers at the Salle d'Harmonie, at the bottom of the Montagne de la Cour; and when that hall is too small for the audience expected, in the large theater called the Alhambra. There is not a house exclusively reserved for light opera in Brussels, but the Monnaie has of late years somewhat extended its program from its old restricted cultivation of the grand opera.

Source: Boulger, Demetrius C. Belgium. Detroit: Published for the Bay View Reading Club, 1913. Print.

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