Society is having fun

We have already looked back onto some of the reputable institutions important to the city’s life. But if we were to follow the inquisitive secondary school student Imbro Tkalac in 1839, looking for a place to read the newspapers, we would find him in the city cafe, fearing of course that some of his teachers might see him attending a forbidden place. In any case, coffee-shop gatherings could have on their ‘’agenda’’ political and social topics as well as entertainment. Dances, theatre performances and carnival celebrations were held in coffee-shops and guesthouses.

But the coffee-shop company was after all a male company: girls and boys, men and women danced mainly at house parties and socialized on the promenade. The scrapbook fashion was quite popular; friends and sweethearts expressed their feelings through popular lyrics or wise sententiae, maybe also drew a vignette. It seems, however, that in our days there is no attraction in such a union between intimate feelings and conventional expression!