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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10543-0.txt b/10543-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8712431 --- /dev/null +++ b/10543-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5836 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10543 *** + +Norwegian Life + +AN ACCOUNT OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS AND PROGRESS IN NORWAY +AND SWEDEN + +Edited and Arranged by + +ETHLYN T. CLOUGH + + + + +PREFACE + + +An excursion into Norwegian life has for the student all the charm of +the traveler's real journey through the pleasant valleys of the Norse +lands. Much of this charm is explained by the tenacity of the people +to the homely virtues of honesty and thrift, to their customs which +testify to their home-loving character, and to their quaint costumes. +It is a genuine delight to study and visit these lands, because they +are the least, perhaps in Europe, affected by the leveling hand of +cosmopolitan ideas. Go where you will,--to England, about Germany, +down into Italy,--everywhere, the same monotonous sameness is growing +more oppressive every year. But in Norway and Sweden there is still an +originality, a type, if you please, that has resisted the growth of +an artificial life, and gives to students a charm which is even more +alluring than modern cities with their treasures and associations. + +The student takes up Norwegian life as one of the subjects which has +been comparatively little explored, and is, therefore replete with +freshness and delight. This little book can not by any means more +than lift the curtain to view the fields of historical and literary +interest and the wondrous life lived in the deep fiords of Viking +land. But its brief pages will have, at least, the merit of giving +information on a subject about which only too little has been written. +Taken in all, there are scarcely half a dozen recent books circulating +in American literary channels on these interesting lands, and for one +reason or another, most of these are unsuited for club people. There +is an urgent call for a comprehensive book which will waste no time +in non-essentials,--a book that can be read in a few sittings and yet +will give a glimpse over this quaint and wondrously interesting corner +of Europe. This book has been prepared, as have all the predecessors +in this series, by the help of many who have written most delightfully +of striking things in Norwegian life. One has specialized in one +thing, while another has been allured by another subject. Accordingly, +"Norwegian Life" is the product of many, each inspired with feeling +and admiration for the one or two subjects on which he has written +better than on any others. Liberty has been taken to make a few +verbal changes in order to give to the story the unity and smoothness +desired, and a key-letter at the end of each chapter refers the reader +to a page at the close where due credits are given. + +J.M. HALL. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES + +CHAPTER II NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +CHAPTER III SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +CHAPTER IV THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN + +CHAPTER V THE LITERATURE OF NORWAY + +CHAPTER VI THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN + +CHAPTER VII GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + +CHAPTER VIII THE ARMY AND NAVY + +CHAPTER IX PUBLIC EDUCATION + +CHAPTER X HAAKON VII, NEW KING OF NORWAY + +CHAPTER XI THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN + +CHAPTER XII CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS + +CHAPTER XIII MATERIAL CONDITIONS + +CHAPTER XIV HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS + +CHAPTER XV THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + +CHAPTER XVI HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS + +CHAPTER XVII THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + +CHAPTER XVIII NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS + +CHAPTER XIX WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + + + +NORWEGIAN LIFE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES + + +A glance at the map will show that the Scandinavian Peninsula, that +immense stretch of land running from the Arctic Ocean to the North +Sea, and from the Baltic to the Atlantic, covering an area of nearly +three hundred thousand square miles, is, next to Russia, the largest +territorial division of Europe. Surrounded by sea on all sides but +one, which gives it an unparalleled seaboard of over two thousand +miles, it hangs on the continent by its frontier line with Russia in +Lapland. Down the middle of this seabound continent, dividing it into +two nearly equal parts, runs a chain of mountains not inappropriately +called Kölen, or Keel. The name suggests the image which the aspect of +the land calls to mind, that of a huge ship floating keel upwards on +the face of the ocean. This keel forms the frontier line between the +kingdoms of Norway and Sweden: Sweden to the east, sloping gently from +the hills to the Baltic, Norway to the west, running more abruptly +down from their watershed to the Atlantic. + +Norway (in the old Norse language _Noregr_, or _Nord-vegr, i.e_., the +North Way), according to archaeological explorations, appears to have +been inhabited long before historical time. The antiquarians maintain +that three populations have inhabited the North: a Mongolian race and +a Celtic race, types of which are to be found in the Finns and the +Laplanders in the far North, and, finally, a Caucasian race, which +immigrated from the South and drove out the Celtic and Laplandic +races, and from which the present inhabitants are descended. The +Norwegians, or Northmen (Norsemen), belong to a North-Germanic branch +of the Indo-European race; their nearest kindred are the Swedes, the +Danes, and the Goths. The original home of the race is supposed to +have been the mountain region of Balkh, in Western Asia, whence from +time to time families and tribes migrated in different directions. It +is not known when the ancestors of the Scandinavian peoples left +the original home in Asia; but it is probable that their earliest +settlements in Norway were made in the second century before the +Christian era. + +The Scandinavian peoples, although comprising the oldest and most +unmixed race in Europe, did not realize until very late the value of +writing chronicles or reviews of historic events. Thus the names of +heroes and kings of the remotest past are helplessly forgotten, save +as they come to us in legend and folk-song, much of which we must +conclude is imaginary, beautiful as it is. But Mother Earth has +revealed to us, at the spade of the archaeologist, trustworthy +and irrefutable accounts of the age and the various degrees of +civilization of the race which inhabited the Scandinavian Peninsula in +prehistoric times. Splendid specimens now extant in numerous museums +prove that Scandinavia, like most other countries, has had a Stone +Age, a Bronze Age, and an Iron Age, and that each of these periods +reached a much higher development than in other countries. + +The Scandinavian countries are for the first time mentioned by the +historians of antiquity in an account of a journey which Pyteas from +Massilia (the present Marseille) made throughout Northern Europe, +about 300 B.C. He visited Britain, and there heard of a great country, +Thule, situated six days' journey to the north, and verging on the +Arctic Sea. The inhabitants in Thule were an agricultural people who +gathered their harvest into big houses for threshing, on account of +the very few sunny days and the plentiful rain in their regions. From +corn and honey they prepared a beverage (probably mead). + +Pliny the Elder, who himself visited the shores of the Baltic in the +first century after Christ, is the first to mention plainly the name +of Scandinavia. He says that he has received advices of immense +islands "recently discovered from Germany." The most famous of these +islands was Scandinavia, of as yet unexplored size; the known parts +were inhabited by a people called _hilleviones_, who gave it the name +of another world. He mentions Scandia, Nerigon, the largest of them +all, and Thule. Scandia and Scandinavia are only different forms of +the same name, denoting the southernmost part of the peninsula, and +still preserved in the name of the province of Scania in Sweden. +Nerigon stands for Norway, the northern part of which is mentioned as +an island by the name of Thule. The classical writers were ignorant +of the fact that Scandinavia was one great peninsula, because the +northern parts were as yet uninhabited and their physical connection +with Finland and Russia unknown. That the Romans were later acquainted +with the Scandinavian countries is evidenced from the fact that great +numbers of Roman coins have been found in excavating, also vessels of +bronze and glass, weapons, etc., as well as works of art, all turned +out of the workshops in Rome or its provinces. There, no doubt, +existed a regular traffic over the Baltic, through Germany, between +the Scandinavian countries and the Roman provinces. + +The first settlers probably knew little of agriculture, but made their +living by fishing and hunting. In time, however, they commenced to +clear away the timber that covered the land in the valleys and on the +sides of the mountains and to till the ground. At the earliest times +of which the historical tales or _Sagas_ tell us anything with +regard to the social conditions, the land was divided among the free +peasant-proprietors, or _bonde class_. Bonde, in English translation, +is usually called peasant; but this is not an equivalent; for with the +word "peasant" we associate the idea of inferior social condition to +the landed aristocracy of the country, while these peasants or bondes +were themselves the highest class in the country. The land owned by a +peasant was called his _udal_. By udal-right the land was kept in the +family, and it could not be alienated or forfeited from the kindred +who were udal-born to it. The free peasants might own many thralls or +slaves, who were unfree men. These were mostly prisoners captured by +the vikings on their expeditions to foreign shores; the owner could +trade them away, or sell them, or even kill them without paying any +fine or _man-bote_ to the king, as in the case of killing a free man. +As a rule, however, the slaves were not badly treated, and they were +sometimes made free and given the right to acquire land. + +In early days Norway consisted of a great number of small states +called _Fylkis_, each a little kingdom by itself. The free peasants in +a Fylki held general assemblies called _Things_, where laws were made +and justice administered. No public acts were undertaken without the +deliberation of a _Thing_. The _Thing_ was sacred, and a breach of +peace at the _thing-place_ was considered a great crime. At the +_Thing_ there was also a hallowed place for the judges, or "lag-men," +who expounded and administered the laws made by the _Thing_. Almost +every crime could be expiated by the payment of fines, even if the +accused had killed a person. But if a man killed another secretly, +he was declared an assassin and an outlaw, was deprived of all his +property, and could be killed by any one who wished to do so. The fine +or man-bote was heavier, the higher the rank of the person killed. + +The _Thing_ or _Fylkis Thing_ was not made up of representatives +elected by the people, but was rather a primary assembly of the free +udal-born peasant-proprietors of the district. There were leading men +in the _fylki_, and each _fylki_ had one or more chiefs, but they had +to plead at the _Thing_ like other free men. When there were several +chiefs, they usually had the title of _herse_; but when the free men +had agreed upon one chief, he was called _jarl_ (earl), or king. The +king was the commander in war, and usually performed the judicial +functions; but he supported himself upon his own estates, and the free +peasants paid no tax. The dignity of the king was usually inherited +by his son, but if the heir was not to the liking of the people, they +chose another. No man, however clear his right of succession, would +think of assuming the title or power of a king except by the vote of +the _Thing_. There he was presented to the people by a free peasant, +and his right must be confirmed by the _Thing_ before he could exert +any act of kingly power. The king had a number of free men in his +service, who had sworn allegiance to him in war and in peace. They +were armed men, kept in pay, and were called _hird-men_ or court-men, +because they were members of the king's hird or court. If they were +brave and faithful, they were often given high positions of trust; +some were made _lendermen_ (liegemen), or managers of the king's +estates. + +It is but natural that the ancient Norwegians should become warlike +and brave men, since their firm religious belief was that those who +died of sickness or old age would sink down into the dark abode of Hel +(Helheim), and that only the brave men who fell in battle would be +invited to the feasts in Odin's Hall. Sometimes the earls or kings +would make war on their neighbors, either for conquest or revenge. +But the time came when the countries of the north, with their poorly +developed resources, became overpopulated, and the warriors had to +seek other fields abroad. The viking cruises commenced, and for a long +time the Norwegians continued to harry the coasts of Europe. + +At first the viking expeditions were nothing but piracy, carried on +for a livelihood. The name Viking is supposed to be derived from the +word _vik_, a cove or inlet on the coast, in which they would harbor +their ships and lie in wait for merchants sailing by. Soon these +expeditions assumed a wider range and a wilder character, and +historians of the time paint the horrors spread by the vikings in dark +colors. In the English churches they had a day of prayer each week to +invoke the aid of heaven against the harrying Northmen. In France +the following formula was inserted in the church prayer: "_A furore +Normannorum libera nos, o Domine_!" (Free us, O Lord, from the fury of +the Northmen!) + +Gradually the viking life assumed a nobler form. There appear to have +been three stages or periods in the viking age. In the first one the +vikings make casual visits with single ships to the shores of England, +Ireland, France or Flanders, and when they have plundered a town or +a convent, they return to their ships and sail away. In the second +period their cruises assume a more regular character, and indicate +some definite plan, as they take possession of certain points, where +they winter, and from where they command the surrounding country. +During the third period they no longer confine themselves to seeking +booty, but act as real conquerors, take possession of the conquered +territory, and rule it. As to the influence of the Northmen on the +development of the countries visited in this last period, the eminent +English writer, Samuel Laing, the translator of the _Heimskringla_, or +the Sagas of the Norse kings, says: + +"All that men hope for of good government and future improvement in +their physical and moral condition--all that civilized men enjoy at +this day of civil, religious, and political liberty--the British +constitution, representative legislation, the trial by jury, security +of property, freedom of mind and person, the influence of public +opinion over the conduct of public affairs, the Reformation, the +liberty of the press, the spirit of the age--all that is or has been +of value to man in modern times as a member of society, either in +Europe or in the New World, may be traced to the spark left burning +upon our shores by these northern barbarians." + +The authentic history begins with Halfdan the Swarthy, who reigned +from the year 821 to 860. The Icelander Snorre Sturlason, who, in +the twelfth century, wrote the _Heimskringla_, or Sagas of the Norse +Kings, gives a long line of preceding kings of the Yngling race, the +royal family to which Halfdan the Swarthy belonged; but that part of +the Saga belongs to mythology rather than to history. + +According to tradition, the Yngling family were descendants of +Fiolner, the son of the god Frey. One of the surnames of the god was +Yngve, from which the family derived the name Ynglings. King Halfdan +was a wise man, a lover of truth and justice. He made good laws, which +he observed himself and compelled others to observe. He fixed certain +penalties for all crimes committed. His code of laws, called the +Eidsiva Law, was adopted at a common _Thing_ at Eidsvol, where about a +thousand years later the present constitution of Norway was adopted. + +One day in the spring of 860, when Halfdan the Swarthy was driving +home from a feast across the Randsfjord, he broke through the ice and +was drowned. He was so popular that, when his body was found, the +leading men in each _Fylki_ demanded to have him buried with them, +believing that it would bring prosperity to the district. They at last +agreed to divide the body into four parts, which were buried in four +different districts. The trunk of the body was buried in a mound at +Stien, Ringerike, where a little hill is still called Halfdan's Mound. +And this Halfdan became the ancestor of the royal race of Norway. + +Halfdan's son, Harald the Fairhaired, at the age of ten years +succeeded his father on the throne of Norway, or it afterward proved +to be the throne of United Norway. When he became old enough to marry, +he sent his men to a girl named Gyda, a daughter of King Erik of +Hordaland, who was brought up a foster-child in the house of a rich +_Bonde_ in Valders. + +Harald had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When +the men delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry +a king who had no greater kingdom than a few _Fylkis_ (districts), and +she added that she thought it strange that "no king here in Norway +will make the whole country subject to him, in the same way that +Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala." When the messengers +returned to the king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty +words, but Harald said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow +not to cut or comb his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway, +which he did, and became sole king of Norway. The decisive battle was +a naval one in the Hafrsfjord, near the present city of Stavanger. +After this battle, which occurred in 872, when he had been declared +King of United Norway, he attended a feast, and the Earl of More cut +his hair, which had not been cut or combed for ten years, and gave him +the name of Fairhaired. Harald shortly afterward married Gyda. + +From this time on, the history of Norway for nearly three hundred +years consists mainly in internecine warfare among the various +claimants of the throne, and the result of all this warfare was not +only to exhaust the material resources of the people, but to drive a +large proportion of the population to make viking excursions to win +land elsewhere, and also to make peaceable settlements in other +countries. Iceland was settled by the leading men of Norway in Harald +the Fairhaired's reign because they would not submit to his rule and +therefore emigrated to a land where they could rule. In 912 Duke Rollo +with a large following conquered Normandy and settled there with many +of his countrymen. + +As the result of over three centuries of foreign and domestic war, +Norway and her people and her industries were prostrate when in 1389 +Queen Margaret of Denmark claimed the succession to the throne of +Norway for her son Eric of Pomerania. The council of Norway and the +people were willing to accept a union with a more populous country +under a powerful sovereign in order to obtain peace and reestablish +order and prosperity. Norway had not been conquered by Denmark, and +the union was supposed to be equal. The Danish sovereigns, however, +without directly interfering with the local laws and usages of the +people of Norway, filled all the executive and administrative offices +in Norway with Danes; the important commands in the army were also +given exclusively to them. The result was that the interpretation and +execution of the laws of the land were in the hands of foreigners, +and Norway became and remained for four hundred years a province of +Denmark and unable to throw off the yoke because her army was in the +control and command of her oppressor, and her material resources +inadequate to wage successful war against him. + +Like Norway, the most that we know of prehistoric times in Sweden we +gather from the early sagas, which are more or less faulty in their +statements, romantic and tragic though they be. Like the Norwegians, +the early Swedes are reported to have migrated from Asia under the +leadership of a chief who called himself Odin. And for centuries under +different kings and queens, the romantic and tragic story of Sweden +goes on to form at last her authentic history. In this brief survey we +can not go into details, and its history is very much the same as that +of Norway, except that Sweden was oftener her own mistress and at +longer intervals. + +The sources of Swedish history during the first two centuries of the +Middle Ages are very meager. This is a deplorable fact, for during +that period Sweden passed through a great and thorough development, +the various stages of which consequently are not easily traced. Before +the year 1060, Sweden is an Old Teutonic state, certainly of later +form and larger compass than the earliest of such, but with its +democracy and its elective kingdom preserved. The older Sweden was, in +regard to its constitution, a rudimentary union of states. The realm +had come into existence through the cunning and violence of the king +of the Sviar, who made way with the kings of the respective lands, +making their communities pay homage to him. No change in the interior +affairs of the different lands was thereby effected; they lost their +outward political independence, but remained mutually on terms of +perfect equality. They were united only through the king, who was +the only center for the government of the union. No province had +constitutionally more importance than the rest, no supremacy by one +over the other existed. On this historic basis the Swedish realm was +built, and rested firmly until the commencement of the Middle Ages. In +the Old Swedish state-organism the various parts thus possessed a high +degree of individualized and pulsating life; the empire as a whole was +also powerful, although the royal dignity was its only institution. +The king was the outward tie which bound the provinces together; +besides him there was no power of state which embraced the whole +realm. The affairs of state were decided upon by the king alone, as +regard to war, or he had to gather the opinion of the Thing in each +province, as any imperial representation did not exist and was +entirely unknown, both in the modern sense and in the form of one +provincial, or sectional, assembly deciding for all the others. In +society there existed no classes. It was a democracy of free men, the +slaves and free men enjoying no rights. The first centuries of the +Middle Ages were one continued process of regeneration, the Swedish +people being carried into the European circle of cultural development +and made a communicant of Christianity. With the commencement of the +thirteenth century, Sweden comes out of this process as a medieval +state, in aspect entirely different to her past. The democratic +equality among free men has turned into an aristocracy, with +aristocratic institutions, the hereditary kingdom into an elective +kingdom, while the provincial particularism and independence have +given way to the constitution of a centralized, monopolistic state. No +changes could be more fundamental. + +The old provincial laws of Sweden are a great and important +inheritance which this period has accumulated from heathen times. The +laws were written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but +they bear every evidence of high antiquity. Many strophes are found in +them of the same meter as those on the tombstones of the Viking Age +and those in which the songs of the Edda are chiefly written. In other +instances the texts consist of alliterative prose, which proves its +earlier metrical form. The expressions have, in places, remained +heathen, although used by Christians, who are ignorant of their true +meaning, as, for instance, in the following formula of an oath, in the +West Gothic law: _Sva se mer gud hull_ (So help me the gods). In lieu +of a missing literature of sagas and poetry, these provincial laws +give a good insight into the character, morals, customs, and culture +of the heathen and early Christian times of Sweden. From the point +of philology they are also of great value, besides forming the +solid basis of later Swedish law. How the laws could pass from one +generation to another, without any codification, depends upon the +fact that they were recited from memory by the justice (_lag-man_ +or _domare_), and that this dignity generally was inherited for +centuries, being carried by the descendants of one and the same +family.[a] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +As early as 1790 negotiations took place between Count Armfeldt on +behalf of Gustavus III of Sweden and various patriotic and influential +Norwegians with a view to effecting a union between Norway and Sweden +on equal terms, but the Norwegian negotiators expressed themselves +unwilling to accept for Norway the government prevailing in Sweden. A +minority of the patriots thought that the Danish yoke could only be +broken by means of a union with Sweden, while a majority aimed at +nothing less than absolute independence at any cost. + +Such was the condition of Norway when by the treaty of Kiel (Jan. +14, 1814) the allies compelled the king of Denmark to cede Norway to +Sweden and made Charles John Bernadotte crown prince of Sweden and +Norway. The Norwegians denied the right of Denmark to Norway, refused +to recognize the treaty of Kiel as having any binding force on them, +as they were not parties to it, and invited Prince Christian Frederick +of Denmark to accept the Norwegian throne from its people and to +govern pursuant to a constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814. +Among the provisions of this instrument are the following: That Norway +should be a limited hereditary monarchy, independent and indivisible, +whose ruler should be called a king; that all legislative power +should reside in and be exercised by the people through their +representatives; that all taxes should be levied by the legislative +authority; that the legislative and judicial authority should +be distinct departments; that the right of free press should be +maintained; that no personal or hereditary distinction shall hereafter +be granted to any one. + +The election of a king and adoption of an independent constitution in +disregard of the treaty of Kiel was tatamount to a declaration of war +against Sweden, and as such it was taken. After the treaty of Paris +and the abdication of Napoleon, the powers agreed to force Norway to +accept the treaty of Kiel, and representatives of the allied powers +came to Norway and demanded its compliance on penalty of war with +the allies. The Norwegians remained obdurate. The Swedes, under +Bernadotte, marched across the frontier and took the fortress +Fredricksteen. Another division of the Swedish army was beaten by +the Norwegians and driven back over the frontier. Several other +engagements were fought, and it became evident that Norway could not +be subdued without serious war. Sweden was exhausted by the wars of +the allies against Napoleon and could ill endure more warfare. On +Aug. 14, 1814, an armstice was declared, and it was provided that +an extraordinary storthing should be called to settle the terms of +permanent peace. By the terms finally agreed upon, Bernadotte was +elected king of Norway under the title of Charles XIII, and he +accepted the Norwegian constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814, +and agreed to govern under and subject to its provisions. At the same +time the Supreme Court of Norway was established in Christiania. The +Bank of Norway was established at Thronedjem in 1816. At the death +of Charles XIII, in 1818, Charles John ascended the throne of both +countries as Charles XIV John. + +On several occasions there was friction between the king and the +Norwegian Storthing. At the treaty of Kiel the king had promised that +Norway would assume a part of the Norwegian-Danish public debt; but as +the Norwegians had never acknowledged this treaty, they held that it +was not their duty to pay any part of the debt, and declared besides +that Norway was not able to do so. But as the powers had agreed to +help Denmark to enforce her claims, a compromise was effected in 1821, +by which the Storthing agreed to pay three million dollars, the king +relinquishing his civil list for a certain number of years. The same +Storthing adopted the law abolishing the nobility in Norway. This step +also was strongly opposed by Charles John, but as it had been adopted +by three successive Storthings, the act under the constitution became +a law in spite of any veto. + +For a number of years there existed a want of confidence between the +king and the Norwegian people. The king did not like the democratic +spirit of the Norwegians, and the reactionary tendencies of his +European allies had quite an influence upon his actions. In 1821 he +proposed ten amendments to the constitution, looking to an increase +of the royal power, among which was one giving the king an absolute +instead of a suspensive veto; another giving him the right to appoint +the presidents of the Storthing, and a third authorizing him to +dissolve the Storthing at any time. But these amendments met the most +ardent opposition in the Storthing, and were unanimously rejected. + +When the Norwegians commenced to celebrate the anniversary of the +adoption of the constitution (May 17), the king thought he saw in this +a sign of a disloyal spirit, because they did not rather celebrate the +day of their union with Sweden, and he forbade the public celebration +of the day. The result of this was that "Independence Day" was +celebrated with so much greater eagerness. The students at the +university especially took an active part under the leadership of that +champion of liberty, the poet Henrik Wergeland, who died in 1845. +The unwise prohibition was the cause of the "market-place battle" +in Christiania, May 17, 1829, when the troops were called out, +and General Wedel dispersed the crowds that had assembled in the +market-place. There was also dissatisfaction in Norway because a +Swedish viceroy (Statholder) was placed at the head of the government, +and because their ships had to sail under the Swedish flag. + +The French July Revolution of 1830, which started the liberal +movement throughout Europe, also had its influence in Norway. Liberal +newspapers were established at the capital, and the democratic +character of the Storthing became more pronounced, especially after +1833, when the farmers commenced to take an active part in the +elections. Prominent among them was Ole Gabriel Ueland. The king was +so displeased with the majority in the Storthing of 1836 that he +suddenly dissolved it; but the Storthing answered this action by +impeaching the Minister of State, Lövenskiold, for not having +dissuaded the king from taking such a step. Lövenskiold was sentenced +to pay a fine; the king then yielded and reconvened the Storthing. +He also took a step toward conciliating the Norwegians by appointing +their countryman, Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, as viceroy. This action was +much appreciated in Norway. During the last years of this reign there +existed the best of understanding between the king and the people. +Charles John's great benevolence tended to increase the affection of +the people, and he was sincerely mourned at his death, March 8, 1844, +at the age of eighty years. + +Charles John was succeeded by his son, Oscar I, who very soon won the +love of the Norwegians. One of his first acts was to give Norway her +own commercial flag and other outward signs of her equality with +Sweden. His father had always signed himself "King of Sweden and +Norway"; but King Oscar adopted the rule to sign all documents +pertaining to the government of Norway as "King of Norway and Sweden." +During the war between Germany and Denmark, King Oscar gathered a +Swedish-Norwegian army in Scania, and succeeded in arranging the +armstice of Malmoe in 1848. The war broke out anew, however, the +following year, and he then occupied northern Schleswig with Norwegian +and Swedish troops, pending the negotiations for peace between Germany +and Denmark. During the Crimean War, King Oscar made a treaty with +England and France (1855), by which the latter powers promised to +help Sweden and Norway in case of any attack from Russia. General +contentment prevailed during the happy reign of King Oscar, and +the prosperity, commerce, and population of the country increased +steadily. These satisfactory conditions did not, however, result in +weakening the national feeling, and the Storthing, in 1857, declined +to promote a plan, prepared by a joint Swedish and Norwegian +commission, looking to a strengthening of the union. After a sickness +of two years, during which his son, Crown Prince Charles, had charge +of the government as prince-regent, King Oscar I died in July, +1859, at the age of sixty years. He was married to Josephine of +Leuchtenberg, daughter of Napoleon's stepson, Eugene Beauharnais. + +Charles XV was thirty-three years old when he ascended the throne. The +progress in the material welfare of the country continued during his +reign, and, like his father, he was very popular with the Norwegians. +Numerous roads and railroads were started, all parts of the country +were connected by telegraph, and the merchant marine grew to be one +of the largest in the world. In 1869 a law was passed providing for +annual sessions of the Storthing instead of triennial as heretofore. + +Charles XV died Sept. 18, 1872, and, having no sons, was succeeded by +his younger brother, Oscar II, the late ruler of Sweden. The Storthing +appropriated the necessary funds for the expense of the coronation +at Throndhjem (July 18, 1873), while the king sanctioned the bill +abolishing the office of Statholder. But soon differences between the +Storthing and the ministry brought on sharp conflicts. Long before +Norway deposed King Oscar II (June 7, 1905), disruptions and war would +doubtless have occurred had it not been for the wisdom and tact of the +king. The last straw that broke the camel's back in this instance was +the refusal of separate consular representation for Norway. The basis +of this last demand was not mainly the commercial value to Norway of +having its distinct consuls, though this was an element, but the right +of Norway as a nation entirely independent of Sweden to be represented +as such in its commercial relations with foreign nations. Sweden and +Norway are now not only two distinct nations, but are competitors in +trade and commerce. Norway's shipping and carrying trade far exceeds +that of Sweden. The Norwegians have always been a seafaring people, +and Norwegian sailors and marines are found in large numbers in the +commercial marine and navies of all Europe and America. From the +standpoint of Norway, common justice demanded that Norwegian merchants +and sailors should, like every other nation, have their own consuls to +represent and protect them in foreign countries. + +Not being able to secure the approval of the king for separate +consular representation, the Storthing, on June 7, 1905, passed +resolutions declaring the dissolution of the union between Norway and +Sweden, and that King Oscar had ceased to be the ruler of Norway. In +the place of the king, the Storthing appointed the members of the +Norway Council of State to act as a temporary government for the +nation. The Storthing further declared that Norway had no ill feeling +against King Oscar or his dynasty of Sweden, and asked the king to +cooperate in selecting one of his own house to be king of Norway. + +The Riksdag of Sweden met in extraordinary session, June 21, 1905, +at the call of King Oscar, to consider the action of the Norwegian +Storthing in declaring the dissolution of the union between the +two countries. The opening of the session was marked by the usual +ceremonial pomp, but also by a gravity and solemnity befitting the +unusual occasion. The emotional feeling was intense and repressed with +difficulty by both speakers and audience. The king, in his address +to the Riksdag, maintained with dignity that he had acted within his +constitutional rights and that Norway had not the power to dissolve +the union which legally could be effected only by mutual consent. +Nevertheless, it was with great sadness that he now urged negotiations +for the severance of the ties between the two nations, believing that +"the union was not worth the sacrifice which acts of coercion would +entail." The bill prepared by the government was immediately presented +to the Riksdag. It was of the same tenor as the king's address, and +asked for authorization to negotiate with the Norwegian Storthing for +the establishment of a common basis for the settlement of the question +involved in the separation of the two kingdoms. The bill encountered +strong opposition, both in and out of the Riksdag. In the Senate it +was referred to a committee of nine anti-government members, while in +the lower house the composition of the corresponding committee was +equally divided between the two opposing parties, with the addition +of two independent members. The Riksdag authorized the government to +negotiate a loan of $25,000,000 for works of defense, and declared the +harbors of Stockholm, Karlskrona, Gothenburg, and Farosund to be +war ports from which all foreign naval vessels were to be excluded. +Norway's army was also mobilized and brought near the Swedish +boundary. + +Notwithstanding these warlike aspects, a peaceful dissolution of the +union between Sweden and Norway was finally effected. The conference +at Karlstad between the representatives of the two nations, on Sept. +23, 1905, drew up a protocol which became a treaty when subsequently +ratified by the Riksdag and the Storthing, on the ninth of the +following October. Thereupon Sweden canceled the charter of 1815 which +governed the union of the two countries, and King Oscar declared +Norway to be again separate and independent. Thus were severed the +political relations between two countries, which, during a period of +ninety years, had led to ever-increasing discord. + +King Oscar II of Sweden steadfastly refused, however, to allow any +prince of his house to be chosen as the new king of Norway, and the +choice finally fell upon Prince Charles of Denmark, who was elected by +an overwhelming majority at the plebiscite held throughout Norway on +Nov. 12, 1905. He accepted the throne offered him and was crowned June +22, 1906. + +The idea is prevalent that there is ill will between the Norwegian and +Swedish peoples. This is a popular misconception. The Norwegian and +Swedish peoples are racially very similar in character and habits, and +mutually respect each other. King Oscar was as beloved and honored in +Norway as he was in Sweden, and deservedly so. The Norwegians felt +proud of his character, life, and statesmanship. They appreciated +his wisdom and moderation, and gave him full credit for his earnest +conviction that he was right in his differences with the Norwegian +government. And yet, the dissolution was a blessing to both countries +concerned. So long as Norway and Sweden were united under one king, +there would have been friction. In like manner the long union between +Norway and Denmark was a continuous source of irritation, but after +the dissolution they were the best of friends. It has been suggested +that Russia has long had her eye on the ice-free harbors of the +Norwegian coast and has coveted them; that she has built her railroads +across Finland close up to the Norwegian frontier, and that there +is trouble ahead for Norway, because she has isolated herself from +Sweden, her natural protector. But we see in the division a Greater +Scandinavia. There are now the three great Scandinavian nations, +Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and it can be imagined that, so close of kin, +any one of them would rush to arms in defense of the others. A united +Norway and Sweden under one king brought constant bickerings; a +separate Norway and Sweden can be of mutual help.[b] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +Leading up to the events of the nineteenth century in Sweden were +centuries of splendid history, some points of which will be briefly +touched upon to connect the present-day Sweden with the mediaeval +state. + +During the Folkung Dynasty, in the fourteenth century, the royal +houses of Sweden and Norway became united through the marriage of Duke +Eric, of Sweden, and Ingeborg, only child of King Haakon, of Norway; +and Duke Valdemar to the king's niece of the same name. In May, 1319, +King Haakon died, and Magnus Ericsson, the young son of Duke Eric and +Princess Ingeborg, inherited the crown of Norway, and July 8 of the +same year was elected King of Sweden, at Mora in Upland. + +For the attainment of this end, Magnus' mother, Duchess Ingeborg, and +seven Swedish councillors had worked with great activity. They had +taken part in shaping the first Act of Union of the North in June, +1319, and from Oslo, in Norway, hastened to have Magnus elected at +the Stone of Mora, where the Swedish kings since time immemorial were +nominated. The Act of Union stipulated that the two kingdoms were to +remain perfectly independent, the king to sojourn an equally long part +of the year in each, with no official of either country to accompany +him further than the frontier. In their foreign relations the +countries were to be independent, but to support each other in case of +war. The king was the only tie to bind them together. + +There was another Magnus whose candidacy was spoiled by this union. He +was the son of King Birger, already as a child chosen king of Sweden +in succession to his father. Magnus Birgersson, a prisoner at +Stockholm, was beheaded in 1320, to make safe the reign of his more +fortunate cousin. King Magnus was only three years old, and Drotsete +Mattias Kettilmundsson presided over the government during his +minority, the nobles of the state council having great power and +influence. Both in Sweden and Norway the nobility had by this time +attained a supremacy which was oppressive both to the king and the +people, not so much through their privileges as through the liberties +they took. Their continual feuds between themselves disturbed the +peace of the country. + +In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of +benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests +he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character, and was not +able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and +Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into +German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as +security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for +protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar, in 1832, both +provinces were united to Sweden. But the king had to pay heavy amounts +in settlement, which were increased when Halland was procured in a +similar way. + +King Magnus was, at his zenith of power, one of the mightiest monarchs +in Europe, having under his rule the entire Scandinavian peninsula and +Finland, a realm stretching from the sound at Elsinore to the Polar +Sea, from the river Neva to Iceland and Greenland. In 1335, King +Magnus decreed that no Christian within his realm should remain a +thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery. + +But financial difficulties arose, an unsuccessful crusade was +attempted, the "Black Death" came from England to Norway in 1350 and +spread with great rapidity, and several other things convened to fill +the people with discontent, so that the union with Norway did not +prove a happy one. A separation was brought about in 1844, when +Haakon, the younger son of Magnus, was made king of Norway, Magnus +remaining in power until Haakon came of age, and his older son, +Eric, was chosen king or heir-apparent of Sweden. It seems that this +division had been preconceived by King Magnus when he gave this older +son the Swedish name of Eric and to the younger the Norwegian name +of Haakon, both equally characteristic of the royal lines of the +respective countries. + +It was during the Folkung period that there flourished one of the most +remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, St. Birgitta. At the Swedish +court, she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, where she +gathered deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful +world. By some she is considered a reformer before Luther, because +she insisted on direct communication between the communicant and God +without the mediation of priests or saints. Yet there was a difference +between Birgitta and Luther, because the latter sought to reform +institutions, while the former would reform the upholders of the +institutions. + +After the reign of Magnus and his sons, there came for a brief season +Albrecht of Germany, and after him Queen Margaret, who united for +the first time in history the three Scandinavian countries and their +dependencies. This period was denominated one of unionism against +patriotism, and closed with the rebellion of Denmark and the ascending +of the Swedish throne by Christian of Denmark, who claimed the right +of his descent from St. Eric. Then followed the public execution +under edict of King Christian, when eighty-two persons were beheaded, +including many bishops and men of note in Sweden. + +It is needless to say that this period was followed immediately by +one of revolution and reformation, characterized by much heroism and +patriotism, and bringing into prominence those splendid warriors, +Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII, and others, and the +memorable battle of Pultowa and other lesser engagements. + +After this came a period of political grandeur under various rulers, +notably Queen Christine, followed by what has been called the period +of Liberty, or the Aristocratic Republic, under Queen Ulrica Eleonore, +when literature and the arts and sciences flourished, and Swedenborg, +Linnaeus, Dahlin, Tegnér, and many others came into prominence. + +One of the most loved rulers of this period was Gustavus III. By his +influence a revolution similar to that in France was put down, for +which, at a mask ball in the Royal Opera, he was assassinated by +conspiritors. It is true, historians tell us, that he was superficial, +that he violated the law, had no regard for a constitutional +government, and led the people into adventurous and expensive wars. +Yet his noble patriotism, frank heroism, brilliant genius, and great +generosity compelled the love of his countrymen. In this mixture +of patriotism and universal cosmopolitanism, true genius and +superficiality, earnestness and recklessness in the character of +Gustavus III, the Swedes recognized peculiarities of their own +national temperament, for which they love him dearly, and Tegnér has +voiced this love in a few lines of his eulogy: + + There rests o'er Gustav's days a golden shimmer, + Fantastic, foreign, frivolous, if you please; + But why complain when sunshine caused the glamour? + Where stood we now if it were not for these? + All culture on an unfree ground is builded, + And barbarous once the base of patriotism true; + But wit was planted, iron-hard language welded, + The song was raised, life more enjoyed and shielded, + And what Gustavian was, is, therefore, Swedish too. + +On his death-bed, Gustavus III appointed his brother Charles and +Charles Gustavus Armfelt members of the government during the minority +of his son. Gustavus IV Adolphus was declared of age and took charge +of the government when eighteen (in 1796). His guardians retired, +and the new monarch ruled alone, without favorites or influential +advisers. This proved most unfortunate for Sweden, for he was entirely +without the gifts of a regent. He was a lover of order, economy, +justice, and pure morals, but through lack of mental and physical +strength his good qualities were misdirected. His father's tragic fate +had a sinister effect upon his mind, the equilibrium of which was also +shaken by the outrages of the revolutionists in France. Of a morbid +sensibility, and without inclination to confide in any one, his +religious mysticism led him into a state close to insanity. He +imagined himself to be the reincarnation of Charles XII, while in +Napoleon he recognized the monster of the Apocalypse, which he himself +was sent to fight and conquer. + +He refused any alliance with Russia and Denmark, and stubbornly +resisted the friendship France wished to bestow. By his imbecility he +lost Finland to the kingdom, and was compelled to abdicate in 1808. +This "lunatic monarch," as he was called, was escorted out of the +country with his family, never to return, and died in St. Gallin, in +1837. + +Under these conditions we find Sweden at the beginning of the +nineteenth century, when Charles XIII was chosen to succeed his +nephew, the abdicated Gustavus IV Adolphus. Charles XIII was one of +the most unsympathetic of Swedish kings, but his reign marks a new +period in Swedish history, commencing the era of constitutional +government. The new constitution to which the king subscribed was +not a radical document; it only reduced the power of the king. Hans +Jaerta, one of the nobles who had renounced their privileges and been +active in the conspiracy against Gustavus IV, was the leading spirit +of the constitutional committee, and was appointed secretary of state +in the new cabinet. + +It was necessary to select an heir to the throne, as Charles XIII was +childless, and Prince Christian August of Augustenborg was chosen, +much in opposition to the nobles, who wanted the son of Gustavus IV. + +The Prince of Augustenborg, who was Danish governor-general of Norway, +accepted, and was adopted by the king, changing his name to Charles +August. Beloved by the lower classes who had effected his selection, +he was treated coldly by the Gustavian aristocrats, and reports of +attempts to poison the heir-apparent were in circulation even before +he arrived in Sweden. Prince Charles August himself said he had +often been warned that he would die young of paralysis, but paid no +attention to the warnings given him. During a parade of troops at +Qvidinge, in Scania, he was suddenly seen to lose consciousness +and dropped dead from his horse. A report that seemed to favor the +supposition that death resulted from poison, threw the populace into +a frenzy, and the stoning to death of Count Fersen resulted. This +occurred at the burial of the dead prince, when Count Fersen, as +marshal of the realm, opened the procession. Approaching the church +of Riddarholm, his carriage was pelted with stones, Fersen himself +seeking shelter in various places, but being pursued by the mob and +killed. Thus perished a man who, with Curt von Stedingk, had received +the order of Cincinnatus from the hands of George Washington, and who +once was so near saving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their +cruel fate. Fersen's brother was saved only by mere chance, and his +sister by a flight in disguise. + +Sweden was once more without an heir-apparent to the throne, and, +though others had been proposed, King Charles sent two emissaries +to Napoleon to notify him of the death of Charles August and the +selection of his brother. Then one of the most original and daring +schemes ever attempted on such a line was carried through by Count +Otto Moerner, one of the emissaries. On his own responsibility, he +inquired of Marshal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's ablest generals, +if he would consent to become heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. +Bernadotte consented, and the consent of Napoleon was obtained through +the Swedish ambassador in Paris. Upon his return, Moerner was ordered +to leave the capital, by the minister of state, who blamed him for his +unauthorized action. But, from Upsala, Moerner led an eager agitation, +with the result that the Riksdag of Oerebro selected Bernadotte, who +was represented by a secret emissary. Thus, the two generals who, +at the abdication of Gustavus IV, were, one in Norway, the other in +Denmark, with troops ready to attack Sweden, both within one year were +chosen to succeed Charles XIII. And this is how the Bernadottes, +the present reigning family of Sweden, came to the throne. Marshal +Bernadotte took the name of Prince Charles Johann. + +It was in 1818, four years after Norway had been joined to Sweden, +that Charles XII died, at the age of seventy, and Charles XIV Johann, +the first of the Bernadotte dynasty, succeeded him, at the age of +fifty-four years. His reign was one of reconstruction--politically, +financially, and socially,--and during the last years of his life +he received strong and repeated evidence of the love of his people, +especially upon the twenty-fifth anniversary as king of Sweden. + +Oscar I, his son, was forty-five years of age at the death of his +father. He did not possess his father's brilliant genius or power of +personal influence, but was fondly devoted to the fine arts, himself a +talented painter and composer. He was a hard worker, and also fond +of the pleasures of life. His health was injured through illness, in +1857, and he never recovered. The premature death of his second +son, Prince Gustavus, a talented composer and highly popular, had +a disastrous effect on him, and he died July 8, 1859, after a long +illness, beloved by the two nations who, during his reign, had enjoyed +the happiest epoch of their history. + +It was during the reign of the late king, Oscar II, that Sweden +attained her greatest prosperity and made most progress. Oscar II, +brother of his predecessor, ascended the throne at a moment when +universal peace was restored after the great conflict between France +and Germany, and when an age of commercial prosperity for Sweden +seemed to have begun. King Oscar had received the same superior +education as his older brothers, was as brilliantly gifted as they, +and of a more scholarly mind. As a writer on scientific subjects, +a poet, and an orator, Oscar II distinguished himself before his +succession to the throne, and still he did not find it easy to gain +the love and admiration of the Swedish people, of which he was so +eminently worthy. He was the successor of one of the most popular +rulers the country ever saw, and, though appreciation came slowly, +he lived to see his own popularity almost outrival that of his +predecessor. During the last years of his life he was considered the +most learned and popular of the monarchs of Europe. + +He showed great discernment in his arrangement of dynastic matters. +Himself married to the fervently religious Princess Sophie of Nassau, +the king brought about the marriage of his oldest son, Crown Prince +Adolphus, the present king of Sweden, to Princess Victoria of Bade, a +granddaughter of Emperor William of Germany, and a great-granddaughter +of Gustavus IV of Sweden. His third son, Prince Charles, Duke of West +Gothland, is married to Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, a granddaughter +of Charles XV of Sweden. These unions are well calculated to +accentuate the increasing political, commercial, and cultural intimacy +with Germany, the Scandinavian policy of life predecessor, and the +desire of King Oscar to see the descendants of the old royal line of +Sweden as heirs to the crown. In giving his consent to the marriage +of his second son, Prince Oscar, to Lady Ebba Munck, of the Swedish +nobility, King Oscar gave evidence of the fact that he was not a +matchmaker regardless of the feelings of the parties involved. Prince +Oscar, formerly Duke of Gothland, upon renouncing his share of +inheritance to the throne of Sweden, also the throne of Norway, for +the two kingdoms were then united, was allowed to marry the choice of +his heart. King Oscar also tried to heal the wounds of the past by +opening the vaults of the church of Riddarholm to the sarcophagi of +Gustavus IV, the exiled king, and his son, and by giving Queen Carola +of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of Gustavus, repeated proofs +of esteem and considerate distinction. + +King Oscar with his two crowns received as an inheritance two +important problems to be solved--the reorganization of the Swedish +army and the settlement of the difficulties between Norway and Sweden. +How he handled the latter has been told about in the preceding +chapter. The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until +after twenty years of parliamentary struggle, but is now, thanks to +the energies and perseverance of King Oscar, on a solid basis. + +During the nearly one hundred years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed +under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her +constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree. +The dreams of glory by conquest belonged to the days gone by, but in +the fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which +the world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867, +1878, and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876, and of +Chicago in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with +honor in the international competition. The railways of Sweden have +incessantly spun a more and more extended network of steel over the +country, opening connections for enterprises in new districts, and +furthering commerce and industrial art in a wide measure. + +In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that +his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short +a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of +government were in his hands practically long before the death of his +father, who for several years suffered ill health. To say the least, +Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the +strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden, +and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN + + +The religion of the ancient Norwegians was of the same origin as +that of all other Germanic nations, and, as it is the basis of their +national life, a brief outline of it will be necessary in these pages. + +In the beginning of time there were two worlds: in the South was +Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler; in the North +was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the spring Hvergelmer, where the +dragon Nidhugger dwells. Between these worlds was the yawning abyss +Ginungagap. From the spring Hvergelmer ran icy streams into the +Ginungagap. The hoarfrost from these streams was met by sparks from +Muspelheim, and by the power of the heat the vapors were given life in +the form of the Yotun or giant Ymer and the cow Audhumbla, on +whose milk he lives. From Ymer descends the evil race of Yotuns or +frost-giants. As the cow licked the briny hoarfrost, the large, +handsome and powerful Bure came into being. His son was Bur, who +married a daughter of a Yotun and became the father of Odin, Vile, and +Ve. Odin became the father of the kind and fair Aesir, the gods who +rule heaven and earth. + +Bur's sons killed Ymer, and in his blood the whole race of Yotuns +drowned except one couple, from whom new races of Yotuns or giants +descended. Bur's sons dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of +Ginungagap. Out of the trunk of the body they made the earth, and of +his blood the sea. His bones became mountains, and of his hair they +made trees. From the skull they made the heavens, which they elevated +high above the earth and decorated with sparks from Muspelheim. But +his brain was scattered in the air and became clouds. Around the earth +they let the deep waters flow, and on the distant shores the escaped +Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard. For protection +against them the kind gods made from Ymer's eyebrows the fortification +Midgard as a defense for the inner earth. But from heaven to earth +they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow. + +The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the +Dawn) of the Aesir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who +was bright and fair as his father. Odin placed mother and son in the +heavens, and bade them each in turn ride over the earth. Night rides +ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is +every morning covered with dew. Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe, +whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth. + +A great number of maggots were bred in Ymer's body, and they became +gnomes or dwarfs, little beings whom the gods gave human sense +and appearance. They lived within the mountains, and were skilful +metal-workers, but they could not endure the light of day. Four +dwarfs, the East, West, North, and South, were placed by the gods to +carry the arch of heaven. + +As yet there were no human beings on earth. Then, one day, the three +gods, Odin, Keener and Lodur, were walking on the shore of the sea, +where they found two trees, and from them they made the first man and +the first woman, Ask and Embla (ash and elm). Odin gave them life, +Hoener reason, Lodur blood and fair complexion. The gods gave them +Midgard for a home, and from them the whole human race is descended. + +The evergreen ash tree Ygdrasil is the finest of all trees. It +shoots up from three roots. One of them is in the well Hvergelmer in +Niflheim, and on this the dragon Nidhugger is gnawing. The other root +is in Yotunheim, in the wise Yotun Mimer's fountain. One of Odin's +eyes, which he pledged for a drink at this fountain, is kept here. +Whoever drinks of this fountain becomes wise. The third root is in +heaven, at the Urdar well, where the gods hold their Thing or court. +To this place they ride daily over the bridge Bifrost. Here also +the three Norns abide, the maidens Urd, Verdande, and Skuld (past, +present, and future). They pour water from the well over the roots of +the tree. The Norns distribute life and govern fate, and nothing can +change their decision. + +The dwelling in heaven of the Aesir or gods is called Asgard. In its +middle was the field of Ida, the gathering-place of the gods, with +Odin's throne, Lidskialv, from which he views the whole world. Odin is +the highest and the oldest of the gods, and all the others honor him +as their father. Odin's hall is Valhalla. The ceiling of this hall +is made of spears, it is covered with shields, and its benches are +ornamented with coats of mail. To this place Odin invites all who have +fallen in battle, and he is therefore called Valfather, _i.e._, the +father of the fallen. The invited fallen heroes are called Einherier; +their sport and pastime is to go out every day and fight and kill each +other; but toward evening they awake to life again and ride home as +friends to Valhalla, where they feast on pork of the barrow Saerimmer, +and where Odin's maidens, the Valkyrias, fill their horns with mead. +These Valkyrias were sent by Odin to all battles on earth, where they +selected those who were to be slain and afterward become the honored +guests at Valhalla. At Odin's side sit the two wolves, Gere and Freke, +and on his shoulders the ravens, Hugin and Munin. These ravens fly +forth every morning and return with tidings from all parts of the +world. Odin's horse is the swift, gray, eight-footed Sleipner. When he +rides to battle he wears a golden helmet, a beautiful coat of mail, +and carries the spear Gungner, which never fails. Odin is also the god +of wisdom and poesy; in the morning of time he deposited one of his +eyes in pledge for a drink of Mimer's fountain of wisdom, and he drank +Suttung's mead in order to gain the gift of poesy. He has also taught +men the art of writing Runes and all secret arts. + +Thor, the son of Odin, is the strongest of all the gods. His dwelling +is called Thrudvang. He rides across the heavens in a cart drawn by +two rams. He is always at war with the Yotuns or evil giants, and in +battle with them he uses his great hammer, Mjolner, which he hurls at +the heads of his enemies. The earth trembles under the wheels of his +cart, and men call the noise thunder. Thor's wife is Sif, whose hair +is of gold. + +Balder is a son of Odin and Frigg. He is so fair that his countenance +emits beams of brightness. He is wise and gentle, and is therefore +loved by all. His dwelling is Breidablik, where nothing impure exists. +Nanna is his wife. + +Njord comes from the race of the wise Vanir. He rules the wind, can +calm the seas and stop fire, and he distributes wealth among men. His +aid is invoked for success in navigation and fishing. His wife is +Skade, daughter of a Yotun, and his dwelling is Noatun by the sea. + +Frey, the son of Njord, rules rain and sunshine and the productiveness +of the soil, and his aid is needed to get good crops, peace and +wealth. His dwelling is Alfheim. He sails in the magnificent ship +Skibladner, which was built for him by the dwarfs. His wife is the +Yotun daughter Gerd, but in order to get her he had to give away his +good sword, so that he will be unarmed in the coming final battle of +the gods. + +Tyr, Odin's son, is the god of courage and victory, whom brave men +call upon in battle. He has only one hand, for the Fenris-Wolf bit off +his right hand. + +Brage, the long-bearded, is the god of eloquence and poetry. His wife +is Idun, who has in her keeping the apples of which the gods eat to +preserve their eternal youth. Heimdal, the white god with teeth of +gold, was in the beginning of time born by nine Yotun maidens, all +sisters. He is the watchman of the gods. He is more wakeful than +birds. He can see a hundred miles off, and he can hear the grass grow. +His dwelling is Himinbjorg, which is situated where the Bifrost bridge +reaches heaven. When he blows his Gjallar-horn, it is heard throughout +the world. Among the other gods were Haad, son of Odin, blind but +strong; the silent and strong Vidar; Vale, the archer; Ull, the fast +ski-runner, and Forsete, the son of Balder, who settles disputes +between gods and men. Among the goddesses (or _asynier_), Frigg, +Odin's wife, is the foremost. She knows the fate of everybody and +shields many from danger. Her dwelling is Fensal. Next comes Freya, +the goddess of love. She is the daughter of Njord and sister of Frey. +She is also called Vanadis, or the goddess of the Vanir. She was +married to Odd, and by him had a daughter Noss. But Odd left her, and +Freya weeps in her longing for him, and her tears are red gold. When +she travels, her wagon is drawn by two cats. The name of her dwelling +is Folkvang. There were also a number of other goddesses, who were in +the service of either Frigg or Freya. + +Aeger, the ruler of the turbulent and stormy sea, is a Yotun, but he +is a friend of the gods. When they visit him his hall is lighted with +shining gold. His wife is Ran, and their daughters are the waves. + +In the beginning there was peace among gods and men. But the arrival +of the Yotun women in Asgard undermined the happiness of the gods, and +in heaven and on earth a struggle commenced which must last until +both are destroyed. The Yotuns continually attack the inhabitants of +Asgard, and it is only the mighty Thor who can hold them at bay. It is +the evil Loke, who is the worst enemy of gods and men. He belongs to +the Yotun race, but was early adopted among the gods. He was fair in +looks, but wily and evil in spirit. He had three evil children--the +Fenris-Wolf, the Midgard-Serpent, and Hel. The gods knew that this +offspring of Loke would cause trouble; therefore they tied the +Fenris-Wolf, threw the serpent into the sea, and hurled Hel down into +Niflheim, where she became the ruler of the dead. All who die from +sickness or age are sent to her awful dwelling, Helheim. This is the +origin of the saying, "Whom the gods love die young." + +The greatest sorrow which Loke caused the whole world was that by +deceit he caused the death of the lovely god, Balder. Then the gods +took an awful revenge. They tied him to three stones, and over his +head they fastened a venomous serpent, whose poison was always to drip +upon his face. Loke's faithful wife, Sigyn, placed herself at his side +and held a cup under the poisonous drip; but whenever the cup is full +and she goes to empty it, the poison drips into Loke's face, and then +he writhes in agony so that the whole world trembles. This is the +cause of earthquakes. + +There will come a time when these gods and the world shall perish in +_Ragnarokk_, which means the perdition of the gods. They will have +many warnings. Corruption and wickedness will be common in the world. +For three years there will be winter without sun. The sun and the moon +will be swallowed up by the wolves of the Yotuns, and the bright +stars will disappear. The earth will tremble and the mountains will +collapse, and all chains and ties are sundered. The Fenris-Wolf and +Loke get loose, and the Midgard-Serpent leaves the ocean. The ship +Naglfar carries the army of the Yotuns across the sea under the +leadership of the Yotun _Rym_, and Loke advances at the head of the +hosts from the abode of Hel. The heavens split, and the sons of Muspel +come riding ahead, led by their chief Surt. As the hosts are rushing +across the Bifrost, the bridge breaks with them. All are hastening +to the great battlefield, the plains of _Vigrid_, which is a hundred +miles wide. Now Heimdal arises and blows his Gjallar-horn, all the +gods are assembled, the ash Ygdrasil trembles, and everything in +heaven and on earth is filled with terror. Gods and Einherier (the +fallen heroes) arm themselves for battle. In the front rides Odin with +his golden helmet and beaming coat of mail and carrying his spear, +Gungner. He meets the Fenris-Wolf, who swallows him, but Vidar +avenges his father and kills the wolf. Thor crushes the head of the +Midgard-Serpent, but is stifled to death by its venom. Frey is felled +by Surt, and Loke and Heimdal kill each other. Finally Surt hurls his +fire over the world, gods and men die, and the shriveling earth sinks +into the abyss. + +But the world shall rise again and the dead come to life. From above +comes the all-powerful one, he who rules everything, and whose name no +one dares utter. All those who were virtuous and pure of heart will +gather in _Gimle_ in everlasting happiness, while the evil ones will +go to Naastrand at the well Hvergelmer to be tortured by Nidhugger. A +new earth, green and beautiful, shall rise from the ocean. The gods +awake to new life and join _Vidar_ and _Vale_, and the sons of Thor, +Mode and Magne, who have survived the great destruction and who have +been given their father's hammer, because there is to be no more war. +All the gods assemble on the field of Ida, where Asgard was located. +And from _Liv_ and _Livthraser_, who hid themselves in Ygdrasil during +the burning of the world, a new human race shall descend.[d] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NORWEGIAN LITERATURE + + +The people who emigrated from Norway and settled in Iceland, after +Harald the Fairhaired had subdued the many independent chiefs and +established the monarchy (872), for the most part belonged to the +flower of the nation, and Iceland naturally became the home of the old +Norse literature. Among the oldest poetical works of this literature +is the so-called "Elder Edda," also called "Saemund's Edda," because +for a long time it was believed to be the work of the Icelander +Saemund. "The Younger Edda," also called "Snorre's Edda," because it +is supposed to have been written by Snorre Sturlason (born 1178, died +1241), contains a synopsis of the old Norse religion and a treatise on +the art of poetry. Fully as important as the numerous poetical works +of that period was the old Norse Saga-literature (the word saga means +a historical tale). The most prominent work in this field is Snorre +Sturlason's _Heimskringla_, which gives the sagas of the kings +of Norway from the beginning down to 1777. A continuation of the +_Heimskringla_, to which several authors have contributed, among them +Snorre Sturlason's relative, Sturla Thordson, contains the history of +the later kings down to Magnus Law-Mender. + +The literary development above referred to ceased almost entirely +toward the end of the fourteenth century, and later, during the union +with Denmark, the Danish language gradually took the place of the +old Norse as a book-language, and the literature became essentially +Danish. Copenhagen, with its court and university, was the literary +and educational center, where the young men of Norway went to study, +and authors born in Norway became to all intents and purposes, Danish +writers. But Norway furnished some valuable contributors to this +common literature. One of the very first names on the records of the +Danish literature, Peder Claussön (1545-1614), is that of a Norwegian, +and the list further includes such illustrious names as Holberg, +Tullin, Wessel, Steffens, etc. + +One of the most original writers whom Norway produced and kept at home +during the period of the union with Denmark was the preacher and poet, +Peder Dass (1647-1708). The best known among his secular songs is +_Nordlands Trompet_, a beautiful and patriotic description of the +northern part of Norway. + +Ludvig Holberg was born in Bergen, Norway, Dec. 3, 1684. His father, +Colonel Holberg, had risen from the ranks and distinguished himself, +in 1660, at Halden. Shortly after his death the property of the family +was destroyed by fire, and at the age of ten years Ludvig lost his +mother. It was now decided to have him educated for the military +service; but he showed a great dislike for military life, and, at his +earnest request, he was sent to the Bergen Latin School. In 1702 he +entered the University of Copenhagen. Being destitute of means, he +took a position as private tutor. As soon as he had saved a small sum +he went abroad. He was first in Holland, and afterward studied for +a couple of years at Oxford, where he supported himself by giving +instruction in languages and music. Upon his return to Copenhagen +he again took a position as private tutor and had an opportunity to +travel as teacher for a young nobleman. In 1714 he received a stipend +from the king, which enabled him to go abroad for several years, which +he spent principally in France and Italy. In 1718 he became regular +professor at the Copenhagen University. Among Holberg's many works +the following are the most prominent: _Peder Paars_, a great comical +heroic poem, containing sharp attacks on many of the follies of his +time; about thirty comedies in Moliere's style, and a large number of +historical works. Holberg, who was ennobled in 1747, died in January, +1754, and was buried in Sorö Church. His influence on the literature +and on the whole intellectual life of Denmark was very great. He is +often called the creator of Danish literature. + +Christian Baumann Tullin (1728-1765), a genuine poetical genius, +who has been called the father of Danish lyrical verse, was born in +Christiania, and his poetry, which was mainly written in his native +city, breathes a national spirit. From his day, for about thirty +years, Denmark obtained the majority of her poets from Norway. The +manager of the Danish National Theater, in 1771, was a Norwegian, +Niels Krog-Bredal (1733-1778), who was the first to write lyrical +dramas in Danish. A Norwegian, Johan Nordal Brun (1745-1816), a gifted +poet, wrote tragedy in the conventional French taste of the day. It +was a Norwegian, Johan Herman Wessel (1742-1785), who by his great +parody, _Kjaerlighed uden Strömper_, "Love without Stockings," laughed +the French taste out of fashion. Among the writers of this period are +also Claus Frimann (1746-1829), Peter Harboe Frimann (1752-1839), +Claus Fasting (1746-1791), John Wibe (1748-1782), Edward Storm +(1749-1794), C.H. Pram (1756-1821), Jonas Rein (1760-1821), and Jens +Zetlitz (1761-1821), all of them Norwegians by birth. Two notable +events led to the foundation of an independent Norwegian literature: +the one was the establishment of a Norwegian university at +Christiania, in 1811, and the other was the separation of Norway +from Denmark, in 1814. At first the independent Norwegian literature +appeared as immature as the conditions surrounding it. The majority of +the writers had received their education in old Copenhagen, and were +inclined to follow in the beaten track of the old literature, +although trying to introduce a more national spirit. All were greatly +influenced by the political feeling of the hour. There was a period +when all poetry had for its subject the beauties and strength of +Norway and its people, and _The Rocks of Norway, The Lion of Norway_, +etc., sounded everywhere. Three poets called _Trefoil_, were the +prominent writers of this period. Of these, Conrad Nicolai Schwach +(1793-1860) was the least remarkable. Henrik A. Bjerregaard +(1792-1842) was the author of _The Crowned National Song_, and of a +lyric drama, _Fjeldeventyret_, "The Adventures in the Mountains." The +third member of the _Trefoil_, Mauritz Christian Hansen (1794-1842), +wrote a large number of novels and national stories, which were quite +popular in their time. His poems were among the earliest publications +of independent Norway. + +The time about the year 1820 is reckoned as the beginning of the new +Norwegian literature, and Henrik Wergeland is called its creator. +Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born in 1808. His father, Nicolai +Wergeland, a clergyman, was a member of the Constitutional Convention +at Eidsvold. Henrik studied theology, but did not care to become a +clergyman. In 1827, and the following years, he wrote a number of +satirical farces under the signature _Siful Sifadda_. In 1830 appeared +his lyric, dramatic poem, _Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias_, (The +Creation, Man and Messiah), a voluminous piece 'of work, in which +he attempted to explain the historical life of the human race. As +a political writer he was editorial assistant on the _Folkebladet_ +(1831-1833), and edited the opposition paper _Statsborgeren_ +(1835-1837). He worked with great zeal for the education of the +laboring class, and from 1839 until his death edited a paper in the +interest of the laborer. The prominent features of his earliest +efforts in literature are an unbounded enthusiasm and a complete +disregard of the laws of poetry. At an early age he had become a power +in literature, and a political power as well. From 1831 to 1835 he +was subjected to severe satirical attacks by the author Welhaven and +others, and later his style became improved in every respect. His +popularity, however, decreased as his poetry improved, and in 1840 +he had become a great poet but had no political influence. Among his +works may be named _Hasselnödder, Jöden_, "The Jew," _Jodinden_, +"The Jewess," _Jan van Huysum's Blomsterstykke_, "Jan van Huysum's +Flowerpiece," _Den Engleske Lods_, "The English Pilot," and a great +number of lyric poems. The poems of his last five years are as popular +to-day as ever. Wergeland died in 1845. + +The enthusiastic nationalism of Henrik Wergeland and his young +following brought conflict with the conservative element, which +was not ready to accept everything as good simply because it was +Norwegian. This conservative element maintained that art and culture +must be developed on the basis of the old association with Denmark, +which had connected Norway with the great movement of civilization +throughout Europe. As the political leader of this "Intelligence" +party, as it was called, appeared J.S. Welhaven. + +John Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was born in Bergen in 1807, +entered the university in 1825, became a _Lector_ in 1840, and +afterward Professor of Philosophy. "His refined esthetic nature," says +Fr. Winkel Horn, "had been early developed, and when the war once +broke out between him and Wergeland, he had reached a high point +of intellectual culture, and thus was in every way a match for +his opponent." The fight was inaugurated by a preliminary literary +skirmish, which was, at the outset, limited to the university +students; but it gradually assumed an increasingly bitter character, +both parties growing more and more exasperated. Welhaven published a +pamphlet, _Om Henrik Wergelands Digtekunst og Poesie_, in which he +mercilessly exposed the weak sides of his adversary's poetry. Thereby +the minds became still more excited. The "Intelligence" party withdrew +from the students' union, founded a paper of their own, and thus +the movement began-to assume wider dimensions. In 1834, appeared +Welhaven's celebrated poem, _Norges Daemring_, a series of sonnets, +distinguished for their beauty of style. In them the poet scourges, +without mercy, the one-sided, narrow-minded patriotism of his time, +and exposes, in striking and unmistakable words, the hollowness +and shortcomings of the Wergeland party. Welhaven points out, with +emphasis, that he is not only going to espouse the cause of good +taste, which his adversary has outraged, but that he is also about +to discuss problems of general interest. He urges that a Norwegian +culture and literature can not be created out of nothing and to +promote their development it is absolutely necessary to continue +the associations which have hitherto been common to both Norway and +Denmark, and thus to keep in _rapport_ with the general literature +of Europe. When a solid foundation has in this manner been laid, the +necessary materials for a literature would surely not be wanting, +for they are found in abundance, both in the antiquities and in the +popular life of Norway. Welhaven continued his effective work as a +poet and critic. Through a series of romantic and lyrical poems, rich +in contents and highly finished in style, he developed a poetical +life, which had an important influence in the young Norwegian literary +circles. He died in 1873. + +Andreas Munch (1811-1884), an able and industrious poetical writer, +took no part in the controversy between Wergeland and Welhaven, but +followed his Danish models independently of either. His _Poems, Old +and New_, published in 1848, were quite popular. His best work is +probably _Kongedatterens Brudefart_, "The Bridal Tour of the King's +Daughter," 1861. + +In the period of about a dozen years following the death of Wergeland, +the life, manners, and characteristics of the Norwegian people were +given the especial attention of literary writers. Prominent in this +period was Peter Christian Ashbjornsen (1812-1885), who, partly +alone and partly in conjunction with Bishop Jorgen Moe (1813-1882), +published some valuable collections of Norwegian folk tales and +fairy tales. Moe also published three little volumes of graceful and +attractive poems. Among other writers of this period may be named +Hans H. Schultz, N. Ostgaard, Harald Meltzer, M.B. Landstad, and the +linguist Sophus Bugge. + +The efforts to bring out the national life and characteristics of +the people in literature also led to an attempt to nationalize the +language in which the literature was written. The movement was the +so-called _Maalstraev_, and had in view the introduction of a pure +Norwegian book language, based upon the peasant dialects. The +prominent supporter of this movement was Ivar Aasen (1813-1898), +the author of an excellent dictionary of the Norwegian language. A +prominent poetical representative of this school was Aasmund Olafson +Vinje (1818-1870), while Kristofer Janson (born 1841) has also written +a number of stories and poems in the _Landsmaal_ (country tongue). + +A new and grand period in Norwegian literature commenced about 1857, +and the two most conspicuous names in this period--and in the whole +Norwegian literature--are those of Henrik Ibsen and Björnstjerne +Björnson. + +Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, in 1828. He has written many beautiful +poems; but his special field is in the drama, where he is a master. +His first works were nearly all historical romantic dramas. His first +work, _Catilina_, printed in 1850, was scarcely noticed until years +afterward, when he had become famous. In 1856 appeared the romantic +drama, _Gildet paa Solhaug_, "The Feast at Solhaug," followed by _Fru +Inger til Oestraat_, 1857, and _Haermaedene paa Helgeland_, "The +Warriors on Helgeland," 1858. In 1863, he wrote the historical tragedy +_Kongsemnerne_, "The Pretenders," in which the author showed his great +literary power. Before this play was published, he had been drawn +into a new channel. In 1862, he began a series of satirical and +philosophical dramas with _Kjaerlighedens Komedie_, "Love's Comedy," +which was succeeded by two masterpieces of a similar kind, _Brand_, in +1866, and _Peer Gynt_, in 1867. These two works were written in verse; +but in _De Unges Forbund_, "The Young Men's League," 1869, a political +satire, he abandoned verse, and all his subsequent dramas have been +written in prose. In 1873 came _Keiser og Galilaeer_, "Emperor and +Galilean." Since then he has published a number of social dramas which +have attracted world-wide attention. Among them are: _Samfundets +Stötter_, "The Pillars of Society," _Et Dukkehjem_, "A Doll's House," +_Gengangere_, "Ghosts," _En Folkefiende_, "An Enemy of the People," +_Rosmerholm, Fruenn fra Havet_, "The Lady from the Sea," _Little +Eyolf, Bymester Solnes_, "Masterbuilder Solnes," _John Gabriel +Borkman_, and the latest and most-talked-about, _Hedda Gabler_. + +Björnstjerne Björnson (born in Osterdalen, in 1832) is the more +popular of the two giants of Norwegian literature of to-day. His works +are more national in tone. It has been said that to mention his name +is to raise the Norwegian flag. His first successes were made in the +field of the novel, and the first two, _Synnöve Solbakken_, 1857, +and _Arne_, 1858, made his name famous. These, and his other peasant +stories, will always retain their popularity. He soon, however, +entered the dramatic field, and has since published a great number of +dramas and novels. + +In the field of belles-lettres there is at the present time a number +of other talented authors. Jonas Lie (born 1833) has produced a number +of excellent novels. Then there are Alexander Kielland (born 1849) +Magdalene Thoresen (born 1819), Arne Garborg, Gunnar Heiberg, and a +number of young authors. + +In the field of science, also, modern Norway has a rich literature, +with many prominent names, such as the historian Peter Andreas Munch +(1810-1864), Johan Ernst Sars (born 1835), and O.A. Överland.[e] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN + + +Swedish literature is sublime and magnificent, like its history and +its scenery; it is simple and glad, as well as sad, like the lives of +its people. One of the great days in Sweden, or at least in Stockholm, +is the celebration, on the 26th of July, of the anniversary of the +birth, more than a century and a half ago, of the national poet +Bellman. + +His songs are as household words throughout the land. To the Stockholm +born they speak of their daily life and surroundings, of the green +isles and shady banks of the Malar, the flowery woods of Haga, the +smiling park of Dijurgarden. Burlesque scenes of the life of the +people, street tragedies, drinking bouts, and country junketings; +broad humor and Nature's philosophy; lively fancies and exquisite +landscape painting--such are the themes of his song, which from one +generation to another has held the heart of the people spellbound. +Every man, woman, and child knows his favorite ditties by heart, has +sung or hummed them in moments of joy or sorrow. For his song is both +joyful and sad. His joy is the joy of the simple hearted, his gladness +a Dionysian gladness, the very enjoyment of existence; his sadness +that of sympathy with suffering humanity, of anguish at the +evanescence of life and happiness. His fancy oscillates between +constant extremes and ever-recurring contrasts. It makes of his song, +as Tegnér has so aptly defined it, "a sorrow decked in roses." Bright, +gay, enraptured, full of sunshine and glamour, like the summer day +around Stockholm, it is traversed by a strain of melancholy like +a smile through tears, the laugh which conceals a sob. There is +symbolism and there is parody in his rustic figures, but they are so +living, so real, they appeal so strongly to the innermost feelings, +that they seem the embodiment of one's thoughts. His pictures are like +those of the Dutch painters: every trait in the rustic scene tells the +life-story of some humble existence. + +It is this characteristic which has made the poet appeal so powerfully +to the minds of the people. He seems to see with their eyes and feel +with their hearts, and to have experienced all the vicissitudes of +their own life. And yet he eminently reflects his own time, the gay, +the light-hearted Gustavian era, with its classical fancies and rococo +tastes. Venus and Bacchus, the Nymphs and the Dryads, Hebe and Amor +are mixed up incongruously with the homely scenes of Scandinavian +life. His Dutch pictures assume then a Watteau-like coloring of +extraordinary effect, as fancy and contrast enhance the sharp outlines +of his figures and give their vitality still greater relief. They are +so lifelike and so various that the whole of the every-day life of +Sweden, and more especially of Stockholm, of the eighteenth century, +is unrolled before our eyes. It is said that if every other book +descriptive of the period were to fail, his verses would suffice to +inform us how the middle classes then lived, thought, and felt. +Around the poet's monument--his bust in bronze on a white marble +column--there gather, on the anniversary of his birth, the crowds who +love him and love his song. Every heart beats high as the Bellman +choirs burst forth in turn into the well-known melodies, composed +or adapted by the poet himself to his words, and sung by him to the +accompaniment of his lute. And song alternates with enthusiastic +orations, addressed to the crowd by improvised orators, teeming with +quotations of well-known lines. It is an orgy of Bellman's verse, such +as the Stockholmer specially delights in. Bellman's songs generally +form a sequence, a continuous chain of lyrical romance. His _Fredman's +Epistles_ are a sort of epic cycle of lyrics. This is a form often +adopted by Swedish poets. We find it in Tegnér's _Frithiof's Saga_, +in Runeberg's _Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, and in the works of other +poets. It is a question, however, whether even by these Master +Singers, in their more elaborate conceptions and genial flights of +poetry, Bellman has ever been surpassed. In lyric power and vivid +realism, his popular ditties are unrivaled. + +The next to incarnate the genius of the Scandinavian race was Tegnér. +His love of brave deeds and reckless adventure and his exaltation of +the man of action above the man of thought are typical. His heroes, +fair-haired and blue-eyed, stalwart and vigorous, relying on strength +and longing for adventure, tender-hearted and contemplative when not +aroused to violent action and bent on deeds of valor, personify the +national ideal. His whole vision of life is Scandinavian, bright and +vivid, with a tinge of melancholy. Tegnér was, with Geijer and Ling, +the first to adopt national subjects, to use the Scandinavian myths +and folk-lore in their poetry, in opposition to the classical themes +and the Hellenic mythology, until then exclusively in vogue in the +poetical field. + +Geijer was a romantic by nature, in politics as well as in literature, +but he was above all an ardent Scandinavian, opposed to exotics, +and passionately devoted to the great traditions of the past, a +hero-worshiper, an enthusiast, and a _Goth_. The Goths were members of +a society formed to revive the old national manners and customs, the +freedom of the age of the Vikings, and the ardor of the heroes +of Walhalla. Their organ was the _Idun_, an exclusively literary +publication. In a letter written by Geijer from Stockholm to his +_fiancee_, then living in the country, dated March 7, 1811, he says: +"We have formed a society which meets nearly daily. We talk, smoke, +and read together about Gothic Viking deeds. We call each other by +Gothic names, and live in the past." And Anna-Lisa, his future wife, +writing to a friend, says: "My _fiancee_ has become a Goth; instead of +loving me, he is in love with Valkyries and shield-bearing maidens, +drinks out of Viking horns, and carries out Viking expeditions--to the +nearest tavern. He writes poems which must not be read in the dark, +they are so full of murders and deeds of slaughter." Ling, who also +belonged to this society, was a fervent admirer of the Eddas and +Sagas, of the Scandinavian myths and folk-lore. Tegnér, despite his +classical education and Hellenic turn of mind, was an ardent Norseman +in feeling and instinct. "Go to Greece for beauty of form," he would +say, "but to the North for depth of feeling and thought." He scorned +alike the metaphysical subtleties of French philosophy and the +moonshine heroics of German romanticism. But he was at one with Geijer +and Ling in the desire to make Scandinavian heroes and myths the +subjects of poetry. + +The result of the movement was _Frithiof's Saga_, by Tegnér, Geiger's +_Viking_, and Ling's heavy epics of Walhalla warriors. But Geijer and +Ling alone had followed out the theory in all its consequences. Their +heroes were simply _Eddic_, of their time, in spirit and in thought. +Ling's realism went so far that his Northern gods and warriors, +"everlastingly killed but to revive again," were deemed "pork-eating +and mead-drinking yokels." They were soon forgotten, and Ling himself +is best known as the inventor of gymnastic exercises on scientific +principles, an art now practiced all the world over as "Swedish +gymnastics." Geijer, whose _Viking_ gave a pure and true picture +of Viking life seen in its own light, was himself disappointed. He +abandoned poetry and took to history, though Tegnér says of him that +if he had devoted himself to poetry, he would have surpassed all his +contemporaries. As historian he rose to the highest rank; and he is +perhaps the greatest historian Sweden has ever produced. + +Tegnér had modernized his hero and heroine in _Frithiof's Saga_. He +gave them Viking garbs and surroundings, but modern thoughts and +sentiments. By the more copious development of the inner life, and +by placing woman on an equality with man, love had received a higher +meaning, and his poetry unfolded inspirations unknown to the ancient +world, such as melancholy and the love of nature. He did no more than +Tennyson did later in making of King Arthur the type of an English +gentleman. Frithiof and Ingeborg were representatives of the national +ideal. The success of his poem was immense. It had a lyrical +intensity which set the Scandinavian mind vibrating. Unmindful of the +anachronism, youth gloried in the noble disinterestedness of Frithiof, +in his generosity to his rival, his melancholy philosophising and his +high-minded love, as well as in his daring and his love of adventure. +Manly breasts heaved in sympathy with him, and women's tears flowed at +the story of Ingeborg's love. As the poet Snolisky has said-- + + From the highest to the lowest throughout the land + The poet had created a bond of union. + In every home, within every school door, + His verses were read and conned and loved, + And Sweden's youth felt its cheek glow + At Frithiof's courage and manly mood. + While Ingeborg's love to the maiden's dream + Gave life and thoughts to her weaving and sewing. + +In his _Children of the Lord's Supper_, so beautifully translated for +us by Longfellow, Tegnér conveyed a true image of Sweden's religious +life. The scene in the country church, decked out with flowers and +evergreens for the solemn ceremony, the rustic boys and girls bowing +and curtseying as they make their responses before the assembled +congregation, and the attitude and words of the patriarchal pastor are +all true to life. The somewhat declamatory tone of the oration is not +less consistent with the character of the rural parson, the trend of +Swedish religious thought, and the solemnity associated with these +occasions. + +It was in his patriotic war-songs, however, that Tegnér roused the +greatest enthusiasm. His _Svea_, his dithryambic declamation _King +Charles_, and his _Scanean Reserves_, sent a thrill through young and +old. When _Svea_ was read at the Swedish Academy, which awarded the +poem its gold medal, the friends and opponents of Tegnér alike were +moved to undisguised admiration. In breadth and intrinsic power, and +in the beauty of its rythm, which seems to echo the clash of arms and +the marching of masses, this poem is unequalled in Swedish literature. +Tegnér's name soon became known far beyond the limits of the lands +where his language is understood. His works were translated into +almost all modern tongues, so that some fifty different translations +of the whole or parts of his poems now exist in eleven European +languages. + +A new feature was introduced into Swedish poetry by Runeberg. Although +born of Swedish parents, he was brought up in Finland, his mind being +nurtured in the traditions and the mixed racial influences of his new +fatherland. Thus he breathed a new spirit, and a new inspiration, +drawn from the realities of life, into poetical fiction. He was a +realist in the best sense of that much-misused word. He sought his +ideals _in_ life, instead of outside of it and above it in imaginary +creations. He saw nature such as it is, with all its faults and +sublimities, and, loving it with a true poet's devotion, he painted it +simply and faithfully, without aiming at ennobling it, but seeking and +finding what there is of native dignity in its humblest expressions. +In his lyrical poem, _The Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, he portrayed +incidents of the wars of Finland fighting by the side of Sweden in +1809, when the country was conquered by Russia. It was a series of war +pictures, a collection of hero types, painted in living colors, and +breathing the most ardent patriotism.--Simple tales told by a sergeant +of his recollections of the war, they deal with real personages, most +of them drawn from the humblest stations in life, described just as +they really lived and spoke and acted. Yet throughout the story of +their simple acts and thoughts there swept a breeze which kindled +the blood, roused the emotions; and fired the patriotic feeling of +Runeberg's contemporaries. In poetic depth and beauty of language, +as in style and conception, and in their departure from all the +prevailing ideas and methods of romanticism, these lyric tales were +a revelation. They classed their author at once as in the line of +true-born poets. The works of Runeberg, although properly belonging +to the literature of a country politically no longer one with Sweden, +have from the nature of their subjects and the identity of languages, +always been looked upon in Sweden as common property, and they have +certainly exercised a powerful influence on Swedish thought and +letters. Some of his songs, set to music, are to this day sung as +national anthems. + +The last champion of dying romanticism was a sort of universal genius, +eccentric, _bizarre_, unequal, a spirit out of harmony with itself, +but gifted with the most wonderful imagination and power, K.J.L. +Almquist. His life was as checquered as his writings were various. In +turn a clergyman, a schoolmaster, a journalist, and an exile, he has +written volumes on almost every conceivable subject, from fiction, +poetry, and history, to lexicography, pedagogy, and mathematics. His +stories, published in two series, under the common title of _The +Book of the Hedgerose_, show powers of conception, imagination, and +description such as are only to be found in Edgar Allen Poe. His was +an essentially revolutionary temperament. He disdained all authority, +and cavilled at all moral restraints. He was in constant rebellion +against society, its accepted laws and precepts, and vented his moral +skepticism in bitter sarcasm and cutting paradoxes. "But two things +are white in this world," he would say, "innocence and arsenic." The +coupling of the two, however, nearly proved fatal to him. He was +involved in a mysterious affair of poisoning, in which the victim was +a dunning creditor. He was suspected of having given him arsenic by +way of ridding himself of the debt which he could not pay. No proof +of the fact could be adduced, and the crime was never brought home to +him; but public opinion was against him, and fearing or distrusting +the justice of his country, he fled from it ere the case was tried. He +wandered over Europe and America, trying his hand at everything, and +died, a literary wreck, in Germany, longing, and yet not daring, to +return to his country. Lately, the Society of Authors in Stockholm, +judging that his crime was "not proven," while his literary merits +were great beyond all doubt, undertook the rehabilitation of his +memory. His remains were brought back from Lubeck, and buried in +Stockholm with "literary" honors, among others a remarkable oration +delivered at his grave by Verner von Heidenstam, in which he was +styled a martyr in the great cause of the emancipation of thought. +Whatever may be thought of his moral character, Almquist was a great +thinker and a wonderfully versatile writer. The last of the romantics, +he has been called a realist, a psychologist, and a symbolist, and he +was certainly something of all these, half a century before the terms +became battle-cries in literature, and came to designate literary +schools. One critic has made him out to have been a sort of forerunner +of Ibsen, while another calls him the most modern of classics. His +genius placed him in advance of his age in most things. He was the +first in the list of those Scandinavian revolutionists who have laid +out new landmarks in the field of thought, and introduced new methods +in fiction and the drama. + +Liberalism, which spread like wildfire over Europe after its outbreak +in the July Revolution in France, reached Sweden soon after. It was +represented in literature by such men as Sturzen-Becker, Wetterbergh, +and Strandberg, writing under the names of Orvar Odd, Uncle Adam, +and Talis-Qualis; Blanche, who wrote stirring novels in the style +of Eugene Sue; Hjerta, and the staff of the then newly founded +_Aftonbladet_, who were revolutionizing the press. The press was +beginning to enlist the highest literary capacities of the country, +gradually becoming what it now is, a purveyor not only of news but of +thought, and a leader of opinion in literature and art, in science +and philosophy. In poetry, liberalism found its echo in the verses +of Malmström, Nybom, Schlstedt. In fiction its banner was carried by +three women, two of whom--well known in England and America--Frederica +Bremer, whose novels portrayed the home life of the middle class, +Emelie Carlen, who idealized the fishermen and sea-faring folk of +the West Coast, and Sophie von Knorring, who gave rather stilted +descriptions of life in aristocratic circles. All three were very +productive, and their novels count by dozens. Yet they failed to +sustain the reputations their first works had won for them. + +Verner von Heidenstam is now foremost among the writers of his +country. His early works, _Endymion, Hans Alienus_, and others, raised +him to this rank, and his last two productions, _The Carolines_ +(the companions of Charles XII) and _Saint Brigitt_, have more than +confirmed it. _Hans Alienus_ was, like Goethe's _Faust_, a work of +deep philosophical research into the problems of existence, the +purpose and significance of life, set forth in symbolical images and +explained by allegory. In the _Carolines_, a series of short stories +connected by the red thread of history which runs through them, he +gives a new conception, but a wonderfully graphic and striking one, +of Charles XII and his times. It is an epic, and yet so living and so +human a picture of the wild, iron-souled, quick-tempered hero, whose +"eyes flew around like two searching bees," and whose will was like +the steel of his sword; who had the heart of a lion and a "woman's +hatred for women," but for whom men shed their blood freely; who +"never grieved over a misfortune longer than the darkness lasted," +and was "best loved by those who tried to hate him." His pictures are +drawn by a master hand, and with the intuitive coloring of genius. +_Saint Brigitt_ carries us back to medieval Sweden. Here, too, the +picture is lifelike, centered round the struggle of a high-minded +woman, who makes everything bend to her stern rule of holiness, her +thirst for sanctity, as Charles XII did to his inexorable policy and +thirst for dominion. + +The psychological and the historical novel, the latter, in its modern +conception, akin to the former, since it is a study of the psychology +of historical characters and a historical epoch, is the form of +fiction at present most in vogue. It is in this form that such writers +as Tor Hedberg, Per Hallström, and Axel Lundegard have made their +reputations. Tor Hedberg's romances embody profound analysis of the +inner workings of the soul, of the secret motives which, more or less +consciously, determine a man's acts. In this line he ventures on the +most difficult psychological problems. In his _Judas_, a scriptural +romance from which he has drawn a drama, he attempts to solve the +darkest psychological enigma that has puzzled humanity, viz., to +analyze the motives which led Judas to betray his Master and become +the typical traitor. The character he draws of him is original and +striking, and departs entirely from the accepted tradition. But bold +and subtle as the theory is, it is far from convincing. His Judas is +a dark, brooding spirit, fierce and inharmonious, divided between +extatic love and admiration of his Master and inward irresistible +forces of hatred and revolt: a double nature, thirsting for freedom +and love, yet predestined to evil, and led by fearful secret impulses +to the accomplishment of his destiny and the fulfilment of his +mission, necessary to the scheme of salvation. He rushes blindly to +his fate while struggling in vain to escape it. But in the very act of +betrayal, while obeying the command: "What thou doest, do quickly," +his better nature triumphs for one instant and he falls on the neck of +his Master and embraces Him. It is the Judas kiss which betrays his +Lord. The last look of Jesus, however, showed him that he had been +understood and forgiven. The detestation of humanity to the end of the +world will be his expiation, but that look of Jesus has freed him. + +Woman, represented by writers like Ellen Key, Selma Lagerlöf, Sophie +Elkau, Alfhild Agress, Hilma Stanberg, and others, holds a high +position in Swedish letters. Ellen Key is an essayist of virile +power and argumentative breadth, of superior intellect and unfailing +erudition. She is a fearless and unfailing champion of free thought, +individualism, and woman's emancipation. As was said of Madame de +Staël, her writings are "the most masculine productions of the +faculties of woman." Selma Lagerlöf occupies as a novelist a position +of her own. Her style and her manner in fiction are unique. Symbolism +and allegory are blended in it with the most realistic pictures of +everyday life. She thinks in parables, and describes realities, and +the realities convey the moral teachings of parables. With something +of the peculiar power of George Eliot in the delineation of character, +she makes each humble life preach some great moral truth. Her latest +book, _Jerusalem_, is one of extraordinary fascination, created quite +a sensation in Sweden, and places Selma Lagerlöf quite among the +foremost writers of the day. + +It may in general be said of Swedish writers that they have a high +idea of their calling. Few, if any, have accepted as their sole +function the idealization of form. They hold mostly that the highest +aim of art should be to teach and elevate, to destroy prejudice and +conventionality, and indicate, in so far as it is possible, the +solution of moral problems through the creative faculty of inspired +productiveness. The wish to inculcate action, the energy that is +born of enthusiasm, the chivalry that is inspired by high ideals and +unselfish motives. Raised thus from the region of mere chronicles of +human passions, of woman's frailty and man's baseness, and exercising +themselves with the political, social, and religious problems of the +day, these works of imagination have become, alongside the Press, a +powerful factor in the development of modern thought.[f] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +Only for the past three years has Norway had an independent political +life, and so few changes in local government have so far been made +under the new king that it will be profitable, in this chapter, to +take up the government and political life as it existed under the +united Constitutional Monarchy of Norway and Sweden. In fact, it is no +different than at that time, except that each has its separate king. +In internal rule, the two countries were always separate, except in +matters that pertained to the common weal of both. Thus, the Swedish +Minister of Foreign Affairs had charge of the United Kingdoms, and, as +previously stated, this was the rock on which the Union finally split. + +The constitution of Norway, like that of the United States, invests +all power in the people, who are represented by their legislature and +their judiciary, with the king as an executive to administer the laws +passed by the one, and enforce the decrees of the other. When the +two houses of Parliament disagree upon a measure, they sit in joint +session, when it requires a vote of two-thirds to enact it, and the +approval of the king is necessary. He is also required to promulgate +all the acts of the legislature. Many Norwegian statesmen assert that +the king has no veto power, but merely temporary authority to +suspend a law pending the action of the people. If three successive +parliaments, after three successive elections, pass a bill in exactly +the same terms, it does not require the sanction of the king when +it is passed the fourth time. Thus the people may exercise their +sovereignty. + +All edicts of the executive, all decisions of the court, and all +resolutions of the legislature are proclaimed in the king's name, but +the ministry is responsible to the legislature for the acts of the +king, and if they are not approved, as in England, the ministry must +resign and a new one be organized in sympathy with a majority of the +parliament. The king may choose his own ministers, but they must +represent the will of the people. They are called counsellors of +state, are eight in number. Before the disunion, two of these eight +counsellors were without portfolios, and resided alternately at +Stockholm, while the other members presided over six executive +departments in Christiania. + +A record is kept of the meetings of the ministry by a permanent +secretary, and the constitution requires that each minister shall +express his opinion upon all questions brought up for consideration. +He who remains silent is counted in the affirmative. No matter of +business can be determined by the king without the advice of the +ministry, unless an emergency demands a prompt decision, when he must +take the responsibility of securing a ratification of his act. In the +same manner the king may issue edicts of a provisional character in +matters of commerce, finance, industrial activity, customs dues, +police and military affairs during a recess of the parliament, subject +to its approval within a limited time after reassembling. + +The minister may act in the king's name in cases of emergency or +during his absence from the country, subject to his approval. +These conditions were adopted in earlier times, when the Norwegian +legislature sat only once in three years and some such power was +necessary, but now that there are annual and often semi-annual +sessions, and they have a king of their own residing always in Norway, +it is very seldom necessary for the executive power to exercise such +responsibility. + +The king appoints all the officials of the executive part of the +government, all the officers of the army and navy, and all the +clergymen in the established church, but exercises this power through +his ministers. Dissenting congregations are not subject to government +control, and may choose their own clergymen, although the latter are +required to register an oath of allegiance and a pledge to obey +the laws of the nation and fulfill their duties with fidelity and +conscientiousness. + +The king is the head of the established church, which is the Lutheran. +He is also commander-in-chief of the army and navy, but can not +increase or decrease the military establishment without the approval +of the parliament. He has the right to declare war and conclude peace, +but can not expend money for military purposes, not even for the +national defense, without the consent of the legislature. The +Norwegian constitution is silent concerning his authority to conclude +treaties with foreign powers, and the question has never been raised. +He conducts negotiations through his ministers and submits the result +of their labors for the approval of parliament. He has the power +to suspend the collection of customs duties temporarily until the +parliament can meet to consider the matter, but it has very rarely +been exercised. + +The parliament is called the storthing, and is composed of one +hundred and fourteen representatives, thirty-eight from the towns +and seventy-six from the rural districts. It divides itself into two +sections, known as the odelsthing and the lagthing. The members are +elected for three years by an indirect and complicated system which is +nearly the reverse of our own. The voters of each parish, which forms +an election district, assemble at a given place and time and select +delegates to a convention which chooses their representatives in the +storthing, and, when the storthing meets, its one hundred and fourteen +members select one-fourth of their own members, generally the most +experienced and distinguished men, to constitute a senate, or upper +chamber, called the lagthing, which exercises a sort of supervisory +power over legislation. + +The storthing sits for about six months every year. The members are +paid $3 a day during the session and their traveling expenses. The +presiding officer is chosen every four weeks, and can not succeed +himself without an interval. The committees are appointed by a +"selection committee" elected by ballot, and each committee chooses +his own chairman. There is a rather novel rule requiring bills +referred to committees to be assigned for consideration to the several +members in rotation. Any member may introduce a bill modifying the +constitution, but all other classes or measures must proceed from the +government and the members of the lower house. Members of the upper +house, or lagthing, are not permitted to propose ordinary legislation, +on the theory that they should remain unprejudiced so as to exercise +a judicial revision. Thus, bills must originate in the odelsthing, +which, having passed them, sends them to the lagthing for its +approval. + +The financial officers of the government and the directors of the +national bank are elected by the storthing, which appoints a committee +every six months to revise and audit the accounts of officials who +have to do with the disbursement or collection of money. When an +irregularity or improper expenditure is discovered, the legislature is +asked to decide whether the minister in charge of the department shall +repay the sum from his own pocket and repair the damage that has been +caused by one of his subordinates. + +In the same manner the storthing regulates all loans, on the theory +that the money belongs to the people. The members of the ministry may +be impeached by the odelsthing for a violation of the constitution and +tried before the lagthing and the supreme court. + +The following eight executive departments are in charge of ministers: + +1. For ecclesiastical matters and public instruction, which also has +charge of charities, insurance companies, and matters relating to the +relief of the people. + +2. The department of justice. + +3. The department of the interior, which has jurisdiction over +everything that is not under the other departments. + +4. The department of agriculture. + +5. The department of public works. + +6. The department of finances and customs. + +7. The department of defense. + +8. The revision of public accounts department. + +For administrative purposes, Norway is divided into twenty districts, +viz.: The cities of Christiania and Bergen and eighteen "Amts" or +provinces, which coinside with the diocese of the church, and there +is a very close relation between the ecclesiastical and the civil +authorities. The chief magistrate in each of the counties, nominated +by the king, is known as an "Amtmand." His duties are similar to +those of the French prefects, although the theory of home-rule and +self-government is carried into each county and each municipality and +parish, where every magistrate is responsible to a council elected by +the people from among their own number. They make the laws for the +magistrate to administer. There are few countries in which the theory +of self-government is carried to such an extent as in Norway. The +sovereignty of the people is absolute and their rights are jealously +guarded. Norway is divided into ecclesiastical parishes, which are the +voting districts, as in England, and are governed in a similar way. + +The Norwegian constitution of 1814, based upon the principle of +popular self-government, declared these municipalities completely +independent in the management of their own affairs, placing the +administrative authority, with the power of taxation and the +disbursement of revenues in the hands of the taxpayers and +householders, so that they could not be coerced by the national +government, if there ever was any disposition in that direction. + +This authority is exercised through a council called a "bystyre," +composed of from twelve to forty-eight members, according to the +population of the parish, who are elected for terms of three years, +and serve gratuitously. The council elects from its own number a +chairman who is the head of the whole municipal organization, and is +known as an _ordförer_. He corresponds to the German burgomaster and +the mayor of the American city. + +In addition to the popular council there is a magistrate representing +the royal government, who, with the consent of the council, may be +admitted to their deliberations, but is not allowed to vote. He +is also ex-officio a member and often chairman of the municipal +departments or commissions, such as the board of public works, +the school board, the harbor commission. In this way he becomes a +connecting link between the national authority at Christiania and the +municipal councils throughout the kingdom, because certain measures of +local interest are subject to restrictions by the national parliament, +particularly those involving finances. + +Under the direction of the council are permanent executive departments +similar to those found in the United States, pertaining to public +highways, the public buildings, the public health, the relief of the +poor, the fire department, police department, etc. These in every case +are managed by permanent officials under the supervision of committees +of the council. Every year a budget is made up of the income and +expenditures expected; each department being permitted to submit its +own estimates, which are approved or amended by the council, and the +amount is raised by taxation of houses, lands, personal property, +and incomes, with fees for licenses to transact business. The entire +system of local taxation is similar to our own, and the methods of +assessment are the same. In order to meet the expense of unusual +undertakings for the benefit of the municipality, such as waterworks, +tramways, docks, etc., funds are raised in the usual manner by +the issue of interest bearing bonds, which are usually in small +denominations in order to permit people of limited means to invest in +them. They are redeemed, as a rule, in forty annual instalments, the +bonds to be canceled being selected by lot. In this system of local +government women now participate upon an equal basis with men. + +With the exception of the British parliament, the Swedish riksdag is +the oldest legislative body in the world. The kingdom of Sweden has +maintained its integrity for not less than four thousand years. So far +back as the anthropologists can trace the history of Swedish people, +the boundaries of their land have remained the same. The Duchy of +Finland was subject to Swedish sovereignty at one time, and at +different times Sweden has been united with Norway and Denmark under +the same ruler, but Sweden has been Sweden ever since human beings +inhabited its territory, and it is the only nation in Europe that has +never been conquered or had its boundaries changed by foreign powers. +Since the beginning of history, home rule has prevailed among the +people and has been defended and recognized as their right. The +parishes have always controlled their own affairs, and since the +Reformation their government has been in the hands of a board or +council elected by the people, of which the pastor of the church is +chairman. Everybody who pays taxes, men and women alike, may vote at +the election of the council. The burgomaster serves for life, and is +usually required to abstain from all other business except that which +pertains to the public weal. The parishes are consolidated into +twenty-four provinces, similar to our states, each having a certain +independence and government of its own, although the governor-general, +who also serves for life on good behavior, is appointed by the king. +The city of Stockholm is an independent jurisdiction like the District +of Columbia, with a governor appointed by the king. The riksdag +was formerly composed of four distinct bodies,--nobles, clergymen, +burghers, peasants,--representing the different classes of the +community, and all laws required their approval. In 1866, however, +this clumsy arrangement was abolished and the national legislature was +consolidated into two bodies known as the first and second chamber, +similar to our Senate and House of Representatives. The two chambers +are equal in every respect, except that the second chamber, or lower +house, has the advantage of numbers when a deadlock arises and the +question in dispute is decided by a joint ballot. Then, unless there +should be an overwhelming difference of opinion, the second chamber +usually has its will, which is perfectly right, because it represents +the people. The king must approve all legislation to make it +effective, and his veto is final, except in matters concerning +taxation and the expenditure of public money. The diet has the sole +power to levy taxes and make appropriations with or without his +consent. + +The first chamber, which corresponds to our Senate, is composed of +one hundred and fifty members, elected for terms of nine years by the +provincial councils and by the city councils in towns of more than +25,000 inhabitants. As the councils are elected by the taxpayers, both +men and women, the members of the first chamber may be regarded as the +representatives of the property-owning portion of the community. To be +eligible to the first chamber a candidate must be thirty-five years +old, own property assessed at $21,000, or pay taxes upon an income +of not less than $1,100. Rank does not count. The qualification is +pecuniary entirely, and so evenly is property distributed in Sweden +that only ten thousand people in the entire kingdom are eligible to +the first chamber of the diet. + +The members of the second chamber, two hundred and thirty in number, +are elected for three years, of whom eighty are elected by the towns +and one hundred and fifty by the rural districts. Each must have +property worth $270, or have leased $1,600 worth of land for five +years, or pay taxes on an income of $214. These are also the +qualifications for voting for members of the parliament. + +There is very little of politics in Sweden. There are three parties, +known as the conservatives, the liberals, and the socialists. The +conservative party is comprised of the aristocracy, the church, the +agricultural classes and people of conservative sentiment generally. +The liberal party is composed of progressive elements, the theorists, +the artisans, the machinists, and the thinking men among the +laboring element, who advocate a reduction of the tariff on imported +merchandise and free trade so far as possible; a separation of church +and state on the theory that no man should be taxed to support a +religious faith that he does not believe in; a reduction in the army +and navy and other official expenses; the modification of the election +laws as above stated; rotation in office, so that all shall have a +chance, and they oppose the general tendency to centralization in the +government. + +The socialists go a little farther. They are not so radical as those +who go by the same name in Germany, France, and other European +countries. They are very moderate in their views. They favor most of +the planks in the liberal platform, and, in addition, advocate the +adoption of socialistic reforms, the loaning of public money without +interest to the poor, public pensions to the helpless, sweeping +reforms in the labor laws, and the purchase and maintenance by the +state of all public enterprises that affect public welfare, such as +the street-car lines, the insurance companies, the banks, etc. +The peasants in the country are protectionists and belong to the +conservative party. The mechanics in the cities are generally +socialists. Politics, however, is not very exciting. The tariff, labor +questions, and other propositions are always discussed, and of late +years the most interesting issues have been the appropriation of money +for national defense, the increase of the term of military service +from ninety to three hundred and sixty days for every citizen, the +modification of the electoral law, and the regulations of the forests. + +Peasants have been members of parliament for more than five hundred +years, and now constitute more than half the membership of the second +chamber--intelligent, well-educated mechanics and farmers, who take a +deep interest in the affairs of the government and generally are +on the right side. The agricultural peasants are invariably loyal +supporters of the king. The mechanics from the city are usually +opposed to him. + +The annual session of the riksdag opens immediately after the holidays +with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. It is one of the most imposing +functions in all Europe. The members of both houses meet at their +respective halls, attend divine service at the cathedral, where they +receive the sacrament and listen to a sermon of admonition. Then they +march in a body to the royal palace, where they are received by the +king's ministers with great formality, and escorted to what is known +as the throne room. As they enter, each man bows reverently to a +silver throne which stands upon a dais at the other end of the +apartment. The members of the first chamber are seated on the right +side of the great hall, and those of the second upon the left. + +When the sound of trumpets is heard, all rise, and the master of +ceremonies enters in gorgeous apparel, followed by four pages in dress +of the sixteenth century. Behind them is a squad of trumpeters, then +the grand marshal of the court, preceded by four heralds and followed +by the assistant marshals, the grand chamberlain, the lord steward, +the master of the horse, and other officers of the royal household, +the eighteen judges of the supreme court, the archbishop and bishops, +and the members of the king's cabinet. + +Then follows a guard of honor, composed of the highest nobles of the +kingdom in glittering uniforms and carrying old-fashioned weapons, +such as were once used in actual warfare. They surround the king, who +wears his royal robes, and, as he enters, the band plays the favorite +air of the people, "From the Depths of the Swedish Heart." He wears +the crown of state and a purple robe bordered and lined with crimson +the two corners of which are carried by chamberlains Upon the right +side of the king walks the prime minister of Sweden. Following the +king walk his sons, the princes of the royal house. + +When the king has reached the center of the room, he stops, turns with +great dignity and bows first to one chamber and then to the other, and +then to the queen, who has taken her position in the balcony, attended +by the princesses and other members of the royal family and the +officers of the court. Then he proceeds slowly until he ascends +the dais and seats himself upon the throne, his minister of state +occupying a position on his right. Before the separation of the Union, +the Norwegian minister of state sat upon his left. + +The grand marshal steps forward and strikes the floor three times with +a long staff of silver, tipped with jewels. At this signal all arise +again except the king. In old-fashioned Swedish the heralds command +silence. The king, seated upon his throne, reads his speech, which +always begins, "Good gentlemen and Swedish men." The prime minister +then reads a review of the acts of state since the adjournment of +parliament, which he skims over as rapidly as possible, because the +printed copy will be placed in the hands of every person present as +soon as the ceremony is over. The presiding officers of the two houses +of parliament step forward and make speeches of congratulation, and +reassure their sovereign of their loyalty and respect. The king then +rises, bows first to the queen, and to each house in turn, and slowly +leaves the chamber accompanied by the procession that followed him in. + +The courts of Sweden are conducted upon the French plan, and no jury +is ever impaneled except in cases concerning the liberty of the press. +When a newspaper is accused of libel or sedition, the complainant, +whether he be a member of the police or any other official of the +government, chooses three jurymen, the defendant three, and the court +three. These nine men hear and decide the merits of the case without +application of such strict rules of evidence as prevail in the legal +practice of the United States. All judicial procedure in Sweden is +based upon the assumption that the court is sufficiently intelligent +and impartial to determine the reliability of witnesses and to judge +of the application of facts laid before it. All judges and judicial +magistrates are appointed for life on good behavior, but they can be +impeached by processes similar to those authorized by the Constitution +of the United States.[g] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ARMY AND NAVY + + +Everybody in Norway, that is every man, has to serve five years in the +army, so that every citizen is a soldier--the first year after the +twenty-third birthday seventy days, and thirty days or so each year +thereafter for four years more. The organization has a nominal +strength of 80,000 men of three divisions known as the landstrom, or +reserves (25,000); the landvern, or militia (55,000), and the opbud, +or regulars, who numbered about 5,000, garrison the different +fortresses along the coast. Every able-bodied Norwegian, except pilots +and clergymen, is obliged to serve in any position to which he is +assigned by the king, who is commander-in-chief. The sailors and +fishermen are enrolled in the navy and must serve aboard a man-of-war +at least twelve months. The land forces require five months' service +for infantry, seven months for cavalry and artillery, and six months +for engineers, which is distributed over a period of five years. +Training camps are established every summer in convenient localities +from two to three months. Every man capable of bearing arms is in time +of war liable to do service in the reserves, from the eighteenth to +the fiftieth year of age. + +The organization is complete throughout the nation, so that an army +of 80,000 men can be mobilized in a few days. Every cavalryman and +artilleryman is required to bring a horse with him when he is called +to camp, and the arsenals contain a complete equipment of arms and +accoutrements. The non-commissioned officers are former members of +the regular army, in which they must have served three years in the +infantry and cavalry or four years in artillery and engineers. During +this period they are given a practical education in books and in the +mechanical duties of the soldier. They are taught to repair guns, +manufacture powder, make harness, shoe horses, and do everything else +that is likely to come within their experience in the field. +This training is highly valued by the young men of the country, +particularly by boys from the farms, because it gives them a certain +social standing, the right to wear a uniform, and a corresponding +amount of influence in the community. This regular army school takes +in about 1,700 young men every year. + +The officers are educated in a military college. The complete course +covers five years for the staff, artillery, and engineer corps. +Candidates must first have graduated from one of the government +technical schools. The infantry and cavalry course is three years. +Graduates are appointed second lieutenants in the regular army, and +are promoted through the regular grades. + +The army of Norway costs the government about 14,000,000 kroner, or +$3,800,000 a year, which is an average of $1.70 per capita of the +population, or half the tax paid by the English and Germans. The last +budget was about $1,000,000 larger than usual, for the purpose of +erecting new fortresses upon the southern coast. All the principal +seaports are already fortified, and there is an excellent system of +torpedo defense in the different fjords, but there is a remarkable +public apprehension concerning the intentions of Russia; and, mindful +of the fate of Finland, the Norwegians are preparing to resist any +aggressiveness on the part of the czar. It is not disputed that Russia +desires a winter port on her northern coast for St. Petersburg and +Kronstadt are always closed by the ice for five and sometimes six +months in the year. The Norwegian fjords never freeze. They are +protected by the monstrous mountains, and the water is tempered +by warm currents that flow in from the gulf stream. The national +apprehension of both Norway and Sweden that Russia covets one of their +seaports has existed a good many years. The bugbear has appeared at +intervals for half a century, and a great deal of money has been +expended in preparations to meet it. The people are, therefore, +cordially patriotic in their support of the army, although many of +them emigrate to the United States to avoid military service. + +Norway has a small but efficient navy, composed of third and fourth +class cruisers, monitors, small gunboats and torpedo boats, forty-six +in all, aggregating 29,000 tons, 53,000 horse-power, carry 174 guns, +and manned by 140 officers and 1,000 men. The officers are educated in +naval schools, with a five-year course for regulars and three +years for the reserves, which include all the merchant sailors and +fishermen. + +Norway has taken an active part in the promotion of international +arbitration, and has sent delegates to every conference on that +subject. The storthing, in a decided manner, has repeatedly expressed +its belief in that method of settling disputes, and in correspondence +with the Russian government has laid a foundation that may be useful +in case the czar, under any pretext, should use aggressive measures in +this direction. So much interest has been shown in the question +that Alfred Nobel, the Swedish philanthropist, and the inventor +of dynamite, who made his money manufacturing that most powerful +explosive, by his will authorized the members of the Norwegian +storthing to award a prize of $40,000 annually to the person who, in +their judgment, during the preceding year, shall have done the most +to promote peace among nations and the adoption of the plan of +arbitration in the settlement of international differences. + +For many years the chief political issue in Sweden has been the +increase of the army and the military service required of each +citizen. The king finally won, and in 1901 a law was passed increasing +the term of service from ninety days to eight and twelve months. The +nation claims that period in the life of every able-bodied man, and it +is given more or less reluctantly. + +Every male citizen is enrolled in the army, and at the time when he +becomes twenty-one years of age, he is required to report himself at +the military headquarters nearest home, where he submits to a physical +examination, and if accepted, is assigned to the proper company and +regiment of militia, and directed to report for duty to his immediate +commander. The small number of persons rejected for disability is good +testimony to the health and vigor of the race. Severe penalties are +placed upon those who attempt to escape military service by feigning +illness or maiming themselves, but it is said there are still men who +would cut off one or two of their fingers and run risk of spending +four years in the penetentiary in preference to spending a couple of +months every year under military instruction. The military spirit in +Sweden is not strong, although history shows that there are no better +fighters in the human family, and it is remarkable to watch the high +degree of efficiency to which green boys from the farms can be brought +after a few weeks of drill and discipline. + +The regular army of Sweden oh a peace footing is composed of 34,329 +enlisted men, 3,729 officers, 1,655 musicians, 840 engineers, and +623 members of the staff, making a total effective fighting force of +39,114. Of these 6,891 are cavalry and 3,432 artillery. + +These forces compose the garrisons at Stockholm and other principal +cities of the country, and are at all times under arms. The militia, +divided into regiments and companies according to location, numbers +181,000 men, and is subject to call by the king at all hours and under +all circumstances. Each member of the militia, as I have said, must +serve a certain time in the army, eight months for infantry and twelve +months for cavalry and artillery, the service being extended over the +period of five years. During this five years a man spends from two to +four months each year in a garrison or camp, according to the judgment +of his commanding officers, when he receives the nominal pay of the +private in the regular army. He has no option as to the time of the +annual period or service. He may be asked to remain in the army for +eight or twelve months continuously; it all depends upon the plans of +the war office. + +When a man has served his time in the militia, he is given a +certificate to that effect, which exempts him from further active +military service, and makes him a member of the reserves, which number +203,000 men, all of whom have served in the militia, and are subject +to the summons of the king whenever the country is invaded by foreign +foe. With local troubles they have nothing to do. The militia is +considered sufficient for any such emergency, but under the Swedish +system the effective force at the command of the king in case of +foreign invasion is something like 420,000 men. + +There are a lot of picturesque old castles and fortresses on the coast +of Sweden in which garrisons are still maintained, but they would not +last an hour if attacked by modern guns and projectiles. They are +reinforced, however, by earthworks, with the very best artillery. +Swedish guns rank among the highest, and several Swedish patents in +ordnance have been already adopted by the fortification board of +the United States. All the harbors are protected by torpedoes, and +Stockholm is absolutely impregnable from the sea, being situated upon +a fjord or bay that can not be entered except through passages that +are easily defended. + +The navy of Sweden is comparatively small, but for its numerical +strength it is probably the most effective in the world. At least that +is the opinion of competent critics. The total force numbers 4,500 +officers and men on a peace footing, which may be increased to 8,500 +from the reserve on a few hours' notice. The fleet consists of +fourteen first-class cruisers and battle ships, four second- and nine +third-class, five torpedo catchers, twenty-six torpedo boats, and +twenty gunboats of small tonnage, the armament of the fleet being 290 +guns and ninety-seven rapid-firing guns. All the vessels were built in +Sweden. + +Every Swede is a sailor. He is brought up on the water, and taught +in childhood to swim and to sail a boat, and, although the shipping +industry is not so extensive as in Norway, the national interest in +aquatic sports is probably greater and more general than in any other +nation. The long line of seacoast and the 1,100 lakes within Swedish +territory gives abundant opportunity for the exercise of this +inclination. Hence in the case of war, the navy could be recruited +indefinitely with competent men. + +King Oscar took a deep personal interest in naval affairs, because his +early life was spent in the navy, his commission as lieutenant bearing +the date of June 19, 1845. When he was called to the throne, he at +once commenced to plan for improvement of that branch of the service, +and for many years was virtually his own minister of marine. He did +much to encourage the maritime spirit among the people, being honorary +president of the Royal Yacht Club, and presided over its meetings, +which were sometimes held in the palace to suit his convenience. He +took an active part in the organization and promotion of the naval +reserve, and never lost an opportunity to show his zeal in the +development of the shipping industry and the aquatic pastimes. + +Nor was the king a paper sailor. On special occasions he showed great +bravery and presence of mind at sea, and of his sixty decorations and +medals he valued none higher than that which was awarded him by the +Humane Society of France in 1862, when he saved the lives of three +people at the risk of his own. + +The Swedish militia is commanded by officers of the regular army. No +man can receive a commission in the militia unless he has spent at +least sixteen months in the military academy and passed the required +examinations. About a thousand young men are graduated each year from +the several schools situated in different parts of the country, which +are a part of the regular educational system of the nation. Thus the +government has at its command abundant material for the military +organization. The officers are promoted as vacancies occur, are +retired on half pay when they are aged or disabled--generals at 65 +years, colonels at 60, lieutenant colonels and majors at 55, and +captains at 50. Militia officers are eligible to appointments in the +civil service; they may be elected to the riksdag, and they have the +same social standing at the palace as the officers of the regular +army. The palace is the center of the social system in Sweden, and +only certain persons are eligible to invitations to the king's balls +and dinners. All officers of the militia are included in the list, +and all peasants in the riksdag, although their wives are never +invited.[h] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PUBLIC EDUCATION + + +There are few countries in which education is as free as in Sweden. +From the grammar school to the university in all its stages, the cost +is defrayed entirely by the state or the parish. Education is thus not +a privilege of the wealthy, but a benefit common to all. + +In Norway you are scarcely ever out of sight of a schoolhouse, and +Professor Nielsen, of the university, on being asked concerning the +ratio of the illiterates, looked surprised and replied that he was not +aware of any illiterates; that he did not recollect having seen any +statistics on the subject, and ventured to assert that anybody in +Norway could both read and write. + +Education is free throughout the entire primary system, a course of +seven years, between the ages of seven and fourteen, when the law +prohibits the employment of children in any occupation, and requires +them to attend school at least thirty hours a week for twelve weeks +each year in the country and fifteen weeks in the cities. The maximum +term is forty weeks in both city and country districts. There are in +the kingdom 5,923 school districts, governed by _Skolestyret_--boards +consisting of the parish priest, the president of the municipal +council, and one of the teachers chosen by themselves. There is also a +board of supervisors, composed of three men or women, elected by the +parents of the parish. Childless people are not allowed to vote. This +board of supervisors does not appear to have any definite function +except to advise and find fault. The school board elects the teachers, +determines the courses of study and methods of discipline, and submits +recommendations and estimates for appropriations annually to the +municipal council. In both city and country what is called "voluntary +instruction" is provided outside of the legal school hours, which may +be taken advantage of by people who are willing to pay for additional +attention from the school teachers, but it is neither free nor +compulsory. + +The compulsory studies in the primary schools are the Bible, the +catechism of the Lutheran creed, the Norwegian language, the usual +elementary branches, with history (including a treatise on the +constitution and the government of Norway), botany, physiology +(including the fundamental principles of hygiene and the effects of +the use of intoxicating liquors), singing, drawing, wood-carving, the +use of the lathe and other tools, manual training, gymnastics, and +rifle shooting. + +The national law requires that schoolhouses shall be so located as to +be within a distance of two miles of the residences of ninety per cent +of the children of school age. The poor are provided with text-books +upon application, and in some places the municipal council provides +every child a warm dinner at noon. It can be paid for if the parents +prefer, but the better classes look upon this provision with +prejudice, as they do upon all charities. Nevertheless, it is an +excellent idea to be sure that the children of the poor get at least +one warm meal every day. In the city of Christiania, 711,302 meals +are served annually in the primary schools. The average attendance is +22,750, so that only about 24 per cent of the children take advantage +of the free dinner. Only 18,341 of these meals are paid for, and those +are taken on stormy days by children of well-to-do parents. + +The Norway school teachers must be graduates of normal schools, of +which there are twelve in the kingdom; they must pass examinations and +serve a probation of three months before they are definitely engaged, +but when they have once received an appointment, they are settled for +life and sure of a pension at the end of the long term of faithful +service. The same rule applies to all civil service employees, for the +school system is a part of the government. There is no such thing as +rotation in office. Promotion is expected by all who deserve it. A +worthy and efficient teacher, having begun in youth at the lowest +grade, expects advancement to the highest, according to the judgment +of the school boards and supervisors. School teaching is a career, +just as a government clerkship is a career. People enter both +professions with the expectation of making them their life-work, +although from our point of view they offer very little inducement. + +The average salary of the school teachers in Norway is only about $220 +a year, the men receiving a little above the average and the women +a little less. The highest salaries are paid in the city of +Christiania--$756 for men and $434 for women. Head masters to the +number of 1,992, like parsons, are furnished with houses to live in +and little tracts of land, three or four acres, where they can raise +vegetables for their families and keep cows; and nine hundred and ten +of them add a little to their incomes by serving as parish clerks. +When they become too old to teach, they receive pensions of from $56 +to $224 a year, and when they die, their widows are remembered by the +government to the extent of from $28 to $74 per year. + +The primary school system of Norway costs an average of $5.60 per +child per year in the country, and $13.16 per child in the city, or +$1.26 per capita of population in a year. + +There is a secondary school system under the control of the national +government, administered by the department of education and religion. +It embraces forty-six high schools, located in different parts of the +country, known as _Latin-Gymnasier_, or classical schools, at which +students are prepared for the university, and _Real-Gymnasier_, or +technical schools, in which they are taught English, mathematics, the +natural and applied sciences, bookkeeping, stenography, and other +branches that will fit them for commercial or industrial pursuits. +There are also twelve cathedral schools, one for each ecclesiastical +diocese, which were founded in the middle ages, and are supported by +large estates acquired from the early kings and by confiscation of +church property after the Reformation. There are also five private +academies, attended chiefly by the sons of rich men. + +The University of Christiania, which is one of the first in Europe, +was founded in 1811, and has five faculties, with sixty-three +professors, eighteen fellows, and about 1,450 students, of whom 70 are +studying theology, 20 law, 330 medicine, and 600 are in the scientific +department. The professors are appointed by the king, and receive +salaries of about $950 a year, with a longevity allowance in addition +amounting to about $125 every five years. The fellows are paid about +$350 a year, and are provided with lodging rooms. Tuition at the +university is free upon payment of a matriculation fee of $10. Women +have been admitted on even terms with men since 1882, and 260 have +matriculated, of whom 53 have taken degrees. The university has an +endowment of $1,310,000, with legacies amounting to about $250,000 +to encourage original investigations in special lines of study. The +Nansen fund, which amounts to about $150,000, is intended to encourage +exploration on the seas. The hospitals of Christiania are in charge of +the medical department. + +There are also the usual schools for the deaf, dumb, blind, +weak-minded, and crippled children, supported by the state, and reform +schools for the correction and restraint of the depraved. Technical +schools, with day and night classes, for teaching the trades to young +men and women, four schools of engineering in different parts of the +country, nine industrial schools for women only, where they can +be trained to earn their living by sewing, dressmaking, weaving, +millinery, embroidery, and other needlework, bookkeeping, typesetting, +stenography, typewriting, photography, and other lines of industry, +and an art school especially patronized by the king in connection +with the art gallery at Christiania, where painting, drawing, and +designing, modeling, decoration, and the art of architecture are +taught. + +In most of the counties are found what are called +_Amtsskoler_--schools to educate people for a practical life, with +separate courses for each sex, the boys being taught farming, +gardening, and mechanics, and the girls the arts of the household. +There are also schools of deportment, where girls are fitted to act +as governesses and are taught the social graces, music, dancing, the +languages, and conversation. In several of the cities are workingmen's +colleges, known as _Arbeiderakademier_, where mechanics who have an +ambition to acquire a better knowledge of their trades and general +culture, may attend lectures in the evenings, delivered by scientific +men, successful mechanics, and other specialists. The range of +subjects includes every branch of human activity. + +In Sweden, in the _Folkskola_, Elementary or People's School, +maintained by the parish under the direction of the school board and +the close supervision of the state, instruction is compulsory as well +as gratuitous. As in Norway, between the ages of seven and fourteen +every boy and girl must attend a public school, unless the parents can +show that their child is receiving equivalent instruction elsewhere, +in a private school or at home. No exception or compromise is allowed, +and no "half-time" system or "rush" through the school to suit the +convenience of the factory or the farmer. For seven years, during +eight and a half months of the year,--allowing for summer, Christmas +and Easter holidays,--and thirty-six hours per week, every boy and +girl in the kingdom receives instruction and goes through the same +curriculum. The school board, which has the direct management of the +schools is elected to the parish, and women are eligible to it. The +state, which controls the whole system of education, from the A.B.C. +class to the college and university, maintains alike its unity and its +efficiency, and sees to the strict enforcement of the law. Parents who +try to evade it, through malevolence or neglect, may even, after due +warning, be deprived of their children, who are taken over by the +community during their school years. + +In thinly populated districts the school may be "ambulatory," held now +in one part of the district and now in another, so that all may attend +in turn. In such cases the schooling is reduced to four months in the +year. But there is no district, however poor or thinly populated, +without its _Folkskola_. There are nearly twelve hundred of these in +the land, attended by seven hundred and forty-two thousand pupils, and +employing sixteen thousand two hundred and seventy teachers of both +sexes. + +No more conscientious, hardworking, and respectable class of men and +women can be found than the teachers. Eight years' study, first in a +special seminary and then in a training college, has taught them their +profession both in theory and practice. They are convinced of the +importance and dignity of their office, and are respected accordingly. +Socially, the general type of the school teacher is a superior one. +There are at present in the Riksdag, occupying seats as members of the +second chamber, no fewer than eleven teachers in elementary schools, +twelve teachers in secondary schools, one inspector of schools, and +one university professor. In the rural community, the school teacher +is something of an authority. Most of the members of the parish have +"sat under him" at school in their early life, and owe to him most of +what they know. For years he has been diffusing knowledge around him, +and has been looked up to as the fountain of book learning. He is the +local parson's great coadjutor in parish matters, and being a ready +speaker, is of no mean influence in the parish assemblies. The one +dark blot in the existence of the school teacher is the small salary +received. Few of them receive so much as $300 a year, the average +running from $225 to $275; even in Stockholm the figure going little +beyond $300. Living is, however, cheap in the rural districts, and +these teachers, who are drawn generally from the rural and indigent +classes, are accustomed to frugality and economy. They are lodged +free of rent in the schoolhouse or a cottage attached to it, and are +allowed firewood and other small prerequisites. They have generally a +small garden or potato patch to cultivate, and can keep a cow and a +few hens. They often add to their modest stipend by extra work, such +as teaching in the evening classes, playing the organ in church, and +writing, or some such work after school hours. + +At fifteen, after seven years' assiduous attendance at the +_Folkskola_, the boy and girl have finished their education, so far as +compulsory instruction goes, and they are free to begin work on their +father's farm, in his shop or his trade, or take service anywhere and +shift for themselves. They may, however, if they like, pursue their +studies further in the continuation schools, or in the evening classes +provided in most parishes, or repair to a college or gymnasium town, +if they elect to enter the church, the liberal professions, or the +service of the state. But they have first to be confirmed, and it is +here that the definite religious instruction is given. The preparation +for confirmation, which entails a much longer and more advanced course +of religious instruction than is usual for confirmation in England, +is independent of the school and takes place in church, parents being +allowed every liberty in the choice of the clergyman who performs this +office for their children. English readers who are acquainted with +Longfellow's admirable translation of Tegnér's beautiful poem, "The +Children of the Lord's Supper," are aware of the importance of this +ceremony in Swedish social life. It is the great turning point in the +existence of Scandinavian youth. The boy and girl emerging from it +leave boyhood and girlhood behind them. Knee-breeches and short frocks +have given way to pants and long skirts. The boy sports his first +watch and glories in his first shirt-front. The girl discards her +long plaits, and wears her hair in a top-knot. They have made their +profession of faith in public, have been examined in regard to it, and +have had to answer for it in the presence of the whole congregation. +They have assumed henceforth the full responsibility of their acts. In +the eyes of the church, if not in the eyes of the law, they are free +and responsible members of society. + +The secondary schools are maintained by the state, and are confined +to the towns. They comprise nine forms in seven classes, of which +the last two have double forms. The first three correspond to the +curriculum of the primary schools, where are taught reading, writing, +arithmetic, history, natural sciences, singing, drawing, and +gymnastics, to which are added _Sloyd_ and gardening for the boys, and +needlework and cooking for the girls. Scholars who have passed these +in the primary schools enter into the fourth form. They are generally +divided into two branches, the classical and the modern, according +as the classics or languages predominate in the curriculum, which +comprises religion, Swedish composition, history, geography, +philosophy, Latin, Greek, German, French, mathematics, zoology, +botany, physics, chemistry, and drawing. After the fourth form, +pupils must declare, with the written approbation of their parents or +guardians, whether they will follow the classical or non-classical +course, according as they intend to qualify for the universities +or the technical high schools. Not all the pupils who attend these +secondary schools complete the full course and pass the final +examination. More than half--those who mean to devote themselves to +trade, agriculture, or industry, and those who have not developed +the capabilities necessary to confront the severe final test of the +"maturity" examination--leave the school on attaining the upper forms. +To those who intend to enter the professions, the civil and military +service, and the church, the full course of the secondary school is +necessary, the "maturity" examination certificate being the only open +sesame to the universities, the special colleges, and the technical +high schools. To obtain it and to don the white cap, which is the +outward and visible sign of university membership, is the first great +step in the life of the ambitious youth. + +For young men destined for the technical trades and professions, there +are open, after they have passed the maturity examination at the +secondary school, two special institutions, where they complete their +technical training--the Technical High School of Stockholm, and +the Chalmers Technical Institute at Gothenburg, besides elementary +technical schools at other places. The Stockholm Technical School, +which is the most complete, comprises five branches: (1) mechanical +technology and machinery, shipbuilding and electrotechnics; (2) +chemical technology; (3) mineralogy, metallurgy, and mining mechanics; +(4) architecture; (5) engineering. The course in each of these +sections takes between three and four years. Generally several are +combined, constituting a course of six or seven years. + +There are two universities in Sweden--Upsala in the north, founded in +1477; and Lund in the south, founded in 1668, to which may be added +the Medical College in Stockholm, founded in 1810, and limited to the +medical faculty. The studies at these universities are thorough +and comprehensive, but unusually long. They have each four +faculties,--theology, jurisprudence, medicine, and philosophy,--and +grant three different degrees in each, besides special degrees in +theology and jurisprudence for entering the church and the government +services. Even these last, which are easiest to obtain, require a +course of from four to five years. To take a medical degree a young +man must stay nine years at the university, and two additional years +in the hospitals, making eleven years in all. Unlike English and +American universities, the Swedish universities are non-residential. +Like those of the Continent, they are only teaching institutions, and +the students who matriculate at Upsala and Lund must lodge in town or +board with families living there. Beyond attending the lectures and +going up to be tested, they have no direct intercourse with their +professors. + +In this brief sketch of the institutions provided by the state it +will be seen that what especially characterizes public instruction in +Norway and Sweden is its undoubted thoroughness and depth, though a +serious penalty is paid for this in the extreme length of the course. +By the time it is completed, and the young man issues from the +protracted ordeal, armed for the battle of life, several of the best +years of his youth are passed; he is already between twenty-five and +thirty years of age when he first treads on the threshold of his +career. On the other hand, he enters it not only with the necessary +qualifications whereby to rise to eminence in it, of which the severe +tests he has undergone offer evident proof, but with the assurance of +finding the way more or less open to success.[i] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HAAKON VII, THE NEW KING OF NORWAY + + +There is something essentially, almost ludicrously, modern about +the creation of Norway's new king. Not that it is the first time a +sovereign has been, so to speak, "custom-made." An eligible foreign +prince is tendered a seat upon an ancient throne; the form is old, but +the spirit, how new! Republican though she is to the backbone, Norway +has elected to be governed by monarchical methods, fearing with her +isolated and primitive peasantry, to put the machinery of control into +the hands of the people themselves. She must have a king, but he shall +be of a new variety; in short, a republican king. She will not even +have him addressed as were the monarchs of old, by the Norwegian +equivalent of "Your Majesty." He shall be just _Herre Konge_, plain +"Mister the King." + +Even as the Norwegians welcomed Haakon VII to their shores, they took +pains to show him clearly his rightful place. In his address delivered +to the newly arrived sovereign on board the battleship Heimdal, Herr +Michelsen, President of Council, and for six months virtual President +of Norway, used these significant words: "For nearly six centuries +the Norwegian people have had no king of their own. To-day a king of +Norway comes to make his home in the Norwegian capital, elected by a +free people to occupy, conjointly with free men, the first place in +the land. The Norwegian people love their liberty, their independence, +and their autonomous government which they themselves have won. It +will be the glory of the king and his highest pleasure to protect this +sentiment, finding his support in the people themselves. This is why +the Norwegian people hail you to-day with profound joy and cry, 'Long +live the King and Queen of Norway!'" + +Was ever so frank a bargain driven with a king before? "Behold," says +Norway in effect, "you may sit on a throne; but beware how you attempt +to king it over us. We will give you a salary to transact our official +business and act as official figurehead. But you must never overlook +the fact that it was we who made you and not you yourself." + +Is it any wonder that when asked to undertake to govern a people so +independent, so proud spirited as this, Prince Karl of Denmark took +time to think? Or that he asked for a popular vote that he might know +how large a proportion of the _frei_ people of Norway really wanted +him for a king? + +This was not the only reason why he hesitated. Being himself on his +mother's side a Bernadotte, he could scarcely ascend the Norwegian +throne without the friendly sanction of Sweden. Moreover, his wife, +Princess Maud of England, was more than reluctant to undertake life +in Christiania and the duties of queenship. Lastly, Prince Charles +himself ran a shrewd risk in assuming the crown, lest, should his +relations with Norway become difficult, he might be forced to resign, +and find himself--having abandoned his naval career for the throne--in +a state of abject poverty. + +All three objections were finally overruled. Sweden, fearing lest +an empty throne in Norway should give impetus to the movement for a +republic, and that such a movement might afterward spread to her own +borders, was as much in haste to see Norwegian affairs settled as the +Norwegians themselves, so she swallowed her grievances. Most amicable +correspondence passed between Prince Karl and the Crown Prince of +Sweden, the latter expressing himself anxious to be the first to +welcome Haakon VII into his capital. What became of Princess Maud's +reluctance is not definitely known. It is understood that she never +found life at the Danish court very amusing, and probably the prospect +of exchanging Copenhagen for a city of less than half its size did not +allure her. She must have realized that if she accepted a share of the +Norwegian throne, she would be forced to abandon her favorite cure for +_ennui_--frequent flights to the court of England--for Norway has had +quite enough of absentee royalty. The English papers asserted that +King Edward used his parental authority to overcome his daughter's +scruples. At all events, she gave in. As for Prince Karl's reasonable +fear of dethronement and penury, the Norwegian government quieted that +by promising a respectable pension in case the king should find it +expedient to abdicate. + +So, then, the affair was comfortably arranged. The king has a salary +of $200,000, a crown when he had no hope of ever feeling one on his +brow, and the problems of a court without a nobility. + +And now the world is asking, "Has Norway done well for herself?" +Certainly she has done well in putting a Scandinavian prince on the +throne. No alien would ever understand Norway or be understood. If +reports are creditable, the Kaiser made the most of his friendship +with the country in support of the claims of a son of his own. Had a +German secured the throne, there would have been sown fresh seeds +of discord on a peninsula which can raise a sufficient crop of +dissensions without any aid from the rest of Europe. For Denmark, +still nursing the rankling grievance of the Schleswig-Holstein affair, +detests the thought of everything German. + +King Haakon combines the advantages of Scandinavian birth with the +very positive political asset of blood relationship to half the courts +of Europe. Grandson of the late King Christian of Denmark, the young +monarch is also nephew to King George of Greece, the Dowager Empress +of Russia, and Alexandria of England, a grand-nephew to the late Oscar +of Sweden, son-in-law to King Edward VII, and cousin to the Czar. To a +relatively defenseless country like Norway, this means a good deal. + +In himself the new king is a clean-lived, healthy young man of +thirty-three, in personality quite fit to represent a nation which +thinks well of itself. Tall, though not quite so tall as his uncle, +Prince Christian, whose mark on the famous old royal measuring-column +at Roskilde comes just under that of the giant, Peter the Great, King +Haakon is slight, yet vigorous-looking, and splendidly well set up. +The face, while scarcely so handsome as the profile pictures lead us +to think, is a distinguished one, and has for Norway this charm, that +it is markedly not of the Bernadotte type, although his mother is +a Bernadotte. Those who know him describe him as an extremely +intelligent and sensible young man, easy and tolerant without being +weak, and capable of strenuous devotion to hard work. These things +bespeak an industrious, efficient, and tractable king, such as the +Norwegians, who would equally resent either vacillation or tyranny, +know how to appreciate. + +It has been said in France that King Haakon abandons tiller and +compass for crown and scepter without one hour's training in politics +or diplomacy. + +The statement appears incontestable. In view of the remarkable +longevity of the late king of Denmark, and the excellent health and +prospects of the Crown Prince and his immediate heir, this younger son +of a royal house was not brought up to look for a crown. Instead, he +was destined from the outset for a naval career. For all that, it is +not safe to say that he has had no training in politics or diplomacy. +One can scarcely grow up in the family of the "father-in-law of +Europe" and not learn the principles of the great game of world +affairs. King Haakon is no stranger to the queer old palace among the +beeches at Fredensborg, where every summer King Christian gathered +together his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren from +the courts of England, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Greece; and where +conversations took place which, if reported, would vitally interest +the whole round world. In his lifetime, the Czar Alexander III was +particularly fond of holding long talks at Fredensborg with his +nephew Karl, then a lieutenant of the navy, whom he found especially +intelligent and open-minded. + +It is thought in Copenhagen that King Haakon may, even during the last +years of his father's life, have had some experience in the government +of Denmark, since his father, the Crown Prince, was called upon +to perform many of the old king's duties. At least, if he did not +actually transact royal business, he acquired no small acquaintance +with the working of government machinery. + +Nothing, certainly, could have been more fitting than that a ruler of +Vikingland should be educated for the sea. Nor could anything have +been devised better calculated to knock the nonsense out of a +princeling than apprenticeship in the Danish navy. Hrolf Wisby, who +messed with Prince Karl when he was a naval cadet, says that the lad +was at first little more than a piece of court furniture. Any one who +is familiar with the appalling frankness and unvarnished brusquerie of +grown-up Danes can judge whether the hazing and horse-play on a Danish +man-of-war was agreeable, and whether it was medicinal in a case of +congenital self-esteem. Prince Karl lived the life of an ordinary +middy, scrubbed decks, mended his own clothes, slept in a hammock, and +ate provender which was anything but fit to set before a king. It is +recorded of him that he was an expert in polishing a certain brass +binnacle lantern. We wonder if he ever thinks now of a certain line in +Pinafore, "I polished that handle so care-ful-lee, that now--" + +As ensign, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and finally captain +of a frigate, the young man acquitted himself well, earning the +reputation of a capital officer, hardworking, careful, no martinet +towards his men, though by no means to be trifled with. In practical +seamanship, he excels any other prince of his age, and can command +any kind of naval craft from torpedo boat to battleship, and lead in +actual battle. + +In forming their court, King Haakon and Queen Maud are gathering about +them the literary, artistic, and musical people of the realm, for they +are devoted to the companionship of gifted folk. The queen has herself +written plays under the pseudonym "Graham Irving," and the king paints +a little in aquarelles, and plays the piano almost too well to be +termed an amateur. Both are accomplished linguists, speaking with +discrimination French, German, Russian, English, Norwegian, Swedish, +and, naturally, Danish. There is no barrier of speech in their +intercourse with members of the diplomatic corps. + +The little heir apparent, Alexander, rechristened Olaf, has already +done much toward ingratiating himself with the Norwegian people, +although but a half dozen years old. On the day when the royal couple +entered Christiania, the boy was but two and a half years old, but he +was very much interested in the decorations, and seemed to catch the +enthusiasm of the crowd, for he waved his little hand spontaneously. +In counting up the merits of the king, the promising little heir must +by no means be left out. + +Trondhjem Cathedral, where all the kings and queens of Norway for +centuries have been crowned, and where the coronation of King +Haakon VII and Queen Maud occurred, stands on the site of what was +undoubtedly the first Christian church in the country--that erected by +Olaf Trygvason in 996. Within its confines bubbles the spring which +sprang from the tomb of that later Olaf who is the patron saint of +Norway, and somewhere under its walls lie moldering the bones of +medieval kings, four of whom accepted their consecration before the +altar where King Haakon received his crown. It is a thousand pities +that hammer and chisel should have exorcised the spirits which ought +to haunt this venerable shrine. It is as if England's Abbey had been +scrubbed and resurfaced, and new noses had been provided for all the +crumbling stone kings and queens. Trondhjem Cathedral has burned down +so many times, and the work of restoration has been so sweeping, that +it takes an active imagination to invest it with the proper glamour of +romance. + +Trondhjem itself is an odd place for festivities. The people say that +it is fear of fire which makes them separate their insignificant +wooden houses by such disproportionately broad streets. Certainly it +gives to the town a low look anything but imposing. + +Whatever may be the esthetic shortcomings of King Haakon's coronation +city, it was amply atoned for by the enthusiasm and whole-hearted +devotion of his new people. The king and queen are in very truth "the +father and mother of the land." Even toward the rulers they shared +with Sweden their cherished warm affection until their grievances +waxed too sore. When Sophie of Nassau was on her way to Trondhjem to +be crowned, in 1873, she drove herself in a carriole from the +Romsdal, stopping perforce at humble posting-stations by the way. And +everywhere the peasants came with flowers, greeting their queen by +the affectionate and familiar "Du." More than once when the press was +thick about her, and those on the outskirts could not see, the queen +was urged to mount upon the housetop that the eyes of all might +be gladdened by the sight of the dear land-mother. There was a +significant demonstration of this sort of heart-loyalty when Haakon +VII and Queen Maud entered Christiania. The crowds which waited in +the steadily falling snow, and shouted themselves hoarse, might be +accounted for by curiosity and mob enthusiasm. + +Triumphal arches, flags, and even the rain of flowers which descended +on the royal pair, might be classed as perfunctory, an essential part +of the occasion. But at night the spirit of the people showed beyond +mistake. Not only were the streets arched and bordered with festoons +of colored incandescent lights, not only were the battleships in the +harbor strung with fiery beads to the topmost spar, but every window +in every house in the city bore its light. Fine houses had candelabra +behind the glass, and the poorest mere tapers, but everywhere the same +fire of welcome burned. + +Haakon VII has the privilege of ruling over the most united people on +the face of the earth. Before the plebiscite, Sweden declared that the +desire for separation was confined to a party who were poisoning the +minds of the common people. When the plebiscite had shown that only +164 men out of 368,000 could be found to uphold the union, Sweden +protested that the peasants had been intimidated and dared not vote as +they thought! + +Now, it was just at this stirring time that I was driving through +Norway, or cruising in her fjords, and talking with graduates of her +university, with sea-captains, hotel proprietors, traveling men, +porters, drivers, serving-maids--all, in short, who spoke English +enough to make themselves clear. It was as if all Norway spoke with +one voice. From Hamerfest to Stavanger there was the same complaint of +the same wrongs, the same quiet insistence upon the same remedy. Nor +was it only the subjects of King Oscar who spoke; Norwegians settled +in France, in England, or in America either hurried home to vote or +sent their vigorous endorsement of the revolutionary proceedings. A +window in Christiania was completely filled by the mingled flags of +Norway and the United States, crossed by a banner bearing the words, +"For Disunion." It was the voice of Norway and America. It was a +modest desire they expressed. In the words of Olaf Sprachehaug, our +humble-minded _skydsgut_, the whole country was saying, "And now I +t'ink we get a king of our own." They have their own king now, and all +the world wishes them joy in him.[j] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN + + +The present reigning family of Sweden is too young to be very +numerous, and in this brief survey it is well to begin with a bit of +information about that grand democratic monarch, Oscar II, passed away +less than two years ago. How the Bernadotte dynasty was formed has +already been shown in a previous chapter, and something of the kings, +who succeeded the former Field Marshal of France has also been +related, so that we have in these few pages simply to deal with Oscar +II, the late king, and his four sons and their families. + +Oscar's grandfather, the originator of the Bernadotte dynasty, was +still on the throne when he was born, in 1829, as the third son of +Crown Prince Oscar and the beautiful Josephine of Leuchtenberg. He +seemed far removed from the throne then, and thus he found freedom +to develop himself more in keeping with his individual tastes and +inclinations. Another factor to be borne in mind is the character of +his governor and principal instructor, the historian, F.F. Carlson, +who gave to his pupil a fondness for scientific exactness as well as +an insight into the true causes of civilizatory development found none +too frequently in professional thinkers, and hardly ever in princes. +The things that drew him most strongly in those days were the sea, and +music. + +One of the foremost of Swedish composers, A.F. Lindblad, taught him +the latter, while his fondness for the former was richly satisfied +during the years when he worked his way through the ranks of the +Swedish navy. And his position on board the various man-of-war's-men +in which he traveled on many seas was never merely ornamental or even +exceptional. He took not only the title but also the work of the +offices he held, from midshipman to admiral. + +It was characteristic of him, too, that when he married, he did so +out of love. On a tour through several countries; in 1856, he was +fortunate enough to meet Princess Sophia of Nassau. The courtship was +brief and ardent. Within a few months occurred the engagement, and the +wedding followed in less than a year. To the last that royal couple +remained strongly devoted to each other in spite of widely differing +tastes and temperaments. She has all her life been intensely +religious, with a strong leaning toward pietism, and illness has still +further developed this inborn tendency. He, on the other hand, was +always gay, light-hearted, fond of merriment, and given to many +pleasures and pursuits which his spouse could only look upon as far +too worldly. + +Duke Oscar Frederick, as he was known in those early days, found +himself heir to the throne after death had unexpectedly removed the +two claimants with rights prior to his own. And on the succession of +his eldest brother, he became the Crown Prince. It was a delicate +position which imposed on him a reserve foreign to his nature. As it +contrasted sharply with the unceremonious jollity of his brother, King +Charles, he came by degrees to be regarded by those ignorant of his +true character with a distrust bordering on dislike. Thus, when the +succession fell to him in 1872, he found himself little understood and +less loved. It took him years to overcome the prejudice. Perhaps it +was his sanction of the impeachment proceedings by the Norwegian +Radicals against the retiring Conservative ministry which, in the +early '80's, first served to turn the trend of public opinion in his +favor, both in Sweden and Norway. That act was one of the many by +which he showed his ability to submit his own inclinations to the +demands of the people without becoming a mere tool in the hands of +any one political party. About the same time he succeeded in bringing +about a deeply needed and by himself long-cherished reform of the +popular educational system in Sweden. Previously,--it was, in fact, +his first important step after his ascension to the throne,--he had on +his own initiative proclaimed full freedom of worship for persons not +belonging to the established church. + +A Scandinavianism of the purely sentimental kind,--the kind that +talked without ever dreaming of putting the talk into deeds,--had +prevailed until then on the peninsula. Intermixed with it was an +equally sentimental sympathy with France. Though himself the grandson +of a Frenchman and still keenly devoted to French literature and art, +King Oscar had the foresightedness to recognize that the interests of +the country were more closely bound up with those of Germany. And one +of the most striking features of his reign was the growing cultural +intercourse between the nations in the north and their neighbor south +of the Baltic. And while the king discouraged the speech-making, empty +Scandinavianism against which Ibsen was fond of launching his most +vitriolic invectives, he fostered instead a fellow-feeling between +Sweden, Norway and Denmark that found its expression in practical +co-operation, in the equalization of commercial and industrial +regulations, in the breaking down of as many as possible of the +unnecessary barriers between them. As the years passed on and the +trend of his labors became understood and appreciated, he found a part +of his reward in a steadily increasing respect for him throughout +the civilized world, a respect that repeatedly found expression in +requests that he act as arbiter of international differences. He had +always been fond of traveling, and this fondness he continued to +indulge up to the last. Unlike those of some other monarchs having a +similar taste, his comings and goings on the Continent were always the +objects of pleasant and welcoming comment. If gossip had to name King +Christian of Denmark "the father-in-law of all Europe," King Oscar was +surely "the friend of all the world." Apace with his own fame grew +the prosperity of his people. On either side of the Kjölen his reign +marked an era of unprecedented economical, social, and spiritual +progress which not even the internal dissensions of the sister nation +could interrupt. + +King Oscar's motto was _Brödrafolkens Väl_ "The Brother-Peoples Weal!" +The Scandinavian peninsula is still populated by brother-peoples, as +was indicated at the time of the death of the old king. It was the +week for the distribution in Norway of the Nobel prizes, always +attended in Christiania with great rejoicing and merry-making. On this +occasion all demonstration was prohibited, and the Norwegian capital +was almost as much in mourning as was Stockholm. Though entirely +devoted to the new order of things, the Norwegians did not forget, +nor will they forget, the character of the king who ruled them for +a generation. More democratic than the Swedes, they were peculiarly +attached personally, if not politically, to one whom they felt to be +really of like democratic instincts with themselves, even if he did +show himself every inch a king. + +Not only as a ruler, but as a father, King Oscar was both wise and +fortunate. Four sons came to him through his marriage, and these have +proved men of his own type. The Crown Prince Gustave was born just one +year after the marriage of his parents, on June 16th, at the Castle +of Drottingholm, in the year 1858; Prince Oscar, known as Prince +Bernadotte, was born on Nov. 15, 1859, at Stockholm; Prince Carl on +Feb. 27, 1861, also at Stockholm; while the youngest, Prince Eugene, +like his eldest brother, first saw the light at the Castle of +Drottingholm, on Aug. 1, 1865. As has been previously stated, the +Crown Prince (now king) was married to the Princess Victoria of Bade, +granddaughter of Emperor William I of Germany, and great-granddaughter +of the exiled Gustavus IV of Sweden. The third son, Prince Carl, is +wedded to his cousin, the Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, which was +a source of great satisfaction to King Oscar and Queen Sophie. The +youngest son, Prince Eugene, is devoted to art, and spends much time +out of the country. Never did King Oscar do more to win the approval +of his subjects, and thinking men and women everywhere, than when he +permitted the marriage of his second son, Prince Oscar, to a young +Swedish noblewoman, Fröken Ebba Munck, of Fulkila, who was also Queen +Sophie's maid-of-honor. While the prince had to renounce his right of +succession and his position as a royal prince of Sweden, his relations +to his father and the other members of the royal family remained the +same. + +Of this incident in the history of the royal family of Sweden, the +following story is told: + +The Queen interceded long and persistently with her husband for +permission for her second son to be married to the woman he loved. +Although the Munck family had played a very important part in the +history of the nation, the king was opposed to the _mésalliance_. "It +is Oscar's duty to be true to himself and to his love," she used to +say. But the king, who was not wont to refuse any of the wishes of +his consort, steadily refused to sanction the union. There were many +things against such a marriage, for Prince Oscar was the second son +of the king, and the very fact that the reigning House of Norway and +Sweden was one of the most youthful of the royal houses of Europe made +it all the more necessary that its scions should intermarry with the +members of the ancient reigning houses. + +About this time the queen was seized with one of her serious attacks +of illness, and her state was such that at one time her life was +despaired of. Her physicians declared that her only hope of recovery +lay in an instant operation, which was both dangerous and extremely +painful. + +The queen called the king to her bedside, and said, "If I undergo this +operation and recover, will you allow Oscar and Ebba to have their +way?" The king was unable to resist such an appeal, made at such a +time, and gave his promise. A short time afterwards the operation was +successfully performed, and when the queen was convalescent, the king +redeemed his promise and gave his consent to the marriage of his +second son. It was on Christmas Eve, and the king had come to his +wife's apartments to see her. He found Ebba Munck and his son Oscar +with her. The maid-of-honor was, at the time of his entrance, singing +one of his poems to Her Majesty, which, oddly enough, was on the +subject of the right to love. After waiting until the song was ended, +the king went up to his son, and, leading him to the girl, laid his +hand in hers, in this manner signifying that he had withdrawn his +opposition to their plans. + +The marriage has proved a most happy one. Prince Oscar has found +perfect content, and has been able to follow his career as a +philanthropist. The wedding took place at Bournemouth, in the presence +of the queen of Sweden, on March 15, 1888, and for some time after it +the prince and his wife were known as Prince and Princess Bernadotte; +but later the uncle of Prince Oscar, the Grand Duke of Luxemburg, gave +him the title of the Count of Wisborg for himself and his descendants. +When their children were born, Prince Oscar and his wife proclaimed +them as the children of Oscar and Ebba Bernadotte, and, during +their entire married life, they have lived as quietly and simply as +possible, and have found their greatest interest in working for the +poor and suffering. They have a son and a daughter, the former, Count +Carl Oscar, having been born on May 27, 1890, and the latter, the +Countess Marie, on February 28, 1889; and three other children. + +And so, as the years went by, a third generation grew up in the palace +at Stockholm,--a brood of long-limbed and broad-shouldered sons with +wholesome tastes and bright minds and kindly temperaments. And at +last, when the king was seventy-eight years old, a great-grandchild +was laid in his arms,--the first son of Prince Gustavus Adolphus (now +the Crown Prince) and the Princess Margaret of Connaught. + +Up to the last King Oscar remained active and interested in all public +affairs. Though he had experienced several brief but rather severe +illnesses of late years, the end came without warning, after a few +days of indisposition, on Dec. 8, 1907. A kindly "thanks" for a small +favor rendered him by a member of his family was the last word heard +from his lips. Previously he had expressed his wish to the members of +his cabinet that no interruption in public or private business be made +on account of his death. + +King Gustavus V, who took the oath of office within a few hours of his +father's death, has suffered something resembling his father's fate +as Crown Prince. Overshadowed by the more brilliant gifts and more +attractive personality of the parent, he was for years spoken of in +rather a disparaging manner in Sweden, while in Norway he harvested +outright hatred in return for his determined upholding of the union. +On frequent occasions during the last decade of his father's reign, he +acted as vice-regent while his father was sick or traveling, and in +this way he found chances to display qualities that gradually changed +the popular regard of him from one of suspicion to one of hearty +respect. His near-sightedness, his serious-mindedness, have militated +against him, but it seems probable that he will prove the very _best_ +ruler Sweden could desire at the present juncture. He is slow to make +up his mind, and will not do so until he has searched every phase +and detail of the problem before him, but once he has come to a +conclusion, he pursues his path without looking to the right or left. + +Gustavus is fifty years old, tall, rather dark, quite unassuming, and +is essentially democratic, while seeming the opposite, whereas Oscar +was aristocratic, although he made much of the people. Like all other +Swedish kings, Gustavus adopted a motto when he ascended the throne; +it is "With the People for the Fatherland"--not inappropriate in view +of his inheritance of a problem clamoring for solution, the extension +of the suffrage and a more direct representation of the people in both +the upper and lower houses of the Riksdag. The new king, who possesses +an uncommon amount of energy, may probably be depended upon to +accomplish this reform. + +There is neither pride of an objectionable type, nor any tendency to +tyranny, nor one strain of arrogance in the new king. He may not be +able to draw upon such ripe culture or upon such fine talents as the +monarch who preceded him, yet the Swedes have no fear that his love of +truth and justice will not outweigh this deficiency and probably make +him a more practical ruler. As for the French descent of the Swedish +royal house, neither the present nor the late king have ever been +ashamed of their ancestry, or forgotten that the first Bernadotte on +their throne was one of Napoleon's greatest marshals. + +Never will Gustavus V be able to give to words or actions that +brilliantly original and kingly tone for which his late father was so +admired everywhere. That, to the mind of all beholders, is to be the +drawback of his reign, for he is the merest mortal; where his father +was the luminous angel. Where Oscar would have been finely eloquent, +Gustavus shows himself merely sensible. Oscar's temper was heated, +his emotions were forever coming to the surface. Gustave is, if more +poised, less interesting. He has always been addicted to manly sports +and exercises. He has often been observed to "put up" an excellent +game of tennis at the club in Stockholm. But he is without the alert +and springy step of the old Oscar, whose muscles remained taut and +elastic almost to his dying day. Gustave lacks the literary aptitudes +of his late father, likewise, who left a well-filled book of verse +which admirers all over Europe did into French, German, Italian, +Danish, and even Hungarian. Gustave has not inherited his mother's +musical genius, either. She was at one time a devotee of Wagner, a +disciple of Kant, and always a pious evangelical of the German +cast. From both his parents Gustave received every encouragement to +proficiency in music. Music, to the late Oscar, was, both in theory +and practice, an essential element in the intellectual life. Gustave +is less the artist than the practical king. + +He encourages international congresses of every kind to come to +Sweden; he helps the universities and the cause of education +throughout his kingdom; he feels his father's interest in Hedin's +travels through central Asia, but he can give no creative impulse +after his father's grand fashion. Oscar was the man of ideas, the +vitalizer of projects literary, musical, dramatic and scientific. He +made Stockholm the capital of the whole intellectual world. Gustave is +very courteous, affable in a dignified way, impressive as he opens the +Riksdag in royal ermine. He has commenced his reign in simplicity, +rising at eight, breakfasting on coffee and rolls, reading the morning +papers until ten, and reviewing the military with a conscientious +assiduity. His note is repose both in manner and in speech, in +striking contrast with the late Oscar, who was majestic in the very +way he had of eating cold meat at supper, and whose height of six feet +three towered, almost without the drooping heaviness of age, till his +seventy-ninth year. Notwithstanding the adverse comparison with his +parent, one has but to see Gustave's face, with its determination and +refinement, to feel a certain assurance as to Sweden's future. + +It is a curious fact that there has been such a dearth of girls in the +Swedish royal family, the only princess of the house being the Crown +Princess of Denmark, a daughter of the late King Charles XV. The +present queen has only sons: Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus, wedded to +Margaret of Connaught; Prince Wilhelm, who was recently married to +the Russian Princess Marie Palvona, and Prince Erik, now about twenty +years of age. The present Crown Prince and Princess are seemingly +perpetuating the tradition, as their first child is a lusty little +son. + +Queen Victoria is said to be endowed with an instinct for business of +every kind far finer and more efficient than that of her husband, and +it is to be regretted that her health is so frail that she is obliged +to spend much time outside her husband's realm, and the duties of her +royal dignity devolve upon her daughter-in-law, the Crown Princess. +It is very satisfying to the Swedish people that by a strange play +of circumstances, the claims of the extinct House of Vasa,--the last +direct descendant of which passed away a few days after King Oscar, +in the person of Carola, Dowager-Queen of Saxony, and daughter of the +deposed King Gustavus Adolphus IV of Sweden,--are again restored, and +that the reigning House of Bernadotte and the ancient House of Vasa +have become joined through the present Crown Prince. It is something +to consider, too, that Adolphus V is the first of the Bernadotte +dynasty in whose veins, through his mother, Sophie of Nassau, there +flows royal blood.[k] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS + + +This is the age of munificent benefactions in aid of science and +learning. The Rhodes scholarships, Mr. Carnegie's free libraries and +educational endowments, the Duc d'Aumale's gift to the French Academy +of his fine _chatteau_ at Chantilly, with its magnificent historical +and art collections; many institutions founded in the United States +and elsewhere by multi-millionaires for the advancement of knowledge, +are a sign of the times. They foreshadow the abolishment of pauperism +and its attendant charities to give place to beneficent institutions, +and Norway and Sweden are abreast with other countries in this +movement. Apart from charitable institutions and endowments for the +maintenance of hospitals and asylums, of universities, scholarships +and fellowships, which the generosity of former generations has +secured, the present generation has seen noble donations made by +private men for more special objects, having the general advancement +of knowledge in view, such as the encouragement of scientific research +and the support of voyages of geographical exploration. Nordenskiöld's +Arctic voyages, his and Palander's navigation through the polar +northeast passage in the _Vega_, Nathort's exploration of King Carl's +Land, the Swedish expedition to the Antarctic regions under Otto +Nordenskiöld, which has lately returned after two years' adventurous +exploration in Graham Land and the discovery of King Oscar Land, Sven +Hedin's travels in Central Asia, which have had such important results +and made his works so widely read--all these were undertaken as +the result of such aid. The latest case in point, Alfred Nobel's +foundation of annual prizes for the reward of scientific discovery, of +literary merit, and humanitarian endeavor, deserves special notice. +The annual distribution of these prizes, each of which represents a +small fortune ($41,500), has of late years fixed the attention of the +learned world on the Swedish literary and scientific bodies, and the +Norwegian Parliamentary Committee, who were entrusted by him with the +difficult and invidious task of awarding them. + +Alfred Nobel, the dynamite king, as he was styled, belonged to a +family of inventors and industrial magnates. His father, Emmanuel +Nobel, was the inventor of nitroglycerine, and of fixed submarine +torpedoes or mines. His two brothers, Robert and Louis Nobel, founded +the naptha and petroleum works at Bacou, one of the largest industrial +enterprises of Russia. Alfred himself invented dynamite and dynamite +gum, and a smokeless powder, ballistite, which he patented in 1867, +1876, and 1889. It is mainly due to the works of the Nobel family that +Sweden has attained the reputation of Master Producer of Explosives. +Chemical research has always been a specialty among Swedish men of +science, and a large number of the known chemical elements were +discovered and made known by Swedish scientists. + +In 1876, Alfred Nobel had perfected his invention of dynamite gum. He +went to Paris with his patented invention, and there formed a company +with a capital of ten million francs for the manufacture of dynamite. +It proved to be an article of the greatest industrial importance, and +one destined to revolutionize mining and engineering. Erelong he had +established extensive works in France, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, +Austria, and the United States. He produced over $25,000,000 worth a +year. He became, in fact, the world's purveyor of an article which was +now exclusively used in mining and engineering works. Thanks to it, +engineers were able to pierce tunnels through the Alps, miners to sink +their shafts into the bowels of the earth, and harbor constructors to +remove sunken rocks out of the way of shipping. But thanks to it, too, +the Communards were enabled to blow up the finest monuments of Paris +in a few hours. It was at once a powerful instrument of industrial +development, and of progress in the conquest of man over inert matter, +and a terrible engine of devastation in warfare, and of massacre and +vandalism where homicidal and destructive passions were aroused in +mankind. + +It was perhaps this thought, that in benefiting industry he had also +made war more destructive, which led Alfred Nobel, who was a most +pacific and humane man, endowed with the kindliness and sympathy of a +great mind, to make the provisions he did in his will. He devoted +all his fortune to the encouragement of scientific discovery and the +reward of endeavors to diminish standing armies and the chances of +war, to promote fraternity among nations, and the settlement of +international disputes by peace congresses. His will, in its very +conciseness and unsophisticated simplicity, is characteristic of the +man. It is dated Nov. 27, 1895, and he died a year afterwards, on Dec. +10, 1896, leaving a fortune of $10,000,000. After instituting several +small legacies, the will proceeds: + +"With the residue of my convertible estate I hereby direct my +executors to proceed as follows: They shall convert my said residue of +property into money, which they shall then invest in safe securities; +the capital thus secured shall constitute a fund, the interest +accruing from which shall be annually awarded in prizes to those +persons who shall have contributed most materially to benefit mankind +during the year immediately preceding. The said interest shall be +divided into five equal amounts, to be apportioned as follows: one +share to the person who shall have made the most important discovery +or invention in the domain of physics; one share to the person who +shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; +one share to the person who shall have made the most important +discovery in the domain of physiology or medicine; one share to the +person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most +distinguished work of an idealistic tendency; and, finally, one share +to the person who shall have most or best promoted the fraternity of +nations and the abolition or diminution of standing armies and the +formation or increase of peace congresses. The prizes for physics +and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Science in +Stockholm, the one for physiology or medicine by the Caroline Medical +Institute in Stockholm; the prize for literature by the Swedish +Academy in Stockholm, and that for peace by a committee of five +persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storthing. I declare it to be +my express desire that, in awarding these prizes, no consideration +whatever be paid to the nationality of the candidates, that is to +say, the most deserving be awarded the prize, whether of Scandinavian +origin or not." + +It was Nobel's object to reward and help the pure man of science, too +much absorbed in his researches to think of drawing any industrial or +pecuniary advantages from his scientific discoveries. "I would not +leave anything to a man of action or industrial enterprise," he said +to a friend with whom he was discussing the project of his will; "the +sudden acquisition of a fortune would probably only damp the energy +and weaken the spirit of enterprise of such a man. I want to aid the +dreamer, the scientific enthusiast, who forgets everything in the +pursuit of his ideas." + +It seems like dropping from the sublime to the ridiculous to follow +so ideal a benefaction with a report of so mundane a thing as a soup +kitchen, but soup is as necessary to humanity at the present period of +life as some of the exalted things of the intellect, and, as pauperism +in Norway and Sweden is so almost unobservable, it is difficult to +search out with the keenest vision any charity that is doing more than +are the "steam kitchens" of Norway and Sweden. And the keenest vision +would hardly observe that these "steam kitchens" are charitable +institutions. They are called "steam kitchens" because they are the +first institutions in the peninsula where steam was used for the +cooking of food. The one at Stockholm, instituted by Prince Carl, is +very similar in detail and operation to the one in Christiania, +but the latter was established first and is more perfect in its +arrangement and methods, so we will take it for illustration. + +This kitchen at Christiania was established in 1858 by benevolent +people to provide wholesome food for the poor at low prices. The +charter granted to the company limited its profits to six per cent +of the capital invested, with a provision that the balance, if any, +should be paid into the poor fund of the city. There was a hard +struggle at first to make both ends meet, and an annual deficit for +many years, which was made up by the stockholders, but at last the +"kitchen" became so popular that it began to pay dividends, and the +stock has since been watered four times, until it now pays what +is equivalent to twenty-four per cent annually upon the original +investment, with a surplus larger than the capital on which it was +started. It is one of the most profitable enterprises in Europe for +the amount of money involved, but that fact does not diminish the +benefits conferred upon the public, and the generosity of the company +to the poor, particularly in times of labor troubles and financial +depression, can not be questioned. Hundreds of bachelors and single +women take their meals there regularly, and hundreds of families +obtain their entire supply of food, wholesome and well cooked, at +nominal cost. + +There is a long official title to the company, but nobody ever +mentions it. It occupies a two-story building covering nearly half an +ordinary block. The location is convenient to the business portion of +the city, the docks and the market-place. There are two large halls, +one above the other, containing five long tables, seating thirty +persons each, thus accommodating three hundred customers at a sitting. +In the upstairs room it costs eleven cents in our money for a +good dinner; in the lower room it costs nine cents. There are no +tablecloths and no napkins, but the tops of the tables have been +scoured until they shine and everything is spotless. The whole +institution is a model of neatness. It seems remarkable how it can be +kept so clean with so many unwashed customers and so much business. +The windows are large and let in plenty of light. The walls are +covered with bright tints, and the waitresses wear white caps, aprons, +and oversleeves. At each place is a knife, fork, spoon, drinking +glass, cup and saucer, and a piece of bread about three inches square. +Dinner is served from ten in the morning until six in the afternoon to +an average of 2,500 people daily. Some of them come twice. They take a +cup of coffee and eat a piece of cheese and bread at their homes early +in the morning. Then at ten or eleven, and again at four or five +o'clock, they go to the "kitchen" for a square meal. Thus it costs +them not more than twenty-five cents a day, all told, for their food. +In the last ten years they have never served less than 1,500 people in +a day. + +The bill of fare varies from day to day, but we will take one day, +Tuesday, for example. A large dish of barley soup is served, wholesome +and nourishing, a ball of hashed meat, with potatoes and rice, or +boiled salmon, potatoes and turnips. + +The nine-cent dinner is pretty much the same, with the exception of +the soup; boiled potatoes and rice, or boiled salmon, potatoes and +turnips. A plate of soup alone, which in itself would be more than a +meal for most people, being filled with meat and vegetables, is served +for three cents. + +The same dinners are furnished to the public to be eaten at their +homes for nine and seven cents respectively, and usually contain +enough food for two or three women, although Norwegians have stalwart +appetites. The outdoor service is conducted in another part of the +building, upon another street. The patrons procure tickets at an +office and then form in line--men, women and children, each with +a bucket or a basket, or both, in hand. Many tickets are given +gratuitously, but it is impossible to distinguish the paying from the +charity customers. Benevolent people throughout the city purchase +bunches of tickets, which they give to the poor, and sometimes in lieu +of wages. If you hire a man to clean up the yard, you can give him so +much cash and so many meal tickets, or if a person appeals to you for +relief, it is always better to give a ticket to the "Steam Kitchen" +rather than money. Many customers buy two portions which they take +home and warm up at meal time for the whole family. + +In the center of a large room are rows of immense caldrons with coils +of steam pipe embracing them. The air is filled with pungent odors +from the bubbling soup, and clouds of steam rise from the other +cook-pots. On a long table are pyramids of bread, cut into cubes three +or four inches square, usually rye or black bread, such as the natives +of Norway prefer. Along the walls are deep cupboards containing the +linens, the culinary supplies and utensils. In an adjoining but +detached building is a furnace and boiler-room which furnishes the +steam, and beside it a laundry and dish-washing establishment. It +requires a good many dishes to serve three thousand people even in a +simple way. In an annex the finer qualities of beef, mutton, and other +meats are cut off and sold to the public, thus utilizing all the +supplies which are bought in large quantities, the beef by the carcass +and the vegetables by the carload. The sausage of the "Steam Kitchen" +is said to be the best to be found in Christiania. All kinds of +prepared meats are also sold in this annex butcher shop. During +the fruit season the company runs a canning department upstairs, +preserving all kinds of fruits, jellies, pickles, and that sort of +thing. At the baking department bread is sold to the general public at +wholesale or retail, and small retail establishments are supplied with +all kinds of groceries as well as meats and other edibles. Thus the +restaurant is only part of this large business from which the company +derives its profits. There is naturally a good deal of jealousy among +the competing small dealers against the "Steam Kitchen," but it serves +a benevolent purpose, and there is no disposition among its customers +to question its business methods or reduce its profits. It has +succeeded in abolishing the cheap restaurants such as are found in all +large cities, at which wretched food, generally the scrapings from +high-class hotels and eating-houses, is worked over and sold to the +poor. + +It is an interesting sight, this bucket brigade, that stands in line +and passes slowly by the serving windows, which are attended by half +a dozen brawny Norwegian women with bare arms and broad, +good-natured-looking faces. They wear neat white aprons and caps, and +handle the food with a dexterity that shows long experience. They seem +to know most of the customers and carry on a familiar conversation +with them while falling their orders. When a bucket and a ticket +passes up, blue for a nine-cent and red for a seven-cent dinner, the +waitress first plunges a huge ladle into the soup pot and empties its +contents into the bucket; then passing along the rows of kettles she +harpoons a piece of meat with a long two-pronged fork, scoops up a +quart of rice with a wooden shovel, and then, adding a portion of +potatoes, slams on the cover, and, grabbing a cube of bread, passes it +over to the purchaser with a joke or a few pleasant words. + +Many of the customers are well dressed, according to the Norway +standard, but no people in the world seem to care so little for +their personal appearance, except on Sundays, when you can scarcely +recognize men and women you have been familiar with during the week. +On the day I ate at the restaurant, my cicerone pointed out at the +dining table two professors of the University faculty, a lawyer in +good standing, a photographer, and a sub-editor of one of the daily +papers, who were his personal acquaintances. The remainder of the +customers appeared to be professional men, clerks, bookkeepers, and +a good many laborers, many of them coming for their dinner without +having removed the traces of toil from their faces and hands. At one +of the tables was a group of students inclined to be boisterous and +evidently enjoying themselves. The "Steam Kitchen" is the favorite +eating-place for the undergraduates, from four to five hundred being +served every day. + +Such an institution as the "Steam Kitchen" is especially suitable to a +Norwegian city, where a portion of the population work for very small +wages, the average income of the wage-earner being less than $100 a +year--so small that, measured by the American standard, it would seem +a difficult problem to find food, clothing, and shelter for a family. + +Few Norwegians suffer from poverty or privation, even through the cold +and gloomy winters that are eight months long. Our own people might +die, or at least suffer seriously under the same circumstances, but +the Norwegians are a hardy race. They have inherited the power of +endurance and the ability to survive hunger and thirst and discomforts +better than most races. + +There are comparatively few poor in Sweden, probably fewer than in any +other European country except Norway and Switzerland, because of the +low cost of living, the sparse population, and the ability of all +men and women to find work if they are willing to earn their own +subsistence. Able-bodied paupers are compelled to work upon poor +farms, but the aged, decrepit and invalids who are dependent upon +public charity are kindly taken care of by what is called outdoor and +indoor relief. In the cities are asylums and almshouses similar to +those in the United States, but in the parishes, as a rule, the care +of the poor is assigned to individual farmers and others who +are willing to take care of them under contract, subject to the +supervision of a board of guardians, of which the pastor is the +chairman and the elders of the church are members. This has long been +a practice in Sweden, but is not universal. + +There are at present 5,277 relief establishments of all kinds in the +kingdom, and the total contributions for the benefit of the poor +amount to $3,000,000 annually, or on an average of 58 cents per capita +of the entire population, an average of 44 cents in the country and +$1.18 in the cities. This includes all poorhouses, asylums, hospitals, +and other institutions for adults and children who can not take care +of themselves. + +A large part of the relief work in the cities is looked after by the +Salvation Army under contract with the municipal authorities, but +there are many institutions, hospitals, asylums, homes for the +friendless and aged and for orphan children, supported by private +charity. The free hospital for children in Stockholm is famous as one +of the best equipped and managed institutions in the world. + +The private charities in Stockholm are united for cooperation in +an organization similar to those found in American cities, and all +charitable institutions are subject to government supervision.[l] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MATERIAL CONDITIONS + + +The chief occupation of the Scandinavian peninsula is agriculture, +employing more men and yielding larger monetary returns than any other +industry in either Norway or Sweden. This may seem strange when it is +recalled that sixty per cent of the surface of Norway is occupied by +bare mountains, twenty-one per cent by woodlands, eight per cent by +grazing lands, four per cent by lakes, and two per cent by ice fields, +leaving only seven-tenths of one per cent for meadows and cultivated +fields. And yet, the products of the farm equal the combined returns +from shipping, lumber, and fisheries. + +In Sweden the proportion of land under cultivation is considerably +larger, the arable lands consisting of about twelve per cent of the +total area, and in Sweden as in Norway, the agricultural products are +more than those from shipping, lumber, and fisheries combined. + +Nine-tenths of the farms of Norway and Sweden are owned by small +proprietors; and although the right to dispose of landed property is +relatively free, the laws of the country favor the retention of the +farms in the families possessing them. An old allodial right makes it +possible to redeem at an appraised value a farm that has been sold. +This right is acquired after the property has belonged to the family +for twenty years, but it is lost after the farm has been in the +possession of strangers for three years. There are some farms that +have been worked for a thousand years by the descendants of the same +family. The best farms are about the banks of the lakes and in the +narrow river valleys, and there are many fertile meadows which have +never been plowed or put under cultivation, so that there are great +future possibilities for tillage. And yet these meadows furnish fine +hay-crops, and every blade of grass represents money in Scandinavia. + +In a country extending through thirteen degrees of latitude, one +might naturally expect a wide range of agricultural products. In the +southeastern part of the peninsula most of the plants and orchard +fruits of central Europe are found; whereas in the northern sections +it is impossible to grow even the most hardy plants. Oats, barley, and +rye are the chief cereals, but their production scarcely meets the +needs of the country. Potatoes are the only root crops extensively +cultivated. While the summers are short, vegetables and small fruit do +excellently during the long, sun-lit hours. Scandinavians, however, do +not seem habituated to a vegetable diet, and the cultivation of root +plants seems very generally neglected. Pears, cherries, apples, +raspberries, gooseberries, and currants may be grown under favorable +conditions; but they play a minor role in Scandinavian horticulture. + +The cow is a staple of wealth to the people of Scandinavia. They are +diminutive in size, dun-colored, docile in habits, and excellent milk +producers. It is said when they are well-fed they average from six to +nine hundred gallons of milk a year. The mountain saeters, or dairies +as we would call them, are the centers of the butter and cheese +industry during the summer months. + +The peninsula is also supplied with an excellent breed of small but +hardy horses. The cream-colored fjord horses of Norway are only +sixty inches high. They are active, hardy, and gentle; and in the +mountainous parts of the country they are vastly more serviceable +than mules would be. The Gudbrandsdalen breed, found chiefly in the +mountain valleys, are larger than the fjord horses, and they are +generally brown or black in color. Good horses bring surprisingly high +prices. Working horses cost from $200 to $350 and the best stallions +bring as much as $2,500. + +The agricultural interests of Norway have suffered unmistakably by the +enormous emigration to the United States. Two-thirds of the Norwegians +of the world live in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. +Nearly every Norwegian farmstead has kinsmen in our country; and the +strong and vigorous always emigrate, thus leaving the farms at home in +the hands of the old and infirm. America has been greatly benefited by +this almost incessant exodus; for the Norse peasants have, without an +exception, made splendid citizens, the best, in fact, that have come +to us from Europe. + +Commenting on the enormous emigration from the Norwegian farms, +William Eleroy Curtis remarks: + +"Notwithstanding the large emigration of young people, for whom the +Norwegian farms are too small, it is apparent that the development of +Norway is continually progressing along the highest lines, and that +the tendency of the people, is upward socially and industrially, in +culture and in wealth. The population of the kingdom not only holds +its own, but shows a slight increase which seems remarkable because +of the continual drain of young, able-bodied men and women who have +removed to our western states. In all public movements, in all +social, commercial, and industrial activities, in art, science, and +literature, in wealth and prosperity, Norway stands abreast of the +most advanced nations of Europe; but its progress is not won without +greater effort than any other people put forth, and the application +of thrift and industry elsewhere unknown, but which is required in a +climate so bleak and inhospitable, and by a soil so wild and rocky. +None but a race like the Norsemen could have kept a foothold here." + +Norwegian economists recognize the loss to the country through +emigration, and in recent years the national parliament has attempted +to improve the condition of agricultural laborers. A fund of $135,000 +has been set aside by the government for the purchase of land. Loans +are granted to municipalities (1) for the purpose of buying large +estates to be assigned to people without means at the purchase price, +in plots of not more than twelve acres of tillable soil, and (2) for +the purpose of being granted as loans on the security of parcels of +the same size, which people without means may acquire as freehold +property. The interest on these loans is from three to four per cent, +and the time of payment is up to twenty-five years. + +There is also a cultivation fund of $270,000, from which loans are +granted for the purpose of cultivating and draining the soil. The +interest is two and one-half per cent, and the time of repayment is +up to twenty years, including five years in which no instalments are +required. Such loans are granted (1) on the security of mortgages and +(2) on the guaranty of the municipality. + +Agricultural societies--national and county--receive government grants +for the purpose of holding meetings and issuing documents that might +be of service to farmers. There is also a staff of surveyors paid by +the state to assist in the public allotment of land and otherwise to +render assistance to needy lot-owners. + +Considerable attention is also being given to the matter of +agricultural education. Connected with the state agricultural college +is an experimental farm, where not only farmers but also dairymen, +gardeners, and foresters receive practical instruction. + +Connected with the larger farms of Norway and Sweden are cotters' +places--farm laborers who have leased a small part of the farm for a +definite period (often during their natural lives). In some cases the +cotter leases only a building with a garden attached; in other cases +several acres of ground. The cotter is usually required to work on +the farm of the owner at certain times of the year for a small wage +regulated by contract. These cotters correspond to our truck farmers, +and their plots of ground number about 35,000 on the outskirts of the +cities and villages. They raise potatoes and other vegetables, and hay +enough to feed a horse and several cows. In most cases the women and +children do the work, while the men are engaged in other occupations. + +It is no longer permitted to establish entails which can not be sold +or mortgaged, and the national government in recent years has sought +to further the partition and allotment of the common ownership +of land. Pastures and grazing lands are still often held by the +community, and similarly mountain pastures. But the community farms, +when the consent of all the part owners and tenants has been +secured, may now be partitioned by surveyors appointed by the public +authorities. + +In the great timber districts of the mountain ranges, the trees are +felled in winter and the logs are dragged to the tops of the steep +mountain sides, where they are slid down to the river, or they are +carted on sledges to the river's edge. During the early summer, after +the ice has gone, and while the rivers are yet full of water, they +are floated down the streams to the sawmills. But, as the logs are +constantly being driven into corners or lodging against piers, +floaters are employed to keep the logs in the current. Log-floating is +both the most dangerous and the most unhealthful occupation in Norway. +Men often fall into the streams; they are forced to sleep on the cold +ground in uninhabited parts of the country; they frequently fall from +the rolling logs into the whirling currents and are tossed against +sharp rocks; and the marvel is not that the death-rate among floaters +is so high, but that any of them survive the perilous occupation. + +The value of the exports of forest products and timber industries +reaches about eighteen million dollars a year, and the combined forest +industries furnish employment to a large number of laborers. The state +forests occupy about 3,500 square miles, more than half being located +in the northern provinces of Tromsö and Finmark. The state also has +nurseries at Vossevangen and Hamar, and three forestry schools, by +means of which widespread interest in tree-planting has been aroused. +Destructive forest fires and the slaughter of the trees by the +remarkable development of the wood-pulp industries have emphasized in +recent times the need of larger forest reserves and closer government +supervision. Under the most favorable conditions, the pine requires +from seventy-five to one hundred years to yield timber twenty-five +feet in length and ten inches in diameter at the top. Spruce will +reach the same size in seventy-five to eighty years. In the higher +altitudes of the central part of the country the pine requires one +hundred and fifty years, and rarely exceeds one hundred feet in +height, and it decreases toward the coast and northwards. + +The fisheries of Norway are among the most important in the world, +yielding the nation more than seven million dollars a year, and +furnishing employment to eighty thousand men. The sea-fisheries play +the chief part in this branch of industry. The long coast line and +the great ocean depth near the coast combine to give the fisheries of +Norway unusual advantages. The abundance of fish is also due to the +presence of masses of glutinous matter, apparently living protoplasm, +which furnishes nutriment for millions of animalcules which again +become food for the herring and other fish. The fish are mainly of the +round sort found in deep waters, the cod, herring, and mackerel being +the most important. + +The cod yields the largest monetary returns. This fish migrates to the +coast of Norway to spawn and in search of food. The best cod fisheries +are in Romsdal, Nordland, and Tromsö counties, the Lofoten islands in +Tromsö alone furnishing employment to more than four thousand men. The +cod weighs from eight to twenty pounds and measures from five to six +feet in length. Some are merely dried after having been cleaned. This +is done by hanging them by the tail on wooden frames. The others are +sent to the salting stations where they are salted and dried on flat +rocks. A fish weighing ten pounds will yield two pounds of salted cod, +the loss being due to the removal of the head and entrails and the +drying out of the water. + +There are numerous secondary products from the cod, the most valuable +being the cod liver oil. The livers of the fish are exposed to a jet +of superheated steam which destroys the liver cells and causes the +small drops of oil to run together. The roe are salted and sent to +France to be used for bait in the sardine fisheries. + +In the matter of the handicraft industries carried on in the homes, +Norway has long taken high rank. As early as the ninth century her +artisans were skilled in the manufacture of arms, farming implements, +and boats, and her women in cloth weaving and embroidery. During +recent times the ease and cheapness with which foreign products could +be obtained caused a marked decline in home industries; but at the +present moment an effort is being made to rehabilitate them through a +national domestic industry association, organized in 1891, which has +taken up the manufacture of hand-carved articles, sheath-knives, skis, +sledges, and woven and embroidered woolen and linen goods after the +old Norwegian patterns. + +The manufacture of lumber and wooden ware is one of the leading +industrial pursuits. With the exception of the two most northern +counties, practically every section of the country is represented by +sawmills and planing mills. Ship-building in recent times has attained +considerable importance, and the manufacture of paper of the chemical +wood-pulp variety has become one of the leading industries. There are +a few cloth, rope, and jersey mills at Bergen and Christiania, but the +textile industries of Norway are relatively unimportant. On the other +hand, leather, India rubber, glass, metal, and chemical industries +have become important of late years. + +Norway is not rich in mineral products. The combined mining industries +do not yield more than two million dollars a year, and they furnish +employment to less than four thousand men. The Kongsberg silver mines +have been operated for more than three hundred years, but the recent +fall in the price of silver has reduced the output. The copper mines +at Rorös have been operated for two hundred and fifty years, and there +are less important copper mines in Nordland, Telemarken, and the +Hardanger. There are iron mines at Arendal and elsewhere, but the rise +in the cost of charcoal, due to the scarcity of wood, has greatly +crippled the iron industry. There are important soapstone quarries in +the Gudbransdal and the Trondhjem basin; green colored slate in the +Valders and at Vossevangen; and granite, syenite, and porphyry in many +parts of the country. + +Measured by population and national wealth, the commerce of Norway is +relatively important, due in a large measure to her enormous merchant +marine and the efficiency of her hardy seamen. Relatively to the +population of the country, Norway has the largest merchant fleet in +the world, and in the matter of steamships and sailing vessels she is +surpassed only by three countries--Great Britain, Germany, and the +United States. Not only is her fleet large, but her service is +efficient. Norwegian seamen the world over are esteemed for ability +and honesty, inspiring all commercial nations with confidence that +goods carried in Norse bottoms will be carefully and conscientiously +treated; and her seamen are everywhere sought to man foreign vessels. + +In industries, the Swedes excel in the manufacture of iron. To fully +appreciate the value of this industry, one should visit Gefle, the +most important shipping point on the eastern coast of Sweden. Here +there is a fine harbor, with docks and warehouses owned by the +government. From this port the ore from the mines of central Sweden +is shipped to all parts of the world and handled by Brown hoisting +machinery, which is made in Cleveland, Ohio--the same that you see on +the ore docks at South Chicago and at Cleveland, Buffalo, Ashtabula, +and other points on the Great Lakes where iron ore and coal are +handled. + +At Gefle, too, an annual industrial exposition is held, where you +may see on exhibit all the utensils manufactured or used by the +people--all kinds of machinery, tools, and implements, recent +novelties in patents, weaving, wood-carving, and a large part of the +exposition building is given up to beautiful articles in iron, in the +manufacture of which we have said the Swedes excel. + +A little west of Gefle is the town of Fahlun, which is the +headquarters of the Kopparberg Mining Company, the, oldest industrial +corporation in the world. The buildings date back to the seventeenth +century and the mines are even more ancient. A mortgage bond was filed +upon them in the year 1288 by a German company, and the records show +that in 1347 the privilege of working them was sold by the king of +Sweden to a syndicate of Lubeck miners. But these documents which are +on file in the archives of the town are comparatively modern, because +the copper deposits at Fahlun were known and worked in prehistoric +times, and from them the Vikings obtained the sheathings for their +ships and the material from which their copper armor, implements, and +utensils were made. An immense amount of copper was used and worked +with great skill in Scandinavia even before the Christian era, and the +most of it came from the great deposits at Fahlun. + +The iron industry is old in Sweden. Isaac Breant, a tradesman in +Stockholm, founded a company and received a charter from Charles XI in +1685. He built the first blast furnace in Sweden, and died in 1702, +leaving the property to his son, who died in 1720. The heirs sold out +in 1722 to a man named Grill, in whose family the property remained +until 1800, when it was purchased by the ancestors of the present +owners. + +The famous Dannemora mines, which produce the best Bessemer ore in the +world, have been worked continuously since 1481. It is one of the most +valuable and extensive iron deposits in the world, and resembles those +of Lake Superior. The area of ore already located covers 12,500 square +meters.[m] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS + + +Since the sixteenth century Norway has had an excellent public posting +system which enables the traveler to go to the most remote parts +of the country at moderate and fixed rates. Fast and slow posting +stations are established by the government along all the national +highways. At the former, horses must be kept in readiness; whereas, at +the latter, the horses may be in distant fields at work, and a couple +of hours may elapse before the traveler can proceed upon his journey. +The rates, which are determined by the government, are, from fast +stations, about seven cents a mile for a horse and two-wheeled +conveyance or sledge; but from slow stations they are scarcely more +than half that price. When the road is over very steep mountains, +an extra fare is charged, usually double; but this is a government +regulation and is always understood. The posting stations are, for +the most part, isolated and solitary farms. The farmers undertake to +provide rooms and meals, as well as drivers, horses, and conveyances. +Stations are usually from seven to fifteen miles apart, and farmers +are required to convey the traveler only as far as the next station. + +Two kinds of wagons are used, the carriole and the stolkjaerre. The +carriole resembles an American sulky, except that it is springless, +and nearly the entire weight is forward of the axle. It is a +two-wheeled gig with the body shaped like the bowl of a spoon. The +seat, in front of the axletree, is fastened by cross-pieces to the +long, slender shafts that project behind and provide a place for light +luggage and a seat for the driver. The carriole is for one passenger. +It is falling into disuse, and its place is being taken by the +stolkjaerre, a two-wheeled cart that will carry two passengers. It +also has long shafts which extend under the axletree to make a support +for the luggage and a seat for the driver. The passenger's seat is +in front, perched on two wooden bars stretched obliquely upwards and +backwards from the front of the vehicle. The drivers, usually men +although sometimes girls, vary in age from six to sixty years. + +The Norwegian horses are stout, stubby, and spirited little beasts. +They are cream-colored, high crested, and have black manes and tails; +the manes are cropped, except the forelocks, which are left to protect +the eyes from the sun, and the tails are very full. Horses are valued +in Norway by the size and fullness of their tails. These little +animals are so trustworthy and intelligent that tourists, as well +as peasants, soon get to look upon them as companions. In every +"skyds-station," as the posting stations are called, in a conspicuous +place is posted this inscription: _Vaer god mod hesten_. This means +"be good to the horse." At every station there is also a book, called +the _skydsbog_, in which travelers are requested to write their names +and any complaints they may have to make regarding their treatment. At +intervals these books are examined by government officials. + +Swedish horses are much larger than those of Norway, tall, heavy, with +long legs and barrel-shaped bodies, very much like Canadian stock. +They drive well, make good speed, and will eat anything. At the livery +stables one can hire outfits by the day or hour--the legal price being +63 cents an hour or 56 cents to any point within the city limits, +and there is an excellent cab system, with what is known as the +"taxameter" register. Every cab is equipped with an arrangement +similar to a gas meter, which shows on a dial the money due, whether +you are using it by the hour or by the distance. The hackman sets his +clock at zero at the time of starting, according to the number of +passengers or whether he is hired by time or distance, and it ticks +away while you ride or while he waits. The fare for one or two persons +is sixty-two cents per hour; for three persons, eighty-seven cents an +hour; for four persons, $1.24 and a tip to the driver anywhere from +one cent to fifteen cents, according to the time he has been with you. +The public posting system outside of the cities is similar to that of +Norway. + +The national government builds the main highways, while the cross +roads are built by the parishes. The management is in the hands of a +bureau in the national department of public works, and the maintenance +falls upon the people who live in the neighborhood, under the +supervision of a local inspector. Every farmer has a piece of road +to take care of, according to the amount of land he owns, and at +intervals slabs of cast iron are erected bearing his name and +the section of the road he is to keep in order. Thus every man's +reputation is at stake in the neighborhood, and if there is a muddy +place or a rut, everybody knows who is to blame for it, and it can not +be laid to the county commissioner, as is the case in America. On the +outside of each road is a line of large blocks of stone set upright, +which serves as a barrier to prevent wagons from going off into the +ditch. There are 6,500 miles of main highway, and 11,000 miles of +cross-road, or a total of 17,500 miles of roads in Norway, and the +total expenditure upon them by national and local authorities will +average a million and a half dollars every year. + +The first cost of a road is usually about $3,000 a mile. They first +dig an excavation about three feet deep, as if they were going to make +a canal. On the bottom are thrown heavy blocks of stone through which +the water can filter, and occasionally there is a little drain to +carry it off. Upon this is a layer of smaller stones, and then still +smaller, until the surfacing is reached, which is macadam of pounded +slate, mixed with gravel and stone. + +During the winter the farmers have to keep their several sections free +from snow, but to do this it is necessary for them to co-operate, for +it would be impossible for one family to handle the heavy plows +that are necessary. Six, eight, and ten horses are often hitched to +them--all the horses in the neighborhood--and it is often the work of +weeks instead of days to get the roads opened up for travel, but when +it is once done, it is as clear and smooth for sleighs as a city +boulevard. + +Norway has only one mile of railway for every one hundred square miles +of land; but the mountainous character of the country, the heavy +snowfall during the long winters, and the thin, scattered population +make railway construction almost prohibitive. Nevertheless, the new +kingdom has made a commendable beginning, and the state has plans for +enormous extensions during the next twenty-five years. There are +now nine railway lines in the country, with a total mileage of one +thousand five hundred and eighty-four, but half of which is +broad gauge. The state railways have been constructed partly by +subscriptions taken in the districts interested in the construction of +new lines, and partly at the expense of the national government. + +The leading railway lines radiate from Christiania to Stockholm, +Goteborg, Trondhjem, Gudbransdal, Telemarken, and the Valders. The +longest line--three hundred and fifty miles--is from Christiania to +Trondhjem through Hamar. There is also a relatively long line--one +hundred and ninety miles--from Christiania up the Gudbrandsdal by Lake +Mjosen and through Lillehammer to Otta. In 1906, the Valders railway, +connecting Christiania with Fagernaes--a distance of one hundred and +thirty-one miles--was opened. This connects with the most important of +the new roads being built, the one from Christiania to Bergen. This +road will reach entirely across the country, from Christiania on +the Swedish frontier to Bergen on the Atlantic coast, thus making +connection between the two largest cities of Norway, journeys between +which are now only possible by steamships and carriages, consuming +from three to six days. + +The new road goes through the mountains and presents many engineering +difficulties. Two-thirds of the way the roadbed must be cut out of the +mountain side, and there is a tunnel three miles long at a height of +two thousand eight hundred and twenty feet above the sea level. The +snow in the winter is so heavy that it will be necessary to cover +the tracks with sheds for a distance of nearly sixty miles. The +construction is not only difficult, but expensive, and although the +distance is but three hundred and ten miles, it will be one of the +most costly railroads ever built. Sixty-seven miles of the line +between Bergen and Vose, on the western coast, is already in +operation, and it is a favorite journey of tourists, for the scenery +is superb, although the traveler is in a tunnel one-tenth of the +entire distance. There are forty-eight tunnels in all. A shelf has +been hewn and blasted along the side of the mountains that encloses +the celebrated Sorfjord. + +The Norwegians call a railway a _jernbane_, literally "an iron path." +Their cars are made on the conventional European pattern, and are +light and comfortable. They are furnished with toilet rooms, and +run smoothly and noiselessly. Most of the trains are equipped with +Westinghouse brakes, steam heat, and electric lights. The trains run +very slowly. Economy is studied in this respect, as in every +other. There is a certain speed--say, fifteen or eighteen miles an +hour--which can be maintained at a minimum consumption of fuel, and +the Scandinavian railway managers have figured it down to a dot. They +can haul a longer train a greater distance with a ton of coal than any +other engineers, and the most scrupulous attention is applied to every +feature of management, the tracks, the rolling stock, the station, the +crossings. The crossing-keepers are usually women. A large number of +that sex are employed by the railways. + +The stops at the stations seem unnecessarily long to impatient +Americans, but the time is utilized by the leisurely passengers in +drinking big goblets of beer, and by the conductor in parading up +and down the platform so that the patrons of the road can have +an opportunity to admire his radiant uniform and fine shape. In +Scandinavian countries the best-looking men seem to have been selected +for railway conductors and policemen, and their deportment is +decidedly different from what we are used to in America. If you ask a +question of a Norwegian policeman, he will bring his heels together, +give a military salute, and stand in the attitude of attention like +a soldier while he answers. He usually understands English, too, and +those who can not are remarkably accurate guessers, and all take a +friendly interest in your inquiries instead of giving you a short +answer and a cold shoulder like the policemen in our cities. They will +walk to the corner to point out the house in the middle of the next +block if that is where you want to go, and when you thank them for +their attention, you get another salute that makes you feel as big as +a major general, or as if you had been mistaken for a member of the +royal family. Railway conductors are equally polite, and seem +to understand that it is a part of their business to protect +tender-footed travelers, as angels always look after good little boys. + +In southern Sweden there is scarcely a parish without a railway, and +in the northern part of the kingdom, where the railway facilities are +limited, posting stations are maintained by the government similar to +those in Norway. There is a railway running as far north as the 67th +parallel of latitude, about fifty miles beyond the polar circle +into Lapland, to the famous mines of Malmberget, with a branch to +Trondhjem, Norway. The line follows the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia +very closely, through a country well covered with small pine timber, +which was being rapidly stripped until the government interfered by +passing rigid regulations and appointing foresters to enforce them. + +You can see the midnight sun from several places on this railway, +anywhere above 66 degrees and 33 minutes of latitude, from the 9th +of June to the 3d of July, and farther north for a longer period. At +Gellivare the midnight sun can be seen regularly from June 5 to July +11, and it is a much more convenient and quicker journey than to the +North Cape and other polar resorts in Norway. During that period a +traveler is reasonably certain of seeing the sun at all hours of the +day as long as he cares to stay, while over in Norway that privilege +is rare and uncertain, owing to the fogs and clouds that obscure the +horizon sometimes for days at a time. But there is nothing else to +call the tourist to this part of Sweden, for the scenery is monotonous +and uninteresting and the facilities for travel are primitive and the +tourists are few. + +Everybody who has taken the trouble to make the journey, of course, +advises other people to do the same, and insists that it is worth the +time, money, and fatigue it costs, on the same principle as the fox +that lost his tail in a trap wanted all the other foxes to cut off +their tails. There is one train each way daily, but it runs very +slowly,--about fifteen or eighteen miles an hour,--and stops a long +time at the stations. The cars are comfortable. The road belongs to +the government, and was built in the '90's for the transportation of +ore from the iron mines, which was previously hauled by cart in summer +and reindeer sledges in winter, to the ports of Lulea and Allapen, a +distance of about one hundred and forty miles. + +When it is recalled that two-thirds of the inhabitants of Norway live +upon the coasts and fjords, the large part which water traffic plays +in the economy of the country will be easily understood. The coast +being well protected by a chain of islands, the skjaergaard, both +travel and commerce are carried on by means of small open boats. The +fjord rowboats, as a rule, are light and pointed, with upright and +high prow, and they carry a square sail. They are light to row, and +they go capitally before the wind. There is an extensive government +posting system on the coasts, fjords, and inland lakes, similar to +that along the public highways already described. The tariff from +fast stations for a four-oared boat and sail with two rowers is about +twelve cents a mile; eighteen cents for three rowers and a six-oared +boat, and twenty-four cents a mile for a boat with eight oars and four +rowers. The tariff is decided by the size of the boat and not by the +number of passengers. The rowers are not infrequently girls and women. + +The large fjords and lakes have ample steamboat facilities, the coast +service between Bergen and Trondhjem being especially good. The +navigable channels of the fjords represent a coast line of twelve +thousand miles, and they are so entirely separated from the sea by +islands and reefs and obstructed at their entrances by old moraines, +that the fresh water from the melting snows and rivers lies four or +five feet deep on the surface. Small steamers ply on all the larger +fjords on which the rates are moderate and the accommodations fair. On +most of these boats a passenger pays full fare for himself and half +fare for the other members of his family, including his wife. Persons +who want to see the fjords of Norway thoroughly should take the +regular mail steamers, which call at all small ports and take a month +instead of a week for the voyage. The boats are small, but clean and +comfortable, and only occasionally have bad weather--very seldom in +summer. They wind in and out of the narrow passages, and because of +their size can navigate where the larger tourist steamers are not able +to go, and therefore the passengers on the latter miss some of the +finest scenery. + +Voyages to the North Cape by the tourist steamers are limited to a few +weeks during the midsummer, when the sun is supposed to be visible at +midnight in the arctic regions, but steamers run regularly all the +year way around the Cape to Archangel, Vadsö, and Horningsvaag, the +arctic ports of Russia. The fjords never freeze, so that navigation is +always open, and there is more or less travel in midwinter between the +civilized portions of the arctic regions. + +If you will take your map and examine the north coast of Europe within +the arctic circle, you will find several towns east of the North Cape +on the White Sea which are wide open 365 days in the year, and do more +business in the winter than during the summer months. They do not see +the sun from December to February. At some places it is invisible for +a longer period, but at Hammerfest the streets, houses, and business +places are lighted with electric lights, and similar plants are being +introduced into other cities of the polar section. It is stated, also, +that the aurora borealis is so brilliant night after night as to make +it easy to read ordinary newspaper print without artificial light, and +by long experience people are prepared for the peculiar conditions +that exist there. The passengers on the steamers in these waters in +winter are mostly commercial travelers and men interested in the +fisheries, which are more active from October to March than at any +other time of the year. + +There are also two canals in Norway that are used for passenger +traffic--the Fredrikshald canal, connecting the Femsjöen and Skullerud +lakes, and the Skien-Nordsjö-Bandak canal, connecting the Nordsjö lake +with the Hitterdal and Bandak lakes. Between the Hitterdal and the +Nordsjö lake there is a rise of fifty feet, which is overcome by two +locks at Skien and four at Loveid; and between the Nordsjö and the +Bandak lakes there is a rise of one hundred and eighty-seven feet, +which is overcome by fourteen locks, five of which are around a +waterfall, the Vrangfos, where the average rise for each lock is about +thirteen feet. The postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, all under +government control, are both cheaper and more efficient than in the +United States, where the two latter are private monopolies. With the +exception of Switzerland, Norway is more abundantly supplied with +postoffices, in proportion to her size, than any other country in the +international postal union. The length of her telegraph lines, in +relation to the population of the country is greater than in any other +country. There is no place in the world where telephones are so cheap +or so numerous as in Stockholm. There are more telephones in Stockholm +than in Berlin or London, and it is contended that there are more than +in Paris, but that is doubtful. The total number of instruments in use +is nearly 50,000 to a population of 300,000. You can find a telephone +in every shop and in almost every house, and in the parks and on the +street corners on lamp posts are little booths similar to those +used for police boxes in the cities of the United States. They work +automatically. You drop a little coin worth three cents into the slot, +and then ring the bell. For several years every room in the principal +hotels has had its own telephone, on the same system that has recently +been introduced into the United States, and upon some of the steamers +sailing from Stockholm there is a telephone in every stateroom. The +long distance 'phones and all the lines outside of two or three of +the principal cities belong to the government and are operated by the +Postoffice Department. The rents vary from $10 to $28 a year. + +The telegraph system is owned by the government, which charges a +uniform rate of fifteen cents for ten words to any part of the +country. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + + +Because of its geographic isolation, the Scandinavian peninsula is the +home of the purest Teutonic ethnic stock. The Norwegians, Icelanders, +Swedes, and Danes are racially closely related, and they belong to the +same branch of the Aryan family as the Germans, Flemish, English, and +Anglo-Americans. Physically, these people are powerfully built and +tall, of the pure Scandinavian type, with fair hair and blue eyes, and +their healthy, intelligent look strikes the traveler. In addition to +the physical characteristics held in common by these Scandinavian +peoples, the Norwegians are to be specially noted for their long +narrow heads, particularly is this so among the people in the interior +of the country. Here, too, the stature is the greatest. During the +Civil War in the United States, it was found that among the enlisted +troops the Norwegians, after the Americans, had the greatest stature, +and that in breadth of chest they were excelled by none. It is +probably true, however, that the Norwegians who emigrate represent the +finest physical types, and that they possess a higher average stature +than one finds in Norway to-day, if the most northerly provinces are +excepted. + +The Norwegians are a very plain people--neither pretty nor handsome. +The women are strong and square-built, and what beauty they have is +of the solid and substantial sort. Of the two sexes, the men are the +better proportioned, both in the matter of figures and features. They +have light complexions,--barring the bronzing of the skin due to +constant exposure,--light hair, blue eyes, and reasonably well-formed +noses. Both men and women have frank and open countenances. + +The most marked mental characteristics are clear insight, +unconquerable pertinacity, dogged obstinacy, absolute honesty, and a +sturdy sense of independence. Björnson has well remarked concerning +his people: "Opinions are slowly formed and tenaciously held, and much +independence is developed by the rigorous isolation of farm from farm +each on its own freehold ground, unannoyed and uncontradicted by any +one. The way the people work together in the fields, in the forests, +and in their large rooms has given them a characteristic stamp of +confidence in each other." It is perhaps this isolation that has +perpetuated so many of the old customs and superstitions for which the +Norwegians are noted. + +William Eleroy Curtis tells of seeing the funeral of one of these +Norway farmers: + +"His house was trimmed with green boughs and festooned with ropes of +flowers and ground pine. The word _farvel_, "farewell," was worked in +green over the front door. The coffin, which was carried on a bier by +the neighbors to the little cemetery not far away, was covered with +flowers, and following it were a number of women clad in somber black +with little white shawls tied under their chins, each carrying a +wreath in her hands. The minister led the procession. He was dressed +in a long black gown reaching to his heels, like the cassock of a +Catholic priest; his hat was of felt, with a low crown and a broad +brim, similar to those worn by the curates of the Church of England, +while around his neck was a linen ruff that looked as if it might have +been worn in the time of Queen Elizabeth. + +"A grave had been dug in the churchyard. The neighbors who had borne +the body, lowered it tenderly to the bottom, and when they had lifted +the cover of the coffin in place, each man, the oldest first, threw in +a shovelful of earth. All the women did not use the shovel, some of +them took up handsful of soil and let it gently filter through their +fingers into the open vault; and finally three children, somewhere +about ten or eleven years of age, followed the example of their elders +and added their little share to the brown coverlid of the dead. +The pastor removed his hat, extended his arms and pronounced a +benediction. Then the women laid their wreaths on the newly covered +grave and sorrowfully turned homeward." + +Independence and frankness characterize all classes of society. Norway +has no hereditary aristocracy. In 1821 it was provided that those +holding titles might be allowed to retain them during their lives, but +they could not transmit them to their children. The Norse character +has never been marred by the yoke of slavery. The feudal system, with +its serfdom, never got a footing in the north. The people have always +been small landholders, which has developed among them an independence +of character not found in countries where the mass of the inhabitants +have no direct property interests. There is no class in Norway +corresponding to the country gentleman of England or to the grand +seigneurs and provincial noblemen of the Continent. The wealthiest +landlord is only a peasant. + +Honesty is one of the valuable assets of the Norwegian people. +Attempts at extortion are so rare that tourists, accustomed to the +proverbial dishonesty of the Latin races, find travel in Norway and +Sweden a joy. An English traveler relates this typical incident: He +had lost his purse shortly after leaving Vossevangen for Stalheim. +Altogether unconscious of his loss, he walked on placidly. Suddenly +hearing hurried footsteps following him, he turned about and faced a +lad who thrust the pocketbook into the owner's hand and disappeared +before the Englishman could get a coin from his pocket to reward the +boy for his honesty. The Norwegian boy very properly did not expect +a reward for doing the only thing open to his mind upon finding the +purse. + +Kindness to animals is another virtue of the Norwegian people. +Illustrating this trait we again quote William Eleroy Curtis: + + "There seems to be a close relation between the human kind and + their animals. The men and women talk to the horses and cattle as + if they were understood. We had a _skydsgut_, or driver, one day, + who held continuous conversation with his horses. Every time he + would come to a hill he would walk beside them and talk to them + all the way up in a gentle, caressing sort of way, like a child + talking to a doll, and once when he stopped for water and the near + horse wanted to drink more than the driver thought was good for + him, he scolded like an old woman. The horse shook his head and + rattled his harness impatiently, as much as to say, 'You get back + onto your box and attend to your business and I'll attend to + mine.'" + +That intellectuality is one of the traits of the Swedes and Norwegians +alike is evidenced in the long list of names that have become +famous in the world's literature. In spite of the high intellectual +attainments of these people, they are fond of the quiet, simple life, +with friends and kinsfolk and home employments and home enjoyments. +And they are very superstitious, too, and, in spite of their Lutheran +faith, they have never discarded the customs that grew from belief in +gods many, and fairies, trolls, gnomes and norns without number. The +forests, the mountains and gorges, are inhabited by these people +still. Nissen is the good fairy of the farmers. He looks after the +cattle particularly, and if he is well treated they are healthy, and +the cows give lots of milk. To propitiate him it is necessary to put +a dish of porridge on the threshold of the cow stable on Christmas +morning. Whenever the family move, this invisible being goes along +with them and sits on the top of the loads. In haying time he always +rides on the load of hay, and the _bedstemoder_, best mother or +grandmother, in every farmhouse can tell the children dozens of +interesting stories about the mischief or the kindness of Nissen. + +He is invariably represented in pictures of farm life; he appears on +the illustrated advertisements of farm machinery; his figure carved +in wood is sold at all the curiosity stores, and he appears as a +prominent character in most of the fairy stories that deal with farm +life. He is represented as a short, fat, bow-legged man, with big +whiskers and long white hair, wearing a red hat like those worn by +clowns in circuses. He usually appears in his shirt sleeves, with an +open collar, a blue vest, and knickerbockers upon his legs, which are +as slim as those of a brownie. His circumference is greater than his +height, and his head is almost as large as his body. + +Noek is the fairy of the waterfalls and is a sort of merman. You never +see more than half his body. He is very, very old, his hair and beard +are long and white, and his face is always pale and pensive. He +carries a harp and plays to amuse the spirits in the waterfall. A +statue of Ole Bull has recently been erected in his native city of +Bergen. He stands upon a pedestal which rises from a fountain, and the +water flows over the head and shoulders of a Noek at the base. + +Norway offers a fine field for reformers to study the effects of +regulation upon the vice of drunkenness. Within the limits of the +kingdom are all grades of restriction, from prohibition to liberal +license. There are no pretensions about the Norwegians; there is no +affectation about their morals and no leniency in the administration +of their laws. The police and the magistrates are merciless and +inexorable, and crime is punished more severely perhaps than in any +other country. At the same time the people distinguish an important +difference between temperance and total abstinence. They give their +children beer in unlimited quantities, but absolutely prohibit the +sale of whisky, and send drunken men to prison with burglars and +assassins. Norwegian reformers hold that beer is the great promoter of +temperance, and encourage its use as a beverage, although every saloon +in the kingdom is closed on Sundays, on all holidays, and Saturday +afternoon, which is the regular pay day for the working classes. These +are practical regulations, devised for the purpose of restraining +those who are not capable of controlling their own appetites and +encouraging thrift and economy. While the saloons are closed on pay +day, the savings banks are open until midnight. + +It is difficult to become accustomed to the long twilights in Norway. +One can read and write at a window as late as ten o'clock without +difficulty, and during the months of June, July, and August few +artificial lights are used, either in the streets or in the shops or +in the residences. A candle is usually kept handy for an emergency, +but it is light enough to dress and undress at any hour of the night, +and it seems childish to go to bed before dark. The hours for meals +are awkward to those accustomed to American ways. Breakfast is usually +served from seven till nine o'clock. Four o'clock is the fashionable +dinner hour, without luncheon. After dinner men return to their +business and keep open their shops and offices until a nine or ten +o'clock supper during the long days. + +No one will ever starve to death in Norway. American palates may not +always crave the food, but they can not complain of its abundance. The +table is usually loaded with all sorts of fish and cold meats, both +fresh and preserved, that foreigners are usually afraid of. The +Norwegians are fond of things with a pronounced flavor, the more +pronounced the better, and cheese is one of the chief articles of +diet. A Norwegian housewife would not consider a meal complete without +five or six different kinds of cheese of all degrees of pungency in +taste and odor upon the table. At breakfast you are served sardines, +anchovies, smoked salmon, dried herring and five or six other kinds of +fish and an equal variety of cheese before they think of offering you +coffee and meat and potatoes. You get seven or eight kinds of bread +also, but it is all cold. The national bread, which is made of flour, +water and a little salt, with a sprinkling of caraway seed, rolled +very thin and punctured with holes like a cracker, is baked only once +or twice a year, and then in large quantities, as New England women +bake mince pies and put them on the top shelf to season. It is called +_grovboröd_, and tastes like a water cracker. + +The servant-girl problem has been solved in Norway to the satisfaction +of all concerned, although it is doubtful whether a similar solution +would be accepted by domestic servants in the United States. In large +cities like Bergen and Christiania, there is a central employment +bureau under the direction of the municipal government, and twice a +year--one week before New Year's day and one week before St. John's +day, the 24th of June--there is a general change of servants by those +who are dissatisfied with existing conditions, and engagements are +made for the ensuing six months of the year. Families who want +servants, fill out blanks setting forth what is required and the wages +they are willing to pay. These are filed at the employment office and +are noted in a conspicuous manner upon a blackboard. Women or men in +search of employment go to this bureau during the weeks named, +examine the blackboard, and apply to the clerk in charge for further +information. + +If they desire to apply for a particular position, they submit their +recommendations to the clerk, and if he is satisfied, he gives them a +card to the lady of the house. That card is good for the day only, and +must be returned by the lady of the house before the close of office +hours. If the girl is engaged, the blanks upon the card are filled out +with a general statement as to her duties, the term of service, and +the wages agreed upon, and the card is filed away for reference +if necessary. If the lady of the house is not satisfied with the +applicant, she sends her away and returns the card marked "not +satisfactory," with the request that other applicants be sent her. If +the applicant is satisfactory, the lady of the house pays her a bonus +of one krone or two kroner called "hand money"--that is, she crosses +her hand with silver as an evidence of good faith--and the girl agrees +to report for duty within one week after New Year's or Midsummer's +day, as the case may be. That is to allow her present employer to +fill her place. In some of the smaller towns the dates for changing +servants are April 14 and October 14. + +The law protects both the employer and the employed. The employer +guarantees to give the servant a comfortable room, wholesome food, +take care of her if sick, and pay her wages regularly as agreed upon +during good behavior; while the girl agrees to perform her duties +faithfully during the term for which she is engaged. If there is any +complaint upon either side, it must be made to a magistrate, who +investigates and decides between them. A family can not get rid of a +servant during her term of employment without official intervention. +On the other hand, the girl's wages are a first lien upon their +property for the entire term, although judgment must be rendered and +made a matter of record. If a servant runs away from her employer, +she can be arrested and fined. Cooks are paid from $4 to $7 a month; +housemaids from $3 to $6 a month; men butlers from $10 to $15; +coachmen from $12 to $16 a month; scullery maids and men of all work +receive corresponding wages. + +Nearly all of these domestic customs here related apply to Sweden as +well as Norway, and there are many interesting additional ones. In +Sweden the state dinners at the palace are always at six o'clock. At +nearly all the other courts of Europe it is customary to dine at eight +o'clock. The king's dinners are short, his guests seldom remaining +more than an hour at the table, after which the ladies adjourn to one +of the drawing rooms, the gentlemen to the smoking room, and later +all are entertained by musicians from the opera house or the royal +conservatory. Carriages are usually ordered at ten o'clock. This seems +old-fashioned, but for people who like to go to bed early and those +who are occupied with business all day it is much more sensible than +the custom followed in some cities, where social festivities do not +begin until the hour when the king of Sweden's guests are bidding him +good night. + +But everybody complains that the Swedes are drifting away from old +customs and are becoming modernized. The French influence seems to +prevail, and modern Swedish life is becoming an imitation of that of +Paris. + +Another of the old customs is for people to indicate their business +upon their visiting cards. You will receive the card of Lawyer Jones, +or Banker Smith, or Music Professor Smith, and so on; and these titles +are also used in addressing them. It would seem rather queer for any +one in the United States to ask, "Wholesale Merchant MacVeigh, will +you kindly pass the butter?" or "Banker Hutchinson, will you escort +Fru Board of Trade Operator Jones to the table?" But that is the +custom in Sweden and it is observed by children as well as grown +people. A lisping child will approach a guest, make a pretty little +bob-courtesy, and say, "Good morning, Chief Justice of the Supreme +Court Fuller," or "Good night, Representative in Congress Boutell." +It is customary for ladies to print their maiden names upon +their visiting cards in smaller type, under their married names, +particularly if they have a pride of family and want people to know +their ancestry. + +To see the old Swedish customs that have almost entirely disappeared +from the country, one must go to the hill districts of Dalecarlia, +where the people are so unlike the rest of the Swedes in their dress, +their customs and habits, and in many other respects as to almost seem +another race. + +The Dalecarlians are great dancers, and the social gatherings at +their homes during the winter are always accompanied by that form of +amusement. During the summer they dance in the open air. On St. John's +Day the entire population, old and young, dance around a May-pole +erected at some convenient place, and at harvest time, whenever the +last sheaf in a field is pitched upon the cart or the stack, it is +customary for somebody to produce a musical instrument, a violin, +a nyckleharpa, a harmonicum, or perhaps only a mouth organ, and +everybody--for the boys and girls of the family all work together in +the hay and harvest fields--join in a dance before returning home. + +The dances are original and often interesting. One of the most ancient +and popular is the _däfva vadmal_ (weaving homespun), whose figures +are supposed to imitate the action of the shuttle, the beating in of +the woof, and other motions used in weaving at an old-fashioned loom. +Some of the dances resemble those of Scotland, and one is almost +exactly like the Virginia reel as danced by old-fashioned people in +the United States. In another, called the "garland," the dancers wind +in and out under their clasped hands in imitation of the weaving of a +wreath of flowers. All the dances require violent physical exercise, +but the Swedish men and women are famous for muscular development. +Some of the dances are accompanied by pretty melodies sung in unison +by both sexes. + +The songs of the Dalecarlian peasant are not lively, but rather slow +in movement, and are usually sung in unison, the music being rarely +arranged for parts. + +Dalecarlia has a certain preeminence among the districts of Sweden +because of the part its people have played in the history of the +country, and however the other provinces may dispute among themselves +about their claims for distinction, each will admit that Dalecarlia is +entitled to special consideration. Its people represent the highest +patriotism and the noblest characteristics of the Swedish race, and +when any one is spoken of as a Dalecarlian, it means that he is a free +and intelligent citizen of independent thought and action and lives a +life of manly simplicity.[o] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS + + +Perhaps in no other country in the world have health and exercise been +united and formed into a national institution, as they have been in +Sweden. The true Swede believes that exercise will cure everything, +and that as a preventive of disease there is nothing like it. If you +go to a Swedish physician for advice, he will invariably prescribe the +movement cure, and send you to a gymnasium or a massage establishment +instead of to a drug store. Physical exercise is therefore the +national remedy, particularly for complaints due to sedentary +employment, neglect of nature's laws, and high living. The movement +cure for invalids, which is practically the same as that we have in +the United States, is used in all the hospitals as well as in private +practice. It was invented about a century ago by Dr. Ling, a patriot, +a gymnast and a poet, who was inspired to revive the ancestral +national spirit in the Swedish people by the aid of sports and songs, +and to develop once more the great qualities of strength, courage, +and endurance which in old times distinguished the Scandinavian +race. After a hard struggle he succeeded, in 1814, in securing the +recognition of the government and founded the Royal Gymnastic Central +Institute, where all persons desiring to teach gymnastics in the +public schools or in private institutions must take a course of +training and take a degree. The Swedes are quite as particular about +this as they are about the study of medicine. No medical practitioner +can hang out a sign without a diploma from one of the universities, +and no person can teach gymnastics in that country without a similar +certificate of competency from the Royal Institute. Every officer of +the army is required to undergo a course of instruction, not only +to develop his physical constitution, but to qualify him to teach +gymnastics to his soldiers. The teachers of physical culture in the +public schools, both men and women, are obliged to take a similar +course in order to drill their pupils properly, for in every +schoolroom in the country, down to the kindergartens, daily physical +exercise upon Ling's plan is required to promote the development of +the body and improve the health. This is required in private as well +as public schools, and the methods of instruction are subject to the +inspection and approval of the Central Institute. In every town of any +size there are gymnastic clubs and associations, which are generally +guided by instructors educated at the Central Institute. They include +women as well as men in their membership, and in many of them fencing +and other sword exercises are also taught. In common with all the +gymnasiums are bath-houses. You will find them in every part of the +city of Stockholm and in other large towns. Some of them occupy entire +buildings. It is the habit of business men to go to their stores or +offices at nine o'clock in the morning and remain there until two or +three in the afternoon, when they go to their club or gymnasium and +take an hour's exercise and afterward a bath. These establishments in +the business quarter of Stockholm and other cities are considered just +as important as clubs, restaurants, or other places of resort, and +usually have connected with them reading and smoking rooms where +patrons can read the daily newspapers and current magazines and sip +coffee and smoke while they are cooling off. It would surprise a +visitor in New York or Chicago to be informed that his broker or his +lawyer or his banker or a contractor with whom he has business, had +gone to a bathhouse or gymnasium at three o'clock in the afternoon, +but in Stockholm it is a common reply to an inquiry. During winter +afternoons you can usually find anybody you want by going to his +favorite gymnasium or bathhouse, just as you would look for him at his +club in Chicago. + +There is a distinctive dress for the exercise. The patrons take off +their street clothing and put on light woolen shirts and trousers, and +canvas shoes on their bare feet, and, standing in rows, go through a +series of motions under the command of their instructor to exercise +the arms, legs, neck, and every other part of the body, gently, not +violently. The idea is movement, not exertion, and the muscles are +restrained. The arm is raised slowly with self-resistance. No clubs +or dumb-bells are used, only a gentle motion like the exercise of the +children in the schools. After twenty minutes or half an hour of this +the class marches in a column, still going through the same movements; +then they run, following their leader, doing everything that he does, +until at the end of an hour the body is in a glow, the blood is +pulsating in every vein, the perspiration is oozing from every pore, +every muscle is limbered up and strengthened, and every nerve tingles. +There is regular gymnasium apparatus for those who like more violent +exercise. Then a bath is taken, followed by a cold plunge and violent +rubbing with massage, after which a man is in shape to go home to his +dinner with a good appetite. + +In October every year the Scandinavian Gymnastic Instructors' +Association meets in Stockholm for several weeks, at which lectures +are delivered, papers are read, and discussions are held upon all +branches of their work. These meetings are quite as important as +annual conventions of the bar or medical associations, and are not +only attended by gymnastic instructors, but by physicians generally, +for every Swedish physician must be well versed in medical gymnastics, +particularly in what is known as _kinesitherapym_ or movement cure, +which embraces active, passive, and resisting movements, as well as +massage, for the latter is the basis of medical gymnastics. + +The Swedes have accepted this treatment as a specific for nearly +all diseases, deformities, and weaknesses of the body; for internal +complaints, for the lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs. It +removes superfluous tissue, and this is the reason you see so few fat +men in Sweden, notwithstanding their beer-drinking propensities, and +why the women keep their youthful shape until old age. + +It is a spectacle to witness in some of the gymnastic institutes +venerable and dignified gentlemen going through comical motions and +assuming ridiculous postures with great activity and zeal, keeping +time to the music of a band in the adjoining café. + +In Sweden doctors never send bills to their patients, but trust +entirely to their generosity. Each family has an attending physician, +who expects them to pay him by the year for his services, according to +their wealth and the amount of attention they receive. Ten dollars a +year in our money is a good fee; one hundred dollars is princely. At +the beginning of the year you put the amount in an envelope and send +it to the doctor by a messenger with your card. He sends back his card +with an acknowledgment of thanks and the compliments of the season. It +is very bad form to talk about it, although grateful patients often +write their physicians affectionate letters of gratitude for his +devotion and the benefit he has brought them. It is a good deal +like the relation between a minister and his parishioners in other +countries, and the annual contribution for the support of the doctor +is just as voluntary as the contribution to the treasury of the +church. If there is any reason why one should feel grateful to the +doctors; if you or your children have suffered a severe illness and he +has pulled you through, he expects a present in addition to the annual +honorarium, just as you would send the minister a present after a +marriage or a funeral or some other special occasion at which his +services are required. The amount you pay depends upon your ability +and the value of his services, but it is a violation of the +most sacred canon of professional etiquette for a doctor to ask +compensation or question the amount he receives. He keeps no accounts +of his visits and no books. If a stranger or an acquaintance who does +not contribute regularly makes one call or two upon the doctor to ask +his advice or a prescription, he leaves something on the table, but it +would be equivalent to an insult if he should ask for a bill. + +When a person is very sick, he is taken to a hospital. Sweden has some +of the best hospitals in the world. His own doctor looks after him +there, assisted by the house physician and nurses, who expect fees, +but the regular doctor gets none. He supervises the treatment and acts +as adviser to the house physician. + +The government pays subsidies to doctors in remote parts of the +country, just as it pays the salaries of the ministers where the +people are so poor that they can not support a doctor and a parson. +In fact, all the clergymen of the established church are paid by the +government and are government officials. The members of their parishes +give them presents, something on the donation party order, because +their salaries are small, and if there happen to be rich men in the +parish, it is their custom to send around a handsome present to the +minister's wife or to himself on Christmas Day. + +The Swedes have a short summer, and so far as possible spend it in the +open air. Every citizen of Stockholm who can afford it has a place in +the country, no matter how humble or primitive it may be, and if he +can not afford a cabin, he pitches a tent in the woods under the pine +trees, and if necessary cooks his own meals. The banks of the lakes +and rivers throughout the entire kingdom--and there are more than +1,400 lakes in Sweden and 1,700 islands in the Stockholm Skärgard--are +surrounded by such dwellings and camps, for the Swedes love the water. +Those who are compelled to remain in town take their meals and spend +their evenings at the open-air cafes, which are found in every part of +the city with bands of music, and take daily excursions on the boats +which ply through the fjord and the lakes which encircle the town. +In the suburbs are circuses, open-air theaters, concert gardens, and +other forms of entertainments, simple and serious. A number of fine +restaurants are maintained in the parks, where people can get a good +dinner and spend the evening under the cool foliage, listening to +an orchestral concert or a band. Every form of outdoor amusement is +furnished, and the people eat, drink, and are merry, making the most +of their time from June to September before the long and dreary winter +comes upon them. + +The working classes have their simple amusements also, and during the +summer evenings in every village there is music and dancing, even if +an accordion or jewsharp is the only instrument to be obtained. The +national dances are quite energetic, and furnish a form of exercise +which lazy people would not admire, but both the men and women of +Sweden are famous for their muscular strength, and the young woman who +can dance down her companions is as much of a hero as the champion +wrestler of the town. Those who can not enjoy the opportunity of +visiting rural Sweden will find in the suburbs of Stockholm, at the +favorite resort and place of amusement of the common people, a perfect +representation of Swedish country life. It is called Skansen, and +is rural Sweden in miniature. It is a patriotic and scientific +enterprise, conceived and undertaken by the late Dr. Artur Hazelius, +an eminent ethnologist, for the purpose of preserving the habits and +customs of the Scandinavian races. In no country of Europe, excepting +perhaps Russia and Turkey, have the people adhered to the manner and +costumes of their fathers so tenaciously as in Sweden, and the life of +past generations is preserved in its picturesqueness. The conservatism +of the people, their tenacious preference for their own ways and means +has kept out innovations, and very few changes have been made since +the beginning of the eighteenth century. But fearing that the peasants +of Sweden, like all other peoples, would sooner or later surrender to +modern fashions, Dr. Hazelius attempted to collect at Skansen actual +types representing every industry, activity, and national trait. His +thought was expressed in a motto inscribed over one of the gates of +this outdoor museum: + +"The day will come when all our gold will not be sufficient to buy an +accurate picture of the times long past." + +He procured from the king a rocky plateau on the edge of a royal park +known as _Djurgarden_, covered with crippled pines and resembling the +wild, uncultivated, neglected landscape in Dalecaria or Norrland, +the two most interesting portions of Sweden. By careful landscape +gardening, without destroying its natural beauty, he introduced broad +paths, restaurants, cafes, band stands, and other places for the merry +to meet and hold their festivals, and for the students to sing their +songs, and he reserved a part of the grounds in its natural condition, +where the lovers of nature can find a quiet retreat among the gloom +of a pine grove. It has become the most popular resort in Sweden, +particularly in the long summer evenings, and when a man can not reach +the country, Skansen is never too far. It is accessible by street-cars +and by boats, and is not more than half an hour's walk from the +palace. + +Here the "folk festivals," for which the Swedish poets have composed +their most beautiful songs, are held every spring; here the national +holidays are celebrated as in olden times, both in summer and +winter, and national customs are preserved with great care and amid +surroundings that give them a realistic tone, like the true thing. Dr. +Hazelius secured original types of peasant houses from every part of +the country where they have individual or unique character. From the +huts of the fishermen on the south coast of the Scandinavian peninsula +to the camps of the Lapps in the frozen zone, every feature of +Swedish country life is represented. The Lapps brought their dogs and +reindeer, and live exactly as they do upon the snowy plains of the +polar regions. + +With the forty acres that compose the park are about one hundred and +twenty-five people, living exactly as their forefathers lived and +practicing the primitive customs that prevailed two centuries ago +in the agricultural districts of the kingdom. They wear the same +costumes, eat the same kind of food, use the same kind of dishes, and +preserve so far as possible every feature of their daily life. Every +one of the provinces of Sweden which has a distinctive dress or unique +custom is represented by the actual people who have always lived that +way. Every man and woman continues their former occupations. There +is no theatrical business about it, no imitations on the grounds; +everything is genuine. + +Three or four times a week at sunset, after their daily work is done, +the peasants gather for a dance at a central place, which is always +surrounded by a large crowd of spectators, and is the greatest +attraction of Skansen. On alternate nights the dancing is by the +children, of whom there are thirty-seven under fifteen years of age +living in the cabins with their parents, dressed just like their +great-great-grandfathers and grand mothers when they were of the +same age. The music for the dancing is furnished by old-fashioned +instruments, and none but old-fashioned tunes are allowed. There is a +society in Sweden known as _Svenska Folkdansens Vänner_ for preserving +the Swedish national peasant dances and for encouraging their use in +the higher circles of society in preference to the French dances. + +There are several fine museums and picture galleries in Sweden. The +national gallery in Stockholm, which is across the bay from the royal +palace, and the Northern Museum founded in 1872 by Dr. Hazelius. Then +there is the Royal Opera and the National Theater, so that the people +of Stockholm do not want for places of amusement in winter as well as +summer. + +The father of athletic sports in Sweden is Lieutenant Colonel Victor +Gustaf Balck, who holds a military position in the garrison at +Stockholm. He introduced lawn tennis, cricket, baseball and football, +and has established numerous athletic clubs in different parts of the +country. Sailing is popular, there being many yacht clubs with good +houses and fleets. And swimming is a part of the national education, +nearly every man, woman, and child in Sweden taking naturally to the +water and being able to swim. Everybody can skate as well as swim. In +the cities rinks can be found with music and many conveniences. In +Stockholm there is a general skating club, with a rink large enough +to accommodate six thousand skaters, and popular fêtes given there +at intervals during the winter are attended by the royal family and +members of the court, and are regarded as important social functions. +All skating is done upon the numerous lakes, and often during the long +nights of the winter hundreds of people, young and old, will gather +at an early hour--it gets dark at four o'clock in the afternoon--and +spend the entire night skating by moonlight. A big fire is built in +some convenient place for the crowd, and smaller fires by individual +parties, who bring luncheon with them and have a picnic in the snow +in the winter. In various parts of the country, national and +international skating contests are held, and winners in local +tournaments, both for speed and fancy skating, are sent to Stockholm +to contest for the grand prizes against the crack skaters of Norway, +Denmark, Russia, and northern Germany. + +But the national winter sport of all Scandinavia is skeeing--skimming +over the snow on snow-shoes. There is no more vigorous or exciting +exercise. In the country districts men and women alike are educated to +the use of snowshoes from childhood. As soon as boys and girls are +old enough to skate, they put on skees of a size appropriate to +their stature, and are quite as agile and daring as their elders. It +requires nerve, skill, and muscular strength to skee, and a person who +has never tried snow-shoes always finds it difficult to use them. It +is a sport to which people must be trained from childhood. A skilful +"skeer" can make a mile in two minutes. + +Ice yachting and sailing on skates are two of the oldest and most +popular national sports, and are practiced in both Sweden and Norway +by all classes. All the ice yachts and snow-shoes are home-made, and +in the country districts many of the skates.[p] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +There are seven hundred and fifty-one newspapers and periodicals in +Sweden, including fifty-two dailies. Stockholm has twelve dailies, +seven published in the morning and five in the evening, which is a +large number for a city of three hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, +and the wonder is how they all manage to exist. None of them is as +large as the ordinary dailies in the United States. It is the practice +of the Swedish editors to waste very little room in headlines, and +to condense as much as possible. They state facts without padding or +comment, and manage to bring the daily allowance of news within ten +or twelve columns. There is usually a continued story, three or four +articles of a literary character, a couple of columns of clippings and +miscellany, and the same amount of editorial. The balance of the paper +is given up to advertising, but with all that it is seldom necessary +to print more than four pages. The morning papers stick to the blanket +sheet. + +Most of the Stockholm papers have a good advertising patronage, which +runs to display at times. The Swedish business men have learned that +it pays to advertise. The rates are much lower than in the United +States. The ordinary want ad. costs from seven to ten cents, and for +display advertisements the rates run from two and one-half to twenty +cents a line, according to the location. In the semi-weekly edition +of _Aftonbladet_, which is considered the best advertising medium +in Sweden on account of its large circulation and superior class of +readers, display ads. in preferred places cost about twenty-eight +cents a line. + +The subscription price corresponds. You can have any one of the +evening papers delivered at your house for $3 a year, and the highest +rate for the morning dailies is $5 a year. It is worth while to know +that postmasters in Sweden will receive subscriptions for newspapers +published in any part of the world. A small fee is exacted to cover +the amount of postage and the stationery required in forwarding the +subscription. + +The father of cheap newspapers in Sweden is Anders Jeurling, the +publisher of _Stockholm-Tidningen_ and _Hyvad Nytt i Dag_, who started +the first-named journal about twelve years ago and sold it on the +street for two _öre_, which is about one-half cent. Now the price of +the former is four _öre_, about one cent, and of the latter a half +cent. The former paper has the largest circulation in the city of +Stockholm, its ordinary edition reaching about one hundred thousand +copies, but _Aftonbladet_ exceeds it in the country. Mr. Jeurling +has the reputation of being the ablest publisher in Sweden, and is a +better business man than the editor. He has made a fortune out of +his papers on the theory that the people care more for news than +for politics. Mr. Adolph Hallgren is the editor-in-chief of +_Stockholms-Tidningen_, and the managing editor is Mr. F. Zethraens, +who studied journalism in the office of the Chicago _Record-Herald_. + +The official paper of the Swedish government is _Post och Inriches +Tidning_, which was founded as far back as 1645, and is one of the +oldest periodicals in the world. For more than a century it has been +published under the auspices of the Swedish Academy, an organization +of eighteen of the most learned scholars and philosophers in the +kingdom. The editor is Dr. J.A. Spilhammar, a very learned gentleman, +who, on account of his position, is naturally conservative and +discreet in all his utterances. + +_Aftonbladet_, a liberal evening paper, to which I have already +alluded, has the greatest circulation in Sweden, the daily edition +varying from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred and sixty +thousand copies, and it is one of the most influential forces in the +kingdom. The editor, Harald Sohlman, is regarded is an able writer and +shrewd business man. He is also editor and publisher of _Dagen_, a +morning paper, liberal in politics, which has a circulation of +about forty thousand copies, and is sold at three _öre_--about +three-quarters of a cent. _Aftonbladet's_ semi-weekly edition goes +into every corner of the kingdom, has a high literary standard, +contains correspondence from all the European capitals, and has a +special department devoted to news concerning the Swedes and Swedish +affairs in America. + +The most conservative of all Swedish papers is _Nya Dagligt +Allehanda_, edited by Dr. J.A. Bjorklund. Its circulation is confined +almost exclusively to the nobility and wealthier classes, and is said +to be more loyal to the government than royalty itself. + +_Vart Land_, another conservative paper, edited by Professor Gustaf +Torelius, an eminent author and scholar, is an organ of the Swedish +state church, and on that account is taken by every Lutheran +clergyman and active layman in the kingdom. It contains the official +announcement of the minister of religion and the archbishop, and is +especially given to news of an ecclesiastical character. Its most +prominent writer is Dr. C.D. af Wirsén, one of "the immortal eighteen" +of the Swedish Academy and a lyric poet of reputation. + +_Svenska Morgonbladet_, another religious daily, opposes _Vart Land_, +and represents the dissenters from the established church. Its +circulation, according to its sarcastic competitors, "is limited to +those who have been saved." Its most eminent contributor and patron +is Dr. Peter Paul Waldenström, founder and leader of the Free Lutheran +Church, "the Swedish Moody." Scarcely a week passes without an article +from his pen in _Morgonbladet_, which gives that paper its standing +among Free Lutherans. + +_Dagbladet_ is the only paper in Stockholm which is issued twice a +day, and it has also a Sunday edition. It styles itself in politics +a "moderate," but is more popular among the conservatives than the +liberals. Having the city printing, it is not inclined to quarrel with +its bread and butter. + +_Dagens Nyheter_, a liberal morning paper, made a fortune for Rudolph +Wall, its founder, who died a millionaire. It is considered one of the +most profitable newspaper properties in Europe. It sells for a cent +and a quarter, and has a circulation of about thirty thousand. + +The Stockholm paper which imitates the American press most closely +is _Svenska Dagbladet_, ably edited by Helmer Key, a doctor of +philosophy, and C.G. Tengwall, who is regarded as one of the best +all-around newspaper men in Sweden. It has the best class of +contributors of any of the Swedish papers in a literary way, including +Professor Oscar Levertin, Verner von Heidenstam, the poet, Tor +Hedberg, an art and literary critic, and Ellen Key, the authoress, +and the most influential woman in Sweden. The paper has a large +circulation among the thinking people of the country, and exercises a +wide influence. + +The official organ of the Royal Yacht Club, the Royal Jockey Club, +and all representative Swedish sport clubs, is the _Ny Tidning för +Idrott_, which is owned by Count Clarence von Rosen, one of the +grandsons of the late Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, of Philadelphia. The +count, himself the finest rider in the Swedish army, edits the horse +news, while Colonel Victor Balck, the father of modern Swedish sports, +and Alex. Lindman are the editors. _Ny Tidning för Idrott_ has a +regular correspondent in America. Hjalmar Branting, leader of the +socialists in Sweden and a member of the second chamber of parliament, +is editor of _Social Demokraten_, the organ of his party. Although +a man of aristocratic origin, he has cast his lot with the laboring +classes. He is a man of great force of character, an able writer, an +eloquent speaker, and is generally respected even by those who can not +approve his views. The circulation of his paper is almost exclusively +confined to the laboring classes. + +The compensation of newspaper men in Sweden is much less than in +the United States. The highest salary paid to an editor-in-chief is +$4,000, while the lowest for that position is about $1,500. Managing +editors are paid from $1,200 to $2,000 a year, and ordinary reporters +from $300 to $750 a year. Contributors of fame receive special rates. +The price for news items is two and one-half cents a line. Space +writers seem to be paid more in proportion than the regular members of +the staff, but the difference is more apparent than real, because +of the tendency to condensation. Articles in the Swedish papers are +seldom more than half a column long. + +Stockholm has several comic papers, even more in proportion to +population than we have in the United States. The most prominent are +_Strix, Puck, Söndags-Nisse, Kasper_ and _Nya Nisse_. They are small +and comparatively insignificant, and sell for two and one-half cents +a copy. They satirize politicians with good humor, and their cartoons +are based upon current events. There are several literary weeklies, +monthlies, and other periodicals, for Swedes are great readers and, +unlike the Americans, have not lost their taste for poetry. A poet +enjoys a much higher position and larger income from his writings in +Sweden than at home. + +There is a Press Club in Stockholm with four hundred and forty +members, of whom twenty-two are women. In 1901 the club arranged +"a week of festivals," including military tournaments, public +entertainments and a fair, and closed with a masquerade ball at the +Royal Opera House to raise funds for a building. It was a great +success. King Oscar accepted an invitation, and enjoyed himself very +much among his "colleagues," as he called them. The king was always +considerate to newspaper men. He appreciated the purpose and +understood the requirements of reporters, and never failed to assist +them whenever he was able to do so. Hence he was very popular among +them, and they reciprocated by showing their appreciation in every +possible way. The old king once said to Hjalmar Branting, the +socialist editor: + +"We have different opinions, Branting, but we are both working for the +welfare of our country." + +In 1897, during the international congress of the press at Stockholm, +the king gave the editors a banquet at the Royal Castle at +Drottningholm, and mingled among them as "one of yourselves." He also +proposed a toast in most complimentary language. + +Oscar II made many speeches, and upon occasions of great formality he +used manuscript, but generally spoke without notes, preparing himself +in advance by study and reflection. When he spoke from manuscript, +he invariably furnished copies to the press, and was never known to +request that part of his speech be suppressed. + +Reporters are invariably admitted to state ceremonials. There is very +little secrecy about the Stockholm court, and intrigue is entirely +unknown in Swedish politics. There are no mysteries in the council +chamber and no skeletons in the royal closet. Hence the doors are +open, and the reporters can come and go as they please. As a natural +consequence comparatively little attention is paid to affairs at the +palace. There is an announcement every morning of the movements of the +king and the royal family and occurrences of public interest, but with +very little detail, and the newspapers depend upon the officials to +furnish the information voluntarily. Reporters are seldom sent to the +palace unless some special inquiry is necessary. + +The story is told that once when Oscar II went to Gothenburg to attend +a dedication or opening of something or other, where he was expected +to make a speech, he was intercepted at the railway station by an +enterprising reporter who wanted a copy of his speech. The paper was +to be published that afternoon, and there would be no time for a +stenographer to write out his notes afterward. The king greeted him +pleasantly and explained that he had no manuscript; that he intended +to speak without notes. The reporter was very much dissappointed, +and confided to the king that he was a new man and that his future +standing with his employer might be seriously affected if he failed +to get the speech. King Oscar responded sympathetically, invited the +reporter to get into his carriage, and while they were driving to the +hotel, gave a brief synopsis of what he expected to say. + +Newspapers in Norway are not so good an investment; in fact, none of +them may be considered financial ventures. As a rule, they have to be +assisted by the government or by political clubs in order to survive. +Their subscription lists are limited, the largest circulation in +Norway not exceeding fifteen thousand and few publications print more +than five thousand copies, while advertising pays not more than ten or +twelve cents a line at top prices in the most expensive papers. + +An ordinary newspaper reporter in Norway receives a salary of about +$5 a week, while the most competent editors are satisfied with $20 or +$25. Norway was the last of the European countries, except Turkey, +to adopt the art of printing, notwithstanding its early famous +literature, but to-day has four hundred and twenty-nine newspapers +and periodicals, an average of one to every five thousand of the +population; one hundred and ninety-six are political newspapers; +eighty-eight are literary weeklies, and one hundred and forty-five +are reviews, magazines, professional, religious, and scientific +publications. + +_Norske Intelligens-Seddeler_ is one of the oldest papers in the +world, having been founded in Christiania in 1763, and has been the +organ of the government from the beginning. For a century and a +quarter its contents were limited to advertisements and official +announcements. It was a sort of a government gazette, but when Hjalmar +Loken took hold of it, ten or twelve years ago, he changed its +character entirely and has turned it into a good modern newspaper +and a vigorous advocate of government measures, exercising a wide +influence through its columns. + +Monopolies were formerly granted to newspapers in Norway. The +government allowed only one paper to be published within the limits +of an ecclesiastical diocese, or at least only the favored paper was +permitted to receive money for the publication of advertisements. +Competitors resorted to all sorts of ingenious methods, by issuing +pamphlets and 'handbills and such things, that a free discussion of +political issues might be had, but it was not until 1786 that the last +monopoly, which happened to be in the city of Trondhjem, expired. In +1814 freedom of the press was granted by the new constitution, and +from that date the political agitators have found expression in +various publications, and partisanship has often risen to a bitterness +that would not be permitted in other countries. The Norway newspapers +have not known a censor since that date. + +_Morganbladet_, the first daily, was established in 1819, and has +played an important part in the political affairs of the. country. It +is still very influential, being edited with great ability by Mr. +Nils Vogt. Björnson, the author, has been connected with two +newspapers--the first, _Krydseren_, a literary weekly which survived +only a few years, and _Verdens Gang_, which has been published since +1868 as the leading organ of the liberal party. Among its editors and +contributors have been other distinguished men, poets, dramatists, and +novelists. Nearly every writer of distinction has contributed to its +columns, for most of the thinking men of Norway are liberals. Since +1878 Mr. Thommessen has been the editor, and he was the first to +modernize the Norwegian press by printing cable dispatches, cartoons, +caricatures and other illustrations. + +_Dagbladet_ is also a widely read and influential daily, under the +editorship of Mr. A.T. Omholt, and has a large circulation. Its list +of contributors has included some of the most distinguished writers +of the country. There are numerous other dailies of more or less +influence and circulation, and all the trades and occupations have +organs, as in the United States. In every town and almost every +village, a weekly or semi-weekly is published, usually by the liberal +party, and sometimes by other parties. Even Hammerfest, the most +northerly town in the world, which lies in the Arctic Circle, has two +enterprising weeklies.[q] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS + + +If the dwellers of the deep fjords, the somber fir-clad mountain +valleys, and the bleak ice-fields do not "open their lips so readily +for song" as the people of southern lands where the sun creates an +eternal spring, it is not because they are without lyric power, as is +clearly apparent from the rich and varied folk-songs and the splendid +creative work of Edvard Grieg. + +The Norwegian folk-songs, spring dances, hallings, and wedding +marches, have been well characterized as the outpourings of the inner +lives of the common people, the expression of their dauntless energy, +their struggles and aspirations. The folk-song of Norway, more than in +any other land, embodies the character and expresses the tendencies of +Viking life, ancient and modern. It bears the unmistakable marks +of weal and woe of Norse life, the strongly marked and regularly +introduced rythms of the developed and developing national character. +And while an undercurrent of melancholy runs through most of it, it +is, after all, the faithful interpreter of the lives of isolated and +solitary occupants of fjords, fjelds, and dalen. + +The folk-songs of Norway are singularly typical of the country and its +inhabitants. Some "seem to take us into the dense forest among mocking +echoes from, the life outside; others show us the trolls tobogganing +down the highest peaks of Norway; in some we feel human souls hovering +over reefs; in others, memories of the old sun-lit land flit before +us; but in none do we meet with sentimentalism, despondency, or +disconsolateness." But with their weird and minor strains, and their +odd jumps from low tones to high, on first acquaintance they strike +the hearer as strange and elusive. + +Some of the epic songs, as Telemarken, are of great antiquity. But it +was not until the last century that Norse tone artists discovered the +wealth that had long been cherished by the peasants of the fjords and +mountain valleys. Lindeman (1812-1887) was the first to recognize +the musical significance of Norwegian folk-songs. He collected many +hundred national ballads, hymns and dances, and called attention +to their richness and variety as thematic material for a school of +national music. In Lindeman's collection will be found songs which +tell of the heroic exploits of old Norse vikings, kings, and earls +of the heathen days of Thor and Odin, together with lyrics, deep and +ardent, which sing of the loves, the joys, and the sorrows of the +humbler Christian folks. + +The Hardanger violin, the lur and the langeleik have played a leading +role in the development of Norwegian folk-songs and dances. The +Hardanger instrument is more arched than the ordinary violin; there +are four strings over the finger-board and four underneath, the latter +of fine steel wire, acting as sympathetic strings. The men of the +Hardanger fjord have long been distinguished for the workmanship and +tonal qualities of their violins, and with them the peasants have +improvised the rich and varied impressions of nature which we find +embodied in folk-songs. The lur is a long wooden instrument, of the +trumpet order, and is usually made of birch bark. It is much used in +the mountains. The langeleik, or Norwegian harp, is a long, narrow, +box-like stringed instrument, something of the character of the +ancient zither. It has seven strings and sound holes, but its tone is +weak and monotonous. + +The national dances of Norway have bold rythms which at once arrest +the attention. Perhaps the most characteristic is the hailing, a solo +dance in two-four time. It is usually danced by young men in country +barns, and its most striking feature is the kicking of the beam of +the ceiling. In the story of Nils the fiddler, in his novel _Arne_, +Björnson has given this account of the hailing: "The music struck up, +a deep silence followed, and he began. He dashed forward along the +floor, his body inclining to one side, half aslant, keeping time to +the fiddle. Crouching down, he balanced himself, now on one foot, now +on the other, flung his legs crosswise under him, sprang up again, +and then moved on aslant as before. The fiddle was handled by skilful +fingers, and more and more fire was thrown into the tune. Nils threw +his head back and suddenly his boot heel touched the beam." + +The spring dance is less vigorous, but more graceful than the hailing. +It is a round dance in three-quarter time, in which two persons, or +groups of two, participate. It is danced with a light, springing step, +and has been compared with the mazurka by Liszt. Like the hailing, +however, it is markedly individual in its pleasing combinations of +tones. Forestier says of the spring dance of Norway: "There is a +freshness, a sparkle, and energy, a graceful life about it that is +invigorating." + +If Lindeman was the first to collect folk-songs and dances in Norway, +Ole Bull (1810-1880) was the first to popularize them. He was, as +Grieg once declared, a pathbreaker for the young national music. +At the early age of nineteen he sallied forth with his fiddle and +wherever he appeared in Europe and America he played the folk-music +and national dances of Norway. The favor which he found encouraged his +countrymen. His brilliant career glorified musical Norway; gave it +confidence to assert itself, and serve as the inspiration of a long +list of creative tone artists--Kjerulf, Nordraak, Grieg, Svendsen, +Winter-Hjelm, Sindling, and Behrens--to write out and arrange for +voice and modern instruments the music that had so long been preserved +in the memories of the people. + +The best art-made music of Norway has been built upon the folk-songs +and dances of the common people. Halfdan Kjerulf (1815-1868) was the +first serious composer of the new art school. He lived during the +trying period of Norwegian storm and stress, but he wrote something +like a hundred compositions, and in his songs is found "the bud of +national feeling which has burst into full bloom in Grieg." + +Richard Nordraak (1842-1866), during his brief career, set to music +several of Björnson's plays, and composed some strong pianoforte +pieces and songs. "He was," says Siewers, "a man with a bold fresh way +of looking at things, strong artistic interests, an untiring love of +work, and deep national feeling. He had decided influence upon his +friend Grieg's artistic views, and he is the connecting link between +Kjerulf and Grieg in the chain of Norwegian musical art." + +Otto Winter-Hjelm, who, with Grieg, attempted to establish a +conservatory of music at Christiania after their return from Germany +in the sixties, contributed much to the national art of Norway by his +excellent arrangements of hallings and spring dances for piano and +violin. Thomas Thellefsen (1823-1874), a pupil and friend of Chopin, +was distinguished as a national composer as well as a pianist, and +Carl F.E. Neupert (1842-1888), who lived in America six years, did +much by his concert tours and teaching to dignify Norse music. + +Johan Severin Svendsen, while a Norwegian by birth and training, has +expatriated himself by his long residence in Denmark. So far as his +compositions have national flavor they are German. Johan Selmer, while +a prolific composer, will probably be best remembered as a conductor. +Christian Sinding, after Grieg, is the best-known Norwegian composer. +His productions range from symphonies and symphonic poems through +chamber music to romances. He is credited with a wide range of musical +ideas, deep artistic earnestness, and bold power of expression; but +his compositions in the larger forms are thought unduly noisy and +restless. + +Two women who have helped to make the music history of Norway are +Agatha Backer-Gröndahl and Catharinus Elling. Mrs. Backer-Gröndahl was +a pupil, first of Kjerulf and Winter-Hjelm, and later of Kullak, +Hans von Bülow, and Liszt. Many of her songs and instrumental pieces +display fine artistic feeling and musical scholarship of no mean +order. Catharinus Elling has ventured into the larger fields of +music-forms, and has produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, as +well as chamber music and songs. Her music drama, "The Cossacks," is +her most ambitious work. + +Says Henry T. Finck, an able American music critic: "When I had +revelled in the music of Chopin and Wagner, Liszt and Franz, to the +point of intoxication, I fancied that the last word had been said in +harmony and melody; when lo! I came across the songs and piano pieces +of Grieg, and once more found myself moved to tears of delight." +Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) undoubtedly occupies the foremost place among +Norwegian composers. He is the highest representative of the Norse +element in music, "the great beating heart of Norwegian musical art." + +Grieg's _genere_ pieces represent the pearls of his compositions. The +arrangements of folk-songs and dances for the piano in "Pictures of +Popular Life" (opus 19) are characterized by consummate lyric skill; +and Ole Bull once declared that they were the finest representations +of Norse life that had been attempted. Grieg wrote one hundred and +twenty-five songs, most of which take high rank. Finck is of the +opinion that fewer fall below par than in the list of any other song +writer. He adds: "I myself believe that Grieg in some of his songs +equals Schubert at his best; indeed, I think he should and will be +ranked ultimately as second to Schubert only; but it is in his later +works that he rises to such heights, not in the earliest ones, in +which he was still a little afraid to rely on his wings." + +When it is recalled that Grieg was a pianist of exceptional merit, +the large place occupied by pianoforte pieces--twenty-eight of the +seventy-three opus numbers--it is easily understood. Grieg's piano +pieces are brief, but they are veritable gems. The Jumbo idea in music +still lingers with minor professionals. They shrug their shoulders, +remarks Finck, and exclaim: "Yes, that humming bird _is_ very +beautiful, but of course it can not be ranked as high as an ostrich. +Don't you see how small it is?" + +Grieg composed nine works for the orchestra; and here, as in lyric +art-songs and pianoforte pieces, he reveals himself as a consummate +master in painting delicate yet glowing colors. The music which he set +to Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ brought him the largest measure of fame as an +orchestral composer. Indeed it was more cordially received than the +drama, as is indicated by this criticism by Hanslick: "Perhaps in a +few years Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ will live only through Grieg's music, +which, to my taste, has more poetry and artistic intelligence in every +number than the whole five-act monstrosity of Ibsen." Among other +notable orchestral and chamber music numbers may be mentioned a +setting of Björnson's _Sigurd the Crusader, Bergliot_, based upon +the sagas of the Norse kings, a suite composed for the two hundredth +anniversary of Ludwig Holberg, and a number of choice chamber music +pieces. + +It may be remarked that Edvard Grieg has not only given Norway a +conspicuous place on the map of musical Europe, but that he has +influenced unmistakably composers of the rank of Tschaikowsky, +the Russian; Paderewski, the Pole; Eugene d'Albert, the +Scotch-English-German; Richard Strauss, the German; and our own +lamented Edward McDowell, the American. "From every point of view that +interests the music lover," says Mr. Finck, "Grieg is one of the most +original geniuses in the musical world of the present or past. His +songs are a mine of melody, surpassed in wealth only by Schubert's, +and that only because there are more of Schubert's. In originality of +harmony and modulation he has only six equals: Bach, Schubert, Chopin, +Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt. In rythmic invention and combination +he is inexhaustible, and as orchestrator he ranks among the most +fascinating. To speak of such a man--seven-eighths of whose works are +still music of the future--as a writer of 'dialect,' is surely the +acme of unintelligence. If Grieg did stick to the fjord and never got +out of it, even his German critics ought to thank heaven for it. Grieg +in a fjord is much more picturesque and more interesting to the world +than he would have been in the Elbe or the Spree." + +While Norway has neither permanent opera nor permanent orchestras, she +has produced concert virtuosi of a high order. Ole Bull, the so-called +violin-king, already referred to, was unsurpassed in his day. Among +piano artists may be named the talented composer, Mrs. Agatha +Backer-Gröndahl, Thomas Thellefsen, Edmund Neupert, Martin Knutzen, +and the great composer Edvard Grieg. The flutist Olaf Svenssen and the +vocal artists Thorvald Lammers, Ingeborg Oselio-Björnson, and Ellen +Gulbranson, have also brought distinction to their country. + +The male choirs of Norway have always played a leading rôle in the +music life of the nation. The students', merchants', and artists' +singing clubs at Christiania during the past seventy-five years, have +had artistic as well as patriotic aims. Festivals, after the +pattern of those held at Cincinnati, and Worcester and Springfield, +Massachusetts, have also contributed toward the development of +national music. The most eminent choral leaders in Norway have been +Johan D. Behrens, F.A. Reissinger, and O.A. Gröndahl. The Norwegian +Musical Union has also been active in the development of tonal ideals. +Its aim has been to provide chamber concerts of a high order. Grieg +and Svendsen were its first conductors. They were succeded by Ole +Olsen, who combined the talents of orchestral leader with those of +composer, chorister, and band leader. For many years he directed the +Second Brigade Band at Christiania with the rank of captain. Johan +Selmer, also a composer, succeeded Olsen in the direction of the +Musical Union; and Iver Holier, a composer of symphonies, orchestral +suites, chamber music, and vocal scores, followed Selmer. Other +orchestral leaders are Johan Hennum, Per Winge, and Johan Halvorsen, + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +No volume dealing with Scandinavian life would be complete without +some tribute to the women of Norway and Sweden. They are magnificent +specimens wherever you may find them--in the kitchen, the factory, the +harvest field, the hospital, the schoolhouse, the drawing-room, or the +palace. They are good mothers, good daughters, and good wives, and +while their devotion to their sons, husbands, and fathers is not +surpassed by their sisters in any land, they are at the same time +independent, self-reliant, and progressive to a degree that offers a +striking contrast to the statue of the representatives of their sex in +other countries of Europe. They give their best talents, affections, +and strength; they ask the same in return. There is no country, not +even the United States, where women exercise a wider influence, both +direct and indirect in the home, the school, the church, upon the +platform, and in the press. There is no other country in which the +professions, trades, and other occupations are so free to them, or in +which their opportunities are utilized with greater zeal, ability, +and success. They work side by side with men upon the farms, in the +factories, in mercantile establishments, counting-houses, government +offices, and in art, science, and literature, and are equally capable, +although, as in other lands, their pay for the same labor and equal +results is less. + +From the time that Margit Larsson saved Gustavus Vasa from capture by +the Danish soldiers by hiding him in her cellar, the women of Sweden +have exercised a powerful influence in politics, although it has been +indirect, and the ablest and most progressive to-day prefer that their +present political condition shall remain unchanged. They do not think +it wise to extend the franchise any farther for fear that universal +suffrage will result in the corruption of national politics, which is +now comparatively pure. They prefer the present restrictions, which +give the ballot only to women who pay taxes, because it deprives +ignorant and incompetent women of a voice in the government, and +avoids the dangers that often attend the participation of the masses +in elections. They prefer to direct their efforts to securing +an increase in women's wages, so that they may receive the same +compensation as men for the same work, and hope to accomplish +practical results by educating public sentiment and bringing moral +pressure upon the employing class. + +Speaking on this subject, an eminent Swedish writer says: "In the +energetic campaign for the betterment of the condition of women, the +Swedes have taken the first place among European nations. If one seeks +the cause of it, it is found in part in the fact that in Sweden, since +the remotest time, women have enjoyed a respect greater than in most +of the other countries, but without doubt it is also due to the +superiority of the intellect, judgment, and wisdom of Swedish women, +and in later years to the numerical excess of women in our population. +This has made the means of existence to single women a practical +problem. During the present generation a great change has worked +itself out in this sense, that the field of activity for women has +been greatly enlarged. The activity of women, who at other times found +ample domain in the multitude of occupations in the domestic life, has +become less important in that respect and has grown in importance in +the labor and occupations that in other countries are left exclusively +to men." + +The advancement of women in Sweden was greatly encouraged and assisted +by the quiet influence of the late Queen Sophia and her sister-in-law, +the late Princess Eugenie, the sister of Oscar II. The queen, +always an intelligent, progressive Christian woman, with a profound +consciousness of the responsibility attached to her official rank +and influence, was a women's woman, and was habitually engaged in +promoting movements for the benefit of her sex, and with due respect +to the proprieties of her position. She never lost an opportunity to +assist and encourage all who were engaged in advancing the physical, +moral, and social well-being of the women of Sweden and Norway. + +The association of Swedish Women, which is a branch of the +International Council of Women, was organized in 1896, and has over +twelve thousand members, its object being to promote the welfare of +the sex, to educate them on all questions concerning their legal and +social rights, to enlarge their sphere of activity, and to assist +those who are thrown upon their own resources to earn their living. +The active, practical work is done by subordinate societies devoted to +particular interests, as, for example, the Fredrika Bremer Association +manages a sick relief fund for wage earners, assists students in the +universities and technical schools, finds employment for those who +need it, conducts schools for trained nurses, keeps a register of +women who are capable of performing various duties, and is continually +engaged in works of benevolence. + +Another organization, known as the Swedish Woman's Association for the +Defense of Their Country, is purely patriotic, and was organized in +1884 in connection with the movement for the increase of the army, for +the purpose of educating public opinion. It has forty affiliated local +committees carrying on a propaganda of patriotism. There is a women's +club at Stockholm whose special purpose is to protect working women +from persecution by their employers and others, to educate them +concerning legal rights of women wage-earners, and to furnish legal +advice and counsel to those who are in trouble. The seamstresses have +an alliance, and the shop girls are organized into a union. + +The advancement of women commenced under the leadership and +inspiration of the late Fredrika Bremer, the famous authoress, who is +well known in the United States because of her frequent visits here +and her literary works. She was the pioneer of the movement to improve +the condition of women morally, socially, and intellectually. + +Sweden was the first country to recognize the property rights of +women. This was due to an event that occurred a thousand years ago. +While the king and his army were engaged in foreign wars, the Danes +invaded the province of Smoland, when the women armed themselves to +defend their homes. They were led to battle by the beautiful Blenda, +who defeated the invaders and drove them from the country. In +recognition of their heroism the king proclaimed a decree granting the +women of the country property rights, and it has been since recognized +as the law of the land. + +All the professions and occupations common to men are open to the +women of Sweden, and in 1862 suffrage was granted women in municipal +affairs. They are permitted to vote at the election of delegates to +conventions which choose members of the first chamber of parliament. +These rights can now be exercised by all women who pay taxes. In +Stockholm, however, a woman voter must be out of debt and the lawful +owner of the property upon which the taxes are paid. + +The members of the first chamber of the parliament, which corresponds +to the United States Senate, are elected by conventions of delegates +chosen at popular elections in the country and in cities by the +members of the municipal councils. Therefore, as women have the right +to vote for members of the municipal council and for delegates to +these conventions, they participate indirectly in the election of the +Swedish Senate; but comparatively few exercise the privilege. + +Women of advanced views, aided by the members of the socialist party, +are now seeking universal suffrage and a law making them eligible to +parliament and to membership in the provincial and municipal councils. +This proposition has not met with much favor, and the only time it has +ever been brought to vote it was unanimously defeated in the first +chamber of parliament and in the second by fifty-three nays to +forty-four yeas, less than one-half the members present voting. + +The first woman to practice medicine in Sweden was Caroline +Widerstrom, who is still living and occupies a prominent position in +Stockholm. Her practice is as large and as profitable as that enjoyed +by most of the men physicians. + +The foremost woman in Sweden to-day in intellect and influence, in +popular esteem and in public movements, and the recognized successor +of Fredrika Bremer, is Ellen Key, an authoress and editorial writer +upon _Svenska Dagbladet_. + +In the system of local government in Norway, women now participate +upon an equal basis with men. The movements which culminated May, +1901, had been going on since 1884 under the leadership of Miss Gina +Krog, who may be called the Susan B. Anthony of Norway. In the latter +year she organized a woman's suffrage association, delivered a series +of lectures on the subject, and established a newspaper called the +_Nyloende_--meaning "the new ground." Miss Krog is something over +fifty years of age, of fine education and excellent family, and has +been noted for her activity in literary and charitable affairs. She +has been a teacher, a writer for the press, a director of charitable +institutions, and has lived a life of great activity and usefulness, +devoting her own means with generosity to the cause which she has +undertaken. + +The suffrage movement at first attracted little attention, but public +sentiment grew slowly, and in 1890 Miss Krog succeeded in having a +bill brought into the storthing giving women the right to vote in +school matters. It received forty-four out of a total of one hundred +and fourteen votes. The liberal party then made it an issue, and two +years after the same bill received a majority in the storthing, but +required two-thirds of the votes to pass. At that time a property +qualification was required of men. The income tax returns were used +as registration lists at the polls, and none but those who paid on +incomes of $84 in the country and $92 in the city were allowed to +vote. + +The leaders of the movement for universal suffrage for men united +forces with the women suffragists, and in 1898 accomplished their +purpose. The women might have succeeded the same year but for an +unfortunate division in their ranks. One faction wanted to limit +suffrage to unmarried women who own property and deprive married +women and dependent daughters and wage-earners of the ballot. But +a compromise was finally arranged, the two factions were brought +together, and in May, 1901, succeeded in accomplishing the purpose for +which they have been engaged. They received the support of a large +portion of the conservative members of the storthing as well as the +unanimous support of the liberal and radical parties, only twenty +votes being cast in the negative. + +The women of Norway do not propose to rest on their present success. +Miss Krog is continuing the fight to secure the right of participation +in national as well as municipal affairs, and believes that the women +will have all the political rights of men in Norway within the next +few years. She insists that public sentiment favors the cause and that +parliament will take a step further soon and amend the law by making +it broader and more general. Universities are open to women on an +equal basis with men, and many women are taking advantage of the +opportunity to secure the higher education, and if ever, like the +women of Finland, they are allowed to sit in parliament, they will be +amply fitted to do so. + +Under the present law only women who pay a certain amount of taxes +can vote. An unmarried woman living at home is deprived of the ballot +unless she has an income of her own; a married woman can not vote +unless either she or her husband has a stated income. Thus many of +the most intelligent and progressive women of the country are still +outside the suffrage line. Everybody in Norway who earns a dollar pays +an income tax. It may be very small, but a certain percentage of each +day's wages of every peasant goes into the government treasury. Every +person in Norway declares that it is the least objectionable means of +raising money for national and municipal expenses that has ever been +tried there, and that it stimulates the patriotism of the people, who +realize that they are contributors to the support of their government, +and should take an active interest in its management. + +Many of the wisest men in Norway consider the universal suffrage +amendment to the constitution, which was passed in 1898, a mistake +for this reason--because it removes a powerful incentive for men +to accumulate money. The Norwegian has a large and natural fund of +patriotism. He loves his country like the Swiss. Nowhere else do men +and women have to work so hard for a living, but life is the more +precious the harder one has to labor to sustain it. We value things +according to their cost. In the tropics, where no man need work, human +life is held cheaply. Men die and kill without compunction; they +excite revolutions and overthrow governments, sparing neither +themselves nor others. But in Norway, as in Switzerland, where it is +a ceaseless struggle from the cradle to the grave, there is more +national pride and patriotism than in any land, and the privilege of +living and working and suffering is esteemed as the most precious +inheritance of man. + +Women in America who are working for the ballot have only to go to +Norway to find that having a voice in the making of the laws of the +country does not remove every obstacle to the progress of the sex; +that there are still many injustices, and that the women work as hard +as the men. The Norwegian woman usually carries a little more than her +share of the load, and can support a husband without difficulty if +he insists upon it. There is nothing so admirable in this world as +a useful woman, particularly if she is married to a man inclined to +leisure and loafing. In Norway and other countries of northern Europe +the ballad, "I Love to See My Dear Old Mother Work," is something more +than an affectionate sentiment. It has a practical significance, and +is frequently found in husbands as well as sons. + +Of all the labor that the women of Norway engage in, especially women +in the rural districts, is the occupation of caring for the _saeter_. +A _saeter_ is a summer ranch or dairy farm peculiar, to Norway--a +cabin among the pastures way up in the mountains, where the cattle are +driven during the summer months and butter and cheese are made. Almost +every large farmer has a _saeter_. When the spring field work at home +has been finished, the cattle are taken thither by the young women and +girls,--often twenty and sometimes forty miles away,--where they +stay during the summer and make butter and cheese, gather hay, knit +stockings, and embroider linen. The dwelling is usually a rude hut +with a single room, mud floor, an open fireplace without chimney, and +a few pieces of rough furniture. Sheds and pens surround the hut, and +there are patches of enclosed ground where hay is made and where the +younger members of the flock are protected. The cattle are called at +night by a horn made of birch bark. When blown lustily, it gives a +clear note not unlike the cornet, and the cattle invariably respond to +its sound. + +There is a good deal of romance about _saeter_ life in books, but I +should say that there is very little in actual experience. Many of the +charming fairy stories in Norwegian literature have their scenes in +those mountain dairies. The _saeter_ girls (_saeterjenter_ they are +called), have a peculiar and melodious cattle call, known as +the _Huldrelok_, which is said to have been inherited from the +_Huldre-folk_, a species of fairy that are very pretty, but +unfortunately have tails. Usually a young farmer falls in love with +one of the girls, and when he discovers that she has a tail, is so +shocked and disappointed that he throws himself over a precipice; or +perhaps the _Huldre-folk_ gobble him up and carry him off into the +mountains of the _Josteldalsbrae_ and keep him there, while the girl +he left behind him grieves herself to death because of his desertion. + +The dairy maids are supposed to have a peculiar costume, and +photographs are often seen of them arrayed in picturesque dress, but I +never saw them worn. In all the _saeters_ I visited the clothes worn +were very plain and ordinary, and seemed to have been selected for +wear and not for looks. + +We visited a _saeter_ one day and found two young people in charge, a +boy and a girl, neither of them over seventeen, we should judge from +appearances. Their herd consisted of fifteen cows, and they expected +to remain in that desolate country two or three months, making cheese +and butter. Our little _saeterjenta_ had the heart of a poet, although +her brother seemed stupid, and even liberal presents of money did not +wake him up or make him interesting. I do not suppose that this child +had ever been twenty miles from the humble cabin in which she was +born, but the wide, wide world had been opened to her through the +books she had studied at school. She could talk a little English, +and knew a good deal about the United States. She had a brother in +Minnesota, and many of the boys and girls in the neighborhood had gone +across the Atlantic and found homes on the saeterless prairies of our +Northwest. She would like to go herself, she said, but her mother +was old and feeble and the work of the farm fell upon her little +shoulders. Yet she was brave and contented. Her mind was clear, her +imagination active, and among her homely surroundings she had found +food for thought and an opportunity to give expression to the poetic +sentiments that inspired her. Each of her fifteen cows had a name. One +she called Moon Lady, because she often wanders away at night; another +the Crown Wearer, because of a peculiar tuft upon her head. She +addressed them all in terms of affection and talked to them, seeking +their sympathy, for, poor child, they and that stupid, tow-headed +_broder_ were her only companions. + +In the little _saeterjenta_ we have a type of the laboring peasant +women of Norway and Sweden; all willingly industrious and all +philosophically extracting some sweets out of the burdensome life they +must live, and that is why I say they deserve a tribute, whether in +the field or factory, the _saeter_, the common home, or the palace.[s] + + + + +AUTHORSHIP OF CHAPTERS + + +_a_ and _b_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_c_, Nillson's _Sweden_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_d_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_e_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_f_, O.G. Von Herdenstam's _Swedish Life in Town and Country_. + +_g, h_, and _i_, William E. Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, _and Sweden_ +(Saafield Pub. Co., Akron, Ohio). + +_j_, Mary Bronson Hartt, in _Outlook_. + +_k_, Swedish American in _Review of Reviews_. + +_l_, Wm. E. Curtis' _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_, and W.S. Monroe's +_In Viking Land_ (L.C. Page & Co., Boston). + +_m_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_. + +_n_, Monroe and Curtis in above-mentioned books. + +_o_, O.G. Van Herdenstam in _Swedish Life in Town and Country_. + +_p_ and _q_, Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_. + +_r_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_. + +_s_, Wm. Eleroy Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Norwegian Life, by Ethlyn T. Clough + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10543 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6452bcb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10543 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10543) diff --git a/old/10543-8.txt b/old/10543-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f877f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10543-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6258 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Norwegian Life, by Ethlyn T. Clough + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Norwegian Life + +Author: Ethlyn T. Clough + +Release Date: December 30, 2003 [EBook #10543] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORWEGIAN LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock,Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +Norwegian Life + +AN ACCOUNT OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS AND PROGRESS IN NORWAY +AND SWEDEN + +Edited and Arranged by + +ETHLYN T. CLOUGH + + + + +PREFACE + + +An excursion into Norwegian life has for the student all the charm of +the traveler's real journey through the pleasant valleys of the Norse +lands. Much of this charm is explained by the tenacity of the people +to the homely virtues of honesty and thrift, to their customs which +testify to their home-loving character, and to their quaint costumes. +It is a genuine delight to study and visit these lands, because they +are the least, perhaps in Europe, affected by the leveling hand of +cosmopolitan ideas. Go where you will,--to England, about Germany, +down into Italy,--everywhere, the same monotonous sameness is growing +more oppressive every year. But in Norway and Sweden there is still an +originality, a type, if you please, that has resisted the growth of +an artificial life, and gives to students a charm which is even more +alluring than modern cities with their treasures and associations. + +The student takes up Norwegian life as one of the subjects which has +been comparatively little explored, and is, therefore replete with +freshness and delight. This little book can not by any means more +than lift the curtain to view the fields of historical and literary +interest and the wondrous life lived in the deep fiords of Viking +land. But its brief pages will have, at least, the merit of giving +information on a subject about which only too little has been written. +Taken in all, there are scarcely half a dozen recent books circulating +in American literary channels on these interesting lands, and for one +reason or another, most of these are unsuited for club people. There +is an urgent call for a comprehensive book which will waste no time +in non-essentials,--a book that can be read in a few sittings and yet +will give a glimpse over this quaint and wondrously interesting corner +of Europe. This book has been prepared, as have all the predecessors +in this series, by the help of many who have written most delightfully +of striking things in Norwegian life. One has specialized in one +thing, while another has been allured by another subject. Accordingly, +"Norwegian Life" is the product of many, each inspired with feeling +and admiration for the one or two subjects on which he has written +better than on any others. Liberty has been taken to make a few +verbal changes in order to give to the story the unity and smoothness +desired, and a key-letter at the end of each chapter refers the reader +to a page at the close where due credits are given. + +J.M. HALL. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES + +CHAPTER II NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +CHAPTER III SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +CHAPTER IV THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN + +CHAPTER V THE LITERATURE OF NORWAY + +CHAPTER VI THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN + +CHAPTER VII GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + +CHAPTER VIII THE ARMY AND NAVY + +CHAPTER IX PUBLIC EDUCATION + +CHAPTER X HAAKON VII, NEW KING OF NORWAY + +CHAPTER XI THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN + +CHAPTER XII CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS + +CHAPTER XIII MATERIAL CONDITIONS + +CHAPTER XIV HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS + +CHAPTER XV THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + +CHAPTER XVI HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS + +CHAPTER XVII THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + +CHAPTER XVIII NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS + +CHAPTER XIX WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + + + +NORWEGIAN LIFE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES + + +A glance at the map will show that the Scandinavian Peninsula, that +immense stretch of land running from the Arctic Ocean to the North +Sea, and from the Baltic to the Atlantic, covering an area of nearly +three hundred thousand square miles, is, next to Russia, the largest +territorial division of Europe. Surrounded by sea on all sides but +one, which gives it an unparalleled seaboard of over two thousand +miles, it hangs on the continent by its frontier line with Russia in +Lapland. Down the middle of this seabound continent, dividing it into +two nearly equal parts, runs a chain of mountains not inappropriately +called Kölen, or Keel. The name suggests the image which the aspect of +the land calls to mind, that of a huge ship floating keel upwards on +the face of the ocean. This keel forms the frontier line between the +kingdoms of Norway and Sweden: Sweden to the east, sloping gently from +the hills to the Baltic, Norway to the west, running more abruptly +down from their watershed to the Atlantic. + +Norway (in the old Norse language _Noregr_, or _Nord-vegr, i.e_., the +North Way), according to archaeological explorations, appears to have +been inhabited long before historical time. The antiquarians maintain +that three populations have inhabited the North: a Mongolian race and +a Celtic race, types of which are to be found in the Finns and the +Laplanders in the far North, and, finally, a Caucasian race, which +immigrated from the South and drove out the Celtic and Laplandic +races, and from which the present inhabitants are descended. The +Norwegians, or Northmen (Norsemen), belong to a North-Germanic branch +of the Indo-European race; their nearest kindred are the Swedes, the +Danes, and the Goths. The original home of the race is supposed to +have been the mountain region of Balkh, in Western Asia, whence from +time to time families and tribes migrated in different directions. It +is not known when the ancestors of the Scandinavian peoples left +the original home in Asia; but it is probable that their earliest +settlements in Norway were made in the second century before the +Christian era. + +The Scandinavian peoples, although comprising the oldest and most +unmixed race in Europe, did not realize until very late the value of +writing chronicles or reviews of historic events. Thus the names of +heroes and kings of the remotest past are helplessly forgotten, save +as they come to us in legend and folk-song, much of which we must +conclude is imaginary, beautiful as it is. But Mother Earth has +revealed to us, at the spade of the archaeologist, trustworthy +and irrefutable accounts of the age and the various degrees of +civilization of the race which inhabited the Scandinavian Peninsula in +prehistoric times. Splendid specimens now extant in numerous museums +prove that Scandinavia, like most other countries, has had a Stone +Age, a Bronze Age, and an Iron Age, and that each of these periods +reached a much higher development than in other countries. + +The Scandinavian countries are for the first time mentioned by the +historians of antiquity in an account of a journey which Pyteas from +Massilia (the present Marseille) made throughout Northern Europe, +about 300 B.C. He visited Britain, and there heard of a great country, +Thule, situated six days' journey to the north, and verging on the +Arctic Sea. The inhabitants in Thule were an agricultural people who +gathered their harvest into big houses for threshing, on account of +the very few sunny days and the plentiful rain in their regions. From +corn and honey they prepared a beverage (probably mead). + +Pliny the Elder, who himself visited the shores of the Baltic in the +first century after Christ, is the first to mention plainly the name +of Scandinavia. He says that he has received advices of immense +islands "recently discovered from Germany." The most famous of these +islands was Scandinavia, of as yet unexplored size; the known parts +were inhabited by a people called _hilleviones_, who gave it the name +of another world. He mentions Scandia, Nerigon, the largest of them +all, and Thule. Scandia and Scandinavia are only different forms of +the same name, denoting the southernmost part of the peninsula, and +still preserved in the name of the province of Scania in Sweden. +Nerigon stands for Norway, the northern part of which is mentioned as +an island by the name of Thule. The classical writers were ignorant +of the fact that Scandinavia was one great peninsula, because the +northern parts were as yet uninhabited and their physical connection +with Finland and Russia unknown. That the Romans were later acquainted +with the Scandinavian countries is evidenced from the fact that great +numbers of Roman coins have been found in excavating, also vessels of +bronze and glass, weapons, etc., as well as works of art, all turned +out of the workshops in Rome or its provinces. There, no doubt, +existed a regular traffic over the Baltic, through Germany, between +the Scandinavian countries and the Roman provinces. + +The first settlers probably knew little of agriculture, but made their +living by fishing and hunting. In time, however, they commenced to +clear away the timber that covered the land in the valleys and on the +sides of the mountains and to till the ground. At the earliest times +of which the historical tales or _Sagas_ tell us anything with +regard to the social conditions, the land was divided among the free +peasant-proprietors, or _bonde class_. Bonde, in English translation, +is usually called peasant; but this is not an equivalent; for with the +word "peasant" we associate the idea of inferior social condition to +the landed aristocracy of the country, while these peasants or bondes +were themselves the highest class in the country. The land owned by a +peasant was called his _udal_. By udal-right the land was kept in the +family, and it could not be alienated or forfeited from the kindred +who were udal-born to it. The free peasants might own many thralls or +slaves, who were unfree men. These were mostly prisoners captured by +the vikings on their expeditions to foreign shores; the owner could +trade them away, or sell them, or even kill them without paying any +fine or _man-bote_ to the king, as in the case of killing a free man. +As a rule, however, the slaves were not badly treated, and they were +sometimes made free and given the right to acquire land. + +In early days Norway consisted of a great number of small states +called _Fylkis_, each a little kingdom by itself. The free peasants in +a Fylki held general assemblies called _Things_, where laws were made +and justice administered. No public acts were undertaken without the +deliberation of a _Thing_. The _Thing_ was sacred, and a breach of +peace at the _thing-place_ was considered a great crime. At the +_Thing_ there was also a hallowed place for the judges, or "lag-men," +who expounded and administered the laws made by the _Thing_. Almost +every crime could be expiated by the payment of fines, even if the +accused had killed a person. But if a man killed another secretly, +he was declared an assassin and an outlaw, was deprived of all his +property, and could be killed by any one who wished to do so. The fine +or man-bote was heavier, the higher the rank of the person killed. + +The _Thing_ or _Fylkis Thing_ was not made up of representatives +elected by the people, but was rather a primary assembly of the free +udal-born peasant-proprietors of the district. There were leading men +in the _fylki_, and each _fylki_ had one or more chiefs, but they had +to plead at the _Thing_ like other free men. When there were several +chiefs, they usually had the title of _herse_; but when the free men +had agreed upon one chief, he was called _jarl_ (earl), or king. The +king was the commander in war, and usually performed the judicial +functions; but he supported himself upon his own estates, and the free +peasants paid no tax. The dignity of the king was usually inherited +by his son, but if the heir was not to the liking of the people, they +chose another. No man, however clear his right of succession, would +think of assuming the title or power of a king except by the vote of +the _Thing_. There he was presented to the people by a free peasant, +and his right must be confirmed by the _Thing_ before he could exert +any act of kingly power. The king had a number of free men in his +service, who had sworn allegiance to him in war and in peace. They +were armed men, kept in pay, and were called _hird-men_ or court-men, +because they were members of the king's hird or court. If they were +brave and faithful, they were often given high positions of trust; +some were made _lendermen_ (liegemen), or managers of the king's +estates. + +It is but natural that the ancient Norwegians should become warlike +and brave men, since their firm religious belief was that those who +died of sickness or old age would sink down into the dark abode of Hel +(Helheim), and that only the brave men who fell in battle would be +invited to the feasts in Odin's Hall. Sometimes the earls or kings +would make war on their neighbors, either for conquest or revenge. +But the time came when the countries of the north, with their poorly +developed resources, became overpopulated, and the warriors had to +seek other fields abroad. The viking cruises commenced, and for a long +time the Norwegians continued to harry the coasts of Europe. + +At first the viking expeditions were nothing but piracy, carried on +for a livelihood. The name Viking is supposed to be derived from the +word _vik_, a cove or inlet on the coast, in which they would harbor +their ships and lie in wait for merchants sailing by. Soon these +expeditions assumed a wider range and a wilder character, and +historians of the time paint the horrors spread by the vikings in dark +colors. In the English churches they had a day of prayer each week to +invoke the aid of heaven against the harrying Northmen. In France +the following formula was inserted in the church prayer: "_A furore +Normannorum libera nos, o Domine_!" (Free us, O Lord, from the fury of +the Northmen!) + +Gradually the viking life assumed a nobler form. There appear to have +been three stages or periods in the viking age. In the first one the +vikings make casual visits with single ships to the shores of England, +Ireland, France or Flanders, and when they have plundered a town or +a convent, they return to their ships and sail away. In the second +period their cruises assume a more regular character, and indicate +some definite plan, as they take possession of certain points, where +they winter, and from where they command the surrounding country. +During the third period they no longer confine themselves to seeking +booty, but act as real conquerors, take possession of the conquered +territory, and rule it. As to the influence of the Northmen on the +development of the countries visited in this last period, the eminent +English writer, Samuel Laing, the translator of the _Heimskringla_, or +the Sagas of the Norse kings, says: + +"All that men hope for of good government and future improvement in +their physical and moral condition--all that civilized men enjoy at +this day of civil, religious, and political liberty--the British +constitution, representative legislation, the trial by jury, security +of property, freedom of mind and person, the influence of public +opinion over the conduct of public affairs, the Reformation, the +liberty of the press, the spirit of the age--all that is or has been +of value to man in modern times as a member of society, either in +Europe or in the New World, may be traced to the spark left burning +upon our shores by these northern barbarians." + +The authentic history begins with Halfdan the Swarthy, who reigned +from the year 821 to 860. The Icelander Snorre Sturlason, who, in +the twelfth century, wrote the _Heimskringla_, or Sagas of the Norse +Kings, gives a long line of preceding kings of the Yngling race, the +royal family to which Halfdan the Swarthy belonged; but that part of +the Saga belongs to mythology rather than to history. + +According to tradition, the Yngling family were descendants of +Fiolner, the son of the god Frey. One of the surnames of the god was +Yngve, from which the family derived the name Ynglings. King Halfdan +was a wise man, a lover of truth and justice. He made good laws, which +he observed himself and compelled others to observe. He fixed certain +penalties for all crimes committed. His code of laws, called the +Eidsiva Law, was adopted at a common _Thing_ at Eidsvol, where about a +thousand years later the present constitution of Norway was adopted. + +One day in the spring of 860, when Halfdan the Swarthy was driving +home from a feast across the Randsfjord, he broke through the ice and +was drowned. He was so popular that, when his body was found, the +leading men in each _Fylki_ demanded to have him buried with them, +believing that it would bring prosperity to the district. They at last +agreed to divide the body into four parts, which were buried in four +different districts. The trunk of the body was buried in a mound at +Stien, Ringerike, where a little hill is still called Halfdan's Mound. +And this Halfdan became the ancestor of the royal race of Norway. + +Halfdan's son, Harald the Fairhaired, at the age of ten years +succeeded his father on the throne of Norway, or it afterward proved +to be the throne of United Norway. When he became old enough to marry, +he sent his men to a girl named Gyda, a daughter of King Erik of +Hordaland, who was brought up a foster-child in the house of a rich +_Bonde_ in Valders. + +Harald had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When +the men delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry +a king who had no greater kingdom than a few _Fylkis_ (districts), and +she added that she thought it strange that "no king here in Norway +will make the whole country subject to him, in the same way that +Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala." When the messengers +returned to the king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty +words, but Harald said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow +not to cut or comb his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway, +which he did, and became sole king of Norway. The decisive battle was +a naval one in the Hafrsfjord, near the present city of Stavanger. +After this battle, which occurred in 872, when he had been declared +King of United Norway, he attended a feast, and the Earl of More cut +his hair, which had not been cut or combed for ten years, and gave him +the name of Fairhaired. Harald shortly afterward married Gyda. + +From this time on, the history of Norway for nearly three hundred +years consists mainly in internecine warfare among the various +claimants of the throne, and the result of all this warfare was not +only to exhaust the material resources of the people, but to drive a +large proportion of the population to make viking excursions to win +land elsewhere, and also to make peaceable settlements in other +countries. Iceland was settled by the leading men of Norway in Harald +the Fairhaired's reign because they would not submit to his rule and +therefore emigrated to a land where they could rule. In 912 Duke Rollo +with a large following conquered Normandy and settled there with many +of his countrymen. + +As the result of over three centuries of foreign and domestic war, +Norway and her people and her industries were prostrate when in 1389 +Queen Margaret of Denmark claimed the succession to the throne of +Norway for her son Eric of Pomerania. The council of Norway and the +people were willing to accept a union with a more populous country +under a powerful sovereign in order to obtain peace and reestablish +order and prosperity. Norway had not been conquered by Denmark, and +the union was supposed to be equal. The Danish sovereigns, however, +without directly interfering with the local laws and usages of the +people of Norway, filled all the executive and administrative offices +in Norway with Danes; the important commands in the army were also +given exclusively to them. The result was that the interpretation and +execution of the laws of the land were in the hands of foreigners, +and Norway became and remained for four hundred years a province of +Denmark and unable to throw off the yoke because her army was in the +control and command of her oppressor, and her material resources +inadequate to wage successful war against him. + +Like Norway, the most that we know of prehistoric times in Sweden we +gather from the early sagas, which are more or less faulty in their +statements, romantic and tragic though they be. Like the Norwegians, +the early Swedes are reported to have migrated from Asia under the +leadership of a chief who called himself Odin. And for centuries under +different kings and queens, the romantic and tragic story of Sweden +goes on to form at last her authentic history. In this brief survey we +can not go into details, and its history is very much the same as that +of Norway, except that Sweden was oftener her own mistress and at +longer intervals. + +The sources of Swedish history during the first two centuries of the +Middle Ages are very meager. This is a deplorable fact, for during +that period Sweden passed through a great and thorough development, +the various stages of which consequently are not easily traced. Before +the year 1060, Sweden is an Old Teutonic state, certainly of later +form and larger compass than the earliest of such, but with its +democracy and its elective kingdom preserved. The older Sweden was, in +regard to its constitution, a rudimentary union of states. The realm +had come into existence through the cunning and violence of the king +of the Sviar, who made way with the kings of the respective lands, +making their communities pay homage to him. No change in the interior +affairs of the different lands was thereby effected; they lost their +outward political independence, but remained mutually on terms of +perfect equality. They were united only through the king, who was +the only center for the government of the union. No province had +constitutionally more importance than the rest, no supremacy by one +over the other existed. On this historic basis the Swedish realm was +built, and rested firmly until the commencement of the Middle Ages. In +the Old Swedish state-organism the various parts thus possessed a high +degree of individualized and pulsating life; the empire as a whole was +also powerful, although the royal dignity was its only institution. +The king was the outward tie which bound the provinces together; +besides him there was no power of state which embraced the whole +realm. The affairs of state were decided upon by the king alone, as +regard to war, or he had to gather the opinion of the Thing in each +province, as any imperial representation did not exist and was +entirely unknown, both in the modern sense and in the form of one +provincial, or sectional, assembly deciding for all the others. In +society there existed no classes. It was a democracy of free men, the +slaves and free men enjoying no rights. The first centuries of the +Middle Ages were one continued process of regeneration, the Swedish +people being carried into the European circle of cultural development +and made a communicant of Christianity. With the commencement of the +thirteenth century, Sweden comes out of this process as a medieval +state, in aspect entirely different to her past. The democratic +equality among free men has turned into an aristocracy, with +aristocratic institutions, the hereditary kingdom into an elective +kingdom, while the provincial particularism and independence have +given way to the constitution of a centralized, monopolistic state. No +changes could be more fundamental. + +The old provincial laws of Sweden are a great and important +inheritance which this period has accumulated from heathen times. The +laws were written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but +they bear every evidence of high antiquity. Many strophes are found in +them of the same meter as those on the tombstones of the Viking Age +and those in which the songs of the Edda are chiefly written. In other +instances the texts consist of alliterative prose, which proves its +earlier metrical form. The expressions have, in places, remained +heathen, although used by Christians, who are ignorant of their true +meaning, as, for instance, in the following formula of an oath, in the +West Gothic law: _Sva se mer gud hull_ (So help me the gods). In lieu +of a missing literature of sagas and poetry, these provincial laws +give a good insight into the character, morals, customs, and culture +of the heathen and early Christian times of Sweden. From the point +of philology they are also of great value, besides forming the +solid basis of later Swedish law. How the laws could pass from one +generation to another, without any codification, depends upon the +fact that they were recited from memory by the justice (_lag-man_ +or _domare_), and that this dignity generally was inherited for +centuries, being carried by the descendants of one and the same +family.[a] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +As early as 1790 negotiations took place between Count Armfeldt on +behalf of Gustavus III of Sweden and various patriotic and influential +Norwegians with a view to effecting a union between Norway and Sweden +on equal terms, but the Norwegian negotiators expressed themselves +unwilling to accept for Norway the government prevailing in Sweden. A +minority of the patriots thought that the Danish yoke could only be +broken by means of a union with Sweden, while a majority aimed at +nothing less than absolute independence at any cost. + +Such was the condition of Norway when by the treaty of Kiel (Jan. +14, 1814) the allies compelled the king of Denmark to cede Norway to +Sweden and made Charles John Bernadotte crown prince of Sweden and +Norway. The Norwegians denied the right of Denmark to Norway, refused +to recognize the treaty of Kiel as having any binding force on them, +as they were not parties to it, and invited Prince Christian Frederick +of Denmark to accept the Norwegian throne from its people and to +govern pursuant to a constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814. +Among the provisions of this instrument are the following: That Norway +should be a limited hereditary monarchy, independent and indivisible, +whose ruler should be called a king; that all legislative power +should reside in and be exercised by the people through their +representatives; that all taxes should be levied by the legislative +authority; that the legislative and judicial authority should +be distinct departments; that the right of free press should be +maintained; that no personal or hereditary distinction shall hereafter +be granted to any one. + +The election of a king and adoption of an independent constitution in +disregard of the treaty of Kiel was tatamount to a declaration of war +against Sweden, and as such it was taken. After the treaty of Paris +and the abdication of Napoleon, the powers agreed to force Norway to +accept the treaty of Kiel, and representatives of the allied powers +came to Norway and demanded its compliance on penalty of war with +the allies. The Norwegians remained obdurate. The Swedes, under +Bernadotte, marched across the frontier and took the fortress +Fredricksteen. Another division of the Swedish army was beaten by +the Norwegians and driven back over the frontier. Several other +engagements were fought, and it became evident that Norway could not +be subdued without serious war. Sweden was exhausted by the wars of +the allies against Napoleon and could ill endure more warfare. On +Aug. 14, 1814, an armstice was declared, and it was provided that +an extraordinary storthing should be called to settle the terms of +permanent peace. By the terms finally agreed upon, Bernadotte was +elected king of Norway under the title of Charles XIII, and he +accepted the Norwegian constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814, +and agreed to govern under and subject to its provisions. At the same +time the Supreme Court of Norway was established in Christiania. The +Bank of Norway was established at Thronedjem in 1816. At the death +of Charles XIII, in 1818, Charles John ascended the throne of both +countries as Charles XIV John. + +On several occasions there was friction between the king and the +Norwegian Storthing. At the treaty of Kiel the king had promised that +Norway would assume a part of the Norwegian-Danish public debt; but as +the Norwegians had never acknowledged this treaty, they held that it +was not their duty to pay any part of the debt, and declared besides +that Norway was not able to do so. But as the powers had agreed to +help Denmark to enforce her claims, a compromise was effected in 1821, +by which the Storthing agreed to pay three million dollars, the king +relinquishing his civil list for a certain number of years. The same +Storthing adopted the law abolishing the nobility in Norway. This step +also was strongly opposed by Charles John, but as it had been adopted +by three successive Storthings, the act under the constitution became +a law in spite of any veto. + +For a number of years there existed a want of confidence between the +king and the Norwegian people. The king did not like the democratic +spirit of the Norwegians, and the reactionary tendencies of his +European allies had quite an influence upon his actions. In 1821 he +proposed ten amendments to the constitution, looking to an increase +of the royal power, among which was one giving the king an absolute +instead of a suspensive veto; another giving him the right to appoint +the presidents of the Storthing, and a third authorizing him to +dissolve the Storthing at any time. But these amendments met the most +ardent opposition in the Storthing, and were unanimously rejected. + +When the Norwegians commenced to celebrate the anniversary of the +adoption of the constitution (May 17), the king thought he saw in this +a sign of a disloyal spirit, because they did not rather celebrate the +day of their union with Sweden, and he forbade the public celebration +of the day. The result of this was that "Independence Day" was +celebrated with so much greater eagerness. The students at the +university especially took an active part under the leadership of that +champion of liberty, the poet Henrik Wergeland, who died in 1845. +The unwise prohibition was the cause of the "market-place battle" +in Christiania, May 17, 1829, when the troops were called out, +and General Wedel dispersed the crowds that had assembled in the +market-place. There was also dissatisfaction in Norway because a +Swedish viceroy (Statholder) was placed at the head of the government, +and because their ships had to sail under the Swedish flag. + +The French July Revolution of 1830, which started the liberal +movement throughout Europe, also had its influence in Norway. Liberal +newspapers were established at the capital, and the democratic +character of the Storthing became more pronounced, especially after +1833, when the farmers commenced to take an active part in the +elections. Prominent among them was Ole Gabriel Ueland. The king was +so displeased with the majority in the Storthing of 1836 that he +suddenly dissolved it; but the Storthing answered this action by +impeaching the Minister of State, Lövenskiold, for not having +dissuaded the king from taking such a step. Lövenskiold was sentenced +to pay a fine; the king then yielded and reconvened the Storthing. +He also took a step toward conciliating the Norwegians by appointing +their countryman, Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, as viceroy. This action was +much appreciated in Norway. During the last years of this reign there +existed the best of understanding between the king and the people. +Charles John's great benevolence tended to increase the affection of +the people, and he was sincerely mourned at his death, March 8, 1844, +at the age of eighty years. + +Charles John was succeeded by his son, Oscar I, who very soon won the +love of the Norwegians. One of his first acts was to give Norway her +own commercial flag and other outward signs of her equality with +Sweden. His father had always signed himself "King of Sweden and +Norway"; but King Oscar adopted the rule to sign all documents +pertaining to the government of Norway as "King of Norway and Sweden." +During the war between Germany and Denmark, King Oscar gathered a +Swedish-Norwegian army in Scania, and succeeded in arranging the +armstice of Malmoe in 1848. The war broke out anew, however, the +following year, and he then occupied northern Schleswig with Norwegian +and Swedish troops, pending the negotiations for peace between Germany +and Denmark. During the Crimean War, King Oscar made a treaty with +England and France (1855), by which the latter powers promised to +help Sweden and Norway in case of any attack from Russia. General +contentment prevailed during the happy reign of King Oscar, and +the prosperity, commerce, and population of the country increased +steadily. These satisfactory conditions did not, however, result in +weakening the national feeling, and the Storthing, in 1857, declined +to promote a plan, prepared by a joint Swedish and Norwegian +commission, looking to a strengthening of the union. After a sickness +of two years, during which his son, Crown Prince Charles, had charge +of the government as prince-regent, King Oscar I died in July, +1859, at the age of sixty years. He was married to Josephine of +Leuchtenberg, daughter of Napoleon's stepson, Eugene Beauharnais. + +Charles XV was thirty-three years old when he ascended the throne. The +progress in the material welfare of the country continued during his +reign, and, like his father, he was very popular with the Norwegians. +Numerous roads and railroads were started, all parts of the country +were connected by telegraph, and the merchant marine grew to be one +of the largest in the world. In 1869 a law was passed providing for +annual sessions of the Storthing instead of triennial as heretofore. + +Charles XV died Sept. 18, 1872, and, having no sons, was succeeded by +his younger brother, Oscar II, the late ruler of Sweden. The Storthing +appropriated the necessary funds for the expense of the coronation +at Throndhjem (July 18, 1873), while the king sanctioned the bill +abolishing the office of Statholder. But soon differences between the +Storthing and the ministry brought on sharp conflicts. Long before +Norway deposed King Oscar II (June 7, 1905), disruptions and war would +doubtless have occurred had it not been for the wisdom and tact of the +king. The last straw that broke the camel's back in this instance was +the refusal of separate consular representation for Norway. The basis +of this last demand was not mainly the commercial value to Norway of +having its distinct consuls, though this was an element, but the right +of Norway as a nation entirely independent of Sweden to be represented +as such in its commercial relations with foreign nations. Sweden and +Norway are now not only two distinct nations, but are competitors in +trade and commerce. Norway's shipping and carrying trade far exceeds +that of Sweden. The Norwegians have always been a seafaring people, +and Norwegian sailors and marines are found in large numbers in the +commercial marine and navies of all Europe and America. From the +standpoint of Norway, common justice demanded that Norwegian merchants +and sailors should, like every other nation, have their own consuls to +represent and protect them in foreign countries. + +Not being able to secure the approval of the king for separate +consular representation, the Storthing, on June 7, 1905, passed +resolutions declaring the dissolution of the union between Norway and +Sweden, and that King Oscar had ceased to be the ruler of Norway. In +the place of the king, the Storthing appointed the members of the +Norway Council of State to act as a temporary government for the +nation. The Storthing further declared that Norway had no ill feeling +against King Oscar or his dynasty of Sweden, and asked the king to +cooperate in selecting one of his own house to be king of Norway. + +The Riksdag of Sweden met in extraordinary session, June 21, 1905, +at the call of King Oscar, to consider the action of the Norwegian +Storthing in declaring the dissolution of the union between the +two countries. The opening of the session was marked by the usual +ceremonial pomp, but also by a gravity and solemnity befitting the +unusual occasion. The emotional feeling was intense and repressed with +difficulty by both speakers and audience. The king, in his address +to the Riksdag, maintained with dignity that he had acted within his +constitutional rights and that Norway had not the power to dissolve +the union which legally could be effected only by mutual consent. +Nevertheless, it was with great sadness that he now urged negotiations +for the severance of the ties between the two nations, believing that +"the union was not worth the sacrifice which acts of coercion would +entail." The bill prepared by the government was immediately presented +to the Riksdag. It was of the same tenor as the king's address, and +asked for authorization to negotiate with the Norwegian Storthing for +the establishment of a common basis for the settlement of the question +involved in the separation of the two kingdoms. The bill encountered +strong opposition, both in and out of the Riksdag. In the Senate it +was referred to a committee of nine anti-government members, while in +the lower house the composition of the corresponding committee was +equally divided between the two opposing parties, with the addition +of two independent members. The Riksdag authorized the government to +negotiate a loan of $25,000,000 for works of defense, and declared the +harbors of Stockholm, Karlskrona, Gothenburg, and Farosund to be +war ports from which all foreign naval vessels were to be excluded. +Norway's army was also mobilized and brought near the Swedish +boundary. + +Notwithstanding these warlike aspects, a peaceful dissolution of the +union between Sweden and Norway was finally effected. The conference +at Karlstad between the representatives of the two nations, on Sept. +23, 1905, drew up a protocol which became a treaty when subsequently +ratified by the Riksdag and the Storthing, on the ninth of the +following October. Thereupon Sweden canceled the charter of 1815 which +governed the union of the two countries, and King Oscar declared +Norway to be again separate and independent. Thus were severed the +political relations between two countries, which, during a period of +ninety years, had led to ever-increasing discord. + +King Oscar II of Sweden steadfastly refused, however, to allow any +prince of his house to be chosen as the new king of Norway, and the +choice finally fell upon Prince Charles of Denmark, who was elected by +an overwhelming majority at the plebiscite held throughout Norway on +Nov. 12, 1905. He accepted the throne offered him and was crowned June +22, 1906. + +The idea is prevalent that there is ill will between the Norwegian and +Swedish peoples. This is a popular misconception. The Norwegian and +Swedish peoples are racially very similar in character and habits, and +mutually respect each other. King Oscar was as beloved and honored in +Norway as he was in Sweden, and deservedly so. The Norwegians felt +proud of his character, life, and statesmanship. They appreciated +his wisdom and moderation, and gave him full credit for his earnest +conviction that he was right in his differences with the Norwegian +government. And yet, the dissolution was a blessing to both countries +concerned. So long as Norway and Sweden were united under one king, +there would have been friction. In like manner the long union between +Norway and Denmark was a continuous source of irritation, but after +the dissolution they were the best of friends. It has been suggested +that Russia has long had her eye on the ice-free harbors of the +Norwegian coast and has coveted them; that she has built her railroads +across Finland close up to the Norwegian frontier, and that there +is trouble ahead for Norway, because she has isolated herself from +Sweden, her natural protector. But we see in the division a Greater +Scandinavia. There are now the three great Scandinavian nations, +Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and it can be imagined that, so close of kin, +any one of them would rush to arms in defense of the others. A united +Norway and Sweden under one king brought constant bickerings; a +separate Norway and Sweden can be of mutual help.[b] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +Leading up to the events of the nineteenth century in Sweden were +centuries of splendid history, some points of which will be briefly +touched upon to connect the present-day Sweden with the mediaeval +state. + +During the Folkung Dynasty, in the fourteenth century, the royal +houses of Sweden and Norway became united through the marriage of Duke +Eric, of Sweden, and Ingeborg, only child of King Haakon, of Norway; +and Duke Valdemar to the king's niece of the same name. In May, 1319, +King Haakon died, and Magnus Ericsson, the young son of Duke Eric and +Princess Ingeborg, inherited the crown of Norway, and July 8 of the +same year was elected King of Sweden, at Mora in Upland. + +For the attainment of this end, Magnus' mother, Duchess Ingeborg, and +seven Swedish councillors had worked with great activity. They had +taken part in shaping the first Act of Union of the North in June, +1319, and from Oslo, in Norway, hastened to have Magnus elected at +the Stone of Mora, where the Swedish kings since time immemorial were +nominated. The Act of Union stipulated that the two kingdoms were to +remain perfectly independent, the king to sojourn an equally long part +of the year in each, with no official of either country to accompany +him further than the frontier. In their foreign relations the +countries were to be independent, but to support each other in case of +war. The king was the only tie to bind them together. + +There was another Magnus whose candidacy was spoiled by this union. He +was the son of King Birger, already as a child chosen king of Sweden +in succession to his father. Magnus Birgersson, a prisoner at +Stockholm, was beheaded in 1320, to make safe the reign of his more +fortunate cousin. King Magnus was only three years old, and Drotsete +Mattias Kettilmundsson presided over the government during his +minority, the nobles of the state council having great power and +influence. Both in Sweden and Norway the nobility had by this time +attained a supremacy which was oppressive both to the king and the +people, not so much through their privileges as through the liberties +they took. Their continual feuds between themselves disturbed the +peace of the country. + +In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of +benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests +he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character, and was not +able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and +Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into +German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as +security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for +protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar, in 1832, both +provinces were united to Sweden. But the king had to pay heavy amounts +in settlement, which were increased when Halland was procured in a +similar way. + +King Magnus was, at his zenith of power, one of the mightiest monarchs +in Europe, having under his rule the entire Scandinavian peninsula and +Finland, a realm stretching from the sound at Elsinore to the Polar +Sea, from the river Neva to Iceland and Greenland. In 1335, King +Magnus decreed that no Christian within his realm should remain a +thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery. + +But financial difficulties arose, an unsuccessful crusade was +attempted, the "Black Death" came from England to Norway in 1350 and +spread with great rapidity, and several other things convened to fill +the people with discontent, so that the union with Norway did not +prove a happy one. A separation was brought about in 1844, when +Haakon, the younger son of Magnus, was made king of Norway, Magnus +remaining in power until Haakon came of age, and his older son, +Eric, was chosen king or heir-apparent of Sweden. It seems that this +division had been preconceived by King Magnus when he gave this older +son the Swedish name of Eric and to the younger the Norwegian name +of Haakon, both equally characteristic of the royal lines of the +respective countries. + +It was during the Folkung period that there flourished one of the most +remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, St. Birgitta. At the Swedish +court, she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, where she +gathered deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful +world. By some she is considered a reformer before Luther, because +she insisted on direct communication between the communicant and God +without the mediation of priests or saints. Yet there was a difference +between Birgitta and Luther, because the latter sought to reform +institutions, while the former would reform the upholders of the +institutions. + +After the reign of Magnus and his sons, there came for a brief season +Albrecht of Germany, and after him Queen Margaret, who united for +the first time in history the three Scandinavian countries and their +dependencies. This period was denominated one of unionism against +patriotism, and closed with the rebellion of Denmark and the ascending +of the Swedish throne by Christian of Denmark, who claimed the right +of his descent from St. Eric. Then followed the public execution +under edict of King Christian, when eighty-two persons were beheaded, +including many bishops and men of note in Sweden. + +It is needless to say that this period was followed immediately by +one of revolution and reformation, characterized by much heroism and +patriotism, and bringing into prominence those splendid warriors, +Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII, and others, and the +memorable battle of Pultowa and other lesser engagements. + +After this came a period of political grandeur under various rulers, +notably Queen Christine, followed by what has been called the period +of Liberty, or the Aristocratic Republic, under Queen Ulrica Eleonore, +when literature and the arts and sciences flourished, and Swedenborg, +Linnaeus, Dahlin, Tegnér, and many others came into prominence. + +One of the most loved rulers of this period was Gustavus III. By his +influence a revolution similar to that in France was put down, for +which, at a mask ball in the Royal Opera, he was assassinated by +conspiritors. It is true, historians tell us, that he was superficial, +that he violated the law, had no regard for a constitutional +government, and led the people into adventurous and expensive wars. +Yet his noble patriotism, frank heroism, brilliant genius, and great +generosity compelled the love of his countrymen. In this mixture +of patriotism and universal cosmopolitanism, true genius and +superficiality, earnestness and recklessness in the character of +Gustavus III, the Swedes recognized peculiarities of their own +national temperament, for which they love him dearly, and Tegnér has +voiced this love in a few lines of his eulogy: + + There rests o'er Gustav's days a golden shimmer, + Fantastic, foreign, frivolous, if you please; + But why complain when sunshine caused the glamour? + Where stood we now if it were not for these? + All culture on an unfree ground is builded, + And barbarous once the base of patriotism true; + But wit was planted, iron-hard language welded, + The song was raised, life more enjoyed and shielded, + And what Gustavian was, is, therefore, Swedish too. + +On his death-bed, Gustavus III appointed his brother Charles and +Charles Gustavus Armfelt members of the government during the minority +of his son. Gustavus IV Adolphus was declared of age and took charge +of the government when eighteen (in 1796). His guardians retired, +and the new monarch ruled alone, without favorites or influential +advisers. This proved most unfortunate for Sweden, for he was entirely +without the gifts of a regent. He was a lover of order, economy, +justice, and pure morals, but through lack of mental and physical +strength his good qualities were misdirected. His father's tragic fate +had a sinister effect upon his mind, the equilibrium of which was also +shaken by the outrages of the revolutionists in France. Of a morbid +sensibility, and without inclination to confide in any one, his +religious mysticism led him into a state close to insanity. He +imagined himself to be the reincarnation of Charles XII, while in +Napoleon he recognized the monster of the Apocalypse, which he himself +was sent to fight and conquer. + +He refused any alliance with Russia and Denmark, and stubbornly +resisted the friendship France wished to bestow. By his imbecility he +lost Finland to the kingdom, and was compelled to abdicate in 1808. +This "lunatic monarch," as he was called, was escorted out of the +country with his family, never to return, and died in St. Gallin, in +1837. + +Under these conditions we find Sweden at the beginning of the +nineteenth century, when Charles XIII was chosen to succeed his +nephew, the abdicated Gustavus IV Adolphus. Charles XIII was one of +the most unsympathetic of Swedish kings, but his reign marks a new +period in Swedish history, commencing the era of constitutional +government. The new constitution to which the king subscribed was +not a radical document; it only reduced the power of the king. Hans +Jaerta, one of the nobles who had renounced their privileges and been +active in the conspiracy against Gustavus IV, was the leading spirit +of the constitutional committee, and was appointed secretary of state +in the new cabinet. + +It was necessary to select an heir to the throne, as Charles XIII was +childless, and Prince Christian August of Augustenborg was chosen, +much in opposition to the nobles, who wanted the son of Gustavus IV. + +The Prince of Augustenborg, who was Danish governor-general of Norway, +accepted, and was adopted by the king, changing his name to Charles +August. Beloved by the lower classes who had effected his selection, +he was treated coldly by the Gustavian aristocrats, and reports of +attempts to poison the heir-apparent were in circulation even before +he arrived in Sweden. Prince Charles August himself said he had +often been warned that he would die young of paralysis, but paid no +attention to the warnings given him. During a parade of troops at +Qvidinge, in Scania, he was suddenly seen to lose consciousness +and dropped dead from his horse. A report that seemed to favor the +supposition that death resulted from poison, threw the populace into +a frenzy, and the stoning to death of Count Fersen resulted. This +occurred at the burial of the dead prince, when Count Fersen, as +marshal of the realm, opened the procession. Approaching the church +of Riddarholm, his carriage was pelted with stones, Fersen himself +seeking shelter in various places, but being pursued by the mob and +killed. Thus perished a man who, with Curt von Stedingk, had received +the order of Cincinnatus from the hands of George Washington, and who +once was so near saving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their +cruel fate. Fersen's brother was saved only by mere chance, and his +sister by a flight in disguise. + +Sweden was once more without an heir-apparent to the throne, and, +though others had been proposed, King Charles sent two emissaries +to Napoleon to notify him of the death of Charles August and the +selection of his brother. Then one of the most original and daring +schemes ever attempted on such a line was carried through by Count +Otto Moerner, one of the emissaries. On his own responsibility, he +inquired of Marshal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's ablest generals, +if he would consent to become heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. +Bernadotte consented, and the consent of Napoleon was obtained through +the Swedish ambassador in Paris. Upon his return, Moerner was ordered +to leave the capital, by the minister of state, who blamed him for his +unauthorized action. But, from Upsala, Moerner led an eager agitation, +with the result that the Riksdag of Oerebro selected Bernadotte, who +was represented by a secret emissary. Thus, the two generals who, +at the abdication of Gustavus IV, were, one in Norway, the other in +Denmark, with troops ready to attack Sweden, both within one year were +chosen to succeed Charles XIII. And this is how the Bernadottes, +the present reigning family of Sweden, came to the throne. Marshal +Bernadotte took the name of Prince Charles Johann. + +It was in 1818, four years after Norway had been joined to Sweden, +that Charles XII died, at the age of seventy, and Charles XIV Johann, +the first of the Bernadotte dynasty, succeeded him, at the age of +fifty-four years. His reign was one of reconstruction--politically, +financially, and socially,--and during the last years of his life +he received strong and repeated evidence of the love of his people, +especially upon the twenty-fifth anniversary as king of Sweden. + +Oscar I, his son, was forty-five years of age at the death of his +father. He did not possess his father's brilliant genius or power of +personal influence, but was fondly devoted to the fine arts, himself a +talented painter and composer. He was a hard worker, and also fond +of the pleasures of life. His health was injured through illness, in +1857, and he never recovered. The premature death of his second +son, Prince Gustavus, a talented composer and highly popular, had +a disastrous effect on him, and he died July 8, 1859, after a long +illness, beloved by the two nations who, during his reign, had enjoyed +the happiest epoch of their history. + +It was during the reign of the late king, Oscar II, that Sweden +attained her greatest prosperity and made most progress. Oscar II, +brother of his predecessor, ascended the throne at a moment when +universal peace was restored after the great conflict between France +and Germany, and when an age of commercial prosperity for Sweden +seemed to have begun. King Oscar had received the same superior +education as his older brothers, was as brilliantly gifted as they, +and of a more scholarly mind. As a writer on scientific subjects, +a poet, and an orator, Oscar II distinguished himself before his +succession to the throne, and still he did not find it easy to gain +the love and admiration of the Swedish people, of which he was so +eminently worthy. He was the successor of one of the most popular +rulers the country ever saw, and, though appreciation came slowly, +he lived to see his own popularity almost outrival that of his +predecessor. During the last years of his life he was considered the +most learned and popular of the monarchs of Europe. + +He showed great discernment in his arrangement of dynastic matters. +Himself married to the fervently religious Princess Sophie of Nassau, +the king brought about the marriage of his oldest son, Crown Prince +Adolphus, the present king of Sweden, to Princess Victoria of Bade, a +granddaughter of Emperor William of Germany, and a great-granddaughter +of Gustavus IV of Sweden. His third son, Prince Charles, Duke of West +Gothland, is married to Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, a granddaughter +of Charles XV of Sweden. These unions are well calculated to +accentuate the increasing political, commercial, and cultural intimacy +with Germany, the Scandinavian policy of life predecessor, and the +desire of King Oscar to see the descendants of the old royal line of +Sweden as heirs to the crown. In giving his consent to the marriage +of his second son, Prince Oscar, to Lady Ebba Munck, of the Swedish +nobility, King Oscar gave evidence of the fact that he was not a +matchmaker regardless of the feelings of the parties involved. Prince +Oscar, formerly Duke of Gothland, upon renouncing his share of +inheritance to the throne of Sweden, also the throne of Norway, for +the two kingdoms were then united, was allowed to marry the choice of +his heart. King Oscar also tried to heal the wounds of the past by +opening the vaults of the church of Riddarholm to the sarcophagi of +Gustavus IV, the exiled king, and his son, and by giving Queen Carola +of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of Gustavus, repeated proofs +of esteem and considerate distinction. + +King Oscar with his two crowns received as an inheritance two +important problems to be solved--the reorganization of the Swedish +army and the settlement of the difficulties between Norway and Sweden. +How he handled the latter has been told about in the preceding +chapter. The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until +after twenty years of parliamentary struggle, but is now, thanks to +the energies and perseverance of King Oscar, on a solid basis. + +During the nearly one hundred years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed +under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her +constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree. +The dreams of glory by conquest belonged to the days gone by, but in +the fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which +the world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867, +1878, and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876, and of +Chicago in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with +honor in the international competition. The railways of Sweden have +incessantly spun a more and more extended network of steel over the +country, opening connections for enterprises in new districts, and +furthering commerce and industrial art in a wide measure. + +In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that +his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short +a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of +government were in his hands practically long before the death of his +father, who for several years suffered ill health. To say the least, +Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the +strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden, +and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN + + +The religion of the ancient Norwegians was of the same origin as +that of all other Germanic nations, and, as it is the basis of their +national life, a brief outline of it will be necessary in these pages. + +In the beginning of time there were two worlds: in the South was +Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler; in the North +was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the spring Hvergelmer, where the +dragon Nidhugger dwells. Between these worlds was the yawning abyss +Ginungagap. From the spring Hvergelmer ran icy streams into the +Ginungagap. The hoarfrost from these streams was met by sparks from +Muspelheim, and by the power of the heat the vapors were given life in +the form of the Yotun or giant Ymer and the cow Audhumbla, on +whose milk he lives. From Ymer descends the evil race of Yotuns or +frost-giants. As the cow licked the briny hoarfrost, the large, +handsome and powerful Bure came into being. His son was Bur, who +married a daughter of a Yotun and became the father of Odin, Vile, and +Ve. Odin became the father of the kind and fair Aesir, the gods who +rule heaven and earth. + +Bur's sons killed Ymer, and in his blood the whole race of Yotuns +drowned except one couple, from whom new races of Yotuns or giants +descended. Bur's sons dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of +Ginungagap. Out of the trunk of the body they made the earth, and of +his blood the sea. His bones became mountains, and of his hair they +made trees. From the skull they made the heavens, which they elevated +high above the earth and decorated with sparks from Muspelheim. But +his brain was scattered in the air and became clouds. Around the earth +they let the deep waters flow, and on the distant shores the escaped +Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard. For protection +against them the kind gods made from Ymer's eyebrows the fortification +Midgard as a defense for the inner earth. But from heaven to earth +they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow. + +The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the +Dawn) of the Aesir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who +was bright and fair as his father. Odin placed mother and son in the +heavens, and bade them each in turn ride over the earth. Night rides +ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is +every morning covered with dew. Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe, +whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth. + +A great number of maggots were bred in Ymer's body, and they became +gnomes or dwarfs, little beings whom the gods gave human sense +and appearance. They lived within the mountains, and were skilful +metal-workers, but they could not endure the light of day. Four +dwarfs, the East, West, North, and South, were placed by the gods to +carry the arch of heaven. + +As yet there were no human beings on earth. Then, one day, the three +gods, Odin, Keener and Lodur, were walking on the shore of the sea, +where they found two trees, and from them they made the first man and +the first woman, Ask and Embla (ash and elm). Odin gave them life, +Hoener reason, Lodur blood and fair complexion. The gods gave them +Midgard for a home, and from them the whole human race is descended. + +The evergreen ash tree Ygdrasil is the finest of all trees. It +shoots up from three roots. One of them is in the well Hvergelmer in +Niflheim, and on this the dragon Nidhugger is gnawing. The other root +is in Yotunheim, in the wise Yotun Mimer's fountain. One of Odin's +eyes, which he pledged for a drink at this fountain, is kept here. +Whoever drinks of this fountain becomes wise. The third root is in +heaven, at the Urdar well, where the gods hold their Thing or court. +To this place they ride daily over the bridge Bifrost. Here also +the three Norns abide, the maidens Urd, Verdande, and Skuld (past, +present, and future). They pour water from the well over the roots of +the tree. The Norns distribute life and govern fate, and nothing can +change their decision. + +The dwelling in heaven of the Aesir or gods is called Asgard. In its +middle was the field of Ida, the gathering-place of the gods, with +Odin's throne, Lidskialv, from which he views the whole world. Odin is +the highest and the oldest of the gods, and all the others honor him +as their father. Odin's hall is Valhalla. The ceiling of this hall +is made of spears, it is covered with shields, and its benches are +ornamented with coats of mail. To this place Odin invites all who have +fallen in battle, and he is therefore called Valfather, _i.e._, the +father of the fallen. The invited fallen heroes are called Einherier; +their sport and pastime is to go out every day and fight and kill each +other; but toward evening they awake to life again and ride home as +friends to Valhalla, where they feast on pork of the barrow Saerimmer, +and where Odin's maidens, the Valkyrias, fill their horns with mead. +These Valkyrias were sent by Odin to all battles on earth, where they +selected those who were to be slain and afterward become the honored +guests at Valhalla. At Odin's side sit the two wolves, Gere and Freke, +and on his shoulders the ravens, Hugin and Munin. These ravens fly +forth every morning and return with tidings from all parts of the +world. Odin's horse is the swift, gray, eight-footed Sleipner. When he +rides to battle he wears a golden helmet, a beautiful coat of mail, +and carries the spear Gungner, which never fails. Odin is also the god +of wisdom and poesy; in the morning of time he deposited one of his +eyes in pledge for a drink of Mimer's fountain of wisdom, and he drank +Suttung's mead in order to gain the gift of poesy. He has also taught +men the art of writing Runes and all secret arts. + +Thor, the son of Odin, is the strongest of all the gods. His dwelling +is called Thrudvang. He rides across the heavens in a cart drawn by +two rams. He is always at war with the Yotuns or evil giants, and in +battle with them he uses his great hammer, Mjolner, which he hurls at +the heads of his enemies. The earth trembles under the wheels of his +cart, and men call the noise thunder. Thor's wife is Sif, whose hair +is of gold. + +Balder is a son of Odin and Frigg. He is so fair that his countenance +emits beams of brightness. He is wise and gentle, and is therefore +loved by all. His dwelling is Breidablik, where nothing impure exists. +Nanna is his wife. + +Njord comes from the race of the wise Vanir. He rules the wind, can +calm the seas and stop fire, and he distributes wealth among men. His +aid is invoked for success in navigation and fishing. His wife is +Skade, daughter of a Yotun, and his dwelling is Noatun by the sea. + +Frey, the son of Njord, rules rain and sunshine and the productiveness +of the soil, and his aid is needed to get good crops, peace and +wealth. His dwelling is Alfheim. He sails in the magnificent ship +Skibladner, which was built for him by the dwarfs. His wife is the +Yotun daughter Gerd, but in order to get her he had to give away his +good sword, so that he will be unarmed in the coming final battle of +the gods. + +Tyr, Odin's son, is the god of courage and victory, whom brave men +call upon in battle. He has only one hand, for the Fenris-Wolf bit off +his right hand. + +Brage, the long-bearded, is the god of eloquence and poetry. His wife +is Idun, who has in her keeping the apples of which the gods eat to +preserve their eternal youth. Heimdal, the white god with teeth of +gold, was in the beginning of time born by nine Yotun maidens, all +sisters. He is the watchman of the gods. He is more wakeful than +birds. He can see a hundred miles off, and he can hear the grass grow. +His dwelling is Himinbjorg, which is situated where the Bifrost bridge +reaches heaven. When he blows his Gjallar-horn, it is heard throughout +the world. Among the other gods were Haad, son of Odin, blind but +strong; the silent and strong Vidar; Vale, the archer; Ull, the fast +ski-runner, and Forsete, the son of Balder, who settles disputes +between gods and men. Among the goddesses (or _asynier_), Frigg, +Odin's wife, is the foremost. She knows the fate of everybody and +shields many from danger. Her dwelling is Fensal. Next comes Freya, +the goddess of love. She is the daughter of Njord and sister of Frey. +She is also called Vanadis, or the goddess of the Vanir. She was +married to Odd, and by him had a daughter Noss. But Odd left her, and +Freya weeps in her longing for him, and her tears are red gold. When +she travels, her wagon is drawn by two cats. The name of her dwelling +is Folkvang. There were also a number of other goddesses, who were in +the service of either Frigg or Freya. + +Aeger, the ruler of the turbulent and stormy sea, is a Yotun, but he +is a friend of the gods. When they visit him his hall is lighted with +shining gold. His wife is Ran, and their daughters are the waves. + +In the beginning there was peace among gods and men. But the arrival +of the Yotun women in Asgard undermined the happiness of the gods, and +in heaven and on earth a struggle commenced which must last until +both are destroyed. The Yotuns continually attack the inhabitants of +Asgard, and it is only the mighty Thor who can hold them at bay. It is +the evil Loke, who is the worst enemy of gods and men. He belongs to +the Yotun race, but was early adopted among the gods. He was fair in +looks, but wily and evil in spirit. He had three evil children--the +Fenris-Wolf, the Midgard-Serpent, and Hel. The gods knew that this +offspring of Loke would cause trouble; therefore they tied the +Fenris-Wolf, threw the serpent into the sea, and hurled Hel down into +Niflheim, where she became the ruler of the dead. All who die from +sickness or age are sent to her awful dwelling, Helheim. This is the +origin of the saying, "Whom the gods love die young." + +The greatest sorrow which Loke caused the whole world was that by +deceit he caused the death of the lovely god, Balder. Then the gods +took an awful revenge. They tied him to three stones, and over his +head they fastened a venomous serpent, whose poison was always to drip +upon his face. Loke's faithful wife, Sigyn, placed herself at his side +and held a cup under the poisonous drip; but whenever the cup is full +and she goes to empty it, the poison drips into Loke's face, and then +he writhes in agony so that the whole world trembles. This is the +cause of earthquakes. + +There will come a time when these gods and the world shall perish in +_Ragnarokk_, which means the perdition of the gods. They will have +many warnings. Corruption and wickedness will be common in the world. +For three years there will be winter without sun. The sun and the moon +will be swallowed up by the wolves of the Yotuns, and the bright +stars will disappear. The earth will tremble and the mountains will +collapse, and all chains and ties are sundered. The Fenris-Wolf and +Loke get loose, and the Midgard-Serpent leaves the ocean. The ship +Naglfar carries the army of the Yotuns across the sea under the +leadership of the Yotun _Rym_, and Loke advances at the head of the +hosts from the abode of Hel. The heavens split, and the sons of Muspel +come riding ahead, led by their chief Surt. As the hosts are rushing +across the Bifrost, the bridge breaks with them. All are hastening +to the great battlefield, the plains of _Vigrid_, which is a hundred +miles wide. Now Heimdal arises and blows his Gjallar-horn, all the +gods are assembled, the ash Ygdrasil trembles, and everything in +heaven and on earth is filled with terror. Gods and Einherier (the +fallen heroes) arm themselves for battle. In the front rides Odin with +his golden helmet and beaming coat of mail and carrying his spear, +Gungner. He meets the Fenris-Wolf, who swallows him, but Vidar +avenges his father and kills the wolf. Thor crushes the head of the +Midgard-Serpent, but is stifled to death by its venom. Frey is felled +by Surt, and Loke and Heimdal kill each other. Finally Surt hurls his +fire over the world, gods and men die, and the shriveling earth sinks +into the abyss. + +But the world shall rise again and the dead come to life. From above +comes the all-powerful one, he who rules everything, and whose name no +one dares utter. All those who were virtuous and pure of heart will +gather in _Gimle_ in everlasting happiness, while the evil ones will +go to Naastrand at the well Hvergelmer to be tortured by Nidhugger. A +new earth, green and beautiful, shall rise from the ocean. The gods +awake to new life and join _Vidar_ and _Vale_, and the sons of Thor, +Mode and Magne, who have survived the great destruction and who have +been given their father's hammer, because there is to be no more war. +All the gods assemble on the field of Ida, where Asgard was located. +And from _Liv_ and _Livthraser_, who hid themselves in Ygdrasil during +the burning of the world, a new human race shall descend.[d] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NORWEGIAN LITERATURE + + +The people who emigrated from Norway and settled in Iceland, after +Harald the Fairhaired had subdued the many independent chiefs and +established the monarchy (872), for the most part belonged to the +flower of the nation, and Iceland naturally became the home of the old +Norse literature. Among the oldest poetical works of this literature +is the so-called "Elder Edda," also called "Saemund's Edda," because +for a long time it was believed to be the work of the Icelander +Saemund. "The Younger Edda," also called "Snorre's Edda," because it +is supposed to have been written by Snorre Sturlason (born 1178, died +1241), contains a synopsis of the old Norse religion and a treatise on +the art of poetry. Fully as important as the numerous poetical works +of that period was the old Norse Saga-literature (the word saga means +a historical tale). The most prominent work in this field is Snorre +Sturlason's _Heimskringla_, which gives the sagas of the kings +of Norway from the beginning down to 1777. A continuation of the +_Heimskringla_, to which several authors have contributed, among them +Snorre Sturlason's relative, Sturla Thordson, contains the history of +the later kings down to Magnus Law-Mender. + +The literary development above referred to ceased almost entirely +toward the end of the fourteenth century, and later, during the union +with Denmark, the Danish language gradually took the place of the +old Norse as a book-language, and the literature became essentially +Danish. Copenhagen, with its court and university, was the literary +and educational center, where the young men of Norway went to study, +and authors born in Norway became to all intents and purposes, Danish +writers. But Norway furnished some valuable contributors to this +common literature. One of the very first names on the records of the +Danish literature, Peder Claussön (1545-1614), is that of a Norwegian, +and the list further includes such illustrious names as Holberg, +Tullin, Wessel, Steffens, etc. + +One of the most original writers whom Norway produced and kept at home +during the period of the union with Denmark was the preacher and poet, +Peder Dass (1647-1708). The best known among his secular songs is +_Nordlands Trompet_, a beautiful and patriotic description of the +northern part of Norway. + +Ludvig Holberg was born in Bergen, Norway, Dec. 3, 1684. His father, +Colonel Holberg, had risen from the ranks and distinguished himself, +in 1660, at Halden. Shortly after his death the property of the family +was destroyed by fire, and at the age of ten years Ludvig lost his +mother. It was now decided to have him educated for the military +service; but he showed a great dislike for military life, and, at his +earnest request, he was sent to the Bergen Latin School. In 1702 he +entered the University of Copenhagen. Being destitute of means, he +took a position as private tutor. As soon as he had saved a small sum +he went abroad. He was first in Holland, and afterward studied for +a couple of years at Oxford, where he supported himself by giving +instruction in languages and music. Upon his return to Copenhagen +he again took a position as private tutor and had an opportunity to +travel as teacher for a young nobleman. In 1714 he received a stipend +from the king, which enabled him to go abroad for several years, which +he spent principally in France and Italy. In 1718 he became regular +professor at the Copenhagen University. Among Holberg's many works +the following are the most prominent: _Peder Paars_, a great comical +heroic poem, containing sharp attacks on many of the follies of his +time; about thirty comedies in Moliere's style, and a large number of +historical works. Holberg, who was ennobled in 1747, died in January, +1754, and was buried in Sorö Church. His influence on the literature +and on the whole intellectual life of Denmark was very great. He is +often called the creator of Danish literature. + +Christian Baumann Tullin (1728-1765), a genuine poetical genius, +who has been called the father of Danish lyrical verse, was born in +Christiania, and his poetry, which was mainly written in his native +city, breathes a national spirit. From his day, for about thirty +years, Denmark obtained the majority of her poets from Norway. The +manager of the Danish National Theater, in 1771, was a Norwegian, +Niels Krog-Bredal (1733-1778), who was the first to write lyrical +dramas in Danish. A Norwegian, Johan Nordal Brun (1745-1816), a gifted +poet, wrote tragedy in the conventional French taste of the day. It +was a Norwegian, Johan Herman Wessel (1742-1785), who by his great +parody, _Kjaerlighed uden Strömper_, "Love without Stockings," laughed +the French taste out of fashion. Among the writers of this period are +also Claus Frimann (1746-1829), Peter Harboe Frimann (1752-1839), +Claus Fasting (1746-1791), John Wibe (1748-1782), Edward Storm +(1749-1794), C.H. Pram (1756-1821), Jonas Rein (1760-1821), and Jens +Zetlitz (1761-1821), all of them Norwegians by birth. Two notable +events led to the foundation of an independent Norwegian literature: +the one was the establishment of a Norwegian university at +Christiania, in 1811, and the other was the separation of Norway +from Denmark, in 1814. At first the independent Norwegian literature +appeared as immature as the conditions surrounding it. The majority of +the writers had received their education in old Copenhagen, and were +inclined to follow in the beaten track of the old literature, +although trying to introduce a more national spirit. All were greatly +influenced by the political feeling of the hour. There was a period +when all poetry had for its subject the beauties and strength of +Norway and its people, and _The Rocks of Norway, The Lion of Norway_, +etc., sounded everywhere. Three poets called _Trefoil_, were the +prominent writers of this period. Of these, Conrad Nicolai Schwach +(1793-1860) was the least remarkable. Henrik A. Bjerregaard +(1792-1842) was the author of _The Crowned National Song_, and of a +lyric drama, _Fjeldeventyret_, "The Adventures in the Mountains." The +third member of the _Trefoil_, Mauritz Christian Hansen (1794-1842), +wrote a large number of novels and national stories, which were quite +popular in their time. His poems were among the earliest publications +of independent Norway. + +The time about the year 1820 is reckoned as the beginning of the new +Norwegian literature, and Henrik Wergeland is called its creator. +Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born in 1808. His father, Nicolai +Wergeland, a clergyman, was a member of the Constitutional Convention +at Eidsvold. Henrik studied theology, but did not care to become a +clergyman. In 1827, and the following years, he wrote a number of +satirical farces under the signature _Siful Sifadda_. In 1830 appeared +his lyric, dramatic poem, _Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias_, (The +Creation, Man and Messiah), a voluminous piece 'of work, in which +he attempted to explain the historical life of the human race. As +a political writer he was editorial assistant on the _Folkebladet_ +(1831-1833), and edited the opposition paper _Statsborgeren_ +(1835-1837). He worked with great zeal for the education of the +laboring class, and from 1839 until his death edited a paper in the +interest of the laborer. The prominent features of his earliest +efforts in literature are an unbounded enthusiasm and a complete +disregard of the laws of poetry. At an early age he had become a power +in literature, and a political power as well. From 1831 to 1835 he +was subjected to severe satirical attacks by the author Welhaven and +others, and later his style became improved in every respect. His +popularity, however, decreased as his poetry improved, and in 1840 +he had become a great poet but had no political influence. Among his +works may be named _Hasselnödder, Jöden_, "The Jew," _Jodinden_, +"The Jewess," _Jan van Huysum's Blomsterstykke_, "Jan van Huysum's +Flowerpiece," _Den Engleske Lods_, "The English Pilot," and a great +number of lyric poems. The poems of his last five years are as popular +to-day as ever. Wergeland died in 1845. + +The enthusiastic nationalism of Henrik Wergeland and his young +following brought conflict with the conservative element, which +was not ready to accept everything as good simply because it was +Norwegian. This conservative element maintained that art and culture +must be developed on the basis of the old association with Denmark, +which had connected Norway with the great movement of civilization +throughout Europe. As the political leader of this "Intelligence" +party, as it was called, appeared J.S. Welhaven. + +John Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was born in Bergen in 1807, +entered the university in 1825, became a _Lector_ in 1840, and +afterward Professor of Philosophy. "His refined esthetic nature," says +Fr. Winkel Horn, "had been early developed, and when the war once +broke out between him and Wergeland, he had reached a high point +of intellectual culture, and thus was in every way a match for +his opponent." The fight was inaugurated by a preliminary literary +skirmish, which was, at the outset, limited to the university +students; but it gradually assumed an increasingly bitter character, +both parties growing more and more exasperated. Welhaven published a +pamphlet, _Om Henrik Wergelands Digtekunst og Poesie_, in which he +mercilessly exposed the weak sides of his adversary's poetry. Thereby +the minds became still more excited. The "Intelligence" party withdrew +from the students' union, founded a paper of their own, and thus +the movement began-to assume wider dimensions. In 1834, appeared +Welhaven's celebrated poem, _Norges Daemring_, a series of sonnets, +distinguished for their beauty of style. In them the poet scourges, +without mercy, the one-sided, narrow-minded patriotism of his time, +and exposes, in striking and unmistakable words, the hollowness +and shortcomings of the Wergeland party. Welhaven points out, with +emphasis, that he is not only going to espouse the cause of good +taste, which his adversary has outraged, but that he is also about +to discuss problems of general interest. He urges that a Norwegian +culture and literature can not be created out of nothing and to +promote their development it is absolutely necessary to continue +the associations which have hitherto been common to both Norway and +Denmark, and thus to keep in _rapport_ with the general literature +of Europe. When a solid foundation has in this manner been laid, the +necessary materials for a literature would surely not be wanting, +for they are found in abundance, both in the antiquities and in the +popular life of Norway. Welhaven continued his effective work as a +poet and critic. Through a series of romantic and lyrical poems, rich +in contents and highly finished in style, he developed a poetical +life, which had an important influence in the young Norwegian literary +circles. He died in 1873. + +Andreas Munch (1811-1884), an able and industrious poetical writer, +took no part in the controversy between Wergeland and Welhaven, but +followed his Danish models independently of either. His _Poems, Old +and New_, published in 1848, were quite popular. His best work is +probably _Kongedatterens Brudefart_, "The Bridal Tour of the King's +Daughter," 1861. + +In the period of about a dozen years following the death of Wergeland, +the life, manners, and characteristics of the Norwegian people were +given the especial attention of literary writers. Prominent in this +period was Peter Christian Ashbjornsen (1812-1885), who, partly +alone and partly in conjunction with Bishop Jorgen Moe (1813-1882), +published some valuable collections of Norwegian folk tales and +fairy tales. Moe also published three little volumes of graceful and +attractive poems. Among other writers of this period may be named +Hans H. Schultz, N. Ostgaard, Harald Meltzer, M.B. Landstad, and the +linguist Sophus Bugge. + +The efforts to bring out the national life and characteristics of +the people in literature also led to an attempt to nationalize the +language in which the literature was written. The movement was the +so-called _Maalstraev_, and had in view the introduction of a pure +Norwegian book language, based upon the peasant dialects. The +prominent supporter of this movement was Ivar Aasen (1813-1898), +the author of an excellent dictionary of the Norwegian language. A +prominent poetical representative of this school was Aasmund Olafson +Vinje (1818-1870), while Kristofer Janson (born 1841) has also written +a number of stories and poems in the _Landsmaal_ (country tongue). + +A new and grand period in Norwegian literature commenced about 1857, +and the two most conspicuous names in this period--and in the whole +Norwegian literature--are those of Henrik Ibsen and Björnstjerne +Björnson. + +Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, in 1828. He has written many beautiful +poems; but his special field is in the drama, where he is a master. +His first works were nearly all historical romantic dramas. His first +work, _Catilina_, printed in 1850, was scarcely noticed until years +afterward, when he had become famous. In 1856 appeared the romantic +drama, _Gildet paa Solhaug_, "The Feast at Solhaug," followed by _Fru +Inger til Oestraat_, 1857, and _Haermaedene paa Helgeland_, "The +Warriors on Helgeland," 1858. In 1863, he wrote the historical tragedy +_Kongsemnerne_, "The Pretenders," in which the author showed his great +literary power. Before this play was published, he had been drawn +into a new channel. In 1862, he began a series of satirical and +philosophical dramas with _Kjaerlighedens Komedie_, "Love's Comedy," +which was succeeded by two masterpieces of a similar kind, _Brand_, in +1866, and _Peer Gynt_, in 1867. These two works were written in verse; +but in _De Unges Forbund_, "The Young Men's League," 1869, a political +satire, he abandoned verse, and all his subsequent dramas have been +written in prose. In 1873 came _Keiser og Galilaeer_, "Emperor and +Galilean." Since then he has published a number of social dramas which +have attracted world-wide attention. Among them are: _Samfundets +Stötter_, "The Pillars of Society," _Et Dukkehjem_, "A Doll's House," +_Gengangere_, "Ghosts," _En Folkefiende_, "An Enemy of the People," +_Rosmerholm, Fruenn fra Havet_, "The Lady from the Sea," _Little +Eyolf, Bymester Solnes_, "Masterbuilder Solnes," _John Gabriel +Borkman_, and the latest and most-talked-about, _Hedda Gabler_. + +Björnstjerne Björnson (born in Osterdalen, in 1832) is the more +popular of the two giants of Norwegian literature of to-day. His works +are more national in tone. It has been said that to mention his name +is to raise the Norwegian flag. His first successes were made in the +field of the novel, and the first two, _Synnöve Solbakken_, 1857, +and _Arne_, 1858, made his name famous. These, and his other peasant +stories, will always retain their popularity. He soon, however, +entered the dramatic field, and has since published a great number of +dramas and novels. + +In the field of belles-lettres there is at the present time a number +of other talented authors. Jonas Lie (born 1833) has produced a number +of excellent novels. Then there are Alexander Kielland (born 1849) +Magdalene Thoresen (born 1819), Arne Garborg, Gunnar Heiberg, and a +number of young authors. + +In the field of science, also, modern Norway has a rich literature, +with many prominent names, such as the historian Peter Andreas Munch +(1810-1864), Johan Ernst Sars (born 1835), and O.A. Överland.[e] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN + + +Swedish literature is sublime and magnificent, like its history and +its scenery; it is simple and glad, as well as sad, like the lives of +its people. One of the great days in Sweden, or at least in Stockholm, +is the celebration, on the 26th of July, of the anniversary of the +birth, more than a century and a half ago, of the national poet +Bellman. + +His songs are as household words throughout the land. To the Stockholm +born they speak of their daily life and surroundings, of the green +isles and shady banks of the Malar, the flowery woods of Haga, the +smiling park of Dijurgarden. Burlesque scenes of the life of the +people, street tragedies, drinking bouts, and country junketings; +broad humor and Nature's philosophy; lively fancies and exquisite +landscape painting--such are the themes of his song, which from one +generation to another has held the heart of the people spellbound. +Every man, woman, and child knows his favorite ditties by heart, has +sung or hummed them in moments of joy or sorrow. For his song is both +joyful and sad. His joy is the joy of the simple hearted, his gladness +a Dionysian gladness, the very enjoyment of existence; his sadness +that of sympathy with suffering humanity, of anguish at the +evanescence of life and happiness. His fancy oscillates between +constant extremes and ever-recurring contrasts. It makes of his song, +as Tegnér has so aptly defined it, "a sorrow decked in roses." Bright, +gay, enraptured, full of sunshine and glamour, like the summer day +around Stockholm, it is traversed by a strain of melancholy like +a smile through tears, the laugh which conceals a sob. There is +symbolism and there is parody in his rustic figures, but they are so +living, so real, they appeal so strongly to the innermost feelings, +that they seem the embodiment of one's thoughts. His pictures are like +those of the Dutch painters: every trait in the rustic scene tells the +life-story of some humble existence. + +It is this characteristic which has made the poet appeal so powerfully +to the minds of the people. He seems to see with their eyes and feel +with their hearts, and to have experienced all the vicissitudes of +their own life. And yet he eminently reflects his own time, the gay, +the light-hearted Gustavian era, with its classical fancies and rococo +tastes. Venus and Bacchus, the Nymphs and the Dryads, Hebe and Amor +are mixed up incongruously with the homely scenes of Scandinavian +life. His Dutch pictures assume then a Watteau-like coloring of +extraordinary effect, as fancy and contrast enhance the sharp outlines +of his figures and give their vitality still greater relief. They are +so lifelike and so various that the whole of the every-day life of +Sweden, and more especially of Stockholm, of the eighteenth century, +is unrolled before our eyes. It is said that if every other book +descriptive of the period were to fail, his verses would suffice to +inform us how the middle classes then lived, thought, and felt. +Around the poet's monument--his bust in bronze on a white marble +column--there gather, on the anniversary of his birth, the crowds who +love him and love his song. Every heart beats high as the Bellman +choirs burst forth in turn into the well-known melodies, composed +or adapted by the poet himself to his words, and sung by him to the +accompaniment of his lute. And song alternates with enthusiastic +orations, addressed to the crowd by improvised orators, teeming with +quotations of well-known lines. It is an orgy of Bellman's verse, such +as the Stockholmer specially delights in. Bellman's songs generally +form a sequence, a continuous chain of lyrical romance. His _Fredman's +Epistles_ are a sort of epic cycle of lyrics. This is a form often +adopted by Swedish poets. We find it in Tegnér's _Frithiof's Saga_, +in Runeberg's _Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, and in the works of other +poets. It is a question, however, whether even by these Master +Singers, in their more elaborate conceptions and genial flights of +poetry, Bellman has ever been surpassed. In lyric power and vivid +realism, his popular ditties are unrivaled. + +The next to incarnate the genius of the Scandinavian race was Tegnér. +His love of brave deeds and reckless adventure and his exaltation of +the man of action above the man of thought are typical. His heroes, +fair-haired and blue-eyed, stalwart and vigorous, relying on strength +and longing for adventure, tender-hearted and contemplative when not +aroused to violent action and bent on deeds of valor, personify the +national ideal. His whole vision of life is Scandinavian, bright and +vivid, with a tinge of melancholy. Tegnér was, with Geijer and Ling, +the first to adopt national subjects, to use the Scandinavian myths +and folk-lore in their poetry, in opposition to the classical themes +and the Hellenic mythology, until then exclusively in vogue in the +poetical field. + +Geijer was a romantic by nature, in politics as well as in literature, +but he was above all an ardent Scandinavian, opposed to exotics, +and passionately devoted to the great traditions of the past, a +hero-worshiper, an enthusiast, and a _Goth_. The Goths were members of +a society formed to revive the old national manners and customs, the +freedom of the age of the Vikings, and the ardor of the heroes +of Walhalla. Their organ was the _Idun_, an exclusively literary +publication. In a letter written by Geijer from Stockholm to his +_fiancee_, then living in the country, dated March 7, 1811, he says: +"We have formed a society which meets nearly daily. We talk, smoke, +and read together about Gothic Viking deeds. We call each other by +Gothic names, and live in the past." And Anna-Lisa, his future wife, +writing to a friend, says: "My _fiancee_ has become a Goth; instead of +loving me, he is in love with Valkyries and shield-bearing maidens, +drinks out of Viking horns, and carries out Viking expeditions--to the +nearest tavern. He writes poems which must not be read in the dark, +they are so full of murders and deeds of slaughter." Ling, who also +belonged to this society, was a fervent admirer of the Eddas and +Sagas, of the Scandinavian myths and folk-lore. Tegnér, despite his +classical education and Hellenic turn of mind, was an ardent Norseman +in feeling and instinct. "Go to Greece for beauty of form," he would +say, "but to the North for depth of feeling and thought." He scorned +alike the metaphysical subtleties of French philosophy and the +moonshine heroics of German romanticism. But he was at one with Geijer +and Ling in the desire to make Scandinavian heroes and myths the +subjects of poetry. + +The result of the movement was _Frithiof's Saga_, by Tegnér, Geiger's +_Viking_, and Ling's heavy epics of Walhalla warriors. But Geijer and +Ling alone had followed out the theory in all its consequences. Their +heroes were simply _Eddic_, of their time, in spirit and in thought. +Ling's realism went so far that his Northern gods and warriors, +"everlastingly killed but to revive again," were deemed "pork-eating +and mead-drinking yokels." They were soon forgotten, and Ling himself +is best known as the inventor of gymnastic exercises on scientific +principles, an art now practiced all the world over as "Swedish +gymnastics." Geijer, whose _Viking_ gave a pure and true picture +of Viking life seen in its own light, was himself disappointed. He +abandoned poetry and took to history, though Tegnér says of him that +if he had devoted himself to poetry, he would have surpassed all his +contemporaries. As historian he rose to the highest rank; and he is +perhaps the greatest historian Sweden has ever produced. + +Tegnér had modernized his hero and heroine in _Frithiof's Saga_. He +gave them Viking garbs and surroundings, but modern thoughts and +sentiments. By the more copious development of the inner life, and +by placing woman on an equality with man, love had received a higher +meaning, and his poetry unfolded inspirations unknown to the ancient +world, such as melancholy and the love of nature. He did no more than +Tennyson did later in making of King Arthur the type of an English +gentleman. Frithiof and Ingeborg were representatives of the national +ideal. The success of his poem was immense. It had a lyrical +intensity which set the Scandinavian mind vibrating. Unmindful of the +anachronism, youth gloried in the noble disinterestedness of Frithiof, +in his generosity to his rival, his melancholy philosophising and his +high-minded love, as well as in his daring and his love of adventure. +Manly breasts heaved in sympathy with him, and women's tears flowed at +the story of Ingeborg's love. As the poet Snolisky has said-- + + From the highest to the lowest throughout the land + The poet had created a bond of union. + In every home, within every school door, + His verses were read and conned and loved, + And Sweden's youth felt its cheek glow + At Frithiof's courage and manly mood. + While Ingeborg's love to the maiden's dream + Gave life and thoughts to her weaving and sewing. + +In his _Children of the Lord's Supper_, so beautifully translated for +us by Longfellow, Tegnér conveyed a true image of Sweden's religious +life. The scene in the country church, decked out with flowers and +evergreens for the solemn ceremony, the rustic boys and girls bowing +and curtseying as they make their responses before the assembled +congregation, and the attitude and words of the patriarchal pastor are +all true to life. The somewhat declamatory tone of the oration is not +less consistent with the character of the rural parson, the trend of +Swedish religious thought, and the solemnity associated with these +occasions. + +It was in his patriotic war-songs, however, that Tegnér roused the +greatest enthusiasm. His _Svea_, his dithryambic declamation _King +Charles_, and his _Scanean Reserves_, sent a thrill through young and +old. When _Svea_ was read at the Swedish Academy, which awarded the +poem its gold medal, the friends and opponents of Tegnér alike were +moved to undisguised admiration. In breadth and intrinsic power, and +in the beauty of its rythm, which seems to echo the clash of arms and +the marching of masses, this poem is unequalled in Swedish literature. +Tegnér's name soon became known far beyond the limits of the lands +where his language is understood. His works were translated into +almost all modern tongues, so that some fifty different translations +of the whole or parts of his poems now exist in eleven European +languages. + +A new feature was introduced into Swedish poetry by Runeberg. Although +born of Swedish parents, he was brought up in Finland, his mind being +nurtured in the traditions and the mixed racial influences of his new +fatherland. Thus he breathed a new spirit, and a new inspiration, +drawn from the realities of life, into poetical fiction. He was a +realist in the best sense of that much-misused word. He sought his +ideals _in_ life, instead of outside of it and above it in imaginary +creations. He saw nature such as it is, with all its faults and +sublimities, and, loving it with a true poet's devotion, he painted it +simply and faithfully, without aiming at ennobling it, but seeking and +finding what there is of native dignity in its humblest expressions. +In his lyrical poem, _The Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, he portrayed +incidents of the wars of Finland fighting by the side of Sweden in +1809, when the country was conquered by Russia. It was a series of war +pictures, a collection of hero types, painted in living colors, and +breathing the most ardent patriotism.--Simple tales told by a sergeant +of his recollections of the war, they deal with real personages, most +of them drawn from the humblest stations in life, described just as +they really lived and spoke and acted. Yet throughout the story of +their simple acts and thoughts there swept a breeze which kindled +the blood, roused the emotions; and fired the patriotic feeling of +Runeberg's contemporaries. In poetic depth and beauty of language, +as in style and conception, and in their departure from all the +prevailing ideas and methods of romanticism, these lyric tales were +a revelation. They classed their author at once as in the line of +true-born poets. The works of Runeberg, although properly belonging +to the literature of a country politically no longer one with Sweden, +have from the nature of their subjects and the identity of languages, +always been looked upon in Sweden as common property, and they have +certainly exercised a powerful influence on Swedish thought and +letters. Some of his songs, set to music, are to this day sung as +national anthems. + +The last champion of dying romanticism was a sort of universal genius, +eccentric, _bizarre_, unequal, a spirit out of harmony with itself, +but gifted with the most wonderful imagination and power, K.J.L. +Almquist. His life was as checquered as his writings were various. In +turn a clergyman, a schoolmaster, a journalist, and an exile, he has +written volumes on almost every conceivable subject, from fiction, +poetry, and history, to lexicography, pedagogy, and mathematics. His +stories, published in two series, under the common title of _The +Book of the Hedgerose_, show powers of conception, imagination, and +description such as are only to be found in Edgar Allen Poe. His was +an essentially revolutionary temperament. He disdained all authority, +and cavilled at all moral restraints. He was in constant rebellion +against society, its accepted laws and precepts, and vented his moral +skepticism in bitter sarcasm and cutting paradoxes. "But two things +are white in this world," he would say, "innocence and arsenic." The +coupling of the two, however, nearly proved fatal to him. He was +involved in a mysterious affair of poisoning, in which the victim was +a dunning creditor. He was suspected of having given him arsenic by +way of ridding himself of the debt which he could not pay. No proof +of the fact could be adduced, and the crime was never brought home to +him; but public opinion was against him, and fearing or distrusting +the justice of his country, he fled from it ere the case was tried. He +wandered over Europe and America, trying his hand at everything, and +died, a literary wreck, in Germany, longing, and yet not daring, to +return to his country. Lately, the Society of Authors in Stockholm, +judging that his crime was "not proven," while his literary merits +were great beyond all doubt, undertook the rehabilitation of his +memory. His remains were brought back from Lubeck, and buried in +Stockholm with "literary" honors, among others a remarkable oration +delivered at his grave by Verner von Heidenstam, in which he was +styled a martyr in the great cause of the emancipation of thought. +Whatever may be thought of his moral character, Almquist was a great +thinker and a wonderfully versatile writer. The last of the romantics, +he has been called a realist, a psychologist, and a symbolist, and he +was certainly something of all these, half a century before the terms +became battle-cries in literature, and came to designate literary +schools. One critic has made him out to have been a sort of forerunner +of Ibsen, while another calls him the most modern of classics. His +genius placed him in advance of his age in most things. He was the +first in the list of those Scandinavian revolutionists who have laid +out new landmarks in the field of thought, and introduced new methods +in fiction and the drama. + +Liberalism, which spread like wildfire over Europe after its outbreak +in the July Revolution in France, reached Sweden soon after. It was +represented in literature by such men as Sturzen-Becker, Wetterbergh, +and Strandberg, writing under the names of Orvar Odd, Uncle Adam, +and Talis-Qualis; Blanche, who wrote stirring novels in the style +of Eugene Sue; Hjerta, and the staff of the then newly founded +_Aftonbladet_, who were revolutionizing the press. The press was +beginning to enlist the highest literary capacities of the country, +gradually becoming what it now is, a purveyor not only of news but of +thought, and a leader of opinion in literature and art, in science +and philosophy. In poetry, liberalism found its echo in the verses +of Malmström, Nybom, Schlstedt. In fiction its banner was carried by +three women, two of whom--well known in England and America--Frederica +Bremer, whose novels portrayed the home life of the middle class, +Emelie Carlen, who idealized the fishermen and sea-faring folk of +the West Coast, and Sophie von Knorring, who gave rather stilted +descriptions of life in aristocratic circles. All three were very +productive, and their novels count by dozens. Yet they failed to +sustain the reputations their first works had won for them. + +Verner von Heidenstam is now foremost among the writers of his +country. His early works, _Endymion, Hans Alienus_, and others, raised +him to this rank, and his last two productions, _The Carolines_ +(the companions of Charles XII) and _Saint Brigitt_, have more than +confirmed it. _Hans Alienus_ was, like Goethe's _Faust_, a work of +deep philosophical research into the problems of existence, the +purpose and significance of life, set forth in symbolical images and +explained by allegory. In the _Carolines_, a series of short stories +connected by the red thread of history which runs through them, he +gives a new conception, but a wonderfully graphic and striking one, +of Charles XII and his times. It is an epic, and yet so living and so +human a picture of the wild, iron-souled, quick-tempered hero, whose +"eyes flew around like two searching bees," and whose will was like +the steel of his sword; who had the heart of a lion and a "woman's +hatred for women," but for whom men shed their blood freely; who +"never grieved over a misfortune longer than the darkness lasted," +and was "best loved by those who tried to hate him." His pictures are +drawn by a master hand, and with the intuitive coloring of genius. +_Saint Brigitt_ carries us back to medieval Sweden. Here, too, the +picture is lifelike, centered round the struggle of a high-minded +woman, who makes everything bend to her stern rule of holiness, her +thirst for sanctity, as Charles XII did to his inexorable policy and +thirst for dominion. + +The psychological and the historical novel, the latter, in its modern +conception, akin to the former, since it is a study of the psychology +of historical characters and a historical epoch, is the form of +fiction at present most in vogue. It is in this form that such writers +as Tor Hedberg, Per Hallström, and Axel Lundegard have made their +reputations. Tor Hedberg's romances embody profound analysis of the +inner workings of the soul, of the secret motives which, more or less +consciously, determine a man's acts. In this line he ventures on the +most difficult psychological problems. In his _Judas_, a scriptural +romance from which he has drawn a drama, he attempts to solve the +darkest psychological enigma that has puzzled humanity, viz., to +analyze the motives which led Judas to betray his Master and become +the typical traitor. The character he draws of him is original and +striking, and departs entirely from the accepted tradition. But bold +and subtle as the theory is, it is far from convincing. His Judas is +a dark, brooding spirit, fierce and inharmonious, divided between +extatic love and admiration of his Master and inward irresistible +forces of hatred and revolt: a double nature, thirsting for freedom +and love, yet predestined to evil, and led by fearful secret impulses +to the accomplishment of his destiny and the fulfilment of his +mission, necessary to the scheme of salvation. He rushes blindly to +his fate while struggling in vain to escape it. But in the very act of +betrayal, while obeying the command: "What thou doest, do quickly," +his better nature triumphs for one instant and he falls on the neck of +his Master and embraces Him. It is the Judas kiss which betrays his +Lord. The last look of Jesus, however, showed him that he had been +understood and forgiven. The detestation of humanity to the end of the +world will be his expiation, but that look of Jesus has freed him. + +Woman, represented by writers like Ellen Key, Selma Lagerlöf, Sophie +Elkau, Alfhild Agress, Hilma Stanberg, and others, holds a high +position in Swedish letters. Ellen Key is an essayist of virile +power and argumentative breadth, of superior intellect and unfailing +erudition. She is a fearless and unfailing champion of free thought, +individualism, and woman's emancipation. As was said of Madame de +Staël, her writings are "the most masculine productions of the +faculties of woman." Selma Lagerlöf occupies as a novelist a position +of her own. Her style and her manner in fiction are unique. Symbolism +and allegory are blended in it with the most realistic pictures of +everyday life. She thinks in parables, and describes realities, and +the realities convey the moral teachings of parables. With something +of the peculiar power of George Eliot in the delineation of character, +she makes each humble life preach some great moral truth. Her latest +book, _Jerusalem_, is one of extraordinary fascination, created quite +a sensation in Sweden, and places Selma Lagerlöf quite among the +foremost writers of the day. + +It may in general be said of Swedish writers that they have a high +idea of their calling. Few, if any, have accepted as their sole +function the idealization of form. They hold mostly that the highest +aim of art should be to teach and elevate, to destroy prejudice and +conventionality, and indicate, in so far as it is possible, the +solution of moral problems through the creative faculty of inspired +productiveness. The wish to inculcate action, the energy that is +born of enthusiasm, the chivalry that is inspired by high ideals and +unselfish motives. Raised thus from the region of mere chronicles of +human passions, of woman's frailty and man's baseness, and exercising +themselves with the political, social, and religious problems of the +day, these works of imagination have become, alongside the Press, a +powerful factor in the development of modern thought.[f] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +Only for the past three years has Norway had an independent political +life, and so few changes in local government have so far been made +under the new king that it will be profitable, in this chapter, to +take up the government and political life as it existed under the +united Constitutional Monarchy of Norway and Sweden. In fact, it is no +different than at that time, except that each has its separate king. +In internal rule, the two countries were always separate, except in +matters that pertained to the common weal of both. Thus, the Swedish +Minister of Foreign Affairs had charge of the United Kingdoms, and, as +previously stated, this was the rock on which the Union finally split. + +The constitution of Norway, like that of the United States, invests +all power in the people, who are represented by their legislature and +their judiciary, with the king as an executive to administer the laws +passed by the one, and enforce the decrees of the other. When the +two houses of Parliament disagree upon a measure, they sit in joint +session, when it requires a vote of two-thirds to enact it, and the +approval of the king is necessary. He is also required to promulgate +all the acts of the legislature. Many Norwegian statesmen assert that +the king has no veto power, but merely temporary authority to +suspend a law pending the action of the people. If three successive +parliaments, after three successive elections, pass a bill in exactly +the same terms, it does not require the sanction of the king when +it is passed the fourth time. Thus the people may exercise their +sovereignty. + +All edicts of the executive, all decisions of the court, and all +resolutions of the legislature are proclaimed in the king's name, but +the ministry is responsible to the legislature for the acts of the +king, and if they are not approved, as in England, the ministry must +resign and a new one be organized in sympathy with a majority of the +parliament. The king may choose his own ministers, but they must +represent the will of the people. They are called counsellors of +state, are eight in number. Before the disunion, two of these eight +counsellors were without portfolios, and resided alternately at +Stockholm, while the other members presided over six executive +departments in Christiania. + +A record is kept of the meetings of the ministry by a permanent +secretary, and the constitution requires that each minister shall +express his opinion upon all questions brought up for consideration. +He who remains silent is counted in the affirmative. No matter of +business can be determined by the king without the advice of the +ministry, unless an emergency demands a prompt decision, when he must +take the responsibility of securing a ratification of his act. In the +same manner the king may issue edicts of a provisional character in +matters of commerce, finance, industrial activity, customs dues, +police and military affairs during a recess of the parliament, subject +to its approval within a limited time after reassembling. + +The minister may act in the king's name in cases of emergency or +during his absence from the country, subject to his approval. +These conditions were adopted in earlier times, when the Norwegian +legislature sat only once in three years and some such power was +necessary, but now that there are annual and often semi-annual +sessions, and they have a king of their own residing always in Norway, +it is very seldom necessary for the executive power to exercise such +responsibility. + +The king appoints all the officials of the executive part of the +government, all the officers of the army and navy, and all the +clergymen in the established church, but exercises this power through +his ministers. Dissenting congregations are not subject to government +control, and may choose their own clergymen, although the latter are +required to register an oath of allegiance and a pledge to obey +the laws of the nation and fulfill their duties with fidelity and +conscientiousness. + +The king is the head of the established church, which is the Lutheran. +He is also commander-in-chief of the army and navy, but can not +increase or decrease the military establishment without the approval +of the parliament. He has the right to declare war and conclude peace, +but can not expend money for military purposes, not even for the +national defense, without the consent of the legislature. The +Norwegian constitution is silent concerning his authority to conclude +treaties with foreign powers, and the question has never been raised. +He conducts negotiations through his ministers and submits the result +of their labors for the approval of parliament. He has the power +to suspend the collection of customs duties temporarily until the +parliament can meet to consider the matter, but it has very rarely +been exercised. + +The parliament is called the storthing, and is composed of one +hundred and fourteen representatives, thirty-eight from the towns +and seventy-six from the rural districts. It divides itself into two +sections, known as the odelsthing and the lagthing. The members are +elected for three years by an indirect and complicated system which is +nearly the reverse of our own. The voters of each parish, which forms +an election district, assemble at a given place and time and select +delegates to a convention which chooses their representatives in the +storthing, and, when the storthing meets, its one hundred and fourteen +members select one-fourth of their own members, generally the most +experienced and distinguished men, to constitute a senate, or upper +chamber, called the lagthing, which exercises a sort of supervisory +power over legislation. + +The storthing sits for about six months every year. The members are +paid $3 a day during the session and their traveling expenses. The +presiding officer is chosen every four weeks, and can not succeed +himself without an interval. The committees are appointed by a +"selection committee" elected by ballot, and each committee chooses +his own chairman. There is a rather novel rule requiring bills +referred to committees to be assigned for consideration to the several +members in rotation. Any member may introduce a bill modifying the +constitution, but all other classes or measures must proceed from the +government and the members of the lower house. Members of the upper +house, or lagthing, are not permitted to propose ordinary legislation, +on the theory that they should remain unprejudiced so as to exercise +a judicial revision. Thus, bills must originate in the odelsthing, +which, having passed them, sends them to the lagthing for its +approval. + +The financial officers of the government and the directors of the +national bank are elected by the storthing, which appoints a committee +every six months to revise and audit the accounts of officials who +have to do with the disbursement or collection of money. When an +irregularity or improper expenditure is discovered, the legislature is +asked to decide whether the minister in charge of the department shall +repay the sum from his own pocket and repair the damage that has been +caused by one of his subordinates. + +In the same manner the storthing regulates all loans, on the theory +that the money belongs to the people. The members of the ministry may +be impeached by the odelsthing for a violation of the constitution and +tried before the lagthing and the supreme court. + +The following eight executive departments are in charge of ministers: + +1. For ecclesiastical matters and public instruction, which also has +charge of charities, insurance companies, and matters relating to the +relief of the people. + +2. The department of justice. + +3. The department of the interior, which has jurisdiction over +everything that is not under the other departments. + +4. The department of agriculture. + +5. The department of public works. + +6. The department of finances and customs. + +7. The department of defense. + +8. The revision of public accounts department. + +For administrative purposes, Norway is divided into twenty districts, +viz.: The cities of Christiania and Bergen and eighteen "Amts" or +provinces, which coinside with the diocese of the church, and there +is a very close relation between the ecclesiastical and the civil +authorities. The chief magistrate in each of the counties, nominated +by the king, is known as an "Amtmand." His duties are similar to +those of the French prefects, although the theory of home-rule and +self-government is carried into each county and each municipality and +parish, where every magistrate is responsible to a council elected by +the people from among their own number. They make the laws for the +magistrate to administer. There are few countries in which the theory +of self-government is carried to such an extent as in Norway. The +sovereignty of the people is absolute and their rights are jealously +guarded. Norway is divided into ecclesiastical parishes, which are the +voting districts, as in England, and are governed in a similar way. + +The Norwegian constitution of 1814, based upon the principle of +popular self-government, declared these municipalities completely +independent in the management of their own affairs, placing the +administrative authority, with the power of taxation and the +disbursement of revenues in the hands of the taxpayers and +householders, so that they could not be coerced by the national +government, if there ever was any disposition in that direction. + +This authority is exercised through a council called a "bystyre," +composed of from twelve to forty-eight members, according to the +population of the parish, who are elected for terms of three years, +and serve gratuitously. The council elects from its own number a +chairman who is the head of the whole municipal organization, and is +known as an _ordförer_. He corresponds to the German burgomaster and +the mayor of the American city. + +In addition to the popular council there is a magistrate representing +the royal government, who, with the consent of the council, may be +admitted to their deliberations, but is not allowed to vote. He +is also ex-officio a member and often chairman of the municipal +departments or commissions, such as the board of public works, +the school board, the harbor commission. In this way he becomes a +connecting link between the national authority at Christiania and the +municipal councils throughout the kingdom, because certain measures of +local interest are subject to restrictions by the national parliament, +particularly those involving finances. + +Under the direction of the council are permanent executive departments +similar to those found in the United States, pertaining to public +highways, the public buildings, the public health, the relief of the +poor, the fire department, police department, etc. These in every case +are managed by permanent officials under the supervision of committees +of the council. Every year a budget is made up of the income and +expenditures expected; each department being permitted to submit its +own estimates, which are approved or amended by the council, and the +amount is raised by taxation of houses, lands, personal property, +and incomes, with fees for licenses to transact business. The entire +system of local taxation is similar to our own, and the methods of +assessment are the same. In order to meet the expense of unusual +undertakings for the benefit of the municipality, such as waterworks, +tramways, docks, etc., funds are raised in the usual manner by +the issue of interest bearing bonds, which are usually in small +denominations in order to permit people of limited means to invest in +them. They are redeemed, as a rule, in forty annual instalments, the +bonds to be canceled being selected by lot. In this system of local +government women now participate upon an equal basis with men. + +With the exception of the British parliament, the Swedish riksdag is +the oldest legislative body in the world. The kingdom of Sweden has +maintained its integrity for not less than four thousand years. So far +back as the anthropologists can trace the history of Swedish people, +the boundaries of their land have remained the same. The Duchy of +Finland was subject to Swedish sovereignty at one time, and at +different times Sweden has been united with Norway and Denmark under +the same ruler, but Sweden has been Sweden ever since human beings +inhabited its territory, and it is the only nation in Europe that has +never been conquered or had its boundaries changed by foreign powers. +Since the beginning of history, home rule has prevailed among the +people and has been defended and recognized as their right. The +parishes have always controlled their own affairs, and since the +Reformation their government has been in the hands of a board or +council elected by the people, of which the pastor of the church is +chairman. Everybody who pays taxes, men and women alike, may vote at +the election of the council. The burgomaster serves for life, and is +usually required to abstain from all other business except that which +pertains to the public weal. The parishes are consolidated into +twenty-four provinces, similar to our states, each having a certain +independence and government of its own, although the governor-general, +who also serves for life on good behavior, is appointed by the king. +The city of Stockholm is an independent jurisdiction like the District +of Columbia, with a governor appointed by the king. The riksdag +was formerly composed of four distinct bodies,--nobles, clergymen, +burghers, peasants,--representing the different classes of the +community, and all laws required their approval. In 1866, however, +this clumsy arrangement was abolished and the national legislature was +consolidated into two bodies known as the first and second chamber, +similar to our Senate and House of Representatives. The two chambers +are equal in every respect, except that the second chamber, or lower +house, has the advantage of numbers when a deadlock arises and the +question in dispute is decided by a joint ballot. Then, unless there +should be an overwhelming difference of opinion, the second chamber +usually has its will, which is perfectly right, because it represents +the people. The king must approve all legislation to make it +effective, and his veto is final, except in matters concerning +taxation and the expenditure of public money. The diet has the sole +power to levy taxes and make appropriations with or without his +consent. + +The first chamber, which corresponds to our Senate, is composed of +one hundred and fifty members, elected for terms of nine years by the +provincial councils and by the city councils in towns of more than +25,000 inhabitants. As the councils are elected by the taxpayers, both +men and women, the members of the first chamber may be regarded as the +representatives of the property-owning portion of the community. To be +eligible to the first chamber a candidate must be thirty-five years +old, own property assessed at $21,000, or pay taxes upon an income +of not less than $1,100. Rank does not count. The qualification is +pecuniary entirely, and so evenly is property distributed in Sweden +that only ten thousand people in the entire kingdom are eligible to +the first chamber of the diet. + +The members of the second chamber, two hundred and thirty in number, +are elected for three years, of whom eighty are elected by the towns +and one hundred and fifty by the rural districts. Each must have +property worth $270, or have leased $1,600 worth of land for five +years, or pay taxes on an income of $214. These are also the +qualifications for voting for members of the parliament. + +There is very little of politics in Sweden. There are three parties, +known as the conservatives, the liberals, and the socialists. The +conservative party is comprised of the aristocracy, the church, the +agricultural classes and people of conservative sentiment generally. +The liberal party is composed of progressive elements, the theorists, +the artisans, the machinists, and the thinking men among the +laboring element, who advocate a reduction of the tariff on imported +merchandise and free trade so far as possible; a separation of church +and state on the theory that no man should be taxed to support a +religious faith that he does not believe in; a reduction in the army +and navy and other official expenses; the modification of the election +laws as above stated; rotation in office, so that all shall have a +chance, and they oppose the general tendency to centralization in the +government. + +The socialists go a little farther. They are not so radical as those +who go by the same name in Germany, France, and other European +countries. They are very moderate in their views. They favor most of +the planks in the liberal platform, and, in addition, advocate the +adoption of socialistic reforms, the loaning of public money without +interest to the poor, public pensions to the helpless, sweeping +reforms in the labor laws, and the purchase and maintenance by the +state of all public enterprises that affect public welfare, such as +the street-car lines, the insurance companies, the banks, etc. +The peasants in the country are protectionists and belong to the +conservative party. The mechanics in the cities are generally +socialists. Politics, however, is not very exciting. The tariff, labor +questions, and other propositions are always discussed, and of late +years the most interesting issues have been the appropriation of money +for national defense, the increase of the term of military service +from ninety to three hundred and sixty days for every citizen, the +modification of the electoral law, and the regulations of the forests. + +Peasants have been members of parliament for more than five hundred +years, and now constitute more than half the membership of the second +chamber--intelligent, well-educated mechanics and farmers, who take a +deep interest in the affairs of the government and generally are +on the right side. The agricultural peasants are invariably loyal +supporters of the king. The mechanics from the city are usually +opposed to him. + +The annual session of the riksdag opens immediately after the holidays +with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. It is one of the most imposing +functions in all Europe. The members of both houses meet at their +respective halls, attend divine service at the cathedral, where they +receive the sacrament and listen to a sermon of admonition. Then they +march in a body to the royal palace, where they are received by the +king's ministers with great formality, and escorted to what is known +as the throne room. As they enter, each man bows reverently to a +silver throne which stands upon a dais at the other end of the +apartment. The members of the first chamber are seated on the right +side of the great hall, and those of the second upon the left. + +When the sound of trumpets is heard, all rise, and the master of +ceremonies enters in gorgeous apparel, followed by four pages in dress +of the sixteenth century. Behind them is a squad of trumpeters, then +the grand marshal of the court, preceded by four heralds and followed +by the assistant marshals, the grand chamberlain, the lord steward, +the master of the horse, and other officers of the royal household, +the eighteen judges of the supreme court, the archbishop and bishops, +and the members of the king's cabinet. + +Then follows a guard of honor, composed of the highest nobles of the +kingdom in glittering uniforms and carrying old-fashioned weapons, +such as were once used in actual warfare. They surround the king, who +wears his royal robes, and, as he enters, the band plays the favorite +air of the people, "From the Depths of the Swedish Heart." He wears +the crown of state and a purple robe bordered and lined with crimson +the two corners of which are carried by chamberlains Upon the right +side of the king walks the prime minister of Sweden. Following the +king walk his sons, the princes of the royal house. + +When the king has reached the center of the room, he stops, turns with +great dignity and bows first to one chamber and then to the other, and +then to the queen, who has taken her position in the balcony, attended +by the princesses and other members of the royal family and the +officers of the court. Then he proceeds slowly until he ascends +the dais and seats himself upon the throne, his minister of state +occupying a position on his right. Before the separation of the Union, +the Norwegian minister of state sat upon his left. + +The grand marshal steps forward and strikes the floor three times with +a long staff of silver, tipped with jewels. At this signal all arise +again except the king. In old-fashioned Swedish the heralds command +silence. The king, seated upon his throne, reads his speech, which +always begins, "Good gentlemen and Swedish men." The prime minister +then reads a review of the acts of state since the adjournment of +parliament, which he skims over as rapidly as possible, because the +printed copy will be placed in the hands of every person present as +soon as the ceremony is over. The presiding officers of the two houses +of parliament step forward and make speeches of congratulation, and +reassure their sovereign of their loyalty and respect. The king then +rises, bows first to the queen, and to each house in turn, and slowly +leaves the chamber accompanied by the procession that followed him in. + +The courts of Sweden are conducted upon the French plan, and no jury +is ever impaneled except in cases concerning the liberty of the press. +When a newspaper is accused of libel or sedition, the complainant, +whether he be a member of the police or any other official of the +government, chooses three jurymen, the defendant three, and the court +three. These nine men hear and decide the merits of the case without +application of such strict rules of evidence as prevail in the legal +practice of the United States. All judicial procedure in Sweden is +based upon the assumption that the court is sufficiently intelligent +and impartial to determine the reliability of witnesses and to judge +of the application of facts laid before it. All judges and judicial +magistrates are appointed for life on good behavior, but they can be +impeached by processes similar to those authorized by the Constitution +of the United States.[g] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ARMY AND NAVY + + +Everybody in Norway, that is every man, has to serve five years in the +army, so that every citizen is a soldier--the first year after the +twenty-third birthday seventy days, and thirty days or so each year +thereafter for four years more. The organization has a nominal +strength of 80,000 men of three divisions known as the landstrom, or +reserves (25,000); the landvern, or militia (55,000), and the opbud, +or regulars, who numbered about 5,000, garrison the different +fortresses along the coast. Every able-bodied Norwegian, except pilots +and clergymen, is obliged to serve in any position to which he is +assigned by the king, who is commander-in-chief. The sailors and +fishermen are enrolled in the navy and must serve aboard a man-of-war +at least twelve months. The land forces require five months' service +for infantry, seven months for cavalry and artillery, and six months +for engineers, which is distributed over a period of five years. +Training camps are established every summer in convenient localities +from two to three months. Every man capable of bearing arms is in time +of war liable to do service in the reserves, from the eighteenth to +the fiftieth year of age. + +The organization is complete throughout the nation, so that an army +of 80,000 men can be mobilized in a few days. Every cavalryman and +artilleryman is required to bring a horse with him when he is called +to camp, and the arsenals contain a complete equipment of arms and +accoutrements. The non-commissioned officers are former members of +the regular army, in which they must have served three years in the +infantry and cavalry or four years in artillery and engineers. During +this period they are given a practical education in books and in the +mechanical duties of the soldier. They are taught to repair guns, +manufacture powder, make harness, shoe horses, and do everything else +that is likely to come within their experience in the field. +This training is highly valued by the young men of the country, +particularly by boys from the farms, because it gives them a certain +social standing, the right to wear a uniform, and a corresponding +amount of influence in the community. This regular army school takes +in about 1,700 young men every year. + +The officers are educated in a military college. The complete course +covers five years for the staff, artillery, and engineer corps. +Candidates must first have graduated from one of the government +technical schools. The infantry and cavalry course is three years. +Graduates are appointed second lieutenants in the regular army, and +are promoted through the regular grades. + +The army of Norway costs the government about 14,000,000 kroner, or +$3,800,000 a year, which is an average of $1.70 per capita of the +population, or half the tax paid by the English and Germans. The last +budget was about $1,000,000 larger than usual, for the purpose of +erecting new fortresses upon the southern coast. All the principal +seaports are already fortified, and there is an excellent system of +torpedo defense in the different fjords, but there is a remarkable +public apprehension concerning the intentions of Russia; and, mindful +of the fate of Finland, the Norwegians are preparing to resist any +aggressiveness on the part of the czar. It is not disputed that Russia +desires a winter port on her northern coast for St. Petersburg and +Kronstadt are always closed by the ice for five and sometimes six +months in the year. The Norwegian fjords never freeze. They are +protected by the monstrous mountains, and the water is tempered +by warm currents that flow in from the gulf stream. The national +apprehension of both Norway and Sweden that Russia covets one of their +seaports has existed a good many years. The bugbear has appeared at +intervals for half a century, and a great deal of money has been +expended in preparations to meet it. The people are, therefore, +cordially patriotic in their support of the army, although many of +them emigrate to the United States to avoid military service. + +Norway has a small but efficient navy, composed of third and fourth +class cruisers, monitors, small gunboats and torpedo boats, forty-six +in all, aggregating 29,000 tons, 53,000 horse-power, carry 174 guns, +and manned by 140 officers and 1,000 men. The officers are educated in +naval schools, with a five-year course for regulars and three +years for the reserves, which include all the merchant sailors and +fishermen. + +Norway has taken an active part in the promotion of international +arbitration, and has sent delegates to every conference on that +subject. The storthing, in a decided manner, has repeatedly expressed +its belief in that method of settling disputes, and in correspondence +with the Russian government has laid a foundation that may be useful +in case the czar, under any pretext, should use aggressive measures in +this direction. So much interest has been shown in the question +that Alfred Nobel, the Swedish philanthropist, and the inventor +of dynamite, who made his money manufacturing that most powerful +explosive, by his will authorized the members of the Norwegian +storthing to award a prize of $40,000 annually to the person who, in +their judgment, during the preceding year, shall have done the most +to promote peace among nations and the adoption of the plan of +arbitration in the settlement of international differences. + +For many years the chief political issue in Sweden has been the +increase of the army and the military service required of each +citizen. The king finally won, and in 1901 a law was passed increasing +the term of service from ninety days to eight and twelve months. The +nation claims that period in the life of every able-bodied man, and it +is given more or less reluctantly. + +Every male citizen is enrolled in the army, and at the time when he +becomes twenty-one years of age, he is required to report himself at +the military headquarters nearest home, where he submits to a physical +examination, and if accepted, is assigned to the proper company and +regiment of militia, and directed to report for duty to his immediate +commander. The small number of persons rejected for disability is good +testimony to the health and vigor of the race. Severe penalties are +placed upon those who attempt to escape military service by feigning +illness or maiming themselves, but it is said there are still men who +would cut off one or two of their fingers and run risk of spending +four years in the penetentiary in preference to spending a couple of +months every year under military instruction. The military spirit in +Sweden is not strong, although history shows that there are no better +fighters in the human family, and it is remarkable to watch the high +degree of efficiency to which green boys from the farms can be brought +after a few weeks of drill and discipline. + +The regular army of Sweden oh a peace footing is composed of 34,329 +enlisted men, 3,729 officers, 1,655 musicians, 840 engineers, and +623 members of the staff, making a total effective fighting force of +39,114. Of these 6,891 are cavalry and 3,432 artillery. + +These forces compose the garrisons at Stockholm and other principal +cities of the country, and are at all times under arms. The militia, +divided into regiments and companies according to location, numbers +181,000 men, and is subject to call by the king at all hours and under +all circumstances. Each member of the militia, as I have said, must +serve a certain time in the army, eight months for infantry and twelve +months for cavalry and artillery, the service being extended over the +period of five years. During this five years a man spends from two to +four months each year in a garrison or camp, according to the judgment +of his commanding officers, when he receives the nominal pay of the +private in the regular army. He has no option as to the time of the +annual period or service. He may be asked to remain in the army for +eight or twelve months continuously; it all depends upon the plans of +the war office. + +When a man has served his time in the militia, he is given a +certificate to that effect, which exempts him from further active +military service, and makes him a member of the reserves, which number +203,000 men, all of whom have served in the militia, and are subject +to the summons of the king whenever the country is invaded by foreign +foe. With local troubles they have nothing to do. The militia is +considered sufficient for any such emergency, but under the Swedish +system the effective force at the command of the king in case of +foreign invasion is something like 420,000 men. + +There are a lot of picturesque old castles and fortresses on the coast +of Sweden in which garrisons are still maintained, but they would not +last an hour if attacked by modern guns and projectiles. They are +reinforced, however, by earthworks, with the very best artillery. +Swedish guns rank among the highest, and several Swedish patents in +ordnance have been already adopted by the fortification board of +the United States. All the harbors are protected by torpedoes, and +Stockholm is absolutely impregnable from the sea, being situated upon +a fjord or bay that can not be entered except through passages that +are easily defended. + +The navy of Sweden is comparatively small, but for its numerical +strength it is probably the most effective in the world. At least that +is the opinion of competent critics. The total force numbers 4,500 +officers and men on a peace footing, which may be increased to 8,500 +from the reserve on a few hours' notice. The fleet consists of +fourteen first-class cruisers and battle ships, four second- and nine +third-class, five torpedo catchers, twenty-six torpedo boats, and +twenty gunboats of small tonnage, the armament of the fleet being 290 +guns and ninety-seven rapid-firing guns. All the vessels were built in +Sweden. + +Every Swede is a sailor. He is brought up on the water, and taught +in childhood to swim and to sail a boat, and, although the shipping +industry is not so extensive as in Norway, the national interest in +aquatic sports is probably greater and more general than in any other +nation. The long line of seacoast and the 1,100 lakes within Swedish +territory gives abundant opportunity for the exercise of this +inclination. Hence in the case of war, the navy could be recruited +indefinitely with competent men. + +King Oscar took a deep personal interest in naval affairs, because his +early life was spent in the navy, his commission as lieutenant bearing +the date of June 19, 1845. When he was called to the throne, he at +once commenced to plan for improvement of that branch of the service, +and for many years was virtually his own minister of marine. He did +much to encourage the maritime spirit among the people, being honorary +president of the Royal Yacht Club, and presided over its meetings, +which were sometimes held in the palace to suit his convenience. He +took an active part in the organization and promotion of the naval +reserve, and never lost an opportunity to show his zeal in the +development of the shipping industry and the aquatic pastimes. + +Nor was the king a paper sailor. On special occasions he showed great +bravery and presence of mind at sea, and of his sixty decorations and +medals he valued none higher than that which was awarded him by the +Humane Society of France in 1862, when he saved the lives of three +people at the risk of his own. + +The Swedish militia is commanded by officers of the regular army. No +man can receive a commission in the militia unless he has spent at +least sixteen months in the military academy and passed the required +examinations. About a thousand young men are graduated each year from +the several schools situated in different parts of the country, which +are a part of the regular educational system of the nation. Thus the +government has at its command abundant material for the military +organization. The officers are promoted as vacancies occur, are +retired on half pay when they are aged or disabled--generals at 65 +years, colonels at 60, lieutenant colonels and majors at 55, and +captains at 50. Militia officers are eligible to appointments in the +civil service; they may be elected to the riksdag, and they have the +same social standing at the palace as the officers of the regular +army. The palace is the center of the social system in Sweden, and +only certain persons are eligible to invitations to the king's balls +and dinners. All officers of the militia are included in the list, +and all peasants in the riksdag, although their wives are never +invited.[h] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PUBLIC EDUCATION + + +There are few countries in which education is as free as in Sweden. +From the grammar school to the university in all its stages, the cost +is defrayed entirely by the state or the parish. Education is thus not +a privilege of the wealthy, but a benefit common to all. + +In Norway you are scarcely ever out of sight of a schoolhouse, and +Professor Nielsen, of the university, on being asked concerning the +ratio of the illiterates, looked surprised and replied that he was not +aware of any illiterates; that he did not recollect having seen any +statistics on the subject, and ventured to assert that anybody in +Norway could both read and write. + +Education is free throughout the entire primary system, a course of +seven years, between the ages of seven and fourteen, when the law +prohibits the employment of children in any occupation, and requires +them to attend school at least thirty hours a week for twelve weeks +each year in the country and fifteen weeks in the cities. The maximum +term is forty weeks in both city and country districts. There are in +the kingdom 5,923 school districts, governed by _Skolestyret_--boards +consisting of the parish priest, the president of the municipal +council, and one of the teachers chosen by themselves. There is also a +board of supervisors, composed of three men or women, elected by the +parents of the parish. Childless people are not allowed to vote. This +board of supervisors does not appear to have any definite function +except to advise and find fault. The school board elects the teachers, +determines the courses of study and methods of discipline, and submits +recommendations and estimates for appropriations annually to the +municipal council. In both city and country what is called "voluntary +instruction" is provided outside of the legal school hours, which may +be taken advantage of by people who are willing to pay for additional +attention from the school teachers, but it is neither free nor +compulsory. + +The compulsory studies in the primary schools are the Bible, the +catechism of the Lutheran creed, the Norwegian language, the usual +elementary branches, with history (including a treatise on the +constitution and the government of Norway), botany, physiology +(including the fundamental principles of hygiene and the effects of +the use of intoxicating liquors), singing, drawing, wood-carving, the +use of the lathe and other tools, manual training, gymnastics, and +rifle shooting. + +The national law requires that schoolhouses shall be so located as to +be within a distance of two miles of the residences of ninety per cent +of the children of school age. The poor are provided with text-books +upon application, and in some places the municipal council provides +every child a warm dinner at noon. It can be paid for if the parents +prefer, but the better classes look upon this provision with +prejudice, as they do upon all charities. Nevertheless, it is an +excellent idea to be sure that the children of the poor get at least +one warm meal every day. In the city of Christiania, 711,302 meals +are served annually in the primary schools. The average attendance is +22,750, so that only about 24 per cent of the children take advantage +of the free dinner. Only 18,341 of these meals are paid for, and those +are taken on stormy days by children of well-to-do parents. + +The Norway school teachers must be graduates of normal schools, of +which there are twelve in the kingdom; they must pass examinations and +serve a probation of three months before they are definitely engaged, +but when they have once received an appointment, they are settled for +life and sure of a pension at the end of the long term of faithful +service. The same rule applies to all civil service employees, for the +school system is a part of the government. There is no such thing as +rotation in office. Promotion is expected by all who deserve it. A +worthy and efficient teacher, having begun in youth at the lowest +grade, expects advancement to the highest, according to the judgment +of the school boards and supervisors. School teaching is a career, +just as a government clerkship is a career. People enter both +professions with the expectation of making them their life-work, +although from our point of view they offer very little inducement. + +The average salary of the school teachers in Norway is only about $220 +a year, the men receiving a little above the average and the women +a little less. The highest salaries are paid in the city of +Christiania--$756 for men and $434 for women. Head masters to the +number of 1,992, like parsons, are furnished with houses to live in +and little tracts of land, three or four acres, where they can raise +vegetables for their families and keep cows; and nine hundred and ten +of them add a little to their incomes by serving as parish clerks. +When they become too old to teach, they receive pensions of from $56 +to $224 a year, and when they die, their widows are remembered by the +government to the extent of from $28 to $74 per year. + +The primary school system of Norway costs an average of $5.60 per +child per year in the country, and $13.16 per child in the city, or +$1.26 per capita of population in a year. + +There is a secondary school system under the control of the national +government, administered by the department of education and religion. +It embraces forty-six high schools, located in different parts of the +country, known as _Latin-Gymnasier_, or classical schools, at which +students are prepared for the university, and _Real-Gymnasier_, or +technical schools, in which they are taught English, mathematics, the +natural and applied sciences, bookkeeping, stenography, and other +branches that will fit them for commercial or industrial pursuits. +There are also twelve cathedral schools, one for each ecclesiastical +diocese, which were founded in the middle ages, and are supported by +large estates acquired from the early kings and by confiscation of +church property after the Reformation. There are also five private +academies, attended chiefly by the sons of rich men. + +The University of Christiania, which is one of the first in Europe, +was founded in 1811, and has five faculties, with sixty-three +professors, eighteen fellows, and about 1,450 students, of whom 70 are +studying theology, 20 law, 330 medicine, and 600 are in the scientific +department. The professors are appointed by the king, and receive +salaries of about $950 a year, with a longevity allowance in addition +amounting to about $125 every five years. The fellows are paid about +$350 a year, and are provided with lodging rooms. Tuition at the +university is free upon payment of a matriculation fee of $10. Women +have been admitted on even terms with men since 1882, and 260 have +matriculated, of whom 53 have taken degrees. The university has an +endowment of $1,310,000, with legacies amounting to about $250,000 +to encourage original investigations in special lines of study. The +Nansen fund, which amounts to about $150,000, is intended to encourage +exploration on the seas. The hospitals of Christiania are in charge of +the medical department. + +There are also the usual schools for the deaf, dumb, blind, +weak-minded, and crippled children, supported by the state, and reform +schools for the correction and restraint of the depraved. Technical +schools, with day and night classes, for teaching the trades to young +men and women, four schools of engineering in different parts of the +country, nine industrial schools for women only, where they can +be trained to earn their living by sewing, dressmaking, weaving, +millinery, embroidery, and other needlework, bookkeeping, typesetting, +stenography, typewriting, photography, and other lines of industry, +and an art school especially patronized by the king in connection +with the art gallery at Christiania, where painting, drawing, and +designing, modeling, decoration, and the art of architecture are +taught. + +In most of the counties are found what are called +_Amtsskoler_--schools to educate people for a practical life, with +separate courses for each sex, the boys being taught farming, +gardening, and mechanics, and the girls the arts of the household. +There are also schools of deportment, where girls are fitted to act +as governesses and are taught the social graces, music, dancing, the +languages, and conversation. In several of the cities are workingmen's +colleges, known as _Arbeiderakademier_, where mechanics who have an +ambition to acquire a better knowledge of their trades and general +culture, may attend lectures in the evenings, delivered by scientific +men, successful mechanics, and other specialists. The range of +subjects includes every branch of human activity. + +In Sweden, in the _Folkskola_, Elementary or People's School, +maintained by the parish under the direction of the school board and +the close supervision of the state, instruction is compulsory as well +as gratuitous. As in Norway, between the ages of seven and fourteen +every boy and girl must attend a public school, unless the parents can +show that their child is receiving equivalent instruction elsewhere, +in a private school or at home. No exception or compromise is allowed, +and no "half-time" system or "rush" through the school to suit the +convenience of the factory or the farmer. For seven years, during +eight and a half months of the year,--allowing for summer, Christmas +and Easter holidays,--and thirty-six hours per week, every boy and +girl in the kingdom receives instruction and goes through the same +curriculum. The school board, which has the direct management of the +schools is elected to the parish, and women are eligible to it. The +state, which controls the whole system of education, from the A.B.C. +class to the college and university, maintains alike its unity and its +efficiency, and sees to the strict enforcement of the law. Parents who +try to evade it, through malevolence or neglect, may even, after due +warning, be deprived of their children, who are taken over by the +community during their school years. + +In thinly populated districts the school may be "ambulatory," held now +in one part of the district and now in another, so that all may attend +in turn. In such cases the schooling is reduced to four months in the +year. But there is no district, however poor or thinly populated, +without its _Folkskola_. There are nearly twelve hundred of these in +the land, attended by seven hundred and forty-two thousand pupils, and +employing sixteen thousand two hundred and seventy teachers of both +sexes. + +No more conscientious, hardworking, and respectable class of men and +women can be found than the teachers. Eight years' study, first in a +special seminary and then in a training college, has taught them their +profession both in theory and practice. They are convinced of the +importance and dignity of their office, and are respected accordingly. +Socially, the general type of the school teacher is a superior one. +There are at present in the Riksdag, occupying seats as members of the +second chamber, no fewer than eleven teachers in elementary schools, +twelve teachers in secondary schools, one inspector of schools, and +one university professor. In the rural community, the school teacher +is something of an authority. Most of the members of the parish have +"sat under him" at school in their early life, and owe to him most of +what they know. For years he has been diffusing knowledge around him, +and has been looked up to as the fountain of book learning. He is the +local parson's great coadjutor in parish matters, and being a ready +speaker, is of no mean influence in the parish assemblies. The one +dark blot in the existence of the school teacher is the small salary +received. Few of them receive so much as $300 a year, the average +running from $225 to $275; even in Stockholm the figure going little +beyond $300. Living is, however, cheap in the rural districts, and +these teachers, who are drawn generally from the rural and indigent +classes, are accustomed to frugality and economy. They are lodged +free of rent in the schoolhouse or a cottage attached to it, and are +allowed firewood and other small prerequisites. They have generally a +small garden or potato patch to cultivate, and can keep a cow and a +few hens. They often add to their modest stipend by extra work, such +as teaching in the evening classes, playing the organ in church, and +writing, or some such work after school hours. + +At fifteen, after seven years' assiduous attendance at the +_Folkskola_, the boy and girl have finished their education, so far as +compulsory instruction goes, and they are free to begin work on their +father's farm, in his shop or his trade, or take service anywhere and +shift for themselves. They may, however, if they like, pursue their +studies further in the continuation schools, or in the evening classes +provided in most parishes, or repair to a college or gymnasium town, +if they elect to enter the church, the liberal professions, or the +service of the state. But they have first to be confirmed, and it is +here that the definite religious instruction is given. The preparation +for confirmation, which entails a much longer and more advanced course +of religious instruction than is usual for confirmation in England, +is independent of the school and takes place in church, parents being +allowed every liberty in the choice of the clergyman who performs this +office for their children. English readers who are acquainted with +Longfellow's admirable translation of Tegnér's beautiful poem, "The +Children of the Lord's Supper," are aware of the importance of this +ceremony in Swedish social life. It is the great turning point in the +existence of Scandinavian youth. The boy and girl emerging from it +leave boyhood and girlhood behind them. Knee-breeches and short frocks +have given way to pants and long skirts. The boy sports his first +watch and glories in his first shirt-front. The girl discards her +long plaits, and wears her hair in a top-knot. They have made their +profession of faith in public, have been examined in regard to it, and +have had to answer for it in the presence of the whole congregation. +They have assumed henceforth the full responsibility of their acts. In +the eyes of the church, if not in the eyes of the law, they are free +and responsible members of society. + +The secondary schools are maintained by the state, and are confined +to the towns. They comprise nine forms in seven classes, of which +the last two have double forms. The first three correspond to the +curriculum of the primary schools, where are taught reading, writing, +arithmetic, history, natural sciences, singing, drawing, and +gymnastics, to which are added _Sloyd_ and gardening for the boys, and +needlework and cooking for the girls. Scholars who have passed these +in the primary schools enter into the fourth form. They are generally +divided into two branches, the classical and the modern, according +as the classics or languages predominate in the curriculum, which +comprises religion, Swedish composition, history, geography, +philosophy, Latin, Greek, German, French, mathematics, zoology, +botany, physics, chemistry, and drawing. After the fourth form, +pupils must declare, with the written approbation of their parents or +guardians, whether they will follow the classical or non-classical +course, according as they intend to qualify for the universities +or the technical high schools. Not all the pupils who attend these +secondary schools complete the full course and pass the final +examination. More than half--those who mean to devote themselves to +trade, agriculture, or industry, and those who have not developed +the capabilities necessary to confront the severe final test of the +"maturity" examination--leave the school on attaining the upper forms. +To those who intend to enter the professions, the civil and military +service, and the church, the full course of the secondary school is +necessary, the "maturity" examination certificate being the only open +sesame to the universities, the special colleges, and the technical +high schools. To obtain it and to don the white cap, which is the +outward and visible sign of university membership, is the first great +step in the life of the ambitious youth. + +For young men destined for the technical trades and professions, there +are open, after they have passed the maturity examination at the +secondary school, two special institutions, where they complete their +technical training--the Technical High School of Stockholm, and +the Chalmers Technical Institute at Gothenburg, besides elementary +technical schools at other places. The Stockholm Technical School, +which is the most complete, comprises five branches: (1) mechanical +technology and machinery, shipbuilding and electrotechnics; (2) +chemical technology; (3) mineralogy, metallurgy, and mining mechanics; +(4) architecture; (5) engineering. The course in each of these +sections takes between three and four years. Generally several are +combined, constituting a course of six or seven years. + +There are two universities in Sweden--Upsala in the north, founded in +1477; and Lund in the south, founded in 1668, to which may be added +the Medical College in Stockholm, founded in 1810, and limited to the +medical faculty. The studies at these universities are thorough +and comprehensive, but unusually long. They have each four +faculties,--theology, jurisprudence, medicine, and philosophy,--and +grant three different degrees in each, besides special degrees in +theology and jurisprudence for entering the church and the government +services. Even these last, which are easiest to obtain, require a +course of from four to five years. To take a medical degree a young +man must stay nine years at the university, and two additional years +in the hospitals, making eleven years in all. Unlike English and +American universities, the Swedish universities are non-residential. +Like those of the Continent, they are only teaching institutions, and +the students who matriculate at Upsala and Lund must lodge in town or +board with families living there. Beyond attending the lectures and +going up to be tested, they have no direct intercourse with their +professors. + +In this brief sketch of the institutions provided by the state it +will be seen that what especially characterizes public instruction in +Norway and Sweden is its undoubted thoroughness and depth, though a +serious penalty is paid for this in the extreme length of the course. +By the time it is completed, and the young man issues from the +protracted ordeal, armed for the battle of life, several of the best +years of his youth are passed; he is already between twenty-five and +thirty years of age when he first treads on the threshold of his +career. On the other hand, he enters it not only with the necessary +qualifications whereby to rise to eminence in it, of which the severe +tests he has undergone offer evident proof, but with the assurance of +finding the way more or less open to success.[i] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HAAKON VII, THE NEW KING OF NORWAY + + +There is something essentially, almost ludicrously, modern about +the creation of Norway's new king. Not that it is the first time a +sovereign has been, so to speak, "custom-made." An eligible foreign +prince is tendered a seat upon an ancient throne; the form is old, but +the spirit, how new! Republican though she is to the backbone, Norway +has elected to be governed by monarchical methods, fearing with her +isolated and primitive peasantry, to put the machinery of control into +the hands of the people themselves. She must have a king, but he shall +be of a new variety; in short, a republican king. She will not even +have him addressed as were the monarchs of old, by the Norwegian +equivalent of "Your Majesty." He shall be just _Herre Konge_, plain +"Mister the King." + +Even as the Norwegians welcomed Haakon VII to their shores, they took +pains to show him clearly his rightful place. In his address delivered +to the newly arrived sovereign on board the battleship Heimdal, Herr +Michelsen, President of Council, and for six months virtual President +of Norway, used these significant words: "For nearly six centuries +the Norwegian people have had no king of their own. To-day a king of +Norway comes to make his home in the Norwegian capital, elected by a +free people to occupy, conjointly with free men, the first place in +the land. The Norwegian people love their liberty, their independence, +and their autonomous government which they themselves have won. It +will be the glory of the king and his highest pleasure to protect this +sentiment, finding his support in the people themselves. This is why +the Norwegian people hail you to-day with profound joy and cry, 'Long +live the King and Queen of Norway!'" + +Was ever so frank a bargain driven with a king before? "Behold," says +Norway in effect, "you may sit on a throne; but beware how you attempt +to king it over us. We will give you a salary to transact our official +business and act as official figurehead. But you must never overlook +the fact that it was we who made you and not you yourself." + +Is it any wonder that when asked to undertake to govern a people so +independent, so proud spirited as this, Prince Karl of Denmark took +time to think? Or that he asked for a popular vote that he might know +how large a proportion of the _frei_ people of Norway really wanted +him for a king? + +This was not the only reason why he hesitated. Being himself on his +mother's side a Bernadotte, he could scarcely ascend the Norwegian +throne without the friendly sanction of Sweden. Moreover, his wife, +Princess Maud of England, was more than reluctant to undertake life +in Christiania and the duties of queenship. Lastly, Prince Charles +himself ran a shrewd risk in assuming the crown, lest, should his +relations with Norway become difficult, he might be forced to resign, +and find himself--having abandoned his naval career for the throne--in +a state of abject poverty. + +All three objections were finally overruled. Sweden, fearing lest +an empty throne in Norway should give impetus to the movement for a +republic, and that such a movement might afterward spread to her own +borders, was as much in haste to see Norwegian affairs settled as the +Norwegians themselves, so she swallowed her grievances. Most amicable +correspondence passed between Prince Karl and the Crown Prince of +Sweden, the latter expressing himself anxious to be the first to +welcome Haakon VII into his capital. What became of Princess Maud's +reluctance is not definitely known. It is understood that she never +found life at the Danish court very amusing, and probably the prospect +of exchanging Copenhagen for a city of less than half its size did not +allure her. She must have realized that if she accepted a share of the +Norwegian throne, she would be forced to abandon her favorite cure for +_ennui_--frequent flights to the court of England--for Norway has had +quite enough of absentee royalty. The English papers asserted that +King Edward used his parental authority to overcome his daughter's +scruples. At all events, she gave in. As for Prince Karl's reasonable +fear of dethronement and penury, the Norwegian government quieted that +by promising a respectable pension in case the king should find it +expedient to abdicate. + +So, then, the affair was comfortably arranged. The king has a salary +of $200,000, a crown when he had no hope of ever feeling one on his +brow, and the problems of a court without a nobility. + +And now the world is asking, "Has Norway done well for herself?" +Certainly she has done well in putting a Scandinavian prince on the +throne. No alien would ever understand Norway or be understood. If +reports are creditable, the Kaiser made the most of his friendship +with the country in support of the claims of a son of his own. Had a +German secured the throne, there would have been sown fresh seeds +of discord on a peninsula which can raise a sufficient crop of +dissensions without any aid from the rest of Europe. For Denmark, +still nursing the rankling grievance of the Schleswig-Holstein affair, +detests the thought of everything German. + +King Haakon combines the advantages of Scandinavian birth with the +very positive political asset of blood relationship to half the courts +of Europe. Grandson of the late King Christian of Denmark, the young +monarch is also nephew to King George of Greece, the Dowager Empress +of Russia, and Alexandria of England, a grand-nephew to the late Oscar +of Sweden, son-in-law to King Edward VII, and cousin to the Czar. To a +relatively defenseless country like Norway, this means a good deal. + +In himself the new king is a clean-lived, healthy young man of +thirty-three, in personality quite fit to represent a nation which +thinks well of itself. Tall, though not quite so tall as his uncle, +Prince Christian, whose mark on the famous old royal measuring-column +at Roskilde comes just under that of the giant, Peter the Great, King +Haakon is slight, yet vigorous-looking, and splendidly well set up. +The face, while scarcely so handsome as the profile pictures lead us +to think, is a distinguished one, and has for Norway this charm, that +it is markedly not of the Bernadotte type, although his mother is +a Bernadotte. Those who know him describe him as an extremely +intelligent and sensible young man, easy and tolerant without being +weak, and capable of strenuous devotion to hard work. These things +bespeak an industrious, efficient, and tractable king, such as the +Norwegians, who would equally resent either vacillation or tyranny, +know how to appreciate. + +It has been said in France that King Haakon abandons tiller and +compass for crown and scepter without one hour's training in politics +or diplomacy. + +The statement appears incontestable. In view of the remarkable +longevity of the late king of Denmark, and the excellent health and +prospects of the Crown Prince and his immediate heir, this younger son +of a royal house was not brought up to look for a crown. Instead, he +was destined from the outset for a naval career. For all that, it is +not safe to say that he has had no training in politics or diplomacy. +One can scarcely grow up in the family of the "father-in-law of +Europe" and not learn the principles of the great game of world +affairs. King Haakon is no stranger to the queer old palace among the +beeches at Fredensborg, where every summer King Christian gathered +together his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren from +the courts of England, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Greece; and where +conversations took place which, if reported, would vitally interest +the whole round world. In his lifetime, the Czar Alexander III was +particularly fond of holding long talks at Fredensborg with his +nephew Karl, then a lieutenant of the navy, whom he found especially +intelligent and open-minded. + +It is thought in Copenhagen that King Haakon may, even during the last +years of his father's life, have had some experience in the government +of Denmark, since his father, the Crown Prince, was called upon +to perform many of the old king's duties. At least, if he did not +actually transact royal business, he acquired no small acquaintance +with the working of government machinery. + +Nothing, certainly, could have been more fitting than that a ruler of +Vikingland should be educated for the sea. Nor could anything have +been devised better calculated to knock the nonsense out of a +princeling than apprenticeship in the Danish navy. Hrolf Wisby, who +messed with Prince Karl when he was a naval cadet, says that the lad +was at first little more than a piece of court furniture. Any one who +is familiar with the appalling frankness and unvarnished brusquerie of +grown-up Danes can judge whether the hazing and horse-play on a Danish +man-of-war was agreeable, and whether it was medicinal in a case of +congenital self-esteem. Prince Karl lived the life of an ordinary +middy, scrubbed decks, mended his own clothes, slept in a hammock, and +ate provender which was anything but fit to set before a king. It is +recorded of him that he was an expert in polishing a certain brass +binnacle lantern. We wonder if he ever thinks now of a certain line in +Pinafore, "I polished that handle so care-ful-lee, that now--" + +As ensign, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and finally captain +of a frigate, the young man acquitted himself well, earning the +reputation of a capital officer, hardworking, careful, no martinet +towards his men, though by no means to be trifled with. In practical +seamanship, he excels any other prince of his age, and can command +any kind of naval craft from torpedo boat to battleship, and lead in +actual battle. + +In forming their court, King Haakon and Queen Maud are gathering about +them the literary, artistic, and musical people of the realm, for they +are devoted to the companionship of gifted folk. The queen has herself +written plays under the pseudonym "Graham Irving," and the king paints +a little in aquarelles, and plays the piano almost too well to be +termed an amateur. Both are accomplished linguists, speaking with +discrimination French, German, Russian, English, Norwegian, Swedish, +and, naturally, Danish. There is no barrier of speech in their +intercourse with members of the diplomatic corps. + +The little heir apparent, Alexander, rechristened Olaf, has already +done much toward ingratiating himself with the Norwegian people, +although but a half dozen years old. On the day when the royal couple +entered Christiania, the boy was but two and a half years old, but he +was very much interested in the decorations, and seemed to catch the +enthusiasm of the crowd, for he waved his little hand spontaneously. +In counting up the merits of the king, the promising little heir must +by no means be left out. + +Trondhjem Cathedral, where all the kings and queens of Norway for +centuries have been crowned, and where the coronation of King +Haakon VII and Queen Maud occurred, stands on the site of what was +undoubtedly the first Christian church in the country--that erected by +Olaf Trygvason in 996. Within its confines bubbles the spring which +sprang from the tomb of that later Olaf who is the patron saint of +Norway, and somewhere under its walls lie moldering the bones of +medieval kings, four of whom accepted their consecration before the +altar where King Haakon received his crown. It is a thousand pities +that hammer and chisel should have exorcised the spirits which ought +to haunt this venerable shrine. It is as if England's Abbey had been +scrubbed and resurfaced, and new noses had been provided for all the +crumbling stone kings and queens. Trondhjem Cathedral has burned down +so many times, and the work of restoration has been so sweeping, that +it takes an active imagination to invest it with the proper glamour of +romance. + +Trondhjem itself is an odd place for festivities. The people say that +it is fear of fire which makes them separate their insignificant +wooden houses by such disproportionately broad streets. Certainly it +gives to the town a low look anything but imposing. + +Whatever may be the esthetic shortcomings of King Haakon's coronation +city, it was amply atoned for by the enthusiasm and whole-hearted +devotion of his new people. The king and queen are in very truth "the +father and mother of the land." Even toward the rulers they shared +with Sweden their cherished warm affection until their grievances +waxed too sore. When Sophie of Nassau was on her way to Trondhjem to +be crowned, in 1873, she drove herself in a carriole from the +Romsdal, stopping perforce at humble posting-stations by the way. And +everywhere the peasants came with flowers, greeting their queen by +the affectionate and familiar "Du." More than once when the press was +thick about her, and those on the outskirts could not see, the queen +was urged to mount upon the housetop that the eyes of all might +be gladdened by the sight of the dear land-mother. There was a +significant demonstration of this sort of heart-loyalty when Haakon +VII and Queen Maud entered Christiania. The crowds which waited in +the steadily falling snow, and shouted themselves hoarse, might be +accounted for by curiosity and mob enthusiasm. + +Triumphal arches, flags, and even the rain of flowers which descended +on the royal pair, might be classed as perfunctory, an essential part +of the occasion. But at night the spirit of the people showed beyond +mistake. Not only were the streets arched and bordered with festoons +of colored incandescent lights, not only were the battleships in the +harbor strung with fiery beads to the topmost spar, but every window +in every house in the city bore its light. Fine houses had candelabra +behind the glass, and the poorest mere tapers, but everywhere the same +fire of welcome burned. + +Haakon VII has the privilege of ruling over the most united people on +the face of the earth. Before the plebiscite, Sweden declared that the +desire for separation was confined to a party who were poisoning the +minds of the common people. When the plebiscite had shown that only +164 men out of 368,000 could be found to uphold the union, Sweden +protested that the peasants had been intimidated and dared not vote as +they thought! + +Now, it was just at this stirring time that I was driving through +Norway, or cruising in her fjords, and talking with graduates of her +university, with sea-captains, hotel proprietors, traveling men, +porters, drivers, serving-maids--all, in short, who spoke English +enough to make themselves clear. It was as if all Norway spoke with +one voice. From Hamerfest to Stavanger there was the same complaint of +the same wrongs, the same quiet insistence upon the same remedy. Nor +was it only the subjects of King Oscar who spoke; Norwegians settled +in France, in England, or in America either hurried home to vote or +sent their vigorous endorsement of the revolutionary proceedings. A +window in Christiania was completely filled by the mingled flags of +Norway and the United States, crossed by a banner bearing the words, +"For Disunion." It was the voice of Norway and America. It was a +modest desire they expressed. In the words of Olaf Sprachehaug, our +humble-minded _skydsgut_, the whole country was saying, "And now I +t'ink we get a king of our own." They have their own king now, and all +the world wishes them joy in him.[j] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN + + +The present reigning family of Sweden is too young to be very +numerous, and in this brief survey it is well to begin with a bit of +information about that grand democratic monarch, Oscar II, passed away +less than two years ago. How the Bernadotte dynasty was formed has +already been shown in a previous chapter, and something of the kings, +who succeeded the former Field Marshal of France has also been +related, so that we have in these few pages simply to deal with Oscar +II, the late king, and his four sons and their families. + +Oscar's grandfather, the originator of the Bernadotte dynasty, was +still on the throne when he was born, in 1829, as the third son of +Crown Prince Oscar and the beautiful Josephine of Leuchtenberg. He +seemed far removed from the throne then, and thus he found freedom +to develop himself more in keeping with his individual tastes and +inclinations. Another factor to be borne in mind is the character of +his governor and principal instructor, the historian, F.F. Carlson, +who gave to his pupil a fondness for scientific exactness as well as +an insight into the true causes of civilizatory development found none +too frequently in professional thinkers, and hardly ever in princes. +The things that drew him most strongly in those days were the sea, and +music. + +One of the foremost of Swedish composers, A.F. Lindblad, taught him +the latter, while his fondness for the former was richly satisfied +during the years when he worked his way through the ranks of the +Swedish navy. And his position on board the various man-of-war's-men +in which he traveled on many seas was never merely ornamental or even +exceptional. He took not only the title but also the work of the +offices he held, from midshipman to admiral. + +It was characteristic of him, too, that when he married, he did so +out of love. On a tour through several countries; in 1856, he was +fortunate enough to meet Princess Sophia of Nassau. The courtship was +brief and ardent. Within a few months occurred the engagement, and the +wedding followed in less than a year. To the last that royal couple +remained strongly devoted to each other in spite of widely differing +tastes and temperaments. She has all her life been intensely +religious, with a strong leaning toward pietism, and illness has still +further developed this inborn tendency. He, on the other hand, was +always gay, light-hearted, fond of merriment, and given to many +pleasures and pursuits which his spouse could only look upon as far +too worldly. + +Duke Oscar Frederick, as he was known in those early days, found +himself heir to the throne after death had unexpectedly removed the +two claimants with rights prior to his own. And on the succession of +his eldest brother, he became the Crown Prince. It was a delicate +position which imposed on him a reserve foreign to his nature. As it +contrasted sharply with the unceremonious jollity of his brother, King +Charles, he came by degrees to be regarded by those ignorant of his +true character with a distrust bordering on dislike. Thus, when the +succession fell to him in 1872, he found himself little understood and +less loved. It took him years to overcome the prejudice. Perhaps it +was his sanction of the impeachment proceedings by the Norwegian +Radicals against the retiring Conservative ministry which, in the +early '80's, first served to turn the trend of public opinion in his +favor, both in Sweden and Norway. That act was one of the many by +which he showed his ability to submit his own inclinations to the +demands of the people without becoming a mere tool in the hands of +any one political party. About the same time he succeeded in bringing +about a deeply needed and by himself long-cherished reform of the +popular educational system in Sweden. Previously,--it was, in fact, +his first important step after his ascension to the throne,--he had on +his own initiative proclaimed full freedom of worship for persons not +belonging to the established church. + +A Scandinavianism of the purely sentimental kind,--the kind that +talked without ever dreaming of putting the talk into deeds,--had +prevailed until then on the peninsula. Intermixed with it was an +equally sentimental sympathy with France. Though himself the grandson +of a Frenchman and still keenly devoted to French literature and art, +King Oscar had the foresightedness to recognize that the interests of +the country were more closely bound up with those of Germany. And one +of the most striking features of his reign was the growing cultural +intercourse between the nations in the north and their neighbor south +of the Baltic. And while the king discouraged the speech-making, empty +Scandinavianism against which Ibsen was fond of launching his most +vitriolic invectives, he fostered instead a fellow-feeling between +Sweden, Norway and Denmark that found its expression in practical +co-operation, in the equalization of commercial and industrial +regulations, in the breaking down of as many as possible of the +unnecessary barriers between them. As the years passed on and the +trend of his labors became understood and appreciated, he found a part +of his reward in a steadily increasing respect for him throughout +the civilized world, a respect that repeatedly found expression in +requests that he act as arbiter of international differences. He had +always been fond of traveling, and this fondness he continued to +indulge up to the last. Unlike those of some other monarchs having a +similar taste, his comings and goings on the Continent were always the +objects of pleasant and welcoming comment. If gossip had to name King +Christian of Denmark "the father-in-law of all Europe," King Oscar was +surely "the friend of all the world." Apace with his own fame grew +the prosperity of his people. On either side of the Kjölen his reign +marked an era of unprecedented economical, social, and spiritual +progress which not even the internal dissensions of the sister nation +could interrupt. + +King Oscar's motto was _Brödrafolkens Väl_ "The Brother-Peoples Weal!" +The Scandinavian peninsula is still populated by brother-peoples, as +was indicated at the time of the death of the old king. It was the +week for the distribution in Norway of the Nobel prizes, always +attended in Christiania with great rejoicing and merry-making. On this +occasion all demonstration was prohibited, and the Norwegian capital +was almost as much in mourning as was Stockholm. Though entirely +devoted to the new order of things, the Norwegians did not forget, +nor will they forget, the character of the king who ruled them for +a generation. More democratic than the Swedes, they were peculiarly +attached personally, if not politically, to one whom they felt to be +really of like democratic instincts with themselves, even if he did +show himself every inch a king. + +Not only as a ruler, but as a father, King Oscar was both wise and +fortunate. Four sons came to him through his marriage, and these have +proved men of his own type. The Crown Prince Gustave was born just one +year after the marriage of his parents, on June 16th, at the Castle +of Drottingholm, in the year 1858; Prince Oscar, known as Prince +Bernadotte, was born on Nov. 15, 1859, at Stockholm; Prince Carl on +Feb. 27, 1861, also at Stockholm; while the youngest, Prince Eugene, +like his eldest brother, first saw the light at the Castle of +Drottingholm, on Aug. 1, 1865. As has been previously stated, the +Crown Prince (now king) was married to the Princess Victoria of Bade, +granddaughter of Emperor William I of Germany, and great-granddaughter +of the exiled Gustavus IV of Sweden. The third son, Prince Carl, is +wedded to his cousin, the Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, which was +a source of great satisfaction to King Oscar and Queen Sophie. The +youngest son, Prince Eugene, is devoted to art, and spends much time +out of the country. Never did King Oscar do more to win the approval +of his subjects, and thinking men and women everywhere, than when he +permitted the marriage of his second son, Prince Oscar, to a young +Swedish noblewoman, Fröken Ebba Munck, of Fulkila, who was also Queen +Sophie's maid-of-honor. While the prince had to renounce his right of +succession and his position as a royal prince of Sweden, his relations +to his father and the other members of the royal family remained the +same. + +Of this incident in the history of the royal family of Sweden, the +following story is told: + +The Queen interceded long and persistently with her husband for +permission for her second son to be married to the woman he loved. +Although the Munck family had played a very important part in the +history of the nation, the king was opposed to the _mésalliance_. "It +is Oscar's duty to be true to himself and to his love," she used to +say. But the king, who was not wont to refuse any of the wishes of +his consort, steadily refused to sanction the union. There were many +things against such a marriage, for Prince Oscar was the second son +of the king, and the very fact that the reigning House of Norway and +Sweden was one of the most youthful of the royal houses of Europe made +it all the more necessary that its scions should intermarry with the +members of the ancient reigning houses. + +About this time the queen was seized with one of her serious attacks +of illness, and her state was such that at one time her life was +despaired of. Her physicians declared that her only hope of recovery +lay in an instant operation, which was both dangerous and extremely +painful. + +The queen called the king to her bedside, and said, "If I undergo this +operation and recover, will you allow Oscar and Ebba to have their +way?" The king was unable to resist such an appeal, made at such a +time, and gave his promise. A short time afterwards the operation was +successfully performed, and when the queen was convalescent, the king +redeemed his promise and gave his consent to the marriage of his +second son. It was on Christmas Eve, and the king had come to his +wife's apartments to see her. He found Ebba Munck and his son Oscar +with her. The maid-of-honor was, at the time of his entrance, singing +one of his poems to Her Majesty, which, oddly enough, was on the +subject of the right to love. After waiting until the song was ended, +the king went up to his son, and, leading him to the girl, laid his +hand in hers, in this manner signifying that he had withdrawn his +opposition to their plans. + +The marriage has proved a most happy one. Prince Oscar has found +perfect content, and has been able to follow his career as a +philanthropist. The wedding took place at Bournemouth, in the presence +of the queen of Sweden, on March 15, 1888, and for some time after it +the prince and his wife were known as Prince and Princess Bernadotte; +but later the uncle of Prince Oscar, the Grand Duke of Luxemburg, gave +him the title of the Count of Wisborg for himself and his descendants. +When their children were born, Prince Oscar and his wife proclaimed +them as the children of Oscar and Ebba Bernadotte, and, during +their entire married life, they have lived as quietly and simply as +possible, and have found their greatest interest in working for the +poor and suffering. They have a son and a daughter, the former, Count +Carl Oscar, having been born on May 27, 1890, and the latter, the +Countess Marie, on February 28, 1889; and three other children. + +And so, as the years went by, a third generation grew up in the palace +at Stockholm,--a brood of long-limbed and broad-shouldered sons with +wholesome tastes and bright minds and kindly temperaments. And at +last, when the king was seventy-eight years old, a great-grandchild +was laid in his arms,--the first son of Prince Gustavus Adolphus (now +the Crown Prince) and the Princess Margaret of Connaught. + +Up to the last King Oscar remained active and interested in all public +affairs. Though he had experienced several brief but rather severe +illnesses of late years, the end came without warning, after a few +days of indisposition, on Dec. 8, 1907. A kindly "thanks" for a small +favor rendered him by a member of his family was the last word heard +from his lips. Previously he had expressed his wish to the members of +his cabinet that no interruption in public or private business be made +on account of his death. + +King Gustavus V, who took the oath of office within a few hours of his +father's death, has suffered something resembling his father's fate +as Crown Prince. Overshadowed by the more brilliant gifts and more +attractive personality of the parent, he was for years spoken of in +rather a disparaging manner in Sweden, while in Norway he harvested +outright hatred in return for his determined upholding of the union. +On frequent occasions during the last decade of his father's reign, he +acted as vice-regent while his father was sick or traveling, and in +this way he found chances to display qualities that gradually changed +the popular regard of him from one of suspicion to one of hearty +respect. His near-sightedness, his serious-mindedness, have militated +against him, but it seems probable that he will prove the very _best_ +ruler Sweden could desire at the present juncture. He is slow to make +up his mind, and will not do so until he has searched every phase +and detail of the problem before him, but once he has come to a +conclusion, he pursues his path without looking to the right or left. + +Gustavus is fifty years old, tall, rather dark, quite unassuming, and +is essentially democratic, while seeming the opposite, whereas Oscar +was aristocratic, although he made much of the people. Like all other +Swedish kings, Gustavus adopted a motto when he ascended the throne; +it is "With the People for the Fatherland"--not inappropriate in view +of his inheritance of a problem clamoring for solution, the extension +of the suffrage and a more direct representation of the people in both +the upper and lower houses of the Riksdag. The new king, who possesses +an uncommon amount of energy, may probably be depended upon to +accomplish this reform. + +There is neither pride of an objectionable type, nor any tendency to +tyranny, nor one strain of arrogance in the new king. He may not be +able to draw upon such ripe culture or upon such fine talents as the +monarch who preceded him, yet the Swedes have no fear that his love of +truth and justice will not outweigh this deficiency and probably make +him a more practical ruler. As for the French descent of the Swedish +royal house, neither the present nor the late king have ever been +ashamed of their ancestry, or forgotten that the first Bernadotte on +their throne was one of Napoleon's greatest marshals. + +Never will Gustavus V be able to give to words or actions that +brilliantly original and kingly tone for which his late father was so +admired everywhere. That, to the mind of all beholders, is to be the +drawback of his reign, for he is the merest mortal; where his father +was the luminous angel. Where Oscar would have been finely eloquent, +Gustavus shows himself merely sensible. Oscar's temper was heated, +his emotions were forever coming to the surface. Gustave is, if more +poised, less interesting. He has always been addicted to manly sports +and exercises. He has often been observed to "put up" an excellent +game of tennis at the club in Stockholm. But he is without the alert +and springy step of the old Oscar, whose muscles remained taut and +elastic almost to his dying day. Gustave lacks the literary aptitudes +of his late father, likewise, who left a well-filled book of verse +which admirers all over Europe did into French, German, Italian, +Danish, and even Hungarian. Gustave has not inherited his mother's +musical genius, either. She was at one time a devotee of Wagner, a +disciple of Kant, and always a pious evangelical of the German +cast. From both his parents Gustave received every encouragement to +proficiency in music. Music, to the late Oscar, was, both in theory +and practice, an essential element in the intellectual life. Gustave +is less the artist than the practical king. + +He encourages international congresses of every kind to come to +Sweden; he helps the universities and the cause of education +throughout his kingdom; he feels his father's interest in Hedin's +travels through central Asia, but he can give no creative impulse +after his father's grand fashion. Oscar was the man of ideas, the +vitalizer of projects literary, musical, dramatic and scientific. He +made Stockholm the capital of the whole intellectual world. Gustave is +very courteous, affable in a dignified way, impressive as he opens the +Riksdag in royal ermine. He has commenced his reign in simplicity, +rising at eight, breakfasting on coffee and rolls, reading the morning +papers until ten, and reviewing the military with a conscientious +assiduity. His note is repose both in manner and in speech, in +striking contrast with the late Oscar, who was majestic in the very +way he had of eating cold meat at supper, and whose height of six feet +three towered, almost without the drooping heaviness of age, till his +seventy-ninth year. Notwithstanding the adverse comparison with his +parent, one has but to see Gustave's face, with its determination and +refinement, to feel a certain assurance as to Sweden's future. + +It is a curious fact that there has been such a dearth of girls in the +Swedish royal family, the only princess of the house being the Crown +Princess of Denmark, a daughter of the late King Charles XV. The +present queen has only sons: Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus, wedded to +Margaret of Connaught; Prince Wilhelm, who was recently married to +the Russian Princess Marie Palvona, and Prince Erik, now about twenty +years of age. The present Crown Prince and Princess are seemingly +perpetuating the tradition, as their first child is a lusty little +son. + +Queen Victoria is said to be endowed with an instinct for business of +every kind far finer and more efficient than that of her husband, and +it is to be regretted that her health is so frail that she is obliged +to spend much time outside her husband's realm, and the duties of her +royal dignity devolve upon her daughter-in-law, the Crown Princess. +It is very satisfying to the Swedish people that by a strange play +of circumstances, the claims of the extinct House of Vasa,--the last +direct descendant of which passed away a few days after King Oscar, +in the person of Carola, Dowager-Queen of Saxony, and daughter of the +deposed King Gustavus Adolphus IV of Sweden,--are again restored, and +that the reigning House of Bernadotte and the ancient House of Vasa +have become joined through the present Crown Prince. It is something +to consider, too, that Adolphus V is the first of the Bernadotte +dynasty in whose veins, through his mother, Sophie of Nassau, there +flows royal blood.[k] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS + + +This is the age of munificent benefactions in aid of science and +learning. The Rhodes scholarships, Mr. Carnegie's free libraries and +educational endowments, the Duc d'Aumale's gift to the French Academy +of his fine _chatteau_ at Chantilly, with its magnificent historical +and art collections; many institutions founded in the United States +and elsewhere by multi-millionaires for the advancement of knowledge, +are a sign of the times. They foreshadow the abolishment of pauperism +and its attendant charities to give place to beneficent institutions, +and Norway and Sweden are abreast with other countries in this +movement. Apart from charitable institutions and endowments for the +maintenance of hospitals and asylums, of universities, scholarships +and fellowships, which the generosity of former generations has +secured, the present generation has seen noble donations made by +private men for more special objects, having the general advancement +of knowledge in view, such as the encouragement of scientific research +and the support of voyages of geographical exploration. Nordenskiöld's +Arctic voyages, his and Palander's navigation through the polar +northeast passage in the _Vega_, Nathort's exploration of King Carl's +Land, the Swedish expedition to the Antarctic regions under Otto +Nordenskiöld, which has lately returned after two years' adventurous +exploration in Graham Land and the discovery of King Oscar Land, Sven +Hedin's travels in Central Asia, which have had such important results +and made his works so widely read--all these were undertaken as +the result of such aid. The latest case in point, Alfred Nobel's +foundation of annual prizes for the reward of scientific discovery, of +literary merit, and humanitarian endeavor, deserves special notice. +The annual distribution of these prizes, each of which represents a +small fortune ($41,500), has of late years fixed the attention of the +learned world on the Swedish literary and scientific bodies, and the +Norwegian Parliamentary Committee, who were entrusted by him with the +difficult and invidious task of awarding them. + +Alfred Nobel, the dynamite king, as he was styled, belonged to a +family of inventors and industrial magnates. His father, Emmanuel +Nobel, was the inventor of nitroglycerine, and of fixed submarine +torpedoes or mines. His two brothers, Robert and Louis Nobel, founded +the naptha and petroleum works at Bacou, one of the largest industrial +enterprises of Russia. Alfred himself invented dynamite and dynamite +gum, and a smokeless powder, ballistite, which he patented in 1867, +1876, and 1889. It is mainly due to the works of the Nobel family that +Sweden has attained the reputation of Master Producer of Explosives. +Chemical research has always been a specialty among Swedish men of +science, and a large number of the known chemical elements were +discovered and made known by Swedish scientists. + +In 1876, Alfred Nobel had perfected his invention of dynamite gum. He +went to Paris with his patented invention, and there formed a company +with a capital of ten million francs for the manufacture of dynamite. +It proved to be an article of the greatest industrial importance, and +one destined to revolutionize mining and engineering. Erelong he had +established extensive works in France, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, +Austria, and the United States. He produced over $25,000,000 worth a +year. He became, in fact, the world's purveyor of an article which was +now exclusively used in mining and engineering works. Thanks to it, +engineers were able to pierce tunnels through the Alps, miners to sink +their shafts into the bowels of the earth, and harbor constructors to +remove sunken rocks out of the way of shipping. But thanks to it, too, +the Communards were enabled to blow up the finest monuments of Paris +in a few hours. It was at once a powerful instrument of industrial +development, and of progress in the conquest of man over inert matter, +and a terrible engine of devastation in warfare, and of massacre and +vandalism where homicidal and destructive passions were aroused in +mankind. + +It was perhaps this thought, that in benefiting industry he had also +made war more destructive, which led Alfred Nobel, who was a most +pacific and humane man, endowed with the kindliness and sympathy of a +great mind, to make the provisions he did in his will. He devoted +all his fortune to the encouragement of scientific discovery and the +reward of endeavors to diminish standing armies and the chances of +war, to promote fraternity among nations, and the settlement of +international disputes by peace congresses. His will, in its very +conciseness and unsophisticated simplicity, is characteristic of the +man. It is dated Nov. 27, 1895, and he died a year afterwards, on Dec. +10, 1896, leaving a fortune of $10,000,000. After instituting several +small legacies, the will proceeds: + +"With the residue of my convertible estate I hereby direct my +executors to proceed as follows: They shall convert my said residue of +property into money, which they shall then invest in safe securities; +the capital thus secured shall constitute a fund, the interest +accruing from which shall be annually awarded in prizes to those +persons who shall have contributed most materially to benefit mankind +during the year immediately preceding. The said interest shall be +divided into five equal amounts, to be apportioned as follows: one +share to the person who shall have made the most important discovery +or invention in the domain of physics; one share to the person who +shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; +one share to the person who shall have made the most important +discovery in the domain of physiology or medicine; one share to the +person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most +distinguished work of an idealistic tendency; and, finally, one share +to the person who shall have most or best promoted the fraternity of +nations and the abolition or diminution of standing armies and the +formation or increase of peace congresses. The prizes for physics +and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Science in +Stockholm, the one for physiology or medicine by the Caroline Medical +Institute in Stockholm; the prize for literature by the Swedish +Academy in Stockholm, and that for peace by a committee of five +persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storthing. I declare it to be +my express desire that, in awarding these prizes, no consideration +whatever be paid to the nationality of the candidates, that is to +say, the most deserving be awarded the prize, whether of Scandinavian +origin or not." + +It was Nobel's object to reward and help the pure man of science, too +much absorbed in his researches to think of drawing any industrial or +pecuniary advantages from his scientific discoveries. "I would not +leave anything to a man of action or industrial enterprise," he said +to a friend with whom he was discussing the project of his will; "the +sudden acquisition of a fortune would probably only damp the energy +and weaken the spirit of enterprise of such a man. I want to aid the +dreamer, the scientific enthusiast, who forgets everything in the +pursuit of his ideas." + +It seems like dropping from the sublime to the ridiculous to follow +so ideal a benefaction with a report of so mundane a thing as a soup +kitchen, but soup is as necessary to humanity at the present period of +life as some of the exalted things of the intellect, and, as pauperism +in Norway and Sweden is so almost unobservable, it is difficult to +search out with the keenest vision any charity that is doing more than +are the "steam kitchens" of Norway and Sweden. And the keenest vision +would hardly observe that these "steam kitchens" are charitable +institutions. They are called "steam kitchens" because they are the +first institutions in the peninsula where steam was used for the +cooking of food. The one at Stockholm, instituted by Prince Carl, is +very similar in detail and operation to the one in Christiania, +but the latter was established first and is more perfect in its +arrangement and methods, so we will take it for illustration. + +This kitchen at Christiania was established in 1858 by benevolent +people to provide wholesome food for the poor at low prices. The +charter granted to the company limited its profits to six per cent +of the capital invested, with a provision that the balance, if any, +should be paid into the poor fund of the city. There was a hard +struggle at first to make both ends meet, and an annual deficit for +many years, which was made up by the stockholders, but at last the +"kitchen" became so popular that it began to pay dividends, and the +stock has since been watered four times, until it now pays what +is equivalent to twenty-four per cent annually upon the original +investment, with a surplus larger than the capital on which it was +started. It is one of the most profitable enterprises in Europe for +the amount of money involved, but that fact does not diminish the +benefits conferred upon the public, and the generosity of the company +to the poor, particularly in times of labor troubles and financial +depression, can not be questioned. Hundreds of bachelors and single +women take their meals there regularly, and hundreds of families +obtain their entire supply of food, wholesome and well cooked, at +nominal cost. + +There is a long official title to the company, but nobody ever +mentions it. It occupies a two-story building covering nearly half an +ordinary block. The location is convenient to the business portion of +the city, the docks and the market-place. There are two large halls, +one above the other, containing five long tables, seating thirty +persons each, thus accommodating three hundred customers at a sitting. +In the upstairs room it costs eleven cents in our money for a +good dinner; in the lower room it costs nine cents. There are no +tablecloths and no napkins, but the tops of the tables have been +scoured until they shine and everything is spotless. The whole +institution is a model of neatness. It seems remarkable how it can be +kept so clean with so many unwashed customers and so much business. +The windows are large and let in plenty of light. The walls are +covered with bright tints, and the waitresses wear white caps, aprons, +and oversleeves. At each place is a knife, fork, spoon, drinking +glass, cup and saucer, and a piece of bread about three inches square. +Dinner is served from ten in the morning until six in the afternoon to +an average of 2,500 people daily. Some of them come twice. They take a +cup of coffee and eat a piece of cheese and bread at their homes early +in the morning. Then at ten or eleven, and again at four or five +o'clock, they go to the "kitchen" for a square meal. Thus it costs +them not more than twenty-five cents a day, all told, for their food. +In the last ten years they have never served less than 1,500 people in +a day. + +The bill of fare varies from day to day, but we will take one day, +Tuesday, for example. A large dish of barley soup is served, wholesome +and nourishing, a ball of hashed meat, with potatoes and rice, or +boiled salmon, potatoes and turnips. + +The nine-cent dinner is pretty much the same, with the exception of +the soup; boiled potatoes and rice, or boiled salmon, potatoes and +turnips. A plate of soup alone, which in itself would be more than a +meal for most people, being filled with meat and vegetables, is served +for three cents. + +The same dinners are furnished to the public to be eaten at their +homes for nine and seven cents respectively, and usually contain +enough food for two or three women, although Norwegians have stalwart +appetites. The outdoor service is conducted in another part of the +building, upon another street. The patrons procure tickets at an +office and then form in line--men, women and children, each with +a bucket or a basket, or both, in hand. Many tickets are given +gratuitously, but it is impossible to distinguish the paying from the +charity customers. Benevolent people throughout the city purchase +bunches of tickets, which they give to the poor, and sometimes in lieu +of wages. If you hire a man to clean up the yard, you can give him so +much cash and so many meal tickets, or if a person appeals to you for +relief, it is always better to give a ticket to the "Steam Kitchen" +rather than money. Many customers buy two portions which they take +home and warm up at meal time for the whole family. + +In the center of a large room are rows of immense caldrons with coils +of steam pipe embracing them. The air is filled with pungent odors +from the bubbling soup, and clouds of steam rise from the other +cook-pots. On a long table are pyramids of bread, cut into cubes three +or four inches square, usually rye or black bread, such as the natives +of Norway prefer. Along the walls are deep cupboards containing the +linens, the culinary supplies and utensils. In an adjoining but +detached building is a furnace and boiler-room which furnishes the +steam, and beside it a laundry and dish-washing establishment. It +requires a good many dishes to serve three thousand people even in a +simple way. In an annex the finer qualities of beef, mutton, and other +meats are cut off and sold to the public, thus utilizing all the +supplies which are bought in large quantities, the beef by the carcass +and the vegetables by the carload. The sausage of the "Steam Kitchen" +is said to be the best to be found in Christiania. All kinds of +prepared meats are also sold in this annex butcher shop. During +the fruit season the company runs a canning department upstairs, +preserving all kinds of fruits, jellies, pickles, and that sort of +thing. At the baking department bread is sold to the general public at +wholesale or retail, and small retail establishments are supplied with +all kinds of groceries as well as meats and other edibles. Thus the +restaurant is only part of this large business from which the company +derives its profits. There is naturally a good deal of jealousy among +the competing small dealers against the "Steam Kitchen," but it serves +a benevolent purpose, and there is no disposition among its customers +to question its business methods or reduce its profits. It has +succeeded in abolishing the cheap restaurants such as are found in all +large cities, at which wretched food, generally the scrapings from +high-class hotels and eating-houses, is worked over and sold to the +poor. + +It is an interesting sight, this bucket brigade, that stands in line +and passes slowly by the serving windows, which are attended by half +a dozen brawny Norwegian women with bare arms and broad, +good-natured-looking faces. They wear neat white aprons and caps, and +handle the food with a dexterity that shows long experience. They seem +to know most of the customers and carry on a familiar conversation +with them while falling their orders. When a bucket and a ticket +passes up, blue for a nine-cent and red for a seven-cent dinner, the +waitress first plunges a huge ladle into the soup pot and empties its +contents into the bucket; then passing along the rows of kettles she +harpoons a piece of meat with a long two-pronged fork, scoops up a +quart of rice with a wooden shovel, and then, adding a portion of +potatoes, slams on the cover, and, grabbing a cube of bread, passes it +over to the purchaser with a joke or a few pleasant words. + +Many of the customers are well dressed, according to the Norway +standard, but no people in the world seem to care so little for +their personal appearance, except on Sundays, when you can scarcely +recognize men and women you have been familiar with during the week. +On the day I ate at the restaurant, my cicerone pointed out at the +dining table two professors of the University faculty, a lawyer in +good standing, a photographer, and a sub-editor of one of the daily +papers, who were his personal acquaintances. The remainder of the +customers appeared to be professional men, clerks, bookkeepers, and +a good many laborers, many of them coming for their dinner without +having removed the traces of toil from their faces and hands. At one +of the tables was a group of students inclined to be boisterous and +evidently enjoying themselves. The "Steam Kitchen" is the favorite +eating-place for the undergraduates, from four to five hundred being +served every day. + +Such an institution as the "Steam Kitchen" is especially suitable to a +Norwegian city, where a portion of the population work for very small +wages, the average income of the wage-earner being less than $100 a +year--so small that, measured by the American standard, it would seem +a difficult problem to find food, clothing, and shelter for a family. + +Few Norwegians suffer from poverty or privation, even through the cold +and gloomy winters that are eight months long. Our own people might +die, or at least suffer seriously under the same circumstances, but +the Norwegians are a hardy race. They have inherited the power of +endurance and the ability to survive hunger and thirst and discomforts +better than most races. + +There are comparatively few poor in Sweden, probably fewer than in any +other European country except Norway and Switzerland, because of the +low cost of living, the sparse population, and the ability of all +men and women to find work if they are willing to earn their own +subsistence. Able-bodied paupers are compelled to work upon poor +farms, but the aged, decrepit and invalids who are dependent upon +public charity are kindly taken care of by what is called outdoor and +indoor relief. In the cities are asylums and almshouses similar to +those in the United States, but in the parishes, as a rule, the care +of the poor is assigned to individual farmers and others who +are willing to take care of them under contract, subject to the +supervision of a board of guardians, of which the pastor is the +chairman and the elders of the church are members. This has long been +a practice in Sweden, but is not universal. + +There are at present 5,277 relief establishments of all kinds in the +kingdom, and the total contributions for the benefit of the poor +amount to $3,000,000 annually, or on an average of 58 cents per capita +of the entire population, an average of 44 cents in the country and +$1.18 in the cities. This includes all poorhouses, asylums, hospitals, +and other institutions for adults and children who can not take care +of themselves. + +A large part of the relief work in the cities is looked after by the +Salvation Army under contract with the municipal authorities, but +there are many institutions, hospitals, asylums, homes for the +friendless and aged and for orphan children, supported by private +charity. The free hospital for children in Stockholm is famous as one +of the best equipped and managed institutions in the world. + +The private charities in Stockholm are united for cooperation in +an organization similar to those found in American cities, and all +charitable institutions are subject to government supervision.[l] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MATERIAL CONDITIONS + + +The chief occupation of the Scandinavian peninsula is agriculture, +employing more men and yielding larger monetary returns than any other +industry in either Norway or Sweden. This may seem strange when it is +recalled that sixty per cent of the surface of Norway is occupied by +bare mountains, twenty-one per cent by woodlands, eight per cent by +grazing lands, four per cent by lakes, and two per cent by ice fields, +leaving only seven-tenths of one per cent for meadows and cultivated +fields. And yet, the products of the farm equal the combined returns +from shipping, lumber, and fisheries. + +In Sweden the proportion of land under cultivation is considerably +larger, the arable lands consisting of about twelve per cent of the +total area, and in Sweden as in Norway, the agricultural products are +more than those from shipping, lumber, and fisheries combined. + +Nine-tenths of the farms of Norway and Sweden are owned by small +proprietors; and although the right to dispose of landed property is +relatively free, the laws of the country favor the retention of the +farms in the families possessing them. An old allodial right makes it +possible to redeem at an appraised value a farm that has been sold. +This right is acquired after the property has belonged to the family +for twenty years, but it is lost after the farm has been in the +possession of strangers for three years. There are some farms that +have been worked for a thousand years by the descendants of the same +family. The best farms are about the banks of the lakes and in the +narrow river valleys, and there are many fertile meadows which have +never been plowed or put under cultivation, so that there are great +future possibilities for tillage. And yet these meadows furnish fine +hay-crops, and every blade of grass represents money in Scandinavia. + +In a country extending through thirteen degrees of latitude, one +might naturally expect a wide range of agricultural products. In the +southeastern part of the peninsula most of the plants and orchard +fruits of central Europe are found; whereas in the northern sections +it is impossible to grow even the most hardy plants. Oats, barley, and +rye are the chief cereals, but their production scarcely meets the +needs of the country. Potatoes are the only root crops extensively +cultivated. While the summers are short, vegetables and small fruit do +excellently during the long, sun-lit hours. Scandinavians, however, do +not seem habituated to a vegetable diet, and the cultivation of root +plants seems very generally neglected. Pears, cherries, apples, +raspberries, gooseberries, and currants may be grown under favorable +conditions; but they play a minor role in Scandinavian horticulture. + +The cow is a staple of wealth to the people of Scandinavia. They are +diminutive in size, dun-colored, docile in habits, and excellent milk +producers. It is said when they are well-fed they average from six to +nine hundred gallons of milk a year. The mountain saeters, or dairies +as we would call them, are the centers of the butter and cheese +industry during the summer months. + +The peninsula is also supplied with an excellent breed of small but +hardy horses. The cream-colored fjord horses of Norway are only +sixty inches high. They are active, hardy, and gentle; and in the +mountainous parts of the country they are vastly more serviceable +than mules would be. The Gudbrandsdalen breed, found chiefly in the +mountain valleys, are larger than the fjord horses, and they are +generally brown or black in color. Good horses bring surprisingly high +prices. Working horses cost from $200 to $350 and the best stallions +bring as much as $2,500. + +The agricultural interests of Norway have suffered unmistakably by the +enormous emigration to the United States. Two-thirds of the Norwegians +of the world live in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. +Nearly every Norwegian farmstead has kinsmen in our country; and the +strong and vigorous always emigrate, thus leaving the farms at home in +the hands of the old and infirm. America has been greatly benefited by +this almost incessant exodus; for the Norse peasants have, without an +exception, made splendid citizens, the best, in fact, that have come +to us from Europe. + +Commenting on the enormous emigration from the Norwegian farms, +William Eleroy Curtis remarks: + +"Notwithstanding the large emigration of young people, for whom the +Norwegian farms are too small, it is apparent that the development of +Norway is continually progressing along the highest lines, and that +the tendency of the people, is upward socially and industrially, in +culture and in wealth. The population of the kingdom not only holds +its own, but shows a slight increase which seems remarkable because +of the continual drain of young, able-bodied men and women who have +removed to our western states. In all public movements, in all +social, commercial, and industrial activities, in art, science, and +literature, in wealth and prosperity, Norway stands abreast of the +most advanced nations of Europe; but its progress is not won without +greater effort than any other people put forth, and the application +of thrift and industry elsewhere unknown, but which is required in a +climate so bleak and inhospitable, and by a soil so wild and rocky. +None but a race like the Norsemen could have kept a foothold here." + +Norwegian economists recognize the loss to the country through +emigration, and in recent years the national parliament has attempted +to improve the condition of agricultural laborers. A fund of $135,000 +has been set aside by the government for the purchase of land. Loans +are granted to municipalities (1) for the purpose of buying large +estates to be assigned to people without means at the purchase price, +in plots of not more than twelve acres of tillable soil, and (2) for +the purpose of being granted as loans on the security of parcels of +the same size, which people without means may acquire as freehold +property. The interest on these loans is from three to four per cent, +and the time of payment is up to twenty-five years. + +There is also a cultivation fund of $270,000, from which loans are +granted for the purpose of cultivating and draining the soil. The +interest is two and one-half per cent, and the time of repayment is +up to twenty years, including five years in which no instalments are +required. Such loans are granted (1) on the security of mortgages and +(2) on the guaranty of the municipality. + +Agricultural societies--national and county--receive government grants +for the purpose of holding meetings and issuing documents that might +be of service to farmers. There is also a staff of surveyors paid by +the state to assist in the public allotment of land and otherwise to +render assistance to needy lot-owners. + +Considerable attention is also being given to the matter of +agricultural education. Connected with the state agricultural college +is an experimental farm, where not only farmers but also dairymen, +gardeners, and foresters receive practical instruction. + +Connected with the larger farms of Norway and Sweden are cotters' +places--farm laborers who have leased a small part of the farm for a +definite period (often during their natural lives). In some cases the +cotter leases only a building with a garden attached; in other cases +several acres of ground. The cotter is usually required to work on +the farm of the owner at certain times of the year for a small wage +regulated by contract. These cotters correspond to our truck farmers, +and their plots of ground number about 35,000 on the outskirts of the +cities and villages. They raise potatoes and other vegetables, and hay +enough to feed a horse and several cows. In most cases the women and +children do the work, while the men are engaged in other occupations. + +It is no longer permitted to establish entails which can not be sold +or mortgaged, and the national government in recent years has sought +to further the partition and allotment of the common ownership +of land. Pastures and grazing lands are still often held by the +community, and similarly mountain pastures. But the community farms, +when the consent of all the part owners and tenants has been +secured, may now be partitioned by surveyors appointed by the public +authorities. + +In the great timber districts of the mountain ranges, the trees are +felled in winter and the logs are dragged to the tops of the steep +mountain sides, where they are slid down to the river, or they are +carted on sledges to the river's edge. During the early summer, after +the ice has gone, and while the rivers are yet full of water, they +are floated down the streams to the sawmills. But, as the logs are +constantly being driven into corners or lodging against piers, +floaters are employed to keep the logs in the current. Log-floating is +both the most dangerous and the most unhealthful occupation in Norway. +Men often fall into the streams; they are forced to sleep on the cold +ground in uninhabited parts of the country; they frequently fall from +the rolling logs into the whirling currents and are tossed against +sharp rocks; and the marvel is not that the death-rate among floaters +is so high, but that any of them survive the perilous occupation. + +The value of the exports of forest products and timber industries +reaches about eighteen million dollars a year, and the combined forest +industries furnish employment to a large number of laborers. The state +forests occupy about 3,500 square miles, more than half being located +in the northern provinces of Tromsö and Finmark. The state also has +nurseries at Vossevangen and Hamar, and three forestry schools, by +means of which widespread interest in tree-planting has been aroused. +Destructive forest fires and the slaughter of the trees by the +remarkable development of the wood-pulp industries have emphasized in +recent times the need of larger forest reserves and closer government +supervision. Under the most favorable conditions, the pine requires +from seventy-five to one hundred years to yield timber twenty-five +feet in length and ten inches in diameter at the top. Spruce will +reach the same size in seventy-five to eighty years. In the higher +altitudes of the central part of the country the pine requires one +hundred and fifty years, and rarely exceeds one hundred feet in +height, and it decreases toward the coast and northwards. + +The fisheries of Norway are among the most important in the world, +yielding the nation more than seven million dollars a year, and +furnishing employment to eighty thousand men. The sea-fisheries play +the chief part in this branch of industry. The long coast line and +the great ocean depth near the coast combine to give the fisheries of +Norway unusual advantages. The abundance of fish is also due to the +presence of masses of glutinous matter, apparently living protoplasm, +which furnishes nutriment for millions of animalcules which again +become food for the herring and other fish. The fish are mainly of the +round sort found in deep waters, the cod, herring, and mackerel being +the most important. + +The cod yields the largest monetary returns. This fish migrates to the +coast of Norway to spawn and in search of food. The best cod fisheries +are in Romsdal, Nordland, and Tromsö counties, the Lofoten islands in +Tromsö alone furnishing employment to more than four thousand men. The +cod weighs from eight to twenty pounds and measures from five to six +feet in length. Some are merely dried after having been cleaned. This +is done by hanging them by the tail on wooden frames. The others are +sent to the salting stations where they are salted and dried on flat +rocks. A fish weighing ten pounds will yield two pounds of salted cod, +the loss being due to the removal of the head and entrails and the +drying out of the water. + +There are numerous secondary products from the cod, the most valuable +being the cod liver oil. The livers of the fish are exposed to a jet +of superheated steam which destroys the liver cells and causes the +small drops of oil to run together. The roe are salted and sent to +France to be used for bait in the sardine fisheries. + +In the matter of the handicraft industries carried on in the homes, +Norway has long taken high rank. As early as the ninth century her +artisans were skilled in the manufacture of arms, farming implements, +and boats, and her women in cloth weaving and embroidery. During +recent times the ease and cheapness with which foreign products could +be obtained caused a marked decline in home industries; but at the +present moment an effort is being made to rehabilitate them through a +national domestic industry association, organized in 1891, which has +taken up the manufacture of hand-carved articles, sheath-knives, skis, +sledges, and woven and embroidered woolen and linen goods after the +old Norwegian patterns. + +The manufacture of lumber and wooden ware is one of the leading +industrial pursuits. With the exception of the two most northern +counties, practically every section of the country is represented by +sawmills and planing mills. Ship-building in recent times has attained +considerable importance, and the manufacture of paper of the chemical +wood-pulp variety has become one of the leading industries. There are +a few cloth, rope, and jersey mills at Bergen and Christiania, but the +textile industries of Norway are relatively unimportant. On the other +hand, leather, India rubber, glass, metal, and chemical industries +have become important of late years. + +Norway is not rich in mineral products. The combined mining industries +do not yield more than two million dollars a year, and they furnish +employment to less than four thousand men. The Kongsberg silver mines +have been operated for more than three hundred years, but the recent +fall in the price of silver has reduced the output. The copper mines +at Rorös have been operated for two hundred and fifty years, and there +are less important copper mines in Nordland, Telemarken, and the +Hardanger. There are iron mines at Arendal and elsewhere, but the rise +in the cost of charcoal, due to the scarcity of wood, has greatly +crippled the iron industry. There are important soapstone quarries in +the Gudbransdal and the Trondhjem basin; green colored slate in the +Valders and at Vossevangen; and granite, syenite, and porphyry in many +parts of the country. + +Measured by population and national wealth, the commerce of Norway is +relatively important, due in a large measure to her enormous merchant +marine and the efficiency of her hardy seamen. Relatively to the +population of the country, Norway has the largest merchant fleet in +the world, and in the matter of steamships and sailing vessels she is +surpassed only by three countries--Great Britain, Germany, and the +United States. Not only is her fleet large, but her service is +efficient. Norwegian seamen the world over are esteemed for ability +and honesty, inspiring all commercial nations with confidence that +goods carried in Norse bottoms will be carefully and conscientiously +treated; and her seamen are everywhere sought to man foreign vessels. + +In industries, the Swedes excel in the manufacture of iron. To fully +appreciate the value of this industry, one should visit Gefle, the +most important shipping point on the eastern coast of Sweden. Here +there is a fine harbor, with docks and warehouses owned by the +government. From this port the ore from the mines of central Sweden +is shipped to all parts of the world and handled by Brown hoisting +machinery, which is made in Cleveland, Ohio--the same that you see on +the ore docks at South Chicago and at Cleveland, Buffalo, Ashtabula, +and other points on the Great Lakes where iron ore and coal are +handled. + +At Gefle, too, an annual industrial exposition is held, where you +may see on exhibit all the utensils manufactured or used by the +people--all kinds of machinery, tools, and implements, recent +novelties in patents, weaving, wood-carving, and a large part of the +exposition building is given up to beautiful articles in iron, in the +manufacture of which we have said the Swedes excel. + +A little west of Gefle is the town of Fahlun, which is the +headquarters of the Kopparberg Mining Company, the, oldest industrial +corporation in the world. The buildings date back to the seventeenth +century and the mines are even more ancient. A mortgage bond was filed +upon them in the year 1288 by a German company, and the records show +that in 1347 the privilege of working them was sold by the king of +Sweden to a syndicate of Lubeck miners. But these documents which are +on file in the archives of the town are comparatively modern, because +the copper deposits at Fahlun were known and worked in prehistoric +times, and from them the Vikings obtained the sheathings for their +ships and the material from which their copper armor, implements, and +utensils were made. An immense amount of copper was used and worked +with great skill in Scandinavia even before the Christian era, and the +most of it came from the great deposits at Fahlun. + +The iron industry is old in Sweden. Isaac Breant, a tradesman in +Stockholm, founded a company and received a charter from Charles XI in +1685. He built the first blast furnace in Sweden, and died in 1702, +leaving the property to his son, who died in 1720. The heirs sold out +in 1722 to a man named Grill, in whose family the property remained +until 1800, when it was purchased by the ancestors of the present +owners. + +The famous Dannemora mines, which produce the best Bessemer ore in the +world, have been worked continuously since 1481. It is one of the most +valuable and extensive iron deposits in the world, and resembles those +of Lake Superior. The area of ore already located covers 12,500 square +meters.[m] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS + + +Since the sixteenth century Norway has had an excellent public posting +system which enables the traveler to go to the most remote parts +of the country at moderate and fixed rates. Fast and slow posting +stations are established by the government along all the national +highways. At the former, horses must be kept in readiness; whereas, at +the latter, the horses may be in distant fields at work, and a couple +of hours may elapse before the traveler can proceed upon his journey. +The rates, which are determined by the government, are, from fast +stations, about seven cents a mile for a horse and two-wheeled +conveyance or sledge; but from slow stations they are scarcely more +than half that price. When the road is over very steep mountains, +an extra fare is charged, usually double; but this is a government +regulation and is always understood. The posting stations are, for +the most part, isolated and solitary farms. The farmers undertake to +provide rooms and meals, as well as drivers, horses, and conveyances. +Stations are usually from seven to fifteen miles apart, and farmers +are required to convey the traveler only as far as the next station. + +Two kinds of wagons are used, the carriole and the stolkjaerre. The +carriole resembles an American sulky, except that it is springless, +and nearly the entire weight is forward of the axle. It is a +two-wheeled gig with the body shaped like the bowl of a spoon. The +seat, in front of the axletree, is fastened by cross-pieces to the +long, slender shafts that project behind and provide a place for light +luggage and a seat for the driver. The carriole is for one passenger. +It is falling into disuse, and its place is being taken by the +stolkjaerre, a two-wheeled cart that will carry two passengers. It +also has long shafts which extend under the axletree to make a support +for the luggage and a seat for the driver. The passenger's seat is +in front, perched on two wooden bars stretched obliquely upwards and +backwards from the front of the vehicle. The drivers, usually men +although sometimes girls, vary in age from six to sixty years. + +The Norwegian horses are stout, stubby, and spirited little beasts. +They are cream-colored, high crested, and have black manes and tails; +the manes are cropped, except the forelocks, which are left to protect +the eyes from the sun, and the tails are very full. Horses are valued +in Norway by the size and fullness of their tails. These little +animals are so trustworthy and intelligent that tourists, as well +as peasants, soon get to look upon them as companions. In every +"skyds-station," as the posting stations are called, in a conspicuous +place is posted this inscription: _Vaer god mod hesten_. This means +"be good to the horse." At every station there is also a book, called +the _skydsbog_, in which travelers are requested to write their names +and any complaints they may have to make regarding their treatment. At +intervals these books are examined by government officials. + +Swedish horses are much larger than those of Norway, tall, heavy, with +long legs and barrel-shaped bodies, very much like Canadian stock. +They drive well, make good speed, and will eat anything. At the livery +stables one can hire outfits by the day or hour--the legal price being +63 cents an hour or 56 cents to any point within the city limits, +and there is an excellent cab system, with what is known as the +"taxameter" register. Every cab is equipped with an arrangement +similar to a gas meter, which shows on a dial the money due, whether +you are using it by the hour or by the distance. The hackman sets his +clock at zero at the time of starting, according to the number of +passengers or whether he is hired by time or distance, and it ticks +away while you ride or while he waits. The fare for one or two persons +is sixty-two cents per hour; for three persons, eighty-seven cents an +hour; for four persons, $1.24 and a tip to the driver anywhere from +one cent to fifteen cents, according to the time he has been with you. +The public posting system outside of the cities is similar to that of +Norway. + +The national government builds the main highways, while the cross +roads are built by the parishes. The management is in the hands of a +bureau in the national department of public works, and the maintenance +falls upon the people who live in the neighborhood, under the +supervision of a local inspector. Every farmer has a piece of road +to take care of, according to the amount of land he owns, and at +intervals slabs of cast iron are erected bearing his name and +the section of the road he is to keep in order. Thus every man's +reputation is at stake in the neighborhood, and if there is a muddy +place or a rut, everybody knows who is to blame for it, and it can not +be laid to the county commissioner, as is the case in America. On the +outside of each road is a line of large blocks of stone set upright, +which serves as a barrier to prevent wagons from going off into the +ditch. There are 6,500 miles of main highway, and 11,000 miles of +cross-road, or a total of 17,500 miles of roads in Norway, and the +total expenditure upon them by national and local authorities will +average a million and a half dollars every year. + +The first cost of a road is usually about $3,000 a mile. They first +dig an excavation about three feet deep, as if they were going to make +a canal. On the bottom are thrown heavy blocks of stone through which +the water can filter, and occasionally there is a little drain to +carry it off. Upon this is a layer of smaller stones, and then still +smaller, until the surfacing is reached, which is macadam of pounded +slate, mixed with gravel and stone. + +During the winter the farmers have to keep their several sections free +from snow, but to do this it is necessary for them to co-operate, for +it would be impossible for one family to handle the heavy plows +that are necessary. Six, eight, and ten horses are often hitched to +them--all the horses in the neighborhood--and it is often the work of +weeks instead of days to get the roads opened up for travel, but when +it is once done, it is as clear and smooth for sleighs as a city +boulevard. + +Norway has only one mile of railway for every one hundred square miles +of land; but the mountainous character of the country, the heavy +snowfall during the long winters, and the thin, scattered population +make railway construction almost prohibitive. Nevertheless, the new +kingdom has made a commendable beginning, and the state has plans for +enormous extensions during the next twenty-five years. There are +now nine railway lines in the country, with a total mileage of one +thousand five hundred and eighty-four, but half of which is +broad gauge. The state railways have been constructed partly by +subscriptions taken in the districts interested in the construction of +new lines, and partly at the expense of the national government. + +The leading railway lines radiate from Christiania to Stockholm, +Goteborg, Trondhjem, Gudbransdal, Telemarken, and the Valders. The +longest line--three hundred and fifty miles--is from Christiania to +Trondhjem through Hamar. There is also a relatively long line--one +hundred and ninety miles--from Christiania up the Gudbrandsdal by Lake +Mjosen and through Lillehammer to Otta. In 1906, the Valders railway, +connecting Christiania with Fagernaes--a distance of one hundred and +thirty-one miles--was opened. This connects with the most important of +the new roads being built, the one from Christiania to Bergen. This +road will reach entirely across the country, from Christiania on +the Swedish frontier to Bergen on the Atlantic coast, thus making +connection between the two largest cities of Norway, journeys between +which are now only possible by steamships and carriages, consuming +from three to six days. + +The new road goes through the mountains and presents many engineering +difficulties. Two-thirds of the way the roadbed must be cut out of the +mountain side, and there is a tunnel three miles long at a height of +two thousand eight hundred and twenty feet above the sea level. The +snow in the winter is so heavy that it will be necessary to cover +the tracks with sheds for a distance of nearly sixty miles. The +construction is not only difficult, but expensive, and although the +distance is but three hundred and ten miles, it will be one of the +most costly railroads ever built. Sixty-seven miles of the line +between Bergen and Vose, on the western coast, is already in +operation, and it is a favorite journey of tourists, for the scenery +is superb, although the traveler is in a tunnel one-tenth of the +entire distance. There are forty-eight tunnels in all. A shelf has +been hewn and blasted along the side of the mountains that encloses +the celebrated Sorfjord. + +The Norwegians call a railway a _jernbane_, literally "an iron path." +Their cars are made on the conventional European pattern, and are +light and comfortable. They are furnished with toilet rooms, and +run smoothly and noiselessly. Most of the trains are equipped with +Westinghouse brakes, steam heat, and electric lights. The trains run +very slowly. Economy is studied in this respect, as in every +other. There is a certain speed--say, fifteen or eighteen miles an +hour--which can be maintained at a minimum consumption of fuel, and +the Scandinavian railway managers have figured it down to a dot. They +can haul a longer train a greater distance with a ton of coal than any +other engineers, and the most scrupulous attention is applied to every +feature of management, the tracks, the rolling stock, the station, the +crossings. The crossing-keepers are usually women. A large number of +that sex are employed by the railways. + +The stops at the stations seem unnecessarily long to impatient +Americans, but the time is utilized by the leisurely passengers in +drinking big goblets of beer, and by the conductor in parading up +and down the platform so that the patrons of the road can have +an opportunity to admire his radiant uniform and fine shape. In +Scandinavian countries the best-looking men seem to have been selected +for railway conductors and policemen, and their deportment is +decidedly different from what we are used to in America. If you ask a +question of a Norwegian policeman, he will bring his heels together, +give a military salute, and stand in the attitude of attention like +a soldier while he answers. He usually understands English, too, and +those who can not are remarkably accurate guessers, and all take a +friendly interest in your inquiries instead of giving you a short +answer and a cold shoulder like the policemen in our cities. They will +walk to the corner to point out the house in the middle of the next +block if that is where you want to go, and when you thank them for +their attention, you get another salute that makes you feel as big as +a major general, or as if you had been mistaken for a member of the +royal family. Railway conductors are equally polite, and seem +to understand that it is a part of their business to protect +tender-footed travelers, as angels always look after good little boys. + +In southern Sweden there is scarcely a parish without a railway, and +in the northern part of the kingdom, where the railway facilities are +limited, posting stations are maintained by the government similar to +those in Norway. There is a railway running as far north as the 67th +parallel of latitude, about fifty miles beyond the polar circle +into Lapland, to the famous mines of Malmberget, with a branch to +Trondhjem, Norway. The line follows the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia +very closely, through a country well covered with small pine timber, +which was being rapidly stripped until the government interfered by +passing rigid regulations and appointing foresters to enforce them. + +You can see the midnight sun from several places on this railway, +anywhere above 66 degrees and 33 minutes of latitude, from the 9th +of June to the 3d of July, and farther north for a longer period. At +Gellivare the midnight sun can be seen regularly from June 5 to July +11, and it is a much more convenient and quicker journey than to the +North Cape and other polar resorts in Norway. During that period a +traveler is reasonably certain of seeing the sun at all hours of the +day as long as he cares to stay, while over in Norway that privilege +is rare and uncertain, owing to the fogs and clouds that obscure the +horizon sometimes for days at a time. But there is nothing else to +call the tourist to this part of Sweden, for the scenery is monotonous +and uninteresting and the facilities for travel are primitive and the +tourists are few. + +Everybody who has taken the trouble to make the journey, of course, +advises other people to do the same, and insists that it is worth the +time, money, and fatigue it costs, on the same principle as the fox +that lost his tail in a trap wanted all the other foxes to cut off +their tails. There is one train each way daily, but it runs very +slowly,--about fifteen or eighteen miles an hour,--and stops a long +time at the stations. The cars are comfortable. The road belongs to +the government, and was built in the '90's for the transportation of +ore from the iron mines, which was previously hauled by cart in summer +and reindeer sledges in winter, to the ports of Lulea and Allapen, a +distance of about one hundred and forty miles. + +When it is recalled that two-thirds of the inhabitants of Norway live +upon the coasts and fjords, the large part which water traffic plays +in the economy of the country will be easily understood. The coast +being well protected by a chain of islands, the skjaergaard, both +travel and commerce are carried on by means of small open boats. The +fjord rowboats, as a rule, are light and pointed, with upright and +high prow, and they carry a square sail. They are light to row, and +they go capitally before the wind. There is an extensive government +posting system on the coasts, fjords, and inland lakes, similar to +that along the public highways already described. The tariff from +fast stations for a four-oared boat and sail with two rowers is about +twelve cents a mile; eighteen cents for three rowers and a six-oared +boat, and twenty-four cents a mile for a boat with eight oars and four +rowers. The tariff is decided by the size of the boat and not by the +number of passengers. The rowers are not infrequently girls and women. + +The large fjords and lakes have ample steamboat facilities, the coast +service between Bergen and Trondhjem being especially good. The +navigable channels of the fjords represent a coast line of twelve +thousand miles, and they are so entirely separated from the sea by +islands and reefs and obstructed at their entrances by old moraines, +that the fresh water from the melting snows and rivers lies four or +five feet deep on the surface. Small steamers ply on all the larger +fjords on which the rates are moderate and the accommodations fair. On +most of these boats a passenger pays full fare for himself and half +fare for the other members of his family, including his wife. Persons +who want to see the fjords of Norway thoroughly should take the +regular mail steamers, which call at all small ports and take a month +instead of a week for the voyage. The boats are small, but clean and +comfortable, and only occasionally have bad weather--very seldom in +summer. They wind in and out of the narrow passages, and because of +their size can navigate where the larger tourist steamers are not able +to go, and therefore the passengers on the latter miss some of the +finest scenery. + +Voyages to the North Cape by the tourist steamers are limited to a few +weeks during the midsummer, when the sun is supposed to be visible at +midnight in the arctic regions, but steamers run regularly all the +year way around the Cape to Archangel, Vadsö, and Horningsvaag, the +arctic ports of Russia. The fjords never freeze, so that navigation is +always open, and there is more or less travel in midwinter between the +civilized portions of the arctic regions. + +If you will take your map and examine the north coast of Europe within +the arctic circle, you will find several towns east of the North Cape +on the White Sea which are wide open 365 days in the year, and do more +business in the winter than during the summer months. They do not see +the sun from December to February. At some places it is invisible for +a longer period, but at Hammerfest the streets, houses, and business +places are lighted with electric lights, and similar plants are being +introduced into other cities of the polar section. It is stated, also, +that the aurora borealis is so brilliant night after night as to make +it easy to read ordinary newspaper print without artificial light, and +by long experience people are prepared for the peculiar conditions +that exist there. The passengers on the steamers in these waters in +winter are mostly commercial travelers and men interested in the +fisheries, which are more active from October to March than at any +other time of the year. + +There are also two canals in Norway that are used for passenger +traffic--the Fredrikshald canal, connecting the Femsjöen and Skullerud +lakes, and the Skien-Nordsjö-Bandak canal, connecting the Nordsjö lake +with the Hitterdal and Bandak lakes. Between the Hitterdal and the +Nordsjö lake there is a rise of fifty feet, which is overcome by two +locks at Skien and four at Loveid; and between the Nordsjö and the +Bandak lakes there is a rise of one hundred and eighty-seven feet, +which is overcome by fourteen locks, five of which are around a +waterfall, the Vrangfos, where the average rise for each lock is about +thirteen feet. The postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, all under +government control, are both cheaper and more efficient than in the +United States, where the two latter are private monopolies. With the +exception of Switzerland, Norway is more abundantly supplied with +postoffices, in proportion to her size, than any other country in the +international postal union. The length of her telegraph lines, in +relation to the population of the country is greater than in any other +country. There is no place in the world where telephones are so cheap +or so numerous as in Stockholm. There are more telephones in Stockholm +than in Berlin or London, and it is contended that there are more than +in Paris, but that is doubtful. The total number of instruments in use +is nearly 50,000 to a population of 300,000. You can find a telephone +in every shop and in almost every house, and in the parks and on the +street corners on lamp posts are little booths similar to those +used for police boxes in the cities of the United States. They work +automatically. You drop a little coin worth three cents into the slot, +and then ring the bell. For several years every room in the principal +hotels has had its own telephone, on the same system that has recently +been introduced into the United States, and upon some of the steamers +sailing from Stockholm there is a telephone in every stateroom. The +long distance 'phones and all the lines outside of two or three of +the principal cities belong to the government and are operated by the +Postoffice Department. The rents vary from $10 to $28 a year. + +The telegraph system is owned by the government, which charges a +uniform rate of fifteen cents for ten words to any part of the +country. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + + +Because of its geographic isolation, the Scandinavian peninsula is the +home of the purest Teutonic ethnic stock. The Norwegians, Icelanders, +Swedes, and Danes are racially closely related, and they belong to the +same branch of the Aryan family as the Germans, Flemish, English, and +Anglo-Americans. Physically, these people are powerfully built and +tall, of the pure Scandinavian type, with fair hair and blue eyes, and +their healthy, intelligent look strikes the traveler. In addition to +the physical characteristics held in common by these Scandinavian +peoples, the Norwegians are to be specially noted for their long +narrow heads, particularly is this so among the people in the interior +of the country. Here, too, the stature is the greatest. During the +Civil War in the United States, it was found that among the enlisted +troops the Norwegians, after the Americans, had the greatest stature, +and that in breadth of chest they were excelled by none. It is +probably true, however, that the Norwegians who emigrate represent the +finest physical types, and that they possess a higher average stature +than one finds in Norway to-day, if the most northerly provinces are +excepted. + +The Norwegians are a very plain people--neither pretty nor handsome. +The women are strong and square-built, and what beauty they have is +of the solid and substantial sort. Of the two sexes, the men are the +better proportioned, both in the matter of figures and features. They +have light complexions,--barring the bronzing of the skin due to +constant exposure,--light hair, blue eyes, and reasonably well-formed +noses. Both men and women have frank and open countenances. + +The most marked mental characteristics are clear insight, +unconquerable pertinacity, dogged obstinacy, absolute honesty, and a +sturdy sense of independence. Björnson has well remarked concerning +his people: "Opinions are slowly formed and tenaciously held, and much +independence is developed by the rigorous isolation of farm from farm +each on its own freehold ground, unannoyed and uncontradicted by any +one. The way the people work together in the fields, in the forests, +and in their large rooms has given them a characteristic stamp of +confidence in each other." It is perhaps this isolation that has +perpetuated so many of the old customs and superstitions for which the +Norwegians are noted. + +William Eleroy Curtis tells of seeing the funeral of one of these +Norway farmers: + +"His house was trimmed with green boughs and festooned with ropes of +flowers and ground pine. The word _farvel_, "farewell," was worked in +green over the front door. The coffin, which was carried on a bier by +the neighbors to the little cemetery not far away, was covered with +flowers, and following it were a number of women clad in somber black +with little white shawls tied under their chins, each carrying a +wreath in her hands. The minister led the procession. He was dressed +in a long black gown reaching to his heels, like the cassock of a +Catholic priest; his hat was of felt, with a low crown and a broad +brim, similar to those worn by the curates of the Church of England, +while around his neck was a linen ruff that looked as if it might have +been worn in the time of Queen Elizabeth. + +"A grave had been dug in the churchyard. The neighbors who had borne +the body, lowered it tenderly to the bottom, and when they had lifted +the cover of the coffin in place, each man, the oldest first, threw in +a shovelful of earth. All the women did not use the shovel, some of +them took up handsful of soil and let it gently filter through their +fingers into the open vault; and finally three children, somewhere +about ten or eleven years of age, followed the example of their elders +and added their little share to the brown coverlid of the dead. +The pastor removed his hat, extended his arms and pronounced a +benediction. Then the women laid their wreaths on the newly covered +grave and sorrowfully turned homeward." + +Independence and frankness characterize all classes of society. Norway +has no hereditary aristocracy. In 1821 it was provided that those +holding titles might be allowed to retain them during their lives, but +they could not transmit them to their children. The Norse character +has never been marred by the yoke of slavery. The feudal system, with +its serfdom, never got a footing in the north. The people have always +been small landholders, which has developed among them an independence +of character not found in countries where the mass of the inhabitants +have no direct property interests. There is no class in Norway +corresponding to the country gentleman of England or to the grand +seigneurs and provincial noblemen of the Continent. The wealthiest +landlord is only a peasant. + +Honesty is one of the valuable assets of the Norwegian people. +Attempts at extortion are so rare that tourists, accustomed to the +proverbial dishonesty of the Latin races, find travel in Norway and +Sweden a joy. An English traveler relates this typical incident: He +had lost his purse shortly after leaving Vossevangen for Stalheim. +Altogether unconscious of his loss, he walked on placidly. Suddenly +hearing hurried footsteps following him, he turned about and faced a +lad who thrust the pocketbook into the owner's hand and disappeared +before the Englishman could get a coin from his pocket to reward the +boy for his honesty. The Norwegian boy very properly did not expect +a reward for doing the only thing open to his mind upon finding the +purse. + +Kindness to animals is another virtue of the Norwegian people. +Illustrating this trait we again quote William Eleroy Curtis: + + "There seems to be a close relation between the human kind and + their animals. The men and women talk to the horses and cattle as + if they were understood. We had a _skydsgut_, or driver, one day, + who held continuous conversation with his horses. Every time he + would come to a hill he would walk beside them and talk to them + all the way up in a gentle, caressing sort of way, like a child + talking to a doll, and once when he stopped for water and the near + horse wanted to drink more than the driver thought was good for + him, he scolded like an old woman. The horse shook his head and + rattled his harness impatiently, as much as to say, 'You get back + onto your box and attend to your business and I'll attend to + mine.'" + +That intellectuality is one of the traits of the Swedes and Norwegians +alike is evidenced in the long list of names that have become +famous in the world's literature. In spite of the high intellectual +attainments of these people, they are fond of the quiet, simple life, +with friends and kinsfolk and home employments and home enjoyments. +And they are very superstitious, too, and, in spite of their Lutheran +faith, they have never discarded the customs that grew from belief in +gods many, and fairies, trolls, gnomes and norns without number. The +forests, the mountains and gorges, are inhabited by these people +still. Nissen is the good fairy of the farmers. He looks after the +cattle particularly, and if he is well treated they are healthy, and +the cows give lots of milk. To propitiate him it is necessary to put +a dish of porridge on the threshold of the cow stable on Christmas +morning. Whenever the family move, this invisible being goes along +with them and sits on the top of the loads. In haying time he always +rides on the load of hay, and the _bedstemoder_, best mother or +grandmother, in every farmhouse can tell the children dozens of +interesting stories about the mischief or the kindness of Nissen. + +He is invariably represented in pictures of farm life; he appears on +the illustrated advertisements of farm machinery; his figure carved +in wood is sold at all the curiosity stores, and he appears as a +prominent character in most of the fairy stories that deal with farm +life. He is represented as a short, fat, bow-legged man, with big +whiskers and long white hair, wearing a red hat like those worn by +clowns in circuses. He usually appears in his shirt sleeves, with an +open collar, a blue vest, and knickerbockers upon his legs, which are +as slim as those of a brownie. His circumference is greater than his +height, and his head is almost as large as his body. + +Noek is the fairy of the waterfalls and is a sort of merman. You never +see more than half his body. He is very, very old, his hair and beard +are long and white, and his face is always pale and pensive. He +carries a harp and plays to amuse the spirits in the waterfall. A +statue of Ole Bull has recently been erected in his native city of +Bergen. He stands upon a pedestal which rises from a fountain, and the +water flows over the head and shoulders of a Noek at the base. + +Norway offers a fine field for reformers to study the effects of +regulation upon the vice of drunkenness. Within the limits of the +kingdom are all grades of restriction, from prohibition to liberal +license. There are no pretensions about the Norwegians; there is no +affectation about their morals and no leniency in the administration +of their laws. The police and the magistrates are merciless and +inexorable, and crime is punished more severely perhaps than in any +other country. At the same time the people distinguish an important +difference between temperance and total abstinence. They give their +children beer in unlimited quantities, but absolutely prohibit the +sale of whisky, and send drunken men to prison with burglars and +assassins. Norwegian reformers hold that beer is the great promoter of +temperance, and encourage its use as a beverage, although every saloon +in the kingdom is closed on Sundays, on all holidays, and Saturday +afternoon, which is the regular pay day for the working classes. These +are practical regulations, devised for the purpose of restraining +those who are not capable of controlling their own appetites and +encouraging thrift and economy. While the saloons are closed on pay +day, the savings banks are open until midnight. + +It is difficult to become accustomed to the long twilights in Norway. +One can read and write at a window as late as ten o'clock without +difficulty, and during the months of June, July, and August few +artificial lights are used, either in the streets or in the shops or +in the residences. A candle is usually kept handy for an emergency, +but it is light enough to dress and undress at any hour of the night, +and it seems childish to go to bed before dark. The hours for meals +are awkward to those accustomed to American ways. Breakfast is usually +served from seven till nine o'clock. Four o'clock is the fashionable +dinner hour, without luncheon. After dinner men return to their +business and keep open their shops and offices until a nine or ten +o'clock supper during the long days. + +No one will ever starve to death in Norway. American palates may not +always crave the food, but they can not complain of its abundance. The +table is usually loaded with all sorts of fish and cold meats, both +fresh and preserved, that foreigners are usually afraid of. The +Norwegians are fond of things with a pronounced flavor, the more +pronounced the better, and cheese is one of the chief articles of +diet. A Norwegian housewife would not consider a meal complete without +five or six different kinds of cheese of all degrees of pungency in +taste and odor upon the table. At breakfast you are served sardines, +anchovies, smoked salmon, dried herring and five or six other kinds of +fish and an equal variety of cheese before they think of offering you +coffee and meat and potatoes. You get seven or eight kinds of bread +also, but it is all cold. The national bread, which is made of flour, +water and a little salt, with a sprinkling of caraway seed, rolled +very thin and punctured with holes like a cracker, is baked only once +or twice a year, and then in large quantities, as New England women +bake mince pies and put them on the top shelf to season. It is called +_grovboröd_, and tastes like a water cracker. + +The servant-girl problem has been solved in Norway to the satisfaction +of all concerned, although it is doubtful whether a similar solution +would be accepted by domestic servants in the United States. In large +cities like Bergen and Christiania, there is a central employment +bureau under the direction of the municipal government, and twice a +year--one week before New Year's day and one week before St. John's +day, the 24th of June--there is a general change of servants by those +who are dissatisfied with existing conditions, and engagements are +made for the ensuing six months of the year. Families who want +servants, fill out blanks setting forth what is required and the wages +they are willing to pay. These are filed at the employment office and +are noted in a conspicuous manner upon a blackboard. Women or men in +search of employment go to this bureau during the weeks named, +examine the blackboard, and apply to the clerk in charge for further +information. + +If they desire to apply for a particular position, they submit their +recommendations to the clerk, and if he is satisfied, he gives them a +card to the lady of the house. That card is good for the day only, and +must be returned by the lady of the house before the close of office +hours. If the girl is engaged, the blanks upon the card are filled out +with a general statement as to her duties, the term of service, and +the wages agreed upon, and the card is filed away for reference +if necessary. If the lady of the house is not satisfied with the +applicant, she sends her away and returns the card marked "not +satisfactory," with the request that other applicants be sent her. If +the applicant is satisfactory, the lady of the house pays her a bonus +of one krone or two kroner called "hand money"--that is, she crosses +her hand with silver as an evidence of good faith--and the girl agrees +to report for duty within one week after New Year's or Midsummer's +day, as the case may be. That is to allow her present employer to +fill her place. In some of the smaller towns the dates for changing +servants are April 14 and October 14. + +The law protects both the employer and the employed. The employer +guarantees to give the servant a comfortable room, wholesome food, +take care of her if sick, and pay her wages regularly as agreed upon +during good behavior; while the girl agrees to perform her duties +faithfully during the term for which she is engaged. If there is any +complaint upon either side, it must be made to a magistrate, who +investigates and decides between them. A family can not get rid of a +servant during her term of employment without official intervention. +On the other hand, the girl's wages are a first lien upon their +property for the entire term, although judgment must be rendered and +made a matter of record. If a servant runs away from her employer, +she can be arrested and fined. Cooks are paid from $4 to $7 a month; +housemaids from $3 to $6 a month; men butlers from $10 to $15; +coachmen from $12 to $16 a month; scullery maids and men of all work +receive corresponding wages. + +Nearly all of these domestic customs here related apply to Sweden as +well as Norway, and there are many interesting additional ones. In +Sweden the state dinners at the palace are always at six o'clock. At +nearly all the other courts of Europe it is customary to dine at eight +o'clock. The king's dinners are short, his guests seldom remaining +more than an hour at the table, after which the ladies adjourn to one +of the drawing rooms, the gentlemen to the smoking room, and later +all are entertained by musicians from the opera house or the royal +conservatory. Carriages are usually ordered at ten o'clock. This seems +old-fashioned, but for people who like to go to bed early and those +who are occupied with business all day it is much more sensible than +the custom followed in some cities, where social festivities do not +begin until the hour when the king of Sweden's guests are bidding him +good night. + +But everybody complains that the Swedes are drifting away from old +customs and are becoming modernized. The French influence seems to +prevail, and modern Swedish life is becoming an imitation of that of +Paris. + +Another of the old customs is for people to indicate their business +upon their visiting cards. You will receive the card of Lawyer Jones, +or Banker Smith, or Music Professor Smith, and so on; and these titles +are also used in addressing them. It would seem rather queer for any +one in the United States to ask, "Wholesale Merchant MacVeigh, will +you kindly pass the butter?" or "Banker Hutchinson, will you escort +Fru Board of Trade Operator Jones to the table?" But that is the +custom in Sweden and it is observed by children as well as grown +people. A lisping child will approach a guest, make a pretty little +bob-courtesy, and say, "Good morning, Chief Justice of the Supreme +Court Fuller," or "Good night, Representative in Congress Boutell." +It is customary for ladies to print their maiden names upon +their visiting cards in smaller type, under their married names, +particularly if they have a pride of family and want people to know +their ancestry. + +To see the old Swedish customs that have almost entirely disappeared +from the country, one must go to the hill districts of Dalecarlia, +where the people are so unlike the rest of the Swedes in their dress, +their customs and habits, and in many other respects as to almost seem +another race. + +The Dalecarlians are great dancers, and the social gatherings at +their homes during the winter are always accompanied by that form of +amusement. During the summer they dance in the open air. On St. John's +Day the entire population, old and young, dance around a May-pole +erected at some convenient place, and at harvest time, whenever the +last sheaf in a field is pitched upon the cart or the stack, it is +customary for somebody to produce a musical instrument, a violin, +a nyckleharpa, a harmonicum, or perhaps only a mouth organ, and +everybody--for the boys and girls of the family all work together in +the hay and harvest fields--join in a dance before returning home. + +The dances are original and often interesting. One of the most ancient +and popular is the _däfva vadmal_ (weaving homespun), whose figures +are supposed to imitate the action of the shuttle, the beating in of +the woof, and other motions used in weaving at an old-fashioned loom. +Some of the dances resemble those of Scotland, and one is almost +exactly like the Virginia reel as danced by old-fashioned people in +the United States. In another, called the "garland," the dancers wind +in and out under their clasped hands in imitation of the weaving of a +wreath of flowers. All the dances require violent physical exercise, +but the Swedish men and women are famous for muscular development. +Some of the dances are accompanied by pretty melodies sung in unison +by both sexes. + +The songs of the Dalecarlian peasant are not lively, but rather slow +in movement, and are usually sung in unison, the music being rarely +arranged for parts. + +Dalecarlia has a certain preeminence among the districts of Sweden +because of the part its people have played in the history of the +country, and however the other provinces may dispute among themselves +about their claims for distinction, each will admit that Dalecarlia is +entitled to special consideration. Its people represent the highest +patriotism and the noblest characteristics of the Swedish race, and +when any one is spoken of as a Dalecarlian, it means that he is a free +and intelligent citizen of independent thought and action and lives a +life of manly simplicity.[o] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS + + +Perhaps in no other country in the world have health and exercise been +united and formed into a national institution, as they have been in +Sweden. The true Swede believes that exercise will cure everything, +and that as a preventive of disease there is nothing like it. If you +go to a Swedish physician for advice, he will invariably prescribe the +movement cure, and send you to a gymnasium or a massage establishment +instead of to a drug store. Physical exercise is therefore the +national remedy, particularly for complaints due to sedentary +employment, neglect of nature's laws, and high living. The movement +cure for invalids, which is practically the same as that we have in +the United States, is used in all the hospitals as well as in private +practice. It was invented about a century ago by Dr. Ling, a patriot, +a gymnast and a poet, who was inspired to revive the ancestral +national spirit in the Swedish people by the aid of sports and songs, +and to develop once more the great qualities of strength, courage, +and endurance which in old times distinguished the Scandinavian +race. After a hard struggle he succeeded, in 1814, in securing the +recognition of the government and founded the Royal Gymnastic Central +Institute, where all persons desiring to teach gymnastics in the +public schools or in private institutions must take a course of +training and take a degree. The Swedes are quite as particular about +this as they are about the study of medicine. No medical practitioner +can hang out a sign without a diploma from one of the universities, +and no person can teach gymnastics in that country without a similar +certificate of competency from the Royal Institute. Every officer of +the army is required to undergo a course of instruction, not only +to develop his physical constitution, but to qualify him to teach +gymnastics to his soldiers. The teachers of physical culture in the +public schools, both men and women, are obliged to take a similar +course in order to drill their pupils properly, for in every +schoolroom in the country, down to the kindergartens, daily physical +exercise upon Ling's plan is required to promote the development of +the body and improve the health. This is required in private as well +as public schools, and the methods of instruction are subject to the +inspection and approval of the Central Institute. In every town of any +size there are gymnastic clubs and associations, which are generally +guided by instructors educated at the Central Institute. They include +women as well as men in their membership, and in many of them fencing +and other sword exercises are also taught. In common with all the +gymnasiums are bath-houses. You will find them in every part of the +city of Stockholm and in other large towns. Some of them occupy entire +buildings. It is the habit of business men to go to their stores or +offices at nine o'clock in the morning and remain there until two or +three in the afternoon, when they go to their club or gymnasium and +take an hour's exercise and afterward a bath. These establishments in +the business quarter of Stockholm and other cities are considered just +as important as clubs, restaurants, or other places of resort, and +usually have connected with them reading and smoking rooms where +patrons can read the daily newspapers and current magazines and sip +coffee and smoke while they are cooling off. It would surprise a +visitor in New York or Chicago to be informed that his broker or his +lawyer or his banker or a contractor with whom he has business, had +gone to a bathhouse or gymnasium at three o'clock in the afternoon, +but in Stockholm it is a common reply to an inquiry. During winter +afternoons you can usually find anybody you want by going to his +favorite gymnasium or bathhouse, just as you would look for him at his +club in Chicago. + +There is a distinctive dress for the exercise. The patrons take off +their street clothing and put on light woolen shirts and trousers, and +canvas shoes on their bare feet, and, standing in rows, go through a +series of motions under the command of their instructor to exercise +the arms, legs, neck, and every other part of the body, gently, not +violently. The idea is movement, not exertion, and the muscles are +restrained. The arm is raised slowly with self-resistance. No clubs +or dumb-bells are used, only a gentle motion like the exercise of the +children in the schools. After twenty minutes or half an hour of this +the class marches in a column, still going through the same movements; +then they run, following their leader, doing everything that he does, +until at the end of an hour the body is in a glow, the blood is +pulsating in every vein, the perspiration is oozing from every pore, +every muscle is limbered up and strengthened, and every nerve tingles. +There is regular gymnasium apparatus for those who like more violent +exercise. Then a bath is taken, followed by a cold plunge and violent +rubbing with massage, after which a man is in shape to go home to his +dinner with a good appetite. + +In October every year the Scandinavian Gymnastic Instructors' +Association meets in Stockholm for several weeks, at which lectures +are delivered, papers are read, and discussions are held upon all +branches of their work. These meetings are quite as important as +annual conventions of the bar or medical associations, and are not +only attended by gymnastic instructors, but by physicians generally, +for every Swedish physician must be well versed in medical gymnastics, +particularly in what is known as _kinesitherapym_ or movement cure, +which embraces active, passive, and resisting movements, as well as +massage, for the latter is the basis of medical gymnastics. + +The Swedes have accepted this treatment as a specific for nearly +all diseases, deformities, and weaknesses of the body; for internal +complaints, for the lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs. It +removes superfluous tissue, and this is the reason you see so few fat +men in Sweden, notwithstanding their beer-drinking propensities, and +why the women keep their youthful shape until old age. + +It is a spectacle to witness in some of the gymnastic institutes +venerable and dignified gentlemen going through comical motions and +assuming ridiculous postures with great activity and zeal, keeping +time to the music of a band in the adjoining café. + +In Sweden doctors never send bills to their patients, but trust +entirely to their generosity. Each family has an attending physician, +who expects them to pay him by the year for his services, according to +their wealth and the amount of attention they receive. Ten dollars a +year in our money is a good fee; one hundred dollars is princely. At +the beginning of the year you put the amount in an envelope and send +it to the doctor by a messenger with your card. He sends back his card +with an acknowledgment of thanks and the compliments of the season. It +is very bad form to talk about it, although grateful patients often +write their physicians affectionate letters of gratitude for his +devotion and the benefit he has brought them. It is a good deal +like the relation between a minister and his parishioners in other +countries, and the annual contribution for the support of the doctor +is just as voluntary as the contribution to the treasury of the +church. If there is any reason why one should feel grateful to the +doctors; if you or your children have suffered a severe illness and he +has pulled you through, he expects a present in addition to the annual +honorarium, just as you would send the minister a present after a +marriage or a funeral or some other special occasion at which his +services are required. The amount you pay depends upon your ability +and the value of his services, but it is a violation of the +most sacred canon of professional etiquette for a doctor to ask +compensation or question the amount he receives. He keeps no accounts +of his visits and no books. If a stranger or an acquaintance who does +not contribute regularly makes one call or two upon the doctor to ask +his advice or a prescription, he leaves something on the table, but it +would be equivalent to an insult if he should ask for a bill. + +When a person is very sick, he is taken to a hospital. Sweden has some +of the best hospitals in the world. His own doctor looks after him +there, assisted by the house physician and nurses, who expect fees, +but the regular doctor gets none. He supervises the treatment and acts +as adviser to the house physician. + +The government pays subsidies to doctors in remote parts of the +country, just as it pays the salaries of the ministers where the +people are so poor that they can not support a doctor and a parson. +In fact, all the clergymen of the established church are paid by the +government and are government officials. The members of their parishes +give them presents, something on the donation party order, because +their salaries are small, and if there happen to be rich men in the +parish, it is their custom to send around a handsome present to the +minister's wife or to himself on Christmas Day. + +The Swedes have a short summer, and so far as possible spend it in the +open air. Every citizen of Stockholm who can afford it has a place in +the country, no matter how humble or primitive it may be, and if he +can not afford a cabin, he pitches a tent in the woods under the pine +trees, and if necessary cooks his own meals. The banks of the lakes +and rivers throughout the entire kingdom--and there are more than +1,400 lakes in Sweden and 1,700 islands in the Stockholm Skärgard--are +surrounded by such dwellings and camps, for the Swedes love the water. +Those who are compelled to remain in town take their meals and spend +their evenings at the open-air cafes, which are found in every part of +the city with bands of music, and take daily excursions on the boats +which ply through the fjord and the lakes which encircle the town. +In the suburbs are circuses, open-air theaters, concert gardens, and +other forms of entertainments, simple and serious. A number of fine +restaurants are maintained in the parks, where people can get a good +dinner and spend the evening under the cool foliage, listening to +an orchestral concert or a band. Every form of outdoor amusement is +furnished, and the people eat, drink, and are merry, making the most +of their time from June to September before the long and dreary winter +comes upon them. + +The working classes have their simple amusements also, and during the +summer evenings in every village there is music and dancing, even if +an accordion or jewsharp is the only instrument to be obtained. The +national dances are quite energetic, and furnish a form of exercise +which lazy people would not admire, but both the men and women of +Sweden are famous for their muscular strength, and the young woman who +can dance down her companions is as much of a hero as the champion +wrestler of the town. Those who can not enjoy the opportunity of +visiting rural Sweden will find in the suburbs of Stockholm, at the +favorite resort and place of amusement of the common people, a perfect +representation of Swedish country life. It is called Skansen, and +is rural Sweden in miniature. It is a patriotic and scientific +enterprise, conceived and undertaken by the late Dr. Artur Hazelius, +an eminent ethnologist, for the purpose of preserving the habits and +customs of the Scandinavian races. In no country of Europe, excepting +perhaps Russia and Turkey, have the people adhered to the manner and +costumes of their fathers so tenaciously as in Sweden, and the life of +past generations is preserved in its picturesqueness. The conservatism +of the people, their tenacious preference for their own ways and means +has kept out innovations, and very few changes have been made since +the beginning of the eighteenth century. But fearing that the peasants +of Sweden, like all other peoples, would sooner or later surrender to +modern fashions, Dr. Hazelius attempted to collect at Skansen actual +types representing every industry, activity, and national trait. His +thought was expressed in a motto inscribed over one of the gates of +this outdoor museum: + +"The day will come when all our gold will not be sufficient to buy an +accurate picture of the times long past." + +He procured from the king a rocky plateau on the edge of a royal park +known as _Djurgarden_, covered with crippled pines and resembling the +wild, uncultivated, neglected landscape in Dalecaria or Norrland, +the two most interesting portions of Sweden. By careful landscape +gardening, without destroying its natural beauty, he introduced broad +paths, restaurants, cafes, band stands, and other places for the merry +to meet and hold their festivals, and for the students to sing their +songs, and he reserved a part of the grounds in its natural condition, +where the lovers of nature can find a quiet retreat among the gloom +of a pine grove. It has become the most popular resort in Sweden, +particularly in the long summer evenings, and when a man can not reach +the country, Skansen is never too far. It is accessible by street-cars +and by boats, and is not more than half an hour's walk from the +palace. + +Here the "folk festivals," for which the Swedish poets have composed +their most beautiful songs, are held every spring; here the national +holidays are celebrated as in olden times, both in summer and +winter, and national customs are preserved with great care and amid +surroundings that give them a realistic tone, like the true thing. Dr. +Hazelius secured original types of peasant houses from every part of +the country where they have individual or unique character. From the +huts of the fishermen on the south coast of the Scandinavian peninsula +to the camps of the Lapps in the frozen zone, every feature of +Swedish country life is represented. The Lapps brought their dogs and +reindeer, and live exactly as they do upon the snowy plains of the +polar regions. + +With the forty acres that compose the park are about one hundred and +twenty-five people, living exactly as their forefathers lived and +practicing the primitive customs that prevailed two centuries ago +in the agricultural districts of the kingdom. They wear the same +costumes, eat the same kind of food, use the same kind of dishes, and +preserve so far as possible every feature of their daily life. Every +one of the provinces of Sweden which has a distinctive dress or unique +custom is represented by the actual people who have always lived that +way. Every man and woman continues their former occupations. There +is no theatrical business about it, no imitations on the grounds; +everything is genuine. + +Three or four times a week at sunset, after their daily work is done, +the peasants gather for a dance at a central place, which is always +surrounded by a large crowd of spectators, and is the greatest +attraction of Skansen. On alternate nights the dancing is by the +children, of whom there are thirty-seven under fifteen years of age +living in the cabins with their parents, dressed just like their +great-great-grandfathers and grand mothers when they were of the +same age. The music for the dancing is furnished by old-fashioned +instruments, and none but old-fashioned tunes are allowed. There is a +society in Sweden known as _Svenska Folkdansens Vänner_ for preserving +the Swedish national peasant dances and for encouraging their use in +the higher circles of society in preference to the French dances. + +There are several fine museums and picture galleries in Sweden. The +national gallery in Stockholm, which is across the bay from the royal +palace, and the Northern Museum founded in 1872 by Dr. Hazelius. Then +there is the Royal Opera and the National Theater, so that the people +of Stockholm do not want for places of amusement in winter as well as +summer. + +The father of athletic sports in Sweden is Lieutenant Colonel Victor +Gustaf Balck, who holds a military position in the garrison at +Stockholm. He introduced lawn tennis, cricket, baseball and football, +and has established numerous athletic clubs in different parts of the +country. Sailing is popular, there being many yacht clubs with good +houses and fleets. And swimming is a part of the national education, +nearly every man, woman, and child in Sweden taking naturally to the +water and being able to swim. Everybody can skate as well as swim. In +the cities rinks can be found with music and many conveniences. In +Stockholm there is a general skating club, with a rink large enough +to accommodate six thousand skaters, and popular fêtes given there +at intervals during the winter are attended by the royal family and +members of the court, and are regarded as important social functions. +All skating is done upon the numerous lakes, and often during the long +nights of the winter hundreds of people, young and old, will gather +at an early hour--it gets dark at four o'clock in the afternoon--and +spend the entire night skating by moonlight. A big fire is built in +some convenient place for the crowd, and smaller fires by individual +parties, who bring luncheon with them and have a picnic in the snow +in the winter. In various parts of the country, national and +international skating contests are held, and winners in local +tournaments, both for speed and fancy skating, are sent to Stockholm +to contest for the grand prizes against the crack skaters of Norway, +Denmark, Russia, and northern Germany. + +But the national winter sport of all Scandinavia is skeeing--skimming +over the snow on snow-shoes. There is no more vigorous or exciting +exercise. In the country districts men and women alike are educated to +the use of snowshoes from childhood. As soon as boys and girls are +old enough to skate, they put on skees of a size appropriate to +their stature, and are quite as agile and daring as their elders. It +requires nerve, skill, and muscular strength to skee, and a person who +has never tried snow-shoes always finds it difficult to use them. It +is a sport to which people must be trained from childhood. A skilful +"skeer" can make a mile in two minutes. + +Ice yachting and sailing on skates are two of the oldest and most +popular national sports, and are practiced in both Sweden and Norway +by all classes. All the ice yachts and snow-shoes are home-made, and +in the country districts many of the skates.[p] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +There are seven hundred and fifty-one newspapers and periodicals in +Sweden, including fifty-two dailies. Stockholm has twelve dailies, +seven published in the morning and five in the evening, which is a +large number for a city of three hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, +and the wonder is how they all manage to exist. None of them is as +large as the ordinary dailies in the United States. It is the practice +of the Swedish editors to waste very little room in headlines, and +to condense as much as possible. They state facts without padding or +comment, and manage to bring the daily allowance of news within ten +or twelve columns. There is usually a continued story, three or four +articles of a literary character, a couple of columns of clippings and +miscellany, and the same amount of editorial. The balance of the paper +is given up to advertising, but with all that it is seldom necessary +to print more than four pages. The morning papers stick to the blanket +sheet. + +Most of the Stockholm papers have a good advertising patronage, which +runs to display at times. The Swedish business men have learned that +it pays to advertise. The rates are much lower than in the United +States. The ordinary want ad. costs from seven to ten cents, and for +display advertisements the rates run from two and one-half to twenty +cents a line, according to the location. In the semi-weekly edition +of _Aftonbladet_, which is considered the best advertising medium +in Sweden on account of its large circulation and superior class of +readers, display ads. in preferred places cost about twenty-eight +cents a line. + +The subscription price corresponds. You can have any one of the +evening papers delivered at your house for $3 a year, and the highest +rate for the morning dailies is $5 a year. It is worth while to know +that postmasters in Sweden will receive subscriptions for newspapers +published in any part of the world. A small fee is exacted to cover +the amount of postage and the stationery required in forwarding the +subscription. + +The father of cheap newspapers in Sweden is Anders Jeurling, the +publisher of _Stockholm-Tidningen_ and _Hyvad Nytt i Dag_, who started +the first-named journal about twelve years ago and sold it on the +street for two _öre_, which is about one-half cent. Now the price of +the former is four _öre_, about one cent, and of the latter a half +cent. The former paper has the largest circulation in the city of +Stockholm, its ordinary edition reaching about one hundred thousand +copies, but _Aftonbladet_ exceeds it in the country. Mr. Jeurling +has the reputation of being the ablest publisher in Sweden, and is a +better business man than the editor. He has made a fortune out of +his papers on the theory that the people care more for news than +for politics. Mr. Adolph Hallgren is the editor-in-chief of +_Stockholms-Tidningen_, and the managing editor is Mr. F. Zethraens, +who studied journalism in the office of the Chicago _Record-Herald_. + +The official paper of the Swedish government is _Post och Inriches +Tidning_, which was founded as far back as 1645, and is one of the +oldest periodicals in the world. For more than a century it has been +published under the auspices of the Swedish Academy, an organization +of eighteen of the most learned scholars and philosophers in the +kingdom. The editor is Dr. J.A. Spilhammar, a very learned gentleman, +who, on account of his position, is naturally conservative and +discreet in all his utterances. + +_Aftonbladet_, a liberal evening paper, to which I have already +alluded, has the greatest circulation in Sweden, the daily edition +varying from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred and sixty +thousand copies, and it is one of the most influential forces in the +kingdom. The editor, Harald Sohlman, is regarded is an able writer and +shrewd business man. He is also editor and publisher of _Dagen_, a +morning paper, liberal in politics, which has a circulation of +about forty thousand copies, and is sold at three _öre_--about +three-quarters of a cent. _Aftonbladet's_ semi-weekly edition goes +into every corner of the kingdom, has a high literary standard, +contains correspondence from all the European capitals, and has a +special department devoted to news concerning the Swedes and Swedish +affairs in America. + +The most conservative of all Swedish papers is _Nya Dagligt +Allehanda_, edited by Dr. J.A. Bjorklund. Its circulation is confined +almost exclusively to the nobility and wealthier classes, and is said +to be more loyal to the government than royalty itself. + +_Vart Land_, another conservative paper, edited by Professor Gustaf +Torelius, an eminent author and scholar, is an organ of the Swedish +state church, and on that account is taken by every Lutheran +clergyman and active layman in the kingdom. It contains the official +announcement of the minister of religion and the archbishop, and is +especially given to news of an ecclesiastical character. Its most +prominent writer is Dr. C.D. af Wirsén, one of "the immortal eighteen" +of the Swedish Academy and a lyric poet of reputation. + +_Svenska Morgonbladet_, another religious daily, opposes _Vart Land_, +and represents the dissenters from the established church. Its +circulation, according to its sarcastic competitors, "is limited to +those who have been saved." Its most eminent contributor and patron +is Dr. Peter Paul Waldenström, founder and leader of the Free Lutheran +Church, "the Swedish Moody." Scarcely a week passes without an article +from his pen in _Morgonbladet_, which gives that paper its standing +among Free Lutherans. + +_Dagbladet_ is the only paper in Stockholm which is issued twice a +day, and it has also a Sunday edition. It styles itself in politics +a "moderate," but is more popular among the conservatives than the +liberals. Having the city printing, it is not inclined to quarrel with +its bread and butter. + +_Dagens Nyheter_, a liberal morning paper, made a fortune for Rudolph +Wall, its founder, who died a millionaire. It is considered one of the +most profitable newspaper properties in Europe. It sells for a cent +and a quarter, and has a circulation of about thirty thousand. + +The Stockholm paper which imitates the American press most closely +is _Svenska Dagbladet_, ably edited by Helmer Key, a doctor of +philosophy, and C.G. Tengwall, who is regarded as one of the best +all-around newspaper men in Sweden. It has the best class of +contributors of any of the Swedish papers in a literary way, including +Professor Oscar Levertin, Verner von Heidenstam, the poet, Tor +Hedberg, an art and literary critic, and Ellen Key, the authoress, +and the most influential woman in Sweden. The paper has a large +circulation among the thinking people of the country, and exercises a +wide influence. + +The official organ of the Royal Yacht Club, the Royal Jockey Club, +and all representative Swedish sport clubs, is the _Ny Tidning för +Idrott_, which is owned by Count Clarence von Rosen, one of the +grandsons of the late Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, of Philadelphia. The +count, himself the finest rider in the Swedish army, edits the horse +news, while Colonel Victor Balck, the father of modern Swedish sports, +and Alex. Lindman are the editors. _Ny Tidning för Idrott_ has a +regular correspondent in America. Hjalmar Branting, leader of the +socialists in Sweden and a member of the second chamber of parliament, +is editor of _Social Demokraten_, the organ of his party. Although +a man of aristocratic origin, he has cast his lot with the laboring +classes. He is a man of great force of character, an able writer, an +eloquent speaker, and is generally respected even by those who can not +approve his views. The circulation of his paper is almost exclusively +confined to the laboring classes. + +The compensation of newspaper men in Sweden is much less than in +the United States. The highest salary paid to an editor-in-chief is +$4,000, while the lowest for that position is about $1,500. Managing +editors are paid from $1,200 to $2,000 a year, and ordinary reporters +from $300 to $750 a year. Contributors of fame receive special rates. +The price for news items is two and one-half cents a line. Space +writers seem to be paid more in proportion than the regular members of +the staff, but the difference is more apparent than real, because +of the tendency to condensation. Articles in the Swedish papers are +seldom more than half a column long. + +Stockholm has several comic papers, even more in proportion to +population than we have in the United States. The most prominent are +_Strix, Puck, Söndags-Nisse, Kasper_ and _Nya Nisse_. They are small +and comparatively insignificant, and sell for two and one-half cents +a copy. They satirize politicians with good humor, and their cartoons +are based upon current events. There are several literary weeklies, +monthlies, and other periodicals, for Swedes are great readers and, +unlike the Americans, have not lost their taste for poetry. A poet +enjoys a much higher position and larger income from his writings in +Sweden than at home. + +There is a Press Club in Stockholm with four hundred and forty +members, of whom twenty-two are women. In 1901 the club arranged +"a week of festivals," including military tournaments, public +entertainments and a fair, and closed with a masquerade ball at the +Royal Opera House to raise funds for a building. It was a great +success. King Oscar accepted an invitation, and enjoyed himself very +much among his "colleagues," as he called them. The king was always +considerate to newspaper men. He appreciated the purpose and +understood the requirements of reporters, and never failed to assist +them whenever he was able to do so. Hence he was very popular among +them, and they reciprocated by showing their appreciation in every +possible way. The old king once said to Hjalmar Branting, the +socialist editor: + +"We have different opinions, Branting, but we are both working for the +welfare of our country." + +In 1897, during the international congress of the press at Stockholm, +the king gave the editors a banquet at the Royal Castle at +Drottningholm, and mingled among them as "one of yourselves." He also +proposed a toast in most complimentary language. + +Oscar II made many speeches, and upon occasions of great formality he +used manuscript, but generally spoke without notes, preparing himself +in advance by study and reflection. When he spoke from manuscript, +he invariably furnished copies to the press, and was never known to +request that part of his speech be suppressed. + +Reporters are invariably admitted to state ceremonials. There is very +little secrecy about the Stockholm court, and intrigue is entirely +unknown in Swedish politics. There are no mysteries in the council +chamber and no skeletons in the royal closet. Hence the doors are +open, and the reporters can come and go as they please. As a natural +consequence comparatively little attention is paid to affairs at the +palace. There is an announcement every morning of the movements of the +king and the royal family and occurrences of public interest, but with +very little detail, and the newspapers depend upon the officials to +furnish the information voluntarily. Reporters are seldom sent to the +palace unless some special inquiry is necessary. + +The story is told that once when Oscar II went to Gothenburg to attend +a dedication or opening of something or other, where he was expected +to make a speech, he was intercepted at the railway station by an +enterprising reporter who wanted a copy of his speech. The paper was +to be published that afternoon, and there would be no time for a +stenographer to write out his notes afterward. The king greeted him +pleasantly and explained that he had no manuscript; that he intended +to speak without notes. The reporter was very much dissappointed, +and confided to the king that he was a new man and that his future +standing with his employer might be seriously affected if he failed +to get the speech. King Oscar responded sympathetically, invited the +reporter to get into his carriage, and while they were driving to the +hotel, gave a brief synopsis of what he expected to say. + +Newspapers in Norway are not so good an investment; in fact, none of +them may be considered financial ventures. As a rule, they have to be +assisted by the government or by political clubs in order to survive. +Their subscription lists are limited, the largest circulation in +Norway not exceeding fifteen thousand and few publications print more +than five thousand copies, while advertising pays not more than ten or +twelve cents a line at top prices in the most expensive papers. + +An ordinary newspaper reporter in Norway receives a salary of about +$5 a week, while the most competent editors are satisfied with $20 or +$25. Norway was the last of the European countries, except Turkey, +to adopt the art of printing, notwithstanding its early famous +literature, but to-day has four hundred and twenty-nine newspapers +and periodicals, an average of one to every five thousand of the +population; one hundred and ninety-six are political newspapers; +eighty-eight are literary weeklies, and one hundred and forty-five +are reviews, magazines, professional, religious, and scientific +publications. + +_Norske Intelligens-Seddeler_ is one of the oldest papers in the +world, having been founded in Christiania in 1763, and has been the +organ of the government from the beginning. For a century and a +quarter its contents were limited to advertisements and official +announcements. It was a sort of a government gazette, but when Hjalmar +Loken took hold of it, ten or twelve years ago, he changed its +character entirely and has turned it into a good modern newspaper +and a vigorous advocate of government measures, exercising a wide +influence through its columns. + +Monopolies were formerly granted to newspapers in Norway. The +government allowed only one paper to be published within the limits +of an ecclesiastical diocese, or at least only the favored paper was +permitted to receive money for the publication of advertisements. +Competitors resorted to all sorts of ingenious methods, by issuing +pamphlets and 'handbills and such things, that a free discussion of +political issues might be had, but it was not until 1786 that the last +monopoly, which happened to be in the city of Trondhjem, expired. In +1814 freedom of the press was granted by the new constitution, and +from that date the political agitators have found expression in +various publications, and partisanship has often risen to a bitterness +that would not be permitted in other countries. The Norway newspapers +have not known a censor since that date. + +_Morganbladet_, the first daily, was established in 1819, and has +played an important part in the political affairs of the. country. It +is still very influential, being edited with great ability by Mr. +Nils Vogt. Björnson, the author, has been connected with two +newspapers--the first, _Krydseren_, a literary weekly which survived +only a few years, and _Verdens Gang_, which has been published since +1868 as the leading organ of the liberal party. Among its editors and +contributors have been other distinguished men, poets, dramatists, and +novelists. Nearly every writer of distinction has contributed to its +columns, for most of the thinking men of Norway are liberals. Since +1878 Mr. Thommessen has been the editor, and he was the first to +modernize the Norwegian press by printing cable dispatches, cartoons, +caricatures and other illustrations. + +_Dagbladet_ is also a widely read and influential daily, under the +editorship of Mr. A.T. Omholt, and has a large circulation. Its list +of contributors has included some of the most distinguished writers +of the country. There are numerous other dailies of more or less +influence and circulation, and all the trades and occupations have +organs, as in the United States. In every town and almost every +village, a weekly or semi-weekly is published, usually by the liberal +party, and sometimes by other parties. Even Hammerfest, the most +northerly town in the world, which lies in the Arctic Circle, has two +enterprising weeklies.[q] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS + + +If the dwellers of the deep fjords, the somber fir-clad mountain +valleys, and the bleak ice-fields do not "open their lips so readily +for song" as the people of southern lands where the sun creates an +eternal spring, it is not because they are without lyric power, as is +clearly apparent from the rich and varied folk-songs and the splendid +creative work of Edvard Grieg. + +The Norwegian folk-songs, spring dances, hallings, and wedding +marches, have been well characterized as the outpourings of the inner +lives of the common people, the expression of their dauntless energy, +their struggles and aspirations. The folk-song of Norway, more than in +any other land, embodies the character and expresses the tendencies of +Viking life, ancient and modern. It bears the unmistakable marks +of weal and woe of Norse life, the strongly marked and regularly +introduced rythms of the developed and developing national character. +And while an undercurrent of melancholy runs through most of it, it +is, after all, the faithful interpreter of the lives of isolated and +solitary occupants of fjords, fjelds, and dalen. + +The folk-songs of Norway are singularly typical of the country and its +inhabitants. Some "seem to take us into the dense forest among mocking +echoes from, the life outside; others show us the trolls tobogganing +down the highest peaks of Norway; in some we feel human souls hovering +over reefs; in others, memories of the old sun-lit land flit before +us; but in none do we meet with sentimentalism, despondency, or +disconsolateness." But with their weird and minor strains, and their +odd jumps from low tones to high, on first acquaintance they strike +the hearer as strange and elusive. + +Some of the epic songs, as Telemarken, are of great antiquity. But it +was not until the last century that Norse tone artists discovered the +wealth that had long been cherished by the peasants of the fjords and +mountain valleys. Lindeman (1812-1887) was the first to recognize +the musical significance of Norwegian folk-songs. He collected many +hundred national ballads, hymns and dances, and called attention +to their richness and variety as thematic material for a school of +national music. In Lindeman's collection will be found songs which +tell of the heroic exploits of old Norse vikings, kings, and earls +of the heathen days of Thor and Odin, together with lyrics, deep and +ardent, which sing of the loves, the joys, and the sorrows of the +humbler Christian folks. + +The Hardanger violin, the lur and the langeleik have played a leading +role in the development of Norwegian folk-songs and dances. The +Hardanger instrument is more arched than the ordinary violin; there +are four strings over the finger-board and four underneath, the latter +of fine steel wire, acting as sympathetic strings. The men of the +Hardanger fjord have long been distinguished for the workmanship and +tonal qualities of their violins, and with them the peasants have +improvised the rich and varied impressions of nature which we find +embodied in folk-songs. The lur is a long wooden instrument, of the +trumpet order, and is usually made of birch bark. It is much used in +the mountains. The langeleik, or Norwegian harp, is a long, narrow, +box-like stringed instrument, something of the character of the +ancient zither. It has seven strings and sound holes, but its tone is +weak and monotonous. + +The national dances of Norway have bold rythms which at once arrest +the attention. Perhaps the most characteristic is the hailing, a solo +dance in two-four time. It is usually danced by young men in country +barns, and its most striking feature is the kicking of the beam of +the ceiling. In the story of Nils the fiddler, in his novel _Arne_, +Björnson has given this account of the hailing: "The music struck up, +a deep silence followed, and he began. He dashed forward along the +floor, his body inclining to one side, half aslant, keeping time to +the fiddle. Crouching down, he balanced himself, now on one foot, now +on the other, flung his legs crosswise under him, sprang up again, +and then moved on aslant as before. The fiddle was handled by skilful +fingers, and more and more fire was thrown into the tune. Nils threw +his head back and suddenly his boot heel touched the beam." + +The spring dance is less vigorous, but more graceful than the hailing. +It is a round dance in three-quarter time, in which two persons, or +groups of two, participate. It is danced with a light, springing step, +and has been compared with the mazurka by Liszt. Like the hailing, +however, it is markedly individual in its pleasing combinations of +tones. Forestier says of the spring dance of Norway: "There is a +freshness, a sparkle, and energy, a graceful life about it that is +invigorating." + +If Lindeman was the first to collect folk-songs and dances in Norway, +Ole Bull (1810-1880) was the first to popularize them. He was, as +Grieg once declared, a pathbreaker for the young national music. +At the early age of nineteen he sallied forth with his fiddle and +wherever he appeared in Europe and America he played the folk-music +and national dances of Norway. The favor which he found encouraged his +countrymen. His brilliant career glorified musical Norway; gave it +confidence to assert itself, and serve as the inspiration of a long +list of creative tone artists--Kjerulf, Nordraak, Grieg, Svendsen, +Winter-Hjelm, Sindling, and Behrens--to write out and arrange for +voice and modern instruments the music that had so long been preserved +in the memories of the people. + +The best art-made music of Norway has been built upon the folk-songs +and dances of the common people. Halfdan Kjerulf (1815-1868) was the +first serious composer of the new art school. He lived during the +trying period of Norwegian storm and stress, but he wrote something +like a hundred compositions, and in his songs is found "the bud of +national feeling which has burst into full bloom in Grieg." + +Richard Nordraak (1842-1866), during his brief career, set to music +several of Björnson's plays, and composed some strong pianoforte +pieces and songs. "He was," says Siewers, "a man with a bold fresh way +of looking at things, strong artistic interests, an untiring love of +work, and deep national feeling. He had decided influence upon his +friend Grieg's artistic views, and he is the connecting link between +Kjerulf and Grieg in the chain of Norwegian musical art." + +Otto Winter-Hjelm, who, with Grieg, attempted to establish a +conservatory of music at Christiania after their return from Germany +in the sixties, contributed much to the national art of Norway by his +excellent arrangements of hallings and spring dances for piano and +violin. Thomas Thellefsen (1823-1874), a pupil and friend of Chopin, +was distinguished as a national composer as well as a pianist, and +Carl F.E. Neupert (1842-1888), who lived in America six years, did +much by his concert tours and teaching to dignify Norse music. + +Johan Severin Svendsen, while a Norwegian by birth and training, has +expatriated himself by his long residence in Denmark. So far as his +compositions have national flavor they are German. Johan Selmer, while +a prolific composer, will probably be best remembered as a conductor. +Christian Sinding, after Grieg, is the best-known Norwegian composer. +His productions range from symphonies and symphonic poems through +chamber music to romances. He is credited with a wide range of musical +ideas, deep artistic earnestness, and bold power of expression; but +his compositions in the larger forms are thought unduly noisy and +restless. + +Two women who have helped to make the music history of Norway are +Agatha Backer-Gröndahl and Catharinus Elling. Mrs. Backer-Gröndahl was +a pupil, first of Kjerulf and Winter-Hjelm, and later of Kullak, +Hans von Bülow, and Liszt. Many of her songs and instrumental pieces +display fine artistic feeling and musical scholarship of no mean +order. Catharinus Elling has ventured into the larger fields of +music-forms, and has produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, as +well as chamber music and songs. Her music drama, "The Cossacks," is +her most ambitious work. + +Says Henry T. Finck, an able American music critic: "When I had +revelled in the music of Chopin and Wagner, Liszt and Franz, to the +point of intoxication, I fancied that the last word had been said in +harmony and melody; when lo! I came across the songs and piano pieces +of Grieg, and once more found myself moved to tears of delight." +Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) undoubtedly occupies the foremost place among +Norwegian composers. He is the highest representative of the Norse +element in music, "the great beating heart of Norwegian musical art." + +Grieg's _genere_ pieces represent the pearls of his compositions. The +arrangements of folk-songs and dances for the piano in "Pictures of +Popular Life" (opus 19) are characterized by consummate lyric skill; +and Ole Bull once declared that they were the finest representations +of Norse life that had been attempted. Grieg wrote one hundred and +twenty-five songs, most of which take high rank. Finck is of the +opinion that fewer fall below par than in the list of any other song +writer. He adds: "I myself believe that Grieg in some of his songs +equals Schubert at his best; indeed, I think he should and will be +ranked ultimately as second to Schubert only; but it is in his later +works that he rises to such heights, not in the earliest ones, in +which he was still a little afraid to rely on his wings." + +When it is recalled that Grieg was a pianist of exceptional merit, +the large place occupied by pianoforte pieces--twenty-eight of the +seventy-three opus numbers--it is easily understood. Grieg's piano +pieces are brief, but they are veritable gems. The Jumbo idea in music +still lingers with minor professionals. They shrug their shoulders, +remarks Finck, and exclaim: "Yes, that humming bird _is_ very +beautiful, but of course it can not be ranked as high as an ostrich. +Don't you see how small it is?" + +Grieg composed nine works for the orchestra; and here, as in lyric +art-songs and pianoforte pieces, he reveals himself as a consummate +master in painting delicate yet glowing colors. The music which he set +to Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ brought him the largest measure of fame as an +orchestral composer. Indeed it was more cordially received than the +drama, as is indicated by this criticism by Hanslick: "Perhaps in a +few years Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ will live only through Grieg's music, +which, to my taste, has more poetry and artistic intelligence in every +number than the whole five-act monstrosity of Ibsen." Among other +notable orchestral and chamber music numbers may be mentioned a +setting of Björnson's _Sigurd the Crusader, Bergliot_, based upon +the sagas of the Norse kings, a suite composed for the two hundredth +anniversary of Ludwig Holberg, and a number of choice chamber music +pieces. + +It may be remarked that Edvard Grieg has not only given Norway a +conspicuous place on the map of musical Europe, but that he has +influenced unmistakably composers of the rank of Tschaikowsky, +the Russian; Paderewski, the Pole; Eugene d'Albert, the +Scotch-English-German; Richard Strauss, the German; and our own +lamented Edward McDowell, the American. "From every point of view that +interests the music lover," says Mr. Finck, "Grieg is one of the most +original geniuses in the musical world of the present or past. His +songs are a mine of melody, surpassed in wealth only by Schubert's, +and that only because there are more of Schubert's. In originality of +harmony and modulation he has only six equals: Bach, Schubert, Chopin, +Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt. In rythmic invention and combination +he is inexhaustible, and as orchestrator he ranks among the most +fascinating. To speak of such a man--seven-eighths of whose works are +still music of the future--as a writer of 'dialect,' is surely the +acme of unintelligence. If Grieg did stick to the fjord and never got +out of it, even his German critics ought to thank heaven for it. Grieg +in a fjord is much more picturesque and more interesting to the world +than he would have been in the Elbe or the Spree." + +While Norway has neither permanent opera nor permanent orchestras, she +has produced concert virtuosi of a high order. Ole Bull, the so-called +violin-king, already referred to, was unsurpassed in his day. Among +piano artists may be named the talented composer, Mrs. Agatha +Backer-Gröndahl, Thomas Thellefsen, Edmund Neupert, Martin Knutzen, +and the great composer Edvard Grieg. The flutist Olaf Svenssen and the +vocal artists Thorvald Lammers, Ingeborg Oselio-Björnson, and Ellen +Gulbranson, have also brought distinction to their country. + +The male choirs of Norway have always played a leading rôle in the +music life of the nation. The students', merchants', and artists' +singing clubs at Christiania during the past seventy-five years, have +had artistic as well as patriotic aims. Festivals, after the +pattern of those held at Cincinnati, and Worcester and Springfield, +Massachusetts, have also contributed toward the development of +national music. The most eminent choral leaders in Norway have been +Johan D. Behrens, F.A. Reissinger, and O.A. Gröndahl. The Norwegian +Musical Union has also been active in the development of tonal ideals. +Its aim has been to provide chamber concerts of a high order. Grieg +and Svendsen were its first conductors. They were succeded by Ole +Olsen, who combined the talents of orchestral leader with those of +composer, chorister, and band leader. For many years he directed the +Second Brigade Band at Christiania with the rank of captain. Johan +Selmer, also a composer, succeeded Olsen in the direction of the +Musical Union; and Iver Holier, a composer of symphonies, orchestral +suites, chamber music, and vocal scores, followed Selmer. Other +orchestral leaders are Johan Hennum, Per Winge, and Johan Halvorsen, + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +No volume dealing with Scandinavian life would be complete without +some tribute to the women of Norway and Sweden. They are magnificent +specimens wherever you may find them--in the kitchen, the factory, the +harvest field, the hospital, the schoolhouse, the drawing-room, or the +palace. They are good mothers, good daughters, and good wives, and +while their devotion to their sons, husbands, and fathers is not +surpassed by their sisters in any land, they are at the same time +independent, self-reliant, and progressive to a degree that offers a +striking contrast to the statue of the representatives of their sex in +other countries of Europe. They give their best talents, affections, +and strength; they ask the same in return. There is no country, not +even the United States, where women exercise a wider influence, both +direct and indirect in the home, the school, the church, upon the +platform, and in the press. There is no other country in which the +professions, trades, and other occupations are so free to them, or in +which their opportunities are utilized with greater zeal, ability, +and success. They work side by side with men upon the farms, in the +factories, in mercantile establishments, counting-houses, government +offices, and in art, science, and literature, and are equally capable, +although, as in other lands, their pay for the same labor and equal +results is less. + +From the time that Margit Larsson saved Gustavus Vasa from capture by +the Danish soldiers by hiding him in her cellar, the women of Sweden +have exercised a powerful influence in politics, although it has been +indirect, and the ablest and most progressive to-day prefer that their +present political condition shall remain unchanged. They do not think +it wise to extend the franchise any farther for fear that universal +suffrage will result in the corruption of national politics, which is +now comparatively pure. They prefer the present restrictions, which +give the ballot only to women who pay taxes, because it deprives +ignorant and incompetent women of a voice in the government, and +avoids the dangers that often attend the participation of the masses +in elections. They prefer to direct their efforts to securing +an increase in women's wages, so that they may receive the same +compensation as men for the same work, and hope to accomplish +practical results by educating public sentiment and bringing moral +pressure upon the employing class. + +Speaking on this subject, an eminent Swedish writer says: "In the +energetic campaign for the betterment of the condition of women, the +Swedes have taken the first place among European nations. If one seeks +the cause of it, it is found in part in the fact that in Sweden, since +the remotest time, women have enjoyed a respect greater than in most +of the other countries, but without doubt it is also due to the +superiority of the intellect, judgment, and wisdom of Swedish women, +and in later years to the numerical excess of women in our population. +This has made the means of existence to single women a practical +problem. During the present generation a great change has worked +itself out in this sense, that the field of activity for women has +been greatly enlarged. The activity of women, who at other times found +ample domain in the multitude of occupations in the domestic life, has +become less important in that respect and has grown in importance in +the labor and occupations that in other countries are left exclusively +to men." + +The advancement of women in Sweden was greatly encouraged and assisted +by the quiet influence of the late Queen Sophia and her sister-in-law, +the late Princess Eugenie, the sister of Oscar II. The queen, +always an intelligent, progressive Christian woman, with a profound +consciousness of the responsibility attached to her official rank +and influence, was a women's woman, and was habitually engaged in +promoting movements for the benefit of her sex, and with due respect +to the proprieties of her position. She never lost an opportunity to +assist and encourage all who were engaged in advancing the physical, +moral, and social well-being of the women of Sweden and Norway. + +The association of Swedish Women, which is a branch of the +International Council of Women, was organized in 1896, and has over +twelve thousand members, its object being to promote the welfare of +the sex, to educate them on all questions concerning their legal and +social rights, to enlarge their sphere of activity, and to assist +those who are thrown upon their own resources to earn their living. +The active, practical work is done by subordinate societies devoted to +particular interests, as, for example, the Fredrika Bremer Association +manages a sick relief fund for wage earners, assists students in the +universities and technical schools, finds employment for those who +need it, conducts schools for trained nurses, keeps a register of +women who are capable of performing various duties, and is continually +engaged in works of benevolence. + +Another organization, known as the Swedish Woman's Association for the +Defense of Their Country, is purely patriotic, and was organized in +1884 in connection with the movement for the increase of the army, for +the purpose of educating public opinion. It has forty affiliated local +committees carrying on a propaganda of patriotism. There is a women's +club at Stockholm whose special purpose is to protect working women +from persecution by their employers and others, to educate them +concerning legal rights of women wage-earners, and to furnish legal +advice and counsel to those who are in trouble. The seamstresses have +an alliance, and the shop girls are organized into a union. + +The advancement of women commenced under the leadership and +inspiration of the late Fredrika Bremer, the famous authoress, who is +well known in the United States because of her frequent visits here +and her literary works. She was the pioneer of the movement to improve +the condition of women morally, socially, and intellectually. + +Sweden was the first country to recognize the property rights of +women. This was due to an event that occurred a thousand years ago. +While the king and his army were engaged in foreign wars, the Danes +invaded the province of Smoland, when the women armed themselves to +defend their homes. They were led to battle by the beautiful Blenda, +who defeated the invaders and drove them from the country. In +recognition of their heroism the king proclaimed a decree granting the +women of the country property rights, and it has been since recognized +as the law of the land. + +All the professions and occupations common to men are open to the +women of Sweden, and in 1862 suffrage was granted women in municipal +affairs. They are permitted to vote at the election of delegates to +conventions which choose members of the first chamber of parliament. +These rights can now be exercised by all women who pay taxes. In +Stockholm, however, a woman voter must be out of debt and the lawful +owner of the property upon which the taxes are paid. + +The members of the first chamber of the parliament, which corresponds +to the United States Senate, are elected by conventions of delegates +chosen at popular elections in the country and in cities by the +members of the municipal councils. Therefore, as women have the right +to vote for members of the municipal council and for delegates to +these conventions, they participate indirectly in the election of the +Swedish Senate; but comparatively few exercise the privilege. + +Women of advanced views, aided by the members of the socialist party, +are now seeking universal suffrage and a law making them eligible to +parliament and to membership in the provincial and municipal councils. +This proposition has not met with much favor, and the only time it has +ever been brought to vote it was unanimously defeated in the first +chamber of parliament and in the second by fifty-three nays to +forty-four yeas, less than one-half the members present voting. + +The first woman to practice medicine in Sweden was Caroline +Widerstrom, who is still living and occupies a prominent position in +Stockholm. Her practice is as large and as profitable as that enjoyed +by most of the men physicians. + +The foremost woman in Sweden to-day in intellect and influence, in +popular esteem and in public movements, and the recognized successor +of Fredrika Bremer, is Ellen Key, an authoress and editorial writer +upon _Svenska Dagbladet_. + +In the system of local government in Norway, women now participate +upon an equal basis with men. The movements which culminated May, +1901, had been going on since 1884 under the leadership of Miss Gina +Krog, who may be called the Susan B. Anthony of Norway. In the latter +year she organized a woman's suffrage association, delivered a series +of lectures on the subject, and established a newspaper called the +_Nyloende_--meaning "the new ground." Miss Krog is something over +fifty years of age, of fine education and excellent family, and has +been noted for her activity in literary and charitable affairs. She +has been a teacher, a writer for the press, a director of charitable +institutions, and has lived a life of great activity and usefulness, +devoting her own means with generosity to the cause which she has +undertaken. + +The suffrage movement at first attracted little attention, but public +sentiment grew slowly, and in 1890 Miss Krog succeeded in having a +bill brought into the storthing giving women the right to vote in +school matters. It received forty-four out of a total of one hundred +and fourteen votes. The liberal party then made it an issue, and two +years after the same bill received a majority in the storthing, but +required two-thirds of the votes to pass. At that time a property +qualification was required of men. The income tax returns were used +as registration lists at the polls, and none but those who paid on +incomes of $84 in the country and $92 in the city were allowed to +vote. + +The leaders of the movement for universal suffrage for men united +forces with the women suffragists, and in 1898 accomplished their +purpose. The women might have succeeded the same year but for an +unfortunate division in their ranks. One faction wanted to limit +suffrage to unmarried women who own property and deprive married +women and dependent daughters and wage-earners of the ballot. But +a compromise was finally arranged, the two factions were brought +together, and in May, 1901, succeeded in accomplishing the purpose for +which they have been engaged. They received the support of a large +portion of the conservative members of the storthing as well as the +unanimous support of the liberal and radical parties, only twenty +votes being cast in the negative. + +The women of Norway do not propose to rest on their present success. +Miss Krog is continuing the fight to secure the right of participation +in national as well as municipal affairs, and believes that the women +will have all the political rights of men in Norway within the next +few years. She insists that public sentiment favors the cause and that +parliament will take a step further soon and amend the law by making +it broader and more general. Universities are open to women on an +equal basis with men, and many women are taking advantage of the +opportunity to secure the higher education, and if ever, like the +women of Finland, they are allowed to sit in parliament, they will be +amply fitted to do so. + +Under the present law only women who pay a certain amount of taxes +can vote. An unmarried woman living at home is deprived of the ballot +unless she has an income of her own; a married woman can not vote +unless either she or her husband has a stated income. Thus many of +the most intelligent and progressive women of the country are still +outside the suffrage line. Everybody in Norway who earns a dollar pays +an income tax. It may be very small, but a certain percentage of each +day's wages of every peasant goes into the government treasury. Every +person in Norway declares that it is the least objectionable means of +raising money for national and municipal expenses that has ever been +tried there, and that it stimulates the patriotism of the people, who +realize that they are contributors to the support of their government, +and should take an active interest in its management. + +Many of the wisest men in Norway consider the universal suffrage +amendment to the constitution, which was passed in 1898, a mistake +for this reason--because it removes a powerful incentive for men +to accumulate money. The Norwegian has a large and natural fund of +patriotism. He loves his country like the Swiss. Nowhere else do men +and women have to work so hard for a living, but life is the more +precious the harder one has to labor to sustain it. We value things +according to their cost. In the tropics, where no man need work, human +life is held cheaply. Men die and kill without compunction; they +excite revolutions and overthrow governments, sparing neither +themselves nor others. But in Norway, as in Switzerland, where it is +a ceaseless struggle from the cradle to the grave, there is more +national pride and patriotism than in any land, and the privilege of +living and working and suffering is esteemed as the most precious +inheritance of man. + +Women in America who are working for the ballot have only to go to +Norway to find that having a voice in the making of the laws of the +country does not remove every obstacle to the progress of the sex; +that there are still many injustices, and that the women work as hard +as the men. The Norwegian woman usually carries a little more than her +share of the load, and can support a husband without difficulty if +he insists upon it. There is nothing so admirable in this world as +a useful woman, particularly if she is married to a man inclined to +leisure and loafing. In Norway and other countries of northern Europe +the ballad, "I Love to See My Dear Old Mother Work," is something more +than an affectionate sentiment. It has a practical significance, and +is frequently found in husbands as well as sons. + +Of all the labor that the women of Norway engage in, especially women +in the rural districts, is the occupation of caring for the _saeter_. +A _saeter_ is a summer ranch or dairy farm peculiar, to Norway--a +cabin among the pastures way up in the mountains, where the cattle are +driven during the summer months and butter and cheese are made. Almost +every large farmer has a _saeter_. When the spring field work at home +has been finished, the cattle are taken thither by the young women and +girls,--often twenty and sometimes forty miles away,--where they +stay during the summer and make butter and cheese, gather hay, knit +stockings, and embroider linen. The dwelling is usually a rude hut +with a single room, mud floor, an open fireplace without chimney, and +a few pieces of rough furniture. Sheds and pens surround the hut, and +there are patches of enclosed ground where hay is made and where the +younger members of the flock are protected. The cattle are called at +night by a horn made of birch bark. When blown lustily, it gives a +clear note not unlike the cornet, and the cattle invariably respond to +its sound. + +There is a good deal of romance about _saeter_ life in books, but I +should say that there is very little in actual experience. Many of the +charming fairy stories in Norwegian literature have their scenes in +those mountain dairies. The _saeter_ girls (_saeterjenter_ they are +called), have a peculiar and melodious cattle call, known as +the _Huldrelok_, which is said to have been inherited from the +_Huldre-folk_, a species of fairy that are very pretty, but +unfortunately have tails. Usually a young farmer falls in love with +one of the girls, and when he discovers that she has a tail, is so +shocked and disappointed that he throws himself over a precipice; or +perhaps the _Huldre-folk_ gobble him up and carry him off into the +mountains of the _Josteldalsbrae_ and keep him there, while the girl +he left behind him grieves herself to death because of his desertion. + +The dairy maids are supposed to have a peculiar costume, and +photographs are often seen of them arrayed in picturesque dress, but I +never saw them worn. In all the _saeters_ I visited the clothes worn +were very plain and ordinary, and seemed to have been selected for +wear and not for looks. + +We visited a _saeter_ one day and found two young people in charge, a +boy and a girl, neither of them over seventeen, we should judge from +appearances. Their herd consisted of fifteen cows, and they expected +to remain in that desolate country two or three months, making cheese +and butter. Our little _saeterjenta_ had the heart of a poet, although +her brother seemed stupid, and even liberal presents of money did not +wake him up or make him interesting. I do not suppose that this child +had ever been twenty miles from the humble cabin in which she was +born, but the wide, wide world had been opened to her through the +books she had studied at school. She could talk a little English, +and knew a good deal about the United States. She had a brother in +Minnesota, and many of the boys and girls in the neighborhood had gone +across the Atlantic and found homes on the saeterless prairies of our +Northwest. She would like to go herself, she said, but her mother +was old and feeble and the work of the farm fell upon her little +shoulders. Yet she was brave and contented. Her mind was clear, her +imagination active, and among her homely surroundings she had found +food for thought and an opportunity to give expression to the poetic +sentiments that inspired her. Each of her fifteen cows had a name. One +she called Moon Lady, because she often wanders away at night; another +the Crown Wearer, because of a peculiar tuft upon her head. She +addressed them all in terms of affection and talked to them, seeking +their sympathy, for, poor child, they and that stupid, tow-headed +_broder_ were her only companions. + +In the little _saeterjenta_ we have a type of the laboring peasant +women of Norway and Sweden; all willingly industrious and all +philosophically extracting some sweets out of the burdensome life they +must live, and that is why I say they deserve a tribute, whether in +the field or factory, the _saeter_, the common home, or the palace.[s] + + + + +AUTHORSHIP OF CHAPTERS + + +_a_ and _b_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_c_, Nillson's _Sweden_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_d_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_e_, Sigvart Sörensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_f_, O.G. Von Herdenstam's _Swedish Life in Town and Country_. + +_g, h_, and _i_, William E. Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, _and Sweden_ +(Saafield Pub. Co., Akron, Ohio). + +_j_, Mary Bronson Hartt, in _Outlook_. + +_k_, Swedish American in _Review of Reviews_. + +_l_, Wm. E. Curtis' _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_, and W.S. Monroe's +_In Viking Land_ (L.C. Page & Co., Boston). + +_m_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_. + +_n_, Monroe and Curtis in above-mentioned books. + +_o_, O.G. Van Herdenstam in _Swedish Life in Town and Country_. + +_p_ and _q_, Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_. + +_r_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_. + +_s_, Wm. Eleroy Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Norwegian Life, by Ethlyn T. 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Clough + +Release Date: December 30, 2003 [EBook #10543] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORWEGIAN LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock,Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +Norwegian Life + +AN ACCOUNT OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS AND PROGRESS IN NORWAY +AND SWEDEN + +Edited and Arranged by + +ETHLYN T. CLOUGH + + + + +PREFACE + + +An excursion into Norwegian life has for the student all the charm of +the traveler's real journey through the pleasant valleys of the Norse +lands. Much of this charm is explained by the tenacity of the people +to the homely virtues of honesty and thrift, to their customs which +testify to their home-loving character, and to their quaint costumes. +It is a genuine delight to study and visit these lands, because they +are the least, perhaps in Europe, affected by the leveling hand of +cosmopolitan ideas. Go where you will,--to England, about Germany, +down into Italy,--everywhere, the same monotonous sameness is growing +more oppressive every year. But in Norway and Sweden there is still an +originality, a type, if you please, that has resisted the growth of +an artificial life, and gives to students a charm which is even more +alluring than modern cities with their treasures and associations. + +The student takes up Norwegian life as one of the subjects which has +been comparatively little explored, and is, therefore replete with +freshness and delight. This little book can not by any means more +than lift the curtain to view the fields of historical and literary +interest and the wondrous life lived in the deep fiords of Viking +land. But its brief pages will have, at least, the merit of giving +information on a subject about which only too little has been written. +Taken in all, there are scarcely half a dozen recent books circulating +in American literary channels on these interesting lands, and for one +reason or another, most of these are unsuited for club people. There +is an urgent call for a comprehensive book which will waste no time +in non-essentials,--a book that can be read in a few sittings and yet +will give a glimpse over this quaint and wondrously interesting corner +of Europe. This book has been prepared, as have all the predecessors +in this series, by the help of many who have written most delightfully +of striking things in Norwegian life. One has specialized in one +thing, while another has been allured by another subject. Accordingly, +"Norwegian Life" is the product of many, each inspired with feeling +and admiration for the one or two subjects on which he has written +better than on any others. Liberty has been taken to make a few +verbal changes in order to give to the story the unity and smoothness +desired, and a key-letter at the end of each chapter refers the reader +to a page at the close where due credits are given. + +J.M. HALL. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES + +CHAPTER II NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +CHAPTER III SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +CHAPTER IV THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN + +CHAPTER V THE LITERATURE OF NORWAY + +CHAPTER VI THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN + +CHAPTER VII GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + +CHAPTER VIII THE ARMY AND NAVY + +CHAPTER IX PUBLIC EDUCATION + +CHAPTER X HAAKON VII, NEW KING OF NORWAY + +CHAPTER XI THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN + +CHAPTER XII CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS + +CHAPTER XIII MATERIAL CONDITIONS + +CHAPTER XIV HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS + +CHAPTER XV THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + +CHAPTER XVI HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS + +CHAPTER XVII THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + +CHAPTER XVIII NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS + +CHAPTER XIX WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + + + +NORWEGIAN LIFE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES + + +A glance at the map will show that the Scandinavian Peninsula, that +immense stretch of land running from the Arctic Ocean to the North +Sea, and from the Baltic to the Atlantic, covering an area of nearly +three hundred thousand square miles, is, next to Russia, the largest +territorial division of Europe. Surrounded by sea on all sides but +one, which gives it an unparalleled seaboard of over two thousand +miles, it hangs on the continent by its frontier line with Russia in +Lapland. Down the middle of this seabound continent, dividing it into +two nearly equal parts, runs a chain of mountains not inappropriately +called Koelen, or Keel. The name suggests the image which the aspect of +the land calls to mind, that of a huge ship floating keel upwards on +the face of the ocean. This keel forms the frontier line between the +kingdoms of Norway and Sweden: Sweden to the east, sloping gently from +the hills to the Baltic, Norway to the west, running more abruptly +down from their watershed to the Atlantic. + +Norway (in the old Norse language _Noregr_, or _Nord-vegr, i.e_., the +North Way), according to archaeological explorations, appears to have +been inhabited long before historical time. The antiquarians maintain +that three populations have inhabited the North: a Mongolian race and +a Celtic race, types of which are to be found in the Finns and the +Laplanders in the far North, and, finally, a Caucasian race, which +immigrated from the South and drove out the Celtic and Laplandic +races, and from which the present inhabitants are descended. The +Norwegians, or Northmen (Norsemen), belong to a North-Germanic branch +of the Indo-European race; their nearest kindred are the Swedes, the +Danes, and the Goths. The original home of the race is supposed to +have been the mountain region of Balkh, in Western Asia, whence from +time to time families and tribes migrated in different directions. It +is not known when the ancestors of the Scandinavian peoples left +the original home in Asia; but it is probable that their earliest +settlements in Norway were made in the second century before the +Christian era. + +The Scandinavian peoples, although comprising the oldest and most +unmixed race in Europe, did not realize until very late the value of +writing chronicles or reviews of historic events. Thus the names of +heroes and kings of the remotest past are helplessly forgotten, save +as they come to us in legend and folk-song, much of which we must +conclude is imaginary, beautiful as it is. But Mother Earth has +revealed to us, at the spade of the archaeologist, trustworthy +and irrefutable accounts of the age and the various degrees of +civilization of the race which inhabited the Scandinavian Peninsula in +prehistoric times. Splendid specimens now extant in numerous museums +prove that Scandinavia, like most other countries, has had a Stone +Age, a Bronze Age, and an Iron Age, and that each of these periods +reached a much higher development than in other countries. + +The Scandinavian countries are for the first time mentioned by the +historians of antiquity in an account of a journey which Pyteas from +Massilia (the present Marseille) made throughout Northern Europe, +about 300 B.C. He visited Britain, and there heard of a great country, +Thule, situated six days' journey to the north, and verging on the +Arctic Sea. The inhabitants in Thule were an agricultural people who +gathered their harvest into big houses for threshing, on account of +the very few sunny days and the plentiful rain in their regions. From +corn and honey they prepared a beverage (probably mead). + +Pliny the Elder, who himself visited the shores of the Baltic in the +first century after Christ, is the first to mention plainly the name +of Scandinavia. He says that he has received advices of immense +islands "recently discovered from Germany." The most famous of these +islands was Scandinavia, of as yet unexplored size; the known parts +were inhabited by a people called _hilleviones_, who gave it the name +of another world. He mentions Scandia, Nerigon, the largest of them +all, and Thule. Scandia and Scandinavia are only different forms of +the same name, denoting the southernmost part of the peninsula, and +still preserved in the name of the province of Scania in Sweden. +Nerigon stands for Norway, the northern part of which is mentioned as +an island by the name of Thule. The classical writers were ignorant +of the fact that Scandinavia was one great peninsula, because the +northern parts were as yet uninhabited and their physical connection +with Finland and Russia unknown. That the Romans were later acquainted +with the Scandinavian countries is evidenced from the fact that great +numbers of Roman coins have been found in excavating, also vessels of +bronze and glass, weapons, etc., as well as works of art, all turned +out of the workshops in Rome or its provinces. There, no doubt, +existed a regular traffic over the Baltic, through Germany, between +the Scandinavian countries and the Roman provinces. + +The first settlers probably knew little of agriculture, but made their +living by fishing and hunting. In time, however, they commenced to +clear away the timber that covered the land in the valleys and on the +sides of the mountains and to till the ground. At the earliest times +of which the historical tales or _Sagas_ tell us anything with +regard to the social conditions, the land was divided among the free +peasant-proprietors, or _bonde class_. Bonde, in English translation, +is usually called peasant; but this is not an equivalent; for with the +word "peasant" we associate the idea of inferior social condition to +the landed aristocracy of the country, while these peasants or bondes +were themselves the highest class in the country. The land owned by a +peasant was called his _udal_. By udal-right the land was kept in the +family, and it could not be alienated or forfeited from the kindred +who were udal-born to it. The free peasants might own many thralls or +slaves, who were unfree men. These were mostly prisoners captured by +the vikings on their expeditions to foreign shores; the owner could +trade them away, or sell them, or even kill them without paying any +fine or _man-bote_ to the king, as in the case of killing a free man. +As a rule, however, the slaves were not badly treated, and they were +sometimes made free and given the right to acquire land. + +In early days Norway consisted of a great number of small states +called _Fylkis_, each a little kingdom by itself. The free peasants in +a Fylki held general assemblies called _Things_, where laws were made +and justice administered. No public acts were undertaken without the +deliberation of a _Thing_. The _Thing_ was sacred, and a breach of +peace at the _thing-place_ was considered a great crime. At the +_Thing_ there was also a hallowed place for the judges, or "lag-men," +who expounded and administered the laws made by the _Thing_. Almost +every crime could be expiated by the payment of fines, even if the +accused had killed a person. But if a man killed another secretly, +he was declared an assassin and an outlaw, was deprived of all his +property, and could be killed by any one who wished to do so. The fine +or man-bote was heavier, the higher the rank of the person killed. + +The _Thing_ or _Fylkis Thing_ was not made up of representatives +elected by the people, but was rather a primary assembly of the free +udal-born peasant-proprietors of the district. There were leading men +in the _fylki_, and each _fylki_ had one or more chiefs, but they had +to plead at the _Thing_ like other free men. When there were several +chiefs, they usually had the title of _herse_; but when the free men +had agreed upon one chief, he was called _jarl_ (earl), or king. The +king was the commander in war, and usually performed the judicial +functions; but he supported himself upon his own estates, and the free +peasants paid no tax. The dignity of the king was usually inherited +by his son, but if the heir was not to the liking of the people, they +chose another. No man, however clear his right of succession, would +think of assuming the title or power of a king except by the vote of +the _Thing_. There he was presented to the people by a free peasant, +and his right must be confirmed by the _Thing_ before he could exert +any act of kingly power. The king had a number of free men in his +service, who had sworn allegiance to him in war and in peace. They +were armed men, kept in pay, and were called _hird-men_ or court-men, +because they were members of the king's hird or court. If they were +brave and faithful, they were often given high positions of trust; +some were made _lendermen_ (liegemen), or managers of the king's +estates. + +It is but natural that the ancient Norwegians should become warlike +and brave men, since their firm religious belief was that those who +died of sickness or old age would sink down into the dark abode of Hel +(Helheim), and that only the brave men who fell in battle would be +invited to the feasts in Odin's Hall. Sometimes the earls or kings +would make war on their neighbors, either for conquest or revenge. +But the time came when the countries of the north, with their poorly +developed resources, became overpopulated, and the warriors had to +seek other fields abroad. The viking cruises commenced, and for a long +time the Norwegians continued to harry the coasts of Europe. + +At first the viking expeditions were nothing but piracy, carried on +for a livelihood. The name Viking is supposed to be derived from the +word _vik_, a cove or inlet on the coast, in which they would harbor +their ships and lie in wait for merchants sailing by. Soon these +expeditions assumed a wider range and a wilder character, and +historians of the time paint the horrors spread by the vikings in dark +colors. In the English churches they had a day of prayer each week to +invoke the aid of heaven against the harrying Northmen. In France +the following formula was inserted in the church prayer: "_A furore +Normannorum libera nos, o Domine_!" (Free us, O Lord, from the fury of +the Northmen!) + +Gradually the viking life assumed a nobler form. There appear to have +been three stages or periods in the viking age. In the first one the +vikings make casual visits with single ships to the shores of England, +Ireland, France or Flanders, and when they have plundered a town or +a convent, they return to their ships and sail away. In the second +period their cruises assume a more regular character, and indicate +some definite plan, as they take possession of certain points, where +they winter, and from where they command the surrounding country. +During the third period they no longer confine themselves to seeking +booty, but act as real conquerors, take possession of the conquered +territory, and rule it. As to the influence of the Northmen on the +development of the countries visited in this last period, the eminent +English writer, Samuel Laing, the translator of the _Heimskringla_, or +the Sagas of the Norse kings, says: + +"All that men hope for of good government and future improvement in +their physical and moral condition--all that civilized men enjoy at +this day of civil, religious, and political liberty--the British +constitution, representative legislation, the trial by jury, security +of property, freedom of mind and person, the influence of public +opinion over the conduct of public affairs, the Reformation, the +liberty of the press, the spirit of the age--all that is or has been +of value to man in modern times as a member of society, either in +Europe or in the New World, may be traced to the spark left burning +upon our shores by these northern barbarians." + +The authentic history begins with Halfdan the Swarthy, who reigned +from the year 821 to 860. The Icelander Snorre Sturlason, who, in +the twelfth century, wrote the _Heimskringla_, or Sagas of the Norse +Kings, gives a long line of preceding kings of the Yngling race, the +royal family to which Halfdan the Swarthy belonged; but that part of +the Saga belongs to mythology rather than to history. + +According to tradition, the Yngling family were descendants of +Fiolner, the son of the god Frey. One of the surnames of the god was +Yngve, from which the family derived the name Ynglings. King Halfdan +was a wise man, a lover of truth and justice. He made good laws, which +he observed himself and compelled others to observe. He fixed certain +penalties for all crimes committed. His code of laws, called the +Eidsiva Law, was adopted at a common _Thing_ at Eidsvol, where about a +thousand years later the present constitution of Norway was adopted. + +One day in the spring of 860, when Halfdan the Swarthy was driving +home from a feast across the Randsfjord, he broke through the ice and +was drowned. He was so popular that, when his body was found, the +leading men in each _Fylki_ demanded to have him buried with them, +believing that it would bring prosperity to the district. They at last +agreed to divide the body into four parts, which were buried in four +different districts. The trunk of the body was buried in a mound at +Stien, Ringerike, where a little hill is still called Halfdan's Mound. +And this Halfdan became the ancestor of the royal race of Norway. + +Halfdan's son, Harald the Fairhaired, at the age of ten years +succeeded his father on the throne of Norway, or it afterward proved +to be the throne of United Norway. When he became old enough to marry, +he sent his men to a girl named Gyda, a daughter of King Erik of +Hordaland, who was brought up a foster-child in the house of a rich +_Bonde_ in Valders. + +Harald had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When +the men delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry +a king who had no greater kingdom than a few _Fylkis_ (districts), and +she added that she thought it strange that "no king here in Norway +will make the whole country subject to him, in the same way that +Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala." When the messengers +returned to the king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty +words, but Harald said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow +not to cut or comb his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway, +which he did, and became sole king of Norway. The decisive battle was +a naval one in the Hafrsfjord, near the present city of Stavanger. +After this battle, which occurred in 872, when he had been declared +King of United Norway, he attended a feast, and the Earl of More cut +his hair, which had not been cut or combed for ten years, and gave him +the name of Fairhaired. Harald shortly afterward married Gyda. + +From this time on, the history of Norway for nearly three hundred +years consists mainly in internecine warfare among the various +claimants of the throne, and the result of all this warfare was not +only to exhaust the material resources of the people, but to drive a +large proportion of the population to make viking excursions to win +land elsewhere, and also to make peaceable settlements in other +countries. Iceland was settled by the leading men of Norway in Harald +the Fairhaired's reign because they would not submit to his rule and +therefore emigrated to a land where they could rule. In 912 Duke Rollo +with a large following conquered Normandy and settled there with many +of his countrymen. + +As the result of over three centuries of foreign and domestic war, +Norway and her people and her industries were prostrate when in 1389 +Queen Margaret of Denmark claimed the succession to the throne of +Norway for her son Eric of Pomerania. The council of Norway and the +people were willing to accept a union with a more populous country +under a powerful sovereign in order to obtain peace and reestablish +order and prosperity. Norway had not been conquered by Denmark, and +the union was supposed to be equal. The Danish sovereigns, however, +without directly interfering with the local laws and usages of the +people of Norway, filled all the executive and administrative offices +in Norway with Danes; the important commands in the army were also +given exclusively to them. The result was that the interpretation and +execution of the laws of the land were in the hands of foreigners, +and Norway became and remained for four hundred years a province of +Denmark and unable to throw off the yoke because her army was in the +control and command of her oppressor, and her material resources +inadequate to wage successful war against him. + +Like Norway, the most that we know of prehistoric times in Sweden we +gather from the early sagas, which are more or less faulty in their +statements, romantic and tragic though they be. Like the Norwegians, +the early Swedes are reported to have migrated from Asia under the +leadership of a chief who called himself Odin. And for centuries under +different kings and queens, the romantic and tragic story of Sweden +goes on to form at last her authentic history. In this brief survey we +can not go into details, and its history is very much the same as that +of Norway, except that Sweden was oftener her own mistress and at +longer intervals. + +The sources of Swedish history during the first two centuries of the +Middle Ages are very meager. This is a deplorable fact, for during +that period Sweden passed through a great and thorough development, +the various stages of which consequently are not easily traced. Before +the year 1060, Sweden is an Old Teutonic state, certainly of later +form and larger compass than the earliest of such, but with its +democracy and its elective kingdom preserved. The older Sweden was, in +regard to its constitution, a rudimentary union of states. The realm +had come into existence through the cunning and violence of the king +of the Sviar, who made way with the kings of the respective lands, +making their communities pay homage to him. No change in the interior +affairs of the different lands was thereby effected; they lost their +outward political independence, but remained mutually on terms of +perfect equality. They were united only through the king, who was +the only center for the government of the union. No province had +constitutionally more importance than the rest, no supremacy by one +over the other existed. On this historic basis the Swedish realm was +built, and rested firmly until the commencement of the Middle Ages. In +the Old Swedish state-organism the various parts thus possessed a high +degree of individualized and pulsating life; the empire as a whole was +also powerful, although the royal dignity was its only institution. +The king was the outward tie which bound the provinces together; +besides him there was no power of state which embraced the whole +realm. The affairs of state were decided upon by the king alone, as +regard to war, or he had to gather the opinion of the Thing in each +province, as any imperial representation did not exist and was +entirely unknown, both in the modern sense and in the form of one +provincial, or sectional, assembly deciding for all the others. In +society there existed no classes. It was a democracy of free men, the +slaves and free men enjoying no rights. The first centuries of the +Middle Ages were one continued process of regeneration, the Swedish +people being carried into the European circle of cultural development +and made a communicant of Christianity. With the commencement of the +thirteenth century, Sweden comes out of this process as a medieval +state, in aspect entirely different to her past. The democratic +equality among free men has turned into an aristocracy, with +aristocratic institutions, the hereditary kingdom into an elective +kingdom, while the provincial particularism and independence have +given way to the constitution of a centralized, monopolistic state. No +changes could be more fundamental. + +The old provincial laws of Sweden are a great and important +inheritance which this period has accumulated from heathen times. The +laws were written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but +they bear every evidence of high antiquity. Many strophes are found in +them of the same meter as those on the tombstones of the Viking Age +and those in which the songs of the Edda are chiefly written. In other +instances the texts consist of alliterative prose, which proves its +earlier metrical form. The expressions have, in places, remained +heathen, although used by Christians, who are ignorant of their true +meaning, as, for instance, in the following formula of an oath, in the +West Gothic law: _Sva se mer gud hull_ (So help me the gods). In lieu +of a missing literature of sagas and poetry, these provincial laws +give a good insight into the character, morals, customs, and culture +of the heathen and early Christian times of Sweden. From the point +of philology they are also of great value, besides forming the +solid basis of later Swedish law. How the laws could pass from one +generation to another, without any codification, depends upon the +fact that they were recited from memory by the justice (_lag-man_ +or _domare_), and that this dignity generally was inherited for +centuries, being carried by the descendants of one and the same +family.[a] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +As early as 1790 negotiations took place between Count Armfeldt on +behalf of Gustavus III of Sweden and various patriotic and influential +Norwegians with a view to effecting a union between Norway and Sweden +on equal terms, but the Norwegian negotiators expressed themselves +unwilling to accept for Norway the government prevailing in Sweden. A +minority of the patriots thought that the Danish yoke could only be +broken by means of a union with Sweden, while a majority aimed at +nothing less than absolute independence at any cost. + +Such was the condition of Norway when by the treaty of Kiel (Jan. +14, 1814) the allies compelled the king of Denmark to cede Norway to +Sweden and made Charles John Bernadotte crown prince of Sweden and +Norway. The Norwegians denied the right of Denmark to Norway, refused +to recognize the treaty of Kiel as having any binding force on them, +as they were not parties to it, and invited Prince Christian Frederick +of Denmark to accept the Norwegian throne from its people and to +govern pursuant to a constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814. +Among the provisions of this instrument are the following: That Norway +should be a limited hereditary monarchy, independent and indivisible, +whose ruler should be called a king; that all legislative power +should reside in and be exercised by the people through their +representatives; that all taxes should be levied by the legislative +authority; that the legislative and judicial authority should +be distinct departments; that the right of free press should be +maintained; that no personal or hereditary distinction shall hereafter +be granted to any one. + +The election of a king and adoption of an independent constitution in +disregard of the treaty of Kiel was tatamount to a declaration of war +against Sweden, and as such it was taken. After the treaty of Paris +and the abdication of Napoleon, the powers agreed to force Norway to +accept the treaty of Kiel, and representatives of the allied powers +came to Norway and demanded its compliance on penalty of war with +the allies. The Norwegians remained obdurate. The Swedes, under +Bernadotte, marched across the frontier and took the fortress +Fredricksteen. Another division of the Swedish army was beaten by +the Norwegians and driven back over the frontier. Several other +engagements were fought, and it became evident that Norway could not +be subdued without serious war. Sweden was exhausted by the wars of +the allies against Napoleon and could ill endure more warfare. On +Aug. 14, 1814, an armstice was declared, and it was provided that +an extraordinary storthing should be called to settle the terms of +permanent peace. By the terms finally agreed upon, Bernadotte was +elected king of Norway under the title of Charles XIII, and he +accepted the Norwegian constitution adopted at Eidsvold, May 17, 1814, +and agreed to govern under and subject to its provisions. At the same +time the Supreme Court of Norway was established in Christiania. The +Bank of Norway was established at Thronedjem in 1816. At the death +of Charles XIII, in 1818, Charles John ascended the throne of both +countries as Charles XIV John. + +On several occasions there was friction between the king and the +Norwegian Storthing. At the treaty of Kiel the king had promised that +Norway would assume a part of the Norwegian-Danish public debt; but as +the Norwegians had never acknowledged this treaty, they held that it +was not their duty to pay any part of the debt, and declared besides +that Norway was not able to do so. But as the powers had agreed to +help Denmark to enforce her claims, a compromise was effected in 1821, +by which the Storthing agreed to pay three million dollars, the king +relinquishing his civil list for a certain number of years. The same +Storthing adopted the law abolishing the nobility in Norway. This step +also was strongly opposed by Charles John, but as it had been adopted +by three successive Storthings, the act under the constitution became +a law in spite of any veto. + +For a number of years there existed a want of confidence between the +king and the Norwegian people. The king did not like the democratic +spirit of the Norwegians, and the reactionary tendencies of his +European allies had quite an influence upon his actions. In 1821 he +proposed ten amendments to the constitution, looking to an increase +of the royal power, among which was one giving the king an absolute +instead of a suspensive veto; another giving him the right to appoint +the presidents of the Storthing, and a third authorizing him to +dissolve the Storthing at any time. But these amendments met the most +ardent opposition in the Storthing, and were unanimously rejected. + +When the Norwegians commenced to celebrate the anniversary of the +adoption of the constitution (May 17), the king thought he saw in this +a sign of a disloyal spirit, because they did not rather celebrate the +day of their union with Sweden, and he forbade the public celebration +of the day. The result of this was that "Independence Day" was +celebrated with so much greater eagerness. The students at the +university especially took an active part under the leadership of that +champion of liberty, the poet Henrik Wergeland, who died in 1845. +The unwise prohibition was the cause of the "market-place battle" +in Christiania, May 17, 1829, when the troops were called out, +and General Wedel dispersed the crowds that had assembled in the +market-place. There was also dissatisfaction in Norway because a +Swedish viceroy (Statholder) was placed at the head of the government, +and because their ships had to sail under the Swedish flag. + +The French July Revolution of 1830, which started the liberal +movement throughout Europe, also had its influence in Norway. Liberal +newspapers were established at the capital, and the democratic +character of the Storthing became more pronounced, especially after +1833, when the farmers commenced to take an active part in the +elections. Prominent among them was Ole Gabriel Ueland. The king was +so displeased with the majority in the Storthing of 1836 that he +suddenly dissolved it; but the Storthing answered this action by +impeaching the Minister of State, Loevenskiold, for not having +dissuaded the king from taking such a step. Loevenskiold was sentenced +to pay a fine; the king then yielded and reconvened the Storthing. +He also took a step toward conciliating the Norwegians by appointing +their countryman, Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, as viceroy. This action was +much appreciated in Norway. During the last years of this reign there +existed the best of understanding between the king and the people. +Charles John's great benevolence tended to increase the affection of +the people, and he was sincerely mourned at his death, March 8, 1844, +at the age of eighty years. + +Charles John was succeeded by his son, Oscar I, who very soon won the +love of the Norwegians. One of his first acts was to give Norway her +own commercial flag and other outward signs of her equality with +Sweden. His father had always signed himself "King of Sweden and +Norway"; but King Oscar adopted the rule to sign all documents +pertaining to the government of Norway as "King of Norway and Sweden." +During the war between Germany and Denmark, King Oscar gathered a +Swedish-Norwegian army in Scania, and succeeded in arranging the +armstice of Malmoe in 1848. The war broke out anew, however, the +following year, and he then occupied northern Schleswig with Norwegian +and Swedish troops, pending the negotiations for peace between Germany +and Denmark. During the Crimean War, King Oscar made a treaty with +England and France (1855), by which the latter powers promised to +help Sweden and Norway in case of any attack from Russia. General +contentment prevailed during the happy reign of King Oscar, and +the prosperity, commerce, and population of the country increased +steadily. These satisfactory conditions did not, however, result in +weakening the national feeling, and the Storthing, in 1857, declined +to promote a plan, prepared by a joint Swedish and Norwegian +commission, looking to a strengthening of the union. After a sickness +of two years, during which his son, Crown Prince Charles, had charge +of the government as prince-regent, King Oscar I died in July, +1859, at the age of sixty years. He was married to Josephine of +Leuchtenberg, daughter of Napoleon's stepson, Eugene Beauharnais. + +Charles XV was thirty-three years old when he ascended the throne. The +progress in the material welfare of the country continued during his +reign, and, like his father, he was very popular with the Norwegians. +Numerous roads and railroads were started, all parts of the country +were connected by telegraph, and the merchant marine grew to be one +of the largest in the world. In 1869 a law was passed providing for +annual sessions of the Storthing instead of triennial as heretofore. + +Charles XV died Sept. 18, 1872, and, having no sons, was succeeded by +his younger brother, Oscar II, the late ruler of Sweden. The Storthing +appropriated the necessary funds for the expense of the coronation +at Throndhjem (July 18, 1873), while the king sanctioned the bill +abolishing the office of Statholder. But soon differences between the +Storthing and the ministry brought on sharp conflicts. Long before +Norway deposed King Oscar II (June 7, 1905), disruptions and war would +doubtless have occurred had it not been for the wisdom and tact of the +king. The last straw that broke the camel's back in this instance was +the refusal of separate consular representation for Norway. The basis +of this last demand was not mainly the commercial value to Norway of +having its distinct consuls, though this was an element, but the right +of Norway as a nation entirely independent of Sweden to be represented +as such in its commercial relations with foreign nations. Sweden and +Norway are now not only two distinct nations, but are competitors in +trade and commerce. Norway's shipping and carrying trade far exceeds +that of Sweden. The Norwegians have always been a seafaring people, +and Norwegian sailors and marines are found in large numbers in the +commercial marine and navies of all Europe and America. From the +standpoint of Norway, common justice demanded that Norwegian merchants +and sailors should, like every other nation, have their own consuls to +represent and protect them in foreign countries. + +Not being able to secure the approval of the king for separate +consular representation, the Storthing, on June 7, 1905, passed +resolutions declaring the dissolution of the union between Norway and +Sweden, and that King Oscar had ceased to be the ruler of Norway. In +the place of the king, the Storthing appointed the members of the +Norway Council of State to act as a temporary government for the +nation. The Storthing further declared that Norway had no ill feeling +against King Oscar or his dynasty of Sweden, and asked the king to +cooperate in selecting one of his own house to be king of Norway. + +The Riksdag of Sweden met in extraordinary session, June 21, 1905, +at the call of King Oscar, to consider the action of the Norwegian +Storthing in declaring the dissolution of the union between the +two countries. The opening of the session was marked by the usual +ceremonial pomp, but also by a gravity and solemnity befitting the +unusual occasion. The emotional feeling was intense and repressed with +difficulty by both speakers and audience. The king, in his address +to the Riksdag, maintained with dignity that he had acted within his +constitutional rights and that Norway had not the power to dissolve +the union which legally could be effected only by mutual consent. +Nevertheless, it was with great sadness that he now urged negotiations +for the severance of the ties between the two nations, believing that +"the union was not worth the sacrifice which acts of coercion would +entail." The bill prepared by the government was immediately presented +to the Riksdag. It was of the same tenor as the king's address, and +asked for authorization to negotiate with the Norwegian Storthing for +the establishment of a common basis for the settlement of the question +involved in the separation of the two kingdoms. The bill encountered +strong opposition, both in and out of the Riksdag. In the Senate it +was referred to a committee of nine anti-government members, while in +the lower house the composition of the corresponding committee was +equally divided between the two opposing parties, with the addition +of two independent members. The Riksdag authorized the government to +negotiate a loan of $25,000,000 for works of defense, and declared the +harbors of Stockholm, Karlskrona, Gothenburg, and Farosund to be +war ports from which all foreign naval vessels were to be excluded. +Norway's army was also mobilized and brought near the Swedish +boundary. + +Notwithstanding these warlike aspects, a peaceful dissolution of the +union between Sweden and Norway was finally effected. The conference +at Karlstad between the representatives of the two nations, on Sept. +23, 1905, drew up a protocol which became a treaty when subsequently +ratified by the Riksdag and the Storthing, on the ninth of the +following October. Thereupon Sweden canceled the charter of 1815 which +governed the union of the two countries, and King Oscar declared +Norway to be again separate and independent. Thus were severed the +political relations between two countries, which, during a period of +ninety years, had led to ever-increasing discord. + +King Oscar II of Sweden steadfastly refused, however, to allow any +prince of his house to be chosen as the new king of Norway, and the +choice finally fell upon Prince Charles of Denmark, who was elected by +an overwhelming majority at the plebiscite held throughout Norway on +Nov. 12, 1905. He accepted the throne offered him and was crowned June +22, 1906. + +The idea is prevalent that there is ill will between the Norwegian and +Swedish peoples. This is a popular misconception. The Norwegian and +Swedish peoples are racially very similar in character and habits, and +mutually respect each other. King Oscar was as beloved and honored in +Norway as he was in Sweden, and deservedly so. The Norwegians felt +proud of his character, life, and statesmanship. They appreciated +his wisdom and moderation, and gave him full credit for his earnest +conviction that he was right in his differences with the Norwegian +government. And yet, the dissolution was a blessing to both countries +concerned. So long as Norway and Sweden were united under one king, +there would have been friction. In like manner the long union between +Norway and Denmark was a continuous source of irritation, but after +the dissolution they were the best of friends. It has been suggested +that Russia has long had her eye on the ice-free harbors of the +Norwegian coast and has coveted them; that she has built her railroads +across Finland close up to the Norwegian frontier, and that there +is trouble ahead for Norway, because she has isolated herself from +Sweden, her natural protector. But we see in the division a Greater +Scandinavia. There are now the three great Scandinavian nations, +Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and it can be imagined that, so close of kin, +any one of them would rush to arms in defense of the others. A united +Norway and Sweden under one king brought constant bickerings; a +separate Norway and Sweden can be of mutual help.[b] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +Leading up to the events of the nineteenth century in Sweden were +centuries of splendid history, some points of which will be briefly +touched upon to connect the present-day Sweden with the mediaeval +state. + +During the Folkung Dynasty, in the fourteenth century, the royal +houses of Sweden and Norway became united through the marriage of Duke +Eric, of Sweden, and Ingeborg, only child of King Haakon, of Norway; +and Duke Valdemar to the king's niece of the same name. In May, 1319, +King Haakon died, and Magnus Ericsson, the young son of Duke Eric and +Princess Ingeborg, inherited the crown of Norway, and July 8 of the +same year was elected King of Sweden, at Mora in Upland. + +For the attainment of this end, Magnus' mother, Duchess Ingeborg, and +seven Swedish councillors had worked with great activity. They had +taken part in shaping the first Act of Union of the North in June, +1319, and from Oslo, in Norway, hastened to have Magnus elected at +the Stone of Mora, where the Swedish kings since time immemorial were +nominated. The Act of Union stipulated that the two kingdoms were to +remain perfectly independent, the king to sojourn an equally long part +of the year in each, with no official of either country to accompany +him further than the frontier. In their foreign relations the +countries were to be independent, but to support each other in case of +war. The king was the only tie to bind them together. + +There was another Magnus whose candidacy was spoiled by this union. He +was the son of King Birger, already as a child chosen king of Sweden +in succession to his father. Magnus Birgersson, a prisoner at +Stockholm, was beheaded in 1320, to make safe the reign of his more +fortunate cousin. King Magnus was only three years old, and Drotsete +Mattias Kettilmundsson presided over the government during his +minority, the nobles of the state council having great power and +influence. Both in Sweden and Norway the nobility had by this time +attained a supremacy which was oppressive both to the king and the +people, not so much through their privileges as through the liberties +they took. Their continual feuds between themselves disturbed the +peace of the country. + +In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of +benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests +he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character, and was not +able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and +Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into +German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as +security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for +protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar, in 1832, both +provinces were united to Sweden. But the king had to pay heavy amounts +in settlement, which were increased when Halland was procured in a +similar way. + +King Magnus was, at his zenith of power, one of the mightiest monarchs +in Europe, having under his rule the entire Scandinavian peninsula and +Finland, a realm stretching from the sound at Elsinore to the Polar +Sea, from the river Neva to Iceland and Greenland. In 1335, King +Magnus decreed that no Christian within his realm should remain a +thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery. + +But financial difficulties arose, an unsuccessful crusade was +attempted, the "Black Death" came from England to Norway in 1350 and +spread with great rapidity, and several other things convened to fill +the people with discontent, so that the union with Norway did not +prove a happy one. A separation was brought about in 1844, when +Haakon, the younger son of Magnus, was made king of Norway, Magnus +remaining in power until Haakon came of age, and his older son, +Eric, was chosen king or heir-apparent of Sweden. It seems that this +division had been preconceived by King Magnus when he gave this older +son the Swedish name of Eric and to the younger the Norwegian name +of Haakon, both equally characteristic of the royal lines of the +respective countries. + +It was during the Folkung period that there flourished one of the most +remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, St. Birgitta. At the Swedish +court, she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, where she +gathered deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful +world. By some she is considered a reformer before Luther, because +she insisted on direct communication between the communicant and God +without the mediation of priests or saints. Yet there was a difference +between Birgitta and Luther, because the latter sought to reform +institutions, while the former would reform the upholders of the +institutions. + +After the reign of Magnus and his sons, there came for a brief season +Albrecht of Germany, and after him Queen Margaret, who united for +the first time in history the three Scandinavian countries and their +dependencies. This period was denominated one of unionism against +patriotism, and closed with the rebellion of Denmark and the ascending +of the Swedish throne by Christian of Denmark, who claimed the right +of his descent from St. Eric. Then followed the public execution +under edict of King Christian, when eighty-two persons were beheaded, +including many bishops and men of note in Sweden. + +It is needless to say that this period was followed immediately by +one of revolution and reformation, characterized by much heroism and +patriotism, and bringing into prominence those splendid warriors, +Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII, and others, and the +memorable battle of Pultowa and other lesser engagements. + +After this came a period of political grandeur under various rulers, +notably Queen Christine, followed by what has been called the period +of Liberty, or the Aristocratic Republic, under Queen Ulrica Eleonore, +when literature and the arts and sciences flourished, and Swedenborg, +Linnaeus, Dahlin, Tegner, and many others came into prominence. + +One of the most loved rulers of this period was Gustavus III. By his +influence a revolution similar to that in France was put down, for +which, at a mask ball in the Royal Opera, he was assassinated by +conspiritors. It is true, historians tell us, that he was superficial, +that he violated the law, had no regard for a constitutional +government, and led the people into adventurous and expensive wars. +Yet his noble patriotism, frank heroism, brilliant genius, and great +generosity compelled the love of his countrymen. In this mixture +of patriotism and universal cosmopolitanism, true genius and +superficiality, earnestness and recklessness in the character of +Gustavus III, the Swedes recognized peculiarities of their own +national temperament, for which they love him dearly, and Tegner has +voiced this love in a few lines of his eulogy: + + There rests o'er Gustav's days a golden shimmer, + Fantastic, foreign, frivolous, if you please; + But why complain when sunshine caused the glamour? + Where stood we now if it were not for these? + All culture on an unfree ground is builded, + And barbarous once the base of patriotism true; + But wit was planted, iron-hard language welded, + The song was raised, life more enjoyed and shielded, + And what Gustavian was, is, therefore, Swedish too. + +On his death-bed, Gustavus III appointed his brother Charles and +Charles Gustavus Armfelt members of the government during the minority +of his son. Gustavus IV Adolphus was declared of age and took charge +of the government when eighteen (in 1796). His guardians retired, +and the new monarch ruled alone, without favorites or influential +advisers. This proved most unfortunate for Sweden, for he was entirely +without the gifts of a regent. He was a lover of order, economy, +justice, and pure morals, but through lack of mental and physical +strength his good qualities were misdirected. His father's tragic fate +had a sinister effect upon his mind, the equilibrium of which was also +shaken by the outrages of the revolutionists in France. Of a morbid +sensibility, and without inclination to confide in any one, his +religious mysticism led him into a state close to insanity. He +imagined himself to be the reincarnation of Charles XII, while in +Napoleon he recognized the monster of the Apocalypse, which he himself +was sent to fight and conquer. + +He refused any alliance with Russia and Denmark, and stubbornly +resisted the friendship France wished to bestow. By his imbecility he +lost Finland to the kingdom, and was compelled to abdicate in 1808. +This "lunatic monarch," as he was called, was escorted out of the +country with his family, never to return, and died in St. Gallin, in +1837. + +Under these conditions we find Sweden at the beginning of the +nineteenth century, when Charles XIII was chosen to succeed his +nephew, the abdicated Gustavus IV Adolphus. Charles XIII was one of +the most unsympathetic of Swedish kings, but his reign marks a new +period in Swedish history, commencing the era of constitutional +government. The new constitution to which the king subscribed was +not a radical document; it only reduced the power of the king. Hans +Jaerta, one of the nobles who had renounced their privileges and been +active in the conspiracy against Gustavus IV, was the leading spirit +of the constitutional committee, and was appointed secretary of state +in the new cabinet. + +It was necessary to select an heir to the throne, as Charles XIII was +childless, and Prince Christian August of Augustenborg was chosen, +much in opposition to the nobles, who wanted the son of Gustavus IV. + +The Prince of Augustenborg, who was Danish governor-general of Norway, +accepted, and was adopted by the king, changing his name to Charles +August. Beloved by the lower classes who had effected his selection, +he was treated coldly by the Gustavian aristocrats, and reports of +attempts to poison the heir-apparent were in circulation even before +he arrived in Sweden. Prince Charles August himself said he had +often been warned that he would die young of paralysis, but paid no +attention to the warnings given him. During a parade of troops at +Qvidinge, in Scania, he was suddenly seen to lose consciousness +and dropped dead from his horse. A report that seemed to favor the +supposition that death resulted from poison, threw the populace into +a frenzy, and the stoning to death of Count Fersen resulted. This +occurred at the burial of the dead prince, when Count Fersen, as +marshal of the realm, opened the procession. Approaching the church +of Riddarholm, his carriage was pelted with stones, Fersen himself +seeking shelter in various places, but being pursued by the mob and +killed. Thus perished a man who, with Curt von Stedingk, had received +the order of Cincinnatus from the hands of George Washington, and who +once was so near saving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their +cruel fate. Fersen's brother was saved only by mere chance, and his +sister by a flight in disguise. + +Sweden was once more without an heir-apparent to the throne, and, +though others had been proposed, King Charles sent two emissaries +to Napoleon to notify him of the death of Charles August and the +selection of his brother. Then one of the most original and daring +schemes ever attempted on such a line was carried through by Count +Otto Moerner, one of the emissaries. On his own responsibility, he +inquired of Marshal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's ablest generals, +if he would consent to become heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. +Bernadotte consented, and the consent of Napoleon was obtained through +the Swedish ambassador in Paris. Upon his return, Moerner was ordered +to leave the capital, by the minister of state, who blamed him for his +unauthorized action. But, from Upsala, Moerner led an eager agitation, +with the result that the Riksdag of Oerebro selected Bernadotte, who +was represented by a secret emissary. Thus, the two generals who, +at the abdication of Gustavus IV, were, one in Norway, the other in +Denmark, with troops ready to attack Sweden, both within one year were +chosen to succeed Charles XIII. And this is how the Bernadottes, +the present reigning family of Sweden, came to the throne. Marshal +Bernadotte took the name of Prince Charles Johann. + +It was in 1818, four years after Norway had been joined to Sweden, +that Charles XII died, at the age of seventy, and Charles XIV Johann, +the first of the Bernadotte dynasty, succeeded him, at the age of +fifty-four years. His reign was one of reconstruction--politically, +financially, and socially,--and during the last years of his life +he received strong and repeated evidence of the love of his people, +especially upon the twenty-fifth anniversary as king of Sweden. + +Oscar I, his son, was forty-five years of age at the death of his +father. He did not possess his father's brilliant genius or power of +personal influence, but was fondly devoted to the fine arts, himself a +talented painter and composer. He was a hard worker, and also fond +of the pleasures of life. His health was injured through illness, in +1857, and he never recovered. The premature death of his second +son, Prince Gustavus, a talented composer and highly popular, had +a disastrous effect on him, and he died July 8, 1859, after a long +illness, beloved by the two nations who, during his reign, had enjoyed +the happiest epoch of their history. + +It was during the reign of the late king, Oscar II, that Sweden +attained her greatest prosperity and made most progress. Oscar II, +brother of his predecessor, ascended the throne at a moment when +universal peace was restored after the great conflict between France +and Germany, and when an age of commercial prosperity for Sweden +seemed to have begun. King Oscar had received the same superior +education as his older brothers, was as brilliantly gifted as they, +and of a more scholarly mind. As a writer on scientific subjects, +a poet, and an orator, Oscar II distinguished himself before his +succession to the throne, and still he did not find it easy to gain +the love and admiration of the Swedish people, of which he was so +eminently worthy. He was the successor of one of the most popular +rulers the country ever saw, and, though appreciation came slowly, +he lived to see his own popularity almost outrival that of his +predecessor. During the last years of his life he was considered the +most learned and popular of the monarchs of Europe. + +He showed great discernment in his arrangement of dynastic matters. +Himself married to the fervently religious Princess Sophie of Nassau, +the king brought about the marriage of his oldest son, Crown Prince +Adolphus, the present king of Sweden, to Princess Victoria of Bade, a +granddaughter of Emperor William of Germany, and a great-granddaughter +of Gustavus IV of Sweden. His third son, Prince Charles, Duke of West +Gothland, is married to Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, a granddaughter +of Charles XV of Sweden. These unions are well calculated to +accentuate the increasing political, commercial, and cultural intimacy +with Germany, the Scandinavian policy of life predecessor, and the +desire of King Oscar to see the descendants of the old royal line of +Sweden as heirs to the crown. In giving his consent to the marriage +of his second son, Prince Oscar, to Lady Ebba Munck, of the Swedish +nobility, King Oscar gave evidence of the fact that he was not a +matchmaker regardless of the feelings of the parties involved. Prince +Oscar, formerly Duke of Gothland, upon renouncing his share of +inheritance to the throne of Sweden, also the throne of Norway, for +the two kingdoms were then united, was allowed to marry the choice of +his heart. King Oscar also tried to heal the wounds of the past by +opening the vaults of the church of Riddarholm to the sarcophagi of +Gustavus IV, the exiled king, and his son, and by giving Queen Carola +of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of Gustavus, repeated proofs +of esteem and considerate distinction. + +King Oscar with his two crowns received as an inheritance two +important problems to be solved--the reorganization of the Swedish +army and the settlement of the difficulties between Norway and Sweden. +How he handled the latter has been told about in the preceding +chapter. The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until +after twenty years of parliamentary struggle, but is now, thanks to +the energies and perseverance of King Oscar, on a solid basis. + +During the nearly one hundred years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed +under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her +constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree. +The dreams of glory by conquest belonged to the days gone by, but in +the fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which +the world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867, +1878, and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876, and of +Chicago in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with +honor in the international competition. The railways of Sweden have +incessantly spun a more and more extended network of steel over the +country, opening connections for enterprises in new districts, and +furthering commerce and industrial art in a wide measure. + +In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that +his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short +a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of +government were in his hands practically long before the death of his +father, who for several years suffered ill health. To say the least, +Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the +strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden, +and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN + + +The religion of the ancient Norwegians was of the same origin as +that of all other Germanic nations, and, as it is the basis of their +national life, a brief outline of it will be necessary in these pages. + +In the beginning of time there were two worlds: in the South was +Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler; in the North +was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the spring Hvergelmer, where the +dragon Nidhugger dwells. Between these worlds was the yawning abyss +Ginungagap. From the spring Hvergelmer ran icy streams into the +Ginungagap. The hoarfrost from these streams was met by sparks from +Muspelheim, and by the power of the heat the vapors were given life in +the form of the Yotun or giant Ymer and the cow Audhumbla, on +whose milk he lives. From Ymer descends the evil race of Yotuns or +frost-giants. As the cow licked the briny hoarfrost, the large, +handsome and powerful Bure came into being. His son was Bur, who +married a daughter of a Yotun and became the father of Odin, Vile, and +Ve. Odin became the father of the kind and fair Aesir, the gods who +rule heaven and earth. + +Bur's sons killed Ymer, and in his blood the whole race of Yotuns +drowned except one couple, from whom new races of Yotuns or giants +descended. Bur's sons dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of +Ginungagap. Out of the trunk of the body they made the earth, and of +his blood the sea. His bones became mountains, and of his hair they +made trees. From the skull they made the heavens, which they elevated +high above the earth and decorated with sparks from Muspelheim. But +his brain was scattered in the air and became clouds. Around the earth +they let the deep waters flow, and on the distant shores the escaped +Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard. For protection +against them the kind gods made from Ymer's eyebrows the fortification +Midgard as a defense for the inner earth. But from heaven to earth +they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow. + +The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the +Dawn) of the Aesir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who +was bright and fair as his father. Odin placed mother and son in the +heavens, and bade them each in turn ride over the earth. Night rides +ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is +every morning covered with dew. Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe, +whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth. + +A great number of maggots were bred in Ymer's body, and they became +gnomes or dwarfs, little beings whom the gods gave human sense +and appearance. They lived within the mountains, and were skilful +metal-workers, but they could not endure the light of day. Four +dwarfs, the East, West, North, and South, were placed by the gods to +carry the arch of heaven. + +As yet there were no human beings on earth. Then, one day, the three +gods, Odin, Keener and Lodur, were walking on the shore of the sea, +where they found two trees, and from them they made the first man and +the first woman, Ask and Embla (ash and elm). Odin gave them life, +Hoener reason, Lodur blood and fair complexion. The gods gave them +Midgard for a home, and from them the whole human race is descended. + +The evergreen ash tree Ygdrasil is the finest of all trees. It +shoots up from three roots. One of them is in the well Hvergelmer in +Niflheim, and on this the dragon Nidhugger is gnawing. The other root +is in Yotunheim, in the wise Yotun Mimer's fountain. One of Odin's +eyes, which he pledged for a drink at this fountain, is kept here. +Whoever drinks of this fountain becomes wise. The third root is in +heaven, at the Urdar well, where the gods hold their Thing or court. +To this place they ride daily over the bridge Bifrost. Here also +the three Norns abide, the maidens Urd, Verdande, and Skuld (past, +present, and future). They pour water from the well over the roots of +the tree. The Norns distribute life and govern fate, and nothing can +change their decision. + +The dwelling in heaven of the Aesir or gods is called Asgard. In its +middle was the field of Ida, the gathering-place of the gods, with +Odin's throne, Lidskialv, from which he views the whole world. Odin is +the highest and the oldest of the gods, and all the others honor him +as their father. Odin's hall is Valhalla. The ceiling of this hall +is made of spears, it is covered with shields, and its benches are +ornamented with coats of mail. To this place Odin invites all who have +fallen in battle, and he is therefore called Valfather, _i.e._, the +father of the fallen. The invited fallen heroes are called Einherier; +their sport and pastime is to go out every day and fight and kill each +other; but toward evening they awake to life again and ride home as +friends to Valhalla, where they feast on pork of the barrow Saerimmer, +and where Odin's maidens, the Valkyrias, fill their horns with mead. +These Valkyrias were sent by Odin to all battles on earth, where they +selected those who were to be slain and afterward become the honored +guests at Valhalla. At Odin's side sit the two wolves, Gere and Freke, +and on his shoulders the ravens, Hugin and Munin. These ravens fly +forth every morning and return with tidings from all parts of the +world. Odin's horse is the swift, gray, eight-footed Sleipner. When he +rides to battle he wears a golden helmet, a beautiful coat of mail, +and carries the spear Gungner, which never fails. Odin is also the god +of wisdom and poesy; in the morning of time he deposited one of his +eyes in pledge for a drink of Mimer's fountain of wisdom, and he drank +Suttung's mead in order to gain the gift of poesy. He has also taught +men the art of writing Runes and all secret arts. + +Thor, the son of Odin, is the strongest of all the gods. His dwelling +is called Thrudvang. He rides across the heavens in a cart drawn by +two rams. He is always at war with the Yotuns or evil giants, and in +battle with them he uses his great hammer, Mjolner, which he hurls at +the heads of his enemies. The earth trembles under the wheels of his +cart, and men call the noise thunder. Thor's wife is Sif, whose hair +is of gold. + +Balder is a son of Odin and Frigg. He is so fair that his countenance +emits beams of brightness. He is wise and gentle, and is therefore +loved by all. His dwelling is Breidablik, where nothing impure exists. +Nanna is his wife. + +Njord comes from the race of the wise Vanir. He rules the wind, can +calm the seas and stop fire, and he distributes wealth among men. His +aid is invoked for success in navigation and fishing. His wife is +Skade, daughter of a Yotun, and his dwelling is Noatun by the sea. + +Frey, the son of Njord, rules rain and sunshine and the productiveness +of the soil, and his aid is needed to get good crops, peace and +wealth. His dwelling is Alfheim. He sails in the magnificent ship +Skibladner, which was built for him by the dwarfs. His wife is the +Yotun daughter Gerd, but in order to get her he had to give away his +good sword, so that he will be unarmed in the coming final battle of +the gods. + +Tyr, Odin's son, is the god of courage and victory, whom brave men +call upon in battle. He has only one hand, for the Fenris-Wolf bit off +his right hand. + +Brage, the long-bearded, is the god of eloquence and poetry. His wife +is Idun, who has in her keeping the apples of which the gods eat to +preserve their eternal youth. Heimdal, the white god with teeth of +gold, was in the beginning of time born by nine Yotun maidens, all +sisters. He is the watchman of the gods. He is more wakeful than +birds. He can see a hundred miles off, and he can hear the grass grow. +His dwelling is Himinbjorg, which is situated where the Bifrost bridge +reaches heaven. When he blows his Gjallar-horn, it is heard throughout +the world. Among the other gods were Haad, son of Odin, blind but +strong; the silent and strong Vidar; Vale, the archer; Ull, the fast +ski-runner, and Forsete, the son of Balder, who settles disputes +between gods and men. Among the goddesses (or _asynier_), Frigg, +Odin's wife, is the foremost. She knows the fate of everybody and +shields many from danger. Her dwelling is Fensal. Next comes Freya, +the goddess of love. She is the daughter of Njord and sister of Frey. +She is also called Vanadis, or the goddess of the Vanir. She was +married to Odd, and by him had a daughter Noss. But Odd left her, and +Freya weeps in her longing for him, and her tears are red gold. When +she travels, her wagon is drawn by two cats. The name of her dwelling +is Folkvang. There were also a number of other goddesses, who were in +the service of either Frigg or Freya. + +Aeger, the ruler of the turbulent and stormy sea, is a Yotun, but he +is a friend of the gods. When they visit him his hall is lighted with +shining gold. His wife is Ran, and their daughters are the waves. + +In the beginning there was peace among gods and men. But the arrival +of the Yotun women in Asgard undermined the happiness of the gods, and +in heaven and on earth a struggle commenced which must last until +both are destroyed. The Yotuns continually attack the inhabitants of +Asgard, and it is only the mighty Thor who can hold them at bay. It is +the evil Loke, who is the worst enemy of gods and men. He belongs to +the Yotun race, but was early adopted among the gods. He was fair in +looks, but wily and evil in spirit. He had three evil children--the +Fenris-Wolf, the Midgard-Serpent, and Hel. The gods knew that this +offspring of Loke would cause trouble; therefore they tied the +Fenris-Wolf, threw the serpent into the sea, and hurled Hel down into +Niflheim, where she became the ruler of the dead. All who die from +sickness or age are sent to her awful dwelling, Helheim. This is the +origin of the saying, "Whom the gods love die young." + +The greatest sorrow which Loke caused the whole world was that by +deceit he caused the death of the lovely god, Balder. Then the gods +took an awful revenge. They tied him to three stones, and over his +head they fastened a venomous serpent, whose poison was always to drip +upon his face. Loke's faithful wife, Sigyn, placed herself at his side +and held a cup under the poisonous drip; but whenever the cup is full +and she goes to empty it, the poison drips into Loke's face, and then +he writhes in agony so that the whole world trembles. This is the +cause of earthquakes. + +There will come a time when these gods and the world shall perish in +_Ragnarokk_, which means the perdition of the gods. They will have +many warnings. Corruption and wickedness will be common in the world. +For three years there will be winter without sun. The sun and the moon +will be swallowed up by the wolves of the Yotuns, and the bright +stars will disappear. The earth will tremble and the mountains will +collapse, and all chains and ties are sundered. The Fenris-Wolf and +Loke get loose, and the Midgard-Serpent leaves the ocean. The ship +Naglfar carries the army of the Yotuns across the sea under the +leadership of the Yotun _Rym_, and Loke advances at the head of the +hosts from the abode of Hel. The heavens split, and the sons of Muspel +come riding ahead, led by their chief Surt. As the hosts are rushing +across the Bifrost, the bridge breaks with them. All are hastening +to the great battlefield, the plains of _Vigrid_, which is a hundred +miles wide. Now Heimdal arises and blows his Gjallar-horn, all the +gods are assembled, the ash Ygdrasil trembles, and everything in +heaven and on earth is filled with terror. Gods and Einherier (the +fallen heroes) arm themselves for battle. In the front rides Odin with +his golden helmet and beaming coat of mail and carrying his spear, +Gungner. He meets the Fenris-Wolf, who swallows him, but Vidar +avenges his father and kills the wolf. Thor crushes the head of the +Midgard-Serpent, but is stifled to death by its venom. Frey is felled +by Surt, and Loke and Heimdal kill each other. Finally Surt hurls his +fire over the world, gods and men die, and the shriveling earth sinks +into the abyss. + +But the world shall rise again and the dead come to life. From above +comes the all-powerful one, he who rules everything, and whose name no +one dares utter. All those who were virtuous and pure of heart will +gather in _Gimle_ in everlasting happiness, while the evil ones will +go to Naastrand at the well Hvergelmer to be tortured by Nidhugger. A +new earth, green and beautiful, shall rise from the ocean. The gods +awake to new life and join _Vidar_ and _Vale_, and the sons of Thor, +Mode and Magne, who have survived the great destruction and who have +been given their father's hammer, because there is to be no more war. +All the gods assemble on the field of Ida, where Asgard was located. +And from _Liv_ and _Livthraser_, who hid themselves in Ygdrasil during +the burning of the world, a new human race shall descend.[d] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NORWEGIAN LITERATURE + + +The people who emigrated from Norway and settled in Iceland, after +Harald the Fairhaired had subdued the many independent chiefs and +established the monarchy (872), for the most part belonged to the +flower of the nation, and Iceland naturally became the home of the old +Norse literature. Among the oldest poetical works of this literature +is the so-called "Elder Edda," also called "Saemund's Edda," because +for a long time it was believed to be the work of the Icelander +Saemund. "The Younger Edda," also called "Snorre's Edda," because it +is supposed to have been written by Snorre Sturlason (born 1178, died +1241), contains a synopsis of the old Norse religion and a treatise on +the art of poetry. Fully as important as the numerous poetical works +of that period was the old Norse Saga-literature (the word saga means +a historical tale). The most prominent work in this field is Snorre +Sturlason's _Heimskringla_, which gives the sagas of the kings +of Norway from the beginning down to 1777. A continuation of the +_Heimskringla_, to which several authors have contributed, among them +Snorre Sturlason's relative, Sturla Thordson, contains the history of +the later kings down to Magnus Law-Mender. + +The literary development above referred to ceased almost entirely +toward the end of the fourteenth century, and later, during the union +with Denmark, the Danish language gradually took the place of the +old Norse as a book-language, and the literature became essentially +Danish. Copenhagen, with its court and university, was the literary +and educational center, where the young men of Norway went to study, +and authors born in Norway became to all intents and purposes, Danish +writers. But Norway furnished some valuable contributors to this +common literature. One of the very first names on the records of the +Danish literature, Peder Claussoen (1545-1614), is that of a Norwegian, +and the list further includes such illustrious names as Holberg, +Tullin, Wessel, Steffens, etc. + +One of the most original writers whom Norway produced and kept at home +during the period of the union with Denmark was the preacher and poet, +Peder Dass (1647-1708). The best known among his secular songs is +_Nordlands Trompet_, a beautiful and patriotic description of the +northern part of Norway. + +Ludvig Holberg was born in Bergen, Norway, Dec. 3, 1684. His father, +Colonel Holberg, had risen from the ranks and distinguished himself, +in 1660, at Halden. Shortly after his death the property of the family +was destroyed by fire, and at the age of ten years Ludvig lost his +mother. It was now decided to have him educated for the military +service; but he showed a great dislike for military life, and, at his +earnest request, he was sent to the Bergen Latin School. In 1702 he +entered the University of Copenhagen. Being destitute of means, he +took a position as private tutor. As soon as he had saved a small sum +he went abroad. He was first in Holland, and afterward studied for +a couple of years at Oxford, where he supported himself by giving +instruction in languages and music. Upon his return to Copenhagen +he again took a position as private tutor and had an opportunity to +travel as teacher for a young nobleman. In 1714 he received a stipend +from the king, which enabled him to go abroad for several years, which +he spent principally in France and Italy. In 1718 he became regular +professor at the Copenhagen University. Among Holberg's many works +the following are the most prominent: _Peder Paars_, a great comical +heroic poem, containing sharp attacks on many of the follies of his +time; about thirty comedies in Moliere's style, and a large number of +historical works. Holberg, who was ennobled in 1747, died in January, +1754, and was buried in Soroe Church. His influence on the literature +and on the whole intellectual life of Denmark was very great. He is +often called the creator of Danish literature. + +Christian Baumann Tullin (1728-1765), a genuine poetical genius, +who has been called the father of Danish lyrical verse, was born in +Christiania, and his poetry, which was mainly written in his native +city, breathes a national spirit. From his day, for about thirty +years, Denmark obtained the majority of her poets from Norway. The +manager of the Danish National Theater, in 1771, was a Norwegian, +Niels Krog-Bredal (1733-1778), who was the first to write lyrical +dramas in Danish. A Norwegian, Johan Nordal Brun (1745-1816), a gifted +poet, wrote tragedy in the conventional French taste of the day. It +was a Norwegian, Johan Herman Wessel (1742-1785), who by his great +parody, _Kjaerlighed uden Stroemper_, "Love without Stockings," laughed +the French taste out of fashion. Among the writers of this period are +also Claus Frimann (1746-1829), Peter Harboe Frimann (1752-1839), +Claus Fasting (1746-1791), John Wibe (1748-1782), Edward Storm +(1749-1794), C.H. Pram (1756-1821), Jonas Rein (1760-1821), and Jens +Zetlitz (1761-1821), all of them Norwegians by birth. Two notable +events led to the foundation of an independent Norwegian literature: +the one was the establishment of a Norwegian university at +Christiania, in 1811, and the other was the separation of Norway +from Denmark, in 1814. At first the independent Norwegian literature +appeared as immature as the conditions surrounding it. The majority of +the writers had received their education in old Copenhagen, and were +inclined to follow in the beaten track of the old literature, +although trying to introduce a more national spirit. All were greatly +influenced by the political feeling of the hour. There was a period +when all poetry had for its subject the beauties and strength of +Norway and its people, and _The Rocks of Norway, The Lion of Norway_, +etc., sounded everywhere. Three poets called _Trefoil_, were the +prominent writers of this period. Of these, Conrad Nicolai Schwach +(1793-1860) was the least remarkable. Henrik A. Bjerregaard +(1792-1842) was the author of _The Crowned National Song_, and of a +lyric drama, _Fjeldeventyret_, "The Adventures in the Mountains." The +third member of the _Trefoil_, Mauritz Christian Hansen (1794-1842), +wrote a large number of novels and national stories, which were quite +popular in their time. His poems were among the earliest publications +of independent Norway. + +The time about the year 1820 is reckoned as the beginning of the new +Norwegian literature, and Henrik Wergeland is called its creator. +Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born in 1808. His father, Nicolai +Wergeland, a clergyman, was a member of the Constitutional Convention +at Eidsvold. Henrik studied theology, but did not care to become a +clergyman. In 1827, and the following years, he wrote a number of +satirical farces under the signature _Siful Sifadda_. In 1830 appeared +his lyric, dramatic poem, _Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias_, (The +Creation, Man and Messiah), a voluminous piece 'of work, in which +he attempted to explain the historical life of the human race. As +a political writer he was editorial assistant on the _Folkebladet_ +(1831-1833), and edited the opposition paper _Statsborgeren_ +(1835-1837). He worked with great zeal for the education of the +laboring class, and from 1839 until his death edited a paper in the +interest of the laborer. The prominent features of his earliest +efforts in literature are an unbounded enthusiasm and a complete +disregard of the laws of poetry. At an early age he had become a power +in literature, and a political power as well. From 1831 to 1835 he +was subjected to severe satirical attacks by the author Welhaven and +others, and later his style became improved in every respect. His +popularity, however, decreased as his poetry improved, and in 1840 +he had become a great poet but had no political influence. Among his +works may be named _Hasselnoedder, Joeden_, "The Jew," _Jodinden_, +"The Jewess," _Jan van Huysum's Blomsterstykke_, "Jan van Huysum's +Flowerpiece," _Den Engleske Lods_, "The English Pilot," and a great +number of lyric poems. The poems of his last five years are as popular +to-day as ever. Wergeland died in 1845. + +The enthusiastic nationalism of Henrik Wergeland and his young +following brought conflict with the conservative element, which +was not ready to accept everything as good simply because it was +Norwegian. This conservative element maintained that art and culture +must be developed on the basis of the old association with Denmark, +which had connected Norway with the great movement of civilization +throughout Europe. As the political leader of this "Intelligence" +party, as it was called, appeared J.S. Welhaven. + +John Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was born in Bergen in 1807, +entered the university in 1825, became a _Lector_ in 1840, and +afterward Professor of Philosophy. "His refined esthetic nature," says +Fr. Winkel Horn, "had been early developed, and when the war once +broke out between him and Wergeland, he had reached a high point +of intellectual culture, and thus was in every way a match for +his opponent." The fight was inaugurated by a preliminary literary +skirmish, which was, at the outset, limited to the university +students; but it gradually assumed an increasingly bitter character, +both parties growing more and more exasperated. Welhaven published a +pamphlet, _Om Henrik Wergelands Digtekunst og Poesie_, in which he +mercilessly exposed the weak sides of his adversary's poetry. Thereby +the minds became still more excited. The "Intelligence" party withdrew +from the students' union, founded a paper of their own, and thus +the movement began-to assume wider dimensions. In 1834, appeared +Welhaven's celebrated poem, _Norges Daemring_, a series of sonnets, +distinguished for their beauty of style. In them the poet scourges, +without mercy, the one-sided, narrow-minded patriotism of his time, +and exposes, in striking and unmistakable words, the hollowness +and shortcomings of the Wergeland party. Welhaven points out, with +emphasis, that he is not only going to espouse the cause of good +taste, which his adversary has outraged, but that he is also about +to discuss problems of general interest. He urges that a Norwegian +culture and literature can not be created out of nothing and to +promote their development it is absolutely necessary to continue +the associations which have hitherto been common to both Norway and +Denmark, and thus to keep in _rapport_ with the general literature +of Europe. When a solid foundation has in this manner been laid, the +necessary materials for a literature would surely not be wanting, +for they are found in abundance, both in the antiquities and in the +popular life of Norway. Welhaven continued his effective work as a +poet and critic. Through a series of romantic and lyrical poems, rich +in contents and highly finished in style, he developed a poetical +life, which had an important influence in the young Norwegian literary +circles. He died in 1873. + +Andreas Munch (1811-1884), an able and industrious poetical writer, +took no part in the controversy between Wergeland and Welhaven, but +followed his Danish models independently of either. His _Poems, Old +and New_, published in 1848, were quite popular. His best work is +probably _Kongedatterens Brudefart_, "The Bridal Tour of the King's +Daughter," 1861. + +In the period of about a dozen years following the death of Wergeland, +the life, manners, and characteristics of the Norwegian people were +given the especial attention of literary writers. Prominent in this +period was Peter Christian Ashbjornsen (1812-1885), who, partly +alone and partly in conjunction with Bishop Jorgen Moe (1813-1882), +published some valuable collections of Norwegian folk tales and +fairy tales. Moe also published three little volumes of graceful and +attractive poems. Among other writers of this period may be named +Hans H. Schultz, N. Ostgaard, Harald Meltzer, M.B. Landstad, and the +linguist Sophus Bugge. + +The efforts to bring out the national life and characteristics of +the people in literature also led to an attempt to nationalize the +language in which the literature was written. The movement was the +so-called _Maalstraev_, and had in view the introduction of a pure +Norwegian book language, based upon the peasant dialects. The +prominent supporter of this movement was Ivar Aasen (1813-1898), +the author of an excellent dictionary of the Norwegian language. A +prominent poetical representative of this school was Aasmund Olafson +Vinje (1818-1870), while Kristofer Janson (born 1841) has also written +a number of stories and poems in the _Landsmaal_ (country tongue). + +A new and grand period in Norwegian literature commenced about 1857, +and the two most conspicuous names in this period--and in the whole +Norwegian literature--are those of Henrik Ibsen and Bjoernstjerne +Bjoernson. + +Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, in 1828. He has written many beautiful +poems; but his special field is in the drama, where he is a master. +His first works were nearly all historical romantic dramas. His first +work, _Catilina_, printed in 1850, was scarcely noticed until years +afterward, when he had become famous. In 1856 appeared the romantic +drama, _Gildet paa Solhaug_, "The Feast at Solhaug," followed by _Fru +Inger til Oestraat_, 1857, and _Haermaedene paa Helgeland_, "The +Warriors on Helgeland," 1858. In 1863, he wrote the historical tragedy +_Kongsemnerne_, "The Pretenders," in which the author showed his great +literary power. Before this play was published, he had been drawn +into a new channel. In 1862, he began a series of satirical and +philosophical dramas with _Kjaerlighedens Komedie_, "Love's Comedy," +which was succeeded by two masterpieces of a similar kind, _Brand_, in +1866, and _Peer Gynt_, in 1867. These two works were written in verse; +but in _De Unges Forbund_, "The Young Men's League," 1869, a political +satire, he abandoned verse, and all his subsequent dramas have been +written in prose. In 1873 came _Keiser og Galilaeer_, "Emperor and +Galilean." Since then he has published a number of social dramas which +have attracted world-wide attention. Among them are: _Samfundets +Stoetter_, "The Pillars of Society," _Et Dukkehjem_, "A Doll's House," +_Gengangere_, "Ghosts," _En Folkefiende_, "An Enemy of the People," +_Rosmerholm, Fruenn fra Havet_, "The Lady from the Sea," _Little +Eyolf, Bymester Solnes_, "Masterbuilder Solnes," _John Gabriel +Borkman_, and the latest and most-talked-about, _Hedda Gabler_. + +Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson (born in Osterdalen, in 1832) is the more +popular of the two giants of Norwegian literature of to-day. His works +are more national in tone. It has been said that to mention his name +is to raise the Norwegian flag. His first successes were made in the +field of the novel, and the first two, _Synnoeve Solbakken_, 1857, +and _Arne_, 1858, made his name famous. These, and his other peasant +stories, will always retain their popularity. He soon, however, +entered the dramatic field, and has since published a great number of +dramas and novels. + +In the field of belles-lettres there is at the present time a number +of other talented authors. Jonas Lie (born 1833) has produced a number +of excellent novels. Then there are Alexander Kielland (born 1849) +Magdalene Thoresen (born 1819), Arne Garborg, Gunnar Heiberg, and a +number of young authors. + +In the field of science, also, modern Norway has a rich literature, +with many prominent names, such as the historian Peter Andreas Munch +(1810-1864), Johan Ernst Sars (born 1835), and O.A. Oeverland.[e] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN + + +Swedish literature is sublime and magnificent, like its history and +its scenery; it is simple and glad, as well as sad, like the lives of +its people. One of the great days in Sweden, or at least in Stockholm, +is the celebration, on the 26th of July, of the anniversary of the +birth, more than a century and a half ago, of the national poet +Bellman. + +His songs are as household words throughout the land. To the Stockholm +born they speak of their daily life and surroundings, of the green +isles and shady banks of the Malar, the flowery woods of Haga, the +smiling park of Dijurgarden. Burlesque scenes of the life of the +people, street tragedies, drinking bouts, and country junketings; +broad humor and Nature's philosophy; lively fancies and exquisite +landscape painting--such are the themes of his song, which from one +generation to another has held the heart of the people spellbound. +Every man, woman, and child knows his favorite ditties by heart, has +sung or hummed them in moments of joy or sorrow. For his song is both +joyful and sad. His joy is the joy of the simple hearted, his gladness +a Dionysian gladness, the very enjoyment of existence; his sadness +that of sympathy with suffering humanity, of anguish at the +evanescence of life and happiness. His fancy oscillates between +constant extremes and ever-recurring contrasts. It makes of his song, +as Tegner has so aptly defined it, "a sorrow decked in roses." Bright, +gay, enraptured, full of sunshine and glamour, like the summer day +around Stockholm, it is traversed by a strain of melancholy like +a smile through tears, the laugh which conceals a sob. There is +symbolism and there is parody in his rustic figures, but they are so +living, so real, they appeal so strongly to the innermost feelings, +that they seem the embodiment of one's thoughts. His pictures are like +those of the Dutch painters: every trait in the rustic scene tells the +life-story of some humble existence. + +It is this characteristic which has made the poet appeal so powerfully +to the minds of the people. He seems to see with their eyes and feel +with their hearts, and to have experienced all the vicissitudes of +their own life. And yet he eminently reflects his own time, the gay, +the light-hearted Gustavian era, with its classical fancies and rococo +tastes. Venus and Bacchus, the Nymphs and the Dryads, Hebe and Amor +are mixed up incongruously with the homely scenes of Scandinavian +life. His Dutch pictures assume then a Watteau-like coloring of +extraordinary effect, as fancy and contrast enhance the sharp outlines +of his figures and give their vitality still greater relief. They are +so lifelike and so various that the whole of the every-day life of +Sweden, and more especially of Stockholm, of the eighteenth century, +is unrolled before our eyes. It is said that if every other book +descriptive of the period were to fail, his verses would suffice to +inform us how the middle classes then lived, thought, and felt. +Around the poet's monument--his bust in bronze on a white marble +column--there gather, on the anniversary of his birth, the crowds who +love him and love his song. Every heart beats high as the Bellman +choirs burst forth in turn into the well-known melodies, composed +or adapted by the poet himself to his words, and sung by him to the +accompaniment of his lute. And song alternates with enthusiastic +orations, addressed to the crowd by improvised orators, teeming with +quotations of well-known lines. It is an orgy of Bellman's verse, such +as the Stockholmer specially delights in. Bellman's songs generally +form a sequence, a continuous chain of lyrical romance. His _Fredman's +Epistles_ are a sort of epic cycle of lyrics. This is a form often +adopted by Swedish poets. We find it in Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_, +in Runeberg's _Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, and in the works of other +poets. It is a question, however, whether even by these Master +Singers, in their more elaborate conceptions and genial flights of +poetry, Bellman has ever been surpassed. In lyric power and vivid +realism, his popular ditties are unrivaled. + +The next to incarnate the genius of the Scandinavian race was Tegner. +His love of brave deeds and reckless adventure and his exaltation of +the man of action above the man of thought are typical. His heroes, +fair-haired and blue-eyed, stalwart and vigorous, relying on strength +and longing for adventure, tender-hearted and contemplative when not +aroused to violent action and bent on deeds of valor, personify the +national ideal. His whole vision of life is Scandinavian, bright and +vivid, with a tinge of melancholy. Tegner was, with Geijer and Ling, +the first to adopt national subjects, to use the Scandinavian myths +and folk-lore in their poetry, in opposition to the classical themes +and the Hellenic mythology, until then exclusively in vogue in the +poetical field. + +Geijer was a romantic by nature, in politics as well as in literature, +but he was above all an ardent Scandinavian, opposed to exotics, +and passionately devoted to the great traditions of the past, a +hero-worshiper, an enthusiast, and a _Goth_. The Goths were members of +a society formed to revive the old national manners and customs, the +freedom of the age of the Vikings, and the ardor of the heroes +of Walhalla. Their organ was the _Idun_, an exclusively literary +publication. In a letter written by Geijer from Stockholm to his +_fiancee_, then living in the country, dated March 7, 1811, he says: +"We have formed a society which meets nearly daily. We talk, smoke, +and read together about Gothic Viking deeds. We call each other by +Gothic names, and live in the past." And Anna-Lisa, his future wife, +writing to a friend, says: "My _fiancee_ has become a Goth; instead of +loving me, he is in love with Valkyries and shield-bearing maidens, +drinks out of Viking horns, and carries out Viking expeditions--to the +nearest tavern. He writes poems which must not be read in the dark, +they are so full of murders and deeds of slaughter." Ling, who also +belonged to this society, was a fervent admirer of the Eddas and +Sagas, of the Scandinavian myths and folk-lore. Tegner, despite his +classical education and Hellenic turn of mind, was an ardent Norseman +in feeling and instinct. "Go to Greece for beauty of form," he would +say, "but to the North for depth of feeling and thought." He scorned +alike the metaphysical subtleties of French philosophy and the +moonshine heroics of German romanticism. But he was at one with Geijer +and Ling in the desire to make Scandinavian heroes and myths the +subjects of poetry. + +The result of the movement was _Frithiof's Saga_, by Tegner, Geiger's +_Viking_, and Ling's heavy epics of Walhalla warriors. But Geijer and +Ling alone had followed out the theory in all its consequences. Their +heroes were simply _Eddic_, of their time, in spirit and in thought. +Ling's realism went so far that his Northern gods and warriors, +"everlastingly killed but to revive again," were deemed "pork-eating +and mead-drinking yokels." They were soon forgotten, and Ling himself +is best known as the inventor of gymnastic exercises on scientific +principles, an art now practiced all the world over as "Swedish +gymnastics." Geijer, whose _Viking_ gave a pure and true picture +of Viking life seen in its own light, was himself disappointed. He +abandoned poetry and took to history, though Tegner says of him that +if he had devoted himself to poetry, he would have surpassed all his +contemporaries. As historian he rose to the highest rank; and he is +perhaps the greatest historian Sweden has ever produced. + +Tegner had modernized his hero and heroine in _Frithiof's Saga_. He +gave them Viking garbs and surroundings, but modern thoughts and +sentiments. By the more copious development of the inner life, and +by placing woman on an equality with man, love had received a higher +meaning, and his poetry unfolded inspirations unknown to the ancient +world, such as melancholy and the love of nature. He did no more than +Tennyson did later in making of King Arthur the type of an English +gentleman. Frithiof and Ingeborg were representatives of the national +ideal. The success of his poem was immense. It had a lyrical +intensity which set the Scandinavian mind vibrating. Unmindful of the +anachronism, youth gloried in the noble disinterestedness of Frithiof, +in his generosity to his rival, his melancholy philosophising and his +high-minded love, as well as in his daring and his love of adventure. +Manly breasts heaved in sympathy with him, and women's tears flowed at +the story of Ingeborg's love. As the poet Snolisky has said-- + + From the highest to the lowest throughout the land + The poet had created a bond of union. + In every home, within every school door, + His verses were read and conned and loved, + And Sweden's youth felt its cheek glow + At Frithiof's courage and manly mood. + While Ingeborg's love to the maiden's dream + Gave life and thoughts to her weaving and sewing. + +In his _Children of the Lord's Supper_, so beautifully translated for +us by Longfellow, Tegner conveyed a true image of Sweden's religious +life. The scene in the country church, decked out with flowers and +evergreens for the solemn ceremony, the rustic boys and girls bowing +and curtseying as they make their responses before the assembled +congregation, and the attitude and words of the patriarchal pastor are +all true to life. The somewhat declamatory tone of the oration is not +less consistent with the character of the rural parson, the trend of +Swedish religious thought, and the solemnity associated with these +occasions. + +It was in his patriotic war-songs, however, that Tegner roused the +greatest enthusiasm. His _Svea_, his dithryambic declamation _King +Charles_, and his _Scanean Reserves_, sent a thrill through young and +old. When _Svea_ was read at the Swedish Academy, which awarded the +poem its gold medal, the friends and opponents of Tegner alike were +moved to undisguised admiration. In breadth and intrinsic power, and +in the beauty of its rythm, which seems to echo the clash of arms and +the marching of masses, this poem is unequalled in Swedish literature. +Tegner's name soon became known far beyond the limits of the lands +where his language is understood. His works were translated into +almost all modern tongues, so that some fifty different translations +of the whole or parts of his poems now exist in eleven European +languages. + +A new feature was introduced into Swedish poetry by Runeberg. Although +born of Swedish parents, he was brought up in Finland, his mind being +nurtured in the traditions and the mixed racial influences of his new +fatherland. Thus he breathed a new spirit, and a new inspiration, +drawn from the realities of life, into poetical fiction. He was a +realist in the best sense of that much-misused word. He sought his +ideals _in_ life, instead of outside of it and above it in imaginary +creations. He saw nature such as it is, with all its faults and +sublimities, and, loving it with a true poet's devotion, he painted it +simply and faithfully, without aiming at ennobling it, but seeking and +finding what there is of native dignity in its humblest expressions. +In his lyrical poem, _The Sayings of Sergeant Stal_, he portrayed +incidents of the wars of Finland fighting by the side of Sweden in +1809, when the country was conquered by Russia. It was a series of war +pictures, a collection of hero types, painted in living colors, and +breathing the most ardent patriotism.--Simple tales told by a sergeant +of his recollections of the war, they deal with real personages, most +of them drawn from the humblest stations in life, described just as +they really lived and spoke and acted. Yet throughout the story of +their simple acts and thoughts there swept a breeze which kindled +the blood, roused the emotions; and fired the patriotic feeling of +Runeberg's contemporaries. In poetic depth and beauty of language, +as in style and conception, and in their departure from all the +prevailing ideas and methods of romanticism, these lyric tales were +a revelation. They classed their author at once as in the line of +true-born poets. The works of Runeberg, although properly belonging +to the literature of a country politically no longer one with Sweden, +have from the nature of their subjects and the identity of languages, +always been looked upon in Sweden as common property, and they have +certainly exercised a powerful influence on Swedish thought and +letters. Some of his songs, set to music, are to this day sung as +national anthems. + +The last champion of dying romanticism was a sort of universal genius, +eccentric, _bizarre_, unequal, a spirit out of harmony with itself, +but gifted with the most wonderful imagination and power, K.J.L. +Almquist. His life was as checquered as his writings were various. In +turn a clergyman, a schoolmaster, a journalist, and an exile, he has +written volumes on almost every conceivable subject, from fiction, +poetry, and history, to lexicography, pedagogy, and mathematics. His +stories, published in two series, under the common title of _The +Book of the Hedgerose_, show powers of conception, imagination, and +description such as are only to be found in Edgar Allen Poe. His was +an essentially revolutionary temperament. He disdained all authority, +and cavilled at all moral restraints. He was in constant rebellion +against society, its accepted laws and precepts, and vented his moral +skepticism in bitter sarcasm and cutting paradoxes. "But two things +are white in this world," he would say, "innocence and arsenic." The +coupling of the two, however, nearly proved fatal to him. He was +involved in a mysterious affair of poisoning, in which the victim was +a dunning creditor. He was suspected of having given him arsenic by +way of ridding himself of the debt which he could not pay. No proof +of the fact could be adduced, and the crime was never brought home to +him; but public opinion was against him, and fearing or distrusting +the justice of his country, he fled from it ere the case was tried. He +wandered over Europe and America, trying his hand at everything, and +died, a literary wreck, in Germany, longing, and yet not daring, to +return to his country. Lately, the Society of Authors in Stockholm, +judging that his crime was "not proven," while his literary merits +were great beyond all doubt, undertook the rehabilitation of his +memory. His remains were brought back from Lubeck, and buried in +Stockholm with "literary" honors, among others a remarkable oration +delivered at his grave by Verner von Heidenstam, in which he was +styled a martyr in the great cause of the emancipation of thought. +Whatever may be thought of his moral character, Almquist was a great +thinker and a wonderfully versatile writer. The last of the romantics, +he has been called a realist, a psychologist, and a symbolist, and he +was certainly something of all these, half a century before the terms +became battle-cries in literature, and came to designate literary +schools. One critic has made him out to have been a sort of forerunner +of Ibsen, while another calls him the most modern of classics. His +genius placed him in advance of his age in most things. He was the +first in the list of those Scandinavian revolutionists who have laid +out new landmarks in the field of thought, and introduced new methods +in fiction and the drama. + +Liberalism, which spread like wildfire over Europe after its outbreak +in the July Revolution in France, reached Sweden soon after. It was +represented in literature by such men as Sturzen-Becker, Wetterbergh, +and Strandberg, writing under the names of Orvar Odd, Uncle Adam, +and Talis-Qualis; Blanche, who wrote stirring novels in the style +of Eugene Sue; Hjerta, and the staff of the then newly founded +_Aftonbladet_, who were revolutionizing the press. The press was +beginning to enlist the highest literary capacities of the country, +gradually becoming what it now is, a purveyor not only of news but of +thought, and a leader of opinion in literature and art, in science +and philosophy. In poetry, liberalism found its echo in the verses +of Malmstroem, Nybom, Schlstedt. In fiction its banner was carried by +three women, two of whom--well known in England and America--Frederica +Bremer, whose novels portrayed the home life of the middle class, +Emelie Carlen, who idealized the fishermen and sea-faring folk of +the West Coast, and Sophie von Knorring, who gave rather stilted +descriptions of life in aristocratic circles. All three were very +productive, and their novels count by dozens. Yet they failed to +sustain the reputations their first works had won for them. + +Verner von Heidenstam is now foremost among the writers of his +country. His early works, _Endymion, Hans Alienus_, and others, raised +him to this rank, and his last two productions, _The Carolines_ +(the companions of Charles XII) and _Saint Brigitt_, have more than +confirmed it. _Hans Alienus_ was, like Goethe's _Faust_, a work of +deep philosophical research into the problems of existence, the +purpose and significance of life, set forth in symbolical images and +explained by allegory. In the _Carolines_, a series of short stories +connected by the red thread of history which runs through them, he +gives a new conception, but a wonderfully graphic and striking one, +of Charles XII and his times. It is an epic, and yet so living and so +human a picture of the wild, iron-souled, quick-tempered hero, whose +"eyes flew around like two searching bees," and whose will was like +the steel of his sword; who had the heart of a lion and a "woman's +hatred for women," but for whom men shed their blood freely; who +"never grieved over a misfortune longer than the darkness lasted," +and was "best loved by those who tried to hate him." His pictures are +drawn by a master hand, and with the intuitive coloring of genius. +_Saint Brigitt_ carries us back to medieval Sweden. Here, too, the +picture is lifelike, centered round the struggle of a high-minded +woman, who makes everything bend to her stern rule of holiness, her +thirst for sanctity, as Charles XII did to his inexorable policy and +thirst for dominion. + +The psychological and the historical novel, the latter, in its modern +conception, akin to the former, since it is a study of the psychology +of historical characters and a historical epoch, is the form of +fiction at present most in vogue. It is in this form that such writers +as Tor Hedberg, Per Hallstroem, and Axel Lundegard have made their +reputations. Tor Hedberg's romances embody profound analysis of the +inner workings of the soul, of the secret motives which, more or less +consciously, determine a man's acts. In this line he ventures on the +most difficult psychological problems. In his _Judas_, a scriptural +romance from which he has drawn a drama, he attempts to solve the +darkest psychological enigma that has puzzled humanity, viz., to +analyze the motives which led Judas to betray his Master and become +the typical traitor. The character he draws of him is original and +striking, and departs entirely from the accepted tradition. But bold +and subtle as the theory is, it is far from convincing. His Judas is +a dark, brooding spirit, fierce and inharmonious, divided between +extatic love and admiration of his Master and inward irresistible +forces of hatred and revolt: a double nature, thirsting for freedom +and love, yet predestined to evil, and led by fearful secret impulses +to the accomplishment of his destiny and the fulfilment of his +mission, necessary to the scheme of salvation. He rushes blindly to +his fate while struggling in vain to escape it. But in the very act of +betrayal, while obeying the command: "What thou doest, do quickly," +his better nature triumphs for one instant and he falls on the neck of +his Master and embraces Him. It is the Judas kiss which betrays his +Lord. The last look of Jesus, however, showed him that he had been +understood and forgiven. The detestation of humanity to the end of the +world will be his expiation, but that look of Jesus has freed him. + +Woman, represented by writers like Ellen Key, Selma Lagerloef, Sophie +Elkau, Alfhild Agress, Hilma Stanberg, and others, holds a high +position in Swedish letters. Ellen Key is an essayist of virile +power and argumentative breadth, of superior intellect and unfailing +erudition. She is a fearless and unfailing champion of free thought, +individualism, and woman's emancipation. As was said of Madame de +Stael, her writings are "the most masculine productions of the +faculties of woman." Selma Lagerloef occupies as a novelist a position +of her own. Her style and her manner in fiction are unique. Symbolism +and allegory are blended in it with the most realistic pictures of +everyday life. She thinks in parables, and describes realities, and +the realities convey the moral teachings of parables. With something +of the peculiar power of George Eliot in the delineation of character, +she makes each humble life preach some great moral truth. Her latest +book, _Jerusalem_, is one of extraordinary fascination, created quite +a sensation in Sweden, and places Selma Lagerloef quite among the +foremost writers of the day. + +It may in general be said of Swedish writers that they have a high +idea of their calling. Few, if any, have accepted as their sole +function the idealization of form. They hold mostly that the highest +aim of art should be to teach and elevate, to destroy prejudice and +conventionality, and indicate, in so far as it is possible, the +solution of moral problems through the creative faculty of inspired +productiveness. The wish to inculcate action, the energy that is +born of enthusiasm, the chivalry that is inspired by high ideals and +unselfish motives. Raised thus from the region of mere chronicles of +human passions, of woman's frailty and man's baseness, and exercising +themselves with the political, social, and religious problems of the +day, these works of imagination have become, alongside the Press, a +powerful factor in the development of modern thought.[f] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +Only for the past three years has Norway had an independent political +life, and so few changes in local government have so far been made +under the new king that it will be profitable, in this chapter, to +take up the government and political life as it existed under the +united Constitutional Monarchy of Norway and Sweden. In fact, it is no +different than at that time, except that each has its separate king. +In internal rule, the two countries were always separate, except in +matters that pertained to the common weal of both. Thus, the Swedish +Minister of Foreign Affairs had charge of the United Kingdoms, and, as +previously stated, this was the rock on which the Union finally split. + +The constitution of Norway, like that of the United States, invests +all power in the people, who are represented by their legislature and +their judiciary, with the king as an executive to administer the laws +passed by the one, and enforce the decrees of the other. When the +two houses of Parliament disagree upon a measure, they sit in joint +session, when it requires a vote of two-thirds to enact it, and the +approval of the king is necessary. He is also required to promulgate +all the acts of the legislature. Many Norwegian statesmen assert that +the king has no veto power, but merely temporary authority to +suspend a law pending the action of the people. If three successive +parliaments, after three successive elections, pass a bill in exactly +the same terms, it does not require the sanction of the king when +it is passed the fourth time. Thus the people may exercise their +sovereignty. + +All edicts of the executive, all decisions of the court, and all +resolutions of the legislature are proclaimed in the king's name, but +the ministry is responsible to the legislature for the acts of the +king, and if they are not approved, as in England, the ministry must +resign and a new one be organized in sympathy with a majority of the +parliament. The king may choose his own ministers, but they must +represent the will of the people. They are called counsellors of +state, are eight in number. Before the disunion, two of these eight +counsellors were without portfolios, and resided alternately at +Stockholm, while the other members presided over six executive +departments in Christiania. + +A record is kept of the meetings of the ministry by a permanent +secretary, and the constitution requires that each minister shall +express his opinion upon all questions brought up for consideration. +He who remains silent is counted in the affirmative. No matter of +business can be determined by the king without the advice of the +ministry, unless an emergency demands a prompt decision, when he must +take the responsibility of securing a ratification of his act. In the +same manner the king may issue edicts of a provisional character in +matters of commerce, finance, industrial activity, customs dues, +police and military affairs during a recess of the parliament, subject +to its approval within a limited time after reassembling. + +The minister may act in the king's name in cases of emergency or +during his absence from the country, subject to his approval. +These conditions were adopted in earlier times, when the Norwegian +legislature sat only once in three years and some such power was +necessary, but now that there are annual and often semi-annual +sessions, and they have a king of their own residing always in Norway, +it is very seldom necessary for the executive power to exercise such +responsibility. + +The king appoints all the officials of the executive part of the +government, all the officers of the army and navy, and all the +clergymen in the established church, but exercises this power through +his ministers. Dissenting congregations are not subject to government +control, and may choose their own clergymen, although the latter are +required to register an oath of allegiance and a pledge to obey +the laws of the nation and fulfill their duties with fidelity and +conscientiousness. + +The king is the head of the established church, which is the Lutheran. +He is also commander-in-chief of the army and navy, but can not +increase or decrease the military establishment without the approval +of the parliament. He has the right to declare war and conclude peace, +but can not expend money for military purposes, not even for the +national defense, without the consent of the legislature. The +Norwegian constitution is silent concerning his authority to conclude +treaties with foreign powers, and the question has never been raised. +He conducts negotiations through his ministers and submits the result +of their labors for the approval of parliament. He has the power +to suspend the collection of customs duties temporarily until the +parliament can meet to consider the matter, but it has very rarely +been exercised. + +The parliament is called the storthing, and is composed of one +hundred and fourteen representatives, thirty-eight from the towns +and seventy-six from the rural districts. It divides itself into two +sections, known as the odelsthing and the lagthing. The members are +elected for three years by an indirect and complicated system which is +nearly the reverse of our own. The voters of each parish, which forms +an election district, assemble at a given place and time and select +delegates to a convention which chooses their representatives in the +storthing, and, when the storthing meets, its one hundred and fourteen +members select one-fourth of their own members, generally the most +experienced and distinguished men, to constitute a senate, or upper +chamber, called the lagthing, which exercises a sort of supervisory +power over legislation. + +The storthing sits for about six months every year. The members are +paid $3 a day during the session and their traveling expenses. The +presiding officer is chosen every four weeks, and can not succeed +himself without an interval. The committees are appointed by a +"selection committee" elected by ballot, and each committee chooses +his own chairman. There is a rather novel rule requiring bills +referred to committees to be assigned for consideration to the several +members in rotation. Any member may introduce a bill modifying the +constitution, but all other classes or measures must proceed from the +government and the members of the lower house. Members of the upper +house, or lagthing, are not permitted to propose ordinary legislation, +on the theory that they should remain unprejudiced so as to exercise +a judicial revision. Thus, bills must originate in the odelsthing, +which, having passed them, sends them to the lagthing for its +approval. + +The financial officers of the government and the directors of the +national bank are elected by the storthing, which appoints a committee +every six months to revise and audit the accounts of officials who +have to do with the disbursement or collection of money. When an +irregularity or improper expenditure is discovered, the legislature is +asked to decide whether the minister in charge of the department shall +repay the sum from his own pocket and repair the damage that has been +caused by one of his subordinates. + +In the same manner the storthing regulates all loans, on the theory +that the money belongs to the people. The members of the ministry may +be impeached by the odelsthing for a violation of the constitution and +tried before the lagthing and the supreme court. + +The following eight executive departments are in charge of ministers: + +1. For ecclesiastical matters and public instruction, which also has +charge of charities, insurance companies, and matters relating to the +relief of the people. + +2. The department of justice. + +3. The department of the interior, which has jurisdiction over +everything that is not under the other departments. + +4. The department of agriculture. + +5. The department of public works. + +6. The department of finances and customs. + +7. The department of defense. + +8. The revision of public accounts department. + +For administrative purposes, Norway is divided into twenty districts, +viz.: The cities of Christiania and Bergen and eighteen "Amts" or +provinces, which coinside with the diocese of the church, and there +is a very close relation between the ecclesiastical and the civil +authorities. The chief magistrate in each of the counties, nominated +by the king, is known as an "Amtmand." His duties are similar to +those of the French prefects, although the theory of home-rule and +self-government is carried into each county and each municipality and +parish, where every magistrate is responsible to a council elected by +the people from among their own number. They make the laws for the +magistrate to administer. There are few countries in which the theory +of self-government is carried to such an extent as in Norway. The +sovereignty of the people is absolute and their rights are jealously +guarded. Norway is divided into ecclesiastical parishes, which are the +voting districts, as in England, and are governed in a similar way. + +The Norwegian constitution of 1814, based upon the principle of +popular self-government, declared these municipalities completely +independent in the management of their own affairs, placing the +administrative authority, with the power of taxation and the +disbursement of revenues in the hands of the taxpayers and +householders, so that they could not be coerced by the national +government, if there ever was any disposition in that direction. + +This authority is exercised through a council called a "bystyre," +composed of from twelve to forty-eight members, according to the +population of the parish, who are elected for terms of three years, +and serve gratuitously. The council elects from its own number a +chairman who is the head of the whole municipal organization, and is +known as an _ordfoerer_. He corresponds to the German burgomaster and +the mayor of the American city. + +In addition to the popular council there is a magistrate representing +the royal government, who, with the consent of the council, may be +admitted to their deliberations, but is not allowed to vote. He +is also ex-officio a member and often chairman of the municipal +departments or commissions, such as the board of public works, +the school board, the harbor commission. In this way he becomes a +connecting link between the national authority at Christiania and the +municipal councils throughout the kingdom, because certain measures of +local interest are subject to restrictions by the national parliament, +particularly those involving finances. + +Under the direction of the council are permanent executive departments +similar to those found in the United States, pertaining to public +highways, the public buildings, the public health, the relief of the +poor, the fire department, police department, etc. These in every case +are managed by permanent officials under the supervision of committees +of the council. Every year a budget is made up of the income and +expenditures expected; each department being permitted to submit its +own estimates, which are approved or amended by the council, and the +amount is raised by taxation of houses, lands, personal property, +and incomes, with fees for licenses to transact business. The entire +system of local taxation is similar to our own, and the methods of +assessment are the same. In order to meet the expense of unusual +undertakings for the benefit of the municipality, such as waterworks, +tramways, docks, etc., funds are raised in the usual manner by +the issue of interest bearing bonds, which are usually in small +denominations in order to permit people of limited means to invest in +them. They are redeemed, as a rule, in forty annual instalments, the +bonds to be canceled being selected by lot. In this system of local +government women now participate upon an equal basis with men. + +With the exception of the British parliament, the Swedish riksdag is +the oldest legislative body in the world. The kingdom of Sweden has +maintained its integrity for not less than four thousand years. So far +back as the anthropologists can trace the history of Swedish people, +the boundaries of their land have remained the same. The Duchy of +Finland was subject to Swedish sovereignty at one time, and at +different times Sweden has been united with Norway and Denmark under +the same ruler, but Sweden has been Sweden ever since human beings +inhabited its territory, and it is the only nation in Europe that has +never been conquered or had its boundaries changed by foreign powers. +Since the beginning of history, home rule has prevailed among the +people and has been defended and recognized as their right. The +parishes have always controlled their own affairs, and since the +Reformation their government has been in the hands of a board or +council elected by the people, of which the pastor of the church is +chairman. Everybody who pays taxes, men and women alike, may vote at +the election of the council. The burgomaster serves for life, and is +usually required to abstain from all other business except that which +pertains to the public weal. The parishes are consolidated into +twenty-four provinces, similar to our states, each having a certain +independence and government of its own, although the governor-general, +who also serves for life on good behavior, is appointed by the king. +The city of Stockholm is an independent jurisdiction like the District +of Columbia, with a governor appointed by the king. The riksdag +was formerly composed of four distinct bodies,--nobles, clergymen, +burghers, peasants,--representing the different classes of the +community, and all laws required their approval. In 1866, however, +this clumsy arrangement was abolished and the national legislature was +consolidated into two bodies known as the first and second chamber, +similar to our Senate and House of Representatives. The two chambers +are equal in every respect, except that the second chamber, or lower +house, has the advantage of numbers when a deadlock arises and the +question in dispute is decided by a joint ballot. Then, unless there +should be an overwhelming difference of opinion, the second chamber +usually has its will, which is perfectly right, because it represents +the people. The king must approve all legislation to make it +effective, and his veto is final, except in matters concerning +taxation and the expenditure of public money. The diet has the sole +power to levy taxes and make appropriations with or without his +consent. + +The first chamber, which corresponds to our Senate, is composed of +one hundred and fifty members, elected for terms of nine years by the +provincial councils and by the city councils in towns of more than +25,000 inhabitants. As the councils are elected by the taxpayers, both +men and women, the members of the first chamber may be regarded as the +representatives of the property-owning portion of the community. To be +eligible to the first chamber a candidate must be thirty-five years +old, own property assessed at $21,000, or pay taxes upon an income +of not less than $1,100. Rank does not count. The qualification is +pecuniary entirely, and so evenly is property distributed in Sweden +that only ten thousand people in the entire kingdom are eligible to +the first chamber of the diet. + +The members of the second chamber, two hundred and thirty in number, +are elected for three years, of whom eighty are elected by the towns +and one hundred and fifty by the rural districts. Each must have +property worth $270, or have leased $1,600 worth of land for five +years, or pay taxes on an income of $214. These are also the +qualifications for voting for members of the parliament. + +There is very little of politics in Sweden. There are three parties, +known as the conservatives, the liberals, and the socialists. The +conservative party is comprised of the aristocracy, the church, the +agricultural classes and people of conservative sentiment generally. +The liberal party is composed of progressive elements, the theorists, +the artisans, the machinists, and the thinking men among the +laboring element, who advocate a reduction of the tariff on imported +merchandise and free trade so far as possible; a separation of church +and state on the theory that no man should be taxed to support a +religious faith that he does not believe in; a reduction in the army +and navy and other official expenses; the modification of the election +laws as above stated; rotation in office, so that all shall have a +chance, and they oppose the general tendency to centralization in the +government. + +The socialists go a little farther. They are not so radical as those +who go by the same name in Germany, France, and other European +countries. They are very moderate in their views. They favor most of +the planks in the liberal platform, and, in addition, advocate the +adoption of socialistic reforms, the loaning of public money without +interest to the poor, public pensions to the helpless, sweeping +reforms in the labor laws, and the purchase and maintenance by the +state of all public enterprises that affect public welfare, such as +the street-car lines, the insurance companies, the banks, etc. +The peasants in the country are protectionists and belong to the +conservative party. The mechanics in the cities are generally +socialists. Politics, however, is not very exciting. The tariff, labor +questions, and other propositions are always discussed, and of late +years the most interesting issues have been the appropriation of money +for national defense, the increase of the term of military service +from ninety to three hundred and sixty days for every citizen, the +modification of the electoral law, and the regulations of the forests. + +Peasants have been members of parliament for more than five hundred +years, and now constitute more than half the membership of the second +chamber--intelligent, well-educated mechanics and farmers, who take a +deep interest in the affairs of the government and generally are +on the right side. The agricultural peasants are invariably loyal +supporters of the king. The mechanics from the city are usually +opposed to him. + +The annual session of the riksdag opens immediately after the holidays +with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. It is one of the most imposing +functions in all Europe. The members of both houses meet at their +respective halls, attend divine service at the cathedral, where they +receive the sacrament and listen to a sermon of admonition. Then they +march in a body to the royal palace, where they are received by the +king's ministers with great formality, and escorted to what is known +as the throne room. As they enter, each man bows reverently to a +silver throne which stands upon a dais at the other end of the +apartment. The members of the first chamber are seated on the right +side of the great hall, and those of the second upon the left. + +When the sound of trumpets is heard, all rise, and the master of +ceremonies enters in gorgeous apparel, followed by four pages in dress +of the sixteenth century. Behind them is a squad of trumpeters, then +the grand marshal of the court, preceded by four heralds and followed +by the assistant marshals, the grand chamberlain, the lord steward, +the master of the horse, and other officers of the royal household, +the eighteen judges of the supreme court, the archbishop and bishops, +and the members of the king's cabinet. + +Then follows a guard of honor, composed of the highest nobles of the +kingdom in glittering uniforms and carrying old-fashioned weapons, +such as were once used in actual warfare. They surround the king, who +wears his royal robes, and, as he enters, the band plays the favorite +air of the people, "From the Depths of the Swedish Heart." He wears +the crown of state and a purple robe bordered and lined with crimson +the two corners of which are carried by chamberlains Upon the right +side of the king walks the prime minister of Sweden. Following the +king walk his sons, the princes of the royal house. + +When the king has reached the center of the room, he stops, turns with +great dignity and bows first to one chamber and then to the other, and +then to the queen, who has taken her position in the balcony, attended +by the princesses and other members of the royal family and the +officers of the court. Then he proceeds slowly until he ascends +the dais and seats himself upon the throne, his minister of state +occupying a position on his right. Before the separation of the Union, +the Norwegian minister of state sat upon his left. + +The grand marshal steps forward and strikes the floor three times with +a long staff of silver, tipped with jewels. At this signal all arise +again except the king. In old-fashioned Swedish the heralds command +silence. The king, seated upon his throne, reads his speech, which +always begins, "Good gentlemen and Swedish men." The prime minister +then reads a review of the acts of state since the adjournment of +parliament, which he skims over as rapidly as possible, because the +printed copy will be placed in the hands of every person present as +soon as the ceremony is over. The presiding officers of the two houses +of parliament step forward and make speeches of congratulation, and +reassure their sovereign of their loyalty and respect. The king then +rises, bows first to the queen, and to each house in turn, and slowly +leaves the chamber accompanied by the procession that followed him in. + +The courts of Sweden are conducted upon the French plan, and no jury +is ever impaneled except in cases concerning the liberty of the press. +When a newspaper is accused of libel or sedition, the complainant, +whether he be a member of the police or any other official of the +government, chooses three jurymen, the defendant three, and the court +three. These nine men hear and decide the merits of the case without +application of such strict rules of evidence as prevail in the legal +practice of the United States. All judicial procedure in Sweden is +based upon the assumption that the court is sufficiently intelligent +and impartial to determine the reliability of witnesses and to judge +of the application of facts laid before it. All judges and judicial +magistrates are appointed for life on good behavior, but they can be +impeached by processes similar to those authorized by the Constitution +of the United States.[g] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ARMY AND NAVY + + +Everybody in Norway, that is every man, has to serve five years in the +army, so that every citizen is a soldier--the first year after the +twenty-third birthday seventy days, and thirty days or so each year +thereafter for four years more. The organization has a nominal +strength of 80,000 men of three divisions known as the landstrom, or +reserves (25,000); the landvern, or militia (55,000), and the opbud, +or regulars, who numbered about 5,000, garrison the different +fortresses along the coast. Every able-bodied Norwegian, except pilots +and clergymen, is obliged to serve in any position to which he is +assigned by the king, who is commander-in-chief. The sailors and +fishermen are enrolled in the navy and must serve aboard a man-of-war +at least twelve months. The land forces require five months' service +for infantry, seven months for cavalry and artillery, and six months +for engineers, which is distributed over a period of five years. +Training camps are established every summer in convenient localities +from two to three months. Every man capable of bearing arms is in time +of war liable to do service in the reserves, from the eighteenth to +the fiftieth year of age. + +The organization is complete throughout the nation, so that an army +of 80,000 men can be mobilized in a few days. Every cavalryman and +artilleryman is required to bring a horse with him when he is called +to camp, and the arsenals contain a complete equipment of arms and +accoutrements. The non-commissioned officers are former members of +the regular army, in which they must have served three years in the +infantry and cavalry or four years in artillery and engineers. During +this period they are given a practical education in books and in the +mechanical duties of the soldier. They are taught to repair guns, +manufacture powder, make harness, shoe horses, and do everything else +that is likely to come within their experience in the field. +This training is highly valued by the young men of the country, +particularly by boys from the farms, because it gives them a certain +social standing, the right to wear a uniform, and a corresponding +amount of influence in the community. This regular army school takes +in about 1,700 young men every year. + +The officers are educated in a military college. The complete course +covers five years for the staff, artillery, and engineer corps. +Candidates must first have graduated from one of the government +technical schools. The infantry and cavalry course is three years. +Graduates are appointed second lieutenants in the regular army, and +are promoted through the regular grades. + +The army of Norway costs the government about 14,000,000 kroner, or +$3,800,000 a year, which is an average of $1.70 per capita of the +population, or half the tax paid by the English and Germans. The last +budget was about $1,000,000 larger than usual, for the purpose of +erecting new fortresses upon the southern coast. All the principal +seaports are already fortified, and there is an excellent system of +torpedo defense in the different fjords, but there is a remarkable +public apprehension concerning the intentions of Russia; and, mindful +of the fate of Finland, the Norwegians are preparing to resist any +aggressiveness on the part of the czar. It is not disputed that Russia +desires a winter port on her northern coast for St. Petersburg and +Kronstadt are always closed by the ice for five and sometimes six +months in the year. The Norwegian fjords never freeze. They are +protected by the monstrous mountains, and the water is tempered +by warm currents that flow in from the gulf stream. The national +apprehension of both Norway and Sweden that Russia covets one of their +seaports has existed a good many years. The bugbear has appeared at +intervals for half a century, and a great deal of money has been +expended in preparations to meet it. The people are, therefore, +cordially patriotic in their support of the army, although many of +them emigrate to the United States to avoid military service. + +Norway has a small but efficient navy, composed of third and fourth +class cruisers, monitors, small gunboats and torpedo boats, forty-six +in all, aggregating 29,000 tons, 53,000 horse-power, carry 174 guns, +and manned by 140 officers and 1,000 men. The officers are educated in +naval schools, with a five-year course for regulars and three +years for the reserves, which include all the merchant sailors and +fishermen. + +Norway has taken an active part in the promotion of international +arbitration, and has sent delegates to every conference on that +subject. The storthing, in a decided manner, has repeatedly expressed +its belief in that method of settling disputes, and in correspondence +with the Russian government has laid a foundation that may be useful +in case the czar, under any pretext, should use aggressive measures in +this direction. So much interest has been shown in the question +that Alfred Nobel, the Swedish philanthropist, and the inventor +of dynamite, who made his money manufacturing that most powerful +explosive, by his will authorized the members of the Norwegian +storthing to award a prize of $40,000 annually to the person who, in +their judgment, during the preceding year, shall have done the most +to promote peace among nations and the adoption of the plan of +arbitration in the settlement of international differences. + +For many years the chief political issue in Sweden has been the +increase of the army and the military service required of each +citizen. The king finally won, and in 1901 a law was passed increasing +the term of service from ninety days to eight and twelve months. The +nation claims that period in the life of every able-bodied man, and it +is given more or less reluctantly. + +Every male citizen is enrolled in the army, and at the time when he +becomes twenty-one years of age, he is required to report himself at +the military headquarters nearest home, where he submits to a physical +examination, and if accepted, is assigned to the proper company and +regiment of militia, and directed to report for duty to his immediate +commander. The small number of persons rejected for disability is good +testimony to the health and vigor of the race. Severe penalties are +placed upon those who attempt to escape military service by feigning +illness or maiming themselves, but it is said there are still men who +would cut off one or two of their fingers and run risk of spending +four years in the penetentiary in preference to spending a couple of +months every year under military instruction. The military spirit in +Sweden is not strong, although history shows that there are no better +fighters in the human family, and it is remarkable to watch the high +degree of efficiency to which green boys from the farms can be brought +after a few weeks of drill and discipline. + +The regular army of Sweden oh a peace footing is composed of 34,329 +enlisted men, 3,729 officers, 1,655 musicians, 840 engineers, and +623 members of the staff, making a total effective fighting force of +39,114. Of these 6,891 are cavalry and 3,432 artillery. + +These forces compose the garrisons at Stockholm and other principal +cities of the country, and are at all times under arms. The militia, +divided into regiments and companies according to location, numbers +181,000 men, and is subject to call by the king at all hours and under +all circumstances. Each member of the militia, as I have said, must +serve a certain time in the army, eight months for infantry and twelve +months for cavalry and artillery, the service being extended over the +period of five years. During this five years a man spends from two to +four months each year in a garrison or camp, according to the judgment +of his commanding officers, when he receives the nominal pay of the +private in the regular army. He has no option as to the time of the +annual period or service. He may be asked to remain in the army for +eight or twelve months continuously; it all depends upon the plans of +the war office. + +When a man has served his time in the militia, he is given a +certificate to that effect, which exempts him from further active +military service, and makes him a member of the reserves, which number +203,000 men, all of whom have served in the militia, and are subject +to the summons of the king whenever the country is invaded by foreign +foe. With local troubles they have nothing to do. The militia is +considered sufficient for any such emergency, but under the Swedish +system the effective force at the command of the king in case of +foreign invasion is something like 420,000 men. + +There are a lot of picturesque old castles and fortresses on the coast +of Sweden in which garrisons are still maintained, but they would not +last an hour if attacked by modern guns and projectiles. They are +reinforced, however, by earthworks, with the very best artillery. +Swedish guns rank among the highest, and several Swedish patents in +ordnance have been already adopted by the fortification board of +the United States. All the harbors are protected by torpedoes, and +Stockholm is absolutely impregnable from the sea, being situated upon +a fjord or bay that can not be entered except through passages that +are easily defended. + +The navy of Sweden is comparatively small, but for its numerical +strength it is probably the most effective in the world. At least that +is the opinion of competent critics. The total force numbers 4,500 +officers and men on a peace footing, which may be increased to 8,500 +from the reserve on a few hours' notice. The fleet consists of +fourteen first-class cruisers and battle ships, four second- and nine +third-class, five torpedo catchers, twenty-six torpedo boats, and +twenty gunboats of small tonnage, the armament of the fleet being 290 +guns and ninety-seven rapid-firing guns. All the vessels were built in +Sweden. + +Every Swede is a sailor. He is brought up on the water, and taught +in childhood to swim and to sail a boat, and, although the shipping +industry is not so extensive as in Norway, the national interest in +aquatic sports is probably greater and more general than in any other +nation. The long line of seacoast and the 1,100 lakes within Swedish +territory gives abundant opportunity for the exercise of this +inclination. Hence in the case of war, the navy could be recruited +indefinitely with competent men. + +King Oscar took a deep personal interest in naval affairs, because his +early life was spent in the navy, his commission as lieutenant bearing +the date of June 19, 1845. When he was called to the throne, he at +once commenced to plan for improvement of that branch of the service, +and for many years was virtually his own minister of marine. He did +much to encourage the maritime spirit among the people, being honorary +president of the Royal Yacht Club, and presided over its meetings, +which were sometimes held in the palace to suit his convenience. He +took an active part in the organization and promotion of the naval +reserve, and never lost an opportunity to show his zeal in the +development of the shipping industry and the aquatic pastimes. + +Nor was the king a paper sailor. On special occasions he showed great +bravery and presence of mind at sea, and of his sixty decorations and +medals he valued none higher than that which was awarded him by the +Humane Society of France in 1862, when he saved the lives of three +people at the risk of his own. + +The Swedish militia is commanded by officers of the regular army. No +man can receive a commission in the militia unless he has spent at +least sixteen months in the military academy and passed the required +examinations. About a thousand young men are graduated each year from +the several schools situated in different parts of the country, which +are a part of the regular educational system of the nation. Thus the +government has at its command abundant material for the military +organization. The officers are promoted as vacancies occur, are +retired on half pay when they are aged or disabled--generals at 65 +years, colonels at 60, lieutenant colonels and majors at 55, and +captains at 50. Militia officers are eligible to appointments in the +civil service; they may be elected to the riksdag, and they have the +same social standing at the palace as the officers of the regular +army. The palace is the center of the social system in Sweden, and +only certain persons are eligible to invitations to the king's balls +and dinners. All officers of the militia are included in the list, +and all peasants in the riksdag, although their wives are never +invited.[h] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PUBLIC EDUCATION + + +There are few countries in which education is as free as in Sweden. +From the grammar school to the university in all its stages, the cost +is defrayed entirely by the state or the parish. Education is thus not +a privilege of the wealthy, but a benefit common to all. + +In Norway you are scarcely ever out of sight of a schoolhouse, and +Professor Nielsen, of the university, on being asked concerning the +ratio of the illiterates, looked surprised and replied that he was not +aware of any illiterates; that he did not recollect having seen any +statistics on the subject, and ventured to assert that anybody in +Norway could both read and write. + +Education is free throughout the entire primary system, a course of +seven years, between the ages of seven and fourteen, when the law +prohibits the employment of children in any occupation, and requires +them to attend school at least thirty hours a week for twelve weeks +each year in the country and fifteen weeks in the cities. The maximum +term is forty weeks in both city and country districts. There are in +the kingdom 5,923 school districts, governed by _Skolestyret_--boards +consisting of the parish priest, the president of the municipal +council, and one of the teachers chosen by themselves. There is also a +board of supervisors, composed of three men or women, elected by the +parents of the parish. Childless people are not allowed to vote. This +board of supervisors does not appear to have any definite function +except to advise and find fault. The school board elects the teachers, +determines the courses of study and methods of discipline, and submits +recommendations and estimates for appropriations annually to the +municipal council. In both city and country what is called "voluntary +instruction" is provided outside of the legal school hours, which may +be taken advantage of by people who are willing to pay for additional +attention from the school teachers, but it is neither free nor +compulsory. + +The compulsory studies in the primary schools are the Bible, the +catechism of the Lutheran creed, the Norwegian language, the usual +elementary branches, with history (including a treatise on the +constitution and the government of Norway), botany, physiology +(including the fundamental principles of hygiene and the effects of +the use of intoxicating liquors), singing, drawing, wood-carving, the +use of the lathe and other tools, manual training, gymnastics, and +rifle shooting. + +The national law requires that schoolhouses shall be so located as to +be within a distance of two miles of the residences of ninety per cent +of the children of school age. The poor are provided with text-books +upon application, and in some places the municipal council provides +every child a warm dinner at noon. It can be paid for if the parents +prefer, but the better classes look upon this provision with +prejudice, as they do upon all charities. Nevertheless, it is an +excellent idea to be sure that the children of the poor get at least +one warm meal every day. In the city of Christiania, 711,302 meals +are served annually in the primary schools. The average attendance is +22,750, so that only about 24 per cent of the children take advantage +of the free dinner. Only 18,341 of these meals are paid for, and those +are taken on stormy days by children of well-to-do parents. + +The Norway school teachers must be graduates of normal schools, of +which there are twelve in the kingdom; they must pass examinations and +serve a probation of three months before they are definitely engaged, +but when they have once received an appointment, they are settled for +life and sure of a pension at the end of the long term of faithful +service. The same rule applies to all civil service employees, for the +school system is a part of the government. There is no such thing as +rotation in office. Promotion is expected by all who deserve it. A +worthy and efficient teacher, having begun in youth at the lowest +grade, expects advancement to the highest, according to the judgment +of the school boards and supervisors. School teaching is a career, +just as a government clerkship is a career. People enter both +professions with the expectation of making them their life-work, +although from our point of view they offer very little inducement. + +The average salary of the school teachers in Norway is only about $220 +a year, the men receiving a little above the average and the women +a little less. The highest salaries are paid in the city of +Christiania--$756 for men and $434 for women. Head masters to the +number of 1,992, like parsons, are furnished with houses to live in +and little tracts of land, three or four acres, where they can raise +vegetables for their families and keep cows; and nine hundred and ten +of them add a little to their incomes by serving as parish clerks. +When they become too old to teach, they receive pensions of from $56 +to $224 a year, and when they die, their widows are remembered by the +government to the extent of from $28 to $74 per year. + +The primary school system of Norway costs an average of $5.60 per +child per year in the country, and $13.16 per child in the city, or +$1.26 per capita of population in a year. + +There is a secondary school system under the control of the national +government, administered by the department of education and religion. +It embraces forty-six high schools, located in different parts of the +country, known as _Latin-Gymnasier_, or classical schools, at which +students are prepared for the university, and _Real-Gymnasier_, or +technical schools, in which they are taught English, mathematics, the +natural and applied sciences, bookkeeping, stenography, and other +branches that will fit them for commercial or industrial pursuits. +There are also twelve cathedral schools, one for each ecclesiastical +diocese, which were founded in the middle ages, and are supported by +large estates acquired from the early kings and by confiscation of +church property after the Reformation. There are also five private +academies, attended chiefly by the sons of rich men. + +The University of Christiania, which is one of the first in Europe, +was founded in 1811, and has five faculties, with sixty-three +professors, eighteen fellows, and about 1,450 students, of whom 70 are +studying theology, 20 law, 330 medicine, and 600 are in the scientific +department. The professors are appointed by the king, and receive +salaries of about $950 a year, with a longevity allowance in addition +amounting to about $125 every five years. The fellows are paid about +$350 a year, and are provided with lodging rooms. Tuition at the +university is free upon payment of a matriculation fee of $10. Women +have been admitted on even terms with men since 1882, and 260 have +matriculated, of whom 53 have taken degrees. The university has an +endowment of $1,310,000, with legacies amounting to about $250,000 +to encourage original investigations in special lines of study. The +Nansen fund, which amounts to about $150,000, is intended to encourage +exploration on the seas. The hospitals of Christiania are in charge of +the medical department. + +There are also the usual schools for the deaf, dumb, blind, +weak-minded, and crippled children, supported by the state, and reform +schools for the correction and restraint of the depraved. Technical +schools, with day and night classes, for teaching the trades to young +men and women, four schools of engineering in different parts of the +country, nine industrial schools for women only, where they can +be trained to earn their living by sewing, dressmaking, weaving, +millinery, embroidery, and other needlework, bookkeeping, typesetting, +stenography, typewriting, photography, and other lines of industry, +and an art school especially patronized by the king in connection +with the art gallery at Christiania, where painting, drawing, and +designing, modeling, decoration, and the art of architecture are +taught. + +In most of the counties are found what are called +_Amtsskoler_--schools to educate people for a practical life, with +separate courses for each sex, the boys being taught farming, +gardening, and mechanics, and the girls the arts of the household. +There are also schools of deportment, where girls are fitted to act +as governesses and are taught the social graces, music, dancing, the +languages, and conversation. In several of the cities are workingmen's +colleges, known as _Arbeiderakademier_, where mechanics who have an +ambition to acquire a better knowledge of their trades and general +culture, may attend lectures in the evenings, delivered by scientific +men, successful mechanics, and other specialists. The range of +subjects includes every branch of human activity. + +In Sweden, in the _Folkskola_, Elementary or People's School, +maintained by the parish under the direction of the school board and +the close supervision of the state, instruction is compulsory as well +as gratuitous. As in Norway, between the ages of seven and fourteen +every boy and girl must attend a public school, unless the parents can +show that their child is receiving equivalent instruction elsewhere, +in a private school or at home. No exception or compromise is allowed, +and no "half-time" system or "rush" through the school to suit the +convenience of the factory or the farmer. For seven years, during +eight and a half months of the year,--allowing for summer, Christmas +and Easter holidays,--and thirty-six hours per week, every boy and +girl in the kingdom receives instruction and goes through the same +curriculum. The school board, which has the direct management of the +schools is elected to the parish, and women are eligible to it. The +state, which controls the whole system of education, from the A.B.C. +class to the college and university, maintains alike its unity and its +efficiency, and sees to the strict enforcement of the law. Parents who +try to evade it, through malevolence or neglect, may even, after due +warning, be deprived of their children, who are taken over by the +community during their school years. + +In thinly populated districts the school may be "ambulatory," held now +in one part of the district and now in another, so that all may attend +in turn. In such cases the schooling is reduced to four months in the +year. But there is no district, however poor or thinly populated, +without its _Folkskola_. There are nearly twelve hundred of these in +the land, attended by seven hundred and forty-two thousand pupils, and +employing sixteen thousand two hundred and seventy teachers of both +sexes. + +No more conscientious, hardworking, and respectable class of men and +women can be found than the teachers. Eight years' study, first in a +special seminary and then in a training college, has taught them their +profession both in theory and practice. They are convinced of the +importance and dignity of their office, and are respected accordingly. +Socially, the general type of the school teacher is a superior one. +There are at present in the Riksdag, occupying seats as members of the +second chamber, no fewer than eleven teachers in elementary schools, +twelve teachers in secondary schools, one inspector of schools, and +one university professor. In the rural community, the school teacher +is something of an authority. Most of the members of the parish have +"sat under him" at school in their early life, and owe to him most of +what they know. For years he has been diffusing knowledge around him, +and has been looked up to as the fountain of book learning. He is the +local parson's great coadjutor in parish matters, and being a ready +speaker, is of no mean influence in the parish assemblies. The one +dark blot in the existence of the school teacher is the small salary +received. Few of them receive so much as $300 a year, the average +running from $225 to $275; even in Stockholm the figure going little +beyond $300. Living is, however, cheap in the rural districts, and +these teachers, who are drawn generally from the rural and indigent +classes, are accustomed to frugality and economy. They are lodged +free of rent in the schoolhouse or a cottage attached to it, and are +allowed firewood and other small prerequisites. They have generally a +small garden or potato patch to cultivate, and can keep a cow and a +few hens. They often add to their modest stipend by extra work, such +as teaching in the evening classes, playing the organ in church, and +writing, or some such work after school hours. + +At fifteen, after seven years' assiduous attendance at the +_Folkskola_, the boy and girl have finished their education, so far as +compulsory instruction goes, and they are free to begin work on their +father's farm, in his shop or his trade, or take service anywhere and +shift for themselves. They may, however, if they like, pursue their +studies further in the continuation schools, or in the evening classes +provided in most parishes, or repair to a college or gymnasium town, +if they elect to enter the church, the liberal professions, or the +service of the state. But they have first to be confirmed, and it is +here that the definite religious instruction is given. The preparation +for confirmation, which entails a much longer and more advanced course +of religious instruction than is usual for confirmation in England, +is independent of the school and takes place in church, parents being +allowed every liberty in the choice of the clergyman who performs this +office for their children. English readers who are acquainted with +Longfellow's admirable translation of Tegner's beautiful poem, "The +Children of the Lord's Supper," are aware of the importance of this +ceremony in Swedish social life. It is the great turning point in the +existence of Scandinavian youth. The boy and girl emerging from it +leave boyhood and girlhood behind them. Knee-breeches and short frocks +have given way to pants and long skirts. The boy sports his first +watch and glories in his first shirt-front. The girl discards her +long plaits, and wears her hair in a top-knot. They have made their +profession of faith in public, have been examined in regard to it, and +have had to answer for it in the presence of the whole congregation. +They have assumed henceforth the full responsibility of their acts. In +the eyes of the church, if not in the eyes of the law, they are free +and responsible members of society. + +The secondary schools are maintained by the state, and are confined +to the towns. They comprise nine forms in seven classes, of which +the last two have double forms. The first three correspond to the +curriculum of the primary schools, where are taught reading, writing, +arithmetic, history, natural sciences, singing, drawing, and +gymnastics, to which are added _Sloyd_ and gardening for the boys, and +needlework and cooking for the girls. Scholars who have passed these +in the primary schools enter into the fourth form. They are generally +divided into two branches, the classical and the modern, according +as the classics or languages predominate in the curriculum, which +comprises religion, Swedish composition, history, geography, +philosophy, Latin, Greek, German, French, mathematics, zoology, +botany, physics, chemistry, and drawing. After the fourth form, +pupils must declare, with the written approbation of their parents or +guardians, whether they will follow the classical or non-classical +course, according as they intend to qualify for the universities +or the technical high schools. Not all the pupils who attend these +secondary schools complete the full course and pass the final +examination. More than half--those who mean to devote themselves to +trade, agriculture, or industry, and those who have not developed +the capabilities necessary to confront the severe final test of the +"maturity" examination--leave the school on attaining the upper forms. +To those who intend to enter the professions, the civil and military +service, and the church, the full course of the secondary school is +necessary, the "maturity" examination certificate being the only open +sesame to the universities, the special colleges, and the technical +high schools. To obtain it and to don the white cap, which is the +outward and visible sign of university membership, is the first great +step in the life of the ambitious youth. + +For young men destined for the technical trades and professions, there +are open, after they have passed the maturity examination at the +secondary school, two special institutions, where they complete their +technical training--the Technical High School of Stockholm, and +the Chalmers Technical Institute at Gothenburg, besides elementary +technical schools at other places. The Stockholm Technical School, +which is the most complete, comprises five branches: (1) mechanical +technology and machinery, shipbuilding and electrotechnics; (2) +chemical technology; (3) mineralogy, metallurgy, and mining mechanics; +(4) architecture; (5) engineering. The course in each of these +sections takes between three and four years. Generally several are +combined, constituting a course of six or seven years. + +There are two universities in Sweden--Upsala in the north, founded in +1477; and Lund in the south, founded in 1668, to which may be added +the Medical College in Stockholm, founded in 1810, and limited to the +medical faculty. The studies at these universities are thorough +and comprehensive, but unusually long. They have each four +faculties,--theology, jurisprudence, medicine, and philosophy,--and +grant three different degrees in each, besides special degrees in +theology and jurisprudence for entering the church and the government +services. Even these last, which are easiest to obtain, require a +course of from four to five years. To take a medical degree a young +man must stay nine years at the university, and two additional years +in the hospitals, making eleven years in all. Unlike English and +American universities, the Swedish universities are non-residential. +Like those of the Continent, they are only teaching institutions, and +the students who matriculate at Upsala and Lund must lodge in town or +board with families living there. Beyond attending the lectures and +going up to be tested, they have no direct intercourse with their +professors. + +In this brief sketch of the institutions provided by the state it +will be seen that what especially characterizes public instruction in +Norway and Sweden is its undoubted thoroughness and depth, though a +serious penalty is paid for this in the extreme length of the course. +By the time it is completed, and the young man issues from the +protracted ordeal, armed for the battle of life, several of the best +years of his youth are passed; he is already between twenty-five and +thirty years of age when he first treads on the threshold of his +career. On the other hand, he enters it not only with the necessary +qualifications whereby to rise to eminence in it, of which the severe +tests he has undergone offer evident proof, but with the assurance of +finding the way more or less open to success.[i] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HAAKON VII, THE NEW KING OF NORWAY + + +There is something essentially, almost ludicrously, modern about +the creation of Norway's new king. Not that it is the first time a +sovereign has been, so to speak, "custom-made." An eligible foreign +prince is tendered a seat upon an ancient throne; the form is old, but +the spirit, how new! Republican though she is to the backbone, Norway +has elected to be governed by monarchical methods, fearing with her +isolated and primitive peasantry, to put the machinery of control into +the hands of the people themselves. She must have a king, but he shall +be of a new variety; in short, a republican king. She will not even +have him addressed as were the monarchs of old, by the Norwegian +equivalent of "Your Majesty." He shall be just _Herre Konge_, plain +"Mister the King." + +Even as the Norwegians welcomed Haakon VII to their shores, they took +pains to show him clearly his rightful place. In his address delivered +to the newly arrived sovereign on board the battleship Heimdal, Herr +Michelsen, President of Council, and for six months virtual President +of Norway, used these significant words: "For nearly six centuries +the Norwegian people have had no king of their own. To-day a king of +Norway comes to make his home in the Norwegian capital, elected by a +free people to occupy, conjointly with free men, the first place in +the land. The Norwegian people love their liberty, their independence, +and their autonomous government which they themselves have won. It +will be the glory of the king and his highest pleasure to protect this +sentiment, finding his support in the people themselves. This is why +the Norwegian people hail you to-day with profound joy and cry, 'Long +live the King and Queen of Norway!'" + +Was ever so frank a bargain driven with a king before? "Behold," says +Norway in effect, "you may sit on a throne; but beware how you attempt +to king it over us. We will give you a salary to transact our official +business and act as official figurehead. But you must never overlook +the fact that it was we who made you and not you yourself." + +Is it any wonder that when asked to undertake to govern a people so +independent, so proud spirited as this, Prince Karl of Denmark took +time to think? Or that he asked for a popular vote that he might know +how large a proportion of the _frei_ people of Norway really wanted +him for a king? + +This was not the only reason why he hesitated. Being himself on his +mother's side a Bernadotte, he could scarcely ascend the Norwegian +throne without the friendly sanction of Sweden. Moreover, his wife, +Princess Maud of England, was more than reluctant to undertake life +in Christiania and the duties of queenship. Lastly, Prince Charles +himself ran a shrewd risk in assuming the crown, lest, should his +relations with Norway become difficult, he might be forced to resign, +and find himself--having abandoned his naval career for the throne--in +a state of abject poverty. + +All three objections were finally overruled. Sweden, fearing lest +an empty throne in Norway should give impetus to the movement for a +republic, and that such a movement might afterward spread to her own +borders, was as much in haste to see Norwegian affairs settled as the +Norwegians themselves, so she swallowed her grievances. Most amicable +correspondence passed between Prince Karl and the Crown Prince of +Sweden, the latter expressing himself anxious to be the first to +welcome Haakon VII into his capital. What became of Princess Maud's +reluctance is not definitely known. It is understood that she never +found life at the Danish court very amusing, and probably the prospect +of exchanging Copenhagen for a city of less than half its size did not +allure her. She must have realized that if she accepted a share of the +Norwegian throne, she would be forced to abandon her favorite cure for +_ennui_--frequent flights to the court of England--for Norway has had +quite enough of absentee royalty. The English papers asserted that +King Edward used his parental authority to overcome his daughter's +scruples. At all events, she gave in. As for Prince Karl's reasonable +fear of dethronement and penury, the Norwegian government quieted that +by promising a respectable pension in case the king should find it +expedient to abdicate. + +So, then, the affair was comfortably arranged. The king has a salary +of $200,000, a crown when he had no hope of ever feeling one on his +brow, and the problems of a court without a nobility. + +And now the world is asking, "Has Norway done well for herself?" +Certainly she has done well in putting a Scandinavian prince on the +throne. No alien would ever understand Norway or be understood. If +reports are creditable, the Kaiser made the most of his friendship +with the country in support of the claims of a son of his own. Had a +German secured the throne, there would have been sown fresh seeds +of discord on a peninsula which can raise a sufficient crop of +dissensions without any aid from the rest of Europe. For Denmark, +still nursing the rankling grievance of the Schleswig-Holstein affair, +detests the thought of everything German. + +King Haakon combines the advantages of Scandinavian birth with the +very positive political asset of blood relationship to half the courts +of Europe. Grandson of the late King Christian of Denmark, the young +monarch is also nephew to King George of Greece, the Dowager Empress +of Russia, and Alexandria of England, a grand-nephew to the late Oscar +of Sweden, son-in-law to King Edward VII, and cousin to the Czar. To a +relatively defenseless country like Norway, this means a good deal. + +In himself the new king is a clean-lived, healthy young man of +thirty-three, in personality quite fit to represent a nation which +thinks well of itself. Tall, though not quite so tall as his uncle, +Prince Christian, whose mark on the famous old royal measuring-column +at Roskilde comes just under that of the giant, Peter the Great, King +Haakon is slight, yet vigorous-looking, and splendidly well set up. +The face, while scarcely so handsome as the profile pictures lead us +to think, is a distinguished one, and has for Norway this charm, that +it is markedly not of the Bernadotte type, although his mother is +a Bernadotte. Those who know him describe him as an extremely +intelligent and sensible young man, easy and tolerant without being +weak, and capable of strenuous devotion to hard work. These things +bespeak an industrious, efficient, and tractable king, such as the +Norwegians, who would equally resent either vacillation or tyranny, +know how to appreciate. + +It has been said in France that King Haakon abandons tiller and +compass for crown and scepter without one hour's training in politics +or diplomacy. + +The statement appears incontestable. In view of the remarkable +longevity of the late king of Denmark, and the excellent health and +prospects of the Crown Prince and his immediate heir, this younger son +of a royal house was not brought up to look for a crown. Instead, he +was destined from the outset for a naval career. For all that, it is +not safe to say that he has had no training in politics or diplomacy. +One can scarcely grow up in the family of the "father-in-law of +Europe" and not learn the principles of the great game of world +affairs. King Haakon is no stranger to the queer old palace among the +beeches at Fredensborg, where every summer King Christian gathered +together his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren from +the courts of England, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Greece; and where +conversations took place which, if reported, would vitally interest +the whole round world. In his lifetime, the Czar Alexander III was +particularly fond of holding long talks at Fredensborg with his +nephew Karl, then a lieutenant of the navy, whom he found especially +intelligent and open-minded. + +It is thought in Copenhagen that King Haakon may, even during the last +years of his father's life, have had some experience in the government +of Denmark, since his father, the Crown Prince, was called upon +to perform many of the old king's duties. At least, if he did not +actually transact royal business, he acquired no small acquaintance +with the working of government machinery. + +Nothing, certainly, could have been more fitting than that a ruler of +Vikingland should be educated for the sea. Nor could anything have +been devised better calculated to knock the nonsense out of a +princeling than apprenticeship in the Danish navy. Hrolf Wisby, who +messed with Prince Karl when he was a naval cadet, says that the lad +was at first little more than a piece of court furniture. Any one who +is familiar with the appalling frankness and unvarnished brusquerie of +grown-up Danes can judge whether the hazing and horse-play on a Danish +man-of-war was agreeable, and whether it was medicinal in a case of +congenital self-esteem. Prince Karl lived the life of an ordinary +middy, scrubbed decks, mended his own clothes, slept in a hammock, and +ate provender which was anything but fit to set before a king. It is +recorded of him that he was an expert in polishing a certain brass +binnacle lantern. We wonder if he ever thinks now of a certain line in +Pinafore, "I polished that handle so care-ful-lee, that now--" + +As ensign, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and finally captain +of a frigate, the young man acquitted himself well, earning the +reputation of a capital officer, hardworking, careful, no martinet +towards his men, though by no means to be trifled with. In practical +seamanship, he excels any other prince of his age, and can command +any kind of naval craft from torpedo boat to battleship, and lead in +actual battle. + +In forming their court, King Haakon and Queen Maud are gathering about +them the literary, artistic, and musical people of the realm, for they +are devoted to the companionship of gifted folk. The queen has herself +written plays under the pseudonym "Graham Irving," and the king paints +a little in aquarelles, and plays the piano almost too well to be +termed an amateur. Both are accomplished linguists, speaking with +discrimination French, German, Russian, English, Norwegian, Swedish, +and, naturally, Danish. There is no barrier of speech in their +intercourse with members of the diplomatic corps. + +The little heir apparent, Alexander, rechristened Olaf, has already +done much toward ingratiating himself with the Norwegian people, +although but a half dozen years old. On the day when the royal couple +entered Christiania, the boy was but two and a half years old, but he +was very much interested in the decorations, and seemed to catch the +enthusiasm of the crowd, for he waved his little hand spontaneously. +In counting up the merits of the king, the promising little heir must +by no means be left out. + +Trondhjem Cathedral, where all the kings and queens of Norway for +centuries have been crowned, and where the coronation of King +Haakon VII and Queen Maud occurred, stands on the site of what was +undoubtedly the first Christian church in the country--that erected by +Olaf Trygvason in 996. Within its confines bubbles the spring which +sprang from the tomb of that later Olaf who is the patron saint of +Norway, and somewhere under its walls lie moldering the bones of +medieval kings, four of whom accepted their consecration before the +altar where King Haakon received his crown. It is a thousand pities +that hammer and chisel should have exorcised the spirits which ought +to haunt this venerable shrine. It is as if England's Abbey had been +scrubbed and resurfaced, and new noses had been provided for all the +crumbling stone kings and queens. Trondhjem Cathedral has burned down +so many times, and the work of restoration has been so sweeping, that +it takes an active imagination to invest it with the proper glamour of +romance. + +Trondhjem itself is an odd place for festivities. The people say that +it is fear of fire which makes them separate their insignificant +wooden houses by such disproportionately broad streets. Certainly it +gives to the town a low look anything but imposing. + +Whatever may be the esthetic shortcomings of King Haakon's coronation +city, it was amply atoned for by the enthusiasm and whole-hearted +devotion of his new people. The king and queen are in very truth "the +father and mother of the land." Even toward the rulers they shared +with Sweden their cherished warm affection until their grievances +waxed too sore. When Sophie of Nassau was on her way to Trondhjem to +be crowned, in 1873, she drove herself in a carriole from the +Romsdal, stopping perforce at humble posting-stations by the way. And +everywhere the peasants came with flowers, greeting their queen by +the affectionate and familiar "Du." More than once when the press was +thick about her, and those on the outskirts could not see, the queen +was urged to mount upon the housetop that the eyes of all might +be gladdened by the sight of the dear land-mother. There was a +significant demonstration of this sort of heart-loyalty when Haakon +VII and Queen Maud entered Christiania. The crowds which waited in +the steadily falling snow, and shouted themselves hoarse, might be +accounted for by curiosity and mob enthusiasm. + +Triumphal arches, flags, and even the rain of flowers which descended +on the royal pair, might be classed as perfunctory, an essential part +of the occasion. But at night the spirit of the people showed beyond +mistake. Not only were the streets arched and bordered with festoons +of colored incandescent lights, not only were the battleships in the +harbor strung with fiery beads to the topmost spar, but every window +in every house in the city bore its light. Fine houses had candelabra +behind the glass, and the poorest mere tapers, but everywhere the same +fire of welcome burned. + +Haakon VII has the privilege of ruling over the most united people on +the face of the earth. Before the plebiscite, Sweden declared that the +desire for separation was confined to a party who were poisoning the +minds of the common people. When the plebiscite had shown that only +164 men out of 368,000 could be found to uphold the union, Sweden +protested that the peasants had been intimidated and dared not vote as +they thought! + +Now, it was just at this stirring time that I was driving through +Norway, or cruising in her fjords, and talking with graduates of her +university, with sea-captains, hotel proprietors, traveling men, +porters, drivers, serving-maids--all, in short, who spoke English +enough to make themselves clear. It was as if all Norway spoke with +one voice. From Hamerfest to Stavanger there was the same complaint of +the same wrongs, the same quiet insistence upon the same remedy. Nor +was it only the subjects of King Oscar who spoke; Norwegians settled +in France, in England, or in America either hurried home to vote or +sent their vigorous endorsement of the revolutionary proceedings. A +window in Christiania was completely filled by the mingled flags of +Norway and the United States, crossed by a banner bearing the words, +"For Disunion." It was the voice of Norway and America. It was a +modest desire they expressed. In the words of Olaf Sprachehaug, our +humble-minded _skydsgut_, the whole country was saying, "And now I +t'ink we get a king of our own." They have their own king now, and all +the world wishes them joy in him.[j] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN + + +The present reigning family of Sweden is too young to be very +numerous, and in this brief survey it is well to begin with a bit of +information about that grand democratic monarch, Oscar II, passed away +less than two years ago. How the Bernadotte dynasty was formed has +already been shown in a previous chapter, and something of the kings, +who succeeded the former Field Marshal of France has also been +related, so that we have in these few pages simply to deal with Oscar +II, the late king, and his four sons and their families. + +Oscar's grandfather, the originator of the Bernadotte dynasty, was +still on the throne when he was born, in 1829, as the third son of +Crown Prince Oscar and the beautiful Josephine of Leuchtenberg. He +seemed far removed from the throne then, and thus he found freedom +to develop himself more in keeping with his individual tastes and +inclinations. Another factor to be borne in mind is the character of +his governor and principal instructor, the historian, F.F. Carlson, +who gave to his pupil a fondness for scientific exactness as well as +an insight into the true causes of civilizatory development found none +too frequently in professional thinkers, and hardly ever in princes. +The things that drew him most strongly in those days were the sea, and +music. + +One of the foremost of Swedish composers, A.F. Lindblad, taught him +the latter, while his fondness for the former was richly satisfied +during the years when he worked his way through the ranks of the +Swedish navy. And his position on board the various man-of-war's-men +in which he traveled on many seas was never merely ornamental or even +exceptional. He took not only the title but also the work of the +offices he held, from midshipman to admiral. + +It was characteristic of him, too, that when he married, he did so +out of love. On a tour through several countries; in 1856, he was +fortunate enough to meet Princess Sophia of Nassau. The courtship was +brief and ardent. Within a few months occurred the engagement, and the +wedding followed in less than a year. To the last that royal couple +remained strongly devoted to each other in spite of widely differing +tastes and temperaments. She has all her life been intensely +religious, with a strong leaning toward pietism, and illness has still +further developed this inborn tendency. He, on the other hand, was +always gay, light-hearted, fond of merriment, and given to many +pleasures and pursuits which his spouse could only look upon as far +too worldly. + +Duke Oscar Frederick, as he was known in those early days, found +himself heir to the throne after death had unexpectedly removed the +two claimants with rights prior to his own. And on the succession of +his eldest brother, he became the Crown Prince. It was a delicate +position which imposed on him a reserve foreign to his nature. As it +contrasted sharply with the unceremonious jollity of his brother, King +Charles, he came by degrees to be regarded by those ignorant of his +true character with a distrust bordering on dislike. Thus, when the +succession fell to him in 1872, he found himself little understood and +less loved. It took him years to overcome the prejudice. Perhaps it +was his sanction of the impeachment proceedings by the Norwegian +Radicals against the retiring Conservative ministry which, in the +early '80's, first served to turn the trend of public opinion in his +favor, both in Sweden and Norway. That act was one of the many by +which he showed his ability to submit his own inclinations to the +demands of the people without becoming a mere tool in the hands of +any one political party. About the same time he succeeded in bringing +about a deeply needed and by himself long-cherished reform of the +popular educational system in Sweden. Previously,--it was, in fact, +his first important step after his ascension to the throne,--he had on +his own initiative proclaimed full freedom of worship for persons not +belonging to the established church. + +A Scandinavianism of the purely sentimental kind,--the kind that +talked without ever dreaming of putting the talk into deeds,--had +prevailed until then on the peninsula. Intermixed with it was an +equally sentimental sympathy with France. Though himself the grandson +of a Frenchman and still keenly devoted to French literature and art, +King Oscar had the foresightedness to recognize that the interests of +the country were more closely bound up with those of Germany. And one +of the most striking features of his reign was the growing cultural +intercourse between the nations in the north and their neighbor south +of the Baltic. And while the king discouraged the speech-making, empty +Scandinavianism against which Ibsen was fond of launching his most +vitriolic invectives, he fostered instead a fellow-feeling between +Sweden, Norway and Denmark that found its expression in practical +co-operation, in the equalization of commercial and industrial +regulations, in the breaking down of as many as possible of the +unnecessary barriers between them. As the years passed on and the +trend of his labors became understood and appreciated, he found a part +of his reward in a steadily increasing respect for him throughout +the civilized world, a respect that repeatedly found expression in +requests that he act as arbiter of international differences. He had +always been fond of traveling, and this fondness he continued to +indulge up to the last. Unlike those of some other monarchs having a +similar taste, his comings and goings on the Continent were always the +objects of pleasant and welcoming comment. If gossip had to name King +Christian of Denmark "the father-in-law of all Europe," King Oscar was +surely "the friend of all the world." Apace with his own fame grew +the prosperity of his people. On either side of the Kjoelen his reign +marked an era of unprecedented economical, social, and spiritual +progress which not even the internal dissensions of the sister nation +could interrupt. + +King Oscar's motto was _Broedrafolkens Vael_ "The Brother-Peoples Weal!" +The Scandinavian peninsula is still populated by brother-peoples, as +was indicated at the time of the death of the old king. It was the +week for the distribution in Norway of the Nobel prizes, always +attended in Christiania with great rejoicing and merry-making. On this +occasion all demonstration was prohibited, and the Norwegian capital +was almost as much in mourning as was Stockholm. Though entirely +devoted to the new order of things, the Norwegians did not forget, +nor will they forget, the character of the king who ruled them for +a generation. More democratic than the Swedes, they were peculiarly +attached personally, if not politically, to one whom they felt to be +really of like democratic instincts with themselves, even if he did +show himself every inch a king. + +Not only as a ruler, but as a father, King Oscar was both wise and +fortunate. Four sons came to him through his marriage, and these have +proved men of his own type. The Crown Prince Gustave was born just one +year after the marriage of his parents, on June 16th, at the Castle +of Drottingholm, in the year 1858; Prince Oscar, known as Prince +Bernadotte, was born on Nov. 15, 1859, at Stockholm; Prince Carl on +Feb. 27, 1861, also at Stockholm; while the youngest, Prince Eugene, +like his eldest brother, first saw the light at the Castle of +Drottingholm, on Aug. 1, 1865. As has been previously stated, the +Crown Prince (now king) was married to the Princess Victoria of Bade, +granddaughter of Emperor William I of Germany, and great-granddaughter +of the exiled Gustavus IV of Sweden. The third son, Prince Carl, is +wedded to his cousin, the Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, which was +a source of great satisfaction to King Oscar and Queen Sophie. The +youngest son, Prince Eugene, is devoted to art, and spends much time +out of the country. Never did King Oscar do more to win the approval +of his subjects, and thinking men and women everywhere, than when he +permitted the marriage of his second son, Prince Oscar, to a young +Swedish noblewoman, Froeken Ebba Munck, of Fulkila, who was also Queen +Sophie's maid-of-honor. While the prince had to renounce his right of +succession and his position as a royal prince of Sweden, his relations +to his father and the other members of the royal family remained the +same. + +Of this incident in the history of the royal family of Sweden, the +following story is told: + +The Queen interceded long and persistently with her husband for +permission for her second son to be married to the woman he loved. +Although the Munck family had played a very important part in the +history of the nation, the king was opposed to the _mesalliance_. "It +is Oscar's duty to be true to himself and to his love," she used to +say. But the king, who was not wont to refuse any of the wishes of +his consort, steadily refused to sanction the union. There were many +things against such a marriage, for Prince Oscar was the second son +of the king, and the very fact that the reigning House of Norway and +Sweden was one of the most youthful of the royal houses of Europe made +it all the more necessary that its scions should intermarry with the +members of the ancient reigning houses. + +About this time the queen was seized with one of her serious attacks +of illness, and her state was such that at one time her life was +despaired of. Her physicians declared that her only hope of recovery +lay in an instant operation, which was both dangerous and extremely +painful. + +The queen called the king to her bedside, and said, "If I undergo this +operation and recover, will you allow Oscar and Ebba to have their +way?" The king was unable to resist such an appeal, made at such a +time, and gave his promise. A short time afterwards the operation was +successfully performed, and when the queen was convalescent, the king +redeemed his promise and gave his consent to the marriage of his +second son. It was on Christmas Eve, and the king had come to his +wife's apartments to see her. He found Ebba Munck and his son Oscar +with her. The maid-of-honor was, at the time of his entrance, singing +one of his poems to Her Majesty, which, oddly enough, was on the +subject of the right to love. After waiting until the song was ended, +the king went up to his son, and, leading him to the girl, laid his +hand in hers, in this manner signifying that he had withdrawn his +opposition to their plans. + +The marriage has proved a most happy one. Prince Oscar has found +perfect content, and has been able to follow his career as a +philanthropist. The wedding took place at Bournemouth, in the presence +of the queen of Sweden, on March 15, 1888, and for some time after it +the prince and his wife were known as Prince and Princess Bernadotte; +but later the uncle of Prince Oscar, the Grand Duke of Luxemburg, gave +him the title of the Count of Wisborg for himself and his descendants. +When their children were born, Prince Oscar and his wife proclaimed +them as the children of Oscar and Ebba Bernadotte, and, during +their entire married life, they have lived as quietly and simply as +possible, and have found their greatest interest in working for the +poor and suffering. They have a son and a daughter, the former, Count +Carl Oscar, having been born on May 27, 1890, and the latter, the +Countess Marie, on February 28, 1889; and three other children. + +And so, as the years went by, a third generation grew up in the palace +at Stockholm,--a brood of long-limbed and broad-shouldered sons with +wholesome tastes and bright minds and kindly temperaments. And at +last, when the king was seventy-eight years old, a great-grandchild +was laid in his arms,--the first son of Prince Gustavus Adolphus (now +the Crown Prince) and the Princess Margaret of Connaught. + +Up to the last King Oscar remained active and interested in all public +affairs. Though he had experienced several brief but rather severe +illnesses of late years, the end came without warning, after a few +days of indisposition, on Dec. 8, 1907. A kindly "thanks" for a small +favor rendered him by a member of his family was the last word heard +from his lips. Previously he had expressed his wish to the members of +his cabinet that no interruption in public or private business be made +on account of his death. + +King Gustavus V, who took the oath of office within a few hours of his +father's death, has suffered something resembling his father's fate +as Crown Prince. Overshadowed by the more brilliant gifts and more +attractive personality of the parent, he was for years spoken of in +rather a disparaging manner in Sweden, while in Norway he harvested +outright hatred in return for his determined upholding of the union. +On frequent occasions during the last decade of his father's reign, he +acted as vice-regent while his father was sick or traveling, and in +this way he found chances to display qualities that gradually changed +the popular regard of him from one of suspicion to one of hearty +respect. His near-sightedness, his serious-mindedness, have militated +against him, but it seems probable that he will prove the very _best_ +ruler Sweden could desire at the present juncture. He is slow to make +up his mind, and will not do so until he has searched every phase +and detail of the problem before him, but once he has come to a +conclusion, he pursues his path without looking to the right or left. + +Gustavus is fifty years old, tall, rather dark, quite unassuming, and +is essentially democratic, while seeming the opposite, whereas Oscar +was aristocratic, although he made much of the people. Like all other +Swedish kings, Gustavus adopted a motto when he ascended the throne; +it is "With the People for the Fatherland"--not inappropriate in view +of his inheritance of a problem clamoring for solution, the extension +of the suffrage and a more direct representation of the people in both +the upper and lower houses of the Riksdag. The new king, who possesses +an uncommon amount of energy, may probably be depended upon to +accomplish this reform. + +There is neither pride of an objectionable type, nor any tendency to +tyranny, nor one strain of arrogance in the new king. He may not be +able to draw upon such ripe culture or upon such fine talents as the +monarch who preceded him, yet the Swedes have no fear that his love of +truth and justice will not outweigh this deficiency and probably make +him a more practical ruler. As for the French descent of the Swedish +royal house, neither the present nor the late king have ever been +ashamed of their ancestry, or forgotten that the first Bernadotte on +their throne was one of Napoleon's greatest marshals. + +Never will Gustavus V be able to give to words or actions that +brilliantly original and kingly tone for which his late father was so +admired everywhere. That, to the mind of all beholders, is to be the +drawback of his reign, for he is the merest mortal; where his father +was the luminous angel. Where Oscar would have been finely eloquent, +Gustavus shows himself merely sensible. Oscar's temper was heated, +his emotions were forever coming to the surface. Gustave is, if more +poised, less interesting. He has always been addicted to manly sports +and exercises. He has often been observed to "put up" an excellent +game of tennis at the club in Stockholm. But he is without the alert +and springy step of the old Oscar, whose muscles remained taut and +elastic almost to his dying day. Gustave lacks the literary aptitudes +of his late father, likewise, who left a well-filled book of verse +which admirers all over Europe did into French, German, Italian, +Danish, and even Hungarian. Gustave has not inherited his mother's +musical genius, either. She was at one time a devotee of Wagner, a +disciple of Kant, and always a pious evangelical of the German +cast. From both his parents Gustave received every encouragement to +proficiency in music. Music, to the late Oscar, was, both in theory +and practice, an essential element in the intellectual life. Gustave +is less the artist than the practical king. + +He encourages international congresses of every kind to come to +Sweden; he helps the universities and the cause of education +throughout his kingdom; he feels his father's interest in Hedin's +travels through central Asia, but he can give no creative impulse +after his father's grand fashion. Oscar was the man of ideas, the +vitalizer of projects literary, musical, dramatic and scientific. He +made Stockholm the capital of the whole intellectual world. Gustave is +very courteous, affable in a dignified way, impressive as he opens the +Riksdag in royal ermine. He has commenced his reign in simplicity, +rising at eight, breakfasting on coffee and rolls, reading the morning +papers until ten, and reviewing the military with a conscientious +assiduity. His note is repose both in manner and in speech, in +striking contrast with the late Oscar, who was majestic in the very +way he had of eating cold meat at supper, and whose height of six feet +three towered, almost without the drooping heaviness of age, till his +seventy-ninth year. Notwithstanding the adverse comparison with his +parent, one has but to see Gustave's face, with its determination and +refinement, to feel a certain assurance as to Sweden's future. + +It is a curious fact that there has been such a dearth of girls in the +Swedish royal family, the only princess of the house being the Crown +Princess of Denmark, a daughter of the late King Charles XV. The +present queen has only sons: Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus, wedded to +Margaret of Connaught; Prince Wilhelm, who was recently married to +the Russian Princess Marie Palvona, and Prince Erik, now about twenty +years of age. The present Crown Prince and Princess are seemingly +perpetuating the tradition, as their first child is a lusty little +son. + +Queen Victoria is said to be endowed with an instinct for business of +every kind far finer and more efficient than that of her husband, and +it is to be regretted that her health is so frail that she is obliged +to spend much time outside her husband's realm, and the duties of her +royal dignity devolve upon her daughter-in-law, the Crown Princess. +It is very satisfying to the Swedish people that by a strange play +of circumstances, the claims of the extinct House of Vasa,--the last +direct descendant of which passed away a few days after King Oscar, +in the person of Carola, Dowager-Queen of Saxony, and daughter of the +deposed King Gustavus Adolphus IV of Sweden,--are again restored, and +that the reigning House of Bernadotte and the ancient House of Vasa +have become joined through the present Crown Prince. It is something +to consider, too, that Adolphus V is the first of the Bernadotte +dynasty in whose veins, through his mother, Sophie of Nassau, there +flows royal blood.[k] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS + + +This is the age of munificent benefactions in aid of science and +learning. The Rhodes scholarships, Mr. Carnegie's free libraries and +educational endowments, the Duc d'Aumale's gift to the French Academy +of his fine _chatteau_ at Chantilly, with its magnificent historical +and art collections; many institutions founded in the United States +and elsewhere by multi-millionaires for the advancement of knowledge, +are a sign of the times. They foreshadow the abolishment of pauperism +and its attendant charities to give place to beneficent institutions, +and Norway and Sweden are abreast with other countries in this +movement. Apart from charitable institutions and endowments for the +maintenance of hospitals and asylums, of universities, scholarships +and fellowships, which the generosity of former generations has +secured, the present generation has seen noble donations made by +private men for more special objects, having the general advancement +of knowledge in view, such as the encouragement of scientific research +and the support of voyages of geographical exploration. Nordenskioeld's +Arctic voyages, his and Palander's navigation through the polar +northeast passage in the _Vega_, Nathort's exploration of King Carl's +Land, the Swedish expedition to the Antarctic regions under Otto +Nordenskioeld, which has lately returned after two years' adventurous +exploration in Graham Land and the discovery of King Oscar Land, Sven +Hedin's travels in Central Asia, which have had such important results +and made his works so widely read--all these were undertaken as +the result of such aid. The latest case in point, Alfred Nobel's +foundation of annual prizes for the reward of scientific discovery, of +literary merit, and humanitarian endeavor, deserves special notice. +The annual distribution of these prizes, each of which represents a +small fortune ($41,500), has of late years fixed the attention of the +learned world on the Swedish literary and scientific bodies, and the +Norwegian Parliamentary Committee, who were entrusted by him with the +difficult and invidious task of awarding them. + +Alfred Nobel, the dynamite king, as he was styled, belonged to a +family of inventors and industrial magnates. His father, Emmanuel +Nobel, was the inventor of nitroglycerine, and of fixed submarine +torpedoes or mines. His two brothers, Robert and Louis Nobel, founded +the naptha and petroleum works at Bacou, one of the largest industrial +enterprises of Russia. Alfred himself invented dynamite and dynamite +gum, and a smokeless powder, ballistite, which he patented in 1867, +1876, and 1889. It is mainly due to the works of the Nobel family that +Sweden has attained the reputation of Master Producer of Explosives. +Chemical research has always been a specialty among Swedish men of +science, and a large number of the known chemical elements were +discovered and made known by Swedish scientists. + +In 1876, Alfred Nobel had perfected his invention of dynamite gum. He +went to Paris with his patented invention, and there formed a company +with a capital of ten million francs for the manufacture of dynamite. +It proved to be an article of the greatest industrial importance, and +one destined to revolutionize mining and engineering. Erelong he had +established extensive works in France, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, +Austria, and the United States. He produced over $25,000,000 worth a +year. He became, in fact, the world's purveyor of an article which was +now exclusively used in mining and engineering works. Thanks to it, +engineers were able to pierce tunnels through the Alps, miners to sink +their shafts into the bowels of the earth, and harbor constructors to +remove sunken rocks out of the way of shipping. But thanks to it, too, +the Communards were enabled to blow up the finest monuments of Paris +in a few hours. It was at once a powerful instrument of industrial +development, and of progress in the conquest of man over inert matter, +and a terrible engine of devastation in warfare, and of massacre and +vandalism where homicidal and destructive passions were aroused in +mankind. + +It was perhaps this thought, that in benefiting industry he had also +made war more destructive, which led Alfred Nobel, who was a most +pacific and humane man, endowed with the kindliness and sympathy of a +great mind, to make the provisions he did in his will. He devoted +all his fortune to the encouragement of scientific discovery and the +reward of endeavors to diminish standing armies and the chances of +war, to promote fraternity among nations, and the settlement of +international disputes by peace congresses. His will, in its very +conciseness and unsophisticated simplicity, is characteristic of the +man. It is dated Nov. 27, 1895, and he died a year afterwards, on Dec. +10, 1896, leaving a fortune of $10,000,000. After instituting several +small legacies, the will proceeds: + +"With the residue of my convertible estate I hereby direct my +executors to proceed as follows: They shall convert my said residue of +property into money, which they shall then invest in safe securities; +the capital thus secured shall constitute a fund, the interest +accruing from which shall be annually awarded in prizes to those +persons who shall have contributed most materially to benefit mankind +during the year immediately preceding. The said interest shall be +divided into five equal amounts, to be apportioned as follows: one +share to the person who shall have made the most important discovery +or invention in the domain of physics; one share to the person who +shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; +one share to the person who shall have made the most important +discovery in the domain of physiology or medicine; one share to the +person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most +distinguished work of an idealistic tendency; and, finally, one share +to the person who shall have most or best promoted the fraternity of +nations and the abolition or diminution of standing armies and the +formation or increase of peace congresses. The prizes for physics +and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Science in +Stockholm, the one for physiology or medicine by the Caroline Medical +Institute in Stockholm; the prize for literature by the Swedish +Academy in Stockholm, and that for peace by a committee of five +persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storthing. I declare it to be +my express desire that, in awarding these prizes, no consideration +whatever be paid to the nationality of the candidates, that is to +say, the most deserving be awarded the prize, whether of Scandinavian +origin or not." + +It was Nobel's object to reward and help the pure man of science, too +much absorbed in his researches to think of drawing any industrial or +pecuniary advantages from his scientific discoveries. "I would not +leave anything to a man of action or industrial enterprise," he said +to a friend with whom he was discussing the project of his will; "the +sudden acquisition of a fortune would probably only damp the energy +and weaken the spirit of enterprise of such a man. I want to aid the +dreamer, the scientific enthusiast, who forgets everything in the +pursuit of his ideas." + +It seems like dropping from the sublime to the ridiculous to follow +so ideal a benefaction with a report of so mundane a thing as a soup +kitchen, but soup is as necessary to humanity at the present period of +life as some of the exalted things of the intellect, and, as pauperism +in Norway and Sweden is so almost unobservable, it is difficult to +search out with the keenest vision any charity that is doing more than +are the "steam kitchens" of Norway and Sweden. And the keenest vision +would hardly observe that these "steam kitchens" are charitable +institutions. They are called "steam kitchens" because they are the +first institutions in the peninsula where steam was used for the +cooking of food. The one at Stockholm, instituted by Prince Carl, is +very similar in detail and operation to the one in Christiania, +but the latter was established first and is more perfect in its +arrangement and methods, so we will take it for illustration. + +This kitchen at Christiania was established in 1858 by benevolent +people to provide wholesome food for the poor at low prices. The +charter granted to the company limited its profits to six per cent +of the capital invested, with a provision that the balance, if any, +should be paid into the poor fund of the city. There was a hard +struggle at first to make both ends meet, and an annual deficit for +many years, which was made up by the stockholders, but at last the +"kitchen" became so popular that it began to pay dividends, and the +stock has since been watered four times, until it now pays what +is equivalent to twenty-four per cent annually upon the original +investment, with a surplus larger than the capital on which it was +started. It is one of the most profitable enterprises in Europe for +the amount of money involved, but that fact does not diminish the +benefits conferred upon the public, and the generosity of the company +to the poor, particularly in times of labor troubles and financial +depression, can not be questioned. Hundreds of bachelors and single +women take their meals there regularly, and hundreds of families +obtain their entire supply of food, wholesome and well cooked, at +nominal cost. + +There is a long official title to the company, but nobody ever +mentions it. It occupies a two-story building covering nearly half an +ordinary block. The location is convenient to the business portion of +the city, the docks and the market-place. There are two large halls, +one above the other, containing five long tables, seating thirty +persons each, thus accommodating three hundred customers at a sitting. +In the upstairs room it costs eleven cents in our money for a +good dinner; in the lower room it costs nine cents. There are no +tablecloths and no napkins, but the tops of the tables have been +scoured until they shine and everything is spotless. The whole +institution is a model of neatness. It seems remarkable how it can be +kept so clean with so many unwashed customers and so much business. +The windows are large and let in plenty of light. The walls are +covered with bright tints, and the waitresses wear white caps, aprons, +and oversleeves. At each place is a knife, fork, spoon, drinking +glass, cup and saucer, and a piece of bread about three inches square. +Dinner is served from ten in the morning until six in the afternoon to +an average of 2,500 people daily. Some of them come twice. They take a +cup of coffee and eat a piece of cheese and bread at their homes early +in the morning. Then at ten or eleven, and again at four or five +o'clock, they go to the "kitchen" for a square meal. Thus it costs +them not more than twenty-five cents a day, all told, for their food. +In the last ten years they have never served less than 1,500 people in +a day. + +The bill of fare varies from day to day, but we will take one day, +Tuesday, for example. A large dish of barley soup is served, wholesome +and nourishing, a ball of hashed meat, with potatoes and rice, or +boiled salmon, potatoes and turnips. + +The nine-cent dinner is pretty much the same, with the exception of +the soup; boiled potatoes and rice, or boiled salmon, potatoes and +turnips. A plate of soup alone, which in itself would be more than a +meal for most people, being filled with meat and vegetables, is served +for three cents. + +The same dinners are furnished to the public to be eaten at their +homes for nine and seven cents respectively, and usually contain +enough food for two or three women, although Norwegians have stalwart +appetites. The outdoor service is conducted in another part of the +building, upon another street. The patrons procure tickets at an +office and then form in line--men, women and children, each with +a bucket or a basket, or both, in hand. Many tickets are given +gratuitously, but it is impossible to distinguish the paying from the +charity customers. Benevolent people throughout the city purchase +bunches of tickets, which they give to the poor, and sometimes in lieu +of wages. If you hire a man to clean up the yard, you can give him so +much cash and so many meal tickets, or if a person appeals to you for +relief, it is always better to give a ticket to the "Steam Kitchen" +rather than money. Many customers buy two portions which they take +home and warm up at meal time for the whole family. + +In the center of a large room are rows of immense caldrons with coils +of steam pipe embracing them. The air is filled with pungent odors +from the bubbling soup, and clouds of steam rise from the other +cook-pots. On a long table are pyramids of bread, cut into cubes three +or four inches square, usually rye or black bread, such as the natives +of Norway prefer. Along the walls are deep cupboards containing the +linens, the culinary supplies and utensils. In an adjoining but +detached building is a furnace and boiler-room which furnishes the +steam, and beside it a laundry and dish-washing establishment. It +requires a good many dishes to serve three thousand people even in a +simple way. In an annex the finer qualities of beef, mutton, and other +meats are cut off and sold to the public, thus utilizing all the +supplies which are bought in large quantities, the beef by the carcass +and the vegetables by the carload. The sausage of the "Steam Kitchen" +is said to be the best to be found in Christiania. All kinds of +prepared meats are also sold in this annex butcher shop. During +the fruit season the company runs a canning department upstairs, +preserving all kinds of fruits, jellies, pickles, and that sort of +thing. At the baking department bread is sold to the general public at +wholesale or retail, and small retail establishments are supplied with +all kinds of groceries as well as meats and other edibles. Thus the +restaurant is only part of this large business from which the company +derives its profits. There is naturally a good deal of jealousy among +the competing small dealers against the "Steam Kitchen," but it serves +a benevolent purpose, and there is no disposition among its customers +to question its business methods or reduce its profits. It has +succeeded in abolishing the cheap restaurants such as are found in all +large cities, at which wretched food, generally the scrapings from +high-class hotels and eating-houses, is worked over and sold to the +poor. + +It is an interesting sight, this bucket brigade, that stands in line +and passes slowly by the serving windows, which are attended by half +a dozen brawny Norwegian women with bare arms and broad, +good-natured-looking faces. They wear neat white aprons and caps, and +handle the food with a dexterity that shows long experience. They seem +to know most of the customers and carry on a familiar conversation +with them while falling their orders. When a bucket and a ticket +passes up, blue for a nine-cent and red for a seven-cent dinner, the +waitress first plunges a huge ladle into the soup pot and empties its +contents into the bucket; then passing along the rows of kettles she +harpoons a piece of meat with a long two-pronged fork, scoops up a +quart of rice with a wooden shovel, and then, adding a portion of +potatoes, slams on the cover, and, grabbing a cube of bread, passes it +over to the purchaser with a joke or a few pleasant words. + +Many of the customers are well dressed, according to the Norway +standard, but no people in the world seem to care so little for +their personal appearance, except on Sundays, when you can scarcely +recognize men and women you have been familiar with during the week. +On the day I ate at the restaurant, my cicerone pointed out at the +dining table two professors of the University faculty, a lawyer in +good standing, a photographer, and a sub-editor of one of the daily +papers, who were his personal acquaintances. The remainder of the +customers appeared to be professional men, clerks, bookkeepers, and +a good many laborers, many of them coming for their dinner without +having removed the traces of toil from their faces and hands. At one +of the tables was a group of students inclined to be boisterous and +evidently enjoying themselves. The "Steam Kitchen" is the favorite +eating-place for the undergraduates, from four to five hundred being +served every day. + +Such an institution as the "Steam Kitchen" is especially suitable to a +Norwegian city, where a portion of the population work for very small +wages, the average income of the wage-earner being less than $100 a +year--so small that, measured by the American standard, it would seem +a difficult problem to find food, clothing, and shelter for a family. + +Few Norwegians suffer from poverty or privation, even through the cold +and gloomy winters that are eight months long. Our own people might +die, or at least suffer seriously under the same circumstances, but +the Norwegians are a hardy race. They have inherited the power of +endurance and the ability to survive hunger and thirst and discomforts +better than most races. + +There are comparatively few poor in Sweden, probably fewer than in any +other European country except Norway and Switzerland, because of the +low cost of living, the sparse population, and the ability of all +men and women to find work if they are willing to earn their own +subsistence. Able-bodied paupers are compelled to work upon poor +farms, but the aged, decrepit and invalids who are dependent upon +public charity are kindly taken care of by what is called outdoor and +indoor relief. In the cities are asylums and almshouses similar to +those in the United States, but in the parishes, as a rule, the care +of the poor is assigned to individual farmers and others who +are willing to take care of them under contract, subject to the +supervision of a board of guardians, of which the pastor is the +chairman and the elders of the church are members. This has long been +a practice in Sweden, but is not universal. + +There are at present 5,277 relief establishments of all kinds in the +kingdom, and the total contributions for the benefit of the poor +amount to $3,000,000 annually, or on an average of 58 cents per capita +of the entire population, an average of 44 cents in the country and +$1.18 in the cities. This includes all poorhouses, asylums, hospitals, +and other institutions for adults and children who can not take care +of themselves. + +A large part of the relief work in the cities is looked after by the +Salvation Army under contract with the municipal authorities, but +there are many institutions, hospitals, asylums, homes for the +friendless and aged and for orphan children, supported by private +charity. The free hospital for children in Stockholm is famous as one +of the best equipped and managed institutions in the world. + +The private charities in Stockholm are united for cooperation in +an organization similar to those found in American cities, and all +charitable institutions are subject to government supervision.[l] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MATERIAL CONDITIONS + + +The chief occupation of the Scandinavian peninsula is agriculture, +employing more men and yielding larger monetary returns than any other +industry in either Norway or Sweden. This may seem strange when it is +recalled that sixty per cent of the surface of Norway is occupied by +bare mountains, twenty-one per cent by woodlands, eight per cent by +grazing lands, four per cent by lakes, and two per cent by ice fields, +leaving only seven-tenths of one per cent for meadows and cultivated +fields. And yet, the products of the farm equal the combined returns +from shipping, lumber, and fisheries. + +In Sweden the proportion of land under cultivation is considerably +larger, the arable lands consisting of about twelve per cent of the +total area, and in Sweden as in Norway, the agricultural products are +more than those from shipping, lumber, and fisheries combined. + +Nine-tenths of the farms of Norway and Sweden are owned by small +proprietors; and although the right to dispose of landed property is +relatively free, the laws of the country favor the retention of the +farms in the families possessing them. An old allodial right makes it +possible to redeem at an appraised value a farm that has been sold. +This right is acquired after the property has belonged to the family +for twenty years, but it is lost after the farm has been in the +possession of strangers for three years. There are some farms that +have been worked for a thousand years by the descendants of the same +family. The best farms are about the banks of the lakes and in the +narrow river valleys, and there are many fertile meadows which have +never been plowed or put under cultivation, so that there are great +future possibilities for tillage. And yet these meadows furnish fine +hay-crops, and every blade of grass represents money in Scandinavia. + +In a country extending through thirteen degrees of latitude, one +might naturally expect a wide range of agricultural products. In the +southeastern part of the peninsula most of the plants and orchard +fruits of central Europe are found; whereas in the northern sections +it is impossible to grow even the most hardy plants. Oats, barley, and +rye are the chief cereals, but their production scarcely meets the +needs of the country. Potatoes are the only root crops extensively +cultivated. While the summers are short, vegetables and small fruit do +excellently during the long, sun-lit hours. Scandinavians, however, do +not seem habituated to a vegetable diet, and the cultivation of root +plants seems very generally neglected. Pears, cherries, apples, +raspberries, gooseberries, and currants may be grown under favorable +conditions; but they play a minor role in Scandinavian horticulture. + +The cow is a staple of wealth to the people of Scandinavia. They are +diminutive in size, dun-colored, docile in habits, and excellent milk +producers. It is said when they are well-fed they average from six to +nine hundred gallons of milk a year. The mountain saeters, or dairies +as we would call them, are the centers of the butter and cheese +industry during the summer months. + +The peninsula is also supplied with an excellent breed of small but +hardy horses. The cream-colored fjord horses of Norway are only +sixty inches high. They are active, hardy, and gentle; and in the +mountainous parts of the country they are vastly more serviceable +than mules would be. The Gudbrandsdalen breed, found chiefly in the +mountain valleys, are larger than the fjord horses, and they are +generally brown or black in color. Good horses bring surprisingly high +prices. Working horses cost from $200 to $350 and the best stallions +bring as much as $2,500. + +The agricultural interests of Norway have suffered unmistakably by the +enormous emigration to the United States. Two-thirds of the Norwegians +of the world live in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. +Nearly every Norwegian farmstead has kinsmen in our country; and the +strong and vigorous always emigrate, thus leaving the farms at home in +the hands of the old and infirm. America has been greatly benefited by +this almost incessant exodus; for the Norse peasants have, without an +exception, made splendid citizens, the best, in fact, that have come +to us from Europe. + +Commenting on the enormous emigration from the Norwegian farms, +William Eleroy Curtis remarks: + +"Notwithstanding the large emigration of young people, for whom the +Norwegian farms are too small, it is apparent that the development of +Norway is continually progressing along the highest lines, and that +the tendency of the people, is upward socially and industrially, in +culture and in wealth. The population of the kingdom not only holds +its own, but shows a slight increase which seems remarkable because +of the continual drain of young, able-bodied men and women who have +removed to our western states. In all public movements, in all +social, commercial, and industrial activities, in art, science, and +literature, in wealth and prosperity, Norway stands abreast of the +most advanced nations of Europe; but its progress is not won without +greater effort than any other people put forth, and the application +of thrift and industry elsewhere unknown, but which is required in a +climate so bleak and inhospitable, and by a soil so wild and rocky. +None but a race like the Norsemen could have kept a foothold here." + +Norwegian economists recognize the loss to the country through +emigration, and in recent years the national parliament has attempted +to improve the condition of agricultural laborers. A fund of $135,000 +has been set aside by the government for the purchase of land. Loans +are granted to municipalities (1) for the purpose of buying large +estates to be assigned to people without means at the purchase price, +in plots of not more than twelve acres of tillable soil, and (2) for +the purpose of being granted as loans on the security of parcels of +the same size, which people without means may acquire as freehold +property. The interest on these loans is from three to four per cent, +and the time of payment is up to twenty-five years. + +There is also a cultivation fund of $270,000, from which loans are +granted for the purpose of cultivating and draining the soil. The +interest is two and one-half per cent, and the time of repayment is +up to twenty years, including five years in which no instalments are +required. Such loans are granted (1) on the security of mortgages and +(2) on the guaranty of the municipality. + +Agricultural societies--national and county--receive government grants +for the purpose of holding meetings and issuing documents that might +be of service to farmers. There is also a staff of surveyors paid by +the state to assist in the public allotment of land and otherwise to +render assistance to needy lot-owners. + +Considerable attention is also being given to the matter of +agricultural education. Connected with the state agricultural college +is an experimental farm, where not only farmers but also dairymen, +gardeners, and foresters receive practical instruction. + +Connected with the larger farms of Norway and Sweden are cotters' +places--farm laborers who have leased a small part of the farm for a +definite period (often during their natural lives). In some cases the +cotter leases only a building with a garden attached; in other cases +several acres of ground. The cotter is usually required to work on +the farm of the owner at certain times of the year for a small wage +regulated by contract. These cotters correspond to our truck farmers, +and their plots of ground number about 35,000 on the outskirts of the +cities and villages. They raise potatoes and other vegetables, and hay +enough to feed a horse and several cows. In most cases the women and +children do the work, while the men are engaged in other occupations. + +It is no longer permitted to establish entails which can not be sold +or mortgaged, and the national government in recent years has sought +to further the partition and allotment of the common ownership +of land. Pastures and grazing lands are still often held by the +community, and similarly mountain pastures. But the community farms, +when the consent of all the part owners and tenants has been +secured, may now be partitioned by surveyors appointed by the public +authorities. + +In the great timber districts of the mountain ranges, the trees are +felled in winter and the logs are dragged to the tops of the steep +mountain sides, where they are slid down to the river, or they are +carted on sledges to the river's edge. During the early summer, after +the ice has gone, and while the rivers are yet full of water, they +are floated down the streams to the sawmills. But, as the logs are +constantly being driven into corners or lodging against piers, +floaters are employed to keep the logs in the current. Log-floating is +both the most dangerous and the most unhealthful occupation in Norway. +Men often fall into the streams; they are forced to sleep on the cold +ground in uninhabited parts of the country; they frequently fall from +the rolling logs into the whirling currents and are tossed against +sharp rocks; and the marvel is not that the death-rate among floaters +is so high, but that any of them survive the perilous occupation. + +The value of the exports of forest products and timber industries +reaches about eighteen million dollars a year, and the combined forest +industries furnish employment to a large number of laborers. The state +forests occupy about 3,500 square miles, more than half being located +in the northern provinces of Tromsoe and Finmark. The state also has +nurseries at Vossevangen and Hamar, and three forestry schools, by +means of which widespread interest in tree-planting has been aroused. +Destructive forest fires and the slaughter of the trees by the +remarkable development of the wood-pulp industries have emphasized in +recent times the need of larger forest reserves and closer government +supervision. Under the most favorable conditions, the pine requires +from seventy-five to one hundred years to yield timber twenty-five +feet in length and ten inches in diameter at the top. Spruce will +reach the same size in seventy-five to eighty years. In the higher +altitudes of the central part of the country the pine requires one +hundred and fifty years, and rarely exceeds one hundred feet in +height, and it decreases toward the coast and northwards. + +The fisheries of Norway are among the most important in the world, +yielding the nation more than seven million dollars a year, and +furnishing employment to eighty thousand men. The sea-fisheries play +the chief part in this branch of industry. The long coast line and +the great ocean depth near the coast combine to give the fisheries of +Norway unusual advantages. The abundance of fish is also due to the +presence of masses of glutinous matter, apparently living protoplasm, +which furnishes nutriment for millions of animalcules which again +become food for the herring and other fish. The fish are mainly of the +round sort found in deep waters, the cod, herring, and mackerel being +the most important. + +The cod yields the largest monetary returns. This fish migrates to the +coast of Norway to spawn and in search of food. The best cod fisheries +are in Romsdal, Nordland, and Tromsoe counties, the Lofoten islands in +Tromsoe alone furnishing employment to more than four thousand men. The +cod weighs from eight to twenty pounds and measures from five to six +feet in length. Some are merely dried after having been cleaned. This +is done by hanging them by the tail on wooden frames. The others are +sent to the salting stations where they are salted and dried on flat +rocks. A fish weighing ten pounds will yield two pounds of salted cod, +the loss being due to the removal of the head and entrails and the +drying out of the water. + +There are numerous secondary products from the cod, the most valuable +being the cod liver oil. The livers of the fish are exposed to a jet +of superheated steam which destroys the liver cells and causes the +small drops of oil to run together. The roe are salted and sent to +France to be used for bait in the sardine fisheries. + +In the matter of the handicraft industries carried on in the homes, +Norway has long taken high rank. As early as the ninth century her +artisans were skilled in the manufacture of arms, farming implements, +and boats, and her women in cloth weaving and embroidery. During +recent times the ease and cheapness with which foreign products could +be obtained caused a marked decline in home industries; but at the +present moment an effort is being made to rehabilitate them through a +national domestic industry association, organized in 1891, which has +taken up the manufacture of hand-carved articles, sheath-knives, skis, +sledges, and woven and embroidered woolen and linen goods after the +old Norwegian patterns. + +The manufacture of lumber and wooden ware is one of the leading +industrial pursuits. With the exception of the two most northern +counties, practically every section of the country is represented by +sawmills and planing mills. Ship-building in recent times has attained +considerable importance, and the manufacture of paper of the chemical +wood-pulp variety has become one of the leading industries. There are +a few cloth, rope, and jersey mills at Bergen and Christiania, but the +textile industries of Norway are relatively unimportant. On the other +hand, leather, India rubber, glass, metal, and chemical industries +have become important of late years. + +Norway is not rich in mineral products. The combined mining industries +do not yield more than two million dollars a year, and they furnish +employment to less than four thousand men. The Kongsberg silver mines +have been operated for more than three hundred years, but the recent +fall in the price of silver has reduced the output. The copper mines +at Roroes have been operated for two hundred and fifty years, and there +are less important copper mines in Nordland, Telemarken, and the +Hardanger. There are iron mines at Arendal and elsewhere, but the rise +in the cost of charcoal, due to the scarcity of wood, has greatly +crippled the iron industry. There are important soapstone quarries in +the Gudbransdal and the Trondhjem basin; green colored slate in the +Valders and at Vossevangen; and granite, syenite, and porphyry in many +parts of the country. + +Measured by population and national wealth, the commerce of Norway is +relatively important, due in a large measure to her enormous merchant +marine and the efficiency of her hardy seamen. Relatively to the +population of the country, Norway has the largest merchant fleet in +the world, and in the matter of steamships and sailing vessels she is +surpassed only by three countries--Great Britain, Germany, and the +United States. Not only is her fleet large, but her service is +efficient. Norwegian seamen the world over are esteemed for ability +and honesty, inspiring all commercial nations with confidence that +goods carried in Norse bottoms will be carefully and conscientiously +treated; and her seamen are everywhere sought to man foreign vessels. + +In industries, the Swedes excel in the manufacture of iron. To fully +appreciate the value of this industry, one should visit Gefle, the +most important shipping point on the eastern coast of Sweden. Here +there is a fine harbor, with docks and warehouses owned by the +government. From this port the ore from the mines of central Sweden +is shipped to all parts of the world and handled by Brown hoisting +machinery, which is made in Cleveland, Ohio--the same that you see on +the ore docks at South Chicago and at Cleveland, Buffalo, Ashtabula, +and other points on the Great Lakes where iron ore and coal are +handled. + +At Gefle, too, an annual industrial exposition is held, where you +may see on exhibit all the utensils manufactured or used by the +people--all kinds of machinery, tools, and implements, recent +novelties in patents, weaving, wood-carving, and a large part of the +exposition building is given up to beautiful articles in iron, in the +manufacture of which we have said the Swedes excel. + +A little west of Gefle is the town of Fahlun, which is the +headquarters of the Kopparberg Mining Company, the, oldest industrial +corporation in the world. The buildings date back to the seventeenth +century and the mines are even more ancient. A mortgage bond was filed +upon them in the year 1288 by a German company, and the records show +that in 1347 the privilege of working them was sold by the king of +Sweden to a syndicate of Lubeck miners. But these documents which are +on file in the archives of the town are comparatively modern, because +the copper deposits at Fahlun were known and worked in prehistoric +times, and from them the Vikings obtained the sheathings for their +ships and the material from which their copper armor, implements, and +utensils were made. An immense amount of copper was used and worked +with great skill in Scandinavia even before the Christian era, and the +most of it came from the great deposits at Fahlun. + +The iron industry is old in Sweden. Isaac Breant, a tradesman in +Stockholm, founded a company and received a charter from Charles XI in +1685. He built the first blast furnace in Sweden, and died in 1702, +leaving the property to his son, who died in 1720. The heirs sold out +in 1722 to a man named Grill, in whose family the property remained +until 1800, when it was purchased by the ancestors of the present +owners. + +The famous Dannemora mines, which produce the best Bessemer ore in the +world, have been worked continuously since 1481. It is one of the most +valuable and extensive iron deposits in the world, and resembles those +of Lake Superior. The area of ore already located covers 12,500 square +meters.[m] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS + + +Since the sixteenth century Norway has had an excellent public posting +system which enables the traveler to go to the most remote parts +of the country at moderate and fixed rates. Fast and slow posting +stations are established by the government along all the national +highways. At the former, horses must be kept in readiness; whereas, at +the latter, the horses may be in distant fields at work, and a couple +of hours may elapse before the traveler can proceed upon his journey. +The rates, which are determined by the government, are, from fast +stations, about seven cents a mile for a horse and two-wheeled +conveyance or sledge; but from slow stations they are scarcely more +than half that price. When the road is over very steep mountains, +an extra fare is charged, usually double; but this is a government +regulation and is always understood. The posting stations are, for +the most part, isolated and solitary farms. The farmers undertake to +provide rooms and meals, as well as drivers, horses, and conveyances. +Stations are usually from seven to fifteen miles apart, and farmers +are required to convey the traveler only as far as the next station. + +Two kinds of wagons are used, the carriole and the stolkjaerre. The +carriole resembles an American sulky, except that it is springless, +and nearly the entire weight is forward of the axle. It is a +two-wheeled gig with the body shaped like the bowl of a spoon. The +seat, in front of the axletree, is fastened by cross-pieces to the +long, slender shafts that project behind and provide a place for light +luggage and a seat for the driver. The carriole is for one passenger. +It is falling into disuse, and its place is being taken by the +stolkjaerre, a two-wheeled cart that will carry two passengers. It +also has long shafts which extend under the axletree to make a support +for the luggage and a seat for the driver. The passenger's seat is +in front, perched on two wooden bars stretched obliquely upwards and +backwards from the front of the vehicle. The drivers, usually men +although sometimes girls, vary in age from six to sixty years. + +The Norwegian horses are stout, stubby, and spirited little beasts. +They are cream-colored, high crested, and have black manes and tails; +the manes are cropped, except the forelocks, which are left to protect +the eyes from the sun, and the tails are very full. Horses are valued +in Norway by the size and fullness of their tails. These little +animals are so trustworthy and intelligent that tourists, as well +as peasants, soon get to look upon them as companions. In every +"skyds-station," as the posting stations are called, in a conspicuous +place is posted this inscription: _Vaer god mod hesten_. This means +"be good to the horse." At every station there is also a book, called +the _skydsbog_, in which travelers are requested to write their names +and any complaints they may have to make regarding their treatment. At +intervals these books are examined by government officials. + +Swedish horses are much larger than those of Norway, tall, heavy, with +long legs and barrel-shaped bodies, very much like Canadian stock. +They drive well, make good speed, and will eat anything. At the livery +stables one can hire outfits by the day or hour--the legal price being +63 cents an hour or 56 cents to any point within the city limits, +and there is an excellent cab system, with what is known as the +"taxameter" register. Every cab is equipped with an arrangement +similar to a gas meter, which shows on a dial the money due, whether +you are using it by the hour or by the distance. The hackman sets his +clock at zero at the time of starting, according to the number of +passengers or whether he is hired by time or distance, and it ticks +away while you ride or while he waits. The fare for one or two persons +is sixty-two cents per hour; for three persons, eighty-seven cents an +hour; for four persons, $1.24 and a tip to the driver anywhere from +one cent to fifteen cents, according to the time he has been with you. +The public posting system outside of the cities is similar to that of +Norway. + +The national government builds the main highways, while the cross +roads are built by the parishes. The management is in the hands of a +bureau in the national department of public works, and the maintenance +falls upon the people who live in the neighborhood, under the +supervision of a local inspector. Every farmer has a piece of road +to take care of, according to the amount of land he owns, and at +intervals slabs of cast iron are erected bearing his name and +the section of the road he is to keep in order. Thus every man's +reputation is at stake in the neighborhood, and if there is a muddy +place or a rut, everybody knows who is to blame for it, and it can not +be laid to the county commissioner, as is the case in America. On the +outside of each road is a line of large blocks of stone set upright, +which serves as a barrier to prevent wagons from going off into the +ditch. There are 6,500 miles of main highway, and 11,000 miles of +cross-road, or a total of 17,500 miles of roads in Norway, and the +total expenditure upon them by national and local authorities will +average a million and a half dollars every year. + +The first cost of a road is usually about $3,000 a mile. They first +dig an excavation about three feet deep, as if they were going to make +a canal. On the bottom are thrown heavy blocks of stone through which +the water can filter, and occasionally there is a little drain to +carry it off. Upon this is a layer of smaller stones, and then still +smaller, until the surfacing is reached, which is macadam of pounded +slate, mixed with gravel and stone. + +During the winter the farmers have to keep their several sections free +from snow, but to do this it is necessary for them to co-operate, for +it would be impossible for one family to handle the heavy plows +that are necessary. Six, eight, and ten horses are often hitched to +them--all the horses in the neighborhood--and it is often the work of +weeks instead of days to get the roads opened up for travel, but when +it is once done, it is as clear and smooth for sleighs as a city +boulevard. + +Norway has only one mile of railway for every one hundred square miles +of land; but the mountainous character of the country, the heavy +snowfall during the long winters, and the thin, scattered population +make railway construction almost prohibitive. Nevertheless, the new +kingdom has made a commendable beginning, and the state has plans for +enormous extensions during the next twenty-five years. There are +now nine railway lines in the country, with a total mileage of one +thousand five hundred and eighty-four, but half of which is +broad gauge. The state railways have been constructed partly by +subscriptions taken in the districts interested in the construction of +new lines, and partly at the expense of the national government. + +The leading railway lines radiate from Christiania to Stockholm, +Goteborg, Trondhjem, Gudbransdal, Telemarken, and the Valders. The +longest line--three hundred and fifty miles--is from Christiania to +Trondhjem through Hamar. There is also a relatively long line--one +hundred and ninety miles--from Christiania up the Gudbrandsdal by Lake +Mjosen and through Lillehammer to Otta. In 1906, the Valders railway, +connecting Christiania with Fagernaes--a distance of one hundred and +thirty-one miles--was opened. This connects with the most important of +the new roads being built, the one from Christiania to Bergen. This +road will reach entirely across the country, from Christiania on +the Swedish frontier to Bergen on the Atlantic coast, thus making +connection between the two largest cities of Norway, journeys between +which are now only possible by steamships and carriages, consuming +from three to six days. + +The new road goes through the mountains and presents many engineering +difficulties. Two-thirds of the way the roadbed must be cut out of the +mountain side, and there is a tunnel three miles long at a height of +two thousand eight hundred and twenty feet above the sea level. The +snow in the winter is so heavy that it will be necessary to cover +the tracks with sheds for a distance of nearly sixty miles. The +construction is not only difficult, but expensive, and although the +distance is but three hundred and ten miles, it will be one of the +most costly railroads ever built. Sixty-seven miles of the line +between Bergen and Vose, on the western coast, is already in +operation, and it is a favorite journey of tourists, for the scenery +is superb, although the traveler is in a tunnel one-tenth of the +entire distance. There are forty-eight tunnels in all. A shelf has +been hewn and blasted along the side of the mountains that encloses +the celebrated Sorfjord. + +The Norwegians call a railway a _jernbane_, literally "an iron path." +Their cars are made on the conventional European pattern, and are +light and comfortable. They are furnished with toilet rooms, and +run smoothly and noiselessly. Most of the trains are equipped with +Westinghouse brakes, steam heat, and electric lights. The trains run +very slowly. Economy is studied in this respect, as in every +other. There is a certain speed--say, fifteen or eighteen miles an +hour--which can be maintained at a minimum consumption of fuel, and +the Scandinavian railway managers have figured it down to a dot. They +can haul a longer train a greater distance with a ton of coal than any +other engineers, and the most scrupulous attention is applied to every +feature of management, the tracks, the rolling stock, the station, the +crossings. The crossing-keepers are usually women. A large number of +that sex are employed by the railways. + +The stops at the stations seem unnecessarily long to impatient +Americans, but the time is utilized by the leisurely passengers in +drinking big goblets of beer, and by the conductor in parading up +and down the platform so that the patrons of the road can have +an opportunity to admire his radiant uniform and fine shape. In +Scandinavian countries the best-looking men seem to have been selected +for railway conductors and policemen, and their deportment is +decidedly different from what we are used to in America. If you ask a +question of a Norwegian policeman, he will bring his heels together, +give a military salute, and stand in the attitude of attention like +a soldier while he answers. He usually understands English, too, and +those who can not are remarkably accurate guessers, and all take a +friendly interest in your inquiries instead of giving you a short +answer and a cold shoulder like the policemen in our cities. They will +walk to the corner to point out the house in the middle of the next +block if that is where you want to go, and when you thank them for +their attention, you get another salute that makes you feel as big as +a major general, or as if you had been mistaken for a member of the +royal family. Railway conductors are equally polite, and seem +to understand that it is a part of their business to protect +tender-footed travelers, as angels always look after good little boys. + +In southern Sweden there is scarcely a parish without a railway, and +in the northern part of the kingdom, where the railway facilities are +limited, posting stations are maintained by the government similar to +those in Norway. There is a railway running as far north as the 67th +parallel of latitude, about fifty miles beyond the polar circle +into Lapland, to the famous mines of Malmberget, with a branch to +Trondhjem, Norway. The line follows the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia +very closely, through a country well covered with small pine timber, +which was being rapidly stripped until the government interfered by +passing rigid regulations and appointing foresters to enforce them. + +You can see the midnight sun from several places on this railway, +anywhere above 66 degrees and 33 minutes of latitude, from the 9th +of June to the 3d of July, and farther north for a longer period. At +Gellivare the midnight sun can be seen regularly from June 5 to July +11, and it is a much more convenient and quicker journey than to the +North Cape and other polar resorts in Norway. During that period a +traveler is reasonably certain of seeing the sun at all hours of the +day as long as he cares to stay, while over in Norway that privilege +is rare and uncertain, owing to the fogs and clouds that obscure the +horizon sometimes for days at a time. But there is nothing else to +call the tourist to this part of Sweden, for the scenery is monotonous +and uninteresting and the facilities for travel are primitive and the +tourists are few. + +Everybody who has taken the trouble to make the journey, of course, +advises other people to do the same, and insists that it is worth the +time, money, and fatigue it costs, on the same principle as the fox +that lost his tail in a trap wanted all the other foxes to cut off +their tails. There is one train each way daily, but it runs very +slowly,--about fifteen or eighteen miles an hour,--and stops a long +time at the stations. The cars are comfortable. The road belongs to +the government, and was built in the '90's for the transportation of +ore from the iron mines, which was previously hauled by cart in summer +and reindeer sledges in winter, to the ports of Lulea and Allapen, a +distance of about one hundred and forty miles. + +When it is recalled that two-thirds of the inhabitants of Norway live +upon the coasts and fjords, the large part which water traffic plays +in the economy of the country will be easily understood. The coast +being well protected by a chain of islands, the skjaergaard, both +travel and commerce are carried on by means of small open boats. The +fjord rowboats, as a rule, are light and pointed, with upright and +high prow, and they carry a square sail. They are light to row, and +they go capitally before the wind. There is an extensive government +posting system on the coasts, fjords, and inland lakes, similar to +that along the public highways already described. The tariff from +fast stations for a four-oared boat and sail with two rowers is about +twelve cents a mile; eighteen cents for three rowers and a six-oared +boat, and twenty-four cents a mile for a boat with eight oars and four +rowers. The tariff is decided by the size of the boat and not by the +number of passengers. The rowers are not infrequently girls and women. + +The large fjords and lakes have ample steamboat facilities, the coast +service between Bergen and Trondhjem being especially good. The +navigable channels of the fjords represent a coast line of twelve +thousand miles, and they are so entirely separated from the sea by +islands and reefs and obstructed at their entrances by old moraines, +that the fresh water from the melting snows and rivers lies four or +five feet deep on the surface. Small steamers ply on all the larger +fjords on which the rates are moderate and the accommodations fair. On +most of these boats a passenger pays full fare for himself and half +fare for the other members of his family, including his wife. Persons +who want to see the fjords of Norway thoroughly should take the +regular mail steamers, which call at all small ports and take a month +instead of a week for the voyage. The boats are small, but clean and +comfortable, and only occasionally have bad weather--very seldom in +summer. They wind in and out of the narrow passages, and because of +their size can navigate where the larger tourist steamers are not able +to go, and therefore the passengers on the latter miss some of the +finest scenery. + +Voyages to the North Cape by the tourist steamers are limited to a few +weeks during the midsummer, when the sun is supposed to be visible at +midnight in the arctic regions, but steamers run regularly all the +year way around the Cape to Archangel, Vadsoe, and Horningsvaag, the +arctic ports of Russia. The fjords never freeze, so that navigation is +always open, and there is more or less travel in midwinter between the +civilized portions of the arctic regions. + +If you will take your map and examine the north coast of Europe within +the arctic circle, you will find several towns east of the North Cape +on the White Sea which are wide open 365 days in the year, and do more +business in the winter than during the summer months. They do not see +the sun from December to February. At some places it is invisible for +a longer period, but at Hammerfest the streets, houses, and business +places are lighted with electric lights, and similar plants are being +introduced into other cities of the polar section. It is stated, also, +that the aurora borealis is so brilliant night after night as to make +it easy to read ordinary newspaper print without artificial light, and +by long experience people are prepared for the peculiar conditions +that exist there. The passengers on the steamers in these waters in +winter are mostly commercial travelers and men interested in the +fisheries, which are more active from October to March than at any +other time of the year. + +There are also two canals in Norway that are used for passenger +traffic--the Fredrikshald canal, connecting the Femsjoeen and Skullerud +lakes, and the Skien-Nordsjoe-Bandak canal, connecting the Nordsjoe lake +with the Hitterdal and Bandak lakes. Between the Hitterdal and the +Nordsjoe lake there is a rise of fifty feet, which is overcome by two +locks at Skien and four at Loveid; and between the Nordsjoe and the +Bandak lakes there is a rise of one hundred and eighty-seven feet, +which is overcome by fourteen locks, five of which are around a +waterfall, the Vrangfos, where the average rise for each lock is about +thirteen feet. The postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, all under +government control, are both cheaper and more efficient than in the +United States, where the two latter are private monopolies. With the +exception of Switzerland, Norway is more abundantly supplied with +postoffices, in proportion to her size, than any other country in the +international postal union. The length of her telegraph lines, in +relation to the population of the country is greater than in any other +country. There is no place in the world where telephones are so cheap +or so numerous as in Stockholm. There are more telephones in Stockholm +than in Berlin or London, and it is contended that there are more than +in Paris, but that is doubtful. The total number of instruments in use +is nearly 50,000 to a population of 300,000. You can find a telephone +in every shop and in almost every house, and in the parks and on the +street corners on lamp posts are little booths similar to those +used for police boxes in the cities of the United States. They work +automatically. You drop a little coin worth three cents into the slot, +and then ring the bell. For several years every room in the principal +hotels has had its own telephone, on the same system that has recently +been introduced into the United States, and upon some of the steamers +sailing from Stockholm there is a telephone in every stateroom. The +long distance 'phones and all the lines outside of two or three of +the principal cities belong to the government and are operated by the +Postoffice Department. The rents vary from $10 to $28 a year. + +The telegraph system is owned by the government, which charges a +uniform rate of fifteen cents for ten words to any part of the +country. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + + +Because of its geographic isolation, the Scandinavian peninsula is the +home of the purest Teutonic ethnic stock. The Norwegians, Icelanders, +Swedes, and Danes are racially closely related, and they belong to the +same branch of the Aryan family as the Germans, Flemish, English, and +Anglo-Americans. Physically, these people are powerfully built and +tall, of the pure Scandinavian type, with fair hair and blue eyes, and +their healthy, intelligent look strikes the traveler. In addition to +the physical characteristics held in common by these Scandinavian +peoples, the Norwegians are to be specially noted for their long +narrow heads, particularly is this so among the people in the interior +of the country. Here, too, the stature is the greatest. During the +Civil War in the United States, it was found that among the enlisted +troops the Norwegians, after the Americans, had the greatest stature, +and that in breadth of chest they were excelled by none. It is +probably true, however, that the Norwegians who emigrate represent the +finest physical types, and that they possess a higher average stature +than one finds in Norway to-day, if the most northerly provinces are +excepted. + +The Norwegians are a very plain people--neither pretty nor handsome. +The women are strong and square-built, and what beauty they have is +of the solid and substantial sort. Of the two sexes, the men are the +better proportioned, both in the matter of figures and features. They +have light complexions,--barring the bronzing of the skin due to +constant exposure,--light hair, blue eyes, and reasonably well-formed +noses. Both men and women have frank and open countenances. + +The most marked mental characteristics are clear insight, +unconquerable pertinacity, dogged obstinacy, absolute honesty, and a +sturdy sense of independence. Bjoernson has well remarked concerning +his people: "Opinions are slowly formed and tenaciously held, and much +independence is developed by the rigorous isolation of farm from farm +each on its own freehold ground, unannoyed and uncontradicted by any +one. The way the people work together in the fields, in the forests, +and in their large rooms has given them a characteristic stamp of +confidence in each other." It is perhaps this isolation that has +perpetuated so many of the old customs and superstitions for which the +Norwegians are noted. + +William Eleroy Curtis tells of seeing the funeral of one of these +Norway farmers: + +"His house was trimmed with green boughs and festooned with ropes of +flowers and ground pine. The word _farvel_, "farewell," was worked in +green over the front door. The coffin, which was carried on a bier by +the neighbors to the little cemetery not far away, was covered with +flowers, and following it were a number of women clad in somber black +with little white shawls tied under their chins, each carrying a +wreath in her hands. The minister led the procession. He was dressed +in a long black gown reaching to his heels, like the cassock of a +Catholic priest; his hat was of felt, with a low crown and a broad +brim, similar to those worn by the curates of the Church of England, +while around his neck was a linen ruff that looked as if it might have +been worn in the time of Queen Elizabeth. + +"A grave had been dug in the churchyard. The neighbors who had borne +the body, lowered it tenderly to the bottom, and when they had lifted +the cover of the coffin in place, each man, the oldest first, threw in +a shovelful of earth. All the women did not use the shovel, some of +them took up handsful of soil and let it gently filter through their +fingers into the open vault; and finally three children, somewhere +about ten or eleven years of age, followed the example of their elders +and added their little share to the brown coverlid of the dead. +The pastor removed his hat, extended his arms and pronounced a +benediction. Then the women laid their wreaths on the newly covered +grave and sorrowfully turned homeward." + +Independence and frankness characterize all classes of society. Norway +has no hereditary aristocracy. In 1821 it was provided that those +holding titles might be allowed to retain them during their lives, but +they could not transmit them to their children. The Norse character +has never been marred by the yoke of slavery. The feudal system, with +its serfdom, never got a footing in the north. The people have always +been small landholders, which has developed among them an independence +of character not found in countries where the mass of the inhabitants +have no direct property interests. There is no class in Norway +corresponding to the country gentleman of England or to the grand +seigneurs and provincial noblemen of the Continent. The wealthiest +landlord is only a peasant. + +Honesty is one of the valuable assets of the Norwegian people. +Attempts at extortion are so rare that tourists, accustomed to the +proverbial dishonesty of the Latin races, find travel in Norway and +Sweden a joy. An English traveler relates this typical incident: He +had lost his purse shortly after leaving Vossevangen for Stalheim. +Altogether unconscious of his loss, he walked on placidly. Suddenly +hearing hurried footsteps following him, he turned about and faced a +lad who thrust the pocketbook into the owner's hand and disappeared +before the Englishman could get a coin from his pocket to reward the +boy for his honesty. The Norwegian boy very properly did not expect +a reward for doing the only thing open to his mind upon finding the +purse. + +Kindness to animals is another virtue of the Norwegian people. +Illustrating this trait we again quote William Eleroy Curtis: + + "There seems to be a close relation between the human kind and + their animals. The men and women talk to the horses and cattle as + if they were understood. We had a _skydsgut_, or driver, one day, + who held continuous conversation with his horses. Every time he + would come to a hill he would walk beside them and talk to them + all the way up in a gentle, caressing sort of way, like a child + talking to a doll, and once when he stopped for water and the near + horse wanted to drink more than the driver thought was good for + him, he scolded like an old woman. The horse shook his head and + rattled his harness impatiently, as much as to say, 'You get back + onto your box and attend to your business and I'll attend to + mine.'" + +That intellectuality is one of the traits of the Swedes and Norwegians +alike is evidenced in the long list of names that have become +famous in the world's literature. In spite of the high intellectual +attainments of these people, they are fond of the quiet, simple life, +with friends and kinsfolk and home employments and home enjoyments. +And they are very superstitious, too, and, in spite of their Lutheran +faith, they have never discarded the customs that grew from belief in +gods many, and fairies, trolls, gnomes and norns without number. The +forests, the mountains and gorges, are inhabited by these people +still. Nissen is the good fairy of the farmers. He looks after the +cattle particularly, and if he is well treated they are healthy, and +the cows give lots of milk. To propitiate him it is necessary to put +a dish of porridge on the threshold of the cow stable on Christmas +morning. Whenever the family move, this invisible being goes along +with them and sits on the top of the loads. In haying time he always +rides on the load of hay, and the _bedstemoder_, best mother or +grandmother, in every farmhouse can tell the children dozens of +interesting stories about the mischief or the kindness of Nissen. + +He is invariably represented in pictures of farm life; he appears on +the illustrated advertisements of farm machinery; his figure carved +in wood is sold at all the curiosity stores, and he appears as a +prominent character in most of the fairy stories that deal with farm +life. He is represented as a short, fat, bow-legged man, with big +whiskers and long white hair, wearing a red hat like those worn by +clowns in circuses. He usually appears in his shirt sleeves, with an +open collar, a blue vest, and knickerbockers upon his legs, which are +as slim as those of a brownie. His circumference is greater than his +height, and his head is almost as large as his body. + +Noek is the fairy of the waterfalls and is a sort of merman. You never +see more than half his body. He is very, very old, his hair and beard +are long and white, and his face is always pale and pensive. He +carries a harp and plays to amuse the spirits in the waterfall. A +statue of Ole Bull has recently been erected in his native city of +Bergen. He stands upon a pedestal which rises from a fountain, and the +water flows over the head and shoulders of a Noek at the base. + +Norway offers a fine field for reformers to study the effects of +regulation upon the vice of drunkenness. Within the limits of the +kingdom are all grades of restriction, from prohibition to liberal +license. There are no pretensions about the Norwegians; there is no +affectation about their morals and no leniency in the administration +of their laws. The police and the magistrates are merciless and +inexorable, and crime is punished more severely perhaps than in any +other country. At the same time the people distinguish an important +difference between temperance and total abstinence. They give their +children beer in unlimited quantities, but absolutely prohibit the +sale of whisky, and send drunken men to prison with burglars and +assassins. Norwegian reformers hold that beer is the great promoter of +temperance, and encourage its use as a beverage, although every saloon +in the kingdom is closed on Sundays, on all holidays, and Saturday +afternoon, which is the regular pay day for the working classes. These +are practical regulations, devised for the purpose of restraining +those who are not capable of controlling their own appetites and +encouraging thrift and economy. While the saloons are closed on pay +day, the savings banks are open until midnight. + +It is difficult to become accustomed to the long twilights in Norway. +One can read and write at a window as late as ten o'clock without +difficulty, and during the months of June, July, and August few +artificial lights are used, either in the streets or in the shops or +in the residences. A candle is usually kept handy for an emergency, +but it is light enough to dress and undress at any hour of the night, +and it seems childish to go to bed before dark. The hours for meals +are awkward to those accustomed to American ways. Breakfast is usually +served from seven till nine o'clock. Four o'clock is the fashionable +dinner hour, without luncheon. After dinner men return to their +business and keep open their shops and offices until a nine or ten +o'clock supper during the long days. + +No one will ever starve to death in Norway. American palates may not +always crave the food, but they can not complain of its abundance. The +table is usually loaded with all sorts of fish and cold meats, both +fresh and preserved, that foreigners are usually afraid of. The +Norwegians are fond of things with a pronounced flavor, the more +pronounced the better, and cheese is one of the chief articles of +diet. A Norwegian housewife would not consider a meal complete without +five or six different kinds of cheese of all degrees of pungency in +taste and odor upon the table. At breakfast you are served sardines, +anchovies, smoked salmon, dried herring and five or six other kinds of +fish and an equal variety of cheese before they think of offering you +coffee and meat and potatoes. You get seven or eight kinds of bread +also, but it is all cold. The national bread, which is made of flour, +water and a little salt, with a sprinkling of caraway seed, rolled +very thin and punctured with holes like a cracker, is baked only once +or twice a year, and then in large quantities, as New England women +bake mince pies and put them on the top shelf to season. It is called +_grovboroed_, and tastes like a water cracker. + +The servant-girl problem has been solved in Norway to the satisfaction +of all concerned, although it is doubtful whether a similar solution +would be accepted by domestic servants in the United States. In large +cities like Bergen and Christiania, there is a central employment +bureau under the direction of the municipal government, and twice a +year--one week before New Year's day and one week before St. John's +day, the 24th of June--there is a general change of servants by those +who are dissatisfied with existing conditions, and engagements are +made for the ensuing six months of the year. Families who want +servants, fill out blanks setting forth what is required and the wages +they are willing to pay. These are filed at the employment office and +are noted in a conspicuous manner upon a blackboard. Women or men in +search of employment go to this bureau during the weeks named, +examine the blackboard, and apply to the clerk in charge for further +information. + +If they desire to apply for a particular position, they submit their +recommendations to the clerk, and if he is satisfied, he gives them a +card to the lady of the house. That card is good for the day only, and +must be returned by the lady of the house before the close of office +hours. If the girl is engaged, the blanks upon the card are filled out +with a general statement as to her duties, the term of service, and +the wages agreed upon, and the card is filed away for reference +if necessary. If the lady of the house is not satisfied with the +applicant, she sends her away and returns the card marked "not +satisfactory," with the request that other applicants be sent her. If +the applicant is satisfactory, the lady of the house pays her a bonus +of one krone or two kroner called "hand money"--that is, she crosses +her hand with silver as an evidence of good faith--and the girl agrees +to report for duty within one week after New Year's or Midsummer's +day, as the case may be. That is to allow her present employer to +fill her place. In some of the smaller towns the dates for changing +servants are April 14 and October 14. + +The law protects both the employer and the employed. The employer +guarantees to give the servant a comfortable room, wholesome food, +take care of her if sick, and pay her wages regularly as agreed upon +during good behavior; while the girl agrees to perform her duties +faithfully during the term for which she is engaged. If there is any +complaint upon either side, it must be made to a magistrate, who +investigates and decides between them. A family can not get rid of a +servant during her term of employment without official intervention. +On the other hand, the girl's wages are a first lien upon their +property for the entire term, although judgment must be rendered and +made a matter of record. If a servant runs away from her employer, +she can be arrested and fined. Cooks are paid from $4 to $7 a month; +housemaids from $3 to $6 a month; men butlers from $10 to $15; +coachmen from $12 to $16 a month; scullery maids and men of all work +receive corresponding wages. + +Nearly all of these domestic customs here related apply to Sweden as +well as Norway, and there are many interesting additional ones. In +Sweden the state dinners at the palace are always at six o'clock. At +nearly all the other courts of Europe it is customary to dine at eight +o'clock. The king's dinners are short, his guests seldom remaining +more than an hour at the table, after which the ladies adjourn to one +of the drawing rooms, the gentlemen to the smoking room, and later +all are entertained by musicians from the opera house or the royal +conservatory. Carriages are usually ordered at ten o'clock. This seems +old-fashioned, but for people who like to go to bed early and those +who are occupied with business all day it is much more sensible than +the custom followed in some cities, where social festivities do not +begin until the hour when the king of Sweden's guests are bidding him +good night. + +But everybody complains that the Swedes are drifting away from old +customs and are becoming modernized. The French influence seems to +prevail, and modern Swedish life is becoming an imitation of that of +Paris. + +Another of the old customs is for people to indicate their business +upon their visiting cards. You will receive the card of Lawyer Jones, +or Banker Smith, or Music Professor Smith, and so on; and these titles +are also used in addressing them. It would seem rather queer for any +one in the United States to ask, "Wholesale Merchant MacVeigh, will +you kindly pass the butter?" or "Banker Hutchinson, will you escort +Fru Board of Trade Operator Jones to the table?" But that is the +custom in Sweden and it is observed by children as well as grown +people. A lisping child will approach a guest, make a pretty little +bob-courtesy, and say, "Good morning, Chief Justice of the Supreme +Court Fuller," or "Good night, Representative in Congress Boutell." +It is customary for ladies to print their maiden names upon +their visiting cards in smaller type, under their married names, +particularly if they have a pride of family and want people to know +their ancestry. + +To see the old Swedish customs that have almost entirely disappeared +from the country, one must go to the hill districts of Dalecarlia, +where the people are so unlike the rest of the Swedes in their dress, +their customs and habits, and in many other respects as to almost seem +another race. + +The Dalecarlians are great dancers, and the social gatherings at +their homes during the winter are always accompanied by that form of +amusement. During the summer they dance in the open air. On St. John's +Day the entire population, old and young, dance around a May-pole +erected at some convenient place, and at harvest time, whenever the +last sheaf in a field is pitched upon the cart or the stack, it is +customary for somebody to produce a musical instrument, a violin, +a nyckleharpa, a harmonicum, or perhaps only a mouth organ, and +everybody--for the boys and girls of the family all work together in +the hay and harvest fields--join in a dance before returning home. + +The dances are original and often interesting. One of the most ancient +and popular is the _daefva vadmal_ (weaving homespun), whose figures +are supposed to imitate the action of the shuttle, the beating in of +the woof, and other motions used in weaving at an old-fashioned loom. +Some of the dances resemble those of Scotland, and one is almost +exactly like the Virginia reel as danced by old-fashioned people in +the United States. In another, called the "garland," the dancers wind +in and out under their clasped hands in imitation of the weaving of a +wreath of flowers. All the dances require violent physical exercise, +but the Swedish men and women are famous for muscular development. +Some of the dances are accompanied by pretty melodies sung in unison +by both sexes. + +The songs of the Dalecarlian peasant are not lively, but rather slow +in movement, and are usually sung in unison, the music being rarely +arranged for parts. + +Dalecarlia has a certain preeminence among the districts of Sweden +because of the part its people have played in the history of the +country, and however the other provinces may dispute among themselves +about their claims for distinction, each will admit that Dalecarlia is +entitled to special consideration. Its people represent the highest +patriotism and the noblest characteristics of the Swedish race, and +when any one is spoken of as a Dalecarlian, it means that he is a free +and intelligent citizen of independent thought and action and lives a +life of manly simplicity.[o] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS + + +Perhaps in no other country in the world have health and exercise been +united and formed into a national institution, as they have been in +Sweden. The true Swede believes that exercise will cure everything, +and that as a preventive of disease there is nothing like it. If you +go to a Swedish physician for advice, he will invariably prescribe the +movement cure, and send you to a gymnasium or a massage establishment +instead of to a drug store. Physical exercise is therefore the +national remedy, particularly for complaints due to sedentary +employment, neglect of nature's laws, and high living. The movement +cure for invalids, which is practically the same as that we have in +the United States, is used in all the hospitals as well as in private +practice. It was invented about a century ago by Dr. Ling, a patriot, +a gymnast and a poet, who was inspired to revive the ancestral +national spirit in the Swedish people by the aid of sports and songs, +and to develop once more the great qualities of strength, courage, +and endurance which in old times distinguished the Scandinavian +race. After a hard struggle he succeeded, in 1814, in securing the +recognition of the government and founded the Royal Gymnastic Central +Institute, where all persons desiring to teach gymnastics in the +public schools or in private institutions must take a course of +training and take a degree. The Swedes are quite as particular about +this as they are about the study of medicine. No medical practitioner +can hang out a sign without a diploma from one of the universities, +and no person can teach gymnastics in that country without a similar +certificate of competency from the Royal Institute. Every officer of +the army is required to undergo a course of instruction, not only +to develop his physical constitution, but to qualify him to teach +gymnastics to his soldiers. The teachers of physical culture in the +public schools, both men and women, are obliged to take a similar +course in order to drill their pupils properly, for in every +schoolroom in the country, down to the kindergartens, daily physical +exercise upon Ling's plan is required to promote the development of +the body and improve the health. This is required in private as well +as public schools, and the methods of instruction are subject to the +inspection and approval of the Central Institute. In every town of any +size there are gymnastic clubs and associations, which are generally +guided by instructors educated at the Central Institute. They include +women as well as men in their membership, and in many of them fencing +and other sword exercises are also taught. In common with all the +gymnasiums are bath-houses. You will find them in every part of the +city of Stockholm and in other large towns. Some of them occupy entire +buildings. It is the habit of business men to go to their stores or +offices at nine o'clock in the morning and remain there until two or +three in the afternoon, when they go to their club or gymnasium and +take an hour's exercise and afterward a bath. These establishments in +the business quarter of Stockholm and other cities are considered just +as important as clubs, restaurants, or other places of resort, and +usually have connected with them reading and smoking rooms where +patrons can read the daily newspapers and current magazines and sip +coffee and smoke while they are cooling off. It would surprise a +visitor in New York or Chicago to be informed that his broker or his +lawyer or his banker or a contractor with whom he has business, had +gone to a bathhouse or gymnasium at three o'clock in the afternoon, +but in Stockholm it is a common reply to an inquiry. During winter +afternoons you can usually find anybody you want by going to his +favorite gymnasium or bathhouse, just as you would look for him at his +club in Chicago. + +There is a distinctive dress for the exercise. The patrons take off +their street clothing and put on light woolen shirts and trousers, and +canvas shoes on their bare feet, and, standing in rows, go through a +series of motions under the command of their instructor to exercise +the arms, legs, neck, and every other part of the body, gently, not +violently. The idea is movement, not exertion, and the muscles are +restrained. The arm is raised slowly with self-resistance. No clubs +or dumb-bells are used, only a gentle motion like the exercise of the +children in the schools. After twenty minutes or half an hour of this +the class marches in a column, still going through the same movements; +then they run, following their leader, doing everything that he does, +until at the end of an hour the body is in a glow, the blood is +pulsating in every vein, the perspiration is oozing from every pore, +every muscle is limbered up and strengthened, and every nerve tingles. +There is regular gymnasium apparatus for those who like more violent +exercise. Then a bath is taken, followed by a cold plunge and violent +rubbing with massage, after which a man is in shape to go home to his +dinner with a good appetite. + +In October every year the Scandinavian Gymnastic Instructors' +Association meets in Stockholm for several weeks, at which lectures +are delivered, papers are read, and discussions are held upon all +branches of their work. These meetings are quite as important as +annual conventions of the bar or medical associations, and are not +only attended by gymnastic instructors, but by physicians generally, +for every Swedish physician must be well versed in medical gymnastics, +particularly in what is known as _kinesitherapym_ or movement cure, +which embraces active, passive, and resisting movements, as well as +massage, for the latter is the basis of medical gymnastics. + +The Swedes have accepted this treatment as a specific for nearly +all diseases, deformities, and weaknesses of the body; for internal +complaints, for the lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs. It +removes superfluous tissue, and this is the reason you see so few fat +men in Sweden, notwithstanding their beer-drinking propensities, and +why the women keep their youthful shape until old age. + +It is a spectacle to witness in some of the gymnastic institutes +venerable and dignified gentlemen going through comical motions and +assuming ridiculous postures with great activity and zeal, keeping +time to the music of a band in the adjoining cafe. + +In Sweden doctors never send bills to their patients, but trust +entirely to their generosity. Each family has an attending physician, +who expects them to pay him by the year for his services, according to +their wealth and the amount of attention they receive. Ten dollars a +year in our money is a good fee; one hundred dollars is princely. At +the beginning of the year you put the amount in an envelope and send +it to the doctor by a messenger with your card. He sends back his card +with an acknowledgment of thanks and the compliments of the season. It +is very bad form to talk about it, although grateful patients often +write their physicians affectionate letters of gratitude for his +devotion and the benefit he has brought them. It is a good deal +like the relation between a minister and his parishioners in other +countries, and the annual contribution for the support of the doctor +is just as voluntary as the contribution to the treasury of the +church. If there is any reason why one should feel grateful to the +doctors; if you or your children have suffered a severe illness and he +has pulled you through, he expects a present in addition to the annual +honorarium, just as you would send the minister a present after a +marriage or a funeral or some other special occasion at which his +services are required. The amount you pay depends upon your ability +and the value of his services, but it is a violation of the +most sacred canon of professional etiquette for a doctor to ask +compensation or question the amount he receives. He keeps no accounts +of his visits and no books. If a stranger or an acquaintance who does +not contribute regularly makes one call or two upon the doctor to ask +his advice or a prescription, he leaves something on the table, but it +would be equivalent to an insult if he should ask for a bill. + +When a person is very sick, he is taken to a hospital. Sweden has some +of the best hospitals in the world. His own doctor looks after him +there, assisted by the house physician and nurses, who expect fees, +but the regular doctor gets none. He supervises the treatment and acts +as adviser to the house physician. + +The government pays subsidies to doctors in remote parts of the +country, just as it pays the salaries of the ministers where the +people are so poor that they can not support a doctor and a parson. +In fact, all the clergymen of the established church are paid by the +government and are government officials. The members of their parishes +give them presents, something on the donation party order, because +their salaries are small, and if there happen to be rich men in the +parish, it is their custom to send around a handsome present to the +minister's wife or to himself on Christmas Day. + +The Swedes have a short summer, and so far as possible spend it in the +open air. Every citizen of Stockholm who can afford it has a place in +the country, no matter how humble or primitive it may be, and if he +can not afford a cabin, he pitches a tent in the woods under the pine +trees, and if necessary cooks his own meals. The banks of the lakes +and rivers throughout the entire kingdom--and there are more than +1,400 lakes in Sweden and 1,700 islands in the Stockholm Skaergard--are +surrounded by such dwellings and camps, for the Swedes love the water. +Those who are compelled to remain in town take their meals and spend +their evenings at the open-air cafes, which are found in every part of +the city with bands of music, and take daily excursions on the boats +which ply through the fjord and the lakes which encircle the town. +In the suburbs are circuses, open-air theaters, concert gardens, and +other forms of entertainments, simple and serious. A number of fine +restaurants are maintained in the parks, where people can get a good +dinner and spend the evening under the cool foliage, listening to +an orchestral concert or a band. Every form of outdoor amusement is +furnished, and the people eat, drink, and are merry, making the most +of their time from June to September before the long and dreary winter +comes upon them. + +The working classes have their simple amusements also, and during the +summer evenings in every village there is music and dancing, even if +an accordion or jewsharp is the only instrument to be obtained. The +national dances are quite energetic, and furnish a form of exercise +which lazy people would not admire, but both the men and women of +Sweden are famous for their muscular strength, and the young woman who +can dance down her companions is as much of a hero as the champion +wrestler of the town. Those who can not enjoy the opportunity of +visiting rural Sweden will find in the suburbs of Stockholm, at the +favorite resort and place of amusement of the common people, a perfect +representation of Swedish country life. It is called Skansen, and +is rural Sweden in miniature. It is a patriotic and scientific +enterprise, conceived and undertaken by the late Dr. Artur Hazelius, +an eminent ethnologist, for the purpose of preserving the habits and +customs of the Scandinavian races. In no country of Europe, excepting +perhaps Russia and Turkey, have the people adhered to the manner and +costumes of their fathers so tenaciously as in Sweden, and the life of +past generations is preserved in its picturesqueness. The conservatism +of the people, their tenacious preference for their own ways and means +has kept out innovations, and very few changes have been made since +the beginning of the eighteenth century. But fearing that the peasants +of Sweden, like all other peoples, would sooner or later surrender to +modern fashions, Dr. Hazelius attempted to collect at Skansen actual +types representing every industry, activity, and national trait. His +thought was expressed in a motto inscribed over one of the gates of +this outdoor museum: + +"The day will come when all our gold will not be sufficient to buy an +accurate picture of the times long past." + +He procured from the king a rocky plateau on the edge of a royal park +known as _Djurgarden_, covered with crippled pines and resembling the +wild, uncultivated, neglected landscape in Dalecaria or Norrland, +the two most interesting portions of Sweden. By careful landscape +gardening, without destroying its natural beauty, he introduced broad +paths, restaurants, cafes, band stands, and other places for the merry +to meet and hold their festivals, and for the students to sing their +songs, and he reserved a part of the grounds in its natural condition, +where the lovers of nature can find a quiet retreat among the gloom +of a pine grove. It has become the most popular resort in Sweden, +particularly in the long summer evenings, and when a man can not reach +the country, Skansen is never too far. It is accessible by street-cars +and by boats, and is not more than half an hour's walk from the +palace. + +Here the "folk festivals," for which the Swedish poets have composed +their most beautiful songs, are held every spring; here the national +holidays are celebrated as in olden times, both in summer and +winter, and national customs are preserved with great care and amid +surroundings that give them a realistic tone, like the true thing. Dr. +Hazelius secured original types of peasant houses from every part of +the country where they have individual or unique character. From the +huts of the fishermen on the south coast of the Scandinavian peninsula +to the camps of the Lapps in the frozen zone, every feature of +Swedish country life is represented. The Lapps brought their dogs and +reindeer, and live exactly as they do upon the snowy plains of the +polar regions. + +With the forty acres that compose the park are about one hundred and +twenty-five people, living exactly as their forefathers lived and +practicing the primitive customs that prevailed two centuries ago +in the agricultural districts of the kingdom. They wear the same +costumes, eat the same kind of food, use the same kind of dishes, and +preserve so far as possible every feature of their daily life. Every +one of the provinces of Sweden which has a distinctive dress or unique +custom is represented by the actual people who have always lived that +way. Every man and woman continues their former occupations. There +is no theatrical business about it, no imitations on the grounds; +everything is genuine. + +Three or four times a week at sunset, after their daily work is done, +the peasants gather for a dance at a central place, which is always +surrounded by a large crowd of spectators, and is the greatest +attraction of Skansen. On alternate nights the dancing is by the +children, of whom there are thirty-seven under fifteen years of age +living in the cabins with their parents, dressed just like their +great-great-grandfathers and grand mothers when they were of the +same age. The music for the dancing is furnished by old-fashioned +instruments, and none but old-fashioned tunes are allowed. There is a +society in Sweden known as _Svenska Folkdansens Vaenner_ for preserving +the Swedish national peasant dances and for encouraging their use in +the higher circles of society in preference to the French dances. + +There are several fine museums and picture galleries in Sweden. The +national gallery in Stockholm, which is across the bay from the royal +palace, and the Northern Museum founded in 1872 by Dr. Hazelius. Then +there is the Royal Opera and the National Theater, so that the people +of Stockholm do not want for places of amusement in winter as well as +summer. + +The father of athletic sports in Sweden is Lieutenant Colonel Victor +Gustaf Balck, who holds a military position in the garrison at +Stockholm. He introduced lawn tennis, cricket, baseball and football, +and has established numerous athletic clubs in different parts of the +country. Sailing is popular, there being many yacht clubs with good +houses and fleets. And swimming is a part of the national education, +nearly every man, woman, and child in Sweden taking naturally to the +water and being able to swim. Everybody can skate as well as swim. In +the cities rinks can be found with music and many conveniences. In +Stockholm there is a general skating club, with a rink large enough +to accommodate six thousand skaters, and popular fetes given there +at intervals during the winter are attended by the royal family and +members of the court, and are regarded as important social functions. +All skating is done upon the numerous lakes, and often during the long +nights of the winter hundreds of people, young and old, will gather +at an early hour--it gets dark at four o'clock in the afternoon--and +spend the entire night skating by moonlight. A big fire is built in +some convenient place for the crowd, and smaller fires by individual +parties, who bring luncheon with them and have a picnic in the snow +in the winter. In various parts of the country, national and +international skating contests are held, and winners in local +tournaments, both for speed and fancy skating, are sent to Stockholm +to contest for the grand prizes against the crack skaters of Norway, +Denmark, Russia, and northern Germany. + +But the national winter sport of all Scandinavia is skeeing--skimming +over the snow on snow-shoes. There is no more vigorous or exciting +exercise. In the country districts men and women alike are educated to +the use of snowshoes from childhood. As soon as boys and girls are +old enough to skate, they put on skees of a size appropriate to +their stature, and are quite as agile and daring as their elders. It +requires nerve, skill, and muscular strength to skee, and a person who +has never tried snow-shoes always finds it difficult to use them. It +is a sport to which people must be trained from childhood. A skilful +"skeer" can make a mile in two minutes. + +Ice yachting and sailing on skates are two of the oldest and most +popular national sports, and are practiced in both Sweden and Norway +by all classes. All the ice yachts and snow-shoes are home-made, and +in the country districts many of the skates.[p] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +There are seven hundred and fifty-one newspapers and periodicals in +Sweden, including fifty-two dailies. Stockholm has twelve dailies, +seven published in the morning and five in the evening, which is a +large number for a city of three hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, +and the wonder is how they all manage to exist. None of them is as +large as the ordinary dailies in the United States. It is the practice +of the Swedish editors to waste very little room in headlines, and +to condense as much as possible. They state facts without padding or +comment, and manage to bring the daily allowance of news within ten +or twelve columns. There is usually a continued story, three or four +articles of a literary character, a couple of columns of clippings and +miscellany, and the same amount of editorial. The balance of the paper +is given up to advertising, but with all that it is seldom necessary +to print more than four pages. The morning papers stick to the blanket +sheet. + +Most of the Stockholm papers have a good advertising patronage, which +runs to display at times. The Swedish business men have learned that +it pays to advertise. The rates are much lower than in the United +States. The ordinary want ad. costs from seven to ten cents, and for +display advertisements the rates run from two and one-half to twenty +cents a line, according to the location. In the semi-weekly edition +of _Aftonbladet_, which is considered the best advertising medium +in Sweden on account of its large circulation and superior class of +readers, display ads. in preferred places cost about twenty-eight +cents a line. + +The subscription price corresponds. You can have any one of the +evening papers delivered at your house for $3 a year, and the highest +rate for the morning dailies is $5 a year. It is worth while to know +that postmasters in Sweden will receive subscriptions for newspapers +published in any part of the world. A small fee is exacted to cover +the amount of postage and the stationery required in forwarding the +subscription. + +The father of cheap newspapers in Sweden is Anders Jeurling, the +publisher of _Stockholm-Tidningen_ and _Hyvad Nytt i Dag_, who started +the first-named journal about twelve years ago and sold it on the +street for two _oere_, which is about one-half cent. Now the price of +the former is four _oere_, about one cent, and of the latter a half +cent. The former paper has the largest circulation in the city of +Stockholm, its ordinary edition reaching about one hundred thousand +copies, but _Aftonbladet_ exceeds it in the country. Mr. Jeurling +has the reputation of being the ablest publisher in Sweden, and is a +better business man than the editor. He has made a fortune out of +his papers on the theory that the people care more for news than +for politics. Mr. Adolph Hallgren is the editor-in-chief of +_Stockholms-Tidningen_, and the managing editor is Mr. F. Zethraens, +who studied journalism in the office of the Chicago _Record-Herald_. + +The official paper of the Swedish government is _Post och Inriches +Tidning_, which was founded as far back as 1645, and is one of the +oldest periodicals in the world. For more than a century it has been +published under the auspices of the Swedish Academy, an organization +of eighteen of the most learned scholars and philosophers in the +kingdom. The editor is Dr. J.A. Spilhammar, a very learned gentleman, +who, on account of his position, is naturally conservative and +discreet in all his utterances. + +_Aftonbladet_, a liberal evening paper, to which I have already +alluded, has the greatest circulation in Sweden, the daily edition +varying from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred and sixty +thousand copies, and it is one of the most influential forces in the +kingdom. The editor, Harald Sohlman, is regarded is an able writer and +shrewd business man. He is also editor and publisher of _Dagen_, a +morning paper, liberal in politics, which has a circulation of +about forty thousand copies, and is sold at three _oere_--about +three-quarters of a cent. _Aftonbladet's_ semi-weekly edition goes +into every corner of the kingdom, has a high literary standard, +contains correspondence from all the European capitals, and has a +special department devoted to news concerning the Swedes and Swedish +affairs in America. + +The most conservative of all Swedish papers is _Nya Dagligt +Allehanda_, edited by Dr. J.A. Bjorklund. Its circulation is confined +almost exclusively to the nobility and wealthier classes, and is said +to be more loyal to the government than royalty itself. + +_Vart Land_, another conservative paper, edited by Professor Gustaf +Torelius, an eminent author and scholar, is an organ of the Swedish +state church, and on that account is taken by every Lutheran +clergyman and active layman in the kingdom. It contains the official +announcement of the minister of religion and the archbishop, and is +especially given to news of an ecclesiastical character. Its most +prominent writer is Dr. C.D. af Wirsen, one of "the immortal eighteen" +of the Swedish Academy and a lyric poet of reputation. + +_Svenska Morgonbladet_, another religious daily, opposes _Vart Land_, +and represents the dissenters from the established church. Its +circulation, according to its sarcastic competitors, "is limited to +those who have been saved." Its most eminent contributor and patron +is Dr. Peter Paul Waldenstroem, founder and leader of the Free Lutheran +Church, "the Swedish Moody." Scarcely a week passes without an article +from his pen in _Morgonbladet_, which gives that paper its standing +among Free Lutherans. + +_Dagbladet_ is the only paper in Stockholm which is issued twice a +day, and it has also a Sunday edition. It styles itself in politics +a "moderate," but is more popular among the conservatives than the +liberals. Having the city printing, it is not inclined to quarrel with +its bread and butter. + +_Dagens Nyheter_, a liberal morning paper, made a fortune for Rudolph +Wall, its founder, who died a millionaire. It is considered one of the +most profitable newspaper properties in Europe. It sells for a cent +and a quarter, and has a circulation of about thirty thousand. + +The Stockholm paper which imitates the American press most closely +is _Svenska Dagbladet_, ably edited by Helmer Key, a doctor of +philosophy, and C.G. Tengwall, who is regarded as one of the best +all-around newspaper men in Sweden. It has the best class of +contributors of any of the Swedish papers in a literary way, including +Professor Oscar Levertin, Verner von Heidenstam, the poet, Tor +Hedberg, an art and literary critic, and Ellen Key, the authoress, +and the most influential woman in Sweden. The paper has a large +circulation among the thinking people of the country, and exercises a +wide influence. + +The official organ of the Royal Yacht Club, the Royal Jockey Club, +and all representative Swedish sport clubs, is the _Ny Tidning foer +Idrott_, which is owned by Count Clarence von Rosen, one of the +grandsons of the late Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, of Philadelphia. The +count, himself the finest rider in the Swedish army, edits the horse +news, while Colonel Victor Balck, the father of modern Swedish sports, +and Alex. Lindman are the editors. _Ny Tidning foer Idrott_ has a +regular correspondent in America. Hjalmar Branting, leader of the +socialists in Sweden and a member of the second chamber of parliament, +is editor of _Social Demokraten_, the organ of his party. Although +a man of aristocratic origin, he has cast his lot with the laboring +classes. He is a man of great force of character, an able writer, an +eloquent speaker, and is generally respected even by those who can not +approve his views. The circulation of his paper is almost exclusively +confined to the laboring classes. + +The compensation of newspaper men in Sweden is much less than in +the United States. The highest salary paid to an editor-in-chief is +$4,000, while the lowest for that position is about $1,500. Managing +editors are paid from $1,200 to $2,000 a year, and ordinary reporters +from $300 to $750 a year. Contributors of fame receive special rates. +The price for news items is two and one-half cents a line. Space +writers seem to be paid more in proportion than the regular members of +the staff, but the difference is more apparent than real, because +of the tendency to condensation. Articles in the Swedish papers are +seldom more than half a column long. + +Stockholm has several comic papers, even more in proportion to +population than we have in the United States. The most prominent are +_Strix, Puck, Soendags-Nisse, Kasper_ and _Nya Nisse_. They are small +and comparatively insignificant, and sell for two and one-half cents +a copy. They satirize politicians with good humor, and their cartoons +are based upon current events. There are several literary weeklies, +monthlies, and other periodicals, for Swedes are great readers and, +unlike the Americans, have not lost their taste for poetry. A poet +enjoys a much higher position and larger income from his writings in +Sweden than at home. + +There is a Press Club in Stockholm with four hundred and forty +members, of whom twenty-two are women. In 1901 the club arranged +"a week of festivals," including military tournaments, public +entertainments and a fair, and closed with a masquerade ball at the +Royal Opera House to raise funds for a building. It was a great +success. King Oscar accepted an invitation, and enjoyed himself very +much among his "colleagues," as he called them. The king was always +considerate to newspaper men. He appreciated the purpose and +understood the requirements of reporters, and never failed to assist +them whenever he was able to do so. Hence he was very popular among +them, and they reciprocated by showing their appreciation in every +possible way. The old king once said to Hjalmar Branting, the +socialist editor: + +"We have different opinions, Branting, but we are both working for the +welfare of our country." + +In 1897, during the international congress of the press at Stockholm, +the king gave the editors a banquet at the Royal Castle at +Drottningholm, and mingled among them as "one of yourselves." He also +proposed a toast in most complimentary language. + +Oscar II made many speeches, and upon occasions of great formality he +used manuscript, but generally spoke without notes, preparing himself +in advance by study and reflection. When he spoke from manuscript, +he invariably furnished copies to the press, and was never known to +request that part of his speech be suppressed. + +Reporters are invariably admitted to state ceremonials. There is very +little secrecy about the Stockholm court, and intrigue is entirely +unknown in Swedish politics. There are no mysteries in the council +chamber and no skeletons in the royal closet. Hence the doors are +open, and the reporters can come and go as they please. As a natural +consequence comparatively little attention is paid to affairs at the +palace. There is an announcement every morning of the movements of the +king and the royal family and occurrences of public interest, but with +very little detail, and the newspapers depend upon the officials to +furnish the information voluntarily. Reporters are seldom sent to the +palace unless some special inquiry is necessary. + +The story is told that once when Oscar II went to Gothenburg to attend +a dedication or opening of something or other, where he was expected +to make a speech, he was intercepted at the railway station by an +enterprising reporter who wanted a copy of his speech. The paper was +to be published that afternoon, and there would be no time for a +stenographer to write out his notes afterward. The king greeted him +pleasantly and explained that he had no manuscript; that he intended +to speak without notes. The reporter was very much dissappointed, +and confided to the king that he was a new man and that his future +standing with his employer might be seriously affected if he failed +to get the speech. King Oscar responded sympathetically, invited the +reporter to get into his carriage, and while they were driving to the +hotel, gave a brief synopsis of what he expected to say. + +Newspapers in Norway are not so good an investment; in fact, none of +them may be considered financial ventures. As a rule, they have to be +assisted by the government or by political clubs in order to survive. +Their subscription lists are limited, the largest circulation in +Norway not exceeding fifteen thousand and few publications print more +than five thousand copies, while advertising pays not more than ten or +twelve cents a line at top prices in the most expensive papers. + +An ordinary newspaper reporter in Norway receives a salary of about +$5 a week, while the most competent editors are satisfied with $20 or +$25. Norway was the last of the European countries, except Turkey, +to adopt the art of printing, notwithstanding its early famous +literature, but to-day has four hundred and twenty-nine newspapers +and periodicals, an average of one to every five thousand of the +population; one hundred and ninety-six are political newspapers; +eighty-eight are literary weeklies, and one hundred and forty-five +are reviews, magazines, professional, religious, and scientific +publications. + +_Norske Intelligens-Seddeler_ is one of the oldest papers in the +world, having been founded in Christiania in 1763, and has been the +organ of the government from the beginning. For a century and a +quarter its contents were limited to advertisements and official +announcements. It was a sort of a government gazette, but when Hjalmar +Loken took hold of it, ten or twelve years ago, he changed its +character entirely and has turned it into a good modern newspaper +and a vigorous advocate of government measures, exercising a wide +influence through its columns. + +Monopolies were formerly granted to newspapers in Norway. The +government allowed only one paper to be published within the limits +of an ecclesiastical diocese, or at least only the favored paper was +permitted to receive money for the publication of advertisements. +Competitors resorted to all sorts of ingenious methods, by issuing +pamphlets and 'handbills and such things, that a free discussion of +political issues might be had, but it was not until 1786 that the last +monopoly, which happened to be in the city of Trondhjem, expired. In +1814 freedom of the press was granted by the new constitution, and +from that date the political agitators have found expression in +various publications, and partisanship has often risen to a bitterness +that would not be permitted in other countries. The Norway newspapers +have not known a censor since that date. + +_Morganbladet_, the first daily, was established in 1819, and has +played an important part in the political affairs of the. country. It +is still very influential, being edited with great ability by Mr. +Nils Vogt. Bjoernson, the author, has been connected with two +newspapers--the first, _Krydseren_, a literary weekly which survived +only a few years, and _Verdens Gang_, which has been published since +1868 as the leading organ of the liberal party. Among its editors and +contributors have been other distinguished men, poets, dramatists, and +novelists. Nearly every writer of distinction has contributed to its +columns, for most of the thinking men of Norway are liberals. Since +1878 Mr. Thommessen has been the editor, and he was the first to +modernize the Norwegian press by printing cable dispatches, cartoons, +caricatures and other illustrations. + +_Dagbladet_ is also a widely read and influential daily, under the +editorship of Mr. A.T. Omholt, and has a large circulation. Its list +of contributors has included some of the most distinguished writers +of the country. There are numerous other dailies of more or less +influence and circulation, and all the trades and occupations have +organs, as in the United States. In every town and almost every +village, a weekly or semi-weekly is published, usually by the liberal +party, and sometimes by other parties. Even Hammerfest, the most +northerly town in the world, which lies in the Arctic Circle, has two +enterprising weeklies.[q] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS + + +If the dwellers of the deep fjords, the somber fir-clad mountain +valleys, and the bleak ice-fields do not "open their lips so readily +for song" as the people of southern lands where the sun creates an +eternal spring, it is not because they are without lyric power, as is +clearly apparent from the rich and varied folk-songs and the splendid +creative work of Edvard Grieg. + +The Norwegian folk-songs, spring dances, hallings, and wedding +marches, have been well characterized as the outpourings of the inner +lives of the common people, the expression of their dauntless energy, +their struggles and aspirations. The folk-song of Norway, more than in +any other land, embodies the character and expresses the tendencies of +Viking life, ancient and modern. It bears the unmistakable marks +of weal and woe of Norse life, the strongly marked and regularly +introduced rythms of the developed and developing national character. +And while an undercurrent of melancholy runs through most of it, it +is, after all, the faithful interpreter of the lives of isolated and +solitary occupants of fjords, fjelds, and dalen. + +The folk-songs of Norway are singularly typical of the country and its +inhabitants. Some "seem to take us into the dense forest among mocking +echoes from, the life outside; others show us the trolls tobogganing +down the highest peaks of Norway; in some we feel human souls hovering +over reefs; in others, memories of the old sun-lit land flit before +us; but in none do we meet with sentimentalism, despondency, or +disconsolateness." But with their weird and minor strains, and their +odd jumps from low tones to high, on first acquaintance they strike +the hearer as strange and elusive. + +Some of the epic songs, as Telemarken, are of great antiquity. But it +was not until the last century that Norse tone artists discovered the +wealth that had long been cherished by the peasants of the fjords and +mountain valleys. Lindeman (1812-1887) was the first to recognize +the musical significance of Norwegian folk-songs. He collected many +hundred national ballads, hymns and dances, and called attention +to their richness and variety as thematic material for a school of +national music. In Lindeman's collection will be found songs which +tell of the heroic exploits of old Norse vikings, kings, and earls +of the heathen days of Thor and Odin, together with lyrics, deep and +ardent, which sing of the loves, the joys, and the sorrows of the +humbler Christian folks. + +The Hardanger violin, the lur and the langeleik have played a leading +role in the development of Norwegian folk-songs and dances. The +Hardanger instrument is more arched than the ordinary violin; there +are four strings over the finger-board and four underneath, the latter +of fine steel wire, acting as sympathetic strings. The men of the +Hardanger fjord have long been distinguished for the workmanship and +tonal qualities of their violins, and with them the peasants have +improvised the rich and varied impressions of nature which we find +embodied in folk-songs. The lur is a long wooden instrument, of the +trumpet order, and is usually made of birch bark. It is much used in +the mountains. The langeleik, or Norwegian harp, is a long, narrow, +box-like stringed instrument, something of the character of the +ancient zither. It has seven strings and sound holes, but its tone is +weak and monotonous. + +The national dances of Norway have bold rythms which at once arrest +the attention. Perhaps the most characteristic is the hailing, a solo +dance in two-four time. It is usually danced by young men in country +barns, and its most striking feature is the kicking of the beam of +the ceiling. In the story of Nils the fiddler, in his novel _Arne_, +Bjoernson has given this account of the hailing: "The music struck up, +a deep silence followed, and he began. He dashed forward along the +floor, his body inclining to one side, half aslant, keeping time to +the fiddle. Crouching down, he balanced himself, now on one foot, now +on the other, flung his legs crosswise under him, sprang up again, +and then moved on aslant as before. The fiddle was handled by skilful +fingers, and more and more fire was thrown into the tune. Nils threw +his head back and suddenly his boot heel touched the beam." + +The spring dance is less vigorous, but more graceful than the hailing. +It is a round dance in three-quarter time, in which two persons, or +groups of two, participate. It is danced with a light, springing step, +and has been compared with the mazurka by Liszt. Like the hailing, +however, it is markedly individual in its pleasing combinations of +tones. Forestier says of the spring dance of Norway: "There is a +freshness, a sparkle, and energy, a graceful life about it that is +invigorating." + +If Lindeman was the first to collect folk-songs and dances in Norway, +Ole Bull (1810-1880) was the first to popularize them. He was, as +Grieg once declared, a pathbreaker for the young national music. +At the early age of nineteen he sallied forth with his fiddle and +wherever he appeared in Europe and America he played the folk-music +and national dances of Norway. The favor which he found encouraged his +countrymen. His brilliant career glorified musical Norway; gave it +confidence to assert itself, and serve as the inspiration of a long +list of creative tone artists--Kjerulf, Nordraak, Grieg, Svendsen, +Winter-Hjelm, Sindling, and Behrens--to write out and arrange for +voice and modern instruments the music that had so long been preserved +in the memories of the people. + +The best art-made music of Norway has been built upon the folk-songs +and dances of the common people. Halfdan Kjerulf (1815-1868) was the +first serious composer of the new art school. He lived during the +trying period of Norwegian storm and stress, but he wrote something +like a hundred compositions, and in his songs is found "the bud of +national feeling which has burst into full bloom in Grieg." + +Richard Nordraak (1842-1866), during his brief career, set to music +several of Bjoernson's plays, and composed some strong pianoforte +pieces and songs. "He was," says Siewers, "a man with a bold fresh way +of looking at things, strong artistic interests, an untiring love of +work, and deep national feeling. He had decided influence upon his +friend Grieg's artistic views, and he is the connecting link between +Kjerulf and Grieg in the chain of Norwegian musical art." + +Otto Winter-Hjelm, who, with Grieg, attempted to establish a +conservatory of music at Christiania after their return from Germany +in the sixties, contributed much to the national art of Norway by his +excellent arrangements of hallings and spring dances for piano and +violin. Thomas Thellefsen (1823-1874), a pupil and friend of Chopin, +was distinguished as a national composer as well as a pianist, and +Carl F.E. Neupert (1842-1888), who lived in America six years, did +much by his concert tours and teaching to dignify Norse music. + +Johan Severin Svendsen, while a Norwegian by birth and training, has +expatriated himself by his long residence in Denmark. So far as his +compositions have national flavor they are German. Johan Selmer, while +a prolific composer, will probably be best remembered as a conductor. +Christian Sinding, after Grieg, is the best-known Norwegian composer. +His productions range from symphonies and symphonic poems through +chamber music to romances. He is credited with a wide range of musical +ideas, deep artistic earnestness, and bold power of expression; but +his compositions in the larger forms are thought unduly noisy and +restless. + +Two women who have helped to make the music history of Norway are +Agatha Backer-Groendahl and Catharinus Elling. Mrs. Backer-Groendahl was +a pupil, first of Kjerulf and Winter-Hjelm, and later of Kullak, +Hans von Buelow, and Liszt. Many of her songs and instrumental pieces +display fine artistic feeling and musical scholarship of no mean +order. Catharinus Elling has ventured into the larger fields of +music-forms, and has produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, as +well as chamber music and songs. Her music drama, "The Cossacks," is +her most ambitious work. + +Says Henry T. Finck, an able American music critic: "When I had +revelled in the music of Chopin and Wagner, Liszt and Franz, to the +point of intoxication, I fancied that the last word had been said in +harmony and melody; when lo! I came across the songs and piano pieces +of Grieg, and once more found myself moved to tears of delight." +Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) undoubtedly occupies the foremost place among +Norwegian composers. He is the highest representative of the Norse +element in music, "the great beating heart of Norwegian musical art." + +Grieg's _genere_ pieces represent the pearls of his compositions. The +arrangements of folk-songs and dances for the piano in "Pictures of +Popular Life" (opus 19) are characterized by consummate lyric skill; +and Ole Bull once declared that they were the finest representations +of Norse life that had been attempted. Grieg wrote one hundred and +twenty-five songs, most of which take high rank. Finck is of the +opinion that fewer fall below par than in the list of any other song +writer. He adds: "I myself believe that Grieg in some of his songs +equals Schubert at his best; indeed, I think he should and will be +ranked ultimately as second to Schubert only; but it is in his later +works that he rises to such heights, not in the earliest ones, in +which he was still a little afraid to rely on his wings." + +When it is recalled that Grieg was a pianist of exceptional merit, +the large place occupied by pianoforte pieces--twenty-eight of the +seventy-three opus numbers--it is easily understood. Grieg's piano +pieces are brief, but they are veritable gems. The Jumbo idea in music +still lingers with minor professionals. They shrug their shoulders, +remarks Finck, and exclaim: "Yes, that humming bird _is_ very +beautiful, but of course it can not be ranked as high as an ostrich. +Don't you see how small it is?" + +Grieg composed nine works for the orchestra; and here, as in lyric +art-songs and pianoforte pieces, he reveals himself as a consummate +master in painting delicate yet glowing colors. The music which he set +to Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ brought him the largest measure of fame as an +orchestral composer. Indeed it was more cordially received than the +drama, as is indicated by this criticism by Hanslick: "Perhaps in a +few years Ibsen's _Peer Gynt_ will live only through Grieg's music, +which, to my taste, has more poetry and artistic intelligence in every +number than the whole five-act monstrosity of Ibsen." Among other +notable orchestral and chamber music numbers may be mentioned a +setting of Bjoernson's _Sigurd the Crusader, Bergliot_, based upon +the sagas of the Norse kings, a suite composed for the two hundredth +anniversary of Ludwig Holberg, and a number of choice chamber music +pieces. + +It may be remarked that Edvard Grieg has not only given Norway a +conspicuous place on the map of musical Europe, but that he has +influenced unmistakably composers of the rank of Tschaikowsky, +the Russian; Paderewski, the Pole; Eugene d'Albert, the +Scotch-English-German; Richard Strauss, the German; and our own +lamented Edward McDowell, the American. "From every point of view that +interests the music lover," says Mr. Finck, "Grieg is one of the most +original geniuses in the musical world of the present or past. His +songs are a mine of melody, surpassed in wealth only by Schubert's, +and that only because there are more of Schubert's. In originality of +harmony and modulation he has only six equals: Bach, Schubert, Chopin, +Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt. In rythmic invention and combination +he is inexhaustible, and as orchestrator he ranks among the most +fascinating. To speak of such a man--seven-eighths of whose works are +still music of the future--as a writer of 'dialect,' is surely the +acme of unintelligence. If Grieg did stick to the fjord and never got +out of it, even his German critics ought to thank heaven for it. Grieg +in a fjord is much more picturesque and more interesting to the world +than he would have been in the Elbe or the Spree." + +While Norway has neither permanent opera nor permanent orchestras, she +has produced concert virtuosi of a high order. Ole Bull, the so-called +violin-king, already referred to, was unsurpassed in his day. Among +piano artists may be named the talented composer, Mrs. Agatha +Backer-Groendahl, Thomas Thellefsen, Edmund Neupert, Martin Knutzen, +and the great composer Edvard Grieg. The flutist Olaf Svenssen and the +vocal artists Thorvald Lammers, Ingeborg Oselio-Bjoernson, and Ellen +Gulbranson, have also brought distinction to their country. + +The male choirs of Norway have always played a leading role in the +music life of the nation. The students', merchants', and artists' +singing clubs at Christiania during the past seventy-five years, have +had artistic as well as patriotic aims. Festivals, after the +pattern of those held at Cincinnati, and Worcester and Springfield, +Massachusetts, have also contributed toward the development of +national music. The most eminent choral leaders in Norway have been +Johan D. Behrens, F.A. Reissinger, and O.A. Groendahl. The Norwegian +Musical Union has also been active in the development of tonal ideals. +Its aim has been to provide chamber concerts of a high order. Grieg +and Svendsen were its first conductors. They were succeded by Ole +Olsen, who combined the talents of orchestral leader with those of +composer, chorister, and band leader. For many years he directed the +Second Brigade Band at Christiania with the rank of captain. Johan +Selmer, also a composer, succeeded Olsen in the direction of the +Musical Union; and Iver Holier, a composer of symphonies, orchestral +suites, chamber music, and vocal scores, followed Selmer. Other +orchestral leaders are Johan Hennum, Per Winge, and Johan Halvorsen, + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +No volume dealing with Scandinavian life would be complete without +some tribute to the women of Norway and Sweden. They are magnificent +specimens wherever you may find them--in the kitchen, the factory, the +harvest field, the hospital, the schoolhouse, the drawing-room, or the +palace. They are good mothers, good daughters, and good wives, and +while their devotion to their sons, husbands, and fathers is not +surpassed by their sisters in any land, they are at the same time +independent, self-reliant, and progressive to a degree that offers a +striking contrast to the statue of the representatives of their sex in +other countries of Europe. They give their best talents, affections, +and strength; they ask the same in return. There is no country, not +even the United States, where women exercise a wider influence, both +direct and indirect in the home, the school, the church, upon the +platform, and in the press. There is no other country in which the +professions, trades, and other occupations are so free to them, or in +which their opportunities are utilized with greater zeal, ability, +and success. They work side by side with men upon the farms, in the +factories, in mercantile establishments, counting-houses, government +offices, and in art, science, and literature, and are equally capable, +although, as in other lands, their pay for the same labor and equal +results is less. + +From the time that Margit Larsson saved Gustavus Vasa from capture by +the Danish soldiers by hiding him in her cellar, the women of Sweden +have exercised a powerful influence in politics, although it has been +indirect, and the ablest and most progressive to-day prefer that their +present political condition shall remain unchanged. They do not think +it wise to extend the franchise any farther for fear that universal +suffrage will result in the corruption of national politics, which is +now comparatively pure. They prefer the present restrictions, which +give the ballot only to women who pay taxes, because it deprives +ignorant and incompetent women of a voice in the government, and +avoids the dangers that often attend the participation of the masses +in elections. They prefer to direct their efforts to securing +an increase in women's wages, so that they may receive the same +compensation as men for the same work, and hope to accomplish +practical results by educating public sentiment and bringing moral +pressure upon the employing class. + +Speaking on this subject, an eminent Swedish writer says: "In the +energetic campaign for the betterment of the condition of women, the +Swedes have taken the first place among European nations. If one seeks +the cause of it, it is found in part in the fact that in Sweden, since +the remotest time, women have enjoyed a respect greater than in most +of the other countries, but without doubt it is also due to the +superiority of the intellect, judgment, and wisdom of Swedish women, +and in later years to the numerical excess of women in our population. +This has made the means of existence to single women a practical +problem. During the present generation a great change has worked +itself out in this sense, that the field of activity for women has +been greatly enlarged. The activity of women, who at other times found +ample domain in the multitude of occupations in the domestic life, has +become less important in that respect and has grown in importance in +the labor and occupations that in other countries are left exclusively +to men." + +The advancement of women in Sweden was greatly encouraged and assisted +by the quiet influence of the late Queen Sophia and her sister-in-law, +the late Princess Eugenie, the sister of Oscar II. The queen, +always an intelligent, progressive Christian woman, with a profound +consciousness of the responsibility attached to her official rank +and influence, was a women's woman, and was habitually engaged in +promoting movements for the benefit of her sex, and with due respect +to the proprieties of her position. She never lost an opportunity to +assist and encourage all who were engaged in advancing the physical, +moral, and social well-being of the women of Sweden and Norway. + +The association of Swedish Women, which is a branch of the +International Council of Women, was organized in 1896, and has over +twelve thousand members, its object being to promote the welfare of +the sex, to educate them on all questions concerning their legal and +social rights, to enlarge their sphere of activity, and to assist +those who are thrown upon their own resources to earn their living. +The active, practical work is done by subordinate societies devoted to +particular interests, as, for example, the Fredrika Bremer Association +manages a sick relief fund for wage earners, assists students in the +universities and technical schools, finds employment for those who +need it, conducts schools for trained nurses, keeps a register of +women who are capable of performing various duties, and is continually +engaged in works of benevolence. + +Another organization, known as the Swedish Woman's Association for the +Defense of Their Country, is purely patriotic, and was organized in +1884 in connection with the movement for the increase of the army, for +the purpose of educating public opinion. It has forty affiliated local +committees carrying on a propaganda of patriotism. There is a women's +club at Stockholm whose special purpose is to protect working women +from persecution by their employers and others, to educate them +concerning legal rights of women wage-earners, and to furnish legal +advice and counsel to those who are in trouble. The seamstresses have +an alliance, and the shop girls are organized into a union. + +The advancement of women commenced under the leadership and +inspiration of the late Fredrika Bremer, the famous authoress, who is +well known in the United States because of her frequent visits here +and her literary works. She was the pioneer of the movement to improve +the condition of women morally, socially, and intellectually. + +Sweden was the first country to recognize the property rights of +women. This was due to an event that occurred a thousand years ago. +While the king and his army were engaged in foreign wars, the Danes +invaded the province of Smoland, when the women armed themselves to +defend their homes. They were led to battle by the beautiful Blenda, +who defeated the invaders and drove them from the country. In +recognition of their heroism the king proclaimed a decree granting the +women of the country property rights, and it has been since recognized +as the law of the land. + +All the professions and occupations common to men are open to the +women of Sweden, and in 1862 suffrage was granted women in municipal +affairs. They are permitted to vote at the election of delegates to +conventions which choose members of the first chamber of parliament. +These rights can now be exercised by all women who pay taxes. In +Stockholm, however, a woman voter must be out of debt and the lawful +owner of the property upon which the taxes are paid. + +The members of the first chamber of the parliament, which corresponds +to the United States Senate, are elected by conventions of delegates +chosen at popular elections in the country and in cities by the +members of the municipal councils. Therefore, as women have the right +to vote for members of the municipal council and for delegates to +these conventions, they participate indirectly in the election of the +Swedish Senate; but comparatively few exercise the privilege. + +Women of advanced views, aided by the members of the socialist party, +are now seeking universal suffrage and a law making them eligible to +parliament and to membership in the provincial and municipal councils. +This proposition has not met with much favor, and the only time it has +ever been brought to vote it was unanimously defeated in the first +chamber of parliament and in the second by fifty-three nays to +forty-four yeas, less than one-half the members present voting. + +The first woman to practice medicine in Sweden was Caroline +Widerstrom, who is still living and occupies a prominent position in +Stockholm. Her practice is as large and as profitable as that enjoyed +by most of the men physicians. + +The foremost woman in Sweden to-day in intellect and influence, in +popular esteem and in public movements, and the recognized successor +of Fredrika Bremer, is Ellen Key, an authoress and editorial writer +upon _Svenska Dagbladet_. + +In the system of local government in Norway, women now participate +upon an equal basis with men. The movements which culminated May, +1901, had been going on since 1884 under the leadership of Miss Gina +Krog, who may be called the Susan B. Anthony of Norway. In the latter +year she organized a woman's suffrage association, delivered a series +of lectures on the subject, and established a newspaper called the +_Nyloende_--meaning "the new ground." Miss Krog is something over +fifty years of age, of fine education and excellent family, and has +been noted for her activity in literary and charitable affairs. She +has been a teacher, a writer for the press, a director of charitable +institutions, and has lived a life of great activity and usefulness, +devoting her own means with generosity to the cause which she has +undertaken. + +The suffrage movement at first attracted little attention, but public +sentiment grew slowly, and in 1890 Miss Krog succeeded in having a +bill brought into the storthing giving women the right to vote in +school matters. It received forty-four out of a total of one hundred +and fourteen votes. The liberal party then made it an issue, and two +years after the same bill received a majority in the storthing, but +required two-thirds of the votes to pass. At that time a property +qualification was required of men. The income tax returns were used +as registration lists at the polls, and none but those who paid on +incomes of $84 in the country and $92 in the city were allowed to +vote. + +The leaders of the movement for universal suffrage for men united +forces with the women suffragists, and in 1898 accomplished their +purpose. The women might have succeeded the same year but for an +unfortunate division in their ranks. One faction wanted to limit +suffrage to unmarried women who own property and deprive married +women and dependent daughters and wage-earners of the ballot. But +a compromise was finally arranged, the two factions were brought +together, and in May, 1901, succeeded in accomplishing the purpose for +which they have been engaged. They received the support of a large +portion of the conservative members of the storthing as well as the +unanimous support of the liberal and radical parties, only twenty +votes being cast in the negative. + +The women of Norway do not propose to rest on their present success. +Miss Krog is continuing the fight to secure the right of participation +in national as well as municipal affairs, and believes that the women +will have all the political rights of men in Norway within the next +few years. She insists that public sentiment favors the cause and that +parliament will take a step further soon and amend the law by making +it broader and more general. Universities are open to women on an +equal basis with men, and many women are taking advantage of the +opportunity to secure the higher education, and if ever, like the +women of Finland, they are allowed to sit in parliament, they will be +amply fitted to do so. + +Under the present law only women who pay a certain amount of taxes +can vote. An unmarried woman living at home is deprived of the ballot +unless she has an income of her own; a married woman can not vote +unless either she or her husband has a stated income. Thus many of +the most intelligent and progressive women of the country are still +outside the suffrage line. Everybody in Norway who earns a dollar pays +an income tax. It may be very small, but a certain percentage of each +day's wages of every peasant goes into the government treasury. Every +person in Norway declares that it is the least objectionable means of +raising money for national and municipal expenses that has ever been +tried there, and that it stimulates the patriotism of the people, who +realize that they are contributors to the support of their government, +and should take an active interest in its management. + +Many of the wisest men in Norway consider the universal suffrage +amendment to the constitution, which was passed in 1898, a mistake +for this reason--because it removes a powerful incentive for men +to accumulate money. The Norwegian has a large and natural fund of +patriotism. He loves his country like the Swiss. Nowhere else do men +and women have to work so hard for a living, but life is the more +precious the harder one has to labor to sustain it. We value things +according to their cost. In the tropics, where no man need work, human +life is held cheaply. Men die and kill without compunction; they +excite revolutions and overthrow governments, sparing neither +themselves nor others. But in Norway, as in Switzerland, where it is +a ceaseless struggle from the cradle to the grave, there is more +national pride and patriotism than in any land, and the privilege of +living and working and suffering is esteemed as the most precious +inheritance of man. + +Women in America who are working for the ballot have only to go to +Norway to find that having a voice in the making of the laws of the +country does not remove every obstacle to the progress of the sex; +that there are still many injustices, and that the women work as hard +as the men. The Norwegian woman usually carries a little more than her +share of the load, and can support a husband without difficulty if +he insists upon it. There is nothing so admirable in this world as +a useful woman, particularly if she is married to a man inclined to +leisure and loafing. In Norway and other countries of northern Europe +the ballad, "I Love to See My Dear Old Mother Work," is something more +than an affectionate sentiment. It has a practical significance, and +is frequently found in husbands as well as sons. + +Of all the labor that the women of Norway engage in, especially women +in the rural districts, is the occupation of caring for the _saeter_. +A _saeter_ is a summer ranch or dairy farm peculiar, to Norway--a +cabin among the pastures way up in the mountains, where the cattle are +driven during the summer months and butter and cheese are made. Almost +every large farmer has a _saeter_. When the spring field work at home +has been finished, the cattle are taken thither by the young women and +girls,--often twenty and sometimes forty miles away,--where they +stay during the summer and make butter and cheese, gather hay, knit +stockings, and embroider linen. The dwelling is usually a rude hut +with a single room, mud floor, an open fireplace without chimney, and +a few pieces of rough furniture. Sheds and pens surround the hut, and +there are patches of enclosed ground where hay is made and where the +younger members of the flock are protected. The cattle are called at +night by a horn made of birch bark. When blown lustily, it gives a +clear note not unlike the cornet, and the cattle invariably respond to +its sound. + +There is a good deal of romance about _saeter_ life in books, but I +should say that there is very little in actual experience. Many of the +charming fairy stories in Norwegian literature have their scenes in +those mountain dairies. The _saeter_ girls (_saeterjenter_ they are +called), have a peculiar and melodious cattle call, known as +the _Huldrelok_, which is said to have been inherited from the +_Huldre-folk_, a species of fairy that are very pretty, but +unfortunately have tails. Usually a young farmer falls in love with +one of the girls, and when he discovers that she has a tail, is so +shocked and disappointed that he throws himself over a precipice; or +perhaps the _Huldre-folk_ gobble him up and carry him off into the +mountains of the _Josteldalsbrae_ and keep him there, while the girl +he left behind him grieves herself to death because of his desertion. + +The dairy maids are supposed to have a peculiar costume, and +photographs are often seen of them arrayed in picturesque dress, but I +never saw them worn. In all the _saeters_ I visited the clothes worn +were very plain and ordinary, and seemed to have been selected for +wear and not for looks. + +We visited a _saeter_ one day and found two young people in charge, a +boy and a girl, neither of them over seventeen, we should judge from +appearances. Their herd consisted of fifteen cows, and they expected +to remain in that desolate country two or three months, making cheese +and butter. Our little _saeterjenta_ had the heart of a poet, although +her brother seemed stupid, and even liberal presents of money did not +wake him up or make him interesting. I do not suppose that this child +had ever been twenty miles from the humble cabin in which she was +born, but the wide, wide world had been opened to her through the +books she had studied at school. She could talk a little English, +and knew a good deal about the United States. She had a brother in +Minnesota, and many of the boys and girls in the neighborhood had gone +across the Atlantic and found homes on the saeterless prairies of our +Northwest. She would like to go herself, she said, but her mother +was old and feeble and the work of the farm fell upon her little +shoulders. Yet she was brave and contented. Her mind was clear, her +imagination active, and among her homely surroundings she had found +food for thought and an opportunity to give expression to the poetic +sentiments that inspired her. Each of her fifteen cows had a name. One +she called Moon Lady, because she often wanders away at night; another +the Crown Wearer, because of a peculiar tuft upon her head. She +addressed them all in terms of affection and talked to them, seeking +their sympathy, for, poor child, they and that stupid, tow-headed +_broder_ were her only companions. + +In the little _saeterjenta_ we have a type of the laboring peasant +women of Norway and Sweden; all willingly industrious and all +philosophically extracting some sweets out of the burdensome life they +must live, and that is why I say they deserve a tribute, whether in +the field or factory, the _saeter_, the common home, or the palace.[s] + + + + +AUTHORSHIP OF CHAPTERS + + +_a_ and _b_, Sigvart Soerensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_c_, Nillson's _Sweden_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_d_, Sigvart Soerensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_e_, Sigvart Soerensen's _Norway_ (P.F. Collier, New York). + +_f_, O.G. Von Herdenstam's _Swedish Life in Town and Country_. + +_g, h_, and _i_, William E. Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, _and Sweden_ +(Saafield Pub. Co., Akron, Ohio). + +_j_, Mary Bronson Hartt, in _Outlook_. + +_k_, Swedish American in _Review of Reviews_. + +_l_, Wm. E. Curtis' _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_, and W.S. Monroe's +_In Viking Land_ (L.C. Page & Co., Boston). + +_m_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_. + +_n_, Monroe and Curtis in above-mentioned books. + +_o_, O.G. Van Herdenstam in _Swedish Life in Town and Country_. + +_p_ and _q_, Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_. + +_r_, W.S. Monroe's _In Viking Land_. + +_s_, Wm. Eleroy Curtis's _Denmark, Norway, and Sweden_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Norwegian Life, by Ethlyn T. Clough + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORWEGIAN LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 10543.txt or 10543.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/4/10543/ + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock,Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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