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diff --git a/42132.txt b/42132.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a915fbf..0000000 --- a/42132.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6753 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Through Scandinavia to Moscow, by William -Seymour Edwards - - -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: Through Scandinavia to Moscow - - -Author: William Seymour Edwards - - - -Release Date: February 19, 2013 [eBook #42132] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH SCANDINAVIA TO MOSCOW*** - - -E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Matthew Wheaton, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images -generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries -(http://archive.org/details/americana) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 42132-h.htm or 42132-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42132/42132-h/42132-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42132/42132-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive/American Libraries. See - http://archive.org/details/throughscandinav00edwa - - - - - -[Illustration: THE AUTHOR.] - - -THROUGH SCANDINAVIA TO MOSCOW - -With Many Illustrations and Maps - -by - -WILLIAM SEYMOUR EDWARDS - -Author of "In to the Yukon," etc. - - - - - - - -Cincinnati -The Robert Clarke Co. -1906 - -Copyright 1906, by -William Seymour Edwards - - - - - DEDICATION - - To my life-long chum, - my father, - these pages are affectionately dedicated. - - - - - -FOREWORD - - -These pages are made up of letters written during a little journey -through Scandinavia and into Russia as far as Moscow, some four years -ago, before the smashing of the Russians by the Japanese. They were -written to my father, and are necessarily intimate letters, in which I -have jotted down what I saw and felt as the moment moved me. The truth -is, I was on my honey-moon trip, and the world sang merrily to -me--even in sombre Russia. - -Afterward, some of these letters were published here and there; now -they are put together into this little book. I had my kodak with me -and have thus been able to add to the text some of the scenes my lens -made note of. - -It was my endeavor at the time, that the kindly circle who read the -letters should see as I saw, feel as I felt, and apprehend as I -apprehended; that they should share with me the delight of travel -through serene and industrious Denmark, among the grand and stupendous -_fjelds_ and _fjords_ of romantic Norway; should visit with me a -moment the Capital of once militant Sweden, and join me in the -excitement of a plunge into semi-barbarous Russia. The transition from -Scandinavia to Russia was sharp. I went from lands where the modern -spirit finds full expression, as seen in the splendid schools and -libraries of Denmark, in the democratic and Americanized atmosphere of -Norway, in the scientific and mechanical progressiveness of Sweden. -Entering Russia, I found myself amidst social and political -conditions, mediaeval and malevolent. The wanton luxury of the -enormously rich, the pinching poverty of the very poor, the political -and social exaltation of the very few, the ruthless suppression of the -many, here stared me in the face on every hand. The smoldering embers -of discontent, profound discontent, were even then apparent. In the -brief interval which has since elapsed, this smoldering discontent has -become the blazing conflagration of Revolution. Driven against his -will by inexorable fate, the Czar has at first convoked the Imperial -Douma and then, terrified by its growing aggressiveness, has summarily -decreed its death. Panic-struck by the apparition of popular liberty, -which his own act has called forth, he is now in sinister retreat -toward despotic reaction; the consternation of the unwilling -Bureaucracy, day by day increases; terror, abject terror, increasingly -haunts the splendid palaces of the Autocracy; and the inevitable and -irrepressible movement of the Russian people toward liberty and modern -order is begun. - -The symptoms of social and political ailment which then discovered -themselves to me are now apparent to all the world. And it is this -verification of the suggestions of these letters which may now, -perhaps, justify their publication. - - WILLIAM SEYMOUR EDWARDS. - Charleston-Kanawha, West Virginia, - September 1, 1906. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - I. London to Denmark Across the North Sea 1 - - II. Esbjerg--Across Jutland, Funen and Zealand, - the Little Belt and Big Belt to Copenhagen, - and Friends Met Along the Way 7 - - III. Copenhagen, a Quaint and Ancient City 15 - - IV. Elsinore and Kronborg--An Evening Dinner - Party 31 - - V. Across the Sund to Sweden and Incidents of - Travel to Kristiania 40 - - VI. A Day Upon the Rand Fjord--Along the - Etna Elv To Frydenlund--Ole Mon Our - Driver 51 - - VII. A Drive Along the Baegna Elv--the Aurdals - Vand and Many More to Skogstad 60 - - VIII. Over the Height of Land--A Wonderful Ride - Down the Laera Dal to the Sogne Fjord 68 - - IX. A Day Upon the Sogne Fjord 75 - - X. From Stalheim to Eida--The Waterfall of - Skjerve Fos--The Mighty Hardanger Fjord 80 - - XI. The Buarbrae and Folgefonden Glaciers--Cataracts - and Mountain Tarns--Odda to Horre 89 - - XII. Over the Lonely Haukeli Fjeld--Witches and - Pixies, and Maidens Milking Goats 96 - - XIII. Descending from the Fjelde--The Telemarken - Fjords--The Arctic Twilight 106 - - XIV. Kristiania to Stockholm--A Wedding Party--Differing - Norsk and Swede 118 - - XV. Stockholm the Venice of the North--Life and - Color of the Swedish Capital--Manners of - the People and their King 128 - - XVI. How We Entered Russia--The Passport System--Difficult - to Get Into Russia and More Difficult - to Get Out 136 - - XVII. St. Petersburg--The Great Wealth of the Few--The - Bitter Poverty of the Many--Conditions - Similar to Those Preceding the French - Revolution 148 - - XVIII. En Route to Moscow--Under Military Guard--Suspected - of Designs on Life of the Czar 158 - - XIX. Our Arrival at Moscow--Splendor and - Squalor--Enlightenment and Superstition--Russia - Asiatic Rather Than European 167 - - XX. The Splendid Pageant of the Russian Mass--The - Separateness of Russian Religious Feeling - From Modern Thought--Russia Mediaeval and Pagan 180 - - XXI. The First Snows--Moscow to Warsaw--Fat - Farm Lands and Frightful Poverty of the - Mujiks Who Own them and Till them--I Recover - My Passport 189 - - XXII. The Slav and the Jew--The Slav's Envy and - Jealousy of the Jew 201 - - XXIII. Across Germany and Holland to England--A - Hamburg Wein Stube--The "Simple Fisher-Folk" - of Maarken--Two Gulden at Den Haag 214 - - XXIV. Map of North Europe. - Map of Scandinavia and Baltic Russia, in profile. - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - OPPOSITE - PAGE - The Author Frontispiece - The Naero--Sogne Fjord 1 - The North Sea 3 - The Docks, Esbjerg 5 - Our Danish Railway Carriage 7 - My Instructor in Danish 10 - Our Danish Friends 12 - The Krystal Gade and Round Tower, Copenhagen 14 - The Oestergade 16 - The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen 17 - The Exchange, Copenhagen 19 - The Gammel Strand 23 - Along the Quays, Copenhagen 26 - An Ancient Moat, Now the Lovely Oersteds Park 30 - A Vista of the Sund 32 - Elsinore 33 - The Sund from Kronborg's Ramparts 35 - The Fishing Boats, Elsinore 37 - A Snap-shot for a Dime, Kronborg 39 - Kronborg 41 - Karl Johans Gade, Kristiania 42 - Vegetable Market, Kristiania 44 - Kristiania, A View of the City 46 - Our Norwegian Train 48 - Along the Etna Elv 50 - Hailing our Steamer, The Rand Fjord 51 - The Old Salt 53 - Ole Mon 55 - Feeding the Ponies, Tomlevolden 58 - Church of Vestre Slidre 58 - The Distant Snows 60 - The Baegna Elv 62 - The Granheims Vand 63 - A Herd of Cows, Fosheim 63 - A Hamlet Beneath the Fjeld 65 - The Author by the Slidre Vand 67 - Ricking the Rye 67 - The Protected Road 69 - Three Thousand Feet of Waterfall 71 - Our Little Ship, Laerdalsoeren 74 - The Sogne Fjord--Along the Sogne Fjord 76 - Sudals Gate, on the Sogne Fjord 78 - The Naerodal 80 - Greeting our Boat, Aurland 83 - The Hardanger Fjord 85 - The Soer Fjord--Hardanger 87 - Commingling Lote and Skars Fos 90 - The Espelands Fos 90 - Glacier of Buarbrae 92 - The Gors Vand 92 - The Descending Road to Horre 94 - A Mile Stone 97 - Cattle on the Haukeli Fjeld 97 - The Desolate Haukeli Fjeld 99 - Norse Maiden Milking Goat (2 illustrations) 103 - Our Hostesses, Haukeli-Saeter 106 - A Norse Cabin 106 - A Goat Herd's Saeter 110 - Haukeli-Saeter 110 - Tending the Herds 112 - Drying Out the Oats 112 - Dalen on the Bandaks Vand 115 - Norse Women Raking Hay 117 - Stockholm 119 - King's Palace, Stockholm 122 - Ancient Swedish Fortress 124 - A Swedish Church 124 - A Band of Swedish Horses 126 - The Shore of Lake Maelaren, Stockholm 129 - Cathedral of Riddarsholm 131 - Norrbro, Stockholm 133 - Facing the Gale 140 - The Pier, Helsingfors 142 - Fishing Boats Along the Quay, Helsingfors 142 - Market Square, Helsingfors 144 - The Doebln at her Pier, Helsingfors 144 - A Wild Sea--Leaving Helsingfors 145 - Fishing Boats at Mouth of the Neva 145 - Entering the Neva 149 - Along the Neva 149 - Our Droschky, St. Petersburg 151 - Along the Nevsky-Prospekt 151 - Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan 154 - Our Squealing Stallions 154 - Our Izvostchik 156 - Our Landau, St. Petersburg 160 - A Noble's Troika, St. Petersburg 161 - The Railway Porters, St. Petersburg 161 - Our Military Guard, Bargaining for Apples 165 - The Holy Savior Gate, Kremlin 165 - Along the Gostinoi Dvor, Moscow 167 - Cathedral of the Assumption, Kremlin 167 - The Red Square, Moscow 170 - Begging Pilgrims, St. Basil 170 - Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, Moscow 172 - Ancient Pavements, Moscow 176 - Bread Vendors, Moscow 176 - The Kremlin beyond the Moskva 179 - Cathedral of St. Savior 181 - A Tram-Car, Moscow 188 - The Out-of-Works 188 - Cemetery, Novo Dievitchy 190 - Monastery Church, Novo Dievitchy 190 - Holy Beggar, Novo Dievitchy 191 - The Kremlin Beneath the Snows 193 - A Station Stop, En Route to Warsaw 197 - Catching a Kopeek--A Beggar 204 - A Cold Day 208 - Along the River Moskva, Moscow 209 - A Russian Jew 211 - Jewish Types, taken in Russia 213 - Jewish Types, taken in America 213 - A Dainty Nurse-maid, Berlin 215 - Hamburg Street Traffic 218 - Our Bill of Fare 220 - A Gentleman of Maarken 222 - A Kinder of Maarken 222 - Among Vrow and Kinderen, Maarken 224 - A Load of Hay, Holland 227 - Along the Zuyder Zee 227 - The Fish Market, Den Haag 228 - The Gossips, Den Haag 228 - A Watery Lane, Den Haag 229 - Dutch Toilers 229 - Map of North Europe. - Map of Scandinavia and Baltic Russia, in profile. - - -[Illustration: THE NAERO--SOGNE FJORD, NORWAY.] - - - - -Through Scandinavia to Moscow. - - - - -I. - -London to Denmark Across the North Sea. - - - ESBJERG, DENMARK, _August 25, 1902_. - -We came down from London to Harwich toward the end of the day. Our -train was a "Special" running to catch the steamer for Denmark. We -were delayed a couple of hours in the dingy, dirty London station by -reason of a great fog which had crept in over Harwich from the North -Sea, and then, the boat had to wait upon the tide. - -The instant the train backed in alongside the station platform--only -ten minutes before it would pull out--there was the usual scramble and -grab to seize a seat in the first-carriage-you-can and pandemonium -reigned. H is well trained by this time, however, and I quickly had -her comfortably ensconced in a seat by a window with bags and shawls -pyramided by her side the better to hold a place for me. Meantime, I -hurried to a truck where stood awaiting me a well-tipped porter and -together we safely stowed two "boxes" into a certain particular -"luggage van," the number of which I was careful to note so that I -might be sure quickly to find the "luggage" again, when we should -arrive at Harwich, else a stranger might walk off with it as aptly as -with his own. - -Our "carriage" was packed "full-up" with several men and women, who -looked dourly at us and at each other as they sat glumly squeezed -together, elbows in each other's ribs. So forbidding was the prospect -confronting me that I did not presume to attempt a conversation. These -comrades, however, soon dropped out at the way-stations, until only -one lone man was left, when I took heart and made bold to accost him. -I found him very civil and, recognizing me to be a foreign visitor, he -spoke with freedom. One Englishman never forgives another for sitting -beside him, unintroduced, and squeezing him up in a railway carriage; -but he harbors no such grudge against his American cousin, equally the -victim of British methods. - -Our _vis-a-vis_ had been a volunteer-trooper in South Africa, and had -just come back to England, after two years' hardship and exposure. He -had given up a good position in order to serve his country, and had -been promised that the place would be kept open for him against his -return. He tells me he now finds a stay-at-home holds his job. He has -"a wife and two little lads to keep," and so far he has had "no luck -in finding work." There are thousands of others in as bad a fix as he, -he says, returned patriots who are starving for lack of work. He -denounced the entire Boer-smashing business most savagely and declared -that as for South Africa, he "would not take the whole of it for a -gift." We hear this sort of talk everywhere among the people we -casually meet. The average Englishman takes small pride in his Army. -"It gives fat jobs to the aristocracy, it is death to us," is what I -have heard a dozen times remarked. Our new acquaintance seemed to feel -the better for having thus spoken out his mind, and when we parted, -wished us a "prosperous voyage." - -[Illustration: THE NORTH SEA.] - -The ship was in motion within twenty minutes after our train reached -the Harwich pier. To my landsman's thinking the air was yet murky with -the fog. Big sirens were booming all about us. The melancholy clang of -tidal bells sounded in sombre muffled tones from many anchored buoys. -It was a drear, dank night to leave the land. We moved slowly, -sounding our own hoarse whistle all the while. I stood upon the upper -deck peering into the mists till we had come well out to sea. There -were few boats moving, no big ones. Multitudes of small schooners and -sloops rode at anchor, their danger lights faintly gleaming. I -wondered we did not run down and crush them, but the pilot seemed to -apprehend the presence of another boat even before the smallest ray of -light shone through the fog. One or two great ships we came shockingly -close upon. At least, I was jarred more than once when their huge -black hulks and reaching masts suddenly grew up before me out of the -dead white curtain of the mists. The estuary which leads from Harwich -to the sea is long and tortuous. Only a pilot who has been born upon -it, and from boyhood learned its currents and its tides, its shallows -and its shoals, may dare to guide a boat along it, even in broad day. -How much greater the skill and knowledge required thus to steer a ship -through these labyrinthine channels amidst the fogs and blackness of -such a night! The Captain told me he was always uneasy when coming -out, no matter when, and never felt safe until far out upon the sea. -Even in open water he must keep the sharpest kind of a watch lest some -one of the myriad fishing craft which haunt these waters, should lie -athwart the way. - -The sea was quiet, rolling with a long slow swell. The rising wind -soughed softly through the rigging when, toward midnight, I at last -turned in. - -All day Sunday the North Sea lay smooth and glassy as a pond; no hint -of the turmoil and tempest which so often rage upon its shallow -depths. We did not see many vessels; far to the north I made out the -smoke of a steamer which the captain said was bound for Kristiansand, -in Norway; and south of us were a few sail, which I took to be fishing -luggers from Holland. Nor were there many seabirds flying. The sky -hung low and in the gray air was the feel of a storm in the offing. -Toward dark, about eight o'clock, a misty rain settled down upon us, -and the rising wind began swashing the dripping waters along the -decks. Toward half past nine we descried a dim glimmer in the east,--a -beacon light flickering through the night,--and then another with -different intervals of flash, a mile or two out upon the left, and -then our ears caught the deep bellow of a fog horn across the sea. -We were nearing the west coast of the Province of Jutland, in Denmark. -Our port lay dead ahead between the lights. Another hour of cautious -navigating, for there are many sand bars and shifting shoals along -this coast, and we came steaming slowly, very slowly, among trembling -lights--fishing smacks at anchor with their night signals burning--and -then we crept up to a big black wharf. We were arrived at Esbjerg. - -[Illustration: THE DOCKS, ESBJERG.] - -The train for Copenhagen (Kjoebenhavn) would leave at midnight, an -eight-hours' ride and no sleeping car attached. - -We decided to stay aboard the ship, sleep peacefully in our -wide-berthed stateroom and take a train at eleven o'clock of the -morning, which would give us a daylight ride. - -We were entering Denmark by the back door. The sea-loving traveler -generally approaches by one of the ocean liners which sail direct from -New York to Copenhagen; those who find terror in the sea enter by way -of Kiel, and an all-rail ride through Holland and Germany, crossing -the channel to Ostend, Dieppe, or the Hook. Only the few voyage across -the North Sea with its frequent storms--the few who, like ourselves, -are good sailors and do not fear the stress of tide and tempest. We -were now at Esbjerg, and must cross the entire peninsula of Denmark, -its Little Belt, its Big Belt and the large islands of Funen and -Zealand to reach our journey's end. - -I am already beginning to pick up the Danish speech, a mixture of -English, German, Dutch and new strange throat gutturals, the latter -difficult for an American larynx to make. And yet so similar is this -mother tongue of Scandinavia to the modern English, that I can often -tell what a Dane is saying by the very similarity of the sounds: "Go -Morn"--(good morning), "Farvel"--(farewell). - -Our fellow passengers were mostly Danes. This is their favorite route -for coming home. They are a quiet, rather pensive people. The men, -much of the time, were smoking, and drinking beer and a white brandy. -The women were often sitting in the smoking room with them, enjoying, -I presume, the perfume of tobacco, as every right-minded woman should, -and it may be, also finding solace in the scent of the strong brown -beer, which they are not themselves indisposed to quaff. - -The cooking on this Danish boat has been good. We have keenly -appreciated the improvement upon the diet of roast beef, boiled -mutton, boiled ham, boiled potatoes, and boiled peas steeped in mint, -which we have been compelled to exist upon during the past few weeks -in Britain. - -[Illustration: OUR DANISH RAILWAY CARRIAGE.] - - - - -II. - -Esbjerg--Across Jutland, Funen and Zealand, the Little Belt and the -Big Belt to Copenhagen--Friends Met Along the Way. - - - HOTEL DAGMAR ("Dahmar"), - COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, _August 27, 1902_. - -Here we are in "Kjoebenhavn," which word you will find it quite -impossible properly to pronounce, however strenuously your tongue may -try. - -My letter, beginning in Esbjerg, was broken short by the necessity of -sleep. We wisely remained upon the ship and took full benefit of our -comfortable berths. In the morning we were up betimes, obtained a cup -of coffee and a roll, and then, sending our bags and baggage to the -railway station, set out afoot. - -The air was misty, full of a fine drizzling rain. It was regular -Scotch and English weather, but the atmosphere was cooler and not so -heavy as in Britain. The little stone-and-brick-built town is clean -and neat, with its main street well asphalted. It lies on a gentle -slope of hillside which lifts from the water. A giant lighthouse, -rising from the highest point of land, is the first object to meet the -view. Back of this, upon the level summit, lies the best of the town. -The buildings are generally of one and two stories, with steep, -gabled roofs. - -H, in her Scottish "bonnet," and I, in my raincoat, were quite -impervious to wetness, and we spent the morning strolling here and -there, stopping to see, among other things, the tubs and tanks of fish -in the market square, where fishwives in big, white caps, stood quite -heedless of the rain. The fish were almost wholly the famous _roed -spoette_ (red spots), one of the flounder family, much resembling the -English sole. - -Wanting cigars, I was tempted into a little shop, and found it kept by -an intelligent young Dane, who instantly confessed to me, in good -United States, that he had lived in America and there done well. In -fact, it was plain to see that his heart still beat for the great -Republic. His father had died and he had come back to Denmark to care -for his old mother, and then, he had fallen in love with the blue-eyed -daughter of a citizen of Esbjerg, an only child. So now, with several -little Danes added to his charge, he was fixed fast in Esbjerg. But he -was "always grieving for America," he said. He delighted to see us, -and sent for his young wife, who came smiling in to us with her baby -in her arms. H says he told his wife in Danish, that we were Americans -just like all others she would see, if she should ever reach New York! -So I bought a box of cigars from him, instead of one or two, and found -them good smoking and well worth the very moderate cost. - -Crossing the market square to a long, low building, which somehow had -about it that indefinable air suggestive of a breakfast comfortably -cooked, we came to an inn, in the low-ceilinged dining room of which -were little tables set about upon the sanded floor. Two or three men -of the sea were smoking in one corner, a bar and a red-cheeked barmaid -were in another, and two huge, yellow, Great-Dane dogs occupied most -of the remaining space. We chose a table by the window and H ordered -_roed spoette_, rolls and coffee. The fish was delicious, possessing a -harder, sweeter flesh than the English sole; and rolls with salted -butter rejoiced my palate, for I am dreadfully tired of English butter -with no salt; and then we were given big brown pancakes with currant -jelly, all we could eat. It was a breakfast fit for a Viking. The bill -was only three _kroner_ and twenty _oere_, which equals about -eighty-six cents. - -At the railway station, a mile from the docks, our tickets, bought in -London, gave us the best on the train, better than similar carriages -in England, for here they are bigger, with larger windows and the cars -are set on trucks. - -The journey to Copenhagen was over and through a sandy, flat and -slightly rolling country, more carefully tilled and more generally -cultivated than in England, with more grain, wheat and rye; with more -vegetables, turnips, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. There were cattle, -herds of large red cows, for Denmark is now the dairy of all Europe. -But I saw no steers, nor beef cattle, fattening for the market, and -but few sheep; nor any hogs running afield--the last are probably kept -up. The houses are set singly upon the farms, are surrounded by -outbuildings, and are usually of one story and often big and rambling -with ells and gables, and generally have thatched roofs. The barns are -big and substantial. More people are here upon the land than in -England, and not living in clustered villages, as in France; the -fields are divided usually by hedges. There are sluggish waterways and -canals, and ponds where fish are bred and raised for market; and -almost every hilltop is capped with a Dutch-looking windmill. - -The train moved deliberately. It made from twenty to twenty-five miles -an hour, stopping a long time at each station. We hadn't gone far when -a bald-pated, round-headed _Herr_ climbed in and we speedily fell into -talk with him. H speaks Danish enough to get on, and I use my pocket -dictionary, and pick up what I can. His name was Hansen and he "owns" -the "Hotel Kikkenborg," at "Brammige," wherever that may be. He told -us of the country we were passing through and helped me on the Danish -gutturals. You must gurgle the sounds down in your gullet as though -you were quite filled with water, and the more profound the depth from -which the sound comes forth, the more perfect the speech. We lost him -at the first change of cars, when we boarded an immense ferryboat to -cross the strait of water called the Little Belt, which separates -the main land from the large island of Funen, but we found ourselves -again in kindly company, this time, with a gray-bearded man and two -ladies, his wife and daughter. He was "Inspector of Edifices" for the -Government. They had been spending a few weeks on the island of Fanoe -at Nordby, a fashionable seaside resort much patronized by the gentry -of Copenhagen. He talked with me in fluent German, and the ladies -conversed readily in French, while all spoke with H in _Dansk_ and so -we got on, fell fast friends and were introduced to a beau of the -Froeken, a young "Doctor" who had "just taken his degree." We sat -together while crossing the island of Funen and on the ferryboat top -all through the long sail across the Big Belt which divides Funen from -the island of Zealand. Our friends here pointed out to us where it was -that Charles X of Sweden, and his army of foot and horse and guns made -their dare-devil passage on the ice that night in January, 1658, -crossing the Little and Big Belts to Zealand and Copenhagen, forcing -the beaten Danes by the Peace of Roskilde to cede the great Provinces -of Skaania, Halland and Bleking, which made Sweden forever henceforth -a formidable European state,--"God's work," the Swedes declared, for -these salty waters were never before frozen solid enough to bear an -army's weight,--nor have they been since. We parted only at the -journey's end. Our friends were pleasant people of the aristocratic -office-holding class, content to live simply on the modest stipend -the Government may grant, who neither speak nor read English, and who -listened to the tales of bigness in America with doubting wonder. "A -building twenty stories high!" "Impossible!" "Eighty millions of -people!" "Incredible!" "America already holds four hundred thousand -Danes--one-fifth of the Danish race." "Ja! Alas! That is too true!" -"Our young men are never satisfied to come back to stay when once they -have lived in America!" "Our young men don't return, it's hard upon -our girls." - -[Illustration: MY INSTRUCTOR IN DANISH.] - -Our new found friends, when we lunched upon the big ferryboat, -introduced us to that very Danish dish called _Smoer Broed_, thickly -buttered rye bread overlaid with raw herring or smoked goose breast, a -Viking dainty--a salty appetizer well calculated to make the Norseman -quaff from his flagon with more than usual vim, and to drive an -American in hurried search of plain water! These salty snacks of cold -bread and cold fish are as eagerly devoured and enjoyed by the -Scandinavian as are the peppery, stinging eatables for which every -Mexican palate yearns. - -It was dusk when we arrived in the large and commodious Main station -at Copenhagen. The suburbs of the city were hidden from us by the -gathering darkness, and the electric lights were glowing when we left -the train. - -We missed General and Mrs. C at the station, so great was the crowd, -but found them when we came to our hotel, the Dagmar, they having -themselves missed us and followed on our track. - -[Illustration: OUR DANISH FRIENDS.] - -There are many good hotels in Copenhagen and this is among the larger -and more popular stopping places of the Danes themselves. It is built -along the clean Vestre Boulevard, with umbrageous trees in front of -it, and possesses that rare thing, an elevator. In the dining room we -sit at little tables, and find the cooking much superior to what one -generally meets in England. It is more after the French sort, the -Danes priding themselves greatly upon their soups and sauces. In our -rooms, which look out upon the broad, paved boulevard, the furniture -is old style mahogany, very substantial, and in the corner there is -one of those immense porcelain stoves reaching to the ceiling, which -is the general mode of heating large rooms in these Scandinavian -lands. - -Copenhagen is a city of four hundred thousand people, one-quarter of -the estimated population of Denmark, and the city is growing steadily -at the expense of the country,--increasing too fast for a land the -population of which is as steadily growing less. English is said to be -the fashionable foreign tongue in court circles, by reason of the -British royal connection; but among the people the German speech is -steadily and stealthily taking a foremost place, and this despite the -fact that the Danes dislike Germany and view the Germans with -well-founded fear. You will talk to a Dane but a few moments before he -is pouring out his heart to you about the atrocious robbery of the -splendid Provinces of Sleswik and Holstein, of which Bismarck -despoiled the little kingdom nearly forty years ago. Almost half of -Denmark was then lopped off at a single blow,--nor England nor Russia -interfering to save the Danes,--and now they are ever in uneasy spirit -lest Germany encroach yet more upon them and ultimately devour them, -land and sea. They feel she is incessantly creeping on to them with -all the cunning of a hungry cat. - -[Illustration: THE KRYSTAL GADE AND ROUND TOWER, COPENHAGEN.] - - - - -III. - -Copenhagen, a Quaint and Ancient City. - - - KJOEBENHAVN, DANNMARK, - (COPENHAGEN, DENMARK), _August 28, 1902_. - -The Copenhagener declares that his beloved "Kjoebenhavn" is not really -an ancient city, although he admits it has been in active business -since the middle of the tenth century, nearly one thousand years. - -My Danish friends assert that it is my "Yankee eye," which is so new, -and prove the modernity of their town by telling me how many times it -has been bombarded, how often sacked and razed, how frequently burned -up; and yet, despite their facts, I still make bold to say the city -bears the markings of an ancient town. - -Long, long ago, even before the time of King Gorm the Old, here were -markets by the water's side, where the fisherman brought his catch, -the peasant fetched his eggs and milk and cheese and what the soil -might yield, where the itinerant merchant came to show and trade his -wares. These handy markets by the sea were at first moved constantly -about; by and by they came to be held, year after year, in the -self-same spot; the temporary clustered settlement became a lasting -town. As the centuries rolled on these market hamlets expanded into a -single commercial rendezvous for all the northern world. Thus -Copenhagen won her name (_Kopman-haven_--merchant port) and grew until -her commerce made her the heir to the trade and traffic of the -Hanseatic League, and she was recognized as supreme mistress of the -commerce of the North by London and Bremen, Brussels and Bordeaux, as -well as by the merchant fleets of Venice and the Levant. - -Those were the days when her Kings and hardy seamen would as lief -drink and fight and die as eat and live; their very recklessness made -them masters of the North; they even annexed the mighty Norseman, and -made Norway a Danish Province; they hammered and held in check their -doughty cousins, the Swedes; they brought beneath their sway the -Provinces of Skaania, of Halland and of Bleking, the southern portion -of what is now known as Sweden; they dominated the cities along the -shores of the North and Baltic Seas. - -Copenhagen became, in fact as well as in name, the veritable capital -of the North. In politics and in intrigue she played the master hand. -She gathered to herself the arts and the sciences, the fashion and the -elegance, of the North; and to-day, although warlike pride and power -have fallen from her, although trade and commerce have lessened in her -midst, yet the arts and the sciences, the culture and the elegance are -still her own, and the fine old city claims to be as markedly as of -yore the intellectual center of the Scandinavian race. - -[Illustration: THE OESTERGADE, COPENHAGEN.] - -Copenhagen is a flat-lying city; it has no hills in it, while there -are many canals and watery lanes which wind through it and lead to the -sea, or as the Danes would say the _Sund_ (Sound),--that narrow strait -which links the Baltic to the Kattegat, where Denmark and Sweden -appear once to have split apart. - -The buildings are generally of brick, sometimes of stone, never of -wood; they are large and substantial, often four and five stories -high, with gabled roofs, sharp and steep, covered with tiles. - -In the older parts of the city, the streets are narrow, and twist and -turn and change their names even more often than the Rues of Paris. In -the newer section, toward the north and northwest, there are long -straight boulevards and straight cross streets, and the inevitable air -of modern monotony. - -The feeling and impression which stole over me the first morning I -strolled about the city became almost one of sadness. The wistful, -pensive faces of the people; their unobtrusive politeness; the -inconsequential traffic of drays and carts along the quiet streets; -canals and quays half empty where there should have been big packs of -boats; absence everywhere of bustle and ado,--all these were almost -pathetic. It might have been a Puritan Sabbath, so silent stood the -big stone docks and piers among the lapping waters. There was none of -the ponderous movement of London, none of the liveliness of Paris, nor -the busy-ness of Hamburg, of Bremen, of Amsterdam, of Rotterdam and -Antwerp, although once Copenhagen was peer of any one. The bales of -goods, the tons of merchandise which once filled her lofts and cellars -are no longer there. The commerce which once made the city rich and -gave her power has ebbed away. She is far fallen into commercial and -industrial decay. - -The causes which have wrought this collapse of the once great city -are, perhaps, difficult to analyze. At least, those Danes with whom I -have talked upon the matter are not at all agreed. Nor are they united -upon the solution of the problem of restoring the city to the proud -place she once held as metropolis of the northern world. - -Some tell me that after the demise of the present King, and the -passing of Sweden's ruler to the Halls of Valhalla, then will it be -possible for the Scandinavian peoples to come together in one -permanent federation, or federal pact, where the Norwegian-Democratic -spirit shall instil new energy into the now moribund political body of -the sister states, and that then Copenhagen will be the natural -capital of this free and potent Scandinavian state, and then will come -to her the splendor and dignity justly her due. - -Others declare, and declare with a flash of terror in their eyes, that -the only hope for Copenhagen, the only hope for the pitiful remnant of -the once proud Kingdom of Denmark, is to be wholly devoured by the -Hohenzollern Ogre, to be by him chewed fine, gulped down, digested and -assimilated as part of the flesh and blood of the waxing German -Empire. Then will Copenhagen become the chief seaport of the German -Hinterlands to the south, then will the importance of Bremen and -Hamburg and Kiel be expanded into the new vigor that will have come to -Copenhagen. They point to the inevitableness of this destiny as -evidenced by the subtle, silent, incessant encroachment of the German -tongue among the people of the city as well as throughout the land, -and by the continuous invasion and settlement of the city and country -by men and women of German breed. They say the Imperial monster grips -them in a clutch whence there is no escape. - -[Illustration: THE ROYAL THEATRE, COPENHAGEN.] - -Whatever the future may have in store for stricken Denmark and -Copenhagen, it is clear enough to the apprehension of the friendly -stranger that the noble city is ailing and benumbed. She stagnates, -and only revolution and rebirth into a greater Scandinavian state, or -Germanic conquest and absorption, will restore her to her former -place. It is natural for an American to hope for Denmark and her -people a rehabilitation through the uplifting influence of a -Scandinavian Republic. - -There are fine shops in Copenhagen; behind the unpretentious fronts -along the Oestergade, the Amagertorv, the Vimmelskaft and Nygade and -neighboring streets is stored great wealth of fabrics and of -merchandise. Here we saw the notably handsome pottery and artistic -porcelain ware for which Copenhagen is already famous beyond the sea; -and H and her mother have delightedly bought several charming pieces -of the latter and ordered them sent forward to New York. They have -also quite lost their hearts, and certainly their _kroners_, over the -exquisite gold and silver and enamel work manufactured here, while -they declare the laces and drawn work--particularly what is called -_Hedebo_--excels anything of the kind they have discovered in London. -The Dane is a poet, a dreamer, an artist; he is also a patient -artisan, and what he produces ranks among the world's best work. - -Passing along the narrow sidewalks you would never suspect what is -stored behind the plain exteriors, for the Dane has not yet learned -the art of window display, nor has he acquired the skill of so showing -his goods that the buyer is caught at a single glance. If you would -purchase, you must have already determined what you want, and then, -upon asking for it, will be given liberal choice. - -The shops are mostly small, each seller dealing in a single ware. Only -one Dane, a wide-awake newcomer from Chicago, has dared to introduce -the complex methods of "department" trade. He has opened an immense -establishment called the Magazin du Nord, where thus far is done a -rushing business. But the conservative merchants of Copenhagen have -not yet become so well assured of the success of this innovation that -they are willing to follow the example set. - -[Illustration: THE EXCHANGE, COPENHAGEN.] - -In company with the ladies I have been out all the afternoon along -these narrow streets--streets where the narrow sidewalks are -altogether insufficient to accommodate the passing crowds, which -consequently fill up the middle of the way--and we find the _Frus_ and -_Froekens_ of Copenhagen apparently as much devoted to what is called -"shopping" as our own fair dames at home. Buxom and yellow-haired and -rosy-cheeked, they throng the streets each afternoon. They are comely -to look upon, and carry themselves with more graceful carriage than do -the women of England. They walk deliberately, with none of the nervous -scurry of their transatlantic sisters. Indeed, it is hinted to me, -they have not come out so much to buy as to meet some friend or -neighbor, and exchange a bit of news or gossip in one of the numerous -and cozy cafes where is sold _conditterie_:--candies and chocolates -and coffee and little cakes. - -Next to _conditterie_, the Copenhagener is fondest of his books and -the town abounds in bookshops, big and little. Every Dane reads and -writes his native tongue, and among the educated, English and French -and German are generally understood. In the book stores I visited I -was always addressed in English, and found French, German and English -and even American books upon the shelves; and more newspapers and -magazines are published in Copenhagen, a Danish friend declares, than -in any other city in Europe of its size. The Danes have, too, a widely -established system of free circulating libraries and book clubs, -which extend throughout the countryside of Zealand and Funen and -Jutland, as well as in the towns, while Copenhagen is supplied also -from the extensive collections of the University and Royal Libraries. - -The public schools and the University we did not see, for the season -was the vacation interval, and the teachers, professors and students -were all dispersed. But the schools and University of Copenhagen are -modernly equipped. The Dane is intelligent above all else, and he has -always paid great heed to the adequate education of his race. Indeed, -Copenhagen was the first city in Europe to establish real public -schools, opening them in every parish more than three hundred years -ago. - -There are many _Torvs_ about the city, market-places where all sorts -of things have once been sold, but which are now become wide-open -public squares. The old word _Torv_ has already lost its ancient -meaning, even as has the word _Circus_, which in London first sounds -so strange to American ears. But while the Gammelstorv, the Nytorv, -the Kongen's Nytorv and many others are now degenerated into these -mere open breathing spaces between the big buildings of the town, -there are yet _Torvs_ where fish, and flowers, meats and vegetables, -and things else are offered for sale. The most attractive of them all -to me were those where are sold the flowers and the fish. - -In the Amagertorv were heaps of pale and puny roses, and diminutive -asters and chrysanthemums, along with splendid pansies--"stepmother -flowers," as the Danes call them--and luxuriant piles of mignonette, -and big baskets of pinks and phloxes; where rosy-cheeked women, in -starched white caps, smilingly urged me to buy, and one _Froeken_ with -a wealth of yellow hair and cobalt-blue eyes, pinned on my coat a -monstrous pansy for _boutonniere_. - -[Illustration: THE GAMMEL STRAND, COPENHAGEN.] - -Among the fishwives of the Gammel Strand there was always lively stir, -for their _fisk_ must early find a buyer, and by midday they -themselves must be back to their nets and boats. These Danish -fishwives, moreover, have a burden of responsibility quite unknown to -their English, German, Dutch and French sisters. Not merely must they -sell the fish which the men turn over to their keeping, but they must -also preserve it hearty and alive, else the dainty Danish housewife -will not buy. The fish are kept in large tubs and tanks filled with -fresh sea water, where they swim about as keen and lively as they -might do in the sea. The buyer scrutinizes the contents of these tubs -with a fine and practiced eye; she picks out the fish which swims and -splashes to her mind; has it lifted out alive, and carries it home in -a bucket of water which she has brought to the market for that -purpose. A fish which is dead, a fish which has died of strangulation -in the air, is looked upon with horror and rejected as unfit for food -by all right-acting Danish stomachs. No dead fish, preserved from -becoming stale through the use of chemicals, ever enters a Danish -kitchen. Is it any wonder then, that the buxom red-cheeked women and -sturdy men of these seafaring lands prefer a square meal of sweet -fresh fish to any other! Sauntering along the Strand I espied the cod -and mackerel and herring under names I did not know, and everywhere -foremost among them all the now familiar _roed spoette_, the Danish -epicure's delight. - -The streets of London are choked with moving vehicles, or those drawn -up in line awaiting fares. In Copenhagen one is struck at once by the -absence of the equipages of the rich, the very limited number of cabs -anywhere about, as well as the small number of heavy drays, even upon -the wholesale business streets. One might almost say that the streets -would seem deserted if it were not for the pigeons and the dogs. There -must be many dove-cotes in Copenhagen and the birds certainly have -hosts of friends. But the dog, the unabashed and capricious dog, is -the real king of Denmark's capital. After seeing him in Holland and in -France, where his dogship is a faithful co-worker with man, toiling -all the long day and longer year to eke out the income of his master, -one almost envies the lot of the dogs of Copenhagen. These beasts -abound throughout the city; neither tag nor muzzle adorns them, nor do -owners seemingly claim them, but from puppyhood to gaunt old age they -lead a boisterous and vagabond life, to the terror of small children -and their nurses, and the well-gowned women who may chance to cross -their trail. Whether they survive through performing the office of -scavenger, as do the dogs of Constantinople, I have never been -informed, but whatever the cause, the curs of Copenhagen take as full -possession of that town as do the tame vultures of Vera Cruz. - -We visited, of course, the many objects of interest the tourist is -expected to see; we studied the splendid collection of the -masterpieces of Thorvaldsen, housed in the stately building where also -is set his tomb; we looked at the collection of ethnological relics, -one of the most notable in the world; we lingered in the old castle of -Charlottenborg, and the new art galleries where are gathered many of -the master paintings of which the Danish capital is so proud; we -admired the great round tower, up the spiral causeway of which a -squadron of dragoons may ride to the very top, and Peter the Great -ascended on horseback; we duly marveled at the much bepraised Fredriks -Kirke, a marble edifice, smothered beneath a ponderous and ornate -dome; and H and I spent a delightful hour in the noble Vor Frue Kirke, -where her grandmother was wedded some sixty years ago; the banks and -the Bourse, the imposing new Hotel de Ville--the finest modern -building in Denmark--the Legislative Palace, Christiansborg and -Rosenborg and Amalienborg and Fredriksberg. We saw what of them the -public is allowed to see; we also drove and strolled upon the fine -wide Lange Linie Boulevard along the water side, shaded by ancient and -umbrageous lindens, whence may be viewed the inner and outer harbors -and Free Port and the spacious, new and half empty docks, and much of -the shipping, and where of a pleasant afternoon the fashion and beauty -of the city are wont to ride and drive. We joined in with the -multitude upon the long, straight Fredriksberggade, where the life and -movement of the city may be watched and studied, even as upon New -Orleans' Canal Street and New York's Broadway; and we did all else -that well instructed Americans are taught to do. But after all, these -are the things that Baedeker and the guide books tell about. To me it -is ever of higher interest to learn from the people themselves by word -and touch what my own senses aid me to see and hear, and so it was -only when I met some of my wife's Danish kin, and a broad and burly -Berserker clasped me in his arms and implanted a smacking kiss upon -either cheek, ere I knew him to be of her relations,--that I felt my -acquaintance begun with the most polished and elegant branch of the -Scandinavian race. - -Other parts of nights and days we spent with friends in the lovely -Tivoli gardens, where all the Copenhagen world, high and low, rich and -poor alike, are wont to meet in simple and democratic assemblage, -equally bent upon having a good time. "Have you seen Tivoli?" is ever -almost the first question a Copenhagener will put. There we watched -the famous pantomime in the little open booth beneath the stars, a -sort of Punch and Judy show; there we entered the great music hall -where the Royal band plays, and the crowded audiences of music-loving -Danes always applaud; there we drank the Danish beer which is -admitted to be the best on earth--so a Danish neighbor whispered in my -ear. Tivoli is the Copenhagener's elysium. When he is blue he gets -himself to Tivoli; when he feels gay he travels to Tivoli; alone or in -company he goes to Tivoli, and he goes there as often as time will -permit, which is usually every night. - -[Illustration: ALONG THE QUAYS, COPENHAGEN.] - -A most difficult problem for Copenhagen has been that of draining and -sewering the city. It lies so low, almost at the dead level of the -sea, and the tides of these Baltic waters are so insignificant--ten to -twelve inches only--that for many centuries Copenhagen has been a most -unhealthy city, infected by cesspools, tainted by blind drains, and -defiled by accumulated poisons, until its death rate was higher than -that of any other city in Europe. But at last the problem is solved. -Forced water and giant suction pumps wash and drain out the elaborate -system of pipes, and spill the death-laden wastage at a distant point -into the sea, and with this transformation Copenhagen has become a -measurably healthy city. - -Perhaps it is this century-long fight with death, plague and epidemic -knocking continually at her doors, which has endowed Copenhagen with -so many fine hospitals and public charities for the care of the -sick,--few cities in Europe are so elaborately provided. Hand in hand -with the hospitals are also institutions for caring for the destitute -and very poor. Denmark has never followed England's pauper-creating -system, but the beggar on the street is promptly put in jail, while -the deserving poor is given a kindly and helping hand. - -One of the most charming spectacles of the city is its extensive -public gardens, where the ancient defenses are converted into parks, -and the moats are transformed into ponds and little lakes where swans -and geese are kept, and boys sail toy boats. The landward side of the -city is thus almost encircled with these pleasure grounds. One morning -we were crossing one of these gardens, the lovely Oersteds Park, when -I caught a pretty picture with my kodak, a little two-years-old tot -learning to make her first courtesy to a little boy of four or five. -She dropped and ducked and bent her little body with all the grace of -a Duchess of the Court. - -Denmark is about the size of three-fifths of West Virginia, comprises -fifteen thousand square miles and contains less than two millions of -people,--about sixteen hundred thousand. She possesses no deposits of -coal or iron, no forests of valuable timber; she has few manufactures. -Her people are farmers making a pinched living off the land, -raising lean crops and selling butter and cheese, or they are -crowded--one-fourth of them,--into the city of Copenhagen, or they are -gaining a hardy livelihood upon the sea. And yet this diminutive -kingdom puts up $275,000 a year for the keeping of the King, and also -provides him and his family, tax free, with palaces and castles, and -estates whereon to fish and hunt and play. - -[Illustration: AN ANCIENT MOAT, NOW THE LOVELY OERSTEDS PARK.] - -To an American mind it is amazing that a competent people will accept -and suffer burdens such as these. - -In the great state of New York, with its seven millions of people, -with wealth of coal and iron, with immense primeval forests, with -cities whose commerce expands with a swiftness almost incredible, the -Governor is paid $15,000 a year, and allowed a single mansion wherein -to dwell. Massachusetts, Vermont and Michigan, and many other -commonwealths, pay their Governors but $1,000 per year, without a -mansion for their residence. - -The mighty Republic of the United States itself, with a continent for -domain, and eighty millions of people, pays its President $50,000 per -year, and gives him the use of the White House for his home. - -Therefore, do you wonder, as I stroll about this fine old city, and -look into the unhopeful, wistful faces of its plainly clad, not -over-rich nor over-busy people, that I begin to comprehend why -Copenhagen holds the highest record for suicides of any city in the -world, and why so many of her vigorous, and alert and capable, young -men continually forsake their native land for the greater -opportunities and freer political and industrial atmosphere of the -United States? - -The Dane always gets on if you give him half a chance. He is called -the "Frenchman of the North." Graceful and supple in his manners, with -a mouthful of courtesies of speech, he is naturally a social -diplomat. The blunt Norwegian calls him a fop. The martial Swede -sneers at his want of fight. But the Dane has always held his own, and -as a financier, a diplomat and man-of-the-world able to make the best -out of the situation he may be in, he still gives proof of possessing -his full share of the Scandinavian brain. - -[Illustration: A VISTA OF THE SUND.] - - - - -IV. - -Elsinore and Kronborg--An Evening Dinner Party. - - - HELSINOERE, DANNMARK, _August 29, 1902_. - -We left Copenhagen Friday evening, about four o'clock, from the -Nordbane station. We were in plenty of time. Nobody hurries in -Denmark. The train of carriages, with their side doors wide open, -stood on the track ready to start. Prospective passengers and their -friends moved about chatting, or saying good-bye. It was a local train -to Elsinore, where it would connect with the ferry across the _Sund_ -to Helsingborg and there with the through express to Stockholm and -Kristiania, a night's ride. We would go to Elsinore, and there spend -the night, and go on by daylight in the morning. - -A good many acquaintances had come down to see us off, just for the -sake of friendliness. I had kissed all the rosy-cheeked _Froekens_ and -been kissed by the _Frus_, having dexterously escaped the embraces of -the men, when there loomed large before me an immense Dane, near six -feet high and proportionate in girth, brown-bearded and blue-eyed, -holding an enormous bouquet in either hand, an American flag waving -from the midst of each. He made straight for me, folded me up among -the flowers and kissed me joyfully on either cheek, and all before I -really knew just what had taken place; then he doffed his hat, and -bowing profoundly, presented first to me and then to H one of the -bouquets with which he was loaded. And these bouquets were tied up -with great white ribbons! Of course, we were evidently but newly wed. -We suddenly became of interest to the entire company. Nor was there -escape, for General C is well known and popular in Copenhagen. Others -now came up and were introduced, and H and I held a _levee_ right then -and there, and of kisses and embraces I made no count. - -The ride was along the _Sund_, that lovely stretch of salt water, only -a few miles wide, which joins the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic. It is -more like the Hudson River below West Point than anything I know, -except that the shores are low and more generally wooded to the -water's edge. Or, perhaps I should say that it is another and narrower -Long Island Sound, as you see it a few miles out from Jamaica Bay. The -busy waters were alive with a multitudinous traffic from Russia and -Germany and Sweden and Denmark itself, and the fishing vessels that -abound along these coasts. Here and there villas and fine country -houses peeped out among the trees. The _Sund_ is the joy of the Dane. -He loves it, and the stranger who looks upon it does not forget it. -One then understands why the Danish poets have sung so loudly of it. - -[Illustration: ELSINORE.] - -Our way lay through much cultivated land, market gardens sending their -produce to Copenhagen, dairy farms where is made some of that famous -Danish butter every Londoner prefers to buy, and which is sold all -around the world. Here and there we passed a little town, always with -its sharp-steepled Lutheran church and dominie's snug manse along its -side. The church, the Lutheran church in Denmark, is no trifling -power. It is as bigoted and well entrenched as is the Roman hierarchy -in Mexico and Spain. We should have liked to be wedded in the Vor Frue -Kirke, where the dear old grandmother had been married. But it is a -Lutheran church, and we were Dissenters, and without the pale. Nor -could we present the necessary proof. We had no papers to show we had -been duly born. Nor had we legal documents to prove that our parents -were our very own. Nor could we show papers in proof that we had been -christened and were legally entitled to our names, nor that we had -been regularly confirmed. Without these documents, sealed and -authenticated by the state, and in our case also by the United States, -no Lutheran pastor would have dared to try and make us one. So we ran -the gauntlet of less stringent English law, in itself quite bad -enough, and lost the experience of the quaint Danish ceremonial in the -noble church. - -At the fine big Government station in Helsinoere (Elsinore)--for the -Government owns and runs the railroads in Denmark, just as it does in -Germany and much of France--we were met by an aunt and uncle and -cousin of H's. They were a charming old couple, and the son was a -young naval engineer (shipbuilder), working in the ship yard at -Helsinoere. All have lived in America and speak our tongue. We were to -dine with them and spend the evening, when General and Mrs. C would go -home on the last train at 10 P. M. I left the ladies together, while D -and I strolled over to the ancient, yet formidable, fortress of -Kronborg, which for centuries has commanded the gateway to the Baltic. -Built of Norwegian granite, when erected it was believed to be -impregnable. Its casemates, lofty walls, turrets and towers frowned -threateningly across the three-mile strait to Helsingborg in Sweden, -and no boat sailed past except it first paid the dues. To-day, these -walls of rock, these ramparts in the air, no longer terrify the -mariner. _Sund_ taxes are no longer levied! The ancient fortress does -little else than fire an occasional salute. But the Danes still love -and honor it, and a few soldiers are stationed in it, a solitary -guard. - -A vista of the _Sund_ I tried to kodak from the top of the great -tower, and I bribed a soldier for a dime to let me take his manly -form, although a camera is forbidden within the precincts of this -place of war. - -But Kronborg is famous for other things than mere Danish tolls and -wars. Kronborg it is, where Hamlet's shade still nightly wanders along -the desolate ramparts. There it is that the Danish prince beheld his -father's ghost. There he kept watch at night with Horatio and -Marcellus. And close by in the park of Marienlyst Castle is Hamlet's -grave. We did not see it, but many pilgrims do. - -[Illustration: THE SUND FROM KRONBORG'S RAMPARTS.] - -Then we descended into the deep dungeons, or part of them, and a -pretty, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed Danish lass told us tales of Holger -Danske, who lives down in the deepest pits, whose long white beard is -fast grown to the table before which he sits, and who is to come forth -some day and by his might restore to the Danish race its former great -position on the earth; and she told us also of the human tragedies -which have in past ages been enacted in these keeps. She spoke in -soft, lisping, musical Danish, the only sweet Danish I have heard; for -the Copenhagen speech is jerky, the consonants are chopped short, and -the vowels are deep gurgled in the throat, difficult for foreign ears -to comprehend. - -After seeing the fortress, we visited an ancient monastery, suppressed -when the Roman church was driven from these northern Lutheran lands, -and now become an Old Ladies' Home--shocking transformation in the -contemplation of those monkish shades which may yet roam the forsaken -cloisters!--of which institution the old uncle is now Superintendent -with Government pension for life! - -And then we came to the cozy home where the ladies were already met. -We entered a narrow doorway, a sort of interior storm door, and turned -to the right into a comfortable sitting room, beyond which was the -dining room, with the table set. The aunt is a gentle, round-faced, -rosy-cheeked little woman, in a white lace cap and the prettiest of -manners. With her was an old spinster friend, _Froeken_----, a slim, -wizen-faced dame of sixty, in brown stuff dress, with tight sleeves -and close fitting waist, and old lace at the throat, fastened by a big -mediaeval-looking gold brooch, and with a gold chain about her neck. -She possessed very small, bright black eyes, and lips that stuck -straight out. She courtesied,--dropped down straight about ten inches -and came up quick, a sort of bob--smiled, and said in Danish, "she was -rejoiced to meet H's '_Mand_.'" All were very friendly, and H to have -caught a _Mand_, sure enough, was treated with distinction. - -The table was set for eight; there was beer in glass decanters, cold -fried fish, cold smoked goose breast, cold smoked salmon (raw), cold -sardines, cold calveshead jelly, cold beef loaf, cold bread, black -bread, rye bread, cold rolls (hard and shiny with caraway seeds in -them), gooseberry jelly, spiced currants, and also tea, this latter -piping hot. At each place was set a pile of salted butter (at least a -pound) on a little dish. I sat next "_Tante_," with _Froeken_--across -the table from me, her black eyes boring me through with steady gleam. -You take your fish up by the tail and eat him as you would a piece of -bread. "Butter him thick, yes, thick," "_Tante_" said to me. I laid on -about half an inch, she did, they all did. It was delicious butter and -that fish went down wonderfully slick. The goose breast was good, but -I discerned it to have been a gander. The raw herring I did not -find so attractive as the goose. There were also several sorts of -cheese, of which every one ate much. You put a heavy layer of butter -on your bread, then a layer of thin cut cheese, then a layer of -herring or sardine or salmon, and eat it fast. There was no hot food, -there never is. The rule is to stow away cold fish, butter and cheese, -and wash it down with the strong brown beer. The sweets are then taken -to top off with. Pickles and preserves together--just like the -Germans. (I have not yet run into the sour foods in which the German -stomach delights.) Having begun with a mild cheese, you gradually -ascend to the strongest with the final sweets. H says the meal was -only "supper," not dinner, but I confess I am so mixed on these -Scandinavian meals, that I cannot yet tell the difference. At -breakfast, the Danes take only a cup of coffee and a roll, the Spanish -_Desayuno_; not even an egg, nor English jam. About one or two o'clock -in the day, they dine, having soups, meats (roast or boiled), fish -(fresh and salt), vegetables and beer. At night, it is about as I have -told you, and they often dare to add a little more cold fish and -cheese before they finally retire. The soups at dinner are very good; -and the meats are better cooked than at a British table, on which, -after a while, all meats begin to taste alike, and you grow tired to -death of the eternal boiled potatoes, and boiled peas steeped in mint. -I have had very nice cauliflower at Danish tables, and the lettuce of -their salads is delicate and crisp, while the coffee of the Danes, -like that of the Dutch, is better than you will find in either -England, Germany or France; it seems to be the real thing, with -neither chicory nor hidden beans. The Danes are skilful cooks, -although their palates seem to be fondest of cold victuals and raw -smoked fish. - -[Illustration: FISHING BOATS, ELSINORE.] - -We stayed the night in a comfortable inn, close by the water side, an -ancient ale house where sailors used to congregate in the halcyon days -when all passing ships must lay-to at Helsinoere to pay the tolls then -levied by the King, hard by where now the fishing boats tie up. There -were many of these and one in particular was continually surrounded by -an excited crowd. It had just arrived loaded down to the decks with a -catch of herring. The fishermen had had the luck to run into one of -those rare and extraordinary schools of herring which are sometimes -chased into the protecting waters of the Sound by a whale or other -voracious enemy outside. The nets had been let quickly down and -millions of fish as quickly drawn up. The boat had been filled to -sinking, and word flagged to brothers of the craft to hasten up and -partake of the abounding catch. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of -herring had been caught within a few hours by the fishermen of -Helsinoere alone, to say nothing of what were taken by the crews of -other fishing boats along the coast. The entire population of the -little town is now busy cleaning and salting fish, fish that will feed -them well and keep them easy in stomach until the winter shall be -past and the spring be come again. Women were selling fish along the -streets, boys were peddling fish, how many for a cent I do not know, -and men were giving fish, gratis, to whosoever would carry them away. -These extraordinary catches do not often happen. No such luck had -befallen Helsinoere for many a day. It may be years before it again -occurs. The fisherman of these northern waters sails forth upon his -cruise each day inflamed with very much the same spirit of adventurous -quest as in America are we who, living upon the land, drill wells for -oil or dig for gold. - -Helsinoere is rich to-night, and the herring is her king. - -[Illustration: A SNAP SHOT FOR A DIME, KRONBORG.] - - - - -V. - -Across the Sund to Sweden and Incidents of Travel to Kristiania. - - - KRISTIANIA, MISSION HOTEL, - PILESTRADIET 27 (ALFHEIM), _August 31, 1902_. - -_Hilsen Fra Kristiania!_ - -Our ancient tavern, the Sleibot, in Elsinore, cared for us most -comfortably. We were given a large room looking out over the waters of -the _Sund_, with wide small-paned casemented windows, and a great -porcelain stove and giant wooden bedstead. For breakfast we had fresh -herring, the fish which will now form the chief diet of Helsinoere for -many a month, and more of the good Danish coffee. The bill for lodging -and breakfast was seven _kroner_ (about $1.90) for us two. - -The dear old couple were on hand to see us off, and waved _farvel_ as -we boarded the immense ferryboat which takes on, if needful, an entire -train, but usually only the baggage cars, for through travel to -Swedish and Norwegian points. The boats are long and wide and strong, -and smash their way through the floes of drifting ice the winter -through, for this outlet of the Baltic is rarely frozen solid for any -length of time. The four-miles passage is made in twenty minutes, -and after we got under way, it was not long before even massive -Kronborg faded upon the view, and we were making fast to the pier at -Helsingborg, in Sweden. - -[Illustration: KRONBORG.] - -In England, owing to the smallness of the tunnels and the present cost -of enlarging them, the railway management is compelled to keep to the -ancient diminutive style of carriage first introduced sixty years ago. -But here, in these northern lands, where railway building is of more -recent date, although the gauge is the same as in Britain, the -carriages are half as large again, and are many of them almost as long -as our American cars, so that the riding in them is much easier than -there. And in Norway I have already seen cars which, except for being -shorter, were exactly like our own. - -We traveled first along the sea, then through a flat country. There -were scores of sails upon the Kattegat, a multitude of ships and -barques and brigs, schooners and sloops, and small fishing smacks, and -larger fishing luggers going far out upon the North Sea. There were -also many black hulks in tow of big tugs carrying coal to the Baltic -cities, and steamers bound for English and German ports and even for -America. The waters were alive with the busy traffic. - -We passed wide meadows and much grass land. Cows were feeding upon -these fields, red cows mostly, with herders to watch over them. The -cows were tethered each to a separate iron pin sunk in the ground, -all in a single row; and thus they eat their way across an entire -meadow,--an animated mowing machine. Now and then we returned to the -shore of the sea, passing some fishing village nestled along the -rocks, or we rolled through forests of small birches, pines and -spruce. - -In the same compartment with ourselves sat a couple of young Germans. -They were much interested in each other. I noticed that the lady's -rings were most of them shining new, and one, a large plain gold ring, -was in look particularly recent and refulgent. H came to the same -conclusion also at about the very same moment. The two were surely a -bridal pair. And they talked German, and looked out across us through -the wide windows as though we were never there. So I spoke to my wife -in good United States, and we agreed that these two were newly wed. -And then the bride's noble face and fine brown eyes appealed to me, -and I declared her to be the loveliest woman I had yet seen this side -the sea. The while she and her _Mann_ still conversed in low, soft -German. But it now seemed to me that they looked out across us with a -kindlier feeling in their eyes and, in a surreptitious way, the German -beauty was peeping at the fine large diamond on H's left hand (the -wedding ring she had already succeeded in making look dull and old). -At Goteborg (Gothenburg) our train drew up for half an hour's wait. -Here that portion of it going to Stockholm would be cut loose from -our own, and another engine would take us to the north. Along with -most of the other passengers the young German and I also got out, -leaving the two ladies in the car. At the counter of the big lunch -room I watched the ever hungry Norsemen stowing away cold fish and -cheese, and was in somewhat of a dilemma what to take, when the German -husband of the lovely bride came up to me in a most friendly way, and -suggested that I would enjoy a certain sort of fish and thin brown -cake, which seemed to be one of the popular objects of attack by the -voracious multitude. And he spoke to me in perfect English of the -educated sort. He had evidently quite understood my flattering -comments upon his bride, and was now my fast friend. I did not show -surprise, but took his hint, and afterward we strolled up and down the -platform, munching our snack, while he told me that he was a -"barrister from Cologne." "Yes, on his wedding trip." He had "learned -English in the German schools," he said, and had "never been in -England or America." His wife, he admitted, "could not speak English," -but "could read it and understand it when others talked!" He told me -of the German courts, and of his long years of study before he was -admitted to the bar. When they left us a few miles further on, for -their way lay up through the lakes and forests of Sweden, we parted as -old friends, and they promised to visit us if ever they should come -across the sea; our unsuspecting admiration had won their hearts! - -[Illustration: KARL JOHANS GADE, KRISTIANIA.] - -About 4 P. M., we dined at the small station of Ed, our first example -of Swedish railway dinner-serving on an elaborate scale. The train was -a long one. There were many passengers. The fish and cheese consumed -at Gothenburg was long since shaken down. We were genuinely hungry. -But when the train came to a stop there was no rush to the restaurant, -nor attempt of every man to get ahead of the one in front of him. The -passengers took their leisure to get out, and walked deliberately -toward the big eating room. The food was set upon a long central -table. There were hot soups, hot boiled fowl, hot meats, an abundance -of victuals, cold and salt. There were piles of plates, of napkins and -of knives and forks. Everyone helped himself, and ate standing or -carried his food to a little table and sat at ease. This latter plan -we followed. Rule: Eat all you will, drink as much beer as you desire, -take your own time, the train will wait, and when you are quite -satisfied pay a single _kroner_ (twenty-seven cents). There is no -watching to see how much you may consume. You eat your fill, you pay -the modest charge, you go your deliberate way. However slow you may be -the train will wait! - -We now traversed a barren country of marshy flats; with skimp timber, -chiefly small birch and spruce. Toward dusk it was raining hard. The -long twilight had fairly begun when we crossed the Swedish border and -a few miles beyond stopped at Fredrikshald, where is a famous fortress -against the Swedes, besieging which, King Charles XII was killed. -Here a customs' officer walked rapidly through the car, asked a few -questions and passed us on. Our trunks had been marked "through" from -Helsinoere, so we had no care for them until we should arrive in -Kristiania. But that there should be still maintained a customs' line -between the sister kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, which are ruled by a -common King, may perhaps surprise the stranger unacquainted with the -peculiar and somewhat strained relations ever existing between these -kindred peoples. - -[Illustration: VEGETABLE MARKET, KRISTIANIA.] - -For many hundreds of years (since 1380) Norway had been a province of -Denmark. Her language and that of the Dane had grown to be almost the -same, the same when written and printed, and differing only when -pronounced. But in 1814, the selfish powers of the Holy Alliance -handed over Norway to the Swedish crown as punishment to Denmark for -being Napoleon's friend, and threatened to enforce their arbitrary act -by war. So Norway yielded to brute force, and accepted the sovereignty -of Napoleon's treacherous Marshal Bernadotte, the Swedish King, but -she yielded nothing more, and to this day has preserved and yet -jealously maintains her own independent Parliament, her own postal -system, her own separate currency and her Custom Houses along the -Swedish line. And you never hear a Norwegian speak of any other than -of the "King of Sweden." "He is not our King," they say, "we have -none." "We are ruled by the King of Sweden, but Norway has no King." -Cunning Russia, it is said, cleverly spends many _rubles_ in order -that this independent spirit shall be kept awake, and the war force of -Sweden thereby be so much weakened. Russia might even to this day be -able to nourish into war this ancient feud between the kindred breeds, -if it were not that in her greed of power she has shown the cloven -foot. The horror of her monstrous tyranny in Finland already finds -echo among the Norwegian mountains. "We are getting together," a -Norwegian said to me. "We have got to get together, however jealous we -may be of one another. We must, or else the Russian bear will hug us -to our death, even as now he is cracking the ribs of helpless -Finland." And when I suggested that little Denmark should be taken -within the pale, and a common Scandinavian Republic be revived in more -than ancient force to face the world, he declared that already a -movement toward this end was set afoot, and only needed a favorable -opportunity to become a living fact. - -At 11 P. M. we arrived at Kristiania in a pouring rain, and at General -C's recommendation, came to this curious and comfortable hotel. Like -many other hotels in Norway, it is kept by women, and seems to be much -patronized by substantial Norwegians of the nicer sort. It is on the -top floor of a tall building, and you pass up and down in a rapid -modern elevator. It is kept as clean as a pin, and the beds we sleep -in are the softest, freshest in mattress and linen we have seen this -side the sea. We have also passed beyond the latitude of blankets -and are come to the zone of eider down. Coverlets, light, buoyant, and -delightfully warm now keep us from the cold, and in our narrow -bedsteads we sleep the slumber of contented innocence. We have a large -well-furnished chamber, all for two _kroner_ per day (fifty-four -cents). When we entered the long, light breakfast hall this morning, -we saw a single table running the length of the room, a white cloth -upon it, and ranged up and down, a multitude of cheeses big and -little, cow cheese and goat cheese, and many sorts of cold meat, beef -and pork and mutton, and cold fish and salt fish. And there were piles -of cold sliced bread and English "biscuits" (crackers). The coffee, or -milk if you wish it, is brought in, and in our case so are fresh -soft-boiled eggs. A group of evidently English folk near us had a -special pot of Dundee marmalade. The Norwegians take simply their -coffee or milk, with cheese and cold fish and the cold bread. Our -breakfast cost us twenty cents apiece. - -[Illustration: KRISTIANIA, A VIEW OF THE CITY.] - -To-day the city is washed delightfully clean, the heavy rain of the -night having cleared streets and atmosphere of every particle of dust -and grime. We have driven all about in an open victoria. It is a -splendid town, containing some two hundred thousand inhabitants. It -lies chiefly upon a sloping hillside with a deep harbor at its feet. -Like Copenhagen, it is the capital of its country, and the seat of the -Norwegian Government, of the Supreme Law Courts, and of the Storthing -or National Congress or Parliament. At the end of the wide Karl -Johans Gade stands the "Palace of the Swedish King," a sombre edifice, -now rarely occupied. Kristiania is also the literary and art center of -the Norse people. Here Ibsen lives, here Bjoernstjoerne Bjoernsen -would live, if Swedish intolerance did not drive him into France. The -types of men and women we see upon the streets are the finest we have -met since coming over sea. Tall and well-built, light-haired and -blue-eyed, the men carry themselves with great dignity. The women are, -many of them, tall, their backs straight, not the curved English spine -and stooping shoulders. All have good chins, alert and initiative. The -Norwegians are the pick of the Scandinavian peoples. They are the sons -and daughters of the old Viking breeds which led the race. They are -to-day giving our northwestern states a population able, fearless and -progressive, no finer immigration coming to our shores. Senators and -Governors of their stock are already making distinguished mark in -American affairs. - -It was not long before we perceived that in Kristiania, as in -Copenhagen, we were also very close to the great Republic; except -that, perhaps, here we discovered a keener sympathy with American -feeling, a closer touch with the American spirit. - -Those Norwegians whom we have met speak good United States, not modern -English. You hear none of the English sing-song flutter of the voice, -none of its suppression of the full-sounded consonant, but the -even, clear, precise accent and intonation of the well-taught -American mouth. And our friends tell us that it is much easier for -them to learn to speak the American tongue than to master the often -extraordinary inflexion of spoken English as pronounced in Britain. I -am gaining a great respect for these Scandinavian and Norwegian -peoples. They are among the finest of the races of the European world. - -[Illustration: OUR NORWEGIAN TRAIN.] - -We have driven not merely through the beautiful city and its parks, -and beheld the wide view to be had from the tower at its highest -point, but we have also visited the ancient Viking ship, many years -ago discovered and dug out of the sands along the sea, a measured -model of which was so boldly sailed across the Atlantic, and floated -on Lake Michigan, at Chicago, in 1892. - -At this time, however, we are but birds of passage in Kristiania. We -may not linger to become more intimately acquainted with the noble -town; we are arranging for a ten days' journey by boat and carriage -through the _fjords_ and mountain valleys, and region of the mighty -snow-fields and glaciers of western Norway. We must now go on, and -postpone any intimate knowledge of the city until another day. - -H is quite ready for this trip. She wears a corduroy shirt waist of -deep purple shade, and has brought with her one of those short, -simply-cut walking-skirts, of heavy cloth. A natty toque sets off her -head. She is fitly clad. And my eyes are not the only ones that note -this fact, as I observed to-day when, to avoid a shower, we sought -shelter under the pillared portico of the Storthing's fine edifice in -the central square. As we stood there, waiting for the rain to cease, -I noticed a small, fair-haired, quietly-dressed woman intently staring -at the skirt. Each hem and tuck and fold and crease and gore she -studied with the steadfast eye of the connoisseur. And so absorbed did -she become that she grew quite oblivious of our knowledge of her -interest. Around and around she circled, until at last we left her -still taking mental notes. Some other woman in Kristiania, we are -quite sure, will soon be wearing a duplicate of this well made costume -from New York. - -[Illustration: ALONG THE ETNA ELV.] - -[Illustration: HAILING OUR STEAMER, THE RAND FJORD.] - - - - -VI. - -A Day Upon the Rand Fjord and Along the Etna Elv--To Frydenlund--Ole -Mon Our Driver. - - - FRYDENLUND, NORGE, _September 1, 1902_. - -We left Kristiania about seven o'clock this morning and drove six -kilometers to Grefsen, a suburb where the new railway comes in, which -will ultimately connect the capital with Bergen on the west coast. -Grefsen is up on the hills back of the city. The cars of the train we -traveled in were long like our own and also set on trucks, the -compartments being commodious, like the one we rode in from -Helsingborg. - -We traversed a country of spruce forests, rapid streams, small lakes -and green valleys; with red-roofed farmsteads, cattle, sheep and -horses in the meadows, and yellowing fields of oats and rye, just now -being reaped; where men were driving the machines and women raking the -fallen grain, all a beautiful, fertile, well-populated land with big -men, big women, rosy and well set up, usually yellow-haired and -blue-eyed. - -About ten o'clock we arrived at Roikenvik, on the Rand Fjord, a sheet -of dark blue water about two miles wide and thirty or forty long, with -high, fir-clad mountains on either hand; with green slopes dotted -with farm buildings, and occasional hamlets where stopped our tiny -steamboat, the Oscar II. This _fjord_ is more beautiful than a -Scottish _loch_, for here the mountains are heavily timbered with fir -to their very summits, while the hills of Scotland are bare and bleak. - -We sat contentedly upon the upper deck inhaling the keen, fresh air, -watching the picturesque panorama and noting the passengers crowded -upon the forward deck below. They were chiefly farmers getting on and -off, intelligent, self-respecting, well-appearing men, and full of -good humor. One old gentleman with snowy whiskers, who resembled an -ancient mariner, which I verily believe he was, seemed to hold the -center of attention and many and loud were the shouts which his quaint -jests brought forth. He evidently delivered a lecture upon my big -American valise, pointing to it and explaining its excellent make, and -his remarks were apparently to the credit of the owner, and of America -whence it came. - -Just before the bell summoned us to dinner in the after cabin, I -noticed a skiff rowing toward us, one of the three men in it waving -his hat eagerly to our Captain, who immediately stopped the boat until -they drew beside us, when two of them, clean-cut, rosy-faced, young -six-footers, came up, hand over hand, on a rope which was lowered to -them. They were born sailors, like all Norwegians. I snapped my kodak -as their skiff drew near us, and the first news the Captain gave -them was to apprise them of that fact. They appeared to be greatly -flattered by the attention. They laughed and bowed and looked at me as -much as to say, "How much we should like a copy of the photograph, if -we knew enough English to ask for it," but they were too diffident to -make the suggestion through their Captain friend. - -[Illustration: THE OLD SALT.] - -With the Captain himself, I became well acquainted; an alert man of -affairs, who had knocked about the world on Norwegian ships and -visited the greater ports of the United States. He gave me an -interesting account of Norse feeling at the time of the outbreak of -the Spanish war, saying to me, "I am from Bergen. I am a sailor like -the rest of our people, and with about a thousand more of my fellow -countrymen I went over at that time to New York. I was boatswain on -the warship--and I served through the Spanish war. When we heard that -there was likely to be trouble and got a hint that you wanted seamen, -I gathered the men together and we went over and enlisted and others -followed. Yes, there were several thousands of us, altogether, on your -American warships, ready to give up our lives for the great Republic. -Next to Norway, your great, free country, where already live half of -the Norwegian race, lies closest to our hearts. We were ready to give -up our lives for the stars and stripes. When the war was over most of -us came back again. In the summer time I am captain of this boat, in -the winter seasons I go out upon the sea. If America ever needs us -again we are ready to help her. We Norwegians will fight for America -whenever she calls." - -Then he spoke of Norway and the growing irritation of the Norwegian -people against the assumptions of Sweden. "It is true that the Swedes -are our kin, but we have never liked them. The Norwegians are -democrats. We have manhood suffrage, and each man is equal before the -law. In Sweden, there is a nobility who are privileged, and while the -Swedish people submit to the aristocrats running the Government over -there, we Norwegians will never permit them to run us. If it were not -for fear of Russia, we would fall apart, but the Russian bear is -hungry. If he dared he would eat us up. If it were not for England he -would devour Sweden now, and then there would be no hope for Norway. -The Russian Czar wants our harbors, our great _fjords_, as havens for -his fleets, and he would like to fill his ships with Norwegian seamen. -So we fret and growl at Sweden, but we can't afford really to have -trouble with her any more than she can afford to fall out with us. We -must stand together if we are to maintain our national independence, -but nevertheless, we are full of fear for the future. I am -apprehensive that the bear will some day satisfy his hunger. France -will hold down Germany, who just now claims to be our friend also. -England will be bought off by Russian promises in some other quarter -of the world, and then, we shall be at the mercy of the Czar. God help -us when that day comes! Those of us who can will fly to America, all -except those who die upon these mountains. The Russians may finally -take Norway, but it will then be a devastated and depeopled land. -America is our foster mother. Our young men go to her. We are always -ready to fight for her!" - -[Illustration: OLE MON.] - -As I looked into his strong blue eyes, which gazed straight at me, I -felt that the man meant everything he said, and was expressing not -alone his personal sentiment, but also the feeling of the sturdy, -seafaring people of whom he was so fit a type, and I wondered what the -Spaniard would have thought if he had known when he sent his fleets -across the sea--fleets deserted by the Scotch engineers who, in times -of peace, had kept their engines clean--that the United States could -call at need, not merely upon its own immense population, but might -equally rely upon the greatest seafaring folk of all the world to fill -her fighting ships. - -After three and a half hours' sail--about thirty miles--we came to the -end of the _fjord_ at Odnaes, where was awaiting us a true Norwegian -carriage, a sort of _landau_ or _trille_ with two bob-maned Norwegian -ponies, in curious harness with collar and hames thrusting high above -the neck. We had dined on the boat; we had only a valise, a hand-bag -and our sea-rugs. We were soon in the carriage and began our first -day's drive, a journey of fifty-four kilometers (thirty-two miles), -before night. - -Our driver was presented to us as "Ole Mon;" and the English-speaking -owner of the carriage informed us that Ole ("Olie") Mon spoke -fluently our tongue. He was a sturdily built, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed -man some forty years of age with a gray moustache and smooth, -weather-beaten face. He drove these tourists' carriages in summer, he -said; in the winter he took to the sea. We soon discovered his English -to be limited to a few simple phrases, while when he ran to the end of -his vocabulary he never hesitated to put in a fit Norwegian word. He -was proud of his acquaintance with the foreign tongue, and delighted -to exercise his knowledge of it. His chief concern in life was to take -care of the ponies. He continually talked to them as though they were -his boys, and at any excuse for a stop, always had nosebags filled -with oat meal ready to slip on and give them a lunch. The ponies are -not over eight or ten hands high, but are powerfully muscled, and they -are as sleek and tame as kittens. We believe that we have a treasure -in Ole Mon, and I expect to learn much from him about the country we -traverse, for he is glib to talk. - -The road was superb, the scenery magnificent. We followed a deep -fertile valley, along a roaring river, the Etna Elv--recent rains -having filled the streams brim full--with high fir-clad mountains -rising sheer on either hand. We climbed gradually for quite twenty -miles, meeting and passing many curious two-wheeled carts, drawn by a -single horse, called _stolkjaerres_, in which the driver sits behind -the passenger, and about four o'clock we halted at Tomlevolden, a -rambling farmstead where Ole Mon put the nosebags on the ponies and -we rested until the bags were emptied. - -Here, we visited a dairy cow barn,--a large airy building finished in -planed lumber, with long rows of stalls where the cows face each -other, standing on raised floors and with a wide middle aisle where -the feeders pass down between. So scrupulously clean was it that each -day it must be washed out and scrubbed. In one end stood a big stone -furnace, a sort of oven, to keep the cattle warm through the dark cold -winter time, and fresh spring water was piped to a little trough set -at each stall. - -Some years ago, having spent the night at a West Virginia mountain -farm, in middle winter, I looked out of the window in the morning and -beheld the family cow with about a foot of snow piled on her back and -belly-deep in an icy drift. I remarked, "It has snowed some in the -night." Mine host replied that "he reckoned it had." And then talking -of the snow, I told him that I had seen snow eight feet deep way up in -Canada. He looked at me incredulously and inquired, "Say, what mought -the cows do in such snow as that." Would that I might show him and his -like this Norwegian cow barn! - -Then we went on till 7 P. M., when we reached the famous Sanatorium of -Tonsaasen, almost at the summit of the long grade, a spacious wooden -hotel overlooking a profound _dal_, down which plunges a cascade. - -The hotel is kept by a big, bustling woman who speaks perfect cockney -English, and who tells us she has "lived in Lonnon, although a native -Norwegian." She wears a large white apron and a white lace cap, and -she has received H in most motherly fashion. Indeed, our coming has -greatly piqued her curiosity. She has asked us many questions and has -taken H aside and inquired confidentially whether I am not a deserting -soldier, and whether she is not eloping with me! She is evidently -alert for military scandal, and was sorely disappointed and half -incredulous when H declared that she and I were really man and wife. -The truth is, Norway is become the retreat for so many runaway -couples, recreant husbands and truant wives, that the good people of -these caravansaries are quite ready to add you to the list of shady -episodes. Even when I boldly wrote several postal cards to America and -handed them to mine hostess to mail, I felt sure that after she had -carefully read them she would scarcely yet believe our tale. - -Here we were given a bounteous supper of eggs, coffee, milk, cream, -chicken, hare, trout, five sorts of cheese, and big hot rolls, and all -for thirty-five cents each. The ponies were also fed again, and at -eight o'clock we moved on twelve miles further, crossing the divide -and rolling down into the valley of the Baegna Elv in the long -twilight, and then brilliant starlight, coming at last to a typical -Norwegian inn, at Frydenlund, not far from the lovely Aurdals Vand. -This is the main road in winter between Bergen and Kristiania, and is -then more traveled by sleighs and sledges than even now by carriages. -All along the way there are frequent inns and post-houses. -To-morrow we start at eight o'clock, and go on sixty-one miles more. - -[Illustration: FEEDING THE PONIES, TOMLEVOLDEN.] - -[Illustration: CHURCH OF VESTRE SLIDRE.] - -Our inn is a roomy farmhouse where "entertainment is kept," even as it -used to be along the stage-traversed turnpikes of old Virginia, and -adjoining it are extensive barns and stables. There seemed to be many -travelers staying the night. We are really at an important point, for -here two state highways separate, the one over which we have come -leading to Odnaes, and the other diverging southward toward Lake -Spirillen and the country known as the Valders, continuing on straight -through to Kristiania. The house is painted white, and has about it an -air quite like a farmstead in New England or New York. We were -expected when we arrived. Word of our coming had been telephoned from -Tonsaasen, and also from Kristiania. A large bedroom on the second -story is given us. The floor is painted yellow and strips of rag -carpet are laid beside the narrow bedsteads, where we sleep under -eider down. I am writing by the light of a home-made candle. It is -late, the silence of the night is unbroken save by the ticking of the -tall clock on the staircase landing outside my door, and the -occasional neighing of a horse or lowing of a cow. It is the silence -of the contented country-side. - - - - -VII. - -A Drive Along the Baegna Elv--the Aurdals Vand and Many More to -Skogstad. - - - SKOGSTAD, NORWAY, _September 2, 1902_. - -Here we are eighty-four kilometers (sixty-one miles) from Frydenlund, -where we spent last night. All day we have sat in an easy carriage, -inhaled the glorious buoyant air, and driven over a superb macadamized -road. We have skirted the shores of five lakes or _vands_--called -_fjords_,--amidst towering snow-marked mountains, passing beneath -cliffs rising sheer above us for thousands of feet, the highway -sometimes a mere gallery cut into the solid rock, and we are now -wondering how we were ever such simple things as to waste our time in -tame England, or even linger among what now seem so commonplace, -Scottish _lochs_ and _tarns_. We have traversed the shores of the -Aurdal, the Stranda, the Granheim, the Slidre and the Vangsmjoesen -Fjords, each and all pools of the foaming river Baegna; and have -looked across their limpid waters, their clustered islets, their -shimmering surfaces reflecting field and forest and _fjeld_, and even -portraying as in a mirror the snow-fields of mountain heights so far -distant as to be indistinguishable to the naked eye, distant yet two -full days' journey to the west. We have been continually excited -and astonished as each succeeding vista of vale and lake and mountain -has burst upon us. - -[Illustration: THE DISTANT SNOWS.] - -As we advanced further and further along the wide white military road, -the valley of the Baegna Elv grew narrower and deeper, and the -contrasts of verdant meadow and dark mountain increased in sharpness. -The lower slopes are as green and well watered as those of -Switzerland, and are dotted with farmsteads where the thrifty Norse -farmer dwells upon his own land, independent, self-respecting, -recognizing no lord but God--for the title of the "Swedish King" -weighs but little here. Everywhere have I remarked a trim neatness, -exceeding, if it were possible, even that of Holland. Upon the meadows -were cattle, mostly red. The fields were ripe with rye and oats and -barley where men and women were garnering the crops. The lands were -cleared far up the mountain sides to where the forests of dark green -fir stretched further up, until beyond the timber-line bare black rock -masses played hide and seek among the clouds. - -Back and beyond this splendid panorama of vale and lake and -cloud-wrapped summit, far beyond it, binding the horizon on the west, -there grew upon our vision all the afternoon enormous heights of stern -and austere mountains, lifting themselves into the very zenith, their -slopes gleaming with white bands of snow, their topmost clefts nursing -glittering icepacks and glaciers. Ole Mon has constantly pointed -toward them saying "Yotunheim!" "Yotunheim!" and we have known them to -be the gigantic ice-bound highlands of the celebrated Jotunheim Alps, -the loftiest snow mountains of Norway. - -We left the inn at Frydenlund after a breakfast of brook trout, fried -to a turn, and all we could eat of them, delicious milk like that from -our blue grass counties of Greenbrier and Monroe, in West Virginia, -and coffee made as only an Americanized Norwegian may know how. - -Along the way we have met children evidently going to and returning -from their schools, and it has been charming to see how the little -boys pull off their caps, and the little girls drop down in a -courtesy. The little caps always come off the yellow heads with -sweeping bow, and the duck of the little girls is always accompanied -by a smile of greeting. I regret that in America we have lost these -pretty customs which were once taught as good manners by our -forebears. - -We have passed this morning a frowning stone jail, the prison of this -province, and Ole Mon tells us that it is quite empty and has had no -tenant for some two years; surely, convincing testimony of the innate -honesty of these sturdy folk. - -We have also to-day met many young men, tall and stalwart, clad in the -dark blue uniform of the Norwegian National Guard. This is the season -when the annual drills are going on, just at the end of the -harvest time. Norway, like the rest of Europe, has adopted universal -military training for her men. They are taught the art of war and how -to shoot. It is calculated that in eight or ten years more every -Norwegian of voting age will have had the necessary military training -and will have become a part of the effective national defense. "We -will never have trouble with Sweden," they say, "the Swedes and -ourselves only show our teeth." "It is Russia, hungry Russia, that we -fear. We will learn to march and shoot and dig entrenchments so that -we may defend ourselves against the aggression of the Slav. Upon the -sea, we are the masters. We learn in your navy how to handle modern -warships and shoot the giant guns. Upon these mountains, we hope, ere -another decade has elapsed, also to be safe against the encroachment -of that 'Great White peril.'" - -[Illustration: THE BAEGNA ELV.] - -[Illustration: A HERD OF COWS, FOSHEIM.] - -[Illustration: THE GRANHEIMS VAND.] - -We stopped for our first pony-feed at Fagernaes, where a road turns -off to Lake Bygdin and its _Elv_, where the English go to fish; halted -a half hour at Fosheim, where is a fine hotel, and then, passing the -ancient stone church of Vestre Slidre, drove on to Loeken, where a -reindeer-steak-and-salmon-trout-dinner awaited us. The inn, situated -on a rocky point overlooking the picturesque Slidre Vand, was -quakerly-clean, as all of these places are. The neatly dressed young -woman who waited on us had lived two years in Dakota, and in Spokane, -and spoke perfect United States. She had an uncle and a brother still -there, and hoped to go back herself when the old folks had passed -away. At Oeilo, fifteen kilometers further on, we also drew rein--each -time we stop the ponies have the nosebags of oat meal--and then we -paused again at Grindaheim at the Vang Hotel, close to the shores of -the Vangsmjoesen Vand. Here the mistress of the inn had lived in -Minnesota, and talked with us like one of our own countrywomen. She -had come home on a little visit, she said. A stalwart Norseman had -lost his heart and won her hand, and saved-up dollars--but yet her -spirit longed for free America. Her boys would go there as soon as -they were big enough to hustle for themselves. - -In the dining room of the comfortable house was gathered a collection -of stuffed and mounted birds of the surrounding countryside. There -were several ptarmigan and one fine capercailzie, the cousin to the -black cock, and the biggest thing of the pheasant-kind that flies in -Northern Europe. - -Our Minnesotan hostess pressed us to stay and tarry a few -days, setting before us a big pitcher of milk and little -caraway-seed-flavored tea cakes, all for the price of _Te Oere_, two -and a half cents. We would like to have lingered here, for the house -is nestled in one of the wildest and loveliest of dales. To the north, -a mile across the vand, tower the black precipitous heights of the -giant Skodshorn (5,310 feet) upon whose cloud-capped peaks, Ole Mon -tells us, the ghosts of the ancient Scalds and Vikings meet in -berserker combat with Thor and Odin, and whence, sometimes, when -the air is still and there are no storms about, the clangs and clashes -of their battle conflicts resound with thunder roars, waking the -echoes in all the valleys round. Then the black mountain sides breathe -forth gigantic jets of steamlike cloud, while it is at such times also -that the _Trolls_ and Gnomes creep forth from the shadows of the rocks -to do honor to the warring giants. When questioned closely, he -admitted he had never witnessed one of these combats, but declared -that when a boy he had heard the roar on the summit of the mountain -and had seen the white clouds shoot up, which is always the sign of -victory for the gods. Our hostess also asserted that she had once -heard the mountain roar, but admitted she had not seen the shooting -clouds. Some scientists try to explain the mountain's action according -to natural laws, but so great is my faith in Ole Mon that I dare not -dispute his word. Back of the little inn also rise the lofty masses of -the Grinde Fjeld (5,620 feet) upon whose moorland summits it is, the -capercailzie fly and the herds of reindeer range, whence came the -juicy steaks we ate to-day at Loeken and have had to-night for supper. - -[Illustration: A HAMLET BENEATH THE FJELD.] - -All along the Baegna valley, including the fertile basins wherein -nestle the many _vands_ or lesser _fjords_, there were men and women -in the fields mowing the short grass and ripening grain. But neither -the grasses, nor the rye and oats and barley had reached maturity. Nor -do they ever fully ripen in these cold latitudes. They must be cut -green, and then the feeble sunshine must be made the most of. Long -ricks, made of sticks and saplings, or poles barred with cross-pieces -set on at intervals are built extending through the fields, and on -these the grass and grain are carefully spread out, hung on a handful -at a time, so that each blade and straw may catch the sun, and dry -out, a tedious, laborious work on which the women were more generally -employed. The men bring up back-loads newly cut by scythe and sickle, -and throw them down before the women, who then carefully hang each -handful on the ricks. What must a Norwegian feel, trained to such -painstaking toil as this, when he at first sets foot upon the -boundless wheat lands of Minnesota and the prairie West. No wonder he -returns to his native homestead only to make a hasty visit, never to -remain. In Switzerland, I also saw the grass cut when scarcely half -ripe and but a few inches high, when it is stored in handy little log -cribs where in the course of time it slowly dries out, but here every -blade must be hung up in the sun and air if it shall turn to hay. When -the hay and grain is fully dried, it is taken down and done up into -loosely bound sheaves, or carried in bulk to the large, roomy barns. -The grain is generally thrashed out with flails, I am told, although a -few American machines are now being introduced. - -The wire fence is not yet come into Norway, although timber is remote -and costly, and the people are hard put to it for fencing material. I -noticed that they generally depend upon slim poles and small -saplings loosely strung together, for English hedges cannot be grown -in these chilly northlands. - -[Illustration: RICKING THE RYE.] - -[Illustration: THE AUTHOR BY THE SLIDRE VAND.] - -And now we are at Skogstad, above the Vangsmjoesen Vand and lesser -Strande Vand, with two or more _vands_ to see to-morrow before we -cross the height of land and come down to Laerdalsoeren, on the Sogne -Fjord which holds the waters of the sea, sixty-five miles further on. -The _vands_ to-day have been like giant steps, each emptying into the -one below by the roaring river, mounting up, each smaller than the one -below and more pent in by towering mountain masses. - -H is now tucked in between mattress and coverlet of eider down--we are -beyond the latitude of blankets--in a narrow bed, and I am about to -get into another on the other side of the room, on which I now sit -writing to you by the light of a sperm candle, while the murmur of a -thousand cascades tinkles in my ears. - - - - -VIII. - -Over the Height of Land--A Wonderful Ride Down the Laera Dal to the -Sogne Fjord. - - - LAERDALSOEREN, NORGE, _September 3, 1902_. - -We left Skogstad early and began to climb a long ascent, a dozen miles -of grade, still following the valley of the Baegna Elv foaming and -tossing by our side. The two days so far had been clear and cloudless, -but now the air was full of a fine mist, and we probably ascended a -thousand feet before the curtain lifted and a panorama of snow-capped -mountains, profound valleys, and sheer precipices burst upon us. - -A thousand rills and rivulets and brawling brooks streaked the green -slopes with threads and lines of white; mosses and lichens softened -the black rock-masses; blooming heather, and a plant with fine red and -yellow leaf gave color to the heights between the sombre greenness of -the fir forests below and the whiteness of the snow-fields above. I -have never before seen such stupendous precipices, such tremendous -heights; neither Switzerland nor Mexico, Alps nor Cordilleras lift -themselves in so precipitous ascent. - -After a two hours' climb, all the way listening to the roar of the -_Elv_ choking the gorge a thousand feet below our way, we met its -waters issuing quietly from yet another lake, the little Utro Vand, -surrounded by snow-crowned summits, the snow-fields creeping almost to -the water's edge, also passing on our right, the road which leads to -the Tyin Vand and the ice-crowned summits of the Jotunheim. Here was a -large and comfortable inn, Nystuen by name, and Ole Mon gave the -ponies their first morning's feed, adding an armful of mountain hay to -the oatmeal diet. Half an hour's rest is the usual limit, and the -ponies seem to know their business and eat their fare on time. In -Mexico, horses are fed grain but once in twenty-four hours, and that -at midnight, so that all hearty food will be digested before the early -morning start. Here a horse is kept full all the time to do his best; -difference of climate and latitude, I suppose. - -[Illustration: THE PROTECTED ROAD.] - -Just beyond the Nystuen Vand, we crossed the height of land between -the waters of east and west Norway, and now the streams were running -the other way. We were up 3,294 feet, and the summits round about -us--rising yet two and three thousand feet higher--were deeply -snow-marked--great patches and fields of snow. Then we came to another -succession of four more _vands_, like steps, each bigger than the one -above it, and a roaring river that proportionately grew in size. The -road became steeper and we fairly scampered down to a fine inn, -painted red with curiously-carven Norse ornamentation on the gables, -called Maristuen. Here we had fresh salmon, and more good coffee. For -breakfast we were given trout and eggs, now salmon and a delicious -custard for dessert. At table we met a Mr. C and wife, of Chicago, -going over our trail, and we may meet them again in Stockholm. They -are anxious to go on to Russia after seeing Stockholm, and have urged -us to go along also. Across the table from us sat a dear old -white-haired grandmother from Bergen with a blue-eyed, flaxen-haired -granddaughter--a Viking Juno. They are driving across to Odnaes in -their own carriage, a curious, old-fashioned _trille_, low and -comfortable with a mighty top. The old lady is stacked up between -pillows of eider down, and the blue-eyed granddaughter is full of -tender care. We spake not to them nor they to us, but we smiled at one -another and that made us friends. They both waved _farvel_ as they -drove away. - -And then, about two o'clock, we went on again for forty miles down to -the level of Laerdalsoeren and the sea, on the Sogne Fjord, where now -we are. We were to descend some 3,000 feet, and here began one of the -most exciting experiences of my life. The mountains kept their -heights; we alone came lower, all down a single _dal_. Most of the -road was hewn out of the side of precipices--a gallery; great stones -were set endwise about two feet apart on the outer edge, and sometimes -bound together by an iron rail; a slope down which we rolled at a -flying trot, coasted down--the roaring, foaming river below, far -below. Close to us were falls and cascades and cataracts, and the -stupendous mountains, the snow-capped rock-masses lifting straight -up thousands of feet. H grew so excited, exclaiming over the mighty -vistas of rock and water and distant valley, that I had fairly to hold -her in; and ever we rolled down and down and down, spanking along with -never a pause for nearly thirty miles, the spinning wheels never once -catching the ponies' flying heels. Great driving that of Ole Mon, -great speeding that of the sturdy ponies; marvelous macadamized -roadway, smooth as New York's Fifth Avenue! Water bursts, misty -cascades, descending hundreds of feet, sprayed us, splashed us, dashed -us, as we went on and on and on, only the gigantic precipices growing -higher and higher and higher, and the ever-present snowy summits more -and more supreme above us. - -[Illustration: THREE THOUSAND FEET OF WATERFALL.] - -Then we swept out into a green valley, hemmed in on either hand by -sombre precipices rising straight up for three and four and five -thousand feet, and hove to at the farmstead of Kvamme for the ponies -to be fed once more before their last descent. A mile or two further -on the precipices choke together forming a deep gorge, called the -Vindhelle, where it looks as though the mountains had been cracked -apart. - -The Norwegian farmer, like the Swiss, not only makes his living from -the warm bottom-lands, which he cultivates, but also from the colder -uplands to which his goats and cattle are driven in the early summer, -and where the surplus grasses are painstakingly gathered with the -sickle. We were driving quietly along when my attention was attracted -to a couple of women standing with pitchforks in their hands near a -cock of hay. The hay was fresh mown, but I could see no hay-fields -round about. They were looking intently at the distant summit of the -precipice towering above them. My eye followed theirs. I could barely -make out a group of men shoving a mass of something over the edge, and -then I beheld the curious sight of a haymow flying through the air. -Nearer it came, and nearer until it landed at the women's feet. I then -made out a wire line connecting a windlass set in the ground near -where the women stood and reaching up to the precipice's verge, whence -came the hay. The hay was wound about this line. In this manner is the -hay crop of these distant uplands safely delivered at the little -_gaard_ or farmstead in the valley's lap. From these mountain -altitudes the milk and cheese and butter which the goats and cows -afford are also sometimes lowered by this telegraph. In Switzerland, I -have seen communications of this sort for shorter distances, but never -before beheld a stack of hay flying through the air for half a mile. - -This Laera River with its _dal_ (dale, valley), is famous for its -trout and salmon. We passed several men and boys trying their luck, -one, an Englishman, up to his waist in the ice-cold tide. We have now -put up at a snug hotel, quite modern; English is spoken here. And--but -I forgot; when we stopped to feed the ponies, right between the two -descents, we made solemn friendship with the old Norseman who here -keeps the roadhouse; his daughter "had been in Chicago," she spoke -perfect United States, and took us to see, hard by, the most ancient -church in Norway, the church of Borgund, eight hundred to one thousand -years old. It is very quaint, with strange Norse carving and Runic -inscriptions. I gave our pretty guide a _kroner_ for her pains. On -returning to the house, she handed it to the old man, who took out a -big leathern wallet and put the coin away. We had meant it all for -her, and by reason of her knowing Chicago had made the fee quite -double size. - -To-morrow we sail for six hours out upon the Sogne Fjord to Gutvangen, -then drive by carriage to Eida, on the Hardanger Fjord, all yet among -these stupendous mountains. - -I was sitting in the little front room of the inn waiting for supper, -when our driver, Ole Mon, came in to settle our account, for his trip -was at an end. After I had paid him and added a few _oeres_ and a -_kroner_ for _trinkgeld_, at the liberality of which he seemed to be -much gratified, he produced from the inner pocket of his coat a -goodly-sized blank book, which he handed to me, and begged that I -would set down therein a recommendation of his qualities as a driver -and a guide. In the book were already a number of brief statements in -French and German and Norwegian, by different travelers, declaring him -to be a "safe and reliable man," who had "brought them to their -journey's end without mishap." I took the book and wrote down some -hurried lines. When I had finished, he gazed upon the foreign writing -and then disappeared with the book into the kitchen to consult the -cook, who had lived in Minneapolis. He presently reappeared, his eyes -big with wonder and a manner of profound deference. He now advised me -that he would deem it a great honor to be permitted to drive us free -of charge, next morning, from the hotel to the steamer, a couple of -miles distant. He further said, that he had decided to take the sea -trip to Gutvangen on our ship and would there secure for us the best -carriage and driver of the place. He evidently regarded me as some -famous bard, to whom it would be difficult to do sufficient honor. The -lines were these: - - Aye! Ole Mon, you are a dandy whip, - You are a corker and a daisy guide. - You talk our tongue and rarely make a slip, - You've taken us a stunner of a ride. - And when from Norge's _fjelds_ and _fjords_ we sail, - And in America tell of what we've seen, - Our friends will stand astonished at the tale, - And next year bid you take them where we've been. - -[Ilustration: OUR LITTLE SHIP, LAERDALSOEREN.] - - - - -IX. - -A Day Upon the Sogne Fjord. - - - STALHEIM HOTEL, NORWAY, _September 4, 1902_. - -To-day we have spent mostly on the water. We left Laerdalsoeren--the -mouth of the valley of the river Laera--by ship, a tiny ship, -deep-hulled and built to brave the fiercest gales, a boat of eighty to -one hundred tons. Casting off from the little pier at eight o'clock, -we were upon the waters of the majestic Sogne Fjord until after 3 P. M. -This great _fjord_ is the first body of water that I have seen -which to my mind is really a _fjord_, the others along the shores of -which we have journeyed for the past three days, including the last -and least, the Smidal and the Bruce _Fjords_, were only mountain -tarns, what in Norse speech is termed a "_Vand_." While I had read -much of _fjords_, never till to-day have I comprehended their -marvelous grandeur, the overwhelming magnitude of the earth's -convulsions which eons ago cracked open their tremendous depths and -heights. Although their bottoms lie deeper than the bottom of the sea, -(4,000 feet deep in some places), so the Captain tells me, yet up out -of these profound waters rise the gigantic mountains (_fjeld_) five -and six thousand feet into the blue sky, straight up as it were, with -hundreds of cascades and foaming waterfalls, sometimes the tempestuous -tides of veritable rivers, leaping down the black rocks and splashing -into space, and everywhere above them all are the snow-fields, the -eternal snow-fields. - -Sometimes when the precipices are sheltered and sun-warmed, their -surface is green with mosses and banded with yellow gorse, and with -white and pink and purple heather, and barred with scarlet and gray -lichens. The waters were so deep, the precipices so sheer that often -our ship sailed not more than twenty or thirty feet distant from them; -the misty spray of the streams dissolving into impalpable dust -hundreds of feet above us, dampening us like rain, or windblown, -flying away in clouds of vaporous smoke. - -Here and there along the more open parts of the _fjord_ were bits of -green slope with snug farmsteads, a fishing boat swinging to a tiny -pier or tied to the very house itself. Sometimes, perched on a rocky -shelf, grass-grown and high-up a thousand feet, we would discern a -clinging cabin, and once we espied a grazing cow that seemed to be -hanging in mid air. No patch of land lay anywhere about that was not -dwelt upon, tilled or grazed by some man or beast. The climate of -western Norway is mild and humid, tempered as it is by the Gulf -Stream. These coasts have always been well peopled, sea and soil -yielding abundant living to the hardy Norsk. The _fjords_ are the -public highways and upon their icefree waters vigorous little -steamships ply back and forth busied with incessant traffic through -all the year. Our course led us up many winding arms and watery lanes -to cozy hamlets nestled at the mouth of some verdant _dal_, where we -would lie-to a few minutes to put off and take on passengers and -freight. We also carried the mails. At each stopping-place the ship's -mate would hand out the bags to the waiting official, often an old -man, more generally a rosy-cheeked young woman, and carefully take a -written memorandum of receipt, when bag and maiden and many of the -waiting crowd would disappear. Once or twice the bags were loaded upon -one of the curious two-wheeled carts called _stolkjaerres_ driven by a -husky boy, when cart and horse and boy at once set off at lively -gallop. In winter time sledges and men on _skjis_ replace the handy -_stolkjaerre_, and thus all through the year are the mails efficiently -distributed. The captain tells me that a great proportion of the -letters received and sent are from and to America, where so many of -Norway's most energetic and capable young men are growing rich, and -that a large proportion of these letters received are registered, and -contain cash or money orders remitted to the families at home. What -wonder is it that these thousand white-winged missives, which -continually cross the sea, have made and are now making the ancient -Kingdom almost a Democratic state! At one of these hamlets, Aurland by -name, I caught with my camera a pretty Norwegian lass in full native -costume, such as has been worn from time immemorial by the women of -the Sogne Fjord,--a charming picture. - -[Illustration: THE SOGNE FJORD.] - -[Illustration: ALONG THE SOGNE FJORD.] - -Toward three o'clock we sailed up a shadowy canyon, the Naeroe Fjord, -under mighty overhanging precipices, arriving at Gudvangen, our -voyage's end. Here carriages awaited us and here Ole Mon, who has -sailed with us throughout the day, after having driven us down to the -boat himself and refused all pay, handed us over to the driver of the -best _vogn_ (wagon) of the lot, with evidently very particular -instructions as to our welfare. In fact, H tells me, Ole Mon has spent -the day with his book of recommendation open in his hand, calling the -world's attention to my glowing rhymes, and pointing me out with an -air of profound deference as an illustrious, although to him unknown, -bard. We bid him _farvel_, with real sorrow, and regretted that he -might not have driven us to the very end. - -We now went on ten kilometers through a narrow clove, between enormous -heights, passing the Jordalsnut, towering above us, straight up more -than three thousand feet, and straining our necks to peer up at the -foaming torrent of the Kilefos leaping two thousand feet seemingly at -a single bound, and almost wetting us with its flying spray. At one -place the road is diverted, and the immense mountain is scarred from -the very edge of the snows by the marring rifts of a recent avalanche, -which, our driver says, was the most tremendous fall of snow and ice -these parts have ever known. At last we began a steep zigzag ascent, -so sharp that even H relieved the ponies of her weight. We were an -hour in climbing the twelve hundred feet; and found ourselves on a -wide bench overlooking the wild and lovely Naeroedal up which we had -come. The sun was behind us, the half shadows of approaching twilight -were creeping out from each dell and crevice. Upon our left, the gray -peak of the Jordalsnut yet caught the sunshine, as also did the -snow-fields of the Kaldafjeld, almost as lofty upon our right. The -Naeroedal was filling with the mysterious haziness of the northern -eventime. Behind us, commanding this exquisite vista, we found a -monstrous and uncouth edifice, a German enterprise, the Stalheim -Hotel, thrust out upon a rocky platform between two rivers plunging -down on either side. Here we have been given a modern bedroom, fitted -with American-looking oak furniture, have enjoyed a well-cooked German -supper, sat by a blazing wood fire, and shall soon turn off the -electric lights and turn in, to repose on a wire mattress, and be -lulled to sleep by the musical roar of the two great waterfalls. - -[Illustration: SUDALS GATE ON THE SOGNE FJORD.] - - - - -X. - -From Stalheim to Eida--The Waterfall of Skjerve Fos--The Mighty -Hardanger Fjord. - - - ODDA, NORWAY, _September 5, 1902_. - -We left Stalheim by _Skyd_ (carriage), at nine o'clock. The drive was -up a desolate valley, through a scattering woodland of small firs and -birches, close by the side of a foaming creek, the Naerodals Elv, -hundreds of becks and brooklets bounding down the mountain sides to -right and left. - -After an hour's climb, we reached a flattened summit where lay a -little lake, the Opheims Vand, two or three miles long and wide, -encircled with snow-fields. Here and there we passed a scattered -farmstead--_gaard_--for every bit of land yielding any grass is here -in the possession of an immemorial owner. The _vand_ is a famed trout -pool, and as we wound along its shores we passed any number of men and -boys trying their luck. It was raining steadily, a cold fine downpour, -and all the male population seemed to have taken to the rod. - -At the lake's far end we passed a small hotel, built in Norse style -with carved and ornamented gables and painted a light green. Here in -the season the English come to fish. - -[Illustration: THE NAERO DAL.] - -Leaving the _vand_, we began a long descent, and for twelve miles -rolled down at a spanking pace, the brook by our side steadily growing -until it at last became a huge and violent torrent, a furious river, -the Tvinde Elv. In the fourteen miles we had descended--coasted--two -thousand five hundred (2,500) feet, and now were come to the little -town of Voss or Vossvangen, which lies on the banks of the Vangs Vand, -a body of blue water five or six miles long and two miles wide, -surrounded by one of the most fertile, well-cultivated valleys of -Norway. - -Vossvangen is a town of importance, and is the terminus of the railway -with which the Norwegian government is connecting Bergen and -Kristiania. The easiest parts of this national railway, those between -Bergen and Vossvangen, and between Kristiania and Roikenvik--over -which we came--are already constructed and running trains, but it is -estimated that it will be twenty years before the connecting link is -finally completed, for it is almost a continuous tunnel--a magnificent -piece of railroad-making when it is done. - -Vossvangen is also the birthplace of one of Minnesota's most -illustrious sons, United States Senator Knute Nelson. It is upon these -mountains that he tended the goats and cows when a barefooted urchin, -and I do not doubt that he has surreptitiously pulled many a fine -trout and salmon out of the lovely lake. The people of Vossvangen -accept his honors as partly their own, and my Norwegian host gazed at -me most complacently when I told him that American Senators held in -their hands more power and were bigger men than any Swedish King. -Norwegians are justly proud of their eminent sons who, in the great -Republic over the sea, are so splendidly demonstrating the capability -of the Norse race. - -We put up at a modern-looking inn, called Fleischer's Hotel, a -favorite rendezvous for the English, despite its German-sounding name. -Here we rested a couple of hours, and were given a well-served dinner -with tender mutton and baked potatoes, big and mealy, which we ate -with a little salt and abundance of delicious cream. Our hearts were -here stirred with sympathy for a most unhappy-looking American girl -who had evidently married a foreign husband. He was a surly, -ugly-mannered man, with low brows and tangled black hair. She, poor -thing, was the picture of despair, her fate being that all too common -one of the American woman who, foolishly dazzled with a titled lover, -too late finds him to be a titled brute. - -We were to continue to Eida on the Hardanger Fjord, in the same -carriage in which we set out. The ponies were well rested, and we got -away a little after two o'clock. Ascending the well-tilled valley of -the Rundals Elv by easy grades over a fine hard road, we crossed a -marshy divide and then descended to the Hardanger Fjord. After passing -the divide and coming down a few miles, we suddenly found ourselves -on the rim of a vast amphitheatre into the center of which plunged a -mighty waterfall, the Skjervefos, much resembling that of the -Kaaterskill Falls, in the Catskill mountains of New York, only ten -times as big. A roaring river here jumps sheer a thousand feet, and -then again five hundred more. Yet we did not know of it until we were -right on to it and into it. The falls making two great leaps, the road -crosses the wild white waters between them on a wooden bridge. Over -this we drove through soaking clouds of spray. - -[Illustration: GREETING OUR BOAT, AURLAND.] - -When in London we had no thought of Norway. Not until we heard from -General and Mrs. C of the delights of this journey did we make up our -minds to take it. We were then in Copenhagen, and neither in that town -nor in Kristiania have we been able to get hold of an English-worded -guide book. We are trusting to our driver's knowledge, and to our own -eyes and wits. And so it is, that we came right upon one of the most -splendid waterfalls in all Norway, and never knew aught of it until -chasm and flood opened at our feet. Perhaps it is better so. We have -no expectations, our eyes are perpetually strained for the next turn -in the road, our ears are alert for the thundering of cascades, our -minds are open for astonishment and delight. - -While it is a substantial modern bridge that now takes you safely over -the stream which spins and spumes between the upper and the nether -falls, yet our driver tells us, that in the ancient days when men and -beasts must ford or swim to get across, this was dreaded as a most -dangerous place. Few dared to ford,--most made a long detour. No -matter how quiet or how low the waters might appear, there were yet -dangers which men could not see, for water-demons hid in the black -eddies and skulked in the foam. They lurked in silence until the -traveler was midway the stream when they would boldly seize him by the -feet, and draw him down, and ride his body exultingly through the -plunging cataract below, nor did they fear also to drown what rescuer -might venture in to save his friend. When now the moon is low and the -night is still, may frequently be heard commingling with the leaping -waters' roar, 'tis said, the death wails of the lost souls of those -whom the demons thus have drowned and delivered for torment to the -cruel master-demon, Niki. - -Below the giant Skjervefos we rolled alongside its Elv until we came -out upon the margin of another exquisite tarn, the Gravens Vand, -where, just as along the Vangsmjoesen Vand, the roadway is, much of -it, hewn out in galleries at the base of overhanging cliffs. Nor is -there room for carriages to pass. There are turnouts, here and there, -and you pull a rope and ring a bell which warns ahead that you are -coming. In some places the roadway was shored up with timbers above -the profound black waters. We passed from the _vand_ through a rocky -glen down which the foaming waters hurried to the sea. We followed the -stream and suddenly came out into vast breadth and distance. We were -at Eida on an arm of the mighty Hardanger Fjord, the biggest earth -crack in Norway. - -[Illustration: THE HARDANGER FJORD.] - -A fresh, keen wind blew up from the ocean. A wooden pier jutted out -into the deep water, where, tied to it, were several fishing smacks. A -small, black-hulled steamer was there taking on freight, but it was -not our boat. The sky was overcast. The long twilight was coming to an -end. It would soon be dark. Across the _fjord_, giant black-faced -precipices lifted up into the clouds and snows. Down the _fjord_ misty -headlands loomed against the dusk. The black waters were foam capped. -There was a dull moan to the wind in the offing; it was a night for a -storm at sea. It now grew dark. A few fitful stars shone here and -there. The wind was rising. A bright light suddenly appeared toward -the west. Our boat had come round the headland, and was soon at the -pier. It was much like the little ship in which we sailed upon the -Sogne Fjord. These _fjords_ are alive with multitudes of just such -boats, deep-set, sturdy craft, built to brave all weathers and all -seas. Our course lay down the Graven Fjord, through the Uten Fjord, -and then up the long, narrow Soer Fjord--arms of the Hardanger--to the -hamlet of Odda, where we would again take a carriage and cross the -snow-fields of the giant Haukeli mountains of the Western Alps. - -Watching the sullen waters, profound and mysterious, as they churned -into a white wake behind our little craft, I could scarcely credit it -that I was upon the Hardanger Fjord, the greatest and most intricate -of the sheltered harbors which for centuries have made the coasts of -Norway the fisherman's haven, the pirate's home. Upon these waters the -ancient Viking learned his amphibious trade. Hid in the coves which -nestle everywhere along the bases of the precipices the Viking mothers -hatched and reared their broods of sea-urchins, who romped with the -seals and chased the mermaids and frolicked with the storms. Where I -now sailed had met together again and again those fleets of war-boats, -the like of which we saw the other day in Kristiania, and which went -out to plunder and ravage hamlet and town and city along all the ocean -coasts, even passing through the Gates of Hercules, and visiting Latin -and Greek and African province with devastation and death. -"Sea-wolves," Tacitus called them, and such they were. Here gathered -the hardy war-men who went out and conquered Gaul, and founded Norse -rule in Normanwise where now is Normandy. Hence sailed forth the -warships which harried the British Isles, and left Norse speech strong -to this day on Scottish tongue and in Northumbrian mouth. Here, also, -fitted out the ships, some of the crews of which it may have been who -left their marks upon the New Jersey shores in Vineland, and who may -even have been the sires of that strange blue-eyed, light-haired, -unconquered race I saw two years ago in Yucatan, who have held the -Spaniards these four centuries in check. I gazed upon the black waters -of mighty Hardanger, and saw the fleets returning with their spoil, -and heard the shouts of vengeance wreaked and victory won, which have -so often echoed among these mountains. I was looking upon the -breeding, homing waters of the greatest sea-race the world has known, -and every lapping wavelet became instinct with the mystery of the -cruel, splendid past. - -[Illustration: THE SOER FJORD, HARDANGER.] - -The churning of the propeller blades now ceased. I felt a jarring of -the boat. We were come to Odda and the voyage's end. - -It was ten o'clock when we made our port. A black night it had been, -pitch dark, with a fierce wind and ill-tempered sea. The profound -waters respond with sullen restlessness to the stress of outer -tempest. Only a Norseman born and bred to these tortuous channels -could have safely navigated them on such a night, and I noticed that -our engines did not once slacken speed throughout the voyage! - -Upon arriving at our hotel we found we were expected. A comfortable -room was in readiness, and a carriage engaged for the following day -and early breakfast arranged. All this had been done through telephone -by our Tourists' Agency (the Bennetts) in Kristiania. And so have we -found it everywhere along our route. All Norway, every post office and -nearly every farm, and especially all hotels and inns, are connected -by a telephone system owned and run by the Government. Anybody in -Norway can call up and talk to anybody else. We have experienced the -full benefit of this efficiency. - -Our entire trip has been arranged by telephone from Kristiania. We are -always expected. A delicious meal, ordered from Kristiania, is always -ready for us, and every landlord knows to the minute just when we will -arrive, for news of us has been 'phoned ahead from the last station we -have passed. - -This hamlet of Odda is an important point. Here converge the two great -trade and tourist routes of Western Norway. The one, the Telemarken -route, crossing the Haukeli Fjeld of the Western Alps to Dalen, and -thence by the Telemarken lakes and locks to Skien, and by rail to -Kristiania; the other diverging at Horre, passing down the valley of -the Roldals Vand to Sand and thence to Staavanger by the sea, whence -ships cross to Hamburg and Bremen and the North Sea ports, and to Hull -and Harwich in Britain--favorite routes by which the Germans and -British enter Norway. - - - - -XI. - -The Buarbrae and Folgefonden Glaciers--Cataracts and Mountain -Tarns--Odda to Horre. - - - HORRE, HOTEL BREIFOND, _September 6, 1902_. - -To-day we have driven thirty miles from Odda, all of it up hill, -except the last six miles. We started about nine o'clock with two -horses, an easy carriage, and a driver whom I have had to resign to -H's more promising Danish, for he is elderly and very weak in the -foreign tongue. From the first we began to climb. The driver in Norway -always walks up the hills, and the male traveler also walks, while the -female traveler is expected to walk, if she be able. The Norse ponies -take their time, although at the end of the day they have traveled -many miles and are seemingly little tired. - -By the side of the smooth road rushed a river, the Aabo Elv, a mass of -foam and spray which sometimes flew over us. A couple of miles farther -on we came to a little dark-blue lake, the Sandven Vand, surrounded by -lofty mountains, on the far side of which, almost jutting into it, -pressed down the glacier of Buarbrae, descending from the snow-fields -of the Folgefonden, a single expanse of ice and snow some forty miles -long and ten to twenty wide, the greatest accumulation of snow and ice -in western Norway. Over the precipices hemming in the _vand_ dashed -scores of cataracts and cascades, often leaping two and three thousand -feet in sudden plunge. H says nobody can ever show her a waterfall -again, nor talk about English _Waters_ or Scottish _Lochs_. - -Passing the lake, we continued to ascend, the road entering a deep and -sombre gorge, which suddenly widened out into a sunlit vale, the air -being filled with mists and rainbows. We were nearing the Lotefos and -the Skarsfos, two of Norway's most celebrated cataracts. Two rivers -begin falling almost a mile apart, approaching as they fall, until -they unite in a final leap of nearly fifteen hundred feet, a splendid -spectacle, while right opposite to them tumbles the Espelandsfos, -falling from similar heights. The spray and mist of the three -commingle in a common cloud, and the highway passes through the -eternal shower bath. As you look up you can see the entire mass of the -waters from their first spring into space throughout their tumultuous, -furious descent, until they eddy at your feet. Nature is so lavish -here with her gigantic earth and water masses that one is perpetually -awe-struck. - -One incident has occurred today, which I presume I may take as a high -compliment to my native tongue. One of two young Frenchmen, whose -carriage has traveled near our own, while walking ahead of his -vehicle, found the ponies disposed to walk him down. Twice this -happened. Then he waxed wroth. He suspected the tow-headed Norse -driver of not being really asleep, but of trying to even up the -ancient national grudge against his own dear France. He flew into a -Gallic passion. He stopped short. He halted the team. He awoke the -driver. He shouted in broken English, "You drive me down! You drive me -down! You vone scoundrel! I say vone damn to you, I say vone damn, I -say vone damn!"--shaking his fist in the astonished face of the -sleepy-head. After that the Norseman kept awake and the French -gentleman walked safely in the middle of the road. He evidently felt -that to swear in French would be quite lost upon the son of the -Vikings. English alone would do the job. - -[Illustration: THE ESPELANDS FOS.] - -[Illustration: COMMINGLING LOTE FOS AND SKARS FOS.] - -We climbed for many miles a deep glen called the Seljestad Juvet; and -dined long past the hour of noon at a wayside inn, the Seljestad -Hotel. The hotel was kept by women. "Our men," they said, "are -gathering hay at the _Saeter_ (mountain farm) far up on the mountain -highlands. They are gone for a month, and will not return until the -crop is all got in." We paid our modest reckoning to a delicate, -fair-haired, blue-eyed little woman, with quiet, graceful manners, -well bred and courteous in bearing. She is the bookkeeper and business -manager of the inn, "so long as the summer season lasts," she said. -And then she sails to England in one of her father's ships, and there -becomes a governess in an English family until another summer holiday -shall come around. She had never been to America. "Some day," -her skipper sire had "promised to take her to New York," when -they would "run over for a day" to Minneapolis to see an aunt and -cousins who were prospering, as do all Norwegians in America's -opportunity-affording air. And "Americans, she always liked to meet," -she said, "for unlike the English, they met you so frankly and did not -condescend." She showed H all through the neat and tidy kitchen, while -a big black nanny goat stood in the doorway and watched them both. - -All the afternoon we kept on climbing by the winding roadway, passing -a black-watered, snow-fed tarn, the Gors Vand, and over the -Gorssvingane pass above the snow line, where snow-fields stretched -below us, around us, above us. From the summit of 3,392 feet above -Odda and the sea, we had a superb view of all the vast Folgefond -ice-field behind us, and before us two others, the Breifond and the -Haukeli Fjeld, as vast, while 2,000 feet right down beneath us lay a -deep blue lake, the Roldals Vand. - -The road now wound ten kilometers (six and one-third miles) down into -the deep valley by many successive loops, twelve of them, one-half a -mile to the loop--a feat of fine engineering, for this is a military -road. We came down on a full trot all the way, even as Ole Mon came -down the Laera Dal, until we reined in at a picturesque inn at the -vale of Horre, overlooking the valley of Roldal and its _vand_. Now we -are in a cozy hostelry, the Hotel Breifond, with a room looking out -over the exquisite deep-blue lake, encompassed by green mountains and -snow-covered summits. - -[Illustration: THE GORS VAND.] - -[Illustration: GLACIER OF BUARBRAE.] - -Our hotel is kept by two sweet-faced elderly women, serene and -rosy-cheeked, dressed in black with immaculate white caps; one is the -widow of a daring seaman who years ago went down with his ship in a -winter gale. He was the captain and would not leave his post, though -many of the crew deserted and were saved. The other is her spinster -sister, whose betrothed lover likewise was lost at sea. In the summer -time they here harbor many anglers, who come to fish the waters of the -Roldals Vand and adjacent streams, which like most Norwegian lakes and -rivers are rented out by the local provincial or district governments. -The visitors who come here are chiefly English, the ladies tell us, -and great is their distress and often violent their objurgation at the -absence of any darkness when they may sleep. They cannot adjust -themselves to the nightless days. They are inexpressibly shocked when -they find themselves playing a game of golf or tennis at midnight, or -forgetful of the flight of time in the excitement of a salmon chase, -pausing to eat a midday snack at 2 A. M. - -Our beds are the softest we have yet slept in, for both mattress and -coverlet are of eider down. The two ladies have been delighted to talk -with H in the native tongue, and have told her of their nephews and -cousins who are getting rich owning fine wheat farms in the Red River -of the North. "Come back to us in June," they say. "Our wild flowers -are then in bloom, and the hungry trout and salmon will then rise to -any fly!" And H and I resolve that in June we surely will return. - -I saw one or two small pale butterflies to-day, and one gray moth at -the snow edge, where we crossed the divide; the only ones I yet have -seen. The birds, in this northland, of course, are all new to me; the -crows are gray, with black wings, heads and tails; a magpie with white -shoulders and white on head, and long, blue-black tail, is very tame; -while a bird I take to be a jay is numerous, with black body, white -shoulders and wing tips, and tail feathers edged with white. I have -seen some gray swallows which are now gathering in flocks preparatory -to going south, and several sparrows much like our field sparrows; and -sandpipers and upland plover, very small. The gray crows have a coarse -croak like a raven, "Krakers" they are called. In England we saw and -heard our only lark the day we drove from Ventnor to Cowes, on the -Isle of Wight, but I heard no other song birds in England, only once, -near Oxford, when I caught a note like our song sparrow's, while crows -and rooks swarmed everywhere from Southampton to Inverness. In Denmark -there are many storks, and I there saw the nest of one, a gigantic -mass of sticks and mud, built on the ridge of a barn, but I noticed -few other birds, except the gulls and terns along the sea. At Vang, -the other day, I saw, as I wrote you, the ptarmigan, and the -capercailzie stuffed and mounted by a Norwegian living there; they -are found on the mountains thereabouts; and a passenger, day before -yesterday, on the Sogne-fjord-boat, had in his hand half a dozen -ptarmigan, with their plumage already turning toward the winter's -white. - -[Illustration: THE DESCENDING ROAD TO HORRE.] - - - - -XII. - -Over the Lonely Haukeli Fjeld--Witches and Pixies, and Maidens Milking -Goats. - - - HOTEL HAUKELID, _September 17, 1902_. - -This morning we left Hotel Breifond about eight o'clock and although -we started alone, three other carriages soon caught up with us, and we -set off together, ours being the first in the line. As it is the -etiquette of the drivers never to pass each other, we have kept this -order all the day. Next behind us was a Dane with his Norwegian wife, -from Bergen, to whom H talked in their own tongue. Next to them were -the two young Frenchmen with whom I have managed to converse, and -behind these rode a German and his _frau_, who were most icy until -they learned we were not English but Americans, whereupon they grew -friendly indeed. We have got well acquainted while walking together up -the long mountain slopes. - -Yesterday we crossed the divide at a maximum elevation of 3,392 feet, -and were above the snow line; to-day we again traversed the -snow-fields at a yet higher altitude, passing under one snow mass by a -tunnel, where H took a snap-shot of me standing in the snow, and -reached the maximum altitude of 3,500 feet. - -[Illustration: A MILE STONE.] - -[Illustration: CATTLE ON THE HAUKELI FJELD.] - -From the emerald valley of the Roldals Vand we crept up a long ascent -for twenty miles, and I walked the whole of it. We followed the -foaming Vasdals Elv to its source, until all trees were below us, and -only short grasses, mosses and lichens grew amid the masses of drear, -black rock, and wide fields and patches of snow. This was the most -desolate region I have ever yet beheld or set foot upon; no life of -any sort; "_aucuns animaux, aucuns oiseaux; seulement les roches, le -silence et le froid_," as one of the young Frenchmen exclaimed! There -was not even a gnat or a butterfly. The primordial adamant rock -presented as sharp and unworn edges to the blows of the icy torrents -as when God first made it. The sun was warm and all the streams brim -full, swollen from the melting snows. High on the height of land we -found two silent lakes, the Ulivaa Vand and the Staa Vand. No life -stirred about them, although our driver asserted they were "alive with -fish." - -On these silent heights with their mosses and lichens, goats and -reindeer thrive, and the latter range throughout the year. - -We dined near the summit at a neat log inn called Haukeli-Saeter upon -a soup, boiled salmon, reindeer steak and vegetables,--all good. Here -our Germans clamored for _sauerkraut_ and _bier_, and were much -perturbed at receiving instead schooners of sweet milk and -caraway-seeded tea-cakes. The inn is built in typical Norse style, -with sharp and elaborately carved gables, and is kept open chiefly for -the benefit of tourist travel. - -Our driver is a quaint and lackadaisical old Norsk, who speaks a -drawling, ancient Roldal _patois_. The first day we could not do much -with him, although H tried her best Danish. But to-day he is beginning -to thaw out and has at last become really garrulous. He is full of -peasant superstition and folk lore which he implicitly believes. These -Haukeli Fjelde will never be inhabited by man, he says, for they are -already the home of the giant and dangerous _Trolls_, mysterious and -mighty spirits who are inimical to man. They dwell on the barest and -bleakest and most desolate mountain tops, where they devour young kids -and reindeer fawns and, occasionally, even dare to kidnap a child, and -are always on the watch to steal a buxom lass. It is useless to chase -or follow them, they are never to be caught, and while they may show -themselves at times if they shall choose, yet they are invisible to -most human eyes. He has never seen a _Troll_, he says, but once he -knew an old man who had been scared by one which tried to catch him -when a boy. - -There are also witches upon the Haukeli mountain tops, the old man -says. He is sure he has heard them hurtling through the air, -sometimes, when driving alone in the dusk of midsummer nights, -crossing the desolate heights of the Haukeli Fjeld. I asked him if -they still rode on broomsticks as they used to do in Germany, but he -declared that they were more bloodthirsty than that, for they always -carried ancient Viking broadswords, which they had picked up after -some of the big fights which take place before breakfast in Valhalla -every morning among the Vikings. Every summer some few witches are -sure to be seen or at any rate heard, by some lonely peasant caught by -fatigue on a twilight mountain top. There is one more beautiful than -all the rest, he says. He calls her "Hulda," and says she is a great -hand to seduce and beguile young men. She can fix herself up to appear -very beautiful, and to look upon her is to fall fast in love with her. -Then she taps a rock with a long staff she carries and lo! it opens -and there within are splendid chambers, a fairy palace, with all the -allurements of golden furnishings and sumptuous hangings and a table -groaning under the weight of delicious things to eat. If, dazzled by -this glimpse of paradise, the youth once enters and is taken in her -arms and kissed by her, then it is all up with him. He never escapes, -but after she has toyed with him to her heart's content in idle -dalliance, and grown tired of him, then are his blackened bones cast -forth upon some barren mountain top, perhaps to be found long years -afterward by wandering goatherd or venturesome hunter. Between these -_Trolls_ and the witches, H has acquired a most wholesome fear of the -Haukeli Fjeld, and she vows she would never drive over it alone. - -[Illustration: THE DESOLATE HAUKELI FJELD.] - -Also, the old man has at first hinted at and then confided to us that -the _Trolls_ and witches are not indeed the so serious menace they -might seem, for they are really afraid of man and keep generally well -out of his way; but that the real vexation of life comes from the -little pixies and sprites, who love to live handily about your house, -and who are always making trouble, either out of a spirit of pure -mischief, or else by reason of jealousy or pique. They are "very -touchy," he says, and you never know when or how you may offend them. -But if you do, then woe betide you. They will steal the feed out of -your horse's trough, or from his very nosebag right before your eyes, -and so deft are they at their tricks that you can never catch them. -You only discover that your horse gets thinner and thinner until he -finally dies, while if they shall be pleased with what you have done -or said you will find the horses always sleek and fat and able to do -two days' work in one. I asked him how he stood in with the pixies -just now, for I thought his team looked rather poor, but he said that -was by reason of the hard summer's work, the pixies having done him no -ill for several years. They also delight to milk the goats and cows -upon the sly, he said, and will steal the cheese set out to dry, and -often play such havoc with household supplies as to drive the peasants -to despair. For this reason it is, that many good farmers set out -little bowls of milk and bits of cheese in some silent meadow or -mountain dell, where the pixies may eat quite undisturbed. - -As if to emphasize the old man's words, we just then passed the hut of -a woman goatherd almost upon the summit of the vast lonely Haukeli -Fjeld and there, set upon a little shelf, high up near the moss-grown -roof, were a small milk-bowl and a bit of brown cheese, an offering to -the elves and pixies of that place. - -The information I here give you may be wrong in minor detail, for we -could not always perfectly interpret the quaint and ancient dialect in -which the facts were told, but H says she could make out the most of -what the old man said; for after all Danish and Norse speech are very -nearly the same. - -We were now well over the height of land and were coasting down toward -prospective supper. The barren waste of black and gray rocks, across -which we had traveled, began to give place to greener slopes; the -mosses had returned; the grass was peeping up again. Swinging around a -well-graded curve, we dropped into a little valley. The evening sun -was behind us, the slanting rays tipped peak and snowy crest with -reddish gold, but the vale below was wrapped in soft shadow. On the -left, stood a moss-roofed cabin, near where ran the road; on the -right, across a boisterous brook, we saw a group of Norse maidens, -clad in blue-and-red peasant costume, surrounded by a herd of goats. -The goats were apparently in great excitement. Each young woman was -following a goat and that particular goat walked with demure and -expectant gait. One old gray goat moved with particularly stately -step, while the lady by his side held in her hand a small wooden -bucket. I presumed that, of course, she proposed to give that goat his -evening meal. Imagine my astonishment when, before the goat really was -aware, she collared it, swung her leg over it and holding it fast -between her thighs, facing its rear, began energetically milking, not -it, or him, but her! The goat had disappeared, only a tail and a head -discovered themselves beyond the lady's skirts, and the evening -shadows gathered about that maid and goat,--that goat held tight as -though in iron vise. The day was too nearly done for my kodak to -avail, so I have tried to sketch the episode, and so also has one of -our French companions--and I send you the pictures. If the old poet -had only seen the tableau of goat and maid he never could have written -the following lines which long ago my memory clipped from the Yale -_News_: - - "The milkmaid pensively milked the goat, - When, sighing, she paused to mutter, - I wish you brute, you'd turn to milk, - And the animal turned to butt her!" - -We have driven some eighty kilometers to-day and have been in the -fresh mountain air, open air, for eleven hours. H is growing plump, -and her cheeks have caught the Norse red. The keen air makes our blood -tingle in spite of the cold, for it is cold. On these summits ice -forms the moment the sun is hid. We are in full winter clothing, and -wrap our heavy sea rugs about us as we sit in the carriage. In a -fortnight the snows will cover the passes and tourist travel will -cease till another year. - -[Illustration: NORSE MAIDEN MILKING GOAT.] - -During the last two days we have frequently met men bearing on their -backs and dragging on sledges piles of birch branches, the twig ends -with the leaves yet on, and we have noticed here and there, entire -birch-growing hillsides where the saplings had all been trimmed, the -tender twigs sheared off and frequently the lopped-off branches -stacked up in bundles stuck in a handy tree-crotch. This is the winter -fodder for the goats, and the birch twig is as important for them as -is the hay for the cattle. Just as in Switzerland, large flocks of -goats are pastured throughout the summer upon the higher mountain -slopes and ridges, and much cheese is manufactured from their milk. Of -sheep we have seen few, although I understand a good many are raised -for the local demand for wool. Like Scotland, Norway is hereabouts too -cold and harsh for sheep to do their best. - -Nor have we noticed many fowls, turkeys or geese or ducks about the -farmsteads,--only a few chickens here and there. This also is too cold -a climate, with too rigorous and lengthy winters for poultry to be -profitable. Nor have we had chicken set before us but the once when we -supped with the inquisitive dame of Tonsaasen. Trout and reindeer -steak as well as eggs we have often had, and once roast ptarmigan. - -Neither in Britain, nor in France, nor in Germany have I ever seen a -wooden house; all buildings there are of stone or brick; but here the -buildings throughout the countryside are all of wood; hewn logs most -frequently, not uncommonly of sawed lumber, these latter quite often -painted white and red, reminding one of tidy New England. The roofs -are steep to shed the snows or, otherwise, quite flat and covered with -a layer of birch bark and then tight-growing sods and mosses, which -covering the snow may melt upon but through which it will never soak. - -To-day being Sunday, we have met many churchgoers upon the road, and -have passed two churches where the Lutheran service was being held. -During our drive we have constantly noted the number of these Lutheran -churches, as well as the snug-built, substantial schoolhouses. Piety -and intelligence deeply mark the lives of these Norse people. Just as -in Denmark, so here also is the Lutheran church recognized and -supported by the state, and its pastors constitute a formidable and -influential body, guiding the thought of the Norwegian people. -Apparently the schools here are as universal and as well attended as -our own. Every Norwegian child, who is of school age, is compelled by -law to go to school. Nowhere outside of my own country have I seen so -many schoolhouses dotting the countryside. In England there are no -common schools and no schoolhouses. In France the schoolhouses are -hidden among the buildings of the clustered villages. In Switzerland, -perhaps, the schoolhouse is as much in evidence as here, but in -neither Germany nor Holland, although their universities lead the -world, is there revealed the teaching of the common people as is done -by the many schoolhouses of this northern land. - -Now we are housed in a commodious and quite modern inn, and have had a -delicious trout supper, all our four carriage-loads of travelers -sitting at one long table, where H and I have been the stars--for we -only and alone can talk equally to the Dane and his Norwegian wife, to -the young Frenchmen, and to the German pair; while through us only can -they exchange ideas, for we alone can talk to each in his own native -tongue. "Ah! these Americans!" "You talk all the languages!" "How wide -you see!" "While we, we do not see beyond the boundaries of France." -"We speak too seldom a foreign tongue." "You are bigger-minded than -are we!" So exclaimed one of our French friends. - - - - -XIII. - -Descending from the Fjelde--The Telemarken Fjords--The Arctic -Twilight. - - - DALEN, _September 8, 1902, 7 P. M._ - -Our series of great rides on land and water is at an end. For eight -days we have been inhaling the crisp, buoyant, ozone-laden atmosphere, -viewing the majestic scenery, watching the sturdy, strong-faced men -and women, the rosy, yellow-haired children; and now it is over. H and -I agree that in our lives we will never again experience a more -delightful outing--our sure-enough honeymoon. - -This morning we left the Hotel Haukelid with only sixty kilometers for -the day, and most of it down hill; since noon yesterday we have been -coming down. Just a little snow was now to be seen far away upon -distant summits, while forests of birches, interspersed with aspens, -covered the nearer slopes. Our road led us along the borders of -several exquisite lakes, the little Voxli Vand and then the greater -Grungadals Vand, about a mile wide and ten or twelve miles long; -frowning precipices and cloud-wrapped heights encircled us on every -hand, their rocks now largely greened over with mosses, and -birches--only a few firs--growing wherever trees might thrust their -roots. Then we drove through a narrow clove, along a frothing torrent, -and came to another _vand_ equally shut in, but not so long nor so -wide,--a greener, warmer valley, Boertedals Vand in the Boerte Dal. -Here we dined at Hotel Boerte, rested till 3 P. M., and then got away -for one of the finest thirty kilometers of the trip. If we only had -had Ole Mon to drive us, how perfect would have been the day! I -imagined we had already come down enough to be at the bottom, but we -were yet to descend a mighty canyon with the road blasted out of the -precipice's side, and walled in with rock posts and iron defenders, -much like the Laera Dal, while far beneath us wound a silver thread, -the almost imperceptible roar of whose waters floated up a tremulous -murmur. We came down at a rattling trot, every moment unfolding new -vistas of vale and precipice and mountain. After two hours of this -fearful, yet joyous, coasting we crossed a wide-spanning iron bridge -and swept out into the charming vale of Dalen, at the head of the -Bandaks Vand, where now we are. The mountains are here clothed in -heavy forests of birch and much deciduous timber, only a little of the -fir; I can scarcely realize that yesterday we were up amongst the -mosses, the lichens and the snows. As we descended we kept taking off -our wraps; our rugs were folded up; H took off her golf cape, then her -jacket; she wanted to ride with bared head, so soft and warm had grown -the air. - -[Illustration: A NORSE CABIN.] - -[Illustration: OUR HOSTESSES, HAUKELI SAETER.] - -KRISTIANIA, NORWAY, _September 10, 1902_. - -Yesterday, we left Dalen at the head of navigation on the Bandaks -Vand, boarded a taut little steamboat about 150 feet long, built for -deep water, and traveled sixty-five kilometers through a succession of -_vands_ and _fjords_--the Telemarken Fjords--canals and locks--twenty -locks in all--to Skien (called "Sheen"), where we took the railway for -Kristiania, arriving at midnight. - -The lakes were long, narrow and mostly shut in by heavily-timbered -mountains, which as always, lifted up to enormous heights, green vales -and valleys opening in between, where were picturesque hamlets and -neat, thrifty-looking farmsteads. - -Nothing here impresses me more than the great patience and tireless -energy of the "Norsks," as they call themselves. The magnificent -roads, superior to those of England, equal, almost equal to those of -France; the canals, blasted for miles through solid granite; the -railways, which are as good as our own; the little boats so perfectly -appointed. The Norwegians impress you as being born seamen; they know -how to build and how to sail a boat, and you feel it. - -Standing upon the forward deck, watching the changing panorama of -vale and lake and mountain, I became so absorbed in the enchanting -pictures that it was some moments before I noticed a slit-eyed, -high-cheek-boned, black-straight-haired, short, pudgy youth or -man--hard to tell which--a sure-enough Lap if ever there was one, who -was making vain efforts to hold conversation with me. He spoke slowly -and with some hesitation in perfect Cockney English. I at once gave -him my ear, and asked him where he had learned to speak so well. "Hi -ave been a cook in Lonnon," he said. "Hi ave been hassistant cook in a -Hinglish otel, you know. Hi am just now leaving the otel at Dalen, -where Hi ave been hassistant cook this summer, you know." Whereupon he -told me of his experiences in London. How he landed there from a -Norwegian ship, friendless and unknown, and made his way by his -aptitude in wiping dishes! And some day he "oped" to go to "Hamerica" -and there own a kitchen all for himself. "Ow strange it must be for an -Hamerican to see real mountains," he exclaimed, and I discovered that -the only America he knew about was the prairie land of the flat west. - -Upon my asking whether he was not a Laplander, he resented the -suggestion with great vehemence, declaring himself to be a Viking -pure, and he begged me to let him know if I should learn of any good -openings for dish-wipers in America, especially if it would lead to -the dignity of cook. His manner was frank and simple, wholly free from -self-consciousness, except as he took great pride in being able to -speak the English tongue. In Norway there are no classes and all men -stand equal before the law. It is as respectable there to work as it -is in America, and similarly men meet you as your natural equals. -There is none of that offensive subserviency which so jars upon one -in most of the monarchy and aristocracy bestridden lands. - -The volume of water which flows from these lakes and through these -deep canals is immense and we have sometimes swept along the narrower -channels at really an exciting pace. We had just passed through the -beautiful Flaa Vand and descended the deep full-flowing river, the -Eids Elv, with its many locks, to the greater Nordsjoe Vand, when we -drew up beside a little pier. There were many people upon it. -Evidently, there was here gathered an unusual crowd, and down the -hillside leading toward us came yet others. The whole community had -turned out. Two tall, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed, fair-haired young men -were the center of the throng; about them the others pressed. They -were neatly dressed, fine-looking fellows, and the men and women were -kissing them good-bye. They were going to America, perhaps never to -return. The mother, a gentle-faced, white-haired old lady, wept on the -necks of each of them, and the white-haired father kissed them upon -either cheek, and then everybody rushed in to shake their hands. They -were going to America where so many of Norway's most ambitious and -able sons had gone before. The whole countryside would watch their -career and wait for news of their success! Two iron-bound chests were -dragged on to the boat. The young men stepped alertly aboard, their -faces flushed with the excitement of the farewells and the -anticipations of the land across the sea. As I watched them and their -family and friends waving their adieus I could not but ponder upon -this instinct of the old-world races, my own among the rest, to go out -and seize life's prizes even across the widest waters. The -leave-taking I was now beholding must be not unlike that of the men -and women who in the days of Pilgrim and Puritan and Cavalier left -little England to found a community where freedom and opportunity are -still the loadstones which attract the energy and youth of all the -world. - -[Illustration: HAUKELI SAETER.] - -[Illustration: A GOAT HERD'S SAETER, HAUKELI FJELD.] - -In traveling through Norway, I have been greatly surprised to see so -many newly-built farmhouses, barns and farm buildings, new fences and -modern gates. Everywhere the old and tumbled-down is being replaced by -the substantial and modern. I have seen nothing like this anywhere in -Europe; nowhere so general a replacing of the old with the new. Many -of the new farmhouses are not merely substantial, but are -architecturally attractive. There must be abundant money coming from -somewhere to pay the cost of this universal rebuilding. I have asked -about it more than once and every time I receive the same reply. "The -sons have gone to America, they are in Chicago, in Minnesota, in -Dakota. They have grown rich. They are sending back the money. They -want the old places made as trim and spick as though they were in -America." "Put everything in good repair," they say, "never mind the -cost." And then, every few years they return with the American -grandchildren to see the beloved old folks. More and more of these -American-Norwegians are coming every year to holiday in the -fatherland. Many now regularly sojourn throughout the summer. A few, a -very few, remain to end their days on the loved home-soil. - -I also learn that it is to supply the demand of this increasing travel -from America to Norway that the Scandinavian-American line have -recently put on the large ocean steamers now sailing direct from New -York to Kristiansand, with accommodations equal to anything which has -hitherto entered the ports of Germany and England and France. - -The other day at Loeken, we were waited on at table by a fine-looking -young woman who spoke perfect United States. She had an air about her -of comfortable independence. The house, the farm buildings, everything -about the place was new and neat. While we were talking with her, she -told us that she had a brother and an uncle in the far west, one at -Spokane, who was rich. She was living with him when word came that the -old father had passed away. She was needed at home to care for the -mother and the younger children, so she returned; and the brother sent -back the money to have the old place put in perfect repair. - -This intimate connection between our thriving west and Norwegian home -life, largely explains, I think, that independent American spirit -which now so prominently marks Norway, and the growth and assertion of -which is driving her by natural momentum away from the hectoring ties -of franchise-constricted, aristocratic Sweden, pushing her toward -her inevitable destiny--to become a Republic. - -[Illustration: DRYING OUT THE OATS.] - -[Illustration: TENDING THE HERDS.] - -The immigration from Norway to the United States has taken from her -nearly one-half the population, a much larger percentage than has yet -come forth from Sweden. Although even there, so great is now the -exodus, that the Swedish Ministry is alarmed; there is also uneasiness -in Norway. Recently, laws have been enacted prohibiting the steamship -agents from spreading among the people the glowing accounts of -America, by means of which so many steerage tickets are sold, but all -the same, the propaganda is persistently carried on. At Skogstad, the -other day, I fell in with an alert-looking, quiet-mannered man, who, -after he learned I was an American, confided to me that he himself was -from Minnesota. He had been born in Norway, but went to America when a -boy. He was now back in Norway representing large farming interests in -the Northwest, and his business was to recruit farm hands for the -western wheat fields. He said he had penetrated during the past three -years into every nook and cranny of Norway, everywhere finding out -what vigorous and sturdy young men would like to go to America, and -then arranging with them to pay their passage, and supply sufficient -funds to enable them to pass the immigration inspectors, and providing -also their railroad transportation to the west. "They are a splendid -and hard working lot of men," he said. "We want all of them we can -get. And most of them do well when they reach America; many of them -become rich men." He was traveling in the disguise of an itinerant -doctor selling herbs and roots. - -Crossing the mountain this side of Boerte, where the road wound up -through the fir forest to avoid an immense cliff which jutted into the -lake, I stopped and dug up a little seedling fir, surely a real Norway -spruce. I took it up with care and have now brought it to Kristiania -and to-day am sending it to America by mail wrapped in damp mosses, -and trust that it will reach Kanawha with life enough to live and -thrive in its West Virginia home. Along the roadside, not far from -where I found the seedling, were lying a fine pair of _skjis_, just as -the wearer laid them aside, only to be worn when winter shall return. -The Norwegian does not need to lock his door! - -Upon the mossy, marshy, moorland summits and divides which we have -traversed, I have noticed widespread beds of peat. In some places -these are extensively worked, large areas being uncovered and the -squares of peat piled up to dry. The existence of this fuel has proved -a godsend to Norway, for the forests are often distant and year by -year the woodlands diminish. Although there are some inferior coal -beds in southern Sweden, there are none in Norway, and for fuel her -peat beds and her forests are her sole domestic supply. And yet, -despite this lack of fuel, it seems to me that Norway is dowered with -enormous stores of power. She possesses water power without stint. -King Winter surely cannot freeze up all the streams. Will not the -day yet come when the harnessed water powers of Norway may run the -turbines which will supply the world? - -[Illustration: DALEN ON THE BANDAKS VAND.] - -It is yet early September; the belated summer of this far northern -land, to our strange eyes, is just begun. The meadows are green; the -fields of grain are scarcely yellowed; in the markets of Kristiania we -see daily exposed for sale fresh-ripened strawberries; in our -Virginian latitude it would be the season of the month of May. Yet we -see big stacks of firewood piled near each farmhouse door; we see the -cabin newly banked with earth against the frost; at blacksmith's shop -we see men hammering on well-used sled; alongside the road, awaiting -the winter's need, lies an upturned snowplow newly ironed; everywhere -men are making ready for the cold. In a fortnight the highway across -the Haukeli Fjeld will be blocked with new-fallen snow. In a month the -jingling bells of sleighs and sledges will sound along the now verdant -valley of the Baegna Elv. - -A year ago, when traveling in Mexico, in southern Michoacan, the -tropical precipitancy of the night was sure to take me unawares. I was -never quite prepared for the sharp transition from day to night. The -hot red sun rested a moment above the towering Cordillera, then it -dipped behind, and the cold white stars instantly shone forth. Here in -Norway my senses are equally surprised. It is already September and -yet "early candle light," means near ten o'clock. The day dies slowly. -The contours of vale and mountain almost imperceptibly fade upon the -eye. A violet blueness softens form and hue. Little by little the -violet changes into gray, and then the grayness pervades the air as -though the shadow of some phantom raven's wing overspread the world. - -At nine o'clock, at half past nine, at ten o'clock, the goats and -cattle are awake--we have made long day-drives by reason of the limits -to our time--I wonder if they ever sleep. The sparrows and gray-coated -crows fly soberly across our way; a magpie softly flutters to the -road. I hear no bird-songs, only faint twitters, no chirping crickets, -no piping frogs and newts, none of the evening sounds of my Virginian -countryside. A hush creeps over _dal_ and _fjeld_ and _fjord_, even as -do the mysterious violet and gray shadows. We ourselves are drowsed. I -do not speak to H nor she to me. To the ponies Ole Mon has ceased to -talk. The world is stilled. We draw long breaths, inhale the delicious -air, lean back against the cushions of our seat, and daydream amidst -this hush of man and thing. The old Norse driver of the Roldal -cautions H to watch. "This is the hour," he says, "when the elves and -pixies stir abroad. Count the fifth meadow from where you stand and -there they are always sure to be." Thus have we driven through the -twilight, the mysterious, lingering twilight of this far and almost -Arctic North. - -This is the last letter you will receive from Norway and I am sure -that you will agree with me, after reading what I have sent you, -that nowhere in all the world may one have a more delightful outing. - -[Illustration: NORSE WOMEN RAKING HAY.] - -As to expenses, I figure it up that the total cost for both of us is a -little less than five dollars per day, which includes our carriage, -our driver, our eating, our sleeping and the liberal fees which, like -good Americans, we have everywhere bestowed. Here in Norway the _oere_ -(two and one-half cents) is as big as the quarter, and the _kroner_ -(twenty-seven cents) as big as the dollar. - -How long the _oere_ will loom so large I dare not say, for the -American invasion is begun, and I fear the _kroner_ will soon be no -bigger than the dime. - - - - -XIV. - -Kristiania to Stockholm--A Wedding Party--Differing Norsk and Swede. - - - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, _September 12, 1902_. - -We came over here night before last from Kristiania, by the night -train; by _sovevogn_ (sleep-wagon), the first I have tried in Europe. -We traveled first-class and had a compartment to ourselves. About -9 P. M. a porter came in at a way-station, put all our bags out in the -corridor, pulled out the round cushions at the back of the seats and -put them into the overhead racks; he then pulled out a linen cover -with which he overlaid the long seat, and unholed small, wee pillows -from a cavity at the end of each seat; the beds were made! Later, -another man informed me that we could have sheets at one _kroner_ -(twenty-seven cents) each; but these we declined. Fortunately, we had -with us our heavy sea rugs. I put H into my long gray overcoat, did -her up in the blanket and rug, and tucked her big golf cape over her. -Then I put on my blanket smoking jacket, my slippers and cap, rolled -up in a blanket and rug, and so we slept comfortably on our narrow -seat-beds. There was no heat in the car, and only one toilet room for -both sexes! The night was cold and it was with difficulty we -managed to keep warm. Such is the modern European method of running a -sleeping car. - -[Illustration: STOCKHOLM.] - -The train we traveled in was crowded. In our car every compartment was -filled. There were two groups of travelers who interested us. The -first was a party of Americans, a petite elderly woman, keen, lively, -very much mistress of herself, evidently accustomed to command, and -with her two pretty black-eyed American girls, "pert," "sassy," and -used to receiving the homage of man! In their company were half a -dozen tall, blond-bearded, blue-eyed Viking youths, entirely willing -to be commanded and to render homage. They were all in uniform, a dark -blue cloth with red facings and a very little gold braid. The blue -eyes shot tender glances, we thought, the black ones defending against -Cupid's darts with great vivacity. Each young man presented an -enormous bouquet to the elderly woman, and one gave her a basket of -fruit--the girls got nothing, only the blue-eye-flashes. And how -eagerly the young men promised to call on the elderly woman, if ever -they should be so fortunate as to visit New York! And all the while -the two American belles laughed and smiled and smote yet deeper -through the dark blue uniforms. The departing train almost carried -away with us one fair-haired giant. All the military caps came off -with sweeping bows, while two handkerchiefs fluttered from the -windows. - -The other group took us by storm and also captured the train. Before -we knew it, there was a surging crowd outside the car and the roar of -many Viking throats. And then into the compartment next to ours rushed -a pack of ladies, one of them all in white, with a sweet face half hid -in a pink satin bonnet. A little man with waxed moustache, curly black -hair, wearing a stovepipe hat, and clad in evening dress, followed -close behind. The women admitted him, as though by right, but no other -man was let inside. It was a wedding party. A wedding in high life. He -was a Professor at Upsala. She was one of Kristiania's fairest -daughters. They had been married in the Fru Kirke in the afternoon. -She had had a big reception at her home. The friends and guests were -now come down to the train to see them off. She was large and fair and -rosy, yet in her early twenties. He was small and weazen, shriveled -and swarthy. They called him "Herr Doctor," evidently recognizing his -eminent standing. Flowers and rice and a white satin slipper were -thrown into the window. There was tremendous hugging and kissing of -the bride by all the women,--I could not see that here the men had any -show,--and pandemonium still prevailed upon the station platform when -the train pulled out. Later in the night I was awakened by shouts and -then most glorious singing. I sat up with a start, the melody pulsing -through my brain. The Student Corps from the University of Upsala had -come down to the junction where the newly-wedded pair would change -cars, to welcome their Professor and his bride. They were singing a -mighty welcome. And it was such full-toned, full-voiced, perfect and -practiced singing by the hundreds of young men who seemed to be on -hand! I fell asleep as our train went on, the splendid harmony of the -well-trained voices filling me with dreams of realms not far away from -Paradise. - -Next morning I was about dressed, and H was adjusting her skirt, when -the doors, which I thought securely locked, flew open and a burly -red-faced uniformed official thrust himself in. He came to take away -the pillow cases! He did not seem to think he in any way intruded; -privacy is not much respected this side the sea. - -Our toilets were scarcely made when the train came to a stop in the -station at Stockholm. Indeed H was not yet quite ready, when another -official in uniform again burst open the door and began grabbing our -effects. To his astonishment he was forthwith ejected and the door -shut in his face. When we were finally dressed I went out and found -him waiting for us on the station platform. He was a licensed porter. - -We were first obliged to fetch all our belongings to the Custom House, -where important-looking officials, in gray uniforms trimmed with red, -asked perfunctory questions and hurriedly passed us through--an -exercise of Swedish authority which seemed quite unnecessary since we -came direct from Norway under the same King. This done, our porter -then gathered up our bags and rugs, put them into a little -two-wheeled push cart and started out across the square. Here again I -came near meeting the fate of the tenderfoot. We did not know the -location of the Hotel Continental; I stepped up to a cabby and told -him we wanted to be taken to that hotel. A man in uniform gave me a -brass check with "No. 5" marked on it, pointing to a cab standing in a -long row which also bore a No. 5. I handed the brass check to No. 5 -cabby, and was putting in my bag when our porter pointed to the -farther side of the square. There was our hostelry, not three hundred -feet away! I took out my bag from the carriage, in spite of protest, -and walked to the hotel. The driver claimed a fare of half a _kroner_ -and raised a mighty clamor, but I vowed I would not give him an -_oere_. Thus you must have your eyes about you when you come to a city -you do not know. - -The Continental is a fine hotel. The rooms are supplied with electric -lights and with telephones (good ones, not the imperfect London -system). We have a large front room, facing the Vasa Gatan, with -dressing room and ante-room, handsomely furnished, and as clean as -anything can be. We are fain to be content with the fourth story, -although we asked for the tenth, and a new modern elevator takes us up -and also down; all this costs only six _kroner_ a day ($1.62) for the -two of us. Our breakfasts are served in our room, two eggs each, a pot -of coffee, boiled milk and cream, a basket of rolls, fresh radishes, -cold tongue, cold veal, smoked goose breast, anchovies, cold smoked -salmon, cheese, each in a neat little dish by itself, and a big -round flat slab of slightly salted butter; all for one and a half -_kroner_ each, three _kroner_ for us two (eighty-one cents). You -receive much for your money here in Scandinavia. - -[Illustration: KING'S PALACE, STOCKHOLM.] - -The spirit of Stockholm, although intensely Scandinavian, is yet -widely different from that of either Copenhagen or Kristiania. It is a -difference, not so much to the eye, as to the feeling. - -The city presents the same substantial and solid types of buildings, -there are the same high walls of stone and dark red brick, and -sharp-gabled roofs covered with heavy tiles, the same square towers, -the same spindly leanness to the steepled churches, and in the older -sections the narrow streets are paved from wall to wall with the same -big squares of granite. The people are mostly blue-eyed and -fair-haired like their kindred Danes and Norsks. But here the likeness -ends and you feel it the instant you pass out upon the street. I -missed at once that certain self-containment, based upon -unostentatious self-respect, which marks the Norsk, where no man knows -a lord but God, and manhood suffrage everywhere prevails. I missed -that composure of manner and self-assurance to the step, which lets -men look you calmly in the eye without offense, that spirit, which -takes for granted the perfect equality of man and man. I instantly -felt myself among men of another temper. The alert, frank, -self-respecting manner of the Norsk is lacking in the Swede. I found -myself again among a "lower class," who have no votes, and treat you -with sullen servility, and also among men with the swashbuckling -manners of military caste. Stockholm is full of young officers in -natty uniforms, who strut along the streets aping the braggart -insolence one meets among the soldier-bestridden Germans. The peasant -and townsman must also here step aside to let these Yunker soldiery -pass on. Militarism hangs heavy over Stockholm, where the scions of an -impecunious aristocracy think to find in dashing uniform and truculent -German manner a restoration of the noble military traditions of the -past. - -The Norwegian looks out upon the Twentieth Century and finds his -inspiration in the example of free America and the universal equality -of man. The Swede looks ever backward to the glorious days of Gustavus -Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII, and sighs for a return of the -good old times when the half of Europe trembled before Sweden's -military might. The lofty mountains and profound valleys, the savage -mystery of fathomless _fjords_, the wondrous immensity of the unknown -and illimitable sea, which fired the brain and pricked the energy of -the Norseman, and made him poet, pirate, explorer and conqueror -through a dozen successive centuries, were all unknown to the -practical-minded Swede. His monotonous forests, his sandy levels and -shallow gulfs, his pond-like and insignificant Baltic Sea, stirred no -fibre of his imagination; nor when he crossed those narrow waters -and set foot upon the flat and barren shores of Germanic and Slavic -Europe, was there anything in their sombre forests and limitless -plains and desolate marshes to arouse within him the fire of his soul. -War with the flaxen-haired savages, who swarmed upon these lands like -myriad wolves, was his only exercise. He sailed up the Gulf of Bothnia -till he entered the Arctic wastes where dwelt the Laps; he followed -the shores of the Gulf of Finland, and explored the river Neva and -Lake Ladoga and connecting streams, and even crossed to the waters of -the mighty Volga, and entered Asia by the Caspian Sea; he ascended the -lesser Russian rivers, and pitched fortified camps along their banks, -founding Revel and Riga and Novogorod, whence the Swedish Ruriks gave -to the Muskovites their earliest Czars. He ruled Finland and Esthonia -and Livonia and Courland, and even begat Sigismund, the Polish King. -For centuries he warred with and ruled these Slavic tribes until at -last, driven back to his narrow peninsula, the mainland knew him only -as defeated and expelled. A practical, unimaginative fighting man was -the Swede. He loved war for war's own sake, and when he had no longer -reason to war for conquest or defense, he clung to pike and sword as -permanent substitute for plow and seine, and hired himself to -bickering Slav and German and grew famous as a "Mercenary," who -spilled his blood for pay and the plunder of his master's foes. Thus -have the cousin peoples swung wide apart. The one, free and -open-minded; the other, still dazed by the faded glories of a long -dead past, turns ever a wistful eye toward the military tyrannies of -Czar and Kaiser, and finds in the inequalities of landed noble and -landless yokel, in official and military caste and enthralled -peasantry, the realization of his Fifteenth Century ideal. - -[Illustration: A SWEDISH CHURCH.] - -[Illustration: ANCIENT SWEDISH FORTRESS.] - -Thus, as I have wended my way along the Vasa and Freds Gatans and -neighboring streets, toward the fine Gustaf Adolf Torg, the chief -public square, mixing among the jostling crowds, have I felt keenly -the variant atmospheres of these Norse and Swedish lands, differences -which finding their roots in the historical development of the kindred -peoples make their present union beneath a single flag and King both -artificial and constrained. - -While on the surface and to the feeling there is apparently wide -divergence in political sentiment between the Norwegian and Swedish -peoples, yet there is in reality a closer and closer approachment -between them. The democratic notions prevailing in Norway already stir -the pulse of the Swedish peasantry and working classes--the classes -which in Sweden have no votes. Already has the demand for universal -suffrage been raised in Sweden, and sentiment inimical to aristocracy, -yunkerdom and privilege, grows continually more aggressive. An -intelligent and aristocratic Swede with whom I have discussed this -question to-day, admits this rising tide of democracy, and admits, -also, though ruefully, that not until universal suffrage shall become -established in Sweden will it be possible to come to that -understanding with the Norwegian people on which may be founded a -lasting and united Scandinavian State. Thus in Sweden itself, I hear -uttered sentiments very nearly akin to those which caught my ear when -in Copenhagen: the possibility, nay, probability, of a common -Scandinavian Union, when the peoples of Denmark and Norway and Sweden -shall federate, and the obsolete system of kingship and privilege -shall be set aside. - -[Illustration: A BAND OF SWEDISH HORSES.] - - - - -XV. - -Stockholm the Venice of the North--Life and Color of the Swedish -Capital--Manners of the People and their King. - - - STOCKHOLM, _September 13, 1902_. - -While wandering about the city I have not taken a guide. A guide or a -courier is to me always a very last resort, but I have followed the -movement of the crowd, and enjoyed the being lost in it, immersed in -it, becoming one with it, while yet so separate. I could not read the -signs, nor understand the speech. I could only see. My vision became -my one guiding sense. My eyes became abnormally alert. Color and form -and action,--I caught them all. And what I saw, my mind held fast. -Thus I wandered on through many quaint and ancient _Gatans_ (streets) -past _Plats_ and _Torgs_ (open squares), and over _Bros_ (bridges), -and yet I felt secure and well assured that, returning, I should find -my way safely back. I knew each corner of a street, each square, each -unusual sign, each building of strange design, even as at home I have -often wandered alone among the wild mountains and forests with nothing -for a guide but my eyes, the sun, and my knowledge of moss and tree. -Thus has my early training always served me well in foreign lands -and cities, where speech was strange, and I myself unknowing and -unknown. - -[Illustration: THE SHORE OF LAKE MAELAREN, STOCKHOLM.] - -My first quest was a bookstore, a map, and an English or French or -German-worded guide book, which would tell me of what I saw. By great -good luck, I happened immediately upon the object of my search. I saw -a window holding maps. I entered a small shop, and found it the -"Bureau" of the "National Tourists' Union," with German spoken -perfectly. This bureau is maintained by the enterprising citizens of -Stockholm, and for most moderate cost gives information to tourists, -and publishes a series of fine maps, showing every road and lake and -mountain and town and inn in Sweden. I bought a set of the maps and -one in particular of the city. Thus fortified I was now perfectly -equipped. - -Our few days' sojourn in Stockholm has taught me to like the Swede, -although he is quite lacking in the hearty frankness of the Norsk. -Stockholm has always been a spot where men have congregated, and has -been a city known as such these last eight centuries, ever since -Birger Jarl made it the seat of his pirate power. It holds the passage -between the lakes Maelaren, which stretch far inland and now form the -eastern section of the great Gotta system of canals reaching across -Sweden to the Kattegat and Atlantic Ocean, and the deeply indented -waters of the Baltic Sea, thus being a natural place of rendezvous and -commerce; it was a place easy of access before men had roads and -mostly traveled by boats. Here the Kings of Sweden have always set -their capital, and the history of Stockholm is the history of the -Swede himself. - -In past ages, disorders and massacres and open murders have drenched -with blood her streets and her great public squares, and Stockholm's -dungeons have their tales of horror and wickedness to tell. She was -cruel and turbulent when Sweden herself was harsh and savage, she is -now equally serene and contented under the liberal rule of enlightened -King Oscar II, and is become one of the best-ordered and most -beautiful cities of the world. By reason of the many islands within -her limits, she is called the "Venice of the North," and by reason of -her cleanliness, the substantial character of her modern buildings, -and the efficiency of her municipal government she is termed the -"Edinburgh of the Baltic." Stockholm is more scientifically advanced, -and more modernly wide-awake than are the German and English cities of -to-day. She has a fine and bountiful water supply, an elaborate and -efficient telephone system, and is probably more thoroughly and -effectively illuminated by electricity than any city in Europe. The -older quarters of the city are well paved and scrupulously clean; in -the newer sections are blocks of stately buildings of modern design, -and wide boulevards and avenues paved with asphalt and squares of -stone. Her public buildings, her numerous _Plats_ and _Torgs_ and -lovely parks are all exquisitely kept. - -We spent one delightful morning crossing the wide stone bridge of -Norrbro, and viewing the Royal Palace, the State Apartments, and -Royal Library, and the fine old church of Riddarsholm, which is the -Westminster Abbey of Sweden, her Pantheon, where lie entombed the -bones of Gustavus Adolphus and the ashes of Charles XII, and members -of the House of Vasa, along with other illustrious Swedes. The old -church is of red brick, topped by a curious wrought-iron steeple, and -is the shrine to which come all patriotic Swedes, there to contemplate -the departed glories of their fatherland. - -[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF RIDDARSHOLM.] - -Of an afternoon, we visited the famous Djurgaard (deer park) and then -went on to the park called Skansen, where are gathered a most -interesting collection illustrative of the ancient Swedish way of -living, as well as examples of the ancient industries, exemplified by -charming lively peasant girls clad in their divers Provincial -costumes. We then also climbed the tower set upon the hill, whence -spread out before us a superb vista of the city and its many islands -and surrounding waters, and wide-sweeping woods and forests. We also -crossed among the islands upon dapper electric launches which ferry -between, and then came back to dine in a fashionable restaurant under -the Grand Hotel near the quay, where were small tables, and where sat -men in dress coats and handsome women in evening dress--generally -high-necked--and we were given fresh strawberries--this September -13th--and savory mutton chops and fresh-grown peas, and fruits and -ices. - -The streets at all hours of the day and evening were astir and gay. -The many officers in blue and gray uniforms, patterned after the -German styles, the Dalecarlian girls in their picturesque bright -barred aprons and braided hair, carrying packages and bundles--the -messenger boys of the North--the blue-eyed and yellow-haired men and -women neatly and soberly clad, and the absence of all beggars--we did -not come across a single one,--the multitude of boats, great and -small, constantly moving rapidly up and down and across the many lanes -of water, all these gave animation to the city. - -The streets of Stockholm are filled with women, more like the German -towns, while, just as there, scores of sturdy men stand idly around -decked out in soldier's uniform. Rosy-cheeked young women wait upon -you in the restaurants; women armed with big brooms sweep at the -crossings; women come in from the country driving carts loaded with -produce of the farm; and women also largely "man" the small boats that -ply along the waters between the islands. Woman is here as greatly in -evidence as she is in Boston, but of a huskier, heartier type. - -Visiting the markets, I found a great profusion of strawberries, -whortleberries, blueberries and others I did not know, and withal, -most of the vegetables my Kanawha garden would yield in June. These -fruits of tree and soil are brought into the city by chunky native -horses hitched to little two-wheeled carts, which horses, when they -reach their destination, are securely halted by a strap or line -passed around their two fore fetlocks, tying the feet tight together, -a treatment an American horse would scarcely endure. - -[Illustration: NORRBRO, STOCKHOLM.] - -Another day H and I wandered across the Norrbro and beyond the Palace -and down near the Storkyrko Brink, and discovered a curious little -coffeehouse, tucked away up a flight of creaking stairs, in an ancient -building which seemed to be a counting-house below and offices above. -Here were set against the walls little mahogany tables holding three -and four, where plates were laid without a cloth, and ale and beer -were served in tall pewter mugs. We called for the foaming brown brew -and asked for _roed spoette_, our old Danish joy, and lunched -delightfully. The room was filled with big, burly, red-cheeked men, -merchants and sea captains, H thought, from what bits of conversation -she could pick up. A most substantial company they were, who evidently -came here to strike weighty bargains as well as to eat and drink and -smoke. We were doubtless lunching in a well-known and most ancient -rendezvous, much like the historic grill room I discovered in London, -called "Toms," where Dickens' and Mr. Pickwick's chairs are shown to -the visitor, and the waiter will inform you on just what sort of -kidney broil and roasted sausage each made his daily meal. - -Stockholm divides with Copenhagen the honors of being the metropolis -of the Scandinavian world, boldly asserting her superiority over -Kristiania, for she is the larger city. She is easily first in Sweden -in all save scholarship and learning--in that, Upsala, the Cornell -and Harvard of the North, holds unrivaled lead. - -The fine stores and shops, along such streets as the Dronning Gatan -and Regerings Gatan and adjacent thoroughfares, H declares quite equal -to those of Copenhagen; while in an ancient and narrow alleyway she -discovered a perfect mint of embroideries and linens, articles of -feminine apparel which rejoice her heart. - -On our last evening we attended the Royal Opera, occupying a box quite -to ourselves, where we heard good singing and well-rendered music by -the Royal Band, beheld a fashionably-dressed and intelligent-looking -audience, and were stared at by old King Oscar who sat rigid in his -box, and glared at us with a mighty black opera-glass until he had -studied each feature of the stranger guests, and by his persistence -thereby directed upon us the curiosity of every other pair of opera -glasses in the house. The example of the King was quite in accordance -with Continental custom, where the glare of opera-glasses is -astonishingly bold. Nor does the impudent stare stop at that, but in -Stockholm, just as in Paris and Berlin, between the acts very many of -the men rise up, put on their hats, turn their backs to the stage, and -deliberately focus their glasses upon the faces of every attractive -woman in the theater, no matter how near she may be, nor how annoying -this treatment may appear; and often two or three young men will then -compare notes, and unite in a common stare, bold and insolent. To -avoid this unpleasant ordeal, ladies very generally rise from their -seats, leave the theater and promenade in the foyers until the curtain -rises and the impudent glasses are put down. - -We have secured tickets and berths for the voyage to St. Petersburg -across the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. We sail to-night, and are -to arrive on Tuesday morning, a voyage of three nights and two days, a -distance of six hundred miles. - -We have now visited the three capitals of Scandinavia, Copenhagen, -Kristiania and Stockholm, and have spent a month among these kindred -peoples. - -While I had learned in America to esteem the vigor, the intelligence -and the worth of our Scandinavian immigration, no finer race -contributing to the citizenship of the Republic, yet it has been only -when I have met the Dane and Norsk and Swede upon their native soil, -and beheld their noble cities, so alert and clean and modern, and -traversed their hills and valleys, and climbed their mountain heights -and floated upon their _fjords_, that I have learned fitly to admire -and appreciate the grandeur and greatness of Scandinavia. - - - - -XVI. - -How We Entered Russia--The Passport System--Difficult to Get Into -Russia and More Difficult to Get Out. - - - ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, _September 16, 1902_. - -It is not easy to get into Russia; it is yet more difficult to get -out. - -Before leaving the United States, I had taken due precautions and -secured a passport from the State Department, signed by Secretary Hay, -with the Great Seal of the United States upon it. In that passport I -was described. I had also provided myself with a special letter from -the State Department, in which all consuls and officials of the United -States in foreign lands had been bidden to pay particular heed to my -welfare, for I was vouched for as a worthy and respected citizen of -the Republic. - -I presumed that, armed with these credentials, I should find all doors -and gateways open to my passage. I assumed that the autocracy of the -Russian Empire would be delighted to welcome a citizen of the great -Republic, so well accredited. Imagine my surprise, when I presented -myself at the ticket office of the Russian steamship line, by which we -would travel to St. Petersburg, and was refused a ticket because I -did not then have my passport in hand, so that the ticket-seller might -duly scrutinize it! An hour later, when I again presented myself with -the passport and laid down the coin, I was a second time refused. The -passport had not been certified by the American Minister in Stockholm, -our port of departure, nor had it been _viseed_ by the Russian Consul -General of the port. - -I immediately drove to the American Ministry, a mile away, where the -Swedish clerk endorsed my passport as being genuine, and gave me a -note to the Russian official. A drive of another mile brought me to a -tall stone building, above the door of which reposed the Imperial -Eagle. Ascending two flights of stairs, I was shown into a small -ante-room, and, after waiting some time, was ushered into a large, -well-lighted chamber, where a big, round-headed, bearded man, in -Russian uniform, sat at a long table. He was writing. He did not deign -to look up. After standing some moments before this important -personage, I called his attention in my best French, to the fact that -I was there. Still he made no reply, but kept on writing. I noticed -that he was nearly to the bottom of the page; when he had finished it, -he looked up and inquired in German what I wanted. I replied in German -that I called upon him to have my passport _viseed_, and handed him -the document and the note. He read the latter and looked at the -former, but the description of my person was in English and he was -evidently stumped. He gazed at me and the paper, took up a metal -stamp, pressed it on an ink pad, made on the passport the imprint of -some Russian characters, signed his name to them, and advised me that -I was his debtor to the extent of twenty _kroners_ (about five -dollars). He then turned again to his writing. - -I had thus spent three hours in driving about the city, visiting these -officials, and now hurried to the steamship office, where on -presenting my passport duly _viseed_, I at last obtained the tickets. -Upon boarding the ship, at a later hour, we were notified to call at -the Captain's office and surrender our passports, which were then once -more verified, along with our tickets, before we cast off from the -pier. - -We left Stockholm about eight o'clock in the evening. We were a party -of four,--H and myself, and the two delightful friends whom we met -that day at Maristuen, at the head of the Laera Dal, in Norway. The -suggestions then first made had ripened into a definite plan, and we -agreed to join forces for our journey through Russia. Our friends were -Mr. and Mrs. Condit, of Chicago, and we found their ready western wit -and genial fellowship on more than one occasion of most signal aid. - -We crossed the Baltic Sea in the night, and touched at the Russian -port of Hangoe, in Finland, early Sunday morning. Here I noticed a -messenger in uniform leave the ship bearing a long iron box heavily -padlocked, and was informed that this box contained the passports of -the passengers, which he was to take to St. Petersburg by a special -Imperial train that would put him there in twenty-three hours, when -the passports would be immediately filed with the police department, -verified, recorded and given to certain other officials who would meet -our ship on its arrival at the mouth of the river Neva on Tuesday -morning, and who would examine and scrutinize us and then return them -to us. If in the meantime, we should happen to change our minds and -want to remain a few days in Finland, say at Helsingfors, we would be -liable to arrest for not having our passports now gone to St. -Petersburg. We might not change our minds or alter our itinerary. It -was now St. Petersburg or jail. - -The twilight was just fading into night when we cast off from the pier -and slowly made our way among the islands. The sail down the narrow -channel to the sea was in the light of the full moon. The myriad -electric lights of the city were blazing behind us. We passed the -black hulls of many vessels anchored in the harbor, and in turn were -passed by scores of little boats, with a big light on the foremast, -which were scurrying about carrying passengers between the islands. -Along the wooded shores were villas and country-seats, and ever and -anon, there seemed to be open clearings and farms, and then we came -into the blackness of wide waters. We were out upon the Baltic Sea. - -In the morning we were among more islands; the Aaland Archipelago; we -had had only two hours of the open sea. The sun was behind a mass of -scudding clouds, gray and threatening; and great banks of blacker -clouds were rolling up from the south. A gale was blowing--a furious -gale--which drove the waters and whirling foam wherever open space -allowed. The wind was bitterly cold, and grew ever colder, while -higher and higher rose the tempest. We were in great danger, although -at the time I did not know it. - -The steering of the Swedish pilots was skillful, and the little ship -obeyed the helm perfectly, swinging round sharp points, and traversing -narrow channels where, even in quiet waters, it is dangerous to -navigate. - -About noon we slipped in between two rocky islets, scarcely a -cable-tow's length apart, rising only a few feet above the level of -the sea, and turning sharp to port came into the rock-bound harbor of -Hangoe, a town of Finland, whence the railway goes on to Helsingfors -and St. Petersburg. - -The gale now grew into a tornado with deluges of rain, a storm so -fierce that, until it should subside, the Captain refused to leave the -protection of the port. - -Thus we lay-to at Hangoe until the dawn of the following day, when we -cast off from the long pier and plunged once more among the islands of -the Archipelago. Hundreds of islands there were, barren and -uninhabited, the big ones covered with dwarf birches, a few stunted -pines and firs, the lesser islets thick with tangled grasses, or more -often bare of all except lichens and gray moss, the vegetation of a -desolate, wintry latitude. - -[Illustration: FACING THE GALE.] - -The wind was now somewhat abated, but not so the sea. It was angry, -stirred to its depths. It was a bad day for a landsman,--a bad day -even for an old salt. Two stalwart seamen stood ever at the wheel in -addition to the pilot and our Captain, and it took all their combined -strength and skill to save us from certain wreck. The conflicting -currents churned and swirled with maelstrom violence, while we crept -steadily on among the shoals and sunken bars and hidden reefs. - -It was long past noon when we swung round a bold rocky point, and saw -before us Finland's capital, Helsingfors. The city surrounds the -harbor much like a crescent. On either horn, granite promontories jut -out into the sea, where are fortifications, one of them the formidable -fortress of Sveaborg, where we could see brown-coated Cossacks -gathered in large numbers watching our entrance to the port. A great -garrison there seemed to be, and everywhere floated the Russian -flag,--parallel stripes of white, blue and red. Russian troops not -merely man all these fortifications, but there are also soldiers -within the city itself, and more are quartered in every village of -consequence in Finland. The ancient Senate and House of Chevaliers are -no longer permitted to enact the laws. A Russian Governor-General -issues his Ukases, which the Russian bayonets are here savagely to -enforce. All this you already know, but it comes vividly upon one when -you see the Cossack, clad in his long kaftan-like military coat, -everywhere about you visible evidence of how harshly Finland has been -stripped of her rights and liberties. - -Helsingfors astonished us. Lying upon a rising slope, it presents an -imposing outline from the sea. It is a city of ninety-six thousand -people. We were not prepared for so large and substantial a city. It -has well-kept parks, well-paved streets, frequently asphalted as in -Stockholm, and blocks of big granite buildings five and six stories -high; the city is clean, and the streets are alive with well-dressed, -rosy-cheeked, vigorous people. Everywhere there are electric tram-cars -and electric lights, and on the broad thoroughfares are large and -handsome shops. It is evident that in the Finnish hinterlands there is -an extensive and well-to-do population. - -Our ship was to lie at her pier for several hours, and the passengers -were told that they might safely visit the town; if arrested for not -having passports, we might refer to the Captain of the ship. So we -wandered up along the quays, following a wide boulevard. Everywhere on -the sidewalks and driving through the streets were Russian officials -in their long gray coats and flat black caps; there were also many -soldiers upon the streets. - -Finland was once a province of Sweden, and the Teutonic Swedish -language is yet that of the educated classes, who are chiefly of -Swedish descent. In the country, however, and among the working -classes, there remains the original population of primitive Finnish -race, "The old Finns," cousins to the Hungarians, and these have a -Turanian language of their own. They have accepted for centuries the -Swedish rule and fraternized with the Swedish leaders, but have held -to their ancient tongue. Now is also the Slavonic Russian speech, by -Ukase, commanded to be the language of the schools, of the courts and -of the government. Thus the Finlander must be acquainted with three -fundamentally different tongues, and all of the streets of Helsingfors -are named in the three languages on the same placard. The Russian name -is in Greek text, then in Latin text the Swedish name, and under that -the native Finnish name; thus there is much babel of tongues in -Helsingfors, while all the Finlanders bitterly resent the brutal -attempt to substitute the Russian for their own. - -[Illustration: FISHING BOATS ALONG THE QUAY, HELSINGFORS.] - -[Illustration: THE PIER, HELSINGFORS.] - -Finland has, also, heretofore been privileged to coin her own -money,--but now the Russian _ruble_ is supreme. We had boarded a -tram-car, as modern and comfortable as those of New York, and were -whirling along the boulevard, when we tendered the conductor our fare -in Russian coin (we had provided ourselves with "_kopeeks_" and -_rubles_ before leaving Stockholm), but he declined to take the money. -He was about to stop the car and put us off, when a courtly-mannered -Finn, addressing the passengers as well as the conductor, explained -that, under the present laws, Russian money must be taken when -tendered, and that we were entitled to ride,--so H tells me, who -understood his speech, so much is it like the Danish. But the -conductor, patriot that he was, refused to touch the _ruble_ I -offered him, preferring to let us ride without making charge. If I had -been able to do so, I would have explained to our fellow-passengers -that I intended no insult, and would thus probably have restored -myself to their confidence. As it was they glowered at me as a friend -of hated Russia. - -We visited the splendid Parliament buildings, where the Finnish Senate -and House of Chevaliers have been wont to meet,--now closed forever by -the Ukase of the Czar. I understand, also, that the Finnish judges -have recently been deposed from the courts, and Russians appointed in -their stead; and we were told by a friendly Finn that so completely -are the people terrorized, that no patriot dare give open evidence of -opposition to the Russian rule. One may only detect it by the sullen, -disquieted faces of the people one meets upon the streets. In the dour -glances cast at the Russian officials I saw everywhere expression of -hatred and revenge.[1] - -[Footnote 1: The reverses of the Japanese War, the assassination of -Governor Bobrikoff and threat of revolution have at last frightened -the Russian Autocracy into partially restoring to Finland her pillaged -liberties.] - -It was middle afternoon when we set sail again. No other vessel dared -leave the port, but our Captain, being anxious to reach St. -Petersburg, decided to venture on the voyage. As soon as we emerged -from the protecting barriers of the islands at the harbor's mouth, we -came into open waters. A furious sea was running and the ship rolled -heavily. She plunged and reared and pitched, until most of the -passengers were driven to their staterooms,--indeed, so mad was now -the sea that we were told there would be no more hot coffee and hot -steak, since the cooks in the kitchen could not keep their legs, nor -could dishes be set upon the tipping tables. Those who were able to -eat might get a snack from the steward, who would hand it out--cold -fish and cheese at that. The boat rolled until her gunwales were -awash, and frequently the roaring waters swept across the decks. -Although it was a wild and dangerous night, yet the clouds were -parting and the stars were out. No grander panorama of the sea have I -looked upon than these mighty foam-capped billows--greater even than -our ship,--between which we hid, and on the summits of which we -climbed,--the angry, pitch-black waters, the star-lit firmament, and -the serene moon shining with fullest splendor. - -[Illustration: THE DOEBLN AT HER PIER, HELSINGFORS.] - -[Illustration: MARKET SQUARE, HELSINGFORS.] - -At dawn on Tuesday morning, we passed the great naval fortification of -Kronstadt, and three hours later, after threading our way among -fishing boats, were entering the canal which leads from the gulf of -Finland to the river Neva and the city of St. Petersburg. - -South and east of us, behind low shores, the land stretched away green -and flat as far as the eye could see, an apparently indefinitely -extending plain. Only the glint of a gilded oriental dome, the bulbous -cupola of a Russian village church, lightened here and there the green -monotony. Then far to the east we saw not one but many domes -glittering and flashing in the light of the lifting sun--the gilded -towers of the cathedrals and churches of the city of St. -Petersburg--then we saw a tangle of tall chimneys, then ships and -barks and schooners and enormous barges from Lake Ladoga, and immense -docks on either side. We were upon the river Neva. We were come to the -city of "Petersborg," the splendid capital of the Russian Czars. - -Just as we were entering the canal, a steam-tug came up alongside us -and a company of government officials in long gray coats climbed on -board. They were the customs inspectors and officers of the police -department. The two chief officials seated themselves at a long table. -An officer of the ship directed the passengers to form in a queue, and -one by one we appeared before the official examiner, while the Captain -called off our names, reading the list from a little book. When my -name was announced a clerk handed one of the officials a passport. It -was numbered--my name was upon it--it had been received in St. -Petersburg from the messenger who left Hangoe Sunday morning;--it had -been filed with the police department; it had been _viseed_; it had -been translated into Russian, and the official now read over the -description to his assistants;--I was scrutinized,--the passport was -found correct--the officials so endorsed it and handed it to me. The -passenger immediately behind me, seemingly, did not correspond with -his passport, and was directed to stand to one side. There were a -number of these, who were to have a difficult time with the -authorities. Our baggage was also examined, but not closely. With the -Russian official the main thing is the passport, not the baggage. - -[Illustration: A WILD SEA--LEAVING HELSINGFORS.] - -[Illustration: FISHING BOATS, MOUTH OF RIVER NEVA.] - -We were now arrived at the pier and were ready to go ashore. Two -sailors carried our small steamer trunk upon the wharf, and we were in -St. Petersburg. Instantly we were surrounded by a howling mob of -bearded, blond-headed, dressing-gown-coated men, clamoring for our -fares. They were _izvostchiks_ in their native _kaftans_. I beckoned -to one of them, and pointed to our trunk. He lifted it to his shoulder -and led us to his _droschky_,--a diminutive open vehicle, much like a -small sledge on wheels. We entered it and in a moment were galloping -through the streets of the city, the driver constantly shouting to his -horse and yelling to all foot-farers to get out of the way. I gave him -the name of our destination, Hotel de l'Europe. He seemed to -comprehend my meaning, and never drew rein until we stopped before the -imposing entrance of that hostelry. - -We were in Russia. We had run the gauntlet of the border,--our -passports had been sufficient, and we were at last safely within the -dominions of the Czar. Would it be as difficult to get out? - - - - -XVII. - -St. Petersburg--The Great Wealth of the Few--The Bitter Poverty of the -Many--Conditions Similar to Those Preceding the French Revolution.[2] - -[Footnote 2: These letters were written in the early autumn of the -year, 1902, and present a glimpse of Russia as it then appeared.] - - - GRAND HOTEL DE L'EUROPE, - ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, - _September 18 (N. S.), 1902_. - -So much has been jammed into the last two days that my pen is like to -burst. Splendor and squalor, the glitter of twentieth century -civilization, the sombre shadow of barbarism, are here entwined in -inextricable comminglement. The city is filled with stately buildings -of gigantic and imposing dimensions; with wide, straight boulevards -and streets. The sidewalks and _droschkies_ are gay with the dashing -and gaudy uniforms of innumerable soldiery, and the fine dresses of -elegant women. Yet many of these great buildings are in ill repair, -and what you at first imagine to be magnificent stone, reveals itself -to be a stucco of rotting wood and crumbling plaster; the broad -thoroughfares are abominably paved, and pitifully cared for by abject -wretches wielding dilapidated birch-stick brooms. - -[Illustration: ENTERING THE NEVA.] - -[Illustration: ALONG THE NEVA.] - -The superb horses--stallions, all of them--whirl past, driven -by _izvostchiks_ in dirty, truncated plug-hats and blue -dressing-gown-like _kaftans_, whose sodden faces tell of _vodka_ and -hopeless haplessness. Beggars swarm (frightful creatures), and the -faces of the officers, fine big men in striking uniforms, are -dissipated, hard and cruel. - -We are in a huge hotel. Big men in uniform open the door; big men in -livery fill the halls; the rooms are big, ours is immense, with double -windows, It is steam-heated, and also has hearth fires of burning -wood. The building is warmed all through, even the halls. There are -French waiters in the big dining-rooms; there is delicious food and -delightful coffee, whose aroma is very perfume of the Orient; the -beefsteaks are juicy, thick and tender. We have had no such meals -since leaving America. On each story there is an elaborate bar for -serving _vodka_ (a fierce white whisky distilled from wheat) and -drinks to the guests of that particular floor, and a single bath room, -and a single diminutive toilet for both sexes' common use. - -The moment we set foot within the doorway of the hotel, up stepped an -official, in blue and gold, and demanded our passports, and we were -requested also to sign a paper like the one enclosed, viz.: - - - NOTICE TO THE POLICE. - - Family and Christian WHERE IS YOUR PASSPORT? - Name: Signature: - Profession: Please order your passport - Age: two days before leaving - Confession: Russia. - Arrived from .......... - - -This to be at once filed with the police department, and the passport -not to be given back until we should notify the same big -official,--whose duty it was to stay right there and watch all guests -of that hotel, and who must be notified twenty-four hours before we -leave the city,--when he will return the passport two hours before the -said time set, and give it to me only upon my paying him the -government fee of ten _rubles_ (five dollars) in good yellow gold.[3] -And right outside the door of our apartments, seated at a little -table, are two officials, pen and paper in hand, who set down the hour -and the minute of the day we enter and come out. They were there when -we went to breakfast; they, or others as fox-jowled and lynx-eyed, -were also there when we returned from the theater late at night, and -they are there all through the day. Our Swedish guide, who does the -duties of courier and shows us about the great city, is also -registered at the police department, and he has to hand in every night -a written report of what he has done with us all through the day, -where we have gone, what we have seen, and we suspect even what we may -have said. On the streets, big sword-begirded policemen stand at the -intersections of the ways, pull out a little book from their pockets -and make note of our passing that particular spot at that certain -hour; at night these reports also are handed in to the central police -office to be checked up against the statements of the guide and the -spies at the hotel. - -[Footnote 3: I have subsequently learned that the legal fee is about -three _rubles_ ($1.50), the charge of ten _rubles_ being impudent -graft.] - -[Illustration: ALONG THE NEVSKY-PROSPEKT.] - -[Illustration: OUR DROSCHKY, ST. PETERSBURG.] - -We are in the capital city of the mighty Russian Empire; in the -capital created by Peter the Great amidst and upon the marshy delta of -the river Neva; a city of more than a million inhabitants; a city -spread out over vast distances; a city whose disproportionately wide -streets and boulevards are paved with wood, wood that is rotting all -the while, leaving big holes into which a horse, a team, may plunge -and disappear, because only wood will float upon the marshy mire of -the mucky islets, and stone and brick will eventually sink from sight; -a city whose top-heavy palaces and public edifices are so -treacherously set upon the sands that they must constantly undergo -costly repairs; a city builded upon foundations so unstable that the -springtime floods of the river Neva ever threaten permanently to wipe -out its very existence; a city where the palaces of the always -widening circle of the Imperial princes of the blood, and of the upper -nobility, and of the great bureaucratic chiefs, are builded with an -arrogance of dimension, an elaborateness of design, a lavishness of -cost that beats anything an American billionaire has ever tried to do, -or dreamed of doing in San Francisco or New York; and yet a city -abounding in the mean, small, log and wooden cabins of the very poor; -a city where penury and poverty and dire pinch protrude their squalid -presence in continual tragic protest against the flaunted and wanton -riot of unmeasured wealth, possessed by the very few. - -This morning as I walked upon the Nevsky Prospekt, the Broadway of the -Imperial capital, and watched the movement of mankind along the way, -and beheld the extraordinary contrasts between those who walked and -those who rode; as I saw the burly policeman arrest the shabby -foot-farer for nearly being run down, while he let the haughty grandee -drive freely on; as I beheld poverty and wealth in such flagrant -contrast, and realized that a standing army is kept ever armed and -girt to protect and uphold the privilege and security of the rich; as -I beheld the surly, sour, sombre faces of those who wore no gaudy -covering of broadcloth and gold lace, my fancy harked back to the -time, somewhat more than a century ago, when the King and Nobles of -France drove through the Rues of Paris in all their glittering -splendor, trampling down in their pride of power the pedestrian who -failed to escape from their sudden approach. How secure they felt in -their arrogant enjoyment of prerogative and rank! How contemptuously -they disdained the humble claims of the glitter-proletarian, of the -peasant on the land! Louis XIV had cried "_L'etat c'est moi._" Was -that not enough! And yet, I had stood in the Place de la Concorde, -almost on the very spot where, inspired by the hatred of the -Sansculottes, Mademoiselle La Guillotine had bit off the dull head of -Louis XVI, and cut through the fair throat of Marie Antoinette. - -It may be possible for Russia and her governing men, her Bureaucratic -Autocracy, yet a little while to postpone the fateful hour. By means -of foreign wars it may be possible to play the old game of diverting -the public mind from its own bitter ills; by promises of fair and -liberal dealing it may be possible to calm the public mind--cajole it -until the promises are duly broken, as is invariably the case. -Whatever fair-speaking and fat-feeding officialdom may to the contrary -assert, the impression I gain amidst all this splendor and pomp and -glare of supreme, concentered power of the few is that, beneath this -opulent exterior, deep down in the hearts and even below the conscious -working of their minds, there to-day abides among the masses of the -Russian people--who after all hold in their hands the final power--a -profound and monstrous discontent: a discontent so deep-rooted and so -intense that when the inevitable hour strikes, as strike it must, the -world will then behold in Russia a saturnalia of blood and tears, a -squaring of ten centuries' accounts, more fraught with human anguish -and human joy than ever dreamed a Marat and a Robespierre, more -direful and more glad than yet mankind have known. - -We drove about the city like grandees. Our _landau_ was just such as -Russian nobles like best to use; our splendid pair of sorrel stallions -pranced upon their heels and neighed and ran just as all nobles' -horses should; and our well-distended driver, of enormous and -deftly-padded girth, sat belted with a big embroidered band, and -guided the horses he never dreamed to hold, and helloed loudly to -those who did not fly out of the way, just as would any driver of the -Blood! We almost ran over some slow-moving man or woman, foot-weary -wretch, at every crossing of a street! - -Many palaces and public buildings we visited--enormous edifices, all -of them, with innumerable and extensive halls and immense chambers -finished in gold and alabaster and gaudy hues, with countless servants -and lackeys in livery and lace, gold lace, to care for them, and watch -over them, and fatten upon a government graft or easy-gotten fee. -Suites of enormous apartments they were, which are never used and -never are likely to be used. - -The paintings of the great masters collected in the galleries of the -Hermitage and Winter Palaces, accumulated by the Czars, are among the -most renowned in Europe. The reception halls and audience chambers and -ballrooms and dining halls of these palaces are designed and intended -to dazzle and impress whosoever are given the chance of beholding -them. At the same time, the library and study of the late Czar, -Alexander III, is a small and plainly furnished room, with the -atmosphere and markings of a man of simple tastes, who laboriously -worked, worked as no other official of the Bureaucracy in Russia -pretends to work. - -[Illustration: OUR SQUEALING STALLIONS.] - -[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF OUR LADY OF KAZAN.] - -We traversed the suites of apartments used by the Imperial family, -when sojourning in St. Petersburg during those portions of the winter -season when the court there gathers, and we noted the outer guardrooms -where night and day stand the faithful watchers with sleepless vigil, -and we realized, perhaps for the first time, that this man, so steeped -in power, is after all but a prisoner of the system which locks him in -and binds him fast and robs him of that independence of action which -you and I enjoy. He is become but a creature of the great machine that -governs, a slave of the system which Peter the Great set up for the -furtherance of his Imperial will, a system of government which has so -developed and spread out that to-day the Czar of all the Russias is -merely the puppet of its will, the tool of the greedy, grasping, -intriguing, governing Bureaucracy. - -On approaching the city, our straining eyes first caught sight of the -gilded, glittering domes and spires of the great cathedrals and -churches with which it is so abundantly supplied. The domes of St. -Isaac, of our Lady of Kazan, of Alexander Nevsky, and the spires of -St. Peter and St. Paul, each and all told us that whatever else we -might discover, we were yet entering a city and a land where the -people counted not the cost of the splendid housing of their faith. -And so we have found it. The wealth of gold and of silver, of precious -stones and of priceless stuffs with which these churches are adorned -and crammed, excels anything of which the western brain has ever -dreamed. Each great church is famed and honored for its particular -beneficence, its peculiar holiness, and to each one comes in -procession perpetual an innumerable throng to pray and worship and to -receive the blessings flowing from that especial fane. Even in the -ancient log cabin, said to be the actual house erected by Peter -himself, is established a shrine, where priests continuously intone -the beautiful service of the Russian church and where thousands of -devoted worshipers swarm in and out all the day long, and the night as -well, praying to Imperial Peter's now sainted ghost. - -In the noble chamber of the golden-spired cathedral of St. Peter and -St. Paul lie the white marble tombs of the Romanoffs, where is also -kept up throughout the day and night yet another sumptuous service for -the repose of the souls of the illustrious dead. In the great -monastery of Alexander Nevsky is each day maintained a simple and -splendid choral service which multitudes attend, and where the -melancholy Gregorian chanting and intoning of the black-robed -long-bearded monks reveal new organ stops in the human voice. - -Naturally, an American has great sympathy for the Russian people -who have so little, while he has so much. In America we send our girls -and boys to school as a matter of course. Here in the ornate center of -autocracy, I have seen no building that I recognized as a common -school, nor in Russia is there such a system, as we know it. - -[Illustration: OUR IZVOSTCHIK.] - -To the western mind three things stand out above all else in Russia: - -(1) The concentrated wealth and privilege of the few--the big grafters -who have seized it all. - -(2) The opulence and extraordinary power of that ecclesiastical -organization, the "Holy Orthodox Church" itself an engine of the -autocratic rule,--used to cover atrocious authority with gilded -cassock and priestly cope. - -(3) The profound poverty and hopeless subserviency of the Russian -people--those who are robbed and ruined by the grafters and hoodooed -by the Church. - - - - -XVIII. - -En Route to Moscow--Under Military Guard--Suspected of Designs on Life -of the Czar. - - - MOSCOW, RUSSIA, _September 19, 1902, 10 P. M._ - -We took the Imperial Mail train as determined. Foreign travelers -generally journey by the night express, which arrives at Moscow only -an hour behind the Imperial Mail, but it leaves St. Petersburg at so -late an hour that there is little chance to see the country traversed. -We made up our minds to take the more democratic train, which goes in -the middle afternoon and stops at all way-stations. This would give us -an opportunity to see more of the people as well as a longer season of -daylight to watch the passing panorama of the land. We knew no reason -why we should not take the train of our choice. It was true that our -guide urged us to go by the night express. It was also true, when I -presented my passport to the ticket agent at the railway station, the -day before, and requested tickets, that he advised us to make the -journey by the night express, nor would he at first agree to sell us -tickets by the Imperial Mail, but told us to come back again two hours -later, when he would let us know whether there were any berths -unsold in the train's through sleeper. It was also true that when we -returned, he again advised us to take the night express. But our minds -were made up, and we at last secured the tickets we wanted, and became -entitled to an entire stateroom upon a designated car. - -[Illustration: OUR LANDAU, ST. PETERSBURG.] - -When we left the Hotel de l'Europe, the government official to whom I -had returned my passport, after having bought my tickets, emerged from -his office, received graciously his ten _rubles_, and again handed me -the document; the sundry flunkies in liveries and spies in uniforms -obsequiously bowed us out of the establishment, and our very competent -guide immediately packed us into several _droschkies_ and galloped us -along the Nevsky Prospekt to the huge government station of the -railway running to Moscow. The instant our _izvostchiks_ brought their -horses to a stop, we were surrounded by a swarm of porters clad in -white tunic aprons and flat caps, who seized our bags, and preceded us -through the large waiting room to the gates admitting to the train -platform. Here our tickets were scrutinized, and a group of uniformed -officials, who seemed to be awaiting us, informed us that the car in -which our stateroom had been sold being already filled, another -stateroom in another car was placed at our disposal. They then led the -way to the front of the long train, and showed us into a large -combined sleeper-and-chair car immediately back of the engine. Several -soldiers were standing guard near by. We were evidently expected and -were especially provided for. We almost had the car to ourselves. The -only other passengers were a Russian officer and his orderly. We were -at the head of a train made up mostly of mail cars locked and sealed, -having at the rear several passenger coaches. But we were separated -from all these latter, and we seemed to be objects of unusual -interest. Many strange faces flattened against our windows, peering in -at us, and the orderly locked up with us never took his eyes away from -us. This did not annoy me, however, for I presumed he was admiring the -beauty of our American women. - -The train was a long one,--and such huge cars. The Russian gauge is -five feet, the cars are long, and half as big and wide again as are -the American cars, and are heated by steam, having double windows -prepared against the cold. We had secured a whole compartment in which -the two seats, facing each other, pull out and the backs lift up, -making four berths, two lower, two upper, placed cross-wise. You pay -one _ruble_ (fifty cents) for blankets, sheets and towels. We put H -and Mrs. C in the lower berths. Mr. C and I took the uppers. The car -had only two more staterooms, one on each side of our own, and then a -large drawing-room with reclining chairs. The stateroom ahead of us -was occupied by the officer; his orderly slept on a chair in the -salon. In the stateroom behind us were two railway guards. After we -entered the car, the door was closed and locked by an official who -stood on the outside. The officer and his orderly were locked in -with us. Our trunk was checked through to Moscow by the guide, very -much as we would have done it at home. He gave me the check, and I -paid him his last _pourboire_ before we entered. This was the only -daily local train going southeastward, and whoever would leave St. -Petersburg for the way stations must travel by it. - -[Illustration: A NOBLE'S TROIKA.] - -[Illustration: THE RAILWAY PORTERS, ST. PETERSBURG.] - -Our first impression, after leaving the city, was that of the flatness -and the vacantness of the land; the landscape was marked here and -there with insignificant timber, birches, firs and wide reaches of -tangled grasses, and seemed uninhabited. There were no sheep, no hogs, -no goats. Occasionally we saw herds of cattle and some horses, but -very little tillage anywhere. The few houses, mostly low built, were -of small-sized logs, or slabs. Towns and villages were few and far -apart. In the towns were rambling wooden buildings, all just alike; in -the villages were log and wooden cabins, scattered along a single wide -street, and these streets were deep mud and mire from door to door. -Here and there was a wooden church painted green, with onion-shaped -steeple gilded or painted white, but there were no schoolhouses -anywhere. At all the railroad stations were many soldiers, and -dull-looking, shock-headed peasants, men clad in sheepskin overcoats -with the wool inside, and women in short skirts wearing men's boots, -or with their legs wrapped in dirty cotton cloth tied on with strings, -their feet bound up in twisted straw. It was a desolate, monotonous, -dreary, sombre land. We saw no smiling faces anywhere, but always -were the corners of the mouth drawn down. Now and then we passed a -large town, with a commodious, well-built station of brick and stone. -Here and there we saw huge factories and mills, all belonging to the -government of the Czar. - -We stopped at Lubin for supper. The guard unlocked our car, opened the -door and pointed to the station, where we found a monster eatingroom -with huge lunch counters on either side and long rows of tables down -the middle. Everybody was standing up; there were no seats anywhere. -Hot soft drinks were served at the side counters and smoking coffee -and tall glasses of hot, clear tea. The Russian swallows only hot -drinks and eats only hot foods. On the center tables, set above spirit -lamps, were hot dishes with big metal covers. There were glasses of -hot drink for a few _kopeeks_, which the Russian pours down all at -once. Taking a plate from a pile standing ready, you help yourself to -what victuals you choose. There were hot doughnuts with hashed meat -inside, hot apple dumplings, hot juicy steaks, hot stews, hot fish; -all _H-O-T_. When you have eaten your fill, you pay your bill at a -counter near the entrance, according to your own reckoning. The -Russian is honest in little things, and nobody doubts your word or -questions the correctness of your payment. The eatingroom was full of -big, tall, robust, fair-haired, blue-eyed men and a few women. The -Russian is big himself, he likes big things, he thinks on big lines, -he sees with wide vision, too wide almost to be practical. Hanging -around the station were groups of unkempt, dirty peasants. We see such -groups of gaping peasants at every station, always a hopeless look of -"don't care" in their eyes. - -The train ran smoothly and we slept well. All Russian cars are set on -trucks, American fashion, and there is no jarring and bouncing as in -England's truckless carriages. We traveled over an almost straight -roadway, traversing the Valdai hills, the brooks and rivulets of -which, uniting, give rise to the mighty Volga, and crossing the river -passed through the city of Tver during the night. It was just daylight -when I awoke. I at once arose, and then waked Mr. C and afterward we -aroused the ladies. A different military officer and a different -orderly were now traveling in our car. The officer seemed to have kept -vigil in the compartment ahead of our own. When I came out of the -stateroom, he was standing smoking a cigarette in the aisle just -outside our door. When I went to the toilet-room he followed me and -then returned to the door of our stateroom. He watched us all, even -standing guard at the door of the toilet-room when occupied by the -ladies. We were evidently in his charge. Later, I made acquaintance -with him, accosting him in German, to which he readily replied. He was -a medium-sized, wiry man with dark hair and eyes, close-cropped beard -and long moustaches. He was a "lieutenant-colonel of infantry," he -said. - -The night before, as we rode along, we noticed many soldiers gathered -everywhere at the stations. Now there were none, but instead there was -a soldier pacing up and down each side of the track, a soldier every -sixteen seconds! His gun was on his shoulder. He wore a long brown -overcoat reaching to his heels, and a vizored brown cap. At all the -bridges there were several soldiers, at each culvert two. After a few -miles of soldiers, I commented on this, to me, extraordinary -spectacle, and asked the colonel what it meant. "Do you not know," he -said, "the Czar is coming in half an hour? He is returning from the -autumn manoeuvers in the south!" Presently, we drew in on a siding. I -wanted to go out with my kodak and take a snapshot. He said, "_Es ist -verboten_ (It is forbidden). You cannot go out." He then asked to see -my kodak, which he examined with the greatest care, taking it quite -apart. He then handed it back to me saying, apologetically, "Bombs -have been carried in kodak cases, you know." Soon we heard the roar of -an approaching train. The ladies pressed to the windows. The uniformed -attendant stepped up and pulled down the shades right in their faces. -I demurred to this and appealed to the colonel, who then directed the -guard to raise the curtains, seeming to censure him in Russian. The -ladies might look. A train of dark purple cars richly gilded flashed -by. Was it the Czar? No! Only the Court. Another train just like the -first would follow in half an hour and the Czar would be on that. But -none of the public might know on which train he would ride. The -colonel turned to me and said, "You kill Presidents in America. We -would protect our Czars here! We also have Anarchists." - -[Illustration: THE HOLY SAVIOR GATE. KREMLIN.] - -[Illustration: OUR MILITARY GUARD BARGAINING FOR APPLES.] - -I could not forbear remarking upon the excessive number of men in -uniforms, soldiers apparently, I met everywhere in Russia, as well as -the great expanse of vacant land, saying to him, "You have too many -soldiers in Russia. You should have fewer men in the army and more men -out on the land tilling the soil and supporting themselves. It is -unfair to those who work to be compelled to feed so many idle mouths." -He answered me frankly. He said, "It is necessary to have these -soldiers. The peasants are ignorant. We take their young men and make -soldiers and good citizens out of them. The army is a school of -instruction; it is there the peasant learns to be loyal and to shoot." -And then he said with emphasis, "Ah! In America you don't need to -learn to shoot, you are like the Boers, you all know how to shoot," -which view of American dexterity, I, of course, readily acceded to. -And when I asked him why it was there were no schools or schoolhouses -in all this journey, he replied that it was useless to build schools -for the peasant, for he did not wish to learn. He had no desire to -improve. "You in America," he said, "are every year receiving the -energetic young men of all Europe. You are constantly recruiting with -the vigor and energy of the world. You can afford to have schools. -Your people want schools, but the Russian people want no schools. They -will not learn, they will not change, and no young men ever come to -Russia. We receive no help from the outside. Nobody comes here. -Nobody. Nobody (_Niemand, Niemand_). We have always the peasant, -always the peasant (_Immer der Bauer_)." And then he asked me about -President Roosevelt, and inquired whether he would succeed himself for -a second term, remarking that "Mr. Roosevelt was greatly admired by -the Russian army." "The Russian army sees in your President Roosevelt -a great man," he said, then added, "in France the Jews and financiers -set up a President, but in America you choose a man who is a man." We -became very good friends, and he accepted from me an American cigar, -one of a few I had brought along and saved for an emergency. At -subsequent stations he allowed me to get out in his company, and even -let me take his picture along with some of the other officers who -stood about. The Czar had passed. The weight of responsibility was off -his shoulders, he had discovered no evidence of our being -conspirators. He now treated us as friends. He even directed the car -attendant to clean from the windows their accumulated dust. - -During all the early hours of the morning we came through the same -flat, desolate, uninhabited country. It was a landscape of profound -monotony, with the dark green of the firs, the frosted yellow of the -birches, the withering browns of the tangled grasses, the black and -sodden soil. Even the crows were dressed in melancholy gray. - -[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION, KREMLIN.] - -[Illustration: ALONG THE GOSTINOI DVOR, MOSCOW.] - - - - -XIX. - -Our Arrival at Moscow--Splendor and Squalor--Enlightenment and -Superstition--Russia Asiatic Rather Than European. - - - MOSCOW, RUSSIA, _September 20, 1902_. - -It was toward ten o'clock when we drew near the suburbs of Moscow, a -city of more than a million inhabitants. We saw straggling wooden -houses, mostly unpainted, rarely ever more than one story high, and -unpaved streets filled with country wagons, not the great two-wheeled -carts of France, but long, low, four-wheeled wagons with horses -pulling singly, or hitched three and four abreast; and I noted that -the thills and traces of these wagons were fastened to the projecting -axles of the fore wheels, the pull being thus directly on the axle, so -as to lift the wheel out of the ever present mud holes. So universal -has become this method of hitching up a wagon that I observed it even -used on the vehicles in the cities where the streets are paved. Men in -high boots and sheepskin coats and felt caps were walking beside the -wagons, cracking long whips. The roads appeared to be frightful -sloughs of bottomless mire. - -Our train drew into a long, low, brick station, the Nicholas Depot. -The door of the car was unlocked, porters came in and seized our -bags, and we followed them. Our military escort did not even deign to -say good-bye. He was writing up his note book and seemingly -preoccupied. The instant we emerged from the station portal we were -surrounded by a mob of roaring_izvostchiks_; a pandemonium. We picked -out two of the cleaner-looking _droschkies_; the porters who had taken -our checks came with the trunks on their shoulders, and we started off -for our hotel. Although a dozen _izvostchiks_ will wrangle and war for -your custom, until you fear for your very life, yet the instant you -pick your man, the others retire and peace reigns. There is no attempt -to make you change your mind. - -The sky was overcast, drops of rain were falling, and there had been -more rain earlier in the day. The cobble-paved streets were thickly -overlaid with mud. Surely, they had never been cleaned in a century! -Moscow is a city of low, one and two story buildings, generally of -stone or stucco, but there are many of wood. It is a city full of reek -and accumulated filth, and is apparently without sewers, or with -sewers badly laid and long ago choked up. It is a city of narrow -streets with many turns, and narrow sidewalks or none at all. It is an -old city, the ways and alleys and streets of which have grown up as -they would. The people we met were ill-clad, unwashed, unkempt, -wild-eyed, shock-polled, dull-faced. They were a meaner multitude of -men and women than I had ever before set eyes upon. - -"Hotel Berlin" we said to our _izvostchiks_. The word "Berlin" they -seemed to comprehend, and they brought us safely to our destination. -It is a comfortable inn, on the Rojdestvensky way, kept by a Jew, and -recommended to us by the Swiss Concierge of the St. Petersburg hotel. -"It is the hotel where the drummers go," he said. We had learned long -ago that "where the drummers go," is where the best table will be -found, for the world over, the drummer loves a knowing cook. So we -went to the Hotel Berlin. We were there received by a little -weazen-faced, black-eyed, dried-up man, who spoke in voluble German -and broken English. "The police had notified him that we would come!" -he said. He told us that "He had once lived in London!"--and declared -that his rooms were exactly what we wanted, and his table "the best in -Moscow." He also confided to us that he was "fortunate in having at -hand, immediately at hand, and now at our service, the most skilled -and intelligent guide in Moscow, who would be delighted to serve us, -who was altogether at our disposal and whose charge would be 'only ten -_rubles_ a day,' and the guide 'talked English.'" We thanked our host, -took the rooms and accepted the guide. We have now been in Moscow -several days, and the guide has been faithful. He vows he has been -twice in Chicago. He says he is from Hungary and he talks excellent -German, but Mr. C, who himself hails from Chicago, is quite unable to -comprehend the English of his speech. Only my knowledge of German has -saved the guide his _rubles_. Moreover, his remembrance of Chicago is -indistinct, as well as of New York. Indeed, his knowledge of America -we are fain to believe is altogether hearsay. The nighest he has been -to Chicago, we surmise, was when a few years ago he "bought Astrakhan -lamb skins at Nijni Novo Gorod for Marshall Field & Company," whose -agent we believe he may really then have been. He is now married to a -Russian, and it is many years since he has been back to Hungary, nor -does he have much occasion to talk German or English, except when he -is acting as guide to Americans. Mr. C now and then forgets and -attempts to use American speech in conversation with him, when there -is entanglement. I am appealed to in German, the difficulty is cleared -up, and so we get on. - -To-day, we have taken a _landau_ and have driven all about the city. -Just how shall I describe this strange commingling of past and -present; of sumptuous splendor and squalor profounder than any seen in -St. Petersburg; of modern intelligence and mediaeval superstition; -this city which contains a Gostinnoi Dvor, a magnificent building of -white stone, extending over many blocks, a bazaar of six thousand -shops, with a single steel and glass vaulted roof covering the entire -immense series of structures as well as all included streets; this -city of beautiful stores, displaying the costliest products of London, -of Paris and New York; which is lit with electric lights equal to -Berlin, and provided with a telephone service superior to that of -London; this city where right alongside this modern bazaar, the -handiwork of Chicago builders, stand the towers and ramparts of the -ancient Kremlin; a city where at every corner of every street, swarm -bowing multitudes worshiping before the innumerable Eikons. - -[Illustration: BEGGING PILGRIMS, ST. BASIL.] - -[Illustration: THE RED SQUARE, MOSCOW.] - -A strange and curious sight it is to see a street packed with people -all bowing to a little picture stuck up in the wall. The Eikon to the -Russian is even more important than the Czar. He wears a miniature -Eikon hung about his neck as a sort of amulet. He puts an Eikon in his -house, in his shop, along his streets, and builds cathedrals and -lavishes fortunes to house and adorn them. Indeed, Russia might be -fitly termed the land of the Eikon, for there, as nowhere else in all -the world, has a simple picture been exalted to become an object of -worship. The Greek church allows no images. One of the serious causes -of the great schism with Rome in the eleventh and twelfth centuries -was the strict interpretation by the Eastern Church of the injunction -of the II Commandment, "Thou shalt make no graven images," wherefore -they declared the Roman practice rank idolatry, but to the sacred -pictures they gave their sanction. These Eikons are mostly painted in -the monasteries by monks of recognized holy lives. They are paintings -of the Christ, or of a Saint, sometimes the Virgin Mary and the Christ -Child together, and are often so overlaid with gold and jewels--tens -of thousands of dollars worth of jewels--that only the eyes and the -face may be seen, the draperies of the person being scrupulously -imitated and concealed by the overlaid plates of gold. - -This afternoon we saw a big, black, hearse-like carriage drawn by six -black horses, harnessed three abreast, accompanied by priests, to -which all the people took off their hats and bowed and crossed -themselves as it passed along. It was an Eikon being carried to the -death-bed of some penitent, who would be permitted to kiss it before -death. Sometimes these Eikons work miracles and the dying sinner -begins to recover so soon as it enters the room. All Russians keep -Eikons in their homes, and generally have one in every room, before -which a little candle is kept perpetually burning. And when a Russian -enters a house, he at once goes to the family Eikon and bows and -crosses himself before he greets his host. To ignore the Eikon would -be an unpardonable offense. In St. Petersburg we procured a copy of -the famous Eikon which reposes in the little chapel of the house of -Peter the Great, the portrait of St. Alexander Nevsky, which Peter -always carried with him into battle, and to the power of which he -attributed the victory of Pultova. The beautiful cathedral dedicated -to "Our Lady of Kazan," upon the Nevsky Prospekt, in St. Petersburg, -was erected in honor of victories brought to Russian arms by the -miraculous influence of her Eikon. The Russian lives in an atmosphere -of Eikons, and it takes a quick eye and an agile hand to doff your -hat and properly bow, as the Russian always does, whenever you pass by -one. - -[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL THE BLESSED, MOSCOW.] - -In this city of contrasts, in sight of the modern Gostinnoi Dvor, I -must take off my hat in going through a "Holy Gate," and every man, -woman and child I here meet are crossing themselves and bowing as they -pass along! In Mexico you do not feel so surprised at the superstition -of the Indian! But these are white men with blue eyes and yellow hair! -This is a city which contains so splendid an edifice as the monster -cathedral of Saint Savior, a pile of wonderful beauty, built of white -granite, and domed with five gigantic onion-shaped, cross-topped -cupolas, all sheathed in plates of solid gold; it is a city which -contains four hundred and fifty churches, five hundred chapels, and -convents and monasteries, how many I dare not say, all of them -begolded and bejeweled inside and out with barbaric emblazonry. And -yet it is a city, the streets of which are as ill-paved and as -stinking as were London's five hundred years ago; a city where trade -and enterprise are throttled by arbitrary and excessive taxation, -while the common people have no schools, even as they have no votes. - -We had just left the Imperial palace of the Kremlin, the most gorgeous -edifice my eyes have ever looked upon, where I had beheld such -chambers of gold and precious jewels and priceless tapestry, as one -only reads about in the Tales of the Arabian Nights; where the vast -Hall of St. George in the Czar's new palace is plated with gold from -floor to ceiling, and the ceiling is altogether of gold; where is gold -along the walls, panels of alabaster showing in between, ivory finish -and gold, gold and lapis lazuli, gold and emerald malachite, gold in -leaf, gold in heavy plate--gold everywhere. We were but the moment -come out from this stupendous display of riches. We had just passed -through the Holy Savior Gate. Our senses were still dazzled with this -excess of reckless magnificence, when we found ourselves upon the Red -Square--"Red" because of the human blood spilled there in the -countless massacres of Moscow's citizens by past Czars,--amidst the -swarming throngs of the abjectly poor; men and women, pinched-faced -and hollow-eyed; men and women who toil with patient, dull, dumb -hopelessness, and who are thankful to eat black bread through all -their lives, who are become mere human brutes! We saw many groups of -these, gnawing chunks of the black bread for their dinner with all the -zest of famished wolves, while they bowed and crossed themselves -incessantly, thanking God that they were indeed alive! - -The wanton luxury of the rich, the pinching poverty of the poor, so -widespread, so universal in Russia, appal and shock me upon every -hand. What are the political and social conditions which let these -things be possible is the query which constantly hammers on my brain! -Until to-day, I have never understood the light and shadow of Roman -history, nor what manner of men made up the hosts and hordes of Alaric -and of Attila. Here, you see the whole story right upon these -streets. - -We have not only visited the Kremlin, its cathedrals and its palaces, -its museums and its buildings of note, but we have also stood before -and gazed upon that wonder of all churches, the cathedral of St. -Basil, the weird and gorgeous creation of Vassili Blagenoi, and -lasting monument to the artistic sense of that monster-tyrant, Ivan -the IV, called the "Terrible." - -In the cathedral of the Archangel Michael, within the sacred precincts -of the Kremlin, lie now their coffins side by side, costly coverings -of gold-bespangled velvet enshrouding each; a strange example of the -equality of death. The story runs: so delighted was Ivan with the -extraordinary and curious beauty of Vassili's creation, that he gave a -sumptuous banquet in his honor within the Imperial palace and there, -lavishly bepraising him before the assembled company, declared that it -were impossible for human mind to create another building so wonderful -in all the world. Whereupon turning to Vassili, he inquired of the -flattered and delighted architect whether this declaration were not -the truth. The gratified creator of the wonderful cathedral is said to -have replied, "Ah, Sire, give me the money and I will build you -another a thousand times more beautiful than the poor work I have -already done." Hearing this, the Terrible Ivan turned to his headsman -who stood ever handy at his elbow, and ordered Vassili's eyes to be -immediately burnt out with red-hot irons, in order, as he declared, -that there should never be again created so splendid an edifice; then, -Vassili dying as a result of the operation, Ivan ordered a magnificent -funeral and directed that the body be laid within the consecrated -chamber of the cathedral, among the princes of the blood, where even -to-day it yet remains. - -Our Hungarian guide vowed that this tale was the literal truth, -pointing to the coffin which lay at our feet, among the relics of the -house of Rurik, as evidence incontrovertible. Nor did we presume to -doubt this instance of Ivan's cruelty, so thick spotted are the pages -of history with a thousand other instances of his devilish acts. - -Ivan loved the sight and smell of blood. As a boy he delighted to -torture domestic animals, and to ride down old women when he caught -them on the streets. As a man, he had the Archbishop of Novogorod sewn -up in the skins of wild beasts and thrown to savage dogs; frequently -he dispatched his enemies with his own sword, and he publicly murdered -his eldest son, the Czarevitch. No malevolent scheme of the human mind -was too cruel for his enjoyment. By him entire cities were devoted to -destruction on the most trifling pretext. For one instance, the -inhabitants of the commercial towns of Novogorod (sixty thousand in -Novogorod alone) and of Tver and of Klin were massacred in cold blood -under his personal supervision. He was more cruel than Nero or -Caligula, and compared with the appalling atrocities of his reign, -Louis XI and Ferdinand VII were gentle kings. - -[Illustration: ANCIENT PAVEMENTS, MOSCOW.] - -[Illustration: BREAD VENDORS, MOSCOW.] - -His presumption was equal to his cruelty, and he did not hesitate to -send his Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth to offer her the privilege of -becoming his eighth bride. History knows no such other monster as Ivan -the Terrible, who was undoubtedly mad; and yet he built beautiful -churches and palaces, and did more to encourage art and culture within -the confines of the empire than any other of the Russian Czars. - -We have also driven about the city and viewed the public buildings, -the shops and the markets, and this afternoon have come out across the -river Moskva, and climbed the hills of Vorobievy Gory, the "Sparrow -Hills,"--from the heights of which Napoleon, on that memorable -fourteenth day of September, 1812, fresh from the victory of Borodino, -first viewed the city. In superb panorama, Holy Moscow lay stretched -before us, its towers, its spires, its red and green and blue and -yellow walls and roofs, its golden domes, presenting a most sumptuous -harmony of color to the delighted eye. - -While St. Petersburg is the political capital, yet Moscow is the real -center of Russia. Here is the focus of Russia's industrial, -commercial, financial and religious life. Her "Chinese Bank" cashes -notes on Kashgar and Pekin, and sells bills of exchange upon their -banks in return. The street-life of this most Russian city, the coming -and going of its people, the commingling of these divers tribes and -races, strikingly illustrates the heterogeneous character of the -cumbrous empire. Here pass me by the blue-eyed, tow-polled _mujiks_ -from the provinces; here I meet, face to face, the swarthy skins which -tell of Tiflis and of Teheran; here I touch elbows with kaftan-gowned -traders from Merv and Samarkand, and silk-clad Chinese merchants from -the distant East. - -As I stroll along the Nickols-Skaia, the Iliinka-Skaia, or the -Rojdestvensky Boulevard, and catch the glances of these faces which -stare upon me with constant grave suspicion, doubtful, perchance, -whether I am a foreign spy in bureaucratic employ, or a stranger -friendly to the held-down people, I am musing upon the curious -interweaving of science and superstition, of modern and mediaeval -custom, which I here behold, and I ponder how work the hearts and -minds behind these masks which alone I see. Profound suspicion and -discontent is the impression I receive. Nowhere do I note a single -instance of that joyous hopefulness which marks men's faces in -America. The eye which here looks into mine has about it a gaze not -frank and sunny, but furtive and melancholy as that of a chained-up -wolf. Gradually I am beginning to comprehend that the men I look upon, -although clothed in the veneer of twentieth century civilization, are -nevertheless in mind and heart barbarians,--barbarians chafing beneath -the bitter burden of the hateful auto-bureaucratic rule; they are -Asiatic rather than European; even in discontent they lack the -open-mindedness of the West; they belong to the mysterious and -inscrutable peoples of the East. Napoleon's saying, "Scratch a Russian -and you will find a Tartar," now comes to me with redoubled force. - -[Illustration: THE KREMLIN BEYOND THE MOSKVA.] - -Despite the French telephones and the Chicago-built Bazaar, despite -the splendid churches and the gorgeous Kremlin, I perceive that these -Russians are yet the same as when Byzantium sent St. Cyril and his -monks to Christianize their savage ancestors thirteen centuries ago. - - - - -XX. - -The Splendid Pageant of the Russian Mass--The Separateness of Russian -Religious Feeling From Modern Thought--Russia Mediaeval and Pagan. - - - MOSCOW, RUSSIA, _September 21, 1902_. - -We have just been leaning over a guard rail of burnished brass, -peering down into the half twilight gloom, beholding ten thousand -Russian men and women bending their swaying bodies, as a wheat field -bends before the wind, crossing themselves in feverish fervor, even -bowing the forehead to the marble floor and kissing it rapturously in -the solemn celebration of the mass. - -We drove in a _landau_,--all four of us and our Hungarian -guide,--through the narrow, crowded streets. "Drove," I say! Rather I -should say whirled, behind two mighty black Arab stallions, which no -man might hold, but only guide, and we never slackened our pace until -we dashed up to the great white granite stairway of the vast cathedral -of Saint Savior. Our Russian driver yelled, men and vehicles fled from -our path, and yet we ran over no one, we killed no one! Our furious -horses stopped short on their haunches. Two Russian soldiers now -held them by their heads. We drove like nobles. We must be grandees! - -[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF ST. SAVIOR, MOSCOW.] - -The cathedral of Saint Savior has been nearly a century in building. -Founded in commemoration of the defeat of Napoleon in 1812, it has -been slowly raised by means of the multitudinous contributions of the -Russian people. It is a square cross in outline, as lofty as the -capitol at Washington, and surmounted by five oriental domes, the -central one bigger than the other four, all topped with Greek crosses, -and all covered with plates of solid gold, the burnished glittering -splendor of which dazzle the eyes long miles away. Within, the -interior is tiled with rare marbles of divers colors, while the walls -are decorated with priceless paintings by the most illustrious Russian -artists of the century, done by them at the command of the Czar, with -pillars of malachite and lapis lazuli, green and blue, standing -between the splendid pictures. There are altars of solid silver -covered with rare embroideries of gold and emblazoned with precious -stones. Close by each altar rests an Eikon. - -A soldier in gold lace uniform opened our carriage door. He led us up -the long flight of white steps--white in the golden sunlight--and -pushed his way and ours through the bowing, crossing, sweating, -stinking (the Russian really never takes a bath) thousands, who, like -ourselves, sought to enter the precincts of the most magnificent -cathedral of "Holy Russia." We jostled against rich merchants and -their wives clad in splendid furs and silks and adorned with many -jewels; against military officers in long gray coats, high boots and -caps of astrakhan wool or fur; and peasants, in sheepskin coats, -belted at the waist, their legs wrapped in cotton cloth tied with -leathern thongs, their feet bound up in straw. These farmers from the -country are too poor to afford the luxury of socks and shoes. Through -all these the soldier with our _pourboire_ in his hand, forced his -way--not always gently--and led us up a winding flight of one hundred -steps to the series of galleries which run round the immense interior. -Here he again forced back the press of people until we might lean over -the great brass rail and gaze down below! And what a spectacle! There, -were ten thousand, twenty thousand,--I dare not say how many, men and -women; all standing; all bowing; all devoutly responding to the -intoning of the priests! Three hundred men and boys clad in red and -purple and golden vestments were chanting the melancholy music of the -Russian Church! No organ is there allowed, no musical instrument, no -instrument save that which God has made, the human throat! Then, from -the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary, comes out the Archbishop -of all the Russias, the Metropolitan of "Holy Moscow," clad in -vestments of gold and of silver, intoning the mystery of the mass! -Other priests stand close behind him, swinging censers of incense, and -also chanting in melancholy mournful harmony with the mighty melody of -the choir. Never have my senses apprehended such opulent, refulgent -splendor, such a pageant of gold and of purple, of jewels and of fine -linen, such clouds of incense, such glorious, mighty music from the -human throat! Such fervor, such frenzy, such exaltation as I now -beheld in the swaying, worshiping multitude! I was beholding the -fervant, fanatical, hysterical religious feeling of the Russian -people, a people mediaeval in their blind superstition, mediaeval in -their per-fervid ardor for their church! - -What I am writing of can only be impressions, and yet perhaps the -impressions which I receive in my brief sojourn within the Russian -Empire may more vividly portray that subtle, almost indefinable, -atmosphere which broods over Russia and marks it from all the world, -than I might be able to do if I remained so long within her confines -that I should lose the power. - -I have now sojourned in Russia barely seven days, yet I feel as though -I had spent a lifetime in another world than that of America. I hear -no sound which is familiar. I cannot even count in Russian. I see no -street signs which my eyes have before beheld; even the alphabet, -though Greek, is yet enigmatically Russianized. Nor do I find that -English or Danish, French or German is of much avail. In the largest -news emporium or bookstore, in St. Petersburg, upon the Nevsky -Prospekt, the other day, where twenty or thirty clerks were serving -the public, there was no one of them who spoke or even understood -either French, or German, much less English. In the chief bookstore -in Moscow, where a large trade is carried on, nothing is spoken but -Russian. After much search I did find one small bookshop where a clerk -spoke passable French, and another where the Jewish proprietor -understood German. And while it is true that the high Russian officer -who escorted us from St. Petersburg spoke fluently in German and in -French, and while it may also be true that among the bureaucracy, and -perhaps nobility, French is still generally understood, yet it is -equally true that the present tendency in Russia is to Russify -language as well as things, and that foreign tongues are less spoken -and less known to-day than they were thirty or forty years ago. The -Russian is absorbed in himself, he knows little of the outside world -and he cares less. The news of Europe and of America and of all the -earth only comes to him in expurgated driblets through the sieve of -the Censor. The saying that "there are three continents," the -"continent of Europe," the "continent of Russia" and the "continent of -Asia," is no mere jest. One feels it here to be a verity. One feels -that Russia, despite her pretensions to the contrary, is mediaeval, -that she is mentally and morally aloof from all the progress of the -present century, from all the thought of modern peoples, and utterly -remote from all touch with the progressive nations of to-day. - -In Scandinavia, the world is abreast of the times, its peoples are -advanced and alert, but the instant you cross the dead-line and enter -Russia, you feel that the world has taken a back-set of five hundred -years, that Russian life is so far behind all modern movement that it -never can catch up. - -Even the bigness of St. Petersburg carries with it an impracticability -that is itself mediaeval. St. Petersburg did not grow up because there -was need of a city on that spot. It was created as the deliberate act -of a despot. Peter the Great feared to live longer in Moscow. He had -murdered and tortured too many of its worthy citizens. He had, for one -job, hung eight thousand patriots in the Red Square; he had thrown ten -thousand more into dungeons, there to rot. Daring no longer to live in -Moscow, he founded the new capital, "Petersburg," on the banks of the -Neva, which should become a seaport, be protected from his own -subjects by the ships he himself would build, and house his government -as safe from domestic as from foreign foes. He laid out the city with -streets so wide that it has never been possible to pave them well. He -provided public buildings so huge that it has never been possible to -secure a foundation upon the Neva's miry delta solid enough safely to -hold them up. He drove the nobility into this quagmire city, and drew -the bureaucracy up to its unstable ground. To-day, St. Petersburg is a -city of a million and a half of inhabitants, but if the Russian Czars -should choose to reconstitute Moscow their permanent capital, St. -Petersburg would again become a wilderness, a waste of marshy -islands, desolate and bare. It is the hot-house plant of autocracy. -There is no natural reason for it to exist. - -Everywhere in Russia one feels the certain so childish straining after -effect which is mediaeval and barbaric. In the palace of the Kremlin -lies the disabled and gigantic cannon which Catherine II commanded to -be cast, and which has never fired a shot for the reason that it was -so big they could never find a gunner to serve and handle it. Close -beside it lies the enormous bell, the "Czar Kolokol"--King of -Bells--cast by command of a Czar, so huge that it could never be -lifted up into a belfry and which, falling to the ground from a -temporary scaffold, cracked itself by sheer weight. It lies there a -fit commentary on overleaping ambition. The cars and locomotives of -the railways are uncouth from their very size. Russia is like a big, -loose-jointed, over-grown boy, a boy so constituted that he may never -become a veritable man. - -The government arsenals and machine shops in Moscow are run by German -and English bosses. The Russian makes big plans, but he does not -possess the power himself to carry them to successful issue. The great -empire is so spread out that pieces of it are even now ready to break -off. An intelligent Swede with whom I voyaged from Stockholm, then -living in St. Petersburg, declared the day not far distant when not -only Finland, but the German provinces of Esthonia and Livonia and -Courland along the Baltic, as well as Poland, must inevitably crack -off. And he declared that from mere internal cumbersomeness the -Russian Empire must soon dissolve. It may be so. And one is here -impressed with the fact that Russia now chiefly holds together by -reason of the military might of her autocracy, whose strength and -permanence under serious defeat may vanish in a night. - -Another thing I have become cognizant of is the fact that everywhere -the men who do not wear a uniform hate the men who do. The cleavage -parting the upper and the lower levels of Russian life is immense. -Apparently there is no sympathy between them. The _mujik_ upon the -street scowls at the uniformed official who drives by in his dashing -equipage. He looks with surly countenance upon the grandee who nearly -runs him down. He hates the men who so mercilessly wield authority and -power, and who order the Cossack to ride him down and knout and saber -him into terrified submission. - -One morning we passed through a great square in Moscow containing -nothing but men--wild-eyed, long-haired, long-bearded men; men in -rags, most of them, and all of them compelled to come there and wait -to be hired to work. To that square must all working men go who seek -work. The city feeds them while they wait, a single small piece of -black bread each day. Some never leave that square, but wait there -their lifetime through. They gazed upon our handsome landau with -hungry and wolfish eyes. How glad would they have been to tear us into -pieces and divide what little spoil they might obtain! I never before -beheld so frightful, unkempt a company of hopeless, hapless, hungry -human slaves as these Russian workingmen who waited for a job. - -[Illustration: A MOSCOW TRAM CAR.] - -[Illustration: THE OUT-OF-WORKS.] - - - - -XXI. - -The First Snows--Moscow to Warsaw--Fat Farm Lands and Frightful -Poverty of the Mujiks Who Own them and Till them--I Recover My -Passport. - - - HOTEL SAVOY, FRIEDICHS STRASSE, - - BERLIN, GERMANY, _September 23, 1902_. - -"_Hoch der Kaiser, Hoch der Kaiser! Gott sei Dank! Ich bin in -Deutschland angekommen!_" have my brain and blood and bones been -crying out all the last fifty miles, since we safely crossed the -Russian border. Until the moment when the last Russian official waked -me up, held a light in my face, and, staring at me, compared my visage -with what the passport said it ought to be, and handed me back that -document to be mine forever, to be framed and hung up in my Kanawha -home, and preserved for my children and children's children as -evidence that I came safe out of Russia; not till that midnight hour -did I realize that I belonged to the common Teutonic brotherhood of -men, and that Puritan-descended American though I were, I and my -German neighbor were yet really kin! But at that moment when we -crossed the German boundary, I knew it and felt it in every fibre and -tingling nerve. I was a Teuton, I was a German, I was come again among -my blood kindred. "_Hoch der Kaiser_," "_Selig sei Deutschland!_" I -had come out of mediaevalism, from the shadows of barbarism, I was -emerged into the light of the twentieth century's sun! - -We left Moscow late Sunday afternoon, in a blinding snow storm, the -first of the year. - -In the morning, after attending mass in the cathedral of Saint Savior, -we drove about the city enjoying the cloudless blue sky, the pellucid -sunshine. We visited the Gentile and Jewish markets, and watched the -pressing concourse of eager traders bartering and chaffering their -goods and wares; we passed along the high frowning walls of the -debtors' prison, where any man who has incurred a debt of five hundred -_rubles_ ($250) may be incarcerated by the creditor, and kept shut up -as long as the said creditor puts up for him the very modest sum of -about four cents a day for bread. When the creditor quits paying for -his debtor's keep, the debtor comes out, but not till then. The fare -at that price is not luxurious, and after a few weeks or months of the -meagre diet, the debtor joyfully promises anything to escape and, -sometimes, persuades his family or friends to compound with the -creditor and get him out. But some there are who spend a lifetime -within those walls. And our Orthodox driver declared that a Jew liked -nothing better than to thrust and hold a hapless Gentile debtor behind -those gates. - -[Illustration: MONASTERY CHURCH, NOVO DIEVITCHY.] - -[Illustration: CEMETERY NOVO DIEVITCHY.] - -[Illustration: HOLY BEGGAR, NOVO DIEVITCHY.] - -The day was lovely and the air had almost the balminess of spring. Men -and women and children were going about in summer garments, no -overcoats or wraps, and it might as well have been May or June. At the -same time, we noticed that the windows of our rooms in the hotel were -double-sashed and tight-corked with cotton, and I also observed that -similar double windows were fast set on public buildings and -dwelling-houses past which we drove. But otherwise, as we looked into -the soft blue sky there was no hint of approaching frosts. - -It was near noon when we drove out to see the famous convent of Novo -Dievitchy, and we spent a delightful hour in viewing its towered -church, its cloisters, its nuns' cells and children's quarters, and -the curious cemetery where are entombed many of Moscow's most -illustrious dead, tombs which are set above the ground amidst choice -shrubbery and blooming plants. We had just come out, through the old -arched gateway, and had encountered a band of holy beggars who -absorbed our attention and our _kopeeks_. I had put the ladies into -the _landau_, while the driver with great difficulty held back his -restive, squealing stallions. My hand was on the carriage door, when I -felt something soft and cold upon it. I looked up and behold! the air -was full of big flakes of descending snow. The horizon to the north -and east was black, the blue sky had grown a leaden gray. Winter had -come to Moscow and to us as silently and as suddenly as it once came -to Napoleon and his thinclad army, near a century ago. There was no -wind; the noises of the city were suddenly hushed; a great silence now -brooded over Moscow. The air was thick with big, fluffy, fluttering -particles of whiteness which stuck to everything they touched, and -never melted when they ceased to fall. We could not see across the -road, even the horses were half hid. Our driver gave full rein to the -impatient team and we flew homeward, but the snow kept coming down -just the same. It never melted anywhere. It grew into piles and mounds -and soft feathery masses. It wholly concealed the scarred and rutted -unevennesses of the road, it clung to twig and tree and fence, to -gable, to window-ledge and lintel. King Winter had breakfasted in -Archangel and, speeding across flat and unbarriered Russia, now dined -in Moscow and would there permanently remain. And as suddenly all -Moscow now bloomed forth into sheepskin overcoats and elaborate furs -and winter wraps. The citizens must have had them hanging behind the -door upon a handy peg, ready for just such a sudden coming of the -snows. By afternoon, sleighs and sledges jingled along the ways and -boulevards, and stinking, filthy-streeted Moscow was transformed into -a city immaculate and pure. And the snow kept ever falling, falling, -falling, steadily, softly, persistently, without let or stop. - -It was toward two o'clock that we took our final excursion out beyond -the borders of the city to the summer palace of the Czars, the -favorite Chateau Petrovsky, where prior to the coronation every -Czar goes to repose and meditate and prepare himself with fasting and -prayer for the ordeal of the tedious ceremonial in the Cathedral of -the Assumption within the Kremlin. - -[Illustration: THE KREMLIN BENEATH THE SNOWS.] - -The Chateau is a large and rambling building of wood and brick, with -extensive suites of big, bare rooms. Behind it there lies a garden, -laid out as though it were in France, with many graveled walks, and -beds of flowers and edges of close-clipped box. Here the Czarina loves -to wander, and here she passes many a quiet hour when escaped from the -pomp and pressure of life in the Kremlin's gaudy palace. Here one bed -of roses was pointed out to us as her especial joy. The old French -gardener looked pathetic as he stood beside it and watched the big -white flakes alighting upon each leaf and petal. "The snows are come," -he said, "the garden dies, there will be no flowers more till another -year!" And then, as if to save his cherished pets, he hastily gathered -the finest of the blooms and presented them to H and begged her to -accept and keep them, saying, "The snows are come, the Czarina, the -Empress, will not now object; to-morrow these will surely all be -dead." - -In the morning of the day before, we were told that, "To-morrow, or -next day, or in a week, or a fortnight, will come the snows, we do not -know how soon. But when they come, then we know that winter is begun, -the long seven months of winter which will not leave us till May or -June. It is then you should come to see us. Then are these ill-paved -and reeking streets white and hard and clean; the summer's dusts and -heats are then forgot, and we quicken with the invigoration of the -cold; then does the city gladden with the gay life of those returned -from the summer's toil upon the wide estates, or from foreign lands, -for winter is the season when all Russians best love to be at home." - -We settled our hotel bills only after much argument with our host. We -would not pay for candles we had not burned; our room was lighted with -electric lights. We would not pay for steaks we had not eaten, nor -chickens yet alive, nor for sweets we never tasted. No! For these and -the like of these we flatly refused to pay. "De Vaiter's meeshtakes, -Mein Herr, sie shall kom oudt." One hundred _rubles_ for three days! -Moscow was as costly as London! - -Through the falling snows, thick falling snows, we drove to the -Smolensk railway station, whence start the trains going west, for -Moscow has not yet arrived at the convenience of a union depot. -Although all railroads are owned and run by the government, yet each -train starts from that side of the city nearest to the direction it -will travel. We entered a long, low brick and wooden building, and -passing through a wide dark waiting room, came out upon a wooden -platform and were beside our train. We were ready to go. We had our -tickets and our passports. Three days before, almost as soon as we -arrived, we gave the forty-eight hours' notice of our intention to -leave Russia, and the twenty-four hours' notice that we should also -leave Moscow. We were permitted to take our passports to the main -ticket office up within the city, the Kitai Gorod, and presenting -them, secured the tickets. We then returned the passports to the -police department to be given back to us just before we left, by the -big uniformed official at our hotel. But he did not return them until -we first bestowed upon him another ten _rubles_, as we had done when -leaving St. Petersburg! Now we were once more to surrender our -passports to a new uniformed government official, the train conductor, -who would also examine them, _vise_ them, and hand them to another -when we came to Warsaw, to be yet again scrutinized and stamped and -only returned to us when we at last crossed the German border. Nor -even then until we should be finally inspected and compared by yet -other officials so as to make dead certain that we were indeed the -very self same travelers who now declared they wanted to get out of -Russia. - -The train was a long one. It was the through express carrying the -Imperial Mails to Vienna, Berlin and Paris. It would pass Smolensk, -Minsk, "Brzesc" (Brest) and Warsaw. It was one of the important trains -of the empire. There were many passengers, and we were able to secure -only a single stateroom with two berths in the first-class car for the -ladies, while Mr. C and I obtained two berths in the second class car -adjoining. We might sit together during the day, but for the night we -would be in different coaches. The berths in our sleeper were provided -each with a mattress, and an extra _ruble_ gave us a pair of blankets, -a sheet and a pillow. The cars were warm and double-windowed against -the cold. - -We went about twenty miles an hour over a straight-tracked road, and -our sleep was undisturbed. When I awoke in the morning and made my way -toward the toilet, though early, I yet found a queue of men and women -ahead of me, and had to fall in line and take my turn. A big bearded -Jew was just coming out of the little toilet room and a slim young -woman was just going in, a young woman comely and with hair tangled -and fallen down. This was bad enough, but between the tangled hair and -myself stood another dame with locks quite as disheveled and unkempt. -But I dared not quit my place, since an increasing number of men and -women pressed uneasily behind me. My only chance was to stick it out -until those coiffures should be restored to immaculate condition for -the day. Within the toilet there was no soap, nor towel, nor comb, nor -brush, nor else but ice-cold water, and a wide open channel down into -the bitter stinging air. But I had now journeyed somewhat in Russia -and had come fitly prepared. - -All night we had rolled through a dead flat country, passing Smolensk, -a large city of fifty thousand inhabitants, and all day we continued -to traverse the same wide levels. The sky was blue, the air was -cold and keen, there was a slight drifting of snow across the -illimitable fields. Peasants in belted sheepskin overcoats, which came -down to the heels, were plowing in the fields, each behind a single -horse, and women on their knees were planting, or digging out potatoes -and turnips and beets. Women were also hoeing everywhere, working like -the men--mostly in short skirts, kerchiefs about the head, legs -swathed in cotton cloth wrapped around and tied on with strings, feet -like the men's, wrapped up in plaited straw. The houses were miserable -wooden huts of only one story and with chimneys made of sticks and mud -and built on the inside to save heat, and meaner than any cabins of -the most "ornery" mountaineers of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. -There were no windows in the hovels, no openings but one single door. -For the men and women who tilled the land, it was poverty, bitter -poverty everywhere. Yet we were traversing some of the finest, -richest, most productive farming lands of Russia; lands on which great -and abundant crops are raised, or ought to be raised, and where these -men and women ought to be living in ease and comfort by their toil, -for these lands are largely owned by those who till and cultivate -them, the "free and emancipated" peasantry of Russia! But the great -crops are of little avail to the helpless peasant. His industry brings -him no cessation of grinding toil. He barely lives, often he starves, -sometimes he dies, dies of starvation right on this rich, fat land he -himself owns. The government of the Czar knows just what each acre of -his land will yield, and knowing this, it takes from the peasant in -taxes the product of his sweat and toil, leaving him barely enough to -live. There are no schools to teach the peasant. The high Russian -officer, the lieutenant colonel who guarded us from St. Petersburg to -Moscow, said, "The peasant wants no schools." Thus, he never learns -his rights, the rights God wills to him. He keeps on toiling year in -and year out, and the government of the Czar squeezes from him his -tears, his blood, his _kopeeks_, his life! And these men I saw were -white men and owned the land, fat, fertile land, rejoicing ever in -abundant crops! - -[Illustration: A STATION STOP, EN ROUTE TO WARSAW.] - -A century ago, even thus were also the peasants of France ground down -and pillaged by the King, the nobility, the government of the state. -As I traveled through the fruitful valley of the Loire two years ago, -crossing central France, and beheld the smiling fields and -well-planted meadows and perpetual cultivation of every foot of soil, -until the whole land bloomed and bore crops like one mighty garden, I -could not help wondering, as I looked upon the smiling countenance of -the terrain, and upon the contented faces of the sturdy and thrifty -peasantry who owned and tilled it, whether this present fecundity and -agricultural wealthiness of rural France, does not, after all, repay -the world and even France herself, for the terrors and the tears, the -blood and the obliteration of the _l'ancien regime_, whose -expungement by the Revolution alone made possible to-day a -regenerated and rejoicing France. - -We have passed through Minsk, the ancient capital of Lithuania, a city -of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants of whom more than half -are Jews, and through Brzesc (pronounced "Brest"), another city as big -as Smolensk and renowned as a fortress, taken and retaken, lost and -relost, through all the weary centuries of Polish-Muskovite wars. We -have crossed the river Bug ("Boog") on a fine steel bridge, and -entering pillaged Poland, are now arrived within the borders of her -great capital, Warsaw ("Barcoba," "Varsova"), where we change to a -train of German cars, of the narrower German gauge, and go on to -Berlin. - -Just after leaving Minsk, I fell into conversation with a most -intelligent young Jew from Warsaw, who, among other things, spoke of -Russia and her ways, saying that, strange as it may seem, the people -of Poland prefer her harsh rule to the fairer dealing of the Germans, -for the reason that Pole and Russ both talk a Slavic tongue, and race -affinity constitutes a bond. Yet said he at the same time, all Poles -dream of the day when a Polish King shall again fill a Polish throne, -and the glories of their Fatherland shall be restored. - -We reached Warsaw only two hours late and pulled into the large stone -station close alongside the Berlin train. The porter grabs our bags. -Our small steamer trunk is shown to hold no _vodka_, nor contraband -effects. "_Nach Berlin_," I shout, and we are transferred to a clean, -comfortable German car. _Gott sei Dank!_ we feel a thousand times. We -are almost free, almost escaped, almost beyond the Russian pale. For a -fortnight, we have been under constant, conscious, persistent -surveillance. Our guides have been in the employ of the police; -strange men have followed us about upon the streets, have sat beside -us in hotels, have scrutinized us with cold eyes upon the trains. We -have been under the direct guard of armed soldiers, who have stood -outside our stateroom door and slept beside us all the night. We have -never, since entering Russia, been free from the weasel-wit and -ferret-eye of incessant espionage! - -And the dirt! Dirty cars! Dirty hotels! Dirty carriages! Dirty -streets! Dirty churches! Dirty palaces! Dirty men! Dirty women! Such -is Russia, a land where the world knows not water, except to skate -upon when turned to ice. - -Now we are in a German car, immaculately clean! Clean, almost, as it -would be in Norway! We are in the modern world again. I feel great -pressure in my heart to "_Hoch der Kaiser_", and this despite the fact -that, like every right-minded American, I am bred to abhor the -assumptions of Hohenzollern Kaisership even as strenuously as Romanoff -Autocracy. Yes! I feel great impulse to _Hoch der Kaiser_ and to cheer -for Germany and my German kin. - - - - -XXII. - -The Slav and the Jew--The Slav's Envy and Jealousy of the Jew. - - -Now that I have had a glimpse of Russia, you ask me, "Why is the Slav -always so eager to do to death the Jew?" Wherefore this hatred which -so constantly flames out in grievous pillage and wanton murder and -blood-thirsty massacre of the children of Israel? - -You say to me that in America for two centuries we have had the Jew; -that we now have millions of Jews, and that they are patriotic and -loyal citizens of the Republic; that Jews sit in our highest courts -and render able and fair decisions, enter the senate of the United -States and sit in congress, are sent to West Point and Annapolis and -prove themselves devoted and efficient officers of the army and navy, -are lawyers and doctors and distinguished members of the learned -professions; that they display intelligence, industry and thrift, and -are among the foremost citizens of the Republic, and that many of -these Jews, or their fathers and mothers, have come direct from -Russia. And you ask me "Why is it then that within the dominion of the -Czar the Slav makes such constant war upon the Jew?" - -If I were briefly to sum up my impressions of the real cause of the -Slav's hatred of the Jew, I should say, JEALOUSY and ENVY, and then -ask you to remember that the Slav is yet at heart a semi-Asiatic and a -barbarian. - -When journeying from St. Petersburg to Moscow the Russian -lieutenant-colonel said to me: "In America you select real men for -Presidents of whom Roosevelt is the finest type, but in France the -JEWS and financiers set up their tool for President." In a nut shell -this high Russian officer expressed the feeling of his own race toward -the Jew. The Jew is a Jew and the Jew is a financier. The Russians are -jealous of his acquired wealth and of his ability to gather it and -they hate him. - -A few days later, traveling from Moscow to Warsaw, we found ourselves -sitting in a dining car with an elaborate bill of fare before us and -yet we were like to starve right then and there. The menu was printed -in Russian; the attendants and waiters talked nothing but Russian. We -knew no Russian and spoke in English, in German, in French, in Danish -without avail. The servants just stood there shaking their heads and -saying, "_Nyett, Nyett_." ("No, No.") We were famishing but could -order no food. Just then a tall woman of courtly manner, elegantly -gowned, came toward us from another table and said in perfect English -that she had long lived in London, though now she resided in Russia, -and then, giving our orders to the waiters, she saved us from -impending famine. She afterward told me that her passport had lapsed, -and that the Russian Government now refused to let her leave Russia -because she was a Jewess, while at the same time, they forbade her to -remain longer in Moscow, she having recently become a widow, and under -the harsh laws of Russia thereby lost her right of domicile within the -city. She hoped to escape to America by bribing the officials at the -border. - -At Vilna, I fell into acquaintance with a young Pole from Warsaw, who -spoke seven languages and among them German and English fluently, -although he had never been outside the dominions of the Czar. He was a -strict Jew, and he expressed great surprise when I assured him that in -America a Jew is treated just the same as a Christian. He said he had -heard that to be indeed really the fact, and he expressed the -intention of some day coming to America to see for himself. He seemed -both perplexed and gratified when he found that I showed him the same -consideration I did my Gentile acquaintances. - -In Moscow we drove past the imposing front of the great Jewish -Synagogue. The doors were barred. The structure was falling into -decay. I learned that it had been closed for nigh twenty years by -order of the Imperial Governor of Moscow, Prince Vladimir, uncle of -the Czar; nor might any Synagogue now be opened in Moscow; nor might -any Jew now worship in any edifice; nor might any outside Jew now come -and live in Moscow; nor might any Jew living in Moscow come back if -he had once left the limits of the city; nor might he own any land in -the city, nor practice a profession; nor might he marry a Christian, -nor might a Christian marry him. The Jews were also subjected to extra -and particular special taxes, arbitrarily levied and collected by the -autocratic government. The Jew, right here in "Holy Moscow," soul and -heart-center of the vast Russian Empire, was pillaged under the -autocratic rule of the Czar, persecuted under the hand of the Holy -Orthodox Church, plagued and preyed upon by a perpetually jealous and -malevolent populace. - -The Russian army officer sneering at Monsieur Loubet, President of -France, whom he called the "tool of Jews and Financiers;" the courtly -Jewish lady; the intelligent Jewish merchant of Warsaw, who was so -much astonished that I should show him the courtesy of an equal, the -lowly _izvostchik_ driving me in his _droschky_ and pointing out the -closed and moldering Synagogue; each and all discovered in their -divers ways the attitude of the Slav toward the Jew; and the officer -revealed in his criticism of the ruler of Russia's ally, the Republic -of France, the real underlying secret cause of the Russian's animosity -and hatred of the Jew. That cause of hatred is the Jew's ability to -prosper without and in spite of the fostering care of the autocracy. - -The Jew was a cultivated citizen-of-the-world when the Slavic -ancestors of the Russian were unlettered nomads roving the illimitable -wastes of Scythia. In the temples and libraries of ancient Egypt -the Jew acquired the culture and the learning of the Pharaohs; amidst -the palaces and hanging-gardens of Imperial Babylon and Nineveh the -Jew learned the arts and the sciences of the Assyrian and Persian; -Plato and Aristotle and the Greek philosophers recognized in the Jew a -spiritual culture of exalted type, and granted him to possess a -learning as encompassing as their own; the Roman, practical, and -master of the then known world, paid homage to the cultivated -intelligence of the Jew. - -[Illustration: CATCHING A KOPEEK--A BEGGAR.] - -The monotonous plains of Russia were yet filled with nomadic hordes of -pagan barbarians when Cordova was a paved city, its streets -illuminated by night, its libraries and its University the center of -the most advanced learning of the age; when the gigantic and splendid -cathedrals of England and France were everywhere raising their mighty -walls and spires for the perpetual glory of God and the inspiration of -mankind; when the fleets of Lisbon and Genoa were discovering the -farthest and most distant splendors of the Orient and Occident; when -Venice was mistress of Byzantium and Florence patron of Rome; when -Hebrew savants, under the benign influence of Saracen rule, were among -the most learned and renowned leaders of Moslem science; when the -Israelites of Italy and France were intermarried among the proudest of -the nobility and were even counselors of Kings; when Hebrew learning -and Hebrew wealth gave added momentum to the impulse of the -Renaissance. While during the centuries of the world's reawakening, -even as during the preceding centuries of the Crusades, just as -throughout the long duration of the dominion of Rome and of the -Eastern Empire, the Jew was ever recognized for his learning, culture -and wealth. - -When St. Cyril and his Byzantine monks, in the seventh century, gave -Greek Christianity to the Russian Pagan, the Russian yet remained -content with outward forms and ceremonies. He continued pagan at heart -and persevered in worshiping the ancient ghosts and spirits, even as -in many parts of Russia he does to-day. He put on a Christian coat, -but he kept his pagan hide; and the Russian Orthodox Christian has -always remained a semi-pagan. - -The great mass of the Russian people were serfs sold with the land up -to 1860, when Alexander II gave them nominal freedom, but a freedom -without lands and without schools; a so-called freedom which has left -the individual peasant, the _mujik_, as landless, as bitterly poor, as -benightedly ignorant to-day as he was a thousand years ago; nor does -the autocratic-bureaucracy of the Czar give him hope of a better day. -I journeyed through some of the richest farming lands in Russia, and -the farmers, the _mujiks_, whom I saw tilling the soil, plowing and -digging in the fields, were so poor that their feet were wrapped in -plaited straw, too impoverished to afford the luxury of a leathern -boot! The government absorbs all the profits of the crops in payment -for these lands and in taxes, as return for having made the _mujiks_ -nominal owners of the soil and emancipating them from serfdom. - -On the other hand, the nobles are forbidden by caste spirit and -tradition to enter into any career except the service of the state. -The younger nobles and ruling breeds among the Russian people are all -sucked into the employ of the state by the maelstrom of bureaucracy. -The youths of the nobility and gentry, and the more or less educated -classes, must enter the navy, the army, and the service of the state. -A government job for life is their only hope. They are not permitted -to make money for themselves independently; they can only make money -for the government of the Czar and for themselves through "Graft." - -The government wishes to do everything in Russia. It deliberately -invades the spheres of private enterprise; it deliberately seeks all -the profit; it deliberately destroys the ambition and the power of the -person; it deliberately annihilates and stifles individual initiative. -In Russia, the government runs all the railroads, most of the mines, -many of the iron mills. It raises cotton; it raises wheat; it farms -and it manufactures. It buys and sells. It runs all the telegraphs and -telephones and express business. It opens all private letters and -reads all the printed books and newspapers. It permits no letter to go -through the mails, nor book nor newspaper to be read, which it deems -to express sentiments inimical to the supremacy of the autocracy. I -was threatened with imprisonment in Russia for snapping a kodak -without government permit. I was under police and military supervision -and escort all the time I traveled in Russia, even short as it was. -Nor did I dare to send a letter to America from Russia, but wrote my -thoughts with locked doors, and mailed my writings only when safe -beyond the eye of the Russian government spy. - -Thus we find that, on the one hand, the peasantry are crushed, thrust -down and pitilessly held in ignorance and superstition and bitter -poverty; on the other hand, all the best ability and brains of the -governing classes are commandeered into the army, or navy, or -life-long government service, and with meager salaries and small pay. -The big grafts, the soft snaps, the juicy chances must all belong to -the government and flow into the coffers of the Czar to keep fat and -easy the Imperial family and the swarms of parasitic tid-bit hunters -who leech them. - -But even in autocratic Russia, the grasping clutch of autocracy cannot -hold up all the avenues of commerce, however far-reaching its embrace -may be. Hence, in those lines of enterprise, not absorbed and -appropriated by the government, there is left open a clear path to -whosoever may have the acumen to seize the opportunity. Here is the -chance of the Jew. Endowed with a keen and subtle intellect, educated -by his own masters often to the highest training of the intelligence -and disciplined by the hardships of persecution, he is at once an -overmatch for the ignorant, brutal, poverty-haunted _mujik_, and fully -the equal of the best breeds of governing Slavs. Those intellects -which are the equals of his own are not in competition with him. The -ablest of the Slavs are earning a small salary in the army, in the -navy, or as government officials; making what they can for themselves -by more or less open graft, it is true, but without the incentive of -other personal gain. So the Jew gets on in Russia. This progress is in -spite of the jealousy and the hatred and the pillaging hand of the -envious Slav. - -[Illustration: A COLD DAY.] - -[Illustration: ALONG THE RIVER MOSKVA, MOSCOW.] - -There is, here and there, considerable wealth among many of the Jews -in Russia. This is not true of all the Jews. Most of the Jews are -poor, frightfully poor, made and kept so by the laws; but there is -wealth among some of the Jews. The few wealthy Jews do not always keep -these riches within the dominions of the Czar. The Russians complain -that the rich Jews, while making their money in Russia, yet lay it up -in the banks of Berlin, of Vienna, of Paris and particularly of -London. When a Russian Governor wishes to squeeze a little extra -pocket money out of the Jews of his district, his city, his province, -he cannot always lay hands on their money hoards. Sometimes, then, he -lets the street urchins plague them a little; the squeezed and squalid -peasant is allowed to vent his envy of their wealth, even to knocking -a Jew down; now and then, these meanly-minded boys, these -pinch-bellied peasants get out of hand and, stung by their blood -lust, too hastily massacre more Jews than the Governor intended. This -is about the size of the job that Governor Von Raaben found to his -credit in Kischineff. The poor Jews suffered for the prosperity of -their rich brethren. The embittered and down-crushed _mujik_, galled -and soured by reason of his own hapless and seemingly hopeless -condition, vented his spleen at the first handy object, and the Jew -was handier, though not more hated, than the uniformed official of the -governing autocracy. - -The Russian, as an individual, is of a kindly nature. He is good to -his wife, good to his children, good to his beasts. He has none of the -Roman-Spanish pitilessness to dumb creatures. But the Russian, after -all, is an Asiatic. The old saying, "Scratch a Russian and you'll find -a Tartar," is as true to-day as when the Cossacks of Catherine II -impaled and crucified men and women and children of the fleeing Mongol -horde, when these simply sought to migrate beyond the hectoring reach -of Russian rule. - -No bloodier chapter mars the annals of history than that of the -Russian slaughter of nigh the entire Tekke Turkoman race in her -warfare of 1881 on the shores of the Caspian, at Geok Tepe, when seven -thousand women and children were stricken down in cold blood as they -fled from Kuropatkin's ruthless Cossacks. - -Nor is the world done shuddering yet at the atrocious barbarities -under General Gribski, Governor of Blagoveschensk, who commanded -the deliberate drowning of the Chinese inhabitants of that city but a -few years ago, in 1898, and in a season of prevailing peace, drove -them before the knouts and bayonets of his Cossacks into the hopeless -waters of the river Amoor by unnumbered thousands, old men and women -and little children, so that for many weeks, nay months, the great -river was so choked with the swollen bodies of the dead that -navigation was at a standstill. - -[Illustration: A RUSSIAN JEW.] - -No Roman sack and pillage of a conquered city, not even the taking and -wreck of Jerusalem by Titus and his legions, equals in horror and cold -blood these late Russian slaughters; not even the fire and sword of -Attila and his avenging Huns wrought such woe and terror as have been -wrought in these recent years by the servants of the Czar; nor are the -tormented souls of Alva and his Spanish veterans more deeply marked -with blood-soaked scars than is the Russian autocracy of to-day; nor -mediaeval, nor modern times, nor pagan, nor Moslem warfare, have known -so monstrous a series of godless massacres of helpless humankind as -those now standing to the credit of the Russian autocracy during the -last twenty-five years. - -The crime of Kischineff is no more heinous than have been the -slaughters of Geok Tepe, Blagoveschensk and a thousand lesser human -killings, nor more heart-sickening than were those awful visitations -of Slavic blood-lust upon creatures defenseless, helpless, abjectly -terror-struck. It is only that it was committed in a season of -profound peace, against a peaceful people, and at a time when all the -world had the leisure to hear the dying wails of the hapless women and -helpless children raped and ravished and torn asunder in the open day. - -Notwithstanding these crimes which mar the pages of recent Russian -history, none would be more astonished than the Russian himself, if he -were made aware of the world-wide condemnation these crimes provoke. -He would protest against so harsh an estimate of Russian conquest; at -most, when confronted with the facts, he would shrug his shoulders and -urge that the responsibility lies not upon Holy Russia, but upon those -who oppose her destiny to conquer and absorb. The thoughtful Russian -will declare that after all it is no more than the inevitable struggle -of the survival of the fittest, and demonstrate that there are no -feuds of race, other than the universal hatred of the Jew, within the -dominions of the Czar. - -From the Russian viewpoint these arguments are not unreasonable; the -vast military establishment upon which rests the autocracy, -necessitates foreign wars with weaker peoples, if for no other reason -than to keep a busied soldiery from thinking too much upon grievances -at home; through commercial expansion in Asia, won by bayonet and -sword, the autocracy has sought to secure compensation for the -suppression of commercial opportunity at home! - -The problems of Russia are, after all, economic rather than racial, -and it is up to Russia to solve these in accordance with the -lessons and example of the enlightened nations of the west; let the -nobility and educated classes, who are now sucked into and absorbed by -the bureaucracy, take full part in the commercial and industrial life -of the empire and receive full reward for the exercise of their -energy, intelligence and skill; let them lift from the _mujik_ the -crushing weight of the Imperial taxes, divide with him the almost -illimitable acreage of the Imperial domain; and leave to him his fair -share of the earnings won by his sweat and toil, and there will be no -more Geok Tepes, Blagoveschensks, nor Kischineffs, nor will there be -longer hatred of the Jew. - -[Illustration: TAKEN IN RUSSIA--TAKEN IN AMERICA. JEWISH TYPES.] - - - - -XXIII. - -Across Germany and Holland to England--A Hamburg Wein Stube, the -"Simple Fisher-Folk" of Maarken--Two Gulden at Den Haag. - - - LONDON, ENGLAND, - HOTEL RUSSELL, _September 27, 1902_ - -Crossing the Russian border in the night, we arrived at Berlin almost -before the dawn; the city lies only three hours (by train) beyond the -Russian line. - -The station we entered was spacious and clean, in sharp contrast to -the dirty stations of Russia; we were evidently come into a land -blessed with a civilization of higher type. Leaving the car, we were -instantly beset by a regiment of smartly uniformed porters--old -soldiers all of them--and were piloted by one tall veteran to a -waiting _fiacre_, which soon carried us to the Hotel Savoy. It was -early, not yet five o'clock, but the streets were already alive with -an orderly and animated throng, who appeared to be workmen largely, -carpenters, masons and day-laborers, each clad in his distinctive -laborer's garb. They were on their way to work, for the working -day is long in Germany, ten and twelve hours, and the workingman -is up betimes. We passed over asphalted streets where men in -military-looking uniforms, with hose in hand, were washing down their -surfaces, while others with big coarse brooms were sweeping them -clean. Berlin is a clean city, clean and neat as the proverbial German -in America is known to be. Alighting from our carriage, I was greeted -in my own tongue, by the friendly mannered concierge, who instantly -marked me for an American, and gave us comfortable quarters such as -American dollars usually secure. - -[Illustration: A DAINTY NURSE MAID, BERLIN.] - -H and I were now alone, our companions, Mr. and Mrs. C having left us -at Warsaw, where they would spend a week or two and learn something of -Poland. Perhaps I might tell you right here, that the next morning, as -we were leaving the hotel, I felt a hand upon my shoulder and, turning -round, faced the two Chicago travelers just then arrived. They had cut -short their stay in Warsaw, for the only American-speaking guide in -that city was away on a vacation, and German and French to them were -as impossible as Polish. They confessed, also, that they had sorely -missed their American fellow-travelers, and had hurried after us, -hoping they might induce us to sojourn a little while in their good -company. - -We spent our single day without trying to see museums and picture -galleries, but taking a guide and a carriage, drove about the city and -viewed its avenues and parks, its markets and busy thoroughfares, and -noble public buildings, to catch what glimpse we might of the waxing -Capital of the German Empire. The first impression Berlin makes upon -the stranger, especially the stranger new-come from Russia, is that of -its cleanliness and orderliness; and, I think, I here also felt the -sympathy of blood-kinship with the well set-up and neatly clad men and -women, whose faces might have been those of my fellow countrymen of -St. Louis, Cincinnati or New York. Berlin, to-day, fitly typifies -modern Germany and the modern German spirit. We drove everywhere over -smooth streets, kept scrupulously clean. On either hand stretched -miles of new and handsome buildings, modern in architecture and modern -in construction, while the signs I saw were in Latin Text, instead of -the Gothic, a striking evidence of German progression. - -When we came to the lovely Unter Den Linden, we left the carriage and -wandered beneath its umbrageous trees and enjoyed, as every one must, -the beauty of its vistas of greensward and carefully tended flowers. -The German loves his flowers almost as devotedly as does his English -cousin. We strolled also along the famous Thier Garten, which would be -a magnificent boulevard in any city; and which the German Kaiser has -sought to ornament with innumerable ponderous groups of sculpture, -preserving for the astonished world the commonplace memories of paltry -ancestors. How much better would it have been to have adorned this -stately thoroughfare with statues of illustrious Germans, whose great -deeds and works have contributed to the world's enlightenment and the -Fatherland's renown! To a Democrat, bred to contemn the empty glitter -and pretense of inherited privilege, it almost stirs one's anger to -see so splendid a public highway as the Thier Garten thus arrogantly -defaced. - -In this Capital of an Empire, whose foundation is set on bayonets and -swords and the "biggest guns," where militarism runs riot, there is no -surprise in finding the streets filled with soldiers and officers, and -to meet frequently a marching company, nor does it astonish one to see -here the extreme development of the spirit of military caste. Here, -the civilian, man as well as woman--no matter how well clad he or she -may be--must turn aside for strutting officer and also, as for that, -for the common soldier, and all traffic must hold back to let a -company of soldiery pass by, even though they are out only on errand -of trivial exercise. Here in Germany, perhaps as nowhere else, have -the clever supporters of Royal and Imperial pretension worked the army -racket to the limit, through creating a perpetual scare that greedy -neighbors will devour the Fatherland. The citizen of Berlin is never -allowed to forget that little more than a century ago, Cossack hordes -pastured their ponies in the parks and gardens of the German capital; -and can gallop there again from their Polish camps in a single day. -The army has been built up on the pretense that it is necessary for -national defense, and thus the Kaiser, who is permitted to occupy the -position of army chief, holds at his command these enormous military -forces, while he uses them the rather to exalt his own prerogative -and subvert the people's inborn rights of individual sovereignty, -which is the highest gift of God to man. - -The splendid building of the Reichstag, where the Socialist party of -Germany, to-day, makes its almost vain attempt toward securing to the -people a freer exercise of man's natural rights, is thus menaced by -the colossal military group which stands before it, as though to teach -the lesson that the sword still rules the Fatherland. - -In the evening, our guide, who had privately confessed to me that -within the year he would travel to New York there to become manager of -a great hotel, led us to one of the more notable Bier Garten, where we -saw a most German vaudeville, the feats of whose performers were -greeted with vociferous _hochs_, and where we listened to a splendid -band, and where H had her first sight of ponderous Germans absorbing -beer, with which spectacle she was much impressed. - -Wednesday, we were early astir, driving to the Hamburgischer Bahnhoff, -where we took the fast nine o'clock express for Hamburg, and flew -along over a well-ballasted road-bed through a dead-flat country, in -what the Germans proudly call their "fastest" train. The panorama was -one of market gardens and intensely cultivated land. It was a -monotonous prospect, where the alikeness of the vistas was emphasized -by the sentinel stiffness of the ever recurring rows of -Lombardy-poplars. As in Russia, men and women were everywhere -working in the fields and gardens, but unlike Russia, they were well -clad and well fed, and bore an air of thrifty contentment. There was -no dilapidation anywhere. We saw no longer the tumbled-down shacks of -the _mujik_, but everywhere substantial, neat homesteads of brick and -stone. - -[Illustration: HAMBURG STREET TRAFFIC.] - -Ours was a through train connecting with the Hamburg-American Line of -steamers for New York, and with the through railway express traffic -for France and Belgium, via Cologne. The passengers were chiefly of -the well-to-do commercial classes, or those substantial travelers who -would hasten quickly between Germany and France. None the less, at the -few stations where we halted, did the entire company instantly burst -forth, hastening to the long counters, where they convulsively -swallowed foaming schooners of beer and eagerly devoured sundry -dainties, such as rye bread spread with goose grease and over-laid -with _kraut_ or _wurst_, and varnished _pretzels_ salted to the limit. -Even the babies were held at the open windows and foaming mugs of beer -poured into them by their fond parents. The passion of the German for -his _bier_ equals the Russian's thirst for _vodka_. - -We reached Hamburg a little after half past one, when, taking a -_fiacre_, we immediately drove to Cook's Tourists' Agency, where I -booked to London, via Amsterdam, The Hague, the Hook of Holland, and -Harwich. Then, for an hour, we strolled about the city. - -Hamburg possesses fine retail shops and abounds in restaurants, -Bier-Keller and Wein-Stuben, establishments devoted to the solace of -the inner man. - -Stricken with hunger-pangs, and not knowing just where to go, I -accosted a tall and prosperous-looking burger, telling him we were -Americans in search of food. Lifting his hat, he "begged to be allowed -to guide us to the finest Wein Stube" in the town, whither his own -steps were at that moment bent. He led the way to a quiet side street, -where, descending a flight of stone steps, he introduced us to the -portly master of the _stube_. We entered a succession of large -cellars, paneled and ceiled in oak and floored with patterned tiles, -where small round-topped wooden tables were set about. We were -conducted to a cozy corner, and Rhine wine, cheese, sausage and fresh -rye bread were set before us, as well as mustard and sour pickles and -pats of sweet unsalted butter, and to this was added a palatable stew. - -The room was filled with men--big, well-fed, well-clothed men, -apparently merchants, ship-masters and men of affairs. They fell-to -upon their flagons of _wein_, their _wurst_ and _kraut_, their -_braten_ and _fisch_ with serious and deliberate devotion. It was that -time of day when, in America, the prospering businessman eats lightly, -smokes sparingly and touches liquor not at all, holding his intellect -alert and whetted to its keenest edge. We watched with wonder these -men of Hamburg, while they poured down quart after quart of wine, the -air growing thick with the fumes of strong tobacco. This capacity -of Hans to eat heavily and mightily liquor-up and yet transact -affairs, bespeaks a hardness of head and toughness of stomach which -ranks him neck and neck alongside his cousin Bull as co-champion of -the bibulating, gastronomizing world. - -[Illustration: OUR BILL OF FARE.] - -Although H was the only woman in the _stube_, being recognized as -Americans, we were treated by the company with greatest courtesy and -that invariable friendliness with which, in Germany, my countrymen are -everywhere received. - -Upon departing, Mein Host presented me with an attractive little -ash-tray to add to my collection of souvenirs and, with much ceremony, -bestowed also upon mine _frau_ an illuminated catalogue of his store -of wines. - -Later, we entered a comfortable _landau_ and for several hours were -driven about the city. Hamburg has always been an important city and -one where great volume of business has been transacted. In the Middle -Ages it was a member of the Hanseatic League; in after days it was a -Free City and, even at this time, its citizens view its absorption -within the German Empire not altogether with satisfaction. It bears -the marks of great antiquity. Quaint and picturesque are the lofty -mediaeval buildings which lean over its canals, where men and women -push, with long poles, blunt-ended canal boats and clumsy-looking, but -storm-proof, sloops and luggers, among perpetual cries and clamors; -where sturdy black tug boats incessantly shove their way; and where -is a jam and jostle of inland water-life not unlike that seen in -Holland. Many narrow streets cross these canals on high-built bridges, -bearing a continuous and deliberately-moving traffic. - -Hamburg also possesses noble boulevards, long and straight and wide, -and well-shaded with umbrageous lindens, where, set back behind high -walls and strong-barred gates, are miles of sumptuous mansions, in -which her merchant princes maintain their households in unostentatious -luxury. The wealth of the merchants of Hamburg is said to exceed that -of the aristocratic office-holding classes of Berlin. - -There are also spacious docks in Hamburg, convenient and modernly -equipped, where, year by year, gathers an increasing shipping to fetch -and carry the rapidly developing foreign commerce of the German -Empire. The wealth and energy of the German Hinterlands pours itself -eagerly into Hamburg's lap and the ancient mediaeval city now finds -itself, unlike somnolent Copenhagen, at the very forefront of Europe's -activity. Hamburg is, commercially, more alive and active than Berlin, -and as a port receives more shipping than London. Hamburg is almost as -wide awake as is New York. - -After our drive, we came to the Hotel Europaer, where we dined and -rested, and then departed a little before midnight for Amsterdam. -Although this is the regular passenger service to Holland, there was -no through sleeper, and we were compelled to change at Oestenburg, -where we caught the night express from Cologne. Then in a comfortable -"_schlafwagen_," wrapped in our sea-rugs, we slept soundly the balance -of the night. - -[Illustration: A KINDER OF MAARKEN.] - -[Illustration: A GENTLEMAN OF MAARKEN.] - -We arrived at Amsterdam near eight o'clock and found our way to the -Hotel Victoria, near the station, where I enjoyed such delicious -coffee two years ago, and there we breakfasted: coffee,--a great pot -of fragrant Java,--abundant milk, sweet and delicious,--rolls and big -fresh eggs, and a fish which much resembled the Danish _roed spoette_ -and English sole. It was a delightful breakfast, such as one is always -sure to have in Holland. - -Two years ago, I devoted my time to viewing the city, so now we -resolved to see somewhat of the country beyond the limits of the town. -Thus it happened that we boarded a taut little boat in the midmorning -and all day long steamed through canals, with many locks, passing -above picturesque farmsteads and villages, down upon which we looked -from the higher level of the diked-up waters, and floated at last upon -the Zuyder Zee. We later visited the Island of Maarken with its -fisher-folk in quaint and ancient costume. Once "simple peasants," but -now, alas! ruined by the staring, money-shedding tourist. We had -scarcely set foot upon the Island, when we were stormed by a horde of -men and women, boys and girls, each demanding "mooney," and imploring -us to snap the kodak at them for the cash; begging us also to visit -their particular homes, where we would be allowed to look inside the -door, and perhaps inspect the house, for more Dutch _cents_ and even -_gulden_. So persistent were these "simple fisher-folk" that I almost -fell into dire mishap. H suggested she should take my photograph, -whereupon I arranged myself before the camera, when, just as the kodak -clicked, a _vrow_ and several _kinderen_ rushed up and took position -by my side, thus necessarily appearing in the picture, as you will -see. The lady backed by her brood thereupon demanded, "Mooney, mooney, -mooney." Naturally, I refused to pay for what had been given without -request. The little company immediately raised a loud lament, at sound -of which an immense and bow-legged fisherman appeared upon the scene, -lifting a great oar and threatening my annihilation, unless money were -put up. However, I was firm and fearless, and finally convinced him -that I had not requested the family to stand before the lens, while I -showed him I had already added half a _gulden_ to his chest for -inspection of the home. Comprehending this at last, his anger then -turned upon his spouse, and he sulkily drove her and the _kinderen_ -within their door, using language that sounded much like the English -damn. - -Leaving the Island, we came home across the Zee and passed through -the huge new locks of the River Amstel, the "_Dam_" of which, -keeping out the waters of the Zuyder Zee, gives to the city its -name,--_Amstel-dam_. - -[Illustration: AMONG VROW AND KINDEREN, MAARKEN.] - -The little boat we sailed upon was chiefly filled with Holland folk, -for we were behind the tourist season. They were a quiet, -undemonstrative company and, on the deck, sat about in little groups -and were served with Schiedam _schnapps_ in small glasses by -white-aproned waiters and smoked long, light-colored Sumatra cigars. -The proverbial Hollander, fat and chunky with an enormous pipe, is now -a mere tradition. The Dutchman of to-day, like his English cousin, is -long and lean, and might almost be taken for a New England Yankee. - -An hour by rail brought us to "Den Haag." We passed among broad -meadows, marked by wide black ditches from which gigantic pumps -incessantly suck out the seeping waters and pour them into the sea. -These meadows were once the bottom of the ocean, the soil being -composed of the rich alluvial silt which the continental rivers have -for centuries discharged. Indeed, Holland may be said to consist of -the submerged deltas of the rivers Scheldt and Rhine, which the -indefatigable industry of man has rescued from the sea. These lands -are of inexhaustible fertility and upon them, everywhere, we saw -grazing herds of black-and-white Holstein cows, whence come the butter -and cheese for which Holland is famous, and the delicious milk which -is so abundantly offered us at every meal. The roadbed ran high above -the meadows, down upon which we looked. Here and there we espied a -cluster of neat farm buildings, reminding me much of the Dutch -homesteads along the Hudson River valley, and stretching from Albany -along the Mohawk, in New York,--with this difference, however, that -here, each house and barn and garden lay surrounded with its own -diminutive canal, where were little foot-bridges and skiffs fastened -near the kitchen door, even a large canal boat being often moored -against a barn, the better to float away the loaded hay. The Dutchman -finds life intolerable unless he has his own canal right at his -threshold. - -Farther along, the landscape was marked with innumerable windmills -turning their ponderous arms slowly to the breeze which crept in from -the sea; we counted I do not know how many, there seemed never to be -an end. The people we saw were stout and rosy-cheeked, and moved with -less alertness than do the Norwegians, nor did they have about them -that air of busy-ness which the modern German begins to show. The -impression made by the Hollander is that of sureness and deliberation. -The cocky strut of the Frenchman, who moves ever as though on -dress-parade, is entirely wanting to the Hollander, whose demure -exterior gives no hint of the wealth, the talent, the high importance -hid within. - -The journey from Amsterdam to The Hague takes scarcely an hour, and -before we knew it we drew in to the large station of the Dutch -capital. The soldierly-clad porters are not here as numerous as in -Germany, nor did those who served us move with so self-conscious -and self-important a gait. Men in quiet, dark-blue uniforms quickly -put our baggage into an open _fiacre_ and we drove to the hotel of the -"Twe Stadten," a comfortable inn facing a large well-shaded "_park_." -We were given a commodious chamber looking out upon a pretty garden -and dined, at a later hour, in the long, low-ceilinged dining room. -The guests were few, only one other party beside ourselves dining thus -late. They were two tall and white-haired dames, gowned in black silk -with much old lace round about the throat, and with them a petite and -pretty Senorita, who spoke in Spanish and insisted upon puffing -cigarettes. She led the way from the dining room smoking jauntily, the -two chaperones following respectfully behind. - -[Illustration: ALONG THE ZUYDER ZEE.] - -[Illustration: A LOAD OF HAY, HOLLAND.] - -[Illustration: DUTCH TOILERS.] - -[Illustration: A WATERY LANE, DEN HAAG.] - -In the morning we spent delightful hours in the national picture -galleries looking at the priceless collections of the Rembrandts and -Rubens, which the Dutch government has here assembled; in the -afternoon we strolled about the clean, quiet city, beneath the -over-spreading elms; and then we supped at Scheveningen, where we saw -the sea again and the last of the season's fashionable folk. - -A moment before leaving our hotel to take the train, which would carry -us to The Hook, I had my last adventure among the canny Dutch. Upon -the table in our chamber lay an attractive little ash-receiver, which -any smoker must needs long to own. Quite naturally, it became -entangled with our sundry purchases and scattered belongings and with -them was inadvertently put away. Just as we were quitting the -apartment, the head waiter of the inn, in whose charge we seemed to -be, burst in upon us with wild anxiety in his eye and explained in -broken English, that he instantly observed, upon scrutinizing the -chamber, that a most valuable piece of Delft ware had mysteriously -disappeared. Perhaps we had broken it? At any rate, it was gone and he -would be held responsible for its loss. Two _gulden_ would barely -replace it! "What should he do?" Naturally, I explained that my wife -by mistake had probably packed it up, and begged him to advise the -office that, upon settling my bill, it would give me pleasure to -deposit two _gulden_ against the loss. At a later time, when -exhibiting this relic to wiser eyes, I was forced to recognize that -the little ash-receiver was merely common ware, of value perhaps ten -Dutch _cents_! So much for the knowing Dutchman who traps the traveler -in search of souvenirs! - -Two hours after leaving The Hague we were upon the ship which would -carry us to England. By early morning we were again at Harwich, and we -arrived in London by mid-afternoon. Our only fellow passenger upon the -train was a tall, dark, silent man, who carried with him an enormous -overcoat of fur. We thought him a Russian, and wondered if he also had -come directly from the Empire of the Czar. - -We are now returned to London, whence we departed five weeks ago. We -have crossed the North Sea, and journeyed through Denmark, and -Norway, and Sweden, and visited their capitals. We have voyaged -across the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland; we have caught a -passing glimpse of Helsingfors, and looked upon St. Petersburg and -Moscow, and traveled many hundred _versts_ through the Empire of the -Czar. We have sped through Germany and felt at home in the noble -cities of Berlin and Hamburg. We have tarried in Amsterdam and Den -Haag, where we felt the strangely familiar atmosphere of Dutch New -York. We have looked upon many peoples of the Teutonic races and, when -among them, have felt that subtle throb of kinship, which common blood -and common origin awake; we have also plunged a moment within the -mediaeval and yet semi-barbarous dominions of the Slav and found -ourselves upon the threshold of mysterious Asia. - -[Illustration: THE GOSSIPS, DEN HAAG.] - -[Illustration: THE FISH MARKET, DEN HAAG.] - -We have everywhere been thankful in our hearts that we were born and -bred beneath the Stars and Stripes in the great Republic of the West, -where hope and opportunity are not merely our own, but are also the -loadstars which beckon thither the youth and vigor of these older -peoples of the World. - - - - - INDEX - - - Aabo Elv, 89 - Alexander Nevsky Monastery, 156 - Amagertorv, The, 22 - American Belles and Viking Beaux, 119 - American Dollars and Norse Farms, 111 - American Emigration from Norway, 113 - American Influence on Norway, 48 - American Navy, Norse Sailors in, 53 - American Spirit, 112 - Amsterdam, 223 - Arctic Twilight, The, 115 - Ash Receiver, Incident of, 227 - Aurdals Vand, The, 60 - - Baegna Elv, 60 - Baltic Sea, Crossing the, 138 - Baltic Sea, A Storm on,140 - Bandaks Vand, 108 - Belts, Big and Little, 11 - Berlin, City of, 216 - Berlin, Hotel at Moscow, 169 - Bier Garten, Berlin, 218 - Blagoveschensk, 211 - Boerte Dal, 107 - Borgund, Ancient Church of, 72 - Breifond, Hotel, 93 - Bruce Fjord, 75 - Brute, A Titled, 82 - Brzesc (Brest), 199 - Buarbrae Glacier, The, 89 - Bug River, 199 - - Caste, Influence in Russia, 207 - Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, 175 - Cathedral St. Basil the Blessed, 175 - Cathedral St. Savior, 173 - Churches and Schools in Norway, 104 - Churches, St. Petersburg, 155 - Climate of Western Coast Norway, 76 - Coasting Down the Laera Dal, 71 - Condit, Mr. and Mrs., 138 - Copenhagen, 13 - Cossack Hordes, 217 - Cruelty of Ivan the Terrible, 176 - Cruelty of Peter the Great, 187 - Cruelty of Past Czars, 174 - Cruelty of Modern Russia, 210 - - Dalen, 106 - Danish Friends, Our, 11 - Democratic Trend in Sweden, 126 - Denmark, A Small Country, 28 - Dinner Party, An Evening, 36 - Dining Service at Ed., 44 - Discontent of Russian Masses, 153 - Dogs of Copenhagen, 24 - Dutch, Impressions of the, 226 - - Eida, 84 - Eids Elv, 110 - Eikon, The, 171 - Elsinore, 33 - Esbjerg, 9 - Etna Elv, Along the, 56 - - Fagernaes, 63 - Farming in Norway, 71 - Fat Farm Lands of Russia, 197 - Finland, 142 - Finland, The Gulf of, 145 - Flaa Vand, 110 - Fleischer's Hotel, 82 - Fog, The, leaving Harwich, 3 - Folgefonden, Ice Field, 89 - Fosheim, 63 - France and the Jews, 202 - France, Modern France, Contrasted with Russia, 198 - French Fellow-travelers, Our, 90-97 - Frydenlund, Night at, 58-60 - - Gammel Strand, The, Fish-market, 23 - Geok Tepe, 210 - German Bride, The Lovely, 43 - German Fellow-travelers clamor for Bier, Our, 97 - German Car, In a, 200 - German Ogre Hungry for Denmark, 19 - Germany, We Enter, 214 - Germany, Journey to Hamburg, 218 - Gors Vand, 92 - Government Monopoly in Russia, 207 - Graft, Mulcted for Passports, 150-159-195 - Granheims Vand, 62 - Gravens Vand, 84 - Gribski, General, 210 - Grungedals Vand, 106 - Gudvangen, 78 - Gulden at Den Haag, Two, 228 - - Hague, The, 228 - Hamburg, 220 - Hamlet's Ghost and Grave, 35 - Hangoe, We Make Port, 140 - Hardanger Fjord, The, 85 - Harvesting in Norway, 65 - Harwich, Departure from, 1-3 - Harwich, Return to, 228 - Haukeli Fjeld, The, 97 - Haukeli Fjeld, Descending from the, 107 - Haymow Flying Through the Air, 71 - Height of Land, Crossing above Nystuen, 69 - Helsingborg, 41 - Helsingfors, 143 - Herring Catch at Elsinore, 38 - Hoch der Kaiser, 189 - Holger Danske, Legend of, 35 - Holland, Passing Through, 225 - Hollander of Today, The, 225 - Hook of Holland, The, 227 - Hotel Berlin, Moscow, 169 - Hotel Breifond, Horre, 92 - Hotel Continental, Stockholm, 122 - Hotel Dagmar, Copenhagen, 13 - Hotel de'l Europe, St. Petersburg, 149 - Hotel Fleischer's, Voss, Norway, 82 - Hotel Haukelid, Norway, 97 - Hotel Kristiania Missions, 46 - Hotel Savoy, Berlin, 214 - Hotel Sleibot, Elsinore, 38 - Hotel Stalheim, Norway, 75 - Hotel Twee Stadten, The Hague, 227 - Hotel Victoria, Amsterdam, 223 - - Imperial Apartments, St. Petersburg, 155 - Imperial Mail Train, Russia, 158 - Ivan the Terrible, 176 - Izvostchiks, 147-149-168 - - Jew, Cultivated Citizen of the World, 204 - Jews' Opportunity, The, 206 - Jewess, Russian, 202 - Jewish Synagogue, Moscow, 203 - Jotunheim, 61 - Jutland, to Funen and Zealand, 13 - Juno, A Viking, 70 - - Kilefos, 78 - King Oscar II, an Incident, 134 - Kischineff, Massacres of, 210 - Kremlin, The, 173 - Kristiania, 46 - Kristiania to Stockholm, 49 - Kronborg, 34 - Kronstadt, Fortress of, 145 - - Laera River, The, 72 - Laerdalsoeren, 70 - Lap Dish-wiper, A, 109 - Life and Color of Swedish Capital, 129-132 - Loeken Upon the Slidre Vand, 63 - London, Departure, 1 - London, Return to, 228 - Lotefos and Skarsfos, 90 - Lubin, The Eating Room at, 162 - - Maarken, Island of, 223 - Maarken, In a Tight Place, 224 - Maidens Milking Goats, 101 - Maristuen, 69 - Militarism, in Germany, 217 - Military Guard, 160-163 - Minsk, 199 - Moscow, En Route to, 158-161 - Moscow, Arrive at, 167 - Moscow, 168 - Moscow, Our Guide in, 169 - Moscow, Street Life, 178 - Moscow, We Leave, 195 - Mujiks, Frightful Poverty of the, 197-208 - Mujiks, Hatred of Bureaucrats, 187 - - Naeroe Fjord, 78 - Nelson, U. S. Senator, 81 - Neva, Entering the River, 146 - Nordsjoe Vand, 110 - North Sea, Crossing the, 3 - Norwegian Bride, A, 119 - Notes and Comments on Norse Life, 103 - Notice to Police, 150 - Novo Dievitchy, Monastery, 191 - Novogorod, 125 - - Odda, The Voyage to, 87 - Odda to Horre, 91 - Odnaes, 55 - Ole Mon, Our Driver, 56 - Ole Mon, I Fall into Rhyme, 74 - Opheims Vand, 80 - - Pageant of Russian Mass, 182 - Palaces of St. Petersburg, 154 - Passport System of Russia, 136-146 - Peat Beds in Norway, 114 - Peter the Great, 185 - Petrovsky, Chateau, 193 - Pixies and Sprites, 100 - Poland and the Poles, 199 - Police at St. Petersburg, 149 - Problems of Russia Economic, 212 - - Raaben, General von, 210 - Railroads--Danish, 10-31 - English, 1 - German, 218 - Norwegian, 41-81 - Russian, 160-163-195 - Swedish, 118 - Rand Fjord, Upon the, 55 - Recruiting Farm Hands for America, 113 - Red Square, Moscow, 174 - Religious Feeling in Russia, 180 - Rembrandt, 227 - Revolution in Russia Inevitable, 199 - Roldals Vand, 92 - Roosevelt, Russians Admire, 166 - Rubens, 227 - Rundals Elv, 82 - Rurik, House of, 125-176 - Russians Barbarians, 179 - Russian Dirt, 200 - Russia, How We Entered, 136 - Russia, Mediaeval and Pagan, 185 - - Sandven Vand, 89 - Scandinavian State, United, 19-127 - Scheveningen, 227 - Schools, in Norway, 104 - Schools, Lack of, in Russia, 156-165 - Seljestad Hotel, Our Hostess, 91 - Seljestad Juvet, 91 - Serfs, in Russia, 206 - Ships, on North Sea, 3 - Ships, on Gulf of Finland, 138 - Skansen Park, 131 - Skien, 108 - Skjervefos, The Roaring, 83 - Skodshorn, The Legend of the, 65 - Skogstad, The Night at, 67 - Sleeping Car, Swedish, 118 - Slidre Vand, 63 - Smidal Fjord, 75 - Smolensk, 195 - Snow, The First, 191 - Snows, Distant, 60 - Sogne Fjord, On the, 75 - South African Trooper, Incident, 2 - Sparrow Hills, 177 - Staa Vand, 97 - Staavanger, 88 - Stalheim to Vossvangen, 81 - Stars, We are the, 105 - Stockholm, 129 - Stockholm and the Swede, 123 - Stockholm, The Hotel at, 122 - Stockholm, Life and Color of, 128 - St. Peter and St. Paul, Church of, 156 - St. Petersburg, 148 - Stranda Vand, The, 60 - Summary of Impressions, 229 - Sund, The, 32 - Sund, The, Crossing to Sweden, 41 - Swede and Norsk, Differentiation of, 124 - Swedish Coffee House, A, 133 - Swedish Sleeping Car, A, 118 - - Telemarken Fjords, The, 108-110 - Teutonic Kinship, 189 - Thier Garten, Berlin, 216 - Three Continents, 184 - Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, 26 - Tomlevolden, 56 - Tonsaasen, Sanitorium of, 57 - Trolls and Pixies, 65 - Trolls and Witches, 98 - Tver, City of, 163 - Tvinde Elv, 81 - Twilight, the Arctic, 115 - - Ulivaa Vand, 97 - Utro Vand, 69 - - Vangs Vand, 81 - Vangsmjoesen Vand, 60 - Valdai Hills, 163 - Volga River, 125-163 - Voss or Vossvangen, 81 - Voxli Vand, 106 - - Warships, Incident of American, 53 - Wealth of Churches, St. Petersburg, 156-157 - Wealth of Few, Poverty of Many, Russia, 148-152-157 - Wealth of Few, Russia, 209 - Wedding Party, A, 120 - Wein Stube, Hamburg, 220 - Western Alps of Norway, 88 - Winter, Preparation for, 115 - Workingmen's Square, 187 - - Zuyder Zee, 223 - - -[Illustration: MAP OF NORTH EUROPE.] - -[Illustration: MAP OF SCANDINAVIA AND BALTIC RUSSIA, IN PROFILE.] - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH SCANDINAVIA TO MOSCOW*** - - -******* This file should be named 42132.txt or 42132.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/2/1/3/42132 - - - -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. 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