The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-03-26

The MORSE FoLK.-The following note 8
from Mr.. G. Loring Brace, on the moral
status of Scandinavia, are to be relied on !
as within the truth, the author being an
evangelical Protestant, and Anglo Saxon in
his preiudices. Mr.. Brace also gives the
substance of a conversation he had with
an evangelical Morse lady regarding the
nresent stata of tho Lnrdss -vinerard, q org !
her people:
"In this lady's Judgment, and she had a
clear sharp sense-a good deal of the relI-
gion of the farmers and peasants was merely
yeliqiosity-a strong feeling of reverence
and q susceptibility to ceremonlals. 1t
something of the toughness and hardness
| of their bodies. They have been converted
to Christianity, and a singular movement
has commenced within few years among
them, of which cannot as yet speak with
confidence. It began with terrible outrages
and fanaticisms the murder of the sheriff
of the district, and an attempt to offer a
Protestant clergyman as a bloody sacrifice
to God-the poor creatures believing them
selves acting under Divine inspiration.
They were punished, and since that time,
under the influence of Swedish mission
aries, the religious excitement has taken a
more healthy direction.
aThe feeling towards the Fins and Laps
seemed to be very much like the feeling OF
{ an intelligent western company towards
the Indians. The poetry of the race is
quite obscured in their debased or drunken
habits. The Laps are simply ignorant,
dirty men, who live in barbarous way
r among reindeer, or who catch the cod and
the ducks which the Norwegians want"
Education in Sweden is universal, and
like the English, the Swedes are fond o.
cant tract societies distributing miilioni
9 of tracts), Sunday schools, inner missions
etc. And yet out of every hundred chill
dren born into the world in the city, nearly
8 City are illegitimate-Ain the whole king
d dom, one out of nearly every eleven. Th'
Q consumption of human life In the Swedish
g capital, and the prevalence of vice, ar
It facts not to be disassociated-
"There are scarcely any houses of i'll
,; fame, il should be remembered, in the cit.
o (Stockholm1. There is not such desper
3 ate, abandoned, God -forsaken class OF wo
'e man as in our fAmerican1 large cities. Th
% ft,issettes Of Stockholm preserve some de
1,j cency, aud have a chance, at least, OF
le better life. They are occupied as seam
y stresses, or servants, or shop-women, an
81 frequently, after many years Of unlawfr
I'd companionship, are married. 1t is signld
Ve cant, in this connection, that the Swedls
y; lprayer-book, alone, perhaps, OF all tn
'N church books OF the Worlds mas prayer &c
B. "mothers who have been deceived by Pre-
n mise of marriage" -'r
in The apology offered for this disgraceft
he state of society by the author is singularl
W characteristic of Sake Gotha writer's. Il
evidently makes it a merit that prost
Ir- tutes are not abandoned characters, bl
,le that they enjoy social equality in ever
~ respect, and often get married after yea
;or Of public infamy or what would be col
he sidered such in Celtic nation. Englisl
,, men, like their northern cousins, do n
es, scruple to marry prostltuees'
Dr.. ----.1u'--