Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-24
BOOK REVIEW.

Nndliiu. new 1Ork. Harper q Sons. san fran-
cisco. A l.. Bancroft & Co. Price, 81 SO.
The Scandinavian countries have been the
subject of many books of travel, but it may
safely be asserted that NJ. Du Chaillu has
produced the most popular and generally in
teresting work OF the kind extant. His vol
umes are moreover beautifully printed and
profusely illustrated with new and almost in
yariably good engrayings and Autographs
after photographs taken expressly for the
work. His own credentials are quite salts.
factory. Ali the world knows M. Du Chaillu
as a bold, observant, shrewd and truthful ex-
plorer of the tropics, though it is impossible
to disassociate his fame from the infamy of
his detractors. When he first appeared as
an author, giving the results of his African
explorations, and describing the gorilla, no.
only the ignorant general public, but edu-
Gated naturalists, geographers, physicists, and
men Of science in numbers, rose upon and
denounced him, asserting with fatuous bold
ness that he had been romancing. and declar-
ing point-blank that no such animal as the
gorilla existed. 1t is SO long since the abso-
Lutte truthfulness of nj. Du Chaillu's state
ments has been established that it may seem
hard to realize that they were ever ques-
toned. But the fact is that the presump-
ton, bigotry and stupid incredulity of edu-
Gated men are only less in degree than those of
the common herd, and that no traveller has at
any time announced the discovery of any alb
solutely new thing without having to pass
through the same ordeal to which NJ. Du
Chaillu was exposed.
In selecting the ground for his later trav-
els, however, he has guarded against mis-
representation by choosing a comparatively
familiar region, and has trusted to the
greater carefulness and thoroughness of his
observation for the interest of his book.
And he equipped himself thoroughly for his
task. Most travellers who have written of
Norway and Sweden have been mere birds
of passage, fitting hurriedly across the couu-
try, ignorant of its history, language and lit
erature, and capable only of crude and super
fetal observation. But NJ. Du Chaillu
knew better than to follow these presidents.
He began by learning the languages of the
country. Then he travelled it from side to
side and from end to end. He was traversing
it in one direction or another, in fact, from
1871 to 1878, and during this time he tells us
that he travelled in an irregular course. by
"routes often crossing each other, and al diff
ferent seasons Of the year, either from the
Baltic to the Polar Sea or from the east to
" the west" He explored "the whole coast
from Haparanda to the extreme north
eastern point of Norway, distance CT
5000 miles. the greater part of it both in
winter and summer" He "sailed on al
"most every ford, whose shores have in the
aggregate an extent Of 5000 miles or more. "
But what gives his book its greatest value is
that during these long journeys he lived al
most exclusively among the people of the
country. the farmers and the fishermen, and
thus obtained an insight into the national
customs ard habits, which no former traveller
has been able to obtain.
And the pictures he gives of the Scandi.
navian national life are certainly very inter-
esting. Indeed what he represents is a con-
dition CT national purity of life which has
wholly passed away elsewhere. According
to him the Swedes and Norwegians are the
most honest people in the world. They never
think of locking up anything. They scarcely
ia, an their doors at all in the country. So
far is this general display of confidence car
ried that at one place where the author
stopped for the night his hostess brought into
his bedroom, and placed on his bureau, a
china bowl containing her watch and all her
jewelry. Outside of the cities there are in
fact no thieves, save at points where the
tourist has corrupted the originally guileless
are peculiar. The Government lays out post
routes, and the farmers living along them are
obliged to furnish horses and vehicles. Young
girls quite generally act as guides and drivers,
what disposed to establish innocent fiirtations
with his charming drivers. Indeed in one
case he got into quite scrape. He had been
asking the girl who drove him whether she
and she had declared her entire willingness
to do go. And when she reached the village,
taking everything in sober earnest, she
hastily packed her things, and then presented
herself bsfore him, accompanied by her FAM
ity, who had come to see her off on her way
to America.
The Scandinavian farmers are neither poor
nor rich. They work hard, live frugally, and
have suficiency. Their manners are very
simple, and in some respects not pleasant
Thus it is the custom for the whole family to
occupy the same sleeping chamber, the farm
servants being always considered part of the
family. These servants are very independ-
emit, and their relation to their employers
more nearly resembles that of the old-fash-
toned "hired man" of the Eastern States
than any other. As rule they are the neigh
bors of their employers, and as there is con-
siderable social equality below the higher
classes in Scandinavia, the richer farmers do
not attempt to make any difference in their
way of living. The whole family eat to-
gether, and in fact they all live together.
There is evidently not much intellectual life
among the common people. They retain
many venerable and interesting practices and
songs, and they continue to tell stories of
the old Vikings. The people are very
gentle and polite. This appears to be a
national characteristic, and it is certainly
very pleasant one. Swearing and
profanity are unknown among the peasants
and the farmers. There is very little rowdy-
ism even in the toughest settlements. The
rude and simple fishermen who assemble
every year by thousands at the Loffoden
Isles to pursue the cod and herring fishery,
appear to conduct themselves with exemplary
quietness and good discipline. The jails and
lockups throughout the country are almost
empty There are no paupers in the villages,
but when a man who has no family to take
care of him becomes decrepit, the neighbors
meet and agree to take him by turns, and
thenceforward he boards around as the
American district schoolmaster used to,
though he is treated very much better than
the schoolmaster usually was.
Among the most remarkable of the print
tive customs encountered by the author was
one which we had hitherto supposed peculiar
70 J.nau We refer In fhp r1ractice of r,enr,lp