The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-01-06

homes, wear HOOu clOtnes, hiiu hWhNb
have enough to eat !; but between the
climate, the shape of the land, and the
fact that they see but little of either
travellers or tramps, they have many
customs that are unusual enough to
seem sometimes funny, and always Curl
ous.
The boys of Scandinavia have very
good times there is excellent fishing
nearly everywhere, and water suitable
for boating is not far distant from any
home. In some parts OF the country
the water is frozen during nine months
Of the year, but in part Of this time
the skating is good, without any danger
of the ice breaking; and when the snow
hides the ice, it covers the hills-and
such hills High, steep and well COW
cred with snow, hill in Norway or
Sweden is the place of all places tor
coasting, for even on the roads there Is
very little danger of meeting wagon
while rounding curve, or OF dashing
unexpectedly across railroad track
Just as locomotive comes laundering
along. Besides, the favorite method OF
coasting over there is about ten times as
exciting as that which is enjoyed here,
for the boys descend hills on snow-shoes.
These snow-shoes resemble the Ameri-
can snow-shoe about as closely as min
nature yacht resembles chip with
splinter mast and paper sail. They are
narrow instead of broad, so q person
wearing them does not look awkward, or
tire easily, and they are just about as
long as their owners are tall. In using
them the owner slides his feet instead
4 l. 10, 10,
be pushes himself along with a couple
of sticks, the lower end of which are
wrapped or shod SO that they push
against the surface of the snow instead
of sinking into it. To descend
hill, the wearer places his feet
close together, the shoes being
exactly parallel, squats as low
as possible, and let's himself go. If the
hill is long and steep, he reaches the
bottom about as rapidly as bird could.
This style of coasting seems so ridicu-
lousy easy that boys sometimes try it
slyly rather than wait until their fathers
can get time to teach them, ana the
usual reeults are q scratched face and
general bruising all over. The least va
ration of either shoe from n position
parallel to the other shoe is sufficient to
cause all of these discomforts, and some
times more, for occasionally when boy
leans forward little too much in going
over snow-cOvered stone or other
"bumper," he starts for somers iult
which is only prevented by the toes of
the shoes burying themselves III the
enow and suspending the boy by the feet
with his face downward.
American boys who do not like to go
to bed would, in Northern Norway or
Sweden, imagine they had capital ex-
cuse for sitting up, for no boy of spirit
can endure to retire by daylight, and in
part OF the far northern summer day
light does not end at all during the
twenty-four hours, and even during the
month preceding and following this
strange period there is only an hour or
two of darkness. For day or two the
sun may be seen at midnight, and during
several months the only way of dscov-
ering bedtime Is to look at the clock.
This wealth of daylight has some disad-
vantages for while it lasts the mosqui-
toes never sleep at all, but attend strict
ly to business, and when they alight up
OH toothsome boy their conduct is
gluttonous to disgraceful degree. 1t
is an unsettled question, however,
whether the boys do not object even
more to retiring during the winter
nights, which are as long as the
summer days. In midwlnter day dawns
at IL o'clock, and the night follows
within two hours but the moon and the
stars shine brighter than they ever do
here, and American boys would consider
it sinful to waste such splendid oppor-
tunities for skating or sleighing.
The operation of dressing in cold
weather in the far North is SO elaborate
that it is difficult to und rstand how O
deliberate Dey or giI, in Lapland can be
ready for breakfast before dinner time.
First, two suits Of thick wooden under.
clothing are put on, and over these goes
shirt of reindeer-skin, with cloth bands
to fasten at the wrists; sometimes two
of these shirts, or kaptas, are worn, and
reindeer-skin vest beneath them. The
trousers are of reindeer-skin also. Two
pairs of heavy wooden stockings are
worn, and the child who puts these on
when they are damp is sure to have
trouble with his feet. Around the feet
peculiar grass, well dried, is carefully
wound, and over all this goes the shoe.
Buttons and books-and-eyes are scarce
in Lapland; all clothing is fastened by
strings, and it is dreadful to think of all
the "hard knots" that Lapp children
have fumbled over while too sleepy to
be amiable.
One special distinction is enjoyed by
the Lapp boy and girl over all other
children in the world: each is sure of
owning reindeer, il the family live in
the reindeer region. When child is
bora deer is set apart for him at once,
and by the time the pride Of the family
is old enough to drive the animal will
have been trained for him. How much
! time and trouble this training has cost
/ the boy can never realize until he be-
! comes man and breaks deer to harness
himself. IL would seem to any sensible
person that, as the harness consists only
Of n collar, thong Cor trace and sim
gle rein, the animal might easily become
accustomed to them, particularly as the
sleigh has Meth r pole nor shafts; but
the deer does not regard the subject in
the same light. He forgets whatever he
learns, just rs If he were lazy school
! "a