Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-10-03
In Dalesarlia, Sweden.

Passing through the station we open
ed the door into new world. Crowded
around the ticket office was score Of
people of both sexes, wearing the dis
tinctive dresses of a half-dOZen Delecar
liam parishes. We had stepped from
the auditorium INTO the wings. Old
men in buckskin small-clotheS and
leather aprons joStled pretty peasant
girls in quaint pointed caps and many
hued kerchiefs; mothers with leather
sacks full of babies on their backs,
and workmen with bundles of tools,
all clamored eagerly for tickets,
evidently too little familiar with rail-
way travel. Here and there flash
ed among the drapery the orange
yellow aprons of the women, enlivening
the color composition of the group with
a few strong notes. and cheering us with
the proof that we had not lost the trail.
Fortunately it was near midsummer.
the vegetation was in its perfection, and
the sun shOne for nearly twenty hours
each day. The people, sun-worshipers
in their way, were preparing for the
festivities of Midsummer-day-a popu-
lar holiday, which is celebrated ou the
oath of June, and is perhaps more thai
any other day the great Dalecarlian
festival. From the railway line it is
about twenty-five miles to Siljan Lake,
and the chief means of communication
is by steamers on the Dal-Elf, or river
Dal, a shallow stream only navigable at
intervals. Wagons, by courtesy called
diligenceS, transport the passengers
around the rapids and shoals, and mater
tally add to the dlscomforts of the
journey. The Dal-Elf is so near like
the American backwo0ds stream that
it is not remarkable that the Swede
who exchanges his small river farm for
the extensive woodland tract in Ameri-
ca rarely experiences the pangs of home
sickness, but settles down to a content
ed life OF diligent toll. The stream ed
dies are full of timber on its way to the
saw-mills below. The Odor of pines and
spruces fills the air, daisies and butter
cups sprinkle the fields, pond-lilies dot
the surface of the meadow-pools, and a
bright sun ripens the grain waving in
the large fields redeemed with difficulty
from the stony slopes or from the dense
forests that cover the hill-Sides.
Shut your ears to the sound of mems
voices, and you cannot believe you are
in Sweden. That little, gray log house in
the distance, with its shingled roof, the
cattle sheds and barns, the well-sweep
and curb, the stone walls and pOSt-and-
rail fences, might be transported bodily
and set down in the backwoods of many
a State and never be noticed for the diff
ference of a single stick of timber or
the fashioning of a single stake Let
the door open and the geography changes
by magic. a little child totters out into
the sunlight. 1t is dressed in single
long garment of yellow homespun wool
as bright as the petals of the buttercups
or the dandelions. From under close
fitting cap of vermiliOn hue struggles
out a mass of flaXen hair. \ stout
leather apron tied under the arms and
over the shoulders protects the dress
from the chin to the toes of the clumsy
little shoes, \ half-dozen other chill
dren dressed exactly the same troop
out after it, and following them, the
mother, with a curious poke Sun-bonnet
of bright red rivaling in brilliancy the
crimson of her homespun apron, carries
a pail on each arm TO milk the cows
lowing at the pasture bars. The faith
er comes to the door of the barn to say
a word as they pass. But for his leath-
er apron shining with wear you would
take him for New England farmer of
Continental times, with his low shoes,
knee-breeches, long waistcOat and felt
hat. The ever equalizing influences of
modern science have hot yet reached
them, and they live and feel much the
same as their great grandfathers did be-
fore them.