Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-22
The Home Of the Reindeer.

homes, wear good clothes, and always
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
cus;t oms that are unusual enough to
seem sometimes funny, and always curl
Gus.
The boys Of Scandinavia have very
good times there is excellent fishing
nearly everywhere, and water suitable
fer beating is not far distant from any
home. In some parts of the country
the water is from 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 SHOW, II hill in Norway or
Sweden is the place Of all places for
coasting, for even on the roads there is
very little danger Of meeting wagon
while rounding u curve, or of daShing
unexpectedly across q railroad track
just as n locomotive comes laundering
along. Besides, the favorite method Of
cOastng over there is about ten times as
exciting as that which is enjoyed here,
for the boysdescend bills on snow-shoes.
These snow shoes resemble the Ameri-
can snow-shoe about as closely as min
latJIre yacht resembles a chip with q
splinter mast and paper sail. They are
narrow instead of broad, SO n 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
Of lifting them, and if he wants to hurry
he pushes himself along with couple
of sticks, the lower end of which are
wrapped or slod so that they push
against the surface of the snow instead
of sinking into it. To descend q
hull, 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 Il bird could.
This sty.e 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, and the
usual P5fults are scratched face and
general bruising all over. The least va
ration of either shoe from 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 soners ault
which is only prevented by the toes of
the shoes burying themselves in the
cnn md H.
with Ills face downward.
American boys who 10 not like to go
to bed would, in Northern Norway or
Sweden, imagine they had a capital ex-
cuse for sitting up, FOR no hoy of spirit
can endure to retire by daylight, and in
n 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 a day or two the
sun may be seen at midnight, and during
several months the only way of discov-
ering bedtime is to look mt 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
on toothsome boy their conduct is
gluttonous to a disgraceful degree. It
is an unsettled question, however,
whether the boys do not object even
more to retiring during the winter
nights, which are rs long as tho
summer days. Ia midwnter day dawns
at IL o'clock, and the night follows
within two hours but TIC moon and tho
stars shine brighter than they ever DO
here, and American boys would consider
it sinful to waste such splendid oppor-
tunlties for skating or sleighing.
The operation of dressing in cold
weather In the far North is so elaborate
that it is difficult to understand how
deliberate boy or girl 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
a 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 roiude"r skin also. Two
pairs OF heavy wooden stockings are
worn, and the child who puts these OH
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 hooks 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 a reindeer, if the family live III
the reindeer region. When child Is
born deer is set apart for him Mt 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. It would seem to any sensible
person that, as the harness consists only
of a collar, thong Cor trace and SIN
gle rein, the animal might easily become
accustomed to them, particularly as the
sleigh has neither pole nor shafts but
the deer does not regard the subject in
the same light. He forgets whatever be
learns inst rs If he were n law school