St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-15
The Ubiquitous Nymanover Escapes
From Sweden to the Russian
Empire,
And Is Now Engaged theoretically in
interviewing the Imperial
Gear.
He Tells About Norway, Its Capital,
Politics and Prime Min
lister.

ss~:=s Ih s MfSfs With With
-EJlr - 8 kings. queens
ana prime MN
dinavia, he has
gone to interview the czar and is now
either at Moscow or st. Petersburg, en-
Russia. In crossing the Baltic in mid
winter he was frozen in, but the warmth
of his nature and never-faltering elias.
ITCHY of his nerve pulled him through.
His last letter is descriptive OF Norway,
its capital. politics and men of letters,
under the head of
NORWAY AS 1T is.
Owing to the historical grandeur of
Norway every part of it possesses inter-
est sufficient for any traveller to make
himself DESTROYS of becoming fully ac-
quainted with that marvellous country.
The scenery of Norway is, like its
world of politics, remarkable for variety
and contrast. There are, indeed, few
tracts in the whole kingdom where the
desire to make study of these would
not in itself be an inducement to visit
the place. Christiania naturally affords
the best starting point. Many persons
will feel more attracted by the open dis
trictS in the northern half of Norway,
but short sketch of the capital itself,
its present condition, her illuStriOuS per-
sOnageS, the upper-hand struggle of her
liberal element in politics, art, fashion,
etc., will certainly be of interest, nay,
even benefit, to any one of the GLOBES
readers. Christiania is famed for its
beautiful situation at the bend of a long,
majestic ford, which from an early
period has been the object of great adj
miration. Since 1914 the town has been
the capital of Norway and the seat of
the government. The immediate en-
virOns of Christiania are greatly embel-
lished by the numerous villas peeping
out everywhere, and as to its present
inhabitants. This city was founded by
King Christian w., A. D. 1924, the old
town, called OSto, having been de-
strOyed by fire the same year. The
origin of this ancient town, the fore
runner to Christiania, is by Prof.
Yngvar Nielsen ascribed to Harald
Haardraade about 1850. 1t is probable,
however, and some of the historians of
Norway clearly affirm it, that there was
a seaside village which, long before that
date, received its local government from
the viking chiefs residing in castle
erected there.
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
OStO was biShOpric and boosted a col
lege church. In the early part of that
long and dark period OStO was the CAPT.
tai proper of Norway. 1t was also situ-
ated nearer than any other town in the
land to Sweden and Denmark, with
which countries the little kingdom was
then constantly connected politically.
The town never grew to any great i'm
pOrtance, still it was next to Bergen the
largest Norwegian town of the middle
ages. At the end of the fourteenth cent
ury its commerce had been mostly APP
prOpriated by German merchants, chiefly
from ROStOck, who are said to have
been accompanied by great number of
German mechanics in Norway desig
mated by the common expression of
Sutere. These formed guild of their
own in Oslo and presented a closely
connected union. On the power of the
famous Hanseatic league being de-
StrOyed the commercial and social ell
terprises of the native citizens grew
more successful. But this was not of
any long duration as the town in the
course of the sixteenth and seventeenth
century was repeatedly visited by de-
Structive fires. Thus it came to pass
that after the last of these fires in 1924,
King Christian ~ realized his formerly
conceived plan of removing the inhab-
itants to the opposite side of the ford
and building new town there.
This new town. which was named
ChriStiania after it's founder, was strong
by being fortified, its walls being con-
nected with the AkerShus fort, already
built in 1900. Under subsequent CEN
turtles the walls were suffered to fall in
ruin till they were finally entirely de-
mOlished. On the removal of the walls,
some of the outer districts added to the
town, but most of those have only in
the nineteenth century obtained full
municipal rights. In the seventeenth
century the town was repeatedly raw
was for whole month occupied by the
Swedish army, which had invaded Nor
way under the famous King Charles
XII, of Sweden. Towards the middle
of the century the wounds were, how
ever, healed. Great riches were
amassed by certain families who
formed, so to say, sort of civil
ariStocracy (Anker, COllett. Leuch a.O.),
These, the Norwegian Rothschilds,
owed their prosperity, which lasted
through several generations, chiefly to
the timber trade. Most of them kept
up an active intercourse with England.
On the whole, society in Norway, es-
pecially in ChriStiania, in the last CEN
fury had strong flavor of English man
nerS.
THE FLOURISHING PERIOD
of the town lasted till the year 1907,
when a series of calamities commenced
interrupting the prosperity. In 1911
Christiania received its stately univer-
Sity. When the union with Sweden was
finally contracted Oslo commerce was
at a very low ebb, and the great COM
mercial houses, which had previously
been the foremost in the whole country,
failed with hardly one eXcep-
ton. During the succeeding years
ChrlStiania once more advanced con-
siderably in prosperity, and is now,
next to Copenhagen and Stockholm, the
third greatest town in Importance in
Scandinavia. Since 1860 the town has
become the center of an extensive sys-
TEN of railroads, which more than any
thing else has given an impetus to its
rapid growth. AS the starting point
of a large system of direct steamboat
routes, reaching as far north as Ham,
marfest, ChriStiana will in this respect
probably have greater things still to eX-
pect from the future. And, then, as the
metropolis, and equally so as a univer-
sity town, it is likewise the center of the
chief intellectual interests of the coun-
try. The main street of the city, the
Nicollet avenue, is Karl JOhans-G ade,
in which, or close to which. are also to
be found most of the hotels of the town.
The Victoria hotel, from which l write
this, is the oldest. and, per-
haps, the best in Christlania, at
least is considered so. The city
has royal palace, erected from de-
sign of LinstOw in 1S23-4S; university,
as before mentioned, with some excel
lent botanical, ethnographical and ZOO
logical collections the viking ship, one
of the most remarkable archaeological
discoveries in Europe, is therein to be
tanning 800 paintings; kunstindustri