Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-10-15
The Burial Of Ericsson. .

Ericsson will stand foremost among
The very first. The number of great
which he fathered. the
results which they achieved, the
under which they were
carried to success, are almost with
out parallel. lie belongs to the
United States rs much us he does to
Sweden-thc birthplace which he
30 passionately loved, and to which
his remains were So recently trans
ferred with International honors.
1t was in the United States that
many Ii not most of his important
inventions were made and applied,
To him our co .ntry owes the con-
structinn of the Monitor, involving
IA theory ofnaval construction which
he had conceived in Sweden before
he was twenty-six years old, which
he had offered to Napoleon III at
the time of the Crimean war, but
which was destined to remain in
posse till it was produced in time to
confer an unrivalled service on his
adopted country, aud at once
revolutionize the art of building war
ships. But the Claims of Ericsson
to the worlds esteem are fresh in
the mind from recent discussion,
and this is not the place TO rehearse
them again. Never was n national
honor more wortnily bestowed than
that hich sent the body of the dead
inventor back to his native laud in
one of our finest war ships, com
nlanded by one al our most dis
tinguished officers The country
owed this to itself. to Sweden, and
to Ericssous memory. 1t is in.
teresting to know that the man
who bestowed service ON this
country at n critical moment, worth
many thousands of men and mil
lions of money, had n connection,
with the land of his adoption eN-
tending centuries back from the be
ginning uf his own life. The Eric
sson family claiule:i direct unbrokeu
descent from Left Ericsson, who
discovered New England A ID. 1000.
nearly 500 years before the coming
of Columbus. or this fact the in
ventor was very proud, and he
frequently alluded to it among his
intimates.
The body of Captain Ericsson-a
title which he always cherished, o.
it had been his grade in the Swedish
army when he resigned, al the age
of twenty-siX, to seek larger field
for his genius and aunbitiou-afteI
imposing ceremonies in New York
Was transferred to the war ship Bal
ti,nure, under the command of Cap
tain Schley. This apprupriat,
funeral barge arrived at Stuckh holm
on Sept, l4th. The body was thei
transferred to the charge of tn,
American Minister, and by the lat
ter to Admiral Peyron, chief Of the
Swedish Marine. The ceremonies
at Stockholm were OF an imposing
character, aud all classes, from
prince to peasant, paid the tribute
OF admiration to the most eminent
nau produced by Sweden for cen-
tury. The procession to the railway
station where the train was waiting
to convey the body to the place oi
Ericsson's nativity passed through
the open ranks OF "a hundred thuus-
and spectators, who stood with
doffed hats and bowed heads, and
consisted of the royal family, officers
of the government, the diplomatic
corps, officers of the army and navy,
the municipal authorities, and the
guard of honor. The funeral car
was heavily draped in black, and
left the Stockholm station in .he af-
ternoon of the day Of the arrival oi
the Baltimore, for Wcrmlaad, where
Ericsson was born.
The province of Weruiland is a
wooded highland on the bOrlers oi
Norway, 10 the west Of Stockholm.
Cut by watercourses, dotted with
fine lakes, carrying beneath its
surface of picturesque hill and forest
enormous and varied wealth of min
erals, it, like the Scottish border So
famous IN romance and story, was
the scene of inuunierable battles
and fDrays in the contest between
Norway and Sweden. Il was from
the mining regions of Sweden thai
the great popular movements in
favor of liberty took their rise.
Werniland shared with Dalecarlia-
where Gustavus Nasa, the father of
s greater Sweden, found the follow
ing which ultimately destroyed
Danish usurpation-the glory OF
being the most active home of Swed-
ish love OF liberty in the past. The
mines OF Wermland have been
worked for more than five hundred
years; and here to-day are found
some of the most valuable mining
aud manufacturing industries of
Sweden. 1t was iii that so great q
genius as John Ericsson should
have besn born amidst surroundings
80 picturesque, in a region at once
ennobled by the romance of its
history and the great industrial in
terests which center within its bor-