Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-07-24
MORALITY IN FINLAND.
A Land Where a Good Name Ie
More Than Riches.

Tho Punishment for Crime Does Not Wipe
Ont the Stain, and Wealth Cannot
Compensate for Loss of
Reputation.
The standard of morality in Finland
mot that morality which consists mere
ly i'll the keeping up Of appearances and
the throwing Of dust in our neighbors'
eyes-is much higher than in most coun-
tries, decidedly higher than in Sweden,
which has grated so many of its civil
izing institutions on the Finnish stock.
Finland is united to the Russian empire,
and its capital, Helsingfors, Is but
nights journey from ST. Petersburg,
and yet the difference between the two
countries in religion, morality and we'll
being could not be greater were they
separated from each other by the earth's
diameter.
This enormous difference is manifest
in outward things; in nothing so strik-
ingly as the aspect of the streets of Fin
nish cities at night. woman, or B.
girl, would be afraid to walk alone at
night, even on the Nevslzy Prospect, in
st. Petersburg, and this feeling is amply
justified by the insults to which those
respectable females are occasionally
subjected whom dire necessity drives
out after eight or nine o'clock at night
In Helsingfors, on the contrary, q girl
may walk alone in any quarter of the
city at any hour of the night without
the slightest risk or apprehension. And
this outward appearance of decorum
and propriety, which surpasses any
thing have noticed in any other Eu-
ropean city, is not a mere ornamental
mantle, a coating of whitewash given
to O moral sepulcher, a beautiful out
side, but within full of dead mems bones
and of all uncleanness, says a writer
in the London Telegraph
It is very fair indication Of the NOR
al condition of the Grand Duchy. In
Finland public opinion is an irresistible
fforce-incomparably stronger than mere
legal restraints and barriers-and it is
wholly enlisted on the side of morality
and justice. The population is one i'm
/ mense family of two millions and half,
I all the members of which, when once
they have attained n certain standard of
public usefulness, are more or less
known to each other, and each one feels
that in all the turning points of life the
eyes of all his countrymen are fixed
upon him, and a disgraceful action is re-
1 membered for generations.
A good name and fame, therefore, is
a concrete reality in Finland, where,
4 without it, man is disqualified from
/ occupying post of trust in the Office
l of any large firm and serving the state
1 in any capacity. The only refuge open
Z to him-if there chance to be a vacancy
lis the post of censor of Finnish books
I and newspapers for the Russian gov
1 eminent, an occupation which erects
an impossible barrier between him
4 and his countrymen for all time.
In Finland bankrupt, whatever the
1 cause of his failure, is under cloud
I which, even in favorable cases, it re-
I quires some time and great efforts to
I dispel; and, if dishonest bankrupt, he
is under lock and key as well. And al
I though when he has undergone his SEN
tence in prison and afterward remained
I in moral quarantine for a year, or two
or three, during which he must KEEP
/ a1oof from all trade and commerce, he
is permitted to begin anew, a sadde1
4 and wiser man, he Is usually wise
enough to refuse to avail himself of the
privilege, well knowing that no amount
of capital can compensate for the loss
of ones good name, without which
trade or commerce in Finland is ar
utter impossibility.
The visible results of this healthfu-
moral tone of the community are thai
/ vice and crime are rapidly diminishing
and show strong tendency to disap
1 pear. And this is perfectly natural
The collapse of most men in all coun
tries in the struggle for life can be
shown to be in consequence of mora
rather than intellectual defects, and i
is to this collapse that the creates
| number Of vices and crimes are attrib
1 utable.
| Now, the Firms are intellectually les
nimble and plastic than the French
/ less imaginative and subtle than the
! Russians and less sentimental than thu
| Germans, but they make up for a Ger
tain mental sluggishness and stiffness
by an extremely delicate moral sen
sibility, to which they are indebted fo
| most of their political and economical
I