Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-25

themselves. At one side of the long room
Is something better than a shed, where are
narrow hunks. You will get sheep skins
for coverlids, black bread, blacker coffee
and goats cheesa for food at such stations
as Storsveen aud at Vetti Farm. The lat
ter station is really the starting point from
which the wopdrous Vetti fos or waterfall
of Vetti is reached after two hours
journey. 1t is little more than a hut.
There are two or three cold storage boxes
OF sleeping rooms. You must perform
your toilet in the common room; and the
food is no better than you msy secure at
the lowliest peasants home. For comfort
these and the like are really surpassed at
the shebeens of Donegal and Connemara,
in Ireland or at the folkless stone huta
along the way from Catsnis to the smoky
rim of E:na's heights in Sicily.
But the average station Is fairly comfor-
table. It must be borne In mind that It
was never originally intended for an iun.
As travel has increased in Norway, the
government has said to Jan Jansen or Olas
Oleson who was and still Is bonder or
landed proprietor alongside the national
highways: "You shall entertain travellers
and not impose upon them. Your gard
or farm shall henceforth be legally q sta
ton. You shall become its keeper and
master. In consideration of this Of the
conditions forbid proft) such a per cent.
of your taxes will be remitted; or (if 1t Is
a place which of necessity will secure rev.
enue) you are to pay SO much annually to
the government. You shall provide such
a number of csrrioles or stoll carts. or
both, and so many houses and the legal
charge to travellers for the same to the
stations each way, shall be go much. You
must be responsible for any harm coming
to travellers either at your station, or in
your charge, while posting from your sta
tion to the next. If you break the law you
shall Ee fined and imprisone6l"
So the roadside farm with its antiqusted
out-buildings has gradually developed into
the station. The bouder or farmer or his
eldest son has gone through the evolution
from the simplest and most primitive con-
dition of little more than lowly peasant
life in Norwegian solitude, to the vexatio1i
life of still conducting his mountain and
valley farm and maturing and housing his
crops in the brief northern summer and
at the same time caring for the hosts who
fit by him at brsskneck speed In their eff
forts to see all Norway in the sslfsame all to
brief period. Not to much should be ex-
pected from euch characters and condi-
ttons. You are fairly sure of some things;
and absolutely certain of others.
Whatever these stations may have been
in the days of foot and knspssok travel,
when the traveller sat at meals with the
bonder and his servants in the huge smoke
colored living room, and slept in q COM
mon bed with the entire household upon
the same floor. cleanliness Is now nearly
universal; hearty and ample food are not
lacking; civility yields rude yet sufficient
and kindly service; and by little tact and
Difference the soddennes' and gravity of
these sturdy folk are transformed into the
very sunshine of genial hospitality. You
may be sure of the righting of every error;
and certain Of an integrity in all dealings,
SO exact, punctilious and unvarying, as to
leave no doubt that universal honesty Is as
deeply rooted national characteristic of
Norwegisns in Norway as 1t is lacking In
all other travelled lands.
One may travel six, eight, ten, or even
twelve miles through most majestic scenes
of nature without sight of q single living
life in the entire distance will be the tin
kle of the COW bells from the hidden wales
among the mountain heights, where the
living Huldres in utter loneliness care for
their summer herds. Even this hint of
life amid desolste grandeur reaches one
burdened with an unutterable Gense of
dreary remoteness. Suddenly emerging
from a shsdowy gorge, or rounding the
base of some precipice towering thou
sands of feet above your head, or again
when beginning the descent OF some frozen
field. your always cheery skydsgut or post
boy will trfumphsntly-in a tone of re-
joiciDg at good things to come-shout the
name of nesr station. 1t will stand
huddled upon come dreary macs of rocks;
jumbled against patch of lichened birch;
strewn among bit of level, winding way,
or, perching upon the edge of some Nigh
ty rock-cleft where torrent thunders be-
low, seem like a mass of gray rock broken
from the heights above, poiEing before
final plunge into the roaring abyss beneath
As you approach the place three or four
or perhaps half a dozen substantial, low
built structures will be gradually disclosed.
The larger one will perhaps bs compare
lively large structure, set at odd angle
against the highway. It has been built by
the bonder station master himself, aud
while of pine, has huge hewn timbsrs, q
low solid roof, square windows, often pro-
truding SO as to give q wide window seat
as a provision for potted flowers; and al
most invariably boasts q door-porch re-
markable In appearance to the famous old
south porches of the more ancient parish
churches of England. But IL this struc-
ture Is of recent origin, II is still as gray
and antique in appearance as sll the rest.
Behind this, or extending from Its rear
wall, is the original farmhouse, often two
or three hundred years old, though built
of wood; altogether a mass of patchwork
in pine and thatchipg, with cavernous
chimney-to towering at one corner; the
whole reminding you of the stone built
structures of the English lake district,
evincing generations of on-building and
patching of additional houss-room of all
sizes and shspes, aud at every conceivable
angle.
Extending from this farther along tbs
highway, with perhaps "return" at the
end which abuts the road, the whole form
ing a sort of open and still somewhat pro-
tected statfon-ysrd, is a series of substan-
tial sheds, low, deep and capscious, In
which may stand travellers csrrioles and
ponies; and where all sorts of odds and
ends may be temporarily stored. Usually
across the way are three or four lesser
buildings, often arranged so as to form the
remaining side of the quadrangle-like sta
ton. In one may live family or two
who serve the bonder in the fields, upon
the heights with the herds, or stili assist
in the manifold duties imposed by summer
travel.
Another structure may have simply one
huge, long room, where lowly psasant ol
other travellers are lodged In hunks sgsins'
the wall, or upon straw and fir branches
upon the earthen floor. This will also bs
provided with long deal table, some rude
pottery and cooking utensils, and fire
place where such as are sheltered here may
prepare their own food. Besides thess
| there Ia always the storhsus or storehouse
| 1t is an odd structure, strongly built, set
| ting upon uncemented squares of hewr
stone, several feet above the ground, to es
cape earth damp, frequent freshets and 40
| cumulstions of snow. Its stories projeo
| each beyond the other to the roof, whiot
is still an unaccountable projection; the
whole having at a distance the appearance
| timbered stronghold is stored the grair
and all the many supplies for man an6
beast against the severe needs of the dsrl
| and almost unendipg Northland winter.
| One other structure to be often found q
/ most of these stations is interesting from
i its uses. 1t is a bell-tower or belfry, IL
| which Is placed q bell, and occasionall,
two or three, though the latter never foru
q chime. These bells are in common US
on nearly all Norwegian farms, where tn
bonder's lands may lie at q long distsnc
from the gssrd. The bell is used for cali
ing the farm-folk from the fields or noun
tains, or to convey various orders and di
rections OF intelligence to those absen
from tine farm house or station. Indee'
1t has all manner of uses. If the station
keeper is absent when travellers arrive sn
demand his attention he Is thus notified
The approach of the dreaded Lsnsmand o
circuit-riding constable who is also sor
of q magistrate, Is thus heralded. Peopl
are brought by 1t from great distances Il
the mountains to merry-mskipg, wedding
or funerals. And often at ''slow" sta