The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-30

l
IN THE SWEDISH BUILDING
women how to work them out. One mag.
nificent rug, thick and soft, rich in design
and color, measures 16x1S feet, and is
| worth $3.50. Among the novelties are a
milking machine and skates of alum
| inium.
| Sweden's principal exhibit is in the Ma
tional building, which is so large and SO
well arranged that it may he said to be an
exposition of itself There are few more
interesting buildings than this On the ex-
position grounds, and advise my readers
to be sure to see it. At first glance one
can see that the Swedes excel in iron and
steel work. Swedish iron is famous the
world over, and much of it is used by
founders in this country and England.
The Swedes know how to work it as well
as any one, and they make the most of it..
They show fine cannons, shells, CONNER
cial iron, saws, tools, cutlery. The Sand
vik Steel works exhibit the largest band
saw in the world, being 220 feet long, a
foot wide and weighing GIT pounds, all
rolled from one piece of steel. Novel are
the advertising cards which this firm gives
away. They are made of steel only two
one-thousandths of an inch in thickness,
tempered and polished. There are hunting
horns five feet long, made of steel brill
iantly polished and handsomely decorated
In their axes and other implements the
Swedes pay America a compliment by
claiming that certain wares are IS good as
those made in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Swedes make excellent tile ware,
and one of their prettiest pieces here is 9
fountain constructed of tile, which you see
near the entrance. Their matches are ia
nous the world over. In cut glass they
produce ware which is almost equal to that
made in England and the United States.
Their leather work, particularly their
bookbindings and picture frames of leath-
er, are admirable. They are almost as
neighbors to the east, in the manipulation
OF furs. They show many carvings of am
bilious and effective workmanship, and
one inlaid cabinet with medallions in steel
tones that is gem, and fully worth the
price asked for it, 500. In Sweden the
skate is q great thing, and skates are
manufactured in endless variety. Here is
the model of a skater with a sail lifted on
bamboo poles, favorite sport on the
frozen lakes of Sweden. There is great
variety of skis, some Of them eight or ten
feet long, and handsomely finished lay
figures, placed in inches about the hall,
show how the ski is used in descending a
mountain side. Other lay figures are used
to illustrate the method of travelling with
reindeer and pulkas, and one room is fitted
up as the interior Of PEASANTS house,
where a little domestic tragedy is being
enacted. It is the death Of the baby, and
the little white coffin stands near by.
With this single exception the entire
Swedish exhibit is rather joyful There
are everywhere suggestions of ightness
and gaiety, indicative that life in the
frozen north is not as arduous as some peo-
pie have thought it. Thereere pictures of
the skating rink of the Stockholm skating
club, and models of the yachts of the
yachting club of the same city. There are
books which treat of the favorite games of
the Swedes, and some of their carnivais on
the snow are gay indeed.
The building and its contents are skill
fully arranged. The Swedes are like the
French in one particular, at least: they I'M
derstand the art of display, and know the
value Of marking their wares with signs
which tell the visitor what he wants to
know. The Swedes appear to have love
for details, and mastery of them, more
over; for notice that they give on most of
their placards the exact dimensions, the
weights and other data concerning the
wares which they have to show, thus offer
ing invaluable assistance to the visitor
who is in search of accurate or technical
information. In view of this excellent
provision one has the less right to COM
plain of the lack of intelligent attendants
who are able to speak English and who
are willing politely to explain features of
the exhibit about which one may wish to
ask questions.
IL furniture the Swedes are skillful and
aesthetic. l have seen nothing in the ex
position that l more eagerly wanted to
carry away with me than q library book
case, made il two sections with carved
decorations, and an easy chair between,
the whole being one piece of furniture and
indescribably coy and attractive Our
Scandinavian friends, both Norge and
Svensk, have done right well at the expo
sition which commentaries the discovery
by an Italian sailing under the Spanish
flag Of land which the Norsemen had
probably discovered some $50 years before.
WALTER WELLaAN.