The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1893-12-09


Iy Mountain Ways .Gray and Scrag-
--gy as Eagles Nests upon the Crags,
these Half Farms, Half Hospices are
MercifuI Provision for Travellers
Grave and Sodden Folk of the Sta
TONS Wondrous Outlooks.
LONDON, Nov. 30, 1S93.-Among
the characteristic roadside scenes of
Norway the stations" where car
roles and ponies are changed, seem
to have the keenest interest to the
thousands of tourists who madly
rush in the beautiful summer months
through this grandly beautiful
northern land There is nothing
quite like them in any other country.
They serve the purpose of relay es-
Establishments, as did the roadside
inns of New England, half century
and more ago; you can find bed
and food behind their curious wood
en- walls, because the government
compels their proprietors or masters
to furnish the same; but there the
similarity ends.
Not single feature of the hustle,
cheeriness and activity of the old
coaching days is here. There is no
ringing post-horn to pierce the gor-
ges and valleys with it's musical
echoes. No whip" sends his smok
ing four-in-hand alongside the wei
coming inn at mad gallop, or
handles eloquent praises with ruddy
barmaids. No rubicund landlord or
sleek hostess beams upon you as you
arrive, or sends CHEEKY farewells af-
ter you as you depart. Seen from
distance they seem as gray, bleak
ard scraggy, as an eagles nest
among the erags When you have
reached them and come to know
them the grave, gray, lonely and col
orless tones still prevail on every
hand. Specks of animate sodden-
ness, threading ever-changing and
sublime desolation, and the struct-
ures and inmates of the roadside
travellers stations of Norway.
These tations are good and bad,
luxurious and repulsiye, hearty or
hopeless, as is true of wayside inns
in all countries; and range in pres
tige and comfort from the noted
Toftemoen of Gudbrandsdal to those
villainous station caves of gloom like
Storsveen and Vetti Farm. Tofte-
moen is huge, rambling gard or
farm house and station combined.
1t is one of the most ancient homes
in Norway, and is even renowned in
the sagas. Its proprietor is not only
station master, providing travellers
with entertainment in return for
government exemption from taxes,
but wealthy landed proprietor, and
what is of more account in Norway,
a lineal descendant of the first king
Of Norway, Harold Haarfager Con
sequently he is of NEUROLOGICAL de-
scent: for did not good Harold claim
his lineage from Odin, the true Her
cules of Northland?
This quaint old place has many
huge, paneled rooms, filled with an
cient cabinets containing priceless
Scandinavian relics; and there is
more solid silver in Toftemoen sta
tion than in the home of any Amer
can money-king, or in richest Eng
fish princely house The late king
Of Norway and Sweden tarried here
for entertainment when on his
way to his coronation at Throndhjem.
The testy station master not only
insisted on sitting at table with the
king, as became his own royal des-
cent, but when the king suggested
that his silver be unpacked to pro
' lett DlODCi tdolt oCl lCC, Wills 10y al
station-keeper brusquely informed
him that his own silver would serve
not only for tia occasion, but for a
much larger party than any Morse
king had ever Travelled with. And
so it did, to the amazement of the
noble guests and to all Norway ever
after. The members of the humble,
yet royal house of Tote, have never
married outside of their own family
and are gradually becoming mental
and physical freaks; but to remain
day or two at their half castle, half
inn, and observe their antics as host.
Ter and royalty combined, is to pos
sess and experience hardly secura-
BILE outside of Norway.
The stations at Storsveen and
Vetti Farm are little more than
rough, long rooms, upon which open
kitchen novels, their dirt floors usu-
ally strewn with small tufts of
spruce or pine, possessing huge
chimney corners as large as the
kitchens themselves. At one side of
the long room is something better
than shed, where are narrow hunks
You will get sheep skins for cover
lids, black bread, blacker coffee and
goats cheese for food at such sta
tions as Storsveen, and at Vetti
Farm. The latter station is really
the starting point from which the
wondrous Vetti fos or waterfall of
Vetti is reached after a two hours
journey. 1t is little mcse 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 may secure at the
lowliest peasants home. For com
fort these and the like are really sur
passed at the shebeens of Donegal
and Connemara, in Ireland, or at the
| folkless stone huts along the way
from Catania to the smoky rim of
Etna's heights in Sicily.
But the average station is fairly
comfortable. 1t must he borne in
mind that it was never originally in
tended for an inn. As travel has in
creased in Norway, the government
| has said to Jan Jansen or Olae Ole.