St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-26
SHOPPING IN NORWAY.
An Almost Endless TaslS-Glimpse
of the Markets.
bristiania Cor New York Post

of the Markets.
Christiania Cor. New York Post.
Christiania has a special way OF
pigeon -holing the most closely allied
necessaries and luxuries of life apart
and at distances from each other-a
way that is not little surprising al
first, and something of trial to the
temper, but which one soon learns to
accept with philosophy as a sine qaa
| non of existence here. For example,
you will ask in vain for cotton or
linen in the dry goods shops, and there
are no needles and threads where rib
bons and laces are sold. There is never
a vegetable to be had in the fish mar
ket, and you must journey for quar-
ter of mile from apples before you
attain eggs.
Down at the bottom of Grubbe Gade
stands a great, glum granite building
| whose northern and eastern windows
are significantly covered with curious
| inverted wooden hoods-hoods solidly
| closed at the sides and at the lower
ends, SO as to exclude all view from
within, but open skyward to admit
| light and air. These are the outward
and visible signs of the city jail. The
police offices occupy the other half of
the grim pile, with windows free to
look across the street at their foot and
down into the broad, tagged square
! that lies some fifty feet below.
| This square is Nytorvet, THE New
Market" and is filled in the earlier
part of the day with a swarm of busy
! hucksters, their handcarts, wagons
and tables; while it's hither boundary,
| the perpendicular face of the little
! cliff on which the police station stands,
is crusted with two long rows of small
stalls, one above the other, built in
| granite and connected by an upper and
! a lower balcony running their length.
Each stall is about eight feet broad
| and perhaps twice as deep, and each
| belongs to a separate seller of meat,
whose name stands over his door on
a sign uniform in size and pattern with
all the rest in the row-Mathi Mathis
sen, Jon Johanessen, MAIDS Zacharias-
sen-a truly national array.
| 1t is here in Nytoryet that 1 always
! begin my campaign, drawn not by at
| fractions superior to those the other
''torvs'' afford, but by the peculiar
| of that class are called madam" in
| Norway, as serving maids of any order
are "Jomfru" and ladies 'F'ru" or
''Froken'), my meat woman, person
things l do not want and can not ad-
mire, unless l descend upon her be-
times armed with the prerogative of
the early bird.
Even then she deludes me with arti-
fees; yet, however high my rage may
burn at the thought of the last
wretched animal she foisted upon me,
however firmly I may be resolved to
break with her forever, there is that in
the very first sight of her stupendouS,
cairn-like black silk bonnet, gray with
the wear of decades, of the decent fold
ing of her sad-hued shawl upon her
broad and melancholy breast, of the
worthy, suffering, meek and magnani-
nous air that perVades her whole port
ly and super-respectable person, which
instantly convicts me of guilt in hav-
ing plotted against the worldly welfare
Of SO much martyred virtue.
After all, it is unjust to lay all the
blame at Nine. Bratvig's door. Some
one must take the tough meat, and
Norwegian beeves afford but little else.
The animals are small and lean. A
good steak is not to be had, and the
best of the roaStS are such that English
residents here usually send to their
own country when they want really
fine ones. Beef is not only the most
expensive meat in the Christiania mar
ket, but it is disproportionately dear
compared with the general scale Of
prices, costing often very nearly or
quite as much as it does in Washington
| market in New York. Veal comes next,
then pork, and then mutton, which is
cheap and fairly good. q
AS I looked over Nine. BratVig' S
stock today it seemed to me that my
chances were particularly small. The
creatures were unusually spare and
skinny, and their parchment sides were
uninvitingly covered with dust and
dirt condition explained by a glance
into the square, where men. We're
and dragging them by their poor stiff
legs across the muddy pavement into
the stalls. The sight almost dissolved
my chains. I was just turning away,
when Nine. Bratvig's genius again as
serted itself. 81 have been so bold"
she remarked tas to send my little
Guttorm out to Fruen's carriage with
package of SWeetbreads, which L beg
She will honor me by accepting" Now
not buy sweetbreads, and that am the
only one of her customers who cares
for them; but the blow was none the
less effectual for that.
After Nytorvet, the next station on
| my route is Jensen's, the man Of game.
This place is truly gourmets para
disc Besides the reindeer venison,
which is the cheapest meat in the mar
ket, and of which 1 promptly purchased
a saddle, knowing that it will infalli-
bly, be delicious, the walls are hung
with an array that no market in the
world could put to shame. Here are
magnificent thur and roy, as the male
| and female of the capercailzie are call
ed, game birds as large as turkeys, and
far more delicate, which are sold at
from 50 cents to 90 cents apiece; field
ryper and skov ryper, the ptarm1gan
and wood grouse; in such plenty that,
though they are highly valued for the
|. table, Jensen will give you all you like
! for not more than Z cents each; or
bannes or black cocks; bjerper, the de-
! licieus little white-fieshed hazel grouse;
| rugder. the woodcock; dobbelt and en-
! kelf bekkasin, the solitary and the com
mon sn:pe, with many other wild birds
! of delicate flavor and curious names,
all hanging in fluffy clusters beneath
| the row of mounted heads Of reindeer,
red deer and mammoth broad-horned
elk that ornament the upper walls of
| the room.
Here, also, you may buy the elder
| ducks eggs, if you fancy, for about
! four cents apiece: but one trial at eat
ing them will probably be , enough.
well shaped, and with pretty light green
| shells, they are attractive to look at,
| but ther flavor partakes far too strong
! ly of the herring, on which the elder
| lives, to encourage the attentions of
!
| The fish market was not the least
| interesting place on my list. Here, as
| in Nytorvet, each woman-for nearly
all the market people are women-has
a separate stall, or rather a separate
small room, of her own, but these
| rooms are provided, not with tables
on which to spread the wares, but with
| large tanks into and from which sea
water laid on in pipes from the ford
is constantly running; and where the
| fish, brought in alive from the boats,
| swim about comfortably until they are
wanted.
I should not omit to mention that
large crabs usually sprawl at the bot
tom of these tanks, while the eels, less
tenderly treated, are kept in dry tubs,
to be violently undressed at moment S
notice, with most uncomfortable
squeaking whizzes.
RUSH OF THE AVALANCHE. z
May Be Seen at Its Best in British
Columbia.
Imagine, if you can, the very