The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-14
THE NORWEGIAN WAYS
PEOPLE WHO ARE WITHOUT HURRY
AND TAKE LIFE COMFORTABLY.
They Cherish Unconlplimcntary No-
cans, and Give Their Authority.

patient people. They never hurry: why
should they? There is always time
enough. We breakfast at g. Monsieur
goes to business at 10 or SO and returns
to his dinner. like all the rest of the
Scandinavian world, at half after 3 We
reach coffee and cigarettes at about 4.
and then monsieur goes back to his
Office, If he likes, for two or three hours.
We sometimes see him again at supper
at half after 8, but usually there is
game of whist, or a geographical society
lecture, or concert, or friends birth
day fete IAN occasion never overlooked
by your true Norwegian, or some one
has received barrel of oysters and
would not. could not dream of opening
them without champagne and company
masculine company only. 1t seems to
me that there are entirely too many
purely male festivities here. In fact.
the men say so themselves, and that
they would really enjoy many of the
occasions much more if ladies We're
present. But sit is not the custom of
the country Ca rock on which I am
always foundering) to omit or to change
in such matters. Monsieur only does
as do all the other men of his age,
which is elderly, and condition, which
is solid.
/ have never accustomed myself to
the fact that one is expected to stop and
wait for all approaching carts or We,
hicles of any class to pass before at
tempting to cross street in town. 1
am always being stopped short on the
curbstone by a frantic pull at my arm
and some strange but agonizedly friend
~ voice at my side begging to know if
don't see that sledge coming-a sledge
half block off. Perhaps it is because
the street traffic is comparatively small
that the vehicles always have the right
of way. And certainly, too, because
there is so much time. You need not
fancy that the driver will hasten the
jog of his stocky little yellow pony when
sort. That is as it has been. 1t is quite
meet that you wait.
There is curious feeling concerning
America over here in one way and an
other. Morgenbladet, the chief Con-
sentative paper, an organ locally of the
first Importance, keeps sort of horror
chamber of Americana. The reason is,
/ suppose, that in these very dark and
troublous political times, when not only
the union but the monarchy itself is
threatened and tottering, the Conserva-
tive interest thinks it dangerous to al
low any virtue to appear in a republic,
and especially in ours, the most flourish
ing, and, therefore, the most pernicious
example of that invention of evil bred.
So Morgenbladet's foreign columns
contain daily something very like this
urder the heading OF --latest news from
America. Horrible smash-uD in Rhode
Island; twenty persons killed. Eleven
death in New York. Fiendish triple
murder in Oshkosh. Fatal shooting and
stabbing in Brooklyn. Steamboat sunk
on the Mississippi. Two hundred per-
sons killed by railway collision in Utah.
Train robbed and passengers pistoled in
Wyoming. Enormous daily expense to
the people incurred by the. support OF
the Senate and legislature. All these
with aggravating details and ending,
perhaps, with I'VE have only i'll news
from America.
Day after day they seem to rifle the
cable dispatches for dreadful tales of
failures, crime and disaster, but if
word of good or neutral import appears
it is only because it is too important
to be overlooked; it is very briefly ex-
pressed, and usually gloomily COM
mented upon.
WRONG IMPRESSIONS GAINED.
have often thought in reading over
these dismal matters that our papers
furnish us with far too much of such
necessary for a hostile foreign press to
betake itself, as Morgenbladet often
does, to accounts of obscure barber
shop affrays when it wishes to repre-
sent the true inwardness of American
daily life. One result of the persistent
incubation of this doctrine is that /
have met several most cultivated gen.
tlemen who are remarkably well versed
in the ways and manners of Tammany
Hall, but whose study of America other
wise has convinced them that it is the
common custom among men of the bet
ter classes In New York to wear pistols
in their belts whenever they go into the
street.
Although so many Norwegians have
emigrated to America and are loyal
and prosperous in their adopted country,
should say that the general mental
attitude towards America of the solid
portion of the population here is one of
distrust. They are an exceedingly hos
pitable and courteous people. and they
are glad to make you truly welcome
and TO like you. But if you win their
esteem, as you will if you deserve it
and are well bred, it will not be as an
American, representative of America,
but as a white crow.
On the whole. when impressions have
had time to formulate themselves one
feels that America is here regarded as
the land Of imitation, of pinchbeck and
manufactures, untrust-
worthy stuffs, doctors made in a minute,
soulless hurry for wealth, disregard for
mental and spiritual pleasures and
ends; of raptness in the pursuit and
worship of the dollar; the country
where wealth is more than principle,
mind or breeding. and where vulgar
thirst for titles remains, other ambition
having been gratified. It made me
rather indignant when one of the boys
came home from school the other day
with the news that one of his masters
had been asserting, as a recognized fact
that every American girl of fortune is
provided with a list of the eligible titles
of Europe, with notes regarding their
several merits and dement's, and that
she learns it as a part of her regular
business. Yet it is too plainly to be
seen whence such ideas arise One can
not in the face of facts. contradict
them as handsomely as one longs to do
There is curious fashion here dur
ing the winter season of going to the
park before the Storthing (ParliamenD
and promenading up and down again
and again, the length of four blocks or
so, to the music of a regimental band.
which plays there. by order of the gov
eminent an hour in the middle of each