The Portland daily press., 1900-09-01
Finland a Country Of
Surprises.
Helsingfors, the Capital, a
Large and Beautiful City.
Correspondence Of the PREss.)

HelsingfOrs, Finland, August g. 1900
Anyone who has travelled among the
Scandinavian people and become ac-
quainted with them, cannot fail to form
a high estimate of their character. They
are certainly the most kindly, honorable
and intelligent people have ever met.
One is astonishsd to find all over Scan
dinavia so many men in ordinary employ
ments, speaking English. On my way
to Sordertelje to visit our minister, Mr..
Thomas, 1 was surprised to have one Of
the men on the steamer, which was like
one of our island boats, approach, and
pointing to the shore, remark that Mr..
Thomas had told him that some A meri-
can friends were coming to visit him and
to show them the King Hat, a precipi >
tous bluff rising above the water, from
which one of the old Swedish kings had
leaped his horse to avoid pursuing enc
mics, thereby escaping, but leaving be-
hind his hat, which had been lost in his
aerial flight, as a trophy, and was sti Il
more surprised when one OF the hands
who took up the tickets asked me if I
wanted return tickets by rail to Stock
holm. 1t was the same in Norway.
Many OF the posting men who drove us
across the oouL try spoke tolerabIe Eng
lish. Some told me that they learned it
in the schools, and others that they had
picked it up from travellers. The seen
cry Of Norway, as everybody knows, is
wonderfully beautiful. Anyone who has
penetrated it's wonderful tiords, threaded
it's charming valleys ana climbed the
Iotunheims, can never forget the expert
ence. The quiet post inns, which one
meets at intervals of about ten miles, at
which the postmen always stop to rest
and feed their horses and which are kept
by self respecting men who regard
you as telloWmen and not as geese to be
pIucked, are to be remembered pleasant
Iy, when one passes beyond the limits of
Scandinavia, and comes in contact with
the smirking landlords of other lands,
whose devices for fleeing their guests are
too numerous and inge nous to be com
passed by anyone not as sharp as them
selves.
Stockholm is one of the brightest and
cleanest of cities, and the same adjectives
tittingly apply to her people. AS after
seeing the best, always desire to see the
worst, portion of a city, I requested to
be shown the dwelling places of the poor,
and was driven through several streets
with plain but fairly comfortable houses,
not at all like the poor parts of
other European cities. Finally I said,
This is not what went to see, show me
the slums. "These, . was the reply, "are
all the slums we have. Every owner OF a
building is obliged to give his tenants
so much light and air, and what you see
is the result" The enforcement of a
simple law like this goes long way
towards the solution of the tenement
house problem with which so many re-
formers are struggling in our large cities.
1t is unfortunate that any antagonism
should exist between the people of Nor
way and Sweden. The taking of the
union from the Norwegian flag is signitf-
can't, and if the remarks which one oc-
casionally hears relative to future Nor
wegian republic mean anything, they pres
age future trouble. When the so called
union was originally formed between
Norway and Sweden by which they came
under the rule of one king. and by which
they theoretically became one nation,
it was provided that each should have
separate navy, army and consular service;
In fact, should exercise functions be-
longing to separate states, though undsr
the rule of single king, who was to re-
side portion of the time in both coun-
tries. Such an arrangement could but
lead to chickering's, and ambitious men
who have not received all the potential
favOrs to which they considered them
selves entitled, have kept the pot or dis
satisfaction boiling, until the symbol OF
union in the Norwegian flag has been
torn out. For their own good, the Scan
dinavian people should stand together,
shoulder to shoulder, and ignore the mis-
chief makers, who, as a rule, work solely
for their own selfish ends. The people
now living in Norway do not exceed in
number 1900, OOO-there are half as many
in the United States-and would make
by themselves but a pitiful republic.
Their future welfare points clearly
enough to union and not separation, for
in union lies their strength.
Among the many impressive things to
be seen in Scandinavia two of the most
impressive are connected with mortality,
the Viking ship at Christiania and the
tOmbs Of the kings at Stockholm. The
Viking ship found near Christiania sailed
the seas thousand years ago before Left
Ericsson is said to have voyaged to VIne-
land, and was over go feet in length,
built of oak and equipped with all that
belonged to warship of that remote
period. 1t was a craft to excite the ad-
and envy of the seafarers of the
time, but 1t was considered none too
precious to4be used as the tomb of the |