The Minneapolis journal., 1904-07-16
POLITENESS+ AND PROGRESS
AS SEEN nv SUZEDEW
National Habit of Being Polite Strikes the Foreigner Pleasantly
The Highly Deoezobed Telephone Systems of Stockholm
-Tnansfer Talks from One Company to the other.
Correspondence Of The Journal.

Correspondence of The Journal.
Stockholm, June S.-The Swede
geldom forgets to be polite. In all
walks of life one sees it, and It re-
acts rapidly on the stranger. He soon
learns to say tack" under all cir
cumstances. Yes, it Is characteristic
of the people, except when they do
forget, and then it Is the other ex-
IRENE. But get into a railway car
and listen to the conductors thank
gou' for every fare he collects and
note his patient listening and polite
answers to those same questions that
have bored him year after year.
Or go over to that f1ne-looking
policeman, standing tall and straight
Ind statuesque in the middle Of the
street immobile in the surging stream
Of humanity, like a block Of the
Swedish granite raising it's head above
stream. The moment he perceives
that you are addressing him, he makes
a polite gesture with his hand to his
cap and stoops to listen, for the
chances that you are as tall as he
are rather poor. He gives the in
ly. You thank him and pass on, re-
ceiving godspeed in the form Of an
other motion Of the hand to the cap.
And then see those two we'll
dressed, prosperous business men, or
officials, approaching one another.
At the proper moment each raises his
hat high in air, makes long sweep
down and then a reverse curve up to
the top Of his head. There is no mis-
take about it. Those two men are ac-
uuainted, have evidently a mutual re-
spect. and adopt an impressive way
of so informing each other and the
world at large. A popular man out
for an afternoons stroll finds himself
busy, for he treats his lady acquain-
tances and friends in the same polite
and deferential manner. Some even
go further. A prominent man Of af-
going out, turned around at the door,
bade his bookkeepers and assistants
good-day and made the graceful curve
with his silk hat thru the air.
The Polite Hello Girl
And then there is the telephone
girl. Soon after my arrival I called
up number 1928, or something like
that. In a few seconds I heard her
say, mo. 323 has been called" This
was O. shock and carried me quite
off my feet, and the national thank
you" seemed so easy. Immediately
she answered thank YOU" In few
moments she asked if 323 had an
swere1. T said mo" Then she said
II shall ring again." Once more
thank you and she ditto. But the
result was no better, so she called
back that they were probably not al
home. All this was such a pleasant
sensation that I once more said "thank
YOU" only to have the echo promptly
return my words.
But there are two things to remem-
Der. The Swedish for thank you Is
very short, briefly and sweetly tack
OF course, as they use 1t SO much Il
was quite necessary to make it easy
Only In extraordinary instances is the
expression extended to "tackal
mjukast," or tack so Inycket." AnG
then all telephone girls do not go tt
the same extent as this one. But the,
are, so far as I know, ever obliging.
This, however, Is not SO much of {
/ trick as it might seem to be. 1t Il
aver so much easier to retain an ever
per when using the telephone her,