Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-07-26
TROUBLE OF THE
SCANOINAVIANS
DIVORCED REcAusA- OF lNcoM-
pArlRJLlTY OF TEMPERAMENT.
DIFFERENCE OF CHARACTER
Zeal Cause of Division Between the
TWO Peoples-Swedes Cosmopoli-
tan, Shrewo, ViVaclous and Canny
Nor Yegians Simple, Dreamy, In
tense.


that it cannot stay alive TO the size of
very large objects. A man who dwells
beside great buildings or high noun
tlfns Loses all sense Of their bulk. To
half the United States. Australia,
country nearly as large as ours Is
small patch of land down in the south
Pacific, probably as big as Massachus-
cts. And now that these troubles of
the Swedes and Norwegiars have
brought back vivid again the image of
their country as it looks on the map,
with its challenge to our memories, II
must have shamed a good many TO dis
cover how completely they had forgot
ten that particular district Of the world
snd whatever they had read Of 1t or
seen in their travels.
SweGen alone is about the size OF
Germany. It's people would a little
more than fill the city Of New York.
The Norwegians. who are left to pop
uIate the ragged edge TO the west OF
the mountain ledge that naturally il
vides the peninsula. are even less
numerous. Together they make not
a bulky bar an interesting portion Of
the planets inhabitants. They might
interest US much more-with the en-
tertainment of their trOubles,-if they
were a much more numerous people.
For theirs is a land that sustains hui
man life much more grutgingly than
ANYTHING that is under an Americans
feet It stretches through all sorts 0.
ATTITUDES and therefore through all
sorts of climates. The people in its
soGtb have the privileges Of wearing
st,.Nw hats in June along with the rest
OF viization. At the top end the poor
fsb, folk wear three-ply ,lfskin in
Al asst and light their candles at three
in tbs afternoon.
AS every land imp-esses and fash
ions the character Of It's inhabitants,
so tine Scandinavian peninsula has af-
fecte1 its people Their long narrow
strip Of territory that runs like a sound
ing line through so many zones Of tenn
perature in earth's economy. soun ) as
many zones of temper in human ma
ture Industry has been slow get
ting a foothold on the trout led surface
of either slope of the peninsula.
Travel has been laggard in setting that
way. These dwe1ers Of the north nave
been LETT TO wrest their living from soil
or sea alone in the enormous toll it
has Cest them. The summers are
short, the seas are frozen; and they
bind down to ruggedness and to serious
Attention TO business the quality Of PEG
pie That succeed in gathering their
prolvcts Such a people have little
time ami ener9g left for the refine
ments of the circus and the thousa ID
AMI one similar small interests of a
more highly organized life OF
necessity their thoughts are as simple
and direct as their living ana their
feelings become as strong as their
hands
BY now everybody has iEtUrmed him
self of the cause and the long historic
progress OF the difficulty that at last
has divided Norway ana Sweden The
news wires are busy yet WITH the sub.
ject. The cartoonisG have raised
many laugh and made many a dollar
over The two hotheaded nations quar-
Feling as ill-mated man and wife and
ending in divorce on grounds * IN
compatible temper. And in their
indifferent joke they have probably hit
more nearly the real cause NJ the great
national difference than a. ire pub
Iicists who have exhau~'N4 their in,
genuity in argument and their knowl.
eIge Of Scandinavian economies. If
it was other than incompat.bility of
temper that started the breach be.
tween the two peoples, at least IL was
that which ma lie long difficult and has
NOW made impossible the closing Of
the breach
A novelist who should succeed in
depicting on the F5oper scale the I'M
happy ana unsuccessful effort Of Nor.
way and Sweden to keep house on the
same continent might certainly make
romance in generous proportions. He
woula be a sort Of extracallbre polit-
ical Balzac. He would delight Ia take
accoEnt of all those minute elrclln
stances in the geogF ohic SITUATION OF
the tW3 people that ,e given them
their differing characteristics. And
the line of cleavage between them.
while il clearly exists is nor 30 obvious
that mis- labors would be damned with
the yIatitudinous
CgsrTe..5ssT, cha g,,....r
land Of slopes. OF many lakes. Of many
rapid rivers that rush ia parallel
courses from the milriff mountains Ia
the Baltic Il has broad acres that
are regularly TILED, and TILED with a
husbandry whose popularity is neccs
STATED by the pecdliarities of the eli
mate All the labor of harvesting the
crops must be compressed within the
few intense weeks Of the summer. Blu,
the Swedes have mastered The process
have mastered it for centuries. For
centuries the activities Of the people
were agricultural Across the noun
tain divide the Norwegian slopes are
sleeper AMI more rugged. Not 70,
agricuI ure, these, but for grazing.
TEat is one difference between the
twc-an ancient difference in occupa
ton But there are later ones. In
dIs1Ty las been growing in Swe Ter
much more rapidly than in Norway. 4
has brought .-,c1ey more rapidly into
that side Of the peninsula Il na.
created a broad middle class who hav,
sweIled in Importance as have swelle,