Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1906-09-27
Recent Occurrences of Interest
in Norway, Sweden and
Denmark.
rHEKLA BERNAYs IN NORWAY
Be-, Louis Globe Democrat Correspond
ent Tells of Her Observa.
tions There.
NORWAY.
Christiania.


the st. Louis Globe-D Democrat, who is
travelling in Europe sends the parer
some interesting gossip from Norway.
In the main she liked the country. but
the weather was bad and very uncer-
tain. She complains of the means of
transportation of all classes, ever the
railways, of being slow and ~unpunctual.
The general use of margarine in hotels
and eating houses and the ~pervasiye
odor of fish. However, the scenery
Is real scenery and the writer never
tires of expressing admiration for the
grandeur of the ever-changing pan
oramas. A most vivid description is
given Of the picturesque sunset at
few places in the world of such ex-
quisite beauty. In summing up her
Impressions Of Norway and the Nor
wegians she says: AT Mode, at
1rondhjem and at Christiania ! had
the good luck to meet Norwegians of
more than ordinary culture, whose
company I eagerly cultivated, hoping
to get enlightenment as to the char
acterstics Of the people who inhabited
this country Of theirs which was some
times repulsiye and sometimes SYM
pathetic and always fascinating. am
afraid / was baffied. A land Of mys-
terry and melancholy Norway seemed
before ! ever saw its shores. 1t Is so
still. A country Of strong contrasts,
a.. Tho a-,. .- ..sa -.
rather than In the Industrial and com
mercial. A country which will always
preserve a r~enioteness, retain an air Of
hauteur toward the great head of the
travelling public, a country which does
not are to compete for the prizes in
the ordinary lottery Of life and yet
stands in its rugged aloofness alone,
not from weakness, but from a con
seriousness Of strength, different, but
not less than that Of other nations.
Strength based on restrained desire?
But then so many Norwegians whom
I asked whether the type Ibsen drew
In his Peer Gynt' was a fair estimate
Of their countrymen. frankly replied
In the affirmative. AS a matter of
fact Ibsen is quoted as having called
his Peer Gynt representative of Nor
way. in the sense that Germany has
been called the Hamlet among ma.
tons. 1t is true that Ibsen was wroth
with the land of his birth when he
composed that satirical play, In which
the hero makes the irreparable mis-
take Of being instead Of true to his
best self, merely self-suficient. And
only escaped the awful doom of losing
the identity of his soul (which the but.
ton maker threatens to melt up with
other souls, in order to recast the
amalgam into new shapes) by the con.
slant and unselfish love Of a
Still, if Norwegians recognize them
selves liz this type that would argue
that their hatitual reserve is a mask
which hides a rather long list of short
comings in their moral makeup. Yet
others, who know them well, English
and German travellers, who have made
Norway h habitual scene Of long va.
cations. praise the people as %singularly
honest and honorable in all their deal.
ing with strangers. hospitable and kind
to an extraordinary degree. eager to
learn. intelligent. 1t is a matter OF
statistics that Norway has no illiterate
population, excepting a few detectives
- an admirable showing for a country
VIGOROUSLY poor. But have the Nor
wegians enterprise. tenacity Of pur.
pose, thrift and energy? have heard
them accused Of laziness and pride
false pride. II. it Is said. the vast
numbers who emigrate and cast Their
fortunes with the Americans would
consent to work as hard in their own
country as they do in the United
States. Norway would make a different
showing. But at home they would
hate to be seen doing the hard mental
labor they are not ashamed to do in
America. and so, much ground In Nor
way that might be made to bear crops
lies fallow, covered with rocks and
brush. The splendid power nature has
given them In the great waterfalls is
only a decoration to the landscape as
yet, when it might be turned to &C.
count industriously. Not even the
scenic quality Of Norway is adequately
exploited, the travel in Switzerland is
now so ~congested during the summer
that a part OF its overflow might
easily be directed to the country which
resembles it in many respects, and for
Europeans surely lies close at hand"
Captain Road Amundsen. the IA
nous Norwegian explorer, whose dis
covery of the northwest passage is a
matter Of history, arrived at Seattle.
Wash, Sept. IS. He was met by CON-
mittees from the chamber of ommerce.
and the local Norwegian society and
by the Norwegian consul. Captain
Amundsen will not admit that he has
exactly determined the location OF the
magnetic pole, but he intimates that
he has come near to II. Captain
A~mundsen's discoveries will be Of In
calcuable benefit to science and navl-
cation. The passage across the waters
north of this continent occupied three
years. No mountains were discovered.
the land being fiat and sandy, with