The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-16
.N0RWEGIANs A PEOPLE
OF GREAT CONTRASTS
''PEER GYNT" rs FAIR TYPE OF.
NATION.
Backwardness that Is Almost I.aziness
Seems to Cypress Men at. Home,
While They Come to America and Be
come Thrifty and Industrious Citi-
zens, Writes Woman Traveller. ~. s. h.

Thekla Bernays, correspondent for
the st. Louis Globe Democrat, who lis
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 even the
railways of being slow and unpunctual,
The general use of margarine in
vasive odor of fish. However, the
scenery is real scenery and the writer
never tires of expressing admiration
for the grandeur of the ever-changing
panoramas. A most vivid description
is given of the picturesque. sunset at
Molae, of which she says there, can be
quisite beauty. In summing up her i'm,
pressions of Norway and the Norweg-
ians she says: r.: IL. @@>t.SS - 81
EAT Molde, at Trondhiem and at
Christiania / had the good luck to meet
Norwegians Of more than ordinary Gull
ture,, whose company / eagerly culti-
waited, hoping to get enlightenment as
Inhabited this country Of theirs which
was sometimes repulsive and sometimes
sympathetic and always fascinating.<HI
am afraid was baffed.- "A land of
mystery and melancholy :. Norway
seemed before T. ever saw it shores. 1t
Is So still "A country of: strong con-
trasts, in the emotional and artistic
sense rather than, in the industrial and
commercial "A country which will al
ways preserve q remoteness, retain an
air of hauteur toward the great head Of
the travelling public, country which
does not care to compete for the prizes
in the ordinary lottery Of life and yet
c&o dc IN oil ole :
not from weakness, but from con.
seriousness Of strength, different, but not
less than that Of other nations.
Strength based On restrained desire9
But then so many Norwegians whom T
asked whether the type Ibsen drew in
his Peer Gynt was fair estimate
of their countrymen, frankly replied in
the affirmative. -
Gas a matter of fact Ibsen is quoted
as having called his Peer Gynt repre-
sentative Of Norway, in the sense that
Germany has been called: the Hamlet
among nations. Tt is true that Ibsen
was wroth with the land of his birth
in which the hero makes the irreparable
mistake. of being instead of true to his
best. self, merely self sufficient. 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. shapesl by the con
Still, IT Norwegians recognize, them;
selves in. this type that would argue
that their habitual reserve isl mask
which hid les a rather long list of: short
comings In their moral makeup. Yet
others, who know them we'll, English
Norway the habitual scene of long va.
cations, praise the people as ,singularly
honest and honorable in all their deal
ings with strangers, hospitable and
kind to an extraordinary degree, eager
to learn, intelligent. It is a. matter OF
statistics that Norway has no illiterate
population, excepting. few detectives
an admirable showing for country
wegians enterprise, tenacity Of Dur
pose, thrift and energyq
81 have heard them accused of, lazi
ness and pride-false pride. IT,, it il
SAID the vast numbers who emigratt
lean, would consent to work a.
hard in their own country as they d,
in the United States, Norway would
make a different showing. - But a
home they would hate to be seen dom,
the hard mental labor they are no
much ground in Norway that might b.
made to bear crops, lies fallow, covere,
with rocks and brush. The splendid
power nature has given them in tn
great waterfalls is only decoration t
the landscape as yet, when it might b
TUNED to account industrially. No
adequately exploited, tho travel i
Switzerland is now so congested durin
the summer that q part Of it's overfo1
might easily be directed to the countr
which resembles it in many respects
and for Europeans surely lies close a
1T would seem that the spirit o
independence lately exhibited by No
way must endure and eliminate in :
united and powerful effort to hold if
Sweden. It will take money, that
energy and enterprise and thrift t
send ambassadors to the various cap
tails, where. the new kingdom require
make the effort, the sustained effo1
their new situation requiresa Alread
one hears it limited that a large part
y exists which favors a closer relation
Sweden and desires the overthrow {
Minister Nicholson and the presel
that Norway is guilty OF. Peer Gynntis1
capable Of spurts Of vaulting ambitio
but unable to follow them up by Il
tenacity of purpose, the cGnging to {
ideal OF its own and the unwavering d
sire for the realization of the IDEAL. ,
seems too soon and invidious to pro
nosticate thus unfavorably on a lit
INDECENT, but plucky, nation, which HI
but SO lately manifested the desire
be itself. Older nations can but hol
and help. In one sense the youngest
countries has great advantage.
has already produced great poet wi
dared to hold up the mirror to his pc
!: pie, in which none of its sins were CO
: doned. Ibsen in peer Gynt' show
Norway which way danger lies L
. her be true to her higher self and
button maker shall even dare threat
to melt up her soul with Sweden's.