The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1907-05-16
DOOR KEYS IN SWEDEN
Curious Custom Of Hanging Them
Outside the Doors.
HOUSES LOCKED, YET opEN

Tenants Are Out, but Friends Who
Call Are at Liberty to Unlock the
Door and Enter and Rest.
When the Swedes go calling, they
lock up and then hang the door key op
the bell or the doorknob or some other
conspicuous place. When they 20 visit
ing for q few weeks, bolts and bars are
slid into place, and then out goes the
key. II the house is shut up for an en-
tire season or full year the gayly
swinging door key says "Not at home
to passersby.
There is no kicking your heels on the
doormat in Sweden while tue bell or
knocker awakes the echoes in an emp
ty house. Agents, peddlers, friends
and relatives all know this message of
the door key and seeing It out pass by.
As can he readily imagined. this
strange custom has been put to good
use in many Instances when visitors
were not wanted. Instead of telling
the maid to inform callers that Mrs.
Jones is not at home the mistress says
to Jennie: "Hang out the door key at 3
o'clock this afternoon and bring it In
| at 8. l don't wish to see any one for a
few hours"
About the first OF the month in GER
tain districts door keys swing to the
breezes In great numbers, and collect
ors, knowing the custom and also its
misuse scratch their heads in perplex-
1 tt... .fst, - ,tI I, 81
/ Many amusing stories are told OF
| creditors sitting down to await the re-
| turn of their man while the debtor sat
on the other side of the locked door
and ehuckled. There have been in
stances where q collector has taken
the key, unlocked the door and entered
the house to be met by the owner. who
calmly laughed over his ruse. Again
creditor has entered house In which
he supposes the owner TO be hiding on
ly to find 1t vacant and to be caught by
the irate master, arrested and made to
pay fine, while the debtor got an ex-
tension of time on his BILL
These illegitimate uses of this very
old custom of not only leaving the
latchstrlng out but also putting the
door key at the disposal Of all who
pass, are not discovered at first glance.
and they are really very much In the
minority, for Sweden is pre-eminently
an honest land. In and around about
Stockholm there is very little need of
policemen or strong boxes. for every
man, however low down in the social
scale, seems to have due respect for
another's property.
Although a few OF tho more suspi-
clous, or the foreigners who have not
been brought up in this strange Gus
tom of leaving the door key out may
lock up with bolts from the inside and
use another door for exit when they
leave home for an extended visit. the
old residents actually leave their homes
at the disposal Of any who may care to
enter.
Friends who call and find the key
out feel at perfect liberty to unlock the
door, enter and rest bit before pass
ing on Strangers seldom misuse the
confidence.
The custom started ages ago when II
was the usual thing for ''holy mem or
priests TO travel through Swedish vii
lagos, stopping TO leave thelg blessing
ON the households of the nelghborhood.
These visits were looked forward to
! with eagerness by the pious Swedes,
and 1t was considered an act of gross
est discourtesy to bar the door, for
whatever reason, against a holy man
Consequently If family left home the
key was always put out against the ar
rival OF the priest Meat and drink
were left, and should the holy man
stop at vacant house he entered, re
freshed himself, left HIS blessing In tho
] form of candle or bottle of holy
water or a bit of consecrated green and
passed. Thus the custom originated
. and, although these quaint villages
, have become towns and travelling
, priests have passed away and the in
fiux of other nations has moderniget
, Sweden and brought the evil of thief
with it, the door keys stu hang out NJ
evidence OF trust and open doored hos
. pitality.
A thief seldom takes down one o.
) the keys and enters, for there Is th'
, uncertainty about the absence of thu
u Atoluthtr olphth VA " h'iN Hiht bh'h
} and the knowledge that an exposed
> door key may merely mean that tn
> owner has stepped across to the stor'
: and win return any minute make
4 tampering with property risky busI
. ness.
These facts, together with the bl
: : one that Swedes are one OF the mos
honest people on the face Of the globe
. make custom safe there which woul'
: be a foolhardy tempting OF mlsfortun
Z in our "land OF the free"-Los An
2 geles Times