Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1908-06-08
DUUK KEYS IN SWEDEN
Curious Custom of Hanging Them
Outside the Doors.
HOUSES LOCKED, YET OPEN.
The Dangling Key Informs You the
Tenants Are Out, but Friends Who
Call Are at Liberty to Unlock the
Door and Enter and Rest.


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 on
the bell or the doorknob or some other
conspicuous place. When they go visit
ing for few weeks, bolts and bars are
slid into place, and then out goes the
key. If the house is shut up for an en-.
tire season or a 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 the 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 be 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 5. / don't wish to see any one for q
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 It's
misuse, scratch their heads in perpleX-
ity at this net at home signal.
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 chuckled There have been in
stances where a 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 d
he SuppoSes the owner to be hiding on
ly to find it 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
latchstring 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 socia
scale, seems to have due respect fol
another's property.
Although a few of the more suspi
cious, or the foreigners who have no
been brought up in this strange Gus
tom of leaving the door key out, may
lock up with bolts from the inside an(
use another door for exit when they
leave home for an extended visit, thu
old residents actually leave their home:
at the disposal of any who may care tt
enter
, Friends who call and find the Ike!
out feel at perfect liberty to unlock thu
door, enter and rest bit before pass
ing on. Strangers seldom misuse tn,
confidence.
The custom started ages ago when i
! was the usual thing for 'holy men, o
priests to travel through Swedish vii
lagos, stopping to leave their blessing
: on the households of the neighborhOod
These visits were looked forward t
, with eagerness by the pious Swedes
and it was considered an act of gross
est discourtesy to bar the door, 70
whatever reason, against holy mar
Consequently if family left home tn
key was always put out against the al
l rival Of the priest. Meat and drin
8 were left, and should the holy ma
r stop at vacant house he entered, n
! freshed himself, left his blessing in th
! form Of a candle or bottle of hol
water or bit of consecrated green an
passed. Thus the custom originated
and, although these quaint village
have become towns and travelin
e priests have passed away and the il
r aux of other nations has modernize
Sweden and brought the evil of the
d with it, the door keys still hang out {
O evidence Of trust and open doored no
j., pitality.
A thief seldom takes down one
. the keys and enters, for there is tt
uncertainty about the absence of tt
residents spoken Of to hold him bac
and the knowledge that an expose
door key may merely mean that Il
n owner has stepped across to the sto
IS and will return any minute max
# tampering with property risky bus
ness.
- These facts, together with the b
one that Swedes are one of the mo
honest people on the face Of the glot
~ make a custom safe there which won
e. be foolhardy tempting of misfortu
IS in our Gland of the ree."-Los A
re geles Times.
III Found an Excuse.
81 One Easter a Methodist minister
r. tho coutb xurnfn tn T D;ory,Op+ Moro