The National tribune., 1909-12-09

chief, if not only, form of amusement,
but that hymns or something serious
was usually the character of their mu-
sic. To most people this sort of thing
would not suggest very gay or frivo-
lous nature nor as being any particular
fun; but if, when a crowd of them get
together on the festive OCCASION" some
one starts "There'll Be a Hot Time in
the Old Town" or its Norwegian equiVa-
lent, and everyone joins in with dash
and spirit, then, indeed, do we get
glimpse of something alike.
Since Elizabeth and 1 had made up
our minds that We would only spend
the day in Bergen, We decided that we
would take a carriage and do" the
museums, visit few of the shops, for
she had been waiting until we should
come to this city before buying her
Hardanger work, and get our tickets
for Christiania- There are three mu-
Iseums in Bergen usually visited by tour
lists, the Hanseatic, Vestlandske and
Bergen Museum. OF these, the first Is
far and away the most interesting, and
we told the driver to take us directly
there. The Hanseatic League was, as
you know, a powerful organization OF
sharp, shrewn German merchants. who
absolutely controlled trade in Norway
from about 1850 to 1853, and in a lesser
degree made themselves felt till 1864,
driving out the English, Scotch and
Dutch traders and even the Norwegians
themselves They established them
selves in Bergen, and this old tumble
down building where they once lived
and drove their hard bargains with the
northern fishermen, etc, has now been
turned into museum. Each merchant
| had a clerk and one or more servants
On the ground floor of the building was
the warehouse, on the first floor the
office dining-room and bedroom of the
manager, and OH the second floor the
rooms of the clerk and servants. In
order to keep the Bergen office depend
ent upon the chief seats of the League
| at Lubbock and Bremen neither the
merchants nor clerks were allowed TO
marry and il is said they were fright
| fully immoral lot. 1t was very interest
| ing to see the old things which fiiled
these rooms, the curious furniture, the
primitive apparatus for extinguishing
fire. the scales ingeniously contrived so
that these old skinfiints were sure not
to cheat themselves in the weighing,
whoever might be cheated, the whisky
glass they used to fill in entertainment
when they felt mellow after particu-
llarIy good bargain, and the one when
they had ecountered some one as sharp
as they (the first was of fairly good
size, the other very smalD; the Summer
/ bed the great wooden box, which had
a few holes cut in the sliding door by
means of which the merchant got to
| his bed and out again, and the Winter
bed which had no ventilation what
ever. AS no woman was allowed to en-
ter the sleeping rooms of the merchants
/ or their clerks these beds were made
thru a large square opening cut in the
side of the box or wall, against which
the bed rested, furnished with door
| like q closet, and which the maid got
at from the next room or hallway. OF
course, If she had no tucking in to do,
but simply to fold and lay the bedding
on the bed, this was probably not so
very difficult piece of business to
manage, but it must have been a task
which only a pretty hardy, non-sensitive
maid could perform, that of making
up the Winter bed of a manager of the
Hanseatic League.
Coming out from this queer, dingy
old place, we drove to the Vestlandske
! Museum next, where we found room
after room of furniture, some very
handsome and not all Norwegian, wood
carvings, Norwegian tapestries, porce-
lains. articles of clothing, gold and sill
yer plate-the usual museum things
all well enough, but nothing specially
thrilling, and, hurrying thru the rooms,
got out and told the driver to take us
to the Bergen Museum. In this were a
lot of Morse antiquities and a natural
| history collection, where we found the
most interesting thing in the whole
place; that is, it was to Elizabeth and
me, which was the skeleton of huge
whale. The creature was fastened to
the top of an immense room, and he
extended from one end of it to the 9TH
er. His great mouth was open and
looked as big as house. 1t was per-
pectly easy to see how Jonah slipped
down before he knew what was hap
pening.
We passed the old open fish market,
which we had been told not to miss,
deserted when We drove by, and conse-
quently without interest; but it was not
difficult to imagine the scenes that took
place there in the days when the Han
seattle merchants stood and haggled