Evening star., 1909-05-23

visit her with -punctilious care.
During the war with Prussia IN 1904
over the possession of SchlewiS-Holsteln,
Gen. de Stiernholm was chief of the gen.
/ eral staff and commanded the army OF
the defense. His skill as tact1cian won
| the pride of his cOuntrymen, and Is gen.
orally acknowledged. He is honored as
hero in Denmark and the greatest pop
| ular interest attaches to his children ano
! grandchildren. His only son is serving
| in the Danish army and IS captain IN
the Royal Artillery. Nine. GUIDE mas
three sisters, two in Holland and one in
| Copenhagen, and on her arrival in June
there will be family reunion in the old
De Stiernholm home in Copenhagen
Nine. GUIDE is the second wife of the
Norwegian minister, and there are three
children by the first marriage. The eld-
est, a son, named for his father, Owe
Guide is now serving as lieutenant In
the Royal Danish Guard at Copenhagen
The two daughters of NJ. Guide. Tigeborg
and Sigrid. aged seventeen and eighteen,
are studying in their native land, but
will come to this country in the autumn
and will be among the debutantes OF the
coming season.
NJ. GUIDE and all his family are accom-
plished musicians. The minister mas
splendid voice and he cultivated 1t with
| the greatest care with the intention or
adopting a musical career. But his father
objected to such profession notWith-
standing the eminent talents dlsplayeo'
| and so the minister took up diplomacy.
| He was serving as minister from Nor
way and Sweden at Copenhagen When ne
met his wife. Nine. Guide devoted many
years to studying the violin, and she at
tained a degree of proficiency rarely
the best masters in Wiesbaden and Co
penhagen, ard one of her regrets is that
| social obligations have made lmpossipie
| daily practice. She hopes, however, tnat
when the young daughters come to wash
| inston that she will get more time for
| her music. They both play the piano ana
the stringed instruments and both nave
| fine and well cultivated voices. Ihe MIN,
| lister and his wife are devoted to the oiu
Morse music, and to that of GrleS, hler-
ulf and Sinding, and they frequently play
| for their friends.
| The Guides have brought with them the
/ Independent ways of their own lanu, anu
perhaps, no diplomatists in washington
mingle as sociably with their countrymen
and with Washlntgonians generally as
! they. Mime. Guide has called on all the
I Norwegian families in and around the
| capital and she, with her husband, have
already visited the great centers "nere
the Morse population predominates, st.
Paul, Minneapolis and Chicago.
Though l am Danish, l am devoted to
/ Norway and all that pertains to it, she
| said, for both Danes and Morse are of
| Scandinavian stock and they are closely
| akin Almost all our national habits and
traditions are similar and our history is
closely woven for centuries. The Morse
people are among the most interesting In
| the world, and it is a pity that Ameri-
cans know so little of their folklore or
of the works of those exGeilent au.nols'
Noes and Asbjornsen. Hans Andersen,
| the beloved Danish writer. | find Is as
well known in this country as in my own.
Hans Andersen's tales are not OF the
same kind as those of ASbjOrnsen and
Noes, for the Danes work Is almost all
fiction with moral, while the Morse
authors have written the tales which the
peasants country psople tell them-
selves. They are quaint and most enter
tanning, these folk tales, filled with trolls,
gnomes and fairies" the dashng quail
ties of the old Viking legends and repiete
with the superstitions which have been
handed down from the prehistoric ages.
The fairy tales .'Zuldre Eventyr . are
one wants something really charming and
inspiring l can well recommend these
stories from the Norseland.
Il have been interested in the educa-
tional problem here, or. rather. In the
educational method which prevails in this
country. The Scandinavian mother Is not
so fond of getting her little ones away
from her as to look with favor on the
kindergarten or the boarding schools. l
acknowledge the usefulness of these Tor
children of the poor, but l think l prefer
the old-world method of teaching children
at home until they reach suitable age
wherever it is practical. individuality
counts for more in the present age than
1t ever did in the history of the world.
and ] think that grouping many young
people together in boarding schools tends
to blunt their individual qualities and
thus to lessen their opportunities for de-
velopment.
THE wealthier classes in Norway and
in Denmark also cling to the old way of
day schools when the children return for
their three meals and the evening re-
union. With boys, OF course, the train
ing begins much earlier than with girls,
and it is conducted along well defined
lines which are followed in nearly all the
older countries. All girls who desire the
higher education as 1t Is understood In
this country, and who can pass an ex-
animal tion. can receive the highest intel
lectual training which the state can give,
and can enter the Royal University on the
same footing as young men. There are
women eminent in almost every calling in
Norway, and also In Sweden and Den
mark. But, like the ballot, this has come
as a natural evolution of the times. and
not as the result of agitation or from u
| sense Of having to "rest it from the
state.
I'm Norway the population is about
| evenly divided as to men and women, and
each sex seems to respect the rights OF
the other in q way which promotes har-
muny for the common cause. We have
| no iliterates in Norway, except in rare
| instances.
When 1 paint these ideal conditions in
! nrI.p lfttr. ck Ey
| then, do SO many OF your people emil
| grate?' This is one of the industrial
| problems which confront many countries,
| even where the territory is large and the
| population limited, as in Norway. The
| Norwegian gets many chances in this
new world which could not come to hin,
| at home, but they leave their own hearth
stones, l think, more unWillinsly than
i any other class of emigrants. and they
yearn toward their mother country even
to the second and third generations"
The minister and Nine. Guide. after
passing few weeks with Nine. de
Stiernholm in Copenhagen. will go to
| to their country estate near Christiania
and remain until the end of September
They hope to return with their two
| daughters in order to get comfortably
| settled in the Norwegian legation before
| the little season., sacred to the bios
soming of social buds, begins in late No
| yember. The Norwegian legation is al
present at the Highlands, but the minister
hopes next year to have his flag floating
over a domicile of his own on the west
ern hills, where so many foreign estab-
lishments are now located.
Copyright. 1909. by Margaret B. Downing)
ATLANTIC CITY.