Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-03-29
Traders Run Goods From Finland
Into Sweden, Bringing
Enormous Returns.
AIDED BY FRONTIER LAXITY
Haparanda Is the Dawson of SWeden's
New klondike Where Gold and
Wine Flow Freely-Typical
Night Scene.

Tornea, Russia.-The Tornea river
is frozen over again and business is
good in smugglers' haven. From far
up in the Arctic tundra of Lapland
down to ice-filled Tornea bay, 30
miles south of the circle, sledges
drawn by reindeer, dogs and ponies
are crunching across the river by
night, laden to the runners with tea,
coffee, rubber and sugar, all bound for
Sweden, where they are worth almost
their weight in gold
Their sources are Russia and Fin
land, and their immediate destination
Haparanda, on the Swedish side of the
Tornea river, where ex-sailors, hotel
walters and a typical collection of
frontier town types are making money
hand over fist and drinking champagne
for breakfast.
Haparanda is Swedish, as different
from war distracted and revolution
ridden Russian Tornea as if it were
hundreds of miles away, instead of
being separated only by ten-minute
sleigh ride in winter and ten-minute
ferry trip in summer, across the mile
wide, salmon-filled river. Haparanda
is the Dawson of the new Klondike,
and its gold comes from sledges that
slip by the Russian frontier guards,
full of the commodities Sweden needs.
1t is nearly Arctic, and in the heart
of winter, there is daylight only five
hours.
Frontier Customs Post.
Before the war Haparanda was a
tiny village, a frontier customs post.
The Russian frontier gendarmes were
vigilant and those who slipped through
from Finland with Struggled goods
were very few and far between. and
there was less incentive to smuggle,
for Sweden imported freely from
across the seas. The war made Tor
nea the rival of Archangel and
Vladivostok as a port of entry into
Russia. Haparanda shared the gain.
Business buildings of wood and a large !
hotel that looks like a typical Amer
can small town hall sprang up almost |
.vernight. 1t is still growing.
The goose that lays the golden egg
that buys wine and keeps the poker
games going lives over in Finland, |
which, although short of food itself, |
permits millions of kroner worth TO
slip through every month.
A year ago a Swedish preacher, on
an innocent mission, was shot by a
Russian frontier guard. The trouble
that resulted led to almost complete
axity at the frontier, and now on
any dark night scores of sleighs slip
across the river, unmolested, and de-
.osit their cargoes on the Swedish
side. Some of the goods go through
he Swedish customs houses, and the
iuty is paid. Even with the Swedish
iuty there is tremendous profit on the
shipments
Coffee that the Finnish agents Sc
,ure for ten kroner a kilo 600
)ounds) brings 20 across the frontier.
Small boys. muffled in great overcoats,
vaddle across the river on skis with
ubber tires for automobiles wrapped
round their waists-and rubber is the
!
lets to obtain In Sweden. Its export
rom Russia is forbidden.
Gay White Way" Always Filled.
The smuggiers are the richest, but
Gay White Way"-the
otel-is filled always with other
penders.
Here is a typical picture of any
light in Haparanda when business is
God on the Tornea. The coffee room
; crowded early. A Serbian "kappel-
leister' tunes up his violin. A young
AUSTRIAN with a bass viol and three
lump, smiling German girls, with
the rest of the orchestra, I
lay American ragtime. Swedish bar
laids hurry about with champagne
nd other wines. just as expensive. ,
A young Swede. with bank-look- |
lg face, who has just made 10000