Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1918-07-10
Traders Run Goods From Finland
Into Sweden, Bringing
Enormous Returns.
AIDED BY FRONTIER LAXITY
Haparanda Is the Dawson Of Sweden's
New kIondike Where Gold and
Wine Flow FreeIy-TypicaI
Night Scene.

~
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, 80
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 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 q ten-minute
sleigh ride in winter and ten-minute
ferry trip in summer, across the mile
is the Dawson of the new KlOndike,
and it's 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, frontier customs post.
The Russian frontier gendarmeS were
vigilant and those who slipped through
from Finland with smuggled goods
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 large
hotel that looks like a typical Amer
lean small town hall sprang up almost
overnight. It 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 q
Russian frontier guard. The trouble
that resulted led to almost complete
laxity at the frontier, and now on
any dark night scores Of sleighs slip
across the river, unmolested, and de-
post their cargoes on the Swedish
side. Some Of the goods go through
the Swedish customs houses, and the
duty is paid. Even with the Swedish
duty there is tremendous profit on the
Coffee that the Finnish agents Sc
cure for ten kroner q kilo (2.2O
brings 20 across the frontier.
Small boys, muffled in great overcoats,
waddle across the river on skis with
rubber tires for automobiles wrapped
their waists-and rubber is the
most difficult of all commercial prod
ucts to obtain in Sweden. Its export
from Russia is forbidden.
"Gay White Way" Always Filled.
The smugglers are the richest, but
Gay White Way"-the
hotels filled always with other
spenders.
Here is a typical picture Of any
good on the Tornea. The coffee room
is crowded early. A Serbian "kappel-
meister" tunes up his violin. A young
Austrian with a bass viol and three
plump, smiling German girls, with
the rest Of the orchestra,
play American ragtime. Swedish bar
maids hurry about with champagne
and other wines, just as expensive.
A young Swede, with blank-look-
ing face, who has just made 10000
kroner on a coffee deal, is spending it,
buying for every one who will accept.
At corner table, tipsy but digniied,
a group of Swedish officers stiffly re-
ject such familiarity. At the other
tables are Russian officers, in civilian
clothes, who have slipped across from
prohibition TOrnea to make a night of
it; Finnish smugglers, over for the
same purpose, and perhaps a dozen
Englishmen, Americans or Frenchmen,
just escaped from Russia's troubles
and stopping until the night train for
Stockholm, all glad for a breath of
gayety in neutral town.
This is any night-but on punch
days." the three days each month when
it is permitted to sell brandy and 9TH
er spirits, the line of sledges that
cross the Tornea is continuous, and in
the bedlam of noises the t'kappelmeis-
ter" and his players cannot make
themselves heard. So they make it
unanimous and join the crowd.
"BIack Hand" Feud Killed Four.
Philadelphia.-FO more deaths,