The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-29

of Bryant at Bamford mines. No last night we heard Battistini, the theyforcity rleS7eter1o1234 t-t-t successor of aCruso, in Rigoletto, and beyond it the Kings garden, the chief winter promenade of the captal. Still farther on are the foreign offices, banks and other large structures, is the business section with it's many stores filled with fine goods.
 As we move onward we go by island after island, each rising from it's smooth rock of granite. On some factories are located, on others ware houses and great lumber yards. On one we see the city prison and on another the military academy, or West Point of Sweden, which here faces the water as does our great school on the Hudson. There are pri- vate schools on the same island with an athletic ground facing the water, where two-score blue-eyed and light haired children are playing. We stop and photograph the girls in their ring around -the-rosy" and snap the boys who are running back and forth in association football. The children look and act the same as our school children at home, but they are much more polite. Every boy raises his cap when we leave, and as we chug away from the wharf they give us 8 hearty class yell of Rah! rah!, rah!iI O O O
 The Kingdom of Sweden.
 But the real interest in Stockholm is as the capital of Sweden, a country that is older than any other state in Enrope. It has been a kingdom for about 1,20O years, and it has King still. The government today is a constitutional monarchy with a Riks- dag, or congress of two chambers. The first has 150 members who are elected by certain town and county councils for terms of eight years, and the second is of 230 members, chosen in general elections every four years Women have the right to vote and there are some in the Riksdag.
 Sweden is one of the big countries of Europe. It is not quite equal to France or Germany, and it is small in comparison with Russia. but 1t is about 300 miles wide and almost as long as from Cleveland to New Or leans. It is about half as large again as Great Britain and Ireland, and if you could cut it into patches and lay 1t on the United tSates it would cover Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and New York It has about as many people as Belgium and more than twice as many as Switzerland.
 The latitude of Sweden corresponds largely with that of Alaska. Our Ice box of the North" goes farther south but Sweden reaches also into the lands of the midnight sun, and there is one town, Lulea, from where the railroad starts on it's way to Narvik, in Norway, which has a summer day 23 hours in length.
 The People of Sweden.
 And still Sweden supports just about six million people who live better than most of the inhabitants of Europe. They have comfortable homes. The houses of the cities are much like those of the United States, and those of the country are frame cottages which compare favorably with the homes on our farms. The people are famous for their health and longevity. They have more births than deaths and the population is in creasing almost as fact as that of any country of Europe. According to statistics, the Scandinavians live longer on the average than any other people of the world. They are a big people. They look like giants com pared with the French and the Bel glans and the sawed-off inhabitants of the Balkans and some parts of Po- land. As l have already written, they are one of the oldest races and they have the fairest hair, the bluest eyes, the longest skulls and the best lungs of any race on the face of the earth.
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 About Selma LagerIOf.
 The SWedes are a people of cul- ture. The University of Uppsala was founded before Columbus discovered our hemisphere and it has 2,50O stu dents today. There are all sorts of schools and academies and a com mon school education is compulsory. The percentage of illiteracy is far less than in the United States and you may travel for days and not find a man or a child who cannot read and write.
 The women are well educated and they have made their mark Tn liter ature. Selma Lagerlof is one of the brightest of the women writers of today. One of her stories has been translated into 12 languages and her lures of Nils" which describes the Journey of a Swedish boy turned /into a pigmy on the back of wild goose over Sweden, ranks with those of Grimm and Hans Christian Ander- sen It is now used as a textbook of reading and geography in the pri- mary schools. Miss Lagerlof has been awarded the Nobel prize for lit erature, being the only woman among the IS immortals who have ever been elected to the Swedish academy. She is still writing.
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 A Money Making Nation.
 The Swedes are good business people. They know how to make money and save it, although, like us Americans, they are always trying to get something for nothing and oftentimes fall They are good farm