The Coconino sun., 1927-08-05
In the Land of the
Midnight Sun
Rv S
BY MRS. D. s. ROOME

! Calf, formerly of Flagstaff, is trav-
| cling with her sister, Mrs. Joe Treat
of Los Angeles, in Sweden, her native
land. She writes from there in part
as follows:
Upplandsgatan 8,
Stockholm, Sweden.
June 16, 1927
So this is Sweden! We arrived in
| Gothenburg on Monday, the tenth,
after delightful trip across. We
had no rough weather whatever so
had no need of smelling salts and life
savers, thanks just the same We
enjoyed the life savers and will keep
the S. s. against our return. We may
not be so fortunate then.
We had a great send-off in l.. A..
Had movies taken of our special train
and "gang" and some Swedish singing
society sang US farewell songs. Our
railway trip was uneventful except
for fire in one of the coaches in the
neighborhood of Gallup That cre-
ated quite stir as the occupants had
to be sandwiched into the remaining
coaches until we got to Kansas City.
Then we were behind the limited that
| had been in the wreck at Flagstaff,
which held us up in time and for meals
also-but we finally got permission
to pass them and then we went
whooping. I've never before ridden
on train SO fast and thought sure
| ly we'd fly off the track going around
the curves on the Lehigh Valley
Throughout Missouri and Illinois and
thereabouts the country was abso-
lutely saturated and water standing
all around houses and barns-and
fields implanted.
J About nine o'clock in the morning
of the day we were to reach Niagara
Falls, we entered Canada and were
in Canada until we reached the Falls
at three-thirty. | did not know we'd
be in Canada at all so it was pleas
ant surprise-as well as a perfectly
beautiful country.
Niagara Falls, of course, are won-
derful We were taken on twenty
mile trip, all along the gorge above
the whirlpool rapids. The road fl
nally finds itself on a level and right
alongside of the rapids, which are just
little too rapid for me. Niagara is
like the Grand Canyon, in that one
can't take it in all at once. My first
| thought was "That amt so much
looks just like the pictures of it,
but as 1 stood and watched realized
it was moflstrous.
| And then we got to the great city
Of New York! / will have to admit
that New York is, perhaps, a little
bigger than Los Angeles. We sailed
from New York on a perfectly glori-
Gus day, and it continued to be so for
three days. Then it became foggy
while passing Newfoundland Banks
and while the fog dissipated it re-
mained cloudy for a few days, but the
! water was very smooth the whole
time. About the fourth day out it
| became beastly cold and we were told
that meant icebergs in the distance.
We went three hundred miles farther
south than the usual course to avoid
the possibility of meeting any. In
passing Rockall the seventh day out
the water got rather "rolly" for a
while but we were told it was excep-
tionally good for that particular spot
as it's the bugaboo of the whole trip.
1t looked mighty good to see the old
blue hills of Scotland appear on the
/ eighth day. We came close enough to
see farms and fields and houses, and
passed one fairly large town. looked
! for the bluebells and heather but dinna
kin see. On the other hand the Ork-
ney Islands looked bare, with Laguna-
like looking cliffs. Land disappeared
again in the North Sea, to appear-the
next morning as the Norway coast
and little later Denmark was
sighted.
In the afternoon of the ninth day
we hove into Gothenburg harbor. 1t
| is a beautiful place-very rocky and
hilly and wooded. 1t was great holi-
day (being Ascension day. and every
one was celebrating. Hilltops and
cliffs and even house tops had people
watching the boat come in, and there
must have been thousands waiting at
the docks. AS / gazed on it all /
couldn't feel that all that was any
| thing to me-but a very pleasant
scene. Perhaps / should have felt
thrill as I'm told this is my native
| land, but I'll have to admit the truth
that didn't-not in that way. was
| thrilled at the newness and strange
ness of it all, but it was an impersonal
thing. Of course, was not yet
year old-and was probably the kind
of infant Bill Shakespeare describes
when I left here-so may be for
given for not waxing sentimental on
my return, suppose.
Life on shipboard was great fun.
/ Just wouldn't let myself dwell on
the awe feel of the ocean-but just
enjoyed the beauty of it. / found N.Y.
self repeating Badger Clark's lines
"Nothing moving cross the sand, but
the sun and me-" For days there was
no thing moving cross the water but
the boat and me-but with tine" were
twelve hundred and ninety-nine 9TH
ers. There was something doing all
the time. A good part of that was
eating, as you will know when / tell
you we ate six times day. You see,
| It was a Swedish boat 'Drottning-
holm" by name and it seems they
have the reputation of feeding" the
best of any line. We had breakfast
| from eight to nine-thirty. At eleven
we had hot bouillon and waters; at
one, lunch, which began with "smar
gas bord," which is the Swedish equiv
alent of s'hors d'oeuvres" and during
this course one day I counted four
kinds Of picked fish, besides caviar,
| four kinds of sliced cold meat. three
salads, including lobster one, cheese,