Year: 1872

!


QUIET LIFE IN SOME DANISH TowNs.
These quiet towns yon cannot reach
two or three times day, rushing forth


on railroads with hustle and noise. You
can reach them but two or three times n


week, riding in stage-coach slowly and
decently. And when the coach rumbles
through the streets, the gentlemen hurry
to the doors and the ladies to the win
dows to gaze upon you. "Who was the
stranger ~ they cry to each other across
the street, and as none can tell who you
are, dear reader, they will all dress the
best possible, and run to the postmaster 5
office in order to get letter. which, how
ever, has not come, and never will come.
Curiosity is passion with these people


mother of many virtues and Of some
vices too. Thus their hospitality is GU
riosity. The ancient Scandinavian hos
pitality is famous, and deserves its fame.
Yet it was very different, for instance,
from the Arabian hospitality. With the
Arabs hospitality is religious duty, full
filed with scrupulous piety; with the an
clent Scandinavians it was rather a charge
Of curiosity, though exercised with gem
uinc deicacy. The guest was honored
according as the host deemed him able to
furnish interesting news or to teach any
thing worth knowing and so it is up to
this very day. Many one, therefore,
feels very disappointed when visiting one
of these towns second time. The first
time, he is the subject of all attention
and Of much courtesy the second time
he is, perhaps, mark for some mockery
or nobody seems TO mind him. When
curiosity has been gratilied it turn, into
criticism, and the town which lately boil.
ed on the former and evaporatcd into
mere complaccncy, freezes now at once
from the latter, and cracks with SANDER.
Woe to the unfortunate fellow His
boots, his hat, his coat, his whiskers, all
scandalize the quiet town and if he hap
pens to drop word about the pits in the
pavement, or the linden.tree barring the
passage, it will certainly prescribe him
from all good society The hotel will be-
come his only and solitary resting place,
and even the Jail will look as if it were
grasping at him.


The SANDER, however, is but Il purga.
tory. After passing it, every one will
feel well among these people They are
good-natured and trustful, frank and
obliging; and though they are very fond
Of their own, and very liable to be cxas-
perated by the slightest criticism, this
feeling, nevertheless, is by no means an
egotistic selflove which makes the mind
narrow and the heart cold. They love
their own not because it is their pride,
but because it is their happiness, and
they defend it against every criticism not
from vanity. but from gratitude. The
old linden tree they cannot cut off though
it almost blocks up the passage, for to
their eyes it is an old friend. Dybbol's
Hills were the last spot Of Scheswig
which the Danes possessed in 1864, and
they could not hold these hills in the long
run against Prussias and Austria's unit.
ed armies and superior artillery. The
detense cost every hour scores Of lives.
Nevertheless, the hills were the last rem
nants of dear possession, and they were
held not for hours, but for weeks. Silent
and still went the soldiers in the morn.
ing to battle on the hills in the evening
they returned, silent and still, for then
they were dead.-Clemens Petersen, in
Harpers Magazine for January.