Norwegian Life Part 9

It is difficult to become accustomed to the long twilights in Norway.

One can read and write at a window as late as ten o'clock without difficulty, and during the months of June, July, and August few artificial lights are used, either in the streets or in the shops or in the residences. A candle is usually kept handy for an emergency, but it is light enough to dress and undress at any hour of the night, and it seems childish to go to bed before dark. The hours for meals are awkward to those accustomed to American ways. Breakfast is usually served from seven till nine o'clock. Four o'clock is the fas.h.i.+onable dinner hour, without luncheon. After dinner men return to their business and keep open their shops and offices until a nine or ten o'clock supper during the long days.

No one will ever starve to death in Norway. American palates may not always crave the food, but they can not complain of its abundance. The table is usually loaded with all sorts of fish and cold meats, both fresh and preserved, that foreigners are usually afraid of. The Norwegians are fond of things with a p.r.o.nounced flavor, the more p.r.o.nounced the better, and cheese is one of the chief articles of diet. A Norwegian housewife would not consider a meal complete without five or six different kinds of cheese of all degrees of pungency in taste and odor upon the table. At breakfast you are served sardines, anchovies, smoked salmon, dried herring and five or six other kinds of fish and an equal variety of cheese before they think of offering you coffee and meat and potatoes. You get seven or eight kinds of bread also, but it is all cold. The national bread, which is made of flour, water and a little salt, with a sprinkling of caraway seed, rolled very thin and punctured with holes like a cracker, is baked only once or twice a year, and then in large quant.i.ties, as New England women bake mince pies and put them on the top shelf to season. It is called _grovborod_, and tastes like a water cracker.

The servant-girl problem has been solved in Norway to the satisfaction of all concerned, although it is doubtful whether a similar solution would be accepted by domestic servants in the United States. In large cities like Bergen and Christiania, there is a central employment bureau under the direction of the munic.i.p.al government, and twice a year--one week before New Year's day and one week before St. John's day, the 24th of June--there is a general change of servants by those who are dissatisfied with existing conditions, and engagements are made for the ensuing six months of the year. Families who want servants, fill out blanks setting forth what is required and the wages they are willing to pay. These are filed at the employment office and are noted in a conspicuous manner upon a blackboard. Women or men in search of employment go to this bureau during the weeks named, examine the blackboard, and apply to the clerk in charge for further information.

If they desire to apply for a particular position, they submit their recommendations to the clerk, and if he is satisfied, he gives them a card to the lady of the house. That card is good for the day only, and must be returned by the lady of the house before the close of office hours. If the girl is engaged, the blanks upon the card are filled out with a general statement as to her duties, the term of service, and the wages agreed upon, and the card is filed away for reference if necessary. If the lady of the house is not satisfied with the applicant, she sends her away and returns the card marked "not satisfactory," with the request that other applicants be sent her. If the applicant is satisfactory, the lady of the house pays her a bonus of one krone or two kroner called "hand money"--that is, she crosses her hand with silver as an evidence of good faith--and the girl agrees to report for duty within one week after New Year's or Midsummer's day, as the case may be. That is to allow her present employer to fill her place. In some of the smaller towns the dates for changing servants are April 14 and October 14.

The law protects both the employer and the employed. The employer guarantees to give the servant a comfortable room, wholesome food, take care of her if sick, and pay her wages regularly as agreed upon during good behavior; while the girl agrees to perform her duties faithfully during the term for which she is engaged. If there is any complaint upon either side, it must be made to a magistrate, who investigates and decides between them. A family can not get rid of a servant during her term of employment without official intervention.

On the other hand, the girl's wages are a first lien upon their property for the entire term, although judgment must be rendered and made a matter of record. If a servant runs away from her employer, she can be arrested and fined. Cooks are paid from $4 to $7 a month; housemaids from $3 to $6 a month; men butlers from $10 to $15; coachmen from $12 to $16 a month; scullery maids and men of all work receive corresponding wages.

Nearly all of these domestic customs here related apply to Sweden as well as Norway, and there are many interesting additional ones. In Sweden the state dinners at the palace are always at six o'clock. At nearly all the other courts of Europe it is customary to dine at eight o'clock. The king's dinners are short, his guests seldom remaining more than an hour at the table, after which the ladies adjourn to one of the drawing rooms, the gentlemen to the smoking room, and later all are entertained by musicians from the opera house or the royal conservatory. Carriages are usually ordered at ten o'clock. This seems old-fas.h.i.+oned, but for people who like to go to bed early and those who are occupied with business all day it is much more sensible than the custom followed in some cities, where social festivities do not begin until the hour when the king of Sweden's guests are bidding him good night.

But everybody complains that the Swedes are drifting away from old customs and are becoming modernized. The French influence seems to prevail, and modern Swedish life is becoming an imitation of that of Paris.

Another of the old customs is for people to indicate their business upon their visiting cards. You will receive the card of Lawyer Jones, or Banker Smith, or Music Professor Smith, and so on; and these t.i.tles are also used in addressing them. It would seem rather queer for any one in the United States to ask, "Wholesale Merchant MacVeigh, will you kindly pa.s.s the b.u.t.ter?" or "Banker Hutchinson, will you escort Fru Board of Trade Operator Jones to the table?" But that is the custom in Sweden and it is observed by children as well as grown people. A lisping child will approach a guest, make a pretty little bob-courtesy, and say, "Good morning, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Fuller," or "Good night, Representative in Congress Boutell."

It is customary for ladies to print their maiden names upon their visiting cards in smaller type, under their married names, particularly if they have a pride of family and want people to know their ancestry.

To see the old Swedish customs that have almost entirely disappeared from the country, one must go to the hill districts of Dalecarlia, where the people are so unlike the rest of the Swedes in their dress, their customs and habits, and in many other respects as to almost seem another race.

The Dalecarlians are great dancers, and the social gatherings at their homes during the winter are always accompanied by that form of amus.e.m.e.nt. During the summer they dance in the open air. On St. John's Day the entire population, old and young, dance around a May-pole erected at some convenient place, and at harvest time, whenever the last sheaf in a field is pitched upon the cart or the stack, it is customary for somebody to produce a musical instrument, a violin, a nyckleharpa, a harmonic.u.m, or perhaps only a mouth organ, and everybody--for the boys and girls of the family all work together in the hay and harvest fields--join in a dance before returning home.

The dances are original and often interesting. One of the most ancient and popular is the _dafva vadmal_ (weaving homespun), whose figures are supposed to imitate the action of the shuttle, the beating in of the woof, and other motions used in weaving at an old-fas.h.i.+oned loom.

Some of the dances resemble those of Scotland, and one is almost exactly like the Virginia reel as danced by old-fas.h.i.+oned people in the United States. In another, called the "garland," the dancers wind in and out under their clasped hands in imitation of the weaving of a wreath of flowers. All the dances require violent physical exercise, but the Swedish men and women are famous for muscular development.

Some of the dances are accompanied by pretty melodies sung in unison by both s.e.xes.

The songs of the Dalecarlian peasant are not lively, but rather slow in movement, and are usually sung in unison, the music being rarely arranged for parts.

Dalecarlia has a certain preeminence among the districts of Sweden because of the part its people have played in the history of the country, and however the other provinces may dispute among themselves about their claims for distinction, each will admit that Dalecarlia is ent.i.tled to special consideration. Its people represent the highest patriotism and the n.o.blest characteristics of the Swedish race, and when any one is spoken of as a Dalecarlian, it means that he is a free and intelligent citizen of independent thought and action and lives a life of manly simplicity.[o]

CHAPTER XVI

HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUs.e.m.e.nTS

Perhaps in no other country in the world have health and exercise been united and formed into a national inst.i.tution, as they have been in Sweden. The true Swede believes that exercise will cure everything, and that as a preventive of disease there is nothing like it. If you go to a Swedish physician for advice, he will invariably prescribe the movement cure, and send you to a gymnasium or a ma.s.sage establishment instead of to a drug store. Physical exercise is therefore the national remedy, particularly for complaints due to sedentary employment, neglect of nature's laws, and high living. The movement cure for invalids, which is practically the same as that we have in the United States, is used in all the hospitals as well as in private practice. It was invented about a century ago by Dr. Ling, a patriot, a gymnast and a poet, who was inspired to revive the ancestral national spirit in the Swedish people by the aid of sports and songs, and to develop once more the great qualities of strength, courage, and endurance which in old times distinguished the Scandinavian race. After a hard struggle he succeeded, in 1814, in securing the recognition of the government and founded the Royal Gymnastic Central Inst.i.tute, where all persons desiring to teach gymnastics in the public schools or in private inst.i.tutions must take a course of training and take a degree. The Swedes are quite as particular about this as they are about the study of medicine. No medical pract.i.tioner can hang out a sign without a diploma from one of the universities, and no person can teach gymnastics in that country without a similar certificate of competency from the Royal Inst.i.tute. Every officer of the army is required to undergo a course of instruction, not only to develop his physical const.i.tution, but to qualify him to teach gymnastics to his soldiers. The teachers of physical culture in the public schools, both men and women, are obliged to take a similar course in order to drill their pupils properly, for in every schoolroom in the country, down to the kindergartens, daily physical exercise upon Ling's plan is required to promote the development of the body and improve the health. This is required in private as well as public schools, and the methods of instruction are subject to the inspection and approval of the Central Inst.i.tute. In every town of any size there are gymnastic clubs and a.s.sociations, which are generally guided by instructors educated at the Central Inst.i.tute. They include women as well as men in their members.h.i.+p, and in many of them fencing and other sword exercises are also taught. In common with all the gymnasiums are bath-houses. You will find them in every part of the city of Stockholm and in other large towns. Some of them occupy entire buildings. It is the habit of business men to go to their stores or offices at nine o'clock in the morning and remain there until two or three in the afternoon, when they go to their club or gymnasium and take an hour's exercise and afterward a bath. These establishments in the business quarter of Stockholm and other cities are considered just as important as clubs, restaurants, or other places of resort, and usually have connected with them reading and smoking rooms where patrons can read the daily newspapers and current magazines and sip coffee and smoke while they are cooling off. It would surprise a visitor in New York or Chicago to be informed that his broker or his lawyer or his banker or a contractor with whom he has business, had gone to a bathhouse or gymnasium at three o'clock in the afternoon, but in Stockholm it is a common reply to an inquiry. During winter afternoons you can usually find anybody you want by going to his favorite gymnasium or bathhouse, just as you would look for him at his club in Chicago.

There is a distinctive dress for the exercise. The patrons take off their street clothing and put on light woolen s.h.i.+rts and trousers, and canvas shoes on their bare feet, and, standing in rows, go through a series of motions under the command of their instructor to exercise the arms, legs, neck, and every other part of the body, gently, not violently. The idea is movement, not exertion, and the muscles are restrained. The arm is raised slowly with self-resistance. No clubs or dumb-bells are used, only a gentle motion like the exercise of the children in the schools. After twenty minutes or half an hour of this the cla.s.s marches in a column, still going through the same movements; then they run, following their leader, doing everything that he does, until at the end of an hour the body is in a glow, the blood is pulsating in every vein, the perspiration is oozing from every pore, every muscle is limbered up and strengthened, and every nerve tingles.

There is regular gymnasium apparatus for those who like more violent exercise. Then a bath is taken, followed by a cold plunge and violent rubbing with ma.s.sage, after which a man is in shape to go home to his dinner with a good appet.i.te.

In October every year the Scandinavian Gymnastic Instructors'

a.s.sociation meets in Stockholm for several weeks, at which lectures are delivered, papers are read, and discussions are held upon all branches of their work. These meetings are quite as important as annual conventions of the bar or medical a.s.sociations, and are not only attended by gymnastic instructors, but by physicians generally, for every Swedish physician must be well versed in medical gymnastics, particularly in what is known as _kinesitherapym_ or movement cure, which embraces active, pa.s.sive, and resisting movements, as well as ma.s.sage, for the latter is the basis of medical gymnastics.

The Swedes have accepted this treatment as a specific for nearly all diseases, deformities, and weaknesses of the body; for internal complaints, for the lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs. It removes superfluous tissue, and this is the reason you see so few fat men in Sweden, notwithstanding their beer-drinking propensities, and why the women keep their youthful shape until old age.

It is a spectacle to witness in some of the gymnastic inst.i.tutes venerable and dignified gentlemen going through comical motions and a.s.suming ridiculous postures with great activity and zeal, keeping time to the music of a band in the adjoining cafe.

In Sweden doctors never send bills to their patients, but trust entirely to their generosity. Each family has an attending physician, who expects them to pay him by the year for his services, according to their wealth and the amount of attention they receive. Ten dollars a year in our money is a good fee; one hundred dollars is princely. At the beginning of the year you put the amount in an envelope and send it to the doctor by a messenger with your card. He sends back his card with an acknowledgment of thanks and the compliments of the season. It is very bad form to talk about it, although grateful patients often write their physicians affectionate letters of grat.i.tude for his devotion and the benefit he has brought them. It is a good deal like the relation between a minister and his paris.h.i.+oners in other countries, and the annual contribution for the support of the doctor is just as voluntary as the contribution to the treasury of the church. If there is any reason why one should feel grateful to the doctors; if you or your children have suffered a severe illness and he has pulled you through, he expects a present in addition to the annual honorarium, just as you would send the minister a present after a marriage or a funeral or some other special occasion at which his services are required. The amount you pay depends upon your ability and the value of his services, but it is a violation of the most sacred canon of professional etiquette for a doctor to ask compensation or question the amount he receives. He keeps no accounts of his visits and no books. If a stranger or an acquaintance who does not contribute regularly makes one call or two upon the doctor to ask his advice or a prescription, he leaves something on the table, but it would be equivalent to an insult if he should ask for a bill.

When a person is very sick, he is taken to a hospital. Sweden has some of the best hospitals in the world. His own doctor looks after him there, a.s.sisted by the house physician and nurses, who expect fees, but the regular doctor gets none. He supervises the treatment and acts as adviser to the house physician.

The government pays subsidies to doctors in remote parts of the country, just as it pays the salaries of the ministers where the people are so poor that they can not support a doctor and a parson.

In fact, all the clergymen of the established church are paid by the government and are government officials. The members of their parishes give them presents, something on the donation party order, because their salaries are small, and if there happen to be rich men in the parish, it is their custom to send around a handsome present to the minister's wife or to himself on Christmas Day.

The Swedes have a short summer, and so far as possible spend it in the open air. Every citizen of Stockholm who can afford it has a place in the country, no matter how humble or primitive it may be, and if he can not afford a cabin, he pitches a tent in the woods under the pine trees, and if necessary cooks his own meals. The banks of the lakes and rivers throughout the entire kingdom--and there are more than 1,400 lakes in Sweden and 1,700 islands in the Stockholm Skargard--are surrounded by such dwellings and camps, for the Swedes love the water.

Those who are compelled to remain in town take their meals and spend their evenings at the open-air cafes, which are found in every part of the city with bands of music, and take daily excursions on the boats which ply through the fjord and the lakes which encircle the town.

In the suburbs are circuses, open-air theaters, concert gardens, and other forms of entertainments, simple and serious. A number of fine restaurants are maintained in the parks, where people can get a good dinner and spend the evening under the cool foliage, listening to an orchestral concert or a band. Every form of outdoor amus.e.m.e.nt is furnished, and the people eat, drink, and are merry, making the most of their time from June to September before the long and dreary winter comes upon them.

The working cla.s.ses have their simple amus.e.m.e.nts also, and during the summer evenings in every village there is music and dancing, even if an accordion or jewsharp is the only instrument to be obtained. The national dances are quite energetic, and furnish a form of exercise which lazy people would not admire, but both the men and women of Sweden are famous for their muscular strength, and the young woman who can dance down her companions is as much of a hero as the champion wrestler of the town. Those who can not enjoy the opportunity of visiting rural Sweden will find in the suburbs of Stockholm, at the favorite resort and place of amus.e.m.e.nt of the common people, a perfect representation of Swedish country life. It is called Skansen, and is rural Sweden in miniature. It is a patriotic and scientific enterprise, conceived and undertaken by the late Dr. Artur Hazelius, an eminent ethnologist, for the purpose of preserving the habits and customs of the Scandinavian races. In no country of Europe, excepting perhaps Russia and Turkey, have the people adhered to the manner and costumes of their fathers so tenaciously as in Sweden, and the life of past generations is preserved in its picturesqueness. The conservatism of the people, their tenacious preference for their own ways and means has kept out innovations, and very few changes have been made since the beginning of the eighteenth century. But fearing that the peasants of Sweden, like all other peoples, would sooner or later surrender to modern fas.h.i.+ons, Dr. Hazelius attempted to collect at Skansen actual types representing every industry, activity, and national trait. His thought was expressed in a motto inscribed over one of the gates of this outdoor museum:

"The day will come when all our gold will not be sufficient to buy an accurate picture of the times long past."

He procured from the king a rocky plateau on the edge of a royal park known as _Djurgarden_, covered with crippled pines and resembling the wild, uncultivated, neglected landscape in Dalecaria or Norrland, the two most interesting portions of Sweden. By careful landscape gardening, without destroying its natural beauty, he introduced broad paths, restaurants, cafes, band stands, and other places for the merry to meet and hold their festivals, and for the students to sing their songs, and he reserved a part of the grounds in its natural condition, where the lovers of nature can find a quiet retreat among the gloom of a pine grove. It has become the most popular resort in Sweden, particularly in the long summer evenings, and when a man can not reach the country, Skansen is never too far. It is accessible by street-cars and by boats, and is not more than half an hour's walk from the palace.

Here the "folk festivals," for which the Swedish poets have composed their most beautiful songs, are held every spring; here the national holidays are celebrated as in olden times, both in summer and winter, and national customs are preserved with great care and amid surroundings that give them a realistic tone, like the true thing. Dr.

Hazelius secured original types of peasant houses from every part of the country where they have individual or unique character. From the huts of the fishermen on the south coast of the Scandinavian peninsula to the camps of the Lapps in the frozen zone, every feature of Swedish country life is represented. The Lapps brought their dogs and reindeer, and live exactly as they do upon the snowy plains of the polar regions.

With the forty acres that compose the park are about one hundred and twenty-five people, living exactly as their forefathers lived and practicing the primitive customs that prevailed two centuries ago in the agricultural districts of the kingdom. They wear the same costumes, eat the same kind of food, use the same kind of dishes, and preserve so far as possible every feature of their daily life. Every one of the provinces of Sweden which has a distinctive dress or unique custom is represented by the actual people who have always lived that way. Every man and woman continues their former occupations. There is no theatrical business about it, no imitations on the grounds; everything is genuine.

Three or four times a week at sunset, after their daily work is done, the peasants gather for a dance at a central place, which is always surrounded by a large crowd of spectators, and is the greatest attraction of Skansen. On alternate nights the dancing is by the children, of whom there are thirty-seven under fifteen years of age living in the cabins with their parents, dressed just like their great-great-grandfathers and grand mothers when they were of the same age. The music for the dancing is furnished by old-fas.h.i.+oned instruments, and none but old-fas.h.i.+oned tunes are allowed. There is a society in Sweden known as _Svenska Folkdansens Vanner_ for preserving the Swedish national peasant dances and for encouraging their use in the higher circles of society in preference to the French dances.

There are several fine museums and picture galleries in Sweden. The national gallery in Stockholm, which is across the bay from the royal palace, and the Northern Museum founded in 1872 by Dr. Hazelius. Then there is the Royal Opera and the National Theater, so that the people of Stockholm do not want for places of amus.e.m.e.nt in winter as well as summer.

The father of athletic sports in Sweden is Lieutenant Colonel Victor Gustaf Balck, who holds a military position in the garrison at Stockholm. He introduced lawn tennis, cricket, baseball and football, and has established numerous athletic clubs in different parts of the country. Sailing is popular, there being many yacht clubs with good houses and fleets. And swimming is a part of the national education, nearly every man, woman, and child in Sweden taking naturally to the water and being able to swim. Everybody can skate as well as swim. In the cities rinks can be found with music and many conveniences. In Stockholm there is a general skating club, with a rink large enough to accommodate six thousand skaters, and popular fetes given there at intervals during the winter are attended by the royal family and members of the court, and are regarded as important social functions.

All skating is done upon the numerous lakes, and often during the long nights of the winter hundreds of people, young and old, will gather at an early hour--it gets dark at four o'clock in the afternoon--and spend the entire night skating by moonlight. A big fire is built in some convenient place for the crowd, and smaller fires by individual parties, who bring luncheon with them and have a picnic in the snow in the winter. In various parts of the country, national and international skating contests are held, and winners in local tournaments, both for speed and fancy skating, are sent to Stockholm to contest for the grand prizes against the crack skaters of Norway, Denmark, Russia, and northern Germany.

But the national winter sport of all Scandinavia is skeeing--skimming over the snow on snow-shoes. There is no more vigorous or exciting exercise. In the country districts men and women alike are educated to the use of snowshoes from childhood. As soon as boys and girls are old enough to skate, they put on skees of a size appropriate to their stature, and are quite as agile and daring as their elders. It requires nerve, skill, and muscular strength to skee, and a person who has never tried snow-shoes always finds it difficult to use them. It is a sport to which people must be trained from childhood. A skilful "skeer" can make a mile in two minutes.

Ice yachting and sailing on skates are two of the oldest and most popular national sports, and are practiced in both Sweden and Norway by all cla.s.ses. All the ice yachts and snow-shoes are home-made, and in the country districts many of the skates.[p]

CHAPTER XVII

THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

There are seven hundred and fifty-one newspapers and periodicals in Sweden, including fifty-two dailies. Stockholm has twelve dailies, seven published in the morning and five in the evening, which is a large number for a city of three hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, and the wonder is how they all manage to exist. None of them is as large as the ordinary dailies in the United States. It is the practice of the Swedish editors to waste very little room in headlines, and to condense as much as possible. They state facts without padding or comment, and manage to bring the daily allowance of news within ten or twelve columns. There is usually a continued story, three or four articles of a literary character, a couple of columns of clippings and miscellany, and the same amount of editorial. The balance of the paper is given up to advertising, but with all that it is seldom necessary to print more than four pages. The morning papers stick to the blanket sheet.

Most of the Stockholm papers have a good advertising patronage, which runs to display at times. The Swedish business men have learned that it pays to advertise. The rates are much lower than in the United States. The ordinary want ad. costs from seven to ten cents, and for display advertis.e.m.e.nts the rates run from two and one-half to twenty cents a line, according to the location. In the semi-weekly edition of _Aftonbladet_, which is considered the best advertising medium in Sweden on account of its large circulation and superior cla.s.s of readers, display ads. in preferred places cost about twenty-eight cents a line.

The subscription price corresponds. You can have any one of the evening papers delivered at your house for $3 a year, and the highest rate for the morning dailies is $5 a year. It is worth while to know that postmasters in Sweden will receive subscriptions for newspapers published in any part of the world. A small fee is exacted to cover the amount of postage and the stationery required in forwarding the subscription.

The father of cheap newspapers in Sweden is Anders Jeurling, the publisher of _Stockholm-Tidningen_ and _Hyvad Nytt i Dag_, who started the first-named journal about twelve years ago and sold it on the street for two _ore_, which is about one-half cent. Now the price of the former is four _ore_, about one cent, and of the latter a half cent. The former paper has the largest circulation in the city of Stockholm, its ordinary edition reaching about one hundred thousand copies, but _Aftonbladet_ exceeds it in the country. Mr. Jeurling has the reputation of being the ablest publisher in Sweden, and is a better business man than the editor. He has made a fortune out of his papers on the theory that the people care more for news than for politics. Mr. Adolph Hallgren is the editor-in-chief of _Stockholms-Tidningen_, and the managing editor is Mr. F. Zethraens, who studied journalism in the office of the Chicago _Record-Herald_.