Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, September 27, 1903, Image 36
New Sweden Has Some Curious Features fCopyrlghf. 1903. by Frank Q. Carpenter.) I Correspondence of The Jtcv) I I tow wolihl von like A flrt-cl.-i Ad telephone at a dollar a month? Tliat is what thpy have In Stock holm. There are two telephone companies here, one belonging to the government and the othpr owned by a syndicate of Uermnns. Neither company charges more than $10 a year per dwelling and this charge Includes a radius of forty miles ubout Stockholm. It (Ives you 410 conversations a year and for a few dollars more tho service Is unll-nlted. Business liouwi pay only $15 and romp only $20. The government service covers all Bweden. It has 65.HO0 subscribers, of whom 1,500 are In Stockholm. The German serv- . Ice has 3.1,009 'phones, ond Injth companies have public pay 'phones on almost every street cornrr. I like the street telephones. They stand alone on ll:e corners or In iho parks locking like fientry boxes walled with glass. Each has slota for Ftnall cc Ins und In each Is printed the rates fnr Htci khclin and all Bweden. You ati have a five-minute talk with anyone In Stockholm or within a radius of forty miles outside of It for cents, or to any part of Sweden for 7 cents. There ure telephones In the restaurant, some of the tables bavins electric conn'C tlon. Suppose you nre. eutlng there ard want to send a message home or to nsk a question of someone In another part of the country. All you do Is to crook your Anger and the waiter brings a 'phone to yo. r table und you talk away. I have it telephone In my room at the ho tel, und Ibis Is the case with ivery gt.e-t here. Tim 'phone has a switch, so made that by tiiriilfg It I have connei II n with the ofllce and bell toy, i:rd no that on re acting I am In connection with the cer. tn.I station, anil can Uriv- e.ll Sweden ml Norway to my car at a moment's no. ice. The ' hell i girls" h.re f r government of flclalM, for tli!- gi.vernrri i t runs the te!e pl ones. 'I hey are v.r ; p-jllle. and you don't have to ring mile than once. They pronounce the word "In To" us though it wi terpen "1 aloe," will h ace nt on h la: it tyl'able, and lh"y I ev.-r tell you the line Is bmy when It Is n t. At present nil the wires In Stiukhnlin Hie b It g placed In underground consults, ui d uliog -thcr th! lites are expensively r intruded. Not wl h.stHmlln this th? o npanlo.i nuki! money and pay dividends ut a 2',4-rnt rat. The Swedes are opening up new Iron ter rltiry i or h of the Arc Ic I cle. Aw y ui In the region of long days mil I n nights they have discovered mn.ntrlrs of Ir n and are building a railroad to connect tli m with th? sea. They are l;ni rllng Ameri can machinery to get out ih ( re, nnd I am not sure but that Am.Tlia . ear.j wil cir y It to the ports. The rrad r i: s from the gulf of Hothnla. In Swidcn. to the lmbor of Ofoten, on tho Norwegl . n cout of th. Atlantic. The latter harbor Is free f re m Ice the year around. Along this road are em rimr.ts d po. its of excellent ore. Cne of the le.iks ie R17 feet high and It Is -ull run. Thcr- : re oher de posit nearby a mile in lerg h end ( on 10 to lfO feet :hkk. In ull there are about 2W, 000,000 tons of ore row In s g' t, and i ome o' It Isivery fine. Tlis Irjn r.ii.:n alls of Uellllvare ure also in noitli-ru Sweden. Their mines are of great txt. nt und lh" ore is ilch. There is a gocd chuice f. r a si 1 trial here. Not a big one 1 k the l'n t d 8'at. Stee compiiiiy, but a little en of a mil Ion or so, which would pay larg d lde..di. I refer ti gctt ng the owners! ip of tie Dan- I ;I KV; j , ,A in ' A. aS7 .iiii m ' - -. u tt s : I ' . t SOKNE IN OOTHEXDURQ, SWEDEN'S SEAPORT. nemora ni nes, which prcdi:o the finest Iron known to man. Th ce mines are now owned by ten com;anio, wot king under an agreement not to manufacture more than 1.000 tons a year. They make the ron with charcoal, und ship it all over the wortJ in lUlit burs. The ore U so line that it h11s fi r $'') a t n when oih t 1;o.i is worth only $:tl; I ii m told the Dannemora Iron might bring twice as much Ju:t as well. I met a man who is interested in one of the com panies, and who wants a trust formed to control the output. Sa'd he: "We have the only Iron of Its kind in the world, and. the kb'-d that makes the finest steel. The best cutlery establishments of England, Germany and the I'nlted States uno It, and they would buy It if we charged double the price." Tlila Is probably true. The Swedish Iron ninlus the best tools, the best drawn w!ra and the best nulls for riveting. Thirty-live years ago thrre whs not a horseshoe nail driven In the I'niUd Stutrs that was not made cf Swedish Iron. It can be bent, coiled and twisted in a cold state wt'hott breaking. Our minister to Swedi n tells of a Swedish steamship which, In a fog, ran at full speed into an upright cliff. The Bhnck was such that the bow turned around into a spiral, but net a plute of the Iron was broken or cracked. Tl.Ia Dannemora Iron Is famous for mak ing tine razors. Tresident McKlnley sha. ed himself every morning with Danr.errora steel, and I am told that President Roose velt does the same. Our minister here keeps the White House supplied with such razors. He does not send knlvts, for knives will cut friendship; but these razors he hopes will cement the cordial relations be tween him and the president. At any rate, he recently rent seven of the finest to President Roosevelt, and the president usee a different one every day. Each blade Is marked with the day of the week on one side of the blade and with Theodore Roose velt's autograph on the other side. These razors are made at Eskllstnna, the Sheftleld of Sweden. It Is a little manufac turing town on I.nke Malar, not far from Stockholm. It has a gun factory, founcry and engine works and is famous for Us line gteel Inlaid with gold. I dropped Into our legation hero the o'her day. The Amerlcun minifter was absent and I asked when he would be back. The reply was, "He has gone off ptarmigan shcotlng and will be gone for a mor.th." Tho American minister Is the best slot in Sweden. He can hit the fleetest bird on the wing. The office of the legation has tro phies of former bunts In the shape of wild duck, snipe and the heuds and hoofs of elks. Speaking of hunting, Norway and Sweden are rented out much like Scotland. Tiie test shooting grounds bring so much a week, and 1 heard the other day how Burton Harrison paid 1,000 kronen, or 5260, for two weeks' sport. He came here to shoot elk, but found that tho best fuiesU were owned by private parties, who did not care to rent them. Ho could not shoot In tho crown woods without the royal permis sion and ho failed to get that. He then advertised in the papers, offering to pay a big price for the right to hunt during the season on any good estate, but received no satisfactory answer. Finally an Americ-in here asked one of the wealthy forest own ers to allow Mr. Harrison the privilege of shooting in his woods. The man replied that he would grant it for two weeks for 1.000 kronen. Harrison accepted tho offer and killed six elk during that time. At mis rate tne elk cost him abuut apiece. $U I - 1 k- k m '-T -i- ' A. - V J J- ' V o"k . j .r-v ;:t ..... i ; ' TUB FALLS OF TRALLHATTEN. There should be good hunting in Scandi navia. This country has pome of tho best forests of the continent. It Is frequently called the lumber yard of Europe. About 41 rcr cent of the dry land Is covered with trees. The best are in the north, where) there are tlno pine and spruce, and where thousands of lumbermen go out to cut logs every winter. There are many streams and the trees are cut and hauled to the banks of the waterways and floated down when tho snow melts. At the mouths of the rivers are some of the largest sawmills of the world. Here ths logs are sawed into boards and other lum ber and shipped across the lialtlc and down through the Atlantic. The export of lum ber runs high Into the millions of dollars a year. There are public forests which yield $18,000,000 worth and there are also private syndicates which do a large business. In all, Sweden has a thousand saw and plan ing mills; it lias 320 furniture factories and 122 woodworking factories of other kinds. It does a big wood pulp business and its exports of wood and timber alone amount to $25,000,000 a year. "A big business is being done here now In school houses, hunting lodges and small frnme dwellings. There are enormous mills Just outside Stockholm which make nothing elre. They have designs after which houses aro made to order. They are Bhlpped away; In pieces, knocked down to .Africa, South America, Australia and England. This trade Is increasing, and I am told the ex porters expect to do a big business in such houses if we begin work on the Panama canal. When that canal was first started thj laborers were furnished houses from Mulne. The Swedes claim that they can put up a better and cheaper house than the Americans, and they expect to be a com petitor for the business of Panama. Sweden has been buying some American locomotives within the past few years. They are heavier than the Swedish engines, and ate, I am told, liked very well. I hava ridden over some of the trunk lines of this country In tho past few days. The roads are well bulit and the scenery along them reminds one of the lumber regions of the United States. Many of the roads are through" great woods filled with ferns. Tha ground is carpeted with ferns, and the sil ver trunks of the birch trees rise out of beds of emerald green. There are many rocks of all shapes. The air is moist and the moss grows In the crevices of th rocks; here it is green; there silver gray, and in other places almost sky blue. Leaving the cities, you pass many littla towns, go In and out of the forests, now crossing little farming regions with big barns and little log cabins. Many of the log cabins are built with the logs perpen dicular Instead of horizontal, as with us. Borne such houses are tiled Instead of shin gled. Sweden has now about 7,000 miles of rail road, 1,000 of which are owned by the gov ernment. The railroads make money and pay dividends, notwithstanding that their fares are lower than ours. All trains hava three classes, first, second and third. The first class rate Is V.i cents a mile, the sec nd class about 1 cents a mile, the third rlass only H cent. The first class Is lux urious, the second Is comfortable and the third Is furnished with bare wooden benches. There Is much travel, especially on the trunk lines-to Christlanla and Gotten- rerg. the chief port of Sweden North sea. The latter line Is through a more thlckr (Continued from Page Twelve.) on th 4