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-
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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. -
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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
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on th
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