Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, October 11, 1903, Image 30

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    Copenhagen as a Business City
frvpvr1ght. )!", by Frank O. Carpenter)
f ' 1 II'UNHAOKN, Denmark, Sept. 2S
I " I tSpf-clnl Correspondence of The
l I Uee.i Tha canltal of Denmark la
one of the livltest 'jltL-s of north
ern Europe. It has about 6ao,00)
people, the most of whom are as well
dressed a.i any you will find on the con
tinent. It has dome magnillrent bulKllns
atnl the cleanest streets outside of Holland.
Every man hero lian to see that, thn street
und pavment In flout of his house Is kept
Clean. The asphalt Ih rrmhed several tlrneii
every day, Hnd a regiment of nblc-tmdicd
paupers in ulways at wurk on the Kjuaros.
Thfe men w. ax black clothes and wooden
sIim. Kaeh carrl" a watering ran and u
huge broom and works away like a Dutch
housewife.
Copenhagen in a g''d ImiIiio-h illy. It
ha. line .inri's, most of them bo high a':oe
tin sine's that you have to ko to the sec
ond story In Ret In, It had great ware
houses and sev-tal law factories. It Is
noted lor lis brewer i-s, especially those
owned by the Jucobst iih. These Jacobscns
are tlie Astors or the CHrncgles of Den
mark. They have for years been the rich
est pet. pie. of the eointry, the or g'nal
JurohH-n having made a great fortune, in
beer.
The last Jucohscn before th? prefent one
had a s n who was very wild. Instead of
brwlng barley the young man persisted In
owing oats of the kind called wild. At
l;st his fulher tllsinht nted him. The two
dlil not speak as they passed by, and the
young man and his family were left to go
their own way. One day a little ion of
the young man saw his grandfather on the
treet. He came up to h'm Hnd taid:
"You are my grandpa', aren't you?"
"That 1 am," was th? reply, and the old
man took the baby to ;U heart. He ac-eon-pan'ert
him to his ton's house, and there
was a general rrconcil Hion. Shortly after
this he gave the son $60,000 to ua as
he pleased. The son thereupon resolved,
to turn over a new leaf, lie founded an
opposition brewery Hnd soon hc.ame as
great an his father. At the latter s death
lie mcceeded to the while estate.
The Jacuhsens believe in America and
American muchlnery. They Import Ameri
can hops and Indian corn for their brewer
lea", and they pay our corn makes better
beer than Danish barley. One of the young
JaCobsena has recently visited Milwaukee
to learn how to make beer.
1 am told that many Danes are now
ending thlr sons to our country to learn
business methods. They censider us at the
top In trading and manufacturing, and they
re beginning to pattern lifter us in bank
ing as well. It Is only a yeir ho aro that
three of the chief Danish bunkers were sent
to the I'nlled States to slittly Its financial
methods.
Our trade with Denmark Is Important.
Tliat country has close connections with all
parts of Europe, but nevertheless we stand
fourth In our exports to It. , We send about
li'O.OOO.OOO worth of goods here every year.
Tills Is more than any other country, with
the exception "of Oermany, Cireat Hrltaln
and Sweden and Norway.
Indeed Denmark is a better customer for
us than Sweden or Norway. It has only
about 2,3(0,0(10, or about one-third the popu
lation of Scandinavia; nevertheless It
takes more goods than all S.-andinavla.
Denmark cannot feed Itself nor Its stock.
It has to go outside for such things, and
It is especially fond of American corn and
American flour. The corn corres In for tha
lock and the flour Is made Into bread for
the people. At llrst the Danes Imported the
Wheat and tried to grind It. They made a
fair four, but not as good as thajt shipped
In from America. Then they imported our
milling machinery and American millers to
manage It, but for some reason or oth r
the flour was a failure, ami they had to
give It up. It may bo that the climute here
Is not as suited to milling as that of Min
neapolis. The Dane are buying our co t disced meal
for cow feed. They say It malts good milk
and good fertilizer and they like It. They
have many of our agricultural machines,
and also some electrical machinery of
I'nlted States make. I see American shoes
old In the stores, and um told that this
branch of trade might be materially In
creased, as the people consider our shoe
the best In the world.
The farmer of Denmark work together
letter than any farmers of Europe. They
have co-operation societies through
which they buy their machinery and sell
their products and also borrow such money
us they need. There Is one such associa
tion which ships nearly ail the butter
made In Denmark to London.
Indeed. Denmark is the dairy farm of
London, and nearly all of Its dairy work
Is by co-oiorutiou. The first co-op-rutl e
dairy was begun In 1.SX2. There are now
more than 1,(X) such dairies. which
use annually almost 4,000.000.rno pounds of
milk and make more than 55,r00.iKJ0 worth
of butter. These dairies were erected and
put Into operation at a cost of about
$7.0u0.oeo, the cost of each dairy varying
from fc'.oOO to lln.OCO. The stockholders
are farmers, and they number about 150,
00. In such dairies 130.0u0.00u pounds of
butler are made annually.
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THK FRISK HARROR OF COP EN H AO EM.
This combination might be culled a But
ter trust. It is so, but the farmers are
the stockholders and the money goes back
to the people. Years ago they made their
butter as we do, and the Danish butter
commanded the lowest prices. Then these
co-operative dairies were started on bor
rowed capital guaranteed by the farmers.
Kvcry man agreed to turn In all his milk
to the company, and to let It handle the
product. The result was that better but
ter was mude and shipiied to Kngland and
elsewhere. It at once begun to make a
reputation. It Improved, and now it Is
the best butter In the market.
The companies buy feed In quantities
and sell it out at reduced rates to their
members, taking their pay out of the milk
receipts. Machinery Is bought In the same
way, and the associations work generally
for the good of their stockholders. Settle
ments are made weekly or monthly, the
co-operative society holding back a cer
tain amount of Its receipts for a sinking
fund to pay off Its debts. It also puts a
part of Its Rurplus into a savings bank
and loans it out to the members of the
association at low rates of Interest. Each
man can borrow In proportion to the
quantity of milk he supplies to the as
sociation. The chicken raisers have also their com
bination. There are something like 25,000
Danish men and women who raise fowls
who have Joined together to get a good
price for their eggs and chickens. They
have 'their own egg collectors, who go
from farm to farm and take eggs to the fac
tories or packing houses, whence they are
tested and shipped off to London and other
markets.
Every farmer Is responsible for his own
eggs. He has to stamp them with his Ini
tials, and if a bad egg Is allowed to get In
he is fined. As the eggs come Into the
packing house they are tested by being
placed on a frame of netting, which Is held
over an electric light. The frame will ac
commodate sixty eggs. The light will
shine through those which are good, but
not through those that are the least bit
bud. Every dark egg Is taken out. Its
sender Is known by the Initials upon It,
and he is fined at the rate of 6 kronen, or
ll.'X for every bad egg. As a result there
are few bad eggs In the Danish packing
houses.
After this the eggs are sorted according
to slses. They are sold by weight rather
than by the dosen, the packers guarantee
ing so many pounds to the dosen up to a
certain amount. If similar care could be
used by our chicken raisers, our helpful '
hen would become more helpful than ever.
The Dunes have have also co-operative
bacon associations. The men who raise
hogs combine together to sell their product.
They have their own ways of feeding and
their pork brings a higher price than ours
In the markets of Europe. The best hogs
are produced by feeding them American
corn until about three weeks before killing.
During these three weeks they are fed
on barley, sklmmllk and buttermilk. Lust
year Denmark exported horses, cattle and
pork to the value of J5 oO.tico, and butter
to the amount of f35.0n0 0U. so yuu aee It
does a' big agricultural business.
Our consul here speaks highly of the
Danes as customers. He says -they know
a god thing when they see It. and have
the money to pay for it. He says the
demand for American shoes is increasing
Hnd goes on as follows:
"Danish luiHin.su men write their letters
on American typewriters. They count their
money on American tash registers; they
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IN BUSINESS DENMARK.
like the American bicycle and are now buy
ing American automobiles. In short Ameri
can goods of every description, If reliable
and up-to-date, will find a ready sale here,"
Copenhagen is noted for Its educational
institutions, art galleries and museums. The
Danes are about the best educated ptople of
Europe. They have had a compulsory sys
tem of education since 1814. and one r.rrely
finds a man or woman who cannot lead and
write. There are public schools and a!l
sorts of technical school everywhere. There
are schools for dairymen, schools for farm
ers, for beermukers Hnd for everything
under tlie sun.
The Thorwaldsen museum Is one of the
finest in Europe und singularly enough it is
devoted to the works of one scupltor. Thor
waldsen was educated at the Academy of
Copenhagen and later on in Rome. He
Foon developed into a great sculptor, und
as such did more work perhaps than any
other of this kind. In this one museum
there are eighty statues. 1& busts, three
large friezes and -ti reliefs in marble. His
works are of wonderful beauty, and they
are famous all the world over. Among the
objects Is a model of the Swiss Hon, which
he cHrved cut of the rock at Lucerne in
memory of the Swiss guards defense of the
Toillerles.
Another great man of Copenhagen waa
Hans Christian Andersen, the writer of the
fairy stories. There Is a monument to him
here in the heart of the city, on one side of
the pedestal of which is engraved a picture
from the "I'gly Duckling," and on another
aide a little child riding on the back of a
stork.
Andersen was born in the little Danish
town of Odense. His father was a shoe
maker and his mother wanted to make her
boy a tailor. Young Hans, however, had a
bookish bent, and his ambition was to be
come famous by writing. He left home
with $5 in his pocket, and with that as a
start worked his way through school In
Copenhagen. He hAd some talent for sing
ing and hoped to make a place for himself
on the stage. He tried for one of the the
aters of Copenhagen, but was rejected. His
talent was brought to the notice of the
king, und through him he was placed In
an advanced school at public expense. Later
on his poems and stories became noted, and
during his latter years he received an an
nuity from the Danish government. Tha
people here are very proud of him, and
they tell many stories of his simplicity and,
kindliness.
I came down the Kattegat on my way
from Christiana to Copenhagen, passing
Klsinore, where Shakespeare had laid the)
(Continued on Page SixteeaJ