street corners on lamp posts are little booths similar to those used for police boxes in the cities of the United States. They work automatically. You drop a little coin worth three cents into the slot, and then ring the bell. For several years every room in the principal hotels has had its own telephone, on the same system that has recently been introduced into the United States, and upon some of the steamers sailing from Stockholm there is a telephone in every stateroom. The long distance 'phones and all the lines outside of two or three of the principal cities belong to the government and are operated by the Postoffice Department. The rents vary from $10 to $28 a year. The telegraph system is owned by the government, which charges a uniform rate of fifteen cents for ten words to any part of the country. CHAPTER XV THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS Because of its geographic isolation, the Scandinavian peninsula is the home of the purest Teutonic ethnic stock. The Norwegians, Icelanders, Swedes, and Danes are racially closely related, and they belong to the same branch of the Aryan family as the Germans, Flemish, English, and Anglo-Americans. Physically, these people are powerfully built and tall, of the pure Scandinavian type, with fair hair and blue eyes, and their healthy, intelligent look strikes the traveler. In addition to the physical characteristics held in common by these Scandinavian peoples, the Norwegians are to be specially noted for their long narrow heads, particularly is this so among the people in the interior of the country. Here, too, the stature is the greatest. During the Civil War in the United States, it was found that among the enlisted troops the Norwegians, after the Americans, had the greatest stature, and that in breadth of chest they were excelled by none. It is probably true, however, that the Norwegians who emigrate represent the finest physical types, and that they possess a higher average stature than one finds in Norway to-day, if the most northerly provinces are excepted. The Norwegians are a very plain people--neither pretty nor handsome. The women are strong and square-built, and what beauty they have is of the solid and substantial sort. Of the two sexes, the men are the better proportioned, both in the matter of figures and features. They have light complexions,--barring the bronzing of the skin due to constant exposure,--light hair, blue eyes, and reasonably well-formed noses. Both men and women have frank and open countenances.