Norwegian Life: An Account of Past and Contemporary Conditions and Progress in Norway and Sweden
History
Norwegian Life: An Account of Past and Contemporary Conditions and Progress in Norway and Sweden
Norway -- Social life and customs; Sweden -- Social life and customs
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 Skärgard--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 amusement 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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