"I must not close this letter without saying a word about its (Stockholm's) morals. It has been called the most licentious city in Europe, and I have no doubt with the most perfect justice. Vienna may surpass it in the amount of conjugal infidelity, but certainly not in general incontinence. Very nearly half the registered births are illegitimate, to say nothing of the illegitimate children born in wedlock. Of the servant-girls, shop-girls, and seamstresses in the city, it is very safe to say that scarcely one out of a hundred is chaste, while, as rakish young Swedes have coolly informed me, a large proportion of girls of respectable parentage are no better. The men, of course, are much worse than the women, and even in Paris one sees fewer physical signs of excessive debauchery. Here the number of broken-down young men and blear-eyed, hoary sinners is astonishing. I have never been in any place where licentiousness was so open and avowed, and yet where the slang of a sham morality was so prevalent. There are no houses of prostitution in Stockholm, and the city would be scandalized at the idea of allowing such a thing. A few years ago two were established, and the fact was no sooner known than a virtuous mob arose and violently pulled them down. At the restaurants young blades order their dinners of the female waiters with an arm around their waists, while the old men place their hands unblushingly upon their bosoms. All the baths in Stockholm are attended by women (generally middle-aged and hideous, I must confess), who perform the usual scrubbing and shampooing with the greatest nonchalance. One does not wonder when he is told of young men who have passed safely through the ordeals of Berlin and Paris, and have come at last to Stockholm to be ruined. * * * * Which is best, a city like Stockholm, where prostitution is prohibited, or New York, where it is tacitly allowed, or Hamburg, where it is legalized?" We have spoken of the difference between Sweden and Norway in their moral relations. At first this is not apparent, for illegitimacy is as frequent in one as the other; but there are attendant qualifying circumstances, which go to constitute a material variation in the conclusion to be drawn from the unexplained fact. We may remark that street-walking and open prostitution are rare. Illegitimacy is of considerable extent, averaging one in five, or, in some parts, one in three of the total births.