Swedish Characteristics and Leisure
The predominant characteristic of the Swedes is kindliness. "Do you find my people kindly?” asked the King of an American traveler; and, if he had searched the whole English language…
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Sweden and the Swedes by William Widgery Thomas, 1893.
The predominant characteristic of the Swedes is kindliness. "Do you find my people kindly?” asked the King of an American traveler; and, if he had searched the whole English language through, he could not have found a word which would better express the leading trait of his people.
They are kind to each other, kind to their wives and children, kind to the stranger within their gates, kind to their domestic animals, and kind to any little wild beast or bird which chance may send in their way.
Their politeness, their hospitality, their courtesy, all their good qualities, spring from this one source—their kind hearts; and their faults—if any they have—and they are few indeed—all have the same root.
At a farm-house, the cattle, and horses, and sheep approach you with a neighborly confidence, and it is easy to see that they expect to be patted, not kicked. The hens do not scamper away as if they anticipated every boy would throw a stone at them, the geese are too happy to hiss you, and the cat purrs, on the sunny window-sill in blissful security.
The Swedes are constantly manifesting their kindness in polite and gentle acts. They are the politest of nations. I have heard them called "the Frenchmen of the North," but their politeness is more hearty and genuine than that of the Latin race. You always feel there are sincerity, and honesty, and a warm heart back of it all.
In the streets, the gentlemen all raise their hats, not only to the ladies, but to each other; and you can not walk with a Swede for half a block but what he will take you by the hand at parting, lift his hat, and say, "Tack för godt sällskap"— "Thanks for your good company."
As you drive along a country road, every girl you meet drops a pretty courtesy, every boy doffs his hat, and, should you toss a penny to any one of a lot of urchins, the whole juvenile troop rushes up and shakes hands with you. If you sneeze, it is exactly as Longfellow says, everybody cries: “God bless you!”'
The Swedes are quite conservative in their notions. Even the women have very old-fashioned ideas in regard to the obligations of their sex. They conceive it the duty of women to remain much at home, take care of the house, superintend the preparation of the meals, bring up the children, make home pleasant, and assist their husbands all they can along the pathway of life. Children are taught to be kind to each other, respectful to their elders, and polite to all.
Family life in Sweden is patriarchal and beautiful . Families keep together as much as they possibly can. The father is with his wife and children as much as his business will allow. If excursions are to be made into the country, to a watering-place, to a city, for a day, or a week, or a month, the family is sure to go together, if it can so be arranged.
In summer, out in the Deer-park near Stockholm, you are sure to see many a family group sitting under an old oak or drooping birch, quietly passing the pleasant day together, the children playing around, the old folks smiling and looking happily on, or, perhaps, all together partaking of a frugal lunch spread upon the grass.
The Swedes are satisfied with simple amusements. They enjoy everything like children. In fact, they frequently seem to be—the middle classes especially—but children of a larger growth. In the Deer-park is a merry-go-round, where one may mount a hobby-horse and ride around a circle to the music of a thundering hand-organ; but this is chiefly patronized by grown-up people, by fellows from the country, and artisans, and young mechanics, who, with their sweethearts, are out for a holiday. Sitting on the hobby-horses are more grown-up people than children.
There is another merry-go-round composed entirely of vessels, full-rigged and under full sail. These vessels not only swing around the circle, but they bob up and down as in a heavy sea. Look at the names on these ships as they come around, filled with young men and women, all having "such a good time!" I am sure the name of one of them will arrest your attention. Its name is Puke, which, being-applied to a ship, in a sea way would certainly be suggestive to an American; but your sense of decency and your faith in Sweden will be reassured when you are informed that “Puke" is a word of two syllables, pronounced Pu-ke, and is the name of a great naval hero, of whom Sweden is justly proud.
Many simple indoor games are played in Sweden. I recollect the first evening I passed socially in the house of a Swede. Blind-man's-buff was played in half a dozen new varieties. In one version, the blind man is placed in the middle of the room with a cane in his liand. The others form a ring, and, joining hands, run around him. The blind-folded one raps on the floor. This is calling the house to order, and all stand still. Now the blind man points with his cane. The person pointed at steps forth out of the ring and takes hold of the end of the stick. Then, blind man and his victim both place their mouths close to their respective ends of the cane, using it as a telephone-wire. Blind man squeaks out “piggy wiggy,” or Swedish to that effect, and victim squeaks back the answer appropriate to the occasion. The blind man repeats "hoggy woggy," victim answers in falsetto. "Swiney winey," sings the blind one, in musical Scandinavian, and, for the third time, victim must reply. And now the exultant blind man guesses who it is that has held this interesting conversation with him, and, if right, the bandage around his eyes is removed, his victim is blinded in turn, everybody laughs, and the game goes on.
In another form of blind-man's-buff, the company sit around the room—all save the blind man, who promenades around. At his own good pleasure, he fumbles about and sits down in the lap of someone, and then, after sufficient deliberation, guesses whose lap it is that he is sitting in.
I noticed that the young gentlemen, although, of course, absolutely deprived of sight, always sat down in the laps of the young ladies, and, frequently, were an unconscionable time in gathering evidence upon which to found a correct guess. As I now reflect upon it, in the light of maturer years, I do not think I will recommend this game to American children over twelve years of age, unless the party be, in the words of Mrs. Grundy, "very select."
Another house-game is called lana, lana eld. All but one sit in a circle around the room. This one we will suppose to be a pretty Swedish maid, with light-blonde hair, and a bright-blue dress. She walks up to any of the sitters and, rapping on the floor with a cane, says, "Lana, lana eld"—"Lend, lend fire."
The youth addressed replies, “Gå till nästa grannen,”—“Go to the next neighbor.” This the blue-eyed maid obediently does, raps with her cane, repeats the same question, and gets the same answer, and so on. All the while the company are beckoning to each other, springing up, and exchanging chairs, by darting across the room, and the joke and point of the game is for the maid in search of fire to drop into some chair during the instant it is left vacant. Whereat, the one ousted in possession and enjoyment of the same, takes the cane and goes his round in search of the coveted fire.
Surely, this game is older than friction matches, for which Sweden is now so justly famous, and originated at a time when fire was a precious possession, guarded with care, and, if lost, worth a trip among your neighbors to borrow. Never would it occur to anyone nowadays to originate a game on the legend, "Lend me a match."
One pleasant summer afternoon, early in the season, I dropped in at the Society House at Lysekil. At the piano sat Knut Almlof, the genial veteran tragedian of Sweden, obligingly playing what we Americans would call a lively break-down. On the floor, a group of youths and maidens were dancing a graceful and intricate measure; all singing as they danced. They were ranged in two lines, and the dance somewhat resembled our Virginia Reel—only it was more intricate, and, in one figure, the two lines knelt down, all clapping their hands as they sung, while the dancing pair, with hands joined and arms held over the heads of their kneeling comrades, glided down one line and up the other.
Both music and words are specially adapted to the dance, which has been handed down from time immemorial. It is called Väfva Vadmal—Weaving Homespun—and closely imitates, with its changing figures, all the motions of weaving cloth at the old and honored hand-loom. It is peculiarly a Swedish national dance, and is very popular among all classes of society.
The Swedes have also a ring-dance called Skära Hafre—Reaping Oats. The dancers imitate, by their gestures, and describe, in their song, the sowing the seed, reaping the crop, binding the sheaves, and threshing the grain.
Little fear of a nation so intimate with husbandry and housewifery that even its dances are modeled upon the sowing and reaping of the crops, and the movements at the loom, where the good wife weaves carpets for her floors and clothes for her family.
The Swedes spend the summer practically in the open air. All who can, go to their villas. I do not believe there is a town, of the population of Stockholm, in the world that has around it so many picturesque villas, beautifully situated. Those who have not a villa, go to the numerous watering-places. Those who can not leave the city, spend afternoon, or at least evening, out-of-doors. They thus make up for the long confinement they must undergo in their protracted winters.
Everywhere, as you sail or drive in the vicinity of a city in the summer-time, you see the Swedes out-of-doors, the ladies dressed in the pretty costumes of the peasantry, walking with long staff's in their hands, and every day they are sure to walk down to their bath-houses and take a swim in fjärd or lake.
The Swedes are very fond of music. In every city, bands play in the open air in summer, and, on every side, are a multitude of small round tables with chairs grouped about them, where all classes sit, and eat, and drink, and talk, and gesticulate in lively manner.
At Stockholm, also, the military parade marches every noon, with a full band, from the barracks in Ostermalm to the palace.
From my residence on the King's Park, I could hear three large bands playing all through the summer evenings.
View from the American Legation, Stockholm. Image from book, by William Widgery Thomas.
One would have been a good thing, but three were too many; for I was about equi-distant from each, and the thumps of one cut strangely across the time of the others.
At Stockholm, you may sit out all night in the summer-time, as it is not dark there is little inducement to go indoors, and, generally, there is no dew falling. I frequently tried, when sitting in the parks late at night, to write my name with my finger in the dampness on the table, as I could do in America. There never was any dampness to write in.
In Sweden, you always drive to the left, and, in walking, pass your fellow-pedestrians on the same side. It is also considered good form to take the left-hand sidewalk, and so, in the principal business streets of Stockholm, in Drottning gatan, for instance, you always see the throng surging up one side of the street and down the other. You are thus very seldom in danger of running into a fellow-promenader.
There is also a Stockholm custom that the man walking on the curb-stone on the left side of the street, that is, as the Swedes say, “the man with his right hand hanging over the street-gutter," is especially privileged. Everybody turns out for him. He turns out for no one; and, if you happen to be on the wrong side of the street, it is always worth while, if you value your comfort, to cross over and get the commanding position on the left-hand curb-stone.
The Swedes are not especially a mercantile race, and many of the shops in the larger cities are owned and kept by foreigners, chiefly Germans and Jews. In entering a shop, the Swedes always take off their hats. A Swede would no more think of keeping his hat on in your shop than he would in your parlor.
The clerks are very generally young ladies, and the purchaser, taking off his hat, bids them “good-morning” as pleasantly as he would a lady in the drawing-room. If his design be to purchase ever so small an article, he always approaches the object of his purchase indirectly, and this indirection gives place to quite an animated, and always a pleasant, discussion between the gentleman purchaser and the lady clerk. Then comes a scene of beating down; for the Swedes never think they have done their duty unless they have spent some time in trying to depreciate an article, and, in this process, truth compels me to state that the motherly dames especially excel.
Finally, the purchaser says, "Is this your very last price?"
"Yes," says the lady clerk mournfully, shaking her head, "this is my very last word," and then the article is usually purchased.
Thomas, William Widgery. Sweden and the Swedes. Rand, McNally & Company, 1893.
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