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8 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
of the north, hut have deleted the passage, as the sky
of Norway may not always he so bright and blue as
this morning.
Depositing my knapsack at the Hotel du Nord, after
a breakfast similar to that at Christiansand, I make
exploration of the city in company with Andersen the
stonemason, and one of the other passengers, an English
gentleman who has come to Norway to kill time and
salmon. Andersen kindly offers to act as <niide: he
J o
is proud of his native city, even after New York and
Liverpool, to say nothing of a week’s residence at
Kingston-upon-IIull; and lie has fair reason to be
proud of Christiania. I have never seen a town of its
size* so free from indications of squalor and vice. I
seldom visit a city without paying special attention to
the slums, more even than to the palaces; and as 1
cannot afford to hire cabs, am compelled, even in doing
the guide-book, to see some of the realities. Christiania
is a remarkably white looking city, with wide, clean,
bright-looking streets ; the householders clean their
windows scrupulously, and keep the frames well painted.
Just as the greatness of a nation depends upon the
virtues and energy of the individuals composing it,
more than upon the wisdom of its monarch and
statesmen, so is the embellishment of a town more effectually
promoted by each citizen cleaning his own windows
and house-fronts, than upon the erection of half-a-dozen
public buildings of great architectural pretensions. The
houses here are large and comfortable-looking — not
* About 40,000 inhabitants.
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