Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Visit to Sweden in 1868–1869—The Object of my Journey—Experiences and Observations During the Same—Difference Between American and Swedish Customs—My Birth-place—Arrival and Visit There—Visit to Christianstad—Visit to Stockholm—The Swedish Parliament—My Return to America—Reflections on and Impressions of the Condition of the Bureaucracy of Sweden
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
1 12
Si«»k v of ax Emigrant.
between a learned doctor and myself. lie started with a
proposition that it was wrong to leave one’s native country,
because God has placed us there, and, although the lot of the
majority might be very hard, it was still their duty to
remain to toil and pray, and even starve, if necessary, because
we owed it to the country which had given us birth. In
replv I referred to one of the first commandments of the
Bible, that men should multiply, go out and till up the earth;
that if it were wrong for Swedes to emigrate, it was equally
wrong for the English, the Germans, the Spaniards and even
our progenitors, the ancient Arians, and if so, what would
the result be? Portions of this bountiful earth would be
overcrowded, privation, crime, bloodshed and misery would
follow, while other continents would lie idle. If it had been
wrong to emigrate, America, which to-day is the larder and
granary of the world, would have remained in the possession
of a few savages. My argument was of 110 avail; the
doctor, otherwise a kind and humane man, would rather see his
poor countrymen subsist 011 bread made partly out of bark,
which hundreds of them actually did at that very time in
one of the Swedish provinces, than have them go to America,
where millions upon millions of acres of fertile lands only
awaited the labor of their strong arms to yield an
abundance, not only for themselves, but also for the poor
millions of Kurope. Hard as it for the individual to change
habits of long standing, it is still harder for nations and
races to free themselves from prejudices centuries old,
esj>e-cially in a small country like Sweden, isolated from the great
nations and thoroughfares of the world.
1 lie importance of a military officer in Sweden dates from
an age when the common soldier was simply an ignorant
machine, and the difference between "a faithful servant of the
king and a common mortal »vas immense. Thecommon
mortal of to-day, however, is climbing bravely up tc^vards the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
