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
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128,
IS 128.2 Story of an Emigrant.
the people receive come as favors from the ruler. The
influence and effect of these two ideas arc as different in all the
ramifications of the system as the ideas themselves are
irreconcilable.
In America the humblest citizen goes to a local, state, or
I nitcd States official with head erect and demands that such
and such things be done, according to the law. In the other
countries the lowly and even the average individual comcs
before the magistrate cringing and supplicating for his
rights as for a favor. Of course such a false and absurd
system, practiced for hundreds of years, can not fail to leave a
strong impression both upon the seekers and the grantersof
such favors.
To me, brought up, ever since my boyhood, under the
American system, the importance of the civil officers in
Sweden seemed to be greatly at variance with the progress
made in the elevation ol the people in general. I will only
take one example: The provincial governor
(Landshof-cling) and his immediate subordinates of a little province of
the size of half a dozen of our counties, appears with much
more pomp and style than any of the governors of our great
states; and I have no doubt that such a governor considers
his office to be more important than that of the governors
ol some of our states, each of which has a population larger
than that of the smaller kingdoms of Europe.
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