Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. In Sweden Again—Reception at My Old Home—Visit to Northern Sweden—Field Maneuvers in Sweden—The Opening of Parliament—In Norway—Visit in Stockholm—Royal Palaces—The Göta Canal—A Trip to Finland and Russia—King Oscar II.—A Trip to Dalarne in the Winter
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IS 128.2
Story of an Emigrant.
Czar, and I had the pleasure of seeing the magnificent
military parade arrayed for the occasion. My American
passport ojKMied all doors to me wherever I tried to enter, and I
was treated with the greatest politeness by military as well
as civil authorities. To an uninitiated eye my personal
liberty and independence seemed just as great here as in
Washington ; but that was not the case, for I knew that my every
step was being closely watched.
One dav mv guide conducted me to a place in one of the
suburbs, where some hundred prisoners were starting on
their long journey to Siberia. He also conducted me to the
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, where the Russian Czars
are crowned and buried; and through the fortress and
prison, in whose moist, murky dungeons the political
prisoners hear the great bell in the steeple striking the hour, and
the watchman crying his monotonous, " God save the Czar,"
while from year to year the victims of despotism suffer and
languish, often on a mere suspicion, and without a fair trial,
until death finally puts an end to their sufferings. What is
the reason that politically Russia has always been on the
most friendly terms with the United States? How can liberty
and the rankest tyranny have anything to do with each
other? This has always been a riddle to me. I despise the
friendship of a despotism like that of Russia; where the
government orders innocent men and women to be seized in the
silence of the night, torn away from their homes and
families, incarcerated in dungeons, and subjected to bodily
torture and social disgrace simply because they arc suspected of
having expressed or cherished liberal ideas.
Returning to Sweden by way of Finland I remained a few
days at IIelsingfors. Having presented my passport to the
authorities of the city, the commander of the garrison sent
an officer inviting me to visit the barracks and other places
of interest. I accepted the invitation and spent two days
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