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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IS 4.2
Story of an Emigrant.
Sweden, its people and institutions, with the affection of a
child toward its mother.
When 1 left Sweden in lSol there were 110 railroads. On
my return the 23d day of December, 1868, via England,
Germany and Copenhagen, I landed at Malmo just in time
to walk to the railroad station and take the train to
Cliris-tianstad. The beautiful station with its surroundings,
the uniformed and courteous officials in attendance, the
well-dressed and comfortable-looking people in the first and
second-class waiting room, all made a pleasant impression
upon me, which soon was to be disturbed, however, by the
following little incident: As I stepped up to the ticket
window to buy my ticket I observed a poor working woman at
tjie third-class window with a silver coin in her hand and
with tears in her eyes begging the clerk to give her the
change and a ticket. I heard her pleading that she had left
three little children alone at home, that this was the last
train, and if she did not get home with it she would have to
walk in the mud after dark. The clerk insultingly refused
her, stating that he had 110 time to bother with her trifles
unless she paid the even change; she asked several gentlemen
nearby to change her money for her, but they all turned away
as if fearing contamination by coming in contact with one
so poor and lowly.* I had only a few large bills, and as the
woman was crowded away, the same clerk at the first-class
window took one of my bills, and, with a most polite bow,
gave me a handful of large and small change. Of course I
got the woman her ticket also. This was possibly an
exceptional case, but to 111c it was a striking example of the
di tie re nee between Swedish and American ways and
courtesy. I venture to say that in no railway station or other
public place in the whole United States, north or south, east
or west, would a poor woman in her circumstances be left
•The rule m in Sweden the ticket clerks the right to demand even ehnngc.
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