Show OUR STOCKHOLM LETTER STOCKHOLM may xa 1893 special I 1 it has been said that oscar the present king ot of sweden and norway is the most educated monarch of europea gentleman from top to bottom and generally well liked by other crowned heads and by his own people but now there exists a norwegian author named arue garborg and he tells a very different story and a remarkable one at the same time I 1 do not share his opinion in every respect but I 1 must concede that what he says contains a good deal of truth mr garborg expresses himself very freely in the ver dens gang the organ of the extreme left on tae the position of the king of sweden the position of king oscar is as difficult as it could be 1 I he says for he is homeless and rootless in in sweden as well as norway he has no foundation to stand on nothing to fall back on in either country and the swedish gentlemen do not even respect the necessary royal dignity they follow him on his trips to norway in order to see that he may not i in n some unguarded momen prove himself more loyal to norway than to sweden if the king had been of swedish descent he might have maintained a greater independence and he would have done so for it is of no benefit to his dynasty to become unpopular in either kingdom if his house had descended from an old swedish family and had been identified with the history of the people with its great and dear memories it would not have been so much risk for him to subject himself to a short spell ot of unpopularity by a proper regard for the position and rights of norway in that case his house could not have been torn down by a small storm but now he knows that he is a foreigner in sweden his name does not arouse the enthusiasm en thusia m of the people there is no halo of tradition tradition to bind the dynasty to the country and 4 he knows that the swedish noblemen only a little over eight years ago bounced a king who was infinitely more closely identified with sweden than the Berna dottes can be Aa another other point is that his house is so young in aristocratic society this is a weak point he is surrounded by a national nobility which is much older much nobler than he is and which makes the most of this advantage the whole world knows that the swedish king is only the great grandson of a lawyer nor is the bernadotte family held in very great esteem by the other royal houses of of europe on account of its recent origin in their eyes eye the berna dotes are and will be nothing but up starts and long indeed will it take them to forget that they owe th then I 1 greatness aness to the french revolution ife thus iiii they stand without any moral support or prestige and can remain on to top 01 only ily by means of making them se serves X es indispensable to those noblemen who eighty years ago erected their throne and may at any time kick them down again hence the Berna dottes become far more nervously swedish minded and aristocratic than they would have been if they had descended from a good old royal family of sweden therefore the Berna dottes will have to give up their chances in norway the k king cl clings n s to our conservative party a as long on 9 a as s gh he e can though he must as an educated european despise these people who trample their own flag in the mire and receive humiliations for their country by kissing his hand but let him only depend on his 50 members of the Stor thing lie he has hardly considered how easily those 50 50 can be carried away if matters are carried so far that a national storm sweeps the country 1 the muscovite octopus is drawing its tentacles ever closer and tighter around poor finland rhe hie czar has made solemn promises that he would respect the rights of finland but these are misconstrued distorted and what can two million people do against one hundred millions A pleasant ray of light appeared lately on the gloomy path lying before finland A finnish millionaire dr H F axtell of paris who died recently in that city has bequeathed nearly all his bis wealth to his country the chief items are his rich collection and marks will go to a national museum marks to the university of finland as aid to students of either sex and marks to the latin school of vasa it is expected that these endowments if properly managed will contribute a great deal toward maintaining the national leeling feeling of the people of finland dr axtell has also donated marks to the academy of sciences of stockholm and marks to the nordick national museum of Sw edens capital the government of canada sent agents to iceland last winter to spread information about british america among the Ic elanders the agitations will probably result in a largely increased emigration in view of the fact that most of the emigrants are able bodied men and women the agents are very unpopular among those people who have no idea of emigrating themselves one of the agents announced the other night that he would give a lecture on america in a certain hall at reykjavik and several hundred people gr greeted eeten the speaker when he mounted th the platform but it was a peculiar greeting As soon as he had said ladies and gentlemen he was interrupted by the most vigorous hissing a and nd whenever he opened his mouth the ame was repeated until he hai ha i 1 to same save the platform and admit his defeat the educated well to do classes were the leaders in this demonstration |