Peeps at Many Lands: Sweden

Sweden is a country that is not very well known, but is one that is most interesting to visit, because of the kindliness of the people and beauty of the scenery, as well as many historical associations. As soon as you have reached the little island of Winga, with its lighthouse, you are led to think of those days, long, long ago, when the Goths left these shores in their Viking ships, to sweep the seas and found kingdoms, or of those days, when Gustavus Adolphus gathered the young able-bodied men of the country, that they might go with him to Germany to fight for the faith he loved, while the old men and women were left to till the land. In many places you come across beautiful castles containing great treasures, which Gustavus and his Generals brought home from the war. These were days when the Swedes were known everywhere as heroes in the battlefield. Now, you do not think of them so much as a warlike nation, but as one peaceful and industrious, seeking to win honour and renown in the more peaceful field of science, industry, and art.