to a short perspective and limited types. På prärien (“On the Prairie"), her earliest American story, caused a sensation and not a little scandal, when first published, because of its pretended description of life at one of the Swedish-American colleges. Several wellknown and highly respected persons yet living were grossly caricatured in her book and ridiculed for their American ways. The story was, at most, founded on second-hand gossip. Neither in På prärien nor in any of her later works does this author even attempt to portray the Swedish-American in the making. That which is common does not interest her; that which does not sicken through utter wretchedness, or compel momentary attention by gaudy emptiness, seems to her dull and draws from her contempt and derision rather than an even superficial pity. A few others, such as J. L. Stockenstrand, Ernst Lindblom, Ernst Berg, and Alfred Kämpe, have made attempts at picturing life among the Swedes in America, but they do not get much beyond the outlines, and moreover they have sometimes eked out their limited material by drawing on their imagination, which provides a poor substitute. Now, any one who is to give a true and intimate picture of the soul of a nation or of any stratum in a nation must be one with what he describes to the extent that he feels, or at least possesses memories of having felt, the same glorious joy of victory, the same despairing sadness over the grave of dead hopes, the same momentary weakness or daring defiance; he must have fallen before the same temptations and bravely crawled back into line again in the same way as the men and women he portrays. He must have been a part of what he depicts, must not only have observed it, but felt it. There are perhaps only two or three writers that stand out distinctly as giving a searching and intimately true picture of Swedish life in America. They are Gustaf N. Malm, Johan Person, and Anna Olsson. Person has been more prolific than the other two and has undoubtedly a firmer grip on his material, but in spite of that, I am inclined to place Malm at the head, on account of his deeper understanding and wider sympathy. When his Charli Johnson came out, in 1909, he was quite unknown even to those who keep abreast of productions in this field. There were evident crudities in the book; the picture was often crowded with unessential details, and the tendency to sermonize made itself too strongly felt. Yet the reader willingly overlooked these common faults of the beginner for the refreshing directness, the keen obervation and pleasant good humor, and the ardent, at times exalted, enthusiasm for the true and noble, and the hatred of everything bad and small and mean that breathed from his pages. The conviction was borne in on us, as we smiled and wept and cursed with his heroes and heroines, that this was real life. It is true that here and there some purist would sneer at the broken Swedish Malm put in the mouth of his characters, but this dialect was neither manufactured, nor was it used for the purpose of ridiculing, as other authors have done. It was simply the mixture of Swedish and English which is as natural to the farmer of Nebraska or Kansas as his blue overalls. Without it, the picture would have been incomplete. In the years since the appearance of Charli Johnson, Malm has written a number of short stories and has developed, in this field, a great strength of expression as well as delicacy of feeling. He knows the Swedes of the prairie states in the Middle West through and through. An instance of this type was the Christmas story Peace and Good Will which appeared in the Yule Number of the AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW, in 1915, having been awarded the first prize in a contest arranged by the magazine. In temperament there is every possible difference between Malm and Johan Person. Person deals preferably with the Swedes of the cities, while Malm devotes himself to those who live in the country. I Svensk-Amerika, a collection of short stories, published in 1900, contains much of the best of Person's work. He pays more attention than in his later stories to the environment in its influence upon the phenomena of change in his countrymen. He was then yet too close to his own experience not to look on their struggles with sympathy, and, side by side with his wholesome humor, there ran a vein of true pathos. His The years have brought a decided change in his point of view. There has crept into his style a satirical note, which sometimes borders on contempt and aversion. He has not much love for the men and women of whom he writes; he waxes sarcastic over their failures, caricatures their weaknesses, and heaps high-brow ridicule on their childish pride in what is sometimes very small achievement. sympathies have dwindled, and in their place has come a supercilious attitude. Meanwhile he has perfected his technique; he sees clearly even to the smallest detail, and his style has gained distinction. His collection of essays, Svensk-Amerikanska Studier, published in 1912, gives an excellent bird's-eye view of the Swede in America, and will probably have lasting value as the best serious book of its kind. Wilhelm Berger has written half a dozen or more volumes of short stories and, recently, a collection of articles called Svensk-Amerikanska Meditationer. He writes along the same general lines as Person, covering some phases of his subject more thoroughly, but neglecting others. His field of observation is more narrow, but within it he seems to have come in closer contact. His short stories, however, lack atmosphere; what happens in them could have happened anywhere. There is a little more satisfaction to be gained from C. W. Andeer's Augustana-folk. These stories are told without much pretension to art, but they bring into clear view the life in Swedish Lutheran parishes throughout the farming districts of the north western states. A sharply defined individuality meets us in the short stories of Anna Olsson. They have keen observation, kindly feeling, a style with an intuitive sureness in essentials, and a rich, bubbling humor. If there is hidden a sting, you prefer to laugh it off. This author has for some reason, which no one is inclined to accept, confined herself to an illogically narrow field-the immigrants from a single province, Värmland and, in spite of their good qualities, her stories tend to produce a feeling of monotony. Quite recently, however, a book came from her pen in which she breaks away from these self-imposed limitations. En prärieunges funderinger describes the musings of a curious, wide-eyed child, as she toddles among the farmer-folk of the little Kansas town where her father was a pastor. In a few passages here and there the writer succeeds in creating impressions of scenes and conditions with picturesque vividness, although this, of course, is not her predominant aim. Ernst Skarstedt is not a writer of fiction, but has, in his way, contributed largely to our knowledge of life among the Swedes in America. Besides his series of books dealing with the biographical history of his countrymen on the Pacific slope, he has written Vagabond och redaktör, in which he details his own experiences as a newcomer and in many years of roving. He is a keen observer, but a poor psychologist, and it is a good thing, therefore, that he generally leaves the interpretation to the reader. The last-named book, where it is not controversial, is a rich source of intimate details revealing Swedish life in America. There is then, quantitatively, but little written of Swedish life in America for reasons that I have tried to make clear in the beginning of this article. If I am right, it serves also to explain why no American author has gone to the Swedish-Americans for material, the only exception, so far as I am informed, being Willa Sibert Cather. In O Pioneers, as well as The Song of the Lark, the chief characters are Swedish immigrants and their sons and daughters, who are pictured with truth to life and without any attempt at overdrawing. N July 4, 1917, the Chicago Norwegian Club celebrated Independence Day by opening its distinctive new club-house on North Kedzie Boulevard, with a performance of Hostrup's old comedy,"Gjenboerne." Thus fittingly did it initiate its enlarged opportunity to take a leading part in the cultural and social life of the Norwegians in Chicago. In late September, it entertained the important Congress of American and Canadian Engineers and Architects of Norwegian birth or descent, which convened in Chicago at the club's invitation. Its future plans contemplate the holding of art exhibitions by Norwegian artists, concerts, plays, lectures, and the entertainment of prominent visiting Scandinavians. The new club-house is rarely beautiful and individual among Scandinavian clubs in this country, with its reminiscent note of Norse patterns. The architects, Joachim C. Giaver and Frederick P. Dinkelberg, have succeeded in carrying out, in brick construction, the Norwegianized château style, and the interior decorations, too, are of characteristically Norse flavor. The auditorium on the first floor, with its white raftered ceiling, reminds one of the halls in Norway, and the oak beams and consoles in dragon design of the roomy club-room on the second floor, the huge "peis," planned by Christian Boggers, and the unique iron chandeliers and the wall lights, the work of Emil Björn, suggest an older period. A little nucleus of paintings by Norwegian artists already adorn the walls. The whole atmosphere of the club is of cheeriness and Northland hospitable comfort, and a fine sense of good taste in the ornamentation and conduct. THE NORWEGIAN CLUB The present Chicago Norwegian Club dates back only from 1911, when it was formed by the union of the venerable Norwegian Quartette Club and the old Norwegian Club. Its membership now is about two hundred and eighty. LOYAL Editorial It is an absurd injustice based on individual exceptions to judge Americans of Swedish descent apathetic toward the war. The first death in Pershing's Expedition was that of a Swedish-American. The descendants of the soldiers who heard the call of freedom in the seventeenth century and followed the leadership of Gustaf Adolf across the battlefields of Germany will be found, in whatever land they live in, the most eager defenders of constitutional democracy. Almost overnight there has grown up a spontaneously organized council of Swedish-American defence called "The John Ericsson League of Patriotic Service.' Judge Harry Olson of Chicago is president of the League. Its headquarters are likewise in Chicago, in Room 1347, Conway Building, at the corner of La Salle and Washington Streets, with Mr. Werner Melinder as managing secretary. Collector of Customs Harry A. Lund is president of the Minnesota District Council, and Professor Alfred J. Pearson of the State Council of Iowa. Strong district and local committees are being formed at various points from New York to San Francisco. The League will work through other agencies and promote and coördinate the numerous patriotic activities among Swedes throughout the country. The formation of the League is due to the vision and energetic initiative over a period of many weeks of its general secretary, Mr. Edwin Björkman, the author, director of the Scandinavian Bureau of the National Committee on Public Information. It may be regretted that the name of John Ericsson has again been multiplied by this organization. There are other Swedish-American names that conjure up democratic images: John Morton, for example, who cast the deciding vote for the Declaration of Independence; John Hanson, first President of Congress and the United States after the adoption of the Articles of Federation. But in times of national emergency, Ericsson stands forth as the man who offered Lincoln not only his Swedish inventive genius, but his life if need be, in the cause of freedom. THE "SONS" TO Knute Nelson raised a quick stir of applause at the mass meeting in New York, on March 16, when he spoke of the Scandinavians flocking to our colors. In introducing Captain Roald Amundsen, the venerable senator said: "Wait till the casualty lists come in, and you will see the Johnsons, the Knudsens, the Larsens, the Nelsons, and the Amundsens taking their place with the rest." Scandinavians are loyal beyond question, and they will soon be tied even more closely to their adopted country by the common bond of sacrifices made and trials faced. |