IN SWEDEN

Hokitika Guardian, 1 June 1929, Page 2

IN SWEDEN

WHERE WOMEN GUAR]) THE TRAVEL HER.

(By SIR PER OVAL PHILLIPS.)

COPENHAGEN, April 13

A pleasing feature of travel in Scandinavia, but one which fills the hardened hatchelor with misgivings, is the atmosphere of domesticity that prevades the railway trains and boats-. Woman plays an important part in the routine of passenger transport. If you patronise a restaurant ear in Sweden you will find a not uncomely young female presiding over a cash desk at one end, ns in the stationary restaurant.

Your compartment is under the surveillance of another watchful member of the sex, wearing a black gown and an armlet, who wanders in and out, looking with a cold and watch I ul eve for burnt matches on the carpet, tobacco ash on the upholstery, and other signs of carelessness' not .to be tolerated in a well-ordered 'home on wheels. She is a figure to inspire respect not unmixed with '.fear; is this travelling Woman witty * a-' Duster: If you try . to indulge in secret smoking in a compartment not licensed for that evil, she smells the noxious weed at the other end of the train and is immediately down on you with a wan smile ol reproof-. She will grope reproachfully beneath your feet for debris of an afternoon’s duel with boredom; the fragments of ? an unreadable newspaper, the residue of an apple or so, and the offending dead matches that should have been deposited neatly in the metal box provided for that purpose. She inspires wholesome respect for the laws of domesticity in the heart of every lone male, and she knows it. She has an unerring eye for a batchelor, and she appears to camp outside the door of his compartment, waiting for him to commit some' fresh crime against good manners in the home. A?ter half a day. of. her motherly influence the maii .iwlio lias a shred of self-respect Jeff involuntarily wipes his feet on the corridor mat before venturing to take his seat. Then there is the dear old lady who appears, like the fairy in a pantomime, at’ the hour for bedtime stories. My first encounter with her was sufficiently astonishing. The night tram from Oslo had stopped at the Norwegian frontier station of Ghari'ottcnberg, where the passengers were invited to a-help-yourself supper of hot and homely dishes in tlie little station restaurant at one end of which the inevitable woman manageress presided. On returning to the sleeping-car for Stockholm I found the door to mv compartment barred by an aged dame whose wrinkled face, spectacles, neat I,lack dress and fresh white collar at once suggested that somebody’s grandmother "had lost- her way. We smiled at each other, but she would not go awav. Quietly but firmly she ejected me from the compartment. Then she pressed magic levers and began to turn the sofa seat into a bed. The mystery was revealed. She was the passengers’ family bed-maker. Deftly she produced sheets and blankets out thin air; laid the mattress straight, slipped a blanket into the big linen envelope which is the Nordic wav of combining cleanliness with ‘bed comfort; did the same with a second blanket, and proceeded to align them and tuck them, in with a grandmotherly hand. ~ . , 1 suggested mildly that one blanket enevlope would lie sufficient. She Shook her head as though amused at my youthul ignorance murmured ‘■knit” and laid on the second. I hesitated having that second one off the bed before she had begun on the next compartment, hut she knew ; she Know. When the job was finished, and she had given the coverlet a final decisive pat, she turned to me with a resolute gleam in her kindly old eves, and, repeated firmly: “Two. Very knit. I did not dare remove the extia blanket until she had bedded down the entire car and had leit the tiam at the next station, where she undoubtedly proceeded to make the bed' for the entire community, with tv.o blankets for foolish men who did nohave sense enough to avoid ta oiig The food you eat when you travel m these parts is cooked by women. 1 here is none better to he i. unu I id ■ lOIK the* length and breadth of Europ.-i.

Scandinavians take the train with a plump smile of anticipation on their rosy cheeks. One cannot blame them lor eating at all hours; it is well worth while. They have plates of cold meats anil cheese to stay their hunger between the hours for lunch and dinner and suppei Those set feasts overlap. You can begin to dine at four if you. are on a long journey, or you can dine at seven. It is thus possible to dine twice without insulting your appetite. Seme do. It is a pleasant way ol putting in the time. If you want to enjoy Family life on tour at its best you must travel thirdclass. The coaches are open from end to end : the seats on either side of a central aisle are clothed and oom'loll- - and the passengers settle down in family groups at various tasks. .Mothers and grandmothers knit or darn socks or work on various domestic garments for their progeny. 1 lie children play with toys or draw designs on a slate; some even study their lessons. The end of one cheerful third-class carriage I visited contained a bird in a cage, hung above the heads of a family of five, who were picnicking on ham and beer with the greatest imaginable enjoyment.

The foreigner who travels first-class merely cuts himself off from his fellowmen. Because my ticket stipulated that accommodation the guard hung a placard outside one compartment of a carriage in which all the others which were exactly the same—were filled with second-class passengers. Evei.v time mine was entered by a nea combi who looked like a congenial companion for the long journey the guard would appear apologetically, say something, and take him—or her as the case may Ik,— away to the pleasanter atmosphere of second-class. The result of this segregation is that you feel rather like a leper. So be w,aimed by my dismal experience and when in Scandinavia join the family life in the lower strata of travel by train. But be careful to put your burnt matches in the little metal box beside your seat. Otherwise you will be properly admonished by the travelling Woman with a Duster.