NORWEGIAN HONESTY.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 95, 28 March 1885, Page 5

NORWEGIAN HONESTY.

In the house where I am now writing there stands in tho dining-room, and accessible at all times of day, an open case of cigars and cigarettes, postage stamps, and stationery. On the sideboard are bottles of Seltzer water and wines. When the bills are made out the guests report how many they have used. On a steamer trip a friend went to the purser's office to pay for his ticket. Being suddenly called out, the pursers unconcernedly left the gentleman alone in the office with piles of loose money lying about him on the desk. At another place I overheard the proprietor of a hotel saying to a party that they need not change their plans for want of ready money, for he would very willingly lend them some "without security until they should arrive at Christiana. At the same place, arriving and leaving again in the night, I wished to have a telegram sent for me the next day. My telegram and money were laid on the centre table over night. Other bits of money were also upon the table, probably the other errands. In Norway the doors of rooms have for the most part no locks. We have found in some places locks, but the keys could be used only from the outside. In most private cottages the house key is only used from the outside, in case the people are all absent for several weeks j but to lock a door and remain inside is to them foolishness. In Bergen, at the public concerts and entertainments, the outer garments and appurtenances are laid aside in an outer room, as otherwheres in Europe ; but there is no checking system in Bergen, not even anyone in attendance that I could find. After an entertainment we attended, the men went to a corner of umbrellas and canes, and each took his own. It must have been so, and must usually be so ; otherwise such a system, or lack of system, would, not exist. I took my hat, coat, and cane, and crept out feeling as if I had stolen something, and longing to tell somebody officially that they were really mine. Yesterday, a guide whom we hired to row us across a lake was not needed further, since the way to the glacier was easy to find j but having my little amateur camera and stand with me, and not feeling inclined to climb with them, I asked him what I should pay him to carry them up to the glacier with us, He openly replied that he would as lief go up with them for me as to wait for us below. This is only equalled by the guide of the previous day, who reasoned with us and explained how much cheaper it would he to hire him without his horse, and showing that he could make it just as convenient for us. Enough examples, though in my note-book are already a lo.t more. Arrange them in a proper olimax to suit, for in degree of strangeness they strike people differently. It sounds like the good old times of King Alfred, doesn't it?— Christiana " Zion'a Herald."