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SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF ALL NATIONS
#16 - SWEDEN

Size: 3" x 5"
Copyrighted: 1893
Lithographer: Kaufmann & Strauss

Sweden - May pole, boating, ice skating

Reverse - Text
Left section: GRIND YOUR COFFEE AT HOME
Right section:
SWEDEN.
THE Swedes who are the progeny of the Berserkers and Vikings of the Middle Ages, are a very attractive people whose courage is of the highest. From these ancestors they also acquire noble statures, hardy natures, simple habits and great faith in humanity. They are peaceable, frugal and industrious. Their tastes are simple and their enjoyment keen. It may well be inferred that they are great lovers of sport, and their games and pastimes are usually healthy and hilarious.
Nations which are more favored by nature have longer summers, and may pass more of their time outdoors. But none of these enter with more zest into al fresco life. When the melting snows of winter have gone, and verdure is once more upon the trees and the sward may again be reclined upon, how these people arise and invest their groves. A May-pole is erected, and all the joyous festivities it may inspire are indulged in. On the grass the repast is spread, and all help themselves to the bounteous feast. With music and song the hours trip lightly by, and only the advent of night ends the joyous occasion.
The waterways of Sweden, its bays and rivers and fjords are peopled in the summer-time with small craft. All of the men row well, and love to treat their dear ones to a water ride. One can well imagine what melody floats across the dancing waters, welling from the happy hearts and full throats of these merry-makers.
Sports upon the ice are of course universal. There is nothing that other nations have invented and found enjoyable upon the frozen waters which the Swedes have not adopted. Sleighing, coasting, ice-boating tobogganing and sliding, are all practised in this land where the ice is safe fully six months of the year. In skating especially, the Swedes are wonderfully proficient.

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