IMPRESSIONS OF DENMARK.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10013, 18 April 1898, Page 2

IMPRESSIONS OF DENMARK.

*' Weekly Pre 33 and iteteree.

Extracts from an Addrrss Hki-ivi.rkd to IMK CaNTHRBUK* COLLKGiS DIALECTIC SOCIKTY. By 0. T. J. Alpers, M.A. ?The familiar gag in •' Charley's Aunt "-- *' Brazil, where the nuts come from," suggests to mc that possibly " Denmark, where the butter conies from," expresses the sum of the knowledge a great many English people at present possess of my country. For Denmark no longer plays a leading roU in the world's history ; it is apt, I fear, to be content with the modest ambition of supplying butter for the tables and prineeuea for the thrones, of Europe. Vet alike in its sooial institutions, ita art and its literature, it has muoh to show that will well repay the attention of its more imposing neighbours. Its social life exhibits some curious contrasts, it combines an undertone of simple provincialism with the highest note of cultured urbanity. Its people are on the one hand, among the most thrifty and industrious in the world ; on the other hand Copenhagen is, with the exception perhaps of Pane, the most gay and pleasure-loving capital in Europe. In politics the Danes are devoted to monarchy with the conservative tenacity of a nation of agricultural freeholders, and yet there is probably no country in the world, New Zealand not even exoepted, in which the doctrines of modern •tate Booialisra have been carried out to so full an extent. "In the history of Denmark the 19th century has been super-imposed on the 17th, and the 18th has somehow managed to dropout."

The English conception of my countryman aa " The Melancholy Dane " is, I am bound to say, an erroneous one. It is true statistics, in some measure, bear it out; for my country enjoys, I believe, the unenviable distinction of beating tha world's record in the number of suicides per thousand. The Dane on self murder bent —I blush to say it—instead of taking his quietus with a bare bodkin or adopting some other nice gentlemanly way of dying, prefers to hang himself in a barn—7s per cenc of the whole number of suicides are committed in thia way. But his unmannerly haste to anticipate the course of nature is rather a reaction from the extravagant gaiety of his earlier years than evidence of any confirmed taint of melancholy in his disposition : vita cedat uti ccmviva satur. Nor does the Danish version of the Hamlet story at all bear out this imputation of melancholy. Amlodi, as we call him, is rather remarkable for promptness in aotion and a certain grim humour than for hesitation and philosophio doubt. At Moss, a place in Jutland, says the story, there was a king called Fegge. He was a Viking bold, and sailed the western sea. He and his brother, Hoorvendil, took turns to rule at land or at sea, so that one should be at sea three years and the other on land. Fegge, however, became jealous of Hoorvendil's power and good luck, and so killed him and married his widow. Her son, Amlodi, promptly avenged his father and murdered Fegge, and the tale thereafter represents him as sitting on the earthen floor of his palace, beguiling his leisure by scraping the flesh off the smokedried bones of his nefarious uncle. Since Shakespeare's play has become famous and has sent hundreds of tourists every year to walk upon the battlements of Elsinore, the scene ol the legend as told has been artfully changed from Jutland to Elsinore, and some enterprising Danes have even " to meet the times** extemporised a grave in the vioinity of the castle, which the veracious guide describes aa "Hamlet's tomb," and whioh hundreds of English and American Shakespeare-worshippers every year pay a shilling a head to visit. The good people of Copenhagen understand to perfection the art of enjoying life. They do not make a business of pleasure, but amuse themselves like children at play. Anything so funereal as an athletic sports meeting for example would strike them as extremely ridiculous, and a race meeting dominated by the totalisator would bore them to distraction. Games like crioket and football are entirely foreign to the national genius, and though they have of late years found a footing, they are supported only by an Anglo-maniac minority. The national ideal of enjoyment is a day's romp in the woods and parks, with which Copenhagen is better provided than any other city in Europe. They take mora than a southerner's delight in an out of doors dolce far niente state of existence. As soon as the long winter lifts, and the noble beechwoods put forth their first tender green, all Copenhagen -'gaariakoven" pouro into the woods to spend tho long summer days in tho open air. The feature in a Danish crowd that would probably strike an Englishman most forcibly is the ' invariable courtesy among all classes—-a tone that would be impossible in any country less noteworthy than Denmark for the ou It tire of its working classes. The Copenhagen mechanic does not touch his cap in a sheepish fashion ; ho takes it off with a bow and a .mile. The most ignorant boor would never enter a grocer's shop to buy a pound of sugar without taking his cap off; a wellbred man lifts his hat to his own brother in the street. It is the invariable custom, evou in tho humblest homes, that after every meal the younger members of the family and the guests, if any be present, when they lis- from the table, shake hands with the host or hostess and express their thanks for tbe meal, the response being a courteous " velbekommen " —may it become you well. To English ears all this may sound formal and ceremonious; but it is done in such a spirit of kindly simplicity and with such an absence of exaggeration or affectation that one instinctively realizes that it adds a grace to life. The distinction in the us§ of the singular and plural, "you" aed "thou" of the tAvo persons is carefully observed iv all classes of society, and serves to mark with nice discrimination the degree of intimacy on which you stand. It is only after well established intimacy that the friendly ••du" "thou" is adopted, and among men this takes place with a graceful touch of ceremony. You pledge each other's health, holdirig the glass in the right hand and interlocking the right arms as you drink, and thenceforward you are "thou*' and "thee" to each other—"Thou brothers" as we call it—for life. In this matter of drinking too, Shakespeare has done my countrymen some injustice. It is true we all drink, and drink in a way too that makes an Englishman shudder. For our favourite beverage is a potent white brandy, aqua vitae, Avhich we drink neat in liqueur glasses, and wash down afterwards— not with water—but with lager beer. It may sound ominous too, when! tell you that there are 400 brandy distilleries in Copenhagen and the provinces, and that the manufacture of white brandy and cherry cordial is the chief industry of the Capital. Bat for all that drunkenness is a much rarer vice in Denmark than in England. Occasionally indeed one hears of a fracas at tbe music halls among the Copenhagen 'prentioe boys; and lest I be suspected of giving too favourable a description of the people of the capital, let mc at once admit that the Copenhagen " 'Arry " is a very low person indeed. He does not wear pearlies and bell-bottomed trousers; he glories instead in a bell-topper and a red shirt. He devotes much of his leisure to curling his hair and colouring meerschaum pipes ; and the highest object of bis social ambition is to be able to dance on a threepenny-bit. His method of fighting is sufficiently eccentric to deserve description : He does not use his fists like an Englishman or bis clogs like a Frenchman, he butts his opponent with his forehead. When two 'prentice boys fall out you see them shape up to each other, their arms akimbo, their hats pushed back off the foreheads. In this attitude they will dodge and fsiat, advance and retire for ten minutes or«mc_, glaring** each other like a pair of •wajwhiog the other's eye for an oppoctanity to close, then suddenly they butt, omk go.tii_.r heads together and the lese skilful of &c pair lies, often stunned and uiiwracio-s, "on his back. I confess to •nunbatrioticpreference tor "good English fi*»3ufl-i but I am told nobU

art" as practised in Denmark .requires much science, especially the Bsienee of anatomy ; for success depends on hitting the inos't vulnerable part of your antagonist's skull with the least vulnerable part of your own. _

The uniform courtesy which, as I have sai-1, distinguishes all ranks of society iv Deimruk, limls expression in a rather lutlic-ous fondness for using titles. Denmark has no longer anything tiat can be called i: privileged uvl/Us*e ; and i eople with heretliui'y titles of nobility arc very few. The titles to which I icfer are official and professional appellations. A man in any sort of pn'olic position is never plain " Mr," " If err. ' He is always " Herr Under Secretary Hansen '' or " Heir Assistant Public Abattoirs Inspector Mail.«en *' Professional ami business men are addressed in the same wav : " Herr Schoolmaster Petersen " or " Herr Gros3erer (merchant) Larsen." The postmaster in an obscure Jutland village is invariably addressed as " Herr Postmaster," and not only so, but his good wife dearly love 3to be called "l'Yu l'oatmasterine." Official society is divided up into nine distinct grades, and the rules of precedence are rigorously insisted upon. i r ou dare never write a letter to anyone in the civil or military service wichout a table of precedence at your elbow for reference. A plain " dear «ir" would never do in Denmark. You must superscribe your letter " Excellent and highborn sir," " Highly to be esteemer! and honour-worthy sir," and so on, according to whichever of the nine grades he belongs in virtue of being cabinet minister, foreign consul or village inspectorc f nuisances. The pedantic observance of bureaucratic distinctions, existing bide by side with an intensely democratic national spirit, would strike one as a curious anomaly, did one not remember that even in the United States half of their public men aro " Colonels" and the other half "Judges." The custom in Denmark, however, may in part be accounted for by thfe necessity of distinctive labels for identification which formerly existed, owing to a curious system of nomenclature which was in vogue till the time of Christian V. Before that reign family names were unknown in Denmark. Every man and woman assumed a3 sole cognomen, the Christian name of his or her father with the suffix "sen" (son) or " datter " (daughter). Thus Karl and Marie, the son and daughter of Hans Petersen, would be Karl Hansen and Marie Hansdatter. The son of Karl Hansen, again, would be Jacob Karlsen, and his son in turn Peter Jacobsen. Under the feudal system of tenure, when most lands iv Denmark were held as hereditary estates in fee, this customary nomenclature was a fertile s mrce of confusion, and its abolition by. Christian V. must have caused a serious diminution in the emoluments of the legal profession. Apart from legal complications, moreover, it had the social disadvantage that proper names were not in themselves sufficiently distinctive, and it became the custom to prefix to a man's name the description of his calling.

The high tone, which I think may fairly be claimed as distinguishing the democracy in Denmark, with its combination of sturdy independence and orderly respect for bureaucratio rank, may be attributed in the main to two causes • the influence of the conscription, and the wide diffusion of education. Whatever may be said for the advantages or disadvantages of conscription, there can be no doubt that army discipline exerts a most salutary effect on national character, in teaching men not merely respect for superiors, but respect for themselves. The shambling, sleepy-headed, chawbacon from a Jutland farm, is transformed by his sixteen months barrack life into a spruce, energetic, smart-looking man. Everyone possessed of the necessary health and physique becomes, at the age of twenty-two, fiable for enrolment. There is no escape on any ground of professional or social status. Even clerks in holy orders are compelled to exchange the black gown and Elizabethan ruff for the scarlet tunic and miliitary choker. The. whole period of servcee amounts to twenty-one months, of which* sixteen are spent in barracks. The Danish conscription is essentially democratic ; once enrolled, you lay aside your name and become a number merely; you cannot attain any rank in the army till you have served your time iv the rank below; commissions are not to be obtained by purchase or by mere examination. Every, officer must first servo as private, be he prince or peasant. When the present Crown Prince was a conscript it happened that the regiment in which he served as a private was quartered outside Nybong, where he has a palace. The regiment hod each day to furnish a small guard to do sentry duty at the palace ; and it was the Prince's lot on one occasion to take his turn at sentry-go outside his own park gates, and when his carriage passed through he presented arms in due form to the royal livery. This is an incident which I venture to think could have occurred in no country but Denmark.

There is no country in Europe where the standard of education among all classes is higher than in Denmark. For the greater pare of the present century there was no country where it was as high. A compulsory system of national education, practically free, has been established since 1815. But education for the many really dates back to 1518, when Christian 11. caused free schools to be established in all the towns. These '•Latin Schools" during lost century were but ill-furnished with funds, and the pupils had themselves to earn the money necessary to the maintenance of. the schools. The scholars used to go round the villages with a money-box soliciting contributions, and by acting as choristers in churches, mutes at funerals, and glee singers at weddings, they earned the means of paying for their education. The enthusiasm for learning woe so great among the peasantry that it was no uncommon thing for father and son to be pupils in the same class ; and it is on record that a Jutland parson in the last century attended school from his seventh to his thirty-seventh year. In Denmark, however, we take our time about most things; matrimonial engagements frequently last a quarter of a century, and when country folks marry after anything less than a five years engagement, the gossips are sure to predict that they will repent at leisure after marrying in such haste. During the present century education has been taken under the direct charge of the State, with the result that the percentage of illiterate people in the population is practically nil. No one there signs his name with a cross. The University of Copenhagen, which exercises a general power of supervision and inspection over the

whole system. is itself conducted on liberal and enlightens i principles. All lectures are free to the students and the public generally, with the exception of a few referring to purely professional subjects. And it will interest my lady-hearers to know that since 1874, the same year in which the New Zealand University Act was pissed, the University of Copenhagen has given access to women on equal terms with man to all branches of the curriculum, and they have enjoyed the right of graduation in all the faculties with the one exception of theology, tlie exception being grounded doubtless on respect for St. Paul's inhibition against women preachers.

The form of art in which Denmark is pre-eminent is the drama. Her architecture is crudely imitative ; her painters belong to the Dusseldorf school; and though Bertel Thorvaldsen is probably justtty claimed as the greatest sculptor of the 19th century, his genius is rather classical than Teutonic. But Danish drama is essentially national, and even aggressively Danish. Edmund Gosse. the professoi- of poetry at Cambridge, and William Archer, the eminent dramatic critic, agree in declaring that the Danish stage is the home of the highest dramatic art in Europe. The dearan, in Denmark occupies much the same place in the affections of the people as it did in England in the time of Shakespeare. In it the nation's intellectual and emotional ideals find true and full expression. It's taste has never been vitiated by German sensationalism or French licentiousness. The people's devotion to the art is undivided; no section stands aioof or has ever dreamed of suggesting that the stage is immoral. The Thespis of the Danish drama was Ludwig Holberg, to whose versatile genius we owe a series of comedies unsurpassed for broad homely humour, genre-painting and genial political satire outside the page of Moliere. Since Holberg'a time a succession of native dramatists have held the stage with a series of plays, original, actual and national, plays that show the very age and body of the time, his form and" pressure, and never in those two centuries has the Danish actormanager found it necessary even for brief periods to resort to thinly veiled adaptations from the French or clumsy translations from the German. The Royal Theatre is & state institution; its actors are civil servants and they receive substantial emoluments in their career, and after twenty-five years service can retire on liberal pensions. The veteran does not need to "lag superfluous on the stage." The stage in Denmark has always been regarded as an honourable calling that confers rather than diminishes social consideration, nor does the position of actors as civil servants, appear in any sense to act as a check upon the free expression of opinion. There is no censorship over the Danish drama. On the contrary, our playwrights use the fierce political controversies that at times divide the capital as the most fertile source of inspiration, and dramatic satire, which is impotent in England, is in Denmark as powerful a political weapon as it was in Greece in the days of Aristophanes. The dependence of our actoro on the State has helped more than anything else to preserve among them a high ideal in art. For it is not true there that " The drama's rules the drama's patrons give, And they who live to please, must please to live.'

But I fear my discourse becomes tedious as a tale twice told. These, you will say, perhaps, are but the parish politics of an insignificant little State that occupies but a tiny patch on the map of Europe. It ia true it was not always so ; but it is a long cry to the days of King Knut, when he ruled from the. Gulf of Riga to the Bristol Channel, and the Baltic Sea was only a Danish lake. The greatness of my country must be sought, alas, rather in her past than in her future. She will never be effaced from the map of Europe, the possession of the key to the Sound will preserve her national existence even though her territories should dwindle to a few square miles round the batteries of Elainore. But probably all the future holds in store for her is to be ignominiously "neutralised" like Belgium, and to sink into a safe but inglorious place under the protecting segis of the high contracting powers ; yet if her political life is in its decay, her intellectual life is still full of vigour* The society of her capital is still pre-eminent in northern Europe for men of the most reSned intellectual culture and women of polished wit and debonair. Nor has little Denmark yet lost, like Holland or Spain or Sweden, the capacity for producing great men. It is not to be forgotten that in this century alone she has given us a scholar like Rask, who did for philology what Newton did for physics; a humanist like Nicolai Madvig ; a musician like Nils Gade. flertel l'horvaldsen, the greatest sculptor since the Italian Renaissance ; the inventor of electro-magnetism, to whoae initiative the world owes telegraphy ; Hans Christian Andersen, the sweet souled teller of fairy tales—these too were Dane 3. And in the sphere of action we have given to Germany the greatest general since Wellington, the Count yon Moltke. It is true JOenmark herself is not likely again to win laurels on the field of battle or to call back the days of her great admirals, Nile Juul and Thordenskjold. But the national spirit is still full of hope and strength. The simple Danish peasant still believes in Holger Danske, the valiant paladin of Charlemagne, the mythical champion of Denmark. In the deepest dungeon Elsiuore he sits, his aged head bowed on his breast, his long white beard rooted fast in the stone floor at his feet. And when the crisis comes in Denmark's fate, when the day of her Armageddon arrives, he will rouse himself from his thousand years of slumber, and, as he rises in his wrath and uproots his beard he will shake' the Towers of Elsinore to their foundations and the shock will thrill the land, and fire, with leaping flames of patriotism, the people's blood. But alas, when in 1807 a great nation with which we were at peace stole into the sound and laid our capital in ruins, Holger Danske woke not. When the Congress of Vienna in 1815 robbed us of Norway, Holger Danske slumbered on. And when on Dybbol Heights in 1866 our gallant little army lay crushed beneath the iron heel of Austria and the mailed fist of Prussia, Holger Danske only stirred in fiis sleep. Dire indeed must be the calamity that awaits my country before Holger Danske can awake if the disasters -of the last century have failed to rouse him from his long slumber. But loyal Danes still hope, still believe a great future for their country, still declare the spirit of the nation's champion in the-dungeon of Elsinore is not dead, but only sleepeth.