Reminiscences Part 9

The only profit I derived from my connection with this business was that I gained the respect and confidence of the Dutch capitalists, who very soon understood that they would have been all right if they had followed my advice. Therefore, when another Dutch company, known as the Minnesota Land Company, shortly afterward was brought to the verge of ruin by mismanagement, the affairs of this company were intrusted to my hands, and when the Maxwell Land Grant Company of New Mexico, which also consisted of Dutch capitalists, got into similar trouble they appointed me American manager of the affairs of that company, to which I shall refer further on.

Soon after my return to Sweden in the fall of 1873 I became interested in an important business enterprise near my old home. A few years before this a number of Englishmen had organized a stock company for the purpose of draining a big swamp, and a lake called Hammarsjo, in the vicinity of Christianstad. After expending a large sum of money the company failed to accomplish the undertaking. An officer in the Danish army, Captain M. Rovsing, who had had experience in that kind of work, in company with myself bought all the privileges and rights as well as the plant and material of the English company, and the work was completed under the supervision of Captain Rovsing in the latter part of 1875. This Captain Rovsing was not only a firstcla.s.s engineer, but also an able and good man in other respects. I cannot tell whether it is luck or something else, but it is certain that I have always had the good fortune to enter into close business connections, and to form ties of intimate friendship, with persons distinguished by the highest sense of honor and integrity, and of those acquaintances Captain Rovsing occupies one of the foremost places.

During a part of this time I also contributed some time and work toward colonizing the province of Manitoba, and thereby gave an impetus to the establishment of the first Icelandic colony in the Northwest.

In the spring of 1874 we moved to Gothenburg, where we stayed until the work at Hammersjo was completed, and in January, 1876, we said good-bye to Sweden, and arrived in America after a stormy voyage of nineteen days across the Atlantic. For sixteen days the storm was so violent that the life-boats and everything which was loose on the deck was swept away by the waves, and the officers serving during the night had to lash themselves to the rigging by ropes, not daring to rely on their hands and feet.

It is strange how easily people in the course of time get used even to the most unpleasant circ.u.mstances. This was ill.u.s.trated in a striking manner by the few cabin pa.s.sengers who sat packed together in the cabin during this storm. After a couple of weeks we got so used to it that we finally found our voyage quite endurable. Still we were very glad when the beautiful steamer Circa.s.sian of the Allan Line brought us safely to sh.o.r.e in Portland, Me. A few days more on rail, and we were again safe and sound in our dear Minnesota.

CHAPTER XIII.

Gra.s.shopper Ravages in Minnesota--The Presidential Election--Chosen Presidential Elector--Minnesota _Stats Tidning_--_Svenska Tribunen_ in Chicago--Farm in Northwestern Minnesota--Journalistic Work.

"The world do move" nowadays, and most emphatically so in the great American Northwest. An absence of four years is almost enough to bury one out of sight, at least that is what I found on returning to Minnesota. The crisis of 1873 had left my finances in anything but a flourishing condition, to which was added the ravages of the gra.s.shoppers, which caused considerable losses to me on my farm at Litchfield, that being about the only property I then owned.

My attention was soon drawn from these private reverses to public affairs. The first steps toward re-entering the field of politics was my nomination for presidential elector by the Republican state convention, held at St. Paul in the summer of 1876. At the request of the Republican state central committee, I took an active part in the campaign that followed, as in fact I had done at every previous election since my residence in this state, but this time I spent the whole autumn in making a thorough political canva.s.s through most of the Scandinavian settlements in the state. During that canva.s.s it was my good fortune for a long time to be a.s.sociated with the late William Windom, then a United States senator, and afterward twice secretary of the treasury.

Mr. Windom was at that time in the very prime of his n.o.ble manhood; his fine mental and physical endowments made him an object of love and veneration among the people. Though a man of the purest character and exemplary life, he was a pleasant, boon companion, fond of a joke and a good story, liberal and charitable in his judgment of others, easy and polite in his manners, open-hearted and kind toward all. He was a large, broad-shouldered man, weighing over two hundred pounds, with a high forehead, dark eyes, and smoothly shaved face. As a speaker he was earnest, though quiet, fluent and humorous. He never used tobacco or spirits in any form. We traveled together in all sorts of conveyances, and held meetings in country stores and school houses; ate and slept in the lowly cabins of the farmers, but everywhere Mr. Windom felt at home, and made every body else feel at ease also. I was afterward with him often and in many places,--from the executive mansion in Washington to the frontier cabin in the west,--and for the last time in New York city, when he went there in August, 1890, to save the nation from a financial crisis, but never did I notice any difference in his conduct toward the humblest laborer or the highest in power. In sorrow and adversity he was a tender friend; in manners he was a Chesterfield; in the senate a Roman, and in the treasury department a Hamilton. By his death the nation, the state of Minnesota, and his numerous friends, among whom for many years I had the honor to be counted, sustained a heavy loss.

Soon after the close of the campaign I commenced to publish a Swedish weekly newspaper called _Minnesota Stats Tidning_, in Minneapolis, to which place I had just removed with my family, and continued as its chief editor until the summer of 1881.

In 1877 friends in Chicago and myself started another Swedish weekly, called _Svenska Tribunen_, in that city, and for some time I had the actual management of both papers, dividing my time between Minneapolis and Chicago. My aim in this journalistic work was mainly to instruct and educate my countrymen in such matters as might promote their well-being and make them good American citizens. The _Stats Tidning_, or at least a part of it, gradually became a kind of catechism on law and political economy, containing information under the heading "Questions and Answers." This was intended especially for the Swedish farmers in the state. If a farmer was in doubt as to his legal rights in the case of a road, a fence, the draining of a marsh, or wished to know how to cure a sick horse or other animal, or how he could get money sent from Sweden, or if he wished advice or information on any other question relating to everyday life, especially if he got into trouble of some kind, he would write to the _Stats Tidning_ for the desired information. Such letters were then printed in condensed form and followed by short, clear, pointed answers, and, so far, I have not heard of a single person being misled by those answers. On the other hand, I know that the public, and more especially the newcomers, reaped very great benefits from them. Few persons have any idea of how irksome and laborious this kind of journalism is, and at times I was on the point of giving it up in despair. As an example I will relate one little incident connected with this work. A farmer in a neighboring county had, through ignorance of the homestead law, met with difficulties in securing t.i.tle to his claim.

As usual he wrote to the _Stats Tidning_, and received the desired information just in time to save his property, which was worth over $1,000. On a visit to Minneapolis a short time afterward his feeling of grat.i.tude directed him to the office of the paper to express his thanks.

In a conversation with him I found that he had never subscribed for the paper himself, but was in the habit of going to his neighbor every Sat.u.r.day afternoon to read it. I asked if it would not be well for _him_ to subscribe for it also; it might happen to contain useful information in the future, and he could afford to pay for it. To this he answered: "No, I cannot do that, for I have not much time to read, and if I want to read I have some back numbers of a church paper, from Sweden, and should I want to read answers to any questions I can borrow a copy of your paper from my neighbor." So highly did this good and pious farmer, from a financial point of view, appreciate information which had saved him his home. In my opinion such people do not deserve reproach, but sympathy on account of their gross ignorance. It is also a fact, that, during all this time, the income received from the paper did not cover its expenses, and if it had not been for other resources the enterprise would have failed even at the very climax of its popularity.

After five years of untiring journalistic work I was only too glad of an opportunity to sell the paper in the spring of 1881 to a publishing company, which soon moved the plant to St. Paul. My former a.s.sociates, Messrs. Lunnow and Soderstrom, soon after commenced the publication of a new Swedish weekly, called _Svenska Folkets Tidning_, which has now a larger circulation than any other Swedish paper in our state. Having sold my share in the _Svenska Tribunen_ in Chicago a few years before, and thus being no longer connected with any newspapers, I found more time to devote to my wheat farm in the Red River valley.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FARM IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY.]

CHAPTER XIV.

I am Appointed Consul-General to India--a.s.sa.s.sination of Garfield--Departure for India--My Stay in Chicago and Washington--Paris and Versailles--Rome--Naples--Pompeii--From Naples to Alexandria--Interesting Acquaintances on the Voyage--The First Impressions in Egypt.

In the morning papers of July 2, 1881, a telegram from Washington announced that President Garfield had appointed me consul-general to India, in the cabinet meeting of the previous evening. The same telegram also announced that the president had left Washington for New England, where he intended to spend his summer vacation in the country. It was with mingled feelings of satisfaction and misgiving that I faced the opportunity to satisfy my longing to see the wonderful Orient, especially India, in which country the missionary Dr. Fjellstedt had aroused my childish interest, as stated in the beginning of these reminiscences. After consulting wife and children concerning this, to us, important news, I walked down town, receiving congratulations from friends and acquaintances on the way, and, arriving at one of the newspaper offices, I found a large crowd of people eagerly reading on a bulletin-board a dispatch to the effect that President Garfield had been shot by Guiteau. The news caused an excitement and consternation almost as intense as that produced by the a.s.sa.s.sination of Lincoln. Telegrams were received from Washington continually, and outside the newspaper offices were placed bulletins describing the condition of the wounded president, who was very popular with the American people. The last telegram of that day announced that he was very low, and would probably die before morning. The next morning the dispatches announced that the president was still living, and that on the previous evening, believing that he had only a few more hours to live, he had caused to be made out my own and four other commissions and had signed them with his dying hand. I feel justified in narrating this in detail, inasmuch as I am in possession of the doc.u.ment which contains the last official signature of our second martyred president, and which is a very dear treasure to me.

Believing that it will interest the reader to see the last signature of President Garfield, I submit a photographic fac-simile of the same.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GARFIELD'S SIGNATURE.]

I had only one month to prepare for the journey, and on account of the long and expensive voyage, it was decided, in family council, that I should go alone, leaving wife and children in Minneapolis. It was also understood that I would only be absent about one year, for it was hardly to be expected that a person of my age could stand the dangerous climate of India much longer.

The 17th of August, 1881, was an important day for our little family, for on that day I left my home for a journey of thirteen thousand miles,--to distant Calcutta, the capital of India. Pa.s.sing through Chicago on the following day, a number of my Swedish friends at that place had arranged a splendid banquet in my honor. About sixty of us spent a most delightful evening around the bountiful table; but what I prized more highly than anything else were the friendly and cordial feelings which were expressed in speech and song.

In Washington I spent a few days in order to receive the last instructions from the state department. Hon. W. Windom, who was secretary of the treasury under the administration of Garfield, accompanied me to the White house, where the president was yet hovering between life and death. We were not admitted to the inner room, which was separated from the front room only by draperies. I can vividly recall the picture of the president's n.o.ble wife as she stepped out to us, and, with an expression of the deepest suffering, affection and hope in her face, told us that the patient had taken a few spoonfuls of broth, and that he now felt much better, and would soon recover. Thus life and hope often build air-castles which are destined to be torn down again by the cruel hand of fate.

When the steamer touched the coast of Ireland the first news which the eager pa.s.sengers received was that the president was still living and had been taken to a place on the coast. The voyage across the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool was a pleasure trip in every respect, and was favored by the most delightful weather. On board the White Star Line steamer Celtic,--a veritable palace of its kind,--the pa.s.senger had all he could wish, as far as solidity, speed, reliability, order, comfort, and good treatment are concerned. On September 9th I arrived in Paris.

It seemed to me as if it had been only a couple of days since I was sitting in the midst of that happy company of friends in Chicago, whose tender and cordial farewell still sounded as an echo in my ears--or maybe in my heart. Nevertheless I was already in the grand and happy capital of the third French republic.

I had time and opportunity to stay a few days in the large cities through which I pa.s.sed, each one of which left a particular impression on my mind, and, although they are similar in most respects, each of them has its peculiarities, especially with regard to the character, temperament and customs of the people. I cannot refrain from describing a few of them. Washington did not seem to be itself when I pa.s.sed through it, a cloud of sadness and mourning brooding over it on account of the critical condition of the president. Boston is prim and stiff, and seems like a place of learning. New York is a turmoil of pleasure and business. "Hurry up" seems to be written in every face; "tumble harum-scarum in the ever-changing panorama of the world!" Liverpool is a good deal like New York, but on a smaller scale. London is the stiff colossus of Europe. Amsterdam and Rotterdam bear the stamp of thrift, cleanliness, earnestness, and comfort. Antwerp and Brussels that of joyous abandonment. Paris includes everything which is worth seeing in the others, and shows everything in gayer colors and to greater perfection.

I remained only four days in the city on the Seine, and the impressions of such a short stay are naturally fleeting and probably even unreliable. Paris has its imposing monuments from the days of Louis XIV.

and the two Napoleons, which glorify the exploits of war; it has its beautiful churches, palaces and museums like other great cities; but in my eyes the greatness of Paris is to be found in her boulevards and public promenades. I also made a visit to Versailles, the wonderful city of palaces, and spent a day among the great monuments of grandeur and royalty, misery and tyranny. As works of art they are grand and beautiful, but their historical significance produce varied feelings.

In the French capital everything seemed to indicate comfort and satisfaction. The workman of Paris is a gentleman in the best sense of the word. He feels free, independent, and proud in the consciousness that he is a part of the state. Soldiers were no longer to be seen in the city; they being garrisoned at Versailles and other neighboring cities; still there has never before been such a feeling of profound peace and security in France. Liberty is a great educator. The style, name, and other indications of the empire are pa.s.sing away, and the republic has put its stamp on Paris. The commune is no longer feared, for the state is no longer an enemy of the people, but a protector of its rights and liberty. Fortunate Paris! Happy France!

But I must hurry on, in order to reach the end of my long journey. On the 13th of September I saw the majestic Alps with their snow-clad summits, which seemed to touch the very vault of heaven. The same day I pa.s.sed through the tunnel at Mont Cenis, and arrived the following day at Rome, via Turin and Florence. And is this great and glorious Rome?

Yes! These walls, ruins, palaces, and Sabine hills,--aye, the very air I breathe,--all this belongs to the eternal city. From the window of my room in Hotel Malori I can read the signs,--"Via di Capo le Care," "Via Gregoriana," etc., and among these an index pointing to the Rome and Tivoli street-car line. Indeed, I have seen the great city of Rome, with its churches, statues, paintings, and ancient ruins and catacombs; the little monument to the Swedish Queen Christina in the St. Peter's church; the triumphal arch which commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem, and the temple of Vesta where the ancient vestal virgins guarded the sacred fire. Two thousand years thus pa.s.sed in review before my eyes in a few days.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROME.]

From Rome I proceeded to Naples. This city is built on the most beautiful bay in the world, and has a population of six hundred thousand inhabitants. It is built in the form of an amphitheatre, with a steep decline toward the water. In the south we see the island of Capri, fifteen miles distant, and on the east coast the volcano Vesuvius, which, by its threatening clouds of smoke, seems to obscure the eastern part of beautiful Naples, although it lies fourteen miles distant from the city. Long before the time of Christ the bay looked about the same as it does now. The chief cities around it at that time were Naples, Herculaneum and Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius, however, did not look as it does now, but rose as a green hill, called "La Somma," and served as a summer resort for many wealthy Roman patricians. The city of Pompeii had about forty thousand inhabitants. On August 23, A.D. 79, terrific rumblings were heard from the interior of La Somma, the summit of which suddenly burst open, and a pillar of ashes, steam, and red-hot rocks shot up through the opening to a great height, and fell, scattering itself over the surrounding country, while streams of melted lava rolled down the hill-sides and buried Herculaneum and everything in it under a layer of ashes and lava to the depth of eighty feet. Toward night the eruptions increased in force, and before morning Pompeii and some smaller towns were also buried under the glowing rivers of volcanic rocks, ashes and mud.

The remarkable history of this place absorbed my mind as I pa.s.sed through the two thousand years-old streets of Pompeii, which, in the course of this century have again been brought to light by the removal of the petrified ashes and other volcanic matter. The ancient city now looks a good deal as it did eighteen hundred years ago. It is situated on a round knoll, and measures three miles in circ.u.mference. The houses are built of stone, and only one story high, with roofs of brick and floors of cut stone, just as the modern houses in that vicinity are built to-day. Every house has an open court in the center, and all aisles and doors lead to this. Gla.s.s windows were not used, but the rooms received light from the open court, which could be covered by canva.s.s as a protection against the sun and rain. I measured the streets. They proved to be twelve feet wide, with a four-foot-wide sidewalk on either side. The paving consisted of boulders, with a flat surface about twenty inches in diameter, and contained deep grooves made by the chariot wheels. The houses were standing in their original condition, with fresco paintings on the walls and statues in their proper niches. The temples with their sacrificial altars, the theatres, the court, the council-house, and all other public buildings were adorned with marble pillars and choice works of sculpture. I saw a barber-shop with chairs, niches for the soap and mugs, and the waiting sofa. In a baker's house I saw the oven, the dough-trough, scales, and petrified loaves of bread. In a butcher shop were a saw, a knife, and other tools. There were also furniture, vessels for cooking, bowls, grain, pieces of rope, and plaster of Paris casts of the human bodies which had been found, generally prostrate, with the face pressed against the ground. There lies a cast of a man with a pleasant smile on his lips; he must have pa.s.sed unconsciously from sleep to death. But it is fruitless to try and describe this remarkable place which has no parallel on the face of the earth. I heard the Swedish language spoken in this city of the dead, and had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Alderman Tornquist and wife, from Wimmerby, and a Doctor Viden and his daughter, from Hernosand. Thus the living meet among the dead, representatives of the new times stand face to face with the dead of antiquity, children of the cool North in the sunny South. What a wonderful world this is, to be sure!

The 17th of September I embarked on board the steamer La Seyne, destined for Alexandria in Egypt. The warm, Italian noonday sun poured down its dazzling rays; we were surrounded on all sides by ships and steamers carrying the flags of all nations; hundreds of fishing crafts were sailing out of the harbor, and in the distance the mighty volcano Vesuvius towered in imposing majesty above the vine-clad hills. There was a life and a traffic which it is difficult to describe. While La Seyne was lying at anchor for several hours out in the bay, Italian singers in their boats swarmed around the ship and entertained the pa.s.sengers with music. Other boats contained three or four men each, who begged the pa.s.sengers to throw coins into the water. As soon as a coin was thrown, down dived one of the men to the bottom, and invariably returned with the coin in his mouth although the water was very deep, perhaps from seventy-five to one hundred feet. The voyage across the Mediterranean was very pleasant, especially in the vicinity of the island of Sicily. The deep blue sky, the orange groves and vineyards on the island, and the neat, white cottages,--all gave an impression of indescribable tranquility and happiness.

On this voyage, which lasted three days, I became acquainted with several interesting persons, among others with a Professor Santamaria, professor in an university in Egypt, and his family, and with a Jesuit priest, Miechen by name. By birth a French n.o.bleman of a very old and rich family, he had been educated for a military life, and had served in the army with distinction, and in the late Franco-German war he had been advanced to the rank of major, although he was only thirty years of age.

But suddenly he had been seized with religious enthusiasm, and had given up his ill.u.s.trious family name, renounced his fortune, his honors, and the brilliant military career which lay open to him, in order to become a priest. After two years of theological studies he was ordained a priest, and admitted into the Jesuit order.

He had now been ordered to supply himself with a full set of certain scientific instruments, and with them to repair to Cairo, Egypt, where he would receive further orders. I talked a great deal with this man. He spoke English fluently, and was equally familiar with nearly all the other European languages. He was no fanatic or religious crank, but a polished, cultured gentleman, who had seen and learned to know the world, reaped its honors and tasted its allurements, and he was evidently as liberal and tolerant as myself. And this man went to a field of action of which he had no knowledge whatsoever. Probably an honorable position as professor in a university was awaiting him, or perhaps he would have to go to some isolated mountain to observe a phenomenon of nature in the interest of science, or penetrate a malarious wilderness as missionary among savages, where he would be debarred from all intercourse with civilized people, and deprived of all the comforts and conveniences to which he had been used during his previous life. Still he went willingly and joyfully to his work, completely indifferent as to his fate, thoroughly convinced that he was on the path of duty--to accomplish what G.o.d intended he should do. I was on my way to a great country and a court as the representative of one of the greatest nations on earth, but when I walked the deck arm in arm with this humble priest, I felt my inferiority compared with him, and I actually considered his position enviable. On the same voyage I became acquainted with a Danish traveler,--A. d'Irgens-Bergh,--who afterward met me in India, where we visited many places of interest together, and established a friendship which afforded both of us much pleasure.

On the morning of September 21st the coast of Egypt appeared in sight.

There is Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, and formerly renowned for its commerce, and as the centre of learning and culture of the then known world. Even now this city is grand and beautiful, although its beauty and style are different from anything else that I have seen. We often form conceptions of things which we have not seen, but which are interesting to us, and when we afterward find that those conceptions are wrong we feel disappointed. Thus I had always thought of Egypt as a country of a dark tone of color, probably on account of the fertility of the soil of the valley of the Nile, since we Northerners find that fertile soil is dark and poor soil of a lighter color.

Therefore I could hardly believe my own eyes when everything I saw on the sh.o.r.e looked white. Not only the houses, palaces, and huts, but even the roads and the fields, all had a white color.

As we neared the harbor, and even before the pilot came on board, we noticed that all the flags were at half-mast. As soon as I landed and had shown my pa.s.sport to the customs officer an elegant equipage was placed at my disposal under the charge of a dragoman, and we drove to the office of the American consulate, where also the flag was at half-mast. The sad occasion for this soon became apparent. President Garfield had died during my voyage across the Mediterranean, and the whole civilized world was in mourning.

CHAPTER XV.

Alexandria and its Monuments--The Egyptian "Fellahs"--The Mohammedans and Their Religion--The Voyage Through the Suez Ca.n.a.l--The Red Sea--The Indian Ocean--The Arrival at Calcutta.

I was now in Africa and Egypt, among the remnants of ancient glory of which I had read so much, and which I so often had longed to see, in the wonder-land of Egypt, with which every Christian child is made acquainted through the first lessons in Bible history, the country to which Joseph was carried as a slave, and whose actual ruler he finally became by dint of his wisdom and virtue. I was in the Nile valley where Pharaoh built his magazines and stored up grain for the seven years of famine, and whence Moses conducted the children of Israel by means of "a pillar of a cloud and a pillar of fire." In the land of the pyramids everything seemed strange and wonderful, and different from anything I had seen before. The streets crowded with people, the bazaars, the oriental costumes, the Babylonian confusion of all the tongues of the earth,--all this combined made on me an overwhelming impression.

Cleopatra's needle; Pompey's pillar; the caravans of camels on their way into the desert; the old graves and catacombs; the palm groves, the oxen turning the old-fashioned water-wheels which carry the water from the Nile for irrigating the fields, just as in the days of Moses,--all this was reproduced in actual, living pictures before my wondering eyes.

Side by side with these remains of the past we meet with the great European improvements of our days,--the large ships in the harbor, the churches, the schools, the universities, the modern markets for trade and commerce, the splendid hotels and exchanges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALEXANDRIA.]

I stopped two days in Alexandria. The second day I visited the summer palace of the khedive, or vice-king, on which occasion a funny incident took place. Like every other foreigner coming to Egypt I had bought a sample of the head-gear generally used in that country, consisting of a red cap called "fez," which is made of very thick, soft felt, and fits very closely to the head. With this cap on and wearing a tightly b.u.t.toned black coat I rode in the equipage already mentioned to the palace. Ishmael Pasha, the former khedive, who had just abdicated and left the country, had been very popular among his servants and adherents. I was of the same size and build as he, my beard was cut like his, and in my red fez I looked so much like him that when our carriage pa.s.sed through the gateway to the palace some of the servants whispered to each other that Khedive Ishmael had returned, and when the coachman stopped at the entrance I was surrounded by a number of servants who greeted me and evinced the greatest joy. The poor creatures soon discovered their mistake. Their good friend the khedive will never return to Egypt, for England and France will not allow it. He was too sincere a friend of his own people, and too independent in dealing with the shareholders of the Suez ca.n.a.l built during his reign.