his emotions were forever coming to the surface. Gustave is, if more
poised, less interesting. He has always been addicted to manly sports
and exercises. He has often been observed to "put up" an excellent
game of tennis at the club in Stockholm. But he is without the alert
and springy step of the old Oscar, whose muscles remained taut and
elastic almost to his dying day. Gustave lacks the literary aptitudes
of his late father, likewise, who left a well-filled book of verse
which admirers all over Europe did into French, German, Italian,
Danish, and even Hungarian. Gustave has not inherited his mother's
musical genius, either. She was at one time a devotee of Wagner, a
disciple of Kant, and always a pious evangelical of the German
cast. From both his parents Gustave received every encouragement to
proficiency in music. Music, to the late Oscar, was, both in theory
and practice, an essential element in the intellectual life. Gustave
is less the artist than the practical king.

He encourages international congresses of every kind to come to
Sweden; he helps the universities and the cause of education
throughout his kingdom; he feels his father's interest in Hedin's
travels through central Asia, but he can give no creative impulse
after his father's grand fashion. Oscar was the man of ideas, the
vitalizer of projects literary, musical, dramatic and scientific. He
made Stockholm the capital of the whole intellectual world. Gustave is
very courteous, affable in a dignified way, impressive as he opens the
Riksdag in royal ermine. He has commenced his reign in simplicity,
rising at eight, breakfasting on coffee and rolls, reading the morning
papers until ten, and reviewing the military with a conscientious
assiduity. His note is repose both in manner and in speech, in
striking contrast with the late Oscar, who was majestic in the very
way he had of eating cold meat at supper, and whose height of six feet