made a matter of record. If a servant runs away from her employer,
she can be arrested and fined. Cooks are paid from $4 to $7 a month;
housemaids from $3 to $6 a month; men butlers from $10 to $15;
coachmen from $12 to $16 a month; scullery maids and men of all work
receive corresponding wages.

Nearly all of these domestic customs here related apply to Sweden as
well as Norway, and there are many interesting additional ones. In
Sweden the state dinners at the palace are always at six o'clock. At
nearly all the other courts of Europe it is customary to dine at eight
o'clock. The king's dinners are short, his guests seldom remaining
more than an hour at the table, after which the ladies adjourn to one
of the drawing rooms, the gentlemen to the smoking room, and later
all are entertained by musicians from the opera house or the royal
conservatory. Carriages are usually ordered at ten o'clock. This seems
old-fashioned, but for people who like to go to bed early and those
who are occupied with business all day it is much more sensible than
the custom followed in some cities, where social festivities do not
begin until the hour when the king of Sweden's guests are bidding him
good night.

But everybody complains that the Swedes are drifting away from old
customs and are becoming modernized. The French influence seems to
prevail, and modern Swedish life is becoming an imitation of that of
Paris.

Another of the old customs is for people to indicate their business
upon their visiting cards. You will receive the card of Lawyer Jones,
or Banker Smith, or Music Professor Smith, and so on; and these titles
are also used in addressing them. It would seem rather queer for any