is rural Sweden in miniature. It is a patriotic and scientific
enterprise, conceived and undertaken by the late Dr. Artur Hazelius,
an eminent ethnologist, for the purpose of preserving the habits and
customs of the Scandinavian races. In no country of Europe, excepting
perhaps Russia and Turkey, have the people adhered to the manner and
costumes of their fathers so tenaciously as in Sweden, and the life of
past generations is preserved in its picturesqueness. The conservatism
of the people, their tenacious preference for their own ways and means
has kept out innovations, and very few changes have been made since
the beginning of the eighteenth century. But fearing that the peasants
of Sweden, like all other peoples, would sooner or later surrender to
modern fashions, Dr. Hazelius attempted to collect at Skansen actual
types representing every industry, activity, and national trait. His
thought was expressed in a motto inscribed over one of the gates of
this outdoor museum:

"The day will come when all our gold will not be sufficient to buy an
accurate picture of the times long past."

He procured from the king a rocky plateau on the edge of a royal park
known as _Djurgarden_, covered with crippled pines and resembling the
wild, uncultivated, neglected landscape in Dalecaria or Norrland,
the two most interesting portions of Sweden. By careful landscape
gardening, without destroying its natural beauty, he introduced broad
paths, restaurants, cafes, band stands, and other places for the merry
to meet and hold their festivals, and for the students to sing their
songs, and he reserved a part of the grounds in its natural condition,
where the lovers of nature can find a quiet retreat among the gloom
of a pine grove. It has become the most popular resort in Sweden,
particularly in the long summer evenings, and when a man can not reach