t was ridiculous. It was claimed by them that all was humbug in
America, that it was the paradise of scoundrels, cheats and rascals, and
that nothing good could possibly come out of it. They looked upon
emigrants almost as criminals, and to contradict them was a sure means
of incurring their personal enmity and even insult.

I remember a conversation at an evening party in Naesby between a
learned doctor and myself. He started with a proposition that it was
wrong to leave one's native country, because God has placed us there,
and, although the lot of the majority might be very hard, it was still
their duty to remain to toil and pray, and even starve, if necessary,
because we owed it to the country which had given us birth. In reply I
referred to one of the first commandments of the Bible, that men should
multiply, go out and fill up the earth; that if it were wrong for Swedes
to emigrate, it was equally wrong for the English, the Germans, the
Spaniards and even our progenitors, the ancient Arians, and if so,
what would the result be? Portions of this bountiful earth would be
overcrowded, privation, crime, bloodshed and misery would follow, while
other continents would lie idle. If it had been wrong to emigrate,
America, which to-day is the larder and granary of the world, would have
remained in the possession of a few savages. My argument was of no
avail; the doctor, otherwise a kind and humane man, would rather see his
poor countrymen subsist on bread made partly out of bark, which hundreds
of them actually did at that very time in one of the Swedish provinces,
than have them go to America, where millions upon millions of acres of
fertile lands only awaited the labor of their strong arms to yield an
abundance, not only for themselves, but also for the poor millions of
Europe.

Hard as it is for the individual to change habits of long standing, it
is still harder for nations and races to free themselves from prejudices
centuries old, especially in a small country like Sweden, isolated from
the great nations and thoroughfares of the world. The importance of a
military officer in Sweden dates from an age when the common soldier was
simply an ignorant machine, and the difference between "a faithful
servant of the king" and a common mortal was immense. The common mortal
of to-day, however, is climbing bravely up towards the military
demi-god. To command a company, or even a regiment, in modern warfare,
especially in times