Better collections of animals and exotic plants than are possessed by the combined cities of New York, Boston, and Chicago

The city of Abo, about five miles from the sea, contains a population of over 20,000 souls. It has good hotels, stores, manufacturing establishments, schools, parks, and fountains; a botanical garden, a theatre, telegraph lines, a daily newspaper, and a fine railroad depot. On either side of the river leading to the sea are numerous fine private residences having their docks, yachts, and bath houses, and surrounded by lawns and flowers, rivaling Long Branch and surpassing the approaches to the American metropolis. A New Yorker, accustomed to viewing with placid satisfaction the beauties of the shores of his city's harbor, and visiting Finland with the expectation of finding a scene of almost Arctic sterility and hyperborean frosts, soon realizes his mistake.

Helsingfors, the Capital of Finland, contains about 50,000 population, and is the principal distributing city of the country. It has many magnificent five-story stores, two theatres, a military academy, a great university, a telegraph school, an astronomical observatory, electriclights, two daily newspapers, an immense sugar refinery, one of the best hotels in Europe, and better collections of animals and exotic plants than are possessed by the combined cities of New York, Boston, and Chicago.

Demas Barnes: In search of summer breezes in northern Europe. 1887

incomprehensible melancholy of the people of the North

On entering these whitened deserts, a poetic terror takes possession of the soul ; you pause, affrighted, on the threshold of the palace of winter. As you advance in these abodes of cold illusions, of visions, brilliant, though with a silvered rather than a golden light, an indefinable kind of sadness takes possession of the heart ; the failing imagination ceases to create, or its feeble conceptions resemble only the undefined forms of the wanly glittering clouds that meet the eye.

When the mind reverts from the scenery to itself, it is to partake of the hitherto incomprehensible melancholy of the people of the North ; and to feel, as they feel, the fascination of their monotonous poetry. This initiation into the pleasures of sadness is pain- ful, while it is pleasing ; you follow with slow steps the chariot of death, chaunting hymns of lamentation, yet of hope ; your sorrowing soul lends itself to the illusions around, and sympathises with the objects that meet the sight ; the air, the mist, the water, all produce a novel impression. There is, whether the impression be made through the organ of smell or of touch, something strange and unusual in the sensa- tion ; it announces to you that you are approaching the confines of the habitable world ; the icy zone is before you, and the polar air pierces even to the heart. This is not agreeable, but it is novel and very strange.

Marquis de Custine's "Empire of the Czar". Curiosities of modern travel; a year-book of adventure. 1844

Such is a Finnish church service

Sunday morning I paid a visit to the church, the exterior of which was under repair. The two great silver crosses on the towers flashed in the sun. There were about half-a-dozen people seated in the great body of the church, formed by the four wings. The high walls are covered with dark, rough deals, on which there are some strange ornamentations in red and green. But where is the clergyman ? Twist your neck, so that the line of sight forms an angle with the horizon of 45°, and you will see, high above the altar, a little, barrel-shaped pulpit, and in this the head and shoulders of the parson. He wears a fur coat and cap, a little white " bib " alone indicating his dignity. He preaches in the peculiar Finnish tongue, the many "ä's" of which impart to it a very strange sonorousness. But what has become of the parson ? In the middle of the sermon he has suddenly disappeared in the barrel ; in about a minute he re appears, and continues where he left off. This is one of the prescribed forms of the Finnish ritual. Then an attempt is made to sing a hymn, previous to which a figure clad in furs, sitting to the right of the altar, has attached the number to a moveable disk. This over, the parson proceeds with his drawling address. Such is a Finnish church service.

Sophus Tromholt: Under the rays of the aurora borealis : in the land of the Lapps and Kvaens. Vol. II. 1885

He sold his farm to his brother

In Kuopio we met with some good people, particularly a peasant, of whom I had formerly heard much. He is an active promoter of the cause of God in Finland. After he was brought to the knowledge of the truth, he formed the resolution of devoting himself wholly to the cause of God among his countrymen. He sold his farm to his brother, for a reasonable price, on condition that he would furnish him with clothes and board, provide a warm room for him, and feed his horse. His money lies at interest in his brother’s hand, and he devotes the annual income to the cause of religion. His chief object is the circulation of Tracts. He has had nine or ten of our best Tracts translated into Finnish, and printed at his own expense, among which is The Dairyman’s-Daughter. As soon as he gets a quantity of Tracts ready, he puts his horse to his cart, and sets off. selling them, and giving them away all over the country. He also exhorts the people to flee from the wrath to come, and has been useful in the conversion of some. He is connected with all the good people within his circle, visits them, and encourages them to persevere in the way of the Lord. In short, he is almost an Apostle. He has also borne the expense of a young man’s education at Abo, who promises to be a. most useful preacher of the Gospel, and who at present assists in translating his Tracts and getting them printed.

Annual report of the New York Religious Tract Society. ... 1816/17-1818/19.

There is only one thing to be seen — the uncouth Gothic cathedral

Abo is a deserted village : a few vessels lie idly in the harbor ; one or two small hotels wait idly on the quay. In the broad, silent streets, the houses, built of wood, are only one story high and very far apart, their doorways level with the ground. There is only one thing to be seen — the uncouth Gothic cathedral ; and unless one is in a mood for horrors it may better be avoided, for in the crypt the dead stand dressed in the garb of the living, as they do in the ghastly church of the Capucines at Rome and the cemetery at Palermo.

By the captain's advice we decided on a drive to the park of Runsala, four or five miles away, which would at least take us to fresh fields and pastures new. The national "droschkies" are small, narrow, dingy one-horse vehicles which possess unlimited capacity for jolt and rattle ; are started at full gallop, and continued at as breathless a pace as if pursued by a pack of wolves. Remonstrance was hopeless, for the drivers talked Finnish, and we did not ; and moreover it is the national pace. However, the park was reached without accident ; and though it has no merit of cultivation, it affords pretty views and shaded walks. The restaurant dinner served on the veranda was rather eccentric in quality and condiment ; but on the whole this excursion is more entertaining than to sit idly on the deck while the steamer pauses in the harbor.

Mrs. S. M. Henry Davis: Norway nights and Russian days. 1887

Finnish sledge

At Hudiksvall, I procured, at the small cost of thirty-six shillings, a kind of sledge, that I had been looking out for during the whole journey, and which I recommend to those who travel so far to the north. It is that in general use in Finland, and is as convenient as the most luxurious carriage. Being narrow, it is not suited for more than one person, but is sufficiently long to admit of his lying in it at full length, and using it as a bed, if he be not inclined to try the comforts of the post-houses. The driver sits on the fore part, which is boarded over, and forms a box large enough to contain a moderate quantity of luggage. Throughout the north of Sweden, the form of the sledge varies every hundred miles, and the shape adopted in one part is unsuited to the style of country in another, but the Finnish sledge answers for hill or plain, and is rarely stopped by any depth of snow.

Arthur Dillon: A winter in Iceland and Lapland. v.2. 1840

The first intention was to replace the destroyed boats, nets, &c.

F. Uhden remarked to us that the printing of 100,000 copies, by the Bible Society, of the New Testament and the Psalms, in their own language, had made a deep impression on the Finnish people ; but after the ravages committed on the property of unarmed and unoffending fishermen and peasants, during the war, the cry was, ' Can these be the English — our friends ? ' — to which he sometimes replied, ' The English who send you the Bible are not the same persons as the English who carry on the war.'

On their return to England the two gentlemen immediately set on foot a subscription by which nearly £9,000 was raised. The first intention was to replace, as far as the money would go, the destroyed boats, nets, &c. But the failure of the crops in Finland that autumn, and the severity of the succeeding winter, rendered it necessary to expend the greater part in food. This was done, and corn, meal, potatoes, with some clothes, fishing-nets, &c, were purchased and were distributed through resident merchants and the Lutheran clergy. This work of true Christian charity produced the happiest effects. " On behalf of all the suffering poor," wrote one correspondent, " who have received food and clothes out of the £50, I beg to return you their most heartfelt thanks ; ' God bless the English gentlemen ! ' has already been uttered by many lips." "We wish," said another, "to express the joy which this subscription has excited, both amongst us and amongst all our friends who have already been informed of it, not only on account of the relief afforded, but also for the sympathy shown for our country." E. Julin, of Abo, says : " I am sure the feeling of good-will of the Finnish nation towards England and Englishmen, which certainly became weakened during the war, is now regained." Two gentlemen of Birmingham, one of them Joseph Sturge's nephew, who visited, in 1857, the places to which help had been sent, reported to the same effect. " Those feelings," they say, " of hostility and bitterness towards England which were caused by the wanton and unjustifiable destruction of private property by our cruisers during the war, are now being effectually removed by the knowledge that the friendly hand of England has been spontaneously and generously extended towards them, at a time when Finland was suffering from famine and its attendant evils.

Charles Tylor: The Faggot. 1876