The market at Helsingfors

It is a showery day. Along this stone pier, nearly up to its level, now at high water, lie a hundred fishing-boats, the prow of each touching the pier. Each rude vessel is a residence and a place of business. Looking down into one dark, smoke-begrimed cabin — a junk shop and blacksmith forge in one — you see two men eating. Salt fish in one hand and hard tack in the other, these form a fisherman's lunch. These huge, dark wheels, a foot in diameter, are sometimes strung together by twine passing through a hole in the center of each. Soaked in coffee I have found them palatable, if one be hungry, but the Russian black bread is too much like asphaltum pavement a year old, both in color, density and weight. A wedge and heavy hammer would be needed to break it. The Emperor is said to have kept a block of it, cut into the form of a cube, for a paper weight. Irony, if not iron, is in it. The absence of sweets and other delicacies which ruin American teeth is a compensation for coarse food, and explains the superior integrity and beauty of the teeth of foreign peasantry. Thousands who never saw a tooth-brush have never felt a toothache.

Here are milk-boats with firkins holding a dozen gallons; butter-boats with buckets of butter, nice and yellow ; potato-boats filled with bags and boxes ; fish-boats with nameless and numberless specimens, animate and exanimate. Fish squirming in a net were weighed by steelyards. If there were too many the fish were dropped into the water bucket. Scores of stalls, covered and open, filled the square near the boats. A hundred sunburnt women sold cheap dry goods, fancy ware, or stationery. The greengrocer, the baker, and the farmer sold from their carts as well as from stands.

Edward P. Thwing: Outdoor life in Europe or sketches of seven summers abroad. 1888

The room swarmed with vermin

I had arranged for my onward passage in an office which led me to expect by its appearance and the formalities of the agent, accommodation superior to the Fürst Menchikoff; but imagine my surprise, as I groped my way on board the Abo boat, to find myself among a cargo of oxen, through which I had to work to reach the stern of the vessel. The return of daylight explained this arrangement ; and the good-humoured civility of the little skipper made his craft far more agree able than the haughty exclusiveness and artificial consequence of the Fürst Menchikoff. The vessel was as large, but was decked only fore and aft, the midship being open and appropriated entirely to the transport of cattle ; they proved to be no annoyance, and the unpretending arrangements for the passengers were enhanced by an anxiety to please. Our society was small but agreeable and friendly — a Russian general taking his young wife to Abo to meet her parents ; some other officers, a Swedish baron, a Danish general returning from a mission to St. Petersburg, and two or three students.

At no period of our passage were we really in open water, the islands thickening as we advanced; some barren rocks, and others clothed to the water's edge with fir trees; few inhabited, and those only by solitary fishermen, whose little huts gave the only indications of life. It was a beautiful day, and the waters were as a sheet of glass, showing distinctly the ripples of the numerous wild-fowl as they swam by, and the lazy plunge of the seal as it scrambled off the rocks at our approach. It was the most peaceful scene I have ever witnessed : it was Sunday, and nature was in harmony with the day of rest : the very birds seemed to possess a sense of protection ; for, unalarmed by the steam-boat, they floated on the water within gun-shot, and stood preening them selves on the rocky islets, so close that I could distinguish their varieties with my naked eye. I have made a vow to read this page of the book of nature a little closer; and if ever I have the power, I will spend a month in the spring of the year to learn a little more of these my favourites.

It was evening as we neared Abo, whose now forsaken observatory, perched high on an eminence, we had occasionally caught glimpses of in the distance ; and, after following the sinuosities of a creek imbedded in hills of rock, the town suddenly opened on our view, and we were moored alongside a vessel from Hull. It was a fragment of English ; and, notwithstanding my cosmopolitish feelings, my heart glowed and vibrated as if the chord of home had been touched, the home of my early recollections and affections, for the later ones bore no fruit of promise. Again I was a wanderer in search of shelter, and again I found it in a Society's house; but the rest I required, after the fatigue of the three previous days and exposure at night on the deck, was impossible; for the room swarmed with vermin, which sprang into activity before I lost consciousness in sleep. I passed the night on a bench in the garden, the only safe place I could have found, as the landlord told me, for the whole town is infested with these scourges of rest, beyond all belief.

Edward P. Thompson: Life in Russia; or, The discipline of despotism. 1848

Farther on, the road and the country improve

Since the peace, however, the whole of Finland has become part of the Russian Empire, and is incorporated with the Government of Wyburg. The distance between St. Petersburg and Abo is about 640 versts, and the road from the capital, as far as Wyburg, sandy, dreary, and uninteresting. Wyburg, the capital of the Government which bears its name, carries on some trade in deals, tar, and timber, but in every other respect is unworthy of notice. Farther on, the road and the country improve; and before we reach the Kymen we have to pass through Friederickshamn, where there is a garrison and a good many inhabitants, but no foreign trade. The road to the west of the Kymen is excellent as far as Abo, and the country fertile and variegated in a great degree. When this tract belonged to Sweden, it furnished Stockholm with large supplies of corn, and was considered one of the richest appendages of the Swedish Crown.

We pass through some pretty little towns, such as Louisa, Borgo, and Helsingfors. The celebrated fortress of Sveaborg lies within a mile of Helsingfors; and now that it is in the possession of the Russians, they will no doubt render it perfectly impregnable.

The accommodation generally all through Finland is very bad; and travellers would do well to have a bed in their carriage to be used in case of need, and to have moreover some cold provisions, tea and sugar.

Abo is a bishopric, and contains about 10,000 inhabi tants. It is a town of great antiquity; and in addition to a fine cathedral, they have an Academy, which was founded by Queen Christina, and formely very much resorted to. Under the Swedish Government, Abo served as a place of security for their galley fleet and sea-stores; and its situation, close to the Gulf of Bothnia, is admirably adapted for that purpose. During my short stay there, I received the kindest attentions from the celebrated Professor Porthan, for whom I had letters of introduction.

Thomas Brown: The reminiscences of an old traveller throughout different parts of Europe. 1843

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.