LET'S VISIT FINLAND

for centuries finland was a battleground the theater of war between the conflicting imperial ambitions of Sweden and Russia but in 1807 it became part of the Russian Empire as a self-governing Duchy until in 1917 revolution overthrew the Czarist regime and Finland gained her independence the ravages of war and the destruction by innumerable fires have left little of historic interest in Helsing force the Capitol though there still exists a number of the old wooden houses resting solidly on huge granite foundations and gracing many of the side streets some of the early efforts of Finnish architects to utilize the national reserves of granite as a building material are also still standing but in the streets josh keyes which might have stepped from a page of Russian history still ply for hire in the shadow of an equally russian church and the glittering white Cathedral of some nickel asst which dominates the old city but helsing forces building a new city she is struggling to break away from the ornate cosmopolitan influence of foreign domination and create an original individual style of her own in the market square the railway station a challenging structure stands boldly conceived in red granite the parliament building is simple and ostia while the many dazzling white factories show no allegiance either to a classical order romantic pattern a bird's-eye view of the new suburbs shows the carefully planned housing estates stretching away into beautiful surroundings of forest and lake they consist almost entirely of severely design blocks of flats built of reinforced concrete the roads between are pleasantly laid out with trees and vivid beds of flowers while on a slight hill rises an impressive Church of granite the harbour lined with up-to-date keys and warehouses the busy streets and imposing offices all give evidence of the commercial importance of hellsing force and as a relief from the strain of city life there are many beautiful parks and gardens containing examples in statuary of Finland's awakening appreciation for art but helsing force besides being the capital is the terminus of a road which leads northward for more than a thousand miles right through the heart of Finland and finally making contact with the port of Lena hamari 300 miles beyond the Polar Circle on the shores of the Arctic Ocean after leaving the capital the road for 20 miles is of concrete winding through pleasantly undulating country where pine and fir woods alternate with land cleared for agriculture machines for reaping are unknown and in consequence the scythe still reign supreme dry the corn sheaves are impaled on wooden poles fixed in the ground and at harvest time they form one of the most striking features of the Finnish countryside the road continues over numerous streams and rivers and usually spans them with a double arched bridge of granite blocks the peasant dwelling from a distance gives a picturesque impression surrounded by golden fields of corn and dark green pine trees but close to they are seen to be rough wooden structures which in their crudeness of construction are reminiscent of the Middle Ages the scene changes gradually after a hundred miles the cornfields slowly giving way to a country that is more hilly more thickly wooded and interspersed with lakes and rivers Finland is called the land of a thousand lakes though actually there are some 60,000 of them and from any hilltop there stretches an imposing panorama of green foliage and sparkling blue water for 300 miles the road runs through similar surroundings until it comes into another district of Corman's we're curious 1 storied windmills stand in great numbers from cure the road skirts the shores of the gulf of bothnia for a short distance and the blue waters are in many places only a few yards from the highway then comes the first and only rarely important town on the whole route all of the great river tumbles down to the Gulf dividing the town in two three and great steel girder bridges have been erected to spin these arms of water the cobblestone streets are likely to snap the strongest car spring and seem to be laid with absolutely no regard to level the buildings including the cathedral or a foot many of them having elaborate and ornate facades and little in common with a domestic architecture of more Western Europe leaving all who the road crosses a number of rivers and is carried over them on bridges which serve both for rail and road demanding extreme caution to prevent a head-on collision down these rivers comes the wealth of Finland as they are used to float the great chunks of timber which are filled far inland from the mighty forests of the interior is drawn a supply of wood which brings to the country of some of 40 million pounds annually the rivers provide the chief method of transporting the timber for many hundreds of miles down to the sawmills on the coast but by the roadside to our stacks waiting to be carted in laura's very soon these logs will be sawn into boys to become in all probability pseudo Elizabethan bungalows in a developed suburban estate the rough dusty road continues to wine through districts where lumbering is the sole occupation the further north we go the less frequent bridges become and rivers have to be crossed in many cases on a primitive type of ferry sturdy cable is stretched from bank to bank running over a pulley at each end of the ferry which is made to move by heaving on a wooden handle suitably shaped to grip the wire the Ferryman's daughter those small nonetheless pulls her weight just as much as the ferryman and his passengers every three years the government auctions these ferries and they're given to the one who will undertake to work them for the ensuing period for the lowest amount so efficiency is hardly to be expected and it's no unusual thing to spend an hour or more crossing a river 50 yards across for a further hundred miles the scene changes to one where once again agriculture is the chief occupation of the peasantry and dotted over the pleasant cornland are many queerly shaped little churches built entirely of wood and painted white pharm dwellings are characterized by the long poles with a bucket on one end and a counterbalance on the other which are used for raising water from the wells haystacks our squat affairs covered with mud and resembling a giant Christmas cake as this crop growing region is left behind the scenery becomes wilder and a robe anemia comes a great thrill as the imaginary line marking the Arctic Circle is passed but the name Arctic is belied by the luxuriant vegetation and the well fed cattle which moves sleepily over the road looking with rather bored curiosity at the approach of a car horses too with glistening golden-haired coats seemed to thrive in these northern climates in the field the almost medieval sledge is used for cutting hay which in summer grows in abundance where Cole is an unknown commodity stacks of wood provide the winters fuel while with water only procurable from wells and brooks the housewife takes her garments to the letter lights a fire boils the copper and sets about the washing in the open era so the road leads northward into laflare but now it is a road in name only its surface is about a succession of rubble boulders stones and potholes over which a speed of 15 miles an hour is a very good average however since its repaired from soil dug from the ditches the wayside that is when it's repaired at all this contract service is really quite understandable but left land has its compensations and those who linger here by the side of the Arctic Highway may see one of the most striking animals of these northern latitudes the reindeer famous at least as the legendary speed of Santa Claus they feed on green shoots in summer but in the winter on the lichen or reindeer moss growing in the forests and on rocks they belong entirely to the left lenders who in the summer file their reindeer are out grazing in the mountains spend their time in log huts beside the rivers fishing or growing a few crops over every Hut the kind of national emblem is a reindeer antler the Laplanders are a picturesque hardy race who spend most of their life out of doors and where a type of handwork national costume which has changed little through the centuries the headdresses in particular are strikingly made in the most vivid colors fire on the feet high leather boots with toe caps cocked up into a point they are highly skilled in craftsmanship and the women in particular knit and we've garments of the most intricate hands a feature of the countryside that now continues to become more and more conspicuous is the rapidly diminishing size of the tree all plant life has an increasingly stunted appearance as the bumpy road nears its end in the distance grey shapes loom up horizon has a cold and a bleak appearance and in a few miles the bare mountains of Finland's northern coastline come into view skirting the shores of granite bound lakes winding past rocky points and huge crags the road finally reached terminus at the deepwater Harbor of Lena hamari from hellsing force it stretches for a thousand miles to the edge of the Arctic Ocean where in summer the Sun never sets for 60 days but over which winter throws its mantle of total darkness of several long months it keeps contact with those who dwell but 1,200 miles from the North Pole on the gaunt wild chores that bound the steely gray water of the Arctic Ocean