pon current events. There are several literary weeklies,
monthlies, and other periodicals, for Swedes are great readers and,
unlike the Americans, have not lost their taste for poetry. A poet
enjoys a much higher position and larger income from his writings in
Sweden than at home.

There is a Press Club in Stockholm with four hundred and forty
members, of whom twenty-two are women. In 1901 the club arranged
"a week of festivals," including military tournaments, public
entertainments and a fair, and closed with a masquerade ball at the
Royal Opera House to raise funds for a building. It was a great
success. King Oscar accepted an invitation, and enjoyed himself very
much among his "colleagues," as he called them. The king was always
considerate to newspaper men. He appreciated the purpose and
understood the requirements of reporters, and never failed to assist
them whenever he was able to do so. Hence he was very popular among
them, and they reciprocated by showing their appreciation in every
possible way. The old king once said to Hjalmar Branting, the
socialist editor:

"We have different opinions, Branting, but we are both working for the
welfare of our country."

In 1897, during the international congress of the press at Stockholm,
the king gave the editors a banquet at the Royal Castle at
Drottningholm, and mingled among them as "one of yourselves." He also
proposed a toast in most complimentary language.

Oscar II made many speeches, and upon occasions of great formality he
used manuscript, but generally spoke without notes, preparing himself
in advance by study and reflection. When he spoke from manuscript,
he invariably furnished copies to the press, and was never known to
request that part of his speech be suppressed.

Reporters are invariably admitted to state ceremonials. There is very
little secrecy about the Stockholm court, and intrigue is entirely
unknown in Swedish politics. There are no mysteries in the council
chamber and no skeletons in the royal closet. Hence the doors are
open, and the reporters can come and go as they please. As a natural
consequence comparatively little attention is paid to affairs at the
palace. There is an announcement every morning of the movements of the
king and the royal family and occurrences of public interest, but with
very little detail, and the newspapers depend upon the officials to
furnish the information voluntarily. Reporters are seldom sent to the
palace unle