STREET SCENE IN COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - Cerain localities, like certain people, please us at first sight. We cannot always tell exactly why. The fact, however, still remains. They give us pleasure. That we know. This Danish capital is such a place. It is not handsome architecturally. Most of its streets are narrow and old-fashioned, and yet one likes old Copenhagen well, just as one frequently prefers a plain but kindly face to that of a distinguised beauty. Copenhagen has two very noticeable characteristics, cleanliness and cheerfulness. Its streets would put to shame the usual Americal thoroughfares. In them one sees not only no dirt, but almost no drunkenness, nor traces of excessive poverty. As for cheerfulness, one rarely finds more general good humour in a populace than here. Of course the Danes have little hilarious gaiety, like that which characterizes the Neapolitans. They seem by contrast serenely happy. Their faces beam with calm contentment. Cheerfulness seems with them a universal trait, politeness an invariable rule. Our old friend Hamlet, therefore, as the "melancholy Dane," must have been a national exception. Copenhagen is the birthplace of the great sculptor, Thorwaldsen ; and one of the prominent buildings in the city is the Museum reared to contain originals or copies of all his works. In the courtyard of that Museum, surrounded by the masterpieces of his genius, Thorwaldsen lies buried. |
