. From the log of the Velsa. ort was not seductive,though a few young men here and there seemedefficient, smart, and decent. The women and girlsleft us utterly unmoved. The major part of thevisitors were content to sit vacantly on the prome-nade at a spot where a powerful drain, discharginginto the fjord, announced itself flagrantly to the • 129 FROM THE LOG OF THE VELSA sense. These quiet, tired, submissive personsstruck us as being the raw slavish material of themagnificent imperial system, and entirely uncon-nected with the wondrous brains that organized itand kept it going. The next mornin
. From the log of the Velsa. ort was not seductive,though a few young men here and there seemedefficient, smart, and decent. The women and girlsleft us utterly unmoved. The major part of thevisitors were content to sit vacantly on the prome-nade at a spot where a powerful drain, discharginginto the fjord, announced itself flagrantly to the • 129 FROM THE LOG OF THE VELSA sense. These quiet, tired, submissive personsstruck us as being the raw slavish material of themagnificent imperial system, and entirely uncon-nected with the wondrous brains that organized itand kept it going. The next morning we departedvery early, but huge targets were being towed outin advance of us, and we eflfected our final escapeinto the free Baltic only by braving a fleet of battle-ships that fired into the checkered sky. Sometimestheir shells glinted high up in the sun, and seemedto be curving along the top edge of an imaginaryrainbow. We slowly left them astern, with, as Isay, a certain relief. Little, unmihtary Denmarklay ahead. 130. s^ THE SKIPPER SHOPPING CHAPTER VIII BALTIC COMMUNITIES AT Vordingborg, a small town at the extremesouth of Sjtelland, the largest and eastern-most of the Danish islands, we felt ourselves to bereally for the first time in pure and simple Den-mark (Esbjerg had a certain international qual-ity) . We had sailed through the Langelands Belt,skirting the monotonous agricultural coasts of allsorts of islands, great and small, until one eveningwe reached this city, which looked imposing on themap. When we had followed the skipper ashoreon his marketing expedition, and trodden all thestony streets of little Vordingborg, we seemed toknow what essential Denmark, dozing in the midstof the Baltic, truly was. Except a huge and antique fort, there was novisible historical basis to this town. The mainthoroughfare showed none of the dignity of tradi- 133 FROM THE LOG OF THE VELSA tion. It was a bourgeois thoroughfare, and com-fortable bourgeoises were placidly shopping th
Size: 1757px × 1423px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1914
