Stockholm has several comic papers, even more in proportion to population than we have in the United States. The most prominent are Strix, Puck, Söndags-Nisse, Kasper and Nya Nisse. They are small and comparatively insignificant, and sell for two and one-half cents a copy. They satirize politicians with good humor, and their cartoons are based upon 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 unless some special inquiry is necessary.
The story is told that once when Oscar II went to Gothenburg to attend a dedication or opening of something or other, where he was expected to make a speech, he was intercepted at the railway station by an enterprising reporter who wanted a copy of his speech. The paper was to be published that afternoon, and there would be no time for a stenographer to write out his notes afterward. The king greeted him pleasantly and explained that he had no manuscript; that he intended to speak without notes. The reporter was very much dissappointed, and confided to the king that he was a new man and that his future standing with his employer might be seriously affected if he failed to get the speech. King Oscar responded sympathetically, invited the reporter to get into his carriage, and while they were driving to the hotel, gave a brief synopsis of what he expected to say.
Newspapers in Norway are not so good an investment; in fact, none of them may be considered financial ventures. As a rule, they have to be assisted by the government or by political clubs in order to survive. Their subscription lists are limited, the largest circulation in Norway not exceeding fifteen thousand and few publications print more than five thousand copies, while advertising pays not more than ten or twelve cents a line at top prices in the most expensive papers.
An ordinary newspaper reporter in Norway receives a salary of about $5 a week, while the most competent editors are satisfied with $20 or $25. Norway was the last of the European countries, except Turkey, to adopt the art of printing, notwithstanding its early famous literature, but to-day has four hundred and twenty-nine newspapers and periodicals, an average of one to every five thousand of the population; one hundred and ninety-six are political newspapers; eighty-eight are literary weeklies, and one hundred and forty-five are reviews, magazines, professional, religious, and scientific publications.
Norske Intelligens-Seddeler is one of the oldest papers in the world, having been founded in Christiania in 1763, and has been the organ of the government from the beginning. For a century and a quarter its contents were limited to advertisements and official announcements. It was a sort of a government gazette, but when Hjalmar Loken took hold of it, ten or twelve years ago, he changed its character entirely and has turned it into a good modern newspaper and a vigorous advocate of government measures, exercising a wide influence through its columns.