DENMARK AND THE DANES 



© Keystone View Co. 



A GROUP OP DANISH GIRL SCOUTS ON A CAMPING TRIP 



The people of Denmark make the claim that their Girl and Boy Scouts are the best 

 organized and best trained in Europe. General Baden-Powell, who originated the world 

 movement, has often visited their camps and expressed his admiration of their physical 

 prowess. 



of Christian IV. This seems very rea- 

 sonable ; for even the arras, which now is 

 in the museum in Copenhagen, once 

 adorned the halls of the Castle of Kron- 

 borg, otherwise "Elsinore." The pictures 

 of various Danish kings are there, with 

 German inscriptions, German being the 

 court language of the sixteenth century, 

 and one naturally looks for the rapier 

 hole in the tapestry which the young 

 Hamlet made when he unwittingly killed 

 Polonius. 



THE DANISH THEATER A NATIONAL 

 INSTITUTION 



The theater is more of a Danish insti- 

 tution than the opera, in Copenhagen. 

 Both plays and operas are given on the 

 stage of the Royal Opera House, at one 

 side of the spacious King's Market 

 (Kongens Nytor) — a plaza which is only 

 second in attractiveness to that around 

 which the four palaces of the Amalien- 

 borg stand. 



These fine Renaissance buildings were 

 put up by four great nobles, but after- 

 wards were bought by the crown. Until 

 recently the king and the royal family 

 resided in these palaces, but not long ago 

 the palace of Christiansborg, in another 

 part of the city, was restored ; it had 

 been almost ruined by a fire. The king 



and the parliament have taken up their 

 residence in the halls, to which the fate 

 of Struensee gives a certain romance. 



The Royal Opera House is an impos- 

 ing building. It is a national monument 

 to the love of the Danes for their na- 

 tional theater, and it is the home of the 

 Danish Conservatory, where the ballet 

 dancers, boys and girls, are trained from 

 their youth up. They are carefully looked 

 after and educated in a school of their 

 own. 



The Danish ballet, which was brought 

 to perfection by Bournonville in the be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth century, is dif- 

 ferent from all other ballets. It is an 

 exquisite mingling of the art of panto- 

 mime and the art of the dancer. It al- 

 ways tells a continued story. 



Napoli, which the queen-mother of 

 England recommended very warmly to 

 me, is a very beautiful ballet. Far From 

 Denmark and The Millions of Harlequin 

 have never been reproduced in this coun- 

 try, but they are worthy of reproduction. 

 The serenade in The Millions of Harle- 

 quin is very beautiful ; it was, I think, 

 first played in this country at the White 

 House in Washington, by the United 

 States Marine Band under the direction 

 of Santelmann. 



The Danes are very fond of open-air 



