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THE A M ERIC A X-SC A X DIX AVI A X RE VIE W 
Northern Lights 
Swedish Peasant Costumes 
The present interest in the revival of peas¬ 
ant art including the bright-colored costumes 
still to be seen in some parts of Sweden has 
led the directors of Nordiska Museet in 
Stockholm to publish a detailed and fully 
illustrated description of the costumes used 
in various localities and for various occasions. 
In the old days, when every parish was a little 
state by itself, the matter of dress was not 
left to individual vagaries but strictly regu¬ 
lated by the authorities. After the Reforma¬ 
tion there was some attempt to suppress the 
riot of color, but Miss Gerda Cederblom, the 
compiler of the book, thinks that the influence 
of the splendor-loving Vasa kings—old King 
Gosta had his courtiers clothed in parrot 
green—counteracted the austerities of the new 
clergy and helped to develop the rich and 
beautiful peasant costumes that have come 
down to our day. Green and red were favo¬ 
rite colors; yellow was sometimes used for 
mourning. Miss Cederblom’s work confines 
itself entirely to festive garments. It is illus¬ 
trated with forty-eight color plates besides 
detailed diagrams in black and white. It can 
be purchased at a very moderate price from 
Nordiska Museet directlv. Everv Swedish- 
American Young People’s Society ought to 
have a copy. 
“Niels Lyhne” in Hebrew 
Dr. Edvard Brandes in a recent article in 
Politiken tells us that J. P. Jacobsen’s Xiels 
Lyhne has been published in Hebrew, not in 
Yiddish, but in genuine classic Hebrew. The 
translation, Dr. Brandes says, is both faithful 
and sympathetic. Although Hebrew r has no 
vowels but only consonants, the Danish vow¬ 
els are used in the proper names, as in the 
name of the hero, which is rendered Nils 
Lineh, and in the verses which skillfully re¬ 
produce the color and rhythm of the original. 
A Nestor Among Artists 
The oldest among Scandinavian-American 
artists is a Slesvig Dane, Johannes Gelert, 
who was born in Slesvig in 1852. He studied 
in Copenhagen, was first apprenticed to a 
wood carver, but afterwards entered the Royal 
Academy. He came to America in 1887. Mr. 
Gelert has executed a number of statues for 
public buildings and parks, among them the 
Haymarkct monument and the monument to 
Hans Christian Andersen in Chicago, a statue 
of General Grant in Galena, Illinois, a statue 
of Colonel J. F. Stevens, the founder of Min¬ 
neapolis, a series of symbolic statues for the 
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and 
many others. Especially noteworthy for its 
freshness and vigor is the statue Denmark 
reproduced here from one of the big monu¬ 
mental figures that adorn the New York Cus¬ 
toms House. His latest work is a portrait 
statue of the late Dr. Thomas Slicer which 
was unveiled in All Souls’ Church in New 
York last January. Mr. Gelert’s studio is at 
11 East 14th Street, New York. 
