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National Geographic : 1925 May
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE .1 !~r Photograph courtesy Legation of Finland THE RAILWAY STATION AT IIELSINGFORS Designed by the Finnish architect Saarinen, this striking edifice signifies the republic's faith in its future development. Its severe mass stands in an immense square, paved and treeless. Finland has expended large sums in the development of state railways, highways, and waterways. Some of the rail lines pass through vast uncultivated districts to link up the farthest outlying sections. as it is being drawn in, and who then sinks breathlessly but gloatingly into a seat, conscious of another victory won. OUTDOOR LIFE RESPONSIBLE FOR SPLENDID ATHLETES This island life is truly a worship of Nature, just as the famous Midsummer Day is a survival of prehistoric sun ado ration. Every June 23d Helsingfors de clares a holiday, in common with all Fin land, and spends 24 hours in the open beneath an endlessly bright sky. As the sun makes its temporary dip below the horizon about 1:30 in the evening, the kokko fires blaze in every direction-huge bonfires, thousands of them on hundreds of islands. For the rest of the night every man joins with his neighbor in feasting, danc ing, and community singing, and when the sun appears once more, about half past one in the morning, its greeting from Finland is royal indeed. With an almost continual outdoor ex- istence among the Finlanders. summer sports flourish and thrive. The track athlete makes new world's records, the association football teams monopolize every playground, and the swimmer in vents new methods of high-diving to flirt with death. And winter's ubiquitous skier figura tively beats his skis into a trim sailboat and goes forth on to the gulf as another proof of the reason for Finland's mari time fame. Helsingfors is quiet at night, but one's final impression in the early evening is of a changing crowd on the Esplanade, of a bright national costume flashing beside the brilliant uniform of an officer or the drab outfit of a private soldier. And these couples-for the mass seems composed only of couples-all turn for one last round of coffee and sweet cakes toward an outdoor cafe, where they revel in the strains of one of the lively military bands which is playing a late American fox trot. 612
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