The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-05-19
Correspondence Of the True Northerner.
LOCAL HISTORY.
Being RecOliectfOms and Rem fmfscences
Of the Early Settlers.

Of the Early settlers.
The success of almost every enter.
prise in life is nearly dependent ON 10
cality. The heights of Ben Nevis, the
most barren mountain in Switzerland
would not be very lucrative field fol
an onion-grower; and about the same
for Broadway dealer in house plants
and boquets. We mean Ben Nevis as
i. is, for We dare not prophecy what
time and emigration could not do, for
that place even. We are more cred.
ulous on that point than we should be,
had it not recently come to our knowl-
edge that, no more than twenty-five
years ago, the lawless hunter could sit
on hummock of wild grass, where
Main Street in Decatur, Michigan, now
is, and shoot deer almost any hour of
the day, and without moving from his
seat pick peck of huckleberries, yes,
catch the fever aud ague in less time
than either of the others could be &C
complished. 1t is no matter which way
the wind might blow, his brow would
be famed with breeze from off some
miasmatic swamp. The big swamp at
the south, cut off all communication to
and from Little Prairie Ronde, except
it might be balloon communication, for
the puncheon road was not finished
until the latter part of the year 1S49.
The reader at distance would not
imagine this very Aattering field for
Literary Associations or lawyers, and
yet both these classes are now flourish.
ing admirably right on the same ground
we have described. This will not
appear paradoxical when he takes the
second thought, that both brought their
work with them, as an old lady carries
out her knitting of an afternoon, Then
who will positively affirm that Ben
Nevis will not yet be converted into an
onion bed At the time we have been
speaking this was better field for the
legal profession than the island of Ice
land, which boasts population of sixty
thousand. There the mail is carried,
and brought away but five times in
whole year. An American traveller
who wrote history of that island, of
which there is so little known, says,
There is not a caIriage-road, wheeled
vehicle, steam engine, post Office,
custom house, police officer, fort, a
soldier or a lawyer inIthe whole country.
Goods, dried fish and valuables are left
out of doors, unguarded, with IMMUNITY,
stealing being almost unknown. There
never was but one prison in the island,
and that was used also as an almshouse.
Even then it was nearly useless, and
most always without tenant finally
to put it to some use, it was converted
into a residence for the Governor, and
is now the "white house." in the capital
Of Iceland, Taxes are very light, and
do not amount to as much as the ex.
pense Of carrying on the government,
paying the officers and transporting the
mail. The Icelanders are universally
educated, to that extent that all can
read and write"
This learning is all got by the fire.
side, for there is but one school on the
island, and that is college at Reykja-
vik, the capital. The President is
native Icelander, a gentleman of rare
accomplishments and learning, and one
of the first linguists in Europe In the
college the Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
Danish, French and English are taught,
as we'll as most of the sciences. The
students are natives, and number from
eighty to one hundred, and can converse
fuently in all these languages. The
long winter nights is the grand time for
study there, when the sun is but three
or four hours above the horizon each
day. The reader with but half an eye,
can see how this really religious, moral
and literary people have lived SO well
and happily without prisons, policemen
and lawyers. 1t was because they had
no corn to manufacture into whiskey.-l
If the distillery which was built in
1851, at the west end of Decatur village,
near Mud Lake, had been transported
TO Iceland, in the midst of this peace
able, pastoral people, We could have
spared our Paw Paw Court House, the