Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05

try was the situation improved any by the
announcement that the famous Barings, OF
London, had gone to the wall. When such
houses tail. and especially at such time Of
financial nervousness as the one prevailing
then, the chances are always in favor of a
crisis. The panics of war are never to be
compared in effect to those of money, but
neither will be disastrous if the right man
takes hold at the right time.
If Winchester had its Sheridan, the crisis
of the winter of '9O-'91 had its Lidderdale.
Without the services of the Governor of
the Bank of England, there is no knowing
at this time what might have supervened.
William Lidderdale was the man for the
emergency; at the proper moment his splen-
did leadership asserted itself and brought
order out of chaos and led the financial
world into safe quarters, even if the effort
did require the wrecking of the biggest of
English banking institutions. And now
when rumors of fresh monetary trouble
come to us from European capitals it is q
satisfaction to know that this able man is
still in harness.
Mr.. Lidderdale was born In Russia of
Scottish parents During the war he was
the representative in New York of Messrs.
Rathbone, of London, to which place he re-
has been eminently successful in his chosen
field, and in 1889 he was appointed to his
present position of Governor of the great
Bank of England.
Populating Alaska From Iceland.
Who will colonize Alaska, queried many
when the scheme of developing that
country was talked of Now comes the
answer in the shape of a proposition of a
certain DIR. Dolcke, to move the entire
population of Iceland to that country. 1t
is hardly likely Denmark will look upon
the idea with favor, but the United States
would certainly be the gamer, as even the
small number of $4,000 or $4,000 persons
that constitute the present population of
the little country on the borders of the
Arctic circle would do much toward OPEN
ing up the resources of a country upon
which nature has lavished her gifts, but
which has few if any charms for the col
onist from the States. And above all it
would certainly be an improvement in the
condition of the 1celanders themselves, as
the barren island on which they now exist
barely furnishes enough sustenance to keep
them alive. The farmer can produce
potatoes and turnips and nothing else of any
account and these only in favored seasons.
The sheep industry is fairly profitable, but
not satisfactory to the producer, who may
lose all in one night as the result of the
herce storms that sweep over the land. On
the other hand, Alaska has its cold and
vatueless sections, but, thousands of square
miles remain that are susceptible to the in
huence of industry such as the Icelanders
are noted for.
1t is said that 81, 900, 900 will accomplish
the work which Dr. Dolcke has set himself
to do and it may be that within a. short
time, the spectacle of the entire population
OF the country moving into another will be
witnessed.
The Sentimental Part Of It.
A curious interest attends the possibility
of wonderful little Iceland being depopu-
lated and restored to the condition in which
Left of the Sword and Ingolf of Norway
found it a thousand years ago, for it will
not be long until the desert places made to
bloom at the hands of these hardy Scandi-
navians will return to the bleak barrenness
them previous to human in
vaslon. Once more. this wild seagirt
island will wrap itself in silence, broken
only by the "skirr" of the kissing winds
around the bare, icy rocks, or the note of the
loon as it disappears in the chill mists that
sweep in from the sea. Apt place for the
frozen Jotuns and snow-covered heroes of
Icelandic mythology!
1t can well be asked, will these people in
q new land forget their old picturesque
traditions? Will they not continue to fos-
ter among the weird idols of Alaska the
vague legends of wondrous deeds of old
time sagas, jarls and vikings? Will the
curious myths, the eerie romances and the
peculiar but meritorious songs of the people
be lost to them? Perhaps It is not gener-
ally known that the tcelanders have
literature peculiarly their own, and such
one as has given them respected niche in
the chronology of that art Will that be
lost also? WIJKIE.