Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-12-19
Women fAtLoss IN ICELAND



VIE ~ ~ Essiiss Professor Estsbiishss
. Ssvei setA>sis
Outside ct tke capital, Heyk5asik.
there has not BseH tailor on leeiand
10 tbs memory OF man. SO the women
have always had 10 make tbs mems
clothes. for the Iceland men. when they
are not occupied sfiaid wfingfng hard
living out of the reluctant soil. are too
busy telling stories of the great deeds
of their fathers. the Erik Brfghteyeses
and si&allagrin Lanbtails of heroic
past. TO bother with trousers and sucn
things.
As all the things in the world which
the men neglect have 10 be done by the
women-good reason why their work
never ends-and they have never
been taught tailoring, II comes about
that the population OF Iceland, outside
of the capital, Is one huge. preposterous
misfit. Hence tailoring is put at the
very head of tire curriculum in the girls
high school which Mrs. Sigridr Magnus-
sen has built for the better education of
the Iceland girls
The Iceland mother is, IN fact, the
universal schoolmistress OF the land,
and it WAS that she might be fitted
for the place that Mrs. Magnussen built
her school.
1t stands, or stood, on a patch of
ground in Reykjavik, upon which the
builder was born. just now she is very
much troubled by tine news of the great
earthquakes up there, and by the dread
that the school may have fallen down;
in which case she will have to- do it all
| over again. Icelanders. men or women,
never give up task once begun.
Some of their hero tales are running
yet, after 900 years, with the end not
vet in sight. Even il it still stands, ft
| has to be braced up. The funds have
| run out, which is the reason why Mrs
MagDussen came to this country. asF.
-ised by Miss Frances +. Willard. WI horn
/ she met in England, to try to sell a coz
| lection of antique bangles and orna-
| ments gathered in Iceland, so as to pro-
vide an endowment fund for her school,
The collection is now in the Metropo!-
| titan museum on exhibition: 1t has
a more than pathetic interest, for
| ut is almost wholly made up of
| heirlooms surrendered by the women
| of the bleak island in the Arctic sea III
| the years of distress that followed the,
| dreadful volcanic eruption of1S75. ami
| the 'three winters of 1SS2aS3. Those
| were the years when they had no sum-
mer and the sun never shone. The arc
| tic ice came down and closed everysforIf
| and harbor.
The people froze in July and not a
blade of grass grew. There had never
been such a season since anybody. could
| remember. Men and cattle starved.
| and it was then that the women. to keep
| life in themselves, and those dear to-
them, surrendered the heirlooms jeal-
ously guarded for ages to buy bread
This is the treasure that Mrs. Magnus-
sen has brought to New York. She will
part with the tears of her countryyvom-
en-, she says. only to dry them. A bet
| ter day shall dawn for Iceland when she
| returns with the money of the wealthy
| Americans.
| 1t is not true, according to Mrs. Mag
| nussen, that the people of Iceland are
| habitually fiocl<ing about the shore.
| waiting to be taken off. They stav
| there because it is the best place for
them. 1t is all lava further in. Just,
| now they are afraid of going into the
country for fear the mountains will open
OF them, literally and fgurativeIy, b,,t
| they have not the least notion of DESERT
| ing. The only considerable emigration
| from Iceland was during the hard years
| between the eruption and the three
winters" Then 10000 of the people
| went to Canada. leaving 6O.C00 there,
| but there are to-day over 72. COO left. Tn
| spite of this growth there is elbow
| room vet in Iceland. 1t is Just the size
| of Ohio, with 10000 square miles OF
chiefly rock and lava, consequently it
has a population something less than
two to the square mile.-N. Y. Sun.