Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-12-02
NANSEN IN CHICAGO
RECEPTION AND BANQUET IN
HIS HONOR.
A MORSE DEMONSTRATION
Senator Nelson, ex-Minister Anderson,
Mayor Harrison, President Harper
and Other Notables Give Addresses
Brief Response by the Great Ex-
plorer-List of Toasts.

Chicago, Nov. 2S.-A royal welcome
was accorded DR.. FTidtjof Nansen at
the Auditorium last evening and
among the notable speakers heard
after the reception were Senator Knute
Nelson of Minnesota and ex-Minister
Rasmus B. Anderson of Madison. 1t
was distinctively a Norwegian affair.
The reception was from to z O'Clock,
and followed by a banquet. Covers
were laid for 200. The program OF
toasts was: John Anderson, address
OF welcome and presentation of II. A .
Haugan as postmaster; Our Guest
Nicolay Grevstad; The United States,
the Country of Our Adoption, Senator
knute Nelson; Norway, o. A. Thorp:
The City of Chicago, Mayor Harrison;
Exploration and Science, President
w. R. Harper; Norwegians in Amer
lean, Congressman M. N. Johnson:
Early Morse Explorers, Rasmus B.
Anderson; The Fran and Her Crew,
Paul o. Stensland. DR.. Nansen re-
sponded briefly to the address of well
come. Ex-Minister Rasmus B. An
derson, whose remarks elected much
enthusiasm, said:
The Norsemen's spirit of enter
prise is as old as their history. In the
past as in the present we find the
Norsemen everywhere. They came in
large swarms to France, England and
Spain. They led the van of the
chiValry of Europe in rescuing the
holy sepulchre; they passed through
the pillars of Hercules, visited Greece
and penetrated the walls of CONSTANT
nople. They ventured out upon the
surging main and discovered Iceland.
Greenland and the American CONT
nent, thus becoming the discoveries
rot only of America, but also of pelagic
navigation, and everywhere they scat
tered the seeds of liberty, indepen-
dence and culture. Today Norway, in
proportion to her population, holds by
far the first place on the sea, and there
is scarcely a land or even an island
anywhere in the whole wide world
that has not been greeted by the flag
of Norway.
I'm this distinguished assembly, in
the heart of Left Erikson's Vinland,
at this banquet in honor of a famous
son of Norway, on an occasion never
to be forgotten by those who have the
honor to be present, it seems to me
proper to remind ourselves of some of
the most brilliant services contributed
by the NOrwegians and their kinsmen
of Sweden and Denmark in the domain
of navigation. While Left Erikson
was the first white man who planted
his feet on the eastern shores of the
American continent, it was left to
Dane to become the discoyerer of that
narrow body of water which separates
America from Asia. Vitus Boring ex-
plored the sea of Kamchatka and dur
ing this voyage he discovered the
strait. that bears his name and ascer-
tanned that America was not joined to
Asia Left Erikson and Vitus Boring
stand, as it were, at the rising and
setting sun, in the extreme east and
the extreme west, and clasp what is
now known as the domain of the
United States in their strong Scandi-
navian arms.
''The Swedes have well maintained
their reputation. First of all, there is
her great son John Ericsson who, by
his invention of the screw and of the
famous monitor, revolutionized navi-
cation both in peace and in war on the
high seas And later, there is her
great navigator, Nordenskjold, famous
for his various Arctic explorations and
particularly for his discovery and
navigation Of a northeast passage by
sea from the extreme northwestern
eastern point of Asia; that is, a pas
sage by sea from the north Atlantic
ocean to the north Pacific ocean. AS
a splendid epopee for the closing years
OF this remarkable century Norway
has given us the distinguished Arctic
explorer, Dr. Fridtjof hansen who in
1888 with three other brave Nor
wegians and two Laps crossed Green
land from east to west at about the 90
degree north latitude, and who sits
among us tonight the hero of an
Arctic expedition which reached a
point close to the pole and about ITO
miles further north than that visited
by any previous explorer. In FridtJof
hansen, however, Norwegian courage
reached the very pole itself.
'The toast assigned to me is, how
ever, not the hero of today but his
predecessors, the early Morse explorers,
and 1 seize this opportunity of stating
at the very outset and with as NUN
emphasis as possible that the old
Norsemen have a most honorable
place in the annals OF seafarlng
They fully understood the Importance
of studying the art of ship-building
and of navigation They learned how
to measure time by the stars and how
to calculate the course Of the sun and
moon. From the sagas, and even still
better from the old Tune and Gokstad
ships we know that the old Ncrsemen
were most excellent ship-builders.
The superior sea- going qualities of the
viking ships was fully demonstrated
by Captain Magnus Andersen when in
1893 he brought the Viking from Nor
way to the worlds fair.
''The Norsemen were the pioneers in
venturing out upon the high seas and
taught the rest of the world to navi-
ten history sustains me when l say