Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-08-03
Christiania, Norway.
July 7, 1906.


biggest and best letter l ever wrote,
thereby, at the same time, expressing
my gratefulneSS for that dear little
letter l got from you day before yes
terday l wish | had a better pen so
l could make better time.
Since last Monday morning, with
the exception of occasional ambrOSial
pauSes for the special benefit of the
physical man, my life has been con-
| fined to an atmosphere of the eternal
etfervescence of distilled nectar. l
| have never lived week of such ex-
travagant happiness in my life. l am
sorry that the English language, or at
least the part that l am acquainted
with, is so woefully inadequate to ex-
press the events of the past few days.
The trip up Christiania Fjord was of
itself easily enough to reconcile one
| to the miSerieS of the ocean.
Norway is described as being a very
| beautiful country so l naturally eX-
pected a good deal and would have
been very disappointed at anything
outside Of the phenominally beauti-
! full, but "Ou can make those deScrlp-
tionS three times as strong and still 1
doubt that you will have the idea.
| 1t is a regular paradise on earth. A
man could live here one hundred
years and not have a wrinkle on his
brow. A months visit to Norway Is
easily worth in educational value
| alone at least one years course in
college or university.
Yesterday President Kildahl dis
| tributed ten crowns apiece that had
been sent to him by the people of
Mortified as spending money for us
boys l bought peach of a 'slire
kniv' for half of it. We will hOller
for Mortified all right.
| tell you the people over here are
very patriotic On every little farm
or any place they have flag staff and
a large Norwegian flag costing from
six to ten dollars. Flags are to be
seen waving from these flag poles all
along the line. Both sides OF the
Fjord were lined with them the day
we came in. 1t was beautiful day,
the sun shone warm and bright and
the reflection OF the trees from the
water was almost perfect. You see
we sailed pretty close to land on one
side all the time. When we passed
the fort that constitutes the main
defense Of Christiania, salutes were
fired both by the ship and the fort.
1t is impossible for me to give you
any idea of the beauty OF the scenery
along the line. 1t has to be seen to
be appreciated, SO / will confine my
self to description of the doings.
OF course it was known all over
Christiania that we were coming on
the "Oscar H." and as we neared the
wharf at little past twelve, we were
all standing on the main promenade
deck of the first cabin with our
should have seen the people. The
house tops all along the water front
two or three blocks deep were all
covered and the landing place and
the surrounding streets were one
seething mass Of humanity. Many
more salutes were fired from guns In
a fort at the inner end of the Fjord,
and the yelling and confusion was
simply awful. You would never have
thought that bunch of green horn
players like we are, could have raised
such rumpuS. When we were al
most there the band struck up the
'Star Spangled Banner" and maybe
you don't think the sound of that
dear old song thrilled me some.
have often sailed into those notes
with a good deal of spirit and feeling,
but never as I did that time and
Judging by the way the whole thing
sounded, think there were about
forty-seven of us in the same boat.
1t certainly was electrical. Next we
played the "Ja vi Elsker" and the
rendition of that and the applause it
received were better and greater, II
possible, than for the proceeding one.
Then we scuttled away our horns and
got ready to receive visitors. The
Norwegian student singers were there
and before any landing was done they
sang the 'Star Spangled Banner" in
their usual excellent style and receiv-
ed a corresponding applause from us.
The gang planks were then put down
and the singers came up and got
acquainted with us up there on the
ship. After a lot of cheering and
Yelling we hiked off and got on good
sound soil for a change, a good change
| too by the way. Our manager took
care of all our baggage, horns and all.
| We formed procession, the student
singers at the head, the band next
and the crowd after and marched up
| to the hotel about six or seven blocks.
The crowd was variouSly estimated
from ten to fifteen thousand people.
In my opinion judging from the
| crowds where l have known the act
ual number, it seemed to me to be
about ten to twelve thousand. We
had several mounted police and a
squad of other police to clear the way,
| but they could not do much in a jam
| like that, so we had to jostle along as
well as we could. The crowd kept
cheering all along and we kept tumb-
ling off our pasteboard senior caps all
the time in recognition. 1t looked
to me as though the President and
the cabinet of the United States had
suddenly taken a notion to march
through the streets of New York. 1t
certainly looked ridiculous to us but
the people thought it was all right,
so we let it 60 at that. To be in do
ings like that wasn't poor at all, but
better things and greater were COM
ing. Our hotel in regard to service is
by far the best / have ever seen and
far better than had expected it to
be. The pOrterS are as obl1ging as
they possibly can be and the manage.
ment and dining room people, SO coy
and homelike that it is just like liv-
ing in your own house. That brings
/ me to the grub chapter. This grut
could not be better If our mother her.
self had made it, You don't get any
half done meat and dirty dishes here
l tell you. Cheese and milk are as
pure and genuine as can be had any.
where. All kinds of fish, served ir
/ the most tender and tasteful manner
and everything o. K. all through. u
it is anything like this the rest OF the
time, don't see how ! shall be able
to lug my huge anatomy back II
America.
| Tuesday morning we got up ane