The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1907-06-06
IN THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH
Gleanings of Important Ne.vs From, the Press of
Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
NORWAY.
BY MARTIN w. oDLAND

o"hSi uIIu IL lLlPOSS!Dle 10 secure
all the sailors they need and have
leen compelled to employ English and
Scotch seamen at London and GlaS-
COW. There are two good reasons for
this scarcity of Norwegian tars. The
wages are too low to attract the young
men, because of the general increase
in wages throughout the kingdom, and
here Is no longer such romance and
adventure connected with life on the
sea as In the days of the great sail
ships. The propeller and other mod
em inventions have done away with
all this and the Viking blood of the
young men is no longer stirred when
seafaring is talked about. The wages
offered by Norwegian ship owners
have already been raised from As to 60
and 10 crowns per month and the indi-
cations are that they will soar still
higher.
The principal reason for the raise IN
wages throughout the kingdom is
found in the unprecedented develop.
ment of the country. Factories are
being started in most of the cities;
the farmers are adopting new ideas
in agriculture and greatly increasing
the producing power of their land, and
capital has awakened to the possibil-
ity of making as profitable investments
in Norway as in any other country.
The storthing has done much to help
along the adoption of scientific ideas
in agriculture by it's liberal appropri;,-
tons to the agricultural colleges or
schools of agronomy.
An immense industry is to be estab-
lished this year at Odda, Hardanger,
for the manufacture of calcium-car-
bide, cyanide and kindred mineral
products. From 20,OOO,O0O to 100000
900 crowns will be invested in the en-
terprise and SO many men will be CIV
en- employment that it is expected
that the little village of Odda, now
having a population of only 500. will
in a year be a busy city of 1000 or
5000. Electric power will be used in
the great factory, being transmitted
from one of the nearby falls.
A great athletic tournament has been
in progress at Hamar the past week.
King Haakon was present at the open
ing and delivered an address. Between
forty and fifty turner societies in vari-
Gus parts of the kingdom are repre-
scented by athletes, and the number of
contestants is about 800. They live in
tents and follow military customs dur
ing their stay. 1t is believed that this
tournament will take rank as the best
one ever held, both as regards the rec
ords made and the interest manifested.
| The Akerhaugen Cooperative Soci-
city Of Telemarken has received a pc
cluiar communication from a man in
Minneapolis, who RENTS 50. with the
explanation that he owes the society
| SO ore (cOins worth a half-farthing)
and that this debt has rested heavily
on his conscience AS no record of
such a debt was found, the officers of
the society turned the 81 over to char
tty.
The Christiania Commercial associa-
|
newspaper after July 1.
The bark "Urania," owned by Bjarne
Void of Christiania, was wrecked off
Portor. 1t was bound for Plymouth,
with Joseph Peterson as captain.
The galley John" of Selvik, and the
|
near the former place. The galley
sank. carrying to his grave the skip
per, man of seventy, who was the
only soul ON board.
A correspondent from London to the
Bergen Times writes that DR.. Schar-
ZACH, chief of the Scandinavian tourist
bureau, stated in a recent interview
that Norway will be the destination of
larger number of travellers next
summer than ever before. The hotels
are making great preparations to re-
ceive the tourists, and larger num-
Der of Norwegians are going into the
tourist hotel business than has been
the case heretofore. In the past a
large percentage OF the tOuflst nOtel
proprieors have been foreigners, and
the people of the country have not
reaped the advantages from the trav-
elers that they ought to have done.
The king and queen have presented
900 crowns to the school, or training
ship, Erickson. There are now fifty
boys on board receiving instruction.
The we'll known arctic explorer,
Theodore Lerner, starts in July with
an expedition from the northmost point
of Spitsbergen for the purpose of max
ing magnetic and meteorological ex-
ploratiOns.
The Norwegian Society for the Res
cue of Shipwrecked Persons" made an
especially fine record during the past
year. The vessels that cruised in &C.
cordance with the plans adopted at the
last general assembly rescued no less
than 30 lives, Is boats, 2 ships, and
....:.4a. o,,/ n;lotod 022 hOatS and 4