Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-09-29
LAND OF THE nID.SIoaY SUN
Elmer Peterson and NJ. II. BekkedaI Re
turn from Norway

erson and NJ. H. Bekkedal, since they
returned from their trip into Norway.
Certain it is they saw big lot of coun-
try, and country that is interesting
to many of the readers of the Dial En-
terprise.
As nothing is too good for an Ameri-
canlZed Norwegian. these two tobacco
men took the best and greatest of ocean
steamers, the Mauretania, of the Cum
ard line, and the outward passage con-
sumed only four days, seventeen hours
and twenty-one minutes, from New
York to Queenstown, almost record
voyage. This great vessel has length
of 500 feet, has engines that develop
~, 200 horse power, carries a crew of
more than 800 persons, of whom 29O
are kept busy most of the time shovel
ing coal into the furnaces under the
boilers. A newspaper is printed on the
boat every day, wireless messages be-
ing received, covering leading items of
news, and printed for the benefit of the
passengers. even in mid-ocean. On the
boat were more than 1000 passengers,
many of them bound for Norway to Wis
it home folk.
After landing in Liverpool, they found
that they woul2 have to wait from
Tuesday to Saturday morning to get
passage on the steamer by which thew
were to cross the North Sea, and being
Americans they decided such a wait
would mighty near kill them. They
could do anything but wait. At the
steamer office in Liverpool they found
out that boat of the same line, for
they had bought the tickets for this
ri f1f ha fV-.Y l..
to leave New Castle, in the northeast
of England, that same night. They
hustled around, got their luggage in
hand and within an hour were on a
train bound from Liverpool to New
Castle. So it happened that they ate
breakfast on the Mauretania, dinner on
the train between Liverpool and New
Castle and supper on the boat bound
for Christiania out of New Castle
sprightly work, surely. The voyage
out from New York had been very
quiet, but on the North Sea they saw
some rough weather and corresponding
grief, although Elmer declares they lost
nothing, not even bean sandwich, al
though some of their fellow passengers
had more regard for the fishes and fed
them of what could not be kept down
for seasickness.
Elmer says that Christiania has come
to be a crest city commercially, al
though it is rather too rough, morally,
to suit his taste. 1t has been much inn
proved during the past twenty years
and now is thoroughly modern in every
respect, vice included. AS MIR. Bekke-
dial had with him quantity of tobacco
of Wisconsin's best, and wanted to see
about opening up a market for his sta
pie, Elmer went with him to visit some
of the manufacturers, before going to
his home at Stavanger. The result of
these business digressions was that a
couple of weeks had passed when Elmer
got home. And this was most unfor-
tunate, for when Elmer reached home,
as related in these columns last week,
his old father had been dead six hours.
Elmer Peterson (Ervig, farm name)
was born on little farm bordering on
the Bokn Fiord, twenty miles inland
from the city of Stavanger, where still
lives his mother and where his father
died last July. There he lived until he
came to America, twenty-five years
ago. Like nearly all the farms in Nor
way, this is small, only ten acres. But
it supports family comfortably. There
are few highways, because the country
is so rough roads cannot be built and
maintained. For the same reason there
are no railways in that immediate sec
ton, all the travel being by boats on
the ford. Each farm has a boat or
two, n any of them being provided with
gasolire launches of the best type. Sta
vanger, a city of 40, 600 popu ition, has
only one railway, and that is not more
than fifty miles long, ending at another
city further south on the coast, and
having no connection with another line.
In its course of not more than fifty
miles, this railroad has thirty-eight
tunnels throuh the mountains.
But the residents of Bokn Fiord are
not without the comforts and convent
ences of life. Mail is delivered daily at
their homes, from boats that make the
rounds; they have telephones and order
their supplies from Stavanger, which,
too, are delivered at their doors each
day by the boats. If they would go
visiting, or to church. or to attend a
wedding or funeral, their own boat is
brought out. Einer's home was three
miles from the church and when the
time came to bury his father funeral
procession was formed on boats, led by
a large gasoline launch, and n many
as 200 persons thus attended. But the
coffin and trappings for the occasion,
were brought from the city of Stavang-
er, twenty miles away.
The peculiar customs of the country
regarding funerals are worth mention
ing. AS a rule the deceased person is
not buried until a week after death.
Friends and relatives are invited to the
funeral, and if one is overlooked in the
invitations he does not appear. Those
who are hidden, come and spend good
part of the time before the funeral, and
have to be provided with entertainment,
although it is not against the etiquette
of the occasion for guests to bring
baskets of provisions. But the period
of mourning extends over the week,
and all invited guests make it point
to be present and extend their sympa-
thy and assistance. Elmer says that at
the time of his fathers funeral, as
many as 200 persons were in atten-
dance, and because of the mountainous
nature of the country, all came in
boats, many from distance.
After putting his father away, Elmer
with his mother for some
time, visiting relatives and old-time
friends about the ford. He was at
the farm where as a boy he worked
with Rev. o. o. Sovde, then lad, for
Mr.. Sovde was born and reared on the
same ford as Elmer. A village Of the
name of Soyde is at the head of the
Bokn ford, and near it was the birth