Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1912-08-21
NORWAY.

NORWAY.
e. Flock. former bailiff of Gulda,
mas completed his 80th year.
About 1000 persons employed in
textile industries in Kristiania are ont
on strike. The main cause of tho
strike is the refusal of the EMPLOYERS
: to give more than 81 cents per hour
as minimum pay.
Many antiquarian finds have been
made In Hatfjelddal, in the far north
which prove that the valley had a
considerable population hundreds Of
years ago. Some of the finds date
back to the stone age.
We are in the habit of looking unon
our present presidential campaign as
beWlldering on account of the number
or candidates and issues" But our
held Is plain and clear in comparison
With the situation confronting the
voters of Norway at the present time
Each of the following parties has it's
own program" or platform, as we
would call it: The Conservatives, the
Labor Democrats, the Social Demo-
Gratis, the Liberal Leftists, the Prohi.
bit1onists, the Liberals, the Church
People, the Dialect People, and the
National Language People. The voter
Is expected to do justice to all of these
On election day, October 21.
The scientific society of Trondh1em
has caused an Investigation to be
made Of the wall paintings in a cave
at Solsem, on the Leka Island. The
paintings were found to represent two
rows of human figures very rudelv
executed in red color. Their arms
were raised or extended and their legs
were spread far apart. Some of the
figures were so nearly blotted out that
1t was hard to make out their original
shape. An excavation near the
mouth of the cave revealed a layer of
skulls, bones split for the marrow, and
tools made of bone. Only one-third of
the floor of the cave has been inves-
tigated. 1t is taken for granted that
this interesting find dates from the So
called Arctic cycle of civilization.
"The first course in the national
language was opened July IL at the
Eidsvald peoples high school," The
above is the first sentence of a news
item which reads like a riddle to a
reader who is not familiar with the
circumstances. Norway, with Ibsen
and Bjornson ranking among the
foremost literary men of all nations
and ages, has just started to give in
struction in her own language! Until
about half century ago, Danish was
looked upon as the ideal language in
Norway. But gradually the common
people Of the western part of the
| country crowded to the front with
| their dialects, which were harmonized
to some extent, and extolled as the
only true Norwegian tongue. The ad-
vocates of native Norwegian proved to
| be an aggressive lot, so much so that
those who preferred the old Norwe.
gian-Danish book-language took a def.
mite step in favor of pure" Norwegian
by changing the spelling so as to con.
form to the usual Norwegian pronun.
citation, and by adopting a host OF
purely Norwegian words. The dialect
| people called their language lands
maalet," the tongue of the land, while
they tabooed the other language as
| Danish" This was mean blow to
those who preferred the old book
| language, for they were made to an
| pear as unpatriotic, or even anti-Nor
| wegian. They resolved to shake of
| this stigma. Fortunately, they proved
| equal to the task; they called the
modified Norwegian-Danish book-lan
guage "riksmaalet," the tongue of the
kingdom, or the national language
! Riksmaalet = is the language referred
| to at the beginning of this paragraph
| The dialect people have been very sue
cessful in crowding their language in
| to the schools as distinct language
and now the conservatives have come
| just far enough to follow the same
| tactics. This step makes the situation
| clearer; 1t puts an official stamp on
modified Norwegian as a distinct Ian
guage differing from the Danish, on
| the one hand; and from the Norwegian
dialect adaptation, on the other. About
60 teachers are taking the new course
in riksmaal, which is looked upon as
a very good showing.
Fire broke out at night in the Tan
gen saw and planning mills at Tisteda
station, near Fredrikshald. The whole
plant and the stock on hand were re
duced to ashes. The establishment
occupied about 600 men. The saw
! mill and machines were insured fo]
$13,500, and the stock for $4,000 A
lot of lumber belonging to the STANCE
forests was also destroyed. J. Flate
by's saw mill and warehouse were
damaged by the fire, and two resi-
dences were burnt down. The ICON
tinental' railway runs through the
burnt district and the railway trafl,
stopped for several hours.
The eighth name was added to the
toll exacted this week by the electric
chair when John Maruszewski, an Erie
county murderer. was executed at
Sing Sing, N. Y. Maruszewski killed
Policeman Frank Shafer and Charles
Kosack. - s>.-.
~ . ~ ~ $