Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-04-14


graphy in childhood, and suggestive of
bitter cold and desolation.
Instead, it proves to be land milder
than New England in winter, because
warmed by the Gulf stream, and one of
the wonders of the world from a moral
and peaceful and industrial standpoint.
There are no wealthy people in Iceland.
but all are aristocrats, so far as ancient
pedigrees count in aristocracy and that
is aristocracys only claim to worth
In the year S74 eight hundred and sew
enty-four, mind YOU'D. a collection of
kings" each Of little kingdom Of HIS
own. rebelled against the tyranny of an
other king who wanted to boss" them
all and emigrated from Norway to Ice
land.
Every one of the 1900 inhabitants of
Iceland today can trace his ancestry
directly back to one of these kings.
OF course every king or queen in the
world today is no more royal of blood
than are all these Iclanders for each one
originally descended from some such
petty chieftaln who called himself a
king in those early days.
Poverty and hard work became the
lot of those chieftains and their families
in Iceland. but they bore it proudly and
laugh their children to be noble and up
right and dignified in their conduct. as
proof of their lineage.
Today the people of Iceland are all
poor. but there are no paupers, no depen-
dents; al! are self-supporting. There is
little or no crime there.
The only murder committed since the
memory of the informant-a lady or
mature years-was some forty-seVen
years ago by an insane man.
He, too. was a solitary figure, as there
are no insane people as a class in Ice
land, and no necessity exists for a re-
4 treat. The prison is rarely occupied, ex-
cept when drunken sailors come ashore
from foreign ships and introduce dis
order.
There is no orphan asylum or home for
the aged When any child is orphaned
some mother takes it TO her own home
and hearth and heart and raises it as
her own.
When aged persons are bereft Of their
natural protectors, the same humane law
exists and they are sheltered and cared
for while they live by sympathetic
friends and neighbors
The only "moneyed class" consists of
' the salaried officers from Denmark, who
direct affairs of state.
Sheep raising, weaving. spinning, knit
ting, hay raising and fishing form the
occupations of these descendants of an
cient kings.
Each man. however pooT, is yet self
supporting. and as royal" as his neigh
Dor. who may possess a little more.
In the memory of the oldest inhabit-
ant there have been but two divorces.
These necessitated three years separa-
ton from bed and board" before legal
divorce could be obtained.
New York fashionable society will not
be liable 10 emigrate 10 Iceland.)
An American woman paid a visit to
Iceland some time ago and wrote OF it
as follows:
"An isle of wonder, born OF fire and
ice; a land where there are few schools
and no iliterates, no orphan home or
almshouse, and no houseless head or
beggar; where the government pays the
doctors, teachers and preachers; where
every man has an occupation and capital
crimes are unknown"
The crying need Of Iceland today is a
school for girls. Mothers are the only
educators Of their daughters. while fine
-olIege for men has existed for centuries
That the women OF Iceland are so in
teuigent and well informed a sthey are
speaks wonders for these mothers, de-
prived of all save the rudiments OF edu-
cation.