Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-08-04
YEARS,AGo.

Justice Phil Mclaughlin recalls the fact that Just
~forty-fve years ago-on August 4, 1877-he was a
passenger from Fishers Landing to Grand Forks on
the steamer Minnesota, and that among the other
passengers was Lord Dufferin, at that time governor
general Of Canada, and, as Judge Mclaughlin is
pleased to observe, the third Irishman to hold that
exalted position.
Lord DuferinfNwas then on his way to Manitoba
and, as there was then no railway north of Lake
Superior, he had taken the American rail route to
Fishers Landing, which at that time was the Jump
ing-of place. The rest of the journey was by river
boat. Among his treasured possessions Judge Nc
Loughlin has a book entitled Canada Under the
Administration of the Earl of Duferin, written by
George Stewart, Jr, in which mention is made Of
this trip, and of the stop at Grand Forks, where the
vice-regal party was Hospitality received.
Lord Dufferin! was a man of great personals
charm, and his wit and companionableness made
him perhaps the most popular of Canada's governors
general. The book above mentioned contains the
text of many of his speeches, in which sound wisdom
is illuminated by brilliant flashes, and the graces of
the orator are made manifest.
Among the addresses which caught the eye in
a hasty turning of the pages is one delivered at the
Icelandic settlement at Gimli, Manitoba. Lord
Duferin was at home in addressing the Icelandic
settlers, for some years before he had made a Jour
ney to Iceland, and the record of his experiences,
published under the title Letters from High Lati-
tudes," makes it deserving of a high place in travel
literature. Those who have read summaries of the
address recently delivered at Mountain by T. F. T..
O'Connor to North Dakotans of Icelandic origin
may read with interest these sentences from Lord
Duferin's address delivered to Icelanders in Canada
.%forty-1ve years ago: 49,
The three arts most necessary to a Canadian
colonlst are the telling Of timber, the plowing of
land and the construction of highways. but as in
your own country none of you had ever seen a tree,
a cornheld or a road, it is not to be expected that
you should Immediately exhibit any expertness in
these accomplishments but practice and experience
will soon make you the masters of all three, for you
possess in a far greater degree than is probably
imagined that which is the essence and foundation
of all observation-disclosures, education and intel
lectual activity. In fact, I have not entered a single
hut or cottage in the settlement which did not con-
tain, no matter how bare its walls, or scanty it's
furniture, a library Of twenty or thirty volumes; and
I am informed that there is scarcely a child among
you who canot read and write
....... But why need / speak to Iceland
.ers-to you men and women of the grand old Morse
race, of the necessity of patience under hardship,
courage in the face Of danger, logged determination
in the presence of difficulties? The annals of your
fathers noble endurance. The sons and daughters
of the men and women who crossed the Arctic ocean
IN open boats, and preferred to make their homes
amid the SHOWS and cindersA of a volcano rather than
enjoy peace and plenty under the iron sway Of a
Edespot, may afford to smile at anyone who talks to
them of hardship or rough living beneath thu. pleas
ant shade Of these murmuring branches and beside
The laughing ripplcs Of yonder shining lake. 49,.
They fled from their pleasant homes and golden
|corn6eds into a bowling wilderness Of storm and
darkness, ice and lava, but you / am welcoming to
the healthicst climate on the continent. and 10 4 soil
|of rncxamplcd fertility, which a little honest indus,
try on your part viii soon turn intoa garden 81
Lord DuaeriR1 described chafacteristic. which
he knew from observing them among the Iceland
ers III their home land. The record Swhict those
people, have made III the half century which Has
PISSED abrn4&antlyy bears out fiji. prediction.