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Show ICELAND Interesting Account of a Land Remarkable In Many Aspects Irish Monks, the First to Bring the Light of Catholic Faith to the Land of Snow. (Written for The Intermountain Catholic.) Don't shiver with the cold, dear reader, at the very mention of this name; draw your chair a little lit-tle nearer to the fire, for I have something interesting inter-esting to tell you about an Island that your fancy has clothed in a mantle of eternal snow and ice, an Island of furs, wraps and blankets, an Island of the long night and the long day. It would be the last place almost on this earth. I suppose, that you would wish to spend your holidays in, unless you had a mind somewhat akin to Captain Perry's, 4m t stir up your fire, dear reader, and come with me in imagination, and you will see it is not half a bad place after all. The island was discovered, as far as we know, about the year 795 by the hardy pirates of Norway, those stern old sea dogs, so dreaded at the time bj' many a European nation, and whose long-oared galleys caused such havoc and destruction destruc-tion to those lands that they touched. Thor and Odin were their gods, and Valhalla their hereafter. Ihose stern pirates called the island Snowland, a very appropriate name, and this name after a time they changed into the name by which the island is known to us now Iceland. This remarkable island, is-land, remarkable under so many aspects, is at the present time a colony of Denmark. Boats ply regularly reg-ularly to it from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, Den-mark, and the sea voyage takes usually five' or six days, according to the winds and weather. The island is-land is about twice the size of the Province of Munster, Ireland, and its inhabitants number at the present time 70,000. The sides of the island are indented by a countless number of deep bays, and stretching everywhere over the island is a vast chain of mountains -crowned with eternal -snow. Many of those mountains are volcanic, and what a strange contrast those mountains present to us! their surface crusted with snow and ice, and inside in-side are almost 200 crators of living fire, ready to burst forth at any moment, and as a consequence of this living fire within the mountain's breast you will find beside glaciers of ice streams of warm water. wa-ter. These jets or streams of warm water, the islanders is-landers make use of for domestic purposes, and they serve instead of a fire, for the means of .firing are indeed scarce, wood being an almost unknown quantity quan-tity on the. island. The climate is bearable enough in the middle portions of ihe island, btit in the north and south it is very rigorous on account of the floating seas of ice around the former, and the cold, biting winds in the latter. Is there any vegetation vege-tation at all on this island? you will ask me. Yes! Ihe sides ot some ot the valleys near the sea are fertile, but the most use that can be made of these fertile spots is a feeding ground for cattle, sheep and horses. You seldom see any cultivated land on account of the shortness of the summsr. Don't smile, dear reader they have a summer even there, at least they call it summer. What we would call it is another question. Their cattle and horses are far smaller than we are accustomed to see, and their sheep, clothed in a fleece of black or brown wool, have usually three horns. The island contains minerals, min-erals, principally copper and lead, but the inhabitants inhabi-tants mostly eke out their existence by extensive herring and whale fishing, and the oil extracted from the latter finds a ready market in many lands. ' Having said so much about the material aspect and consider its social and religious side. Some years after- the discovery of the island by those hardy Xorse sea pirates many Norwegian lords and nobles, dissatisfied with the rule of their then reigning reign-ing monarch, Harold, left their country and emigrated emi-grated to Iceland. Though they abandoned the home of their birth, still they remained faithful to their language, customs, religion and laws, and in the heart of that icy x storm-swept island they formed form-ed a republic, and for three centuries this republic lasted. Under its rule the people were happy and made vast progress in every branch of life, especially especial-ly in the domain of literature. The wars, with all their attendant miseries, that played such havoc with a large portion of Europe during the middle ages, happily never took within their compass that lone wintry island out on the broad Atlantic, and thus literature and art, advanced there without a hindrance. To give you an idea of the intellectual status of Iceland at this early time I ask you to read the historians of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Nor-way. Those historians acknowledge; one and all, that it was from Iceland they derived, or rather obtained, ob-tained, an accurate knowledge of the social and political po-litical state of the northern countries from the eleventh elev-enth to the thirteenth century. The language of the island is Norwegian, not the Norwegian dialect as we have now, but that pure Norwegian dialect that was spoken more than a thousand years ago. Christianity Chris-tianity was first introduced into Iceland by the Irish monks during the last years of the tenth century, those great monks that carried the torch of Faith to so many lands, those great men whose minds were imbued with pnly one thought to bring all men to God. We Irish are proud and justly proud of many things. We are proud of our soldiers, statesmen and poets; but aye, proudest of all in the fact that we are of the same race as those monks of the olden time, who carried with them wherever they went the "glad tidings of God." Catholicy was the national religion of Iceland until the evil days of the Reformation. In 1264 Norway conquered con-quered the island, in whose possession it remained (Continued on Page 5.) ICELAND. (Continued from page 1.) until loSO, when it became a dependency of Denmark, Den-mark, and then came the relirriou-i upheaval brought ! about by the rpostate monk Luther. Pro! estr.it ism was introduced into the irland b.- hi-, agout?, but th.3 people would have it not. and then bc-g-ni r ruthlcss persecution by fire and sword. The bishops bish-ops and priests of the islend were seized upon and i carried away to Denmark and tlr'ro thrown i'ltc j prise::. The churches were pulk'd down, and no i effort was spared t" crush Catholiey out of the people's heart. The Reformers succeeded, for the ; poor people had lost their shepherds, and a; sheep bereft of the care, the tender guidance of their shepherds, wander off into the byways and ore lost; so the pccple cf Iceland, without their bishops and priests, lost the Faith.- Cathrdiey was barred i 1 the island from 1.".30 to 1819, and then two priests, taking tak-ing advantage of the proclamation of religious lib- ! crty, made in Denmark in the latter year, went out j to the island to minister to the wants of the French j fishermen there. They were followed in 1?9.'5 by I the sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph dc Chamberg, and thus gradually Cnthclicy got a lit ! tie hold again on "the island. -Those good sisters j worked amrngst the sick Catholics and Protestant alike, and by their care especially of the lepers won the encomiums of all classes. Leprosy was always , prevalent in the island, but it is not that awful type- of leprosy that you find at Molikai, that beautiful beau-tiful island of the Pacific, inseparably connected with the name of Father Damien, and of which som ? poet writes "Crowd on more sail though clouds are looming; Better the tempest's roar and strife, j Better the wild waves' shock and booming i Than this dread land of death in life." Leprosy in Iceland is hereditary, and not contagious. con-tagious. Infants inherit from their parents, but' fur persons of different blood there is ro danger;' and hence it is that the lepers in th-3 hospitals there ! are not isolated, but move freely amongst the other j tick, ' , As n natural result of Protestantism, the ma- jority of the inhabitants are either Rationalists o? j ' Atheists, but their Rationalism is a moderate Ra- j tionalism, not that absolute Rationalism to be met ' with on the continent. They do not go so far as to ; . deny the Divine Existence, and they have a certain reverence for the Bible. It is indeed surprising to ' see the number of rationalistic books that are read on hc island, especially Danish, German ai d French, and one book has a special fascination for the people Rsuan's "Life of Jes.ts." With regsn! to morality, it would be well inelecd if some f those so-called religious nations would tak? a less.n j;j feme things from the people of Iceland. You sec: no gutter press papers amongst them, papers tha4, made a trade out of immoral garbage. They coun tenance not divorce, adultery, or any of those similai crimes, and if a loose or immoral play were put cn the stage in their theatres, such plays that, alas! hold pride of place often on our boards, it would immediately be hissed off and its author well, he would get a gentle reminder to earn his bread in a more honest way. Every one on the island knows how to read and write, and most of the people are thoroughly conversant con-versant with the history of their country, the lives and works of their great men historians, statesmen states-men and poets. They have a craving after knowledge, knowl-edge, and it is no unusual thing to mept many on the island capable of speaking both English and French well. Though a dependency of Denmark, still Iceland has a parliament of its own, composed of two chambers, and in the election of members or representatives for those two chambers the women have a vote, but are not qualified themselves for election to any board whatsoever. j "Iceland may be frosty, but they've peace there, you may bet. For it knows not that fierce warrior, the grim-faced suffragette." One woril more about their houses, and I have done. The houses are al most all of wood, such a thing as brick or stone houses are but rarely met with, and those houses are built down in the sheltered, fertile valleys, and the roofs are all covered with zinc. Some of the fishermen and pioorer people burrow out a house for themselves in the sides of the hills and mountains, especially near the hot springs. There is only one town properly so called, and it is the capital, Reykjavik. Reyk-javik. Its inhabitants number roughly speaking 9,000. It is the important port of the island and it is surprising Avhat a trade it does, and the concourse of merchants and travelers that congregate there. "After all," I can imagine you, dear reader say ing if you have had the patience to read this far, ''after all, there is no place like home." I think with you, too. and so docs the Icelander. Above him the mountains rear their heads, hoary with the ice and snow of ages; around him is the barrenness of eternal cold, save a little fertile patch here and there, and mark you. on one of those fertile patches is a shelter. It was there he first saw the light it is his home, and he loves it. "Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home." |