The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Síða 25

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
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in Madison. We soon got classes of
young ladies for him to teach. He
taught the daughters of General Luci-
us Fairchild and some of their friends,
and in this way he managed to make
a living. But he still had spells of suf-
fering from his suspicions of being
persecuted and this interfered very
much with his success as a teacher. I
gave him some literary work to do
and he helped me translate Horn’s hi-
story of Scandinavian literature. Then
he decided to return to Chicago where
he eked out a miserable existence and
finally moved 'to Tacoma, Wash.,
where he still lives and where I met
him a few years ago.
This tall, slender, emanciated Ice-
lander was no less interesting in his
general appearance than for his re-
markable history. Though poor as
Job’s turkey he was proud and in-
dependent as a millionaire, and he
liked to boast of how Disraeli depend-
ed solely on Albert H. Gunnlaugsson
for his foreign policy. The Englishman
never ventured to take a step without
Gunnlaugsson’s advice and consent. All
in all he was a unique specimen of
humanity.
Of course I met a number of dis-
tinguished Icelandic scholars in Copen-
hagen and there I received a visit from
Iceland’s greatest poet, Matthias Joch-
umsson. He has honored me with a
beautiful poem in which he lauds me
for what I have done for Icelandic lit-
erature, history and mythology and
for the interest I have taken in the Ice-
landers. While in Copenhagen I was
invited to visit Iceland, to be enter-
tained by the Icelandic people, but
unfortunately the time never became
opportune.
I had one opportunity to serve an
Icelander in Iceland. Every year there
came to the west coast of Iceland a fleet
of American fishermen from Glouces-
ter, Mass.; but there was no American
consul resident in Iceland. An Iceland-
ic merchant on the west coast of the
island became ambitious to become
American consul. He came to see me
about it, as Iceland was included in my
jurisdiction as minister. I recommend-
his appointment to our state depart-
ment at Washington and this worthy
Icelander was duly made U.S. consular
agent. As a souvenir this consular
agent made me a present of the larg-
est and clearest specimen of Icelandic
spar that I have ever seen. I still have
it and cherish it as one of my choice
treasures. It is a thing of beauty in it-
self and represents to me the capstone
on my connection with Iceland.