The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1982, Page 35

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
33
ber of persons who had lived in the country a
number of years, but never bothered about
naturalization. Hearing about this pension,
many of those persons became, all of a sud-
den, ardent American patriots, and wanted
to study for the naturalization examination
which was held periodically at the county
seat. I remember particularly one elderly
man who up to now never wanted to admit
that he was or ever would be anything but a
Skagfirdingur (a member of a district in
Iceland by that name). Now he came to me
and wanted instruction for citizenship. He
had been in the country full forty years, but
had refused even to try to understand or
speak English. It was, therefore, very diffi-
cult to make him understand, not to speak of
expressing such terms as Executive, Legis-
lative and Judicial which are essential and
elementary in the study of the U.S. political
structure. My friend simply could not say
those words no matter how he screwed up
his face and twisted his mouth. Both of us
rather despaired of his performance in the
examination which was just around the
comer. On the night before this fearful test
he came to me and asked me to explain to the
examiner that he had sustained a stunning
blow on the head by knocking it against a
stone the day before when he was rounding
up his cows in a field, with the tragic result
that he could no longer remember anything.
Fortunately for himself, but unfortunately
for his story, he showed no evidence of the
accident reported. But the examiner was a
very kind and understanding man. On start-
ing to examine my friend he realized that he
was not exactly fluent in the language of his
adopted land, and knowing that I had been
helping some of the old-timers master the
essentials of the U.S. government structure
and history, he turned to me and asked,
“Have you instructed this man?”. I could
honestly say, “ Yes ”, and my candidate was
passed, and thus became a U.S. pensioner
during the remainder of his days.
One of the members of my church in
Blaine was a Justice of the Peace, and as
such, it was his duty to deal with traffic
regulations and other minor offences. He
took his duties very seriously, and yet his
justice was sometimes blended with humor.
He was a very strong Lutheran and made no
secret of it. It was said that he had on his
office desk a three-armed candle stick, and
when he declared court in session he would
light all three candles to signify that his
judgment was rendered in the name of the
Triune God. It was also reported that he had
a pair of field glasses on his desk and that
before pronouncing his judgments he would
pick up these glasses and look at the accused
through the wrong end, thus making the
person appear at a great distance. This was
to indicate a completely impersonal judg-
ment, based solely on the law.
One day an old Icelander was brought to
this court. He was one of those old-timers
who would not admit that he had ever left
Iceland or that there was another language
than Icelandic. This man was accused of
driving into a main highway, disregarding a
large Stop sign at the intersection. The judge
put on his glasses, consulted his big law
book and then, looking sternly at the accused,
said, “I sentence you to take lessons in
English, until you can read and understand
the word Stop”. Thus the case was dis-
missed.
Every year there was a festive gathering
held at the Peace Arch near Blaine which
was attended by people from all the
neighbouring settlements in Vancouver,
Point Roberts, Bellingham and Seattle. This
meeting was usually held on or near the 17th
of June. Distinguished speakers were im-
ported to add attraction. I remember names
like Margret J. Benedictsson, the early
Women’s Liberation advocate, Bardi Skul-
ason, a noted criminal lawyer from Port-
land, Oregon, Dr. Richard Beck, well-
known professor from Grand Forks, North
Dakota, Halfdan Thorlaksson, comptroller
of the Hudson's Bay Company in Van-