The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2005, Page 30

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #3
116
do outside of New Iceland. My presenta-
tion is very illogical, the hind legs were
born first - my mind is confused.
Winnipeg Feb. 3, 1881
Dear Friends, now I continue to write
to you. The last few days I have been very
busy preparing the mill business. The
contracts are now ready and they are to be
signed at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Sigtryggur,
Osenbrugge and I are joint owners of the
mill and boat, each of us owning one third,
but my brother Arni is a special partner.
He contributed $1,000.00 and he is to col-
lect the proportionate net profits of his
share. Our investment in the steamboat
(and some other things) $3,920.98.
Osenbrugge will contribute all the money
that we need for running the business until
it starts to return profits, but instead he
gets one third of the property mentioned
above. Our business is called, "Jonasson,
Fridriksson & Co." and has been legalized
for a period of four years except if we
decide otherwise.
Sigtryggur is going to be the captain of
the boat and he will be paid by the compa-
ny. I am going to manage the business here
up north. I am only signing a contract for
one year, my salary is probably going to be
$75.00 a month plus a free house. We plan
to run a little store in connection with the
mill.
This year Sigtryggur will probably
lend me his house. His wife will spend
some time in Winnipeg, and occasionally
she might work for us (i.e. my wife and me)
but nothing is settled yet. More about this
later.
Even though I never intended to go
any further north than Gimli, I now sup-
pose I will in spite of some negative sides to
such a move, but on the other hand there
are some plusses too. Once in a while my
wife suffers from some nervous condition
and fearfulness. Therefore my being away
is hard on her and consequently I am often
worried when away from home. Living up
north would enable me to stay at home all
the time. Besides, I would hopefully have
some time to read if living up north, an
occupation more important to me than the
potential company in Winnipeg or some
other town. There are just so few whose
company gratifies us, but then one should
look for happiness at home as much as pos-
sible.
My wife sends you her best, especially
you, dear sister. You are always in her
thoughts. In a letter I received this morn-
ing she asks me to send "Flammond
Hymns" (highly loved by her) to you.
Rev. Hammond is a "revivalist". He trav-
els to various countries, and this fall he
preached in Winnipeg for a few weeks. I
listened to him on several occasions and for
the most part I liked what he had to say.
Before long....
Well, I had to leave my writing abrupt-
ly and now I cannot remember what I was
going to say, it is such a commotion here in
Revere House.
Icelanders in New Iceland, Manitoba
and in Dakota (I think) have hardly ever
been doing better than now, and to my
knowledge there is no shortage of food.
There is an abundance of well paid work
this summer. Many Icelanders still work
for the C.P. R. The Government of
Canada is about to sell that railroad to a
company which offers to build the railroad
all the way to the Pacific in 10 years pro-
vided the Government grants them 25 mil-
lion dollars, 25 million acres of land, and a
permit to bring all "material and rolling
stock" free of duty into the country, also
giving them special permission to build
branch roads, etc, and exempting them
from paying taxes for the unforeseeable
future, etc.
The Opposition Party is fighting
fiercely against this proposal in
Parliament, but the Government is sup-
ported by the vast majority of the members
of Parliament, enabling it to have this con-
tract approved in a few days. There are
many big shots in this new company, for
example Stephen, the President of the
Montreal Bank, Montreal Angus and Hill,
St. Paul and other U.S. capitalists.
This mail boat will bring you a letter
from Baldvin Benediktsson; he showed it
to me. Baldvin has become insane, not in
the sense however that he wants to take his
own life. He has his mind set on spiritual