| Summary: | Newsletter of the North Dakota School for the Deaf. THE NORTH DAKOTA BANNER Life in Iceland. Most people think of the Icelanders as being like Eskimos, a crude, unenlightened people, looking more like animals than people and living in snow huts, dressed in furs, whereas the Icelanders are handsome, cultured people, highly educated, with fair faces and brilliant eyes aud a very dainty fashion of dressing. They live in neat, charming houses, have beautiful flower gardens and never wear furs, for the reason that it is never bitterly cold in Iceland on account of the Gulf stream washing its shores. As to their diet, it is somewhat wanting in variety ou account of the lack of many food staples, but all their dishes have a certain odd richness that is very delicious to a stranger. It is largely because of the amount of oil they use. They cook many things in oil—a clear, sweet fish oil, though substituting olive oil make their dishes quite as tempting. They try to use their native products, as everything else has to come so far and the steamers call only once in ten days from England aud Denmark, and the imported goods are expensive for Icelanders who are not very well off, though never poor. Their own products are fish in vast quantities; lamb, the chief meat; eggs, wild ducks, sheep's milk, cheese and hotter; turnips, of which they raise and cat more than any other, vegetable; potatoes, onions and beets, beans and occasionally peas; spinach, cabbage and Brussels sprouts; no fruit to speak of and rarely any beef—it is imported from Denmark and Scotland. Pork is rarely eaten, and then in the form of imported bacon. But out of this meagre list of staples they evolve some truly delicious dishes, for the island people are good cooks and have a native knack that is like that of the French. They can make anything they cook taste good, no matter what the ingredients may be.—The I iiyinia Guide. J*> Jv Record Year in Toys From Washington comes the word that, this is to he a record year in toy production. Toys to the estimated value of 89,000,000 will have been imported, and our home manufactories have turned out play-things valued at fully 811,000,000. Dolls constitute one-fourth of the total importation, coming mostly from Germany. Tnis country is e xporting fewer toys this year, the demand taking up the bulk of the output. About fifteen hundred new playthings are patented each year, but this year's record of new toys exceeds all previous years. Special supervision is exorcised in the United States Patent Office to see to it that patented toys really work. The heavy routing package mail of the Interior Department has been “held up” by order of Secretary Lane for ten days to facilitate the handling of the anuual Christmas avalanche. — Selected. .*• Among 15 countries which have long distance telephone service, the United Slates ranks 11th in point of expense to patrons. The average charge for a long distance call in the United States is 19 cents. In Germany it is three cents. In Great Britain it is 12 cents. A better comparison is in point of distances over which phone messages arc sent. In the United Slates the Bell company charges an average of 60 cents to telephone for 100 miles, 81.80 for 300 miles, 83.00 for 500 miles and 84.20 for 700 miles. Compare these with the Swedish rates of eight cents for 100 miles, 13 cents for 300 miles, 20 cents for 500 miles, and 34 cents for 700 miles. Long distance tolls in the United Slates, where private corporations own the lines are far heavier than in any foreign land where the phones are part of the post office system. In Christiana it costs a telephone subscriber a flat rate of 821.44 a year for a phone. In Tokio, Japan, this charge is 834 and it is 834.09 on the average in Auckland, New Zealand. In New York, with a service limited to 5,700 calls per year, the. annual flat rate charge is 8228, in San Francisco (unlimited) 8180, iu Washington 816S, in Boston 8125. Ou the fiat rate basis it costs a subscriber to the Swiss telephone an average of 8.0108 per call for 10,000 calls; Sidney, Australia, for 10,000 calls, an average of 8.0086 per call; in Vienna, 8.01; in Paris, 8 0077. Compare this with the New York average of four cents per call for 10,000 calls; San Francisco, 8.0265; Cincinnati, 8.033, and Boston, 8.033. The effect on the increased use of the phone is apparent. In Denmark there is an averago of 761 long distance conversations per phono instrument each year: in the Netherlands this average is 634; each German phone instrument is used 301 times per year for long distance; while in the United States, which stands 11th in the list, the average but 48 long distance calls.—Selected. Wonderful Beavers When the Grand Trunk railway ran a line across a swamp in a game preserve in the Alberta Rockies there was a fine heaver dam holding the water back to flood the swamp. The game warden ordered the engineers to disturb the beavers as little as possible. They could have blown out the dam with dynamite and killed most of the little animals, but that would have been cruel. So they cut an opening in the dam. The mud of the dam was almost as hard as concrete and it took the men three days to get the water running out properly. Then tbev started work on the railroad through the swamp. Soon the water began to rise and the work was stopped by water in a few hours. The engineers went down to the beaver dam and found that the animals had repaired the cut and made it tight. A new cut was made, but when the men were gone the beavers were busy and the damage repaired. Work on the railroad was stopped in a few hours. Then a hale was made in the earth deep under the dam. This puzzled the the beavers. They had never before seen water go down under the ground and come up far away. But they soon studied the problem and the work on the railroad was soon stopped by water and half the tools were covered. Then followed a contest of cunning between the men aud the beavers. But every time the men opened a way for water to run the beavers found out how to stop it. The road was finally built by working a few hours at a time and the loss to the contractors was about 85,000. The beavers lost their time. — Our Dumb Animals. Business Meeting of the Wade Literary Society. A business meeting of the Wade Literary Society was held in the study-room Friday, Jan. 9, at 7: 30 o'clock with the president, Edna Hartman, in the chair. She called the meeting to order and the roll call and the minutes of the last meeting were read bv the secretary. The following officers were elected for the second term; Doris Francis, President; Edith Bjork, Vice-President; Fay Reid, Secretary; Bennie Knutson, Treasurer, and Edna Hartman, Critic. After the new officers were sworn in, the meeting adjourned at 8:25. Fay Reid, Sec’y.
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