The Norwegian emigrant may go to Africa, Australia, or America, but no matter where he goes, he cannot rid himself of nostalgia, and the farther away he goes, the more strongly does he long to go back to the place where he passed his childhood years....The Norwegian immigrants in America, dispersed as they are over the vast and rich Northwest, ...have never been able to forget the mountains, the valleys, the fiords, and the glaciers of Norway.

Every year they go home for a visit, singly or in groups....During the past winter, certain prominent Norwegians who intended to visit Norway, as well as the exposition in Paris, decided to promote a Viking tour to Norway, and as soon as this had been announced, the thought caught fire, especially among the old pioneers in the Northwest. These, the oldest among the immigrants, seem to have found many obstacles to the realization of their desire for a trip to their old homeland.

For many years they did not find time for any excursions. There were forests to cut down, prairies to break, fields to cultivate. And so the desired trip home was postponed from year to year. Then came the idea of the Viking tour, and since the pioneering work had been done, since funds were large enough for anticipated needs, and since strength and courage had not been drained yet, it seemed that it was quite the thing to do to join the Viking excursion.....

At eight o'clock in the evening, May 12, the "Vikings" were on board the long special train sent for the occasion over the Great Western railroad from Minneapolis to Chicago. The long coaches were being filed; suitcases and bags were piled up. ....The last good-bys were shouted to those left on the platform, and the "Vikings" were on their way eastward.

About noon, Sunday, the train reached Chicago, where many Chicagoans joined the army bound for Norway, and at two o'clock in the afternoon, the train proceeded over the Nickel Plate Railroad tracks. The next stop of the train will be 3Niagara Falls, and thence it will continue directly to New York, where the giant liner "Oceanic" is waiting,ready to take the "Vikings" across the Atlantic.